Full Circle with Michael Palin

Lynn’s Druthers Marathon, part 10



Data
Title: Full Circle with Michael Palin
Year: 1997
Network: BBC
Episodes: 10, at 50 minutes each
Directors: Roger Mills, Clem Vallance
Writers: Michael Palin
Starring: Michael Palin
Music: Peter Howell
I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), over the past couple weeks
Synopsis: Palin visits various locations near the Pacific rim.

My reaction
Concept: Unlike his previous travel shows, there's no point to this one.
Story: No story.
Characters:
Dialog:
Pacing:
Cinematography:
Special effects/design:
Acting: n/a
Music:
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh, ). Dull. There's more focus on the film crew's massive pile of luggage than anything else.
Objective Rating (Average):

You've Got Mail

Data
Title: You've Got Mail
Year: 1998
Length: 119 minutes
Director: Nora Ephron
Writers: Nora Ephron & Delia Ephron, based on a play by Miklós László
Starring: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan
Music: George Fenton (and non-original music)
I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Synopsis: rival business owners write each other op-ed pieces by anonymous email

My reaction
Concept: Even when it was a sweet love story starring Jimmy Stewart it wasn't all that great of an idea.
Story: There's just barely enough left over from the original that the story's not completely crapped.
Characters: My impression of Nora Ephron (based on two movies, and I hope I don't ever have to see another) is that she either thinks people are awful and likes them that way, or she is herself so awful that she doesn't realize that her characters are awful people.
Dialog: I have to admit a few lines are amusing. So much more is bad, though.
Pacing:
Cinematography:
Special effects/design: This has got to be the most dated movie ever made.
Acting:
Music:
Subjective Rating: 3/10 (Bad, ). It doesn't personally upset me, the way Julie & Julia does, since in this one it's not my generation that's portrayed as a bunch of... Nora Ephron characters. Bad movie, though. Real bad movie.
Objective Rating (Average):

Sleeping Beauty

Data
Title: Sleeping Beauty
Year: 1959
Length: 75 minutes
Director: Clyde Geronimi
Writer: Erdman Penner, with Joe Rinaldi, Winston Hibler, Bill Peet, Ted Sears, Ralph Wright & Milt Banta; based on the story by Charles Perrault
Starring: Mary Costa, Bill Shirley, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Barbara Luddy, Barbara Jo Allen
Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, adapted by George Bruns (score); Bruns, Tom Adair, Sammy Fain, Jack Lawrence, Winston Hibler, Ted Sears & Erdman Penner (songs)
Oscars: nomination for Best Score (musical)
I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Synopsis: a princess is cursed by an evil sorceress



My reaction
Concept:
Story: I dislike Perrault, but they adapted it into something good. Lots of scary action. And the heroes are old ladies!
Characters: Merryweather is delightful, but that's about all the movie has by way of characters. Maleficent is kind of awesome, in both senses of the word, but far from what you might call good character writing.
Dialog:
Pacing:
Cinematography:
Special effects/design: One of the best movies visually, ever - right up there with The Third Man.
Acting: Mostly fine, but I've got to take a point off for the narrator.
Music: The tunes to the songs sound at home in a movie with a score by Tchaikovsky: beautiful and classical. (Not being a fan of Tchaikovsky, I'd assumed they were his melodies.) Most importantly, none of the songs get stuck in my head.
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, ). Well, that was a huge surprise. I'd thought that by this point Disney had long since given up on the artistic angle and moved on to a more "kid friendly" humor-based appeal. Wrongity wrong wrong. I'm looking forward to re-watching 101 Dalmations (the next Disney movie chronologically) to see if it's anything like this. (But my hopes aren't high.)
Objective Rating (Average):

Rango

Data
Title: Rango
Year: 2011
Length: 107 minutes
Director: Gore Verbinski
Writer: John Logan; story by Logan, Gore Verbinski & James Ward Byrkit
Starring: Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Ned Beatty
Music: Hans Zimmer (and other songs and non-original music)
I saw it: in the theater, yesterday
Synopsis: a pet chameleon is thrust into life in the Mojave Desert; or, there's something suspicious about a western town's water shortage

My reaction
Concept: I'm not sure I even know what the concept is. What the hell is this movie?
Story: Starts out extremely promising, but devolves into the genre parody/homage bullshit that's become standard for non-Pixar animation.
Characters: My wife points out that these characters are "badly broken." They're as desperate and grim as you'd expect from a modern day Western, and then some.
Dialog: It's as if they took the stock children's movie self-discovery/adventure story, then gave it to a writer and said, "Here, make this weird. Make it really fucking weird."
Pacing:
Cinematography:
Special effects/design: Amazing.
Acting: The animators' acting is spectacularly great. The voice acting is just okay.
Music: Walks a fine line between parody and plagiarism, and I'm not sure which side it ends up on, but I like it anyway. It's ripping off all the right stuff.
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, ). Wonderfully bizarre. If only the plot could have been half as wonderful and/or bizarre as the rest of the movie.
Objective Rating (Average):

Commando

Data
Title: Commando
Year: 1985
Length: 90 minutes
Director: Mark L. Lester
Writer: Steven E. de Souza; story by Jeph Loeb, Matthew Weisman & de Souza
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rae Dawn Chong, Dan Hedaya, Vernon Wells
Music: James Horner
I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday [re-watched 4/16/14]
Synopsis: badguys kidnap an ex-soldier's daughter; he doesn't cooperate



My reaction
Concept:
Story:
Characters: There is almost no time spent on character development, but that's one of the movie's strongest points. The audience doesn't give a fuck about characters, and neither does Commando.
Dialog: But hilarious.
Pacing: This is the model of pacing that all action films should aspire to.
Cinematography: If I were seeing it in 1985 I'd probably think the cinematography's crap, but oh my goodness it is wonderfully refreshing compared to modern action films.  You can see everything. You always know exactly where everything is and exactly what's happening. Is that really so much to ask?
Special effects/design: There are no major faults with it (except for some of the costumes); it just exudes a sense of low-budgetedness.
Acting: Vernon Wells is in the running for the worst professional actor I've ever seen.
Music: Bad music, but I've got to admit that the end credits song is the perfect fit for the movie: complete shit, but rockin'.
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, ). Yes, it is terrible. Terrible, terrible, terrible. It's also the most fun I've had watching a movie in a long time. And not only because I'm laughing at its expense (although there's plenty of that); it really is a genuinely fun movie.
Objective Rating (Average):