A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power

A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power by Paul Fischer

Kim Jong-Il was the North Korean son and dictator in waiting in North Korea. He loved film and had many western movies clandestinely pirated and brought to him. Internally, residents were only allowed to view locally made films. These were heavy on propaganda and low on quality. He wanted to launch a strong local film industry that could produce films that would win awards at film festivals. He decided to do it in a typically bizarre way. He kidnapped a South Korean actress. Then later kidnapped a director that happened to be her ex husband. He first spent years indoctrinating them in the positives of North Korea. After he thought they were ready, he let them produce movies. These films won awards and received acclaim. The couple gradually rekindled their relationship and remarried. They longed to escape. However, they were constantly monitored by bodyguards. To protect their lives, they needed to portray loyalty to North Korea. After one leak that they were kidnapped, they held a press conference to say they were there willingly. After increasing movie success, they were allowed to travel further abroad. Finally, when they were in Vienna, they were able to avoid their minders in a taxi chase and make it to the US embassy. There they defected to the west, and eventually escaped to the US. They continued to make movies in the US, while Kim Jong-Il "erased" them from North Korean film history. It is a so strange it must be true tale told in a riveting fashion. 

Pixar Short Films collection 3

Pixar Short Films Collection 3 by Pixar

A collection of Pixar shorts includes some originals and some based on Pixar IP. My favorite was "Lou" in which a lost and found box comes alive to help a bully learn to care for others.

Includes movies:

• Boo
• Lou
• Piper
• Sanjay's Super team
• Riley's First Date?
• Lava
• The Radiator Springs 500 1/2
• Party CEntral
• The Blue Umbrella
• The Legend of Mor'du
• Partysaurus Rex

Forever Young: A Memoir

Forever Young: A Memoir by Hayley Mills

Hayley Mills came to fame as a child actress for Disney. Her father was a British actor and she was cast in a small role in one of his movies. Disney saw this and wanted to cast her in Pollyanna. This involved a contract and moving to America. She had a positive experience with Disney and became quite famous with other movies like Parent Trap. Her money was placed in a trust fund for her to access when she was 21. However, by the time she was old enough to access it, she discovered that the tax authorities claimed almost all of it. She launched a large lawsuit, with many appeals, but ultimate failed. She did more "serious" acting as she got older. She went on a date with George Harrison, and later married a man that was her parent's age. The memoir pretty much ends with her in her 20s. That is how we remember her, even though she is nearly 80 now. There are also discussions of her mother's problem with alcoholism and some of the other challenges of growing up in Hollywood. It is also interesting that her career had a very different turn than the actress that got cast as Lolita. For better or worse, actors get associated with their roles. She also felt glad her fame was not as obsessive as that of the Beatles. She feels that having parents in the business was helpful to her experience.

Life Itself: A Memoir

 Life Itself: A Memoir by Roger Ebert

In one area, he mentioned a chain smoker switching to filtered cigarettes. I wonder if electric cars are today's version of filtered cigarettes. They help a little bit in reducing emissions, but it is still just a big car. Just like a filtered cigarette, a car is still dangerous.

Ebert had some family members die from smoking. However, that was just a side note of his story. He had started to blog and take to social media more extensively after his cancer surgery left him unable to talk. He had already had a talent for writing. However, that was joined with an outgoing personality and a love to socialize. Writing to social media helped provide an outlet for some of the social behavior, but was still not the same.

The memoir goes through the standard reminiscences of early history. He grew up in Urbana, Illinois - a college town, home to the University of Illinois. He was born during World War II, and thus predated the baby boomers by a few years. He is not an active Catholic, but he has positive memories of his time in Catholic school and church. He was an avid stamp collector and writer and worked on the newspaper and enjoyed reading, watching movies and writing. He states that a lot of things just "happened" in his life that ended up providing opportunities.

He later moved to Chicago to work on a PhD. Needing a job, he sought one with a newspaper. He ended up getting a position with the Sun Times. After a while, they needed a movie critic and he got the job. Later the PBS station wanted a TV show. Ebert and Siskel were two local critics chosen. The chemistry they had (and constant fighting) helped make it a success and further launched his career. He also had experience with alcoholism and then sobriety through AA. 

With his job, he traveled to many locations and met many people. There are many chapters in the book detailed some of the more memorable ones. There are famous directors and actors that he considers friends. There are others that he is on good terms with, but would not consider to be friends. There are also plenty of other people that had impact on his life. He also detailed locations such as a small hotel in London and a little cafe in Venice that were important to him. He also had an interesting experience studying in apartheid South Africa. Through all these, he seemed to be somebody that would observe the situation and develop strong opinions, but would still get along with anybody.

Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever

I remember watching the movie review shows in the 1980s. It was interesting to watch clips and criticism of movies - even ones that I never intended to watch. While I typically read the Tribune newspaper, I most actively followed Ebert's reviews. I've read many reviews of movies that I have not seen. The quality of the prose made it worth reading even outside the actual movie. I also loved to see what he thought of the movies that I did enjoy.

The book focuses primarily on the Siskel and Ebert show (through its various. names.) There is enough biography and historical background to create a coherent story, but the focus is the show and it's legacy. It started out as a low-key PBS show that somehow took off. It later went into syndication via a local Chicago station and then was owned by Disney. The show continued after Siskel died, but it was fading significantly. The new show didn't have the conflict of the early show. It was also easy to see clips and details about movies. (When they show started in the 1970s, there was no YouTube. They would manually extract clips from the source film.) 

The legacy of Siskel and Ebert is vast. The "two opposing heads" has become the common format of many political shows. Movies criticism is respected and common in pop culture. rogerebert.com is still going strong. Two Thumbs Up has also entered the lexicon. (Somewhat ironically, this was only a later incantation of the ranking scheme.) Ebert and Siskel were hugely competitive. They took a long time to build up their respect for each other. They had vastly different values in what makes a quality movie and argue vehemently. Even if they both liked a movie, they would argue about why they liked it. Art is subjective and they made it clear that no two people would appreciate something for the same reason.

Stranger Among Us

This was an awful movie. It is some interesting subject matter, but the execution fell flat on it's face. The lead was supposed to be a "tough girl cop". However, she came across as a dumb blonde that was playing cop. She goes undercover within a Hasidic Jewish diamond cutting community to locate a missing man and missing diamonds. She discovers he has been killed and then sets up a sting for some Italian thugs. She ends up shooting one. This was the second time in the movie where some bad guy had got the best of her and she ended up killing him. Is this a real cop?

The more interesting part is the way that this orthodox community is portrayed. They are treated with respect. Their beliefs are out of touch with modern society. However, in watching you get a strong respect for their society, and feel that it is society that is more out of touch. The "touch girl cop" tries to convince them of the joys of carnal modern life, but they will have nothing of it. The son of the religious leader is happy to marry the girl that his father found for him. Ms. Tough Girl Cop just can't see how somebody can do that. He sees no problem with it. After all, he has rejected a few others. After writing to his fiance for some time, he is convinced that she is the one true person for her.

Then the plot holes come up. The engaged guy appears along with Tough Cop. (A no-no according to one of the commandments.) They even kiss. Yet, he still goes to meet his fiance with no issue. Later he pinpoints the true perpetrator of the murder. (What use was the cop here?) She does have the bright idea to give him the gun when they approach the murderer (a girl that had ingratiate herself in the Jewish community.) The cop gets knocked out, but the Jewish man shoots the bad girl. Then next thing you know it, he is meeting his fiance and the wedding occurs. Wait! He shot (and likely killed) a member of the community. He was alone with another woman (again!) And yet, the marriage just goes along as before. Wouldn't there be some concern and trauma here?

As if the plot holes were bad enough, the lead "tough dumb blonde cop" is often smoking and swearing. Is that supposed to make her tough? Alas, it just makes her even more fake. It was nice to see a movie where somebody goes into an utlra-orthodox community and comes away respecting it rather than pulling somebody away. Alas, the rest of the movie was just plain bad. 

Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy

Hollywood has dominated the entertainment industry. The movies have also helped to spread American culture throughout the world. China liked that idea. They sought to copy the model. At first China would pair with US media. Hollywood films were shown in China. 

China requires films to be "approved" for display in China. The approval requirements are not document. However, Hollywood learned what would allow a movie to be approved and adapted movies to succeed in China. Nudity is a no go, as is pro-Tibet or anti-China content. Movies should also generally show authorities in a good light and not have ghosts. Hollywood studios have taken these to heart and "self-censored" their films to appeal to China. 

Most movie studios are large multi-national companies. This leaves them susceptible to the whims of the Chinese. A movie offensive to the Chinese could result in repercussions for the company even if the movie is never screened in China. Companies do not want to risk their blockbusters and thus are unlikely to greenlight movies that portray China negatively. (Something similar happened in Germany before World War II)

Hollywood studios need the proper balance to appeal to China. Pandering too much will turn off the Chinese audience. A movie like Transformers with built in appeal and Chinese strengths works much better than a western version of China in Mulan. Kung Fu Panda also did great, while Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon did not.

China's next goal is to be a producer. China has produced significant movies in house such as Wandering Earth. However, these are rarely very popular outside of China. Another goal is to arouse patriotism in China. This has been succeeding. It is just not spreading. China continues to encourage the local industry, but is also cautious to prevent them from overpaying for glamor.

China is going down a path that America had gone down a century ago. Will they come to dominate media like they have other industries?

The Nolan Variations: The Movies, Mysteries, and Marvels of Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan is one of the most bankable film directors today. He is one of the few that can be depended on to produce popular original movies. His films often experiment with different narrative devices and tend to rely more on old-school effects rather than computer animation. 

The Nolan Variations is a fairly linear history of Nolan's career. There are some biographical elements. However, they are primarily there to fill in the context of his art. There is coverage of important events and artists that had influenced his work. The focus then quickly moves to focus on his works. He worked on producing the films the way he wanted. After his small films became popular, he was given more and more latitude to make the film he wanted. 

He typically is heavily involved in the film, with credits for writing, directing and producing on most of his major films. He also frequently collaborated with Hans Zimmer on music, with the music and sound effects being integrated together on the film. Nolan will often shoot on location on glaciers or other surroundings. He has been known for big effects, such as crashing an airplane or demolishing a building. He will play with styles, filming Film Noir in the light. The book compares him to Alfred Hitchcock. Though both make different styles of movies, they leave their personal imprint.

The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture

Batman has come to occupy a significant place in popular culture. The comic book representations of the caped crusader have changed with the times. At times he has protected the rich from wrongs, while at other times he is a dark vigilante or a protector of the common man. Batman's representation in media has been extremely popular, yet very different. The 1960's Adam West Batman was the epitome of camp, complete with "POWs". In the late 1980s, Time Burton put his spin, making a darker, yet still quirky Batman. Joel Schumacher took the movies into a lighter, more comic vein. However, he went too far with his second movie, alienating many of the core fans. With the internet, these fans were able to unite and helped lead to the bad reception of the movie. These fans were enthusiastic when Christopher Nolan went back to the comic book roots with Batman Begins. These movies were even more successful than the previous ones.

Through time, many people have seen parts of Batman in themselves. His sidekick Robin has come and gone. Batman has at times fought more "regular criminals", while at other times dealt with "super villains". At times he is very masculine, while at other times he is more homosexual. Batman has changed with the times. The comic books and movies continue to be popular as times have changed.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Rougue One takes place immediately before the first Star Wars movie (A New Hope.) We see a society that still has degenerated under imperial control, yet still has some bits of republic and Jedi remaining. The Republic has for all intents and purposes fallen, yet people still cling to the hope that it is still functioning. The Rebel Alliance is for the most part solidified, yet still has some splinter groups. In this backdrop, we have the valiant quest to uncover the Death Star plans to be able to uncover its weakness and save the galaxy.

The story is fairly exciting and feels like a decent middle ages war movie. However, it tries too hard to not be a "star wars" movie. The opening credits lacked a star wars crawl or anthem. (Even clone wars cartoons had this!) The music as a whole was just a little bit off. You could feel bits of Star Wars motifs, but they didn't seem right. Only the Imperial March and closing credits pieces felt right. This was the first score not made by John Williams, so that may have accounted for some of the differences. However, I think there may have been a further deliberate effort to be "outside the canon". The casting also felt like a blatant attempt to pander to ethnic groups, while still falling victim to stereotypes. (There is an Asian character! However, he is a blind monk who is an expert at martial arts.) There were also cameos from characters in the other movies. R2D2 and C3PO felt fine. Darth Vader felt a little off. Some of the human characters looked pretty good - in spite of being CGI assisted.

The movie ended moments before the start of Episode IV. There is never any doubt that they will succeed. (That would put a sever kink in the Star Wars storyline.) However, there are plenty of suspenseful moments. (Though it may be better if a few of the more manufactured ones were left out.) A new droid provides the best comic lines. The human leads have some complexity to them as they struggle between individual and group needs. However, there are few surefire action figures. We also get a large scale destruction inflicted by the death star. It would be nice to come up with another evil force to fight against, but I'll give this one a pass since the whole point is to still the plans for the weapon. I did like the scene where are heroes get to make peace with each other as they witness the end of the world. Their place in the Star Wars universe is now complete and we can go on to wait for the next rehash. Disney owns Star Wars and they know how to milk things for all they are worth, playing on nostalgia and blowing up lots of things. It can keep you occupied for a bit, but leaves you wanting in the end.

Zootopia

The trailer for Zootopia shown during Star Wars stood out as being the one that didn't have a single person save the world from blowing up. It also made the movie look extremely boring. (Slow talking sloths do not a fun movie make.) However, it was misleading on both counts. Almost. We do have a single bunny that is off the save the world. And the movie was quite entertaining. The plot centers around a society of animals that no longer divides themselves into predators and prey. (How do they eat? That is an awfully large population of vegetarians!) The society sets itself up for plenty of visual humor. There are trains with multiple size doors and a fox that runs a racket by melting down elephant popsicles to make multiple rodent size ones. There is also a chase into a "rodent town" and plenty of other great bits of visual humor.

The theme is that you can do anything that you want and should not fall victim to predefined stereotypes. These stereotypes come from multiple different sides, with even the oppressed finding they are holding views that limit what their supposed oppressors can do. It does a good job of bringing out the theme without trying to attack any individual group.

In the end, the bunny saves the day by uncovering a plot for one group to obtain power by using a plant extract to make animals "wild". In the end, the bad guys are busted, an antidote is made, and an animal sings the catchy song. Make the animals out of legos and it could pass as the next Lego Movie.

Top 100 movies

Finding my top 100 movies turned out to be more of a challenge than I thought. I thought I'd just go into IMDB, sort by rating and voila. Alas, I didn't have 100 in 10's and had too many with 9's added.

So off to the culling. Deleting shorts and non-movies was the easy part. Then deleting some that were in the "I liked this?" category were next. Then it got hard. I could go the easy way and delete low-rated (by others) movies. However, they had their charm. I wanted to keep in the more obscure ones also. Finally I ended up finding a few to remove to get the final list:

Title Directors Year
The Birth of a Nation D.W. Griffith 1915
Metropolis Fritz Lang 1927
The Blue Angel Josef von Sternberg 1930
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) Rouben Mamoulian 1931
Speak Easily Edward Sedgwick 1932
Citizen Kane Orson Welles 1941
Bicycle Thieves Vittorio De Sica 1948
Rear Window Alfred Hitchcock 1954
No Time for Sergeants Mervyn LeRoy 1958
Ben-Hur William Wyler 1959
The Absent-Minded Professor Robert Stevenson 1961
The Music Man Morton DaCosta 1962
Lolita (1962, Kubrick) Stanley Kubrick 1962
L'Eclisse Michelangelo Antonioni 1962
Charade Stanley Donen 1963
Dr. Strangelove: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Stanley Kubrick 1964
2001: A Space Odyssey Stanley Kubrick 1968
Monty Python and the Holy Grail Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones 1975
Star Wars George Lucas 1977
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back Irvin Kershner 1980
The Gods Must Be Crazy Jamie Uys 1980
Super Fuzz Sergio Corbucci 1980
Chariots of Fire Hugh Hudson 1981
Gandhi Richard Attenborough 1982
WarGames John Badham 1983
Back to the Future Robert Zemeckis 1985
Jean de Florette Claude Berri 1986
Ferris Bueller's Day Off John Hughes 1986
True Stories David Byrne 1986
Au Revoir Les Enfants Louis Malle 1987
Roxanne Fred Schepisi 1987
The Princess Bride Rob Reiner 1987
Who Framed Roger Rabbit Robert Zemeckis 1988
Cinema Paradiso Giuseppe Tornatore 1988
Tucker: The Man and His Dream Francis Ford Coppola 1988
Dead Poets Society Peter Weir 1989
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Steven Spielberg 1989
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure Stephen Herek 1989
Cyrano de Bergerac Jean-Paul Rappeneau 1990
Edward Scissorhands Tim Burton 1990
Father of the Bride Charles Shyer 1991
Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey Pete Hewitt 1991
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves Kevin Reynolds 1991
Sneakers Phil Alden Robinson 1992
The Fugitive Andrew Davis 1993
Last Action Hero John McTiernan 1993
Jurassic Park Steven Spielberg 1993
Miracle on 34th Street Les Mayfield 1994
Angels in the Outfield William Dear 1994
The Lion King Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff 1994
Mr. Holland's Opus Stephen Herek 1995
Sabrina (1995) Sydney Pollack 1995
A Little Princess Alfonso Cuarón 1995
Clueless Amy Heckerling 1995
Sense and Sensibility Ang Lee 1995
Now and Then Lesli Linka Glatter 1995
Babe Chris Noonan 1995
DragonHeart Rob L. Cohen 1996
Emma Douglas McGrath 1996
Romeo + Juliet (1996) Baz Luhrmann 1996
Matilda Danny DeVito 1996
Evita Alan Parker 1996
Independence Day Roland Emmerich 1996
Space Jam Joe Pytka 1996
Shall We Dance? Masayuki Suo 1996
Harriet the Spy Bronwen Hughes 1996
Liar Liar Tom Shadyac 1997
Life Is Beautiful Roberto Benigni 1997
The Saint Phillip Noyce 1997
Men in Black Barry Sonnenfeld 1997
Saint Bavo Defurne 1997
Children of Heaven Majid Majidi 1997
The Truman Show Peter Weir 1998
Rhapsody of Spring Wenji Teng 1998
Remember the Titans Boaz Yakin 2000
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Chris Columbus 2001
Secret Ballot Babak Payami 2001
The Majestic Frank Darabont 2001
Ocean's Eleven Steven Soderbergh 2001
A Beautiful Mind Ron Howard 2001
Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams Robert Rodriguez 2002
Together Kaige Chen 2002
Badhaai Ho Badhaai Satish Kaushik 2002
Koi... Mil Gaya Rakesh Roshan 2003
Bride & Prejudice Gurinder Chadha 2004
Electric Shadows Jiang Xiao 2004
The Incredibles Brad Bird 2004
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Alfonso Cuarón 2004
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Tim Burton 2005
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith George Lucas 2005
Cars John Lasseter, Joe Ranft 2006
Humko Tumse Pyaar Hai Bunty Soorma 2006
Secret Jay Chou 2007
The Equation of Love and Death Baoping Cao 2008
I Give My First Love to You Takehiko Shinjo 2009
Up Pete Docter, Bob Peterson 2009
Inception Christopher Nolan 2010
A Yell from Heaven Makoto Kumazawa 2011
Moneyball Bennett Miller 2011
The Amazing Spider-Man Marc Webb 2012

Spy Kids

The Spy Kids movies must have been a blast to make. They manage to great for kids, while still being intelligent enough for adults. It can use over-the-top humor with all sorts of crazy gadgets that make things fun.

Spy Kid's II: Island of Dreams starts with the trademark "over-the-top" spy scene. In this case, it takes place in an amusement park with ridiculous rides. The president's daughter is there, and manages to escape from the ride - with a device that can destroy the world. The lead Spy Kids (Carmen and Juni Cortez) attempt to save her. However, "Garry and Gerti", a second group of OSS spy kids are sent as backup. The kids (and their families) end up competing the entire movie. They work as a family, solving regular family issues - only they happen to deal with the destruction of the world. (Gerti has a great line at the end, mentioning that Dad will be so in trouble with mom for trying to take over the world again.) In the movie, they have all sorts of gadgets (including a watch that does everything - except tell time.) However, it is the lowly rubber-band that is most valuable. The main spy caper involves a Jurassic Park-like island with minaraturized and bizarro animals. ("horse-fly", "spider-monkey", etc.) All of elements were very well carried out, bizarre enough to be funny, but consistent enough to feel real. This is one of the best movies I've seen in a while.

Spy Kids 3: Game Over follows the same formula as the others. It was well done, though not quite as good as the second movie. In this movie, the kids travel inside a video game to try to prevent the "Gamemaker" from taking over the world. In the game, everyone adopts their "gaming id", thus the real "cool" guys in the game often end up being nerds in real life.

Spy Kids 4: All The Time in the World was released almost a decade later. The original kids are grown up, and some new kids are part of the "reboot". It has many of the Spy Kids trademarks, but overall was not as good. I recalled Roger Ebert's review of the original Spy Kids movie. He enjoyed the movie and complimented its ability to be humourous a "Family" without resorting to vulgarity. Alas, in Spy Kids 4 we get barf-bag and diaper bombs. I had seen this one before seeing the other Spy Kids movies. I thought it was good at the time. However, after seeing the others, I realize that it doesn't come close to the high bar set. The appearance of the adult Carmen and Juni seems contrived. While they play a key roll in the movie, their acting is flat.

Overall, the entire series is a great example of building well made stories out of imagination that is as crazy as possible while still being believable.

The Butler

Lee Daniel's The Butler makes for an akward title. It almost made for a good movie. It chronicle the life of a man from boyhood in the southern cotton fields until he "made it" as a white house butler. He worked for many years as a butler to the presidents that were key in the civil rights movement. As he was witnessing the political side of the movement, his son was involved in the "activist" side.

The movie did a good job of showing the "personal" nature of the civil rights decision. It managed, for the most part, to be politically neutral. Eisenhower struggled with how to manage things, but finally decided to send in troops to support integration. Kennedy initially dismissed civil rights, but letter became a staunch supporter. Nixon and Johnson were both portrayed as callous politicians that wanted to co-opt civil rights for their own personal gain.

While the film showed the presidents' making personal decisions about civil rights, the life of the butler's son showed us the political side. He started out in non-violent protests and passively resisted attacks by the KKK and others. He criticised of his father's life as a "servant" of white people. Martin Luther King JR responded, however, that the house negro was one of the most influential sources of change in that he showed the white man that the black man can be a civilized human. in spite of this, the relationship with father and son remained strained. (Meanwhile, the butler's other son followed the more conservative path, but eventually returned from Vietnam in a body bag.)

Up to this point, I was well pleased with the movie. However, after Watergate, the movie started to lose focus. Ford and Carter did not exist. Reagan finally appears in his second term. He is the one that finally makes sure that the black help is paid at the same rate as the white help. He also makes sure the butler and his wife are invited as guests to a state dinner. This pro-black stance is tempered with Reagan's objection to sanctions on South Africa. (I guess they couldn't make Reagan look like too much of a good guy.)

At his point, the butler is old and decides it is time to retire and reconcile with his son. It would make for a good ending to the movie. But, alas, it didn't stop there. It jumped forward 20 years to show him supporting Obama and his campaign and going back to the White House as a guest of the first black president. This section felt like it was artificially tacked on to the end. It also distracted from the other seen where the butler went back to see the abandoned cotton field where he had grown up. (Is this meant to contrast with the White/Kenyan president who never had no slave history?) Alas, it was a week epilogue for what was otherwise a good movie.

Good and Bad

Another long airplane flight, so another chance to watch a whole bunch of movies while I can't get in more than a few minutes of sleep.

Good: Katy Perry: Part of Me movie. It was fun and colorful. It made her seem like a normal person who liked to entertain. The energetic music and outlandish costumes added to the experience. The testimonials of people who felt Katy helped them accept themselves as "different" didn't quite fit, but they were only brief.
Bad: Katy Perry music. After watching the music, I went back and Spotified some of her music. Uggh. A few good bits, but mostly sounds like a teenager trying to be "different like everybody else". And she's nearly 30.

Good: Return of the Pink Panther - Peter Sellars is the master of slapstick. His bumbling detective manages to solve the case in spite of himself.
Bad: Ace Ventura: Pet Detective - Jim Carrey's slapstick is straight from the toilet and downright tedious. You also wish he would at least try to impersonate a real person.

Good: Skyfall James Bond movie where Bond goes through elaborate stunts to help protect his boss from a crazy.
Bad: Bodyguard Kevin Costner tries to protect Whitney Houston from a crazy. Boring.

In between: Love for Beginners - A Japanese film about a "lady's man" who takes up a dare to seduce a nerdish girl. She initially rejects his overtures, but eventually they fall in love, and she finds her true self. Stylistically it is great, but the store would have been more powerful if it would have ended with her desired marriage instead of a caving to his physical overtures.

In between: Alice in Wonderland - It is Tim Burton. It can't be too bad. I watched it in a middle of a long flight, and had trouble staying awake for the first part. (Was it boring, or was it the flight? I think it was a bit of both.) The characters and the physical humor were great. (but, I did get annoyed with the white queen.

Fun Size

Fun Size is released as a Nickelodeon movie, but it is geared towards older teens rather than kids. It is set in Cleveland (the mistake by the lake) at Halloween. Somehow, even though it is a big city, every body seems to know everybody else. (I knew Cleveland had been losing population, but not that much...) A teenage girl wants to go to NYU because that is where her late father went. Her kid brother is a major-league ruckus maker and hasn't said much of anything since their father died. Their mother has reacted by dating guys much younger. It all makes for a pretty messed up family.

The lead girl gets invited to a party at the house of the "hot guy". However, the mother is going to party with her boyfriend, so the girl is now babysitting. She goes trick-or-treating with her brother and friend and accidentally lose the brother. With some nerd guys, they go to find the brother. They have crazy adventures. The brother has crazy adventures and eventually the girls decide they like the nerds and everybody's happy. It is pretty over the top, with a lot of vulgar (alternating between teen and child) humour.

Frankenweenie

This is a movie shot in stop-motion black and white. Would anybody other than Tim Burton dare make a movie like this?

The movie is set in typical Tim Burton suburbia and the characters are typical Tim Burton quirky. Many of the characters are named after famous monster characters. The main character is a smart loner named Victor Frankenstein. He doesn't have many friends at school, but is good at science and likes to make movies. His only real "friend" is his dog Sparky. One day, while chasing a ball, Sparky is hit by a car and dies. Victor is devastated. However, in class one day, his science teacher shows them how a dead frog can be twitched with electricity. He attempts to do the same to bring Sparky back to life - and succeeds. He tries to keep it a secret, but Sparky runs out and is spotted by others. They want to try the experiment too, but there attempts result in giant scarey monsters instead. Everything eventually works out in the end, with Sparky becoming irrevocably "dead".

Argo

Argo won the Oscar for best picture. It is a good movie, but not a great movie. The politics of the movie are somewhat confused. The open sequence gives a brief background of Iranian political history. It had been a kingdom for millennial. In the 1950s, it democratically elects a president. The president nationalizes oil companies. The Americans and British don't like that and decide that oil trumps democratic ideology. They put the Shaw in power. He is friendly to the west and attempts to westernize while looting the country. Finally in the late 1970s, the Iranians take back their country and the Shaw sneaks out. Ok. So far, Americans = bad guys. Then we go to the American Embassy. All these evil Americans are hanging out in there. They are preventing the evil dictator from getting his just rewards. We should side with the students that want to jump in the embassay and take hostages, right?

Well, no. At this point, the politics shift. Now the Iranians are bad guys and the Americans are the innocent workers who happen to be trapped in the embassy. The good-guy Americans aren't going to release the Shaw. Instead, they are going to start some great secret mission to get the Americans out.

Now that the story movies back to "raw raw" America, we discover that 6 of the embassy workers managed to escape and are now hiding out in the Canadian embassy. The CIA hatches a few plans to get them out. One involves riding bicycles 300 miles to the Turkish border (in winter!). Then one guy comes up with the genius plan of making a movie. They go through great details to get a real script and make it all appear to be a real movie. It seems ok and a lot of work is done to set it up. He goes off and tries to get them out.

The escape is melodramatic. Everything seems to come through at just the last minute. We even get a chase where vans are zooming after an airplane that is about to take off. Is this real?

No it isn't.

Yes, it was based on a true incident. However, the melodrama was greatly amped up in the movie. The "super-close-calls" were actually not that close. And the runway chase? Well, nothing even close to it happened. In this case the melodrama was pumped up just a little too much, moving it from exciting to pure fanciful. With a little more restraint, this could have been a better movie.

Breaking Dawn 2

I saw the first Twilight movie. I read all the books. Breaking Dawn 2, however, was just plain bad. As a stand-alone movie it makes no sense at all. The film expects that you've seen the earlier movies and know everything that happened and what all the characters are up to. Even then, the events don't make a whole lot of sense. Why do the characters react in seemingly bizarre ways? Why does Alice run away? And what is the whole point of the passports? There is just not quite enough clue to bring all these things together.

What else? The Slavic accents of the Romanians also annoyed me. If they have lived for 3000 years, you think they would be able to talk without a Russian-sounding accent. The many beheadings were also annoying. (Hello! Your target audience is the no-longer-quite-so-young girls that want to see all the cute guys. Do they really want to see all that gore?)

The whole movie just feels dirty and slimy. The characters all have sour faces and seem to be just there to collect a paycheck and go off to party.

I'm glad this series is finally over.

Wreck it Ralph

It has been a while since Disney has released a good animated movie. However, they have bought Pixar, who seems to have a recent monopoly on quality animation. So, it would only be time before Disney would start poaching Pixar to ramp up the "native" animation studio. John Lasseter (of Cars and Toy Story fame) was the executive producer of Wreck it Ralph. This film has much more of the Pixar "magic" than Brave, the most recent Pixar release. The director, Ralph Moore is best known for directing Simpsons and Futurama episodes. This just sounds like a great combination for a fun movie.

The movie doesn't disappoint. Apparently, the film had been seeded back in the 80s when the video game arcades had their initial burst of popularity. Now it is 30 years later and the movie thrives on a lot of the nostalgia for the video games. The video game characters work their games during the day, but after the arcade closes, they can freely travel. (They just need to be careful not to die, because they don't regenerate outside their game.) "Ralph" is the "bad guy" in the Fix it Felix video game. He feels sad beacuse the good buy always gets the credit and the medals. He eventually goes to a "bad guys anonymous" meeting (run by one of the Pac-man ghosts). Unfortunately, he soon discovers he hasn't been invited to the big party for his game's anniversary. He gets upset and runs away to try to find a medal. He finds one in a modern first person shooter game, but ends up being flown out to Sugar Rush, a candy go-kart racing game. There he meets a "glitch" who wants the medal to be able to race, they fight, become friends and eventually have a happy ending after some close calls.

The movie is filled with a lot of the small visual details that are common in the Simpson's episodes. There are plenty of inside jokes and video game allusions. The music works well, with a nice classic video-game influence. The closing credits song, "Sugar Rush" is by AKB48, A Japanese girl group. I seems just perfect in the video game setting.