Top 5 Favorite Tree Moments.

For those of you not in the know, my LAMBcast buddy James from Cinema Sights loves him some artsy films. There's a running joke on the LAMBcast that he only likes movies with trees. And not just any movies with trees... but movies where the trees are central focus and made to look quite nice.

So in honor of James, I'm going to do my favorite tree moments in films. Probably not all his favorites, but whatever. And you'd be surprised... how difficult it was to come up with this list. So here we go...

Top 5 Favorite Tree Moments

5. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

The Whomping Willow is the primary tree of note in the Harry Potter films. It gets its most important moment in Prisoner of Azkaban (though the movie doesn't make note of why it was put there to begin with). However, I like the mystery and action of the scene near the beginning of Chamber of Secrets better. Ron squealing and breaking his wand. The branches crashing through the poor Ford Anglia. And just general chaos and disarray. Check out the scene below:




4. Clerks 2

OK, I'll give... this one is kind of a cheat. But I didn't want to put the Ents from Lord of the Rings. Instead, I felt like putting one of my many favorite scenes from Clerks 2, which is about the aforementioned trilogy. And to top off this conversation about Lord of the Rings, Randal gives a great line: "Even the fucking trees walk in those movies." Check the scene below:




3. Pan's Labyrinth

This is probably the only movie James might agree with. I'm talking, of course, of the scene where Ofelia climbs inside the dying tree in her new dress to face the giant toad. The whole movie is beautiful in more ways than one. And the three tasks are definitely the most memorable parts. So there's really no question why this one would end up on the list. Unfortunately, I couldn't find video footage of it... sorry.

2. The Evil Dead

A tree rapes a woman. Let me repeat that. A tree. Rapes. A woman. What more can I say? I couldn't find the original footage for the scene, but here's a very poor quality version where somebody added their own music for comic affect:




1. The Happening

No, not the whole movie. Sure, it's about killer trees and/or wind. But there's one particular part of this movie that I love. I loved the scene in theater, and it's the scene that has always stuck with me since. This scene makes me wonder if M. Night was just screwing with all our heads and meant it to be some kind of bizarre dark comedy the whole time. The scene, of course, is Mark Wahlberg talking to the plastic tree:

Summer of the Unexpected.

It’s been about a month and a half or so since the summer movie season has officially kicked off (with Iron Man), and it’s been a weird summer experience thus far. Movies that were expected to be bad or mediocre at best turned out to be good or the best, while movies that were expected to be good or the best have turned out not so great. And I’m not just talking about box office revenue or critic appraisal or denouncement, but average reception.

For instance, Iron Man didn’t have a whole lot of hype around it before it was released, and it turned out to be the biggest and best movie of the summer so far. Similarly, Speed Racer, while it was a flop at the box office and had a bad reception from professional critics, was mostly loved by the people who actually decided to go see it. On the other side of the spectrum, Narnia: Prince Caspian and Indiana Jones 4 were two sequels that were widely anticipated, and both turned out to be relatively average at best (the latter moreso hated than loved). More recently, Kung Fu Panda was a hit, Zohan was average, The Strangers wasn't scary, and The Happening—which had so much potential—is widely loathed. And now The Incredible Hulk, which had received flak simply because of the 2003 version and was all but ignored by bloggers everywhere, turned out to be just as good as if not better than (but at least compared to the success of) Iron Man.

So what does this say for the rest of summer? Is this a foreshadowing of events that means the movies that look great won’t be, or the movies that look awful will be great? If this is the case, then that means the following:

(Edit: Because more than one person has seemed to not get the joke of this post... the following list is actually the OPPOSITE of what my current feelings are for the movies... because, as mentioned before this point, every other movie has done opposite of what I have expected... so without further ado:)

-Get Smart won’t be funny at all.

-The Love Guru will be the next Austin Powers (oh wait...)

-Wall*E will bore kids and will be terrible.

-Wanted will be boring.

-Hancock will be truly disliked.

-Hellboy II will be one of Guillermo Del Toro’s worst movies.

-The Dark Knight will be like Spider-Man 3 (a lot of money, but widely disliked).

-Step Brothers will actually be funny.

-The X-Files is actually going to have an audience.

-The Mummy 3 will be the best in the series.

-Pineapple Express will be the worst Judd Apatow movie.

-Star Wars: The Clone Wars is going to set Box Office records.

-Tropic Thunder will flop, regardless of Robert Downey Jr.’s recent Iron Man success.

I mean, I’m hoping this is all false, because I’m looking forward to at least half of these films. But the way summer has been panning out recently, regardless of the money paid or the professional critic hatred, movies have been seemingly the opposite of what has been anticipated. So what are your thoughts? Leave me a comment or two, let’s have a discussion!

THE HAPPENING.

I really have no idea what to say. I was hyped for this movie for the longest time, then I started reading horrible reviews about it… and now that I’ve seen it… I feel somewhere in the middle. The Happening is about this event that happens only in the north-eastern United States that causes people to become disoriented before killing themselves. Everybody thinks there’s been another terrorist attack of some kind, but then the likelihood of that slowly starts to dwindle away. So when science teacher Elliot (Mark Wahlberg) hears what’s going on, he, his math teacher friend Julian (John Leguizamo), Julian’s 8-year-old daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez), and his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel)—with whom he’s having troubles with relationship-wise—hop a train out to go out into the middle of nowhere where Julian’s mother lives. Unfortunately, the train stops in an even more middle-of-nowhere place because they lost contact with ‘everybody’. So now the gang has to try and find a way to get away from the north-east region of the US to where it’s safe.

So, yeah, not sure what to think about it. There were some tense moments, sure, and there was quite a bit of comedy (I think it was funnier than it was scary). In fact, if the movie hadn’t taken itself so seriously, it might have made a decent horror-comedy. The gore is there, yet it isn’t there. They typically cut away right before showing much of anything (though some stuff was showed). And some of it was more ridiculous than others (such as the lion cage one).

The actual cause, which is revealed pretty early on, is borderline cool and just plain silly. At first I thought it was a bit weird and absurd, but I eventually got used to it, and the movie did garner some good suspense. Either way you look at it, though, it’s rather unique and original. Did it work, though? Semi-sorta.

The movie’s biggest downfall isn’t really in the script or the directing, though (so it really isn’t M. Night’s fault). The biggest downfall is the acting. Mark Wahlberg can be a pretty good actor when he wants to be. I’m not sure he really wanted to be this time. And I usually love Zooey Deschanel (in a lot of ways), but even she was ‘blah’ in this movie. John Leguizamo wasn’t too terrible, though. And Jess, the daughter, was really good… though that’s probably because she has all of two lines or so in the entire movie. Even worse than the main actors was the supporting cast. They could be just downright awful. So really, I blame the acting more than anything in this movie, because acting can make a bad script good or a good script awful.

That’s about all I can say about it. The music was good, and the visual style is good, as it usually is with M. Night. There’s no water-love this time around, though, and don’t go in expecting a twist ending, because there isn’t one. But that’s not really a bad thing, especially considering that most people’s main dislikes for M. Night after The Sixth Sense was that he was too predictable. But whatever. The movie isn’t a masterpiece, but I personally don’t believe it’s as God-awful as everybody has been making it out to be. I think people are just out to hate on M. Night, really. It has its moments, but some of the moments can really be negated by the acting. In other words, it’s not a total failure, but it isn’t M. Night’s ticket back into good standing with Hollywood, either.

Stop Saying Okay! Okay.

P.E.S.T.

I know I just posted (and please check it out below, or here, because it's important info), but I totally forgot about Pre-Emptive Strike Thursdays! Darn those new thingies! So here we go for this week.

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Title: The Happening.

Pre-Thoughts: I personally think it's gonna bring M. Night back into good standing with critics and such after his last few movies. I've heard it's supposed to be his best since The Sixth Sense. And it's rated R! I think it'll be pretty awesome. It'll probably have a lot of jump-scares, and while some parts of it might be slow (I feel it might be a slow-burn movie) that could turn people off, I really think it'll be worth it.

Pre-Score:

A Keanu 'Whoa'


Title: The Incredible Hulk.

Pre-Thoughts: The CGI looks as fake as it did the last go-round, but I love Edward Norton, and I think he could really pull through on this movie. I think it won't be nearly as boring as the last one, and it'll have more action, so that'll be cool. Overall, I think it'll be a regular summer popcorn flick. I don't think it'll be incredibly super awesome, but it'll be enjoyable. And Robert Downey Jr. will have a cameo as Tony Stark! That's gonna add some cool points to the movie.

Pre-Score:

I Am McLovin!

R2D2... The One With Summer Movies.

I haven't done one of these in a while, so I thought I could waste a space here by telling everybody my thoughts on the upcoming summer movie season.

-I have a ticket to go see Indiana Jones tomorrow. I could have gone to see it tonight at midnight, but I didn't feel like going then. I'm not super amped about this one, but it should be fun.

-M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening looks crazy. I can't wait for that one. Have you seen the Red Band trailer? It's gonna be a lot more intense/crazy than people who just see the normal trailer will think. Not to mention the movie is supposed to be one of his best since The Sixth Sense. Though I also heard there's no twist ending... which is fine, I suppose.

-The Incredible Hulk. I haven't made up my mind on this one. I actually fell asleep (in the middle of the day) watching the first one. And I know this is a start-over, much like Batman Begins, and it does look fifty times better. Plus, it's Edward Norton, and he's awesome. It'll be a fun one, I think.

-Get Smart looks pretty funny, and you can almost never go wrong with Steve Carrell.

-Wall-E didn't have me incredibly excited until the full-length trailer came out, and now I'm acting like an excited little schoolgirl about it. It just looks so cute and... and stuff.

-Wanted. Awesome.

-Hancock. Even more awesome.

-Hellboy II. A little less awesome, but still exciting.

-Meet Dave. WTF.

-The Dark Knight. The most awesome (and I can't wait to see Heath Ledger's Joker. The poor guy is gonna get judged so much now on that role because of his death).

-Step Brothers. I'm getting pretty tired of Will Ferrell. He needs to make more movies like Stranger Than Fiction.

-The X-Files: I Want To Believe. Um... don't care.

-The Mummy 3... I'm not sure what to make of this quite yet. Brenden Frasier is always fun to watch, and the first two Mummy movies were great. But this one might suffer from SequeLItus. As in, sequels with Jet Li (especially ones that don't typically have super-martial arts). Lethal Weapon 4, anyone? It seems like it could be good... but on the other hand, it doesn't look to be as dark as the first two. It looks more kid-friendly camp.

-Pineapple Express. An action movie with stoners... made by Judd Apatow. Sounds fun.

-The Sisterhood of the Tra... I'm not even going to bother.

-Star Wars: The Clone Wars. What the hell kind of animation is that? It looks like they made it with Nintendo 64 graphics. The Family Guy Star Wars had better animation. Not to mention that this movie is based on a Cartoon Network miniseries... and it's only being made to issue in a Cartoon Network full series. So a movie based on a TV show to spin off a TV show. Uh huh.

-Tropic Thunder. Robert Downey Jr. as a black guy. I'm there. (Not to mention this movie is probably going to triple in what its views probably would have been due to RDJ's success with Iron Man).

-Bangkok Dangerous. Fletch is so there.

-Babylon A.D. Not sure yet.

-Vicky Cristina Barcelona. On the one hand, it's Woody Allen (who bored me through Match Point). On the other hand, it's Scarlett Johansson making out with Penelope Cruz. I think I'll just skip the movie and download the scene.

And that's it! I think that's my longest edition of R2D2 thus far. w00t.