Moviemaking

1. Casino Royale. I watched this DVD again the other night, and my original review holds up pretty well. I was struck again by the grittiness of the film as compared to previous Bond flicks, and also by the fact that even though I knew it was coming, that torture scene still made me cringe.

2. The Good German. Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney have had some pretty interesting collaborations, and while they haven’t all been successful, there’s usually at least something worth taking away from the movie. In the case of The Good German, they attempted to recreate the post-war noir films of the 40’s, with pretty amazing results. The lighting, the camera angles, the use of stock footage, even the dialogue and the way it was delivered were spot on. There were times that I had to remind myself I was watching a modern movie. Clooney and Cate Blanchett were particularly good, but it was a little tough to imagine Tobey Maguire as an asshole who beat his girlfriend (he’s just too nice to have a dark side). The plot was decent, but it was really the achievement in filmmaking that kept me interested in this one.

3. The Simpsons Movie. So, here’s where I stand on the Simpsons. I’m not a regular watcher, and haven’t been for quite some time. I can’t quote chapter and verse like some people I know, but over 19 years, I’ve come to realize that the strength of the show lies in its supporting characters. All the personalities around Springfield add layer upon layer of humor to the show, and as the show has gone on longer and longer, these characters have gotten more and more play. After all, there only so many times you can tell the same stories about Bart, Lisa, Homer, Marge, and even Maggie. So it was a bit of a surprise that the secondary characters remained so, well... secondary in the movie, especially when it came to which characters had relatively big roles (Comic Book Guy, Cletus), which had surprisingly small ones (Mr. Burns), and which had none at all (where were Principal Skinner, Snake, and Sideshow Bob?). But the writers were able to make a sharply funny movie by focusing on the core Simpsons family and keeping the story tight. They could have easily gone off on plenty of tangents along the way, but by keeping the secondary characters in the background, it made me appreciate them that much more when they did pop up on screen. Aside from that, the movie was typical Simpsons—sharp, witty social commentary wrapped around a basic story of Homer doing something idiotic with dire consequences and then redeeming himself (only this time he had 3 times as much time as usual to get things right). The audience at yesterday’s matinee was laughing out loud for most of the movie. Plus, the animation was super-crisp and looked really good. Based on the credits, I would hope so, because it looked like they had more than 1,000 animators working on that thing. I have to admit, I was skeptical when this movie was first announced. I figured they were 10 years too late with this one. But the movie proved me wrong, and I’m happy to admit it. After all this time, The Simpsons have still got it. Cowabunga, dude.