Nerd 5 Presents: What We Learned This Week at the Movies - April 8-14, 2013

Well, in a week in which I thought I’d be ranting about how terrible most things are, Hollywood (and not Netflix) gave me some reasons to change my mind. But no worries, dear readers, there is plenty of ranting coming up. 

Movies Seen In Theaters This Week: 42, Evil Dead, The Host, Alice In Wonderland, The People vs. George Lucas  

Lesson 5: The Big Screen is the Best Screen

This is one of two films that are cheats. This week I saw Disney’s 1951 animated classic Alice In Wonderland on the “Big Screen.” How? As some of you may be aware, I teach and direct children’s theatre for a living, and this week we just finished a production of Alice in Wonderland and projected the film on the side of our theatre. It was wonderful. It’s not nearly the first time I’ve seen this, nor the first time this year, But this film is meant be seen on a big screen. Alice is beautiful. The animation of this classic film is just stunning to look at. It doesn’t try to be beautiful it just is (hint hint Tim Burton hint hint). This is some of the most creative, imaginative, and story-based animation ever made. If you ever get a chance to see it on a big screen, don’t miss it.

Lesson 4: It Never Hurts to Play It Close to the Vest

42 is just like its lead character. It’s strong, silent on the surface, yet has so much to say. I really enjoyed 42, which is the story of how Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball and became a major player in the civil rights movement. Though 42 never pushes any boundaries (and is everything that you expect it to be, right down to the melodramatic ending straight out of The Natural), I’m willing to forgive it. This films plays to baseball fans. I can’t say that it holds up for people that aren’t already interested in the subject matter or the sport, but Jackie makes a strong lead character and there are some very solid performances. Harrison Ford reminds us why he is one of the biggest actors of all time and gives a simply amazing performance as the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Branch Rickey. He and the lead, Chadwick Boseman, give two amazingly strong performances. Long story short, 42 is more than worth your time and for baseball fans like me, it will tug at your heart strings. (Look for the Nerd 5 Top 5 Best Baseball Films of All Time later this week. It’s my birthday present to you guys!) 

Lesson 3: Stephanie Meyer is THE WORST

There is nothing about The Host that I like. There is nothing that makes The Host watchable. There is nothing I can say that will sufficiently let you know how terrible The Host is. This is one of the drawbacks of living in a smaller community (for now – “Movin’ on up! To the West Side…”) is that instead of having smaller indie films to view, I’m stuck watching these terrible studio flops because there is nothing else to fill our theatres… Grrr… grrr. But let’s focus my anger on the real target. Stephanie Meyer. YOU HAVE RUNIED SO MANY THINGS THAT I LOVE! I hate that now we have a rash of sci-fi based love stories with so much potential that fail because no one is thinking about the premise! They’re all just trying to shlep the film to 13-year-olds who want a crap-tastic love story. This is just one of many Twilight knock offs, made worse by the fact that it’s from the same author, but The Host feels especially forced and is thrown together with an unforgivable lack of thought. Just toss all logic out the window when watching this thing. The Host = Pain.

The Evil Dead is back from the... dead.

Lesson 2: There is Always a Right Way…

I have no reason to like the new Evil Dead. It’s a horror film (which I typically hate). It’s a remake (which I nearly always hate) and yet, I really enjoyed watching Evil Dead. I was surprised by how much I loved watching this insanely gruesome film. Why was I so engrossed? IT USED LOGIC! Shocking, I know, but this film had every choice backed by logic and motivation and was shockingly effective. If you enjoy a good horror film, then Evil Dead is for you. I have to be honest, I personally don’t get scared by horror films, so I can’t say whether Evil Dead works on that level (although in the theater there were plenty of screaming people, two couples even walked out and came back when the “scary” scene was over, so I guess it is scary). What does Evil Dead do right? Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell (the director/writer and the star of the original three Evil Dead films) both served as producers for the 2013 reboot. As an audience member, it seems as if Rami and Campbell wanted to revisit the subject matter and retell the story with with new technology, but they were smart enough to realize that their original take on the subject matter had already been done (they did it), it exists and the fans love it. So why try to change, remake, or improve on the original? Why not let someone else make their own version and give them guidance? Let a new generation fall in love with a new film while still paying tribute to the old ones? This is what the new Evil Dead did. It’s a similar story, but it’s not the same. Honestly, it could very easily serve as a continuation of the older stories, but with a new cast of characters. That’s how I saw the film and that’s what makes it great.

Lesson 1: … And A Wrong Way

Has anyone gotten where this is going? Lesson #1 for the week, there is a WRONG way to revisit your work. This is where the film The People vs. George Lucas comes into play. I re-watched this documentary on Sunday before watching Evil Dead and it totally colored the way I viewed it. The People vs. George Lucas is a great documentary released in 2010 (it’s currently streaming on Netflix) and it explores the love/hate relationship that Lucas’ fans have with the director. But where does everyone’s problem with Lucas lay? That he goes back and tampers with his films. Lucas chooses to change the films we love instead of embracing them. It’s a little strange to praise Raimi and bash Lucas in the same breath, but I think that Raimi has learned from Lucas’ mistakes. Lucas is a visionary filmmaker, and for all the things we hate about what he does, we wouldn’t have many of the films we love (like the original Star Wars & Indiana Jones trilogies) without him. The People vs. George Lucas is a fascinating look at fans and their interactions with their nerd idols, and is very much worth finding to take a watch.