Archives for the Month of April 2007 on media addict
Zelda, Hitchcock, Lynch
Though I normally take a long time to play through video games, I have been making relatively quick progress through Zelda: Twilight Princess. Based on reviews I have read about the game I think I am roughly half-way through the game. So far it has lived up to much of the hype of being a bigger version of the series' most popular installment The Ocarina of Time.
Recently I have watched several Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch movies and I realized a few similarities with the Legend of Zelda series of video games. Many Hitchcock films have similar plot lines, without being repetitive, of the regular person being mistaken for someone else and being thrust into extraordinary circumstances. In the same way Lynch uses the same dual worlds theme in many of his films. Both Hitchcock and Lynch perfected these themes over their careers and made more and more complex versions of what is at its most basic level the same film. This is the same as the Legend of Zelda series of games from Nintendo. By taking the same basic mythology and game structure and modifying the items and dungeon design Nintendo has gradually perfected it's flagship series.
As an example, Ocarina of Time has the child and adult worlds and Twilight Princess has the twilight and light worlds. Hitchcock made The Man Who Knew Too Much and North By Northwest (among others with similar themes) both with average Joes becoming swept up in sinister plots. Lynch's Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire are very similar in concept if not in execution.
I'm sure this comparison could be made with many video game series (Metroid comes to mind), but I think it applies best to Zelda since they are very cinematic games by nature.
Grindhouse
I saw Grindhouse on Friday and I have to say it is the best movie I have seen in months. From the first fake trailer to the end credits, Grindhouse is different from anything else in theaters. The first feature, Planet Terror, is just the kind of crazy over-the-top action, horror, suspense, comedy that it should be. The second segment, Death Proof, is what we would expect from Tarantino; lots of interesting dialog punctuated with violence. The fake trailers are also excellent; especially Machete which looks like a genuine Grindhouse film and Thanksgiving which hits all the right points for a mock horror film.
The music for both features is also amazing. Planet Terror is scored by director Robert Rodriguez and it kicks ass (especially the main credits theme of raunchy, bluesy, rock). Death Proof makes use of a lot of fantastic retro tunes (like all Tarantino films) and does not disappoint.
I have seen other reviewers criticize Death Proof for having too much dialog and not enough action, but I think that is only evident since Planet Terror comes first and is almost entirely action. Taken by itself Death Proof is just on a different speed than Planet Terror, but no less potent. Planet Terror is Rodriguez's version of a Grindhouse film while Death Proof is more of a Tarantino film with homage's to Grindhouse pictures. That said I think that Death Proof is by far the better of the two films. It earns its suspense and has some fantastic character exchanges with a great payoff at the end. 4.5/5