waynes world 2

i really loved the first movie, but this one is pretty bad.  i realize the first 'wayne's world' was pretty bad too, but my nostalgia for it blocks out all the detractors.  well, i never saw this one when it came out, only now catching up with it after recently rewatching the original.  unfortunately, this one doesn't hold up very well when compared to the original.  it makes sense, since this film is basically a rehash of the first one, not really adding anything new to the premise.  in this film wayne is trying to find some direction in his life and decides that he is going to create a music festival in downtown chicago.  along the way they hit the exact same beats as the first film, singing a song in the mirthmobile, stopping at the hockey donut shop, going to a concert, problems with wayne's girlfriend, etc.  which brings up a really frustrating this about this film: one of the driving forces is wayne's relationship with his girlfriend cassandra.  i know we are supposed to root for our hero wayne to keep the girl, but everything he does proves over and over again that he is a jerk and she would be better off without him!  he is constantly questioning her, he is a controlling boyfriend who wont let her be around any other guys or else his jealousy really kicks in, threatening to break up with her at the drop of a hat, and as soon as she starts to find success he becomes bitter and angry toward her.  also, he never does anything at all that should endear her to him, he never shows her any sort of affection other than objectifying her as 'hot'.  anyway,  back to the movie itself: the jokes are recycled and the plot is lifeless.  for some reason, as was the case in the first movie, garth has a completely unrelated story that never plays into the narrative of the movie.  this is definitely wayne's movie, with only a couple minutes here and there dedicated to his long suffering sidekick.  over all, these problems far outweigh any silly gags (which are just reinterpretations of gags from the first film anyway) or humor that may have been intended in the movie.  an unfortunate follow up to a pretty funny original movie.

relic

this movie is a rare anomaly: the movie is actually better than the book!  i remember reading this book when i was in high school, in anticipation for the movie.  the book, though, was filled with generic characters and a really really bad ending.  it was so bad it kind of ruined the fun tension of the rest of the book.  the movie, though, fixes that problem and gives an impressively explosive ending that corrected the major failure of the book.  the story is set in a museum and follows the workers there as they prepare for a big fundraising ball to show off their new exhibit.  a few crates recently arrived from the congo, but they were strangely empty.  well, they weren't really empty, instead what was in them leads to a bunch of gruesome deaths.  as the mystery behind these deaths escalates, the ball is about to begin.  this is, in its simplest sense, a creature feature.  there is a really cool looking nasty creature who is causing all these terrible murders and one of the policemen and an important museum employee must try to get rid of the creature before it ruins the museum's biggest fundraiser of the year.  the creature itself, a stan winston creation, is pretty cool and very creepy.  i remember being blown away by it when i first watched this movie in the theater back in 1997.  the special effects hold up fairly well, especially when the creature is lurking in the dark.  when we finally get a good look at it, the effects are a bit dated, but the suspense and build up do a nice job of creating tension and setting up the action packed final act.

red riding hood

from the director of the first twilight film.  that's really all i need to write.  she tried to take the exact same elements that made twilight successful and incorporate it into the little red riding hood story.  except that those elements are not successful here, and its not really the red riding hood story at all.  i must admit i didn't understand this film at all.  the big bad wolf is turned into a generic monster that attacks a small town.  nothing in this film works because the only thing that worked in the first twilight movie was the cast- even overcoming a terrible script and an even worse director.  here she is up to her same tricks which failed the last time out too.  this one is just bad on top of bad on top of bad.

contact

i have mixed feelings about this movie.  on the one hand i really like it, its one of those rare big movies that has heart and really challenges the mind. but on the other hand, they so totally botch the ending that i walk away from it annoyed.  the film follows jodie foster's character, an astronomy scientist who has dedicated her life to finding life on other planets.  she spends her days listening to radio signals in outer space, hoping that she will hear a signal or response from somewhere else.  she is mocked and jeered by everyone else, about to get her funding taken away, when she finally hears something!  the signal she hears makes the news and everyone scrambles to try and make sense of it.  along the way she befriends a man of faith, played by matthew mcconaughey, who challenges her stance on scientific proof.  she blows off his beliefs because they cannot be proven.  as the extra terrestrial signal is decoded they discover that it is actually blueprints for a giant device.  the planet unites to try and build this device and the world prepares to find out what this device does.  the story itself is very interesting: uncovering the meanings, deciding what to do about it, dealing with the different opinions about how to proceed with the realization of intelligent life out there.  all of it is really cool!  the main theme of the movie is a weighty one: proof versus faith.  an interesting conversation and one that is dealt with seriously.  the frustration though, is that the last minute or two of the movie throws everything out and makes it a moot point by banging us over the head with an answer to the question of faith and proof.  all the wrestling over the struggle is thrown out the window in order to give a pat answer, and in so doing, destroy all the progress made in defending both points.  arg.  if this movie would have left off the last two minutes, it probably would have deserved a 5 star rating, but as is- only 3.

time traveler's wife

oh man, give me a time travel movie and i am one happy fella.  give it a melancholy mood and i am totally in!  well, this one has those elements in spades!  a man stuck out of time, traveling back and forth without his control, and the woman who loves him and must deal with the reality of never knowing when or if he will ever show up again.  this one is so moving and sad i could hardly stand it.  and that's why i loved it!