So... anyone look at the box office lately? Depending on when I finish this blog post, it may be old, but the top film at the box office was
The Hangover Part II. Would I go see
The Hangover Part II? the answer is no. Why wouldn't I go see
The Hangover Part II? well, it's not just because
The Hangover was so dull to me, it's not just because I have a personal distaste for modern big-budget comedies, AND it's not just because I think the only thing keeping the first film even semi-entertaining was Zach Galifianakis alone... No, it's a lot because, not only was
The Hangover sub-par, but
The Hangover Part II is just a copy of the first. "Oh how can that be??!?!" you're asking, "how could he be saying this about my beloved
Hangover?!?!?!" Well look at the facts of the movie... It involves the night before a wedding, it invloves someone getting lost and/or kidnapped, it involves gangsters and shady characters, it involves asians, it involves a search for what happened the previous night, it involves Zach Galifianakis' character spiking things with drugs and having a small companion (in this one it's a monkey instead of a baby), it even ends with them looking through the pictures of the night before and deleting them. The film even goes as far as to include Mike Tyson once again in both a cameo AND thr fact that Ed Helms has the same face tatoo. I didn't really respect the first film, I thought it got WAY too much hype and didn't deliver, but to just repeat the same things in a sequel is disgraceful (the Austin Powers films are a great example of this). Anyway, if you're not going to be clever after already not being funny, then why bother?
Okay, enough of my bitching... Onto the next topic... Now, I mentioned how
The Hangover Part II was #1 on in the box office, now I'll discuss the film that was #3,
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Now I thought the first Pirates movie was decent, it wasn't too deep, but it was entertaining, it had a horror aspect and Geoffry Rush, I thought, did an excellent job playing his character. Now we're on the fourth film in the saga, however, and it's getting a bit old. The second two films were not nearly as fun as the first and after 4 shots at it, Johnny Depp's flamboyant, possibly drunk, possibly high, possibly mentally handicapped Captain Jack Sparrow is not as humorous as it used to be. The search for the Fountain of Youth is something I will probably not see, once again. These blockbuster film series' are getting warn out, and fast. The stories are hurting, the acting is suffering and the characters are just not as good the 100th time around. There's is one thing that always gets me about the Pirate movies, the one thing that I really enjoy about them, and that's the character design. I especially love it on the pirates that are either known in pirate lore (such as Davy Jones), or the pirates that were real and living people (such as Blackbeard in the newest film). That and the representations of their famous ships and the beauty of the locations are also nice. I used to be interested in pirate lore and I read pirate stories (from
Treasure Island to
One Piece), and I'm not the only one, they actually have a pirate magazine out, but the stories and big blockbuster-ness of the Pirate films is really off putting and makes me not really like them, but I'm always interested in seeing what the new big pirates will look like. So let's take a look shall we?
We have Captain Jack Sparrow, Captain Barbosa, Davy Jones and Blackbeard IN THAT ORDER...
and I know I'm a lame ass for posting those picture, you don't have to tell me that...
On top of that, I also liked the design of the ships they used in the films too, like The Black Pearl, The Flying Dutchman and The Queen Anne's Revenge...
Anyway, if you put together that my title is talking about what my topics are AND the order which I'm discussing them, you may be wondering what I mean by "graffiti", well, as I mentioned in my last post, I went to Lincoln to see (and now I own) the movie
Exit Through The Gift Shop, now I plan on talking a bit more about the film. The film is about street art, but more specifically about a frenchman named Thierry Guetta, who filmed his obsession with street art and eventually became a street artist himself. The film features street artists Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Space Invader, Monsieur André, and Thierry himself, who eventually takes the name Mr. Brainwash. I rather enjoyed the film, I thought it was very interesting and comedic. While the film the Guetta makes is questionable, Banksy ends up taking over and making a better edited films, while he sends Guetta off to create his own art show (which is depicted in the film). According to the producers of the film, it was a long and frustrating process and they only ending up with seconds of usable film from tapes and tapes of home movies. I would recommend this film to anyone, it's a great movie, it got incredibly high reviews and was even nominated for an Academy Award (however, people are skeptical whether it's an actual documentary or a mockumentary). Either way, go watch the film, it's excellent.
I will leave you with this... the Hobbit movies have now been titled... here's the news...
http://www.imdb.com/news/ni11204748/
Also, I generally dislike Tim Burton, but this is pretty sick, check it out, his short film
Vincent...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASHP-vgnjAw
Have a kick ass day, all of you and I hope to see you again soon, bye bye now!
Enough with the "nerding out" now (maybe). I like Peter Jackson (I dunno if you do, but I do). I thought what he did with The Lord of The Rings trilogy was great, it was a solid movie, a good adaptation of the book (with the exception of leaving Tom Bombadil out of the first one... and other little changes), and I wouldn't be as fine with anyone else directing the film. When Peter Jackson decided not to direct the film, New Line hired Guillermo Del Toro to direct the film. Now, if there was ANYONE that I would have liked to see do The Hobbit other than Peter Jackson, it would be Del Toro. There are probably a ton of directors that you like that could probably direct The Hobbit amazingly, and you're probably thinking "why would he want to see Del Toro direct The Hobbit? why not (insert director's name here)?" well the answer is... I like the way Del Toro does fantasy. It's slightly dark, slightly creepy, using make up and puppets over CGI, I liked The Hellboy movies and it would be interesting to see what he would have made The Hobbit. Del Toro was going to redesign the look of the Goblins and the Wargs and try to make the Mirkwood Spiders look totally different from Shelob. After all of the delays, however, Del Toro left the project. After this there were many other directors that were rumored to be on the project, but ultimately Jackson ended up as director once again.