Blog.amhill

Pants optional.

Posts Tagged Yes I am that Meticulous

Obligatory Twilight Discussion / Review [Movie Review]

Nov 27

Posted by Aaron in Movie Reviews | 2 Comments

new-moon-official-poster-leakedI feel compelled to write this mostly because it’s been discussed with my friends, coworkers, wife, and numerous strangers so many times, my thoughts on it have been really fleshed out; and apparently I have enough of an axe to grind about it, given my compulsion to discuss.

We just saw the new Twilight “saga” movie, “New Moon” last week. Strangely (and somewhat pathetically), the last movie my wife and I saw in the theaters was the first Twilight film, over a year ago. Melissa is currently reading the third book (“Eclipse”, due out in theaters next summer) and she’s been telling me about it.

I feel it’s  my duty to disclose that I have not actually read the books, only seen the movies, but I have read numerous plot synopses, discussed it extensively with friends, family, and others that have read it. The general consensus is that the movies follow the books pretty faithfully. Regardless, I will be dealing with over-arching plot elements, characters, etc., and not with Meyers’ technical skill as a writer, despite having heard that there’s a veritable of buffet for criticism in that regard.

I should also forewarn you that I am quite critical of the Twilight” saga”, so if it happens to be a series of books that you particularly enjoy, you may want to either brace yourself or skip reading it. Your choice. Feel free to comment, either way.

That said… Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 2% [?]

Tags: , , , ,

Internal Inconsistencies & Suspension of Disbelief, pt. 4

Mar 16

Posted by Aaron in Rants | 2 Comments

The movie Labyrinth was one of my all-time favorites from childhood. Produced by Jim Henson studios, written for the screen by Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame), and starring David Bowie & Jennifer Connelly (alongside scads of Henson creations), the movie is just plain great. This is part of the reason I introduced Sullivan to it — and he loves it.

In spite of the songs, the whimsy, and the entertainment, my internal nitpicky critic still finds things that challenge the experience.

First of all, if you pay attention, Sarah could have solved the Labyrinth within the first 5 minutes of being in it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 2% [?]

Tags: , ,

Internal Inconsistencies & Suspension of Disbelief, pt. 3

Mar 14

Posted by Aaron in Rants | 2 Comments

In the first part, I talked about Curious George, and in part 2, The Neverending Story.

In this part, I’m going to cover one of the most popular movies from the early 90s: The Little Mermaid.

I remember seeing the Little Mermaid in the theaters. It was back when movies were released every few months, and movies stayed in the theaters for a LONG time. (Our theaters back in PA had it for well over 6 months)

I’d like to preface this post by saying that I think the movie is quite good, and that it represents a paradigm shift in Disney’s movie production — the music score, screenplay, and animation were all done phenomenally and were pretty revolutionary for their time. 

But even so… Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 2% [?]

Tags: , , ,

Internal Inconsistencies & Suspension of Disbelief, pt. 2

Mar 12

Posted by Aaron in Rants | 2 Comments

Last post I covered Curious George, this time I’m going to discuss the 1980s classic: The Neverending Story.

If you were born after 1990 or have been living under a rock, you may not be familiar with this movie, which is currently being re-made AGAIN.

The premise of the movie is simple: the main character, Bastian Balthazar Bux, is a young kid with a dead mom. He reads a lot. He’s awkward and gets picked on. He daydreams and doesn’t study math very well. He also uncovers this book, called “The Neverending Story”, and discovers that the book is aware of him reading it, and his presence is interwoven into the story in a bizarre self-referencing experiment of recursion.

Requisite Disbelief

For the most part, a movie that takes place in Fantasia, a place where every storybook character lives, you are expected to simply accept “hey, it’s totally feasible for a kid to be riding around on a flying dog-dragon.” It’s really not relevant to list them out since it’s in a fantasy world.

But even so, I find some issues that make me cringe and start boring my wife by ranting about it.

First of all, there’s the issue of distance.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 6% [?]

Tags: , , ,

Internal Inconsistencies & Suspension of Disbelief, pt. 1

Mar 10

Posted by Aaron in Rants | 1 Comment

As a parent of a young child, I have the privilege — nay, the duty, to watch children’s movies. Sullivan will lead me into the living room, point to the DVD player (high up on a shelf) and say “wah-brih?” which I’m pretty sure is a near-homophone of “Labyrinth”, one of his favorite movies.

Kids’ movies are often very whimsical and a suspension of disbelief is a necessary requisite.

I tend to get very flustered by catastrophic misuses of science in adult movies, but I’m pretty forgiving when it comes to these wild journeys through fantasy-realms. (Just so we’re on the same page — Sullivan loves Jim Henson movies like Labyrinth, Dark Crystal, Neverending Story, The Muppet (anything), and also some Disney movies. Typical kid stuff.)

I do, however, have a problem with movies that ask you to suspend your disbelief in a certain way, but then are internally inconsistent with their own rules. I’ve been collecting my thoughts on this topic over the past 3 weeks or so, and I believe that many children’s movies could be significantly improved if small changes were made that made them more internally consistent.

In this part, I’m going to discuss Curious George, with other movies to follow on alternating days.

[Fair Warning: there will be some spoilers, so if you are the type of person that would be upset to find out that Snape kills Dumbledore before seeing the new Harry Potter movie you might...um...my bad.] Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 1% [?]

Tags: , , , ,