FilmBender: sh*tfaced on movies

"Dogtown and Z-Boys" doc shreds Hollywood

Growing up in the Midwest and subscribing to Surfer Magazine and living for BMX races probably doesn't put me in the bucket of unbiased moviegoers when it comes to critiquing the documentary, Dogtown and Z-Boys.  It is directed by 70's skate legend, Stacy Peralta.  What's notable about this doc, first and foremost, is that it was actually kinda re-made as a sports drama three years later and directed by the cool chick, Catherine Hardwicke, who also did the amazing and disturbing Venice Beach drama, Thirteen.  I'll put that review on ice for another day, but the Hollywood version of the skate doc that she made is called Lords of Dogtown, and it starred big names like Johnny Knoxville, Rebecca De Mornay, and even Heath Ledger (who here as well, seems to morph himself into a completely different person somehow [maybe he was a shape shifter]).  That movie is pretty good, but the documentary is what speaks to me... maybe that's along the same rules as "the book is always better than the f*cking movie" for some reason.

Anyway, just watching these kids and the freedom that they experienced back then, of which, is far from what kids likely feel in big, oppressive cities nowadays.  But here, also in Venice, California, Stacy and his "local" group of surfers figured out that skateboards were only being used for cruising and slalom-style race competitions (p*ssies); yet due to a perfect non-storm, drought left swimming pools empty and a lack of waves left Stacy's clan searching for ways to re-create kick-turn wave maneuvers somewhere on land.  Ultimately, the excitement of trespassing over people's fences and dropping into those curvy-bottom pools charged their vision and quenched their thirst and changed the world.  Watch the movie trailer and read on because...

"The Dark Knight" is hard to see

I'm not a comic book geek.  Not a good/bad thing... just a qualifier.  It's also probably the reason why I was the last person I know to go see the movie, The Dark Knight.  Ultimately, that tainted the film for me -- hearing the hype from everyone, everywhere and, often, hearing it first hand.  "It's amazing," they said.  The same thing nearly happened to me on Iron Man -- the impossibility of living up to the hype.  But that's not a reasonable excuse for the let down I felt because a great movie should be able to survive such an imposing villain as hype -- especially a super hero movie, Batman of course, that's directed by the superbly apt, Christopher Nolan of Memento fame.  As I've vocalized here on FilmBender, for example, The Matrix crushed the hype.  Maybe that's because the hero in that one didn't even know he was, er, one.

But we all know that wasn't the case here.  It had nothing to do with the hero.  It was because of the film's actual villain, the psychotic Joker, as we all know played by what appears to be the dead body of Heath Ledger.  And his cadaver did an incredible job -- even better than the nearly-dead Jack Nicholson's campy version that received almost as much hype for his performance when that installment was theatrically released.  I'm just not sure it was enough, or should have to be enough, to save the day.  I mean, sh*t, it is supposed to be Christian Bale's (Batman's) movie.

I might even add that it also went on a scene or two too long, and that's bad coming from a guy who can beer bong a trilogy.  I'm sorry to put such a downer on it, but you'll thank me for it.  Oh, yeah, and there isn't any nudity in it either.  Because if you haven't seen it, you'll appreciate that I've unhyped it.  And since I don't know a ton about the original story, I'm not sure if the ending is faithful, abrupt, good, bad, a cop out, genius or just a sheer lack of creativity.  But check it out... you might like it.  And if Maggie Gyllenhaal, Anthony Michael Hall, Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine and Gary Oldman don't make for a strange group of stars to round out a movie, I don't know what is.

 

FilmBender is Funny Movie Reviews.  OK... so I lied. You will love this movie. The Batcycle and all the gizmos and action sequences rock. And I love how The Joker re-counts the carving of his smile like a schizo. The best Batman movie by a Batmile  :p