Update frequently, Who ME???

Alrighty, so now that I've been linked from another blog, and right now I'm listed as the most frequent updater, I guess I'd better get off my ass.

Over this weekend, I watched The Chumscrubber.

I rented this, as I rent most movies, which is completely blind. I believe I had seen some of the television previews, but they provided very little information. I personally believe that almost ALL movie promotion tools these days show too much information. Previews are running around 4 minutes now, and due to the fact that movies can be made with so little true story content, they're showing almost every twist except the last 2 minutes (generally; I have even seen previews that gave away the ending, if you were watching!).

So as I sat there, awake, at 2AM Monday morning (woke up at 1, wide awake, couldn't even begin to go back to sleep) I watched it. I was first amazed by how many big names were in it. I knew it was a rather indie type film, but they managed to get Ralph Fiennes, Glenn Close, Carrie-Anne Moss, Lauren Holly, and several others. The lead character was played by Jamie Bell (the boy who was Billy Elliot - another amazing movie, for those who haven't seen it).

Obviously, since I am against it, I'm not going to give away any information about this film, but if you enjoy more serious films (it definately has some humor, but I think most people will feel it's rather dark overall) I would rent it. Jamie Bell is going to stay around I think, he's an amazing actor.

I also sat down with my wife and watched The Corpse Bride.

Now personally, I'm a huge fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas. I love the tale, I love the amazing style, and I love the Music (to the point of having a copy of the soundtrack). I think it's one of the most original and interesting works of animation in awhile.

Saying all this, I think it becomes rather obvious that I had high hopes for The Corpse Bride. I wanted more, I wanted the same level of emotional involvment, and I wanted the characters to really suck me in. (I mean, they're played by Johnny Depp and Helena-Bonham Carter f0r God's sake). In case you haven't read into it at this point, I was disappointed.

This movie is OOZING style . It's art direction is amazing, the puppetry is astounding, and it's a technical masterpiece. The colors and artful lack of color makes it look incredible.

It's just too bad it's not a very good movie. It doesn't have any flow, it feels incredibly disjointed, and you really just don't ever like the characters. Except for the Jazzy "Land of the Dead" number, the songs are completely forgettable, and the characters are simply cardboard cutouts.

If you enjoy the art style, and just the Tim Burton quirkyness (which he seems to be mandatorily increasing per project) then this is not a bad Sunday afternoon movie. It's easy to watch and very pretty to look at. However, it will not be a classic, other than an animation study class piece.