Planet of the Apes

This past Friday, instead of watching a movie from our Blockbuster queue, Becky and I actually went to the 2nd run theater down the street to watch Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The trailers made it look like it had potential, which, you know, is better than trailers that suck.

Wow. If I had known just how good it was I'd have gone weeks ago and not flinched at paying full first run theater prices.

It starts out with a very exciting sequence introducing us to the main human characters (a genetic researcher and his family, friends, work associates) and the situations they're in that provide the context for the rest of the show. Then it slows down to a sweet story about characters that care very much for each other . . . with tensions gradually increasing towards the inevitable uprising the movie is named for.

The way they develop the main ape, Ceasar, as the leader of the uprising is executed amazingly well. Despite his development during the "slow" portion of the movie, it is still incredibly engaging. I found myself, literally, on the edge of my seat in anticipation. Such that when it happened, it was like an emotional explosion. And I was totally cheering on the apes.

Two opposable thumbs way up. Becky and I both loved this movie. It was exciting, well made, had some thought provoking depth. There are several parts that we think are too intense for a four year old, so we're not letting Tabby see it. Yet. However, we're definitely sending the boys.

Once Upon a Time

Becky and I really don't watch much TV. Mostly our TV set is only used for watching videos. Which we don't do often either, really. Just a movie most Friday nights. Last Friday, however, we hadn't received a new one from our online queue, so we decided to go check out if hulu had the Bones season opener yet. You see, occasionally, we do find a television program we like to watch and when it is available online we'll catch it there.

Well, I think we recently found a new favorite show. Since the episode of Bones won't be available until next Friday, we decided to check out Once Upon a Time. And man, we liked it well enough that we didn't wait for episode 3 to come out online. We actually tuned in Sunday night to watch it.

Fun show.

Inception

Becky and I celebrated our 19th anniversary the other night with dinner at Chile's, a walk at the Green Bay Botanical Gardens and watching Inception. Even though this entry is going to focus on Inception, I have to admit the movie was not the best part of the evening. I really enjoyed the long, liesurely walk. The weather was perfect for it. The gardens were beautiful. I'm not really sure what else to say about it though except that if you ever get up to Green Bay, you should visit the botanical gardens.

So, anyway, the movie was good. Not as exciting as I thought it would be after seeing the trailers. I mean, plenty of action, but a lot of it seemed to be there merely for the sake of having action in the movie. It really wasn't an action flick. It's a psychological thriller about a man named Cobb who leads a team of individuals into peoples' dreams to steal their ideas using a process called extraction. Of course, that kind of activity is illegal. The whole "entering dreams" thing is really the only sci-fi/futuristic element of the story, though. It could otherwise take place today in this real world.

Cobb's team gets hired to do something radical. Instead of stealing an idea, they are to insert an idea - inception. Most people believe it's not even possible, but Cobb does. Or at least, he's willing to try for the chance at a clean record and a normal life with his kids. But there are complications that go beyond merely the technical difficulties of inception. I'm not sure how to say more than that without ruining the thriller aspect of the movie.

It was put together well. The characters are acted out well enough that I wanted to see them succeed. The action was fun to watch, even if it seemed gratuitous at times. The extraction and inception concepts are illustrated well enough to not lose us in either the boring tedium of someone elses fantasy or the complexity of something totally foreign. What really made the movie good, though, was how the characters' projections, their subconsious ideas, enter the film, interact with each other and affect both dreams and reality. The movie blatantly sets up a "was this all real or a dream?" conundrum in the end. Personally, I don't think it matters and it seems somewhat of a trivial debate considering that it's a work of fiction. The important thing is that it's a well imagined work that was fun to participate in.

Rango

Tabby: Dad, you haven't played pony yet today.

Me: You're right, I haven't. I'm going to eat lunch right now, though.

Tabby: Okay, I'll wait while you eat lunch. Then we can play pony.

Me: I was thinking about going to a movie.

Tabby: /gasp! Can I come?

Me: Do you want to see a movie?

Tabby: Yes! And we can eat popcorn and drink soda!

Me: Okay, let's go to a movie.

So we went to the nearby budget theater. While the boys went to see Limitless (which they thought was an awesome show), I took Tabby to see Rango.

Rango was a fun movie. Weird, artsy, but lots of fun. Good storyline, well developed theme, great characters. I've got to admit that after watching the movie, I kind of worried about it scaring Tabby. The bad guys are frightening. Heck, a lot of the good guys are frightening! It's violent for a kids' film, kind of dark at times and coarse in an out west, cowboy way. More foul language than you find in, say, a Barbie movie. Tabby seems to have done fine with it though.

(This Movie About) Vampires Suck(s)

Becky and I tried to watch Vampire's Suck on Friday. The trailer made it look like it had potential. Which is what trailers do, I guess. We went into it knowing it could either be hilarious or a 10 minute sketch drawn thin by the length of the film. We hoped for the former, but were willing to laugh at the latter.

Turns out giving it credit for 10 minutes of laugh worthy material would be generous. Unless it somehow got funny after the first 1/2 hour. That's about as long as we gave it. 20 minutes in I was like, oh come on . . . let's just actually watch Twilight. And you know, other than the baseball scene, I really disliked Twilight.

But we continued watching Vampires Suck for another 10 minutes anyway before giving up on the jokes being anything other crass sophomoric garbage. The acting was bad, the production value poor. I'm sure some of that was intentional camp, but it wasn't pulled off well.

This is already way more words than movie deserves. If you want my advice, just skip it.