Movie Binge December

I've been watching a lot of movies recently so I thought I'd do a review post. I should point out that I saw none of these films in 3D (which may or may not explain some of my views).

HUGO ~ Very poor visuals (perhaps they're more impressive in 3D) with very obvious fake backgrounds and way too much CGI endlessly weaving between passengers on train platforms. A sweet message about the love of imagination, but quite a long, drawn out narrative structure with lots of Tell me/It's a secret/ But you must/No, I can't/Oh, go on/No, really, I can't... And quite a few plot holes too, where stuff that's important one minute is totally forgotten the next.

TINTIN ~ Visually very impressive, really used the freedom of the CGI world to get the camera to do things you couldn't do in real life. Action set pieces were very good, although the story itself suffers from the same problems as the source material (Tintin tends to solve cases through luck and coincidence), although fortunately they toned down the casual racism in the books. Still prefer Asterix and Obelisk, myself.

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S is for Sympathy for the Devil

Make your MC likeable, right? Give the reader something to relate to. Give the bad boy a soft spot. Show he has his heart in the right place. A moment of selflessness. Save a cat. Rescue a turtle. Lend money to a chimp.

Which would you rather read about, a dull, tedious, sympathetic character, or an exciting, daring, son of a bitch?

Obviously you don’t have to make it one or the other, but I would suggest when choosing between interesting and  sympathetic, the primary area of concern is how entertaining your character is, not how much they give to charitable causes.

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Might as well watch something good...

He said, “She’s coming round tonight and I have to choose the movie. But I’ve already seen everything good. You watch a lot of foreign films, aren't there any good ones? One that would impress her?”

I said, “What do you mean ‘impress her’? What is it you want to trick her into thinking?”

“That I’m cool. You know, like I know what’s what and what’s going down. But nothing too heavy, I don’t want her bursting into tears. At least, not until we’ve had sex. And none of that black and white crap you're always watching.”

“Hmm,” I said. “Well, if you want cool, you should watch Wong Kar-Wai's Chungking Express. It’s bright and breezy."

“But if you want something a little more dark and sultry...

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