Ohhhh boy. I decided to watch Francis Ford Coppola’s latest release, Youth Without Youth. That’s right, Francis Ford Coppola. The same guy that directed The Godfather and Apocalypse Now. He hasn’t done a movie in about a decade (do we count Supernova?) and he’s now able to release self-financed films that cater to no one but his own desires. Which, as it turns out, is a scary, scary thing.
One of my favorite manga in the world is PLANETES, a down-to-earth, poignant, heartwarming series dealing with the issues of space travel in the near future. It ended too soon, but got adapted into an anime series. I was ecstatic and downloaded a fansub as soon as I found out. Ohhh, man. It didn’t capture the feeling of PLANETES at ALL. And what sucked even more was that people were eating it up with a spoon. And unfortunately there hasn’t been much else in anime since then to tackle the same sci-fi subject since. I was recently reminded that the anime adaptation of Moonlight Mile, which tackles a similar subject matter, was being released in the U.S. I decided to cross my fingers and Netflix the first volume, hoping that Moonlight Mile could recapture the same sense of wonder of space and the human spirit that the original PLANETES did.
(Note: Because of the nature of the content of this series and review, there’ll be some slightly more risqué screenshots than usual below. Be advised!)
Speed Racer. Speed RACER. SPEED RACER!!!!
So I’ve been both looking forward to and dreading this movie. The first big budget Hollywood anime adaptation? (The Guyver with Mark Hamill does NOT count.) The zany Wachowski Bros.? There are so many ways this movie could and should fuck up. I paid my $12 to see it in IMAX (if I’m gonna fail, I’m gonna fail BIG) and plunked myself down 45 minutes early to make sure I got a decent seat. Turns out that even at a 9:45pm showing a ton of little kids show up with their parents. I gripped the armrests anxiously the whole time, my knuckles turning white as the kaleidoscopic opening credits began. Would the Wachowskis fuck up anime adaptations for the mainstream?
Remember Killer7, that Gamecube game that no one bought and even fewer people appreciated? Well the kooky mastermind behind that, SUDA51 (he’s too cool for normal nomenclature!), released a new game for the Wii a few months ago. And guess what? It actually sold better! Hooray! But it tanked in Japan. Boo.
But I suppose that doesn’t matter. I bought it! I was one of the crazies that thought Killer7 was a flawed breath of fresh air and couldn’t wait to see what ingenious new gimmicks SUDA51 had up his sleeve on the Wii, a system full of ingenious gimmicks. Plus there was that absolutely batshit insane trailer that helped pique my curiosity.
I didn’t go into Iron Man with the fanatic excitement reserved for A-listers Batman and Spider-Man but the combined talent of self-effacing Robert Downey Jr., massive-jawed Jeff Bridges and actually-kind-of-likable Gwyneth Paltrow - and a ton of anime-inspired machinery - left me excited for the inevitable sequels. Terrence Howard, who plays Army guy James Rhodes, turns to one of Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey) humanoid inventions, ponders a second and breathes “Next time, baby.” Not so much a wink as a goddamn heraldic promise. Expect War Machine! Expect new villains and heroes! Expect more of the respectful treatment director Jon Favreau gave to this character and world, an unusually more grown-up Marvel universe than perhaps we’re used to.
In honor of their first year online Tim and John watch Mortal Kombat: Annihilation with running commentary:
More than any other director Ridley Scott has defined the alien Other. A quick look at his oeuvre confirms a fascination with putting a human face on threats to the status quo. Blade Runner is the ur-text. Deckard hunts down Replicant slaves for simply being. Black Rain, another 80s urban noir deals with the Japanese economic threat. Thelma & Loise looks at destructive feminism. Kingdom of Heaven’s extended cut delves much deeper into the war between Muslims and Christians. Though it may look like an Army recruitment ad Black Hawk Down’s depiction of gunning down Somali slums disturbs for its Counter-Strike-like detachment. And of course, Alien.
Er, not exactly sure how A Good Year fits in the scheme.
His latest, American Gangster, takes aim at black gangster/entrepreneur Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), who pulled together a drug empire in Harlem using an impressive array of know-how passed onto him by his late gangster mentor “Bumpy” Johnson, played in flashbacks with lasting aplomb by Clarence Williams III (the wacko storyteller from Tales From The Hood). Using Bumpy’s wisdom - mainly: be smart, stay hidden - Lucas butts heads (shoots them, too) with the flashier crime lords of the neighborhood and beats them all at the drug game thanks to his U.S. military connection in South East Asia. With easy access to a Bangkok village brewing pure heroin Lucas sells to the entire tri-state area, gaining the attention of honest Newark police detective Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe).
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead starts off on the wrong foot. Or the right foot! I can’t decide! Ugh. It’s Philip Seymour Hoffman banging Marisa Tomei’s butt - which is a great butt. They say women in Hollywood are over after 40 but man, she’s got a better body than most women half her age. Shame she only shows up in this movie topless and/or crying!
Oh! So anyway, as you can imagine, this movie is the exact opposite of Enchanted. This is the real world in all its shitty glory … Ethan Hawke owes everyone in the world money and generally leads the worst life. Philip and Ethan Hawke are brothers who rob their parents’ jewelry shop because they’re desperate, awful and stupid. Ethan’s the wimpy one of the family so there’s a big emphasis on having balls and not being a faggot and wanting lots of money - Philip brags about pulling in “six figures” and knowing all the angles, and he loves the word “faggot.” He’s a big dumb drug-addicted gorilla. In fact, big dumb masculinity covers the whole movie, and money - the ultimate symbol of patriarchal success - is super-super-important.
Enchanted is a very problematic film. The zenith of everything Disney has done in the past century is all right here - it is the quintessential Disney movie. Singing animals, talking animals, good-natured princes, stupid lackeys, evil queens, moron princesses are all accounted for, modernized, sleek, and polished to a magic mirror sheen, overflowing with staggering Broadway charisma. It’s a huge, expensive-looking production with a short prologue of the gorgeous animation Disney used to be known for.The twist: the animated critters wind up in real-life New York and mingle with real people. Hardly reaching the stratospheric politicizing of the similarly-premised Fables comics, Enchanted offers hints of intelligence and the obligatory Shrek-esque winks at how silly the animated-real-life merge is, but the message at the end is the same as it’s been since Snow White: girls, be cute, be dumb, attract a rich guy, marry him then stay home. The highly-recommended Fables is all about how there is no happily ever for our favorite fantasy characters. Life is a never-ending a struggle where you divorce, lose your home and lose your faith.
