Holy crap.

I was planning on seeing Serenity on Sunday out at AMC, but Seth and Chrissy came over last night and telepathically convinced me to go out at wimpy Carmike (RIP, GKC) Market Square here in town. Seriously, it was telepathic. They just looked at me and waited for me to suggest it.

The movie was fantastic. As a fan of the series, the movie was everything I had hoped it would be. It was a major gift to the faithful without devolving into total fan service; Serenity appears to be very accessible to newcomers as well. The film is thrilling, hilarious, and affecting - perhaps moreso than any I've seen so far this year.

Joss Whedon is back in the saddle in a big way. The action is some of the best he's ever shot, the dialogue is wonderful (as always--it's Joss), the special effects are as glorious as ever (probably even a little bit better), and the characters--sweet fancy Moses, the characters!

All the characters from the series are back and not a one has been corrupted by the Hollywood process. Mal (Nathan Fillion) displays the same split of stoic pragmatism and nobility he did in the series, and the limits of both are tested severely in the film. Jayne (Adam Baldwin) still provides a lot of gruff guy comedy, but he has a couple serious lines that just knock a room silent. Kaylee (Jewel Staite) is as adorable as ever and gets to deliver some of the funniest lines in the movie. The Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is an assassin after the crew who, despite his deadly prowess, possesses a far more powerful weapon: unwavering belief in his cause.

I can't really say a whole lot more about the movie without spoiling major stuff, but let me say this: if you are going into a Joss Whedon movie without expecting to see a girl beating a lot of people up, you're way off base. River (Summer Glau) is absolutely butt-kickingly cool in this movie. If you've seen the series, you were expecting something like this the whole time; now you've got it.

I offer only one caveat for those who'd like to see this. See the television series first, please. Go out and buy it, rent it or, assuming you're a brigand of the worst sort, download it between bank robberies. You will enjoy this movie so much more if you've seen the series first. I geh-ron-tee.

So yeah. It's good. It's really really good.

Serenity

It's here. Now the only question is when do I see it? Perhaps a Zach Special Double Feature on Sunday along with A History of Violence at the old AMC Cantera 30. That sounds like fun.

*excitement*

Ahem

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In the Mood for Love

Pete once recommended this movie to me, telling me more or less that the movie's about an emotional affair between two of the most beautiful people in the world. A couple years later, I finally rent it, and he's pretty much spot on.

Two married couples move into spare rooms in adjacent apartments. Apparently a lot of people lived in a single apartment over there in the 60's, because both apartments are bustling, alive places, which serves as a stark contrast to the lonely lives that both Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan live. Both conclude that their perpetually absent spouses are involved in extra-marital affairs. Through a few chance encounters, Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan form a bond and become friends, though they have to deal with the temptations presented by the new relationship.

The film is mostly presented in a series of short snippets of daily business for the two leads; Mr. Chow's conversations with co-workers at his indeterminate job, Mrs. Chan's secretarial duties which seem to be comprised mostly of helping her boss have an affair of his own, and nightly trips to the noodle stand down the street. At first, the slice of life editing felt jarring, but it grows on you and makes you feel that a more straightforward approach would have been less interesting. Also intriguing is the fact that we never see the face of either cheating spouse, but we only hear their voices. Their disloyalty is not what the film is about; rather, their infidelity is pushed to the side as we watch a friendship blossom.

Ultimately, what I found the most notable was the score. The movie uses a couple Spanish-language Nat King Cole songs and one lovely orchestral piece. The score helps tremendously to establish an epic mood for this romance and the spare soundtrack lends more significance to the few pieces used.

Anyway, I dug it. It's a good romance, if I'm allowed to say such a thing. It's a very subtle romance, and it makes me wish more American romances were made this well.

Rating: In the Mood for Love gets three thermoses of noodles out of a possible four thermoses of noodles.

I'm so dumb

As I was driving home a couple days ago, listening to WGN, and I hear a commercial for this at-home paternity test. Swab little Johnny's mouth, swab Daddy's mouth, mail it off and voila! Instant results!

So I get to thinking: you only ever hear about paternity tests; why don't we ever hear about maternity tests?

Oh yeah.

The audacity!

Dave, nobody falls asleep on my blog. Get it together, man.

Oldboy

Laugh, and the world laughs with you.
Weep, and you weep alone.

Oldboy is about Oh Daesu, a man to whom we are introduced in a series of scenes in a police station. He is drunk and late for his daughter's birthday. While his friend, courteous enough to bail him out, makes a phone call, Oh Daesu disappears. He is kidnapped and imprisoned in a hotel room-like cell for fifteen years. Then he is let go without knowing why. Oldboy is about the search for why, but I've discovered that in this particular case, the search is much more important than the why.

The movie alternates evoking horror, savage satisfaction, and sweetness. We watch him harden himself in his prison, knowing that as he punches the plaster walls he is shaping himself into the instrument of his revenge. We watch in awed horror (I did, at least) as he consumes a live octopus; his desire for contact with life after his release is such that he walks into a sushi restaurant and orders "something alive." We watch, again in horror, as Daesu removes an enemy's teeth with a claw hammer.

This is not a pleasant movie.

I have a new favorite fight scene ever, though. In a one-take pan down a dimly lit squallid hallway, Daesu clobbers his way through a small army of thugs with just his trusty claw hammer at his side. It is as brutal and true as it is technically amazing. Hoodlums pile up, reluctant to be the first to get cracked. People get tired, wheezing as they circle around. Daesu's smile at the end of the fight is a little creepy, but we know how he feels.

I can say one thing for sure about this movie: if you are composing your review in your head while watching it the first time, you are going to have to scrap all your work. I thought I knew where we were going, and we ended up somewhere completely different. Don't approach this movie expecting a Kill Bill or a Count of Monte Cristo. Revenge is certainly Daesu's goal, but Oldboy takes a different tack. Daesu is challenged along the way: revenge now or truth later? Does he even really want revenge? What is the cost?

Rating: Oldboy gets three hammers and a couple pulled teeth out of four hammers.

Next up: In the Mood for Love

A little delay (as if)...

So the Oldboy review is still in the making, but it's going to be even later because I'm going up to Ann Arbor with the family to watch NIU wallop Michigan. Yay!