9 posts tagged “movies”

First of all, creepiest movie poster ever. Seriously. I refuse to even watch the trailer.

Second of all, this (directed by Joe Wright, who did not-my-favorite-adaptation-but-still-not-terrible Pride and Prejudice), this (definitely soon!), and this - looks so amazing, and Michael Cera, trailer here.

Finally, when is Stardust out on DVD? I didn't LOVE the movie, but I enjoyed it, and I'd really like to see it again.

can't wait!

Movie trailer round-up!

The new Bourne movie comes out this weekend - the BOURNE ULTIMATUM. It has an 85 rating on Metacritic and a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes! I gotta see this movie, y'all. The trailer is here.

I'm so excited that Wes Anderson is finally coming out with a new movie. I have never disliked one of his movies, and I still rank the Royal Tenenbaums as one of my all-time favorites. One of my favorite things about his films is the way that, if frozen, every shot looks like a photograph (a good one). The trailer was recently released, and The Darjeeling Limited looks fantastic.

I consider this an example of a well-made trailer for a movie that most likely won't be nearly as good. The Invasion, with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig (and I'm fully willing to cop to being wrong if the movie ends up being good!)

I can't imagine this is actually going to be that good, but you know how I love Jane Austen. I also have a spot in my heart for Anne Hathaway, who I think is gorgeous, and seems smart and level-headed.

mmmm

Seriously, Christian Bale is so hot. Sooooo hot. 3:10 to Yuma and Rescue Dawn. I am probably seeing neither of these movies, but once the Batman trailer comes out, I am so on that.

A couple others that look good:
Rocket Science
The Ten
Death at a Funeral (which looks maybe a little dorky but also, so hilarious) - also has a great rating on Rotten Tomatoes

I am also pee-my-pants excited for Superbad.  I know I've already talked it up, but really. I'm COUNTING the DAYS (14!!).

Best movie ever.

Teen Witch! Teen Witch was one of my most favorite childhood movies. It came out (apparently) in 1989, though I was a mere slip of a child then (at six years old) and found it on television probably when I was around ten. And, it is the most amazing eighties movie ever created. The "Top That" rap scene alone pushes this movie into my top ten list. And, miracle of miracles, it's been shown a couple times recently on ABC Family. I watched it over the weekend and it was a magical 2 hours. Casey managed to survive, with much complaining.

Teen Witch stars Robyn Lively as 16-year old Louise Miller who finds her powers and uses them to - what else? - become hugely popular. All to win Brad, the dreamy football team captain (he's been captain since SIXTH GRADE), played by Dan Gauthier.

I hope you remember that movie. The soundtrack alone is worth five million of your imaginary dollars. I give this movie eleven out of ten stars. Hell, I give it 34 stars.

I'm trying to keep myself from buying it on Amazon. But if I do have it, I'm inviting all my girlfriends over for a SLEEPOVER!!! Complete with "light as a feather, stiff as a board." You know you want to.

Agh!

This week is going to be CRAZY (see above), and this is coming from someone who is rarely busy, much less swamped. Summer projects are ramping up at work; and I'm still working on finishing up some end-of-schoolyear projects. So, I won't have much time for blogging. Quick weekend wrap-up - went shopping with Jen and bought 4 pairs of shoes, 2 of which are boating shoes. Yes, I'll be spending a lot of time on my yacht this summer. Also, BR outlet - amazing resource for new work clothes. 3 pairs of pants and one sweater for 100.00? And all work appropriate? Fantastic. Watched our latest Netflix arrival - The Fountain - 1 part ridiculous, 2 parts beautiful (and a great score), 1 part Hugh Jackman. Overall it was pretty good, but loses points for being ridiculous at some points and also for Hugh Jackman. Tried going to Solstice fair/parade but failed, because of traffic and parking and irritability. Also, toenails.

I am notoriously picky about films. I rarely see them in theatres, because I'm a pretty critical person and I don't like wasting time on poor films; I also get confused as to why other people like movies that are completely worthless, and it upsets me to think of the public paying millions of dollars for piles of crap, propagating more of the same.

However, I love movie trailers. I vastly prefer trailers to films; and if the trailer is really good enough it can even warrant multiple viewings; I'm still watching the Paprika trailer in my regular lineup. To me, trailers often cut down films into the most essential and/or enjoyable parts, and you get to skip all that other crap. Of course, for good movies, the movie trailer will seek to highlight some elements of a complex/beautiful/hilarious/touching/poetic/dark/etc. film, but that rarely happens. Trailers also seek to make you ask questions, and capture your interest. I often want those questions answered! My interest is often captured! And thus, my love of trailers.

Some movies - big budget action films, for example, can often appear at their best in trailer format. Other skillfully made trailers can make me cry - just with a minute and a half promo! Of course, that just might be me. But films I'd never, ever see (even though they may be perfectly good, or whatever) like that recent soccer movie, Goal! might elicit some welling in the eyes or a smile with a well-cut trailer. Of course, when I saw the trailer for Goal!, I may have been drunk or hormonal or both, but you know what I mean.

Another great thing about trailers is that trailer repository sites, like my personal favorite Apple - Movie Trailers, can show you movies you probably didn't even know where coming out, and get you excited for the whole thing. Ratatouille (the new Pixar film), is a recent example - I've been watching its trailer since the teaser debuted some months ago.

So, I will probably share some trailers from time-to-time on my blog. I think I've already posted the Paprika trailer; here are some others you might find entertaining.

Totally horrifying, and makes you glad that you don't have any daughters: Bratz, the live action movie! And I thought those incredibly deformed dolls in the prosty-get-ups were bad.

Paris, Je T'aime, because Jen saw it!

Harry Potter, because it has been a constant on my trailer rotation lately (I'm so excited, but with low expectations)

And Superbad, because you know how much I <3 Michael Cera. You might even be able to find their unrated trailer version somewhere on the interweb, but from the looks of the website it might have been taken down.

Also, there have been a plethora of office-related films lately. I blame The Office, of course. This one and this one!
Severance (horror/comedy) - The Boss of it All (Lars von Trier, doing comedy - sounds unfunny) - and Chalk (supposed to be improv mockumentary but reviews have not been good)

There's quite a lack of pretty or tear-jerking type trailers (I love those to an unreasonable degree, maybe because I cannot quite bring myself to see those movies for fear that I'll really, really love them), but definitely next time.

Hurrah for 3 day weekends! I was able to watch two (2) recently-released movies at home. Thanks, Netflix!

half nelson

I would recommend to pretty much anyone over the age of 16 to see Half Nelson. The acting, particularly by one Mr. Ryan Gosling is phenomenal and the story feels real and gritty and honest, and despite all of his fuck-ups, I really liked (and rooted for) Gosling's character, Dan Dunne. Dunne struggles with and is overwhelmed by a cocaine addiction, teaches at an inner-city junior high school, and befriends one of his 13-year old students who finds out about his drug addiction. It's beautiful, really well written, acted, and directed, and as an added bonus, the soundtrack features songs by

Broken Social Scene, one of the best bands ever! and the movie uses some of their best songs. One of which is the slow version of Lover's Spit (which can't be found on the movie's soundtrack, I checked) but I'll post it here when I get home (if I remember), because it's lovely. Their album You Forgot it in People is one of my all-time favorites, and includes the amazing songs KC Accidental, Cause = Time, Anthems for a 17-Year Old Girl as well as Lover's Spit.

Notes on a Scandal

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Also, I watched Notes on a Scandal, and I had the same problem with the movie that I had with the book. That is, all the characters are pretty much detestable. No one is likable, you just take your pick of what trait you dislike the most - weak, conniving, and/or completely immoral. Judi Dench is practically unrecognizable in this film - and looks so old! and so unlike Dame Dench! - and Cate Blanchett is appropriately beautiful and delicate. It's a really well done adaptation of the book, though I felt they tried making Cate Blanchett's character more likable and Judi Dench's character is immediately horrible right off the bat, whereas in the book she doesn't really reveal her true nature for a little while. I don't know that I could ever sit through that movie again, but it was finely done. One more gripe, though - Phillip Glass does the soundtrack, and while I loved what he did with The Hours, here it's a bit heavy-handed and overemphasizes the already crazed emotions of all the characters.

On both my flights (Air Canada) they showed a number of weirdish movies and television shows and I was wondering, who picks what gets shown? I mean, clearly, they have to be prepared to be shown on a flight. Edited for content so it's safe for all ages... the TV shows have all these intros for Air Canada (en Route) and ads and so forth. On my way to Japan, I watched (literally):

Eragon (I barely watched this; Casey saw it with Jordan and said it was horrendous. It looked horrendous.)
Dreamgirls (I barely watched this as well. I remain uninterested in the film and probably won't see it unless forced)
Big Fish

and they showed a number of television shows. The Office (!), the episode where Michael grills his foot in the George Foreman; the Twilight Zone, a crazy episode where a woman is being stalked by "Mr. Death" and he finally finds her (v. melodramatic); and an episode of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations about Osaka. That one made sense. I learned about okonomiyaki (which I actually ate in Osaka, more about that in my "specialties" post that I have not yet written) and takoyaki, which I never ate but saw, everywhere.

On my flight back, I watched (with more interest than on my way there):

Freedom Writers (while watching, I cried several times, which I prefer to blame on PMS)
The Joy Luck Club, oddly - and I wondered if they'd selected this movie because it has Asian people in it (and about Chinese women, in particular). Granted, there is a difference between being Chinese and Japanese (obviously, but still - do the people of Air Canada know or care?), and hands-down most of the people I was flying with were Japanese. Also, it is in English, with French dub available but no Japanese dub or subtitles. This was the case for all the movies, which I think was unfair. It seemed like a vast majority of the people I was flying with were not only Japanese but were not great speakers of English. This was at least the case with both of my seat mates and with many of the people sitting around me.

The television shows they showed included Futurama, one of my most favorite shows; and a number of odd documentaries, one about construction work. I avoided the documentaries, they were pretty inconsequential as documentaries go.

Some questions that I think should be addressed:
1. Why does Air Canada insist on using a two-pronged head-phone plug in for its movies and tv shows? They provide the headset (for free) with the two prongs, but I tried using mine and the quality was terrible. I ended up using just the left earbud of my own personal headphones. Also, they told us we could keep the headset. Great. A two pronged headset. I left mine on the plane.
2. They were clearly aware of their audience, at least in part. The A.B. episode about Osaka was not, I think, a coincidence. However, considering how much effort they put into making their announcements in all possible languages of their passengers (English, French, Japanese) and their Japanese-style meal options, why not include Japanese subtitles on the movies? I know they exist. You can find plenty of movies with appropriate subtitles. I looked around while the movies were playing and few people were watching them; I blame this on the language barrier.
3. Who picks the shows and movies for each flight? The level of entertainment quality of my flight back was far lower than my flight there. Only two movies instead of three, and one movie from the nineties. And not a very good one at that. Plus less entertaining television shows. Futurama is nice, but an odd choice. And - documentaries about construction work? Really?

I realize my ticket was ridiculously cheap and I was lucky to have such an affordable flight. And that I should have just been sleeping, anyway, like everyone else. But I found so much of their entertainment choices confusing. Not to mention those stupid headsets. Worthless.

Mystery!

Lately I've been completely addicted to BBC Mysteries (as featured on Mystery! on PBS) - Foyle's War is my personal favorite, with Michael Kitchen, a mystery series set in England during WWII. I've also been known to watch Second Sight, a mystery starring Clive Owen, that tends to be full of clunky dialogue, but strong, interesting mysteries and a fascinating premise (Owen plays a detective who is slowly going blind; he has to start relying on his other senses and begins having hallucinations that help his cases along). One of my most favorite of the awkward lines went something like:

Owen (as Det. Ross Tanner): Rule number one - there are no rules. Rule number two - re-read rule number one.

He SAYS this. In all seriousness. To another detective who does not, as I would have, laugh in his face, but consider these "rules" with the deepest consideration.

But I digress. I've been watching a BBC show that's not a mystery; rather, it's a strange comedy with dramatic elements and a totally weird plotline. It's called Monarch of the Glen and it's about this restauranteur who goes to his childhood home in Scotland; finds an ailing father and a lot of debt, and decides to stay on as the "laird" until the situation is fixed. From Wikipedia:

• Laird, a Scots term applied to a feudal superior in Scotland

The show features shots of beautiful Scottish scenery and portrays (or so I've heard) Scottish customs and people with accuracy.

Finally, I watched Bride and Prejudice with B. over the weekend. It was terrible. Don't see it.