:: Sunday, May 19, 2002 ::

I had a "movie day" today. This morning, a rather dreary overcast morning, I headed out to the local AMC 20 for the 10:15am showing of "Spider-Man", only to find it sold out, so bought a ticket for the Sandra Bullock starrer, "Murder by Numbers". After enjoying this pretentionless crime melodrama, watching Sandra do a serious version of her "Miss Congeniality" character, I was on my way out the door, when I noticed the new "Star Wars" about to start in another auditorium. I knew most performances were sold out, same as "Spider-Man" ......but no one was looking..... so I found a single seat in the middle of the mixed audience just in time for the previews. "Men In Black II" had a full preview this week, and it looks fantastic.
So did "Star Wars" but the best I can say about the acting is that the most human performances were by C3P0 and R2D2. If they start giving out oscars for best movies that most resembles a video game, I'd pick this one. Naboo looks like Myst. And the sequences in Coruscant reminded me (seemed to be ripped off from) "The Fifth Element" (The links will eventually be to my own reviews/musings but now link to Imdb pages.) I wasn't "bored" Parts were even entertaining, but as I told the clerk at Hollywood Video, where I picked up used copys (at ten and twelve bucks a pop) of the recent "Planet of the Apes" and "A.I.", I remembered seeing the first "Star Wars" in 77, and this one, like the infamous Episode 1, is missing the joie de vivre (sp?) of the first one. The "pictures are pretty" the video game action sequences are exciting. But the computer graphics generated world doesn't have presence or heft, and seems still computer generated.
At least Yoda is CGI, and the audience reacts with cheers and whoops when he bares his lightsaber and battles Chris Lee. (working overtime I see after his recent stint in LOTR.)
After the double feature. ("Murder by Numbers": 7 of 10, "Star Wars: Episode 2": 6 of 10) I also rented the Fox Searchlight DVD of "The Deep End" a film I knew I wanted to see, because I remember Ebert loved it, but a film about which I hardly knew anything.
It is a really great film, with a polished performance by Tilda as a supermom who tries to "fix" everything in sight, and why I really like this movie while I loathed films like "Frailty" and "In the Bedroom" is subject for another post entirely.
Good day at the movies.



:: Michael Nyiri 3:00 AM Leave a Comment on this Post ::
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