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August is finally cooling off (or at least, today it is) but we've been seeking respite in the most air conditioned place we know - the mall! Or specifically, the new outlet mall in a little town north of Calgary called Balzac. It's official name is CrossIron Mills, but everyone calls it the Balzac Mall or, as I prefer, Mallzac. The movie theatre is also brand new, and few buildings experience as much wear and tear as a theatre.
We saw Elysium on its opening weekend, because Matt Damon. It was good, just not great. Part of the reason was that the guy next to me fumbled his drink on to the guy in front of him right at the beginning! Oh man! Dude! I was disappointed that three quarters of the movie takes place on Earth instead of the pretty pretty world in space. There were a lot of flaws in this movie and unfortunately my nitpick-o-meter couldn't land in the great zone. There was just too much ham handedness in the metaphors, the only citizens of Elysium we meet are corrupt politicians...the Elysium houses are oddly empty, the ending was too sappy...if this movie was made in the 60s or 70s, it would easily have gotten a pass for its lack of sophistication. I was really surprised too, since it looked SO good.
We also enjoyed Kick Ass 2, but again...gee whiz...it would have been a far better movie if they just called it Hit Girl and left Kick Ass at the margins. The parts where Mindy battles the mean girls were far more interesting than the parts about Dave and his friends and/or enemies. It was funny, yes, especially when Red Mist reinvents himself, but the movie was just all over the place and didn't feel as tight as the original. The lack of Nicholas Cage was a huge loss too. The ending was set up for a third movie, but it would be hard to say if that will happen. The theatre was only about a quarter full when we went. Some young people snuck in and sat behind us, but disappeared before the ending. Someone actually brought their nine or ten year old! Uh...
Lastly, I'm cancelling my Zip subscription. Since the warehouses in Calgary and Toronto have apparently closed down, we're not getting movies in the mail as fast and it's hard to justify spending $13 a month on two movies a month. The turn around time used to be two days, now it's a week or more on average. The last movie they sent us was Grand Prix, directed by John Frankenheimer, who also directed Ronin. It stars James Garner and Yves Montand as the lives of four drivers are chronicled across the Formula One circuit. The race scenes are excellent, and it was actually filmed in Cinerama/70mm - meant to be watched on one of those big dome screens so you could feel the action. What isn't great are the vignettes about the lives of the drivers - they're long, slow, boring and pretty flat. The only actor who carries them off well is James Garner, who I suspect is simply being himself and not trying to act :-) The movie clocks in at two and a half hours, and by the end of the second hour I really wasn't interested any more!
We saw Elysium on its opening weekend, because Matt Damon. It was good, just not great. Part of the reason was that the guy next to me fumbled his drink on to the guy in front of him right at the beginning! Oh man! Dude! I was disappointed that three quarters of the movie takes place on Earth instead of the pretty pretty world in space. There were a lot of flaws in this movie and unfortunately my nitpick-o-meter couldn't land in the great zone. There was just too much ham handedness in the metaphors, the only citizens of Elysium we meet are corrupt politicians...the Elysium houses are oddly empty, the ending was too sappy...if this movie was made in the 60s or 70s, it would easily have gotten a pass for its lack of sophistication. I was really surprised too, since it looked SO good.
We also enjoyed Kick Ass 2, but again...gee whiz...it would have been a far better movie if they just called it Hit Girl and left Kick Ass at the margins. The parts where Mindy battles the mean girls were far more interesting than the parts about Dave and his friends and/or enemies. It was funny, yes, especially when Red Mist reinvents himself, but the movie was just all over the place and didn't feel as tight as the original. The lack of Nicholas Cage was a huge loss too. The ending was set up for a third movie, but it would be hard to say if that will happen. The theatre was only about a quarter full when we went. Some young people snuck in and sat behind us, but disappeared before the ending. Someone actually brought their nine or ten year old! Uh...
Lastly, I'm cancelling my Zip subscription. Since the warehouses in Calgary and Toronto have apparently closed down, we're not getting movies in the mail as fast and it's hard to justify spending $13 a month on two movies a month. The turn around time used to be two days, now it's a week or more on average. The last movie they sent us was Grand Prix, directed by John Frankenheimer, who also directed Ronin. It stars James Garner and Yves Montand as the lives of four drivers are chronicled across the Formula One circuit. The race scenes are excellent, and it was actually filmed in Cinerama/70mm - meant to be watched on one of those big dome screens so you could feel the action. What isn't great are the vignettes about the lives of the drivers - they're long, slow, boring and pretty flat. The only actor who carries them off well is James Garner, who I suspect is simply being himself and not trying to act :-) The movie clocks in at two and a half hours, and by the end of the second hour I really wasn't interested any more!
