After that, we walked over the theater and watched “Where the Wild Things Are.” I’m a huge fan of the book, because I read it when I was very little. Then, it left me with this indescribable feeling of danger and adventure. Lisa had never heard of it before. So, I bought a copy a few weeks ago and read it to her. She was unimpressed. I guess you really have to be nine, for the full impact.

Anyway, the movie was … ok. The message (as such) was actually pretty subtle and more of the story was conveyed by the looks and expressions of the characters (and the monsters) then by the actual dialog. I definitely think this movie will age well, and be just as good in five or ten years – something few movies really achieve. The downside, was that it’s kind of slow, especially in certain parts. There also wasn’t much story there – it felt ’spread thin’. Finally, not a complaint with the movie, but there were some really little kids in the audience, and between their boredom and their parents antics, I was pretty distracted.

I’m glad I watched it. Maybe I’ll watch it again on cable, some day. But it was not the rapturous experience I was hoping for. Oh, and it’s not a kids movie.

Once my fiancee was up & ready we went to the deli where her mother works for breakfast; something we do at least once every weekend. Besides, we also needed to drop her car off for her. After that, we saw “The Day The Earth Stood Still.”

Of all the mainstream fare, that looked like the best option. To be honest, it was OK. The SFX needed to be seen on a big screen to be fully appreciated. Especially since they were the best part of the movie. These were some great actors, but not so great performances. Finally, it was not the change of message from the original’s (1951) “don’t spread your warmongering & weapons to the stars” to the current “humans are destroying the Earth & it’s too valuable to let that happen” that ruined the movie for me. It was the significant shift in character & purpose of the ‘alien’ Klatu. Gone is the patient emissary with a message for humanity, instead we have a superbeing come to wipe out all human life. That is a pretty big change. Further, even when his mind is changed by a small glimpse of human culture & emotion (something you’d think “they’d” notice after studying us for 70+ years) he never does get to deliver his message of “change or die.”

I guess I’d give the movie a resounding, “meh.” I did like the trailer for the upcoming “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” though.

I think this is going to bother me for a long time. It’s hard to get the sense of outrage against injustice and the deep sadness of irreversable loss out of one’s mind.

“This documentary will rip out your heart and leave you in the snow without a sweater. But afterwards, all wounded and broken down, you will see the power of the human spirit even in the face of the darkest of souls.” – Sarah Diamond, director of programming, Slamdance Film Festival

The movie we saw was Slumdog Millionaire. It was excellent, moving, harrowing, and love affirming. Totally worth it … and I’ll admit to misting up near the end. The character Jamal comes out “ok” despite some of the most horrific events, utter depravation, and betrayal. No one would have blamed him if he’d ended up like his older brother Salim. The miracle is that he didn’t. And, I think that his “true arrow” was his abiding love of Latika. I can highly recommend this movie to anyone … and I recommend you stay during the credits so you don’t miss the big dance!

When I say ‘hard to believe’, I don’t mean the whole ghosts in the basement thing – that’s par for the course. I mean, that a family from Chicago would pack everything up and move out to the most desolate place I’ve ever scene and move into the most dilapidated, spooky old house around in order to make a fresh start … growing sunflowers. The second complaint was the transparency of the plot. The first few minutes of the movie are very effective, showing a family terrorized by some unseen force; each disappearing down into the basement even the innocent little boy. The only problem was what they DIDN’T show you … the father. This immediately implied that it was the father of this doomed family on some sort of rampage. So, later on when a mysterious stranger, a man, shows up and volunteers to work long hours for months at a time for no wages other then a place to stay and some meals … alarm bells went off.

I was almost thrown off by some red herrings, but the red herrings weren’t there to lead you to another potential killer, just caste doubt on the right one. In other words, they didn’t introduce anyone else in the movie that it could have been and they didn’t convincingly prove that it couldn’t have been him. So, when they perform the ‘reveal’ and show him in the initial scenes as the ‘unseen force’ it doesn’t really surprise anyone.

Finally, the movie followed a particular plot that is so old and hackneyed in horror that smack’s of Hollywood cheese. Namely, the teenager who knows what’s really going on but who can’t get any adults to believe them. Let’s get this out in the open … (saying I eventually have a daughter) if I were to look into the eyes of my daughter, even a daughter who was a rebellious teenager who’s gotten into trouble as teenagers tend to do, and see abject terror … I’d tend to believe her and not dismiss the entire story as her ‘antics’. This movie wasn’t as bad as others, but in many, the parents have to disbelieve a whole sequence of events including people disappearing, strange wounds appearing, and other creepy signs and portents. In “The Messengers” all the parents had to do was disbelieve strange bruises on their daughters ankles, her repeated stories of spectral attacks, the disappearance of the previous tenants, and the complete terror that came radiating off of their daughter whenever she related the events. At some point, of this disbelieving smacks of abuse.

Here’s a partial review, and radically different from movie mentioned above. It’s the business / organization book, recommended to me by my mother, “From Good to Great.” At first it seemed a little dry and business-book-ish; but as I got past the introduction I found that it was utterly fascinating and the lessons completely believable and utterly applicable. The believability comes from their firm roots in empirical facts, not gilded theory. The applicability is due to their universal nature. I may never be the CEO of a large corporation, but the description of a “Level 5 Leader” applies just as much to a person improving their own lives, or the head of a family improving his family’s life, as to a corporate leader improving the entire organization he heads. This is only a partial review since I’m only about 30+ pages into the book, but if the rest proves to be as good as this section then it was money and time well spent.

Personally, I’d like to see “Flags of our Fathers” and then “Letters from Iwo Jima.” I’m fascinated that we have both sides of that war story … something almost never done, especially as it relates to WWII.

I’m nearly done reading the latest book by Caitlin R. Kiernan, namely “Daughter of  Hounds.” This book is very different from her usual, and I’m not sure why she’s changed her modus operandi. Most of her works are filled with loose ends and ambigious situations and rather disappointing endings. I’ve admired her for that, except for the cases where I was thoroughly frustrated by her (“Dry Salvages” comes to mind). In this novel, she’s as explicit as she’s ever been. The monsters are described, the hero’s call on magic and it’s quite obvious, and (for the most part) it reads more like an action / adventure novel then an atmospheric horror novel. To be brutally honest, I like it better this way! Let’s see if my opinion remains the same when I get to the end.

I wasn’t exactly on-diet this weekend, though Saturday was my “day off” and I did pretty good on Sunday (well, there was that piece of pumpkin pie!). Tomorrow morning, I’m back in the gym and back on track. I can say I’ve lost what little weight I gained before my two (2) weeks in vacation in Michigan. Everything from this point on will be new progress.

After speaking with my brother about his business ventures this weekend I learned something new and disheartening. Nothing is ever as easy and straight forward as you hoped. He does research on a business and gets to know the current owner and looks at the books and assembles his co-investors and then … the soap opera begins. These facts were hidden and that person who hadn’t even made an appearance before decides to cause trouble now, etc., etc., etc.

The point? That the hard part of being an entrepreneur is not the financials or the operations or even the risk. The hard part is managing the intangibles and the constant background level of chaos that exists. Do you know why you’ve never read that in a book on business management? Because while high-falutin’ intellectuals are theorizing about how business should be managed with fancy whiteboard diagrams, the reality is stuffed up toilets in the women’s room and a vindictive ex-employee spreading rumors to your regulars.

My opinion? Disappointing. It’s not that the acting wasn’t great, or that the special effects weren’t great, or that this wasn’t a faithful and well done homage to the 1978 classic – it totally was! The primary problem was that the Superman-Lois relationship stuff was very slow and didn’t forward the plot, hardly at all; plus, the villain wasn’t nearly as villainous as I’d hoped.

Lex Luthor is a great villain! Kevin Spacey is a great Lex Luthor! The plot was rediculous … yet another real estate scheme to make him rich (ala the first Superman movie)? Give me a break! In the comics and in the TV series, Lex Luthor is a billionaire, to no small part due to his genius and ruthlessness. In the first movie (and redone here) he is a scheming, conman, broke or hustling money from aging widows, or trying to purpetrate a far fetched real estate scam. If this was really the Lex Luthor of the comics, no 12 year old boy would have bothered to read it. I mean, come on! Why not insider trading or junk bonds? Ooooooh, how villainous!

As has been proven time and again, superhero movies rely heavily on the villain. The hero’s just aren’t that interesting unless they’re fighting a really interesting, and powerful villain. Spiderman has done that very well, X-Men have done this very well, Superman has not. In fact, the better Superman movie was the second one, in which he had to fight three (3) Kryptonian villains – that was awesome!
Here’s “Stephen’s Superhero Movie Formulae” – Create a complex, conflicted hero who has an extreme motive for purforming their extreme acts. Add a really powerful, and fascinating villain, either driven to their path in desperation or madness or grief. And stir in a complex world that could conceivably contain both of them. This is how you tell a good superhero story!

I’d give Superman Returns a B-.