It’s been a busy few days.
Thursday: we went to Superman Returns. The movie was okay, but I think it could have been a lot more fun. Superman was dull and flat, and Lois was just depressed. Fortunately, Lex Luthor was a show-stealer, and provided most of the laughs (though there were moments where Jimmy Olsen’s imperturbably positive worldview made me think of Will Ferrell, in a good way).
Friday: I bought Clone Wars Vol I and II and Mike Patton’s latest project, Peeping Tom.
Peeping Tom is an eclectic mix of tunes. Mike Patton (lead singer for the now-defunct Faith No More, among other things) teams up with a bunch of different people. Apparently the sound files were transferred via email between the various participants during the album’s gestation period. I enjoy the tunes; somewhere online I read that the project is “pop music as Mike Patton would like to define pop music”.
Given that Patton’s voice is one of the reasons that I liked Faith No More so much–he’s got a range from guttural, death-metal low registers, all the way up to a nasal falsetto, and he sounds particularly nasty when he’s stage-whispering–it seems natural that I would like this album. And I do.
Interesting note: One of his co-conspirators is Norah Jones. And she swears.
Peeping Tom on Conan O’Brien, performing “Mojo”, the album’s first single Taken off of YouTube due to copyright violations.
We also rented Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which was a fun, violent, swear-filled romp. It was a lot of fun to watch, sort of in the Pulp Fiction vein (in more ways than one, really).
And tonight I watched Volume II of Clone Wars (I’d already seen Volume I at my sister’s place, courtesy of my bro-in-law). Volume II was just as well-done as Volume I. Why o why couldn’t the prequel trilogy have been this good?
One of the extras on the DVD was a short film called Revenge of the Brick. It’s brilliant. Especially the orchestral bit at the end. Enjoy!
Oh, one more sort-of Star Wars related item. A cow-orker forwarded this to me, and now I’m contemplating buying the album. It’s a song called “Crazy”, by a band called Gnarls Barkley.
Although in general I agree with your take on Superman (That it could have been better) I was not blown away by Spacey, and I now realize Bosworth is way more talented than I had given her credit for!
See, and I found that the only times I enjoyed the film was when Spacey was on the screen. Some examples: the basement scene, where he takes a few steps backward when the lights go out; the pitching coconuts into the ocean scene; and especially the toothbrush scene.
And I realize that Lois has plenty of reason to be depressed, and I’m certainly not faulting the actress, but man, she was a downer.
Plus: is it just me, or is a stalker Superman a little bit creepy to you too?
I think the earlier films kind of messed up the premise a bit. Plus how do we relate to a hero that is invincible. I am not sure he could ever be psychologically stable.
Pirates tonight, come on a drunk lunatic, there is a hero I can get behind!
I still have to see the first Pirates film. Maybe tonight.