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.

Blu-Balled: It's in the Game -- Tron (1982)

Before its animation branch got its act together in 1989 with The Little Mermaid, and well before it discovered tweeners in the early-2000’s, Disney’s main bread and butter was live-action tent pole movies. Not all were successful, but many were interesting, and later became mainstays on The Disney Channel (again, before Disney discovered tweeners). One such movie was Tron, an 80’s cult classic that has since gained a following among nerds and a very expensive sequel.

Tron has a fairly complicated and meander-y plot, but here’s the long and short of it: while digging around his old employer’s computer files, Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is transported to cyberspace by the Master Control Program, an ornery AI who is basically intent on world domination. Once inside, Flynn must work with Tron (Bruce Boxleitner), a security program, and Yori (Cindy Morgan), a testing program, to defeat the MCP and get back to reality.

I find Tron to be immensely appealing, but not for traditional, “This movie is good” reasons. Tron was released in 1982, and almost everything about this film is steeped in 80’s movie –isms, from the general look of the film (a grainy, almost modern appearance common in many other flicks of the time) to the “Gee whiz, we’re making a movie!” attitude that permeates most of my favorite 80’s entertainment. Perhaps I’m simply weary of so many grim, “serious” takes on popular entertainment, or the uber-hip, modern school of film-making, but Tron simply wants to try something new, and I’d be a damn cold b@%#$ if I gave it a rap on the knuckles for its desire to be different.

Dudes who wear hockey helmets and glow-y leotards while playing Ultimate Frisbee. Eh, I'll take it.

You can’t discuss Tron without also discussing the special effects, and Tron is a real feast for the eyes. Even if the effects have aged significantly since its initial release in 1982 (and believe me, they have), the film’s look is so startlingly different that it’s easy to take the primitive effects at face value; you get the impression that the movie is supposed look that way, deliberately like it’s inside of a computer. The characters all have an otherworldly glow to them, and all look as if they were filmed in black and white, giving even the most mundane of scenes a trippy and compelling visual style. Buying the film on Blu-ray only accentuates the “OMG PRETTY!” level of an already-gorgeous movie.

The acting is split down the middle. Boxleitner and Morgan are kinda wooden, but charitable fans could explain that Tron and Yori are programs, and aren’t capable of fully human emotions (uh huh). On the other hand, I do enjoy Jeff Bridges as a hotshot, nerdy guy who loves coding as much as he loves video games. The biggest star of the film, though, is Warner, who uses his wonderfully unctuous, British dialect to give his character, Sark, an effortlessly villainous edge. Warner also plays the Master Control Program, though his voice is digitally lowered, Talkboy-style.

Warner also plays "The Lobe" on the old WB series Freakazoid. If you haven't seen it, please open another tab and add it to your Netflix queue now.

Make no mistake, Tron is definitely not what you’d call a Great Movie. Tron’s plot takes quite a while to get going, setting up several story-important details, but mostly trudging around. Even when the movie finally enters The Grid, the computer setting where most of the film takes place, much of the action is rather unevenly paced, alternating between special effects-driven set piece scenes and awkward bits of dialogue.

Still, for what it is, Tron is a fun, if slow, bit of 80’s nostalgia for evenings that require 80’s nostalgia. It’s not the most exciting film available on Blu-ray, but for fans of 80’s flicks or for those that remember when The Disney Channel actually used to play old Disney shorts, Tron is a worthwhile purchase.

Blu-ray Breakdown:

Where purchased: Target in Bozeman

How much: $20 (first week special)

Favorite character: Sark

Favorite scene: Flynn, Tron, and RAM race the Lightcycles

Rating: ***/****

...dammit.

Blu-Balled: I've Got a Secret -- National Treasure: Book of Secrets

If there’s one type of fiction I have total, unabashed affection for, it’s the Treasure Hunting story (see my Uncharted entry for further details). Whether it’s their exotic locales, emphasis on problem solving, or healthy blend of adventure and humor, Treasure Hunting stories are some of my favorite slices of cinematic escapism. Not every Treasure Hunting movie is created equal, however, and not every film can be Romancing the Stone. It is with mixed feelings, then, that I bring up National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Not because I don’t like it, but because it’s so bad, and I still like it.

National Treasure: Book of Secrets picks up shortly after the first movie ends, with Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicholas Cage) and his father, Patrick Henry Gates (Jon Voight), giving a presentation on their ancestor, Thomas Jefferson Gates (this movie is chock full of naming I See What You Did There’s). An attendant revealing himself to be Mitch Wilkinson (Ed Harris) stands up and accuses Thomas Gates of being the mastermind behind the Lincoln assassination. Worse, he has proof: a missing page of the John Wilkes Booth’s diary, with Thomas Gates’ name among the conspirators.

Ben and Patrick know the truth, though: that Thomas Gates was a hero, who died trying to prevent the Confederacy from finding a massive treasure that would have helped turn the tide of the Civil War. In order to restore the Gates family’s good name, Ben and Patrick need to find the treasure and prove Thomas’ innocence.

For a paper-thin excuse to go out and find more treasure, it's not bad.

This, of course, requires getting the gang from the first movie back together: Riley (Justin Bartha), Ben’s techno-savvy protégé, who all but wears a T-shirt with the words “COMIC RELIEF” written on it; Agent Sadusky (Harvey Keitel), an FBI member who assists Ben in lieu of pursuing him this time; and Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger), Ben’s old beau, who left him for his Nicholas Cage-level of social ineptitude. Joining the cast is Ben’s mother Emily (Helen Mirren), an expert in ancient languages (par for the course in stories like this).

A large part of the franchise’s appeal is how it integrates Dan Brown-esque conspiracy plots with American history. The first film was all about Revolutionary history, with Gates and co. traipsing about the East Coast to places like the Liberty Bell. Book of Secrets is trenched firmly in a Civil War setting, with the Lincoln assassination used as the plot’s main narrative thrust. While we don’t find out that Gettysburg is secretly the site of the Fountain of Youth (I can imagine the dialogue for that one: “The Conquistadors had it all wrong! It wasn’t Florida, it was Pennsylvania!”), Book of Secrets still exhibits Treasure's brand of over-the-topness, and the film is better for it.

"No, we're not looking for a 'crystal skull'."

I have fun with the National Treasure movies, but it would be remiss to think of them as anything revolutionary. Though fun and worthwhile, there are definitely aspects of Book of Secrets that could stand improvement.

Take, for example, the clues leading to the treasure. Treasure Hunting story formula dictates that the clues involve lateral thinking, but it’s also an unofficial rule that they be cryptic and mystical-sounding as well. Book of Secrets really likes the cryptic and mystical-sounding aspect, because many of the clues sound like the writers were playing Madlibs when they came up with them (“Okay, I need a noun!” “How about ‘twin’?” “Hey, that’s a good one! Now I need aaaan adjective.” “Um, okay, how aboouuuut, uh, ‘resolute’?” “Yes! Perfect! Alright, let’s go to lunch.”). One of the clues states, “The entrance shall only be revealed under a cloudless rain. Surrender your hand to the heart of the warrior.” Well and good, but the clue in question came from a letter written by Queen Victoria. Huh??? This isn’t some ancient language that was translated into an archaic form of English, it’s the bloody Queen. Surely she could have said something like, “Third rock from the left, chaps.”

I dunno what it says, but I bet it reads like a fortune cookie.

Speaking of the writing, the plot could have been massaged a bit before the movie went into production. For example, Book of Secrets ultimately deals with the search for Cibola, a lost city of gold (I was unaware that there was more than one). Fine, cool, chasing after a well-worn, if reliable, MacGuffin; hell, I can think of at least three different projects off the top of my head where people go looking for El Dorado in some form or another. My pause comes from the revelation that (SPOILER ALERT) Cibola is located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, specifically inside of Mount Rushmore. “They carved Mount Rushmore to erase the map's landmarks!” cries one character. “Mount Rushmore was a cover-up,” breathes another, heavily. What??? Certainly there are more practical ways to make a mountain look like something else.

There are also the usual slew of logistical problems that pop up in escapist entertainment like this. Things like the apparent lack of police during a heated car chase between Wilkinson and Gates in Paris. Or an apparent lack of security cameras in either the Oval Office or Buckingham Palace. Or the apparent ease in which Ben and co. can tie up an entire city’s hotel chains. The list goes on.

I'm imagining a sequel where we discover that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in retaliation for destroying the map to Shangri-La.

What makes these complaints more or less irrelevant, though, is the fun and craftsmanship brought to the rest of the table. Book of Secrets is better-cast than it has any right to be, with excellent performances from Cage, Voight, Kruger, Mirren, Keitel, and Harris, all of whom appear to be having a ball while making this film. The movie strikes a good balance between action and humor without straying too far into either territory, and Bartha’s well-timed performance as Riley has me in stitches every time I watch it. Sets, stunts, the whole nine is well-executed to the very last. Even if the movie doesn’t have a brain in its empty, conspiracy-laden head, it still knows how to have a good time.

This is ultimately what National Treasure: Book of Secrets is: a good time. A live-action, two-hour episode of “DuckTales,” sans Uncle Scrooge, plus US history and Dr. Stanley Goodspeed. A movie for playing in the background while you and your friends play Apples to Apples, occasionally paying attention to it and making an off-hand comment about it. Incidentally, this is why I bought it, and as such, I am satisfied with my purchase. Though not the best of its kind, National Treasure: Book of Secrets is still a Treasure Hunting story, and I still love it, Rushmore-shaped warts and all.

Blu-ray Breakdown:

Where purchased: Debo’s Pawn on Mendenhall in Bozeman

How much: $8

Favorite character: Riley

Favorite scene: Ben and Abigail break into the Queen’s study, while Riley acts as in-the-ear hacker guy

Rating: ***/****

Blu-ray Series Kickoff: Blu-Balled

As an in-training tech nerd, I loves me some shiny gadgets. Granted, I don’t always buy the things (that costs money!), but I generally try to keep up with the Next Big Thing in the consumer electronics world. A few years ago, when the media was calling Blu-ray the Next Big Thing, I took notice, but was ultimately uninterested. Why, I thought, would I want to pay for an expensive piece of technology I could only appreciate with an even more expensive TV? Sure, I can always get a PlayStation 3, but at $599 US dollars, it’s still way out of my price range.

Time passed, and several things happened. Many months of savings (and a hard-fought refund with Westinghouse) rewarded me with 40” of Samsung LCD. I moved in with a roommate who actually had a PS3. And most importantly, Blu-rays started becoming super cheap. Not pawn shop cheap, but cheap enough. My inner techie yearned to jump on the HD bandwagon; it was now practical to do so! I still held back, though—I’m not sure what I was waiting for, but I knew that if it was meant to be, a good, definitive reason would jump out at me.

And jump it did. Slowly, surely, and decisively, Disney DVDs started to receive fewer and fewer bonus features in favor of their Blu-ray counterparts. Movies like The Princess and the Frog shipped their Making Of featurettes only in hi-def, and the supplemental extras that had long been DVD’s siren song started drifting to a new format. Well bugger, I though, I guess I’m making the switch.

That was seven months ago, and my initially-modest Blu-ray collection has swelled to a still-modest-but-not-bad size. It’s not what you’d call a large collection, but my DVD catalog ain’t exactly that big either, so it doesn’t suffer much from comparison. Mercifully, major retailers like Target and Wal-Mart offer Blu-ray movie specials on a regular basis, making it even easier for me to build a library of HD goodness.

What does this have to do with you, my beloved audience? Well, I need to write about something while I wait for Oliver & Company to arrive in the mail; why not make a new series based on the home theater impulse purchases of a rural twentysomething? Okay, there’re plenty of reasons not to, but this way I can keep myself sharp, writing, and active, while you folks can formulate your own disparaging opinions based on my taste in movies. Everybody wins!

Bottom line: new blog series, filled with movies old, new, and (hopefully) cheap. This series will be in addition to our regular cast that includes Our Feature Presentation, video games, and Terrible Movies. As with that one article that kicked off that one Disney series, I’m still trying to decide a name for the thing, so feel free to offer one up in the comments. Stay tuned—yet more internet movie kerfuffle awaits!

PS – My pool of movies is fairly shallow at this point, and I’m open to suggestions of what to fill it with. As always, leave ‘em in the comments where I can find them, unless, of course, you want to send them to me on Twitter.