{"id":2077,"date":"2010-12-31T22:02:46","date_gmt":"2011-01-01T03:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/?p=1419"},"modified":"2010-12-31T22:02:46","modified_gmt":"2011-01-01T03:02:46","slug":"action-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=2077","title":{"rendered":"Action, Baby!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Spinning the illusion of time…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Yes, it\u2019s Friday, the last day of a year I wasn\u2019t crazy about, but at least a year with some solid entertainment and creative efforts worth writing about. Hey, I even got to write about malodorous muck like At Long Last Love<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (1974), and never hit the shuttle button once (though I did shout at the TV, begging Burt Reynolds \u00a0\u2018For the love of God, keep your mouth shut!\u2019 when he was a bar or two away from murdering another Cole Porter song.<\/p>\n

I dare Shout! Factory to release that film in 2011. They\u2019ve already got Stanley Donen\u2019s Lucky Lady<\/strong> (1975) slated for an early February release, so Peter Bogdanovich\u2019s mess is a natural thematic follow-up.<\/p>\n

In any event, the theme of this wave is Action! and it\u2019s headed by Inception<\/strong>, both Warner Home Video\u2019s Blu-ray<\/a> [M<\/a>] and the soundtrack CD<\/a> [M<\/a>] (Water Tower Music).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting to hear people that love the film for its artistry, director Christopher Nolan\u2019s bucking of all-CGI effects, and his scriptorial craftsmanship, and the nay-sayers who found the film either boring, baffling, or annoying.<\/p>\n

Inception<\/strong> is sci-fi, which I guess doesn\u2019t appeal the broadest possible audience if there\u2019s no bug-eyed or invading alien monsters like the idiotic ID4 (Independence Day<\/strong>) which raked in a fortune in spite of being a bloated rip-off of Kenneth Johnson\u2019s unsubtle moral parable V<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I mention ID4 because you really have to go back a bit for a major sci-fi film that grabbed the attention of critics and audiences, and while Inception<\/strong> did well, it\u2019s nothing like ID4.<\/p>\n

Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin were never subtle in their work \u2013 one German message board poster called 2012<\/strong> (2009), Emmerich\u2019s most recent I-hate-America volley, as being nothing but crash, crash, boom, boom, bang, bang abfall<\/em> (which it is) \u2013 whereas Inception<\/strong>\u2019s Nolan went for another puzzle film that provokes thought and analysis.<\/p>\n

The payoff isn\u2019t people of the world raising their arms and doing the screaming \u201cYay!\u201d dance of joy (I hate that clich\u00e9. Really, really<\/em> hate that clich\u00e9), but rather the smile of personal reward, either from figuring out the puzzle, being surprised by Nolan\u2019s genuine ingenuity, or the outright cleverness of Inception, much in the way Nolan\u2019s Memento<\/strong> (2000) is a his ultimate puzzle film (and David Fincher\u2019s sick little The Game<\/strong> coming in second).<\/p>\n

Inception<\/strong> is 2.5 hours long, but it feels like a slightly less than 2 hour movie, which is a hell of an accomplishment from a filmmaking stance because the sense of brisk pacing comes from skillful editing and<\/em> the filmmaker\u2019s ability to grab the audience and keep their minds busy with puzzles, theories and gradual revelations in spite of actual scenes being ostensibly just dialogue. That\u2019s magic, whether it\u2019s a dialogue film, or a balance of dialogue and action. Working that illusion, but feeding the audience substance.<\/p>\n

The only other films that come to mind where a nearly 3 hours felt like 2 are The Right Stuff<\/strong> (an amazing little movie about the pilots in NASA\u2019s Mercury space program, based on Tom Wolfe\u2019s book); and Michael Mann\u2019s 1995 masterpiece, Heat<\/strong>, incredibly a remake of an utterly mediocre, stilted, and badly dated 1989 TV movie called L.A. Takedown<\/strong> that no one remembers.<\/p>\n

A close contender is Milos Forman\u2019s 1984 film Amadeus<\/strong>, and like the aforementioned films, it illustrates the artistry that can exist in a commercial realm if the filmmakers are skilled, have deep passion for the material, and are given wiggle room by the studios.<\/p>\n

(Some of you may be thinking \u2018Hey! What about Kevin Reynold\u2019s Waterworld<\/strong> or Kevin Costner\u2019s The Postman<\/strong>? and while they initially qualify, those films ultimately fail<\/em>. The former makes no sense, and the latter loses its mind and becomes a Star Trek<\/strong> episode. Both personal visions feel as long as they are.)<\/p>\n

You can regard Amadeus<\/strong> and Inception<\/strong> as art films, but the other two are commercial works by studio system mavericks, and to my eyes The Right Stuff<\/strong> and Heat<\/strong> are the best examples of creating the illusion<\/em> of fast pacing when the damned movie\u2019s an hour longer<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In any event, since the theme is action \u2013 Inception<\/strong> switches to the best James Bond sequence outside of a James Bond film (and puts the makers of Quantum of Solace<\/a><\/strong> rightly to shame) \u2013 I\u2019ve also uploaded a series of action-related soundtracks.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve an early review of Clint Mansell\u2019s Faster<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] and John Powell\u2019s Fair Game<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (both from Lakeshore Records), Harry Gregson-Williams ridiculously fun Unstoppable<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (La-La Land Records), and one of my favourite scores of the year, Guy Michelmore\u2019s Jackboots on Whitehall<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (MovieScore Music).<\/p>\n

Michelmore\u2019s evocation of a 1968 war score is brilliant. Completely (well, almost) straight-faced, and the spirit of Elmer Bernstein is everywhere<\/em>.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviews of Christopher Nolan’s Inception on Blu-ray (Warner Home Video) and Hans Zimmer score (Water Tower Music), plus action-related soundtracks: Clint Mansell’s Faster and John Powell’s Fair Game (both from Lakeshore), Guy Michelmore’s Jackboots on Whitehall (MovieScore Media), and Harry Gregson-Williams’ Unstoppable (La-La Land Records)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-xv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}