Up in the Air [21 Dec 2009|12:49am] tskirvin Up in the Air: *** 1/2 (out of 4) Amongst the most awkward movie experiences of my life was when I saw High Fidelity. I went to the movie with a pair of friends, one of which was an ex-girlfriend, bearing a Transformer I had just purchased across the street at Meijer. The movie was in large part about breakups, seeing those ex-significant-others, and putting away childish things. I had clearly seen the movie in the most inadvertently appropriate manner possible; and years later, I still feel both awkward and wistful as I think about it. Up in the Air is in large part about the loneliness of a crowd. I saw it alone, in a fairly packed theatre, surrounded by others that choose to go to movies on a Sunday night. And as I left the movie, I felt that I had to take a walk around the neighborhood to contemplate the situation. And I wonder if I'm going to be thinking seriously about this otherwise-innocuous evening in nine years. From the trailers, I had originally pegged the movie as a romantic comedy. I suppose that it did, in some ways, fit that bill; but it was not (as I feared) about the relationship between George Clooney and his 23-year old assistant, but instead about the relationship between Clooney and his job. The main hook of the movie is this job: Clooney (Ryan) is a travelling consultant who fires people for a living. This, of course, resonates well with the modern economy (which is why it's doing well at the box office); but more interestingly, this makes it a bit of a period piece, as well as movie about a specific setting, that being (for the most part) the Midwestern and Plains States. And while I'm not sure that just the existence of Omaha was meant to make us laugh, I wasn't (quite) the only one in the theatre to do so. But what we really get is a character piece. Clooney has chosen to live his life on the road; we spend the movie seeing both what this offers him, and what he has to give up in order to maintain that life. He has also chosen a role in life that many would consider, at its heart, evil; and of course we see what this costs him. We see him respond to changes in his life (outsourcing comes for all employees), and indeed to try to change his life as well. And we see him come back to the beginning, slightly changed. The plot was, in many ways, incidental, at least for Clooney. Interestingly, the movie felt authentic to me. The firings were, indeed, brutal, without being over-the-top or evil. The new young worker - not an assistant at all, I might add, another place that I was misled by the trailer - seemed both stereotypical and a lot like several brilliant-but-unlucky women I've known in my life. Speaking from someone right in the middle of the generational gap presented, the arguments on both sides were spot-on. The wedding and its trappings were properly excruciating for me, because of the sheer awkwardness of the situation for the family. And the airport scenes always felt like airport scenes, in a way that invoked both just a touch of pity for having to be in the airport, and jealousy for getting all of the perks that there were to be had. And you know what? I liked the actual romance of the movie too. It was sweet and modern and doomed and cute, as well as, somehow, kindof natural. I may not have liked where it ended (not an attack on Chicago, mind), but I... respected it. Clooney got his comeuppance in a perfectly natural, perfectly unfair way - just like all of the people that he had fired throughout the movie. It was just... how things had to be. It's a strong movie, very well done. I liked the direction, the script, the acting, and the settings. And I think that I'd have enjoyed it just that little bit less if the theatre had been empty, or if I had had somebody with me to hold hands with. *** 1/2 URL: http://wiki.killfile.org/reviews/movies/up-in-the-air/ post comment

Ninja Assassin [14 Dec 2009|11:52pm] tskirvin Ninja Assassin: ** (out of 4) Seeing movies on Sunday nights is generally a solitary thing. Sure, there's a few people in the audience with me, others that were looking to kill some downtime and see a movie without a huge crowd. This takes something away from comedies, as hearing when the rest of the world laughs is often as fun as the movie. But for action movies, dramas, and so forth, it's generally ideal. But every now and then, I run into an outlier, where more people show up than usual. I can never predict these times; certainly, I never would have predicted that people would come out in droves on a Sunday night to see a mediocre martial arts/ninja movie with an exceptional amount of gore. I suppose that, by at least one measure, the movie fulfilled its goal: there were, indeed, ninjas, and they did, indeed, assassinate. In fact, the opening scene not only offered us those two concepts, it did so with style. If the rest of the movie had been as well-made, I would have been very happy; but there also wouldn't have been a plot, or characters, or actors from Coupling. And I suppose that would have been something of a loss. Instead, we got a perplexing movie. The action scenes were clearly meant to be exciting set-pieces, and they were indeed pretty and exciting to watch; but they were also difficult to actually understand, to the point of incomprehensibility. The background was supposed to be detailed and tragic; but it turned out to be poorly balanced, with an odd combination of too-dramatic and understated. And the plot attempted to be both paper-thin and over-wrought, but managed to be... well, really not bad for something like this. When it comes down to it, I can't really tell how good of a film the creators were aiming for. And that's a bit weird. As for the movie itself... well, I didn't hate it. Rain did a fine job in the lead role, I guess. The archetypical fights were fun. Those few fights that actually involved person-on-person martial arts battles, instead of just cutting people's heads off, were kindof interesting. And the training-to-be-a-ninja stuff was at least thought-provoking, even if it wasn't in the way that the creators were pushing for. But I still would have liked something that had been polished. Give the fighting scenes a purpose beyond arterial spray; give a reasonable sense of scale of the ongoing war; revel more in the silly; and maybe all of the ninja trainees should actually be doing the same testing. Instead, we came up with something adequate, but not very good. ** One random note: JMS, the creator of Babylon 5 (my favorite TV series), was the co-writer of this movie. It did shine through, but perhaps not in a great way. If you've watched the show or read his comics, some of the speeches will sound a little familiar. shrug That's not really a big problem, just worthy of observation. URL: http://wiki.killfile.org/reviews/movies/ninja-assassin/ post comment

ITS Christmas Diorama [14 Dec 2009|09:52pm] tskirvin ITS Christmas Diorama, originally uploaded by tskirvin. 1 comment|post comment

If I'm going to be drafted to be creative... [14 Dec 2009|04:44pm] tskirvin I was just requested to help decorate for tomorrow's Christmas Party at work. I set up an interpretive diorama, showing two big trees - ITS (big and shiny and covered in... stuff) and AS (nothing but flashy lights!) - as well as two smaller trees - Unix Systems and Windows Systems - that are currently being absorbed into the larger ITS whole. Additionally, the trees have network connectivity. And there is a Battle Santa. And a beheaded raccoon. I am curious how long these trees will stay up. I did label the scene, as well as take pictures; but will somebody grow offended by the implications of my art? post comment

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