Firefly/Serenity

I recently got my Netflix streaming DVD for the Wii and decided to test it out by watching Firefly.  I hadn't watched the show when it was on but everyone kept telling me I should.  I had watched Serenity when the movie came out a few years ago and I liked it.  I immediately got hooked on Firefly and watched all 14 episodes over the course of 2 weekends.  Then I decided to go back and watch Serenity again, now that I knew who all the characters were.  I found that I liked and disliked it more at the same time.  I disliked it more because I didn't feel the movie kept the same spirit of the show.  River, who was a minor character in Firefly, suddenly became the focus of the movie.  Yes, I imagine the writers of the show believed they'd have a couple of seasons to enhance her character and make her story more important, but by making her leap into the forefront, they short shifted everyone else.  Inara, for instance, had virtually nothing to do in the movie, but was much more important in the show.  I understand why the movie might not have kept the spirit of the show, because it needed to be able to attract people who hadn't even heard of Firefly.  But it did feel a little off to me.  At the same time, knowing the characters helped my understanding of their reactions and when one of the major characters dies in Serenity, how everyone reacted made so much more sense.  And it meant more to me too since I had see this character through 14 previous hours.  All in all though, if you haven't seen Firefly/Serenity I would give it a shot.  It's quite addictive.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

With the remake coming out in a few days I thought I'd go back and watch the original.  And to me, out of the big 3 horror films of my youth (Elm Street, Halloween and Friday th 13th) Elm Street is the most dated.  I think a lot of that has to do with the cheesy synth music that plays over everything.  I also realized that Freddy doesn't really show up much in the movie.  He's more in the background a lot of the time.  But since we've all come to know and love Freddy as a character, I was a little disappointed there wasn't more of him.  I also didn't find him as scary as I did... 25+ years ago.  Which of course makes sense.  The movie has a lot of starts and stops and I never really got into it as much as I though I would.  I'm not against remakes and while Freddy is far and away my favorite horror character of all time, I think a remake is in the calling.  I don't expect it to be great, but I do expect it to be fun.

Oh, and here's the song that plays over the closing credits of the original - be warned, it's really, really bad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDW0ITBaepY

Mary & Max and Green Zone

I watched 2 completely different movies last night. Mary & Max is an animated film that's most definitely not for kids. Based on a true story, it tells the tale of Mary, an 8-year-old from Australia who becomes pen pals with Max, a 40-something from New York. Mary is funny looking with two parents who stopped giving a damn before Mary was born. Max is an overweight loner who likes having chocolate hot dogs. Mary randomly picks Max out of a phone book and starts writing to him and this turns into a lifelong friendship that has some severe highs and lows. There's talk about murder, suicide, cats with eyes missing, lots of dead fish and sex. And it's all animated. I'm still not sure what to think about the movie. The animation was pretty impressive and at times, the movie was pretty funny - in a very dark way. But towards the end it just got really depressing. I applaud the filmmakers for doing something different.

Then there's Green Zone, the Matt Damon-led film that takes place during the opening days of the Iraq war. It was a very smart, edge-of-your-seat thriller that keeps you guessing right up till the end. It's the kind of movie that I can see a lot of people not wanting to bother with, since war films - especially one about a war that continues to this day - isn't the most uplifting of stories. But it's very well made and keeps you on your toes throughout. Definitely worth checking out.