300 the Movie

The movie 300 tells the tale of a force of 300 Spartan warriors who held off an innumerable army of Persians in the bottle neck of a canyon. By fighting within the bottle neck, the Spartans were able to negate being outnumbered so that they could take on a force of equal size, although the force they take on is replenished over and over again. Spartans, being trained in war since before they could walk, are the greatest warriors in the world and are held to the strictest of codes to never fear and to never surrender. For days they are able to hold back the Persians with little to no losses. Despite armies of trolls, rhinos, elephants, grenadiers, and even an army of masked orcs, the Spartans never bend. Even behind an army of millions, the Persian king attempts to bribe the king of the Spartans into surrending to which the King, of course, scoffs. It isn't until a fellow Greek betrays the Spartans and shows the Persians a hidden goat path, that the Persians are able to surround the tiny band of Spartans and win.

The movie 300 is completely a "guy movie", and yes, I loved it. What guy doesn't like to imagine himself as being King, having a chiseled body, getting the girl, and being practically invincible. I've often dreamed of myself playing basketball with skills comparable to wonder boy and it was fun to watch army after army fall upon this group of Spartans and be defeated just like logs thrown into a wood chipper. And I almost stood up and cheered when I saw a single Spartan take down a giant rhino with a single toss of a javeline. Shibby!

But what I liked most about this show was the idea of honor and virtue that was held by the Spartans. It wasn't victory or defeat that brought a Spartan honor, but living by their code win or lose. For instance, when the Queen says goodbye to her husband, she says "King, come back to me with your shield, or on it". She didn't want to see him again, unless it was in honor. The King, on the other hand, just before death had several of these moments. The first was when he addresses the betrayer and says, "You, I hope you live forever". He was sentencing him to a life of shame, rather than exacting revenge upon him through death to let him off easy. Or during the greatest moment of the King's life, when he throws a javeline at the King of the Persians and only grazes his cheek rather than killing him, just to remind the Persian King that he was dying with glory on the battlefield, while the Persian King was hiding behind several layers of army. It reminds me that the only failures in life, are those who fail to try. But the best was when the King stands, severelly wounded, and says, just before a thunderstorm of arrows falls upon him and kills him, "My Queen, my love". Although he had reached what was considered the greatest personal honor a Spartan could achieve, his final thoughts were not inward, but focused on what he held most dear. A real man isn't what he is able to physically accomplish on the battlefields of war, but what he is able to give and who he is able to serve on the battle fields of life.

A quote, by Theodore Roosevelt, because it seems to fit: "It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

4 Stars

Into the Wild

I recently went to Hawaii on vacation and since I knew that I had a long flight to make it through I took along a book, one skinny enough that I could finish it on the plane. The book I took was "Into the Wild". What a great and tragic story! This tale depicts the journey of a young man named Chris McCandless that upon graduating from college decided to leave the human society and live in a large part by himself in the wilderness. On occasion he would return and make friends and socialize with them, but for the most part he spent a couple of years alone. His journeying took him down the Colorado River in a canoe, into the northern plains to harvest sunflowers, up and down the west coast, but primarily he spent his time in the desert of the southwest. What he planed to be his biggest and last adventure, living off the land in the wilds of Alaska, turned out to be his finale as he perished of starvation.

What I liked most about this book was the description of the male's inherent desire to "rage against the machine" so to speak. The desire to turn our backs on what so often seems like a constraining society of eight-to-five, work five days to get two, suburbia nightmare. I myself have often had this same desire and thought I was alone in that until I read this book. There was a certain satisfaction in reading this and knowing that I am not the only one who gets an overwhelming urge to burn all the money in my wallet just because whoever made up money sucks, or that gets an overwhelming feeling to throw up every time I enter a mall. I believe it is that same male instinct that makes a certain scene in Good Will Hunting one of my favorite scenes of all cinema. It was when Matt Damon's character is talking with Robin Williams' and he says, "my dad used to come home and put a belt, a stick, and a wrench on the table and would have me choose one". Robin Williams' character responds and says, "Oh, I'd have to go with the belt". Matt Damon's character responds, "Nah, I would choose the wrench". "Why?" "Because, @%^& him! That's why." I so get it! And I so get why Chris McCandless said the same thing to society.

It didn't help that I read this book on my way to Hawaii, a wonderfully warm, green, inviting area. And that to get to our hotel we had to drive along the western coast of Oahu where all of the homeless and vagabond camp and live. I admit that reading this book, and seeing such a wonderful area such as Hawaii, made me want to get out of the car and join the ranks of those people who were living in tents. The urge that always gnaws at me.

A few days ago I returned from Hawaii. While in Hawaii I found a necklace on the north shore that I put on our first day there, and I hadn't shaved the entire time. I must say, it took me most of that day to tell myself to shave and to remove the necklace. Much like a child who won't go to bed, I didn't want to fully come back to my routine. But I gave in, shaved, and took off the necklace. I am now fully back. This morning I woke up in a nice bed, had a hot shower, drove my car up to Park City, and moved into a newly remodeled office. And as I was scarfing down a plate of Mexican food at the restaurant kiddy corner from my office, I realized that: Society, although binding in many ways, does have its privileges and that in order to have them, we males have to swallow some of our "Lord of the Flies" pride and submit. A big plate of Mexican food is much more appealing than starving to death. But that doesn't mean that those tents on the beach aren't still appealing as well.

Bridge to Terabithia

I saw this show in a matinee with my mom. We sat in the middle of a crowd of children who were all seeing how fast they could down a bag of popcorn in fear that their siblings might get a few pieces more than they would. I felt uncomfortable and was a bit biased against this movie before the lights even went out. Maybe it was because of this that I was pleasently surprised.

The best part of the show was the little blonde girl that played Natalie. She did a great job of acting and it was refreshing to know that there is a little blonde girl out there that can act, besides Dakota Fanning. Her magnetic personality made it real to miss her in the end. I have to admit, I spent most of the movie trying to remember what other movie I had seen her in and it wasn't until I was driving home that I remembered. She was the blue berry in the latest Chocolate Factory movie. There were two others in the show that kept making me think of past shows they had been in. The first was the substitute teacher, who was in one of my favorite movies ever (Almost Famous). I ended up watching it that night. And I kept expecting the father of the family to turn into the T1000 from Terminator 2. It would have been worth a few frames to see his finger turn into an iron spike.

Another good part of the show was the computer animation, or the lack thereof. Most movies overdue the computer animation, but this show did just enough to make us adults remember what it was like to play make believe as a child. It was a bit overdone in the final scene, but I can forgive the urge for a grand finale. Not only that, but I had similar places as the tree house in the forest where I played make believe when I was a kid and similar friends as the little blonde girl who would drag me into their made up worlds. This was one of those shows that takes you back to your childhood and I don't remember seeing one that did it this well since I watched Sandlot.

I went into the show expecting another movie trying to piggy back off of the Lord of the Rings success, such as Narnia, but it was actually pretty good. In a time of computer games, movies, and scooters that push themselves, its nice to remember what it was like to play make believe.

3 Stars

Ghostrider

Parodies are kind of funny sometimes, when the movie is meant to be a parody, but even most parodies are just dumb. What is even worse is when a movie is meant to be serious and it comes across as a parody. And what takes the cake is when the parody is made out of a story line with as cool of a premise as Ghost Rider.

The movie starts out okay. Ghost Rider was tricked into selling his soul to the devil when he was a teenager and was warned not to get too close to anyone or anything, because one day the devil would come calling. The boy Ghost Rider heeds his warning and leaves his girl friend and dead father who he thought the devil would save. And for a moment as he rides his motorcycle away from them in the rain you can almost feel his sadness. But flash forward to the adult Ghost Rider and we learn that he is living a rock and roll lifestyle as Johnny Blaze, the most successful stuntman of all time. And as beautiful women scream and reach for his attention, you can almost feel his depression as he drowns his sorrow in a cocktail glass of jelly beans. Please, give me a break. Whoever made this movie should have watched Constantine and The Punisher to learn how to depict depression, with John Constantine killing himself with cigarettes, and The Punisher doing the same with alcohol, both of whom live in complete isolation, not in the spot light of fame and fortune.

Sure enough, the devil then comes calling and starts to use and abuse Ghost Rider into being the devil's bounty hunter to hunt down the devil's own children while riding a bike with flaming tires and having a flaming skull for a head. What a sweet story line. It's really too bad it didn't come across that way. I mean seriously, how do you screw that one up? The first way is the devil himself, who didn't seem evil at all. Some computer animation and a growl doesn't make someone evil. The second is the devil's children, who likewise were pretty much a bunch of nancies, who weren't even as evil as Scorpion from Mortal Combat. Lastly, was Ghost Rider himself. Nicholas Cage is a great actor, but he was written and directed into feeling somewhat soft. Somehow a bunch of quirky one liners came across as being apologetic for being a hardass. If you want to be a badass, which is what the devil's bounty hunter should be, then just be one.

Having said all of that, I will most likely end up watching this movie again, because of Eva Mendez. She is unbelievably beautiful. This point would be an excellent time for a growl, rather than when the devil whispers to the young Ghost Rider. If you want to see a show that depicts evil, watch Constantine. If you want to see a show with a real hardass, watch the Punisher. If you want to see a beautiful girl, watch Eva Mendez in Ghost Rider.

1 Star