Sky Captain

My desktop image is a scene from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. The movie came out almost five years ago and I've watched it several times on DVD since then. While it's not the greatest movie EVER, it is uniquely appealing to me for several reasons.

For one, like Sin City, it's filmed entirely in front of a green screen. Only the actors are not CGI or otherwise processed. I need to do my homework on the movie to learn more of it's production story...I only know that the effect is dazzling. It resembles the 50's movies and pulp sci-fi it was patterned after. Stunning. The film is set somewhere around the 1930's, I think from the wardrobe and other clues (The wizard of oz was playing in Radio City Music Hall, and it came out in something like '39 or '40.)

I also like the film for it's something of a sci-fi adventure, featuring War of the Worlds robots, air planes that can also become submarines, mutated creations of a mad scientist, a giant rocket ship designed to serve as the Ark for a new era....you get the idea.

The cast is good, too. Angelina Jolie (in a minor role by any one else's measure, but to me even a cameo of hers MATTERS) is the captain of a fleet of British fortresses floating in the heavens. As Captain Francesca "Frankie" Cook, she is in command of an amphibious squadron. Gwyneth Paltrow plays Pollie Perkins, the Lois Lane-type reporter who's breaking the biggest story ever told. Both women have been involved with Jude Law's character, Joe "Sky Captain" Sullivan. This provides just enough of a love triangle to justify keeping both these beautiful women in play. Cook wears an eye patch and is just too butch. Perkins is too perky and just a little too blonde to be credible.

Lastly, I have a collection of 10 movies that matter to me. I cannot really put this one down, just for the eyecandy effects and period setting. It's pulpy, campy, and not likely to ever see a sequel, but it's just one of those movies!