Harry Potter

One thing is for sure, Daniel Radcliffe won't have to work a day in his life after the 7th movie is wrapped. Unfortunately, like Mark Hamill he may be type-cast for life, but Harry Potter ain't such a bad legacy to live with.
I went to see the 4th film yesterday, The Goblet of Fire. Overall, a very good adaptation of a very long book. It is always interesting to see how filmmakers can compress pages and chapters into a short scene, or one line in some cases.
The effects have become almost routine. There were few sequences which had a wow-factor. I thought the Buckbeak creature effects in Prisoner of Azkaban were amazing (the sound had a lot to do with it). The dragon in this movie seemed to be a cast-off from Revenge of the Sith (looked a lot like the mount which Obi-Wan rode on Utapau). I was a bit disappointed that the Skrewts were not included in the maze, rather the shrubbery came alive instead, which was NOT in the book. Damn you, Mike Newell.
Anyway, the acting is getting a little better, only they still only give Ron Weasley the one-liners. Hermione is certainly showing signs of graduating into a woman - which will be more difficult to hide in future movies. She was much more emotional, and her feelings for Ron and Harry are coming on strong. The teachers were typical, but again, not given many good lines. Alan Rickman and poor Hagrid were barely in this one. And while Michael Gambon does a good Dumbledore, he doesn't seem to have much enthusiasm for the role. At least pay homage to Richard Harris. Surely the pay can't be that bad.
Ralph Fiennes - ho hum - could have been anyone under that makeup.
Gary Oldman - in the book he shows up at the end - I guess he couldn't be pursuaded either. As long as he is contracted for the next film, as he has a big part in that story (Sirius Black in case you weren't paying attention).
I was also disappointed that we did not see the Durseleys in the start of the film. It has become a tradition to start off showing Harry living with his hateful family, especially since the book established that as long as Harry is living with his relations, he is safe from Voldemort. Perhaps the actors refused to work for such low pay as they were no doubt offered.
Finally, the music. John Williams' main theme was heard in the beginning, and hints of Williams were heard throughout the film, but it turns out most of the score was written by someone else. I realize John Williams only has so many magical themes in him, but the imposter's score had hints of Yoda's theme, Luke and Leia's theme and ET and Elliott's theme in bits and pieces. But then again, so do most of Williams' newer scores. Perhaps Lucasfilm has written software which can automatically create a John Williams-like score whenever it is called for.
I did stay for the credits, nearly 20 minutes of them. Amazing how many different collaborators work on these effects-driven movies.
So overall, I still like Prisoner of Azkaban the best, then this one as number 2, and the Chamber of Secrets is definitely my least favorite book and movie.
Was it too dark? Maybe for a 2 year old. Sure, someone dies. Whoop de do. Take your kids to see this movie, there is not much else for kids.
I do have to mention, that in the 15 minutes of previews, tv commercials and video game ads shown before the movie, it seems Hollywood is banking on computer animated movies to bring in the money. Granted some CG movies do well, but others do not.
Once again, as Mr. Lucas has proven, great effects make not a great movie.

Toys

'Tis the season for talking about toys. Millions of people are packing the Walmarts, Targets and Costcos of America to spend their dollars on Chinese-made plastic toys. Good for China.
Over the weekend I visited the Barker Cartoon Museum in Cheshire, CT. If you are going to be passing through CT any time soon, check it out. If you grew up in the 50's, 60's or 70's especially, before toys became not so good.
You enter the barn, and are confronted with what lloks like a store - glass display cases, narrow aisles, and lots and lots of toys. But most of the toys in this room are old - some going back to the 19th century - yes kids, they had toys before television.
That being said, it is called the Cartoon museum, because most of the toys are based upon cartoons - but also on live action tv and movies.
The display cases are organized by category, such as Disney, Superfriends, Harry Potter and so on.
The really great thing about this place, in a similar way to e-bay, is that you can briefly re-capture some lost childhood memories. No sooner did I inquire about the Six Million Dollar Man 12" doll, when I found myself staring at ol' Steve Austin in his rocketship. I wish I never gave that away. In fact, if my old neighbor in Mansfield is reading this, I want my toys back you brat (he was a brat when he was a kid and I was babysitting him, I'm sure he turned out ok like most kids do).
I won't bore you with the dozen or so moments I had in the museum. I will mention that there were few if any LEGO in the place. Also no Micronauts and I don't recall seeing any Muppets either. Well, the Barker family obviously does not have an interest in collecting some toy line-ups, but no worries. There are plenty of treasures for the eye and the mind.
Oh, did I mention my Star Wars lunchbox...oh, and the Batman and Robin dolls...oh, did I tell you about the Weebles...

War of the Worlds

The War of the Worlds DVD is coming out soon. In honor of this latest piece of crap from Spielberg, here is the review I wrote after seeing the film at the theater over the Summer:

Today I saw War of the Worlds, the latest attempt by Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise to line their pockets with the green stuff. And good for them. But Tom, my friend, making gobs of cash at the box office doesn't give you the right to act like an ass in public. But this is about your movie, Tom, not your public life.

Overall Score 7 out of 11

Writing

Spielberg hired some guy named Josh Friedman to write this screenplay. I guess it could have been anyone, since I suspect they told him where they needed some dialogue to break up the Holocaust-like scenes of people getting fried. Maybe he actually came up with the whole movie, I really don't know. David Koepp is also listed. He has penned many hits so I suspect he did most of the typing. Maybe we won't have to pay Mr. Koepp for the sequel. Obviously H.G. Wells came up with the original story, and some of the imagery was borrowed from the great movie from the 1950's.
Overall the dialogue was somewhat realistic, considering the outrageous circumstances, I can't say I would be speaking in iambic pentameter. In the early part of the movie, Tom Cruise and his son Robbie play catch in the backyeard, and they share some jabs with appropriate cursing. Some directors in this post-Janet Jackson world would not have had swearing in front of a child, but in the real world that's what you've got. Despite playing a crane operator divorcee muscle car enthusiast, Tom Cruise's Ray manages to keep his signature white toothy hot shit Maverick grin up until the bad things happen. I think Tom could use some reverse whitening next time he tries to play an average shlump.
So overall the writing is ok. The whole subtext of Robbie wanting to join the military rather than look after his sister, just to get away from his dad is a little weak, but I guess ol' Spielie thought he needed some conflict besides the mundane spaceships-vaporizing-people trick. Ho-hum.
Directing

Spielberg can generally take a movie about a red balloon and make it an engaging emotional rollercoaster. What's that? You say someone has already done that exact movie? No shit? Well you know what I mean. Even his duds like AI and the Terminal have their Spielbergian qualities, which keeps this moviegoer shelling out the $8.50 year after year.
Thus, the shot selection, camera movement, signature point of view shots, conflict, broken family themes, technology versus man and everything else ole Steve-o has made a career out of are all present. Take one part Close encounters, one part Jurassic Park, a tablespoon or two of ET, a pinch of Private Ryan and one third to one half cup of Schindler's List, shake well or beat for two minutes, and you have another hit on your hands. Bake for nearly three hours, and check the post every month for your royalty checks, this pot roast is done to perfection - nearly. Acting

As previously mentioned, Tom Cruise plays a somewhat convincing absent father to his two kids. Although he works on the docks and is somewhat of a tough guy, he is also quite a sissy most of the time. He drives a souped up muscle car to compensate for his tiny wee-wee; he works high above the world in his safe enclosed box in the shipyard, and even when push comes to shove and he has to save his terrified daughter from the wrath of destruction, he loses it. This is a departure for grinny-boy, he plays it as most of us would. If I walked out my front door and saw those tripods turning my neighbors into shake and bake, I'm pretty sure I would crap my pants and go limp as a noodle. I think Tom's Ray character did pretty well considering. Everyman? Not quite, but close. Lose the pearly whites and he'd have it nailed.

Dakota Fanning did a tremendous job screaming her head off as any kid would have. In the past five years she seems to have been in nearly every movie and played against most of the best actors out there. She's sort of a grade school Tommy Lee Jones. She had a few nice lines, one in particular stands out as a signature Dakota line. I don't recall the line itself, but it was one of those moments when you question whether this girl is really 35 years old playing a kid, or vice versa. We will see plenty of Ms. Fanning 20 years from now, unless she burns out like that Sixth Sense kid.

The rest of the actors are really incidental. As mentioned earlier, the Robbie character, played well by relative newcomer Canadian Justin Chatwin, was mainly a sounding board for his dad's frustrations with being a terrible dad, and an opportunity for redemption. No real memorable lines or moments, except for my disappointment that he survives to the end. You old softy Spielberg.

Tim Robbins as the token nut job, who could possibly have helped save the day, but continued over the deep end, could have been played by a throwaway character actor. Maybe that's where Ms. Sarandon's sidekick is headed. Soon we'll see him playing an eccentric homeless guy on ER, or a crusty old sea captain in a made for cable movie about the merchant marine. Sorry Mr. Robbins, but Bob Roberts has left the building.

Cinematography

Janusz Kaminski has lensed many of Spielberg's hits, including the amazing Schindler's List. There were obvious influences here, from the human dust in the air, the clothes falling from the sky, the bodies floating down the river, truly some haunting imagery. The opening shot of the film was impressive and unexpected, as those long motion tracking shots have become a cliche in sci-fi and superhero movies - but it was effective here. The many scenes taking place in basements and dark places were well done.

Editing

Great work as always by Michael Kahn, another vet of Speilberg and other hits. My pulse was a racin' and would not slow down until well after the family minivan had escaped to the country. The pace of the movie goes from zero to 100 almost instantly once the lightning storm starts, but the editing never feels too fast. It seems to be a trend in current action flicks to show everything and cut fast to every possible angle. I don't know if this is to let the studio bosses know how many cameras they have paid for or just shoddy editing, but this film shows only what needs to be shown. There is an interesting anecdote from film editor Ralph Rosenbaum. When he was just starting out, editing tv commercials in New York, he would often get between 20 and 60 takes of a kid saying one line, with many different inflections, but after the 5th take, they were all the same. The main reason they shot so many takes was because the studio spent so much money to set and light the scene, and the ad agency execs needed an excuse to stay out of the office, they just kept at it all day.
Anyway. although we were treated to a nice closeup of a woman being pulverized, we were spared any visuals of Tom Cruise putting Tim Robbins out of his misery (supposedly this really happened once Mr. Robbins realized what a crummy performance he gave. Just kidding Mr. Sarandon.) Another good use of showing only what needs to be shown was at the end, when the Marines were firing missiles at the dying tripod. They showed the first two missile hits, with resulting flames and what not. But the subsequent hits were off camera, whereas in a Vin Diesel flick we would have seen every missile from firing to explosion, probably in one long CG shot. Once again Spielberg team, nice job.

Sound Design

It seems Skywalker Sound had some leftover sound effects from Attack of the Clones they were itching to use. I am speaking of the low hum of the tripods as they communicate with each other during the rampage. Remember the seismic charges fired by Slave I during the asteroid belt chase? See what I mean? Anyway, the sounds used during the destruction scenes, especially the sizzling, firecraker popping effects were something new. Usually exploding buildings sound like typical explosions, but there seemed to be a major electrical element to the destruction. The poof of bodies being vaporized was another surprising aspect of this movie. Surprises are good.

Special Effects / Production Design

I group effects and produciton design together in this case, as the effects in this movie are a natural part of the environment. From the distant clouds to the sequential lightning strikes, to the reflected view of detruction in the car window, you feel like this is the real world. When the tripod broke through the street surface, you really feel like it was under there. You don't have any beauty shots of the tripods, they are always in their natural surroundings, generally seen from the point of view of the victims. Nice. The scene of the plane wreckage outside the house was very nicely done, especially the absence of bodies. The orderly basement in Ray's ex-wife's house contrasting with the dirty basement where old-man Robbins met his demise is so real I was immediately reminded of a house where I used to babysit, and the musty old basement at my grandparents' house in the Catskills. Overall there really was not a thing about the design I did not like. Well, the obvious CG tentacle sweeping through old-man Robbins' basement was a bit reminiscent of the spiders in Minority Report, but again, George Lucas needs the business. I would be trhilled if it turned out that was a practical effect.

Music

Was there music? John Williams, you say? The man who whote, "Daaa-dum, dum-dum-da-daa-dum, dum-dum-da-daa-dum, da-da-da-daa" and the memorable, "daa-daa-daa-da-da-daa-daa-da-daa, daa-daa-daa-da-da-daa-daa-da-daa" and who can forget the exciting, "dum-duh-dum-dumm, dum-duh-dumm, dum-duh-dum-dumm, dum-duh-dumm-dumm-dumm." I think there was music, but sorry Johnny-boy, no Oscars this time. At least ol' Stevie understands that you can have a scene without constant music. We need more of that. More less-music please!

Strengths

Very good effects, sound, editing, pacing. I think the music was good, really I did hear it. Nice to see Mr. Spielberg kept his "kill-the-family-pet" trick out of this film. I am especially glad they did not show the destruction of London, Paris, Cairo, Rome and Cleveland. Well, Cleveland may have been ok.

Weaknesses

Ending a bit too happy for me. Previously mentioned toothy grin of Maverick could have been artificially yellowed for this flick. Would have been nice if Johnny Williams created one memorable theme for us to hum on the way to the parking lot. Just a variation of Luke and Leia, Lois and Clark or Anakin and Padme would have been fine. Finally, the Morgan Freeman commentary at the beginning and the end, along with the Men in Black shot of the water droplet, bacteria and DNA strands was not really needed. Do they think the movie audience is that stupid that we need the ending of the film explained for us. To quote Drew Barrymore from ET, "Gimme a break.

Would I See it Again? Yes. Unfortunately Speilberg doesn't believe in DVD commentaries, one of the primary reasons I rent DVDs, so I guess I'll have to warn the neighbors, crank up the subwoofer, and let this baby rip once the DVD comes out. Do they even make tapes anymore?

Dayton Ohio

It stands to reason that less than 48 hours since I left Iowa, I would head out to Ohio. When I was a kid, some of my stupid classmates thought Iowa was Ohio spelled backwards. Some people will believe anything.
I did not spend any time in Ohio as a kid, except for a night every summer at the Toledo Turnpike Motel, or later the Red Roof Inn in Toledo. As you know, I lived in Iowa from 1st through 5th grades. Each year after school got out, my parents would drive me and my brother to Toledo, the halfway point to Massachusetts. There we would meet up with my grandparents, transfer our bikes and toys to their car, stay overnight, eat supper at Bobby Rubino's, say goodbye to Sandy our cocker spaniel and then drive on to Pittsfield, MA the next day. My parents would drive back to Des Moines, and then drive all the way to Pittsfield the day before my birthday. They would stay for a week, then we would all drive back home together.
So aside from a few trips to Cleveland for surgery video shoots, I have not really seen much of Ohio. That is still the case, as I arrived at 9:20 last night, went directly to the Marriott in Dayton, ordered room service, watched some of the terribly produced overly liberal Bush-bash known as from Earth to America, went to bed, woke up at 6am, went to the hospital, shot two very interesting Laparoscopic Ventral Hernia repairs, went back to the airport, and flew home via Reagan National.
Whew, that was quite a run-on sentence. Sorry Mrs. Clark.
So no great excitement, but I wanted to keep up with the travel diary and the assorted relevant childhood memories.

The Bald Frog and the Wig

This was a silly quesiton google's wizards have dreamed up to help me populate my profile with quirky information:

The children are waiting. Tell the story about the Bald Frog and the Wig.
well, here goes:
There lived a man named Sniffly. Well, his real name was Lawrence, but all of his friends called him Sniffly, because he was always trying to get rid of a cold. Some people thought it was because he did not have heat in his home. Others thought maybe he had scurvy from eating only Cadbury Cream Eggs. But in reality, he always had a cold because when he was a little boy, a magical frog made him that way.
It was the Summer after 3rd grade. Lawrence was spending the summer at his grandparents' farm in the Catskills. One day he was out blueberry picking, when he heard a strange sound. It sounded a little like a frog, but it also sounded like crying. After some crawling around in the grass, Lawrence found a small, bald frog. Now how could he know the frog was bald, frogs don't have any hair. Well this frog was wearing a wig, so Lawrence naturally assumed he was bald.
Lawrence scooped up the frog and ran back to show has grandparents. "Get that slimy creature out of my house this instant!" yelled his grandmother. "When I was in war we used to eat those," explained his grandfather.
So Lawrence took the bald frog outside, but he did not want to leave him alone, so Lawrence stayed outside all night. In the morning, Lawrence had caught a cold, and started to sniffle. The frog looked deep into Lawrence's eyes, and suddenly Lawrence felt warm all over. Then the frog hopped away.
The next winter, when it began to get cold out, Lawrence realized he did not feel cold, regardless of the temperature. However he still had the sniffles all the time, and this was when people started calling him Sniffles. But only Lawrence knows the reason, and it is all because of the Bald Frog with the Wig.

Mike Travels Back to Iowa

I wasn't born in Iowa. But I did spent about 5 years there, from 1978 to 1983. My memories of my time living there are many and varied, and mostly of no interest to you the reader. But I've read some other blogs, and "of no interest to others" seems to be the MO of most blogs.
So here it is in brief terms:
1st grade - Fairmeadows School in West Des Moines. Favorite memory is the first day of school. I finished my lunch, but did not finish my school-sized carton of milk. I went to the trash can area, chucked my uneaten food, but did not see anywhere to pour my milk. You see, at my old school, Williams School in Pittsfield, MA, we poured our milk into a bucket, supposedly for the janitor's cat. In hindsight, we probably did this to spare the janitor from a big mess if the trash bag ruptured.
Anyway, not seeing a bucket for the undrunk milk, I cried until a teacher helped me understand that in the real world, you throw away your milk.
2nd Grade - Moved across town to Western Hills School. This was a more modern school than most of the cookie cutter 1950's elementary schools in America. Favorite memory - As the new kid, I did not make friends right away. As you saw from my 1st grade experience, I was kind of a cry baby up until about 10th grade :) Well the teacher, Mrs. McCuscky, brought in a cupcake, candle and token gift for each student on their birthday. Since my birthday is in the Summer, somehow she knew I felt left out. So one day to my surprise I had a birthday party, a received a very cool sailing ships sticker book. I still have it. One thing I don't have is the math test which a classmate stole so he could get a better grade. If I ever see that bastard...
3rd Grade - Same school, Mrs. Lisle was my teacher. This year we had the 3rd grade play. We were growing up at this point. The play was Hansel and Gretl, featuring Lee Kunz as Hansel and the very dreamy Gretchen Holiday as Gretl. I began my career of minor, non-speaking roles in school plays as one of the Willow-of-the-Wisps. Our job was to dance around in the enchanted forest in the dark using little tissue paper covered flashlights to simulate fireflies or something. We did get to hlod hands with girls, which despite the clamminess, was not all bad. The also dreamy Susan Stanbrough, who lived in a geodesic dome home, was my dance partner.
4th Grade - Mrs. Clark - the dreaded mean teacher my brother had 2 years earlier. This year we had a science unit in which we collected crawfish from local ponds, kept them in a kiddie pool right in our classroom, and had to do experiemnts having to do with feeding them marshmallows and other foods. One light at the end of the Mrs. Clark tunnel was the times tables. 4th Grade is when we learned multiplication tables up to 12. Once we passed all 12 tests, we got a Nestle Crunch Bar, which we were allowed to consume DURING CLASS. Don't think that would happen these days.
5th Grade - Mr. Nichol. Once you go into 5th grade at Western Hills, you go to class in the very modern open classroom wing. Here, the whole 5th Grade is one giant room, with rolling cabinets creating 3 classrooms, and a 4th open space used to show us sex education filmstrips and other films. This was the year, unfortunately, that I made some great friends, and learned I was leaving town at the end of the school year. Bummer!

So flash forward to 2005.... shwoooosh....I finally got the chance to go back to Iowa. Not exactly to West Des Moines, but still sithin the state. Davenport to be exact.

As you will learn through these blogs, I get the unique opportunity to travel around the country documenting surgeries and making other educational videos for the medical community. Yesterday I was a Genesis Hospital in Davenport, taping a ventral hernia repair. This is when you have had prior abdominal surgery, and a weakness develops in the area of your incision, and parts of your omentum or even small bowel can get trapped inside the layers of your abdominal wall. Basically, you got parts that are where they don't belong. So the surgeon makes a decent sized incision, either reduces the herniated contents back where they go, or removes the materials if you can live without them, then puts in a piece of mesh, kind of like screen door material, but made out of polypropylene, polytetroflouroethylene or other such materials you may be familiar with. This mesh prevents the hernia from opening up again. Then you get sutured closed, and go home. The whole thing took about an hour.

Once that was over with, we raced to the airport, but the earlier flight out of Moline, IL back to Chicago was full. So we went to the John Deere Pavillion. Let me tell you, having never been to a modern farm, I had no idea that modern farm equipment was so ginormous. They had a combine somehow inside the building, which was bigger than many houses, and cost a mere $268,000. No wonder farmers are struggling. They also had some historic tractors, and the inevitable gift shop where you could buy t-shirts, toys and other knick knacks.

Lunch next door a Johnny's Steak House was ok. I had a chicken pot pie and a side salad. Aside from all the fruit flies hovering over our table, the meal was not bad. Then back to the airport again, for the 5:00 flight to O'Hare.

Flying into O'Hare at night is a lot like flying into Coruscant. The whole planet really does look like one giant city, and the density of air traffic is unbelievable. Then once you enter the terminal, the first thing that hits you is the smell of Cinnabons, those ultra sweet cinnamon buns only available at airports. It was Friday night so the place was a zoo. I walked to terminal K, the last gate of course. But the flight at the gate had not left yet, so I had to walk to H16, another 15 minute walk. And carrying things on my back makes that 15 minutes seem like 17 minutes!

So finally on my plane bound for Hartford, a mere 2 hours later (once we actually took off) I arrived back at Bradley at about 12AM. Much to my delight, American managed to lose one out for 4 pieces of video gear, so I will have to collect that tomorrow when I fly out again. Where am I going? You'll just have to check back in at Mike Travels.