Month: January 2006

LOTR: The Return of the King | A+

director: Peter Jackson
starring: Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Viggo Mortenson, Ian McKellan

The conclusion to the Lord of the Rings saga clocks in at a hefty 3.5+ hours, but it seemed to fly by when I saw it the first time. It’s hard to imagine how Peter Jackson could conclude all of the story threads started throughout the previous two films, but amazingly enough, he pulls it off with flying colors. The battle on the plains in front of Minas Tirith will likely go down as the greatest battle sequence ever put to celluloid (at least, the greatest battle created within a computer), and the acting in Return of the King is perhaps the strongest of any of the three Rings films. There’s not a lot I can say that hasn’t already been said about these flicks, but the heaps of praise and awards these films have garnered are more than deserved.

LOTR: The Two Towers | A

director: Peter Jackson
starring: Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Viggo Mortenson, Ian McKellan

The second chapter of the Lord of the Rings saga picks up pretty much right where Fellowship left off; and the quality is maintained throughout. The fact that all 3 movies were filmed at once results in a seamless transition from movie to movie, and the resulting work (acting, directing, set design, etc, etc) all reaches a standard that is maintained. The CG work in Two Towers is what may stand out the most, the character work on Gollum likely being the pinnacle of computer-generated character animation to this point. Culminating with one of the greatest battles ever “filmed” at Helm’s Deep, The Two Towers more than holds its own as a standalone movie; but more than adequately bridges the first movie and the saga’s conclusion in Return of the King.

LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring | A+

director: Peter Jackson
starring: Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Viggo Mortenson, Ian McKellan

The first chapter in the Lord of the Rings movie saga, much of Fellowship is spent introducing us to Middle Earth and its characters, chiefly those will become the entitled fellowship. It is difficult to imagine the confluence of events and luck to result in such a nearly perfect fantasy epic, with everything from casting to the music to the locations to the acting being almost note-perfect. It’s an enormous achievement visually. Despite it being the introductory chapter to a huge film saga, it stands on its own as a fantastic film. Regardless of whether you like fantasy films, of have read the books, Fellowship of the Ring is worth seeing simply as a monument to what film production at its finest can be.

No beer for you!

I’ll leave it to Steve to set up one night’s events at the everyone’s favorite local East Aurora haunt, Riley St. Station:

no beer for youDannyboy ordered 8 shots of Jager….and the bartender poured out 3. So I said “Came up a little short in that pour huh?” She then proceeded to give me a dirty look and said that I’m cut off. I shook my head, and did the shot once she poured out the rest. 3 minutes later Andy bought 4 beers, and gave me one when the girl turned around to make change. When she came back Andy said he needed another one…for who she asked? He said it was for him since he was a fast drinker. genius! So she told me to put my arms up…I said, are you a cop? So I put my hands up in the air after I put the beer between my legs. Then She told me to stand up. While I was questioning her sanity I was leaning down and putting the beer on the ground…and she didn’t buy the performance. She told me to get out….and started yelling for the bouncer.

So Steve decides to walk all the way home instead of waiting about 30 seconds for a ride. Andy, it should be mentioned, also got cut off because of the dastardly bartender. He stuck around for a bit, or maybe his outrageous turtleneck sweater had taken control of his mind by that point and forced him to stay (more on that coming soon). A short time later, I found Andy near the door of the bar, having somehow obtained two beers (one for his beer, one for his symbiotic turtleneck) despite his illegal alien status at Riley’s. No sooner had I started talking to him than the other bartender chick darts out from behind the bar and zeroes in on Andy like a heat-seeking missile. She yanks the beers out of his hands and says “get out!” before motioning to the bouncers. I should point out that said bouncers were two high school-looking kids who probably couldn’t beat down a drunk paper bag, let alone a drunk guy in an outrageous turtleneck sweater. But Andy, gentleman and scholar that he is, left under his own power. He had his sweet revenge outside, though, hurling insults at the brick wall out behind the building. I think I saw him shake his fist in the air in defiance as well.

Coming soon: more on that turtleneck; and the harrowing tale of Dannyboy’s up-close encounter with the dreaded small mammal attack.

Munich | A+

director: Steven Spielberg
starring: Eric Bana, Ciaran Hinds, Geoffrey Rush

If I were in the cliche business of writing movie poster taglines, I’d call Munich a “taut, edge-of-your-seat thriller.” And it is just that, though I think it does a disservice to the movie to try and pigeonhole it into the “action thriller” genre, as it is much more. The basic plot follows an Israeli Mossad agent and 4-man team’s functioning as a covert cell sent by the Israeli government to exact revenge for the deaths of the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. Along with all of the movie’s exciting action and drama, Spielberg clearly was trying to send a message with the flick, about the futility of the seemingly endless struggle between Israeli Zionists and the Arab Palestinians hellbent on destroying each other so they can simply have someplace they call “home.”

But as history has shown us, violence only begets more violence; and revenge against the terrorist group that killed the Israeli athletes at the Olympics, in this case, only begets more revenge. It’s a cautionary tale-of-sorts, but it still has significance today, as the conflict between the Arab world and Israel continues to rage. In terms of the film itself, from the superb acting (Eric Bana in particular) to John Williams’ score to Spielberg’s deft directorial hand, there’s never a false note here. Absolutely one of the best films of 2005, Munich will be sure to garner a lot of attention for the Academy Awards next year.