The Holtonian

The Dead Dawned, and I got Lost in Translation

So the crabbs came down for the weekend. But before their visit Roe dragged me out to see the Dawn of the Dead... and I can honestly say it was crap. I saw two movies this weekend this one, which the more and more i think about it, the more and more I think its dumb and was a waste of time and money. Though look in the Pulse for a review I sort of wrote, though as Mesh pointed out it wasn't really a review as I didn't say what I liked about the movie, though i thought my sarcastic comments said enough.

The other movie I saw this weekend was Lost in Translation. My initial opinion after the movie was over, "that sucked." I really didn't like it but after digesting the movie over and over again the more I realize there is at least some good substance to the movie. It was one of those movies you see and at first glance think, "Wow that was boring." But the more I disected it the more I saw what was there. To bottom line it: The movie was good, in the sense of themes, ideas, and characters and the cinematography was amazinig, that was something I realized right away. However the movie's story is really slow and boring. I think the movie really has a lot to offer as far as describing loneliness and the search for meaning in life, however the way these ideas are brought to the screen I felt like I was waiting for some amazing thing to happen and it never did. The one part in the movie where it felt like something was finally happening was when the two characters go out on the town to Karoke bars and what not but it was hard to follow and understand. That would be one major critque i thought at times there wasn't enough insight into what the characters were thinking, a lot of quiet reflection time. In a lot of ways it was like looking at beautiful painting but not having any sort of guidance of what to think about it. I think Sophia Copola tried to use the camera to convey the ideas in her characters heads however at times I don't think she did the best job. I dunno know, maybe I just needed some more dialogue to cue me in on what the heck was happening. I think a narrator wouldn't have been too bad, maybe that cowboy guy from the Big Lebowski, he was cool. "I know I feel a lot better knowing the dude is out there..."

Well i expect now I'll be slammed by the indies, the hipsters dufusses, and all the artsy fartsy people for not being smart enough to get Lost in the Translation.

Here's my impersonation of a person who thinks Lost in Translation was the best movie ever but doesn't know why and thinks I'm stupid for not thinking so....

"Man you just don't get it man. Man its like man you need to get Lost... and then you will find the translation. Like these people in the movie are lost, and they don't have their translators so they're like lost in the translation man. So they search Tokyo for the translation and get lost in themselves because they don't have the translation."

As the people who took french in 2nd grade and don't remember anything they learned say, "Say la vee."

I played some horrendous golf this weekend as well with the crabbanator, we stopped keeping score if thats any indication of how bad we played. Crabb did ok on the first nine, I didn't... I think my swing was lost in translation. I also got pretty sunburn. We had a good time with the Crabbs, though we think if we lived in the same town with them that our wives would insesintly shop and Crabb and I would have to get jobs at Taco bell to support their shopping sprees.