Cop Out

Spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned…

Anyone who knows me knows I am a Kevin Smith fan boy. I’ve seen and enjoy all his movies, even Jersey Girl which I still say isn’t as bad as people think it is and if you haven’t seen it quite stalling and just check it out. I read many, if not all the comics he wrote; really enjoying Green Hornet these days. I tune in to his podcast, called SModcast as they come out. Even saw him live at his Q&A in Alaska, and would love to here his impressions of his trip to Alaska and seeing a moose. So when I heard he was directing a movie he didn’t write I was curious to see how it turned out.

The story revolves around two cops, Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) and Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan) who are trying to recover a rare baseball card that is stolen from Monroe who needs the money to cover the cost of his daughters (Michelle Trachtenberg) up coming wedding. When they catch the guy who stole the card (Seann William Scott), he has already passed the card off to the head of a local gang, Raul (Juan Carlos Hernández).

The movie felt like Kevin Smith filming a cross between Die Hard and Beverly Hills Cop, although not as good as either of those. Mind you I said it wasn’t “as good” but it was still a lot of fun. Although I didn’t find it nearly as funny as Smith’s last picture Zack and Miri Make a Porn, I did enjoy the film. Technically I think it was Smith’s best visual work except a little editing thing, which Smith was also the editor, early on that bothered me. Can’t put my finger on it and to be honest the edit issue might have been caused by an issue with the actual film being projected like a bad splice or fix on the print I watched.

One of my favorite surprises was the return of Jason Lee to the Kevin Smith films after being noticeably missing from Zack and Miri. I also have to admit I am not a huge fan of Tracy Morgan but the scenes between him and Seann William Scott where some of the funniest in the film.

Bottom line I’ve seen everything Smith has put out at the theater since Dogma and would have seen the first three if it wasn’t for Amy and Clerks limited release and Mallrats either never made it to my state or was here for one showing at the theater that the rest of the week plays Debbie Does… Cop Out will be happily added along side the rest of my Kevin Smith discs some where between Clerks and a Threevening With. Was it my favorite Smith film, no. Actually it was probably my least favorite of his films, yes even behind Jersey Girl, but I think it still funnier than most of the big hit comedies out there. Although I’m on the group that thinks Judd Apatow has nothing on Kevin Smith. I’ve seen most of his flicks and enjoyed them, but even his funniest wasn’t as good as Cop Out.

The Third Dimension has come

As a child I remember watching the Creature from the Black Lagoon on TV in 3-D and later in high school going to see the Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare which had a small part of the film in 3-D. It both of those cases the 3-D used the old red and blue glass to give you the 3-D effect and the 3-D wasn’t very good in either movie.

A few years after college I went with a friend to Las Vegas during the “Vegas is for families” days of sin city. A few of the hotels had added simulator rides and Imax theaters. At Ceasar’s Palace my friend and I saw an Imax movie about the oceans and the sea life in the oceans. It was it 3-D but used heavy electronic glasses to create the effect. This was amazing 3-D to me. Fish swam right up to your face and it felt like you could reach out touch them and the whole experience dazzled me, but on one of the motion 3-D rides the glasses being so heavy caused them to come off your face as the ride rocked and shook you .

In 2000 my family took a trip to Disney World and again 3-D was used in some of the attractions.  Honey I Shrunk the Audience, a Bugs Life short and even a Toy Story ride/game. Disney was the first time I came across the 3-D glassed that where lightweight glasses that seemed like sunglasses with a thin gray colored film for lens. The 3-D again was amazing and didn’t have the difficultly of the heavier electronic glasses.

A few years back I began to hear rumors of a bunch of 3-D movies coming soon to the theater. I’m an avid movie goer and fan. The idea seemed intriguing to me. Slowly over the next few years a few kids movies made their way to the theater, the first being Spy Kids 3-D and followed shortly by Sharkboy and Lavagirl. Being the “cool uncle” I try to spoil my nieces from time to time and being curious to see the 3-D experience of these modern movies I took my nieces to see the movies. The 3-D was better than the older Black Lagoon flicks but still relied on the multi-colored lens to create the  3-D effect, which throws the overall movie color off.

Fast forward a few years and my local theater finally gets a 3-D projector just in time for the release of My Bloody Valentine. The theater uses the lightweight gray colored lens and even though the movie wasn’t great the 3-D made it fun. And so began the on slot of 3-D flicks.

In December of 2009 James Cameron released Avatar. He created his own 3-D technology for this sci-fi movie that went on to become the largest grossing movie of all time. So Hollywood decided everything needs to be 3-D and films that where not filmed to be 3-D started going through computer programs transferring them in to 3-D.

It became such a draw that 3-D televisions became the rage at the Consumer Electronics Show of 2010, so that you can sit in the darkness of your very own living room and wear your geeky glasses.

Two of the last three films where in 3-D. The funny thing was I had the opposite opinion of the 3-D use in the films. Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland took 3-D and used it to help the bizarre world of wonderland become a little more bizarre where by the end of Clash of the Titans it just made my head hurt. I enjoyed both films but didn’t feel the 3-D added to the experience just the bottom line for the studios. Over all I’ve enjoyed the experience of 3-D movies but has it gotten too much. I read today that a much anticipated Joss Whedon film The Cabin in the Woods, much anticipated by me at least, which was scheduled for release earlier this year was pushed back to next year while it under goes the 3-D treatment. In this case similar to Clash of the Titans, the movie wasn’t filmed in 3-D, wasn’t the directors original vision and seems to be something pushed onto the films by the studios. Is it much different than colorizing black and white films or watching a pan and scan film over its original aspect ratio?

It is starting to get a bit out of hand. When 3-D is used as an attraction it seems to work well. Something out of the norm, a different way to escape, but when it becomes the trend it starts to become boring. It is a thin line because the next 3-D movie you go see might really be excellent because of the effect or it could be a mess and you’re out that elevated 3-D ticket price.

With a quick search for 3-D movies I see over ten 3-D movies still to be released this year and over 20 in 2011. Who knows how many older movies are going through the process to become 3-D so they can be released again at the theater and yet another version to come to your video library. Is it time to give up on the gimmick of 3-D or embrace the technology?

Summer Movies

Summer is coming even if you can’t tell by looking out the window. Living in Alaska I sometimes get the good fortune for an early breakup. The time of year where the pet waste and trash from the past winter begins to thaw. It isn’t the best time to be in Alaska but the beauty of the snow covered winters and long summer days more than make up for the smell of breakup. The best thing about break up it is the signal for the summer run of the over budgeted, special effects driven, who really cares about the script films we know and love. This year is not different. With a quick Google search I managed to find over 40 movies being released between the first of May and the last of August.

I know I have my favorites planed for the summer. With flicks like Iron Man 2, Clash of the Titans and Twilight Saga: Eclipse the movie theaters are sure to be bringing in a steady steam of annoying would talk during the film.

Instead of boring you with what I plan to see though, I’m curious about what you want to see. I’ll be here all summer covering and spoiling what I go see. So check out my poll, huh huh he said poll, and let me know what is the summer movie you most want to see.