Blog of Much Holding

As I write this, I just finished watching James Cameron win both best director and best picture awards for Avatar at The Golden Globes, a semi-phony awards ceremony that is still seen by some as an indicator of chances at the more legitimate Oscar ceremony. When he won best director, Cameron very honestly stated that he “expected Kathryn to win” – referring to Katheryn Bigelow, the director of The Hurt Locker, one of my favorite movies of 2009.

He should have. Because, while The Hurt Locker is a brutal and real depiction of people in an incredibly stressful situation – defusing IEDs in Iraq – Avatar is one of the most thin sloppy and false movies I saw last year. And I’m not talking about the CGI, I’m referring to the characters and plot. It’s thin as gruel, Saturday-morning television stuff. As South Park so aptly parodied it early this year, it’s “Dances with Smurfs”, played in large IMAX-scaled size. And in 3D!

Do I hate it? No, I’m frustrated by it. I’m disappointed by it. I like James Cameron, but more as a director than a writer. This was an opportunity lost, because Cameron refused to accept that he is NOT A GOOD WRITER he did it all by himself, and he needed help (much Like Lucas realized as he was writing the last Star Wars prequel). There is not one moment as I watched the film that I cared or sympathized with any of the characters on screen. Movies are about association and empathy and I did. Not. Care.

Is it stunning? Absolutely. Is it award-winning, for the visuals alone? Yes. Is it good, to me? No. To me it is Transformers 2 with a slightly better plot and better design and cinematography. As technology advances, and the visuals we see in it become commonplace and better filmmakers and writers realize than now anything can happen, I suspect it will not age well.

Yes, it is making a quazillion dollars. Good. It’s the closest thing we have right now in theatres to original SF, and I hope that Hollywood sees this and takes a chance on adapting some GOOD SF to theatre screens, like, well, anything Baen publishes right now. Or maybe that great Harlan Ellison I ROBOT script he did two-plus decades ago. They’d have to rename it, but it’s a hell of a lot better than the Will Smith movie.

Anyway, I know there are people who LOVE Avatar. And I’m happy for them. Movies are, like all art, received as personal experiences – you take something, or you leave it. You love it, or you hate it. For me, Avatar is a brilliant technological achievement without any real characters I care about.

It is a pretty, empty box.

THIS is fantastically funny. Hat-tip to CHUD for this:

It seems that everyone is wrapping up this year by posting their top 10 film list of the decade, even though technically the decade has a little over a year to go… so I thought I’d post my list. Here it is, in no particular order (Though I would have to say that one choice, directed by a certain Brad Bird, would be close to my number one).

One obvious note – these are MY top 10 of the decade, and I am completely certain that other movies are probably superior to my list. The thing is, I see a lot of movies, but I don’t see EVERY movie so… keep that in mind.

Up

I am unapologetic in my absolute love for this movie, a film I plan on returning to again and again because it is just So Damn Good. Cross my heart.

Shaun of the Dead

I LOVE this movie, and the first time I was able to share it with my oldest son was a moment of sheer joy. A classic.

The Lord of The Rings: Return of the King

Even though it had twelve different endings, it is still on my top 10 of the decade. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful – and the joy it brought me made the soulless King Kong even harder to accept.

The Incredibles

“If everyone is special, then no one is.”

If any movie reflected my personal vision of life more than this one, I will rush longingly to it. Until such a movie is revealed to me, I will comfort myself in the arms of The Incredibles.

The Dark Knight

Yes, the plot is full of holes that Batman’s Tumbler could drive through. Yes, Christian Bale’s Batman voice is annoying. Yes, this one hasn’t aged well. Nonetheless, the movie still affects me, especially in its final moments. Christopher Nolan realized that the best way to do Batman was as James Bond with a cape, and he made it work magnificently. Which brings us to…

Casino Royale

Bond is back, baby, in a movie that made me giddy with delight. Fleming would be proud at the wonderfully gritty film that resets the Bond franchise in a way that is both true to the original character and embraces the cinematic Bond with open arms. Perfect? No. But that last scene, as Craig becomes the Bond we know and says The Line as the music builds… THAT was perfect. If only the follow-up film had matched it’s quality and tone.

Adaptation

Charles Kaufman writes the best screenplay of the decade and finds the best cast of the decade to make it real. Nicholas Cage can do margarine commercials after this and I would still consider him one of the world’s greatest actors. An overlooked masterpiece.

Spider-Man

Incredibly flawed, but for a life-long Spidey fan, to see the original material treated straight, with numerous hat-tips to the classic Ditko/Lee comics, made this fanboy’s heart swell with joy.

Star Trek

Another movie that is far from perfect, but the sum of its parts made this trekkie Very Very happy. JJ Abrams took the best of Trek and made it work and made an incredibly entertaining and, yes, even moving movie. Can’t wait to see where they are taking this franchise next.

The Wrestler

Mickey Rourke’s performance. Period. The best since Brando’s in The Godfather. And yes, I mean that.

HONORABLE MENTION:

The Hurt Locker

Fantastic. The main character, flaws and all, is a Gorram Super-Hero.

I’m a big fan of both The Godfather movie and the Getting Things Done process of personal productivity that David Allen has created. One of the things that Allen says is that GTD is really a combination of techniques we all do to some extent or another, only formalized and systematized. When I recently re-watched The Godfather I noted just how organized Don Vito Corleone was, and how these skills kept his empire going. So here are examples of some of his approaches that I think are equally applicable to getting things done, no matter what your job or business is:

Delegate to people you trust.

“Give this to ah, Clemenza. I want reliable people; people that aren’t gonna be carried away. I’m mean, we’re not murderers, despite of what this undertaker says.”

The Don obviously can’t do everything, so he had built a network of button men and trusted lieutenants to execute his orders. If you don’t have a team of top people you can call upon, start building one – even if they don’t report to you it’s good to have quality people around you when help is needed.

Don’t get sloppy.

We saw the Don got old and started to not pay attention to the details – it almost cost him his life. While you might not have to worry about hit-men around every corner, you do have to worry about the quality of your work and how it is viewed by superiors. In the days of 10% unemployment, it is not what have you done, it’s what have you done for me lately. Keep that quality up – it may help you keep your position.

Have a trusted advisor.

The Don always had a consiglieri, someone who could give him advice on matters both business and personal. This is something we ALL need in life – be it a spouse, a business partner, a friend. Always have someone by your side close enough and honest enough to question what you are doing. It keeps you humble, and helps you make better decisions.

Do your best, but don’t fret if things don’t work out.

The Don actually broke this rule, one he followed throughout his life, towards the end of his days (“Not enough time, Michael. Note enough time.”) But, if things don’t work out the way you expect, don’t linger. There’s plenty of other deals and things to do – don’t get upset if everything doesn’t work out 100% of the time.

Be prepared to say no.

We saw this when Don Vito said not to the Turk about his proposed narcotics deal. Even though Narcotics was a thing of “the future”, he saw more downside than upside to the family business. He said no, and explained his reasons. Which brings us to…

Do what works for you, not someone else.

The Don was a natural leader, and followed his instincts and gut. Can you imagine Vito changing his ways to fit in? Of course not – he lived his life his way, and even said he didn’t want to be “dancing on the string, held by all those big shots.” He had a strong sense of what worked for him and what didn’t. In other words, to thine own self be true.

Pay attention.

Don Vito, at the meetings of the Five Families, paid attention to what people said and to body language. This is how he figured out that “Tattaglia’s a pimp — he never’a could’ve outfought Santino. But I didn’t know until this day that it was — Barzini all along…”

Be honest.

Yes, vengeance was taken on the five families, but if you’ll note Don Vito said that the peace he brokered would never be broken “while he was alive.” It was, of course, broken after he passed away. So, even if you ARE planning vengeance… be honest about it… even if you aren’t being completely forthright.

Share the success.

The Don offered favors, but not freely – he always said that such favors may someday need to be returned. This is something that is more of a networking strategy than an organizational strategy, but many times to get things done you need help – having favors that can be called in at a crucial moment is sometimes more valuable than all the gold in the world.

One of the many luxuries that we don’t appreciate nearly as much as we should is the personal entertainment systems that airlines put in their newer jumbo jets. These systems offer an abundance of choices, from basic cable TV to full video-on-demand and everything in between.

As I was stuck in a plane for over 20 hours this past couple of days returning from a business trip in Sydney, I was definitely appreciative – my stack of papers and books I had brought along to Sydney were exhausted before I climbed on the plane, and the entertainment system allowed me to catch some films I had not seen previously as well as revisit some old favorites.

A couple of these old favorites was The Godfather and The Godfather Part 2, movies that I believe are perfect in every respect. To imagine that Coppola had to fight to get Pacino cast as Michael is still something that I still shake my head at to this very day. Watching both films back-to-back (as it is every time I rewatch them) makes me appreciate them all the more, They are art writ large, masterpieces that were produced at the end of the old studio system and the beginning of New Hollywood, when the rebels took over- and I am afraid we will never see movies of this quality ever made again.

One notable thing I appreciated was that I was able to watch the original trailers for the films as an option in the airlines’ entertainment system. The one for Godfather Part 2 was gaudy, with cheesy voice-overs that try and sell the film as cheap shocksplotation. The one for the original, well… that was very interesting.

One of the things I complain the most about movie trailers is that, more often than not, they give too much away – We see the plot twist revealed in the trailer and any surprise is long gone by the time the viewer sets down to watch the movie. Usually this is because in today’s Hollywood so many of those surprises are revealed in “money shots” that the editors of the trailers just HAVE to add to the trailer, to get the viewers in seats.

I complain about modern trailers revealing too much, and yet I look at the trailer for The Godfather and I think “Jeez, they are showing EVERYTHING!” Yes, the trailer is mostly a succession of still images set to music from the film, but what they show… it’s almost a cliff-notes version of the film. I guess since the book was a best seller by this point they decided to show the audience that yes, the stuff they liked from the book was in the movie too.

Please find it embedded below, and if anyone knows where I can find a replica of the Vito head bust shown at the end of the trailer let me know – I’d pay top dollar for it.

Battlestar Galactica, The Plan is a piece of the puzzle we didn’t know we needed, but was absolutely necessary in many ways – it gives us something that many SF shows do not spend enough time on, which is subtlety and texture. It is a grace note, an aperitif after a nice meal.

It’s good, but not great.

Not to say there is not great stuff in it: The performances of most of the series regulars are top notch (many do not reappear in new footage and are seen in footage shot and reused from the series), the effects work are superb, and the writing is textured and subtle (except for one scene with Brother Cavil at the end with a young boy he had “befiended”). But…

It’s just kinda THERE… it doesn’t stir the emotions as much as I expected or hoped (you see the destruction of the colonies, in graphic detail, and I did not care… NOT seeing things in the original miniseries was much more affective). It’s entertaining, it’s a must-see for fans, but I feel very sorry for anyone who picks this up without any exposure to the Sci-Fi series – those poor souls will be completely frakkin’ lost (heck, my wife, who watched every episode with me, was confused, and she’s a smart cookie).

I won’t hash over the plot too much, but it basically reveals The Plan that was referenced in almost every episodes’ opening – and I love that The Plan becomes so unraveled so obviously throughout the film. Cylons, apparently, aren’t very good at improvising.

Three quick thoughts: First, though the actors for the most part have not changed much since the 5+ years that passed when they first shot some of the footage that is reused in The Plan, some actors have changed a lot in that time (Aaron Douglas, I’m glancing in your general direction). Second, Mary McDonnell’s Roslin is completely absent, not even shown in the reused footage from previous episodes – it makes me wonder, did she want more money? Or was she just “done” with the character? And finally, Dean Stockwell is the true star of this movie, and he is fantastic in it. Worth watching for his performance(s) alone.

So, final verdict: recommended for BSG fans, not for casual viewers. So Say We All.