Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Bottle Shock

With the passing of Alan Rickman, I began thinking of his movie history. Somehow, to be remembered as the Snapes character in the Harry Potter series is unfortunate, since he was the absolute best villain in Die Hard and then in Quigley Down Under. But his best role, or one of my favorite is Steven Spurrier in Bottle Shock.
This is a film set in the mid 70's when California's wine country was just beginning to create some great wines. Bill Pullman and Chris Pine are the Father and Son who make wine out of a passion that is driving. There are great moments is this character driven drama.

I've watched this movie several times. It stands the test of time and should be on your list of favorites.

Alan Rickman died in Jan 2016 at the age of 69 from cancer. He was a voice that added to the great perfomances and a light which will be remembered at least for his role in the Harry Potter Series.

A friend wrote on Facebook,  "By Grabthar's hammer, by the suns of Warvan, you shall be avenged!" a quote from his role in Galaxy Quest.

Saturday, January 16, 2016

Fantastic Four 2016

This is the second try for the fantastic four.

You may recall F4 in 2005 and F4 Rise Of Silver Surfer in 2007. They were pretty good.

This one isn't. It fails on many levels. While we watched it, Jeanne, our son Dane and I were incredibly bored. They were showing details of the backstory that should have been engaging but they weren't. They got to action sequences that should have been at least interesting, but they just seemed flat. Even at the most energized parts of the show, the emotional impact just wasn't there. As I sat there wondering why the movie wasn't that good, I was dumbfounded as I realized this was a MARVEL production. They don't make bad films...what was missing?

It's the music! Maybe the sound editor was asleep. You should watch this movie and compare it to others. You'll be amazed at the difference between this and any good movie. This flick is like going to film school to learn what can go wrong. If the music was more talented and maybe had more volume compared to the rest of the soundtrack, it would have worked much better. 

Here's a perfect example of how badly they missed. There's a moment where Sue Storm asks for some music, because it helps her concentrate. Then it just shows her with a set of headphones on and coding. DUH! This was a perfect point to add some hard pounding rock that continued for the next scene creating an energetic montage that would have built the excitement of the movie, But they missed it and every other time throughout.

Too bad, it could have been great but they missed.