Movies I've actually seen!

Well, as I bide my time waiting for Howl's Moving Castle to open in San Antonio on June 17 rather than the expected June 10, I'll give a quick rundown of three films I've actually seen recently.

I actually got to see Kingdom of Heaven in a real-live theatre the other night. Wow. I loved it. Some of the best characters I've seen in a Hollywood movie in a long time, and the storyline was much less color-by-mumbers than I'd have thought. Orlando Bloom was surprisingly good in his role. He was forlorn and gritty rather than the pretty wuss we've seen in his other recent roles. In fact, all of the casting was marvelously non-Hollywood, with great performances turned in across the board. The CGI was unobtrusive. I liked this one much more than Ridley Scott's previously period epic, Gladiator, and I liked that one quite a bit. It's a shame that this one failed at the box office... maybe they should've held it for a December release, to capitalize on the holiday Lord of the Rings demographic.

The other two were DVDs. I finally saw A Series of Unfortunate Events, which was entertaining. The acting of the children was top-notch, and Jim Carrey was Jim Carrey. The production design was a cool, hyper-stylized Tim Burtonish nightmare. All that was good. But something about the movie fell flat for me. Maybe it was too episodic. Maybe the big arson revelation during the finale was far too obvious for me. I just had the feeling that the movie took us on an entertaining and interesting ride that had no real destination, no payoff.

It was a hell of a lot better than Around the World in 80 Days, tho. Geeze, what a stinker. I like Jackie Chan, but this film was a cliche-ridden train wreck in every scene. Just because there are a lot of famous actors making cameos doesn't mean it's any good. Witness Austin Powers: Goldmember. 80 Days was simply mediocre and uninspired on every level. The acting, directing, production design... blah. There are films out there that are far worse, and I can't bring myself to hate it, but it's definitely a prime example of the Hollywood "filmmaking by committee" death knell for a film. Ironic, since this movie was produced outside of the traditional Hollywood studio system. Doesn't make it any less disappointing, however.

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