It’s been too long since I’ve made a post; I’ll end up posting two more of these in the upcoming days. Talking about the quartet of theatrical experiences I’ve had in the past month will be the quickest and easiest to do.
Project Hail Mary was seen at Disney Springs on a 70mm film print instead of digital like what is in every cinema now. I won’t get into the nerdy reasons why film buffs prefer 70mm reels but that’s a unique experience that had to happen-not many places around the world even had that version of the movie. My thoughts: I wish there would have been less “humor” and those attempts at “humor” would have been funnier.
That said, my opinion is still a positive one. The movie did a lot right & made me wish there’d be more big films like this now. The focus on science, the optimism, the interesting score, a soundtrack full of songs that aren’t the same you hear in 100 other motion pictures, Rocky the alien brought to life (mostly) by puppetry… yes, please. I know some cinephiles would have preferred a stone-cold sober 70’s style science-focused sci-fi movie… that would have been great, but for me, for a film directed by directors I don’t care for and based on a novel which looks insufferable (at least judging by admittedly cherry-picked examples of cringe-worthy passages), I don’t regret the viewing even if most people love the movie more than I did… and I preferred the author’s other movie adaptation, 2016’s The Martian.
Kiki’s Delivery Service is the 1989 anime film from Studio Ghibli that hadn’t been seen before. For a middle-aged guy like me, a story about a 13-year-old witch out on her own for the first time (except for her talking black cat) running a courier service was surprisingly charming, an easy film to watch due to its low-key style.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie was like the previous film: nothing revolutionary but nothing that offended me either, much of the humor was acceptable, pretty animation, etc. I never even played any of the Super Mario Galaxy games but that was irrelevant. Plus, I was able to see the movie in 3D; that added to my enjoyment, as did the blatant nostalgia baiting by the references to the Mario games of the 80’s and 90’s.
Last week, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was brought to cinemas as it is now 40 years old. As that wasn’t seen since I was a kid literally decades ago, that was another opportunity that couldn’t be turned down. As it’s a John Hughes movie set & filmed in Chicago, of course there was nostalgia but thankfully the movie is still funny and hasn’t aged poorly. Ferris wasn’t intolerable despite his antics due to him genuinely caring about his girlfriend Sloane and best friend Cameron. The memorable moments, the dialogue, the supporting characters (Jeffrey Jones is unfortunately a bad person IRL but his Principal Rooney was a great foil due to his performance), the period score and soundtrack… I was happy to have seen the movie theatrically.
I’ll return sometime in the next few days.
