Three features, and a whole mess of creatures.

Last weekend I went to see a triple feature with my friend and his parents. The movies were 20 Million Miles To Earth, The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad, and the kaiju movie Destroy All Monsters. It was my first time seeing all of them.



The first two were directed by Nathan Juran and featured stop-motion animation effects by Ray Harryhausen, who you may remember died earlier this year. I'm a pretty big fan of Harryhausen's work, but I have not seen everything he's done. Although they were enjoyable, I didn't love the two Juran/Harryhausen movies. They're far from being my favorite movies that Harryhausen has worked on. That being said, it was great seeing those old school stop-motion animation effects up on the big screen. Beautiful stuff.

I haven't seen many kaiju movies, so it was also interesting seeing Destroy All Monsters. It was somewhat of a unique experience for me for kind of a strange reason. Exposition time! An old friend of mine made a video several years ago consisting of the Men Without Hats song "Safety Dance" being played over clips of Gamera. He had said about the video, "The idea popped into my head one morning during breakfast to make this, so I did." I know that Gamera isn't even in Destroy All Monsters, but probably because of the similar visuals, "Safety Dance" was stuck in my head for pretty much the entirety of the movie. I think it's pretty safe to assume that my experience of watching the movie was quite different than that of anyone else in the theater. I really miss my friend.



Speaking of music, while we waited for the movies to start, they played various music videos. I must say, it was awesome seeing the music video for The Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony" projected up onto a big screen. It's one of my favorite conceptual music videos.

Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity

When my friend and I saw Apollo 18, we ate some freeze-dried Neapolitan ice cream. I ended up enjoying the ice cream more than I enjoyed the movie. (I'm pretty good at reviewing movies.) We recently saw Gravity in IMAX 3D and we sneaked in some Tang and the some more of that delicious strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate freeze-dried astronaut ice cream. This time the whole experience was enjoyable, not just our snacks.

Gravity is different from what I was expecting. I thought most of it would be the main characters just floating out in space, completely isolated, and that it would deal with psychological and emotional consequences of that situation. Although the movie did deal with those consequences, there was a lot less floating in nothingness than I was expecting. There was actually quite a bit of action. I didn't count my false assumption against the movie though.

I was really looking forward to Gravity, since it just looked like it was going to be cool, and I am a big fan of director Alfonso Cuarón's previous movie Children Of Men. I think that movie is almost perfect, but I always had one minor complaint, which really just comes down to a difference in personal taste. Although I'm fascinated by the idea of embracing accidents in the creative process, I was never sold on the blood splatter on the screen during one of the "long shots" that Cuarón is known for. I just find that specific effect to be distracting. It takes me out of the movie, which, unless I'm mistaken, goes against the very reason for using those long shots. The same kind of thing happens with drops of water in Gravity.

I also feel that Gravity had some clunky, cheesy dialogue, and most of that was superfluous. Some of the time it seemed like a character was just saying out loud what they were doing as they were doing it. Other times it seemed like they were just speaking their thoughts to no one at all, just so the audience would know what they were thinking. It was very obvious to me that's what was happening, which takes me out of the movie as much as water splashing on the screen, and in most of these moments I just felt they could have been silent and the audience would have understood exactly what was going on. I guess dialogue maybe isn't one of the more important elements of this particular movie though. (I loved the dialogue in Children Of Men though!)

I've read a lot of complaints about the movie not being realistic, but who the hell expected it to be a science lesson? I didn't watch Gravity to learn about space, and even though I love sharks, I don't watch Jaws to learn about the behaviors of the Great White.

Oh, and I recognized the voice of Ed Harris right away. Is he being typecasted as mission control now?

In conclusion, Gravity wasn't perfect by any means, but I highly recommend it to everyone, even if just for the incredible visuals. It's a beautiful looking movie. I know that this recommendation is coming a bit late since the movie is probably out of theaters by now. Sorry about that.

Baby's emotional reaction to The Empire Strikes Back.

Check out the wonderfully adorable original video.

Hannibal The Instagram Cannibal

Hannibal is a little far-fetched. Not once has he posted a food shot on instagram...

If there isn't an official instagram account for photos of the food he makes on the show, the marketing people really need to get on that.

Are the makers of The Blacklist just pandering to my taste in music now?

I didn't think I'd be posting about this show again so soon, but I had to mention this. After watching the pilot, I made a post where I said that among my main complaints about the show is the "horrendously cheesy and heavy-handed" music choices. I was just watching the third episode, and an Underworld song called "Bird 1" started playing. I've actually mentioned on this blog before that Underworld is one of my favorite bands.

Probably just a coincidence though, right? Haha

Even though I still think it would be better if they just used a completely instrumental score, I'm glad to say their music choices are getting better as of the third episode. Not only the songs they pick, but the way that they're used too. I guess we'll see if it stays better. James Spader is still great, Megan Boone's performance has improved since the pilot, and I've been enjoying the guest stars (Isabella Rossellini, Chin Han) so far. Speaking of guest stars, in the preview for the next episode was that Tom Noonan from Manhunter? If so, I guess they're not really trying to downplay the parallels to the Hannibal Lecter franchise.

The secret life of Robert California.

Is the new series The Blacklist a sequel to The Office? Are Raymond Reddington and Robert California the same man? They're both played by James Spader...

Think about it. Do you remember that episode of The Office called "The List", where the office workers found a list that creepy genius Robert California made which had all their names written on it? When asked about it, he claimed that list-making was something he did regularly.

                    ROBERT CALIFORNIA
          Well, I doodle too, but I'm not an artist, so I draw words and lists.

Sounds like the Blacklist is just another one of his doodles. And I'm pretty sure they even established that Robert California wasn't his real name!

Don't worry. I'm not being serious. Just amusing myself.

James Spader stars in NBC's The Blacklist

I've liked James Spader for years, but I wasn't a really big fan until he was on The Office. I was a little disappointed though with where they took his character, Robert California. I thought he was amazing in the first few episodes he was in, and I was concerned that the writers wouldn't be able to keep up writing such brilliant dialogue for him. It turned out my concern was warranted. The things Robert said got less and less interesting as the season went on. I don't think the writers had any idea what to do with the character, which is a shame because he had so much potential, and was such a great fit for the show. This disappointment had nothing to do with Spader though, and I remained a big fan of his. (I'm also excited about him playing Ultron in The Avengers: Age Of Ultron!) When I heard about a new show that Spader was in called The Blacklist, naturally I was interested.



In the show, one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives, Raymond "Red" Reddington (played by Spader), surrenders with intentions to collaborate with the FBI to apprehend other dangerous criminals. The catch is that he'll only speak to Elizabeth Keen (played by Megan Boone), an FBI profiler who's starting her very first day on the job. I know the premise sounds very Hannibal Lecter, but without the cannibalism. It's certainly not the most original show, but I'm not holding that against it. I watched the trailer for The Blacklist a while back, and I mostly loved it, aside from the horrendously cheesy and heavy-handed music choices. I was really looking forward to checking out the series.

Last night the pilot episode aired. How I felt about it was pretty much the same as how I felt about the trailer. Spader was absolutely incredible. I was hoping the awful music choices were just a characteristic of the trailer, but they were possibly even worse in the pilot. The eye roll inducing soundtrack perhaps reached its embarrassing peak when that cover of "99 Problems" started playing instead of allowing a subtly chilling moment between Special Agent Keen and the seemingly omniscient Reddington to resonate properly. The show would be so much better if it just had an instrumental score.

I also don't really care for Special Agent Keen. I'm not sure if it's the writing, or if it's Megan Boone's acting that is the problem. Possibly both. Maybe casting someone else would have been better. I also disliked pretty much every scene that had to do with Keen's personal life. It's not like I usually have a problem with that kind of stuff, but it was just bad in this show. Her introduction in the episode where she and her husband are getting ready in the morning had me cringing the whole way through it. Of course the aforementioned soundtrack to that sequence was at least partially to blame.

I will definitely watch more of the series, even if just for more of Spader's performance, but I hope Boone's performance grows on me, and I hope that they just do away with the cheesy and heavy-handed music choices altogether. I heard Isabella Rossellini will be guest-starring in an upcoming episode, so I'll be looking forward to that. I don't know if it will happen, but I'd love to see her and Spader have a scene together.