The Weather Man (2005)

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weather_man_ver2Okay, loyal readers, here’s an unofficial list. Signs you know you’re watching a Nicolas Cage film:

1. There’s a surefire melancholy score of upbeat tempos, and downbeats.
2. There’s always a dim filter on the lens, usually with varying shades of gray or blue.
3. Cage is likely playing a glum, and or sad character; you can usually tell by looking at his frown plastered on his face throughout the film.
4. There’s narration, narration, narration, and plenty of it. Not useful narration either, but just to spell out every single action that can easily be dictated through competent editing and direction.
5. There’s usually a slow motion sequence here or there.
6. There’s always a character revelation.
7. His character usually has bad hair, only to accentuate his feeling of inferiority.

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10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America

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One of the more notable episodes coming up on the History Channel’s “10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America” event, is the exploration of “The Scopes Monkey Trial”. The upcoming series from the History Channel involves ten episodes exploring ten fateful days that changed the landscape of American culture and history, and they examine truly relevant events that changed our way of thinking from the gold rush, and the emergence of rock music in to conservative culture.

One of the events chronicled here in the great series is The Scopes Monkey Trial which would later inspire the great Arthur Miller to write one of his most amazing plays “Inherit The Wind”. As someone who has been immersed in the incredibly volatile debate brewing in our country about creationism vs. evolution, I decided to watch the Scopes episode first. “10 Days” is a series that is a mixture of a documentary, a chronicle, and filmed sequences by film directors from David Helbroner of “Southern Comfort”, to award-winning documentary director Bruce Sinofsky and it’s a major event for the History Channel.

Religion and science is an ongoing battle that may very well go all the way in to the end of human existence. Some people prefer to think we were born of logical origin, and some prefer to think were born in the image of a god, and what happened around this time was that people were so against the theory of evolution that they arrested John Scopes as a scapegoat to make an example of him. From this came William Jennings Brian who was a devout Christian, and Clarence Darrow an evolutionist and agnostic who came to his friend John’s defense. This material even without the help of Arthur Miller is engrossing plain and simple.

What’s so good about the series “10 Days” is their episodes are paralleled to issues that are important today, in some way or another. And the “Scopes” episode is representative of the ongoing debate of creationism and evolutionism today that has and continues splitting America. The series also explores both sides of the issues, scrutinizing both Darrow and Brian. Upcoming episodes for “10 Days” including “When America Was Rocked” concerning the rock influence on Conservative America, and “Gold Rush” about the California Gold Rush.

Steamboy (Suchîmubôi) (2004)

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SteamboyYes, I’ll be the first to admit it, and I’m not the only one to say it, but “Akira” stands as one of my favorite anime films of all time. Bar none. When it comes to my favorite “Vampire Hunter D” holds the top spot, but if you want quality, you just have to go to “Akira”. Rarely has a film been able to hold up against time. Katsuhiro Otomo’s film  experienced many alterations that kept it from becoming a true classic, and I’m willing to get past all that because “Steamboy” ends up being a quality piece of filmmaking from Otomo. Though it’s not a masterpiece, it’s still a very good watch that deserves the benefit of the doubt in the end.

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Dear Frankie (2004)

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dearfrankieWhat would you do to protect your child? Now, before you view what the mom in “Dear Frankie” does, keep asking yourself. What would you do to protect your child? What lengths are you willing to go to to see that they’re not emotionally shattered, or ruined by reality? The answer is always the same. While not original, and bound to give you a cavity afterwards, “Dear Frankie” is a simple and dreamy family flick about a single mom named Lizzie who lives with her young deaf son Frankie in their flat.

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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)

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hitchhikersDirector Garth Jennings mimics Ivan Reitman’s style, and sick humor down to every particular inch, and until I read up on this film, I’d convinced myself Reitman directed this. For a film that starts off with a musical number involving fleeing Dolphins singing “So long and thanks for all the fish!”, it’s obvious you’re going to get something new. I thought the dolphins would be CGI and animated, but having the song play while stock footage of Dolphins run on a loop is further proof of that not taking itself too seriously hypotheses. And its hard to hate something that sports a cast like John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, and Alan Rickman, it’s hard to go wrong, and I had fun.

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What the #$*! Do We (K)now!? (2004)

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what-the-bleep-do-we-know-mIt’s funny how a film like this can really be deciphered as. Certainly, the religious will view this as a secularist documentary on quantum physics, and the others will simply view it as an examination in to the human mind. With films like “Waking Life”, so often do we ever see films that actually challenge us to re-think our surroundings and our current settings. “What the…” ultimately explores radical ideas of repressed memories, the immense power of our mind, and alternate universes. And it also questions god, the existence of god, and the existence of god who gave man the ability to think. If we can not question religion, why were we given the ability to reason and wonder, and examine? If a god exists and does not want us to discover the riddles of the universe, why were we given the tools to do so? And “What the…” does indeed humble us calling us “Observers”.

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Evelyn: The Cutest Evil Dead Girl (2002)

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Imagine if Dr. Seuss combined genius with Edgar Allan Poe, with Tim Burton bouncing ideas off of them, and what do you get? Well, if you’re lucky you’d get Evelyn, the cutest evil dead girl, a demented fairytale with the mood and color you never get in films anymore, the mood and color that’s missing from the horror genre today. Many call this basically a rip from “Lenore the Living Dead Girl” comic book, and perhaps that’s true, but “Evelyn” is such a sick and demented short film I had so much fun watching that I didn’t really care.

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