A bit late for the July 4th celebration (totally Netflix’s fault), I finally saw the film Independence Day. This is one of those popcorn movies that I don’t generally like all that much, but I figured I’d give it a shot and I’m glad I did. There’s plenty wrong with the movie, but there’s plenty right about it too.

Independence Day, for those who haven’t seen it, is the story of aliens coming to Earth bent on destruction and how we (led by the Americans, of course) defeated them. There’s barely more to the plot, but that’s the gist of it.

This is one of those times when I really think the director (Roland Emmerich in this case) made a pretty good movie in spite of himself. ¹ What I mean is that the faults were pretty outstanding. So many of the characters were just paper-thin caricatures, so many story points depended on unbelievable coincidence that I found my eyebrow furrowing in derision pretty often. And there were so many ham-fisted performances!

Harvey Fierstein’s endless prancing across the screen, Brent Spiner’s “Look how wacky I am!” mad scientist, Randy Quaid acting drunk (poorly) for most of the movie, Bill Pullman talking all gravely voiced for no good reason, Judd Hirsch being the stereotype Jew, James Rebhorn as the mustache twisting Secretary of Defense, Jeff Goldblum as the smartypants recycling guy… The list goes on and on.

Don’t get me wrong, the positives outweigh the negatives in this case. I was actually impressed with most of the CGI. It’s almost revolutionary for its day. I appreciated that we didn’t actually see the aliens for quite some time, helping to build the tension until we finally did see them. While the bringing together of the different players was a bit clumsy, once they were assembled it seemed to work. And the final battle was laid out pretty well.

Some of the actors did a pretty good job in spite of their direction. Will Smith brought his A-game, and was one of the more three-dimensional characters, stripper girlfriend or no stripper girlfriend. Jeff Goldblum turned in a (I can’t believe I’m typing this) decent performance in the last hour of the movie. In fact, one of the highlights for me was Smith and Goldblum’s scene in the alien craft. Their interaction was believable, their individual reactions to space travel were distinct and honest to the characters.

So what sets Independence Day apart from other popcorn action flicks like [cref 338]? Why is this one good when that one (for example) was so very bad, especially since they have so much in common? The only answers I can come up with are that the actors elevated the project, and while both were studio-driven, Independence Day seemed a little less conscious of it.

All in all, a good movie. A little on the long side, a bit brainless for my usual tastes, but I can overlook its faults and understand why it was such a blockbuster in its day. I’m not sure if I’d see it again, but it would be interesting to see it in a full theater.

¹ A quick look at his filmography bears that out. Since 1996, Emmerich has made 1998’s Godzilla, The Patriot, The Day After Tomorrow, and 10,000 BC. Hardly a winning lineup. ⇧

I rarely see a movie in the theater. Now that DVDs are released so soon after the film’s premiere, I have even less reason to go spend $20 at a theater. But when I saw the first ad for WALL•E, I knew this was one I’d have to see on the big screen. So after hearing raves from several friends, I decided to catch a late Saturday showing.

Oh. Man. Am I ever glad I didn’t wait.

The first 20-30 minutes are dialogue-free, as WALL•E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) goes about his lonesome daily routine, collecting and compacting trash, keeping interesting relics for the home he makes with his trusty cockroach sidekick. Director Andrew Stanton and his production team from Pixar spent a lot of time and energy getting the pantomime just right. The result is magical.

When a spaceship lands with EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), WALL•E immediately falls in love, while EVE remains focused on her mission. Through a long series of events that I shan’t spoil here, EVE and WALL•E wind up on the humans’ spaceship, where they quickly become outlaws for reasons that (again) I’ll leave for you to find out at the theater. Just trust me that it’s great, okay?

Need proof? Okay, see that picture up there?  It’s the future and there are both capes and robots! And Fred Freaking Willard appears as the CEO of Buy N Large, the Wal-Mart-esque super-mega-corp, second only to Try N Save in fake store naming! Also, taco shakes for dinner, which I’m not entirely convinced would be such a great thing.

WALL•E has action, it has humor, it has drama (seriously, bring the tissues), but more importantly, it has a heart. Two songs from musical Hello, Dolly! (“Put on Your Sunday Clothes” and “It Only Takes a Moment”) are crucial to the development of the plot. Kudos to  20th Century Fox for allowing Pixar/Disney to use clips of the film. WALL•E wouldn’t be the same without it. Count on a resurgence of interest in the nearly 40-year-old film! (An added bonus: Jerry Herman, the lyricist who wrote both songs is in love with WALL•E, saying “What a wonderful use — to show a desolate world contrasted with the joy of those lyrics.”)

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Pixar feature without a Pixar short. They’re always great but this one outdoes even Lifted, my previous favorite that shipped with Ratatouille. Presto is a dialogue-free piece of genius about a rabbit and the magician who forgot to feed him before going on stage. Big mistake. What follows is a wildly imaginative series of magic-induced punishments that left the audience in my theater laughing in the aisles. It’s hysterical, on par with Chuck Jones’s Wabbit Season/Duck Season shorts from the 1950s. (Presto is now available on iTunes.)

There’s talk of WALL•E being submitted in the Best Picture category rather than Best Animated for this year’s Academy Awards, and I think that would be a smart move. Take my word for it. WALL•E is the real deal.

I mentioned phenomenal singer/songwriter Andrew Peterson last week, and I still heartily recommend his music. But today I look at another project of Peterson’s, his new fantasy children’s/young adult novel On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. (Click this link for an excerpt provided by the publisher.)

Janner, Tink, and Leeli Igiby are three siblings in a little town in the middle of nowhere. Janner, just turned 12, aches to travel the world beyond the Glipwood Forest that looms above the Dark Sea of Darkness. As the annual Dragon Day (one of the few days of freedom since losing the war with Gnag the Nameless and the Fangs of Dang) approaches, Janner becomes increasingly frustrated by being forced to take care of his brother and sister.

I’ve read that On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness started as bedtime stories for Peterson’s children, and the whimsy in his storytelling shows evidence of that. The book is full of little details that almost had to have come from questions from a little kid during a telling of the story. Many times, he tucks the details and side-jokes away in footnotes, including one of my favorites, explaining the definition of “THAGS”:

Three Honored and Great Subjects: Word, Form, and Song. Some silly people believe that there’s a fourth Honored and Great Subject, but those mathematicians are woefully mistaken.

But Andrew Peterson doesn’t stop at humor; he’s made sure the book has a heart as well. The mysterious absence of Janner’s father only heightens his desire for something different. As he learns a few of the family’s (and the town’s) secrets, questions fill his head, questions that Peterson addresses with a rare sensitivity.

He looked down at the quill in his hand and remembered the feel of the sword he had swung in the weapons chamber. It had felt good, like he was no longer a powerless boy in a boring town but someone whose life could mean something, like his father’s had. All the tears that had gathered in him just moments ago changed into words, and he began to scratch them into his journal.

There’s so much I’m leaving out, so many other bits that flesh out the story and make it real. Things like the ongoing battle between Grandpa Podo (a retired pirate) and the thwaps in his totato patch, Peet the Sockman’s loose hold on reality, delicous recipes for maggotloaf, and the dangers of the Black Carriage that comes at night to take girls and boys to their doom.

One last bit of information and I’ll close. By a third of the way through, I thought I’d figured out all of the story’s twists. Some of you think you’ve figured out all of the twists just by reading what I’ve written here. But Peterson was two steps ahead of us, and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised when you read On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness.

Speaking of which, you can purchase the book, first of the Wingfeather Saga, by clicking here.

Dear TV’s AMERICA’S Neil Patrick Harris,

First of all, I love your work, though I realize as I type this that I’ve never seen How I Met Your Mother. One of the downfalls of not having cable/satellite, you know. I’m putting it on the top of my Netflix queue, I swear!

Anyway, I saw this awesome ad for Old Spice deodorant (left) in last week’s Entertainment Weekly, and realized that you’re a model of what an out gay man should be, especially at such a crucial time in our nation’s history.

Hotness aside (and that’s a big aside, my good man), you’re showing your generation and the next that being gay doesn’t mean that you can’t be happy. Closeted guys will and do find in you a hope that telling people who they really are doesn’t have to lead to the end of the world, that they don’t have to be relegated to the role of a stereotype. Out guys can see in you someone they can proudly claim as well. Newbies like me (eight months out!) can look to your example as one to follow as we navigate this strange new world of living in our own skin.

Just as importantly, your increasingly high profile in mainstream Hollywood gives The Straights (weirdos) someone to balance their image of The Gays. It’s nice to have a stable force when we keep getting news of Senators and other public figures getting caught in restroom stalls.

About a year and a half ago, Tom and Lorenzo from Project Rungay gave you some advice. Thanks for taking it, even if you never saw it.

Boys? A little advice. Please do NOT become activists. That’s not your job. Your job is to entertain us and thankfully, you seem to understand this for the most part. You want to help out the gays? Win an Emmy. Get yourself on the cover of TV Guide or People (for something other than your sexuality). Walk on the red carpet with your boyfriend. Be really good at what you do, avoid scandals or embarrassments, do your best to live a happy, out life and you will have accomplished more for the gay community than any speechmaking or marching you could do. Just be happy, fulfilled and successful (however you define those terms) and future actor fags and singer fags and entertainer fags will never even think of trying to lie about who they are and attempt to fool the public. Just be fabulous.

Good luck to you boys and once again, thank you.

Finally, um, if you, like, ever split up with David (GOD FORBID!!!), I’m, you know, available. I don’t have David’s perfect skin, or David’s boyish face with those dimples, or David’s gym-toned body (Wow, I’m terrible at this), or that Adam’s Apple you just want to give a good lick (Why am I still typing?!?), and I can’t cook worth a darn, but I have no problem being next in line.

No. Problem.

At all.

Yours in awkward but totally non-stalker admiration,
Matt

Ever been excited about an album release and have your expectations exceeded? It’s rare, but that’s what happened this week when Ben Shive, the newest member of The Square Peg Alliance, released his first solo album, The Ill-Tempered Klavier.

I’d heard of Ben Shive before, first as a lyricist with the song Canaan Bound, from Andrew Peterson’s 2003 album Love and Thunder. It’s a pretty great piece of music, and Shive has followed it up with lyrics like this excerpt from the song Nothing For The Ache from The Ill-Tempered Klavier.

And the world’s a pretty harlot
When you’re traveling alone
And a fool can see she’s looking
And a fool would take her home

Cause her love is so expensive
And her flattery is cheap
When you’ve gotten what you wanted
And you’re back out on the street
Then you’ll see

So yeah, I’m a fan of Ben Shive’s writing, but I had no idea that he was also a singer until recently. Over the last few years, I’ve seen his name attached to the records of singer/ songwriter/indie-types like the Andrew Peterson, Randall Goodgame, and Eric Peters in roles from producer to writer/arranger to keyboards/pianist. The man’s been busy, that’s for sure.

Shive is a piano player, the kind who brings other players to their knees. It’s been years (far too long) since I touched a piano, but man, Ben Shive can play like I could’ve only dreamed. Most of the album is piano driven, which leads us to my favorite song from the album, Out of Tune. Take a listen:

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I’ve been trying to pin down Shive’s style, and the best I can come up with is singer-songwriter/alternative/retro, or something like that. Whatever he is, it’s a unique and refreshing sound that I can’t get enough of.

Get in on the ground floor with this amazing multi-talented ‘new’ artist by downloading Ben Shive’s album The Ill-Tempered Klavier for the low, low price of $10, available exclusively (for now) at The Rabbit Room.