Sorry about the late post. Frankly, I overslept a little this morning and didn’t have time to post before I
left to work.
The reason I overslept is that I *gasp* not only saw a movie in a theater yesterday, I saw two movies in a theater yesterday. For those who don’t know, I start work at a quarter to five, and get up around 3:30.
That means my bedtime is around 7:30 PM. So when a movie is playing at 7:00, that’s like a 10:00 PM start for me.
However, I have one local theater that not only currently has five dollar Tuesdays (about a fourth of what a primetime movie ticket with a good seat costs you for other venues in the area), but afternoon shows. So I caught the three hour John Wick 4 at a 3:00 showing for, again, five bucks. However, Fathom Events was also showing the subtitled version of My Neighbor Totoro last night at 7:00, and that was the only day it was available. So I grabbed a ticket for that as well. That was $10 because it was a special showing, but that’s still half of what I’ve paid to see similar showings (say, Shin Ultraman) at other theaters. Plus the theater has good screens and sound systems, and very swank leather electronic recliners (big enough even for me) with heated seats even.
So…John Wick 4 and My Neighbor Totoro. In many ways, two very different movies.
The biggest potential problem with Wick 4 was, of course, the running time. Very few films, especially action films, can justify a two hour and fifty minute run time. And I sadly must admit that I missed…I don’t know, the last five minutes of the film? I saw the climax and all, but then my bladder suddenly alerted me that after sitting there for three hours, I was going to the bathroom. Now. Where I went to the bathroom was my choice, but not for much longer. Discretion being the better part of valor, I left and made my way to the restroom. Which was a bit of a hike from the theater I was in, oh well.
In any case, Wick never seemed to me (or to most who have seen it apparently) overlong, by which I mean longer than it needed to be. It just flows from one scene to another, and I never got even remotely impatient with it. The action is fantastic, the gun and the hand to hand and the environmental damage stuff. Just marvelous. And Kirk Draut, if he hasn’t seen it yet, will flip out about the hands down gorgeous cinematography. Even the occasional shot that is clearly on a green screen works in the context of this universe’s heightened reality.
And the cast! Donnie Yen is practically a co-star, and he’s maybe even better than I was expecting, especially as he was acting in English. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, bear this in mind when you do:
Keanu Reeves is 58 now, and Donnie Yen is 59. Remember them when you watch their action scenes. Aside from that we have series regulars Laurence Fishburn, the recently deceased Lance Reddick and, of
course, the magisterial Ian McShane. Toss in a giant international cast as well as Clancy Brown and a barely recognizable Scott Adkins and you really have something. By the way, Adkins not only makes
action movies, he loves them so much that he has an entire YouTube channel where he interviews other action stars, often ones from a previous era. And these are in-depth interviews; Adkins clearly really
knows this stuff.
Anyway, four stars for John Wick 4, especially for what you want out of it.
Then there’s My Neighbor Totoro. What can I saw about this movie that hasn’t been said before? It’s as magical of a movie as you’ll ever see, and in terms of the animation, as gorgeous of a movie as you’ll
ever see. Fathom will be running monthly showings of the films of Hayao Miyazaki all through 2023.* Even better for me, I’ve seen like three of them (including Totoro). So I will get to experience many of them on the big screen for the first time, as they should be.
(*Actually, the April feature is the Japanese musical stage adaption of Spirited Away, the film of which is also playing in October. The stage play ran with two different casts, and each cast’s version and a
different lead actress, will be played in theaters, for one day anyway. Both will be in subtitled Japanese, for obvious reasons. As a stage musical this will be three hours long, but I’m pretty interested in seeing how well they adapt the film.)
Anyway, you could do far worse this year in cinemas then going to see Ponyo, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Naussica of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoko, Porco Rosso, The Wind Rises,
Howl’s Moving Castle, or, of course, Spirted Away. Even if you go see (ugh) the dubs.
Don’t go see the dubs, though.
