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More Movie Stuff
The nice thing about being between quarters is that I get to watch more movies. I've even upped my Netflix subscription to have more DVD's checked out at one time.
The Child and I went to see "National Treasure" again last Friday night, which was fun. I realized later that one of the reasons I am enjoying it is that even though the plot is implausible, the main characters are all smart people. It's a good movie for people who play Role Playing Games: a puzzle/quest with heroes with specialized talents, and the multiple challenges of the quest itself plus two levels of Non-Player Character ("not the heroes") opposition, each with its unique personality and motivations: the Bad Guys and the FBI. As someone who often gets frustrated with puzzles in game scenarios (I'm not very good at them), it was interesting to watch the various characters work out the clues. It helped that two of the primary PC's were specialists in the subject matter of the puzzles (scriptwriter on their side, of course), but that is also good scenario creation: crafting the challenges to fit the PCs. It was also interesting to watch how the screenwriter balanced the set-backs with new opportunities. The new opportunities come with a cost: escaping one set of opponents means making a deal with the other, for example -- but it's still forward motion, because the Other Guys also want the prize, also want to move forward. Good stuff from a meta-gaming perspective.
I watched two rental movies this past weekend too: "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" and "The Clearing" -- both of which were disappointments.
"Mandolin" stars Nicolas Cage, was directed by John Madden (who directed Best Picture winner "Shakespeare in Love" -- which is a favorite of mine) and has an Occupation-esque storyline, so I had high hopes for it. Unfortunately, it has Penelope Cruz in the central role, and she spends most of the movie looking like she was suffering a combination of semi-paralysis and heartburn. I don't know how much of the failure of the movie was due to the script, the direction, or the performances -- but the combination was deadly.
"The Clearing" stars Robert Redford as a self-made wealthy businessman kidnapped by disgruntled failure Willem Dafoe. Helen Mirren is the businessman's wife who is left to cope. All three of these people are capable of giving solid -- even fine -- performances. But it helps if they have a good script and good direction. Which they didn't. If I ran the universe, there would be a special hell reserved for directors who squander the talent and charisma of their actors. Both "Mandolin" and "Clearing" present themselves as serious dramas, movies to be taken seriously. But they are far less effective than National Treasure, which could have been a shamefully silly waste of time but instead takes full advantage of the strengths of its stars and the fast pace of the script, and at least delivers a good time in exchange for a viewer's money.
The other part of "The Clearing" that provoked me was the fact that both Redford's and Dafoe's characters completely bungled some of the primary rules of perilous encounters.
Rule 1: Do not turn your back on your prisoner and spend a full minute gazing out at the scenery unless the prisoner is securely bound hand and foot. And probably not even then.
Rule 2: If you have your hands around the throat of your enemy and he stops struggling and goes limp, do not assume he is incapacitated. Make sure he is dead or take other measures to make sure he is not going to get up again and come after you. If you fail to do either of those, do not remain in the immediate vicinity and turn your back on said enemy.
Rule 3: If a weapon has fallen during a struggle, find it and get control of it.
I don't know that if I were in the same situation I would do any better than those two -- but I would like to think that I would retain enough clarity of mind to not commit those particular mistakes.
The Child and I went to see "National Treasure" again last Friday night, which was fun. I realized later that one of the reasons I am enjoying it is that even though the plot is implausible, the main characters are all smart people. It's a good movie for people who play Role Playing Games: a puzzle/quest with heroes with specialized talents, and the multiple challenges of the quest itself plus two levels of Non-Player Character ("not the heroes") opposition, each with its unique personality and motivations: the Bad Guys and the FBI. As someone who often gets frustrated with puzzles in game scenarios (I'm not very good at them), it was interesting to watch the various characters work out the clues. It helped that two of the primary PC's were specialists in the subject matter of the puzzles (scriptwriter on their side, of course), but that is also good scenario creation: crafting the challenges to fit the PCs. It was also interesting to watch how the screenwriter balanced the set-backs with new opportunities. The new opportunities come with a cost: escaping one set of opponents means making a deal with the other, for example -- but it's still forward motion, because the Other Guys also want the prize, also want to move forward. Good stuff from a meta-gaming perspective.
I watched two rental movies this past weekend too: "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" and "The Clearing" -- both of which were disappointments.
"Mandolin" stars Nicolas Cage, was directed by John Madden (who directed Best Picture winner "Shakespeare in Love" -- which is a favorite of mine) and has an Occupation-esque storyline, so I had high hopes for it. Unfortunately, it has Penelope Cruz in the central role, and she spends most of the movie looking like she was suffering a combination of semi-paralysis and heartburn. I don't know how much of the failure of the movie was due to the script, the direction, or the performances -- but the combination was deadly.
"The Clearing" stars Robert Redford as a self-made wealthy businessman kidnapped by disgruntled failure Willem Dafoe. Helen Mirren is the businessman's wife who is left to cope. All three of these people are capable of giving solid -- even fine -- performances. But it helps if they have a good script and good direction. Which they didn't. If I ran the universe, there would be a special hell reserved for directors who squander the talent and charisma of their actors. Both "Mandolin" and "Clearing" present themselves as serious dramas, movies to be taken seriously. But they are far less effective than National Treasure, which could have been a shamefully silly waste of time but instead takes full advantage of the strengths of its stars and the fast pace of the script, and at least delivers a good time in exchange for a viewer's money.
The other part of "The Clearing" that provoked me was the fact that both Redford's and Dafoe's characters completely bungled some of the primary rules of perilous encounters.
Rule 1: Do not turn your back on your prisoner and spend a full minute gazing out at the scenery unless the prisoner is securely bound hand and foot. And probably not even then.
Rule 2: If you have your hands around the throat of your enemy and he stops struggling and goes limp, do not assume he is incapacitated. Make sure he is dead or take other measures to make sure he is not going to get up again and come after you. If you fail to do either of those, do not remain in the immediate vicinity and turn your back on said enemy.
Rule 3: If a weapon has fallen during a struggle, find it and get control of it.
I don't know that if I were in the same situation I would do any better than those two -- but I would like to think that I would retain enough clarity of mind to not commit those particular mistakes.
gamers and movies
Someone (heh!) ought to compile a list of movies for gamers...well crafted "heist" pictures with few obvious blunders.
My own current pet peeve is the spy genre, where I'm invariably caught between reality-brain (whispers in left ear "wouldn't it be easier just to have the Treasury freeze the bank account?") and gamer-brain (whispers in right ear "no, idiot, leave the plastique, keep the machine gun!"). It's distracting!
Re: gamers and movies