Holiday Movies 2003.
Jan. 16th, 2004 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsadelleUnrelated 1. Penny Arcade continues to be my new favorite thing. I'm nearly done reading the whole archive of strips, although I haven't read the whole archive of news posts, and I feel compelled to tell you that Gabe is THE CUTEST THING EVER.
Unrelated 2. For those of you who may be interested, I did actually finish my list of the books I read in 2003.
Unrelated 3. Par-tay tomorrow. Feel free to ask me for help if you find IRC incomprehensible.
And now what you're really interested in: the movies I've seen since December 24.
In trying to sell my mother on seeing Honey, I described it as "the bad dance movie." As you can tell, I knew beforehand that it wasn't going to be very good, and it wasn't. One of the things that made it so bad is that Honey, the main character, never really changes. She's good at the beginning, good in the middle, good at the end. Bor-ring.
I was also annoyed by the idiocy of her parents. Let's think about it. You raise your child in an environment where you do good for your community for shitty pay. Then you're shocked, shocked, I tell you, when she chooses to stay in the community and do good instead of getting a cushy job uptown. Yeah, I can't make this shit up.
(Note the above mention of Penny Arcade. If you read them, you'll have noticed that in addition to taking over my life, they're influencing my writing style for the moment.)
On the other hand, Lil' Romeo is adorable and Mekhi Phifer continues to be hot.
I like sci fi. I like action movies. I sometimes like Ben Affleck. I did not like Paycheck. It starts out good, and I could even accept the erasing memories/seeing the future premise. The problem, of course, is in the details. Ben Affleck (I can no longer remember his character's name) works for a large, paranoid company whose security people screen his mail. Somehow, he manages to send himself a company swipe card, and then the company doesn't remove him from the system. The idiocy of this was more than I could handle, and that was the point at which the movie really started to suck.
Cold Mountain was very well acted and beautifully filmed. Unfortunately, it went on for days. I liked the Ada parts, but Inman's bits got to be way too much after not very long. Brad said that there was no characterization for either of them, but I think he's only half right. I got nothing out of Inman, but I understood Ada because I know the woman alone on the farm genre.
I was also distracted by the fact that it was clearly not North Carolina. I don't know if it was the vegetation, the color of the sky, or just the fact that I knew going into it that it was filmed in Romania, but it really bothered me.
Peter Pan is EXCEEDINGLY CREEPY. Like the direst of Molly's dire predictions times ten. I don't know how you can have child actors give such a sexualized performance without scarring them for life.
I was also cracking up over the Darling children. They're British. One of them's a smart girl, one of the boys has dark hair and round glasses, and the other boy has red hair and freckles. I may be too involved in Harry Potter fandom.
After too many bad movies in a row, I was glad to see Calendar Girls, which is pretty good. I laughed, I cried, there was Anthrax (the band, not the deadly disease). I'm not making that up either. For some inexplicable reason, Anthrax made a guest appearance in the film. My mother told me that something she read talked about how they had to invent conflict for the movie because there wasn't any in real life. The Anthrax bits certainly had that feel of being filler material.
House of Sand and Fog is very good, and it was even more of a relief than Calendar Girls. It's well acted, well filmed, and full of tension. Brad had issues with the writing, but I liked it. Be forewarned however that it's just one tragedy after another.
After seeing The Station Agent, I may have to stop going to the movies. This movie is so fantastic that there's a good chance that no other movie is ever going to look good in comparison. Peter Dinklage is fantastic and surprisingly hot as Fin, Bobby Cannavale does, as every review says, steal the scene as Joe, and Patricia Clarkson's Olivia provides us with much of the overt emotion of the film.
The most surprising thing about The Station Agent is how funny it is. I'd gotten the impression that it dealt with serious matters, which, really, it does. However, it was also hilarious.
Unrelated 2. For those of you who may be interested, I did actually finish my list of the books I read in 2003.
Unrelated 3. Par-tay tomorrow. Feel free to ask me for help if you find IRC incomprehensible.
And now what you're really interested in: the movies I've seen since December 24.
In trying to sell my mother on seeing Honey, I described it as "the bad dance movie." As you can tell, I knew beforehand that it wasn't going to be very good, and it wasn't. One of the things that made it so bad is that Honey, the main character, never really changes. She's good at the beginning, good in the middle, good at the end. Bor-ring.
I was also annoyed by the idiocy of her parents. Let's think about it. You raise your child in an environment where you do good for your community for shitty pay. Then you're shocked, shocked, I tell you, when she chooses to stay in the community and do good instead of getting a cushy job uptown. Yeah, I can't make this shit up.
(Note the above mention of Penny Arcade. If you read them, you'll have noticed that in addition to taking over my life, they're influencing my writing style for the moment.)
On the other hand, Lil' Romeo is adorable and Mekhi Phifer continues to be hot.
I like sci fi. I like action movies. I sometimes like Ben Affleck. I did not like Paycheck. It starts out good, and I could even accept the erasing memories/seeing the future premise. The problem, of course, is in the details. Ben Affleck (I can no longer remember his character's name) works for a large, paranoid company whose security people screen his mail. Somehow, he manages to send himself a company swipe card, and then the company doesn't remove him from the system. The idiocy of this was more than I could handle, and that was the point at which the movie really started to suck.
Cold Mountain was very well acted and beautifully filmed. Unfortunately, it went on for days. I liked the Ada parts, but Inman's bits got to be way too much after not very long. Brad said that there was no characterization for either of them, but I think he's only half right. I got nothing out of Inman, but I understood Ada because I know the woman alone on the farm genre.
I was also distracted by the fact that it was clearly not North Carolina. I don't know if it was the vegetation, the color of the sky, or just the fact that I knew going into it that it was filmed in Romania, but it really bothered me.
Peter Pan is EXCEEDINGLY CREEPY. Like the direst of Molly's dire predictions times ten. I don't know how you can have child actors give such a sexualized performance without scarring them for life.
I was also cracking up over the Darling children. They're British. One of them's a smart girl, one of the boys has dark hair and round glasses, and the other boy has red hair and freckles. I may be too involved in Harry Potter fandom.
After too many bad movies in a row, I was glad to see Calendar Girls, which is pretty good. I laughed, I cried, there was Anthrax (the band, not the deadly disease). I'm not making that up either. For some inexplicable reason, Anthrax made a guest appearance in the film. My mother told me that something she read talked about how they had to invent conflict for the movie because there wasn't any in real life. The Anthrax bits certainly had that feel of being filler material.
House of Sand and Fog is very good, and it was even more of a relief than Calendar Girls. It's well acted, well filmed, and full of tension. Brad had issues with the writing, but I liked it. Be forewarned however that it's just one tragedy after another.
After seeing The Station Agent, I may have to stop going to the movies. This movie is so fantastic that there's a good chance that no other movie is ever going to look good in comparison. Peter Dinklage is fantastic and surprisingly hot as Fin, Bobby Cannavale does, as every review says, steal the scene as Joe, and Patricia Clarkson's Olivia provides us with much of the overt emotion of the film.
The most surprising thing about The Station Agent is how funny it is. I'd gotten the impression that it dealt with serious matters, which, really, it does. However, it was also hilarious.
times ten!
Date: 2004-01-17 07:40 am (UTC)I like how you did your book list. I should try that. And wow, you read things fast.
re: Cold Mountain - yes. Also, I can't believe you saw Honey. Heee.
Re: times ten!
Date: 2004-01-17 02:14 pm (UTC)I've been doing book lists for a few years. We used to have to do them in fifth/sixth grade, and my mom started writing hers down a couple of years ago. And, yes, I do read fast, even when I'm not re-reading the book.
I had to see it! I love stupid dance movies. You have to remember that I voluntarily rented Center Stage, and this was after having heard from someone else who likes stupid dance movies that it sucked.