July 21, 2008
Man, they almost had me with this one. I mean, a movie about what it’s like to be a suicide trapped in limbo? As if limbo was some crappy, depressing, desert trailer park? Yes! I mean, No! It had potential and then just turned it into some dumb romantic comedy with Tom Waits thrown in for street cred. Boo. I mean ok. It was ok. But it was amateurishly structured as if they lost their focus and conviction half-way through. Maybe it was a first script for the writer. Maybe he’ll to better next time.
July 21, 2008
I don’t know why I bother. Seriously, I keep getting sucked into this “girl” thing: I see the romantic commercials with the pretty people in the pretty clothes and think “Hey, that seems like a good time”. I am so so dumb. Luckily I’m not alone. Lots of smart people get drawn into watching these dumb movies and then feel DIRTY inside. I feel dirty inside. No amount of James Marsden’s charm can make the dirty go away.
July 21, 2008
Dude, I really liked it. See, I HATED the Narnia movie and really felt let down - obviously the people who made those movies didn’t care about those books as much as I do. When I saw the Golden Compass, however, I felt totally understood. It was great. The little girl Me would have loved it too. I can’t wait for the sequel. Bring on the armored bears.
July 21, 2008
It seemed like a good idea. And then it got dumb really fast. It’s a Police Academy movie for stupid people - if you can imagine that. Maybe they got confused about their target demographic and ended up with a movie with G rated jokes that just happen to include drug orgy jokes. I didn’t know adults could GET that stoned.
July 21, 2008
God help me I loved it! I’m sure this means that there’s something wrong with me but I laughed more during Semi-Pro than Anchorman (impossible!) plus it’s about BASKETBALL!!!
July 21, 2008
So I’d heard about this movie for the last decade but I’d been putting off seeing it because I assumed it was going to just annoy me. Last week, though, I decided to buckle down and bring home a bunch of the movies that I’d been putting off seeing and Hurlyburly was first on my list. It irritated me. Just as I suspected, it was a movie about horrible Los Angeles industry types being horrible to eachother. The thing is, I can understand why the film maker probably made it - it must SUCK having to be surrounded by those people all the time and, since film is a form of creative expression, making a movie is a way to explain how they feel about having to live in that kind of aweful environment. However, I don’t see any reason why anyone ELSE who isn’t in the entertainment industry would possibly need or want to watch it; it’s a movie about a bunch of immature, narcissistic, producers who take advantage of the insecure, desperate women that enter their lives and then need to talk about their feelings in depth. Great. They did a great job of making a movie that accurately portrays how awful people can really be. My problem is this: since people are already like that, how did it benefit me having even more awfulness suddenly injected into my life? But then I probably just need to grow up.
July 21, 2008
I loved it. Be Kind, Rewind was weird and clever and surprising and funny and beautiful. Of course, I have a soft spot for independent video stores…
July 21, 2008
I can’t tell if this movie was some jaded industry type’s method for capitalizing on the rebellious desires of multiple generations of paying customers or if the writers were just really really lazy. Whatever the personal failings of the people involved, it was awful. And the problem is that it had potential. I mean the cast was pretty cool and there were some moments. But the overall effect of of being so completely ripped off and offended by them blatantly using some of the best moments from other brilliant movies like Harold and Maude and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and then finished it all off with a cheesy ending that made our audience of two gag. If I had to personally PAY for this crap I’d be PISSED.
July 21, 2008
I don’t really know what I was expecting but, well, I guess I wasn’t disappointed. It didn’t have much of a story and I didn’t really care about the characters but it was well acted and the the cinematography was just gorgeous. I mean, I’ve never had any desire to go to Belgium but now I can see how it might be appealing: canals, mist, spires, cobblestones. Basically pretty romantic. I don’t know. In Bruges had its moments. I will probably never watch it again however.
April 23, 2008
So, there are many many things working against The New Adventures of Old Christine - the format is the awful sitcom formula of boring lighting, limited camera work, and laugh tracks - and I know that these things will be hard for many of my friends to overcome. I believe, however, that the cast (Julia Louis-Dreyfus was made for this role) and the writing (most of it) more than makes up for the format. I don’t even notice it, really. All I’m paying attention to is how weird Christine’s brother is and how brutally uncomfortable I get when she decides to be proactive and how refreshing it is that she has a realistic relationship with her ex-husband (they have trouble establishing boundaries after being together for so long, they both contributed to the demise of their marriage, they’re both actually ok people and they both love their son). I love how irrational, mean and spastic she gets when it comes to her ex-husbands new girlfriend, “new” Christine, but how, when she’s had time to think about it she tries to do the right thing. And then is always mean in the end. Her brother knows all of these horrendously embarrassing details about her sex life which illicit the best, most horrified looks from the actor who plays him - as if he’s tried his entire life to block out these memories but she just keeps piling on the reasons for therapy. She makes lots of mistakes, is constantly embarassing herself and desperately tries to control everything which only leads to her looking like an idiot. Basically, it’s the ultimate show for making women feel better about themselves. The thing is, I think, if the guys would give it a chance, they might find a lot to like about it themselves. It isn’t man hating. In fact, the men are generally the most calm and reasonable people in the show. And their reactions to her are always totally true - they don’t let her get away with anything - they call her on her craziness in a way that men don’t generally get to do. This is probably because I got made fun of for watching this show TWICE yesterday but, seriously, I think it deserves a try. But not the pilot. It’s not as good as the rest. The episodes with Andy Richter in particular are brutally excellent. Oh and Wanda Sykes is a comic genius though in season one, at least, she didn’t get as many lines as I would have liked to have seen.
