Watched R.I.P.D finally today. I have to say it was a great movie. While- from pretty quick research, I admit, through the internet afterwards to see how people took it. (Overall critics and audiences didn't like it.) Well? So what? Movies don't always have to be epic journeys that define characters. Sometimes people forget that.
Sometimes they can just be good fun comedies. And when you have Jeff Bridges, Ryan Reynolds, and Kevin Bacon in a film. . .I think good job.
Now onto the finer points: First of all is the parallels between R.I.P.D and MIB. Yeah. So they both have settings where a "government" organization is protecting normal people from outside and cleaning up the mess that ultimately happens.
Then there's the whole younger rookie thing and their older, more experienced partner. (Think Agent J and K from MIB) They even had one scene that made me think automatically of a scene from MIB. (I even said how similar it looked.)
The idea is based around a comic book series. (As in all seemingly "original ideas" nowadays. . .maybe I'm just a little jaded. (Side note: I REALLY Really really want to see Pacific Rim. Guillermo Del Toro hasn't disappointed me yet- plus I've seen enough Japanese mecha anime {Personal fave: Neon Genesis Evangelion, its End of Evangelion movie, and the current Rebuild films that Studio Gainax are doing} that seeing Hollywood even attempt it is- well- like letting your inner eight year old out and waiting for Saturday morning cartoons.) List of movies that I love that are based around comic books/ graphic novels- Avengers, 300, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Batman Trilogy, and (my personal favorite) the Hellboy movies.
It still was a good buddy cop movie with supernatural elements. I'm not going to say that the models for the Deados didn't look a little silly. (And the thing that actually makes them reveal themselves as the escaped souls is, I admit, just a little bit ridiculous. (And there is that whole camp of people that hate CGI and bring up the whole "look at Jurassic Park- it's 20 years old and it still looks better than anything now. The thing I have to say about such a mindset is that Jurassic Park didn't have CGI humans. Any CGI humans that we have now still sometimes look a little wonky. But its way better than a lot of video games and way better than any attempt at CGI humans 20 years ago.)
The thing that made the movie for me: Jeff Bridges. I love Ryan Reynolds. But Jeff Bridges sold the movie. The banter between the leads was absolutely golden. It didn't seem forced (and the whole joke about them having different bodies because of universe safety reasons was hilarious when it was introduced to, in my opinion, the ind of the movie. Now if only Ryan Reynolds made me laugh a little bit more (at least the romantic subplot didn't seem shoehorned in. I hate me action movies that do that. It rustles my moviegoer jimmies. There was one point that made me furious at the romantic interest but it makes sense in context)
And Kevin Bacon. Good job.
I just think the timing was just off. Summer season was a big blockbuster season and R.I.P.D was a smaller fish in a bigger pond. Plus outside of maybe a few ads I remember, the marketing for this movie was very subdued. So it fell off my personal radar until now/
Now there's whole spiritual kinda thing with the good guys being dead cops in a "heaven?" police department. And the Deados are lost souls that want to stay on Earth permanently and not go to hell. Fine and dandy. I've seen weirder uses for spirituality. (Evangelion which I seem to bring up in every blog post so far is my personal favorite. And I'm not saying this for nostalgia's sake since I have just rewatched the series for the seventh time and it was my first foray into the psychological/ giant robot genres in anime. Now that had a weird message. A good one but it was weird)
Overall, adding the scores of movie stars, plot, visuals, and enjoyment and stirring them all together into a big number, I give R.I.P.D. 8.8/ 10 because of the reasons of sometimes ridiculous deados, some MIB moments (originality has been dead for quite a while in movies.) and a short runtime for a summer flick. (only 96 minutes.)
So I give it a "You should at least watch it once and grab a bag of popcorn" - cause its that kind of movie.
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Podcast Review: Welcome To Night Vale
Wow haven't done a blog in a while. Oops.
Well I've been on an anime kick lately so I might blog about that sometime. But I've found a podcast that is written with my sense of humor and love of the supernatural in mind. And when I mean I love the thing, I mean I marathoned from the pilot episode to the currently most recent one. 31st? episode I believe. Warning: the podcast can be explicit so the younger readers of this blog should realize that the subject material and/ or the weather reports that are not actually weather reports can be explicit in descriptions in gore and more often than not the musical "Weather Report" can have some language. So I warned you.
I am talking about Welcome To Night Vale where such mundane things as hooded figures, portals that release dinosaurs, and glowing clouds are a common enough appearance that the radio personality talks about the events in such a way as to make you question your normal life. Oh and a dog park that is EXPRESSLY forbidden by the all powerful town council that it should never be entered at any cost ever. Alternate reality episode, time travel, etc.
And never ask about the station management. The weather reports and the sponsor messages are hilarious and creepy at the same time. At listen at night for the full effect. Awesome.
It's if H.P. Lovecraft's worldview of cosmic horror got hit with a dose of modern life. E.g. The world has gotten smaller and more connected and so the unknown has become boring. Or think of a parody newscast being attacked by constant cosmic horror entities so often that most of the characters are so used to it that the mundane becomes more noticeable. Kinda the whole forest for the trees bit . . . or something.
Night Vale is like a small town that got hit by the weird bug. Reminds me of those old time radio dramas that used to be so prevalent in the 50's.
The narrator and the only way we know of this strange burg in the middle of wherever is Cecil Baldwin, the radio host in this Lovecraftian NPR radio show: a usually mild mannered and supposedly well dressed, not tall, not short, not thin, not fat, handsome character who is also very much attracted to the new man in the town. And his whole coming to terms if the scientist falls for the radio host.
And yes it actually feels genuine and touching for a show that can go from making you laugh from how absurd it is or almost shiver in fear from the descriptions alone. (And Cecil's voice is haunting enough in its calm dulcet tones that lull you into believing that the strange occurrences that you are hearing could happen in another universe parallel to ours on another plane of reality.)
Or I am totally in love with his voice.
Other characters are also Carlos the "sane man" scientist, Old Lady Josie who's friends with angels (which the City Council refuses to acknowledge the existence of), the Sheriff and his Secret Police, the numerous red shirt station interns and others in the town that exists somewhere.
Writing style shifts from third person for most of the narration, to second person during most of the "Word From Our Sponsors Bit"- and a strange episode that entirely narrated like that, to Cecil's strange tangential stories that he goes off on every once in a while to hilarious effect.
Fan of a podcast? Yes. Enough to join a fandom? Well, yeah, of course it like I totally want to hear more of this well thought out world that is Night Vale.
Well I've been on an anime kick lately so I might blog about that sometime. But I've found a podcast that is written with my sense of humor and love of the supernatural in mind. And when I mean I love the thing, I mean I marathoned from the pilot episode to the currently most recent one. 31st? episode I believe. Warning: the podcast can be explicit so the younger readers of this blog should realize that the subject material and/ or the weather reports that are not actually weather reports can be explicit in descriptions in gore and more often than not the musical "Weather Report" can have some language. So I warned you.
I am talking about Welcome To Night Vale where such mundane things as hooded figures, portals that release dinosaurs, and glowing clouds are a common enough appearance that the radio personality talks about the events in such a way as to make you question your normal life. Oh and a dog park that is EXPRESSLY forbidden by the all powerful town council that it should never be entered at any cost ever. Alternate reality episode, time travel, etc.
And never ask about the station management. The weather reports and the sponsor messages are hilarious and creepy at the same time. At listen at night for the full effect. Awesome.
It's if H.P. Lovecraft's worldview of cosmic horror got hit with a dose of modern life. E.g. The world has gotten smaller and more connected and so the unknown has become boring. Or think of a parody newscast being attacked by constant cosmic horror entities so often that most of the characters are so used to it that the mundane becomes more noticeable. Kinda the whole forest for the trees bit . . . or something.
Night Vale is like a small town that got hit by the weird bug. Reminds me of those old time radio dramas that used to be so prevalent in the 50's.
The narrator and the only way we know of this strange burg in the middle of wherever is Cecil Baldwin, the radio host in this Lovecraftian NPR radio show: a usually mild mannered and supposedly well dressed, not tall, not short, not thin, not fat, handsome character who is also very much attracted to the new man in the town. And his whole coming to terms if the scientist falls for the radio host.
And yes it actually feels genuine and touching for a show that can go from making you laugh from how absurd it is or almost shiver in fear from the descriptions alone. (And Cecil's voice is haunting enough in its calm dulcet tones that lull you into believing that the strange occurrences that you are hearing could happen in another universe parallel to ours on another plane of reality.)
Or I am totally in love with his voice.
Other characters are also Carlos the "sane man" scientist, Old Lady Josie who's friends with angels (which the City Council refuses to acknowledge the existence of), the Sheriff and his Secret Police, the numerous red shirt station interns and others in the town that exists somewhere.
Writing style shifts from third person for most of the narration, to second person during most of the "Word From Our Sponsors Bit"- and a strange episode that entirely narrated like that, to Cecil's strange tangential stories that he goes off on every once in a while to hilarious effect.
Fan of a podcast? Yes. Enough to join a fandom? Well, yeah, of course it like I totally want to hear more of this well thought out world that is Night Vale.
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