Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: It was really more of a city-state

The real question that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull poses is not "Will it be disappointing?" but rather "How disappointing will it be?" My answer: Not that disappointing.

Steven Spielberg is a consummate craftsman and his sure hand guides this thrilling throwback (that's thrilling by non-Indy standards, mind you). Although, I'm not sure if it's still a throwback to the adventure serials of the 30s and 40s or if it's been long enough since the last film for this to be a throwback to the Indiana Jones films of the 80s. The film is full of references to the earlier films and it even managed to slip in at least one nod to the Star Wars series (Harrison Ford gets a "bad feeling about this" at one point).

Speaking of Star Wars, I know that plenty of people will tell you that thins movie sucked and blah, blah, blah, but I want to make it clear that is nowhere near as bad as the recent Star Wars movies and that it in no way raped my childhood. I think that's an important distinction to make.

The film deftly handles the update from the 40s to the 50s. The commies are a natural substitute for Nazis and although it took me a little while to get used to the aliens, I appreciate how they went all-out with the b-movie/sci-fi thing. I mean, it's just so 50s.

I also learned an important lesson: Not even the all-star English trio of John Hurt, Jim Broadbent, and Ray Winstone can make up for John Rhys-Davies. Do you think he couldn't make this film because he was busy working on Anaconda 3 . . . or Anaconda 4?


It was nice seeing Karen Allen again but she seemed a little too happy to be working again.

Iron Man: Marvel begins

Marvel Comics has recently been licensing its properties for products that have been awesome, terrible and everything in between. But then they decided that their characters would be better off kept in the family, so they founded Marvel Studios. And, in a stroke of genius, they handed the reigns over to Jon Favreau for their initial outing, Iron Man. This is a smart, funny, thrilling movie and I think Favreau should get a lot of credit for that. All other credit should be directed toward Robert Downey, Jr.

Iron Man's alter ego, Tony Stark, is the personification of adolescent fantasies. He's a filthy rich (I'm not sure 'billionaire' does him justice) playboy who's obsessed with fast cars, one-night stands with Maxim models, and he makes giant, exploding phallic objects. The guy would be a complete douche bag if he wasn't played with the wit and charm that Downey, Jr. brings to the role. It's a great feeling to watch an actor who tried his darnedest to destroy his life come back to turn in an amazing performance in a huge blockbuster.

Speaking of coming out of nowhere, it was great to see Gwyneth Paltrow return from he baby-imposed exile. The last time I saw her we were only at war with Afghanistan. I forgot what a lovely presence she is. Not physically (though, that's certainly true), I mean she's one of those people who just looks right on screen. When she smiles she makes you smile.

Wow, have I really gone on this long without talking about awesome fight scenes featuring dudes in giant, mechanized suits? Well, this movie's got that too.


Scene after the credits? Best. Thing. Ever.

Juno: You know?

Okay, so I'm way late on this post. Juno has already won America over with it's quirky charm, overstayed its welcome as that quirkiness has gone from endearing to kinda annoying, and (I think) successfully navigated that backlash. I can see where the haters are coming from but I was completely taken in by this adorable little movie.

In a bold but rather brilliant move, the film starts out with a jarring scene full of nearly indecipherable, made-up slang. The totally-awesome-in-everything-but-this Rainn Wilson stars in a scene that seems designed to make people give up on a movie that's hardly begun. It's almost a challenge, as if the film is saying "If you find this twee then you better just fuck off right now." But then it does something brilliant: It takes things down a notch for the rest of the movie. You start off thinking "Can I take this language for ninety minutes?" but by the second scene you're thinking "Oh good, the whole thing isn't going to be that bad." I know it's gotten a lot of criticism but I really like the stylized, artificial slang. Real slang tends to sound fake when it's not done exactly right and will eventually seem dated but fake slang can't go out of style because it was never used to begin with. Also, it mimics real relationships where every group of friends in some way develops their own language of unique phrases, common references and inside jokes. For a great example of how made-up slang can achieve this, check out Buffy.

I almost find it difficult to believe that this film was the work of Jason Reitman, the son of one of Hollywood's greatest hacks, Ivan Reitman. Look, I know Ghost Busters is, like, the best movie ever but that's largely do to Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, and to a lesser extent Bill Murray. But the other crap Ivan made? Junior? Legal Eagles? Evolution? Fathers' Day? Come on. But I really shouldn't be surprised after his son came on so strong with his freshman effort, Thank You for Smoking.

The kid also knows how to assemble a great cast. I was really impressed with Ellen Page's performance in Hard Candy (one of the most squirm inducing films I've ever seen) and I was glad to see her take another lead in this. It was a stroke of genius to pair the sharp, worldly Page with the sweet, hapless Michael Cera (who might be my new hero). Oh, and Jason Bateman, Allison Janney, J.K. Simmons, and Jennifer Garner all rock.

See, that's how you make a movie.


"Whose idea was it?"

The Philadelphia 48 Hour Film Project: Now featuring 100% more Keith

The 48 Hour Film Project is a competition where filmmakers are given a genre, a line of dialogue, a prop, a character, and two days to make a film. This year 48 teams participated in the Philadelphia competition and I was lucky enough to be a part of team Psynema. Every team was given the variables of Ira or Irene Livingston the dishwasher, a wrench, and the line "You better double check". Not every team got the same genre but they didn't have as many genres as teams so a lot of groups had the same one. We got Holiday Film. You find out all of this at 7:00 on Friday night and the completed film is due at 7:30 on Sunday night. That gives you one night to write the script, one full day to film and most of a day to do editing/post-production. Since I was just an actor, I only had to work Saturday but most of the team spent the night in the office we filmed in to more or less constantly work on the movie. The final films were screened on Tuesday and Wednesday. Both nights had two shows of about twelve movies each. Our team ended up winning Best Direction (essentially second place) and the Audience Favorite.

Now, to the review. I was only able to make one of the screenings but I was pretty impressed with what I saw. Obviously, our film was my favorite because there's really nothing quite like seeing yourself on a big screen in a venue that seats a few hundred people (even if it's only half full). One of the movies that really impressed me was The Take Out. It's really well done, they made good use of the elements and it's got a nice little twist at the end. Another great one was The World's Dullest Underwater Explorer made entirely by one guy who's gotten to be a regular on the 48 Hour Film circuit. It's a charming musical about an underwater explorer who can't swim. Tip Top Cop might have been the worst movie I saw but it might also be my favorite non-Keith film. It's just so charmingly awful!

The 48 Hour Film Project has a website where they post films that are part of the competition but it doesn't look like they've put up any of the ones I saw yet. When they do, I'll try and put links to the ones I talked about in the above text. But for now, you can check out some of the older ones here.

SEE MY MOVIE!

I know that one isn't actually one hundred percent more than zero but I like the way it sounds.