Late or Never?

Wow I've been busy. I started out blogging with a bang, and now it's been what, five weeks since I last posted. So much I've wanted to write, but haven't taken the opportunity to do so.

Okay, watched Stanley Kubrick's The Killing. Pretty good movie, and very accessible for a Kubrick movie. His stuff is not for everyone, but I think most people can enjoy this. The basic story is about a robbery of a horse racing track, the lead-up to the robbery and the aftermath. The story is told in a fairly straightforward manner, kind of a precursor to Dragnet stylistically. It's pretty violent for its time (1956), and I suppose still a tad violent for today. It's definitely not for kids.

I went to see Watchmen and enjoyed it very much. Probably not everyone's cup of tea, but I think well worth seeing.

Went last Saturday to see Race to Witch Mountain — by myself! (I don't have a problem going by myself). I never did watch Escape to Witch Mountain beforehand, but I don't think it matters. Race pretty much only made reference to Escape, and it wasn't necessary to see the latter; Race is its own movie completely. I so wanted it to be so much better, and I feel Disney just rushed it before completion (ending work on a project doesn't mean it's finished, just stopped). Dwayne Johnson pretty much carried the movie on his broad shoulders. This is another one of those (few) "moments of goodness" interspersed with longer patches of "blah" and "oh, get real".

Tuesday night, while working until 2:30 in the a.m., I finished watching Darling. An interesting movie, kind of bizarre. There was one scene, The Truth Game, I'm still not sure about the meaning other than recognizing psychological dysfunction and perhaps symbolic of a "multiple-interaction gathering of an adult nature", but what?

I also watched a Japanese film whose English title is Branded to Kill. The number three killer is hunted/taunted by the number one killer after taking out the number two killer. Well done but odd.

And tonight, I watched Key Largo, with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, among others. I would have testified I had seen this movie before, but what I saw tonight makes me wonder what movie I did actually see so many years ago. There was a hotel and a hurricane, but other than that, the movie doesn't match anything from my memory. (maybe I should watch Escape to Witch Mountain, just to know that I'm not mis-remembering).

As of 5:30 yesterday afternoon, I hit 40 hours at work. Fun.

Remember to Witch Mountain

Remember Escape to Witch Mountain? I enjoyed it as a child, especially all the powers the kids seemed to have. I bought a double-feature DVD (shock) of this and it's sequel, Return from Witch Mountain. Haven't re-watched them yet. But someday (maybe this weekend, the reason becoming more apparent after reading further).

Woke up this morning at 2 a.m. and had trouble getting back to sleep, so I thought I would surf a little, read some email, do my typical computer stuff for a bit. One of those daily things I like to do is the daily trivia question on imdb.com. On the main page are links to some trailers of upcoming movies. And today I saw Race to Witch Mountain listed as one of the movies. I wondered if it could at all be related to the aforementioned Escape, so I watched the trailer (what else would one do?)

Disney has done a remake of Escape to Witch Mountain, starring The Rock (aka Dwayne Johnson — what a totally ordinary, nerdish name for his persona, something I would never tell him to his face. Just kidding, Mr. Johnson. Friends? At least please don't pummel me, okay?) and two kids (the two kids from the original movies also make appearances here, as a waitress and sheriff). A remake of Escape is not something I would have high on my list of things to do (and probably not even on my list of things to do when I'm desperately trying to think of things to do), but after seeing the trailer, I'm pretty stoked to see it.

This certainly seems to be a decent-enough modernization of the story, though I'm kind of saddened that it appears you know the kids are aliens early on, certainly from the trailer. That was the hook for me in Escape, that these kids had these powers, and then you find out eventually they're aliens. Perhaps I'm misremembering; that's why I might watch this weekend to refresh my memory. Otherwise, it looks pretty rocking, another movie in a long list of releases this year I'm looking forward to plunking down some cash (more like transferring electrons) to see on the big screen.