{"id":30281,"date":"2012-09-20T18:02:47","date_gmt":"2012-09-21T00:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=30281"},"modified":"2012-09-20T18:02:47","modified_gmt":"2012-09-21T00:02:47","slug":"a-trip-to-the-movies-and-to-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/20\/a-trip-to-the-movies-and-to-india.html","title":{"rendered":"A Trip to the Movies (and to India)"},"content":{"rendered":"

About the only positive thing about a 15 hour flight between Newark and India (and back) is that, even if you get a good night’s sleep (ha!) you still have plenty of time to watch movies on the plane’s movie’ system (at least on the flights I was on). \u00a0I usually use this as an opportunity to watch films I missed and don’t imagine I’ll ever pick up and watch at home.<\/p>\n

There …<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Italian Job<\/a><\/em> (2003): \u00a0Yes, I’d never seen this before. And, honestly, I can’t say I suffered all that much for it.\u00a0It’s an entertaining little thief \/ caper flick, most noteworthy for its use of Minis as get-away vehicles. Unfortunately, the caper (and the inevitable double- and triple-crosses), and punched-up personal drama never get past (or even up to) TV level in engagement or personality. Lots of nice action showpieces, but ultimately there’s not nearly as much there<\/em>\u00a0there to this film.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Battleship<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(2012): \u00a0I could feel<\/em> the IQ points leaking out my brain from the very first scene, but if you simply let go, ignore the inconsistencies and awful science, and let this “Top Gun<\/em>, Only With Ships, Alien Invaders, and Michael Bay sensibilities” run its course, you can at least appreciate the big explosions and CGstraviganza for the sugary froth it is and move on to something more sophisticated and realistic in the genre, like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians<\/em>.<\/p>\n

(Note: minor game-tie-in credit must be give to a scene where firing on coordinates occurs, and scenes where there are peg-shaped artillery projectiles.)\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Hunger Games<\/a><\/em> (2012): \u00a0The movie does a decent job of adapting the book, plot-wise and visually. What it lacks in left-out background detail and personality, it makes up in avoiding the teen emo-fest of the written version. The action does seem to fly by pretty quickly, leaving me feeling like this was pretty light fair (some violence\u00a0notwithstanding).\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

… and Back Again …<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prometheus<\/a><\/em> (2012): This movie tries so hard to be artsy and profound that it fails to actually tell a decent story, give us more than character sketches of the participants, or even do reasonable hand-waving away of its scientific contradictions. Add to that people doing laughably stupid “haunted house” types of activities, and the whole thing comes crashing down. Which is a shame, because there are some visually stunning elements, some pretty cool questions being asked, and some intriguing vignettes, but with nothing more than style and pseudo-profundity to keep them held\u00a0together.<\/p>\n

The best thing to come from this movie was encouraging me to watch Lawrence of Arabia<\/em> again.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Lawrence of Arabia<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(1962): \u00a0This was not the first time I’ve watched David Lean’s staggering and epic portrayal of the life and death(s) of T.E. Lawrence, an unexpectedly great man of tragic flaws, nor will it be the last. \u00a0In addition to the Lawrence tale, there are also some interesting geopolitical bits about Arab nationhood (and tribalism) and European colonialism to sweeten the pot, and which remain of useful note to this very day. Add to that the remarkable, sweeping cinematography of Lean and grand music by Maurice Jarre, and it’s a true and well-deserved classic. That it was O’Toole’s first film makes it even\u00a0moreso.<\/p>\n

If the film has any weaknesses (aside from a bit of dramatic license here in there) it is that, in trying to give give an entire career in context, we get more in the way of scenes, glimpses, episodes about Lawrence, than an engaging, contiguous story — all of them fantastically crafted, to be sure, but more making a whole from the parts than starting with an integral whole to begin\u00a0with.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

* \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

I threw out a trivia question on Twitter about how I’d seen, in three of the movies I’d watched, Charlize Theron twice, and Donald Sutherland twice. \u00a0The two are together in The Italian Job<\/em>, Theron also appears (largely wasted, like the rest of the cast) in Prometheus<\/em>, and Sutherland in The Hunger Games<\/em>. \u00a0This was not planned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About the only positive thing about a 15 hour flight between Newark and India (and back) is that, even if you get a good night’s sleep (ha!) you still have plenty of time to watch movies on the plane’s movie’ system (at least on the flights I was on). \u00a0I usually use this as an … Continue reading “A Trip to the Movies (and to India)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[41,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media-movies","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/stars45-5.gif","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49624,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/19\/margies-kitchen-tuna-and-caper-dip.html","url_meta":{"origin":30281,"position":0},"title":"Margie’s Kitchen: Tuna and Caper Dip","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 19-Feb-15 5:43am","format":false,"excerpt":"Margie's Kitchen: Tuna and Caper Dip http:\/\/bit.ly\/1MA8Xs2 #recipe View on Twitter","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43278,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/26\/movies-movies-movies.html","url_meta":{"origin":30281,"position":1},"title":"Movies, movies, movies!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 26-Jun-14 7:59am","format":false,"excerpt":"And their reviews.The whole family watched The Sting (1973) last weekend. http:\/\/letterboxd.com\/three_star_dave\/film\/the-sting\/During Father-Daughter Movie Week, we've watched:Batman (1989) http:\/\/letterboxd.com\/three_star_dave\/film\/batman-1989\/Die Hard (1988) http:\/\/letterboxd.com\/three_star_dave\/film\/die-hard\/Thor: The Dark World (2013) http:\/\/letterboxd.com\/three_star_dave\/film\/thor-the-dark-world\/2\/Not a bad way to pass the time.\ufeff A \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605 review of The Sting (1973) While The Sting didn't invent the caper \/ con\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132487,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/02\/movie-review-sneakers-1992-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":30281,"position":2},"title":"Movie Review: "Sneakers" (1992)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 2-Jan-17 10:22pm","format":false,"excerpt":"This caper flick was a favorite of mine when it came out, and my love for it grows every time I watch it again (even as the even-then-inaccurate computer science ages even more poorly).Current review: http:\/\/letterboxd.com\/three_star_dave\/film\/sneakers\/1\/Previous review: http:\/\/letterboxd.com\/three_star_dave\/film\/sneakers\/Four stars (out of five), with a heart (or three). I should really\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sneakers (1992)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/28R29__Sneakers284295B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/28R29__Sneakers284295B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/28R29__Sneakers284295B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":135541,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/05\/movie-review-inception-2010.html","url_meta":{"origin":30281,"position":3},"title":"Movie Review: “Inception” (2010)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 5-Dec-17 7:37am","format":false,"excerpt":"I somehow never got around to seeing this movie for several years, until a friend's comment made me realize I wanted to. Ultimately, it's a marvelously crafted puzzle box that failed to make me care about anyone in the movie. It was an intellectual exercise that never inceived an emotional\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Inception-movie-poster-7.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Inception-movie-poster-7.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Inception-movie-poster-7.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Inception-movie-poster-7.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Inception-movie-poster-7.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Inception-movie-poster-7.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":136502,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/20\/loving-leverage.html","url_meta":{"origin":30281,"position":4},"title":"Loving “Leverage”","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 20-May-18 10:53pm","format":false,"excerpt":"My household has long loved the caper TV series Leverage (2008-2012), and have been slowly working through our DVD sets of the series ...\u00a0but, with my brother visiting this weekend, and my mom perforce being over at the house more, it's also a fine and mutually enjoyable series just to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/leverage.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/leverage.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/leverage.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10832,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/06\/20\/comfort_media.html","url_meta":{"origin":30281,"position":5},"title":"Comfort media","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 20-Jun-07 8:07pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Re-reading\/watching a number of things this week. Reading Friday at work.\u00a0 One of my favorite later Heinlein novels.\u00a0 Improbable coincidences, politics on its sleeve, polemical setting, and incredibly sexy, independent,...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}