Archive for August, 2008
08-24-2008
Blah blah blah
As I approach my 40th birthday, I’ve been reflecting on the past year a lot. I have to say that my life has been something of a shitstorm, starting with the departure of one of my best friends for Texas last summer.
I sometimes feel like I’m on a treadmill, running as fast as I can to keep things positive. Every step forward is met with one back. While talking with someone earlier today, my analogy was with a merry-go-round, spinning quickly while the horses go up and down - peaks and valleys.
Part of my struggles relate to friendship. Several other friends have moved on, and while we are still friends the nature of the friendship obviously changes with distance.
40 does seem to be a traumatic age for women in particular. My favorite scene in “Knocked Up,” a movie I liked almost in spite of its somewhat sexist approach, was where Debbie was talking about how she and her husband aged differently and ruminating on how age affects women.
I can’t say I’m completely excited about turning 40. I mean, it’s the halfway point of life in many ways.
Even so, things look up in some ways. Guess I’ll go get back on that treadmill again.
Posted by Candace in Rants | 1 Comment »
08-23-2008
Hellboy 2
So, in an act of semi-desperation, ie get me out of the apartment, I went to see “Hellboy 2.” That and “Sex and the City” are at this point the only two big movies of the summer I haven’t seen. Now “Sex” reigns alone in that category. I was going to see that with a friend, but when she moved to Chicago for her residency, it fell by the wayside, especially since I’ve never really watched the TV show.
OK, on to “Hellboy.” I saw the first one in the theaters and enjoyed it. It was a little weird, but just sort of dark enough with enough humor that anyone could really enjoy it. Also, quite frankly, Selma Blair is the bomb. I watched “Feast of Love” just to see her play the lesbian softball player. OK, I know it’s cliche, but I couldn’t resist.
“Hellboy 2″ finds our demon-hero being outed by the press when he crashes through a window while on assignment for whatever supernatural agency he works for. I know the agency is named, but it in the long run doesn’t seem to matter so much, because what “Hellboy” is about is alienation.
Our hero, and his girlfriend Liz and fellow agent Abe, are, depending on your viewpoint, gifted or dangerous. There is a fantastic scene in the movie where Hellboy rescues a baby who is danger of being killed by an elemental. Hellboy keeps the baby close while doing battle with the elemental and debating whether or not to kill it, since it doesn’t seem to Hellboy that it is dangerous.
After Hellboy reunites the babe with its mom, instead of being showered with adoration, he is greeted with fear and revulsion, even by the mom of the rescued baby. Liz comes to Hellboy’s defense, saying “He’s only trying to help; that’s all we ever try to do.” Yet you can see that the crowd, while perhaps appreciating Hellboy’s heroics, are not ready to accept him.
The whole scene reminded me of a line from one of my favorite book series, the Kim Harrison Hollows series, where Ivy tells Rachel that she can find redemption among her strength-crippled kin, because regular people, even Inderlanders, will always fear her because of her strength.
That strikes me as a perfect allegory for life. It may not necessarily be strength, but there is always something it seems that makes people feel apart, and this is a theme that “Hellboy 2″ explores well.
The rest of the movie is a standard fantasy-action picture. It’s interesting to see the elves portrayed as more complex, darker than the goody-two-shoes version in Tolkien’s universe. Elves seem to attract a variety of portrayals, from those who show them as evil baby-snatchers to those, like Tolkien and Gael Baudino, who show them as saints. I’ve always felt it should be more in between, and in “Hellboy 2,” you have the elves in full-blown civil war, fighting over their destiny and, by extension, the destiny of humanity and the earth.
Of course, this being a movie based on a comic book, our hero and his fellows will be involved in the denouement, and it is handled well, even if the CGI is at times a little too over the top and distracting as a result.
Still, “Hellboy 2,” much like its predecessor, is a fun romp, and worth a trip to the theater.
Posted by Candace in Movies | No Comments »