I'm at home. Which means that I'm usually constantly hanging out with my family and such, without really doing much in the way of anything else (thus my excuse for neglecting this little page).

One of the things we did was watch Up. I wrote about it, way back in May... let me see if I can find it... OK, I found it but what I wrote sort of sucks... let me just recap what I thought for you. 1) The first 20 or so minutes were amazing, should have been extended into perhaps 45-50 minutes, with the rest of the film focusing on the pursuit to get to Paradise Falls or something like that. 2) There were too many "cute" characters and at some point I wanted to stab myself.

That last part is a bit of an exaggeration, but whatever. Watching it again, I'm still sort of thinking the same things: the first 20 or so minutes are sublime, and that exhilarating moment where Carl takes to the sky should have had a little more build up to make it more rewarding... and the cute characters are still a little annoying.

Strangely enough, I enjoyed the second half a lot more this time around, probably due to the fact that my expectations were lessened and the fact that it was standard perilous adventure didn't really matter as long as it was executed nicely. Still, I can't help but feeling that the first 20 minutes were so amazing that the fact it went into standard perilous adventure means that there was a large opportunity wasted.

OK, so the first 20 minutes is this: Carl and Elle meet, fall in love, spend the rest of their life together, dream of going to Paradise Falls, have life get in the way of that dream, and then Elle passes on. Carl is still around, cranky, and the world has moved by him as the rest of his neighborhood is being developed into commercial and business properties. The word I'm thinking of is bittersweet, never actually realizing the dreams you have but enjoying life nonetheless, and then when the world gets to be too much for you, you escape.

I really like the whole "guys in black suits trying to buy Carl's property" storyline, because it does nicely contrast with the fairytale-like romance that was his marriage and it gives a lot of weight to that desire for escape. The only problem is that it lasts for about 5 minutes before Carl goes up with his house in balloons. Which is OK, but you could have devoted so much more time to it that it pains me to think about it. I mean, I guess maybe they didn't want to hit people over the head with the fact that he seems to no longer fit in this society, but focusing more attention on how he's now out-of-place, how mundane and routine life has become for him and society, etc. would make the whole escape-by-balloon not seem as much as the doings of a crazy old man, but a much needed necessity. It isn't exactly given enough time to seem like a necessity.

After that, all the adventure and peril is OK and such, because it would then be apparent that it's a reaction against the monotony of life and a guy living out his dream and all that crap. But since the first 20 or so minutes was just 20 or so minutes, it comes off as just routine adventure... well done adventure, but adventure with lesser weight.

So maybe I don't exactly *love* the first twenty or so minutes, but I like the idea behind it, you know?

(Unrelated note: so apparently someone decided that they should send as little copies of Up as possible to local rental stores as to persuade more people into buying copies of the movie, a.k.a. more profit for Disney. It kind of sucks, because then everyone asks if we have copies, and I feel bad for not having any copies that my response is "uhh, we have copies for sale?" Then Ifeel guilty for contributing even more money into Disney.)