Average Jane

"Frankenweenie" Review: Tim Burton Makes Average Jane Cry

Because I blog about my pets, I was invited to a free sneak preview of Frankenweenie. I didn't hesitate for an instant before I accepted because I'd been waiting for a full-length version ever since I saw the short in 1984 at a science fiction convention.

When my husband and I arrived at the theater last night, I was a little concerned when I saw that they were handing out 3-D glasses. My last 3-D experience was pretty miserable, but I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

I will eliminate any suspense about the viewing experience right now: the 3-D was spectacular. I don't have much to compare it with, but I'd say that stop-motion seems particularly well suited for 3-D and the fact that the movie is in black and white seemed to add to the effect.

One of the coolest things about "Frankenweenie" is that it's filled with overt references to classic black and white horror films. The main character's name is Victor Frankenstein and his classmates look very familiar from the Universal Pictures and Hammer Films canon and they even range into Godzilla movie territory.

The story is about a boy who is inspired by his science teacher (a dead ringer for Vincent Price) to try to reanimate his beloved dead dog, Sparky, Frankenstein's monster style. Even knowing that from the beginning, it's still heartbreaking when poor Sparky meets his initial demise and darned if the poignant moments don't continue throughout the movie. I'm pretty sure every single person in the audience was sniffling and dabbing his or her eyes on the way out of the theater. I know I was and so was my husband.

So obviously the movie has tons of heart and I can forgive it for making most of the "science" a lot more magical than real-life science. The characters are really well rendered, both in their animation and in the voice characterizations. Sparky's animation was particularly convincing—his mannerisms and movements were perfectly doglike. 

I really loved the movie and I would see it again and probably buy the DVD to add to my Halloween movie collection alongside "The Nightmare Before Christmas."

Now I'm going to go hug my own pointy-snouted dog.

Average Jane and Bad Movies

I saw on The Onion AV Club blog that movie review site Rotten Tomatoes has published a list of the 100 worst films of the last ten years. These days I'm busy enough that I don't get out to the movies much, so I'd managed to avoid almost every movie on the list. The four that I did see, I saw on video or DVD. But here's the thing: I didn't think they were that bad.

• The Adventures of Pluto Nash - Sure, it's not Eddie Murphy's best movie, but I didn't think it was the crashing disaster that it's made out to be. I like science fiction and I like comedy - it's both.
• Corky Romano - "Question? No. Question? No. Question? No. I should buy a boat!" It isn't a comic masterpiece, but it was definitely good for some laughs.
• Dirty Love - I have seen this movie a half-dozen times and I love it without reservation. It's definitely a girl movie, though, so if the Rotten Tomatoes reviewers are mostly guys, that's probably why they didn't like it. 
• The Whole Ten Yards - Okay, not exactly a timeless classic, but certainly entertaining enough. I'll agree that Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry weren't overly exerting themselves for this particular paycheck, but it had its moments. 

How many of the movies on the list have you seen? Were they as bad as all that?

Average Jane Gets A Sneak Peek

Last night I enjoyed one of the perks of being a blogger: an invitation-only advance look at the newly-renovated AMC Mainstreet movie theater up the street from my office.

I've been watching the renovation process with interest the entire time I've worked in downtown Kansas City. I could see the green dome from the Kansas City Power & Light Building where I worked at my last job. At the time, it was a popular gathering place for pigeons, which made it just as poop-bedecked as you'd imagine. Back then there were also trees growing on the roof.

Now it's beautiful outside and inside. Here are some photos of the theater throughout its history. The main photo on this post is by Eric Bowers, whose blog I've enjoyed for a long time.

I met up after work with a big group of bloggers and Twitterers, most of whom I already knew through either the Kansas City Bloggers group or the KC Social Media Club.

During the tour, we learned that it was originally built in 1921 as a vaudeville theater. Eventually it became a movie theater, and it remained open until 1985. I'm a lifelong Kansas City area resident, but I'd never been there and I have no memory of it being open or advertising movie showings in the paper. I guess we lived too far south for it to have registered.

I made the mistake of failing to check my camera batteries before I went, so the only photo I got is from my phone. It shows the "backstage" of the new theaters built within the brick shell that still contains the risers and spotlight platform from the original vaudeville auditorium.

After our tour, which included a look at the huge server room and one of the projection rooms for the all-digital theater, we got to see The Brothers Bloom in one of the Cinema Suites theaters. The movie choice was a pleasant surprise given that we'd been told we were going to see Valkyrie.

They'd given us a few appetizers, but I was hungry for dinner and ordered the mac n' cheese during the movie. It was tasty, but I wouldn't order it again because it was very difficult to maneuver in the dark and I dropped pieces on my shirt several times.

The Cinema Suites lounge chairs were very comfortable and it was great to be able to put my feet up for the whole show. They even have transducers in them that make them shake when there's some particularly low-frequency sound onscreen (explosions, trains going by, etc.). Pretty cool.

I haven't even mentioned that there's a restaurant inside the theater, as well as a huge wall of concession stand drink options, popcorn toppings and condiments. They have beer on tap and a coffee bar, too.

So that was my evening last night. Special thanks to Logtar and Bea for walking out with me and making sure I got to my car safely.

The theater doesn't open until May 1st, but I could definitely see myself going back (albeit probably for the less pricey regular theaters as opposed to the premium Cinema Suites experience). Thanks, @jpgardner, for setting up the tour and including me.

Average Jane's Unpopular Opinion

I heard that there is going to be a Wizard of Oz marathon on TV this weekend. Considering that I am an Oz fanatic, you'd think I'd be excited, but the truth is: I don't really like the movie all that much.

When I was growing up, I read every Oz book I could get my hands on. I have a hard-bound copy of "The Tin Woodman of Oz" that belonged to my grandfather when he was a young boy. I also still have all of my trade paperback-sized illustrated L. Frank Baum Oz books. I even read some of the Ruth Plumly Thompson Oz books, which I checked out of the Carnegie Library in Lake Andes, South Dakota when I was visiting my great-aunt in the summertime.

All of this Oz-mania meant that when I eventually saw the movie, I knew it was all wrong. According to the books I read and the accompanying John R. Neill illustrations:

• Dorothy should be about 9 or 10 years old
• She should have short, blonde hair
• The witch is supposed to have silver slippers, not ruby slippers

My childhood self could have gone on and on.

If all you've ever been exposed to is the movie, I highly recommend the books. You can get "The Complete Oz: Volume One and Volume Two" at Amazon.com for $19.95 each to read the stories, but I suggest buying the books individually in editions that have the original illustrations.

Any other Oz book fans out there? Movie fans? Let's talk Oz!

Average Jane's Tribute to Heath Ledger

Wow, what a shock about Heath Ledger dying at 28! Sounds like an overdose, too, which is even more unfortunate.

Here's my review of A Knight's Tale that I wrote in 2001. Heath was definitely the best thing about an otherwise weird movie.

R.I.P., Heath.

Average Jane Waits for 9:00 p.m.

That's when I have tickets to see "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." I'm all primed from re-reading the book and I just can't wait for the weekend.

Sure, I'll be a bit tired tomorrow, but it'll be worth it.

Will Average Jane Be Going to See "Nancy Drew"?

What do you think?

Average Jane, Font Geek

Last night I went to a screening of Helvetica. Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like: a documentary about the typeface. It was very interesting and entertaining and now I can't stop noticing every sans-serif typeface I see.

When I was in my 20s, I worked for many years at a company that sold custom-printed birth announcements and invitations. My job title was "editor" but we called ourselves by our real job description, "typesetters."

Obviously this was in the 1990s, so there was no physical typesetting involved. Actually, that's not quite true. When I first started we sent a certain number of orders away to have dies made for letterpress printing, but that went by the wayside fairly quickly.

We set people's baby announcements and invitations in a good variety of different fonts, always making the baby's name or event title larger and the RSVP line smaller and spacing between distinct portions of the message. There were lots of fancy fonts available: Murray Hill, Amazone, Park Avenue, Lydian, etc., but Helvetica was still a popular choice.

My desktop publishing skills have languished since then, but I still appreciate type design. The documentary featured a lot of people who either loved or hated Helvetica. I have to say I've never given it a lot of thought, but now that I've seen the movie, I appreciate it more than I did before.

If you're a font geek, I highly recommend that you seek out a screening of "Helvetica" or rent the DVD when it comes out this fall. The screening I attended was put on by our local AIGA chapter, so you may want to check with them to see if there's one coming to your area anytime soon.

Average Jane Goes on a Date

Just a quick post before I head out for coffee.

Last night my husband and I grabbed a quick dinner at Panera and went to see Grindhouse. Our reaction, in a word: AWESOME!

Both movies were equally good in different ways. The Robert Rodriguez movie "Planet Terror" was full of gross-out, pustulant zombie action and horror. Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof" was a lot talkier, but it got down to the action eventually and it was worth the wait.

I will say that it's a little difficult to settle down to a sound, dreamless sleep after you see it. Maybe it would be best viewed at a matinee.

I know the word is that the movie is tanking at the box office, but that's a shame. Anybody who likes action movies - particularly of the "women kicking ass" variety will enjoy the double feature.

Have you seen it yet? If so, what did you think?

Average Jane Goes to the Movies

Yes, another stinkin' meme. Until I get off my lazy butt and transfer my remodeling photos from my camera to my computer, I just don't have anything to talk about right now. I lifted this from kerrianne.org.

Movies I've Seen

(x) Rocky Horror Picture Show
( ) Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest
( ) Boondock Saints
( ) Fight Club
(x) Starsky and Hutch
(x) The Neverending Story
(x) Blazing Saddles
(x) Airplane
7

(x) The Princess Bride
(x) Anchorman
(x) Napoleon Dynamite
(x) The Labyrinth
( ) Saw 
( ) Saw II
( ) White Noise
(x) White Oleander
( ) Anger Management
( ) 50 First Dates
( ) The Princess Diaries
(x) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (not the whole thing, but I caught the end on cable)
7+6=13

(x) Scream
(x) Scream 2
( ) Scream 3
(x) Scary Movie
(x) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
(x) American Pie
(x) American Pie 2
(x) American Wedding 
( ) American Pie Band Camp
13+7=20

(x) Harry Potter 1
(x) Harry Potter 2
(x) Harry Potter 3
(x) Harry Potter 4 
(x) Resident Evil 1
( ) Resident Evil 2
(x) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
( ) The Village
(x) Lilo & Stitch
20+7=27

(x) Finding Nemo
(x) Finding Neverland
(x) Signs
(x) The Grinch
(x) Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original one) 
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
( ) Butterfly Effect 
(x) 13 Going on 30
(x) I, Robot
( ) Robots
27+7=34

(x) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story ("Nobody makes me bleed my own blood.")
(x) Universal Soldier
(x) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events 
(x) Along Came Polly
( ) Deep Impact
(x) Kingpin
(x) Never Been Kissed
(x) Meet The Parents
(x) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
(x) Joe Dirt
(x) King Kong
34+10=44

( ) A Cinderella Story
(x) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
(x) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
( ) Final Destination
( )Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
(x) Halloween
(x) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2 
( ) Surviving X-MAS
( ) Flubber
44+4=48

(x) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
(x) Practical Magic
(x) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
(x) Hellboy
( ) Secret Window  
( ) I Am Sam
(x) The Whole Nine Yards
(x) The Whole Ten Yards
48+6=54

( ) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child’s Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
(x) Ten Things I Hate About You
( ) Just Married
( ) Gothika
(x) Nightmare on Elm Street
(x) Sixteen Candles
( ) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
(x) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
54+4=58

(x) Bad Boys
(x) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number Slevin
(x) Ocean’s Eleven
( ) Ocean’s Twelve
(x) Bourne Identity
(x) Bourne Supremacy
( ) Lone Star
(x) Bedazzled
(x) Predator I
(x) Predator II
( ) The Fog
(x) Ice Age
(x) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
(x) Curious George
58+11=69

(x) Independence Day
(x) Cujo 
(x) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
(x) Christine
(x) ET
(x) Children of the Corn
( ) My Boss’s Daughter
( ) Maid in Manhattan
( ) War of the Worlds
(x) Rush Hour
(x) Rush Hour 2
69+8=77

( ) Best Bet
(x) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
( ) She’s All That
( ) Calendar Girls
(x) Sideways
(x) Mars Attacks
( ) Event Horizon
(x) Ever After
(x) Wizard of Oz
(x) Forrest Gump
(x) Big Trouble in Little China
(x) The Terminator
(x) The Terminator 2
( ) The Terminator 3
77+9=86

(x) X-Men
(x) X2
(x) X-3
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
(x) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
( ) Catch Me If You Can
(x) The Little Mermaid
(x) Freaky Friday
(x) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls
(x) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2 
(x) The Hot Chick
(x) Shrek
(x) Shrek 2
86+13=99

( ) Swimfan
( ) Miracle on 34th street
(x) Old School
( ) The Notebook
(x) K-Pax
( ) Krippendorf’s Tribe
( ) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
(x) The 40-Year-Old Virgin
99+3=102

(x) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
(x) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King
(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(x) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
102+6=108

(x) Baseketball
( ) Hostel
(x) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) The Devil's Rejects
(x) Elf
(x) Highlander  
( ) Mothman Prophecies
( ) American History X
( ) Three
108+4=112

(x) The Jacket
(x) Kung Fu Hustle
(x) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(x) Monsters Inc.
(x) Titanic
(x) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(x) Shaun Of the Dead 
( ) Willard
112+7=119

( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
( ) Hulk
( ) Dawn Of the Dead
(x) Hook
( ) Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
( ) 28 Days Later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
( ) Waterworld
119+1=120

(x) Kill Bill vol 1
(x) Kill Bill vol 2
(x) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
( ) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) The Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave, a.k.a. the Day of the Woman
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) The Ghost and the Darkness
120+3=123

(x) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(x) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(x) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(x) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks The Battle For Endor
123+6=129

(x) The Matrix
(x) The Matrix Reloaded
( ) The Matrix Revolutions (I finally gave up after the second one)
( ) Animatrix
(x) Evil Dead
(x) Evil Dead 2
(x) Army of Darkness
( ) Team America: World Police
( ) Red Dragon
(x) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal
129+6=135

Just so you know, I don't stand behind the math involved here, so it could be a little off. Still, I obviously see a lot of movies. Also, I refuse to be embarrassed by the extreme awfulness of some of the movies I've seen. You should know that sometimes I actively seek out movies for just that trait.

Is there anything I haven't seen that I should run out and rent right away?