I still remember the first time I visited the mystery movie box. It seems like only yesterday that I caught a glimpse of the box in the front corner of the grocery store and thought “what a terrible idea, what idiot would ever give their credit card number to that machine!” Well, it turns out that I am just such an idiot. Not only do I routinely give my credit card number and email address to this machine, I have also started reserving the films online with my credit card number so that I can just visit the machine and pick up my selection without flipping through the list of available movies. Who could have ever imagined that a simple box that dispenses DVDs would evolve from a niche item into a fully networked company that is bringing down both Hollywood Video and Blockbuster.
Yesterday I went online to try to reserve a film my wife has been begging to watch since it originally left the theaters. My parents have also seen the film and my mom recommended it as a gold star worthy viewing experience. I personally remember watching the preview in horror thinking that this Hollywood formula film would one day hunt down my television and display itself all over the thirteen inches of its screen. In essence, what I did was look up Jason Voorhees’ telephone number, call him to see if he had any plans, pick him up at his cabin near Crystal Lake, drive him to my house, introduce him to my wife, feed him a nice steak dinner, and allow him to terrorize me for one hundred and fifty minutes.
I selected Julie & Julia. I rented Julie & Julia. I paid for Julie & Julia.
Let’s start with the preview. I recall watching this preview mostly because I remember how excited my wife was about the prospect of the film. The preview introduced us to Julie Powell and Julia Child by way of Amy Adams and Meryl Streep. As I recall, the preview also foreshadowed a journey of self exploration by way of French cooking as measured up by Julia Child’s famous cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The preview seemed to indicate that the journey would not only be to complete every recipe in the formidable book but to learn to cook along the way. I specifically remember that the preview showed several cooking “bloopers” as a way of foreshadowing that Julie Powell did not know a copper pot from a Copperfield.
The film itself did turn out to be a journey of self exploration. The rest of the preview did little justice to the length of the journey, the cost of the journey and the actual cooking prowess of Julie Powell.
The basic premise of the film is that Julie is an aspiring writer stuck in a government job which is crushing her creative spirit and aspirations. In order to keep her hope alive, Julie’s husband proposes that she prepare every recipe in Julia Child’s cookbook over a one year period. This challenge will be supplemented with a blog entry for each of the dishes which will be monitored by every publisher and literary agent in America and eventually lead to book deals, movie rights and a pilgrimage to Julia Child’s kitchen.
Meanwhile, the film also tells the story of Julia Child herself as she struggles to find her own calling while living in post WWII Paris with her husband. In many ways the film tries to draw parallels between the plight and path of Julie and Julia. While Julie was stuck in a job which was not challenging her creatively, Julia was stuck without an activity to stimulate her own creativity (she is portrayed as trying hat making and card playing to fill that void). While Julie’s husband proposes a challenge for her to accept and follow - whereby proving to herself that she can finish what she starts, Julia’s husband encourages her to follow any and all endeavors until she finds an activity she truly loves. And, while Julie creates a blog about following simple instructions involving measuring and stirring to gain her own literary celebrity, Julia takes someone else’s recipes, translates (converts) them into English, adds a dash of salt and becomes a legend.
The first thing that caught my attention about this film was the performance of Amy Adams. Amy Adams is a good actress, having appeared in a variety of films including Talladega Nights, Night at the Museum 2 & Sunshine Cleaning. I also think Amy Adams is very attractive. In this particular film I thought her performance was uneven and her look was not particularly attractive. Frankly, I have to wonder if the producer of the film was really hoping to cast Hilary Swank. Perhaps when the filming schedule of this movie and whatever project Hilary Swank was tied to couldn’t be reconciled the producer told Amy Adams “Ok, I will hire you for this project but you have to make yourself look exactly like Hilary Swank.” Think about it, ever since she had that pet hawk in The Next Karate Kid, Hilary Swank has looked exactly the same in every movie. We need to petition Hollywood for more features starring Ben Affleck and Hilary Swank. Ben Affleck will always be the same character and Hilary Swank will always look the same. My working title would be “Look like the Devil, Act like the Devil.” Scratch that, how about “The Notebook 2: The Second Notebook.”
The one other issue I wanted to discuss with regard to this film is the ending. I apologize to those of you that have not seen this movie and therefore I am ruining the ending (wait, shouldn’t you be apologizing to me?), but this was totally unexpected and frankly it left me with a puzzled look on my face.
As I have previously discussed, both of the main characters, Julie Powell and Julia Child, are depicted as following similar paths to literary and professional fulfillment in the film. I have to think that every viewer of this movie accepted the foreshadowed path that in the end Julie and Julia were going to meet and share stories and possibly perm each other’s hair. There is a scene towards the end of the film where Julie gets a call about having a surprise guest over for dinner. The film’s writer probably wanted the viewer to think it might be Julia Child in order to build up an even bigger high pitched, hug-frenzy payoff in the end (the dinner turned out to be with Judith Jones). Then, there is a scene where Julie takes a telephone call from a reporter wanting a comment with regard to Julia Child saying that Julie’s blog and cooking journey were disrespectful and unimpressive. After watching this scene I was still sure that Julie and Julia would meet at the end of the film. It never happened. I repeat, it never happened!
I watched a turtle race a snail for two solid hours and in the end neither of them won. I would be contradicting my previous reviews to say that this movie needed a happy ending. Life does not always have a happy ending and neither should all movies. Unfortunately, without a happy ending to this film the viewer is left with only one thought, Julia Child was a grumpy old bitch. I hate to type that thought and I hate reading it even more. It’s not that I know for a fact that Julia Child was not a bitch, she may have been. But the story is clearly about someone following a path forged by Julia Child, and sharing an experience through words and instructions (and to some degree thoughts). How can that experience just end with a third party reporting that Julia Child thinks the whole journey was bogus?
When I first began to contemplate the ending to the film I wondered if the author was showcasing the dangers of false idols and the expanse that can separate larger than life personalities from reality. That is always a good lesson and in today’s pop culture frenzied society it is very relevant. But if that were the case wouldn’t that seed have been planted somewhere within the story? The portrait that is painted of Julia Child is that of a nice middle aged lady who was looking for her calling, found it in cooking and enjoyed every minute of her life and the lives around her. A good portion of the film surrounds the relationship of Julia and Avis DeVoto, a relationship based on a fan letter to a Harvard Professor that turned into a long standing friendship. My point is, there was nothing in the film to project that Julia Child was anything but a nice lady who found a passion in cooking (and eating) and parlayed that into stardom. There was not one inkling that she had any pronounced character flaws or distaste for anyone that supported her along the way.
So what is the truth? Was Julia Child a mean old lady who resented unknown, harmless bloggers who felt a kindred spirit to her? Was Julie Powell a self-aggrandizing writer who wanted to end her story with herself as the victim of an evil cooking plot? Did Kristin really shoot J.R.?
To wrap this one up I want to have another first here on the Movies and Pop Culture Blog. I am going to post an authentic Julia Child recipe. This is a dish I have eaten. It was absolutely horrible. I am confident in saying it was one of the two or three worst dishes I have ever tried. I know for a fact that it was properly prepared utilizing the correct (and freshest) ingredients. The presentation of the dish looked exactly like it did in the photo attached to the Julia Child recipe. I do not encourage you to try making this at your home or serving it to anyone you truly love. Bon Appetit!
Corn Flake Chicken
4 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 small onion, peeled and sliced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1 good chicken, cut into serving pieces, trimmed of excess fat
4 tablespoons melted butter
2 cups Corn Flakes, lightly crushed
1. In a large bowl, combine cloves, onion, oregano, cumin and juice. Add chicken and toss; let sit while you heat oven, or marinate it, refrigerated, for up to a day.
2. Heat oven to 425° F. Spread half the butter on a 9-by-12 baking dish. Put Corn Flakes on a plate and roll chicken in them, patting to help crumbs adhere. Carefully transfer to baking dish.
3. Drizzle chicken with remaining butter and bake, rotating pan so pieces brown evenly, until they are browned and cooked through, 30 to 40 minutes. Serve hot.
Warren
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Everything's Up to Date in Avatar
Let me begin by sending out a Birthday wish to Matthew. The King of Cool turned somewhere between 25 and 50 years old last month and sources say he partied like it was 1999. I even dipped into some of the profits I have earned from this blog's sponsors to purchase him a new, sealed in the packaging, copy of the Midnight Meat Train DVD. We are all looking forward to his thoughts on what is sure to be a timeless cinematic classic. Happy Birthday, Matthew!
Last night I finally made it to see seven time weekly box office winner Avatar. This was my forth attempt to go to the film and with each attempt I became increasingly less interested in returning. My first attempt was on New Year’s Day when my lovely wife and I tried to attend the film with my blogging mentor – Cooking with Jessie and her husband. That attempt failed when we walked into the theater and found three randomly scattered seats. We decided to go to Sherlock Holmes instead.
After we saw Sherlock Holmes we went out to dinner and since the restaurant was crowded I started chatting up the family sitting next to me in the waiting area. I didn’t ask them at the time but I am sure they were out of towners, I can usually tell because out of towners wear their short pants in 50 degree weather while I am in a Parka and Ushanka. At any rate, I asked the male leader of the family what movie they attended (their left over popcorn bag gave them away) and he replied that they saw Sherlock Holmes. I immediately piped in that we had also seen the movie and that the scenes where Sherlock Holmes pre-determined what punches to throw (and in what order) based on their level of damage while brawling were absolutely ridiculous. I also indicated that the homoerotic bro-mance was probably not what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had in mind. The out of towners (male leader, lady friend and two offspring) all said they loved the movie and politely excused themselves.
The very next day I was out for some strenuous exercise on a local golf course and I was paired with some visitors from Michigan. The husband of the group asked me on the first tee if I had recently seen any movies. I replied that I had just seen Sherlock Holmes and that it had these goofy fight scenes, an underdeveloped lead female character (Irene Adler), a questionable relationship between Holmes and Watson, an evil nemesis that look suspiciously like Stanley Tucci, and a contrived ending ala Ocean’s Twelve. The husband was dead silent after I had finished making my declarations about the movie but the wife said “we loved it too!”
In case you were wondering, I just used four paragraphs to say I will be keeping any further opinions regarding Sherlock Holmes to myself!
Getting back to Avatar, the second and third times I tried to attend the movie were both at IMAX screens and both times it was sold out. That might not sound unusual but those two attempts were within the last three weeks. The movie has been out for eight weeks! Each unsuccessful attempt to see the film left me less interested in returning but for some reason I got the itch back last night and my lovely wife and I trekked to the IMAX theater and purchased our way overpriced tickets.
Knowing that we had our tickets in hand and that there were plenty of seats available was actually somewhat exciting but then as we entered the theater we were given our 3D glasses...what a disappointment! In my first attempt to see the film (New Year’s Day) we were actually given the glasses utilized on the Real-D screens and they were cool. It was almost like I was being provided some Blues Brothers Ray-Bans with 3D lenses. Unfortunately, the IMAX glasses were giant plastic glasses recovered from the Captain EO movie. Instead of looking like Elwood I was looking like Jeff Spicoli.
The film itself got off to a quick start and it became evident that James Cameron’s screenplay was going to be heavy on the middle but weak on the beginning and end. That is an unusual way to write a story but I can appreciate what he was doing. Much like George Lucas did, Cameron started his story in the middle knowing that he could build prequels and sequels in the future. Considering the amount of interest and profit this film has already garnered (not to mention Oscar consideration) you can bet there will be many more movies in the future (and a cartoon, and action figures, and Halloween costumes).
There is really no indication as to what year the movie takes place. I know it is in the future but I don’t know how far in the future. Space travel has certainly been figured out because the planet of Pandora has several moons around it so it can’t be in our current solar system. Just as an FYI, the center of our current Galaxy is 27,000 light years away. Amazingly enough, in the future humans have conquered deep space and can travel at a speed faster than that of light but we still dress like Maverick and Charlie from Top Gun.
The rest of the film played out like James Cameron watched Return of the Jedi, Predator, Pocahontas, Rambo and Apocalypto in one all day TBS movie marathon and decided to combine them all into one three hour best-of script.
The main character in the film, Jake Sully is a hardened soldier with no options other than war (Rambo). Jake travels in a spacecraft to a forest planet (Return of the Jedi) where he infiltrates the locals to gain their trust (Pocahontas). While acclimating himself to the locals Jake meets, is trained by, and falls in love with the Chief’s daughter (Pocahontas). With advanced weaponry, the humans fight the locals to gain control of their land (Predator) so it can be harvested for its rich natural resources (Apocalypto). In the end, Jake helps the locals to win a battle with the humans but it is clear the locals have not won the war (Rambo, Predator).
I was really hoping that at the end of the film Jake and the locals would dance in their tree house while the ghostly spirits of Eytukan, Yoda and John Rolfe looked on proudly.
So, what do we think is going to happen in both the prequels and sequels to this movie? If we start with the sequel (I assume they will play out the current characters and then create new characters to foreshadow the current characters) I am guessing that Jake (now fully a local having discarded his human body) will continue to live with the locals, marry Neytiri and start either a traveling family band or open a banana stand. There has to be some conflict so the humans will probably return for a second round of running and explosions which will lead to a destructive and bleak vision of the survival of the locals at the end of this sequel.
In the third installment the bleak picture from the previous sequel will continue to become dark and ominous and I would think that Jake’s wife and the mother of several small locals, Neytiri, will die in a tragic accident probably involving either lawn fertilizer or that man-eating plant from Little Shop of Horrors. Devastated by the accident (and probably somehow personally guilty), Jake will forge a new friendship with a horse beaked, long eared, jive talker with a Jamaican accent who speaks in broken English but offers poignant yet surprisingly simple advice. The powerful bond Jake and (let’s call him) Jar Jar quickly develop over two minutes of screen time will propel them to turn the tide of the war and give the humans no choice but to negotiate a lasting peace involving mineral rights and cell phone towers in exchange for the locals opening up Casinos all over Pandora.
Since the visual effects of the second and third installments of this series have no real chance of living up to the standards set in the first film, and since the story is sure to suffer from the lack of new movies being shown on TBS for James Cameron to watch, I assume there will only be one prequel made and it will probably be a mid-budget film directed by someone other than James Cameron. In fact, I would probably give even odds that the prequel will either be a straight to DVD release or an ABC Family Channel movie of the week. This prequel will no doubt have a few beefed up special effects that seem to indicate that in a period prior to Avatar the locals were even more technologically advanced and the forest had stronger, more dangerous plants, animals and possibly a fountain that predicts the future using terms similar to those found in the Magic 8-ball. The story will follow the birth and maturation of both Jake and Neytiri and in a shocking yet undeveloped twist we will find out that Jake was adopted after his real father gave him up to travel to Pandora to become head of security for the humans. Who knows, maybe they will even throw us a real curve ball and develop Neytiri as a discarded human baby who was found in the woods and her consciousness was transferred to a genetically bred local who was adopted by the Chief. Could Jake and Neytiri really be brother and sister...
So, to wrap this one up, if you are going to see Avatar make sure you pony up a little extra money and see it on the IMAX screen. The entire visual experience was pretty phenomenal! And if this movie wins an Oscar then Mark Hamill, Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson, Kelly McGillis and Carl Weathers should be up on that stage with James Cameron.
Warren
Last night I finally made it to see seven time weekly box office winner Avatar. This was my forth attempt to go to the film and with each attempt I became increasingly less interested in returning. My first attempt was on New Year’s Day when my lovely wife and I tried to attend the film with my blogging mentor – Cooking with Jessie and her husband. That attempt failed when we walked into the theater and found three randomly scattered seats. We decided to go to Sherlock Holmes instead.
After we saw Sherlock Holmes we went out to dinner and since the restaurant was crowded I started chatting up the family sitting next to me in the waiting area. I didn’t ask them at the time but I am sure they were out of towners, I can usually tell because out of towners wear their short pants in 50 degree weather while I am in a Parka and Ushanka. At any rate, I asked the male leader of the family what movie they attended (their left over popcorn bag gave them away) and he replied that they saw Sherlock Holmes. I immediately piped in that we had also seen the movie and that the scenes where Sherlock Holmes pre-determined what punches to throw (and in what order) based on their level of damage while brawling were absolutely ridiculous. I also indicated that the homoerotic bro-mance was probably not what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had in mind. The out of towners (male leader, lady friend and two offspring) all said they loved the movie and politely excused themselves.
The very next day I was out for some strenuous exercise on a local golf course and I was paired with some visitors from Michigan. The husband of the group asked me on the first tee if I had recently seen any movies. I replied that I had just seen Sherlock Holmes and that it had these goofy fight scenes, an underdeveloped lead female character (Irene Adler), a questionable relationship between Holmes and Watson, an evil nemesis that look suspiciously like Stanley Tucci, and a contrived ending ala Ocean’s Twelve. The husband was dead silent after I had finished making my declarations about the movie but the wife said “we loved it too!”
In case you were wondering, I just used four paragraphs to say I will be keeping any further opinions regarding Sherlock Holmes to myself!
Getting back to Avatar, the second and third times I tried to attend the movie were both at IMAX screens and both times it was sold out. That might not sound unusual but those two attempts were within the last three weeks. The movie has been out for eight weeks! Each unsuccessful attempt to see the film left me less interested in returning but for some reason I got the itch back last night and my lovely wife and I trekked to the IMAX theater and purchased our way overpriced tickets.
Knowing that we had our tickets in hand and that there were plenty of seats available was actually somewhat exciting but then as we entered the theater we were given our 3D glasses...what a disappointment! In my first attempt to see the film (New Year’s Day) we were actually given the glasses utilized on the Real-D screens and they were cool. It was almost like I was being provided some Blues Brothers Ray-Bans with 3D lenses. Unfortunately, the IMAX glasses were giant plastic glasses recovered from the Captain EO movie. Instead of looking like Elwood I was looking like Jeff Spicoli.
The film itself got off to a quick start and it became evident that James Cameron’s screenplay was going to be heavy on the middle but weak on the beginning and end. That is an unusual way to write a story but I can appreciate what he was doing. Much like George Lucas did, Cameron started his story in the middle knowing that he could build prequels and sequels in the future. Considering the amount of interest and profit this film has already garnered (not to mention Oscar consideration) you can bet there will be many more movies in the future (and a cartoon, and action figures, and Halloween costumes).
There is really no indication as to what year the movie takes place. I know it is in the future but I don’t know how far in the future. Space travel has certainly been figured out because the planet of Pandora has several moons around it so it can’t be in our current solar system. Just as an FYI, the center of our current Galaxy is 27,000 light years away. Amazingly enough, in the future humans have conquered deep space and can travel at a speed faster than that of light but we still dress like Maverick and Charlie from Top Gun.
The rest of the film played out like James Cameron watched Return of the Jedi, Predator, Pocahontas, Rambo and Apocalypto in one all day TBS movie marathon and decided to combine them all into one three hour best-of script.
The main character in the film, Jake Sully is a hardened soldier with no options other than war (Rambo). Jake travels in a spacecraft to a forest planet (Return of the Jedi) where he infiltrates the locals to gain their trust (Pocahontas). While acclimating himself to the locals Jake meets, is trained by, and falls in love with the Chief’s daughter (Pocahontas). With advanced weaponry, the humans fight the locals to gain control of their land (Predator) so it can be harvested for its rich natural resources (Apocalypto). In the end, Jake helps the locals to win a battle with the humans but it is clear the locals have not won the war (Rambo, Predator).
I was really hoping that at the end of the film Jake and the locals would dance in their tree house while the ghostly spirits of Eytukan, Yoda and John Rolfe looked on proudly.
So, what do we think is going to happen in both the prequels and sequels to this movie? If we start with the sequel (I assume they will play out the current characters and then create new characters to foreshadow the current characters) I am guessing that Jake (now fully a local having discarded his human body) will continue to live with the locals, marry Neytiri and start either a traveling family band or open a banana stand. There has to be some conflict so the humans will probably return for a second round of running and explosions which will lead to a destructive and bleak vision of the survival of the locals at the end of this sequel.
In the third installment the bleak picture from the previous sequel will continue to become dark and ominous and I would think that Jake’s wife and the mother of several small locals, Neytiri, will die in a tragic accident probably involving either lawn fertilizer or that man-eating plant from Little Shop of Horrors. Devastated by the accident (and probably somehow personally guilty), Jake will forge a new friendship with a horse beaked, long eared, jive talker with a Jamaican accent who speaks in broken English but offers poignant yet surprisingly simple advice. The powerful bond Jake and (let’s call him) Jar Jar quickly develop over two minutes of screen time will propel them to turn the tide of the war and give the humans no choice but to negotiate a lasting peace involving mineral rights and cell phone towers in exchange for the locals opening up Casinos all over Pandora.
Since the visual effects of the second and third installments of this series have no real chance of living up to the standards set in the first film, and since the story is sure to suffer from the lack of new movies being shown on TBS for James Cameron to watch, I assume there will only be one prequel made and it will probably be a mid-budget film directed by someone other than James Cameron. In fact, I would probably give even odds that the prequel will either be a straight to DVD release or an ABC Family Channel movie of the week. This prequel will no doubt have a few beefed up special effects that seem to indicate that in a period prior to Avatar the locals were even more technologically advanced and the forest had stronger, more dangerous plants, animals and possibly a fountain that predicts the future using terms similar to those found in the Magic 8-ball. The story will follow the birth and maturation of both Jake and Neytiri and in a shocking yet undeveloped twist we will find out that Jake was adopted after his real father gave him up to travel to Pandora to become head of security for the humans. Who knows, maybe they will even throw us a real curve ball and develop Neytiri as a discarded human baby who was found in the woods and her consciousness was transferred to a genetically bred local who was adopted by the Chief. Could Jake and Neytiri really be brother and sister...
So, to wrap this one up, if you are going to see Avatar make sure you pony up a little extra money and see it on the IMAX screen. The entire visual experience was pretty phenomenal! And if this movie wins an Oscar then Mark Hamill, Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson, Kelly McGillis and Carl Weathers should be up on that stage with James Cameron.
Warren
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