Movies, Cartoons, and plenty of Reading
It's 4:45 AM. I got home around, oh, 10-ish from a nice little detour with Harry and Justine over at Third Street. It's been far too long since we've hung out with her.
I technically have jury duty tomorrow. But I've decided to call in sick. Because let's face it: I just don't want to do it. And I watched about 20 other people lie through their teeth while sitting there on the stand Friday afternoon. So sick I shall be, and the judge even gave us a number to call for the occasion.
So what've I been doing since I got home at 10-ish?
Reading for four hours straight. Yeah, I couldn't help finishing Harry Potter. My measured two-chapter-at-a-time incruments were killing me. Wow. This book was very good. I pretty much guessed everything that would happen beforehand, but still...it was really, really good. I can't wait to see Alan Rickman in the upcoming movies, especially given all the new material...
Meanwhile, I've begun watching The Tick cartoon again. It's absolutely hilarious. Sharp, witty, and a lot of fun.
What else is new? Well...The Slightly Shrinking Man didn't make it into the 101 or 102 screenings. I'm not surprised. Not terribly disappointed either. Harry and I had a lot of fun making it, and it was ultimately more of a "let's-keep-our-minds-off-TestiPals!-with-another-project-to-fill-the-void" than anything else. And again, we gained a lot from it. A boom mic, for instance.
We're developing our first 'real' pilot, i.e. not for Channel101/102, but something tailored for actual television. It's something we've been talking about for awhile now, and I'm excited that it's finally starting to develop. Preliminary brainstorming has begun, meaning I've begun jotting down notes and Harry's begun doing the same plus drawing. I think it has a lot of potential.
Reading and writing aside, I've also seen a handful of movies:
Unbreakable: Okay, I'll start off with this: I'm not a huge M. Night Shyamalan fan. All this hype about him being 'the new Hitchcock'? Not. A. Chance. It just pisses me off that people actually equate him to Hitchcock who, quite simply, was a cinematic genius. I liked The Sixth Sense. I hated Signs and found The Village to be surprisingly and remarkably worse. What little depth there usually is in his films are rubbed right in the audience's faces just in case you weren't able to grasp it when he blatantly paraded the imagery around on screen. He's certainly not a subtle writer/director. But I will say this about Unbreakable: I thought it was better than his two latest films. In fact, I thought it had a great premise. It really felt like a "real-life" superhero film. Also great was the visual style chosen for the film; the deep blues and gray/black tones were moody and really stood out. But what was superfically a potentially great premise turned sour with some bad acting, bad writing, bad direction, and, oh, yeah, that about covers it. It was style over substance, and it didn't help that the substance seemed so inherently pretentious. Definitely squandered material. So, yeah, not a great film.
Trekkies: Well, it was certainly interesting. I've always been fascinated by the fanatical nature of Star Trek fans. It's a little frigthening at times, but mostly just hard to fathom. I mean, I consider myself a fan of plenty of geeky things, cartoons and comics and whatnot, but I could never really imagine myself being that...obsessive. Anyway, the documentary explored the nature of Star Trek fans, what it means to be a Trekkie, conventions, their lifestyles, etc. It was definitely interesting, although as a film it really didn't hold together very well. In fact, it was a rather sloppy documentary--there was no real structure at all. Despite the lack of structure, though, I still enjoyed watching it.
Spellbound: No, not the Hitchcock film with the really cool Salvador Dali animated dream sequence. I finally sat down and watched the documentary. While it was interesting most of the time (drew out too long), it wasn't anything spectacular. It was wholly underwhelming, really. Maybe i just expected too much. I'd heard from most people that it was 'fantastic' or 'amazing' and that I 'had to see it.' Even people who criticized it said that the reason they didn't like it was largely based on the fact that it poked fun at its subject too much. Well, none of the above really struck me as applicable to the documentary. It was 'okay.' I was interested in this crazy world that parents and their children would devote their life to, but it didn't really capture my attention 24/7. And I actuallly didn't find many instances where I thought the documentarians were exploiting their subjects for humor's sake. In fact, I thought it was pretty kind, overall. Maybe I expected it to be more blatant. Overall, I think I enjoyed Trekkies more, but this was a much better film in terms of structure.
Bullets Over Broadway: I haven't seen that much Woody Allen. What little I have seen, I like and I don't like at the same time. I like his writing. I don't like seeing him act. He just annoys me if I see him as the lead more than once or twice, because, well, he's ALWAYS the same. Yeah, I know, that's his thing. But it annoys me. So I was happy to see a Woody Allen film where he wasn't acting in it. And I liked it a lot. I loved the overall design and feel of the film--despite the fact that it was made in 1994, it really felt like an older film. And the costuming and sets were great, as well. I enjoyed it much like I enjoy going to see a comedic play. It had the same type of humor. It was very theatre-y, and not just because the events of the movie were set in a theatrical environment. Large, bombastic characters inhabited a world that revolved around a lot of wacky/silly circumstances. It felt a lot like I was watching something akin to Noises Off! But I liked it a lot, if not only for the fact that Diane Wiest was utterly hilarious in a type of role that I've never seen her play. Here was the mother from Edward Scissorhands and The Birdcage saying something akin to, "The world is your open oyster...no, no, no...the world is your vagina!" Overall, a very funny (if not shallow) film.
But I've also got a host of other movies to watchin the meanwhile, including Gods and Monsters, American Splendor, The Last Temptation of Christ, and The Killing.
Oh yeah, I also have a 60 year old married couple living in my house right now. Which is a little bit awkward. It boils down to my mother's hospitality towards her employees when they lose their homes. But it's still a little strange, being that it's just been pretty empty recently since Jordyn's been gone (who incidentally is coming back on Wednesday).
I think I'm going to begin Slaughterhouse-Five today. It feels good to be reading consistently.
-Justin
I technically have jury duty tomorrow. But I've decided to call in sick. Because let's face it: I just don't want to do it. And I watched about 20 other people lie through their teeth while sitting there on the stand Friday afternoon. So sick I shall be, and the judge even gave us a number to call for the occasion.
So what've I been doing since I got home at 10-ish?
Reading for four hours straight. Yeah, I couldn't help finishing Harry Potter. My measured two-chapter-at-a-time incruments were killing me. Wow. This book was very good. I pretty much guessed everything that would happen beforehand, but still...it was really, really good. I can't wait to see Alan Rickman in the upcoming movies, especially given all the new material...
Meanwhile, I've begun watching The Tick cartoon again. It's absolutely hilarious. Sharp, witty, and a lot of fun.
What else is new? Well...The Slightly Shrinking Man didn't make it into the 101 or 102 screenings. I'm not surprised. Not terribly disappointed either. Harry and I had a lot of fun making it, and it was ultimately more of a "let's-keep-our-minds-off-TestiPals!-with-another-project-to-fill-the-void" than anything else. And again, we gained a lot from it. A boom mic, for instance.
We're developing our first 'real' pilot, i.e. not for Channel101/102, but something tailored for actual television. It's something we've been talking about for awhile now, and I'm excited that it's finally starting to develop. Preliminary brainstorming has begun, meaning I've begun jotting down notes and Harry's begun doing the same plus drawing. I think it has a lot of potential.
Reading and writing aside, I've also seen a handful of movies:
Unbreakable: Okay, I'll start off with this: I'm not a huge M. Night Shyamalan fan. All this hype about him being 'the new Hitchcock'? Not. A. Chance. It just pisses me off that people actually equate him to Hitchcock who, quite simply, was a cinematic genius. I liked The Sixth Sense. I hated Signs and found The Village to be surprisingly and remarkably worse. What little depth there usually is in his films are rubbed right in the audience's faces just in case you weren't able to grasp it when he blatantly paraded the imagery around on screen. He's certainly not a subtle writer/director. But I will say this about Unbreakable: I thought it was better than his two latest films. In fact, I thought it had a great premise. It really felt like a "real-life" superhero film. Also great was the visual style chosen for the film; the deep blues and gray/black tones were moody and really stood out. But what was superfically a potentially great premise turned sour with some bad acting, bad writing, bad direction, and, oh, yeah, that about covers it. It was style over substance, and it didn't help that the substance seemed so inherently pretentious. Definitely squandered material. So, yeah, not a great film.
Trekkies: Well, it was certainly interesting. I've always been fascinated by the fanatical nature of Star Trek fans. It's a little frigthening at times, but mostly just hard to fathom. I mean, I consider myself a fan of plenty of geeky things, cartoons and comics and whatnot, but I could never really imagine myself being that...obsessive. Anyway, the documentary explored the nature of Star Trek fans, what it means to be a Trekkie, conventions, their lifestyles, etc. It was definitely interesting, although as a film it really didn't hold together very well. In fact, it was a rather sloppy documentary--there was no real structure at all. Despite the lack of structure, though, I still enjoyed watching it.
Spellbound: No, not the Hitchcock film with the really cool Salvador Dali animated dream sequence. I finally sat down and watched the documentary. While it was interesting most of the time (drew out too long), it wasn't anything spectacular. It was wholly underwhelming, really. Maybe i just expected too much. I'd heard from most people that it was 'fantastic' or 'amazing' and that I 'had to see it.' Even people who criticized it said that the reason they didn't like it was largely based on the fact that it poked fun at its subject too much. Well, none of the above really struck me as applicable to the documentary. It was 'okay.' I was interested in this crazy world that parents and their children would devote their life to, but it didn't really capture my attention 24/7. And I actuallly didn't find many instances where I thought the documentarians were exploiting their subjects for humor's sake. In fact, I thought it was pretty kind, overall. Maybe I expected it to be more blatant. Overall, I think I enjoyed Trekkies more, but this was a much better film in terms of structure.
Bullets Over Broadway: I haven't seen that much Woody Allen. What little I have seen, I like and I don't like at the same time. I like his writing. I don't like seeing him act. He just annoys me if I see him as the lead more than once or twice, because, well, he's ALWAYS the same. Yeah, I know, that's his thing. But it annoys me. So I was happy to see a Woody Allen film where he wasn't acting in it. And I liked it a lot. I loved the overall design and feel of the film--despite the fact that it was made in 1994, it really felt like an older film. And the costuming and sets were great, as well. I enjoyed it much like I enjoy going to see a comedic play. It had the same type of humor. It was very theatre-y, and not just because the events of the movie were set in a theatrical environment. Large, bombastic characters inhabited a world that revolved around a lot of wacky/silly circumstances. It felt a lot like I was watching something akin to Noises Off! But I liked it a lot, if not only for the fact that Diane Wiest was utterly hilarious in a type of role that I've never seen her play. Here was the mother from Edward Scissorhands and The Birdcage saying something akin to, "The world is your open oyster...no, no, no...the world is your vagina!" Overall, a very funny (if not shallow) film.
But I've also got a host of other movies to watchin the meanwhile, including Gods and Monsters, American Splendor, The Last Temptation of Christ, and The Killing.
Oh yeah, I also have a 60 year old married couple living in my house right now. Which is a little bit awkward. It boils down to my mother's hospitality towards her employees when they lose their homes. But it's still a little strange, being that it's just been pretty empty recently since Jordyn's been gone (who incidentally is coming back on Wednesday).
I think I'm going to begin Slaughterhouse-Five today. It feels good to be reading consistently.
-Justin