Category Archives: Movie Night

Movies that I, my wife, our son, or all of us, watch.

Movie Night: The Mask of Zorro

Year: 1998

Director: Martin Campbell

Production Company: TriStar Pictures

Leads: Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins

The-Mask-of-ZorroThe Mask of Zorro is one of those delightful film that really doesn’t require any effort at all on the part of the audience. It’s the epitome of a blockbuster: tragedy, comedy, famous actors, plenty of action, mandatory explosions, and a plot that is simply silky smooth.

What happens? In a nutshell, Don Rafael Montero is the cruel dictator, forced out of California as it tries to assert its independence. Zorro of course intervenes, and Don Rafael tracks him back to the home of Don Diego de la Vega, puts two and two together, and tries to kill him. Instead, Diego’s wife is killed, he’s captured, and Don Rafael takes his infant daughter as his own.

Fast-forward twenty years, and Don Rafael returns from Spain as the savior of California as it falls under attack from the Mexican army. Old Zorro escapes, finds Alejandro, trains him to be young Zorro, and the stage is set for a plethora of escapades and adventures, culminating in the double battle of Diego against Rafael, and Alejandro against Captain Harrison Love, who killed his brother.

The honest truth is that, like so many blockbusters, the plot really doesn’t matter. What matters are the laughs, the gasps, the awws and the cheers; the sword fighting, the explosions, the love interest and sexual tension that’s never quite relieved. Anyone remember this scene?

There are a million and one things wrong with it (never mind continuity; how exactly does one cut a dress from a person with a few swipes of a sword and not at the very least nick them?), but it just simply doesn’t matter. It’s fun.

And therein lies the genius of the movie. It’s a feel-good film. You come away with the sense that you’ve spent the past two hours of your life well, because you enjoyed yourself. Never mind that you could have been watching something with substance, like…like…well I can’t think of any Westerns with substance, but you get the point. It’s the ultimate switch-off movie, a wild west version of a Die Hard movie (and infinitely better than Wild Wild West, as it happens).

Little Satis, of course, loved every moment of it, bar the smooching, and spent the following two days flying around the house with a cape and a stick, brandishing it at us every chance he got. He enjoyed it; I enjoyed it; time well spent.

What are your favorite thought-free blockbusters?

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Movie Night: Jurassic Park

Year: 1993

Director: Steven Spielberg

Production Company: Universal Pictures

Leads: Sam Neill, Laura Dern

Jurassic ParkI’ll admit to being caught up in the hype of Jurassic Park‘s recent 3D re-release, and it gave me that hankering to see it again you get with a good movie you haven’t seen in a really long time. I didn’t go to see it in the theater, though – no 3D for me, thank you very much. I bought it in HD on iTunes instead.

Oh, what a treat it was to revisit this cinematic masterpiece. And when I say cinema, I really mean visual: I don’t think anyone can claim the plot isn’t as full of holes as the dinosaur DNA it purports to use to generate real-life sauropods. Considering that the film is twenty years old now I can give it some slack; a lot of the discoveries and advances in paleontology have happened in the past decade or so (did anyone know that birds are now taxonomically considered living dinosaurs?).

But whether he can pick a good story or not, Steven Spielberg knows his visuals, and in Jurassic Park he pulled out all the stops. It’s truly telling that only now, after twenty years, does the CGI begin to show through. The effects used at the time were monumentally groundbreaking, and he used such a clever mix of miniatures, animatronics and CGI that it even today is hard to discern the truly fake stuff from the tangible, real-world models.

My biggest concern in approaching it with a nine-year-old, of course, was that Jurassic Park has some pretty intense scenes, and I remember being scared the first time I watched it – how was Little Satis going to react? Remember this scene?

Jurassic Park - 11 - Where's the goat - the goat leg lands on the roof of the jeep

Or this one?

CaptionContest1

Steven Spielberg seems to have a thing for severed limbs.

But surprisingly, he didn’t seem too fazed. There were moments when he asked to snuggle, but at the end of it all, he stood up and said, “That was one of the best movies ever!” I thought he might have nightmares (I know I did), but he slept sound. Kids these days.

I’m glad I bought it, because it’s one of those movies that you end up wanting to watch over and over again (now I want Forrest Gump for some reason). I really didn’t expect the visuals to hold up nearly as well as they do, and even though my eye is better trained to look out for the tricks now, I could still very much sit back and enjoy the film for itself; the technology (ironically) never got in the way of the film. The scene with the breathing triceratops still blows my mind to this day.

Picture 23

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Movie Night: Beethoven Lives Upstairs

Year: 1992

Director: David Devine

Production Company: Devine Videoworks Production

Leads: Neil Munro, Illya Wolloshyn

Beethoven_Lives_UpstairsI had forgotten about this movie for so, so long; I can’t believe it’s been over 20 years! As a young classical music snob this was one of my favorite movies, and revisiting it now I can safely say it still is.

The plot is elegant and simple; young Christoph lives in Vienna with his recently widowed mother, and in order to make a living they rent out their upstairs room. It just so happens that their new lodger happens to be a rather well-known figure: Ludwig van Beethoven.

Predictably, Christoph hates Beethoven for taking his father’s place, and for desecrating his father’s study: in his constant madness and compositional furore, Beethoven writes music on any surface he can find – including the walls and the shutters.

Ah – the shutters. Well don’t worry, after I move you can sell them. I’ve heard they demand a good price.

Eventually though, he comes to understand the source of the man’s terrible frustration – to have such beautiful music to write, and be so totally unable to hear it. Christoph’s uncle Kurt helps him to learn the passion behind the man, and the terrible sadness and humiliation Beethoven lives with every single day. Gradually the two become ever closer, culminating in the hair-raising premier of his 9th symphony (one of the most glorious pieces of music ever penned). The triumph, of course, is made bittersweet by the knowledge that he was to die only three years later.

One of the best aspects of this film is that the score is entirely comprised of music by Beethoven – even the peddler and his monkey on the street corner! So great and varied was the output of Beethoven’s life that there was more than enough material to set the atmosphere of any setting, from overwhelming sadness (Allegretto from Symphony no. 7) to fury (Allegro con brio from Symphony no. 5), reminiscence (Für Elise) and light-hearted joviality (Menuet in G).

The performances are, in hindsight, less than perfect; Illya Woloshyn, in particular, feels like a by-rote actor. Neil Munro, however, is surprisingly excellent as the tempestuous and eccentric Beethoven, passing from raving lunacy to gentle tenderness and everything in between.

Little Satis enjoyed it, although I think I enjoyed it more; he very much likes Beethoven’s music (especially the 5th and 9th symphonies), and he certainly learned quite a few things about the man that he hadn’t known before. He gave it three stars, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to give it

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

There are many princes; there is only one Beethoven!

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