sandman's Open Salon Blog

Addendum to "Suckers, punched" - free bonus content

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 17:03:04 -0400

I forgot to mention in my Sucker Punch post that Scott Glenn is woefully miscast as "all-knowing spirit guide dude". Just does not pull it off at all. His appearance is oddly reminiscent of David Carradine as Bill in Kill Bill, which doesn't help because, somehow, Caine was able to nail that one. Glenn's just too perky and staight-laced throughout. The character would have benefited from a bit more menace. Let's see - how about Javier Bardem? Mickey Rourke?

Suckers, punched.

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:03:01 -0400

"Too much of a good thing... can be wonderful". - Mae West

As it turns out, too much of a good thing is... just... too much. If we learned anything from Willy Wonka, it's that gorging on sugary confections without at least some protein and fiber ends badly. Zach Snyder, he of the oversaturated digital palette and the speed-it-up-now-slow-it-down fight scenes, has submitted Sucker Punch for our approval - and I, for one, don't. Approve, that is.

How can a movie chock-a-block with scantily-clad vixens wielding all manner of ordnance, steam-powered Nazi zombies, gigantic glowing-eyed samurai, Manga-adorned human-operated robots - how can such a steaming jambalaya of awesomeness turn out so... pedestrian? Chris Lee has done a good job of exploring the issue at The Daily Beast (http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-03-27/sucker-punch-why-fanboys-have-turned-on-zack-snyder/2/), but I want to expand on a few points.

First of all, the First Rule of sci-fi/fantasy/comic books should be remembered at all times - internal consistency must be maintained. Everyone in the fictional universe must behave like they are in a real place where everything that happens in that place is within that place's range of believability. If there's any wink-wink, nudge-nudge, all is lost. Young mutants with special powers go to a private academy to sharpen their powers? Of course they do! Sucker Punch lacks a believable universe altogether - it's more a string of stunning set-pieces. It's difficult to satisfy the First Rule because there is no perspective from which to make the determination. It's like surveying from a moving train, constantly shifting. I know this is part of what Mr. Snyder was going for, but after a while it just gets tiring. Inception drove dangerously close to the same edge, but managed to pull it off.

Second, constraints are good. Unfettered access to financing is not always the best creative fuel (e.g. Michael Cimino). Snyder may have benefited from the presence of a studio bean-counter forcing him to tell a story without resorting to a zillion dollars worth of CGI. Some of the best art is produced under duress, under the gun, under deadline, under the threat of violence. Herzog gets it. The Dogme directors get it. Even Tarantino gets it - particularly with Reservoir Dogs and Jackie Brown. Zack needs to take some advice from his fellow young directors. Sucker Punch smells of too much money and too many cloying yes men.

Third, a story would be nice. I watched Karate Kid with the kids Saturday (the new one, with Fresher Prince and Jackie Chan) and it was no great film but at least it has a narrative you could sum up in a sentence or two. Kid moves to China, gets bullied, learns Kung Fu, and (spoiler alert), beats bully. Most of the best movies can be boiled down to just a line or two - to a pitch. Rear Window - a guy stuck in his apartment thinks he has witnessed a crime but has a tough time convincing the police (so he sends his gal pal to pinch the perp). The Thing - scientists in Anarctica unearth a scary alien that can mimic human form and they can't tell who's who so they have the coldest Mexican stand-off ever. Taken - they took her, I'm getting her back. As for Sucker Punch - not so easy. And I don't mean not so easy in the Christopher Nolan, mind-bending sort of way. More like a "let's just string together a bunch of really cool music videos and see if a narrative emerges". It doesn't.

Fourth, would it hurt to sneak in a joke here and there? A light moment. A fleeting snicker. Seriously, Zach. Even No Country for Old Men had it's share of levity.

Yet, I remain hopeful that Snyder will, having gotten this bloated floater out of his system, will tighten the screws, find a quality screenwriter, and turn out some watchable films. He's got the form, he just needs to find the function.

8-Bit Money

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 09:03:55 -0400

If I did this right (and it looks like I did!), I think I embedded the link for an 8-bit version of Pink Floyd's Mondy above. If not, you can find in at NRP.org on the All Songs Considered blog. It's good stuff.

3D Chalk Art

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:03:21 -0400

I love me some 3D Chalk Art. Google it and behold the amazing, mind-bending images! It only works from one vantage point, which makes it all the more ephemeral and weird.

I Blame John Malkovich

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 12:03:01 -0400

I think the meta thing really got rolling with Johnny Malkovich. You can blame Spike Jonze for directing the movie and you can definitely blame meta-master Charlie Kaufman, who birthed that film as well as the naval-gazers Adaptation and Synechedoche (I'm sure I mispelled that - I may've mispelled "mispelled" - Synechedoche was the apotheosis of the genre, a movie with it's head so far up its rear, it was practically intussussepted). But I would maintain that by agreeing to appear as John Malkovich in Being John Malkovich, John Malkovich granted an imprimatur of authenticity to the whole meta enterprise - that is, the "am I really me or am I just an actor on the stage of my life" enterprise that is gathering momentum in the media day by day? More so than Jim Carrey in The Truman Show, which was more a commentary on the phenomenon than an actual example of it. I recently watched the Showtime series Being Matt LeBlanc (aka Episodes) - it was very well done and had enough British humor to make it interesting. But now there's a new sitcom coming to NBC's Thursday night lineup - Being Paul Reiser. Mad about who? Where does it all end? Girl Talk is making sound collages of previously recorded songs (incredibly interesting sound collages, but still...). If Warhol were alive, he's be making painting of his soup can paintings - or maybe paintings of himself copying his soup can paintings. Twitter and Facebook are nudging (buggy-whipping) things along at an accelerating pace and it's starting to feel like everyone is always on TV, like we're all perpetually plugged into the Matrix. Will we all be Truman all the time? Can I even ask the question in a blog post - that will probably only be read by me.