Film Notes
Yesterday I wrote about how I recently watched a lot of tv shows, and today I have some film notes.
Since it was the beginning of my weekend, I decided to check out a few different titles, starting with something I hadn't seen in over 20 years-- Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom. Nostalgia is a pretty pointless thing to base your appreciation of things on, and I was anxious to see if this film lived up to the fond memories of my youth. I remember being grossed-out at the crazy things they had to eat, and how scary the guy who could rip your heart out was. Well, inevitably I was let-down, as it had too many implausible moments, especially when everyone's favorite inventive Goonie starts dishes out karate kicks to the bad guys. Fun when you are 8, kind of boring when you are 29.
Next I went out to St. John's to check out the (somewhat) newly opened non-McMenamins pub-theater combo. You can find it here. The people there were super-friendly and let me in for free since I'm "one of them", and I watched an excellent film--The Constant Gardener. The director, Fernando Meirelles, crafted an incredibly energetic and deep prior film in City of God, and he's managed to create a diverse type of genre-avoiding brain workout. You can see more (though, not much more) of my thoughts on Cinema Scope. Cinema Scope is back!
Finally I ended my night with my first-ever viewing of another Spielberg film, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, which I liked quite a bit more than I expected to. It didn't hurt that one of my favorite directors, François Truffaut was in it (a great surprise!), and it was way more 2001 than say, E.T.. I also watched the full-length documentary on the production--which features Spielberg on the set of Saving Private Ryan and star Richard Dreyfuss talking while crew members awkwardly assemble a set behind him. It shed some light onto why I enjoyed the film, especially when I found out that special effects were handled by Doug Trumbull, who worked on both Close Encounters and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
I hate Temple of Doom. That woman!! That awful woman. I think that is Kate Capshaw, who was Spielberg's wife at the time?? Or is still? Anyway, don't give your wife a role in your movie just because she blows you. THAT IS MY CALL.