A drunk Edward Furlong was arrested for trying to free some lobsters.

I don't know what a freed lobster would do in Kentucky.

Hit on his sister and drink a brew.

Same as everyone else.

I just got back from Sky Captain and liked it a lot. Mainly for stylistic reasons. There was just a lot to look at (besides Jude Law, who never did anything for me before, but here...) and I really liked the Wizard of Oz effect with the black and white before the island and colors afterwards. The art deco (is that the right term...I'm not sure) style was really appealing to me.

Just saw Deliverance. That's an intense 45 minutes in the middle there, especially when the wind and rain are doing their thing outside.

It's one of those films that, if you see it in the theater, you'll be spending the first five minutes outside after it's over re-adjusting to reality.

But not for the kids, by any means. (TCM rated it TV-MA for language. I'd add violence and possibly sex.)

Just saw Garden State. If anyone needs me for the next couple hours, I'll be sitting by myself and staring into space while mouthing silently.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow = (( Star Wars + Raiders of the Lost Ark ) * The Iron Giant ) / The Shadow

It's so fucking fun. Clearly, the visual style is a big draw, and it doesn't disappoint in that aspect. Your brain's all, "That's real, but wait, I know it's fake, but maybe it's real, it can't be real, right?" Everything is so well integrated, you completely forget it's all actors in front of a blue screen. And the muted colors in the beginning are so lush. (Nonian, good call on the Wizard of Oz effect. I hadn't noticed that.) There are very few points where anything looked obviously fake. It's very impressive.

But there's not only the retro-futuristic visual style, there's the style of the movie itself, an old-school adventure story with an archetypal hero and heroine. Jude Law is great, and Gwyneth Paltrow has the look down, but she acts like the most annoying backseat adventurer ever: "Joe, look out! What are you doing? You can't do that! We're going to die! What's that? Are you listening to me?" And she's obsessed with "getting the story" and "making sure her camera isn't trampled by giant robots," but not in an adorable Chloe Sullivan way. I'll accept it as part of the trope of 40s backseat heroines. And anyway, the camera ends up being a pretty entertaining running gag. Angelina Jolie is quite obviously enjoying the hell out of herself, and who wouldn't, when you get to wear an eyepatch?

Critics who are complaining about the story can bite me. Sure, the story's pretty ridiculous, but it's very well paced, and the action sequences are incredibly well choreographed and shot, the kind where you end up moving in your seat from side to side to avoid the planes. Kerry Conran's made a movie that gleefully embraces the adventure movie tropes of yore while not being afraid to subvert them for a laugh or two. It's not here to deliver any preachy messages or explore the human condition. It takes you on a ride where even halfway through the movie, it manages to give you the kind of thrill where the audience collectively laughs and spontaneously bursts into applause. I fucking love when that shit happens. That's why you go to the movies, man. (For those who've seen it, I'm talking about Frankie's jetpack ) I really felt like saying, "This makes me feel like a kid again," except I'm too young to make that sort of statement.

Make sure to look out for a couple of George Lucas references, a timely THX-1138 reference (at least, I assume it was one) and a scene that looks almost identical to a scene in Attack of the Clones, the one movie Kerry Conran's seen since he started working on this film.

Go see Sky Captain, peoples. It's the most fun I've had in a theater in a long fucking time.

I concur. Sky Captain was pretty and fun and funny. It did a good job of translating a comic book style to movie format while poking gentle fun at it.

I noticed the sound as much as the visuals. There is some great play with low freqs. and stereo effects. See this in a good theater, I doubt most home entertainment set-ups will be able to match this when the DVD comes out.

I just got home from Sky Captain, to find that P-C has already tagged the line I was going to tag! Hmph. It's such a fun movie. I got a big Indiana Jones vibe from it, except with sci-fi overtones rather than pseudo-religious overtones. I agree that Gwyneth's character was pretty annoying at times; it always bugs me a bit when I realize halfway through a movie that I'm being set up to want A (Jude Law) and B (Gwyneth Paltrow) together, when really I think A and C (Angelina Jolie) are far better suited to each other. Or A and D (Giovanni Ribisi)... but then, it's nearly impossible for me to not see the slash anymore, especially with the group of people I went with tonight. "Frankie! They've got Dex." Ah, I love it.

Oh, and the Wizard of Oz look was really cool, and I hadn't really picked up on it being a direct reference either, but you're totally right, Nonian. Also, I liked the bit where she realizes that the reflection of the letters on his plane spell "polly", though it took me a minute to get it.

Other things I really liked included the jetpack! Woo! And the tiny elephant in Dr. Jennings' lab. All the stuff in Tibet/Rivendell (and I was pleased to be able to pick up on a couple of familiar Tibetan phrases). One minor nitpick: When Joe and Polly are flying through New York and their fuel tank gets shot, and then they plunge into the river to evade the pursuing bird machine thingies, and then they come flying out again... wouldn't their fuel tank have been full of water, and therefore pretty useless??

I haven't read any of the negative reviews, so I don't know what people disliked about it, but I enjoyed it a hell of a lot.

I just got home from Sky Captain, to find that P-C has already tagged the line I was going to tag!

Hee hee. As soon as I heard that, I laughed so much I realized I had to tag it. I just loved the history it implied between them.

And my slash moment was at the end, when Joe and Dex were reunited. (But really, it took you half the movie to realize A & B went together? They're the male and female stars! Come on!)

The bit about the letters on the plane was something I noticed when they resurfaced in Dagobah. I don't know if we'd seen the markings before, but it was suddenly so obvious what they spelled upside-down. And I pointed it out to my friend, and I was wondering whether the movie would just let it be a small detail, but then it let everyone else in on it.

As for nitpicks, my friend remarked that after that whole jetpack thing, Frankie's going to have a monster case of the bends.

I haven't read any of the negative reviews, so I don't know what people disliked about it, but I enjoyed it a hell of a lot.

Story, character, dialogue. The usual suspects.

I didn't like the use of Laurence Olivier, but it set up a chuckle for the "Is it safe?" line.

Did anyone else spot Godzilla during the Japanese part of the news clip montage?