A whole lotta movies
Nov. 26th, 2007 10:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grrgoylMy god, I watch a lot of movies.
The Omen: This came on cable at Halloween and it occurred to me I'd never seen it. What kind of horror movie fan could I claim to be? For a 31-year-old film, it was scarier and more gripping than I expected. I liked David Warner's groovy mod haircut. I thought Rottweilers were an appropriate choice to play hellhounds. I decided if I ever had a Rottie (doubtful, but I do like them) I would name it Balrog -- which has no relation to this movie whatsoever, but there we are. I'm tired of being taken in by the bait-and-switch funeral -- Gregory Peck is being buried (with full military honors despite being killed while trying to stab his son Damien) beside a child-sized coffin. Tery asked how there could be sequels. Well, because that little devil Damien is standing among the mourners, alive and well. So what child is Gregory Peck being buried beside???
I watched it while Tery dozed on the couch, not the best choice perhaps. It has the signature cadence of older horror movies: quiet dialogue, quiet dialogue, quiet dialogue, SCREAMING SCARY SCENE, SCREAMING SCARY SCENE, SCREAMING SCARY SCENE. She hardly missed a beat in her snoring until the final scene.
Reign Over Me: I thought this looked intriguing, but it's basically your typical boring buddy flick building up to Adam Sandler's big Oscar grab in the form of a courtroom breakdown screaming the anguished lyrics of the title song. Sorry Adam -- this was already done, and much better, by Robin Williams in The Fisher King (the breakdown, not the singing). Bleah.
Apocalypto: I had sort of been avoiding this, feeling kind of over Mel Gibson after Passion of the Christ, but my friend Frank recommended it (who is known for his love of twisted, gory movies, so I was a bit leery). It follows the journey of a small peaceful Mayan tribe that's captured by their big city bloodthirsty cousins for sacrifice, and the daring escape of the cutest, most Anthony Kiedis-like of them. The first hour was so engrossing that it flew by for me. Unfortunately we hit the sacrifice scene exactly at the moment we started eating dinner, but Mel spared us any true gore. However, the rest of the movie inspired many outcries from us of "What the HELL is wrong with Mel Gibson??!!!???" Because he really is quite a twisted fuck. We also discovered that it's very, very difficult to cut and eat meat and keep up with subtitles simultaneously.
There's a featurette in the extras that includes much self-congratulatory backslapping over the handmade costumes and sets, and I suppose they're remarkable enough, but how quickly we all forget The Lord of the Rings. Spend a year making chain mail one link at a time and THEN come boast to me about "attention to detail."
Ratatouille: I didn't really have a burning desire to see this until Tery suggested renting some movies for the weekend. Pixar DVDs come the closest to recreating the HD experience without making the large investments I talked about a few posts ago. I was foolishly optimistic about scoring a copy on the first week of release, I see that now. As I left the store disappointed, I happened to notice a father bringing his little girl to return their movies. She was skipping along carelessly, flashing the cases in the sun, and one of them was of course Ratatouille. I debated briefly but intensely following them into the store, but I had to prove to Tery I had SOME impulse control.
I had better luck the following day when I went back to return the previous two titles, and I'm sort of glad I didn't make a fool of myself over this movie. Very pretty to look at (of course), some funny moments, but I felt overall a bit slow and too heavyhanded with the pro-rat message. We get it -- rats don't deserve their bad reputation. Now when is Disney going to make a movie with an adorable, sympathetic ferret as the hero? Plus the "guess that actor's voice" game is compounded exponentially in difficulty when they're using French accents. Janeane Garafolo was unrecognizable, and we still refuse to believe John Ratzenberger was who IMDb said he was.
Far more enjoyable was the short film "Lifted" in the extras -- but apparently Pixar is releasing a compilation set of all their short films (including "Lifted") which I can almost guarantee I'd recommend over Ratatouille.
To celebrate the anniversary of wresting this country from the native inhabitants, I got No End in Sight, a documentary of Iraq and how it has become the quagmire it is today, explained step-by-step by military strategists and reconstruction specialists, the advice of whom was for the most part ignored by the Bush administration. Every bit as depressing as you'd think, particularly the gloomy prediction that if we fail in Iraq, it will be only a matter of time before Jihadists are walking Western streets. This coupled with a C-SPAN interview recommended by MyFriendDeb that goes heavily into the political mess that is the Middle East, just made me wish these people would grow up, get over it, get on with their lives. I realize the history is complicated and deep and painful, but someone has to be the first to turn the other cheek and end the cycle. I'd volunteer myself if I thought it would help.
#5 in the Horrorfest is The Gravedancers. A group of school pals reunite at their friend's funeral, stupidly get drunk in the cemetary and decide to dance on some graves. Not surprisingly, this starts a month-long spate of being haunted by the spirit victims of their inappropriate revelry. Even less surprisingly, these aren't the ghosts of Salvation Army workers, but rather come from the graveyard's "social undesirables" section -- a spurned mistress who murdered her lover and his wife; a judge that was discovered posthumously to have a taste for extreme sadomasochistic activities with kidnapped young girls (and whose headstone doesn't even bear a name or any dates; just the words "Good Riddance"); and a child arsonist who killed himself and his entire family accidentally (or was it?), which if you ask me is a bit of a stretch to label as a criminal.
I was fully prepared to side with the malevolent spirits in this movie. The partyers are obnoxious, annoying and self-centered, and if you can't enjoy peace and quiet when you're dead then what hope is there? I did think it a bit unfair that the one guy's wife is included in the haunting when she had the good sense to go home (played by Clare Kramer, who I'd never have recognized as Glory from Buffy S5 if I hadn't seen her name in the credits), but the others are all unappealing enough that I'd gladly watch them come to a very unpleasant, much deserved end.
Then they enlist the help of a pair of local ghost hunters, a professor and his lovely assistant Culpepper. They believe their problems to be solved when the professor suggests exhuming and re-burying the bodies, except Culpepper, who you'd like to think would have some experience with the supernatural or at least with listening to her mentor (who beseeches them repeatedly in the graveyard to be sure to get every little piece of the skeletons), decides to keep a souvenir for "proof"; not just any souvenir but a skull, and not just one skull but all three (stored conveniently in a handsome mahogany carrying case seemingly custom built for the task). This brings all kinds of trouble down on them, in a pretty exciting and decently scary climax. Really not bad at all as horror movies go.
As long as I'm updating, I thought I should mention my run-in with one of the most annoying grocery store employees I'd ever seen. I'm fond of stopping into King Soopers on my way home from work in the morning, where I'm free of the burden of other shoppers, but frequently have to deal with palettes of food from the backroom and of course the shelf stockers, sometimes a loud raunchy lot who aren't accustomed to seeing the public while they work.
This one guy really took the cake though. In the brief amount of time I was inside the range of his voice, he must have mentioned the fact that he was working on his day off at least three times. That's okay, people can't get enough of hearing THAT. But then he uncovered a pile of boxes that incited a tirade that he tried to drag anyone who would listen into (names changed because I don't remember them exactly).
"Look at that. Lady asks for two cases, we order six. That's just great. Perfect. Whaddya think, Gary? Lady orders two cases, we get six. Doesn't that seem like the thing to do?
Silence. Gary had either taken a break or Christmas had come early in the form of blessed hearing loss. Not that this deterred the lout in the slightest. "Whaddya say, David?
"What's that?" David answered, though it seemed inconceivable that he could have missed the previous, very loud exchange (although I know what it's like working in different aisles and tuning everything out). The outrageous scenario was repeated anew, adding "We'll be trying to sell mincemeat until Easter." David's response was a noncommittal sort of grunt. I've rarely felt this sorry for a group of coworkers in my life, and will certainly think twice before stopping at THAT King Soopers for awhile.
Butchest thing I did this Thanksgiving: Fixed our leaking refrigerator.
Butchest thing Tery did this Thanksgiving: Fixed our partially flushing toilet.
Repairmen? We don' need no steeenkeng repairmen. : )
The Omen: This came on cable at Halloween and it occurred to me I'd never seen it. What kind of horror movie fan could I claim to be? For a 31-year-old film, it was scarier and more gripping than I expected. I liked David Warner's groovy mod haircut. I thought Rottweilers were an appropriate choice to play hellhounds. I decided if I ever had a Rottie (doubtful, but I do like them) I would name it Balrog -- which has no relation to this movie whatsoever, but there we are. I'm tired of being taken in by the bait-and-switch funeral -- Gregory Peck is being buried (with full military honors despite being killed while trying to stab his son Damien) beside a child-sized coffin. Tery asked how there could be sequels. Well, because that little devil Damien is standing among the mourners, alive and well. So what child is Gregory Peck being buried beside???
I watched it while Tery dozed on the couch, not the best choice perhaps. It has the signature cadence of older horror movies: quiet dialogue, quiet dialogue, quiet dialogue, SCREAMING SCARY SCENE, SCREAMING SCARY SCENE, SCREAMING SCARY SCENE. She hardly missed a beat in her snoring until the final scene.
Reign Over Me: I thought this looked intriguing, but it's basically your typical boring buddy flick building up to Adam Sandler's big Oscar grab in the form of a courtroom breakdown screaming the anguished lyrics of the title song. Sorry Adam -- this was already done, and much better, by Robin Williams in The Fisher King (the breakdown, not the singing). Bleah.
Apocalypto: I had sort of been avoiding this, feeling kind of over Mel Gibson after Passion of the Christ, but my friend Frank recommended it (who is known for his love of twisted, gory movies, so I was a bit leery). It follows the journey of a small peaceful Mayan tribe that's captured by their big city bloodthirsty cousins for sacrifice, and the daring escape of the cutest, most Anthony Kiedis-like of them. The first hour was so engrossing that it flew by for me. Unfortunately we hit the sacrifice scene exactly at the moment we started eating dinner, but Mel spared us any true gore. However, the rest of the movie inspired many outcries from us of "What the HELL is wrong with Mel Gibson??!!!???" Because he really is quite a twisted fuck. We also discovered that it's very, very difficult to cut and eat meat and keep up with subtitles simultaneously.
There's a featurette in the extras that includes much self-congratulatory backslapping over the handmade costumes and sets, and I suppose they're remarkable enough, but how quickly we all forget The Lord of the Rings. Spend a year making chain mail one link at a time and THEN come boast to me about "attention to detail."
Ratatouille: I didn't really have a burning desire to see this until Tery suggested renting some movies for the weekend. Pixar DVDs come the closest to recreating the HD experience without making the large investments I talked about a few posts ago. I was foolishly optimistic about scoring a copy on the first week of release, I see that now. As I left the store disappointed, I happened to notice a father bringing his little girl to return their movies. She was skipping along carelessly, flashing the cases in the sun, and one of them was of course Ratatouille. I debated briefly but intensely following them into the store, but I had to prove to Tery I had SOME impulse control.
I had better luck the following day when I went back to return the previous two titles, and I'm sort of glad I didn't make a fool of myself over this movie. Very pretty to look at (of course), some funny moments, but I felt overall a bit slow and too heavyhanded with the pro-rat message. We get it -- rats don't deserve their bad reputation. Now when is Disney going to make a movie with an adorable, sympathetic ferret as the hero? Plus the "guess that actor's voice" game is compounded exponentially in difficulty when they're using French accents. Janeane Garafolo was unrecognizable, and we still refuse to believe John Ratzenberger was who IMDb said he was.
Far more enjoyable was the short film "Lifted" in the extras -- but apparently Pixar is releasing a compilation set of all their short films (including "Lifted") which I can almost guarantee I'd recommend over Ratatouille.
To celebrate the anniversary of wresting this country from the native inhabitants, I got No End in Sight, a documentary of Iraq and how it has become the quagmire it is today, explained step-by-step by military strategists and reconstruction specialists, the advice of whom was for the most part ignored by the Bush administration. Every bit as depressing as you'd think, particularly the gloomy prediction that if we fail in Iraq, it will be only a matter of time before Jihadists are walking Western streets. This coupled with a C-SPAN interview recommended by MyFriendDeb that goes heavily into the political mess that is the Middle East, just made me wish these people would grow up, get over it, get on with their lives. I realize the history is complicated and deep and painful, but someone has to be the first to turn the other cheek and end the cycle. I'd volunteer myself if I thought it would help.
#5 in the Horrorfest is The Gravedancers. A group of school pals reunite at their friend's funeral, stupidly get drunk in the cemetary and decide to dance on some graves. Not surprisingly, this starts a month-long spate of being haunted by the spirit victims of their inappropriate revelry. Even less surprisingly, these aren't the ghosts of Salvation Army workers, but rather come from the graveyard's "social undesirables" section -- a spurned mistress who murdered her lover and his wife; a judge that was discovered posthumously to have a taste for extreme sadomasochistic activities with kidnapped young girls (and whose headstone doesn't even bear a name or any dates; just the words "Good Riddance"); and a child arsonist who killed himself and his entire family accidentally (or was it?), which if you ask me is a bit of a stretch to label as a criminal.
I was fully prepared to side with the malevolent spirits in this movie. The partyers are obnoxious, annoying and self-centered, and if you can't enjoy peace and quiet when you're dead then what hope is there? I did think it a bit unfair that the one guy's wife is included in the haunting when she had the good sense to go home (played by Clare Kramer, who I'd never have recognized as Glory from Buffy S5 if I hadn't seen her name in the credits), but the others are all unappealing enough that I'd gladly watch them come to a very unpleasant, much deserved end.
Then they enlist the help of a pair of local ghost hunters, a professor and his lovely assistant Culpepper. They believe their problems to be solved when the professor suggests exhuming and re-burying the bodies, except Culpepper, who you'd like to think would have some experience with the supernatural or at least with listening to her mentor (who beseeches them repeatedly in the graveyard to be sure to get every little piece of the skeletons), decides to keep a souvenir for "proof"; not just any souvenir but a skull, and not just one skull but all three (stored conveniently in a handsome mahogany carrying case seemingly custom built for the task). This brings all kinds of trouble down on them, in a pretty exciting and decently scary climax. Really not bad at all as horror movies go.
As long as I'm updating, I thought I should mention my run-in with one of the most annoying grocery store employees I'd ever seen. I'm fond of stopping into King Soopers on my way home from work in the morning, where I'm free of the burden of other shoppers, but frequently have to deal with palettes of food from the backroom and of course the shelf stockers, sometimes a loud raunchy lot who aren't accustomed to seeing the public while they work.
This one guy really took the cake though. In the brief amount of time I was inside the range of his voice, he must have mentioned the fact that he was working on his day off at least three times. That's okay, people can't get enough of hearing THAT. But then he uncovered a pile of boxes that incited a tirade that he tried to drag anyone who would listen into (names changed because I don't remember them exactly).
"Look at that. Lady asks for two cases, we order six. That's just great. Perfect. Whaddya think, Gary? Lady orders two cases, we get six. Doesn't that seem like the thing to do?
Silence. Gary had either taken a break or Christmas had come early in the form of blessed hearing loss. Not that this deterred the lout in the slightest. "Whaddya say, David?
"What's that?" David answered, though it seemed inconceivable that he could have missed the previous, very loud exchange (although I know what it's like working in different aisles and tuning everything out). The outrageous scenario was repeated anew, adding "We'll be trying to sell mincemeat until Easter." David's response was a noncommittal sort of grunt. I've rarely felt this sorry for a group of coworkers in my life, and will certainly think twice before stopping at THAT King Soopers for awhile.
Butchest thing I did this Thanksgiving: Fixed our leaking refrigerator.
Butchest thing Tery did this Thanksgiving: Fixed our partially flushing toilet.
Repairmen? We don' need no steeenkeng repairmen. : )
