{"id":1353,"date":"2006-12-12T11:19:00","date_gmt":"2006-12-12T19:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/2006\/12\/12\/doom-and-doomer\/"},"modified":"2006-12-12T11:19:00","modified_gmt":"2006-12-12T19:19:00","slug":"doom-and-doomer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/2006\/12\/12\/doom-and-doomer\/","title":{"rendered":"Doom and Doomer"},"content":{"rendered":"

I made the mistake of watching Doom<\/span> last night, the movie based on the video game… And ye gods, was it awful.<\/span> I mean, ever since I saw the trailer last year, I was expecting the worst, and still my expectations of badness were exceeded.<\/p>\n

Which is not to say there weren’t some good ideas buried beneath all the schlock. I appreciate that the screenwriters actually tried to do something interesting with the story, and that The Rock was willing to tweak his macho screen persona in the service of a few plot twists–but none of those evanescent gleams of creativity was enough to salvage the experience.<\/p>\n

To add insult to injury, the FPS sequence was an absolute joke. It was embarrassing to watch<\/span>. I’ve seen better sequences, with more tension, in amusement park rides–in Looney Tunes, for crying out loud!<\/p>\n

And then the third act turns into a bad kung fu movie. I’m not even kidding. Just stay away.<\/p>\n

Ever since Aliens<\/span>, people have been ripping off James Cameron’s kick-ass Space Marines in movies, TV, and video games–including, whaddyaknow, DOOM. It’s pretty clear that the filmmakers here didn’t understand anything about the game and why it became such a phenomenon. It wasn’t about team tactics or technobabble; it was about you, the player, fighting off hordes of inexplicable monsters all by yourself. Alone<\/span>, with limited weapons and resources, while dodging demons that throw fucking fireballs<\/span> at you.<\/p>\n

The movie attempts to recreate some of that ducking-through-the-corridors suspense, but it’s just not the same when you’ve got teams of two men moving in cover formation. And heavy metal. Did I mention the annoying heavy metal music, which is no substitute for the actual adrenaline rush of surprise?<\/p>\n

We shall speak of this no more. Some good<\/span> movies I’ve seen lately:<\/p>\n

The Holiday<\/span> – fluffy, inoffensive, enjoyably sentimental. Kate Winslet and Jack Black make a cute couple, and apparently Eli Wallach is now the go-to guy for Hollywood nostalgia.<\/p>\n

Stranger Than Fiction<\/span> – offbeat and friendly. Loved Emma Thompson, and was pleasantly surprised by Will Ferrell’s restraint. Not as remarkably mind-blowing as Being John Malkovich<\/span> or even Adaptation<\/span>, but arresting on a different level.<\/p>\n

Casino Royale<\/span> – as everyone says: liked Daniel Craig, thought the film was a bit long–especially what my wife called the “Harlequin romance” sequence in the middle. And Eva Green’s character, so promising when introduced, fizzles at the end.<\/p>\n

And on DVD:<\/p>\n

Crash<\/span> – good? Yes. Best Picture? Shrug.<\/p>\n

The Break-Up<\/span> – which I rented only because there’s a cappella<\/span> in it (including ex-Bob Gunnar Madsen and members of Chicago group Vocal Chaos). Otherwise, nothing special.<\/p>\n

House of Games<\/span> – David Mamet’s directorial debut. Good stuff, but I saw through the con from a mile away, and the dialogue was more stilted than usual–yes, even for him.<\/p>\n

D and I will do our traditional day-at-the-movies over the Xmas break, but first, we’ve still got the second season of House<\/span> to finish off…<\/p>\n

~CKL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I made the mistake of watching Doom last night, the movie based on the video game… And ye gods, was it awful. I mean, ever since I saw the trailer last year, I was expecting the worst, and still my…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1353\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}