Over/Under

This weekend I was laying on my couch watching TV, recovering from the hectic evening the Roots concert presented and preparing myself for a sojourn into the midtown Mecca (my beloved stretch of road that includes my most frequently visited commerce based locations - Kaladi's, Middle Way, Boscos's), when I found myself engrossed in Hellboy. It was playing on TNT HD, and as much as I hated having to watch commercials and desired to put in my DVD to watch instead, the ramificiations of the previous night strictly disallowed this.

Which was fine.

Commercials allowed mini-naps and jaunts to other locations in my house to perform other duties (a little laundry here, dishes there, drinking a gallon of water and downing four advil as well...), so all was good. However, watching that movie and the barrage of Hellboy II: the Golden Army commercials really got me thinking about all of the things out there that gets ignored because of the whims of the audience and all of the crap that makes the big bucks and earns all the praise. So here I have a few little nuggets I want to share, because you know me: I love sharing my opinion on anything and everything, especially when it comes to what is over and underrated.

Movies: Underrated - Dark City (written and directed by Alex Proyas). Overrated - Any studio movie by Guillermo Del Toro.

While watching Hellboy, I couldn't get over the fact that there was simply something wrong with it. Overall it's a decent enough movie, but there is just something...off about the whole thing. Then the commercials for Hellboy II kicked in and I kept thinking about what a monumental trainwreck that was overall. Then I got to thinking about Blade II. At about that point, I started to wonder, can Guillermo Del Toro, visual genius and well regarded auteur, do anything right when it comes to making American studio films?

Don't get me wrong, I love Pan's Labyrinth, but that was Del Toro on his own turf. Pretty much everything he's made in America has been well regarded, but for the most part it's average at best (or it wishes it was).

Yet you have Dark City, a dynamic, methodical, and flat out brilliant sci-fi film featuring huge concepts and actual substance. Alex Proyas made an absolutely amazing comic book movie that wasn't even based off a comic, it just represented all of the high concept yet grounded in substance style you'd want out of a movie of the sort. Yet it didn't even clear $15 million dollars and to this day it has hardly even found an audience. People even claim that it was a rip off of the Matrix, which doesn't make for a number of reasons, most obviously the fact it came out before the Matrix.

The point is, Proyas made an incredible film, yet has made only two movies since. Del Toro on the other hand is an industry golden boy without any real success (in my eyes) in American film.

Sometimes, there isn't any justice.

Alan Moore Comics: Overrated - Watchmen. Underrated - Top 10.

Oh my! Did I really say that? Did I say the universally praised Watchmen was overrated? How could I do so? Well, I would like to say that I do quite like Watchmen. It's an extremely good comic book and I understand why people like it a lot. What's not to like? Moore is at peak form here, you have Dave Gibbons supplying fantastic pencils, and you have an extremely relevant and engaging story.

What I question isn't it's quality, which it is, just those that claim that it is the pinnacle of the comic book artform. To me, I'd take Preacher. I'd take Y the Last Man. Hell, even in terms of the universally loved comics, I'd probably take Maus over it. It just doesn't have the personal feel that I think makes a great piece of art a masterpiece.

On the other hand, Top 10 is a work from later in Moore's career that many overlooked. It was from his publising line - America's Best Comics - that featured his more highly regarded runs on Tom Strong and Promethea. Lost in that web of incredible works was Top 10, which was like a procedural cop drama in a world where everyone had powers. Except one that was long on interpersonal relationships and short on fictional forensic procedures. Okay, perhaps it was long on that too, but go with me here.

In recent years, Top 10 has started to earn a modicum of the praise it deserves, especially with Wizard naming issue #8 from season 1 the best single issue since I've been alive (whatever that means). But at the same time, I think it deserves to be held in the same regard of his best work, including Watchmen.

Overrated movies: Sunset Blvd. (Directed by Billy Wilder)

When I was at the library today, I was checking out works by H.P. Lovecraft due to my recent addiction to anything and everything Mike Mignola related, and while reading the inside cover of At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels by Lovecraft, I noticed something that really struck home about what I wanted to say about Sunset Blvd., the 26th highest rated movie of all time according to IMDB.

About Lovecraft's work, the editor (or someone) said, "At the Mountains of Madness remains one of the few works of American science fiction from the 1930's that can be read today for genuine literary pleasure rather than dutiful historical interest."

That is the exact point I'd like to make about older movies. Because I loved movies so much, in college I started watching much older movies to brush up on the classics. I started light, with the pop genius that was most of the work from the late 60's and 70's. Then I moved onto the hard stuff, and what stood out in particular was Sunset. That movie went down like the molasses my parents gave me when I was little to get over a cough. Slowly and disgustingly. My quest to bone up on the classics became "dutiful historical interest" at that exact moment, and also ended permanently then.

Gloria Swanson may have been anxiously awaiting her close up, but my god, I was anxiously awaiting a good movie to appear. I was not expecting a boring trainwreck. Sometimes though, that's what you get.

Also overrated: Shakespeare in Love, Brokeback Mountain.

Underrated music: the 88 - Over and Over

I came across this randomly one day when I was in at the radio station I DJ'd at in college. I was looking for new albums to review, when I impulsively grabbed this off a semi-interesting description on the cover. This is precious pop defined. Precious pop is a genre Hannah and I invented to describe Dr. Dog, but it works incredibly well for this as well. Full of instantly hummable melodies, hand claps, and more hooks than you'd find in your average marina, I immediately fell in love and waited for this one to inevitably blow up.

I still am waiting.

Seriously people.

This album is really freaking good, yet I could probably poll 1,000 people in my city and I'd say at most, 5 people will have heard of it, if even that. That makes me very, very sad.

Also underrated: Anathallo's Floating World, the Elected's Sun Sun Sun, Phantom Planet's the Guest.

Best of 2007 (Movies edition)

As this is the first of the three (or potentially four, depending if I get saucy and do comics) Best of 2007 lists that I'm going to do, I'm going to preface it with a bit of a warning. Anyone that knows me knows that I love things like that. I love lists. I love sharing my opinion (I am writing on a blog afterall). This is the logical step when you think about it. Which is why over the next two days I will be releasing my top 10 for movies, TV, and comics and a super impressive top 30 (!!!) list of CD's in 2007.

Of course I will not write about all of them, I was thinking top 3 on the smaller trio and maybe a top 5 or 10 on the CD one, but nothing too crazy. I just feel as if I have to do this. Feel free to share things you've liked this year. I love checking out new things, so go to town folks!

For movies, I kind of think it was a bit of a weak year. Last year had a number of absolute knockouts, starting with Children of Men, and moving on to other amazing movies like the Departed, Pan's Labyrinth, Little Miss Sunshine, and Letters from Iwo Jima. There was a lot to love last year. This year, there really wasn't a movie that I walked out of and felt as if I could immediately say "I think this is one of my five or ten favorite movies ever."

There was a lot to very much like, but not a whole lot to absolutely love.

However, I want to preface this with the fact that there are a lot of movies I still need to see before really judging that. I want to see There Will Be Blood, Atonement, Sweeney Todd. the Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and a number of others. Maybe the knockouts will be in that list or beyond. Who knows. But below are the movies I thought were the best of the year.

1. Sunshine (Directed by Danny Boyle; Written by Alex Garland; Starring Cillian Murphy and Chris Evans)

This and the following pick may not make the top 10 of my all time favorites, but they are definite top 15 contenders. This movie brilliantly combined sci-fi, drama, action, and bizarro psychological thriller all into one fusion genre. It was like 2001 meets Event Horizon, but without the boredom of the former and the ridiculousness of the latter. Even better, it improved in my mind thinking more of it, plus I have the feeling it will only grow with repeat viewings.

Cillian Murphy and the majority of the cast were predictably great, but the real surprise in the cast was Chris Evans of Cellular and Fantastic Four fame. He really stepped it up in this and proved that he could in fact really display different sides besides arrogance and incredulity.

One of the best parts about it as well was the music. The music set the ambiance perfectly, and the combination of electronic act Underworld and 28 Days Later composer John Murphy were absolute perfection.

For those interested, here is a brief plot synopsis by yours truly: The Sun is extinguishing. The Earth is dying. In a last ditch hope, Earth gets together a team to use a massive nuclear bomb to reignite the Sun (as implausible as it sounds, I actually read up on it and this is in fact possible...in theory). The first team fails mysteriously, so a second and final attempt is joined midway through their journey in the attempt to figure out what happened to the first team and to attempt to complete the mission.

That's some hot stuff right there.

2. Waitress (Directed and Written by Adrienne Shelley; Starring Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion)

This is just a simple movie about a woman who is living a life that is going no where with a terrible husband and who has a baby on the way whom she is terrified for (because it has to come into this life) and angry at (because it makes her have to stay with her husband). Her life is turned upside down when she meets the new OB/GYN in town, and from there the plot goes and goes into a brilliant coming of age tale (albeit one that takes place slightly later in life than usual).

There is one point that needs to be made before anything here. Keri Russell gives the best performance by any actress this year. No one is even talking about her for an Oscar this year, but she should be bandied about as much as anyone (especially considering the crap class of actresses this year!). She makes Jenna as three dimensional and real as this character could possibly be, and she's funny and touching and perfect.

Nathan Fillion is also fantastic (as always, Browncoats do it better), and the rest of the cast (including a terrifying Jeremy Sisto, an amusing Shelley and Hines, and a wonderful Andy Griffith) bring their A game as well. Shelley does an amazing job crafting a movie that could easily fall into the trap of sappy and overly saccharine, but she dodges that bullet entirely. Sadly enough, she was killed after the film was completed, so we can never see anything else from her, but at least she got this incredibly personal feeling film out before.

3. No Country for Old Men (Written and Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen; Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, and Javier Bardem)

The third best movie this year in my opinion, but it had the best opportunity of any of them to be an all time great. It is absolutely perfect for 17/18ths of the movie. I loved every bit of it for that. But frankly, I did not grasp the ending. Someone explained it to me well, and I think on repeat viewings it could become my favorite of the year, but where I sit right now makes it the third best.

It's the story of a normal guy (Brolin) who finds a large stash of drug money, and the trail of death and destruction that follows him as the force of nature that is Anton Chigurh (Bardem) tracks him during every waking moment. When you get deeper, its about a lawman (Tommy Lee Jones, doing what he does) dealing with the changing nature of his job, and about how every person involved with the law is always surpassed by the ruthlessness of criminals. Its an extremely engrossing movie on the surface, and I feel as if (as I said) with repeat viewings it will just grow as the subtext is delved into more.

However, regardless of getting subtext or not, Anton Chigurh is pretty much the scariest villain ever and Bardem deserves the Oscar for the role, and the Coen Brothers once again have crafted a sickly funny and intense crime drama in the vein of their previous glories like Fargo. Fantastic movie.

4. Juno (Directed by Jason Reitman; Written by Diablo Cody; Starring Ellen Page and Michael Cera)

5. Stardust (Dir. by Matthew Vaughn; Written by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn; Starring Charlie Cox and Claire Danes)

6. Enchanted (Directed by Kevin Lima; Written by Bill Lima; Starring Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey)

7. The Bourne Ultimatum (Directed by Paul Greengrass; Written by Tony Gilroy and Scott Z. Burns; Starring Matt Damon (MATT DAMON!)

8. Zodiac (Directed by David Fincher; Written by James Vanderbilt; Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr.)

9. 3:10 to Yuma (Directed by James Mangold; Written by Hallsted Welles and Michael Brandt; Starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale)

10(tie). Ratatouille (Directed by Brad Bird; Written by Brad Bird; Starring Patton Oswalt and Lou Romano)

10 (tie). Once (Written and Directed by John Carney; Starring Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova)