Catching up on "recent" movies

[lissener]

March of the Penguins
Rightwingers crack me up. THIS is your intelligent design? What. Evar. Anyway. Mostly pretty good. As a bird/evolution geek, I was already pretty familiar with the “story,” so this ended up mostly being about documentary technique for me. As I said, mostly pretty good, cept these things bothered me:
[ul]
[li]The over-foleying. Not very documentaryish. There was even an ADR person in the credits! I hope that was a union thing, but judging from the amount of energy put into foley work, I kinda doubt it. Maybe kazoos?[/li][li]The narration was way too purple. You can hardly blame the “family values” crowd with the way Morgan Freeman’s voice intoned all those ludicrous anthropomorphisms.[/li][li]Um, something else I forgot. [/li][/ul]

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Mostly pretty brilliant and flawless. The weird digital airbrushing of Augustus’s, Veruca’s, and Willie’s faces was offputting; why just them? Or why only noticeable with them? Also, why was Willie’s skintone gray-green? He stuck out like a sore thumb. It was not an accident, but I can’t make sense of it. If it was to make him look like a shut in, I don’t buy it. He had obviously traveled, and that factory was hardly a broom closet. But like I said, mostly it was pretty dang flawless. I want to watch it again for Depp’s performance; the little expressions when he’s NOT saying anything were loaded with communication. And it was nice to hear some new Oingo Boingo after so long.

Harry Potter and the yadda yadda yadda
Here’s my blurb for the video box: “Barking stupid with some nice visuals.”

[Skywatcher]

@lissener

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Mostly pretty brilliant and flawless. The weird digital airbrushing of Augustus’s, Veruca’s, and Willie’s faces was offputting; why just them? Or why only noticeable with them? Also, why was Willie’s skintone gray-green? He stuck out like a sore thumb. It was not an accident, but I can’t make sense of it. If it was to make him look like a shut in, I don’t buy it. He had obviously traveled, and that factory was hardly a broom closet. But like I said, mostly it was pretty dang flawless. I want to watch it again for Depp’s performance; the little expressions when he’s NOT saying anything were loaded with communication. And it was nice to hear some new Oingo Boingo after so long.

The deal with Augustus’s face was to make him look like one of those old Campbell’s Kids ads. Why they would want to do such a thing, I don’t know.

Willie had shut himself inside his factory for some 30 years and his skintone was supposed to reflect that.

[Moirai]

@lissener

** And it was nice to hear some new Oingo Boingo after so long.**

I hear new Elfman all the time. Every time Tim Burton makes a film!

[lissener]

@EJsGirl

I hear new Elfman all the time. Every time Tim Burton makes a film!

BIG difference.

[Seven]

Here’s the one I just saw:

The Island

When it says Michael Bay on the cover then you know it’s quality. Honestly I expected much worse. I found the first 30-45 minutes enjoyable. It had a glossy Logans Run feel to it. It didn’t take Michael Bay long after that to break out the unsteady cam and take the whole movie into the toilet.

It was still one of his better films.

[DMark]

King Kong

The reviews were good, despite the wrath of several threads here on the boards. I thought the film was excellent and even though it was three hours, it was worth the time and the cost of the the ticket to see the film. I am actually looking forward to the extended version of the DVD.

The Producers

Reviews were so-so, but mostly by those who either preferred Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, or felt it was “too Broadway” for the filming of a Broadway musical (!!!)…whatever, I thought it was one of the funniest films I have seen in a long, long time and highly recommend it! It is on my list of must-have DVD’s.