The Last Temptation of Willem Dafoe

There's a Family Guy gag about Willem Dafoe living under Stewie's bed. It's very creepy and disturbing. Therefore, it's a gag I find hilarious. Especially since Dafoe provides his own voice for the cartoon. The joke works because Dafoe is simply such a uniquely creepy actor/person. Willem Dafoe is uniquely Willem Dafoe. So, in The Last Temptation of Christ, it's hard to see Jesus as anything other than creepy Willem Dafoe playing Jesus.

Martin Scorsese's film garnered complaints and protests when it first debuted in 1988. As it is with most protested movies (like Dogma), most of the complaints were generated by people who had not even seen the movie. The controversy stems from the theme of the movie. Based on a book by Nikos Kazantzakis, the film focuses on the human aspects and emotions of Jesus.

In the movie, creepy Willam Dafoe Jesus has serious doubts about God and his own role in God's plan. At the start of the movie, Jesus is a lowly carpenter who builds crosses for the Roman's to crucify seditious Jews on (an ironic image I found quite intriguing). He is also tormented by visions and voices that cause him constant anxiety and worry.

Maybe the most "controversial" part of the film involves Jesus' desire for Mary Magdalene. Though the incarnate Deity manages to control his earthly temptations, he allows himself a final fantasy as he hangs on the cross (Spoilers ahead?). In this fantasy, an angel brings Jesus down from the cross so that he may live an ordinary life with the reasoning that, if God saved Abraham's son from being sacrificed, why wouldn't He save His own son? So Jesus settles down, knows women (in the Biblical sense), and has a large brood of children. Jesus lives a fruitful, enjoyable life, grows old, and comes to his death bed as the Roman's burn Jerusalem.

At this time, the point of the movie is made for me as the elderly versions of Jesus' former disciples pay one last visit to him. Judas, as portrayed by red haired Harvey Keitel (wait, what?!), scolds and rebukes Jesus, calling him a traitor. Jesus lived a happy life, but now it all will burn and fade away. Jesus then weighs his decisions, wondering if it was actually better to enjoy a normal life than to have died in agony to save the world. Eventually crawling from his death bed, the prodigal savior emphatically begs God to crucify him and make the Messiah after all.

That moment made the movie for me, as Jesus realizes the importance of his destiny supercedes all his human desires, emotions, and temptations. Jesus ardently longs to die for the sins of man. He's no longer portrayed as participating in the crucifixion through force or reluctance, but enthusiastically pleading for the fulfillment of his Messiahship.

The movie concludes as Jesus suddenly looks around, realizing that he's still on the cross and that it was all just a fantasy. It was his last temptation, if you will. Clever, huh? Anyway, as he finally expires, he does so with a bit of a smile on his face, overjoyed that he can be the Savior of mankind. It's slight, but definitely an interesting twist on the usual, sad, and depressing crucifix we're all familiar with.

So, sounds like a great movie then, eh? Other than the fact that Jesus is creepy Willem Dafoe, right? Well, no. The "controversial" stuff didn't bother me. It may not be wholly accurate (what is) or traditional, but it certainly makes you think, whether you agree with it or not. And I like to think, so that's a plus. Also, I actually enjoyed the final point made at the end of the film, as described in the paragraphs above.

What's wrong with the movie, then? All the unnecessary, weird crap that gets thrown in throughout the movie. A truncated version of the film that spends more time focusing on the theme than snakes and lions literally speaking to Jesus would have been much better, in my opinion. Forget the controversy, the movie is just plain weird, and not in the good way.

Also, the music is horribly out of place. The score was composed by Peter Gabriel (what?!) which results in Jesus and his disciples walking in slow motion to some bad '80s pop music. I was expecting Judd Nelson to pop on screen at any moment.

Adding to the disbelief is everyone speaking in clear, American dialects (except for Romans, they have British accents - ooo!). I'm sorry, but The Passion of the Christ spoiled me. It may have required subtitles, but the Aramaic spoken in that film went a long way to make it seem authentic. The way people spoke in Last Temptation, it felt like the movie should have been a mob or gangster film instead of taking place 2000 years ago in the Middle East.

So in the end, was this a good film? That's hard to say. I do believe the ideas and themes it brings up are intriguing and makes it worth viewing. However, all the odd, artsy aspects of this film definitely detract a lot from it. But, if you can get past that, I'd recommend seeing it just once for the "controversial" message that really isn't all that controversial. I mean, wasn't part of the reason God became a man was so that we could better relate to Him?

4/7 Toddsperience

And don't call me Boo.

Because Photoshop is Cool

Star Wars in Classic Art.
Adding Cartoons to Movies.
Superheroes in Classic Art.
Movie Title Anagrams.

The Dark Knight of the Soul

I finished reading Batman and Philosophy: The Dark Knight of the Soul and I was very pleased with it. The book is a collection of twenty essays by different scholars edited by Mark D. White and Robert Arp. People scoffed a lot when they saw what book I was reading. Sure, it may seem like an absurd connection of subjects, but it's very well done and actually quite academic.



The various authors present a wide variety of philosophical subjects and how they can be related to the fictitious character of the Batman. Some chapters focus on ethics and virtues, asking question about whether Batman should kill the Joker or if it's right to take a young boy under his wing to be Robin. Other essays address government and social order (and how they apply to Gotham City), questions of identity and ideal friendship, and existentialism.

I was already familiar with a lot of the examples and thought experiments described in these pages. They were the same ones I read about in my philosophy courses in college. However, I was most intrigued with the chapters about Batman existentialism, since it was rather new to me. My History of Philosophy classes never made it to existentialism, so I was treading on unfamiliar ground. It has spurred me to look for books by Camus and Heidegger to increase my infant knowledge of this strand of philosophy.

It may sound like a dumb idea for a book, but it actually works as a great introduction to many themes in philosophy. Plus, it's all about Batman, so that makes it extra cool.

And don't call me Boo.

I Don't Want to Talk About the Wheelers Anymore

I'm an odd duck. I love the classic geek movies that you think I'd love. Star Wars, Blade Runner, and the Indiana Jones movies are counted as some of my favorites. I also love the typical guy movies, such as Die Hard, Fight Club, and The Shawshank Redemption (my all time favorite movie). Even horrible movies can find a place in my cinematic loving heart. Doomsday, Crank, and Event Horizon are proudly included in my DVD collection.

But, I also greatly enjoy the occasional movie you wouldn't generally think I'd like or even be eager to see. I do like certain romantic movies, especially odd ones like Catch and Release. So, while it may come as a surprise to some folks, it seemed completely normal for me to be excited to see Revolutionary Road.

Leonardo DiCaprio teaming up with Kate Winslet again sounds like the greatest idea since they first paired in Titanic. I wouldn't know, for I still haven't seen Titanic. I'm actually rather proud of that accomplishment. However, The Departed and Blood Diamond have definitely turned me into a bit of a Leo fan. So that, coupled with the plot of a dreaming couple stuck in the purgatory of 1950s suburbia intrigued my interest.

The movie is well scripted and extremely well acted. DiCaprio and Winslet are great as Frank and April Wheeler, a couple that's fed up with middle class America and wants to move to Paris to live a more exciting life. Their idea is met with skepticism from friends and neighbors, as well as a mentally ill man, played by Michael Shannon, who actually makes the most sense out of anyone in the movie.

I liked this movie quite a bit. It's a good movie, but it is certainly not a happy or feel-good picture. Actually, it's very depressing. It's a sad, moody film that's rather emotionally draining on the viewer. It's not a slam bang action movie in the slightest, but a slow, character driven drama, and I was thoroughly mesmerized by it.

13/16 Toddsperience

And don't call me Boo.

"They're filming midgets!"

One of the greatest movies in recent memory has been out on DVD for awhile now and you've never even heard of it. In Bruges tells the story of two hitmen who, after finishing a job, are sent to Bruges to hide out for awhile. Bruges? It's in Belgium.


The movie is extremely funny, in that dark humor mixed with bloody violence sort of way. It reminds me of the great Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in its style and irreverant humor. Some out there may be skeptical, though. You may not generally like Colin Farrel or doubt his comedic capabilities. Well, this movie will shatter those doubts and make you a fan of the Irish actor. That's another way in which it's similar to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Before that movie, I was completely indifferent to Robert Downey, Jr. After seeing it, though, I was a huge fan. I was sold on Iron Man the instant they cast Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark.

I will definitely be recommending this film to all my friends and look forward to watching it again several times.

4/5 Toddsperience

And don't call me Boo.

Improving My Geek Cred

After much urging, I finally read H.P. Lovecraft's short story The Call of Cthulhu. Thanks to the wonders of public domain (information wants to be free, yo!), you may also read this story for free right here.

The story is told in first person by a man who discovered his late great uncle's research on a mysterious cult. The narrator then continues his own research on the subject. The story itself is basically a mish mash of collected tales, stories, and reports of this eerie cult that have been collected together.

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This was the first thing I've ever read by Lovecraft, and I must say I was in awe of his mastery of the English language. It's deep, complex, and certainly not easy to read. But it feels like reading the words of a genius. However, it's also unsettling and gives the impression that I'm reading something I should not be reading. The story definitely gives off a creepy vibe, and I'm quite impressed with that accomplishment.

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I kept thinking that this story would make for a good David Fincher mystery/investigation movie, like the underrated and overlooked Zodiac. Maybe someday.

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And don't call me Boo.

Tony Blair is a Werewolf

So, I watched The Queen the other night (for the second time, actually) and afterwards came to a startling revelation as I looked up the flick on IMDB. While most people applaud Helen Mirren's performance, and indeed she is great and has the Oscar to prove it, my favorite performance came from Michael Sheen, who plays Tony Blair.

No, he's not related to Martin Sheen or Charlie Sheen or even Emilo. He's a British actor with mannerism that, in my opinion, greatly remind me of the wonderful Simon Pegg. However, with the few conversations I've had about this, I seem to be solely alone in recognizing the Pegg similarity, so I won't bother discussing it here.

Anyway, while looking at his IMDB page, imagine my surprise when I discovered that Sheen also played Lucian, one of the werewolves from the Underworld movies, including the new prequel Rise of the Lycans.

The Queen

Underworld

I don't know about you, but I still have trouble seeing it. But that just makes me more of a fan of this British actor. He's also apparently in Blood Diamond, Frost/Nixon (which I have yet to see), and Timeline (but I don't hate my life enough to watch that movie again.)

And don't call me Boo.

Still Better Than A Uwe Boll Movie

I loved Max Payne. Wait, let me clarify. I loved the Max Payne as a video game. I loved its sequel, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. However, I was horrified by the movie version of Max Payne.

I know some out there complained that Mark Wahlberg portraying the title character was a poor casting choice. I don’t really feel that way, though. The acting really isn’t the problem with this movie. The story is the problem, and the story is boring. Now, the video game, in my opinion, actually had a wonderful, compelling story. The movie somehow takes that story and makes it incomprehensible to the point where I just didn’t care about it. Only by thinking about how the story went in the game was I able to decipher what was going on in the movie. This only made me wish I was playing the game again instead of watching this movie.

Nothing happens in the first half of the movie. There’s no real action until the last half of the movie, and even that is minimal. It seems like the creative team attempted to focus on the story rather than on the signature action and violence of the game. I’m all for that approach as long as the story they focus on is actually good. This story was a slow, dawdling mess that quickly lost my interest.

My expectations for this movie were low, but I hoped that it at least would take the Punisher: War Zone approach and go all out with the action to be an incredibly enjoyable experience. Like previously stated, it tried to focus on the story instead, and failed miserably. However, Max Payne isn’t a complete loss. The few action scenes are beautifully done, just infrequent and short. In fact, most of them were seen at length in the trailer. So, if you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve already seen nearly all of what’s good about Max Payne.

The best thing I can say about Max Payne is that the style and look of the movie is amazing. It’s a dark and moody film with realistic film noir qualities heightened by exaggerated Sin City stylization. In the commercials, the angels/demons flying around concerned me, since there were no such things in the game. Explained as drug induced hallucinogenic nightmares, these creatures actually accentuate the look of the film. In fact, one of the most impressive moments occurs after Max ingests some of the drug himself and begins to have his own visions of these flying valkyries. Burning embers join the snowflakes that swirl down around Mark Wahlberg while the sky opens up revealing a horde of these terrifying apparitions. Max Payne works great as desktop wallpaper, but its bland story can’t support it as a film.

The game was better.

Max Payne isn’t a horrible movie. It’s just not very good. It did remind me of just how great the games were and makes me want to go back and play them again. So, I’m excited about that. And the movie is still much better than anything made by Uwe Boll. If you want to feel better about Max Payne, go watch the atrocious BloodRayne. In light of that comparison, Max Payne isn’t that bad of a video game adaptation, after all.

1/2 Toddsperience

And don't call me Boo.

Walt Kowalski is My Friend

And now, it's time for us here at SLM to actually talk about a movie.

It finally got into positive digits last weekend. Thanks to the relatively nice weather, I was able to venture out doors. I celebrated this occasion by going to see Gran Torino. I imagined it'd be a nearly empty theater, since I was going to a Saturday afternoon matinee in a small theater in a small town. Plus, it was supposedly kind of an artsy film that doesn't normally appeal to the general public, no matter what awards and accolades it may receive. Much to my surprise, there was actually quite a number of people in attendance at the local cinema. It wasn't a packed house by any means, but there were certainly more people there than I had expected.

As for the movie, it was unexpectedly great. I mean, I went in assuming it would be quite good, but it definitely exceeded my expectations. In Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a grumpy Korean War veteran that just lost his wife. From the opening scene, Eastwood is wonderful at portraying Walt's demeanor simply through grimaces, snarls, and grunts. It's quite humorous watching Walt's reaction to his grandchildren's disrespectful behavior at the funeral and reception that follows.

That actually went a long ways to win me over with this movie. From the trailers and various reviews I gathered that Walt was a cranky, racist, old man that bluntly said whatever was on his mind. However, the film has the viewer actually sympathize with this man. Further, though racial slurs are abundant, they're almost played for laughs, which goes a long way at making Walt seem very endearing. In fact, I missed out on quite a bit of dialogue that was said simply because the whole theater was laughing so frequently. Hmm, maybe that just means that I live in a really racist town.

Anyway, the story goes that Walt is now alone in his house in a neighborhood where he is now the minority. Over the years all the white folks moved out and Asians moved in. But Walt refuses to move and still contends that it is his neighborhood. A neighborhood gang tries to induct Walt's teenage neighbor Thao ("Toad," as Walt calls him) into their ranks. His initiation trial? Steal Walt Kowalski's prized 1972 Gran Torino. Walt catches him and Thao ends up helping Walt with chores to make up for his transgression. Heartwarming male bonding ensues.

Ok, so the setup may not be that original. But it's the execution that counts. Even as Walt learns and befriends his Asian neighbors, he still doesn't refrain from his racist comments. In fact, he never apologizes for his behavior at all. It's probably because that's how he was raised. He grew up at a time when nearly everyone used racial slurs, even if they didn't mean them in a negative context. We may be appalled by this because we live in this overly politically correct world today. But the world changed, Walt Kowalski didn't.

In the end, though, forget about the awards season and Oscar buzz. It really doesn't matter. What does matter is that this is just a fun and enjoyable movie to watch. It's no where near the best movie ever made, but it's certainly one of the better ones. I look forward to when it comes out on dvd so I can watch it again and catch any dialogue that I missed the first time. Plus, I want to see my new friend, Walt Kowalski, once again.

Rating: 8.3/10

Note: The rating scale of this site may change in the near future. I'm still trying to figure out what a cool system would be. Maybe 4 out of 5 Todds would be a good rating for it? Any suggestions on what I should use in the future?

Inspiration

I'm currently in the process of attempting to write a short skit for this year's Fine Arts Festival. So far, it's not going so well. My first draft ending up being more of a monologue/sermon instead of an actual drama solo. So, some major retooling is required. I've got the theme and the message I want to put out, but how do I say it in a dramatic narrative less than five minutes long?

This evening I got some inspiration while watching, of all things, Dogma. Sure, it's a vulgar, crude, and blasphemous movie, but it's also writer/director Kevin Smith's outlet for his personal frustrations with the Catholic Church in particular, and organized religion in general. It's actually a very insightful movie containing several valid points. But, instead of being a long, drawn out lecture, Smith crafted it into an entertaining comedy using his unique style of storytelling.

And that's what I'm going to try to do. I need to take my lofty ideas and convey them through a quirky narrative of which I am accustomed to composing. I just don't quite know how to do it. But if Kevin Smith can make his Dogma, then I can surely make my own self-indictment.

Wish me luck.

Batman's Dead

Oh, by the way, apparently Batman died. You can check out the full scoop over at Geekanerd where they've got an interesting analysis on it. And I agree with it for the most part. Those who know me know I'm a huge Batman fan, but even I don't really care about this news. Superman's death was huge. Jason Todd's death was huge. Captain America's recent death was huge. Batman's? Meh. Screw you, Grant Morrison. Though, DC in general can probably take the blame. I still wholly dislike the recent resurrection of Jason Todd. According to my personal Batman canon, the second Robin is still dead. That's right, I make up my own Batman canon and disregard the nonsense. What? You don't? Yeah, sure. Go read all they campy space adventures Batman had in the '50s and then say that.

I'd say Rest In Peace, Batman, but...he'll be back. Count on it.

Sometimes a Great Notion

Last night was the beginning of the end. The first of the final 10 episodes of Battlestar Galactica aired on the Sci-Fi Channel. Now, I could fill this post with spoilers galore, but I'll try to restrain myself. Many questions were indeed answered, but, of course, in such a way that the answers only lead to more questions. We probably all have the Lost playbook to thank for that little strategy. So, all in all, I'm probably left with more questions after watching this episode than I did before.

As a note, I just finished watching the previous season (or is it the same season, just the episodes that aired last Spring?) about an hour before I watched the new episode last night. I know, I was lax at getting around to it. That was kind of a bummer for me, because I dislike spoilers. But I've been seeing commercials for the new episodes everywhere and they mention that these pilgrims of the cosmos finally made it to Earth. So, I knew that was the big reveal/cliffhanger before I had even seen the episode that contained that incident. But, again, that was my fault and I only have myself to blame. I know that out there one of you BSG faithfuls is weeping for me. But I'm all caught up now! Hooray!

Sigh, soon Battlestar will be all over. Then what will we do? I suppose some lucky guy with a heap of disposable income can buy a Raptor and live out his BSG fantasies for years to come. But for the rest of us poor slobs, all we can do is say goodbye. It seems like I've been saying goodbye a lot this TV season. Last fall The Shield ended. As great as BSG is, I have to say that The Shield is definitely my favorite show. And now it's gone. Hopefully Battlestar will end on a happier, more optimistic note. The series finale of The Shield made me feel like I was watching my best friends slowly die in front of me. It was painful, it was horrifying, and it was great. Somehow, though, I wouldn't be suprised if BSG ended on a complete downer. You think otherwise? Well, then I'd ask you to rewatch how it all began with the miniseries, or, as I like to call it, "the most depressing three hours of television." If everyone dies in the beginning, would it be such a stretch for everyone to die in the end?

Nine episodes left.