![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grrgoylWe may have found our Journeyman. Tery called me to excitedly report she'd seen him walking from his car to a building just beyond where I'd stopped hanging signs. She was running late so didn't stop to talk to him, but it was still sufficient proof that he wasn't a figment of our imagination. It's kind of funny how you can live so close to people and never meet them in this day and age. I'm sure the timing appealed to the cosmic sense of humor -- just yesterday we had agreed to give up on him and spent the gift card we had bought for him. Hahaha, Universe, that was a good one! But I hope you get tired of playing with me soon.
~*~
I recently saw two movies that I immediately bought online before the end credits had finished rolling. Unprecedented!
First was a movie I've wanted to see for a long time, but there just always seemed to be something else to rent instead;
Running with Scissors: Based on the memoirs of Augusten Burroughs, who deserves props at least for maintaining such a great sense of humor if even half the movie is true. The opening line is the perfect synopsis of this movie: "This is a story of how my mother left me, and how I left my mother." Young Augusten (Joe Brooks) has a crazy mother, Deidre (Annette Bening)....no, REALLY crazy. Her drive to achieve the fame and recognition for her poetry she feels she deserves is so intense and self-centered that it's turning her husband (Alec Baldwin) into an alcoholic and blinding her to her son's own natural talent. Her contempt for anyone else's creative efforts sucks all the fun out of the local poetry club meetings, where she reduces her fellow housewives to tears with her scathing criticism.
The Burroughs' home life becomes so volatile that it's a relief when they finally seek out a therapist, Dr. Finch (Brian Cox), until we realize that the doctor is almost as certifiable as his clients. His house is a bright fuschia nightmare with a front yard full of trash, he's more likely to adopt his patients than cure them, and he's got an unhealthy fixation with bowel movements. To Augusten's complete horror, his mother dumps him there to live, and eventually be officially adopted by the Finches.
Who are: Hope (Gwyneth Paltrow), a disturbed Jesus freak who makes decisions by pointing to random words in the Bible, and is convinced her cat talks to her, even from beyond the grave.
Neil (Joseph Fiennes), gay with homicidal and schizophrenic tendencies, who hooks up with Augusten despite a 20-year age difference (and who portrays their relationship fairly convincingly despite sharing hardly any actual physical contact).
Natalie, the only remotely normal one of the bunch, with a dream to go to school that's continually shattered by the doctor using her money for his own personal IRS difficulties.
Agnes, the doctor's wife. She's also relatively normal, apart from an appetite for dog kibble as a TV snack. She's just trying to hold the family together through her husband's increasing eccentricities and indiscretions.
It's hard to imagine a family being this dysfunctional, but harder still imagining someone surviving such an environment without going 'round the twist themselves. But the movie for the most part isn't about Augusten, it's about his mother, who with the help of heavy psychotropic medication plummets into a deteriorating spiral of depression and narcissism before Augusten breaks away and moves to New York, for the sake of his career and his own sanity. Not to justify her behavior, but according to events in the movie it seemed her life was terribly frustrating, always being one step behind her son: Augusten has a breakthrough where he says he feels he succeeds in getting in touch with his unconscious. Three or four scenes later, after one of her fugue states, Deidre announces the same happening to her. Augusten spends the night with Neil, confirming his suspicion of his homosexuality, only to come home to discover Deidre in flagrante delicto with one of her housewife friends. Poor Deidre always seems to be a day late and a dollar short. Ultimately we learn at the end that Augusten has become a recognized author (duh), while Deidre languishes in obscurity, estranged from him.
But it's Augusten's journey that allows us to end on a hopeful note. His goodbye to Agnes is 10 times more sorrowful than to Deidre, because she was 10 times the mother to him, and 1000 times more supportive of his career.
My initial impression of the movie, and why I enjoyed it so much, was because it played exactly like a Wes Anderson movie (including the carefully chosen, perfectly fitting period music). Some of the lines could have been written by Wes. A 10-year-old Augusten explains to his father why he boils and polishes his allowance ("I like shiny things"), who stares back in exhausted defeat and answers, "I really don't see myself in you at all." My favorite line is when Deidre casually says to Augusten, weeks after depositing him with her psychiatrist over his vehement protests, "You've been spending a lot of time at the Finches'," to which he cries indignantly, "Were there other options I wasn't aware of??"
But the connections, the connections. These are what excite me about watching lots of different movies. I never would have believed either Brian Cox or especially Gwyneth Paltrow could play crazy with any credibility if they hadn't both been in Wes Anderson movies (Rushmore and Royal Tenenbaums). It wasn't until halfway through my second viewing that it dawned on me that Gwyneth and Joseph Fiennes played the romantic leads in Shakespeare in Love. Making these connections cause a little thrill to pass through me, something that Tery doesn't understand at all, try as I might to make some kind of sports comparison for her.
She doesn't care in the slightest that this is the third Joseph Fiennes movie we own, the fourth Brian Cox, the fifth Gwyneth Paltrow (despite not being very big a fan), the fourth Alec Baldwin and the second Annette Bening. In fact, the more I tried playing this game with her, the more she feigned sudden hearing loss. Beeyatch.
From reading the reviews, I take it this movie wasn't very well liked. I don't care. 4 out of 5
The second movie I now love was even less well-received evidently, Stranger than Fiction. I was put off watching this any sooner by Ryan, who didn't care for it. Serves me right for letting other people's opinions dictate what I watch and what I don't.
Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) is an IRS agent with a highly structured life. Every day is the same rigid schedule: The exact same number of toothbrush strokes, the precise same amount of time to do his tie, the exact same number of steps to the bus stop, arriving at precisely the same time every day. He's not only tightly regimented, but also bland in the extreme: His walls, furniture and clothing are all a matching ecru. In other words, barely qualifying as alive.
Until the day he starts hearing a voice (Emma Thompson) narrating his dull routine. He does his best to ignore it until it mentions his "imminent death." Right about this time is when he starts auditing a vibrant baker named Ana (Maggie Gyllenhaal), tattooed, bubbly, energetic, with a complete disregard for the rules (she deliberately withholds 22% of her taxes to protest government spending on defense and corporate buy-outs). Harold falls for her immediately, although her feelings for him aren't quite so magnanimous.
He seeks out Dr. Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman), English professor, whose life is ruled by literature as surely as Harold's is by numbers. He tries to help by determining which stories Harold ISN'T the protagonist of, then tries to narrow down which author's narration he's hearing. He fails and tells Harold just to live the life he's always wanted. Believing his death to indeed be imminent, he sets to winning Ana's affection with a vengeance. He learns to play the guitar, a lifelong ambition. He stops counting toothbrush strokes and breaks free of the rut he's been caught in.
He discovers his narrator is an actual author named Karen Eiffel who is somehow writing about him. He tracks her down to convince her not to kill him. She's just as surprised to meet her protagonist as he is. The problem is, as stated by Hilbert after reading her draft, that her book is an artistic masterpiece and will make no sense at all if Harold doesn't die. Harold reads it and reluctantly is forced to agree. I won't say how it ends, preserve a tiny bit of mystery for you.
The movie raises an interesting question about existence. Which is more important, one man's life that will eventually end either way, or a great literary work that will endure for all time? Of course, in the movie the story as we hear it is hardly a masterpiece, is in fact more than a little trite, but that's not the point. What would you do if you had to die for the greater good, just as your own life was finally beginning?
Not to mention the subtle but unmistakable religious undertone of asking a man to knowingly face his own death.
Will Ferrell was unexpectedly good in this movie. He reminded me a little of when Jim Carrey first attempted drama. Not that there isn't any comedy here, but it's certainly markedly subdued from his usual work. Unfortunately this is what seems to have drawn the most complaining on the IMDb boards; people watched this expecting a Will Ferrell comedy, not all this stuff about death. Well, god forbid you watch something that makes you think.
Dustin Hoffman was of course also very good, if a little surreal seeing such an accomplished actor in the same room as Will Ferrell. You can almost detect a spark of awe in Farrell's eyes as well.
Emma Thompson's character is a little confusing. The fact that she's narrating a man's life at first creates the impression that she's God, a perception that isn't helped by the fact that when we first see her she's high above the street, looking down on mortals small as ants (turns out she's contemplating different ways to kill Harold, which she does through most of the movie); or that she lives in a nearly empty, all-white apartment that resembles more than a little Morgan Freeman's vacant office floor in Bruce Almighty. Some people on the message boards had this to say about Emma: "Who was that narrator lady? She was ANNOYING." If you don't know who Emma Thompson is, you have absolutely no business coming near a movie chatboard, in my opinion.
Shortly after we meet her, she meets Queen Latifah, an aide sent from the publisher to help her overcome her writer's block. The whiners on the boards protested that her character seemed to serve no purpose whatsoever. Of course she served a purpose, stupid people -- she was a sounding board so we could hear Eiffel's thoughts and writing process, otherwise it'd be damn boring watching a writer pace back and forth in silence hoping for inspiration.
People also complain that Ana's change of heart and sudden attraction to Harold are unbelievable (the turning point comes when he sings a tentative song he'd been practicing on the guitar to her and she jumps him in a fit of passion). I didn't find it unbelievable at all...I think there are few things sexier than someone singing, especially someone who isn't that sure of themselves and not that good, but heartfelt. At that moment, I fell in love with Will Ferrell a little too.
People also compared the movie to a Charlie Kaufman film (either "Kaufman lite" or "an inferior version of a Kaufman film") which I think is a terrible insult. Remember, I HATE Charlie Kaufman movies (or at least Charlie Kaufman endings). I suppose with the existential plot comparisons are inevitable, but this movie at least followed a logical line and had a satisfying (and non drug-induced) ending.
Name game for this movie: Second Will Ferrell movie we own, first Queen Latifah, third Maggie Gyllenhaal, fourth Dustin Hoffman, SIXTH Emma Thompson (the winner!!!)
I don't care what anyone says, for me this was also a 4 out of 5. I laughed, I cried, I fell in love. What more do you want from a movie?
One joker on the IMDb boards made the comment, "This is the worst movie ever created." This unleashed a shitstorm of responses, "Well, then you obviously haven't seen _________." When asked what his favorite movies were, his list included The Running Man, Total Recall 3 and Arnold Schwarzeneggar, demonstrating him to be willing to poke callous fun at other's tastes while keeping his own closely guarded.
Sure, he was an asshole, but it got me to thinking about what I would include in my top ten best and worst lists. I've decided to publish them here for the hell of it:
BEST (not in any significant order)
1. Brazil
2. The Fisher King
3. Fight Club
4. V for Vendetta
5. Amelie
6. Trainspotting
7. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
8. Rushmore
9. Moulin Rouge
10. Donnie Darko
WORST
1. Alien vs. Predator
2.Constantine Mission to Mars (thanks to JeffyJeff)
3. Open Water
4. Young Adam
5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (my vast apologies to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dopshoppe and kavieshana)
6. Tideland
7.Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves The Village (thanks to kavieshana)
8. Reign of Fire
9. All 3 Star Wars prequels
10. Second 2/3 of the Matrix trilogy (yes, these last two were cheating a bit)
Feel free to judge me based on these, because rest assured I'll do the same for yours. How about it? If you had only ten days left to live, which movies could you simply not bear to leave this plane of existence without watching one last time? Conversely, which ten would you rather gouge out your own eyes and ears than watch again? Obviously there are a lot of really crappy movies out there. My criteria was movies that I had a reasonable expectation of enjoying before they went very, very wrong.
~*~
I recently saw two movies that I immediately bought online before the end credits had finished rolling. Unprecedented!
First was a movie I've wanted to see for a long time, but there just always seemed to be something else to rent instead;
Running with Scissors: Based on the memoirs of Augusten Burroughs, who deserves props at least for maintaining such a great sense of humor if even half the movie is true. The opening line is the perfect synopsis of this movie: "This is a story of how my mother left me, and how I left my mother." Young Augusten (Joe Brooks) has a crazy mother, Deidre (Annette Bening)....no, REALLY crazy. Her drive to achieve the fame and recognition for her poetry she feels she deserves is so intense and self-centered that it's turning her husband (Alec Baldwin) into an alcoholic and blinding her to her son's own natural talent. Her contempt for anyone else's creative efforts sucks all the fun out of the local poetry club meetings, where she reduces her fellow housewives to tears with her scathing criticism.
The Burroughs' home life becomes so volatile that it's a relief when they finally seek out a therapist, Dr. Finch (Brian Cox), until we realize that the doctor is almost as certifiable as his clients. His house is a bright fuschia nightmare with a front yard full of trash, he's more likely to adopt his patients than cure them, and he's got an unhealthy fixation with bowel movements. To Augusten's complete horror, his mother dumps him there to live, and eventually be officially adopted by the Finches.
Who are: Hope (Gwyneth Paltrow), a disturbed Jesus freak who makes decisions by pointing to random words in the Bible, and is convinced her cat talks to her, even from beyond the grave.
Neil (Joseph Fiennes), gay with homicidal and schizophrenic tendencies, who hooks up with Augusten despite a 20-year age difference (and who portrays their relationship fairly convincingly despite sharing hardly any actual physical contact).
Natalie, the only remotely normal one of the bunch, with a dream to go to school that's continually shattered by the doctor using her money for his own personal IRS difficulties.
Agnes, the doctor's wife. She's also relatively normal, apart from an appetite for dog kibble as a TV snack. She's just trying to hold the family together through her husband's increasing eccentricities and indiscretions.
It's hard to imagine a family being this dysfunctional, but harder still imagining someone surviving such an environment without going 'round the twist themselves. But the movie for the most part isn't about Augusten, it's about his mother, who with the help of heavy psychotropic medication plummets into a deteriorating spiral of depression and narcissism before Augusten breaks away and moves to New York, for the sake of his career and his own sanity. Not to justify her behavior, but according to events in the movie it seemed her life was terribly frustrating, always being one step behind her son: Augusten has a breakthrough where he says he feels he succeeds in getting in touch with his unconscious. Three or four scenes later, after one of her fugue states, Deidre announces the same happening to her. Augusten spends the night with Neil, confirming his suspicion of his homosexuality, only to come home to discover Deidre in flagrante delicto with one of her housewife friends. Poor Deidre always seems to be a day late and a dollar short. Ultimately we learn at the end that Augusten has become a recognized author (duh), while Deidre languishes in obscurity, estranged from him.
But it's Augusten's journey that allows us to end on a hopeful note. His goodbye to Agnes is 10 times more sorrowful than to Deidre, because she was 10 times the mother to him, and 1000 times more supportive of his career.
My initial impression of the movie, and why I enjoyed it so much, was because it played exactly like a Wes Anderson movie (including the carefully chosen, perfectly fitting period music). Some of the lines could have been written by Wes. A 10-year-old Augusten explains to his father why he boils and polishes his allowance ("I like shiny things"), who stares back in exhausted defeat and answers, "I really don't see myself in you at all." My favorite line is when Deidre casually says to Augusten, weeks after depositing him with her psychiatrist over his vehement protests, "You've been spending a lot of time at the Finches'," to which he cries indignantly, "Were there other options I wasn't aware of??"
But the connections, the connections. These are what excite me about watching lots of different movies. I never would have believed either Brian Cox or especially Gwyneth Paltrow could play crazy with any credibility if they hadn't both been in Wes Anderson movies (Rushmore and Royal Tenenbaums). It wasn't until halfway through my second viewing that it dawned on me that Gwyneth and Joseph Fiennes played the romantic leads in Shakespeare in Love. Making these connections cause a little thrill to pass through me, something that Tery doesn't understand at all, try as I might to make some kind of sports comparison for her.
She doesn't care in the slightest that this is the third Joseph Fiennes movie we own, the fourth Brian Cox, the fifth Gwyneth Paltrow (despite not being very big a fan), the fourth Alec Baldwin and the second Annette Bening. In fact, the more I tried playing this game with her, the more she feigned sudden hearing loss. Beeyatch.
From reading the reviews, I take it this movie wasn't very well liked. I don't care. 4 out of 5
The second movie I now love was even less well-received evidently, Stranger than Fiction. I was put off watching this any sooner by Ryan, who didn't care for it. Serves me right for letting other people's opinions dictate what I watch and what I don't.
Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) is an IRS agent with a highly structured life. Every day is the same rigid schedule: The exact same number of toothbrush strokes, the precise same amount of time to do his tie, the exact same number of steps to the bus stop, arriving at precisely the same time every day. He's not only tightly regimented, but also bland in the extreme: His walls, furniture and clothing are all a matching ecru. In other words, barely qualifying as alive.
Until the day he starts hearing a voice (Emma Thompson) narrating his dull routine. He does his best to ignore it until it mentions his "imminent death." Right about this time is when he starts auditing a vibrant baker named Ana (Maggie Gyllenhaal), tattooed, bubbly, energetic, with a complete disregard for the rules (she deliberately withholds 22% of her taxes to protest government spending on defense and corporate buy-outs). Harold falls for her immediately, although her feelings for him aren't quite so magnanimous.
He seeks out Dr. Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman), English professor, whose life is ruled by literature as surely as Harold's is by numbers. He tries to help by determining which stories Harold ISN'T the protagonist of, then tries to narrow down which author's narration he's hearing. He fails and tells Harold just to live the life he's always wanted. Believing his death to indeed be imminent, he sets to winning Ana's affection with a vengeance. He learns to play the guitar, a lifelong ambition. He stops counting toothbrush strokes and breaks free of the rut he's been caught in.
He discovers his narrator is an actual author named Karen Eiffel who is somehow writing about him. He tracks her down to convince her not to kill him. She's just as surprised to meet her protagonist as he is. The problem is, as stated by Hilbert after reading her draft, that her book is an artistic masterpiece and will make no sense at all if Harold doesn't die. Harold reads it and reluctantly is forced to agree. I won't say how it ends, preserve a tiny bit of mystery for you.
The movie raises an interesting question about existence. Which is more important, one man's life that will eventually end either way, or a great literary work that will endure for all time? Of course, in the movie the story as we hear it is hardly a masterpiece, is in fact more than a little trite, but that's not the point. What would you do if you had to die for the greater good, just as your own life was finally beginning?
Not to mention the subtle but unmistakable religious undertone of asking a man to knowingly face his own death.
Will Ferrell was unexpectedly good in this movie. He reminded me a little of when Jim Carrey first attempted drama. Not that there isn't any comedy here, but it's certainly markedly subdued from his usual work. Unfortunately this is what seems to have drawn the most complaining on the IMDb boards; people watched this expecting a Will Ferrell comedy, not all this stuff about death. Well, god forbid you watch something that makes you think.
Dustin Hoffman was of course also very good, if a little surreal seeing such an accomplished actor in the same room as Will Ferrell. You can almost detect a spark of awe in Farrell's eyes as well.
Emma Thompson's character is a little confusing. The fact that she's narrating a man's life at first creates the impression that she's God, a perception that isn't helped by the fact that when we first see her she's high above the street, looking down on mortals small as ants (turns out she's contemplating different ways to kill Harold, which she does through most of the movie); or that she lives in a nearly empty, all-white apartment that resembles more than a little Morgan Freeman's vacant office floor in Bruce Almighty. Some people on the message boards had this to say about Emma: "Who was that narrator lady? She was ANNOYING." If you don't know who Emma Thompson is, you have absolutely no business coming near a movie chatboard, in my opinion.
Shortly after we meet her, she meets Queen Latifah, an aide sent from the publisher to help her overcome her writer's block. The whiners on the boards protested that her character seemed to serve no purpose whatsoever. Of course she served a purpose, stupid people -- she was a sounding board so we could hear Eiffel's thoughts and writing process, otherwise it'd be damn boring watching a writer pace back and forth in silence hoping for inspiration.
People also complain that Ana's change of heart and sudden attraction to Harold are unbelievable (the turning point comes when he sings a tentative song he'd been practicing on the guitar to her and she jumps him in a fit of passion). I didn't find it unbelievable at all...I think there are few things sexier than someone singing, especially someone who isn't that sure of themselves and not that good, but heartfelt. At that moment, I fell in love with Will Ferrell a little too.
People also compared the movie to a Charlie Kaufman film (either "Kaufman lite" or "an inferior version of a Kaufman film") which I think is a terrible insult. Remember, I HATE Charlie Kaufman movies (or at least Charlie Kaufman endings). I suppose with the existential plot comparisons are inevitable, but this movie at least followed a logical line and had a satisfying (and non drug-induced) ending.
Name game for this movie: Second Will Ferrell movie we own, first Queen Latifah, third Maggie Gyllenhaal, fourth Dustin Hoffman, SIXTH Emma Thompson (the winner!!!)
I don't care what anyone says, for me this was also a 4 out of 5. I laughed, I cried, I fell in love. What more do you want from a movie?
One joker on the IMDb boards made the comment, "This is the worst movie ever created." This unleashed a shitstorm of responses, "Well, then you obviously haven't seen _________." When asked what his favorite movies were, his list included The Running Man, Total Recall 3 and Arnold Schwarzeneggar, demonstrating him to be willing to poke callous fun at other's tastes while keeping his own closely guarded.
Sure, he was an asshole, but it got me to thinking about what I would include in my top ten best and worst lists. I've decided to publish them here for the hell of it:
BEST (not in any significant order)
1. Brazil
2. The Fisher King
3. Fight Club
4. V for Vendetta
5. Amelie
6. Trainspotting
7. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
8. Rushmore
9. Moulin Rouge
10. Donnie Darko
WORST
1. Alien vs. Predator
2.
3. Open Water
4. Young Adam
5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (my vast apologies to
dopshoppe and kavieshana)6. Tideland
7.
kavieshana)8. Reign of Fire
9. All 3 Star Wars prequels
10. Second 2/3 of the Matrix trilogy (yes, these last two were cheating a bit)
Feel free to judge me based on these, because rest assured I'll do the same for yours. How about it? If you had only ten days left to live, which movies could you simply not bear to leave this plane of existence without watching one last time? Conversely, which ten would you rather gouge out your own eyes and ears than watch again? Obviously there are a lot of really crappy movies out there. My criteria was movies that I had a reasonable expectation of enjoying before they went very, very wrong.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-10-10 04:33 am (UTC)I know what you mean, but did you really think you'd like Alien vs. Predator? I'm glad you've set the precedent for hating multiple movies because I'm stealing that idea. This listing thing is hard! Yours must've taken you days to write up. It's going to take me days, at any rate. My lists aren't even in order yet, but I've at least got them down to 10 each:
BEST:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind*
The Holy Grail
Shaun of the Dead
Little Miss Sunshine*The Boondock SaintsCruel IntentionsClue*Pirates of the Caribean
The Truman Show12 Angry MenSnow White: A Tale of TerrorThe Life Aquatic*Dead Poets Society*The TerminalDead Poets Society*Edward ScissorhandsMy Fair Lady*these might get kicked off not because I don't love them, but because I don't know if I'd want to watch them and only them over and over again for the rest of eternity. I think that's the requirement for my BEST list.
WORST:
Van Helsing
The Matrix 2 & 3
Van Helsing
Star Wars episodes 2 & 3
Underworld
The Village
The Lord of the Rings series
Resident Evil
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. That's right, I went there.
Van Helsing
There's a chance I might have to put more thought into my WORST list. I'll get back to you.
RE the rest of your post: I've been avoiding seeing those movies (though I'd well anticipated them) because everyone has given them such horrible reviews. Even my own dear father, whose media opinion I worship unless it's convenient not to do so, has given Stranger Than Fiction the Thumbs Down. However, if you like them, they can't be that bad. I've added them to the que of movies you've made me want to watch.
Also: Moulin Rouge? REALLY?
Date: 2007-10-10 06:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-10 02:13 pm (UTC)Don't ever underestimate my love for Ewan McGregor. It is lifelong and pure.
Date: 2007-10-11 03:16 am (UTC)However, I approve wholeheartedly of 12 Angry Men and Life Aquatic.
Also, I have a soft spot for Underworld. Just a bit of harmless fun.
Oh dear oh dear. I can't shoulder responsibility for making you watch things your sainted father didn't like. I only hope you take my gushing praise with a grain of salt, and remember that I pride myself on liking some things others hate.
I seriously had to look up Ewan McGregor.
Date: 2007-10-19 05:22 am (UTC)I'm glad we agree on that! I hardly ever find someone that likes both of those movies.
I don't know if I've said this to you before, but the only thing I liked about Underworld was the part at the end where the guy gets part of his face sliced off and it just sort of slips down. But too many friends of mine like the movie for me to put it down too often. It's not that I hated it, like I hated Van Helsing, but it didn't live up to any of my suprahigh expectations.
I liked them both. Okay, Stranger Than Fiction dragged a bit, and you were right that the bits of the book being narrated were horrible and really not worth dying over (most of your observations were spot-on for me), but I nearly cried when I thought Harold was dead so the movie gets a permanent spot on my "good movie" list. I thought Maggie Gyllenhaal's character was horrendously annoying. Do you watch Family Guy?
I enjoyed Running With Scissors, but I have the feeling it would make a much better book. My favorite part was the end, when it was catching up on what would happen to all of the characters in the future, and it said something like, "Augusten moved to New York. He wrote a book." Wait, Neil was played by the guy from Shakespeare in Love? I'm going to have to go back and watch that again. I didn't see that at all.
Oh dear, oh dear. You and I might have a problem then.
Date: 2007-10-19 04:33 pm (UTC)Angry Men is a classic, I can't imagine anyone not loving that. Life Aquatic is probably a little more difficult. I personally loved all the acoustic Bowie music in French, and the bizarre yet touching story.
I didn't like Underworld either when I saw it in theaters. Upon second viewing I realized it was because I couldn't understand half of the dialogue (crappy audio) so missed most of what was going on. It's not a Top Ten movie, but you have to admit it's chock full of yummy, yummy eye candy.
I'm so glad you liked my movies. You sound like me, any movie that makes me cry automatically goes on my good movie list (although using this criteria, Tery would have nothing on hers). I thought in Maggie's first scene she was a little hammy and overzealous, but then she calmed down a bit. Family Guy -- I've tried. It's been recommended to me by good friends who I trust, as well as my sister. I've watched the first half of 2 episodes, and I just don't see why everyone thinks it's so great (with the possible exception of Stewie (Stuey? sp?). He's pretty funny).
I agree about the book possibly being better, which is why I'm determined to read it despite OFB's warnings. Neil was Shakespeare. He's totally British, which is why he seems so different in this movie. "Shakespeare in Love" would probably make my Top 20 list.
Are you DUMPING me over some guy whose name I can't pronounce?
Date: 2007-10-20 09:49 pm (UTC)The music is the first thing about Life Aquatic that I fell in love with, before the plot even started unfolding. It's Portuguese, goose. I've got the soundtrack (and the initial recordings which sound a bit different) if you want any of the songs. I've tried to make a playlist with all of the songs and the original Bowie music, but I'm missing a few Bowie tracks. Namely "When I Live My Dream" and "Quicksand", which I'd never even heard of. Did whoever you saw the movie with enjoy it as well? I went with my dad and my brother (my dad and I had a standing bi-weekly movie date for about 3 years, and occasionally my brother would come along. Which was for the best, because my dad is young enough that people often assume he's my date) and while my dad loved it as much as I did, my brother literally fell asleep in the theater.
All you think about when you watch a movie chock-full of leather-wearing supernatural creatures is sex, isn't it?
It's not easy to make me cry (though obviously easier than with Tery!) so I figure any movie that makes me feel like that deserves some kind of acclaim. See, I don't get you. Family Guy is probably the funniest thing I have ever seen. I love the hell out of that show. Anyway, you wouldn't have seen it, but in this season's second episode someone made a crack about the Gyllenhaals, and it cut to MAggie and Jake arguing about who was the worse actor.
(Maggie: "I'm more off-putting!"
Jake: "No, I'm more off-putting!")
Their dad came in and assured them they both suck. Also, this is a completely different clip, but tell me you don't find this hilarious.
Maybe it's the facial hair, but I don't see it at all. I realize I'm coming off as a huge weeper in this comment, but I believe Shakespeare in Love made me cry too.
Dumping you for him? Impossible, since our marriage was made in the stars long before I met you.
Date: 2007-10-20 10:08 pm (UTC)Ooooh, internet bootleg movies. Bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad.
I believe this will provide the answers you seek, as well as prove that I did at one time have full knowledge that the songs were Portuguese. Your dad sounds awesome. Your brother not so much. Thanks for the offer. I'd like to give your favorites a listen to.
Parts of FG are funny (yes, that clip was great. Probably because I agree that Colin Farrell is a complete ass). I can't explain it, but believe I've tried and tried and tried (okay, only twice) to overcome my prejudice.
Christ, you're a crybaby. But god yes, "Shakespeare" was a tearjerker for me.
"made in the STARS". Haha.
Date: 2007-10-20 10:48 pm (UTC)You, with your superior morals, would never participate in any such activity.
Jesus. Who keeps beer in their purse? She might as well go all the way and keep a flask full of JD. You've seen the Boondock Saints, right? How can you not like Willem Dafoe in that move? There's a reason I usually trust my dad's opinions on movies implicitly. I'll start uploading a .zip of my favorites now, if you don't have any requests.
You really have to be in the mood to watch Family Guy. Right now, I'm re-watching an episode that I LOVED and while I appreciate the funny bits, I'm not laughing at all. Yesterday I watched the first half of the same episode and was cracking up.
Part of me was thinking why does she have to go but the other part of me thinks it's for the best because, um, wasn't he gay?
You'd best not be laughing at me and my sweet Scotsman. >: (
Date: 2007-10-20 10:56 pm (UTC)Obviously I agree 100%. Alcohol is one of many wedges that have been driven betwixt Tabatha and myself. Have not seen Boondock Saints. You wouldn't like him either if your boyfriend was more turned on by him than you. Plus I still haven't recovered from his Jesus-with-a-Brooklyn-accent in "Last Temptation of Christ."
That's it then. I'm never in the mood to watch Family Guy. Ever.
Holy shit, you know I had totally forgotten he was supposedly gay (no sarcasm here. I really did)! I hope that doesn't ruin the movie for me. Perhaps he was bi. All the best writers are, you know.
No, I just meant...you know, because of Star Wars. Which he was in. I think.
Date: 2007-10-20 11:33 pm (UTC)Maybe he was bi. His wife seemed to get knocked up right quick, but then he did directly abandon her for the theatre.
Re: No, I just meant...you know, because of Star Wars. Which he was in. I think.
Date: 2007-10-21 12:08 am (UTC)I'm probably going to watch Across the Universe this weekend. Did you know, it didn't even come out over here? I heard about it on the internet, about a week ago.
Re: No, I just meant...you know, because of Star Wars. Which he was in. I think.
Date: 2007-10-22 03:50 am (UTC)Also, I do believe this is the first post of mine where a thread went into collapsed mode. Go Team Elaine!
Re: No, I just meant...you know, because of Star Wars. Which he was in. I think.
Date: 2007-10-24 06:00 am (UTC)Way to go! This can't be your first, though.
Re: No, I just meant...you know, because of Star Wars. Which he was in. I think.
Date: 2007-10-25 12:32 am (UTC)Re: No, I just meant...you know, because of Star Wars. Which he was in. I think.
Date: 2007-10-25 01:31 am (UTC)Oh, haha. I get it. Yeah, those films in my opinion weren't some of his best moments.
Date: 2007-10-22 03:48 am (UTC)You seem to know a lot about Will. Was all this gleaned from the subtext of "Shakespeare in Love"?
He has moments better than that?
Date: 2007-10-24 06:02 am (UTC)Unfortunately, no. I've seen t.v. specials on him, and read a few books.
Okay, you need to step off. NOW.
Date: 2007-10-25 12:35 am (UTC)Hm. No.
Date: 2007-10-25 12:49 am (UTC)Re: Hm. No.
Date: 2007-10-25 05:11 pm (UTC)1408
Date: 2007-10-26 03:49 am (UTC)Re: 1408
Date: 2007-10-29 04:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-11 03:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-11 04:44 pm (UTC)