Occasionally Wright

Prince Caspian

I haven't seen Prince Caspian yet, but it doesn't surprise me in the least that it's getting reviews like this:

The unexpected success of the first episode of C.S. Lewis' seven-part Chronicles of Narnia three years ago — $745 million worldwide — has spawned the inevitable sequel, a darker, more violent and more overtly faith-based follow-up... The Narnia assembly line is already cranked up for further installments, but they had better be more interesting than this uninspired sword-sorcery-and-spirituality spectacle.

The review tells you more about its writer (Hap Erstein from the Palm Beach Post) than it tells you about the movie. First of all, anyone that thought the success of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was unexpected grossly underestimates the appeal of CS Lewis. Secondly, the assembly line is cranked up for future installments because other books were written. Finally, this movie may be somewhat uninspired but it's not necessarily the fault of the moviemakers. Of the seven books that make up the Chronicles of Narnia I'd rank Prince Caspian sixth. Here's how I'd rank the entire series:

1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
2. The Last Battle
3. The Magician's Nephew
4. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
5. The Silver Chair
6. Prince Caspian
7. The Horse and His Boy

How would you rank them?

A Gem within A Masterpiece

It took me about two years to break myself of the habit of watching a movie and automatically thinking of how I could analyze it in an academic paper. That's what happens when you spend five years studying rhetoric and communication.

Last night, for the first time in about four years, I found myself doing it again as I watched Pan's Labyrinth, or El Laberinto del fauno if you prefer the original Spanish title.

It might not be for everyone, but what a brilliant movie. As director Guillermo del Toro said in one of the extra features, the movie has a lot of layers and a lot of symbolism. It also has sub-titles, which somehow made it even better for me. Nothing forces you to hang on every word like sub-titles.

Anyway, without giving away any of the movie (just in case someone reading this plans to watch it but hasn't had the privilege yet) I wanted to share this monologue (delivered as a eulogy) from this piece of art:

"Because the paths of the Lord are inscrutable; because the essence of His forgiveness lies in His word and in His mystery; because although God sends us the message, it is our task to decipher it. Because when we open our arms the earth takes in only a hollow and senseless shell. Far away is the soul in its eternal glory. Because it is in pain that we find the meaning of life and the state of grace that we lose when we are born. Because God, in His infinite wisdom, puts the solution in our hands. And because it is only in His physical absence, that the place He occupies in our souls is reaffirmed."

That's a good bit of writing and a whole lot of theology crammed into about 90 seconds of a film that doesn't have any overtly religious themes, although there are some clear Abraham/Isaac parallels at one point.

I'm not sure what to make of the eulogy yet, but I wanted to share it, and I wanted to have it written down somewhere so I can come back to it later. It almost strikes me as something that was written as a catechism or prayer and just used in the movie, but I can't any evidence of it.

Now that my mind is back on this train of thought I might have to try to deconstruct some other themes in Pan's Labyrinth. If you like analyzing layers of meaning and the symbolism of seemingly innocuous events you'd love this film.

All I know now is that I'll be adding del Toro's previous work to my Blockbuster Exclusive Queue.

Ferrell

So I just got back from Talladega Nights (which was ridiculously funny, but not as funny as Anchorman or Wedding Crashers) and is it just me or was one of Will Ferrell's many plaid shirts in the movie pretty much the PEI Tartan?

Speaking of Will Ferrell, if you like his stuff you need to check out his Top 10 SNL skits.

Number six is my personal favourite. More cow bell!

How to Make a Talking Lion

An interesting article from the special effects guys that are working on The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, which will be in theatres on December 9. I'm really looking forward to this movie but I'm nervous that the effects are going to look a bit cheesy. The beavers and Aslan are going to be completely digital which worries me a bit, though it's not as if I expected them to train real beavers and a lion to act. It's interesting that a lot of articles are playing up the Narnia aspect of the movie but I haven't heard anything about them making the other 6 books into movies yet. I assume they will if this one does well but I don't think all 7 will translate well to the big screen.

Thanks to The Movie Blog for the link.

Coming to Theatres...

Two movies you might want to check out:

Walk the Line- The story of "The Man in Black", Johnny Cash. Cash is played by Joaquin Phoenix, of Gladiator and Signs fame.  It doesn't necessarily sound like good casting but I think he pulls if off well in the trailer. This could do for him what Ray did for Jamie Foxx. In theatres on November 18.

Rumor Has it- If I tell you that this is a movie about a woman who discovers that the classic movie The Graduate is based on her family and that it stars Jenifer Aniston and Kevin Costner you aren't going to want to watch it are you? Oh well, you'll be missing out. It has a lot of promise and also casts Shirley MacLaine, Kathy Bates, Mark Ruffalo and Mina Suvari. The only movies I've ever liked Costner in were his baseball movies but this one looks good. Check out the trailer. It should be hitting theatres around Christmas.

Happy Birthday Movie Blog

I'd like to take a moment to congratulate John Campea, the main man behind The Movie Blog, which just turned two. John runs a fantastic site and he and co-writer Richard are my main sources for movie news of all sorts. One of the remarkable things about The Movie Blog is that it's only been around for a few weeks longer than this site but while I get a measly couple hundred hits per day (90% or so of them being from search engines) they're a serious site with sponsors, they get to see movies for free, plus they get invitations to screenings and other movie business stuff. Way to go Movie Blog! I'm proud to say I knew you before you went all big and corporate.

King Kong Trailer

The King Kong trailer is out. It looks like it might not suck. I still don't know if I'll be able to take Jack Black seriously though... I have a feeling he's going to be upstaged by the monkey.

Putting it in Perspective

From what CNN and the AP are saying you would think Hollywood is crumbling:

"Batman begins took in $26.8 million to remain the top movie for the second straight weekend, but it could not help Hollywood from sinking to its longest modern box-office slump."

Overall business tumbled despite a rush of familiar new titles -- "Bewitched," a "Love Bug" update and the latest zombie tale from director George Romero.

Revenues for the top 12 movies came in at $116.5 million, down 16 percent from the same weekend last year, when "Fahrenheit 9/11" opened as the top movie with $23.9 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

It was the 18th weekend in a row the box office declined, passing a 1985 slump of 17 weekends that had been the longest since analysts began keeping detailed figures on movie grosses.

I might have had a tniy bit of sympathy for them if they hadn't had a record year at the box office last year. While attendance has been dropping for a few years ticket prices have gone up and boosted Hollywood revenues to a record high last year. On top of that 2002 was a huge year for movie attendance with hits like Spiderman and My Big Fat Greek Wedding as well as Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Star Wars installments. If Hollywood expects to have hits like that every year they
seriously need to re-think their business model, especially with the junk they've been churning out. Want me to pay $10-12 for a movie more than 3 times this summer? Put out something better than Herbie: Fully Loaded.

Sith Hard to Swallow

I don't really have much trouble suspending disbelief when I watch movies. Afterall, I was an avid professional wrestling fan for 8 years or so and I figure if I can accept some of the stuff they pull off at face value then I can accept pretty much anything in the right context. That being said there was one scene in Revenge of the Sith (which I saw last night) that pretty much wrecked the whole movie for me. If you haven't seen it yet or don't want to know what I'm talking about don't click on the link below...

Aligned Stars and Acts of Consumption

The thing I like about books, movies and music is that if you're in just the right mood and read, watch or listen to just the right thing it can blow you away. It doesn't have to be a literary classic, an academy award winning film or a musical masterpiece. It just has to be the right thing at the right time. It's the rarity of that match- the match between your personal experience, emotion and attitude and the created work you happen to be consuming- that makes it so incredibly powerful.

The circumstances have to be just right for me to be emotionally drawn in by a movie but tonight Luck hit me at just the right moment. It was almost enough to spawn a Jerry McGuire moment- you know what I'm talking about. One of those moments where in a fit of ill-advised passion you do something incredibly brash thinkingyou've had an epiphany and that it all has to work out for the best. I don't know what I possibly could have done since I really didn't think that much about it but I was this close to doing something. This close. Instead I'm going to bed and odds are when I read this in the morning I'll have no clue what I was talking about.