I saw "Flyboys." It was a'ight. I really like biplanes and triplanes, so WWI aircraft are cool to me. Used to build models, and even had a dogfight board game with little WWI planes where you had to maneuver to shoot down the enemy. Also had an (old) PC airwar game that has a WWI mode. Cheesy graphics, but neat planes.
Cinematography was excellent; real seat of your pants flying and roller coaster rides with some nasty effects. As in the custom of "Pearl Harbor" weaves a love story into it, between a Yank pilot and a french farmgirl who struck me as somewhat cross-eyed. Ends sadly, and actually the film has a sorta "Animal House" ending of "what became of them all." It's based on the Lafayette Escadrille volunteers to fly before the US got into the war officially. Also shows the insanity of trench warfare pretty well, where you were ok unless you attacked... Definitely would prefer to be on defense.
Oh, the pirate thing... Finally saw Pirates of the Caribbean Davy Jones Locker and other Monkees finale this weekend (the 3rd flick). Took two nights; dozed off the first night, and turned it off after about half an hour. Sat through it, the second. Criminy, it is a looooong movie. I mean, struck me as really no editing. Would just let a scene run on and on (mostly talking...). I never saw the 2nd film, but don't think I missed that much. Also struck me as Johnny Depp was not present for long stretches of the movie. It LOOKS really good; nice effects and all. But I just didn't seem much of a storyline and really didn't care about any of it/them. No real sense of "danger"... pretty much clear no one is gonna get killed who matters. Thought it funny Johnny and Dave are swordfighting up on a mast (and no sense it's particularly tough to balance up there). They go at it, and then film cuts away to a bunch of other altercations. Comes back in 15 minutes or so and yep, they're still there... Noticed numerous times something explodes to release a rope to send someone flying through the air... Nice trick, the first dozen or so times it was used. Pretty nonsenical "face off" of ships, with a bunch on each side but only 3 or 4 ever engaged. Bunch of crews standing around watching, and then turning around and leaving. Overall, not impressed. Best thing I found in it was some very clever dialogue and play on words, particularly Johnny D. Even the Tim Burton music sounded like outtakes from "Nightmare."
I don't remember dinner, so won't talk about that. If it was Friday there wasn't meat, so it didn't matter anyway.
Ace; carnivore.
I remember watching and enjoying Flyboys. As old war flicks go, it was pretty entertaining. My wife enjoyed it as well.
I haven't seen the second pirate flick, though. I think J. Depp is a fine actor, so I should take the time to watch it. But I too hate long, drawn out movies, which is why I tend to be shy of any movie staring Kevin Costner. Open Range being the exception.
Scuzzy; I do lots of things by the seat of my pants, except when I'm not wearing any.
You know, one thing that went through my mind on that third Pirates flick was that I could not imagine a child sitting through it... I'm surprised they didn't let the cameras roll during the lunch breaks.
Maybe it's because the first one really captured the mood and presented the characters and told the story and grabbed the genre by the neck and strangled it so well. There were more loop-de-loops in Flyboys.
Ace; "Waterworld" was its own sequel.