Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows part 1

Harry Potter has finally grown up. I guess, technically, you can say that he grew up during the third film but its safe to say he became an adult in this film. They waste no time throwing Harry into the thick of a dirty war after the first few seconds. And its not just Harry but his two best friends Ron and Hermione that have finally taken the big leap into adulthood. Especially Hermione who is forced, because of these dangerous times, to erase her parent's memories of her in order to protect them. It's a great scene, unspoken, as she fades from her parent's minds. It sets the tone perfectly for what is to unfold in the next two films. No Hogwarts to shelter them, no Dumbledore to protect them. It's just the three friends against the worst kind of evil imaginable.

This is the 7th installment in the series building up to the big showdown with the evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes).  Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) are forced to take their show on the road literally to escape the Snatchers, or Death Eaters, who are killing everyone in their path just to get to Harry. The kids find themselves searching for the three remaining Horacruxes that contain pieces of Voldermort's soul. In the process they learn a little bit about their Hogwart's former Headmaster Dumbledore and his past. They also learn a bit about those Deathly Hallows; which by the way has a pretty great animation sequence to tell the story. Apparently Voldermort is searching for a special wand that can help him kill Harry. The trio are forced to work together to avoid Voldermort and his death squads, hunt the Horacruxes and destroy them and deal with that isolation, jealousy and those ever changing hormones; well they are only 18 after all.

Honestly I believe I enjoyed this film the most out of the series. By breaking the book into two films they are allowed to give more time to the three main characters and it makes for a much better film. The only downside of course to splitting them into two films you make it difficult to have a complete film. I wish I could say that you could watch Deathly Hallows on it's own without the previous films and feel it complete, but that just isn't the case. It's honestly a shame because the film is so solid in performance, camera work and pacing that I just didn't want it to end, but it does and far too abrupt for my tastes. It doesn't have a true ending--it's a cliffhanger, which is to be expected,  but it's not a great one for a film of this scope. I think they could have jacked it up a bit more to give us a spectacular firework show to boost it to the next film, but I just feel they dropped the ball. This is where a trilogy like Back to the Future get's the cliffhanger ideal just right. Say what you want about the Back to the Future sequels with Marty left in 1955, Future Doc disappeared to the Old West and 1955 Doc passed out -- it was a holy crap I wanna see what happens next ending, wonderfully executed. And that's the problem with the Deathly Hallows, where is the holy crap moment at the end to bridge the films. Not that I don't want to see what happens next I really do, but visually the end was a bit of a let down. I won't go into too much detail about it but take my word for it, you'll be like, uh, what--is that it?

But the abrupt ending aside, what happens in the film itself is pretty extraordinary and Director David Yates seems to get the best work out of his young cast. Especially the "Lost in the Wilderness" scenes, which personally didn't work for me at all in the book. In fact the Forest Chapters in the book reminded me of the boring "Hedges" pages from the Fellowship of the Rings. It felt like JK was running us in circles and it was at times a tad boring. But for the Film Yates makes the quiet and the isolation a strength in the film as the kids deal with jealousy, loneliness and true fear. I think this emotional struggle is best realized in a scene where Ron is tempted by the dark side and sees visions of Harry and Hermione making out in what appears to be the buff, yes I said they were nude, it's CGI but still, you see some skin in Harry Potter. Which was completely unexpected. Some of the scenes felt like I was watching Cormac McCarthy's the Road, in tone and visuals. It just really brought a new feel to these films that I never thought they were capable of. They've come along way from the Sorcerer's Stone. There are also quite a few deaths in this film and a couple are pretty big characters from films past.  All of these darker themes have really brought this series from the whimsical magical world to the harsh realities of the real world. Magic is still a commodity but it is certainly a much more dangerous place.

If you haven't seen the other films I recommend you see them soon while you can still catch this one on the big screen, or if you can hold out till the Summer, supposedly they will release it again before the final chapter in glorious 3D. I will warn you if you haven't read the books and if you've been frustrated with the films in the past for not clearly explaining everything, you still may find that frustration when you see this film so beware. It can be annoying at times I truly understand, having read the books, I also get peeved sometimes when they gloss over plot points. But this is just how it is, love it or hate. Nevertheless it's a great experience and keeps you occupied for it's almost three hour running time. It really does suck now that we have to wait six months to finally see the conclusion to the series. Damn Warner Brothers and their blatent milking!!!!

Grade 4 Buckets

Fair Game

Recently I attended a luncheon for charity where three prominent people from the film industry were honored for their work. One of them was director Doug Limon (Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith) who seemed to be a decent fellow. He spoke about his newest film Fair Game, the bio-pic about former CIA agent Valerie Plame, who was outed as such by the Bush Administration. He told us that he made the film as a sort of love letter to public service and that he had asked Mrs. Plame, after wrapping the film, after everything she went through if her kids wanted to serve either in Clandestine Services or the military would she try to talk them out of it. He said that she didn't hesitate or waver in her answer she said very plainly that she would be proud for them to serve. Considering the public bashing this woman took during this ordeal I wouldn't have begrudged her at least hesitating on that answer, but she didn't she didn't regret it at all. That in my mind is the sign of a true patriot. Its what also compelled me to see the film. I wanted to see for myself what a love letter to public service would look like. Whether it would preach on the pulpit for one side or would it give a balanced portrayal of these people without distorting the facts. I think it was kinda both, honestly.

Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts) is an agent for the CIA in a division that specializes in non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. Her husband former Ambassador Joe Wilson (Sean Penn) is sent by the VP's office to investigate claims of Yellowcake Uranium being processed for Saddam Hussein in the African country of Niger. After Wilson reports back that the report was bogus the White House continues the drumbeat about Niger alive in the State of the Union address which eventually led us to war with Iraq. Wilson, upset by the lie, decides to write an op-ed piece criticizing the administration for not telling the truth and for his actions the Administration decides to go after Wilson's wife by outing her in a newspaper article. The Wilson's struggle to hold their marriage and their collapsing careers together during the aftermath.

The performances are really exceptional and the chemistry between Sean Penn and Naomi Watts are solid. Naomi Watts will probably be a long shot for an Oscar but I think the Academy should seriously consider her for the nod. The film is at it's best following Valerie as she juggles her very stressful job with being a mother and a wife to a very public figure. The film falls flat when they follow Joe Wilson, especially when he launches his crusade against the administration. This is where the film veers off into pander territory and tends to get preachy. The film also was shot very poorly, good Lord, a person could get sick as the camera bounces around aimlessly from person to person. There were only one or two segments where I felt the camera was stagnant. I'm not entirely sure what Limon was going for here with the shaky cam. It works great for the Bourne movies but not for a drama like this. It just looks really unprofessional, which is sad because I thought the script and performances were so good. Nevertheless I found the film to be very entertaining and I found myself admiring Mrs. Plame for her unwavering ability to keep things level headed even while she is getting death threats. This is truly a woman who is apolitical and was only interested in doing her job to the fullest and most importantly interested in protecting her assets in the field. This is one of those stories that should be burned into the brains of every American that a crime was committed here, whether you agree with Joe Wilson politically or not his wife should not have been considered Fair Game, as Karl Rove famously told Chris Matthews. She was doing her job and lives and careers were lost because of this political action and that should never be forgotten.

Grade: 3 Buckets

Halloween Favorites: Monster Squad

Sketch by Dezi Sienty

When I was a young kid my mom and my step-dad owned a barber shop. The shop was on the first floor of a three story town house in dead center city Allentown, PA. We lived above the shop on the second and third floor. My step-dad was a distant guy. Didn't really care about teaching me or my step-brother how to hit a baseball or throw a spiral. As a result, I spent the bulk of my childhood watching a whole lot of movies on our VHS player. Also, my step-dad stole cable. We had a cheaters box with all the premium movie channels. And that was pretty much all I did with my free time as a kid. Watch movies. A lot of movies. I would just record endlessly off HBO onto video tape, EP mode you could fit 3 or 4 movies on one cassette! And the 80's, man, just produced a ton of great, great movies that were geared to kids and teens. But what made these flicks great was that they didn't patronize their young viewers, like tween movies do nowadays.

Print by Dezi Sienty

Which brings me to The Monster Squad. One of the truly, quintessential 80's kid flicks I speak of. It was violent, it was scary, the kids curse like sailors... a 6 year old girl gets called a bitch. Sure, it's a cult classic now, but when the film came out in theaters it was a big box office failure. A studio's attempt to cash in on the Goonies craze. And let's be honest, The Monster Squad is basically The Goonies, but instead of the Fratellis, it's classic movie monsters. But the movie goes beyond just trying to be a cheap knock off. The kid actors are just as engaging. The humor is just as sharp. And the scares just as thrilling. Duncan Regher's version of Dracula is brilliant and frightening. Tom Noonan's Frankenstein Monster is imposing, yet pitiful. The movie is a great homage to the classic Universal monster flicks of the 40s. If you haven't seen The Monster Squad, lately or ever, definitely pick it up this Halloween and enjoy. At the very least you will learn two very valuable, possibly life saving lessons if you ever have the misfortune of running into a werewolf: Lesson #1, there's only one way to kill a werewolf. Lesson #2, Wolfman's got nards. - Cody Dee

Halloween Favorites: Ghostbusters

Halloween is here again so this year Cody and the fellas at Cave Drawing Ink decided to take a trip back to the 80's (Everyone is doing it this year: Karate Kid, A-Team, etc.) and explore two of our favorite flicks that coincide nicely with Halloween. Monster Squad and Ghostbusters. Both are great classics and both make fun homages to the Monster Movies of the 40's and 50's. In this first post we'll talk a little bit about Ghostbusters, we've got a couple of original pieces from our Cave Drawing friends Ian Glaubinger and Ori Ayalon so take a look and enjoy!

 Print by Ian Glaubinger

I know, everyone and their brother loves Ghostbusters, you may ask why am I talking about something that has been seen by so many people and has been analyzed and fawned over by popular culture and nerds like me for at least twenty years? All true, but there is something about the mythology and the story telling that makes Ghostbusters stand above the rest and should be strongly considered a favorite for families to watch over Halloween. And I'm going to make that case right now. One of the best parts about Ghostbusters is how they pay tribute to those timeless classics  like Abbot and Costello meet the Wolfman, Dracula, Frankenstein and I believe the Mummy. In my mind those classic creatures were what Horror movies were all about. Fun, kind of campy with some mild creepiness. I'm sorry but I just can't seem to find any interest in these torture porn flicks like Saw or Hostel, where is the suspense if you are watching somebody being carved up in a bloody massacre? Subtlety is the best way to go, build up to a good scare or like in Jaws where most of the destruction takes place off camera, allowing your imagination to take over. Now Ghostbusters isn't as scary as Jaws but nothing scared the shit out of me more than that damn librarian at the beginning of the film. I practically jumped out of my seat. Such a great scene; they get me laughing on the way in, scare the crap out of you, and get you laughing again right after.  I mean how creepy is Sigourney Weaver when she's possessed by Zuul. "There is no Dana only Zuul." That shit gave me nightmares for weeks, of course I was ten. But I couldn't get enough of that movie I remember seeing it like ten times in the theatre no matter how many times it scared me. And of course no conversation of creepiness would be complete if I didn't mention that Prehistoric Bitch who sent a 400 foot Marshmellow Man on a rampage on the upper west side, Gozer the Gozarian. What a fantastic name for an inter-dimensional demon hell bent on the destruction of New York. That lady was seriously creepy with her butch cut and crazy red eyes. It fits perfectly in the canon of old folk tales and Ghost Stories. No kid could walk out of that movie and not want to strap on proton pack and hunt for ghosts. What makes Ghostbusters so unique is director Ivan Reitman's ability to go for the laugh just as much as he goes for the scare. It's a hard blend but in this film it's perfect.

 Sketch by Ori Ayalon

My son just recently discovered Ghostbusters, the soundtrack actually, not the movie, he's not quite of age yet. But he loves it, he dances around and then cries when it's over. I recently showed him a couple episodes of the Real Ghostbusters cartoon. The one that sticks out most in my mind is the one titled the Headless Motorcyclist. The Ghostbusters take a job tracking down the Headless Horseman, who in modern times, has been hunting down the descendants of school master Ichabod Crane on a wicked flaming Harley. It was a great little follow up story to the classic, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. My little guy seemed to enjoy it and I too found myself drawn to the cartoon again after all of these years. There isn't as much of an edge and it isn't as funny but the characters are still consistent with the films and most importantly it put a smile on my kids face. After watching the episode I found myself drawn back to Irving's classic tale of the Headless Hessian and it's interesting how much he seems to be, like Ghostbusters, going for the humorous as much as the scare. His Ichabod Crane could be a cross between Egon and Peter Venkman. He's lanky and bookish, a little goofy, with a long nose and he's always looking for the financial angle to get him ahead. It's written in a very satirical fashion. It's also steeped in lore and haunted tales, almost like the Ghostbusters film where we get the pieces to the disturbing puzzle of Gozer and the NY highrise. All of it built on a rich layer of myth and legend. It is a fact that Ghostbusters is one of the most quoted films ever made and it boasts the funniest cast ever with Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd and Rick Moranis. But it is also a great ghost story/folk tale about a group of working class stiffs who are just trying to stay afloat against the worst spooks and spectres the great city of New York has to throw at them. It's this kind of narrative that gets you in the Halloween spirit and it doesn't have to involve chain saws and bloody hockey masks. So go and revisit Ghostbusters again with your kid after a night of trick-or-treating it should be a staple in your household it certainly will be in mine. In about 7 years or so....

 What do you want I don't want my kid having nightmares!

The Town

Just got back from director/actor Ben Affleck's new movie, The Town. It's a character driven action thriller, half like the Michael Mann flick, Heat. The other half, well it's Boston, It's gotta be Good Will Hunting. I'm pretty impressed with Mr. Affleck and his directing abilities. I still haven't seen his directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone from a few years ago. But I can see why studios may be lining up to give him a job behind the camera as much as in front. He handles the double duty pretty well as he shows us the seedy side of Boston, yet again. I would say that the crime diseased Southie crowd has been portrayed to almost excess over the last few years. Here they are again, but, even though the situation is similar the road is a little different and that is certainly a high point for the film.

Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) and his crew of bank robbers, Jem Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), Albert (Slaine) and Desmond (Owen Burke) hit a bank and take the pretty Manager, Claire (Rebecca Hall) hostage. Once they let her go, they worry that she might have seen one of them, which causes Doug to meet her without the mask. Like all good drama, he falls for her and finds himself in a pickle on whether to do another job or not. Especially when they have a tough as nails Fed Sam Frawley (Jon Hamm) nipping at their heels.

I really liked the film, the pacing the writing everything. Sure there were fairly generic touches dealing with trying to get out of the crime life, but you still got sucked into it anyway. You found yourself rooting for Doug and hoping that he gets away. They really pulled out the stops to make Frawley pretty unlikable, although you understand why he's such a bastard, Hamm plays it to perfection. I also really enjoyed Blake Lively's turn as a skanked up ex-girlfriend of Doug's. She really took that good girl image and flushed it down the toilet, in a good way. She also played her character pretty unlikable, but it works. You understand even more why Doug wants to get the hell out of town, he's being dragged down by everyone. I liked seeing Chris Cooper as Doug's jailbird Dad, but he's only in one scene for like 5 minutes. It would have been great to have seen some extended scenes with him. Overall I really dug the movie but I had a few problems with the end. I won't give it away but it tries to have a happy ending which just didn't sit that well with me. I just don't think you can have a happy ending after all that transpires but, there is some redemption in there to make all that joyfulness a bit more palatable. But it just felt like they weren't sure how to end it and it's kind of a drag. I also enjoyed watching the kinetic Jeremy Renner play the psychotic Jem, he does at times feel a little 2 dimensional, but Renner really elevates the character to a place he really shouldn't exist in.

It's a good flick and I recommend it highly. So after you've seen Let Me In (Not a shameless plug, honest it's a great movie) go and check out the Town. It's doing pretty well still at the theatre so you should have some time to squeeze in some Vampire kids and a Facebook movie before.

Grade: 3 Buckets