I could actually do several more movie reviews right now, but the Cap'n would rather break up that string of entries with something else. Instead of full on reviews or quick reviews that end up being longer than actual reviews, let's just keep things short tonight. Not twitter short, because the whole concept of half-assed typing bothers me.
Really, why do I care that you "just got on the plane and they're making me turn this off"? Really? That's insightful in any way? Twitter reminds me of text messaging on a much larger scale, and just about as interesting.
Okay, I really didn't mean to get on my twitter soapbox there, so let's just move on for the sake of keeping things movie-centric.
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Frost/Nixon was a mildly entertaining film that dramatized an event where some of the actual people are still alive. What's kind of frustrating is that Ron Howard stages these mock interviews with the participants "today" or some time after the actual David Frost / Richard Nixon conversations, but he uses the same actors. The only thing different is a heavily blown out image and the actors (Oliver Platt, Sam Rockwell, and Kevin Bacon spring to mind immediately) have different haircuts. It's not that Howard shouldn't have done this or should have used the actual living participants; the problem is that these "interviews" don't serve much of a purpose in the film. Instead, they continually point out the "importance" of what we're seeing.
I'm making this out like I don't like the movie, and I did enjoy it on some levels. The cast is very good and the dramatization is compelling. What I find so strange is not the movie itself but Michael Sheen. For some strange reason, I can never make the mental connection that the man in The Queen, Kingdom of Heaven and Frost/Nixon is the same actor that plays Lucian, leader of all Werewolves in the Underworld films. All three of them.
Sheen is also going to be in the Twilight sequel, but this time playing a vampire. That just boggles my mind for some reason. Maybe it's that he takes all of it so seriously, whether he's Tony Blair or Lucian the Lycan. Too weird.
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Speaking of Werewolves, I saw Dog Soldiers on Blu Ray (which reminds me that I need to write an article about "do we really need that in high definition?"*) and while it's not the kind of movie you're going to say "Hey, let me show off my set up with this!", the rather low budget debut from Neil Marshall (The Descent, Doomsday) looks better than I'd seen it on dvd. The movie itself is still a lot of fun, even if the budgetary constraints show when it comes to the werewolves themselves. I do always find it weird that the movie stars Tommy from Trainspotting and Sean Pertwee, son of Jon "The Third Doctor" Pertwee.
Further inspection leads me to discover that in addition to being in Trainspotting, Kevin McKidd was also Lucius Veronus on Rome, has been on a season of Grey's Anatomy, he was the star of the short lived (but loved by my dad) Journeyman, he was in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and he appeared alongside Michael Sheen in Kingdom of Heaven. How very curious that it took Dog Soldiers for me to remember Kevin McKidd's voice from thirteen years ago.
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I have still not seen Star Trek. Until my financial aid refund arrives, I doubt it will. But like a true nerd, I suppose I can pore through the comic book several more times and parse out secret messages. Or watch the first season in HD, with or without the new effects shots. You hip kids can have your Chris Pine's and your Sylar with pointy-ears for now; I'll take my cheesy man-vs-lizard fight and Dr. McCoy chasing the White Rabbit.
Speaking of the White Rabbit, guess who's playing that role in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland?
If you guessed Michael Sheen, you've been paying attention to the secret thread of tonight's blogorium!
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Finally: I like my USA Up All Night piece too - that's why I brought it over from the old blogorium - but why is it suddenly popular with Google Search? Seriously, three hits in a week is a LOT for such an obscure blog as this one. I'm glad you're reading, but do feel free to comment any time.
Back tomorrow with Trailer Sunday.
* I'm not speaking about Dog Soldiers specifically, even though the placement of that digression implies they're connected.
2 comments:
I read an article on Michael Sheen and found this little tidbit. While filming Underworld 3 he had to go into the studio to due some voice recordings for Frost/Nixon, while in make-up. So at some point in the movie a werewolf is interviewing Nixon.
For some strange reason, this fascinates me. I can think of only a handful of actors who willingly make "high" and "low" art at the same time and somehow don't suffer for it. Kudos to Michael Sheen for it.
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