{"id":8007,"date":"2005-07-02T09:51:14","date_gmt":"2005-07-02T16:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2005\/07\/02\/a-review-i-wouldnt-normally-make.html"},"modified":"2005-07-02T09:51:14","modified_gmt":"2005-07-02T16:51:14","slug":"a_review_i_woul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/07\/02\/a_review_i_woul.html","title":{"rendered":"A review I wouldn’t normally make"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joy. We’re finally of an age to take Katherine to movies she wants to. Which meant, yesterday, a jaunt to see that sparkling comedy, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Well, no, it’s not a sparkling comedy. It’s a 3-D (at least partially) adventure, from the folks who had something to do with Spy Kids<\/em> (which I would hope the owners of that trademark would object to being mentioned — to the point of legal action).<\/p>\n

Okay, so it wasn’t that <\/em>bad. But it was certainly an hour and change I’ve permanently lost from my life that I do sort of regret, not having gotten anything for it save a mild headache from badly implemented 3-D.<\/p>\n

SBLG <\/em>is about a kid, Max, who had an active dream life, and who keeps all his dreams in a dream journal, which include the characters of SB and LG. He uses these dreams as the basis for reports he gives out, which neither endears him to his teacher, Mr. Electricidad, nor to the typical school bully types in class like Linus. Nor does it make his mom — a professional realist who’s increasingly disenchanted with Max’s dad, a wooly-headed “writer.” When SB and LG show up at Max’s school, though, and take him off to save the dream world of Planet Drool, though …<\/p>\n

SGLG <\/em>can’t decide whether it’s action-adventure, fx-fest, charming examination of the imagination, cheap psycho-babble, sophisticated psycho-drama, homage to Little Nemo<\/em>, or what. Plot elements bubble up then vanish, characters come and go with either zero set-up or with eye-rolling predictability. Things happen for reasons that make no sense — when it doesn’t make sense. Mr. Electricidad is alternately compassionate, cruel, realistic, cartoony, and turned into one of the chief villains on Drool. A song is sung, but it’s not a musical. The parents are alternately scary, goofy, conflicted, and lovey-dovey. About half the time when odd things happen, it seems chalked up to a dream, even when it’s not clear that’s really the csae. <\/p>\n

And the final message? It seems to be to keep your dreams, but work to make them real, but make sure they’re good dreams, but don’t let people take them from you, but be ready to let them go, but they’re important, but don’t let them get in the way of reality, but sometimes they become reality, but everyone lives happily ever after.<\/p>\n

I think.<\/p>\n

Katherine, of course, enjoyed it, and followed the cues to put glasses on\/off perfectly. Her favorite parts:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. When [spoilers] saved [spoilers] from [spoiler]\n
  2. “I didn’t recognize any of the actors.” I’m not sure why that’s a good thing.<\/p>\n
  3. Her favorite characters were Max, Lavagirl, and Sharkboy.<\/ol>\n

    Katherine pretty much enjoyed it, though a few places were sort of scary\/suspenseful for her 5-year-old self.<\/p>\n

    The 3-D was done with the classical red-blue glasses, and was used mainly for sequences on Drool. This meant that the majority (and most fx-ful) portions of the movie suffered from muddled color and light balance, but that aside, the 3-D effects were pretty decent, with only a minimum of spear-shooting-at-the-screen exploitation — though seeing folks spew food got awfully dull.<\/p>\n

    And may I say that I have officially grown out of the demographic that finds fart jokes universally amusing? Which is a shame, I guess, because both this movie and pretty much every movie previewed before it highlighted just that particular brand of humor.<\/p>\n

    And now it’s time for your Sexually Ambiguous Nomenclature Trivia Fact for today: the actors playing both Shark Boy and Lava Girl are named “Taylor.” As in, their first names.<\/p>\n

    That must have made for a few funny times on the virtual set.<\/p>\n

    The acting is occasionally well done (Taylor Lautner — Sharkboy — sometimes looks to have the makings of a decent action hero), but for the most part it’s the sort of lame, over-the-top thing that someone probably figured kids would like. <\/p>\n

    And if you don’t have a young kid, I strongly urge you to give this one a pass.<\/p>\n

    Ah, well — Charlie and the Chocolate Factory<\/em> is coming out on 15 July …<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Joy. We’re finally of an age to take Katherine to movies she wants to. Which meant, yesterday, a jaunt to see that sparkling comedy, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-movies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":50120,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/17\/so-i-guess-that-star-wars-trailer-was-pretty-successful.html","url_meta":{"origin":8007,"position":0},"title":"So I guess that Star Wars trailer was pretty successful","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 17-Apr-15 2:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"All around the Intertubes today and yesterday were people drooling in their laps or suffering from chronic eyeball-bugging disorder, or still weeping with joy and sentiment over the Teaser #2 for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.And, yeah, me, too. Chills, I tell you, chills as the music truck up, the\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":13716,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/10\/13\/movie_review_get_smart.html","url_meta":{"origin":8007,"position":1},"title":"Movie Review: Get Smart","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 13-Oct-08 8:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Get Smart\u00a0(2008)\u00a0 Overall Story Production Acting \u00a0 As a long-time fan of the original Don Adams series, I really wanted this to be good. Alas, Get Smart can't decide...","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-movies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/get-smart.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":798,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/11\/13\/art.html","url_meta":{"origin":8007,"position":2},"title":"Art","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 13-Nov-01 7:40pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Roger Ebert (whose opinions I enjoy, even when I don't agree with them) interviews Steve Martin (whose comedy I enjoy whether it's crazy, brooding, or just human): ''Sometimes I feel...","rel":"","context":"In "Media & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Media & Culture","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128227,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/05\/trailers-before-the-martian.html","url_meta":{"origin":8007,"position":3},"title":"Trailers before "The Martian"","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 5-Oct-15 12:14am","format":false,"excerpt":"It's weird -- most movies I go to are genre enough that I get to see some movie trailers that look, at the very least, intriguing. Apparently The Martian is being marketed, or classified, or considered very differently from all that. Or from me.The Forest -- Horror flick that's The\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\/2015\/10\/a-clockwork-orange-a-clockwork-orange-14752407-965-577-what-did-you-think5B15D.jpegimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/a-clockwork-orange-a-clockwork-orange-14752407-965-577-what-did-you-think5B15D.jpegimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/a-clockwork-orange-a-clockwork-orange-14752407-965-577-what-did-you-think5B15D.jpegimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":42437,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/07\/how-to-do-visual-comedy.html","url_meta":{"origin":8007,"position":4},"title":"How to do visual comedy","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 7-Jun-14 4:07pm","format":false,"excerpt":"There's a reason I almost never go to the movies to see something billed as a \"comedy\". I just didn't realize a big part of it until I watched this video.\ufeff View this post on Google+","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":129445,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/10\/the-martian-takes-the-golden-globe-for-best-comedy.html","url_meta":{"origin":8007,"position":5},"title":""The Martian" takes the Golden Globe for … best COMEDY?","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 10-Jan-16 10:11pm","format":false,"excerpt":"\"... or Musical\".I ... I ... I'm gobsmacked.Also, Matt Damon won the GG for Best Actor ... in a Comedy or Musical.http:\/\/www.ew.com\/article\/2016\/01\/10\/golden-globes-2016-matt-damon-the-martian and http:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/pop-culture\/awards\/golden-globes-full-list-nominees-n493016That's just ... I mean, yeah, it had some funny lines. Really funny lines. But I would never in a million years (or 140 million miles) call\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\/2016\/01\/VqPgljS5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8007","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=8007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8007\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}