19. Spider-Man (2002)

Code-name: MJ

Director: Sam Raimi
Composer: Danny Elfman

Cast:
Peter Parker- Tobey Maguire
Mary Jane Watson- Kirsten Dunst
Harry Osborn- James Franco
Norman Osborn- Willem Dafoe
Uncle Ben- Cliff Robertson  (RIP, 2011)
Aunt Mae- Rosemary Harris
J. Jonah Jameson- JK Simmons

Notable mentions (actors who got big later on):
Elizabeth Banks as Daily Bugle secretary Betty Brant
Joe Manganiello as Flash
Octavia Spencer as the check-in girl at the wrestling match
Bruce Campbell as the ring announcer at the wrestling match

Notable Nominations:

OSCAR- Best Sound
OSCAR- Best Visual Effects
(lost to "Chicago" and "Lord of the Rings: the two towers")

Grammy- Best Film Score- Danny Elfman
Grammy- Best Original Song- "Hero" by Chad Kroeger
(lost of "Lord of the Rings" and Randy Newman's obligatory Pixar cameo, "If I didn't have you" from "Monster's Inc.")
Musical Extras
I don't get where all the Nickelback hate comes from. Granted, I find their albums very uneven, but I love their songs on the radio, how we have this really rough voice does these beautiful melodies... but "Hero" is such a great song. A great way to end the credits.

As for Danny Elfman's score, he's up there for me with John Williams and Hans Zimmer. While he started his career as part of the band Oingo Boingo, he really has brought so much to movies. His work with Tim Burton is so iconic and perfectly canvases the eerie, spookiness of his work. For the "Spider-Man" movies, they wouldn't be anywhere near as impactful as they are without his score resonating in the background. So iconic and such a part of this trilogy's success story.

Write-up:

Beginnings

At best, I guess you could say I was a casual comic-book movie fan before "Spider-Man" turned all that around for me. I'd only seen a couple "Batman" movies (by that time, I think all but "Batman Returns"). Enjoyed the original Tim Burton film that turns 25 this year and "Batman Forever," #73 on my list in case you missed it:
http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2013/06/73-batman-forever-1995.html

Well, to be fair, "Spider-Man" made the genre more accessible for me, but I didn't become super fanatical about the Marvel universe until years later.

It led me to X-Men (which I really need to rewatch), Fantastic Four (which I didn't care for) and Daredevil (... I just can't, it was too horrible, one big reason I'm not a huge Ben Affleck fan, but after "Argo," I'm intrigued to see his take on Batman... just as long as he promises to leave the phony Christian Bale Batman voice out of it).

"Batman Forever" had its moments, which I went into great detail about, but "Spider-Man" really resonated with me. I guess because it was about an awkward teen in high school that got super powers. I was going on 16 at that time, so I could relate.

Definitely a great theatrical experience, especially with wide angle shots of Spider-Man flying through the city, although it did run a little long towards the end.
I don't remember much of the banter that resulted with my family after we all went to see it. My mom and I enjoyed it enough where we saw the sequels at the movies as well.

One thing I did remember, oddly enough, was that I actually left the theater for a bathroom break somewhere in the "running long" territory of the third act.
Maybe it's because we don't buy drinks and tubs of popcorn anymore (contraband candy on the other hand...), I hadn't gotten up during a movie since then... actually, I think that was the only time ever.
And I'd sat through the likes of "Avatar" (TWICE!), "Les Miserables," "The Hobbit" and the Lord of the Rings franchise without a break.

Yeah, it is a little TMI, but with my blog titled as it is, movie going experiences are all up for grabs.

The Story
BEWARE: AMPLE SPOILERS FOR ALL SPIDER-MAN MOVIES AHEAD

Or should it be "stories"... there are multiple plot points and themes explored in this.

At the forefront we have Peter Parker's coming-of-age story.

During a school field trip, he gets bitten by one of the museums' "super-spiders" and gains powers. In addition to the biologically occurring silk in his wrists, he gains muscle mass, strength and improved senses (the 6th 'spidey sense' and vision allowing him to discard his glasses). As if it wasn't bad enough that he was coping with puberty and a school-girl crush.

Part of his character arc also involves his relationship with his Uncle Ben. He's the closest thing to a father figure he has and he doesn't appreciate that until after his tragic death. Much like in a lot of superhero origin stories [especially notable in "Batman"], the death of a family member is the activating incident that leads/solidifies to the assumption of a crime-fighting secret identity.

In other words, he takes Uncle Ben's now famous mantra to heart:
"with great power, comes great responsibility"
so Peter learns to use his newfound powers to fight crime in NYC in order to clear his conscience of the one misstep he made that led to his uncle's death.

Then of course is the love triangle:

Peter's had a crush on Mary Jane since the day she moved in next door to him. But while he goes through his changes and assumes his crime-fighting role, his best friend Harry swoops in and asks her out.
This is, of course, after she dumps her jerk of a boyfriend, Flash, upon high school graduation.

One way or another, Peter does manage to sweep MJ off her feet, but some of it is helped by the complicated dynamic Harry's dad brings to the equation.

Norman Osborn is developing something at his company, OSCORP, to maintain their military contract and it goes terribly wrong. If that wasn't enough, he gets fired from his own company when they get an offer to sell to their chief competitor. Therefore, he assays the role of the villain. First to get his revenge on them and second to take down Spider-Man.
His motivation for this... I'm not sure... he offers Spider-Man the option to ally with him and turns against him when he refuses...

Come to think of it, that's a really flimsy explanation.
[after rewatching the film... a painstaking undertaking because my little used, glitch-free DVD chose tonight to give me a hard time... apparently he decides to go after Spider-Man because at the World Unity fair where he destroys the OSCORP board members, he realizes he's the only person able to stop him]

As I'd gone into a few times before (again, I swear that him popping up in my movies is pure coincidence), Willem Dafoe knows how to play a heck of a villain. In addition to the super strength and improved reaction time (his transformation oddly mirrors that of Peter Parker after he gets bitten by the spider... okay, the writing was done on purpose and cleverly done so), the "performance enhancers" he experimented with also gives Norman Osborn a psychotic dual personality.
I hadn't seen more than 5 minutes of the movie, but this scenario really does have Jack Nicholson ala "The Shining" written all over it.The psychosis appears in the form of the Green Goblin, but on numerous occasions, it leads to angry outbursts that result in rocky situations. Most notably on Thanksgiving. On top of learning Peter Parker's secret identity, he yells to Harry off-screen that MJ is only after him for his money.

...Jerk move. And it kills me when Harry defends him:
"That is a great man. If I'm lucky I'll be half of what he is"...

Looking at all the facets of his character arc throughout the trilogy, I really do not like Harry Osborn... the only time this wasn't true was when he learns Peter's identity towards the end of the second movie.... more on all that later.

The only other storyline left is the second most notable 'antagonist' in Spider-Man's life:
J. Jonah Jameson, Editor in Chief of the Daily Bugle, who seems to be hell-bent on smearing his image, proclaiming that he's a villainous vigilant. All this despite Peter's efforts to convince him otherwise.
Yeah, I find this annoying, but as we see in "Spider-Man 2," there'd be an ingredient missing in these films without Mr. Jameson's explosive derogatory outbursts :P

Actors and Character Development

So many great memorable characters throughout this movie and the trilogy...

Easily, Tobey Maguire is my favorite part of this. He owns the socially awkward nerd archetype that he begins this movie with. He's the underdog you want to see finally catch a break and even with superpowers, it's always a struggle.
Batman has his struggles as well, but I find that I gravitate more towards Marvel superheroes because they're more real. They're real, relatable people that have power thrust upon them or (in the case of Iron-Man), have to adapt to overcome difficult, sometimes, life-threatening situations. And they all have something to overcome, demons to fight.

Tobey brings such great vulnerability to this role, I couldn't help but follow him to some other movies. I remember one of them being "SeaBiscuit."
I'd mentioned with Ralph Macchio and Emma Stone that I fell in love with their acting after one role that led me to other movies, but their other work didn't carry the same weight for me. Didn't have as big an impact.
I still have hope for Emma Stone, though.

With Tobey, I thought he did really well in two other movies.
I'd already mentioned in my Gatsby review where I thought he was a perfect Nick Carraway.
http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2013/05/theatrical-review-great-gatsby-2013.html

I have a vague recollection that I'd wanted to see "Wonder Boys" years ago because he was in it. When I was binging on all the RDJ movies I could find (granted, I did my research beforehand), I did get around to it.
Ironically, Terry Crabtree ranks among my least favorite characters that he played, but everyone else was amazing. A really well made movie.
http://dreamypoproyalty.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/wonderful-wonder-boys-4-the-writers-writer/Peter Parker goes through so much throughout this movie as I'd already said. He grows into this role, gains a sense of responsibility and finds his niche, his place in the world and it comes from a very honest place. Wanting to do right by Uncle Ben and protecting those he loves.And getting with MJ is also part of his motivation. Also my second favorite Kirsten Dunst role (the first being "Bring it On")
http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2013/04/86-bring-it-on-2000.html

I hadn't really seen her in much since then, although I'm still considering seeing "Melancholia" since it'd been her first movie in YEARS.

MJ's characterization does have its critics, but I just find her so pleasant to watch on screen. Even with the incessant screaming in times of peril.
She does come to realize her love for Peter Parker, but watching the two of them struggle through the second movie was hard. Will they/won't they... the fact they did get together in the end was one of many reasons why I felt the third movie kinda ruined the franchise.

It's easy to root for them through the first couple movies, but with all the ups and downs in the third... however much of it I remember (only saw it once in its entirety and that was in theaters in 2007)... was it really worth it?

As for Norman Osborn, watching the movie again... he was really quite fascinating to watch. I don't know if it's because of all this time I'd been spending with Willem Dafoe these past several months, between the movies on my list and "The Grand Budapest Hotel." To me, it doesn't appear that he's all bad. It appears that he still does have a conscience and outside of the office, he seems like a really nice guy. He's very supportive of Peter, treating him almost like a son. But by the finale, it's clear that he's gone too far in the wrong direction to receive any type of redemption.

Thoughts across the trilogy

Shortly after coming up with this list, I got "Spider-Man 2" on DVD. Watching it again got me thinking that maybe I should have picked it in place of the original in my list.
I'm obligated to stand by my rankings, but to be fair, even though I enjoy the sequel more than the original and felt it outdid the original in a number of ways, the original "Spider-Man" is on my list for nostalgic purposes. And also because I consider it as the superhero movie that officially turned me onto the genre to the point I love going to theaters for the cinematic experience they provide.

It's rare that a sequel is better than the original movie.
Firstly, I loved the character of Doc Oc. I'm not sure if it's the way the original comics were written, but I thought his character was really well written.
He was an intelligent likeable guy, a brilliant scientist who became a villain when an experiment goes totally wrong. Then by the finale, he realizes the error of his ways and redeems himself before his unfortunate demise. I also liked how they tied up all the loose ends, what with Harry learning that Peter is Spider-Man and that his father was a nutjob and Peter and MJ end up together in the end.

Then the third movie happened.
The reason I'd been unable and unwilling to see it a third time is that the movie is just too damn long. When it's on TV, it's always cable and it runs for 3 hours.
And it just seemed to be one horrible decision after another.

Like Harry becoming Green Goblin 2.0. WTF? You'd think after he learned the truth about his father he wouldn't do the exact same thing and turn to evil.
And maybe it's these movies, but James Franco just annoys me in general. I can never take him seriously.Then MJ and Peter's relationship had too many peaks and valleys. It was exhausting.
As for Peter's "emo phase," what all the fanboys proclaimed as the worst part of the movie (aside from the treatment of Venom, obviously), I thought it was a freaking riot. Loved every minute of it.
It also made the same mistake that "The Dark Knight" made a full year later: they introduced a villain (in the case of Venom, a highly anticipated one) in the last half hour of the movie and he gets snuffed as soon as he's created.

One thing that really had me throwing a fit was how they ruined part of the original movie for me. Not to the same degree as "Karate Kid part III" mind you, but they totally manipulated a key part of the movie to say "that's not the whole story."
I hated how they went on to say that the guy Peter pursued after Uncle Ben was shot wasn't the guy that killed him... it was other guy... way to toy with our emotions, guys.

...and for the record, I hadn't seen the reboot series yet.
When I heard they were remaking the movies not even a decade after the original, I was about as pissed as I was over them remaking the Karate Kid. In a "it ain't broke for the love of God don't fix it"
After hearing some arguments in favor of it, I'm starting to reconsider. James Garfield is a positive in that direction (but again, I hate that you've got this great looking British guy but he's given roles that don't allow for his equally hot accent). But hearing that Emma Stone dies in the sequel... why subject myself to loving her as Gwen Stacy only to lose her in the end of it all?

Which reminds me, I hated that Gwen Stacy (ala Bryce Dallas Howard, another actor I can't get myself to like with the types of characters she plays) got Spider-Man to give her the upside down kiss in "Spider-Man III"... that was something special he had between him and MJ and they just spat on the memory of it.

Coming Soon

Brad Pitt posters were on practically every teen girl's bedroom walls in the 90's except for me. I didn't get the attraction until I saw him in the next movie on my list.
While I'm not a Bradgelina fan by any means, I'd come to enjoy him in a couple other movies since then. One is further down my countdown and another that lost its place to "Sweeny Todd"... a) because I couldn't do my favorite movies without "Sweeny Todd" and b) while this Brad Pitt film was a well conceived, well acted picture that I believed deserved a number of Oscars, I only saw it once and it's been 5 years...And I could say this is a movie with a great ensemble cast, but that'd just give it away, wouldn't it?

23. Finding Nemo (2003)

Code-name: Sharkbait
("Sharkbait, bru-ha-ha!")

Directors: Andrew Stanton*, Lee Unkrick
*Andrew wrote the story and worked with Bob Peterson and David Reynolds on the screenplayType: animation, adventure, comedy
Music: Thomas Newman

Cast:
[The Ocean]
Nemo- Alexander Gould
Marlin- Albert Brooks
Mr. Ray- Bob Peterson
Dory- Ellen DeGeneres
Bruce- Barry Humphries
Chum- Bruce Spence
Anchor- Eric Bana
Fish School- John Ratzenberger [aka Pixar's good-luck charm]
Crush- Andrew Stanton
Coral- Elizabeth Perkins

[The Dentist Office]
Nigel- Geoffrey Rush
Gill- Willem Dafoe
Bloat- Brad Garrett
Bubbles- Stephen Root ["my bubbles!"]
Deb/Flo- Vicki Lewis
Peach- Allison Janney
Jacques- John Ranft
Dentist P. Sherman- Bill Hunter

Notable Awards and Nominations:
OSCAR- Best animated film
nomination- OSCAR- Best Original Screenplay
nomination- OSCAR- Best Sound Editing
nomination- OSCAR- Best Original Score
nomination- Golden Globe- Best Picture (comedy/musical)
AFI- Movie of the Year- 2004

Write-up:

First Impression

First of all, Pixar is amazing in general. The only film from this company I didn't get into was "Monsters Inc." I don't know, but not a huge fan. (And for the record, I have not seen "Cars 2," which I've heard some horrific things about, and don't plan on seeing "Planes").

In 2003, it was on the cutting edge. They had success already with "Toy Story," a series I enjoyed, but didn't fully become immersed in for a couple years.
"Finding Nemo," on the premise alone and the amazing animation, of course, we had to go out and see that.

That was a particular amazing summer where I did so much. Among those things, I got my permit (don't ask me why, but I didn't bother to get my license until summer of 2005), I went to an amazing Jesse McCartney concert, "The O.C." premiered and I went to the movies three times.
The other two were "Freaky Friday" and "Princess Diaries 2."

I don't have a lot of old ticket stubs, but I still have mine for "Finding Nemo."

Saw it on June 6th 2003 at 4:40pm.

The animation's incredible, we had such memorable characters and dozens of great quotes.
This was before I became an avid viewer of Ellen's daytime talk show, but she was probably my favorite part of this movie. Animation agreed with her voice so well.

Bits of Trivia

For someone who goes crazy over movie trivia, I'm embarrassed to say I didn't know a lot of stuff that went on behind the scenes of this movie. Other than one or two TV sneak peeks where they showed how they make the underwater scenery and movement of the characters look so realistic. And they also showed other Pixar references in the background, including a Buzz Lightyear at the dentist office and the Pizza Planet car in the "great escape" sequence.

Some interesting tidbits I'm picking up:

• Dory was written specifically for Ellen
• It was dedicated to Pixar animator Glenn McQueen who became the namesake for the protagonist of "Cars"
• It beat out "The Lion King" for highest grossing animated film (a title, I believe, was later taken by "Toy Story 3" and most recently, "Frozen")
• Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer were approached to score the film and turned it down (both great composers I respect, but they weren't quite right for this

Actors and Actresses

Willem Dafoe's been appearing in my reviews a lot lately... it's not intentional, I promise.

I've said some movies are more about the story than the actors.
This one has been so about the memorable characters that I didn't think to look up the all-star cast. At the time, I only knew Ellen, Albert Brooks (who I'd seen previously voiceover for the tiger in Eddie Murphy's "Doctor Doolittle" remake), and Brad Garrett (even though I watched very little of "Everyone Loves Raymond," my mom loved him in that show).

Willem Dafoe and Allison Janney, I picked up on only a couple years ago. For once, it is kinda nice to see Dafoe play a good guy, even though Gill does look a little rough around the edges when we first meet him.

But now I'm learning that Eric Bana was one of the sharks, Nigel the pelican was done by Captain Barbossa himself, Geoffrey Rush...
the actual screenwriters even got into the act with Bob Peterson as the teacher, Mr. Ray, and Andrew Stanton as Crush (a toootally awwwesssome sea turtle, bro)...

Yeah, great cast of people.

More often than that, though, Pixar to me is about the characters and the cutting edge computer animation.

Characters, Quotes and Sea Life

The makings of great films also include falling in love with certain aspects at first and appreciating more things about them as you get older.

I don't know how the fascination with sea life started when I was a kid. I loved animals in general, everything from dinosaurs to cats and dogs to dolphins and whales. So I knew a lot of stuff when it came to these guys. At one time, I did have a fish tank, but it was all freshwater warm water fish, mostly tetras (and to this day, it still confounds me that my catfish never managed to stay alive after the one I had for a number of years died).

Some of it comes from computer programs like "In the Company of Whales" and "Shark Alert," where I absorbed so many facts like a sponge.

Right now, I'm remembering back to my college's Marine Biology club taking a trip to the Camden Aquarium and my friend Kirby found Nemo and pointed out Dory (a blue tang) to a kid who was a fan of the movie.
LOL
I thought I knew my stuff about marine life, but Kirby was even more savvy about that stuff.
Oh well, at least a fellow marine biology major, he's living that dream in some capacity... it's been a while since we've talked, so maybe this is a good excuse to see what it is that he's doing. Other than fishing and helping out people with their fish tanks with his expertise 8-)

But I digress...

I don't know WTF is with Disney and killing off parents (I'm still groaning over "Frozen" in that department because that could have easily have been avoided), but that's how the movie begins. Nemo's mom gets eaten by a barracuda.

As a result, Marlin is left to raise Nemo alone and he's overprotective to the nth degree.
On Nemo's first day of school, this becomes a major issue. Nemo gets fed up and tries to prove he's capable of being on his own by swimming to a boat... where he gets himself caught by an Aussie dentist.

So in an odd sort of way, this is another version of your "fish out of water" story. Marlin has no choice, but to put his fear of the oceanic unknown aside to get Nemo back. Right away, he bumps into the friendly, although absent-minded, Dory.

Then their story continues on, following the address on the diving mask...

Say it with me...
P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way Sydney

It's a guarantee you'll never forget that address after seeing this movie even once ;)

...and they run into all kinds of obstacles along the way.
You get lots of action and adventure, plenty of drama (mostly from Marlin being a neurotic drama king, lol) and Dory provides the comedic element to lighten everyone's mood.

Just keep swimming, Just keep swimming, Just keep swimming swimming swimming...

Then on the other side of the Big Blue and the EAC (East Australian Current), we spend the other half of this part of the film with Nemo and his new friends, who live in the dentist office fish tank. They'd been there so long that they know all the dentist's habits by the clock... They also have their issues.

As Gill puts it; "Fish aren't meant to be in a box, kid, it does stuff to you"

Like the damselfish who's convinced her reflection is her sister
And the yellow tang who is oddly possessive of his bubble-churning treasure chest

My bubbles!

Probably my favorite quote of the movie :-P I use it whenever I can... that and the seagulls who constantly say "Mine!" ...and occasionally I like to say "es-ca-pey" like Dory

Nemo's storyline with his tank-mates is all about putting together the "great escape," a plan that's failed miserably on numerous occasions, even resulting in permanent scaling for Gill. Not just to get him back to the ocean, but to keep him out of the hands of P. Sherman's niece, Darla, who they've labeled as a fish killer.
She's not exactly the female equivalent of Sid from "Toy Story," meaning she doesn't intentionally kill fish. She just doesn't know not to shake the plastic bag holding them.

While Marlin and Dory head to Sydney, Australia, they're on this mission, but part of their storyline is the cliché of two opposite personalities traveling together.
Marlin being the pessimist, worrier and realistic and Dory being the optimist and idealist. They compliment each other really well. Often times, this helps keep them alive.
Marlin does a great deal of this, knowing well to be wary of the so-called "vegetarian" sharks, even when things are looking up.

On the flipside, he almost leads the two of them to death of jellyfish

I shall call him squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy...

because he doesn't listen to her about swimming through the trench.
After what happened in the beginning of the film, he has trouble trusting anyone's judgment but his own, particularly Dory's, since he perceives her to be an absent-minded flake.
Sooner or later, he does learn to let go a bit and grows immensely as a character.

Despite all the things the characters endure, everyone gets their happy ending with plenty of laughs and tense moments along the way.
Good for all ages, although I'd read a couple accounts from people who thought the opening scene with the barracuda was a little too intense, however short it may be. Not quite as bad as some other Disney death sequences, but still worthy of note.

Upcoming Sequel

I wasn't sure if it was just a running joke or she was deadly serious, but rarely did a lot of time go by without Ellen lobbying on her talk show for a "Finding Nemo" sequel...
After doing this for a number of years, she finally got her wish last year.




 "Finding Dory" was announced and is currently in production.

On the one hand, I guess it does make sense because "Toy Story" had great success with its sequels. But then again, there was also "Cars" and "Monsters Inc." that had not-so-good sequels/prequels. Plus, "Finding Nemo" is so amazing on its own that any notion to top that seems ludicrous.... but nonetheless, we shall see how this works out.

26. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

{in this exact clip, he actually says the film's title!}

Code-name: Whackbat



Director: Wes Anderson
Writer: (book) Roald Dahl, (screenplay) Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach
Type: book-to-movie adaptation, animated, dramedy

Cast:
Mr. Fox- George Clooney
Felicity Fox- Meryl Streep
Ash- Jason Schwartzman
Kristofferson- Eric Anderson (Wes's brother)
Badger- Bill Murray
Kylie the Possum- Wally Wolodarksy
Coach Skip- Owen Wilson
Agnes- Juman Malouf
Rabbit- Mario Batali
Boggis- Robin Hurlstone
Bunce- Hugo Guinness
Bean- Michael Gambon
Rat- Williem Dafoe
Petey- Jarvis Cocker

Notable Nominations:
OSCAR- Best Animated Film
OSCAR- Best Original Score- Alexandre Desplat (another frequent collaborator of Wes Anderson's)
Golden Globe- Best Animated Film

Write-up:

INTRODUCTION

According to my other blog, I first saw this movie on Cinemax in October of 2010 and these were my first "in-a-nutshell" thoughts.

As for “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” George Clooney does not disappoint. The movie was not necessarily my cup of tea, but the edginess of it, including the animation won me over. It fascinates and captivates at the same time. The humor derives from some new jokes that haven’t been overclichéd and there are some old jokes in there that have been heard in other movies. In a word, I say its charming.

Charming and incredibly quirky.

I've come into other Wes Anderson movies expecting the same thing. So far, only "The Grand Budapest Hotel" delivered on that. As I might have stated previously, if there was any humor in "The Royal Tenenbaums," it was lost on me... and "Moonrise Kingdom" could have been better if it wasn't taken so seriously with the "Romeo & Juliet"-esque storyline.

Is it silly to expect the same thing in every movie an actor or director does?
Yes, but that's just how I roll.

When I first became aware of this movie, I didn't know what to think. It seemed so different on the animation alone, but since it got good reviews, I had to check it out.

Anyone who read my reviews for "She's out of my league" and "Easy A" knows how I saw lots of movies in 2010 and my favorites were the ones with the most unique writing.
It might have gotten to a point with me where I'd seen so many movies that I was getting sick of their predictability. Luckily, I came across gems like this one that kept me engaged in this medium.

PLOT

Back in the day, Mr. Fox was all about the danger of being a wild animal, stealing various fowl from farmers. But when he and his wife find themselves in a fox trap, he obeys her wish to give up this life for a less hazardous one.

Fast-forward 2 years (12 fox years) later:
He writes a newspaper column, she paints thunderstorm-laden landscapes for a hobby and their son Ash aspires to be an athlete.

Mr. Fox moves his family to a large oak tree at, in his view, an ideal location. It happens to have easy access to three notorious farmers, Boggis, Bunce and Bean.
Just for the heck of it, he and his new partner-in-crime Kylie break into the farms night after night to steal chickens, ducks, geese and squab ("whatever they are"). Ultimately, this gives way to some pretty dramatic consequences for the Foxes and the other animals.

The animals struggle to survive. Mr. Fox's marriage gets rocky. Ash deals with some growing pains including dealing with the arrival of his "perfect" yet humble cousin Kristofferson. And the animals give the farmers their comeuppance.

All the while, despite all the drama, hilarity ensues whenever the cracks allow. Which is pretty often ;)

CHARACTERS and ACTORS

We're talking an all-star cast here. Not surprisingly, Wes Anderson has his favorites. Bill Murray obviously. At least one Wilson brother (Owen Wilson is practically a cameo but it's a great one). Jason Schwartzman, who first worked with Wes Anderson in "Rushmore" (another film I gotta see for him and the writer/director).

Willem Dafoe played the psychotic rat that guards Mr. Bean's alcoholic "tastes like melted gold" cider, making a pretty good secondary villain. But I'm not sure anyone caught onto the fact it was him doing the voice. I certainly didn't and I was thinking during "The Grand Budapest Hotel" that it was his first time working with Wes Anderson. Plays a really good villain in that too ;)

Then there're the big guns of Clooney and Streep and Gambon.

In the right context, I love Meryl Streep. But I'm not the biggest fan when it comes to awards season and when she's cast because moviemakers believe they need a name as big as hers to give their project credibility. (Trust me, when "The Giver" comes out, I will be vocal about casting her... among several other things because it's my favorite book).

Michael Gambon plays "possibly the scariest man currently living" Mr. Bean, which is an interesting contrast to the role I will forever associate him with... Professor Dumbledore.
Sure, on looks alone, Richard Harris will always be the Dumbledore I picture when I re-read the books, but you see one actor play the same role over a decade... that stuff sticks with you :-P

Of course, last but not least is George Clooney.
I could care less that he plays the same character in every movie (particularly ones like this, "Ocean's 11" and "The Monuments Men" where he leads heist operations), he's always so pleasant to watch. He's the only actor I can confidently consider a "movie star" because he's a class act and a really nice guy.

Nobody else could play the incorrigible Mr. Fox as good as him. Not in a million years :-P

THE ATHLETE

All of these characters have their faults. Second only to the Fantastic Mr. Fox himself is his son, Ash.

My memory has faded over the years that've passed, but I'm convinced that I stuck through this movie because I'm very partial to that name. My first love, who first inspired me to write, had that name.

I don't know why I find Ash such a compelling character. Maybe it's all about Jason Schwartzman's voice, how he was so perfect as this character. This was my first encounter with him. I've been known to follow actors around like a lost puppy when I fall in love with their voices (Haley Joel Osment is the biggest example of that for me). Oddly enough, so far the movies I've found him in (Scott Pilgrim, The Grand Budapest Hotel) were purely coincidental 8-)

Either way, yeah, he's rude, but I loved his insistence of his athletic status when all but one final scene showed otherwise. (The final scene was the best pay-off this movie has, at least in my book).

Also love this set of dialogue and how he ends it.

Felicity: we all know what it's like to be... different
Ash: but I'm not different. Am I?
Felicity: we all are. Him especially (points to Mr. Fox) but there's something fantastic about that, isn't there? (leaves)
Ash: hmm, not to me, I prefer to be an athlete

(when the situation calls for it, I always love quoting that final line... yeah, I am a total nerd)

On the other hand, we have Kristofferson. He's staying with the Foxes because his father (Felicity's brother) is suffering from double pneumonia. In a short time, Ash takes a strong disliking to him. Particularly when he unassumingly captures the affections of Agnes, another fox at their school, but most notably when he shows him up in gym class;

WHACK-BAT

This is my favorite scene in this movie.
1) because it stars Owen Wilson as the school coach
2) it has great dialogue ("that's the first time that kid has ever swung a whack bat?")
3) the sport itself

Throughout our trip to Sydney, Australia, which was a couple months after I saw this movie, I couldn't help but think of "whack bat" whenever we were trying to discern the mystery of cricket. One dude we met at a pub tried to explain it to us, but his speech was unintelligible after all the drinks he had.

I still don't get whack-bat, but I find it so intriguing. This is the only dialogue we have to go on:
"Basically, there's three grabbers, three taggers, five twig runners, and a player at Whackbat. Center tagger lights a pine cone and chucks it over the basket and the whack-batter tries to hit the cedar stick off the cross rock. Then the twig runners dash back and forth until the pine cone burns out and the umpire calls hotbox. Finally, you count up however many score-downs it adds up to and divide that by nine."

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

If it's not random quotes, its entire scenes that make me geek-out when I watch this movie because I find them oddly compelling.
The greatest example is when Mr. Fox is delegating tasks to the other animals, calling them by their Latin names. So many random answers. Like Badger says he's a demolitions' expert. And how he enthusiastically shakes weasel, rattles off his Latin name while he responds "Stop yelling!"

There are a dozen great scenes that are just full of laughs, varying from ha-ha funny to slow-burn laughs you have to think about.

Or just running gags.

Like every now and then, Kylie gets the "psycho" look in his eyes where his pupils are the shape of spirals :-P it's even funnier when Mr. Fox gets it after running away from a beagle suffering from Rabies in one of the latter scenes.
Or the ransom notes (where the letters are cut out from magazines to "hide" identities of the letter writers) where the characters break the fourth wall just to get us to laugh.
Or when Mr. Fox has his trademark click and whistle and Kylie asks about it during the final mission to rescue Kristofferson and get back at the farmers. Then later on tries to establish his own trademark and kinda fails at it, lol
Or how they use the word "cuss" whenever they're spewing profanities because it keeps the movie PG. Every now and then, I will use the word "cuss" in my writing for that reason alone. My favorite "cuss" scene is where Mr. Fox and the Badger go at it after Badger says "the cuss you are" and Mr. Fox responds "The cuss am I?"

One oddly cool moment is where Mr. Fox confronts his phobia of wolves (which he brings up a couple times before hand) when he comes across one. There's no dialogue exchanged (at least not by the wolf), but both of them raise their hands in the air out of respect for one another.

It's all about the quirky details and subtle moments with this movie. The way I see it, you either go crazy for it or you just don't get it. But if you're open to something different, this is definitely a good movie to get into.

COMING SOON

Don't know how many people read my previous entry, but forgetting my place in my countdown, I gave away I had another Downey film coming up.

Not just because this particular movie is great in its own right and not just because he actually won something for it (yep, I just gave it away right there, lol), but because the impact it had on me was pretty substantial.

All the more reason to one day aspire to do a "6 degrees of Downey" entry (take that, Kevin Bacon!) where I go into the amazing people and things that might not have been on my radar had it not been for his involvement.

Theatrical Review: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Date: May 4, 2014
Location: Pocono Community Theater
Time: 1pm
Party: 3 (my mom, sister & I)

Writer/Director: Wes Anderson

Duration: 100 minutes (+3 trailers)

Cast:
M. Gustave- Ralph Fiennes
Mr. [Zero] Moustafa- F. Murray Abraham
Zero- Tony Revolori
Madame D- Tilda Swinton
Heckels- Edward Norton
Dmitri- Adrien Brody
Jopling- Willem Dafoe
Agatha- Saoirse Ronan
Deputy Kovacs- Jeff Goldblum
M. Ivan- Billy Murray
M. Jean- Jason Schwartzman
M. Chuck- Owen Wilson
Young Writer- Jude Law

Theater & Previews:

We arrived a few minutes before the movie started. There was maybe a dozen other people in theater, most of them looked older than 50.

The first preview was for a Richard Linklater called "Boyhood," which I'd seen posters for on IMDB but don't know much about it. It sounds like it's a labor of love he spent 12 years slaving over and is unlike any movie you'd seen before. Something about following around a family for a dozen years and filming them, although I'm not sure if it's an actual family or they're all actors.

The second looked interesting. It was called "Words and Pictures," starring a very handsome Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche (who I know from "Chocolat") and they're teachers that develop an unusual relationship. He's a writer who's an English professor in danger of losing his job because he has a drinking problem. She's a newly arrived art teacher that's a little rough around the edges and fresh from an injury we'll likely hear about later in the film.

Then the third was "Dom Hemingway," which is said to be a Jude Law performance unlike any other... might be interesting to see down the road. He certainly can't do any worse than "The Talented Mr. Ripley" or "Closer".

Write-up:

Every now and then, we will take the trip downtown to see a movie not available locally. We'd been here maybe a handful of times, including the two Oscar winners I picked correctly (The King's Speech and The Artist), "Water for Elephants" and maybe one other that I'm forgetting.

I kinda expected this movie would be another one of those. For whatever reason, Wes Anderson movies are still deemed to be on the independent circuit so they don't come to all theaters.
Since its release date, I've said how much I want to see it, but it's not playing locally. Luckily, it finally did make it and my patience was well awarded.

When it comes to this particular writer/director, a few things are inevitable.

• Bill Murray will be in it somewhere
• We'll get at least one Wilson brother
• The sets will be incredibly detailed, all the way down to the shelf knick-knacks
• I'm going to compare it to "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" because it was my first Wes Anderson film.

I was attracted to "The Grand Budapest Hotel" because it looked like another quirky, fun Wes Anderson movie. A few months ago when it was just coming out, I watched the Behind the Scenes special about it on HBO and all of the reviews were positive. People were saying it was the best movie of the year so far.

I'm happy to say that all of the Wes Anderson movies I'd seen so far, this one has been my favorite... second only to "The Fantastic Mr. Fox".

Other than that, I'd seen "Moonrise Kingdom" which I thought was more serious than it had to be and "The Royal Tennebaums" which was so serious it bordered on depressing.

It's kinda hard to explain what "The Royal Budapest Hotel" is about. It starts out with a girl leaving a key at a statue dedicated to a man and she's reading a book named for the movie. We hear the narrative in voiceover and that leads us to the writer talking to a camera. We go back a couple decades and see the writer much younger (played by Jude Law) talking to the man who owned the hotel.

This man (played by F. Murray Abraham) tells us the story the majority of the movie goes into, following the concierge M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes) and his loyal lobby boy Zero (newcomer Tony Revolori).

M. Gustave teaches Zero the ropes, telling him how a lobby boy treats the guests so well that he anticipates their needs before they do.
The hotel is located in a very exclusive, but beautiful location. The inside runs like a well-oiled machine, like something we'd only read about or see on film. Just wondrous to behold.
It's also suggested that M. Gustave takes such care of his guests that he meets their every need, some of which are sexual.

This movie is R-rated, but it goes as far as partial or brief nudity (some of this is in paintings and drawings on the walls) and the amount of cussing.
With the former, I was wary because I didn't want to expose my sister to too much. She was a little more concerned with the amount of cussing (she counted 13-14 f-bombs).

The plot takes off when one of the regular hotel guests passes away. He and Zero goes to her estate to pay respects and to see if she left anything in her will to him. Her will bequeathed to him a portrait known as "Boy with Apple."
Her family is all looking for their cut and is taken aback by the concierge's inclusion in the will. Her son Dmitri is the most vocal, very opposed to him getting the painting... for whatever reason :shrug: seems silly to me, but there's gotta be conflict somewhere.

When they arrive back at the hotel, the police are there looking from him... for some reason believing he killed her.
I saw this scene in the Behind the Scenes where he says "I knew something was suspicious, we never got the cause of death" and he proceeds to run from the authorities.

The movie progresses as he's put in jail, he and some inmates plan a break-out and another member of the Madame's family, Jopling, goes after the executor of her will.
Willem Dafoe plays this role almost like it was written for Christopher Walken. He's pretty hardcore about it, although I'm having trouble recalling if he has much dialogue.

The humor varies from being incredibly obvious to an actor randomly cussing up a storm when something doesn't go their way to something that takes a while for the laugh to hit. The pacing is slow at times. There was a period after the prison break scene where I found myself getting bored because not much was going on and there weren't many laughs to be had.

Another thing that can be expected in a Wes Anderson film is pacing. Often times, you'll have a scene where things race by you, both with the scenery and with the dialogue that it's hard to keep up. Then in the scene immediately afterwards, everything stops and it's almost so quiet you can hear a pin drop.

Probably my favorite part was the chase scene (and its hilarious resolution) where M. Gustave and Zero on a toboggan are chasing after Jopling on skis. You get all kinds of twists and turns. You see a sign that welcomes us to the sight of the local winter games (how timely of them :-P), which includes slaloms, ski jumps and sledding tracks. I won't give away the resolution, but it's unexpected and one of the best laughs of the entire movie.

Pretty much all of the actors are great in this. It's certainly interesting to see Ralph Fiennes do a comedic role after only knowing him as Voldemort for the past several years :-P
Most of the cast members, Wes Anderson has worked with before, including Jason Schwartzman (who I will give his due in my "Fantastic Mr. Fox" review), Edward Norton and Jude Law.

Overall, I found it very enjoyable. The details and quirks were as I expected them to be but there were plenty of surprises in between. The scenery was often vast and the fact it takes place in wintertime with plenty of snowflakes... I just love that, it makes it all look so beautiful.
Yeah, winter does suck and the fact we've had so much snow this year sucks, but I'm a sucker for great winter scenery. My "Frozen" review went into it quite a bit ;)

In its constructs, it's probably the best realized movie I'd seen so far this year. I didn't fully enjoy it as much as some of the other ones I'd seen so far, but it was very satisfying.
I guess you could say it's a sleeper hit in that the enjoyment comes in small subtle doses and doesn't hit as many highs as it could have.

Grade: B+