Movie Marathon

I watched three movies on Sunday, one in the movie theater and two on DVD (rented). Oh, and I found out the ending to The Village. Knowing it hasn’t soured me on seeing the movie, but M. Night Shymalan must be running out of ideas. I saw an episode of The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest with similarities to that ending.

The first movie I saw was the remake of The Manchurian Candidate. My aunt took me and our family friend Rhonda to go see it. The original film came on TV on Saturday, but I missed it. This continues my trend of not seeing the original when I see the remake (as was the case with Dawn of The Dead and Cheaper By The Dozen). I don’t want to give too much away, seeing as it’s a thriller with some interesting twists. However, I will say that I enjoyed it a lot. The performances are top-notch across the board. Everyone including Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, and Jon Voight (in a small role) all did well. I know the villains were slightly changed in this remake, and the change works given the times we live in. What I really liked about the film was the overall direction by Jonathan Demme. The whole movie has an eerie, off-kilter feel to it. Closeups of characters are unnaturally close. The soundtrack is cacophonous at times with layers of backing music, sound effects, and hard-to-understand dialogue. The movement of the camera is also a bit strange at times. All these elements give the film an atmosphere of puts you on the edge of your seat and makes you not take anything you see on screen at face value. Also, these things aren’t overdone, so it doesn’t turn the film into something that could be too weird for a mainstream audience. The remake of The Manchurian Candidate is a gripping, thinking person’s movie. It’s not dumbed down, it finds the right pace, and ends up being a very good way to kill time at the movies.

The next movie I watched was Tupac: Resurrection. This is the documentary from MTV Films that uses audio clips from Tupac himself as well as photos, interviews, home movies, and rare footage to tell the story of his life. The audio clips are edited in such a way as to make it seem like Tupac is narrating the movie. I liked this movie. You get a ton of insight into Tupac, more so than even his music. A lot of the questions that Tupac fans may have had are answered in this movie. For example, I never knew what “Thug Life” really meant. You get to hear Tupac himself explain it in detail in the movie. However, there is one small gripe I have with this movie. Given that it uses various audio clips to make Tupac “narrate” the film, I was worried that the makers would essentially put words into Tupac’s mouth. I remember how audio editors pieced together words from other scenes to make “dialogue” for Brandon Lee in the final scenes of The Crow. I wondered if the makers would make Tupac say things he might not have said while he was living, even if Afeni Shakur was an executive producer. The piecing together of audio was noticeable a few times during the movie. However, I think everything sounded authentic and true to Tupac’s legacy. Tupac: Resurrection is a documentary that I can recommend to both Tupac fans and detractors. Regardless of whether you think Tupac was an icon, a great rapper, or just a gangsta, it will open your eyes on what you think you know about him.

The last movie I watched was the recent live-action remake of Peter Pan. I’ll admit that Peter Pan isn’t exactly one of my favorite stories. The Disney animated version is one of the few classic Disney films that I don’t like. However, this movie is better than that film was. It dragged on a little bit at times, but it was a fun, colorful movie. The special effects are well-done and the performances are good. I especially enjoyed Captain Hook. Captain Hook was the best thing about the Disney movie (apart from the songs) and he’s great in this live-action version. All in all, this is one of the best versions of Peter Pan I’ve seen.