Big Box Office

I saw 2 movies in theaters this past week: Hot Tub Time Machine and How to Train Your Dragon. They are listed as #3 and #1 on the box office chart, respectively but that doesn't seem fair to me, since I paid $5 and $12.50 (again, respectively) to see them. The additional ticket price of 3D movies skews the box office numbers, and highlights it is a poor way to show what is "The number 1 movie in the country" or of all time. I'd love to see a system that counted tickets, and perhaps threw in screen count in the equation.

How to Train Your Dragon

****
This is another movie whose title first attracted my attention. I'd not heard of the books it was loosely based on, but it seems that foundation serves the film well. The characters have personality and it is consistently maintained with quick, witty dialog.

Hiccup is a young Viking who doesn't fit in with the rest of Berk, the island where they and their sheep (so adorable!) live. Berk has many drawbacks, such as 9 months of snow and 3 months of hail, but the biggest issue is the dragons who raid the village for their sheep. Berk is anxious to fight dragons, like the rest of the island, but has no talent for it. He works at a blacksmiths and builds tools to fight dragons. Testing one of his tools, he manages to down an elusive Night Fury dragon. He finds the dragon injured, but cannot bring himself to kill it, which would prove his belonging to the Vikings. Instead, he befriends the injured dragon, and is able to take his dragon knowledge and use it in his dragon fighting classes. That's the foundation. The real conflict follows from this set up.

I'll admit, I'm delighted by 3D. It was pretty minimally used, maybe even too minimally used in terms of things popping off the screen, but the island of Berk and its surrounds are beautifully rendered. The dragons are colorful, diverse, and not all cartoon-y. Toothless, the main dragon in the film, combines gecko features with feline characteristics into a delightful hero. The sheep have an amazing anxious look. The only thing I didn't really like was the size difference between the adults and the children, which is a little disconcerting.

HTTM and Apocalypse Now

I saw two movies Saturday: Hot Tub Time Machine and Apocalypse Now: Redux.

Hot Tub Time Machine

****
Went to the Oak Tree Cinema for the early matinee with Ryan to see Hot Tub Time Machine. From the moment I heard the title, I felt compelled to see this movie, although I must confess my total fear it would be awful. John Cusak's presence was a small gleam of hope that it would be worth seeing, although it was confusing why he'd be in the movie, unless he'd lost a bet.

But John Cusak and the '80's once again provided solid, silly entertainment. I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Even the vomit joke was even funny! Not sure how to talk about it without spoilers, so I think I'll leave it at that for now.

Apocalypse Now: Redux

***
Netflix sent me two disks, containing both versions of this movie. I originally assumed that the movies were each on their own disk. Not the case. Act One of both films was on the first disk, Act Two on the other. This made the length of each movie unclear.

I'd decided to watch the Redux, to see what the director had changed after 20 years. Turns out the Redux is about 50 minutes longer than the original, with added footage from a French plantation scene among other things. It was a very long, slow trip.

I think this movie would have been better seen when it came out. It'd be great if we could see a movie without any of the cultural references or history that comes after it. This movie suffers from all that has come since it came out 30 years ago.

Afterward, I read Wikipedia's information on various issues with filming--Brando's being overweight, Martin Sheen's heart attack, sets destroyed by a typhoon, and a director who didn't know how to end the movie. It is an impressive film, although I'm not sure I really liked it.