Screening Log

This new site feature is a collective effort to summarize our viewing habits. Occasionally, you will find titles here that are coming to a theater near you, in addition to films viewed on television, and even films viewed in piecemeal. The screening log is archived each month; to view past entries select a month in the menu below.


January 2005 activity

Total Log Entries: 58

Total Comments: 19


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Spider-Man 2 / USA / 2004

Spider-Man 2 possesses action, drama, multiple climaxes, and a main character that’s designed to be easily relatable, so is it warranted for me to say that my favorite scenes in this film (as well as its prequel) include the manipulative publisher? J. Jonah Jameson, publisher of The Daily Bugle, invents headlines to promote Spider-Man’s nonexistent menace—which, from what I gather, are never really effective at instilling caution in his readership. In other words, he does not singularly motivate Peter Parker’s abandon of his “great responsibility.” Merely, he’s like a fly you can’t get rid of: in this film, a constant entertainment.

The action setpieces are expectedly amazing, but, as in most every other film in which a large portion of the budget is devoted solely to computer effects, are also somewhat vacuous. Seeing the penultimate battle on the top of a subway car, for one, I’m irked by the invention of an elevated train in the middle of an otherwise well-rendered New York setting.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Columbia Tristar DVD
15 Jan 2005 1:45 PM | Comments (1)


Comments / 1 total / Submit Comment

  1. Eva Michelle / 24 January 2005 / 7:49 PM

    I would agree it is completely warranted. Jameson provides an element of whimsy that I would say the movie generally lacks. While fun, some of the wooden acting (ahem, Maguire, Franco and Dunst) isn’t helped by the heavy-handedness of the themes (such as betrayal, responsibility to one’s self vs. the world at large). All in all, I left this sequel with mixed feelings.

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