Category / Movies

by Michael Janairo

Haiku movie reviews, January 2015

Boyhood

 

Internal Affairs (1990)

Cop flick from long ago

It probably felt dated

When it was released

 

3 Days to Kill (2014)

A dad and killer

Bossed around by a hot chick

Dumb but fun action

 

Alex Cross (2012)

Guy from “Lost”? Creepy

Tyler Perry – he can act!

So where’s the sequel?

 

Strange Days (1995)

Before Y2K

Cops, murder, rape, data discs

A fine mess for Fiennes

 

Pride (2014)

Gays support miners

In Thatcher’s beastly Britain

Wonderful friendships

 

Selma (2014)

Protests need clear goals,

Strategies, tactics, leaders

— True courage routs hate

 

Kon-tiki (2012)

Thor sets out to prove

Islanders came from Peru

— all on one big raft

 

Saving Mr. Banks (2013)

Disney wants Poppins

The author has a conflict

With her long dead dad

 

Boyhood (2014)

Here’s a crushing truth

“I just thought there would be more”

as time marches on

by Michael Janairo

Review: Pre-judging the movie Interstellar

Epic.

Epic.

This post is part of Sci-Fi November, which you can read all about here.

I haven’t seen “Interstellar” yet, but I have seen the teaser trailer, the official trailer, TV commercials and some feature stories in the NY Times, so I’ve been given an impression of the film and know it will have moments of sheer transcendental brilliance, and it will be an overlong, bloated slog that will leaving me feeling dissatisfied.

Here’s my Half-Baked Theory on Movies Directed by Christopher Nolan: the shorter the running time the greater the satisfaction.

Case in point: “The Dark Knight” (clocking in at 152 minutes was a thrill ride, until it had to go and not end and follow through with the Harvey Dent / Two Face story). Thus it ranks as one of his least satisfying movies. “The Dark Knight Rises,” which is 13 minutes longer, is proportionally more dissatisfying: so much great spectacle (Hines Ward running as the football field behind him collapses? Wow!) and then so many stupid fist fights – FIST FIGHTS!?!?

Of course, I just came up with that theory off the top of my head, but the lengths of Christopher Nolan’s movies aren’t something that I alone am interested in. Peter Sciretta over that the Slash Film website even created this chart (URL for the chart is here):

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by Michael Janairo

Welcome to Sci-Fi November

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What a great idea: a month-long gathering of bloggers to blog about all things Sci-Fi. The organizers of the event are book bloggers at Oh, The Books! and Rinn Reads. Thank you, Rinn, Kelley, Asti, and Leanne for hosting this event and letting me take part in it.

About me and Sci-Fi
You can read more about me here. My relationship to Sci-Fi goes way back, maybe all the way to the first book I remember reading, “Bears on Wheels” (does that count as Sci-Fi? Or is it sci-fantasy? Where do anthropomorphized animals exist within genre classifications if not Sci-Fi?). This is just my way of saying that, like many people, I was invested and interested in science fiction long before I knew the genre was called that. I consumed books, movies and TV shows that all fit within the genre. But I have my limits. I’m a big fan of the original series of Star Trek, but for some reason have never been able to get into Dr. Who. I really enjoyed reading Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (as well as 2010), but Kubrick’s movie always seems slow when it gets to space and bloated in the final third. Some of my all-time favorite books are set in post-apocalyptic zones (such as A Canticle for Liebowitz and the MaddAddam trilogy), and yet I’ve had a hard time getting into many of the post-apocalyptic TV shows like Defiance, Falling Skies, Jericho, and even, yes, BSG (though Walking Dead works for me).

I’m also a writer, and my recent publications have been in the speculative fiction genre, including stories in the anthologies Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History and Veterans of the Future Wars. I also have a day job, where I work in a very cool museum on a college campus in upstate New York.

What I’ll be doing this month
I plan on writing a handful of blog posts this month, including reviews of MaddAddam (thus completing a trilogy of reviews for the trilogy) and the movie Intersteller, and some posts that I hope will be provocative discussion starters about the relationship between science fiction and war, and about whether genre classifications are a necessary evil.

Most of the time, I will be reading what other bloggers’ contributions to the month. This, to me, is the best part, because so many of my fellow bloggers are new to me. So I’ll be searching Twitter for #RRSciFiMonth and reading and commenting on other blogs (this list of participants for Sci-Fi November is right here).

Thanks for reading, and please leave a comment to let me know you were here, even if all you want to say is “Hi!”

by Michael Janairo

A toddler in the cineplex? The horror

Last weekend, I almost walked out of “World War Z” before the movie even began because a young couple rolled in a stroller with a toddler in tow.

I didn’t because, I thought, why should I leave? I wanted to see the movie, despite some so-so reviews. After all, I had read the book and had even had the chance to interview Max Brooks a few years ago before his Sage Colleges visit.

The toddler hadn’t really done anything too intrusive anyway, though he did almost get stepped on as he ran into the aisle at the same time another patron was getting out of his seat. The little boy yelped and fell to his bottom, and the man, seeing the toddler there, exclaimed, “Oh, Jesus, I didn’t see you! I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” The boy bounded up and his parents, from their seat, also apologized. Continue reading →

by Michael Janairo

First look: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” is slated for release on Friday, Dec. 13, but Warner Bros. has just released these publicity stills today. Enjoy

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by Michael Janairo

Photos: The Place Beyond the Pines

Take a look at the just-released photos from Focus Features for The Place Beyond the Pines, which was filmed in Schenectady and stars Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Ray Liotta and Rose Byrne.

The movie is slated to open in limited release on March 29, but then opens wide on April 12.

No new word yet on a special advance screening in the Capital Region.

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by Michael Janairo

From three-day book to ‘Small’ movie

Saratoga Springs resident Chris Millis wrote a novel in 72 hours as part of the annual Three Day Novel Contest and just like most books written that way … he adapted it into an independent film directed by Grammy-winning Swedish video director Jonas Akerlund and starring Billy Crystal, Johnny Knoxville, James Caan, James Marsden, Rosie Perez, Juno Temple, Rebel Wilson, David Koechner, Amanda Plummer, Matt Lucas and Dolph Lundgren.

“Small Apartments” premiered in Los Angeles on Feb. 5 and makes its local debut at Saratoga Music Hall on Broadway at 6:30 pm Friday night. And Roxette’s Per Gessle contributes her first ever movie soundtrack. In the film, Franklin Franklin (played by Lucas of “Little Britain” and “Bridesmaids” fame) kills his landlord and tries to get away with it while trying to escape to “magical” Switzerland.

The premiere event is also a DVD release party that will feature a Q&A, raffles, DVD sales and signings, free popcorn and Moxie cola (featured in the film) and more. Millis’ former Saratoga High teacher Dave Patterson moderates the evening.

by Michael Janairo

Oscar hunt: Where to watch the nominees in the top categories

The Academy Awards often present Capital Region movie-lovers with a problem: Can all the movies in the top categories be seen before the Oscars are handed out?

This year, the Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, Feb. 24, but some movies nominated in the top six categories — picture, director, actor, actress, supporting actor and supporting actress — have come and gone (including “Beasts of the Southern Wild” and “Flight”), while one hasn’t screened yet in the region, “Amour,” which opens at the Spectrum 8 Theatre in Albany on Feb. 8.

What follows is a guide to 13 movies, which of the top six categories they’ve been nominated, whether they are still playing in theaters and when they will be available on DVD.

The bad news is, if you haven’t seen “The Master” yet, you won’t be able to until after the Oscars show. It gets released on DVD on Feb 26, two days after the Academy Awards. For more information on showtimes and contact information for movie theaters, please see the movie page at http://www.timesunion.com/movies/

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ENTER THE TIMES UNION 2013 OSCAR BALLOT CONTEST

by Michael Janairo

Mick LaSalle: Critics and audiences must confront movie violence

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By Mick LaSalle

We enter 2013 with the sickening, dispiriting events in Newtown, Conn., still fresh in mind and yet without much conviction that anything can be done to prevent such future horrors. Obviously, the overriding issue is that we have a gun problem in the United States and a political climate that has been, at least until now, too timid to do anything about it.

But we also have a culture problem, and we know this. We know, because though Newtown shocked us and stopped us in our tracks and continues to haunt our imaginations, it did not surprise us. If the Newtown killings were an act of terrorism, the whole country would be mobilized to protect itself from the Other. But this felt like something from within, not just from within our borders, but from within the soul of the nation. And in talking about matters of the soul, our cultural gatekeepers have been just as timid as our politicians.

Fourteen years ago, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman and Gloria DeGaetano, in “Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill,” were warning us about the effects of violent video games and movies on young and impressionable minds. They compared the games that kids play with the conditioning that soldiers get in order to desensitize them to killing. They pointed out that by the time children reach adulthood they have witnessed hundreds of thousands of simulated violent deaths and have come to associate witnessing death and mayhem with pleasure.

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