The Hangover and People's Choice

Okay, I'll admit it. I saw this movie months ago and just forgot to blog about it. Regardless, I just wanted to mention it quick because I'm in the midst of voting for People's Choice and it reminded me how much I loved this film. I'm not a big fan of slapstick comedies a la Will Ferrell or Ben Stiller. Usually those just make me cringe and go, "ew, no." So when Hubby really wanted to see this film back in August, I was hesitant to go.

Have I never enjoyed being proven more wrong in my life! Not only was this movie funny, it had a plot, a purpose, and a denouement that made sense. Just like every other comedy, you know it was all going to turn out okay in the end, but unlike every other comedy, you didn't know how they were going to get there. Heck, they didn't know either, and that was the beauty behind this film. You knew the gags and slapstick inherent in a drunken night out would be arriving at some point. You knew they did all those things too embarrassing to watch. But unlike every other film of this genre, it did not shove the slapstick inherent in drunken frivolity in your face. Like actually recovering from a hangover, we got to watch along with as the men went through those drunken photos no one ever remembers taking.

Never have I stayed to enjoy a set of credits so much. Never have I cringed, cried, oh'ed, and ah'ed so much at them with tears of laughter running down my face. Slapstick is okay in small doses. It makes the schtick that much more funnier when paired with believability like that.

I don't know if The Hangover is up for any People's Choice Awards, but I'm a member so I'm going to vote for them if I can. I just hope it's out on DVD before Christmas. I so want this in my stocking. *hint hint*

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

I am a huge Harry Potter fan. I will freely admit that right up front. I own all seven books from both Bloomsbury and Scholastic. I deliberately flew through London on a trip to Europe specifically so I could buy the Blooomsbury adult cover editions. It took two years, but I did manage to get all of them via Heathrow airport bookstores. And yes, I own all the companion books including the fairy tales. I know. I'm a dork.

Having said all that, I'm also a realist, a pragmatist, and easily pissed off. Last fall when Warner Brothers announced they were moving the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from November of 2008 to July 2009, the world reacted. In a time of business failures, bank closures, and recession, one way for a person to escape was to go to the movies. Warner Brothers never gave a reasonable explanation for the delay, at least none that consumers believed. Some believed it was due to Daniel Radcliffe, the star of the franchise, and his naked performance in Equus on Broadway. Others, that the movie wasn't finished and they needed the extra time to prepare. But in the end the only viable excuse 99% of the world believed was that the WB did it for the money. It was/is aimed towards the teenage market. Kids are in school in November and not in July. You do the math.

Okay, so the WB delayed the release for money. I get that. I don't like it, but I get it. Times are tough right now, but when you have a confirmed blockbuster, 6th in a series of devoted worshipping fans, it's not like people aren't going to see it no matter when it's released. Delaying it specifically for the higher summer audience revenue was just a slap in the face to a world faced with imminent job losses and their impending highest-unemployment-rates-in-decades headlines.

If anything, the WB only hurt themselves by delaying the release. Why? Because some fans, such as myself, remembered the feelings of betrayal at the WB's money grubbing greed. I had lost my job last year, and for the month of November was traveling an hour each way for only part time employment. Yet, I would have willingly taken a day off work to catch a midnight showing of my favorite fantasy series of all time, no matter how far behind it would have set me in my bills.

Did I do that in July? No. Did I really, really want to? Yes. But I figured if I was made to wait that long for the film, it wouldn't hurt me any to wait one more week. I would be damned before I gave them any more opening weekend box office numbers. I'm proud to say I know plenty of other people who felt the same thing.

I'd like to exclaim here how much I loved the movie. I would like to also sit here and expound upon how much I hated it. Because really, it was a case of both. As a book to film translation, I've read fan-fictions with better plots that still stuck to the canon facts. I'll never forgive the WB, David Yates, Steve Kloves and anyone else that made the decision to let Harry be unpetrified during the climatic scene on the Astronomy Tower. Part of Harry's innocence rely's on the fact that he never has a choice in what happens to him. By giving him a choice during the most pivotal moment of the film, his personality is drastically changed. He may as well have said the fatal words himself. As far as I'm concerned, the movie is no longer anywhere near canon compliant.

As for what I liked? Well.... for a mindless bit of fluffy entertainment, I give it 3.5 stars out of 5. I'm taking off 1.5 for the whole additional Burrow scene that didn't need to replace things that should have been there and every scene with Ginny Weasley in it. That added moment of them in the Room of Requirement? Yeah, that was one of the most painful moments I have ever watched on screen. I physically cringed in the theater it was so embarrassing.

I take that back. 3 out of 5. Just thinking about it makes me gag. The best part about the entire film was how you could tell Yates thinks Harry and Draco were meant to be together. At least, I'm hoping that's why every Harry and Ginny moment had no chemistry whatsoever with Harry having the most sour, relieved (it's over!) expression on his face. See, even Daniel knows that relationship screams incestuous Oedipal complex. Besides, there were too many poignant, passionate moments between Harry and Draco for Harry/Ginny to be plausible. They're young. They're confused. And like every other young crushing couple, somebodies pigtails need to be pulled. Maybe Draco will start growing out his hair...

I would see the seventh book on film just to see how that non-canon compliant bit of fiction plays out. But not until movie eight is released. I don't watch works-in-progress.

A Comparison: Wolverine vs. Star Trek

Hubby and I went and saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine last weekend and Star Trek this weekend. I'd say don't bother with Wolverine, but Hugh Jackman is always worth watching however mediocre the script. Unfortunately, that was the only thing I liked about it. I thought they made a mockery of the character, the storytelling, the background, and even Scott! It was as if they were attempting to add in too many "origin" elements with other characters and didn't know how to blend them into one two hour film nor into the other films previously released.

On the other hand, Star Trek blended the early beginnings of the characters so well, it was impossible to imagine them otherwise. And since the whole film was nothing but one big alternate universe, that says something! With director J.J. Abrams, the film is given a highly saturated feel, keeping the same basic elements as the original series, but letting all those lights that blink in the control panels have their say. It made for wonderful cinematography and beauty in a world previously shown as being quite sterile and bland to the eye.

I won't go much into the script for Star Trek except to say that they have left themselves wide open to new adventures for Kirk, the Enterprise, and the rest of the crew. I was never so excited after watching this film, and I cannot remember the last time I wanted to immediately turn around and watch a movie again. If I had not been with my in-law's I probably would have attempted to talk my husband into it. But alas, it was Mother's Day, and while my 65 year old mother-in-law wanted to see the movie, it was getting late.

Maybe I can talk my husband into seeing it with me again next weekend.

Even though the class this was originally needed/started/required for is over, I'm going to continue to post movie reviews anyway. This time, however, I'm picking the films.

Slumdog Similarities

I saw this today and I thought I would share it with all of you since it is so similar to what happened with Paradise Now, only in a different way. Some people in India do not like the way Slumdog Millionaire portrays shantytown dwellers. I haven't seen Slumdog yet so I can't comment on it that way. Have a read below. Original source is at the bottom, but I found this lovely little factoid via ohnotheydidnt.

NEW DELHI (AFP) - "Slumdog Millionaire," the runaway hit film that has charmed audiences around the world, seems to have hit a sour note with one Indian activist a day before its release in India.
Tapeshwar Vishwakarma, representing a slum-dwellers' welfare group, is suing the film's music composer A.R. Rahman and one of its stars, actor Anil Kapoor, for depicting slum-dwellers in a bad light and violating their human rights.
Vishwakarma objected to the use of words such as "slumdogs" to describe the millions of inhabitants of India's cramped shantytowns, and filed a defamation case against the duo in the east Indian city of Patna, according to media reports Thursday.
His lawsuit alleges that the very name of the movie is derogatory and an affront to the dignity of India's many slum-dwellers.
The Golden Globe-winning film tells the rags-to-riches story of a young orphan from Mumbai who defies expectations to win the Indian version of the popular gameshow Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
It has won accolades in India and abroad, and is viewed as a possible contender for next month's Oscars.
Vishwakarma told the Times of India that he is only suing Kapoor and Rahman because they are more familiar to Indian audiences than the film's British director Danny Boyle.
"Vishwakarma made it clear that he hardly expected anything positive from a British filmmaker as their ancestors described us as 'dogs'," Vishwakarma's lawyer Shruti Singh told the Indo-Asian News Service.
"But what hurt him was that even Indians associated with the film hardly bothered to object to calling us a 'slumdog'."
The film's co-director Loveleen Tandon is quoted in the Mail Today newspaper as defending the movie, saying "the title is really not meant to be taken as insulting or offensive."
The Patna court will hear the case on February 5.

Source

Gaby's Official Story

In response to the blog query: Write a brief biography of the young girl in Official Story; she would now be in her mid-late 20s.

I was asked the other day to tell you the story of my youth. “What is youth?” I answered. Is it those years where one is too young to eat or cloth themselves without assistance? Or is it when they are filled with ideals about life, that the world is full of possibilities?

I would like to tell you about my family, but I do not know which one to tell you about. I had a mother and a father once, but my memories of them are very slim. It shouldn’t matter. They weren’t my real parents, anyway. I remember a flat with a maid in a pink dress. She would feed me meat and tuck me in at night with my dolly at my side. I remember my mother with her long brown hair, and my father who always had a pinched expression on his face. They are the ones that named me Gaby, and it is the one tangible reminder that they were a part of my life once. My last few memories of them consist of screaming matches and tears. I would listen to them from my bed, and sometimes my mother would sleep with me, wetting my hair with her tears. My mother would look at me like I was the last hope in the world, and near the end, my father wouldn’t look at me at all.

My grandmother told me that they weren’t my real parents, that my own had died during the Dirty War, that these people had bought me from the government. Did they kill my real parents? I don’t know.

When I was five, my mother had picked me up from my grandparents house (well, I had thought they were my grandparents) and dropped me off with Grandmother Rabello. She said I was to live with her now, that she was my real grandmother. I didn’t understand her, and I remember crying for her. Where was Daddy? Did they not love me anymore?

I will always remember her last words to me.

“Oh baby, I love you so much. More than you will ever know. You are the love of my life. Some day you will understand. Someday, baby. Go with your grandmother, Gaby. Go, baby, she needs you.”

I don’t remember what my last name used to be, and Grandmother Rabello never mentions it. I still live in Buenos Aires, and every once in awhile I will see someone that looks so much like my mother I can’t help but stare. I think it is her, and I think she sees me, too, but she is always gone by the time I make it through the crowd, hoping against hope that she will be there when I make it.

I was married last year, and this year I am expecting my first child. I hope it will be a son. I have been spending time in the biblioteca using their computers to see what I can find out about the Dirty War, about my history. I know what happened to my real parents thanks to Grandmother Rabello, and I am hoping my search will lead me to my adoptive parents. I was a desaparecido once. The more I learn about the time of my birth, the more I want to see the woman that sent me back.

I may be found, but I once was lost. And in being found, I have lost so much. I would like my son to meet his grandmother, the one that loved me and cherished me and gave me my name.

I feel blind. I would like to see.

Machuca Reviews

Below are links to various reviews about Andres Wood's 2004 film, Machuca.

BBC
Slant Magazine
Salon.com

Judging Paradise Now

Concerning the petitions that occurred to remove the film Paradise Now from Oscar consideration because of its subject matter, I agree with the counter-petition, more or less. I believe both the original and counter-petitions amount to no more than a schoolyard fight of “did not – did, too” and should be treated as such.

Everyone has a right to be heard and to give an opinion. By suppressing one’s opinion on any given event, whether real or make believe, is just that – suppression. What gives someone the right to judge another and their beliefs? To tell someone they don’t have the right to exist?

I am of the firm belief that the majority of the people who signed the original petition never actually watched the film themselves. Instead, they took the word of “one side” as the correct version of events. It was a petition meant to inflame the public by giving a personal account centered around the death of a beloved son as well as blaming the bombing of the Twin Towers in New York on the Palestinian people (last I looked, Al-Qaeda did that). Since the petition was meant to be read by a group consisting of mostly Americans it only accounts as inflammatory in its conjecture. Just like a lawyer cross-examining a witness, it doesn't matter if the opposing attorney objects to a statement and the judge sustains, it was still said and heard.

On a completely separate issue, film is considered another form of art, of expression, and for that reason alone would it be considered as a nominee for an Oscar. It was very well made and beautiful. To take it out of contention for an art based award just because of its subject matter would have been blasphemous and completely ignorant.

Judge not, lest ye be judged.

Learning Lessons

In response to Joan Chen’s Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl, I try to imagine what my life would have been like, not only experiencing what Xiu Xiu went through, but if I were a girl that grew up in China after the Cultural Revolution, listening to the stories of her and others sent into the countryside to be re-educated by Mao Zedong and his government. Xiu Xiu tried to defy the government in the only way her limited education and experience taught her – by using her body as a something that could be used in lieu of payment for her freedom. The basis behind her being sent to the grasslands along with thousands of other youths of her generation was for Mao to regain control of a campaign that had exceeded his expectations in fighting his opponents and was currently destroying what authority was left within the Chinese government. Besides the sadness one cannot help but feel at Xiu Xiu’s predicament, one cannot also help but feel the despair at her simply being forgotten out there in the grasslands. No one was coming for her, and no one would be.

If I grew up listening to her story, and I lived in China during the more recent political battles, I would like to think that I would take part in them. Xiu Xiu went willingly to the grasslands where she and countless others believed it was the appropriate thing to do for their family and their country. Xiu Xiu had the misfortune of coming across people who used her patriotism against her, people that preyed on her naivety and ignorance of the ways of life. China is not perfect; no country is perfect, and I would like to believe that I would not so ignorantly just sit by and let them take advantage of me in the name of patriotism.

If I had the opportunity to take a part in the student riots of Tiananmen Square, I would willingly oblige. The riots of those times were remarkably similar to those of the Cultural Revolution – people fighting against a political policy/economy/authority that did not follow with the beliefs of the majority. However, the riots of the 1980’s lacked one crucial element that drove the Cultural Revolution to the conclusion it had – the charisma of Mao Zedong. Mao was able to persuade the people into believing and acting the way they did. Without him, no “campaigns” reigned forth over China. Uprisings rose and fell with the times, but no all out propaganda ruled China the way it had previously.

If I was a young girl, and my parents had told me the story of Xiu Xiu and the Cultural Revolution, I would consider it my duty to make my voice heard. If they felt the need to impart such an important lesson to me, it would only be my duty to listen to it. I may not take part in the riots, but I would be with them in spirit. She was a young girl, just like me. I must learn her lesson, or her fate would be my own.