A Long Time Ago Almost Exactly as I Remember

May the Fourth has become a bit of a national holiday for Star Wars nerds like myself. So, like any good observing member of a faith-based group who observes their respective holidays, I elected to watch Star Wars this past May the Fourth. I chose Episode IV: A New Hope because in many ways that is the most complete film. George Lucas managed to nail directing his third feature length movie. Go figure. I've seen the movie more times than I could ever count, but I tried to be a little more critical while watching it this time.

First off, Star Wars as a whole is deliciously cheesy. The movie is really broken up into a bunch of mini-narratives which transition like power point slides. Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher were surprisingly good as Luke and Leia. I think there performance is somewhat glossed over by people that are hung up on the subject matter of the film. I did notice that Sir Alec Guinness was a little out of place as Obi-Wan, probably, because he was one of Britain's most acclaimed actors of all time, and the role may be a bit below him.

As I struggled to write this critique I realized that I can't really critique this movie. You see, Star Wars is a part of me, for better or worse. I just can't treat this movie, or any of the other movies in the original trilogy, the same as any other movie. I suppose that might be a deficiency I have, but truly I don't care. I love this movie, and all of the Star Wars movies, even the prequels. They represent something pure and detached from reality. I fully understand the marketing angle employed in the prequels, and arguably in the original trilogy as well, but the beauty of the tropes utilized by Lucas in all the movies is that they are damn near universal. What adventurous kid with dreams bigger than their surroundings doesn't want to save the galaxy like Luke Skywalker?

The fact of the matter is that Star Wars is not novel. Star Wars is based almost completely on preexisting material, but it is culturally significant to a particular time period. As many would argue all creative work is derivative, but in my opinion, this is a particularly apt derivative work.

You don't watch Star Wars because you want to see great film-making. You watch Star Wars because you want to see a great film.

10/10, Will watch again and again, and introduce my children and grandchildren to the series

Oh, by the way, Harrison Ford plays Han Solo masterfully. But, you already knew that so it wasn't really worth mentioning.

Just Another Day in Paradise

"Puerto Rico Welcomes You!" reads the banner as the plane streaks by Johnny Depp's hotel room in this hilariously quirky, but twisted comedy. The Rum Diary is based off of Hunter S. Thompson's novel of the same name. Director Bruce Robinson intentionally, or unintentionally, does a homage to the mayhem of and absurdity of Johnny Depp's other take on a Hunter S. Thompson work, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

I'll just come out and say it, this movie has two of my biggest man crushes: Johnny Depp, and Aaron Eckhart. Eckhart plays the exploitative yankee businessman keen to capitalize on the sugar sand beaches and perfect clime of la Isla Encanta. There are other interesting characters we meet in this playful romp, such as: Giovanni Ribisi as apparently an employed reporter, Michael Rispoli as a reporter who claims to know the island, and Richard Jenkins as the editor of the paper that hired Depp.

However, it is Depp's relationship with another man's woman that really drives the story. Amber Heard is excellent as a more than meets the eyes woman who Depp covets from Eckhart. Their affair motivates Depp to action, and well you get the rest.

I loved this movie. It wasn't a great film per se, but it was deliciously entertaining to me. They do an excellent job of capitalizing on the beauty of the island to further what I guess they are calling a plot. In a lot of ways the plot is really just "let's have Johnny Depp play a reporter on drugs in the Caribbean and see what happens."

7/10, but I'm probably being generous on the score, it is realistically a 6/10 that bats like a 8-9/10

It was him, right?

The movie Zodiac is creepy. For those of you unfamiliar with the movie it is based on the historical events surrounding the Zodiac Killer who terrorized California in the late 60s and 70s. David Fincher's film does an excellent job of roping you in to the story, and generally making your skin crawl.

One of the things that I really thought was done well was the general sense of unease that you felt throughout the film. Is this person the killer? Is that person the killer? Will they find the killer? Jake Gyllenhaal was perfect parts obsessed, endearing, and quirky as the illustrator interested in Zodiac. Likewise, Mark Ruffalo was superb as the Inspector hunting Zodiac. For my money, John Carroll Lynch was the best actor in this film as the suspected Zodiac Arthur Leigh Allen. His ability to portray a sort of detached humanity and casual evil was off-putting.

I thought that Chloë Sevigny did a great job in her role by being convincingly understanding, yet pragmatic about her husband's obsession. She hated the obsession, but she realized she couldn't control it, and so left him to finish it alone.

One thing that was a little confusing is that the current temporal position in the story was sometimes hard to discern. Months would fly by, and although you did get guideposts via onscreen text it could feel a little off. Along those lines I have no idea how closely the movie followed the facts of the case. This may seem like a minor point, and it probably it is, but I thought it was pretty wild that the police officers cooperated so much with Gyllenhaal. On the other hand, if Robert Graysmith, who is played by Gyllenhaal was able to figure all of this out without the help of police that is probably more ridiculous.

Worthwhile movie that moves along at the right pace at the right times, 8/10 easily