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Hot Fuzz!! ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dopshoppe!!! Tales from the Kennels!!!!
Lately I've felt kind of ho-hum about LJ. Like what's the point, like no one is interested anymore, like I have nothing to say anymore. Which isn't to suggest that this entry is going to change all that, however I DID just come from seeing Hot Fuzz with my new movie friend, dopshoppe, and I'm here to tell you she's every bit as awesome as you've heard.
Let's get that out of the way first.
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost together again. What's not to like? Their love is so pure and true. Simon is great as the single-minded, hyperintense, dedicated Sergeant Nicholas Angel. He's so intense that the few scenes where he relaxes and smiles a bit are like thin spears of sunshine on an overcast day. Nick is just as great as the lovable, misguided Danny, whose aspirations as a "policeman officer" reach no higher than the examples set by Point Break and Bad Boys II. All he's ever wanted to do is fire two (or even one) gun whilst leaping through the air, and lie on his back firing a pistol frustratedly into the sky while exclaiming, "Arrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!" a la Keanu Reeves. With the help of Angel, by the end of the movie he gets to do all these things.
This is what I love about this and Shaun of the Dead (and, now that I think about it, Spaced): Not a single joke is wasted, even if the payoff comes an hour later. And the symmetry, the repetition of shots in different contexts is very clever. It's hard to describe, I'm sure fans know what I'm talking about. One thing this movie could have used less of is the superfast closeup zippy shots, which were used to great effect in SotD but here are a little excessive in my opinion. And I'll also say that shooting high speed action sequences is definitely not Edgar Wright's strong suit. Still, asswankyfunk said, it was fun to count the number of Spaced alumni that popped up (well, there ARE only six comedic actors in all of England), and if the dialogue was obscured by thick accents at times, well, that's just more jokes to discover through multiple DVD viewings (I'm still hearing new lines in SotD after about 20 sittings).
**SPOILER*SPOILER*SPOILER** The plot was a bit less believable than SotD -- I find zombies much more plausible than a provincial cult of village elders willing to murder people just to preserve their "rustic aesthetic." One of the climaxes (there are three total) becomes every 12-year-old boy's masturbatory fantasy of violence and gunplay, but the boys look so happy doing it that who can criticize? It did make for a good story, great action, and more startling but surprisingly convincing gory scenes (think Shaun's girl in the garden pipe impalement to the fifth degree). And of course Simon and Nick. The slash practically writes itself.
To summarize: Simon + Nick + Edgar = TLA
~*~
I'm sorely disappointed in the![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
snarry_games this time around. I haven't read a single story so far that I feel is worth saving, and we're over halfway done. The ones that aren't painfully OOC end so abruptly just as they're becoming promising they feel like essay exams where "pencils down" has been called unexpectedly. One story had a plot twist so unlikely and nonsensical that when a reader asked the author for their rationale, they smugly responded, "I prefer to let you decide for yourself why (the character) did that." I've got news for you, love: that's not cleverness, that's laziness. Ugh. I've left so many low ratings I'm afraid of being banned from the community as a troll. And have asked myself more than once why I continue reading so determinedly. I think the interactive nature appeals to me.
The reason I mention Snarry is to mention Harry in general. Tery very thoughtfully got me a subscription to Entertainment Weekly. My first issue arrived last weekend just as I was heading into work. It had Jack Sparrow on the cover and, more importantly, a fairly interesting-looking article on Spiderman 3 (I'm one of exactly two people in the world (the other being Tery) who truly don't give a rat's ass about Pirates of the Caribbean). Which is all I can tell you about the issue because I was so tired by the end of my shift Saturday that I left it at the hospital. By Monday it had gone completely missing. SO not cool, stealing a sistah's Spidey mag.
After I pestered Tery no less than 10 times to go looking for it, she thought she'd assuage my loss by picking up a different magazine that cost $10, is all she would tell me. It turned out to be Movie Magic, predominantly Harry Potter but with smaller articles on Spidey and PotC. This, it turns out, is the film equivalent of Tiger Beat: big, glossy photos, 14pt font type, and such titillating quotes on the cover as "Daniel talks about The Kiss: 'People will come to the film to see it!'" I was appreciative, but gently explained that I haven't been enthralled by pictures alone since age 5. The last straw came when I read the caption on a picture discussing fan art that said, "One fan's version of Sirius and his brother Remus." (emphasis mine) !!!!! Apparently even $10 a pop isn't enough to keep a fact checker on staff. But I certainly don't hold Tery responsible for the shortcomings of the magazine, and she did subsequently get me another copy of EW, this one even better with Black Spidey on the cover.
~*~
Life stll plods on at the hospital. Last weekend I had a postop Golden Retriever that absolutely refused to use her legs, Sarah. It's times like these when it's damn inconvenient that the exercise yard is only accessible up a set of stairs. I gave it a miss on my first round, but Dr. K insisted I had to get her out so she didn't get urine on her surgical wound. So I was more determined come morning. "I promise you Sarah, as god is my witness, I WILL get you up those stairs," I said to the dog. Well, easier said than done. Sarah weighed 75 pounds so I tried "towel walking" her; you sling a towel around the belly and lift like a wheelbarrow. This technique only works if the dog can at least maneuver their front legs, which Sarah apparently could not. We got halfway up the steps before she just collapsed and refused to move another inch. Since hanging out on the steps simply wasn't an option, I tried hoisting her by the towel more aggressively. "Get up!! Get up damn you!! You've never given up on anything in your life!!" (I don't know why it amuses me to talk to the dogs in old movie clichés, it just does) I got her to the top of the stairs by lifting her hind legs up completely with the towel sling, and lifting her front legs with one of my feet -- something that wouldn't have been possible before the awesome power of the Bowflex, and I'm fairly sure would have been even less possible for the severely deconditioned full-time overnight woman even before her ankle surgery.
I shouldn't have bothered. She ended up not doing a damn thing in the yard except hunker down and become immobile again. It was just as strenuous getting her back down the stairs, where she suddenly leaped to her feet and took a few jaunty trots around the ward -- only to suddenly collapse and become unbudeagable again when I tried to get her back into her cage. I fucking hate dogs.
This weekend I had a 4-month-old chihuahua puppy. Awwww, so cute! you say. Except every time I left the room, and even sometimes when I was standing directly in front of her, she emitted this unearthly yowl that sounded alternately like a 6-year-old boy throwing a temper tantrum and a dying yeti. It was so unbelievable sounding that most of the time I couldn't help laughing, from the opposite end of the ward. Eventually however the iPod had to be employed in the interest of maintaining sanity.
And, like those awfulsnarry_games entries, I have no idea how to end this. Pencils down.
dopshoppe, and I'm here to tell you she's every bit as awesome as you've heard.Let's get that out of the way first.
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost together again. What's not to like? Their love is so pure and true. Simon is great as the single-minded, hyperintense, dedicated Sergeant Nicholas Angel. He's so intense that the few scenes where he relaxes and smiles a bit are like thin spears of sunshine on an overcast day. Nick is just as great as the lovable, misguided Danny, whose aspirations as a "policeman officer" reach no higher than the examples set by Point Break and Bad Boys II. All he's ever wanted to do is fire two (or even one) gun whilst leaping through the air, and lie on his back firing a pistol frustratedly into the sky while exclaiming, "Arrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!" a la Keanu Reeves. With the help of Angel, by the end of the movie he gets to do all these things.
This is what I love about this and Shaun of the Dead (and, now that I think about it, Spaced): Not a single joke is wasted, even if the payoff comes an hour later. And the symmetry, the repetition of shots in different contexts is very clever. It's hard to describe, I'm sure fans know what I'm talking about. One thing this movie could have used less of is the superfast closeup zippy shots, which were used to great effect in SotD but here are a little excessive in my opinion. And I'll also say that shooting high speed action sequences is definitely not Edgar Wright's strong suit. Still, as
swankyfunk said, it was fun to count the number of Spaced alumni that popped up (well, there ARE only six comedic actors in all of England), and if the dialogue was obscured by thick accents at times, well, that's just more jokes to discover through multiple DVD viewings (I'm still hearing new lines in SotD after about 20 sittings). **SPOILER*SPOILER*SPOILER** The plot was a bit less believable than SotD -- I find zombies much more plausible than a provincial cult of village elders willing to murder people just to preserve their "rustic aesthetic." One of the climaxes (there are three total) becomes every 12-year-old boy's masturbatory fantasy of violence and gunplay, but the boys look so happy doing it that who can criticize? It did make for a good story, great action, and more startling but surprisingly convincing gory scenes (think Shaun's girl in the garden pipe impalement to the fifth degree). And of course Simon and Nick. The slash practically writes itself.
To summarize: Simon + Nick + Edgar = TLA
~*~
I'm sorely disappointed in the
snarry_games this time around. I haven't read a single story so far that I feel is worth saving, and we're over halfway done. The ones that aren't painfully OOC end so abruptly just as they're becoming promising they feel like essay exams where "pencils down" has been called unexpectedly. One story had a plot twist so unlikely and nonsensical that when a reader asked the author for their rationale, they smugly responded, "I prefer to let you decide for yourself why (the character) did that." I've got news for you, love: that's not cleverness, that's laziness. Ugh. I've left so many low ratings I'm afraid of being banned from the community as a troll. And have asked myself more than once why I continue reading so determinedly. I think the interactive nature appeals to me.The reason I mention Snarry is to mention Harry in general. Tery very thoughtfully got me a subscription to Entertainment Weekly. My first issue arrived last weekend just as I was heading into work. It had Jack Sparrow on the cover and, more importantly, a fairly interesting-looking article on Spiderman 3 (I'm one of exactly two people in the world (the other being Tery) who truly don't give a rat's ass about Pirates of the Caribbean). Which is all I can tell you about the issue because I was so tired by the end of my shift Saturday that I left it at the hospital. By Monday it had gone completely missing. SO not cool, stealing a sistah's Spidey mag.
After I pestered Tery no less than 10 times to go looking for it, she thought she'd assuage my loss by picking up a different magazine that cost $10, is all she would tell me. It turned out to be Movie Magic, predominantly Harry Potter but with smaller articles on Spidey and PotC. This, it turns out, is the film equivalent of Tiger Beat: big, glossy photos, 14pt font type, and such titillating quotes on the cover as "Daniel talks about The Kiss: 'People will come to the film to see it!'" I was appreciative, but gently explained that I haven't been enthralled by pictures alone since age 5. The last straw came when I read the caption on a picture discussing fan art that said, "One fan's version of Sirius and his brother Remus." (emphasis mine) !!!!! Apparently even $10 a pop isn't enough to keep a fact checker on staff. But I certainly don't hold Tery responsible for the shortcomings of the magazine, and she did subsequently get me another copy of EW, this one even better with Black Spidey on the cover.
~*~
Life stll plods on at the hospital. Last weekend I had a postop Golden Retriever that absolutely refused to use her legs, Sarah. It's times like these when it's damn inconvenient that the exercise yard is only accessible up a set of stairs. I gave it a miss on my first round, but Dr. K insisted I had to get her out so she didn't get urine on her surgical wound. So I was more determined come morning. "I promise you Sarah, as god is my witness, I WILL get you up those stairs," I said to the dog. Well, easier said than done. Sarah weighed 75 pounds so I tried "towel walking" her; you sling a towel around the belly and lift like a wheelbarrow. This technique only works if the dog can at least maneuver their front legs, which Sarah apparently could not. We got halfway up the steps before she just collapsed and refused to move another inch. Since hanging out on the steps simply wasn't an option, I tried hoisting her by the towel more aggressively. "Get up!! Get up damn you!! You've never given up on anything in your life!!" (I don't know why it amuses me to talk to the dogs in old movie clichés, it just does) I got her to the top of the stairs by lifting her hind legs up completely with the towel sling, and lifting her front legs with one of my feet -- something that wouldn't have been possible before the awesome power of the Bowflex, and I'm fairly sure would have been even less possible for the severely deconditioned full-time overnight woman even before her ankle surgery.
I shouldn't have bothered. She ended up not doing a damn thing in the yard except hunker down and become immobile again. It was just as strenuous getting her back down the stairs, where she suddenly leaped to her feet and took a few jaunty trots around the ward -- only to suddenly collapse and become unbudeagable again when I tried to get her back into her cage. I fucking hate dogs.
This weekend I had a 4-month-old chihuahua puppy. Awwww, so cute! you say. Except every time I left the room, and even sometimes when I was standing directly in front of her, she emitted this unearthly yowl that sounded alternately like a 6-year-old boy throwing a temper tantrum and a dying yeti. It was so unbelievable sounding that most of the time I couldn't help laughing, from the opposite end of the ward. Eventually however the iPod had to be employed in the interest of maintaining sanity.
And, like those awful
snarry_games entries, I have no idea how to end this. Pencils down.