RSS
 

Posts Tagged ‘Monkey’

Caprica: Movie Review

08 Aug

It has been a couple months since finishing Seasons 1-4 of Battlestar Galactica and I miss it. I miss starting up another episode excited for new plot and character developments. I miss seeing how pieces of the puzzle come together revealing a bigger picture. The drama, the connection to characters, the connection to the environment… was lost on the movie Caprica.

Set 50+ years before the Cylon attack, Caprica fails at creating a world I cared about. My expectations were not unattainably high either, however once the previews started to roll with that introduction music that preceded BSG episodes started to play, my heart sped up a little.

The idea of the virtual world was clever and delivered well. Honestly, I do not think human kind is that far from making that a reality! This consumed a fair amount of the movie and unfortunately is a rather stretch to connect with Battlestar Galactica.

Dialog was sub-par at best in the first 20 minutes but improved to mediocre after that. In my humble opinion, the plot had a couple holes in it that were distracting to me. One of which they could have certainly plugged with some cool material (involves the end, but I’ll not ruin it for anyone reading).

With adjusting maybe 5-10 minutes of the movie, this could have been a standalone Sci-Fi movie that had nothing to do with BSG and I would not have even noticed.

I still miss the ship. Galactica was every part a character in that series as the Admiral. From the series, this environment was home, and felt like so for the viewer. Caprica was not able to duplicate this feeling. Building relationships between characters is certainly harder in one movie vs 30-40 hour long episodes but again, this movie missed the mark.

For the average BSG fan, I’d say you could skip this spin off. The series starting in the Fall/Winter based on this time frame may strengthen the movie. However, I believe this movie is suppose to be the tool to get watchers excited and on board.

 
No Comments

Posted in Review: Movies

 

Book Review: Direct Your Own Damn Movie!

10 Jun

Lloyd Kaufman has had his hands in hundreds of movies in his lifetime. Directing, producing, even staring in them, he has a very long imdb page. His cup of tea seems to be mainly focused on Independant / B-Movie films. Working on big studio films turned him off to the ‘corporate’ side of things so he started Troma Studios.

With all his listed experience, I feel robbed. In this short SHORT book there is very little about directing. There are maybe two things that I took from this book that would help me in my “director’s” life. Maybe. It is entertaining at times. I certainly laughed out loud more than once. (The footnote guy is great!). Just a heads up, the language and humor is extremely vulgar. If you can stomach that kind of stuff, you too will probably chuckle.

Every form of entertainment has it’s own audience however, and I am sure Kaufman has a huge following. If you have heard of Troma Studios, or enjoyed the movie Poultrygeist: night of the Chicken Dead, or just want a funny book to read because you are tired of reading lighting equipment manuals, then this book is for you.

Everyone else, sadly can skip this book.

As a book about directing, I give this a single Ninja star and a moldy banana.

 
2 Comments

Posted in Review: Books

 

Watchmen: Movie Review

09 Mar

Last year when I saw the preview for Iron Man had a release that was extremely entertaining. Watchmen, however was a step backward for comic book movies.

What did it do right?

The visual effects were fair. Wasn’t like prequel Star Wars movie where the special effects are replacing plot and dialog. However, I was more impressed by the special effects in the preview shown before the movie, Terminator Salvation.

Multiple characters were developed nicely.

Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach was awesome. Period. I have a strong feeling we will see a lot of stellar performances from that guy in the future.

What did it do wrong?

Too many characters that I didn’t care about. It certainly appears as a superhero movie, yet only one had ‘superhero’ ability, and MAYBE another had some super speed/intelligence. The other 36 heroes were guys/gals in ridiculous outfits.

These ‘superheroes’ just kicked the $h*% out of everyday people. Wow… seriously? That is like training 101 for my Monkey Butler Ninja Army.

Way too long. 2hr 43min. I really was disappointed with the editing in this movie. I think it could have easily been trimmed to 2hrs and a skilled editor could have maybe brought it to 1hr 45min.

Excessive pointless plots. Without going into spoilers there were a couple story lines that were filler space in a movie that was already 2 dog years long.

Too many penises. Seriously, having a big blue wang on the screen is a bit distracting when I’m listening to a sub plot that I don’t care about.

The overall plot was a bit weak. At first I liked the twist, but now that I have thought about it, there were a ton of other solutions that could have been thought of.

Summary:

While movies like Iron Man and The Dark Knight propel comic book movies up the production food chain, this “C” movie set comic book / graphic novel movies back a couple steps. Bad editing, bad choice of music for scenes and not the greatest directing from Zack Snyder crippled this movie. I feel bad for those who were fans of the graphic novel as I am 110% sure that it was better by far.

Don’t watch Watchmen.

Monkey Butler Ninja gives Watchmen 2 ninja stars (but one isn’t really that sharp)

 
1 Comment

Posted in Review: Movies

 

Helvetica : Movie Review

27 Feb

Ok, time to switch pace and retreat from Oscar nominated movies.

Today I review the documentary movie Helvetica. This film is literally about a single typeface, a specific font family, Helvetica. Sound boring? You bet it is! This is of course assuming you are not a graphic designer of any kind. Assuming you have never flipped through 100 fonts trying to figure out which one gets your message across.

On the flipside, if you deal with graphics in any way, if you ever did a layout for a poster, if you value the appearance of what you produce. Then this movie is worth 80 minutes of your time.

Make no mistake about it; there are people who care passionately about typography. The interviewees are uber geeks that are certainly the offspring of mutant nerds and influential graphic designers. Throughout the film approximately a dozen typographers and designers speak on camera. This is not a job to these people; it literally is their life’s fascination.

Helvetica takes you on an interesting path. In the first act, the history is presented and quickly followed with huge praises. Helvetica was viewed, and still is by many, as the perfect font. To these experts Helvetica cannot be improved. The film takes a sharp turn in what would be act two and presents the opposing sides view. This group of elite designers has an intense hatred the font family Helvetica. Describing it as dull, boring and most of all, overused. Personally, I wish other documentaries were as decent in presenting two sides of an argument, albeit font is a little less sensitive than the war in Iraq (which the war is blamed on Helvetica in this movie, seriously).

The editing and production of Helvetica is pretty darn good. Use of B-roll, pacing, and overall presentation held my interest. I am a graphic artist and know one of my weaknesses is typography, after watching this film… I feel much more informed.

Monkey Butler Ninja gives Helvetica three ninja stars and if you are a graphic artist, put in couple chocolate covered bananas!

 
No Comments

Posted in Review: Movies

 

The Wrestler : Movie Review

19 Feb

The Wrestler, staring Oscar nominee Mickey Rourke

This movie is a drama based on Randy “The Ram” Robinson, a wrestler that is well past his prime and having to face that fact.

The Wrestler creates a world that I had not imagined. What happens to a ‘pro’ wrestler after the lights have cooled, after the crowds have gone home… after the adrenalin fades? When you chose a profession or a passion that abandons your family, destroys your body, and engulfs you with pain… your life will be hard… and short.

Looking back at the movie… it is about a retired wrestler that is in love with a stripper, wants to reconnect with his abandoned daughter, and struggling to find life outside of the ring. Boring. Cliché in the strongest definition of the word.

Marisa Tomei plays the stripper and does a decent job… Oscar nomination worthy? No. Dynamite body? YES! Congrats on keeping in such great shape Mrs. Tomei!

Mickey Rourke playing Randy “the Ram” does derive an Oscar nomination however. I’ve never been a huge fan but respect his work in this film. Honestly, his performance is the only reason to RENT this movie.

Character’s relationships to each other were sub par at best. The development with his daughter seemed choppy and extremely unrealistic. Mickey made me believe his character was in love with Marisa’s character, but other than that, nothing worth mentioning.

If you are a fan of wrestling, maybe it’s for you… if you are thinking about becoming one… this movie is for you. However if you don’t fit either of those descriptions you can skip this movie.

I rate The Wrestler 1.5 out of 5 ninja stars!

 
2 Comments

Posted in Review: Movies