I was pretty psyched to see this when the trailers first started appearing last year. The visuals looked great, the premise was cool, the vampires looked kinda different and scary, even the cast was alright (years after Pearl Harbor and his brief teen movie stardom, Josh Hartnett isn't so bad, plus he was balanced out by folks like Danny Huston and the schlubby looking guy who always shows up in Chris Nolan movies (Mark Boone Junior)). Director David Slade's previous movie, Hard Candy was tense and interesting, though hurt badly by a pretty terrible third act.
Anyway, 30 Days of Night turned out to be pretty bad. In fact, for a movie that looked like a possible classic in the making, or at the very least an above average genre picture, it was pretty damn disappointing.
For one thing, as good as the premise is (vampires without the safety net of the sun rising, basically), nobody seemed to have much idea what to do with it. The premise demands something of a seige movie, where the characters can't wait the vampires out a few hours, so they must resort to other means of survival. But the movie completely fails in this regard. As some other reviews have pointed out, the time we see pass in the movie doesn't feel like 30 days-- it barely feels like more than a particularly rough night. The characters simply hide for a few minutes (several days in the movie's time), then arbitrarily go someplace else to hide, and engage in a brief action scene. This repeats several times, then the movie ends.
Nothing in the movie makes much sense. I still don't know why the vampires offed their Renfield-esque errand boy (I guess because methody weirdo Ben Foster was needed to do another wholly inappropiate and inexplicable crazy accent for some other movie--seriously, I don't get the appeal of this guy). A big action scene involving a character sacrificing himself for to save the others makes no sense whatsoever-he's already successfully distracted the vampires by the time he seemingly decides to off himself.
That bit is actually pretty indicative of the movie as a whole: somebody came up with a sort of cool looking action scene, then awkwardly shoehorned it a thin story.
The vampires do look fairly scary, though they have little to no character or even much presense. For a film that claimed to "redefine" vampires, these vampires are pretty run of the mill ghouls. Also, given that they are supposed to be a threat keeping the characters on the run for a month, they seem easily killed--there are plenty of exploding vampire heads throughout the movie, brought about by gun shots. Meh, just another frustration.
Honestly, this has been several hundred more words than this subject requires. This movie looks nice, but is just no good.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Shufflin' and Shimmyin' (minus the shimmyin')
(In which I ape The Onion AV Club's "Random Rules" by putting my Ipod on shuffle and writing about the first 5 songs that come up.)
1. "Reflections After Jane" by the Clientele- I downloaded a couple Clientele songs a couple years ago when Strange Geometry was getting a lot of buzz, and I'll admit I never got a whole lot further than great "Since K Got Over Me." I do find their stuff pretty, and love the reverby haze and mood of it all, but its a little boring. This one if from Suburban Light, and though its pretty, I can't imagine giving it much time, or being inspired to seek it out for a listen.
2. "We Cannot Lose" by The Futureheads - I actually quite liked The Futurehead's somewhat derided second album. Sure, it lacked the massive, sugar rush energy and mondo harmonies that made their debut so much fun, but the more restrained performances and the production actually showed off the quality of the band's songwriting, which on the first album tended to get a bit overwhelmed by all the huge guitars and "OH OH OHs." This is the closing track of that second album, and its a pretty good, upbeat Futureheads song, which like all of their best stuff, has a bit of an eighties New Wave vibe to it. Still, I've gotta admit, I'd probably like it better and be more excited about it if it was recorded in the style of the first album.
3. "The Lucky Ones" by Kevin Drew - For all intents and purposes, this Kevin Drew "solo" track is a pretty good Broken Social Scene song, as its got a ton of BSS people on it (plus Spiral Stairs!). It's catchy, and fun, and the Scott Kannenberg guitar bit at the end is pretty cool, and Leslie Feist sounds nice oohing and aahing in the background. It goes on a bit long, but it sounds like everybody is having so much that you understand why they maybe didn't want it to end.
4. "I Need You (For Someone)" by The Jam - Call me crazy (or don't, whatevs), but Paul Weller sounds a lot like Bob Pollard to me. I guess it should be the other way around, but I heard Pollard first, so there you go. This is good song, hooky and sweet, with some particularly nice bass parts. I don't listen to The Jam much, but I usually at least moderately enjoy them when I happen to hear one of their songs.
5. "My Moon, My Man" by Feist - I like Feist a lot. I do, and don't begrudge her the success she's had (though helping my step-mom buy "1, 2, 3, 4" on Itunes was . . . weird), and this one of the best songs from The Reminder. Feist sounds equally mournful, distressed, and sexy, and the percussive piano line is pretty killer. There's even a nice little guitar part thrown in. The thirty seconds or so of ambient sound that close it out don't really work out of the context of the album, but its tough to begrudge it that (especially since on the album, they lead into my favorite Feist song, the absolutely devastating "The Park").
1. "Reflections After Jane" by the Clientele- I downloaded a couple Clientele songs a couple years ago when Strange Geometry was getting a lot of buzz, and I'll admit I never got a whole lot further than great "Since K Got Over Me." I do find their stuff pretty, and love the reverby haze and mood of it all, but its a little boring. This one if from Suburban Light, and though its pretty, I can't imagine giving it much time, or being inspired to seek it out for a listen.
2. "We Cannot Lose" by The Futureheads - I actually quite liked The Futurehead's somewhat derided second album. Sure, it lacked the massive, sugar rush energy and mondo harmonies that made their debut so much fun, but the more restrained performances and the production actually showed off the quality of the band's songwriting, which on the first album tended to get a bit overwhelmed by all the huge guitars and "OH OH OHs." This is the closing track of that second album, and its a pretty good, upbeat Futureheads song, which like all of their best stuff, has a bit of an eighties New Wave vibe to it. Still, I've gotta admit, I'd probably like it better and be more excited about it if it was recorded in the style of the first album.
3. "The Lucky Ones" by Kevin Drew - For all intents and purposes, this Kevin Drew "solo" track is a pretty good Broken Social Scene song, as its got a ton of BSS people on it (plus Spiral Stairs!). It's catchy, and fun, and the Scott Kannenberg guitar bit at the end is pretty cool, and Leslie Feist sounds nice oohing and aahing in the background. It goes on a bit long, but it sounds like everybody is having so much that you understand why they maybe didn't want it to end.
4. "I Need You (For Someone)" by The Jam - Call me crazy (or don't, whatevs), but Paul Weller sounds a lot like Bob Pollard to me. I guess it should be the other way around, but I heard Pollard first, so there you go. This is good song, hooky and sweet, with some particularly nice bass parts. I don't listen to The Jam much, but I usually at least moderately enjoy them when I happen to hear one of their songs.
5. "My Moon, My Man" by Feist - I like Feist a lot. I do, and don't begrudge her the success she's had (though helping my step-mom buy "1, 2, 3, 4" on Itunes was . . . weird), and this one of the best songs from The Reminder. Feist sounds equally mournful, distressed, and sexy, and the percussive piano line is pretty killer. There's even a nice little guitar part thrown in. The thirty seconds or so of ambient sound that close it out don't really work out of the context of the album, but its tough to begrudge it that (especially since on the album, they lead into my favorite Feist song, the absolutely devastating "The Park").
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Alas, I have decided to create a blog. In addition to the one I have on livejournal and myspace (both of which are at least six months unupdated).
So why this? Why now? Why?
Well, I don't know. No, I do. Basically, I'm trying to get myself back into the habit of writing for myself everyday, or nearly everyday, and that's what this is all about. Also, I need something to occupy my time while I'm procrastinating at work, and this is theoretically at least a lot more productive than freecell or lolcats.
What to expect here then? Probably lots of me talking about pop culture stuff, like movies and music. Books and TV shows. The usual. But by me. And occasionally, perhaps, a glimpse into my mind and life. If I'm feeling particularly forthcoming, or have had a particularly interesting day. So then, enjoy!
So why this? Why now? Why?
Well, I don't know. No, I do. Basically, I'm trying to get myself back into the habit of writing for myself everyday, or nearly everyday, and that's what this is all about. Also, I need something to occupy my time while I'm procrastinating at work, and this is theoretically at least a lot more productive than freecell or lolcats.
What to expect here then? Probably lots of me talking about pop culture stuff, like movies and music. Books and TV shows. The usual. But by me. And occasionally, perhaps, a glimpse into my mind and life. If I'm feeling particularly forthcoming, or have had a particularly interesting day. So then, enjoy!
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