Shmee.Me

March 17, 2015March 21, 2015

Travel With Mad Max Beyond The Thunderdome!

It is time for me to finish reviewing the original Mad Max trilogy with Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome. This was my favorite of the three movies growing up, but now after watching them all again in their not edited for cable glory, I now see that it is the weakest entry in the series. Thus far anyway. It isn’t terrible, but it just lacks the focus of the other films.

The film takes place fifteen years after Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, and things have almost completely collapsed, but some people are starting to rebuild. One such place is Barter Town. A little encampment with electricity, commerce, and some semblance of law and order. Oh yeah if you have an argument with someone you have to fight to the death in the titular Thunderdome! So play nice. This is where Max finds himself after being robbed by a flying bandit. Later he helps the Lost Boys escape Neverland.

If you are looking at the description above and find the Neverland bit a little jarring, don’t worry it is in the film too. It is no wonder that I thought that this was two movies growing up. I used to think there was Thunderdome, and then Beyond Thunderdome. Not so. It is just one movie split in two, and the Lost Boys part is not very interesting. The film takes Max away from the crazy people that the series is known for, and then makes him some sort of messiah for children. Worse yet it only has one chase scene, and that is at the end of the movie for like ten minutes. It is still a good chase, but just nothing on the level of The Road Warrior.

They got much better actors this time around, but since the story is worse it didn’t matter much. They growl and shriek with the best of them, but if they have nothing to work with, there isn’t much they can do. Even Mel Gibson looks a little lost in this film. You can see him thinking, “so I don’t drive cars and shoot people?”. Nope. Just yell at some kids Mel.

I was pretty hard on this movie, but overall it is still pretty watchable in an 80’s sort of way. It is just an odd turn from what the other movies are. This film seemed to follow the Evil Dead sort of trajectory: hard core indie film, better version of the first film, and then new story with crazy self parody. In Beyond Thunderdome’s case the parody version wasn’t all that funny, and the crazy story wasn’t super interesting. I still like Thunderdome, but that is probably my nostalgia kicking in.

March 16, 2015March 16, 2015

Go To The Ball With Cinderella!

Cinderella, the 2015 film by Kenneth Branagh (Thor), is Disney’s best live action remake of one of their classic cartoons yet. It provides most of the magic and wonder of the original, but gives us greater context for all the characters’ motivations, and I think Cinderella out of all the old Disney films always needed the most context.

Unlike Disney’s other live action re-imaginings, if you have seen the cartoon you know how this movie plays out. The orphan Ella (Lily James) is forced in to servitude by her step-mother Lady Tremaine (Cate Blanchett), but she is rescued by her Fairy Godmother (Helena Bonham Carter) who dolls her up and sends her to the ball where she meets the Prince (Richard Madden), and after a few shoe fittings later she lives happily ever after.

What is different about this movie is that they answer a few of the questions we have had for a long time: Why didn’t Cinderella run away? Why is Lady Tremaine so cruel? Why is the Prince so willing to marry someone he just met, and why is Cinderella always talking to animals? The answers to these questions aren’t always super convincing, and I am not sure they tell the whole story, but they at least make the movie much more relatable. With the added context it makes this sugary sweet story go down much smoother.

The actors are all great. James plays the sweet and caring Ella so well. You really feel for all the hardships she goes through, but like almost all Disney movies the villain steals the show. Cate Blanchett both vamps it up and plays Tremaine with a bit of vulnerability. Blanchett makes the character without a doubt evil, but believably so. As far as the rest of the cast goes, they all turn in their limited parts quite well. There wasn’t a bad performance in the bunch.

Kenneth Branagh brings his mastery of filming period pieces to this film. The whole world, while being slightly over the top, felt real and worn in. It is still cotton-candy for the eyes, but It just works. Disney’s costume crew also worked their magic on this movie. Everything looked perfect. The step-sisters’ dresses looked both hideous and amazing at the same time, and Blanchett’s dresses and gowns were perfect. Cinderella’s ball gown and wedding dress were very lovely. They are going to be selling a lot of dolls to a lot of little girls.

The only major downside of this film was that even with the added story elements, it was still the same Cinderella that we have seen for years. Just a well done version, but even with that said there is a reason classic stories stick around. We like to see kind and good people get what they deserve, and likewise we love to see the schemes of the evil fail. This movie delivers on that. If you have a kid and are looking for a movie to watch Cinderella is a great option (though currently it is pretty much your only option), or if you are just like me and love Disney, it is still a must watch.

March 13, 2015March 13, 2015

Star Wars: Rogue One, What Is In A Name?

Bob Iger made two big announcements yesterday, Start Wars: Episode VIII will open in May 2017, and the name of the new stand-alone Star Wars movie, Star Wars: Rogue One that comes out December 2016. If you are any kind of Star Wars geek at all this name will sound familiar. Rogue One is a call sign in the Rebel Alliance’s elite fighter group the Rogue Squadron. The Rogue Squadron, as I am sure you know, used to include Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles. I am guessing Luke and Wedge are no longer part of the Squadron, though they may be advisors.

This name means that probably everyone was wrong when they were thinking this was going to be a bounty hunter movie, or a smuggler movie. So either this is a side story to the events of Episodes IV-VI, or the Rogue Squadron is now on Empire clean-up duty and galaxy policing. If it is galaxy policing than I guess it could contain bounty hunters and smugglers, but just not in the way people were thinking. I am very excited to see where they go with this flick, and I am glad all the “insiders” were wrong.

Here is to a new Star Wars movie every six months!

March 12, 2015March 12, 2015

What Tron 3 Needs To Do!

With Tron 3 filming in the fall it is clear Disney really wants Tron to be major franchise, and for the record so do I, but if Disney is going to be successful then the next Tron will not be able to get by on its good looks and cool sound track. I figure they could use a little help, so here are my thoughts on how to make Tron 3 work. This will have a few spoilers about Tron and Tron: Legacy, but they are so old at this point if you haven’t watched them you weren’t going to, and you are probably not going to read this post.

1: Keep the story simple

Tron: Legacy’s story was unnecessarily complicated. There were these weird non-program AI people called ISOs, and they were being wiped out by CLU the program clone of Flynn tasked with making the perfect system. Then to make matters worse they raised the stakes to ridiculous levels by having CLU plan an invasion of the real world. I mean they have kind of painted themselves in a corner with the ISOs deal now, but at least we don’t need to go over it again, or dig any deeper in to it. Also they are also going have to get back on The Grid fast. I don’t want a Tron movie outside the computer world. That is just a bad motorcycle movie.

2: Have more Tron

Tron was barely in Tron: Legacy and the movie bears his name. It was great to get Jeff Bridges back, but Bruce Boxleitner (Tron) is really the man that loves this franchise, so it is time to let him push it forward. That is not saying I don’t want The Dude in the new movie, but that it just needs more Bruce. Tron should have Tron in it.

3: Bring back Tron: Uprising

The cartoon was the best thing the Tron franchise ever did. Story wise anyway. It didn’t have the best production values, and the animation was a little stiff, but they should bring it back to start the hype train for the new movie. That way people have an idea of what is going on in the Tron universe, and it starts off the advertising.

4: Speaking of advertising…

Admittedly Tron is a hard movie to advertise for. It is supper geeky and hard to explain, but if Disney can make Guardians of the Galaxy one of the hottest properties on the planet, they can do a better job with Tron. It will take some work, but I am pretty sure that they can get people excited to see a special effects spectacle.

5: Keep it up with the light cycles

The biggest thing Tron: Legacy got right was all the cool light cycle races, and light fighter battles, and the light everything else. Pretty much anything with a light vehicle was awesome, and they need to do more of that. If they keep the story simple like in my first point there should be more time for cool stuff, and this series should be all about cool stuff.

Well those are my ideas for making a great Tron 3. I know it is too late for the script since they are going to start filming soon, but maybe this will help them in the editing process.

March 11, 2015March 11, 2015

Again With The Random Movie News?

Tron 3 Is A Go!

Tron and its sequel Tron Legacy have some serious issues, mostly that they are style over substance, but it is such amazing style! They sound and look so good! There is nothing like them in movies, and that is why I am excited to see that according to ComicBook.com Tron 3 will start shooting in October. I can’t wait to jump back on to the Grid! Maybe they will learn something from Tron Uprising and tell a good story this time around?

Chris Pine For Green Lantern?!

With Chris Pine’s stint as Captain Kirk coming to an end it would makes sense that he is looking for his next big thing, but him as Hal Jordan? I can see it, and according to the Latino Review he is the one DC is going after, but I was really pulling for Idris Elba to be John Stewart. He would be terrific! Now this is still very much a rumor, so Idris has a chance.

All New All Male Ghostbusters!

Apparently Sony wants lots of Ghostbusters movies, so according to Deadline they have green-lit a new Ghostbusters movie with an all male cast to follow up the all female version coming out soon, and they are going to exist in the same universe. Then Sony wants them to have Avengers-like crossovers. With the terrible time Sony has been having with the Spider-Man universe, I am not so sure about this idea. We will see, but I am very skeptical. One well-made movie sounds great, but several mediocre movies? Not so much.