I've wanted to do some kind of writing about movies for a long time and I figure now I should just start a blog and write about movies (and probably TV shows) as I see them. Not sure what it will look like, maybe scanty, but it will reveal itself.
Neighbors
There is obviously a major strain of comedies now from the Judd Apatow lineage, and they're without fail pretty amusing. The actors all seem to be having a good time, and that makes up for deficiencies of plot or character depth or any kind of "meaningful" reason for the movie to exist. Neighbors has nothing going for it except the charm of the performances. Shaggy lack of story structure can be done well when there actually is a satisfying structure carefully hidden beneath the seemingly laid-back surface. Last summer's This Is the End is a good example of a deceptively well-structured story. Neighbors is not. The plot lurches forward in episodes, as the two battling houses (if you want a summary of the plot you can go find it somewhere on the internet) come up with new attacks on each other. A character says "We need to do something." Another character says, "How about this?" The first character says, "Yeah, let's do it!" Then they do it. The fun of the movie is watching the characters execute their schemes, not watching them "think."
Seth Rogen is amusing, but not particularly interesting. All of his characters lack depth. He rarely displays vulnerability or emotions. This is a criticism I have of a lot of comedy actors, where they don't involve themselves in what's happening, but instead constantly remove themselves from the situation in one way or another. (Steve Carell is one example. His emotions never seem real, they're too cartoony, or over-expressive. Martin Freeman is another one, off the top of my head, who has this problem, though his problem is more verbal and under-expressive, like Rogen. He comments on what's happening, but he's rarely really there.)
Jurassic Park
I saw Jurassic Park today at the new(ish) Empirical Theater at OMSI. Holy Christ, what a theater. They got rid of their IMAX dome and replaced it with the biggest god damn movie screen I've ever seen. (Between that and Cinetopia, I now have access to some of the technically best movie theaters in the world. Yay!) Perhaps it was the overwhelming size of the screen, or the density and volume of the sound system, or my girlfriend clutching my arm and thrashing in her seat during the scary parts, or the little kids behind me whimpering, "Mommy, I want to go home...Mommmy, please, I'm scared..." or maybe the movie is just really well made, but whatever the reason, it was one of the most suspenseful, exciting, and scary movie experiences I've ever had. Like, adrenal exhaustion, I-need-to-eat-a-nutritious-meal-right-now-preferably-with-brown-rice-in-it, upon leaving the theater.
The characters were mostly uninteresting. Laura Dern did nothing but smile amiably for the first half, and then grimace and scream during the second half. The main paleontologist guy had no personality except that he inexplicably hates children, and then learns to love them. Jeff Goldblum was there for his excess of personality; he had no plot significance whatsoever, except to utter portentous philosophical things about chaos theory, and then have the camera linger on his sweaty chest. Fortunately the rich Scottish guy who owned the park was not made into a caricature. However thin the characterization was, I was totally engaged by the danger of the dinosaurs. Some of the best suspense you'll find in a movie.
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