Open Water 2 DVD

I was a big fan of the original Open Water movie when I saw it on DVD. I think they did everything right and to me it was scarier than jaws. What I think they did right on the first movie is that they hired Blanchard Ryan as the female lead and they got her naked in the first ten minutes of the movie. Not that it was super important to see her nude but she has such a beautiful face that any sane male would be wishing a shark would be ripping her wet suit off. Secondly in the Making Of Documentary you find the filming took place only on weekends flying to the Bahamas from New York for an entire year and it was paid for on credit cards and bank loans. Brilliant. It was then shown at Sundance or some other indie festival and viola, instant success.

Open Water 2. Not so good. I watched this on a speed setting 1.4 with subtitles; this lets me watch a movie 2 minutes faster per ten minutes and none of the dialog is lost or scene's hyper played. Its just fast. The subtitles is more for my benefit of the speed than completely necessary.

Staring a cast of healthy unknowns with the exception of Eric Dane, aka Dr. McSteamy from Greys Anatomy, OW2 is a true story of a group of friends who all jump off a 60 foot sailboat and forget to put the ladder down essentially leaving them clinging to the side of the boat in the middle of the ocean. To add an element of additional crisis, a baby is left on the boat asleep with the sound monitor on the deck so those in the water can hear her cry.

There is the formulaic cast of characters; hot blond with a weak will, lying boyfriend, idealist married couple, nothing new. The tension is not great but works well. I felt the history that is built up with these friends was genuinely presented and that this cast did bond. How could you not shooting on a gorgeous boat for a few months.

Overall not a great movie. If you have exhausted your New Release isle at the video store or want something new in the background instead of local tv noise, OW2 is a good choice for lazy watching.

If you want to be scared to get in the water again, Open Water the original will scare the crap out of you.

Mighty Mo at TMNT movie

TMNT

Released in theaters March 23, 2007

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is better than you remembered as a youth, closer to the teenage violence respects P-13, and a good family movie. Really.

TMNT was a huge hit in the youngest of the Generation X group. Hitting the comic book scene in the early 80's using a start up printer with black and white pages was huge gamble. The pay off came when the dialog and interactions became more important than martial arts and skateboards. The comic craze led to three live action movies and a popular cartoon. Not to mention the slice of the pie going to skate board manufacturer, martial arts dojo's and eventually at least once, the emergency room.

The CGI adaption of the turtles is great. All the characters are great, though a bit obscure. However the new invention of the turtles is quite clever and the preview of the new Jerry Seinfeld movie 'Bee Movie' hits it right on the head. In the preview it shows a real Jerry dressed as a bee, hanging over a huge flower pot and swinging out of control. Frustrated he decides to make it a cartoon so he doesn't kill himself and the entire scene played out live is then shown animated and the animated Jerry /Bee is flying through cars and dodging explosions and bears commenting on how you couldn't do this live.

In the beginning four turtle brothers are covered in radioactive ooze and along with a rat grow into human size characters. The rat, Splinter, was the pet of a ninja master teaches his students the art of Ninjitsu. The are named after four artists, Raphael, Michaelangelo, Leonardo and Donatello. Each brother has their own strengths and weakness but the main energy is between leader Leo and hot head Raphael.

The movie actually starts with a decent review of TMNT history and begins with the brothers separated; Leonardo has left to gain new insights on being a leader. In a leaderless vacuum the other turtles become extreme examples of their strengths; intelligent, vigilant, enthusiasm. When Leonardo returns he must bring his brothers back together as a fighting team.

Meanwhile an immortal is attempting to change the world and using his family and familiar enemies of the turtles, begins amassing thirteen mystical creatures. Thankfully these scenes are long enough to bring some much needed action but brief enough to get the kids back to turtle screen time. It is very important for a four year old boy to see the turtles in every frame or you get the dreaded repetition of, "Where's the turtles daddy?"

The climax of the movie is really the showdown between Raphael and Leonardo over what direction the team will take and its filmed in a CGI rain storm that is as good as fight scene as anything you will see. The third act fight in the finale shows one family coming together while another is being torn apart.

Very much a family movie that appeals to kids and adults. CGI has come a long way in just a few years and it is a pleasure to watch now. Great skateboard effects, tremendously fun to watch the fluid movements. Villains that are not really villains but scary for toddlers. Great set up for a second movie which I think is pretty much a given with based on the opening weekend take of $24 million and the movie only cost $34 million. Another weekend like that based on good word of mouth and by end of the month production and marketing will be paid for and Warner Brothers will be in the black.

Mighty Mo loved it. Especially all the sword fighting. At four years old he was not scared at all but did want to constantly see the turtles, not an uncommon comment in the theater.

What's Playing the week of March 23, 2007

Every Friday night is movie night at our house. Mighty Mo, Mistress and I order a pizza and then after eating that picnic style (in the living room) we all pile into the 'mommy and daddy' bed to watch a DVD. Its always been a cartoon and we try to watch something Mo has never seen. Sometimes its Power Rangers.

Usually Mistress will make real oil and butter popcorn and we fight for space on the bed and I fight to stay awake sometimes.

This week was Balto. Balto is cartoon movie about a half dog/ half wolf that saves the children of an Alaskan town by bring much needed medical supplies to them through a blizzard. Its a true story and the famous Iditarod dog sled race commemorates the event.

Mo was certainly happy with it and I confess I teared up a bit when they went live action at the end to bring the whole movie full circle. I can get emotional in movies for some reason. With all the sick kids in the cartoon, Mo made a point of saying that he is not sick, "I'm strawnger" he likes to say. Its a lie only a brave child like he can make as he is a 'sick' kid with lots of issues to deal with. But he won't tell you that he would rather ignore it.

And thats the good thing about movies like Balto. Balto got kicked around by the dogs in the movie because he wasn't all dog and he wasn't all wolf, but he loved everyone, even those that hated him. And when they saw that his heart was pure, even in face of misery, he became a part of the community. And the sick kids got better.

Happy endings are so much better than sad ones.

300

For the movie fan just wanting to see the action on the screen this is a great movie. One of the best war movies to come out in years. It is actually about the glory of war and honor of being a Warrior. For those that get wrapped up in the back story of the cast and story or the exposition of the battle to current events. I have some comments for you.

300 is based on a popular graphic novel written by Marvel comics genius Frank Miller about thirty years ago. His GN was based on the real Battle Of Thermopylae which took place in Greece in 480 BC.

This much is true. 300 Spartan warriors lead by their King Leonidas using superior training and tactics, stopped cold a Persian army estimated from 500,000 to 5 million. It was only through betrayal that they were defeated. To this day the battle is used by military organizations all over the world as a way to highlight the importance of training, esprit de corp, choosing the right terrain for your battle, honor and duty.

When I walked out of the theater I felt this movie was part Star Wars cantina, part Stargate, part Any Given Sunday. Why a football movie? Well because the Spartans are certainly depicted as being a highly focused and capable warriors who instead of catching a football or making a rousing tackle, cut and hack their way through swarms of enemy.

It is far to common lately to use movies about battle and war as a commentary on the senselessness of it, using a war movie for an anti-war statement. War is senseless, we all know that. Lets see some unbridled action. Lets see a war movie from the point of view that there isn't a social or political objective greater than the protection of freedom and the brother standing next to them. This movie delivers big time. This is a bloody movie, not for the sack of gore like a horror movie but as the by product of what happens when highly trained and motivated warriors must face odds that are roughly 3000:1 and conquered almost all of the known world.

Miller in his GN used a great visual and it carries into the movie so well. The warriors are heavily muscled, graceful and masters at weaponry, while the invading army is grotesque and misshapen, lead by a self proclaimed eight foot god who uses slaves and mysticism to control his minions.

The stylized grayness of the movie focuses attention on those few time there is color. In fact the only time there is stark color is when you glimpse the flowing red cape of a Spartan, see the gold skin of Persian king Xerxes, the mutated use of gold as an ornament or bribe and finally a brilliant ray of sun symbolizing the last chance of a country's freedom resting on the back of the Queen.

For a movie that proclaims it went with non-leading actors, they sure as heck loaded up on actors you recognize. Since this is an internet post and I am in fact to lazy, link to imdb and scroll through the leads yourself. These are actors that had big roles in things like Timeline, LOTR: Return of the King, Chicago, Lost (tv) and Rescue Me (tv). Not a shabby group.

For those that want to use 300 as a point of contest with current geo-political ambitions and conflicts. Please. This is a story that was written by Frank Miller in the 70's and based on a real battle that occurred 2,500 years ago. Philosophers and statesmen alike have used Thermopylae as a point of pride in their arguments ever sense. Its tired and unoriginal. The Spartans and Persians are neither America or any country in the middle east or vice versa. Its about a battle and a war that occurred long, long ago.

This is a man's man's movie and I hope that when the DVD come out they don't skimp of the extra and commentaries.