Haven't written in a while

I've been quite busy with my position at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. I've taken hours of video and hundreds of pictures on the floods that've been going down here. I hope to get some of the good ones up shortly, that is if the DNR doesn't have some copyright qualms with my uploading the photos on a blog.

I saw two films in theaters last weekend and wanted to discuss them very briefly:

Wall*E: Pixar's newest is as good as everyone says. Quelle surprise. The film skewers our culture of convenience without the ham-fisted, Randy-Newman-montage lameness of Cars. It's the best film I've seen thus far this year. The film pays tribute to everything from Chaplin to Kubrick, and does so without completely alienating the kiddies. A number of friends have argued that Wall*E is the best Pixar film to date; I still reserve that spot for Toy Story 2, but this one's undoubtedly a top-tier addition to the cannon. Mark my words: Filmgoers my age will look back on the '90s and 2000s as a golden age of cinematic animation, surpassing the prior untouchable span from the '30-'50s that gave us Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, etc.

The Happening: Now, let's get one thing out of the way: I didn't hate it. In fact, I've pretty much thought all of M. Night's films have ranged from OK to quite good. The Happening is better than Lady in the Water, if for nothing else because the film has a number of genuine scares. The premise -- that some sort of airborne agent causes uncontrollable suicide -- is strong. Shyamalan builds suspense and dread in his money scenes by visualizing a quick succession of events: blank expressions, verbal delirium, backwards pacing, etc. Rather than have his victims quickly bite the bullet, Shyamalan forces us to watch these warning signs first. Essentially, each time you hear someone speak nonsense, you know they'll be dead within a minute, and the terror is in knowing there's nothing anyone can do to stop it. Water's postmodernist jokery was amusing and nothing more, while The Happening displays Night's ability to craft ominous, memorable images. But, in all, the movie's absurd and not particularly worth seeing in theaters. So much of it seems intentionally bad, but, even then, why? Why the awful performances? Why the bombastic score? Why the limp-to-the-finish ending? All in the name of creating the "the best B movie ever made"? More inexcusable than anything else, the film is shoddily made, having been shot in just 44 days. It's poor editing is remarkable, given how even Night's questionable films like The Village are at least well-executed. The film shifts tones wildly, and contains a core melodramatic center that's no different than the likes of Signs and War of the Worlds.

So, one weekend, two films concerning environmental issues. One is a call to arms, another a warning of what's to come. At least they're both better than The Day After Tomorrow.