Twilight: Book and Movie Review

It has been awhile since I have had the opportunity to review a film and a book at the same time. I think the last time I did this was in my Film Criticism class at UCO a few years back. This week I read the book Twilight and went to see the movie with some friends on Monday night. I will tell you up front that I liked the book much more, but you probably would have guessed as much. The book is always better.

Book:
Yesterday I was listening to NPR and a listener described the book as, "smoldering." I think that is the best description as this book is pretty long and has relatively few action moments. Most of the book is spent on the relationship between the main characters Edward and Bella. One of the things that I like about the book is that it breaks some of the conventional vampire rules and spends time humanizing the vampires instead of getting wrapped up in the gory details of feeding.

I can easily see why so many girls are wrapped up within this series of books. Slightly dorky and clumsy girl meets hot and intriguing vampire, who falls in love with her and helps her escape from the reality that has become her life. A lot of the girls that couldn’t wait for the movie to come out and talked about the book on Facebook best match the description above. I didn’t feel like the supernatural side of the story outweighed the human side of the story. The majority of the book is spent on the relationship between Edward and Bella and their burgeoning love. As I told my friends as I talked them into going to see the movie, "this is a love story with a little interlude with vampires." I grew up reading Anne Rice during High School so this story seemed really tame and had very few vampire moments, but I liked what happened and where it went.

If you have the time read the book or get the audio version on iTunes, which clocks in at just over 12 hours.

Movie:
What a let down! I was expecting more from this film and would say that it delivered on nothing. The only casting choices that I liked were Edward, Bella, and Alice. The director brought out the vampires as being weird instead of just being outside the crowd, which are two different things. With very few supernatural things to create on film I thought that what we got was very hokey and cheesy.  I laughed aloud many times during the film, as did the couple sitting behind us. The film was very fragmented and seemed to introduce moments from the book without explanation. I also felt that there was too much over acting during the film.

Skip the movie if you can read the book. It will only stand to keep you away from the books, which are far superior.

*edited

Friday is for Film

• The Changeling, not Changeling
• Elizabeth: The Golden Age
• Knocked Up
• Hot Fuzz

     I have had a full weekend of film so far. I watched The Changeling last night with John and Paige. It was made in 1980 and is destined for a treatment by the MST3000 crowd. John got scared about half way through the movie and left. Sydnie got bored shortly afterwards so I was the only one to finish the movie. Elizabeth was a great film. I don’t really get into period pieces like this, but I tossed in and was happy I did. Trying to keep things light this afternoon by watching Hot Fuzz and Knocked up. I have seen both of these like 3 or 4 times before. It is amazing how much more stuff you pick up each time you watch a movie again.

How many movies do you watch in a week?

Friday is for Film

I went to the movies with my dad twice over the weekend. We watched Appaloosa and Max Payne. Appaloosa is a western and Ed Harris’ second directorial outing. There was nothing profound or visual exciting happening in this movie. It did excite in me a desire to go back and watch The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford though. If you are just totally bored and need something to do then this movie may be able to keep you from falling asleep.

The theatre we watched Max Payne in had a brand new Christie projector in it and was probably the best picture quality I have ever seen. The movie looked incredible. Visually the film is amazing. There are scenes in the film that are breathtaking and the special effects were superb. Mark Wahlberg’s performance was weak though. There were moments when I thought he is just not mature enough to pull this scene off. Mark is the new Keanu in my opinion. Still this film was good, but not great.

The best part of the weekend was seeing the trailers for two of Clint Eastwood’s new movies. Go to www.imdb.com and check them out.

Friday is For Film

       This afternoon I sat down and watched Ordinary People with Mary Tyler Moore, Donald Sutherland, and Timothy Hutton. As the movie begins you know that something tragic has happened in the life of young Conrad that is keeping him from sleeping. Robert Redford directed this movie that won four Academy Awards in 1981 including Best Director, Best Picture, Best Writing, and Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Timothy Hutton, which seemed strange to me because I would have put Timothy Hutton as the lead in this picture, but he never would have beat out Robert DeNiro that year who won for Raging Bull, but I also would have made him share the award with his fellow nominee Judd Hirsh who plays Hutton’s therapist.

     First of all, this was an amazing movie. It has all of the drama that Noah Baumbach is going for is his recent pictures, without all of the raunchy interludes. There are several shots within this picture between Hutton and Hirsh that prove to be the precursors for Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s Good Will Hunting. Hutton’s character of Conrad is going through a difficult period in his life to say the least and has a lot of people speaking into his life on their own terms and for their own benefit. What I enjoyed about the progression of Conrad’s character was that he was able to find his own voice. He learned how to express his feelings and be heard.

     What was interesting for me to see in this movie was the opening establishing shots which were underscored with the school choir singing Canon in D Major with its chorus of Hallelujahs. I finished reading Dan Kimball’s They Like Jesus But Not The Church, which I will blog about in another post, and within the last chapters of the book he talked about the new gap that we have placed between people and God. Kimball states that we are telling people that in many ways they must conform to the Christian subculture before they can even get to the place where they must deal with their sin and the gap that separates them from God. You can get a better picture of this in John Burke’s No Perfect People Allowed. Conrad’s mother seemed unwilling and even embarrassed by what was happening within this family and would rather leave than work it out. This has made me think about how far are we willing to travel down the road with someone walking on their way to becoming a Christ-follower. The church wants people to change in an instance, but that rarely happens. Discipleship and sanctification is a process and we must allow imperfect people into our fellowship so that they can see how more mature followers of Christ handle life. Discipleship is not just what you know, but it is also about how you live your life and how you react to life as it happens. I think that this has a lot to do with the lack of intimacy that has overtaken the church. When we are afraid to share life together we unable to become a body.

• How far are you willing to walk with someone on their journey?
• Are you quick to give up on someone or are you willing to travel with them?
• Think about the farthest you have traveled with someone. Can you go farther?
• Are you relationships suffering because you are afraid to open up?

Friday is for Film

The selection for today is Neil Young: Heart of Gold. I have long been a fan of Neil Young and the work of director Jonathan Demme. You may have seen some of Demme’s other films like Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia. Recorded at the Ryman Auditorium, this beautiful film features Emmylou Harris singing background vocals and the Nashville String Machine. Young, who had just recovered from an aneurysm and lost his father when this movie was shot, progresses through some sweet sounding melodies, love songs and wistful lyrics. The standout performance on this album is a tie between the lulling Nashville String Machine and the work of Dobro player.

Neil Young has been an artist who pours his heart and soul into his work and the intimate songs that Neil shares with us in this work connects us with the history that has made the man. There are some intensely personal songs here for his dad and daughter.

I enjoyed this film, but know that I have to be in the mood to sit down to watch it. Slow at times, with some of the songs dragging out longer than my attention span can last. I am going to give this one 7 out of 10 pics.

Friday is for Film

       I went to see Step Brothers with Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly on Friday afternoon. The room was about 80% packed and there were a lot of teenagers in the room. Both Ferrell and Reilly are 40-year old losers who still live at home with their parents. Their parents meet at a conference, fall in love, and move in together. After some friction the two become best friends. Good times ensue for the two and they are challenged to grow up by their parents. This is a coming-of-age comedy that really didn’t do anything for me. The movie relies too hard on foul language and no one-liners of mentioned. There was about 5 minutes of funny moments in the movie towards the beginning of the movie and the rest of the movie fails to keep up.

      Step Brothers will be the first movie to be rated using my new Pick Scale. Zero picks is bad. 10 picks is a masterpiece. Step Brothers gets 4 out of 10 picks.