Diversion 2.0 Thirty Day Movie Challenge -- Day 30

Day 30 – Another Favorite that’s not your Favorite Movie

It’s been a long time coming (about a week longer than it should have, by my count), but we’ve finally arrived at the end of the Diversion 2.0 Thirty-Day Movie Challenge. We’ve covered great films, and we’ve covered crap films, and today we’re leaving off with another one of the goodies. Stay tuned, though, for I have a feeling we just might have another series in the works (foreshadowing!). In the meantime, enjoy the final entry in the Diversion 2.0 Thirty-Day Movie Challenge.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is my favorite of the Potter movies, which makes sense, because it’s based on my favorite of the Potter books. It’s also (for my money) the best per-capita adaptation of any of the books; the most essentials moments of the book have been transferred over (with extra, redundant moments cut for running time), and the movie (get this) actually works well as a film and not just as an adaptation of a quadrillion-selling book series.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth installment of the popular book/film franchise, and tells of Harry’s sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry (Daniel Radcliff) starts to learn more about his mortal enemy, Voldermort (Ralph Fiennes), under the tutelage of headmaster Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon). In addition, Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) has been sneaking about the castle in a more unpleasant and suspicious way than usual. Harry must discover all he can about Lord Voldermort, and find out about Malfoy’s plan before it’s too late.

Unlike the previous film, Half-Blood Prince retains several of the book's more light-hearted moments.

Half-Blood Prince continues what worked well for the previous five Potter films: coherent, beautiful art direction and production design, imaginative and, at times, wow-bagging special effects, and excellent casting from a stable of triple-A British talent (Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltraine, Jim Broadbent, Warwick Davis, and on, and on, and on…). Radcliff, Grint, Watson, and Felton have grown into their roles splendidly, and the film gives them all ample opportunities to stretch out and explore their characters. The Potter films really started to visually take off around the third movie, Prisoner of Azkaban, and Half-Blood Prince retains its lovely aesthetic, while adding a heaping helping of colors whenever the mood is appropriate.

What Half-Blood Prince adds, especially in comparison to Order of the Phoenix, is a coherent script. A script that not only shuttles the movie from set-piece to set-piece with minimal effort, but is alarmingly funny; characters share more banter moments, quotable lines, and buggering words in this movie than perhaps the previous three put together. The result is that Half-Blood Prince feels more like a regular movie than almost any other in the franchise, which, to me, felt like a series of connected images and moments than anything coherent; they seemed pretty bloody difficult for me to follow, at least.

Exciting, funny, and incredibly imaginative, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is what all special effects-driven tentpoles should aspire to be, and one of my absolute favorite movies.

Diversion 2.0 Thirty Day Movie Challenge -- Day 29

Day 29 – The Last Movie You Watched

We’ve covered a good deal of movies over the last twenty-eight days, with numerous genres and associated memories. Those entries were selective, but this one is not: what was the most recent movie that you (read “I”) watched, no faking allowed? The last movie I saw in theaters was Captain America: The First Avenger, but I’ve watched a few Blu-rays since then, so I’ll opt for one of those instead.

Inception (2010)

Like many nerdy folk last year, I was interested in checking out the hype surrounding Christopher Nolan’s post-Dark Knight Big Deal Project. Inception was supposed to turn the world upside-down, and tweak your brain from hell to breakfast with its deep treatise on dream philosophy and oodles of mind-bending visual effects. What we got instead was a really damn good caper movie, akin to Ocean’s Eleven, but with The Mirage swapped out for The Animus. It wasn’t, contrary to what was promised on teh interwebz, cinema’s second-coming of Christ, but that didn’t bug me too much, because I first saw it on Blu-ray, at a comfortable distance from all of the promises and expectations surrounding it. I love heist movies, and Inception is one hell of a heist movie.

The plot is surprisingly straight-forward: in order to get home to his estranged family, Dominic Cobb (Leonardo DeCaprio) must pull One Last Job for businessman Mr. Saito (Ken Watanabe). Cobb wastes no time in assembling a team for the job, including pointman and researcher Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), grifter Eames (Tom Hardy), driver Yusef (Dileep Rao), and audience-proxy Ariadne (Ellen Paige).

Or, at least, these would be their roles in a traditional caper picture. Cobb specializes in a very unique sort of breaking and entering: he enters peoples’ dreams while they sleep and steal their corporate secrets. Mr. Saito’s job is for Cobb to break into the thoughts of one of his business rivals and plant a thought, rather than filch one. Desperately tricky, but not impossible, and the rest of the film is spent planning the job and then pulling it off.

For all out its touted mind-screwery, Inception is a straight, if well-executed, heist pic.

Most of what I love about Inception comes from what I love about heist pictures in general. First, we are introduced to whatever it is we’re supposed to rob, which is invariably a behemoth of impenetrable security. Then, we’re introduced to the players, one at a time, so as to show off their individual prowess at whatever they’re skilled with. Last, we’re given the job itself, where our team of misfits work together in concert to pull off the caper. Inception takes this structure and sets it against a richly-imagined sci-fi backdrop, but most of the classic heist elements are here, and I’m ever-so-grateful for them.

Where Inception gets its own unique flavor is in its imagination of how dreams work. Nolan does a great job of introducing rules, explaining them, and then altering them in short succession, and it’s fun to hear about the fiction and watch it being bent before our eyes. It’s not as philosophical or deep as the hype may have lead on, but it is well-realized, and I appreciate how Nolan pushes the boundaries of his own concepts.

But, yeah, definitely still some mind-screwery going on here.

A few more things. Nolan has been criticized in some circles for his scripts’ ham-handed usage of irony and foreshadowing, but perhaps he doesn’t do it as smugly as he could, because I like the pulpy, “obvious call-back” nature that some of the lines possess (“You’re waiting for a train…”; “An old man, filled with bitterness and regret;” or, my most recent favorite from The Dark Knight: “You’ve known Rachael her whole life?” “Oh, not yet, sir.” GUESS WHAT YOU BLOODY WILL HAVE BY THE END OF ACT II!!!). Also, I’ve gone quite a ways without discussing Cobb’s struggle with his personal demons, which is a major plot point and affects the film in no small way. The simple truth is that I don’t really care that much for it, or at least as much as I like watching him and his team execute their plan as a well-oiled machine. Lastly, I do enjoy Hans Zimmer’s Oscar-nominated score, even if it does largely consist of BRRAAAAHHHHHMMMM. BRRAAAAHHHHHMMMM, or variations of that motif.

My favorite part about Inception? I got it for a steal! The Blu-ray was like $14 on Amazon a couple months ago, and I plundered the s@$# out of it, along with a copy of Top Gun that I bought with it, as an excuse to use Super Saver Shipping. Inception is a fine, imaginative heist movie, and its solid performances, robust imagination, and stellar execution make it one of my favorite films of last year.

Diversion 2.0 Thirty Day Movie Challenge -- Day 19

Day 19 – A Movie Made Before 1967

This entry was originally supposed to be called “An Older Movie,” but that sort of guideline is ridiculously open-ended, so I decided to set the establishing mark as before 1967, or before Bonnie and Clyde, the film that is generally credited with kicking off beginning of New Hollywood in America. I’m a lover of Old Hollywood; the studio system, as draconian and workman-like as it was, churned out some of cinema’s best-loved films, and a few of my favorites. Today’s entry positively drips with the flavor of Old Hollywood, and a movie that they truly, actually don’t make like they used to.

His Girl Friday (1940)

If there’s been a screwball comedy as funny as His Girl Friday made in the last twenty years, I haven’t heard of it, and I’d like someone to inform me about it immediately. One of my favorite forms of comedy is rapid-fire dialogue, and His Girl Friday provides in spades, with stars Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell both playing a furious ping pong match of words at about a zillion miles an hour. So active is the movie and so talkative are the characters, it’s almost exhausting to try to keep up, and the end of the movie invariably leaves me drained. Happy, satisfied, and drained.

His Girl Friday is the story of Hildy Johnson (Russell), a crack newspaper reporter, and Walter Burns (Grant), her boss and ex-husband. Hildy is quitting the newspaper business forever and getting married to insurance salesman Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy), which simply will not do for Walter—not only will he watch his ex-wife leave him for another man, but he’ll lose one of the best newspapermen (-women) he has. The film deals with Walter trying to convince Hildy (who is more reluctant to leave the newspaper business than she thinks) to cover a criminal execution, while, at the same time, he keeps Bruce at bay.

His Girl Friday is chock full of verbal sparring matches, so much so that it's all you can do to keep up.

All of the classic elements for a screwball comedy are here: characters falling reluctantly in love, numerous farcical situations of mistaken identity, kept secrets, and wonderful, flowing character dialogue. His Girl Friday is filled to the brim with zingers, and scarcely two minutes go by in the whole film without some sort of bump-set-spike line delivery.

The characters, too, are wonderful. Grant gives Walter the feeling that he would do anything (anything) for a good scoop, but still manages to make the audience sympathetic to a man that is, really, a manipulative d-bag. Russell’s performance as Hildy expertly alternates between antipathy towards Walter and his whole game with scarcely-concealed excitement over being back in the field. Bellamy is just kinda there, but then again, so is the role, so he does what he can with his poor, mother’s boy, sad sack of a character.

His Girl Friday is one of my favorite movie comedies. From its portrayal of what it was like to work as a newspaperman (I especially enjoyed a scene where five reporters telephone a copy editor and report five different variations on a story, each seemingly competing to see who can sensationalize it the most) to its immaculately-delivered script, it’s a movie whose subtleties and charms reach out to me the more I watch it.

I may just do that right now. Kirk out.

Diversion 2.0 Thirty Day Movie Challenge -- Day 6

Day 6 – A Movie from Your Childhood

As an (alleged) adult, my entire life has been shaped by decisions made in my youth. Big ones, little ones, all contributing to who I am today—if I had known how significantly, say, my preferred brand of breakfast cereal would impact my perspective on world economics (Cocoa Pebbles, you mean, mean b@%#$), I probably wouldn’t have left the house. Few events have shaped my current self than my preferred movies, and today we’ll be examining one of these classics from days of yore.

The Adventures of Milo and Otis (1989)

I decided to forgo a Disney movie, partly because I’m already doing a whole series about them, but mostly because Disney was a part of nearly everyone’s childhood, so I thought I’d branch out and do something a little more… exclusive. I’ve only run into a few people who have also seen The Adventures of Milo and Otis, and every time I do, I feel as if we’re part of some sort of secret society (“No way, I was a Free Masons member growing up too!”). If watching a movie about English-narrated animals makes you feel tantamount to joining the Stonecutters, that’s a good sign of a movie’s feeling of… exclusivity.

The Adventures of Milo and Otis is the story of a cat, a dog, and their eponymous adventures, as narrated by Dudley Moore. Milo, the cat, is a mischievous bottle of spunky energy, while Otis, the dog, is the responsible straight-man (-dog?) of the pair. Milo and Otis spend their days enjoying time on the farm where they live, when one day Milo is carried away by the nearby river, leaving Otis to try to find him. The two go on several adventures before eventually meeting again, only to split up when Milo finds a mate (Otis finds one too), before the two and their families finally reunite and head back to the farm.

Along the way, Milo and Otis meet a whole slew of other animals, like this pig.

I’m underselling the charm of the project. Made in a time well before the advent of CGI-enabled lip synching (hell, even before Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey), there’s a certain je ne sais quoi about The Adventures of Milo and Otis that I find absolutely captivating. For one, there is a sense of gentleness to the film I find immensely appealing—absent is the usual ass and crap humor found in many horrid movies masquerading as children’s entertainment, and there is nary an abrasive, obnoxious moment to be found. Instead, the entertainment comes from the characters, the narrative, and Moore’s wonderful, whimsical delivery throughout. So unforced is the movie’s attempt to provide entertainment, I am almost positive the movie would flop in 2011 if given a wide release, if it was even greenlit at all.

What I find more remarkable about The Adventures of Milo and Otis now than as a child is the sheer amount of work that must have gone into actually making the movie. Whatever training was given to these animals (and there are a ton of them), it must have been something else, because Milo, Otis, and the entire cast behave exactly like Moore’s anthropomorphized narration— bears and raccoons squabble over fish, dogs and cats play hide-and-seek, and Milo saves a baby pig from certain aerial doom. Come to think of it, the editing tricks used to make the animals appear to be engaged in dialogue, as well as small bits like Otis pulling Milo out of a pit with a rope, are rather ingenious.

Aye, sea turtles.

Milo and Otis is an American recut of a 1986 Japanese film called Koneko Monogatari (“Kitten’s Story”), edited down from roughly 40 hours of footage shot over four years. Perhaps this is why Milo and Otis has such a distinct flavor; not only is it bereft of wa-acky bits, but it takes completely seriously its storybook notion of talking, conversing animals, as well as the relational aspects that come with it. It’s almost a character study as much as it is a Talking Animal movie, with both Milo and Otis having distinct arcs and developmental journeys. Rare is it to find a film in 2011 with such well-developed and -respected characters, let alone from a localized adaptation of a Japanese movie about chatting barnyard wildlife.

The Adventures of Milo and Otis is a film I find just as charming now as I did when I first watched it as a child. It has some elements that have aged a bit poorly (“Walk Outside” has aged poorly since my initial viewings), but the overall product is still satisfying, and I’d recommend it to anyone who hasn’t seen it yet.

Diversion 2.0 Thirty Day Movie Challenge -- Day 1

And the list-making continues! Fresh off of the Diversion 2.0 Thirty Day Song Challenge, I’ve decided to make another Challenge list, if only to keep writing and prevent Jordyn from Popped Density from sliding into boredom-induced catatonia. With that, here comes the Diversion 2.0 Thirty Day Movie Challenge. What makes this different than other Thirty Day Movie Challenges, you ask? Well, for one, I haven’t even looked at any of the other Challenges; all I know is that they exist, and I didn’t bother checking from there. This way, you folks will be getting a pure D original series, unlike some others I’ve pilfered. Anyway, let’s get to it!

Day 1 – One of Your Favorite Movies (But Not Your Favorite Favorite)

I bellyached at moaned at the beginning of the last series about bringing out the big guns first, so I’m doing things my way now! Yes sir, the movie you are reading about is not my absolute favorite, but it’s definitely in my top ten, if not my top five.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings (Extended)

Yes, I am opening this intro by talking nerdy to you, but I just bought the three-film collection on Blu-ray last week, so I thought I’d talk about it. The Lord of the Rings is one of those nerdy mainstays that, by and large, most movie-loving folk can agree are pretty good. I was never a fan of the books (the descriptions felt far too distant from the actual goings-on with the characters), but I’ve always appreciated the larger story and world created by Tolkien. It helps that I had several friends who were diehard Rings fans, and they helped me get into the film series, securing the trilogy as one of my favorites in movies.

I’m choosing The Fellowship of the Ring because I’ve always enjoyed the quiet moments in Hobbiton near the beginning of the film. Not only are they a great contrast to the ramped-up battle sequences later in the film, they’re simply gorgeous in their own right; I love the greens and browns of Hobbiton, as they give the place a natural, downhome feel. In fact, the main reason I prefer the Extended Edition, apart from padding the film with several excellent character-building moments, is the Concerning Hobbits chapter. While the theatrical cut immediately cuts to Frodo reading by a tree after Galadriel orates the history of the ring, the extended cut pans to Bilbo writing the opening chapter of his book, in which he describes how hobbits live to eat, drink, smoke, and generally avoid any sorts of adventures. It does a fantastic job of establishing the world of Middle Earth, and adds to the weight of when Frodo and Sam finally leave the Shire on their quest.

Of course, there’s more to Fellowship of the Ring than lengthy anecdotes on the dining habits of a village of stout New Zealand folk. For my money, Fellowship provides the best balance of character moments, intense action, and impressive vistas. The cast is uniformly excellent (Sir Ian McKellen, Sean Bean, Elijah Wood, etc.), and the production design is impressive even to those not interested in behind-the-scenes work. I enjoy how the movie borrows dialogue directly from Tolkien’s novels, giving the characters a central voice different from other fantasy epics. Lastly, what can I say about the incredible score provided by Howard Shore, other than I listen to it all the g@#%$&@ time.

In truth, it’s almost pointless for me to write about Fellowship of the Ring; apart from my own smallish, personal reasons for loving Concerning Hobbits so much, nearly everything that can be said about this movie has been done so already. Still, it’s one of my absolute favorite movies, and easily the most-watched out of the Lord of the Rings series.