Friday, September 18, 2009

9

This was an animated film. It was produced by Tim Burton. I really didn't know what role Burton played until I saw the movie. I just knew that his name was attached to it somehow. The movie was an apocalyptic animated version of Terminator in some ways. The machines have turned against us and kill us all. The scientist that created these super smart machines realizes that this is going to happen and somehow devises a way to place his soul into 9 little puppet people that he has created for just such a purpose.

The film talks about these puppets being all there is left of life on earth, but these puppets cannot reproduce and the last time I checked that is one of the components of the definition of life we have come up with, it has to be able to replicate itself somehow. The evil machine seems to be able to reproduce itself, so it is actually more alive than these little muppets, at least in my book.

Of course the little puppets end up killing the big mean machine and there is this weird scene where the muppets "souls" come out and then go up to the sky and it starts raining with life filled drops.

I loved the film visually, and the voice acting was great, but the whole soul idea and evil technology is a bit much. Evil is in people, not in technology. I was just thinking about this whole idea earlier, that people create all these monsters to be afraid of and scare themselves, but we really only need to be afraid of ourselves and our fellow people around us, and the odd animal and insect here and there, maybe a virus, but no monsters.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Extract

This movie was kind of fun. Not hilarious like Office Space, though I think it was made by the same guy that created King of the Hill. I think the real funny stuff was the interactions the main character had with his neighbor and with the guy he hired to pound his wife. Also Ben Affleck did a great job for what his role was. I can certainly remember Affleck's name, but I like the main character better, it will come to me: Jason Bateman. That guy is a funny man. He was fantastic in Arrested Development. I hope he gets more work.

Plot summary is that Bateman's character cannot get laid by his wife anymore, so Affleck's character convinces him to hire a stud to seduce his wife so Bateman can have an affair guilt free. All of the convincing happens while Bateman is on either special k, xanax, or something else. Tragic funny stuff ensues, the stud is pretty funny, and of course the movie ends in a death, the annoying neighbor.

Maybe Mike Judge was doing too much, directing, acting, writing in this movie, but it just was not a hilarious movie. It was a good one, don't get me wrong. I am glad I went to it. Fun stuff, but you just know Mide Judge has got a seriously funny ass movie in him. It might be cool if he brought King of Hill to the big screen but not in animated form, used real actors, etc. The guy sure is talented. It is easy to forget that he created Beavis and Butthead too. An amazing talent with a keen eye for the American Zeitgeist, at least the tragically funny part of it.