#78, 9/22 – Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) (tofw)
Be careful what you wish for and all that. Before I saw this I sent a text message to the friend I’d seen the first two movies with where I said, essentially, “I just hope it’s better than Ultraviolet was”.
I shouldn’t complain. It was better than Ultraviolet. But it turns out there’s quite a lot of surface area (like, about 386,100 square miles) between “better than Ultraviolet” and “barely satisfactory action movie”. Resident Evil:Extinction lives in that vast space. Which isn’t to say it sucked. Well, wait. No, that’s exactly what I’m saying. It was tired, tiring, and just silly filmmaking. No imagination. No entertainment. I can gawk at Milla and Ali Larter all day. But… I dunno. It just didn’t have any real life to it.
To me the most interesting moments came during the previews when I learned of other impending films. Somehow, for instance, I’d not known that they’d adapted the classic Hitman computer game franchise into a movie. Starring Timothy Oliphant. Oh, how every bone in my body is crying out that it’ll be awful, and yet I know full well that I’m going to see it. Probably in the theatres. Sad.
Sadder still, I’d not known that Marvel had finally gotten around to adapting Iron Man for the big screen. Or that Robert Downey Jr. was gonna play Tony Stark. As strangely inspired a piece of casting as I find that, I am… pretty sure I’ll be giving that one a pass. Well, I guess we’ll see how I feel next summer. I do like my junk from time to time, after all.
And last but not least, I was also surprised to learn (I really do not pay attention to film chatter—in case you haven’t noticed) that 30 Days of Night was also on its way to a theatre near me. I’m not sure what to think about that one, though I’m happy to see Melissa George is in it. Yeah. I’ll probably give it a try. Even though I’m sure I’ll regret it.
Why is it that I’m only seeing mainstream movies in the theatres these days, anyway?
#77 , 9/15 – 3:10 To Yuma (2007) (tofw)
As is probably obvious by now, sometimes I watch a movie and think to myself “gee, this reminds me of a movie I’d pretty much forgotten about until this moment and I ought to go back and give it another watch.” In this case, I couldn’t help being reminded of The Proposition which I’d described last year as “a scummy, brutal movie about scummy, brutal people doing scummy, brutal things.” I think I stand by that, but in little and big ways this version of 3:10 to Yuma seemed to echo things I’d forgotten about The Proposition and it’s given me an urge to sit down and watch it again. In fact, in some ways 3:10 To Yuma seemed to me a much friendlier, scrubbed clean version of the Australian film.
Of course, to be fair to 3:10 to Yuma, it obviously isn’t a knockoff of The Proposition (whether it owes a debt to High Noon, however, is another question entirely). But since I’ve neither read the short story by Elmore Leonard nor seen the first Hollywood adaptation, my head has no other clear reference points (besides, again, High Noon). And as I just remarked to someone earlier today “All westerns remind me of all other westerns.”
Yes, you could probably say that about other genre films, too (most horror movies remind me of most other horror movies, for instance), but I say it with some level of disdain whenever I’m talking about westerns. For some reason, despite my best efforts, I’ve never really been all that keen on them. But I’ve always enjoyed perceptive reads on westerns like Self-Styled Siren’s well-put argument: “On the most basic level Westerns are, always and without exception, about manhood. They ask, Who’s the man here? Is it me? How do I make it me?”.
I agree. And there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is what’s at the heart of 3:10 to Yuma. The only question, I guess, is how much I care.
OK, no, there’s one more question. Why do I want to see The Proposition again?
Both questions have the same answer: I’m not sure.