This movie wasn't really on my To See list until I read a thread on the upcoming movie of the books by Janet Evanovich which feature the character Stephanie Plum. I've never read them, but there's the usual brou-ha-ha over Katherine Heigl as the lead (no one ever likes the choices for characters they've already read about and come to imagine in their minds!)
So I pushed it to the top of my long-neglected Netflix queue, and watched it tonight. I really liked it! That's 4 stars, not 5 - mainly because, while I really did like it, it didn't grab me and make me want to revisit it several times.
In it, Heigl's character is Jane - always a bridesmaid, never a bride. It seems Jane's mother died when she was young, and she grew up feeling like she needed to take care of younger sister Tess and eventually her boss George and 27 of her friends in whose wedding she was a bridesmaid. Always saying "yes" to anyone who she thought needed her help. Plus, she did have a love affair with the wedding itself!
Her one secret obsession is with journalist Malcolm Doyle, who writes the Commitments section of the paper. She finds his romantic stories of engagements and weddings so beautiful, she clips and keeps them all.
Her boss (George) is her perfect ideal of a man. He's everything she's ever wanted in a man, with one exception: he only sees her as his assistant. Oh, he loves her as his assistant. He loves what she does. But he doesn't see her as a woman at all. In fact, when younger sister Tess comes to stay, suddenly he thinks he has found his perfect ideal of a woman - in Tess! Dang.
Jane runs into Kevin (James Marsden - he truly has a great romantic hero look) at a wedding she keeps slipping out of to attend another wedding. She even hires a cab for the night to ferry her back and forth between the 2 so that no one misses her. Kevin is intrigued - what is up with this woman dashing into and out of the wedding - so he follows her to the cab and gets an eyeful as she changes bridesmaid outfits in the back of the cab. Now he is even more intrigued and spends a lot of time annoying her by calling and following her around.
Well, it was a cute little romantic comedy in which we learn that Kevin - Kevin DOYLE that is - has a pen name, Malcolm. It takes Jane a long time to see Kevin as anyone other than an adversary trying to ruin her life by making her learn the value of saying NO to her friends once in a while. And the ending epilogue with the 27 brides was perfect!
Yeah, I laughed and smiled and felt for poor Jane - her friend Casey was the only one who seemed to realize what she was going through! and so in the end, I felt I needed to add my review to my blog in case I forget what the plot was and try to rent it again!! I thought Heigl was good, and since I haven't read the Stephanie Plum books, I'm all for her getting the role!! (maybe I'll break down and read them, although they are really chick lit - she never settles for a particular guy.) and James Marsden is so cute - no, he's handsome in a romance-novel way - so he was fun as the hero.
Showing posts with label movie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movie. Show all posts
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Sunday, August 30, 2009
The Time Traveler's Wife: The Movie
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger is one of my all-time favorite books, and I have read it at least once and also listened to the unabridged audio book at least 2 times. This was a pivotal book for me, one that got me really reading a lot while I was out in the desert. I was like other die-hard fans, awaiting the movie with both excitement and dread. Movies can and usually do alter the storyline so much that it's almost unrecognizable.
I haven't read any other reactions to the movie - no reviews, no discussions online, so my opinion comes only from my personal reaction. I loved it - I really did, but I do wonder if it might have been a different movie if certain elements had been retained.
First, I think the gist of the story was truly encompassed in the movie. The story editor(s) did a wonderful job of keeping the central theme of Henry and Clare's love first and foremost, and how the two of them dealt with his time-travel was the driving factor. But almost all of Henry's non-Clare life was left out, obviously for time/movie length reasons. The movie is only 1 hour 45 minutes long, however, so maybe they could have touched a little bit (more) on his pre-Clare life - his cynicism that shows through his relationship to his co-workers, his relationship to his other girlfriend Ingrid, even his later life relationships with Gomez and his personal "drug dealer" whose character name I've forgotten. The result is that the movie is lush and romantic, a chick-flick through and through, and the special effects and consequences of his time travel don't really go into how he had to deal with the worlds he entered, naked and unprepared.
I felt the things that they did end up changing for the movie worked well to solve issues that arise from leaving out characters and scenes - how he convinces Dr Kendrick to work with him, for instance, is changed so that the characters of Kendrick's family are never even introduced (although they appear in the movie, you don't know it unless you read the book).
The actors playing Clare (Rachel McAdams) and Henry (Eric Bana) were really, truly wonderful. Clare's obvious excitement at first meeting Henry in the library shone through her eyes - she was also wonderful in the movie The Notebook with these same expressions. She's a very fetching and engaging actor, almost as wonderful as Amy Adams, a real favorite of mine whose eyes are so expressive. I actually thought Eric Bana was almost too good looking to fit my vision of Henry, but he had me at the movie trailer. He never really got a chance to get into the cynical Henry in my mind, since that part of Henry's character isn't explored at all in the movie. The actor playing his mother was also wonderful - very warm.
I wasn't as enchanted with the little girls playing Alba, although using sisters that looked so much alike worked to show the slightly different ages. She had a very fetching look but her spoken dialogue seemed so stiff.
The storyline is that Henry has a gene that causes him to time travel without much warning and with no control. He travels both back and forward in time, but the rules of his time travel are that any amount of time can take place while he is gone and where he goes - for instance, he could only be gone 5 minutes in our present but might have been in the other time for 5 days. He goes only with his body - no clothes, not even fillings, so he arrives naked and penniless. He learns to pick locks and steal to find clothing and money to survive on in the other time, something his adult self teaches his child self early on - meaning he can be an existence of more than 1 when he travels. In fact, he watches his mother's death hundreds of times because he is a visitor there at several ages.
After his marriage to Clare, he travels back to her childhood and is an off-and-on presence in her life from her age 6 on, but when he meets her in real time - she's in her early 20s and he is 28, he has no idea who she is. It's a wonderful scene in the book and I thought it was also a wonderful movie scene as well.
I expected to cry in the movie, because in the book I cry for pages and pages every time I read it. Although I did feel fully engaged in their relationship during the movie, I wasn't moved to even tear up. I would say it was because I already knew what would happen, but I read the book/audio book 3 or 4 times, and cried every time! And in the movie, it's no secret that something is going to happen, but I just didn't get emotional about it.
So - I'm going with 5 stars - it was a wonderful movie, but with the caveat that it's a chick flick through and through, almost to the point of being sappy. The interesting time-travel aspects and the overriding negatives in Henry's life - his alcoholic father, his mother's death when he was 6, his inability to control his time travel, the horrors of his travels - how many times he was arrested, for instance, or the fact that he can't travel by airplane because it wouldn't be where he was when he left, so he would be killed in the fall on return - none of that is really brought out in the movie. Oh, yeah, sure, they show his father drinking, they show him being arrested once and then disappearing - but those are only seconds on screen, where in the book they are given much more weight.
If you're up for a chick flick, this is a wonderful fairy-tale romance - but if you're expecting a time-travel classic and special effects, stay home!
I haven't read any other reactions to the movie - no reviews, no discussions online, so my opinion comes only from my personal reaction. I loved it - I really did, but I do wonder if it might have been a different movie if certain elements had been retained.
First, I think the gist of the story was truly encompassed in the movie. The story editor(s) did a wonderful job of keeping the central theme of Henry and Clare's love first and foremost, and how the two of them dealt with his time-travel was the driving factor. But almost all of Henry's non-Clare life was left out, obviously for time/movie length reasons. The movie is only 1 hour 45 minutes long, however, so maybe they could have touched a little bit (more) on his pre-Clare life - his cynicism that shows through his relationship to his co-workers, his relationship to his other girlfriend Ingrid, even his later life relationships with Gomez and his personal "drug dealer" whose character name I've forgotten. The result is that the movie is lush and romantic, a chick-flick through and through, and the special effects and consequences of his time travel don't really go into how he had to deal with the worlds he entered, naked and unprepared.
I felt the things that they did end up changing for the movie worked well to solve issues that arise from leaving out characters and scenes - how he convinces Dr Kendrick to work with him, for instance, is changed so that the characters of Kendrick's family are never even introduced (although they appear in the movie, you don't know it unless you read the book).
The actors playing Clare (Rachel McAdams) and Henry (Eric Bana) were really, truly wonderful. Clare's obvious excitement at first meeting Henry in the library shone through her eyes - she was also wonderful in the movie The Notebook with these same expressions. She's a very fetching and engaging actor, almost as wonderful as Amy Adams, a real favorite of mine whose eyes are so expressive. I actually thought Eric Bana was almost too good looking to fit my vision of Henry, but he had me at the movie trailer. He never really got a chance to get into the cynical Henry in my mind, since that part of Henry's character isn't explored at all in the movie. The actor playing his mother was also wonderful - very warm.
I wasn't as enchanted with the little girls playing Alba, although using sisters that looked so much alike worked to show the slightly different ages. She had a very fetching look but her spoken dialogue seemed so stiff.
The storyline is that Henry has a gene that causes him to time travel without much warning and with no control. He travels both back and forward in time, but the rules of his time travel are that any amount of time can take place while he is gone and where he goes - for instance, he could only be gone 5 minutes in our present but might have been in the other time for 5 days. He goes only with his body - no clothes, not even fillings, so he arrives naked and penniless. He learns to pick locks and steal to find clothing and money to survive on in the other time, something his adult self teaches his child self early on - meaning he can be an existence of more than 1 when he travels. In fact, he watches his mother's death hundreds of times because he is a visitor there at several ages.
After his marriage to Clare, he travels back to her childhood and is an off-and-on presence in her life from her age 6 on, but when he meets her in real time - she's in her early 20s and he is 28, he has no idea who she is. It's a wonderful scene in the book and I thought it was also a wonderful movie scene as well.
I expected to cry in the movie, because in the book I cry for pages and pages every time I read it. Although I did feel fully engaged in their relationship during the movie, I wasn't moved to even tear up. I would say it was because I already knew what would happen, but I read the book/audio book 3 or 4 times, and cried every time! And in the movie, it's no secret that something is going to happen, but I just didn't get emotional about it.
So - I'm going with 5 stars - it was a wonderful movie, but with the caveat that it's a chick flick through and through, almost to the point of being sappy. The interesting time-travel aspects and the overriding negatives in Henry's life - his alcoholic father, his mother's death when he was 6, his inability to control his time travel, the horrors of his travels - how many times he was arrested, for instance, or the fact that he can't travel by airplane because it wouldn't be where he was when he left, so he would be killed in the fall on return - none of that is really brought out in the movie. Oh, yeah, sure, they show his father drinking, they show him being arrested once and then disappearing - but those are only seconds on screen, where in the book they are given much more weight.
If you're up for a chick flick, this is a wonderful fairy-tale romance - but if you're expecting a time-travel classic and special effects, stay home!
Friday, August 21, 2009
Twilight The Movie
I have now seen the movie of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight - and I must say, they did a good job of portraying the story, in my opinion. The major points were there - of course they had to skip some minor plot lines, and merge some things (the Sadie Hawkins-type dance with the prom) and leave some details out (the whole secret of going to the prom). The vampire/effects were pretty good - I sorta expected a little more from the baseball game, but it was fun anyway.
I wonder if you haven't read the book if you get the full experience. Somehow, when an author describes the look of someone's face and then the emotions behind it, you get a full idea - but on screen you just have to imagine what the actor is trying to show. When the actor is very very good, you are likely to get a closer idea, but even then it's so subjective. In the book, when she describes Edward seeing Bella and his reaction to her in class, you know more about what is going on than when you watch the movie and see the actor look like he might hurl. What, was his lunch bad? really, it's not that clear.
The actress did a good job, in my opinion, of showing Bella's insecurities but not as good a job showing her budding teen-love feelings for Edward. More than once I wanted to tell her to close her mouth. There was so much angst there, and not as much feeling for Edward. Edward, on the other hand, showed more of his true feelings for her. It did seem to rush from "oh, we can't be together" to "I'm taking you to meet the family" - again, on screen there isn't the luxury of time like in a book.
I wasn't sure what the point was of showing the other vampires as practically incestuous couples with commentary from Bella's friends, since they really didn't go into how the vampires lived. Jasper and Emmett were truly back-seat characters, practically wallpaper, and really none of the vampires, including Edward but especially J & E, fit the book description in my own head - beautiful, attractive, tall, strong. I realize my own standards are very different from today's teens, so I guess that's part of it.
The movie focuses mostly on Bella and Edward, with very little interaction with the other human teens, and not much more with the Indian teen Jacob who warns Bella about Edward. In fact, he never does tell her - she finally reads about the Indian legend online. Bella moves to Forks, starts school, meets Edward. Edward tells her in dialog much of what she discovers about them so that we don't have to wait long for her to figure it out. They spend time together, he takes her to the family ball game and BAM the Others show up and Bella's life is in danger.
And once again, a heroine with no talent at all for saving herself manages to decide she knows what is best and ditches the vampires to meet The Other and her own death to save the hero. Where do these heroines get these ideas... I must say, in the audio book, the case is made that she does have to get away to save her mother, whereas in the movie - well, she just walks away without all the buildup, without all the information about what is really happening and how the vampires are there protecting her, and meets the Other where he menaces her. I didn't get a true feeling of the danger she was in or even that she felt she was facing her death, in spite of the voice over.
I am giving it my personal 3 star rating - liked it, didn't love it, but I had a good time watching. I found the young actors engaging if not personally attractive, and the vampire effects fun.
I wonder if you haven't read the book if you get the full experience. Somehow, when an author describes the look of someone's face and then the emotions behind it, you get a full idea - but on screen you just have to imagine what the actor is trying to show. When the actor is very very good, you are likely to get a closer idea, but even then it's so subjective. In the book, when she describes Edward seeing Bella and his reaction to her in class, you know more about what is going on than when you watch the movie and see the actor look like he might hurl. What, was his lunch bad? really, it's not that clear.
The actress did a good job, in my opinion, of showing Bella's insecurities but not as good a job showing her budding teen-love feelings for Edward. More than once I wanted to tell her to close her mouth. There was so much angst there, and not as much feeling for Edward. Edward, on the other hand, showed more of his true feelings for her. It did seem to rush from "oh, we can't be together" to "I'm taking you to meet the family" - again, on screen there isn't the luxury of time like in a book.
I wasn't sure what the point was of showing the other vampires as practically incestuous couples with commentary from Bella's friends, since they really didn't go into how the vampires lived. Jasper and Emmett were truly back-seat characters, practically wallpaper, and really none of the vampires, including Edward but especially J & E, fit the book description in my own head - beautiful, attractive, tall, strong. I realize my own standards are very different from today's teens, so I guess that's part of it.
The movie focuses mostly on Bella and Edward, with very little interaction with the other human teens, and not much more with the Indian teen Jacob who warns Bella about Edward. In fact, he never does tell her - she finally reads about the Indian legend online. Bella moves to Forks, starts school, meets Edward. Edward tells her in dialog much of what she discovers about them so that we don't have to wait long for her to figure it out. They spend time together, he takes her to the family ball game and BAM the Others show up and Bella's life is in danger.
And once again, a heroine with no talent at all for saving herself manages to decide she knows what is best and ditches the vampires to meet The Other and her own death to save the hero. Where do these heroines get these ideas... I must say, in the audio book, the case is made that she does have to get away to save her mother, whereas in the movie - well, she just walks away without all the buildup, without all the information about what is really happening and how the vampires are there protecting her, and meets the Other where he menaces her. I didn't get a true feeling of the danger she was in or even that she felt she was facing her death, in spite of the voice over.
I am giving it my personal 3 star rating - liked it, didn't love it, but I had a good time watching. I found the young actors engaging if not personally attractive, and the vampire effects fun.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Steel Magnolias the movie
We picked up some 2-for-1 movies at Walmart this week, and one was Steel Magnolias. The 2fer with it was Sleepless in Seattle; the other 2fer we picked up was Jerry Maguire/A Few Good Men.
I first came across Steel Magnolias when I bought the play script while in New York City sometime in the 1980s. I read it in the car while my dad drove back to Houston from NYC, and I cried like a baby. I couldn't wait to see the play, which I am pretty sure I did, probably at The Alley Theatre. I just googled it - the play came out in 1987 and was produced at the Alley in 1989, so yeah I'm pretty sure I saw it there.
The movie came out in 1989, and as usual, was Hollywoodized a little but maintained the core of the play and most of its great lines, being about the friendship of 5 women in a small Louisiana town. In the play, the action all takes place in the hair salon, and while Shelby is a central plot device, she isn't the main character. She isn't really the main character in the movie either, but she has a larger presence and the movie seems to revolve around her life and death. There are no men in the play either - all the action we see in the movie comes either from the dialog inside the salon or from the screenwriter's imagination.
The movie does feature some of my favorite actors of all time - Sally Fields, Darryl Hannah, Julia Roberts, and Dolly Parton, and while not my favorites, Olivia Dukakis and Shirley MacLaine are marvelous in their roles.
The central theme is still the strength of the friendships among the women. Sally Fields plays M'Lynn, the mother of Julia Roberts' character Shelby. Dolly Parton's Truvy is the hair salon proprietor, where Darryl Hannah's character Annelle gets a job. Olivia Dukakis and Shirley MacLaine are local resident widows. We see each of them through the stories and gossip they share together at the salon (and in the movie, also at weddings, parties and the funeral). Shelby is getting married at the beginning, and we learn that she is diabetic and her doctor has told her her body probably won't survive having children.
The time period is over a number of years - Shelby proves the doctor wrong and has a child, but her kidneys fail and she needs a transplant. M'Lynn provides the kidney, but it's too little too late.
Annelle comes to town penniless and homeless since her husband left her and took everything - over a period of time, she changes and grows and tries a number of lifestyles. Truvy has an adult son who is wild, and a husband who is not there for her - she is optimistic, patient and supportive, but has needs of her own. The widows each have their own stories as well, of being the surviving spouse and also of being survivors. It's their willingness each to listen to the others and be there, be a supportive shoulder for each other, that makes the plot.
Be prepared with a full box of tissues because the end will knock you to your knees sobbing if you aren't careful. Even in the play - where the death scene does not take place onstage, but only in retrospect through dialog at the salon after the funeral - I was reduced to tears, so you can only imagine watching the family go through it, including the teenage brothers, the father and the young husband.
On Netflix I originally rated it 4 stars, but I'm changing it today to 5.
I first came across Steel Magnolias when I bought the play script while in New York City sometime in the 1980s. I read it in the car while my dad drove back to Houston from NYC, and I cried like a baby. I couldn't wait to see the play, which I am pretty sure I did, probably at The Alley Theatre. I just googled it - the play came out in 1987 and was produced at the Alley in 1989, so yeah I'm pretty sure I saw it there.
The movie came out in 1989, and as usual, was Hollywoodized a little but maintained the core of the play and most of its great lines, being about the friendship of 5 women in a small Louisiana town. In the play, the action all takes place in the hair salon, and while Shelby is a central plot device, she isn't the main character. She isn't really the main character in the movie either, but she has a larger presence and the movie seems to revolve around her life and death. There are no men in the play either - all the action we see in the movie comes either from the dialog inside the salon or from the screenwriter's imagination.
The movie does feature some of my favorite actors of all time - Sally Fields, Darryl Hannah, Julia Roberts, and Dolly Parton, and while not my favorites, Olivia Dukakis and Shirley MacLaine are marvelous in their roles.
The central theme is still the strength of the friendships among the women. Sally Fields plays M'Lynn, the mother of Julia Roberts' character Shelby. Dolly Parton's Truvy is the hair salon proprietor, where Darryl Hannah's character Annelle gets a job. Olivia Dukakis and Shirley MacLaine are local resident widows. We see each of them through the stories and gossip they share together at the salon (and in the movie, also at weddings, parties and the funeral). Shelby is getting married at the beginning, and we learn that she is diabetic and her doctor has told her her body probably won't survive having children.
The time period is over a number of years - Shelby proves the doctor wrong and has a child, but her kidneys fail and she needs a transplant. M'Lynn provides the kidney, but it's too little too late.
Annelle comes to town penniless and homeless since her husband left her and took everything - over a period of time, she changes and grows and tries a number of lifestyles. Truvy has an adult son who is wild, and a husband who is not there for her - she is optimistic, patient and supportive, but has needs of her own. The widows each have their own stories as well, of being the surviving spouse and also of being survivors. It's their willingness each to listen to the others and be there, be a supportive shoulder for each other, that makes the plot.
Be prepared with a full box of tissues because the end will knock you to your knees sobbing if you aren't careful. Even in the play - where the death scene does not take place onstage, but only in retrospect through dialog at the salon after the funeral - I was reduced to tears, so you can only imagine watching the family go through it, including the teenage brothers, the father and the young husband.
On Netflix I originally rated it 4 stars, but I'm changing it today to 5.
Monday, July 7, 2008
The 5 People You Meet in Heaven, a movie
After this movie was over, I felt - cheated. Years ago I saw another movie with Jon Voight and Ricky Schroeder that made me feel the same way. Because I felt emotion, I cried (at the earlier one) but I didn't like the movie. I felt manipulated, like maybe there had been subliminal messages embedded in the movie, shots of puppies being killed or something. Because I didn't think the story warranted the way I felt. It wasn't that good of a movie.
That's how I felt after this movie. Jon Voight plays Eddie, the maintenance guy at a carnival. Or fun park - Ruby Park - a permanent park with rides and side shows. He's there for years - I'm guessing he was older than 75 when he died, but they never said. The plot is that after he died, he met 5 people who had already died from whom he was to learn something before he could enter Heaven.
It's not really a spoiler to say that the point was his life affected so many others and he didn't even realize it. His work touched souls and had meaning. Well, as much meaning as anyone else's, I guess, was the point. So he kept rides safe at his park so that all the people who rode them were safe, even though he did things in his life that caused death for others.
I kept thinking his assent to Heaven was really Hell - the 5 people he met really did not have anything uplifting to say. A man died of a heart attack after swerving his car to miss 5-yr-old Eddie. An army buddy (WWII) died while the 2 were in captivity in the Phillipines. I don't know, I sorta thought someone going to Heaven would feel better about it. He's reunited with his wife, who died before him, but then she's taken away. Cheap shots like that, ones that bring emotions to the surface but don't really make you feel better....
Well he finally does make it to what is supposed to be his Heaven, but I say the movie should be called The 5 People Eddie Met in Heaven.
It just wasn't that good.
2 stars.
That's how I felt after this movie. Jon Voight plays Eddie, the maintenance guy at a carnival. Or fun park - Ruby Park - a permanent park with rides and side shows. He's there for years - I'm guessing he was older than 75 when he died, but they never said. The plot is that after he died, he met 5 people who had already died from whom he was to learn something before he could enter Heaven.
It's not really a spoiler to say that the point was his life affected so many others and he didn't even realize it. His work touched souls and had meaning. Well, as much meaning as anyone else's, I guess, was the point. So he kept rides safe at his park so that all the people who rode them were safe, even though he did things in his life that caused death for others.
I kept thinking his assent to Heaven was really Hell - the 5 people he met really did not have anything uplifting to say. A man died of a heart attack after swerving his car to miss 5-yr-old Eddie. An army buddy (WWII) died while the 2 were in captivity in the Phillipines. I don't know, I sorta thought someone going to Heaven would feel better about it. He's reunited with his wife, who died before him, but then she's taken away. Cheap shots like that, ones that bring emotions to the surface but don't really make you feel better....
Well he finally does make it to what is supposed to be his Heaven, but I say the movie should be called The 5 People Eddie Met in Heaven.
It just wasn't that good.
2 stars.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Tombstone the movie
I've seen this Tombstone movie several times, but we had company who had passed through Tombstone and saw the recreation at the OK Corral, so we pulled it out and watched it with them for old times sake.
It's truly a fun movie, and it's even more fun to watch with a crowd who has seen it several times - we shoulda just gone ahead and dressed Western and pretended it was Rocky Horror Picture Show! PD's favorite line is Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp saying to Billy Bob Thornton as the gambler, "Go ahead, skin it. Skin that smoke wagon" to challenge him to draw his gun first. We laughed and laughed at the absurdity of the line - I mean, "smoke wagon"? Go figure, but Kurt sure manages to make it sound sexy.
Then Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday mimicking the cowboy's expertise with twirling a gun by twirling a shot glass cracked us all up again. Kilmer's performance as the dying Holliday is nothing short of brilliant, and his Virginia drawl is wonderful. Myself, I'm not a Sam Elliott fan, but I was the Lone Ranger in that opinion in this crowd. I just think he doesn't open his mouth wide enough, he doesn't have any expression other than squinty eyes, and basically he needs to modulate his voice a little. But that's just me.
The movie makes Curly Bill, played by Powers Booth, to be meaner and lower than a rattlesnake so there's no doubt in anyone's mind who wears the white hats in this movie - no depth whatsoever - he's bad to the bone, and don't you fergit it. Poor Bill - maybe someday some director will let him be the hero in the movie, and show us what a sumbitch those ol' Earp brothers really were. After all, Wyatt's adulterous affair with whassername the actress, played by Dana Delaney, doesn't make him the most appealing fellow around.
It's a 5 star keeper movie all around, just for the fun and games. I'll be wearing a coupla six shooters next time, too.
It's truly a fun movie, and it's even more fun to watch with a crowd who has seen it several times - we shoulda just gone ahead and dressed Western and pretended it was Rocky Horror Picture Show! PD's favorite line is Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp saying to Billy Bob Thornton as the gambler, "Go ahead, skin it. Skin that smoke wagon" to challenge him to draw his gun first. We laughed and laughed at the absurdity of the line - I mean, "smoke wagon"? Go figure, but Kurt sure manages to make it sound sexy.
Then Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday mimicking the cowboy's expertise with twirling a gun by twirling a shot glass cracked us all up again. Kilmer's performance as the dying Holliday is nothing short of brilliant, and his Virginia drawl is wonderful. Myself, I'm not a Sam Elliott fan, but I was the Lone Ranger in that opinion in this crowd. I just think he doesn't open his mouth wide enough, he doesn't have any expression other than squinty eyes, and basically he needs to modulate his voice a little. But that's just me.
The movie makes Curly Bill, played by Powers Booth, to be meaner and lower than a rattlesnake so there's no doubt in anyone's mind who wears the white hats in this movie - no depth whatsoever - he's bad to the bone, and don't you fergit it. Poor Bill - maybe someday some director will let him be the hero in the movie, and show us what a sumbitch those ol' Earp brothers really were. After all, Wyatt's adulterous affair with whassername the actress, played by Dana Delaney, doesn't make him the most appealing fellow around.
It's a 5 star keeper movie all around, just for the fun and games. I'll be wearing a coupla six shooters next time, too.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
10 Seconds Over Tokyo, a movie
You might see a pattern here of WWII movies - PD loves 'em. Loves everything WWII-related. So we watch a lot of them.
10 Seconds Over Tokyo is about Doolittle's Raid - sound familiar? It was a major plot point in the much more recent Pearl Harbor (the movie). In this 1944 movie, Spencer Tracy plays Jimmie Doolittle, the pilot in charge of the raid to bomb Japanese war factories after Pearl Harbor. The planes have a lot of strikes against them: they aren't meant to fly from aircraft carriers, they are too heavy and must be stripped down, they can't carry much fuel. The pilots have some strikes against them too - since they can't carry enough fuel to get back, they must land in China. I believe Doolittle gives them all a phrase in Chinese to memorize, something about being an American...
This particular plot was as much a romance story as Pearl Harbor. The main pilot (after Doolittle) is played by Van Johnson - he's recently married, and his wife is newly-pregnant when he goes on the raid. Although much of the movie focuses on the build-up to the raid and the attempts of Van's crew to get his plane, the Ruptured Duck, working properly, we get a lot of story on Van and his wife (whatever their names were in the movie...). There's also a lot of character actors as the other pilots and crew - one weird tall fellow stood out, making PD and me question his accent. Tall white guy with a vaguely ebonics pattern of speech, who turns out to be from Virginia. I wasn't sure if his speech was meant to be Virginian or he was just a jiveass. I didn't exactly follow any of that, and I admit I tuned out a lot of the scenes with just soldiers yapping it up.
After the Ruptured Duck crashes into China, Van and his crew get found and taken care of by the Chinese. Van loses a leg and has facial scars, and is too embarrassed by this to admit it to his now-getting-big-with-child wife. He wants to delay seeing her until after he's fitted for a prosthetic and has surgery to cover the scars. This will take months, by the way. She is also embarrassed by her size, and afraid he won't recognize her or that he'll reject her because she's fat. Doolittle goes to see Van in the hospital after he finally returns from China, and gives him a sort of pep talk although I wasn't sure exactly what it was he said to turn Van around. Then his wife comes right on in, having been summoned by someone else, and they make up and we are left feeling they got their HEA. End of movie. See how that makes it more a romance than a story about WWII?
There was some good actual WWII footage used in the movie - not sure if it was footage of Doolittle's raid, or just similar footage of big ol' planes taking off from aircraft carriers. Considering the movie was made while the war was still in progress, it's pretty amazing. I felt like the romance story was built into the movie almost as propaganda, telling us our soldiers are all heroes and deserve a hero's welcome.
As usual, I let my mind wander during parts of the movie and didn't give it the attention a good movie deserves. However, I'd call it a 4 star movie just for the sentiments and the realistic depiction of the raid through actual footage. And Van Johnson was a cute young fellow!
10 Seconds Over Tokyo is about Doolittle's Raid - sound familiar? It was a major plot point in the much more recent Pearl Harbor (the movie). In this 1944 movie, Spencer Tracy plays Jimmie Doolittle, the pilot in charge of the raid to bomb Japanese war factories after Pearl Harbor. The planes have a lot of strikes against them: they aren't meant to fly from aircraft carriers, they are too heavy and must be stripped down, they can't carry much fuel. The pilots have some strikes against them too - since they can't carry enough fuel to get back, they must land in China. I believe Doolittle gives them all a phrase in Chinese to memorize, something about being an American...
This particular plot was as much a romance story as Pearl Harbor. The main pilot (after Doolittle) is played by Van Johnson - he's recently married, and his wife is newly-pregnant when he goes on the raid. Although much of the movie focuses on the build-up to the raid and the attempts of Van's crew to get his plane, the Ruptured Duck, working properly, we get a lot of story on Van and his wife (whatever their names were in the movie...). There's also a lot of character actors as the other pilots and crew - one weird tall fellow stood out, making PD and me question his accent. Tall white guy with a vaguely ebonics pattern of speech, who turns out to be from Virginia. I wasn't sure if his speech was meant to be Virginian or he was just a jiveass. I didn't exactly follow any of that, and I admit I tuned out a lot of the scenes with just soldiers yapping it up.
After the Ruptured Duck crashes into China, Van and his crew get found and taken care of by the Chinese. Van loses a leg and has facial scars, and is too embarrassed by this to admit it to his now-getting-big-with-child wife. He wants to delay seeing her until after he's fitted for a prosthetic and has surgery to cover the scars. This will take months, by the way. She is also embarrassed by her size, and afraid he won't recognize her or that he'll reject her because she's fat. Doolittle goes to see Van in the hospital after he finally returns from China, and gives him a sort of pep talk although I wasn't sure exactly what it was he said to turn Van around. Then his wife comes right on in, having been summoned by someone else, and they make up and we are left feeling they got their HEA. End of movie. See how that makes it more a romance than a story about WWII?
There was some good actual WWII footage used in the movie - not sure if it was footage of Doolittle's raid, or just similar footage of big ol' planes taking off from aircraft carriers. Considering the movie was made while the war was still in progress, it's pretty amazing. I felt like the romance story was built into the movie almost as propaganda, telling us our soldiers are all heroes and deserve a hero's welcome.
As usual, I let my mind wander during parts of the movie and didn't give it the attention a good movie deserves. However, I'd call it a 4 star movie just for the sentiments and the realistic depiction of the raid through actual footage. And Van Johnson was a cute young fellow!
Monday, June 23, 2008
55 Days in Peking, a movie
ok - to be absolutely honest, I didn't even really pay attention to this movie. I read a book almost the whole time. But here's a summary of my observations: Charleton Heston plays an American Marine, and David Niven plays a British ambassador, both in China during the Boxer Rebellion. The Marines are there to ensure safe conduct for the foreigners stuck in Peking. There's a Russian Baroness played by Ava Gardner. Her scandal: she slept with a Chinese man, so not only did she commit adultery but with a barbarian to boot, which made her Baron husband commit suicide. Her acting was the worst I've seen in a long time - maybe not much worse than the Anglo actors playing the Chinese characters in the movie.
I have no idea what the plot was beyond squelching the Rebellion and getting the Westerners out safely - the Baroness ended up helping as a nurse and being the love interest of Heston's character. There was a ball at which she appeared wearing some jewels and was the center of negative attention, but I wasn't sure if it was because of her scandalous ways or the jewels. Heston got to show a tender side a few times - one of his mates died and left a Chinese/American child in an orphanage, and Heston had to talk to her. He carried some orphans during a march out of town. He showed some concern for the Baroness's safety. Yeah, a real softie is our Heston.
Very forgettable for me. I'm not even going to bother to rate it. Maybe PD liked it. Apparently it's a classic and history and war movie buffs rate it highly for how it so closely depicts what actually happened.
I didn't even ask, I just kept reading my book.
I have no idea what the plot was beyond squelching the Rebellion and getting the Westerners out safely - the Baroness ended up helping as a nurse and being the love interest of Heston's character. There was a ball at which she appeared wearing some jewels and was the center of negative attention, but I wasn't sure if it was because of her scandalous ways or the jewels. Heston got to show a tender side a few times - one of his mates died and left a Chinese/American child in an orphanage, and Heston had to talk to her. He carried some orphans during a march out of town. He showed some concern for the Baroness's safety. Yeah, a real softie is our Heston.
Very forgettable for me. I'm not even going to bother to rate it. Maybe PD liked it. Apparently it's a classic and history and war movie buffs rate it highly for how it so closely depicts what actually happened.
I didn't even ask, I just kept reading my book.
The Ghost Breakers, a movie
This predates Ghostbusters by 44 years, and while I wouldn't say Ghostbusters got their ideas from it, I do think it rates as a classic horror/comedy.
The movie features a very young Bob Hope as radio personality Lawrence Lawrence Lawrence, who reads true-crime mob stories on the air. The Netflix blurb refers to him as a detective - not sure why, since he's clearly shown on his radio show... Maybe I missed something.
Anyway, he's summoned to a mob boss's hotel room after one of his shows because the story contains some truths. As he's trying to find the room (and he's scared and carrying a gun), a man is shot in the hallway - and during the shooting, Bob pulls out his gun and shoots. He thinks he killed the fellow, so he dashes into the nearest room to hide - housing Mary Carter (Paulette Goddard), who has just inherited the haunted Castilo Maldito in Cuba. She's been dealing with at least 2 people trying to buy the castle from her to keep her away, and as it turns out, one of them is the dead guy (Anthony Quinn, playing one of twins). When the cops search the hotel room, Larry hides in Mary's steamer trunk - which is picked up and put on the ship to Cuba. He and his valet Alex end up accompanying Ms. Carter to Cuba and helping her solve the mysteries of who is trying to keep her away, and whether or not the Castilo is haunted.
The special effects were really good, the comedy surprisingly funny and all in all I was glad to find it an enjoyable movie! My (admittedly limited) experience with old movies that I've never seen before is that there is a reason I haven't seen them - they generally aren't good enough to have been shown a million times on late night TV - but this is an exception to the rule.
So Bob - 4 stars! There's another movie with an almost identical plot and same actors, The Cat And The Canary that is not available on Netflix, that takes place in Louisiana.
The movie features a very young Bob Hope as radio personality Lawrence Lawrence Lawrence, who reads true-crime mob stories on the air. The Netflix blurb refers to him as a detective - not sure why, since he's clearly shown on his radio show... Maybe I missed something.
Anyway, he's summoned to a mob boss's hotel room after one of his shows because the story contains some truths. As he's trying to find the room (and he's scared and carrying a gun), a man is shot in the hallway - and during the shooting, Bob pulls out his gun and shoots. He thinks he killed the fellow, so he dashes into the nearest room to hide - housing Mary Carter (Paulette Goddard), who has just inherited the haunted Castilo Maldito in Cuba. She's been dealing with at least 2 people trying to buy the castle from her to keep her away, and as it turns out, one of them is the dead guy (Anthony Quinn, playing one of twins). When the cops search the hotel room, Larry hides in Mary's steamer trunk - which is picked up and put on the ship to Cuba. He and his valet Alex end up accompanying Ms. Carter to Cuba and helping her solve the mysteries of who is trying to keep her away, and whether or not the Castilo is haunted.
The special effects were really good, the comedy surprisingly funny and all in all I was glad to find it an enjoyable movie! My (admittedly limited) experience with old movies that I've never seen before is that there is a reason I haven't seen them - they generally aren't good enough to have been shown a million times on late night TV - but this is an exception to the rule.
So Bob - 4 stars! There's another movie with an almost identical plot and same actors, The Cat And The Canary that is not available on Netflix, that takes place in Louisiana.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Pearl Harbor the movie
I've seen Pearl Harbor before, but PD put it back in our Netflix queue for another look (I was shocked to realize we don't own it, since PD is such a WWII buff and we own so many movies).
I realized as I watched it: Pearl Harbor has the bones of a Romance novel! It's not really about WWII, and it's not really 100% about Pearl Harbor. The story revolves around the relationship of Rafe, Danny and Evelyn. Rafe and Danny are boyhood friends - even as children Rafe stood up for Danny, whose father was apparently a bit strong-handed with his discipline. Since we only get a glimpse of this, it's not really fair to say he was abusive. Rafe's father flies crop dusters, and the boys imagine themselves as war pilots at a very young age.
Next time we see them, the two are hot-dogging it as Army pilots and get both praised and disciplined for their efforts by their superior Doolittle (of Doolittle's Raid). Rafe has volunteered to go to England to join a special group of American pilots assisting the war effort, and Doolittle tries unsuccessfully to talk him out of it. Rafe tells Danny he was assigned instead of admitting he volunteered so that Danny won't go - protecting Danny is apparently his motive.
Rafe met Evelyn, Army nurse, when getting their physicals, and they started dating. They've now fallen in love, and have a tearful goodbye when he heads off on the trip. Evelyn and Danny discuss it afterward, and Evelyn lets it slip that he went voluntarily, not as an assignment.
Rafe's plane is shot down over the English Channel, and he is presumed dead. Danny is the one to tell Evelyn, and they share a moment of grieving before going back to their own lives. Several months go by, and they meet again and get romantically involved. One thing leads to another - Evelyn gets pregnant, but doesn't tell Danny.
As it turns out, Rafe was rescued by a French sailor and has been in occupied France recuperating. When he shows up, needless to say, the balance is upset among the three of them, and all three are hurt and confused.
Now is when we get to the whole Pearl Harbor thing. Interspersed with all this romance, we see scenes of FDR and various military leaders talking about the war. Dan Aykroyd plays a military intelligence officer who has been trying to alert the higher-ups to their vulnerability in Hawaii. They are grouping all their planes and ships in one place, for one thing. But no one seems to listen to him until after the attack. Too little, too late. Day late dollar short. All that - in hindsight.
The movie directors went out of their way to create a realistic Pearl Harbor invasion scene. That's all they can talk about in the DVD extras. (wonder why they don't mention that the story is really a romance??) There are some secondary plot lines going on - Cuba Gooding Jr plays a black soldier who is assigned to a ship as a cook. We see his frustration at wanting to serve in combat but not being allowed because of his race. However, race and rank don't matter when the ships are being sunk at Pearl Harbor, and he manages to rise above and show himself a hero. There is a romance subplot with another soldier and a nurse; the nurse is killed in the attack.
Danny and Rafe manage to overcome their personal hostilities to work together during the invasion to get some planes in the air and between them shoot down 7 Japanese aircraft. Doolittle seeks them out to join his raid - a raid to show the Japanese they can and will fight back. Oh yeah, FDR finally commits to declaring war too. But the real story here is about both Rafe and Danny going off on an extremely dangerous mission. Rafe confronts Evelyn about why she betrayed him with Danny. In their argument, he learns that Evelyn is pregnant, and also that she is conflicted about which man she loves, but she tells him she is committed to Danny as the father of her child. Rafe tries once again to protect Danny, but this time it's really for Evelyn as he begs Danny not to go on the mission. Danny, not knowing about the baby, stubbornly refuses to let Rafe be the hero once again. Rafe doesn't betray Evelyn's secret, and both men go.
Spoiler alert in case you don't want to know the ending: the planes are shot down in China, which should be safe but there are Japanese troops. The Americans put up a good fight, and kill the Japanese, but not before Danny is killed. As he's dying, Rafe tells him about Evelyn's pregnancy.
Everyone knows who won the war. We get a voice-over with the details just in case. Then we see a young dark-haired boy as a toddler with Rafe and Evelyn walking arm in arm, and Rafe calls the boy Danny. It's a multi-tissue HEA worthy of any romance. 5 stars.
I realized as I watched it: Pearl Harbor has the bones of a Romance novel! It's not really about WWII, and it's not really 100% about Pearl Harbor. The story revolves around the relationship of Rafe, Danny and Evelyn. Rafe and Danny are boyhood friends - even as children Rafe stood up for Danny, whose father was apparently a bit strong-handed with his discipline. Since we only get a glimpse of this, it's not really fair to say he was abusive. Rafe's father flies crop dusters, and the boys imagine themselves as war pilots at a very young age.
Next time we see them, the two are hot-dogging it as Army pilots and get both praised and disciplined for their efforts by their superior Doolittle (of Doolittle's Raid). Rafe has volunteered to go to England to join a special group of American pilots assisting the war effort, and Doolittle tries unsuccessfully to talk him out of it. Rafe tells Danny he was assigned instead of admitting he volunteered so that Danny won't go - protecting Danny is apparently his motive.
Rafe met Evelyn, Army nurse, when getting their physicals, and they started dating. They've now fallen in love, and have a tearful goodbye when he heads off on the trip. Evelyn and Danny discuss it afterward, and Evelyn lets it slip that he went voluntarily, not as an assignment.
Rafe's plane is shot down over the English Channel, and he is presumed dead. Danny is the one to tell Evelyn, and they share a moment of grieving before going back to their own lives. Several months go by, and they meet again and get romantically involved. One thing leads to another - Evelyn gets pregnant, but doesn't tell Danny.
As it turns out, Rafe was rescued by a French sailor and has been in occupied France recuperating. When he shows up, needless to say, the balance is upset among the three of them, and all three are hurt and confused.
Now is when we get to the whole Pearl Harbor thing. Interspersed with all this romance, we see scenes of FDR and various military leaders talking about the war. Dan Aykroyd plays a military intelligence officer who has been trying to alert the higher-ups to their vulnerability in Hawaii. They are grouping all their planes and ships in one place, for one thing. But no one seems to listen to him until after the attack. Too little, too late. Day late dollar short. All that - in hindsight.
The movie directors went out of their way to create a realistic Pearl Harbor invasion scene. That's all they can talk about in the DVD extras. (wonder why they don't mention that the story is really a romance??) There are some secondary plot lines going on - Cuba Gooding Jr plays a black soldier who is assigned to a ship as a cook. We see his frustration at wanting to serve in combat but not being allowed because of his race. However, race and rank don't matter when the ships are being sunk at Pearl Harbor, and he manages to rise above and show himself a hero. There is a romance subplot with another soldier and a nurse; the nurse is killed in the attack.
Danny and Rafe manage to overcome their personal hostilities to work together during the invasion to get some planes in the air and between them shoot down 7 Japanese aircraft. Doolittle seeks them out to join his raid - a raid to show the Japanese they can and will fight back. Oh yeah, FDR finally commits to declaring war too. But the real story here is about both Rafe and Danny going off on an extremely dangerous mission. Rafe confronts Evelyn about why she betrayed him with Danny. In their argument, he learns that Evelyn is pregnant, and also that she is conflicted about which man she loves, but she tells him she is committed to Danny as the father of her child. Rafe tries once again to protect Danny, but this time it's really for Evelyn as he begs Danny not to go on the mission. Danny, not knowing about the baby, stubbornly refuses to let Rafe be the hero once again. Rafe doesn't betray Evelyn's secret, and both men go.
Spoiler alert in case you don't want to know the ending: the planes are shot down in China, which should be safe but there are Japanese troops. The Americans put up a good fight, and kill the Japanese, but not before Danny is killed. As he's dying, Rafe tells him about Evelyn's pregnancy.
Everyone knows who won the war. We get a voice-over with the details just in case. Then we see a young dark-haired boy as a toddler with Rafe and Evelyn walking arm in arm, and Rafe calls the boy Danny. It's a multi-tissue HEA worthy of any romance. 5 stars.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Enchanted, the movie
OH MY this is now my absolute favorite movie! It's everything I love all wrapped into a movie - with 2 delicious hunky heroes (James Marsden as The Prince and Patrick Dempsey as Robert, a divorce lawyer) and the most wonderful fairy tale heroine, Amy Adams as Giselle. There's musical numbers, animated and live action, romance - it's truly delightful!
It starts out with a wonderfully animated Disney beginning, a true send-up of all their animated fairy tale movies with just a touch of irony. The heroine, with all her Disney animal friends, dreams up a hero but cannot imagine his lips. She sings about finding her true love with his magical kiss - meanwhile, her true love - out bagging a troll - sings along with her. He hears her, rushes to her and of course it's love at first sight and they are to be married in the morning.
Oh, but the evil queen of this country of Andalasia (Susan Sarandon) will have to give up her throne if Prince Edward marries, so she grabs Giselle before the wedding and throws her into a magic well - which pops the character up from a sewer hole in the middle of Times Square! Fully dressed in the fairy tale costume, I might add. Giselle wanders about until she happens upon Robert and his daughter, who help her out and take her home to dry off and call for help. Not that she has anyone she can call - as she said, "Oh, I don't think they can hear us from here!"
The actors playing The Prince and Giselle are so wonderful, so guileless, that I smiled the entire movie when I wasn't laughing out loud at the ingenuity of it all. Giselle starts her first day in New York by calling the animals to help her clean Robert's apartment. Well, it is New York City - so it's rats, cockroaches and pigeons, washing dishes and scrubbing toilets and singing along. At the end, a cockroach and pigeon eye each other - and SNAP the pigeon eats the roach. I about bust a gut.
Robert is finally on the verge of asking his girlfriend of 5 years to marry him, but as a divorce lawyer he's skeptical about the outcome. He admits as much to Giselle, and when Giselle shows Robert how a man should show a woman he loves her, she engages all of Central Park into a wonderful musical showstopper. Robert scowls through most of it, until the end when he too is swept into the fantasy. As a romantic gesture, Giselle has 2 doves deliver flowers and tickets to a ball to Robert's girlfriend. But it's sorta too late because it's pretty obvious Robert has now fallen head over heels for Giselle.
The Prince, having figured out the well trick, dives into the well to follow Giselle to the ends of the earth if necessary. It takes him a while to find her - he does have some help and hindrance in the form of one of his employees and an Andalasian chipmunk, who can no longer speak English in the Real World like he could in Andalasia. They dash about New York - he almost finds her in Central Park during the musical number, but manages to get knocked over by a bicycle club. Once he finds her, however, Giselle has come to the realization that her true prince is actually Robert, so she tries to find a way to delay their return to Andalasia.
She and The Prince go on a date - and damned if James Marsden doesn't look edible in his Andalasian Prince costume and a Statue of Liberty hat!! At the end of their date, they go to the ball that Robert is taking his girlfriend to, and the evil queen, realizing she must intervene before The Prince and Giselle marry (not having caught on that their relationship is on shaky grounds now), jumps into the well to offer the poisoned apple to Giselle to prevent the marriage.
Needless to say, we sit on the edges of our seats awaiting the resolution - for me, it was a no-brainer because it had to have a HEA - but how? It's wrapped up quite tidily and satisfactorily and funny too. Only the evil queen misses out on the HEA.
Well, it was a rollicking good time with so many nods to so many movies (complete with a nod to King Kong when the dragon climbs the building) that my head was spinning. Amy Adams was a delight. I just kept laughing and saying This is My New Favorite Movie! over and over. 5 Full Stars!
It starts out with a wonderfully animated Disney beginning, a true send-up of all their animated fairy tale movies with just a touch of irony. The heroine, with all her Disney animal friends, dreams up a hero but cannot imagine his lips. She sings about finding her true love with his magical kiss - meanwhile, her true love - out bagging a troll - sings along with her. He hears her, rushes to her and of course it's love at first sight and they are to be married in the morning.
Oh, but the evil queen of this country of Andalasia (Susan Sarandon) will have to give up her throne if Prince Edward marries, so she grabs Giselle before the wedding and throws her into a magic well - which pops the character up from a sewer hole in the middle of Times Square! Fully dressed in the fairy tale costume, I might add. Giselle wanders about until she happens upon Robert and his daughter, who help her out and take her home to dry off and call for help. Not that she has anyone she can call - as she said, "Oh, I don't think they can hear us from here!"
The actors playing The Prince and Giselle are so wonderful, so guileless, that I smiled the entire movie when I wasn't laughing out loud at the ingenuity of it all. Giselle starts her first day in New York by calling the animals to help her clean Robert's apartment. Well, it is New York City - so it's rats, cockroaches and pigeons, washing dishes and scrubbing toilets and singing along. At the end, a cockroach and pigeon eye each other - and SNAP the pigeon eats the roach. I about bust a gut.
Robert is finally on the verge of asking his girlfriend of 5 years to marry him, but as a divorce lawyer he's skeptical about the outcome. He admits as much to Giselle, and when Giselle shows Robert how a man should show a woman he loves her, she engages all of Central Park into a wonderful musical showstopper. Robert scowls through most of it, until the end when he too is swept into the fantasy. As a romantic gesture, Giselle has 2 doves deliver flowers and tickets to a ball to Robert's girlfriend. But it's sorta too late because it's pretty obvious Robert has now fallen head over heels for Giselle.
The Prince, having figured out the well trick, dives into the well to follow Giselle to the ends of the earth if necessary. It takes him a while to find her - he does have some help and hindrance in the form of one of his employees and an Andalasian chipmunk, who can no longer speak English in the Real World like he could in Andalasia. They dash about New York - he almost finds her in Central Park during the musical number, but manages to get knocked over by a bicycle club. Once he finds her, however, Giselle has come to the realization that her true prince is actually Robert, so she tries to find a way to delay their return to Andalasia.
She and The Prince go on a date - and damned if James Marsden doesn't look edible in his Andalasian Prince costume and a Statue of Liberty hat!! At the end of their date, they go to the ball that Robert is taking his girlfriend to, and the evil queen, realizing she must intervene before The Prince and Giselle marry (not having caught on that their relationship is on shaky grounds now), jumps into the well to offer the poisoned apple to Giselle to prevent the marriage.
Needless to say, we sit on the edges of our seats awaiting the resolution - for me, it was a no-brainer because it had to have a HEA - but how? It's wrapped up quite tidily and satisfactorily and funny too. Only the evil queen misses out on the HEA.
Well, it was a rollicking good time with so many nods to so many movies (complete with a nod to King Kong when the dragon climbs the building) that my head was spinning. Amy Adams was a delight. I just kept laughing and saying This is My New Favorite Movie! over and over. 5 Full Stars!
Friday, June 13, 2008
The Godfather part 1, the movie
I think I may have seen The Godfather movie over a dozen times by now. I also read the book, I guess close to the time it was published in 1969, and definitely before it was a movie.
My first time to see it was in Brazil in the early 1970s. I went with my parents, and had to use my older sister's American driver's license because I wasn't old enough to get in, even with my parents. Maybe that was a Brazilian thing, because I'm sure it wasn't X rated in the States*. I've never forgotten the scene with Sonny's wife at the wedding, a scene that would only make sense if you had read the book, where she shows with her hands the size of his package. That's one of those book-to-movie issues - the director can put a picture in to show something the author wrote, but only the actual words on paper can describe it for you. (Otherwise you might think she had been fishing, unless you read the book and learned Sonny was hung like a horse and had a hard time finding women to accommodate him.)
PD likes this movie a lot, so it gets pulled off the shelf for re-viewing often when we're between Netflix picks. Now that I know it by heart, the scenes seem to come too fast - it seems too early when Don Corleone is shot and hospitalized, too soon when Sonny is murdered, Michael's marriage to Apollonia seems too rushed. And I still think the horse's head scene, while grisly, just doesn't do justice to the way Mario Puzo describes it in the book. The horse's head is too small, and the white blaze isn't the same as on the horse they show.
That's the thing about books made into movies - it's the director's vision of the story. No - it's the director's vision of the screenwriter's vision of the story. However, it's been almost 40 years since I read it, and only 1 day since I watched the movie. They did do a good job of recreating Puzo's story, actually, and it's a good movie, if gritty and violent. Of course, the actors and the acting are incredible - a whole slew of silver screen greats - Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton. 5 stars.
*I see that the movie was released in 1972 - it's possible I saw it in Mexico instead, since we moved to Mexico from Brazil in October of 72. I just can't recall, but it seems it took months for movies and music to be released in Brazil after the Stateside release. It's an unimportant detail to anyone but me, who remembers it being Brazil... I even have a clear memory of going in after holding my breath to see if they would accept my sister's driver license for identification.
My first time to see it was in Brazil in the early 1970s. I went with my parents, and had to use my older sister's American driver's license because I wasn't old enough to get in, even with my parents. Maybe that was a Brazilian thing, because I'm sure it wasn't X rated in the States*. I've never forgotten the scene with Sonny's wife at the wedding, a scene that would only make sense if you had read the book, where she shows with her hands the size of his package. That's one of those book-to-movie issues - the director can put a picture in to show something the author wrote, but only the actual words on paper can describe it for you. (Otherwise you might think she had been fishing, unless you read the book and learned Sonny was hung like a horse and had a hard time finding women to accommodate him.)
PD likes this movie a lot, so it gets pulled off the shelf for re-viewing often when we're between Netflix picks. Now that I know it by heart, the scenes seem to come too fast - it seems too early when Don Corleone is shot and hospitalized, too soon when Sonny is murdered, Michael's marriage to Apollonia seems too rushed. And I still think the horse's head scene, while grisly, just doesn't do justice to the way Mario Puzo describes it in the book. The horse's head is too small, and the white blaze isn't the same as on the horse they show.
That's the thing about books made into movies - it's the director's vision of the story. No - it's the director's vision of the screenwriter's vision of the story. However, it's been almost 40 years since I read it, and only 1 day since I watched the movie. They did do a good job of recreating Puzo's story, actually, and it's a good movie, if gritty and violent. Of course, the actors and the acting are incredible - a whole slew of silver screen greats - Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton. 5 stars.
*I see that the movie was released in 1972 - it's possible I saw it in Mexico instead, since we moved to Mexico from Brazil in October of 72. I just can't recall, but it seems it took months for movies and music to be released in Brazil after the Stateside release. It's an unimportant detail to anyone but me, who remembers it being Brazil... I even have a clear memory of going in after holding my breath to see if they would accept my sister's driver license for identification.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Strictly Ballroom, a movie
Last night's movie: Strictly Ballroom. Wow - what a fun watch it was!
My very first impression was that it was by the same director as Best In Show, Christopher Guest, because it has that mockumentary feeling. The various characters are being interviewed about Scott, a young Australian ballroom dancer who is feeling rebellious and wants to use some of his own steps in his dances - steps that aren't Strictly Ballroom. His parents run a dance academy and all of the characters are as invested in competitive ballroom dancing as the Best In Show folks are in dog shows - that is to say, beyond obsessive.
The costumes, the hair, the personalities - way over the top, which made it that much more fun. When Scott dances, it's incredible. When the others dance, you laugh out loud because although they are good, they're so fake! But Scott does some incredible not-strictly-ballroom dancing in a competition, and his partner leaves him.
It's all about winning the big local competition. Without a partner, Scott has no chance - so they audition dancers (this smacked of the auditions in Waiting For Guffman). Meanwhile, ugly duckling novice dancer Fran approaches him in the studio after hours and offers to dance with him. She's not very experienced, but she has a secret - she's Hispanic (not sure of her background, but her parents speak Spanish) and her father is a very good Latin dancer. Fran and Scott practice every day after hours, without anyone knowing, and one day he walks her home and gets challenged by her papa to dance the Paso Doble at a party. When everyone at the party laughs at his attempt, papa and grandma show Scott how it's done - and then stay up all night teaching him.
OK, nothing else in this movie is exactly realistic, but the growing affection between Scott and Fran is so touching and real. He tells her at one point that the love they must show dancing the Rhumba, the "Dance of Love", is only pretend, but you can see it in their eyes that it's growing into something more.
When the pre-competition finals come along, we learn that one of the men is retiring from one of the top couples (to devote more time to his landscaping career - LOL!) leaving a top, experienced female to be Scott's partner. He is torn - because he really does want to win, and this dancer is much more likely to help him do that. But he also feels a loyalty to Fran who has spent so much time working on their dance. In the end, he feels he can't let himself and his parents down by risking the championship, and chooses the other woman.
Of course, that isn't the end - and there's about 4 other plot lines going on (soooo confusing). Fran and Scott were about the cutest couple I've seen in a movie in a long time - his dancing was truly wonderful, but his face - what a wonderful face! His affection for Fran was so blatant, and her change from ugly duckling to Latin dancer was subtle and genuine.
4 stars for some laugh out loud moments and the wonderful love story (did I mention it's an Australian film?)
My very first impression was that it was by the same director as Best In Show, Christopher Guest, because it has that mockumentary feeling. The various characters are being interviewed about Scott, a young Australian ballroom dancer who is feeling rebellious and wants to use some of his own steps in his dances - steps that aren't Strictly Ballroom. His parents run a dance academy and all of the characters are as invested in competitive ballroom dancing as the Best In Show folks are in dog shows - that is to say, beyond obsessive.
The costumes, the hair, the personalities - way over the top, which made it that much more fun. When Scott dances, it's incredible. When the others dance, you laugh out loud because although they are good, they're so fake! But Scott does some incredible not-strictly-ballroom dancing in a competition, and his partner leaves him.
It's all about winning the big local competition. Without a partner, Scott has no chance - so they audition dancers (this smacked of the auditions in Waiting For Guffman). Meanwhile, ugly duckling novice dancer Fran approaches him in the studio after hours and offers to dance with him. She's not very experienced, but she has a secret - she's Hispanic (not sure of her background, but her parents speak Spanish) and her father is a very good Latin dancer. Fran and Scott practice every day after hours, without anyone knowing, and one day he walks her home and gets challenged by her papa to dance the Paso Doble at a party. When everyone at the party laughs at his attempt, papa and grandma show Scott how it's done - and then stay up all night teaching him.
OK, nothing else in this movie is exactly realistic, but the growing affection between Scott and Fran is so touching and real. He tells her at one point that the love they must show dancing the Rhumba, the "Dance of Love", is only pretend, but you can see it in their eyes that it's growing into something more.
When the pre-competition finals come along, we learn that one of the men is retiring from one of the top couples (to devote more time to his landscaping career - LOL!) leaving a top, experienced female to be Scott's partner. He is torn - because he really does want to win, and this dancer is much more likely to help him do that. But he also feels a loyalty to Fran who has spent so much time working on their dance. In the end, he feels he can't let himself and his parents down by risking the championship, and chooses the other woman.
Of course, that isn't the end - and there's about 4 other plot lines going on (soooo confusing). Fran and Scott were about the cutest couple I've seen in a movie in a long time - his dancing was truly wonderful, but his face - what a wonderful face! His affection for Fran was so blatant, and her change from ugly duckling to Latin dancer was subtle and genuine.
4 stars for some laugh out loud moments and the wonderful love story (did I mention it's an Australian film?)
Friday, May 30, 2008
BBC Series: Foyle's War
We finished episode 2 of Foyle's War last night - I believe there are about 10 episodes total. It takes place in southern England during World War II, but it's the story of a detective fighting crime (murders really) in this small town, using WWII as a backdrop. The 2 episodes both had war-related issues, one about interning Germans, and the 2nd about a group of pro-Nazi supporters. The acting and the production values are top notch, as to be expected from BBC. The main character, Foyle, is disappointed that he cannot go into the armed forces, but is forced to stay behind and be a detective instead. But he perseveres - and because he doesn't drive, is given a driver, Samantha, to drive him around to all the crime scenes and suspect interviews. She is Robin to his Batman - she's a wonderful character who, although he tells her over and over again not to pry into the cases, takes an active part. Instead of being annoyed, Foyle recognizes her as almost a partner. She's really my favorite character.
He has another assistant, a fellow (name?) who has lost a foot in the war, and has gotten a prosthetic but has to use a crutch. This fellow is having trouble at home, though, with his wife Jane who cannot see past the injury. Jane even asks him to leave the prosthetic out of the bedroom and never let her see it - she's pretty cruel and in denial. That was a big part of the story in Episode 2. He's allowing it to affect his self-esteem, so he shows a lot of angst - well, that's relative, since it is British - they don't show a lot of emotion in this series, but he frowns and sometimes brings his eyebrows together, which is more than many others do...!!
The murder solving is reminiscent of Murder She Wrote or Agatha Christy - we get introduced to several suspects, and learn why each one of them could have done it, then Foyle finds the one and tells us all how and why it was done. Still, it's fun to try to figure out which one had the motive and how they pulled it off. 4 stars.
He has another assistant, a fellow (name?) who has lost a foot in the war, and has gotten a prosthetic but has to use a crutch. This fellow is having trouble at home, though, with his wife Jane who cannot see past the injury. Jane even asks him to leave the prosthetic out of the bedroom and never let her see it - she's pretty cruel and in denial. That was a big part of the story in Episode 2. He's allowing it to affect his self-esteem, so he shows a lot of angst - well, that's relative, since it is British - they don't show a lot of emotion in this series, but he frowns and sometimes brings his eyebrows together, which is more than many others do...!!
The murder solving is reminiscent of Murder She Wrote or Agatha Christy - we get introduced to several suspects, and learn why each one of them could have done it, then Foyle finds the one and tells us all how and why it was done. Still, it's fun to try to figure out which one had the motive and how they pulled it off. 4 stars.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Three movies
we've watched 3 netflix movies:
Lucky Numbers with John Travolta and Lisa Kudrow. It was fairly amusing (gave it 3 stars) - John Travolta is an almost-down-on-his-luck weatherman, trying to get a break. It's dead of the mildest winter for years, and he's just invested in snowmobiles. He wants to audition for a game show host position, but his agent won't return his calls (ok, the agent's been dead for months but he doesn't even know). He's got some shady friends who convince him to do some dishonest things to pay his debts, like faking a burglary of his snowmobile store which fails, and throwing the lotto, which succeeds in part.
Heartburn with Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep is supposedly biographical about Nora or Delia Ephron, who wrote/directed. Nora I think. They meet, get married, have kids, he sleeps around. We only watched a little of it (1 kid born, she looked like she was pregnant with another), and got bored and turned it off. Would that be 1 or 2 stars?
Don't Drink The Water, Woody Allen - a family vacationing in Eastern Europe accidentally takes a photo of something sensitive and hides in the American Embassy while the ambassador's son (Michael J Fox) tries to figure out how to get them back to the States. Pretty silly all around, I gave it 2 stars.
Lucky Numbers with John Travolta and Lisa Kudrow. It was fairly amusing (gave it 3 stars) - John Travolta is an almost-down-on-his-luck weatherman, trying to get a break. It's dead of the mildest winter for years, and he's just invested in snowmobiles. He wants to audition for a game show host position, but his agent won't return his calls (ok, the agent's been dead for months but he doesn't even know). He's got some shady friends who convince him to do some dishonest things to pay his debts, like faking a burglary of his snowmobile store which fails, and throwing the lotto, which succeeds in part.
Heartburn with Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep is supposedly biographical about Nora or Delia Ephron, who wrote/directed. Nora I think. They meet, get married, have kids, he sleeps around. We only watched a little of it (1 kid born, she looked like she was pregnant with another), and got bored and turned it off. Would that be 1 or 2 stars?
Don't Drink The Water, Woody Allen - a family vacationing in Eastern Europe accidentally takes a photo of something sensitive and hides in the American Embassy while the ambassador's son (Michael J Fox) tries to figure out how to get them back to the States. Pretty silly all around, I gave it 2 stars.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Movie: Shopgirl
Shopgirl was based on a novella written by Steve Martin, who also stars in the movie as Ray Porter, an older gentleman who woos the heroine, Mirabelle. It's a sort of character study, I guess, less than a romance.
It starts with Mirabelle in her job as glove sales clerk at Saks Fifth Avenue in Los Angeles. We learn she is from Vermont and she aspires to be an artist. She meets Jeremy at the laundromat - he's an artist (of fonts and silk screen logos) as well, and I guess he's attracted to her although he's so clumsy about it, it's hard to say. He takes her out; they go to her apartment and again clumsily make love. Not "again make love" but "again clumsy". Then he gets an offer to travel with a band - and pretty abruptly leaves town. He does call Mirabelle to see if she'll go out with him one last time but by this time, she's met Ray and turns Jeremy down.
Ray is - according to Netflix revues - 35 years older than Mirabelle. He wines, dines and beds her - he buys her expensive clothes - he even pays off her college loans. But he keeps emotional and physical distance - he actually lives mostly in Seattle, flying in to LA from time to time. We learn through his discussion with someone else - perhaps a psychiatrist? or friend? - that he has made it clear to her that he only wants her companionship, at dinner and in bed mainly. I think he might have said that - in the dialog - but then we hear her tell her friends pretty much the opposite. So she didn't get it.
While on the road, Jeremy listens to self-help audio, which apparently helps him figure out what he wants from Mirabelle and from life. Meanwhile, Ray pretty much lets Mirabelle know the truth: he will buy her things, and sleep with her, but nothing more. It's hard for her to grasp because in so many ways he shows her he does love her, and he does go out of his way to spend time with her. But then he sleeps with someone else, writes a letter about it and gives it to her to read in front of him. He mentions getting an apartment in NYC so that he doesn't need to get a hotel for trips there; then he says he plans to get a 3-bedroom in case he meets someone he wants to settle down with and have kids with. I thought maybe he was making a joke, but apparently he wasn't - he meant it, and now I think he meant it to hurt or distance himself from Mirabelle even more. These things seem to have been done on purpose because he realizes she's getting under his skin and he needs to push her away. So she ends it right then, deciding to hurt now rather than later.
Jeremy runs into Mirabelle when he gets back - he's sorta cleaned up and he isn't quite as clumsy -well, he is but whatever. So hey, she gets back with Jeremy. There is a scene early on where Mirabelle listens to a late night talk show radio program where the woman describes "afterglow" for women and what positions the man and woman take after making love, and how they are interpreted. After Jeremy returns and they make love again - for the 2nd time - the narrative lets us know that Jeremy manages to give Mirabelle what she is looking for, and they show them asleep, after making love, lying entwined on the bed in one of the positions that manages to convey tenderness - a sort of spoon position, with his arm across her body, their hands touching.
Somehow - describing it - and reading reviews, it didn't sound that great. But I was touched, and saddened, by the ending when Ray admits to her he did love her after all, in his own way, and we are led to believe that she is still happier with Jeremy even knowing that Ray loves her. and Ray is left alone, bereft, because he is unable to show love. So there's a HEA for Jeremy and Mirabelle, and Ray is left behind. It was sad, and maybe I'd give it 4 stars but I don't want to see it again.
I read that same 1st page in MacBeth The King again today, several times, and then listened to DIA some more while making cookies and rescuing baby owls.
It starts with Mirabelle in her job as glove sales clerk at Saks Fifth Avenue in Los Angeles. We learn she is from Vermont and she aspires to be an artist. She meets Jeremy at the laundromat - he's an artist (of fonts and silk screen logos) as well, and I guess he's attracted to her although he's so clumsy about it, it's hard to say. He takes her out; they go to her apartment and again clumsily make love. Not "again make love" but "again clumsy". Then he gets an offer to travel with a band - and pretty abruptly leaves town. He does call Mirabelle to see if she'll go out with him one last time but by this time, she's met Ray and turns Jeremy down.
Ray is - according to Netflix revues - 35 years older than Mirabelle. He wines, dines and beds her - he buys her expensive clothes - he even pays off her college loans. But he keeps emotional and physical distance - he actually lives mostly in Seattle, flying in to LA from time to time. We learn through his discussion with someone else - perhaps a psychiatrist? or friend? - that he has made it clear to her that he only wants her companionship, at dinner and in bed mainly. I think he might have said that - in the dialog - but then we hear her tell her friends pretty much the opposite. So she didn't get it.
While on the road, Jeremy listens to self-help audio, which apparently helps him figure out what he wants from Mirabelle and from life. Meanwhile, Ray pretty much lets Mirabelle know the truth: he will buy her things, and sleep with her, but nothing more. It's hard for her to grasp because in so many ways he shows her he does love her, and he does go out of his way to spend time with her. But then he sleeps with someone else, writes a letter about it and gives it to her to read in front of him. He mentions getting an apartment in NYC so that he doesn't need to get a hotel for trips there; then he says he plans to get a 3-bedroom in case he meets someone he wants to settle down with and have kids with. I thought maybe he was making a joke, but apparently he wasn't - he meant it, and now I think he meant it to hurt or distance himself from Mirabelle even more. These things seem to have been done on purpose because he realizes she's getting under his skin and he needs to push her away. So she ends it right then, deciding to hurt now rather than later.
Jeremy runs into Mirabelle when he gets back - he's sorta cleaned up and he isn't quite as clumsy -well, he is but whatever. So hey, she gets back with Jeremy. There is a scene early on where Mirabelle listens to a late night talk show radio program where the woman describes "afterglow" for women and what positions the man and woman take after making love, and how they are interpreted. After Jeremy returns and they make love again - for the 2nd time - the narrative lets us know that Jeremy manages to give Mirabelle what she is looking for, and they show them asleep, after making love, lying entwined on the bed in one of the positions that manages to convey tenderness - a sort of spoon position, with his arm across her body, their hands touching.
Somehow - describing it - and reading reviews, it didn't sound that great. But I was touched, and saddened, by the ending when Ray admits to her he did love her after all, in his own way, and we are led to believe that she is still happier with Jeremy even knowing that Ray loves her. and Ray is left alone, bereft, because he is unable to show love. So there's a HEA for Jeremy and Mirabelle, and Ray is left behind. It was sad, and maybe I'd give it 4 stars but I don't want to see it again.
I read that same 1st page in MacBeth The King again today, several times, and then listened to DIA some more while making cookies and rescuing baby owls.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The Movie: Melinda and Melinda
Melinda and Melinda was directed by Woody Allen. The premise: 4 Hollywood types at dinner, discussing whether comedy or tragedy is more popular and why. They start talking about a scenario - a woman interrupts a dinner party, and there are 2 plotlines - 1 tragedy and 1 comedy, each being described by a different person. Except the tragedy wasn't really that tragic, and I never once felt like laughing at the comedy. Will Farrell was Woody Allen incarnate in this movie as the husband of the couple giving the dinner party comedy-style - everything he did and said was Woody Allen except he didn't use the NY accent, and of course he's taller, and younger. Still, I felt Woody's voice in everything Farrell did. I liked him better in Elf.
Melinda is the female protanist in both stories, played by the same actor. Each story has her disrupting a dinner party, but with different relationships to the guests and with a different backstory. She's a mess in both. In both, she's the catalyst that breaks up the marriage of the primary couple hosting the dinner party. Yeah, funny, huh? Not. The stories happen simultaneously, jumping from one set of actors to the other. I kept thinking maybe they would all meet before it was all over. The acting was wooden, and I never exactly got interested in what happened to anyone. I did read Roger Ebert's review (he loved it) in which he basically says the point wasn't to actually present a full story, but to explore the idea of tragedy v comedy or something. See, not only did I not pay attention to the movie, I didn't pay attention to the reviews either. There ya go. I also think his point was, it's just a movie and it doesn't matter what happens to anyone at the end. Is that a point?
I read the same 1st page of Nigel Tranter's MacBeth The King 2 or 3 times today but made no other reading progress. I did spend a lot of time looking for good deals at PBS, entering DVDS at Swapadvd and sending 5 DVDs out. I think I might have about 15 books coming! That will last about 1/2 a month... We couldn't agree on any DVDs to get from Swapadvd so we have 7 credits just waiting, and 4 items on the wish list.
Melinda is the female protanist in both stories, played by the same actor. Each story has her disrupting a dinner party, but with different relationships to the guests and with a different backstory. She's a mess in both. In both, she's the catalyst that breaks up the marriage of the primary couple hosting the dinner party. Yeah, funny, huh? Not. The stories happen simultaneously, jumping from one set of actors to the other. I kept thinking maybe they would all meet before it was all over. The acting was wooden, and I never exactly got interested in what happened to anyone. I did read Roger Ebert's review (he loved it) in which he basically says the point wasn't to actually present a full story, but to explore the idea of tragedy v comedy or something. See, not only did I not pay attention to the movie, I didn't pay attention to the reviews either. There ya go. I also think his point was, it's just a movie and it doesn't matter what happens to anyone at the end. Is that a point?
I read the same 1st page of Nigel Tranter's MacBeth The King 2 or 3 times today but made no other reading progress. I did spend a lot of time looking for good deals at PBS, entering DVDS at Swapadvd and sending 5 DVDs out. I think I might have about 15 books coming! That will last about 1/2 a month... We couldn't agree on any DVDs to get from Swapadvd so we have 7 credits just waiting, and 4 items on the wish list.
Monday, May 19, 2008
tonight's movie: The World is Not Enough
We did a re-watch of James Bond The World Is Not Enough. Well, PD did a re-watch - I read Shadow Dance, and looked up from time to time to catch pieces of it. I do like Pierce Brosnan as Bond. The plot was something about a woman who had been a kidnap victim, and some plutonium and a bomb. The kidnap-victim-woman ends up being the bad guy (Bond boffed her anyway). The opening credits show over some very 60s looking dancing girls with what looks like mud running all over them - ? not sure what that was about, except maybe to recall early Bond films from the 60s. Anyway, I was too involved in my book to keep track of the plot - there was gambling, and a sexy young scientist (Bond boffs her too). Oh, and Q and some new inventions, as well as a Q backup; M and Miss Moneypenny; and some other villains thrown in to confuse the issue, you know, the villains who aren't really as bad as The Villain.
At some point Bond does say the title line in response to something, which is where it comes from, I'm sure. Of course, I thought "world enough and time" and mourned for The Time Traveler's Wife.... sigh.
At some point Bond does say the title line in response to something, which is where it comes from, I'm sure. Of course, I thought "world enough and time" and mourned for The Time Traveler's Wife.... sigh.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Sunday Night at the Movies: Heart Like a Wheel
I got a Wish List movie from Swap-a-DVD - Heart Like a Wheel. This is a favorite, and PD was pretty pumped about getting our own copy. It's the story of race-car-driver Shirley Muldowney, starring Bonnie Bedelia. It's a 5 star watch and hey, now we own it! There were a lot of scenes neither of us remember seeing, but I have 2 theories about that. 1, when we watched it on TV, we never managed to start at the beginning, and 2, I think they probably cut some scenes when they show it on TV. Then there's that issue where someone whose name will not be mentioned but the initials are PD would change channels during commercials, then if we ever got back to the movie, we inevitably missed something.
I sure don't miss channel surfing.
I sure don't miss channel surfing.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
today's movie: Dear Wendy
Dear Wendy. Sucked. Really. I think it was some kind of metaphor for something but I couldn't figure it out. I'm pretty sure PD and I agree it's the weirdest movie we've seen, although we did actually watch it (ok, he watched it - I read).
Sucked.
Sucked.
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