Despite the horrendous batch of summer “blockbusters” that we had to suffer through, 2009 was actually a pretty darned good year for movies!  I’d been feeling otherwise, but when I looked back through my notes about all the great films that I saw this past year, I had a hard time narrowing down my Top Ten list!

As I did before beginning last year’s list, I should mention that, despite the rather large number of new movies that I saw in 2009, there were plenty of heard-they-were-great films (or films that otherwise seemed interesting to me) that I wanted to see but just didn’t get to.  These include The Hurt Locker, Moon, Pirate Radio, Broken Embraces, A Single Man, An Education, Me and Orson Welles, Invictus, The Road, and The Lovely Bones.  Might one or more of those films have wound up on this list, had I seen them?  Who can say!

So, without further ado, let’s dive into my List of my Ten Favorite Movies from 2009!

Honorable Mention: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus — I was just tickled by every moment of this wonderfully weird trip into the mind of Terry Gilliam.  Heath Ledger’s final performance is delightful and enigmatic, and the trio of actors who stepped in to complete his role after his tragic death (Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell) are all absolutely wonderful, as is the great Christopher Plummer in the title role.  Read my full review here.

10.  Coraline — I’ve got three animated films on this list, but they could not possibly be more different from one another.   Each is a magnificently unique creation.  In Coraline, Neil Gaiman’s fantasy story is brought to breathtaking life by gorgeous stop-motion animation.  Coraline is an intelligent but lonely little girl whose world is uprooted when her parents move into a strange new house.  When she discovers a small, secret door that leads into an alternate world where she meets far happier and more doting alternate versions of her parents, Coraline is delighted and entranced.  But all is not as it seems, and the young girl will need all of her wits to escape from the web into which she has fallen.  Dangerous and dark, this haunting tale is sweet and scary in equal parts.  I can’t wait to see it again.  Read my full review here.

9.  Watchmen — I’ve seen this film so many times already (in a variety of different cuts) that it’s hard to believe it came out this year!  Zach Snyder’s gloriously ambitious attempt at adapting Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ magnum opus Watchmen has its flaws, but even after many repeated viewings I remain dazzled by all that it gets right.  Through astounding visual effects and spot-on casting, the characters and world of Watchmen have been brought to gritty, rain-drenched life.  This is a super-hero film that makes no bones about being an R rated film for adults, and I applaud Snyder and his team for being rigorously faithful in their adaptation (a tack that I wish more makers of super-hero films would follow).  Though it lacks the complexity and ambiguity of the original graphic novel, there are so many moments that this film gets exactly right (my favorite would be the sequence in which Dr. Manhattan relives his life out of order).  It’s an incredible achievement, and I still can’t quite believe that it actually exists.  Read my full review of the theatrical cut here, and the director’s cut here.

8.  Sherlock Holmes — Guy Ritchie’s rough and tumble reinvigoration of Sherlock Holmes is terrific fun from start to finish.  Robert Downey Jr. seems born to play the brilliant and more-than-a-little-crazy central character, and Jude Law portrays, finally, a version of Watson who we can take seriously.  Add in Mark Strong’s creepily intense turn as the villainous Lord Blackwell, some great action, and a fast-paced script filled to the brim with verbose and clever torrents of dialogue, and you have a real winner.  Can’t wait for the (hopefully) inevitable sequel.  Read my full review here.

7.  Adventureland — I was really taken by this little movie about a young man’s transformative summer spent working at a crappy local amusement park.  As someone who has spent much of his life working at a summer camp, I love the way this film brought to life that particular sub-culture.  Yes, it’s about an amusement park, not a camp, but this film truly presented the way in which the ups and downs of friendships and relationships made and broken over the course of a summer can seem like life and death matters to young people on the verge of adulthood.  Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart are fantastic in the lead roles, and they’re surrounded by a great group of supporting actors that include Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Ryan Reynolds, and Martin Starr.  Adventureland is funny at times, poignant at others, and it really spoke to me.  It’s a film I can’t wait to revisit.  Read my full review here.

6.  The Invention of Lying — Ricky Gervais plays a man living in a world just like our own, except that no human being has ever told a lie.  When he discovers that he, and he alone, somehow possesses the capability to lie, his life — and soon after, the entire world — are turned upside down.  What starts as a comedic romp soon turns into something much more complex and interesting.  The Invention of Lying is a very funny film, but it’s also a film with something to say.  Ricky Gervais is marvelous, as always, and the terrific ensemble with which he surrounds himself  – Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, Louis C.K., Jeffrey Tambor, and Rob Lowe — is absolutely dynamite.  One of the more unique cinematic creations that I have seen in quite some time.  Read my full review here.

OK, that’s it for today!  Click here for part 2 of my list, with numbers 5 through 1!

Let the Best of 2009 lists continue!  I hope you all enjoyed my list of the Top 10 TV Episodes of 2009.

Now let’s dive into my list of the Top 10 DVDs (or Blu-Rays) released in 2009!

First, I’d like to give Honorable Mentions to the complete series sets of three amazing TV shows that I had just about given up all hope of ever seeing on DVD: It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, and Andy Barker, P.I. So why aren’t these shows on my list?  Because I can’t put anything on this list that I haven’t actually watched, and I’ve been way, way too busy to get through any of these sets.  Of the three, the only one I own is Andy Richter Controls the Universe.  (That one came out first, and I’m not going to purchase the other two sets until I actually have time to watch them.)  But I take great delight in knowing that these three DVD sets exist here on planet Earth, and I know that I’ll get to them all in good time.

10. Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut (Blu-ray) — I’ve seen Watchmen quite a few times since it was released early in 2009, and while the film certainly has some weaknesses, I remain overwhelmed by the enormity of its successes.  It’s hard to believe that Zach Snyder brought this seminal graphic novel by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons, which long had been considered unadaptable, to life.  It thrills me to see such a faithful take on the material and that the filmmakers had the confidence to craft a super-hero film that was aimed squarely at adults.  The Ultimate Cut of the film is Zach Snyder’s longest version, stitching together his Director’s Cut with the animated Tales of the Black Freighter sequences.  It’s pretty astounding.  This Blu-Ray set would be much higher on this list were it not for the paltry special features.  Not only are the special features lame (this is a movie that cries out for a full-fledged making-of documentary), but this set just reproduces the special features that were already released on the Director’s Cut set.  (I guess I’ve been spoiled by the amazing extended editions of the Lord of the Rings films, which came not just with phenomenal extended versions of the films but with extraordinarily elaborate making-of documentaries that didn’t duplicate the special features on the theatrical version DVDs.)  (Read my review of the theatrical version of Watchmen here, and of the Director’s Cut here.)

9. Contact (Blu-Ray) — A beautiful film that manages to combine a serious, cerebral sci-fi tale with an effecting story of the personal journey of scientist Dr. Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster).  This is director Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) working at the top of his game.  The special effects are elaborate but never come close to overwhelming the story.  It’s a terrific special edition, chock full of special features, and the film looks positively STUNNING on Blu-Ray.  (Read my full review here.)

8. Homicide: The Criterion Collection — Another film that I have been waiting a long, long time to be released on DVD.  David Mamet’s 1991 film follows detective Bobby Gold (Joe Mantegna) and his investigation of the murder of an elderly Jewish shop owner.  What follows is a great, twisty Mamet tale, filled with tough guys and double-crosses.  But what gives the film its weight is the way the investigation story-line is wrapped in a deeper story of Bobby’s struggles with his Jewish identity.  The fine folks at Criterion hit another one out of the park with this beautiful new edition.  (My full review of Homicide is coming soon, but click here for my thoughts on a variety of other films by David Mamet.)

7. Eddie Izzard: Live From Wembley — It’s been a long, long wait since Eddie Izzard’s last stand-up DVD.  (That would be Circle, released back in 2002).  Live From Wembley isn’t exactly the freshest material — the footage is from Eddie’s Sexie tour, from several years back.  And the camera-work is surprisingly amateurish in places (quite a few shots are rather blurry, and there are several instances where Eddie isn’t properly framed on-screen).  But forget all that — it’s new Eddie Izzard stand-up material, and the performance (while not reaching the heights of Dress to Kill), is superb and very, very funny.  There’s also a terrific special feature on the disc: 40 minutes of Eddie’s stand-up from long before Live From Wembley, in which we can see him beginning to work out some of the material that would eventually be included in his Sexie show.  It’s a funny performance, and a neat look into his process.

6. Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder – The fourth and final installment in the series of Futurama direct-to-DVD films.  In this one, Fry gets inducted into a secret organization of telepaths (that have been popping up in the background of the show since its very beginning).  The film’s wide-reaching story also deals with Leela’s involvement with a group of eco-terrorists, Bender’s affair with the wife of a robot mobster, and a lot of other zaniness.  At the time, it looked like this was the end of Futurama, and the film’s final scene provided a wonderful capstone to the series’ run.  Luckily, the show has once again risen from the grave, and new episodes are being produced to air on Cartoon Network.  Hooray!  (Read my full review here.)

5. Star Trek: The Motion Picture Collection (Blu-Ray) — Star Trek comes to Blu-Ray with this fabulous set containing nicely spruced-up editions of the first six Star Trek films.  The films themselves have never looked or sounded better, and there have been a number of new featurettes created for each film.  (The set also includes almost all of the special features from the previous DVD releases.)  I still wish that the featurettes had been edited together into a longer, more comprehensive documentary for each film, but I can live without that.  Extra props to the makers of this set for choosing to use the original theatrical versions of Star Trek II and Star Trek VI on these discs.  (The previous Special Edition DVDs of those two films used slightly re-edited versions, which I found to be rather inferior to the original versions.)  For a die-hard Trek fan like myself, this set is a treasure.  (Click here for my full review of the Blu-Ray release of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.)

4. Will Ferrell: You’re Welcome, America — A recording of Will Ferrell’s stage show featuring him as Geroge W. Bush, looking back on his eight years as President.  I was a bit dubious, at first, as to whether Ferrell’s Bush impersonation could really sustain my interest for 90 minutes, but it unquestionably did.  The show is well-crafted — while the focus is on Ferrell’s monologues on Bush, there is also good fun to be had with short appearances by other characters, which keeps things interesting.  But all that would be moot if Ferrell’s Bush wasn’t so relentlessly entertaining.  My favorite moments of the show are when he dives fully into total insanity, such as his elaborate and manic story about being trapped in a mine shaft with his father.  We’re lucky that this live show has been captured for us all to enjoy.

3. Battlestar Galactica: The Plan — Ron Moore’s reinvention of Battlestar Galactica takes its final bow in this tour-de-force direct-to-DVD film.  Diving deep into the show’s mythology, The Plan winds the clock back to just before the events of the original Battlestar Galactica mini-series, and then shows us the events of the show’s first two seasons from the point of view of the Cylons.  Cleverly weaving in-and-around the events that we saw, The Plan connects events and characters into a complex and fascinating tapestry, bringing a whole new light to the show’s beginnings.  A terrific lead performance by Dean Stockwell (Quantum Leap) and mind-blowing special effects combine to give the show a far superior farewell than the actual finale episode.  I wish there were more of these direct-to-DVD BSG films being made!!  (Read my full review here.)

2. Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer’s Cut) — This six-hour documentary traces the full history of Monty Python, from the group’s beginnings to their work on feature films The Holy Grail, The Life of Brian, and The Meaning of Life.  Told almost entirely through interviews with all five surviving Pythons as well as an enormous number of their key collaborators, this documentary is endlessly interesting and also quite a riot. It’s also filled with elaborate little touches that elevate it beyond the usual sort of behind-the-scenes documentaries, such as the creation of new songs introducing each of the six episodes, sung by the same woman who sung the classic Life of Brian introductory tune.  With a third disc containing clips from their best sketches, extended interviews, and lots of other fun stuff, this set is a winner through-and-through.

1. Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II — I loved the first Robot Chicken Star Wars Special, but things are taken to a whole new level in this second go-round.  Focusing on The Empire Strikes Back (with lots of screen time for Vader, The Emperor, Boba Fett, and the other bounty hunters), this special has more laughs-per-second than anything else I saw all year.  Hard-core Star Wars fans like myself will be bowled over by the attention to detail in the recreation of key scenes and the references to obscure characters and moments in the saga, while there is also plenty of silliness for a more casual fan to enjoy.  (Who wouldn’t laugh at the image of an Imperial officer putting a styrofoam cup over the little Vader hologram on his console?)  Just having the special on DVD would have been enough for me, but not only is this set absolutely overflowing with special features (commentary tracks, behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, and so much more), but it also contains a newly extended (almost twice-as-long) version of the original special filled with a ton of new sketches.  Phenomenal.  I can’t wait for Episode III.  (Read my full review here.)

Coming on Monday:  My list of the 10 Best Movies of 2009!  See you there!

Even before Watchmen was released in theatres, director Zach Snyder made clear, in interviews, that we’d be seeing his longer Director’s Cut released on DVD/Blu-Ray before too terribly long.  

Well, Watchmen: The Director’s Cut is indeed now available for all to see, and I am happy to report that it’s quite excellent.

This Director’s Cut isn’t a total reinvention of the film.  The film unfolds as it did in its theatrical form.  There are no revelatory story-lines or spectacular action sequences added back in.  This Director’s Cut isn’t going to change anyone’s mind about Mr. Snyder’s adaptation of the comic book masterpiece by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.  If the film didn’t grab you in the theatres (and if you’re reading this while thinking to yourself, “twenty-four extra minutes added on to a film that was already two and a half hours??  No thanks!!”) then nothing I’m going to write here will cause you to think any differently.  But if you were as taken with the theatrical version as I was (check out my original review here), then this new extended version is a delight.

As I wrote above, the film hasn’t been dramatically re-edited (the way, for example, the first half-hour of The Fellowship of the Ring was entirely re-worked in Peter Jackson’s magnificent extended edition), and there’s no “Wow!  What a cool sequence that they’ve restored to the film!” moment (such as the astounding revised ending of James Cameron’s Director’s Cut of The Abyss).  No, what has been added back into the film are a lot of little moments, little bits of texture to the story from the original comic book.  Scenes now start a few moments earlier, or end a few moments later.  Many of the characters now get a few extra moments.  Bits of background detail are added.  These accumulate to result in a film that is a bit more leisurely paced than the theatrical version, but where the world of the story has been a little more fleshed out.  

One of the very first changes is also the most perplexing one, and really the only change I objected to.  There’s a little button added on to the scene where Rorschach investigates the Comedian’s apartment, after his murder.  Now, as Rorschach is leaving, a cop finds him in the apartment, and tries to shoot him.  For some reason, the bullets don’t seem to connect with Rorschach, and when the cop looks back at him, he is gone.  Whereas most of the rest of the additions in this new cut result in the re-incorporation of small moments or details from the original graphic novel, this addition is a complete invention of the filmmakers, and it doesn’t make any sense to me.  Did the cop miss Rorschach?  Are we to understand that Rorschach is wearing some sort of body-armor?  It’s totally unclear.  This scene sort of makes it seem that Rorschach has super-powers (which would make him bulletproof), which would be very confusing to a viewer who doesn’t already know the story.

Luckily, after that troubling moment, the changes are almost all for the better.  I’m not going to try to list all of the changes– since, as I mentioned above, most of the additions are in the form of small moments, this would be an impossibly long list.  Also, it would ruin all the fun for you of seeing this new version!  So let me just mention some of the additions that I really enjoyed:

We get some scenes added in with the two Bernies (the news-stand vendor and the kid reading the Tales of the Black Freighter comic book).  We get a number of additional glimpses of the out-of-costume Rorschach added into the first half of the film, thus giving greater impact to his unmasking later in the movie.  (There’s also a number of extra bits of Rorschach IN-costume, including some extended “Rorschach’s Journal” voice-overs… and we also get to see where Rorschach keeps his “face” when not in costume).  There’s some extra stuff, throughout the film, between Laurie and the Feds in charge of watching over her.  There’s some more of Rorschach’s psych evaluation, and the death of Hollis Mason has been added back in.

There are some great extensions to the flashback of the Crimebusters team meeting during the 70’s, including the moment when Dr. Manhattan and Laurie see one another for the first time.  We also get to see the awkward moment between Laurie and The Comedian here in this sequence (as opposed to seeing that moment for the first time when Laurie realizes the “joke” of her life towards the end of the film).  To me, this gives that moment at the end of the film greater resonance, as we’ve seen the scene beforehand but in an entirely different context.  

The sequence of Dan and Laurie getting mugged is fleshed out a bit more.  In the theatrical version we pretty much just saw the big fight, giving the whole thing sort of a “what the–?” feeling.  Now the moment has more context, as we understand that Dan and Laurie are walking to visit Hollis.  We also see more of their excited reactions afterwards, which is sort of the whole point of the scene.  Two complaints: One, the staging of the moment when Dan and Laurie walk into the alley is still weird — it doesn’t look like they’re on their way anywhere, it looks like they’ve decided to walk down a dark alley for no reason.  Two, even in this version the line “try not to get into any tight corners” is said by a character talking to Dr. Manhattan while we see those two on-screen.  But in the comic, that line is heard (or read, I guess!) while seeing a shot of Dan and Laurie in the alley, which is a fun little bit of narrative playfulness that I wish the film had preserved.

But my favorite change?  Very attentive viewers will now be clear on where Laurie got the gun in her purse (that she uses during the film’s climax)!  Nicely done.  

I purchased Watchmen: The Director’s Cut on Blu-Ray, and the film looks staggeringly amazing.  Just amazing.  It still astounds me that this film ever got made, and how close it is, visually, to the original comic.  I do have two complaints about the Blu-Ray, though:  One, it’s my pet peeve when Director’s Cut editions on disc (DVD/Blu-Ray/whatever) don’t also contain the original theatrical version, and this one does not.  Who wants to have to buy the film twice??  Second, the special features stink.  There’s a great visual commentary to the film with Mr. Snyder, but the second disc of extras is incredibly sparse, with basically just a 30 minute featurette on the adaptation.  (What few other extras there are deal with matters totally peripheral to the film, like  a documentary on real-world vigilantes.)  I guess they saved the substantial making-of docs for the sure-to-be-coming super-duper extra-special edition of the film, and that’s somewhat disappointing.

But despite those issues with the total package, as a film, Watchmen: The Director’s Cut succeeds admirably.  This was now the third time that I’ve seen the film (I saw it twice in theatres), and it has clearly established for me that this film, despite its flaws, is a terrific achievement, and one I look forward to revisiting for years to come.

“Delirious, I saw that hell-bound ship’s black sails against the yellow Indies sky, and knew again the stench of powder, and men’s brains, and war.”

So begins the Tales of the Black Freighter, the famed “comic within a comic” from Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons.  It’s one of my favorite elements of the graphic novel, and also one of the most bizarre (which might be why I like it so much!).  Starting in the very first panel of Watchmen’s third chapter, and then recurring periodically throughout the remainder of the story, the horrific narrative of this pirate comic (being read by a young boy hanging out by a street-corner news-stand) weaves in and out of the larger story being told.

In the Black Freighter story, we follow the ordeal of the lone survivor of a sailing ship that has been ambushed and destroyed by the pirates of the Black Freighter.  Fearing that the pirates’ next target is his home of Davidstown, where his wife and children live, the survivor (whose name is never given) goes to desperate efforts to make his way home before the Black Freighter arrives.  Needless to say, things don’t go well.

In my review of the Zack Snyder’s movie adaptation of Watchmen, I wrote how I found it hard to believe that I was actually watching a Watchmen movie.  Who’d have believed that this brilliant, violent, weird graphic novel had ever been made into a film — and, even more incredibly, one so faithfully translated from the source material??  Well, as much as I had doubted that a Watchmen movie would ever come to be, it was positively inconceivable to me that Tales of the Black Freighter would EVER be included in such an adaptation.  In bringing such a large and complex work as Watchmen to the screen, surely the first thing to be done would be to determine what elements could be jettisoned, and surely the Black Freighter digressions would be at the top of that list!

And, indeed, the version of Watchmen released to theatres last month did not, in fact, include the Tales of the Black Freighter.  But, bless their hearts, Snyder and his team did actually adapt the Tales of the Black Freighter.  In order to capture the “comic within a comic” and differentiate it from the rest of the movie, they made the savvy choice to create it using animation.  And so the twenty minute Tales of the Black Freighter short film came to be.  It was released to DVD this past week, and it will be edited back into the Watchmen movie for a super-duper special edition DVD to come.  

So how is it?  Pretty good!  The brutality of the tale is rather remarkably preserved.  I had a few moments of quite giddy joy at watching iconic moments from the comic (such as the vicious shark attack) brought to life before my eyes.  

Gerard Butler (300, RocknRolla) is perfect as the voice of the sailor — grim and foreboding and increasingly desperate.  A phenomenal choice.

The quality of the animation, though, was a little disappointing.  The colors are gorgeous and the characters and backgrounds are very detailed and well-designed, but I found the character animation to be a little stiff.  Having so much detail on all of the characters probably made animating them smoothly more of a challenge.  (Part of the reason that Bruce Timm’s Batman: The Animated Series designs worked so well was their simplicity — with so few lines on every character, they looked great even on episodes where the animation was sub-par.) 

The tale also loses some of its power when taken out of the greater Watchmen story and presented on its own.  Much of the meaning of the Black Freighter story lies in the way it provides a parallel (or, one might argue, a counterpoint) to the story of a major character in Watchmen.  (I am trying to avoid spoilers here, so forgive my vagueness!)  Black Freighter presents a hard to resist argument that sometimes the best of intentions can lead to the foulest of results, and that dovetails beautifully with the story of Watchmen.  On its own, Black Freighter loses that potency.

Also, in the graphic novel, a great part of the fun is the way that Moore & Gibbons wove the Black Freighter comic in and around the other events being told in their story.  In a striking example, the stranded sailor remarks about the wooden figurehead of a nude woman, broken off from the bow of his destroyed ship, that had saved his life by keeping him afloat: “I could not love her as she had loved me.”  In a playful bit of business, that caption is placed over a panel of Dr. Manhattan and Laurie making love, an event which is interrupted by Laurie’s horror at Manhattan’s growing distance from him.  Manhattan is unable to love her the way she had (once) loved him.  As I watched the animated Black Freighter, I often found myself distracted, imagining the animated scenes inter-cut into Snyder’s live-action movie, and how they would play.  (I can’t wait to see that version!)

There are other fun features on the DVD, in addition to the animated Black Freighter short film.  Under the Hood is about 40 minutes long, and is a faux 60 Minutes/Charlie Rose style TV special about the super-heroes of the Watchmen world.  Under the Hood is the title of Hollis Mason’s tell-all biography about his life as the first Night Owl.  This is mentioned a few times in the Watchmen movie, but it’s a much larger element of the original graphic novel, in which several lengthy “excerpts” from Mason’s text are included in- between the early chapters.  In the comic, these excerpts help flesh out the back-story of the world of Watchmen, giving us additional insight as to what prompted some people to dress up in costumes in order to fight crime.  The fake Under the Hood TV special does a lot of the same things, as we get to watch lengthy interviews with Stephen McHattie as Hollis Mason, Carla Gugino as the first Silk Spectre, and several other actors reprising their roles from the Watchmen film.  The special is a little dry, but then, that’s exactly what it was designed to be.  Nothing revelatory here, but it’s fun.  

There is also a night featurette with behind-the-scenes commentary on the making of these two supplemental pieces of the Watchmen story.

If you’re a Watchmen fanatic like me, the DVD is definitely worth your time.  If you’re not, then hold out for that eventual super-duper edition!

It’s a bit hard to fathom that I live in a world in which there actually exists a film version of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s magnificent epic Watchmen.  

Long considered completely unadaptable, Watchmen (originally published as a 12-issue limited-series by DC Comics back in 1985-86, and re-printed countless times in the subsequent two decades in collected “graphic novel” form) is a staggeringly intricate, layered work that is at once a ripping super-hero yarn and, at the same time, a complete deconstruction of the entire idea of the super-hero adventure comic.  

What is fascinating is that the film version of Watchmen arrives at a unique time.  Over the past almost-decade (since the release of Bryan Singer’s X-Men in 2000), we have seen a flood of super-hero movies (a great many of them dreck, and a great many of them of pretty high quality).  This past summer alone saw the release of The Dark Knight, Iron Man, and Hellboy II, among others — three very different films, yet all examples of super-hero movies that were quite extraordinarily well executed.  We’re at a point now when the general public has become very familiar with a lot of the tropes of the super-hero movie genre — and so are perfectly primed t0 see those familiar characters and themes and story structures completely up-ended by the movie of Watchmen, the same way that the comic book audience had all of their familiar super-hero comic ideas up-ended by the original Watchmen comic.  This movie, I think, is being released at just the right time.

And it is magnificent.

It’s hard for me to imagine what someone who has never read Watchmen would think of this film, because I have read the comic so many times that it is impossible to imagine not knowing (and revering) the story beat-by-beat.  But it seems to me that director Zack Snyder has done an extraordinary job of maintaining a great deal of the depth and complexity of the comic, while also making it very accessible to a first-timer.  That is no easy feat.  

Those of you who, like me, worship the source material, can rest easy.  Snyder’s film is a breathtakingly faithful adaptation of the comic.  The structure and story-line of the comic is replicated in great detail; almost all of the dialogue and narration has been lifted right out of the comic; and most importantly, the tone and atmosphere of the world that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons created has been brought to life in a powerfully real, visceral way.   

To begin with, the film is a marvel of casting.  Thinking about Watchmen in the months leading up to the release, there were a lot of elements of the comic that I felt would be an enormous challenge to capture on-screen.  But watching the film unfold, I realized that the biggest challenge was the character of Rorschach. And holy cow did they nail him.  The way he talks.  The way he looks in his dirty trench-coat, mask and fedora.  (Quick aside:  has there EVER been a film, until this one, in which a character whose face was fully hidden behind a mask hasn’t looked awkward any-time he had to speak dialogue?  I’m looking at you, Spider-Man films!  I don’t know how they created Rorschach’s ink-blot “face” in this film, but the work is stunning.)  The way the he walks.  The way he eats beans.  The way he says “hurm.”  So many of my favorite scenes in the Watchmen comic involved Rorschach, and every single one of those moments are perfectly captured in the film.  Rorschach’s angry retort to Dan, “you quit.”  His snarled challenge to the imprisoned cons: “None of you understand.  I’m not locked up in here with you.  You’re locked up in here with me.”  His powerful final scene.  Jackie Earle Haley has done the impossible with his portrayal — in lesser hands Rorschach could have easily been laughable or ridiculous.  Instead, Haley has created an indelible, layered performance, menacing and also a little bit sad.  His delivery of the line “a pretty butterfly” is just perfect.  Everything I could have hoped for with this character is right there in that one moment.

The closest thing to an “everyman” character to be found in Watchmen is Dan Dreiberg, the second Night Owl.  In the comic he was a lovable schulb, a man who had gone soft ever since the super-heros were outlawed by the Keane Act.  In the stills released prior to the film’s opening, I was worried that the film-makers had turned Dan into more of a traditionally square-jawed heroic figure.  But those worries were instantly put to rest by Patrick Wilson’s performance, right from his very first scenes.  As with Rorschach, the costuming is critical — Dan’s little paunch, his big glasses, his bad hair, his sweaters — all of these little elements, combined with Wilson’s honest, open performance, creates the character who is in many ways the heart of the film.

If I write a paragraph about every character in the movie we’ll be here until doomsday, so let me try to be more concise as I proceed.  Billy Crudup is wonderfully ethereal as the only truly super-powered being in the story, Dr. Manhattan.  Malin Akerman has been getting some criticism for what some see as awkwardness in her role of Laurie, the sexy Silk Spectre, but I enjoyed her performance.  She certainly captures the kinkiness of a super-heroine in tight leather, and while some of her line-readings might be a bit flat, I think she brings a lot of soul into a character who could easily be whiny and unlikable.  Carla Gugino plays Laurie’s mother, the original Silk Spectre.  She is absolutely dynamite in the flashback sequences (particularly the awful moment with the Comedian, a tough scene that the film HAD to get right in order to work), although I thought the bad old-age make-up in her present-day scenes was a bit of a distraction.  Speaking of the Comedian, Jeffrey Dean Morgan is incredible in the role.  This is a theme to my review, but I’ll say it again here: I couldn’t believe the way he so perfectly brought to life the character from the comic, capturing his rakish charisma and his horrifying brutality and callousness.  Matthew Goode’s portrayal of Ozymandias has been the most controversial among comic fans, as this is the character who has been tweaked the most from the comic, but Goode’s version of Ozymandias as David Bowie really worked for me.  He is the super-hero as super-star, and some of his weird mannerisms and affectations seemed so true to the bizarre nature of our real world’s celebrities.  I also found myself to be pleasantly surprised by how much excellence was brought to the ensemble by some of the really minor supporting players, particularly Matt Frewer’s aging super-villain Moloch, Laura Mennell as Dr. Manhattan’s former girlfriend Janey Slater, and Danny Woodburn (Mickey from Seinfeld) as Big Figure.  

The only off-note among the group?  Robert Wisden as fifth-term president Richard Nixon.  As with Carla Gugino in her present-day scenes, I think Wisden is let down by some pretty bad make-up.  Nixon should come off as cold-hearted, but instead he seems a bit clownish.  

Beyond that minor complaint, I have nothing but praise for all of the artists and craftsmen who so attentively brought the world of Watchmen to vivid life.  There is a seemingly endless number of iconic locations in which the story is set — Night Owl’s lair, Dr. Manhattan’s lab, that iconic street-corner, the prison, Ozymandias’ arctic retreat, Mars, etc. — and each one of them has been lovingly replicated on-screen.  The wealth of detail is astounding — like the comic, this is a film that cries out to be re-visited so that you can soak in the insane level of detail in the background.  Even on my first viewing, so many little elements caught my eye — the ads for Veidt’s Nostalgia cologne, the “obsolete models a specialty” sign outside of Hollis Mason’s apartment, Moloch’s refrigerator, Rorschach’s grappling gun, the 1940’s Minutemen photo… etc…  To fans of the comic all of these little tiny details are beloved, and it is an absolute delight to see them all on-screen.  But more importantly, it is the accumulation of these details that brings the entire world in which the story takes place to life.  It is the viewer’s belief in this world, and our engagement in it, that is critical to the film working as a whole.  (I would draw a comparison to films such as Blade Runner and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, in which it is the creation of a fully-realized original, unique universe that makes those films so effective.  So too here.)

In addition to the faithful rendering of the characters, and the costumes, and the sets, I was stunned by how many of the particular idiosyncrasies of the comic have been translated to the screen — many of the digressions that flesh-out characters and back-story; the intricate narrative structure of flash-backs and interwoven reminiscences; and, oh yes, the sex and the violence.  I am sort of gleeful at the thought of someone who has never read Watchmen and is expecting just another super-hero movie having his/her head spun around by some of the craziness to be found in this film.  Heh heh heh.

I think the standard-bearer now for all super-hero films, the one to which they all must now be compared, has to be The Dark Knight.  So how does Watchmen measure up?  It is difficult to say.  Part of what made The Dark Knight so effective, I think, is the way it jettisoned so many of the more outlandish elements of the standard super-hero movie, choosing instead to tell a gritty, street-level crime film.  Watchmen, in many ways, is the exact opposite.  This film features characters in colorful spandex, a big blue super-human, locations all over the planet and in outer space, and a “super-villain” with a “master plan.”  What the two films have in common, though, is the complete and utter seriousness with which they approach their characters and their story — and both share a gloriously dark, cynical heart.  Both push the idea of a super-hero movie far beyond anything we’ve ever seen on-screen before.

In the final calculation, is the film as perfect as the original graphic novel?  Not even close.  But it is still an astounding achievement, and I can say without hesitation that I loved every single minute of it.  It is a film that I can’t wait to see for a second time.  This movie is not for everyone.  But if you’re looking for something that is a little more complex, a little more intense, and a little more thought provoking than your average big-budget blockbuster — while at the same time also being, just like the comic from which it originates, a ripping super-hero yarn — then you owe it to yourself to go buy a ticket to see Watchmen.  Ideally on IMAX.  

So what are you waiting for?

Haven’t done one of these in a while…

Here’s some of the fun stuff floating around the interwebs these days:

The Simpsons has moved to HD!  This has apparently necessitated a change in the show’s iconic opening credits sequence, which has remained constant for 19 years.  (Can you believe it’s been that long??)  Fear not, fans, the new credits sequence is quite spectacular.  It follows the general pattern of the old opening, bringing us through Springfield — from Bart writing on the blackboard to Homer working in the plant to Lisa in band class to Marge shopping with Maggie, etc etc.  But there are a LOT of great new gags, and new appearances by many of the popular characters who weren’t around when the show originally launched (Groundskeeper Willie, Otto, Ralph Wiggum, Pattie & Selma, Sideshow Bob, Apu and his Octuplets, and many more).  And the new animation is terrific.  If you missed yesterday’s episode, check out the new opening by clicking here.  Note that the couch gag is, of course, just this week’s version — that ending joke will continue to change every week.  By the way, after watching this clip, do you find yourself missing Bleeding Gums Murphy?  (He’s one of the characters Bart used to skateboard past, who has now been removed.)  Don’t worry, he’s still there!  Check out the pictures on the wall behind the kids in Lisa’s band class…

Just like the year when there were two asteroid-hitting-the-earth movies (Deep Impact and Armageddon) or the year when there were two volcano movies (Dante’s Peak and Volcano), this year there are two Mall Cop flicks coming out.  Perhaps you, like me, chose to pass on Paul Blart: Mall Cop, starring Kevin James.  But you might still be interested in Seth Rogen’s much, much darker take on the idea.  Click here to see a trailer for Observe and Report.

Speaking of trailers, Quentin Tarantino’s let’s-go-kill-some-Nazis flick Inglourious Basterds (yes, that is how the title is spelled) has a teaser trailer that was just released.  Click here to check it out.

Is Joaquin Phoenix melting down before our eyes, or is this all some kind of hoax for the documentary that Casey Affleck is apparently filming about Phoenix’s attempt at a rap career?  I have no idea, but click here to watch his truly bizarre appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, and judge for yourself.

If you’re a Watchmen fan who is chomping at the bit for the movie to be released (Match 6th is coming!!), then you definitely need to click here to watch the teaser for the Tales of the Black Freighter direct-to-DVD release. 

Finally, I encourage you all to bid a last farewell to the great Ricardo Montalban, who passed away last month, by clicking here to watch Robot Chicken’s Star Trek II: The Opera.  Brilliant.

So Steph and I caught Quantum of Solace on Friday — What a fun time in a theatre!

The showing started off with several exciting trailers for some of the big blockbusters that will be arriving in the spring.  Quite a few of them didn’t interest me, such as Angels & Demons, the Da Vinci Code sequel (or is it a prequel?).  But there were two that sure as heck did.

That was the new trailer for Watchmen.  (See a larger version here.)  Watchmen is the beloved graphic novel (called by Time Magazine one of the 100 greatest novels of all time) that was published by DC Comics in 1986.  The first trailer was just imagery, whereas in this trailer we get to see some plot and a goodly amount of dialogue, giving us a slightly better idea about how these characters are being brought to life.  And so far, so good.  The trailer sells the movie on its simplest level — that of a murder mystery.  (Costumed “heroes” are being picked off, one by one — but by whom??)  That’s probably a wise choice, but I do hope that there winds up being a lot more to the movie than just that — I want the film to capture some of the complexity of the graphic novel.  

(Much more than just a whodunnit, Watchmen is a fascinating deconstruction of our modern superhero myths, asking how the modern world would be changed if superheroes really existed, and what would the people who chose to put on garish costumes and go out and fight crime really be like?  The plot is intricate, and the character arcs consist of brutal psychological realism.  Visually it is a tour-de-force, utilizing symbolism, recurring visual motifs & parallel structure to connect disparate scenes and ideas.  I could go on and on about Watchmen…. and I’m sure I will in a future post as the movie approaches!  Suffice to say, I am a bit nervous and VERY excited to see the finished film in March.)

Then there was this:

[UPDATED -- Click HERE to view a crystal clear official version of the trailer that just became available, or check out the shaky bootleg below.]

First of all, props to the Paramount marketing department because they totally fooled me.  I had read on-line that the first full trailer (there was a teaser released last Spring) would be shown with Quantum of Solace, and so I was watching carefully for it.  But when this trailer came up, starting with a kid racing a car through a desert, I thought “oh well, that’s not it, maybe the next one.”  It wasn’t until the kid said “James Tiberius Kirk” that I (and the rest of the folks in the theatre) sat up and started taking notice.  

As for the trailer — whoa.  Rather than going for stately majesty as the teaser did, this one went for bam-bam-bam action-sex-action.  Probably not a bad way to get people excited about Trek again, but it certainly wasn’t the tone I was expecting.  There’s a lot of exciting imagery in this trailer.  Unlike the last several Trek films, that were all made for a fairly low budget, this trailer screams big-budget-action-spectacular.  If that’s what the movie ends up being, I will be very excited!  All of the re-cast classic characters look great so far, especially Karl Urban as McCoy and Zoe Saldana as Uhura.  The brief shots of the Enterprise are very cool and look great, but since the ship is seen so fleetingly the concerns I waxed poetic about in my last post haven’t quite been assuaged.  I have a LOT of other worries as well, but let’s stay with the positive for now, shall we?  After the blizzard of imagery in the trailer came to an end, I said “wow — I need to see that again like 10 times as soon as possible!”  Not a bad feeling.

OK, whew, now let’s get to the main event itself — Quantum of Solace!  So, do I agree with the advance review my friend Josh Lawrence submitted two weeks ago?

Well, in some respects I do, but despite its weaknesses I thoroughly enjoyed this latest James Bond adventure — quite a bit more, I think, than Mr. Lawrence did.

What’s good?

The continuity —  As you all probably know by now, this film picks up right after the end of Casino Royale, and throughout the movie there are references to all manner of subtle plot points from that installment.  The two films fit together wonderfully, and they seem to be only the opening chapters of a much larger story.  This is a delightful return to the very origins of the Bond film series.  Modern Bond fans are used to the Bond movies being stand-alone adventures, with each film a complete story in and of itself with not much more connection to the films-that-came-before other than an occasional reference by Q or M to Bond having slept with a lot of women or destroyed a lot of expensive MI6 equipment.  But the Connery Bond films fit together to a much greater degree than that.  Each film was a complete adventure, yes, but in those early movies (Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, and Thunderball) we watched as Bond slowly learned more and more about a shadowy criminal organization that was behind all the villains he was facing — SPECTRE.  It was only when we got to You Only Live Twice and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (and, sort of, in Diamonds Are Forever) that the stories finally built to a showdown between Bond and Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the bald, cat-stroking madman in charge of SPECTRE.  I have no way of knowing what future Bond movies will bring, but it certainly seems as if the events of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace are just the opening gambits in a much larger confrontation between MI6 and a new SPECTRE-like criminal organization, whose name we only learn in the final moments of this new film.  That is very exciting.  (Note, for instance, that Mr. White remains at large when the movie ends… I very much suspect we’ll see him again…) 

Daniel Craig — Craig is once again terrific as Bond.  These past two Bond films have not been afraid to portray Bond as something of a brute, and I’m really enjoying this new, grittier version of this long-running character.  But it wouldn’t work if Craig didn’t bring tremendous energy, charisma, and intelligence to the role.  Craig’s Bond is a force to be reckoned with.

The action — For anyone who thought Casino Royale was too talky (for the record, that would not include me), it seems like the producers have set out to address your complaints.  The first 45-minutes of this film consist of one incredible action sequence after another.  I am a bit worried that Bond is being depicted as too much of a super-human, but boy are these fights and chases exciting and well-staged.  The ballet of violence between our man James and an MI6 turncoat who are both caught up in a tangle ropes and chains suspended from a high ceiling is a particular grace note.

The supporting cast — Judi Dench turns in another fine performance as the unflappable M; Jeffrey Wright is again great as Felix Leiter (although I really hope he has more to do in the next film…); and I was thrilled to see Giancarlo Giannini back as Mathis.  New additions Olga Kurylenko (as Camille, the major female lead in the film), Gemma Arterton (as agent Fields, and do stay for the credits to learn her mysterious first name!), and Mathieu Amalric (as the villainous Dominic Greene) all do solid work (although I must confess that none of them really stand out from the many heroes and villains we’ve met in all the prior Bond films).

The theme song and opening credits — I stand with Mr. Lawrence on this one, in defiance of critics everywhere.  I rather liked the new song!  Is it one of the best of the Bond songs?  Certainly not.  (Goldfinger, From Russia With Love, Thunderball… these songs are not going to be bested any times soon… I’d say Goldeneye is the best of the modern Bond songs, and that was a while ago already…)  BUT that being said I found it a very solid theme, and an enjoyable way to kick off the movie.  (And its WAY better than Die Another Day…)

OK, so that all sounds great!  So what’s not so good?

Well, in contrast to Casino Royale, everything in Quantum of Solace is a little more… shall we say, lightly sketched.  I have read a lot of accusations that Quantum is all action and no plot, and I don’t feel that’s the case at all.  BUT the character arcs here are much more simplistic, relative to the depth brought to Bond, Vesper, and others in Casino.  OK, Bond starts off the movie angry and ends the film by making the right choices, but did we expect otherwise?  I don’t really call that a character arc.  And what did we learn about Camille other than that she’s angry over the death of the family and that she is afraid of fire?  As for Greene, he’s an evil environmentalist.  And his name is Greene.  Get it?  

There are also some plot holes that, even on a first viewing of the film, were bothersome.  The opening sequence seems to take place almost immediately following the end of Casino Royale, and my impression was that the rest of the film follows very shortly thereafter, covering maybe a week of time at most.  And yet, when we first catch back up with Felix Leiter, very early in the movie, he already seems to be right in the middle of a new case totally unconnected to his involvement with Le Chiffre in Casino.  When exactly did that happen?  (ALSO he’s got a much bushier, scruffier beard than he did in Casino, which again seems to imply that he’s been involved in this new case for months, not a couple of days.)  Then there’s the scene in which Bond is unable to book a flight, because M has cancelled all of his passports.  He tries, and fails, to get on a plane.  Cut to the next scene in which he has managed to get to the island where Mathis is currently living.  Um, how exactly??  These sorts of problems nip away at the suspension of disbelief I need to maintain when watching a movie in which our hero is able to jump out of a burning airplane and catch up in mid-air with a falling damsel (who has the only parachute, of course!).  Oh, and then land hard on rocky ground only seconds after they open said parachute, but walk away with just a few scratches and their clothes dirtied.

This film also saw the return of some hoary old Bond plot devices that I’ve really seen enough of.  I’m thinking specifically about the two female leads.  One of them is an agent sent to control Bond who Bond quickly seduces, and the other is out for revenge because one of the film’s villains killed her family.  Hmmm, where have I seen those characters before?  Only in about 20 of the past 21 Bond films!!!

Finally, while I argued above that I really enjoyed how Quantum seems to be only chapter 2 in a much longer, multi-movie story, I did expect to learn a bit more about the criminal organization hinted at in the closing scenes of Casino.  And yet, by the time Quantum ends, all we have learned is its name.  (And come on, how many people didn’t guess that when they heard the title of this film MONTHS ago??)  And I wish Quantum had the same sort of “just wait, viewers — more to come” ending as Casino did.  I love it when I walk out of a movie, already primed for the sequel.  I really thought we’d get one more scene at the end of Quantum, maybe giving us one more tantalizing hint about this SPECTRE for a new millennium, but that was not to be.

Before I end, let me just mention one thing that has me very un-decided.  What did you all think about the iconic opening you-know-what being saved to the very END of the flick???  Interesting choice.

All in all, while not a perfect installment, Quantum of Solace is a very engaging and entertaining movie.  It is inferior to Casino Royale, which is disappointing, but I still think it ranks amongst the upper tier of the 22 (official) Bond films.  (Disagree?  Go watch Diamonds Are Forever, Moonraker, Octopussy, The Living Daylights, License to Kill, The World is Not Enough, and Die Another Day again, and then get back to me…)

A trailer for the fifth and penultimate season of Lost has made its way onto the internet.  Check it out here.  Nothing earth-shattering, but its enough to get my anticipation building for the return of the show in ‘09.

Speaking of building anticipation, some new footage from Watchmen aired recently on Spike TV and is now, of course, up on YouTube.  Check it out here.  The first half is mostly familiar to those of us who pored over the amazing first trailer, but the second half is mostly new stuff.  Visually, this footage is incredible — Zack Snyder has really nailed a number of iconic moments from the acclaimed Graphic Novel.  Will the film live up to our hopes?  We’ll find out on March 6th…

Finally, due to nothing more than my own incompetence, yesterday’s cartoon (recapping Pirates of the Caribbean 2) went up pretty late in the day, so if you missed it just click on Comic Archive to check it out.

LOTS of fun stuff continuing to hit the interweb in this past week, after the San Diego Comic Con.  Check out these links:

Creepy new trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince can be found here!

Is the new Terminator movie going to be any good?  I doubt it.  But is this poster pretty cool?  Why it surely is.

Speaking of posters, some gorgeous new posters for the Watchmen movie can be seen here.

The entire hour-long Battlestar Galactica panel from Comic-Con (hosted by KEVIN SMITH!) is on-line here.

If you’re going to go see the next X-Files movie, this somewhat humorous recap of the final two rather lame seasons of the show can be found here.  Of course, the movie doesn’t deal with any of that stuff.  But its a fun trip down memory lane, as well as a reminder of why I haven’t rewatched any of the episodes from those final years of the show recently!

And finally, who better to sum up the entire Comic Con experience for those of us who couldn’t attend than Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.  He is merciless.

OK, that should keep you all off the streets for the next little while…

Seeing as how The Dark Knight has already made two kajillion dollars, I guess most of you reading this have probably already caught the flick.  If so, you quite likely also beheld the magnificent Watchmen trailer.  For those of you who haven’t had the opportunity, behold!

“Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?”