yeeeeeeeesssss
Okay, so, Real Steel. Heartwarming underdog sports movie, plus robots, aka two hours and change of Hugh Jackman getting bossed around by Evangeline Lilly and a small child. Based on a story by Richard Matheson. Score by Danny Elfman with songs by Eminem and the Beastie Boys. If you have met me, you can probably guess how happy this movie made me. (Spoiler: it made me SO FUCKING HAPPY.)
This was a well-made movie, you guys. The fights were great--I know shit all about boxing, which means my opinion has nothing to back it up, but I think it counts for something that even though I know nothing about boxing I still enjoyed the fights hugely. (The boxing consultant was Sugar Ray Leonard, who is apparently considered one of the greatest boxers there has ever been, so I am unsurprised. The fighting looked smart to me; it made sense.) The robots were well-designed and lots of fun to watch. The little kid somehow managed to be written as a believable little kid despite having his shit together way better than Hugh Jackman.
Evangeline Lilly is--well, Evangeline Lilly was already my dream girl, so admittedly it would be difficult to improve on that. But it's really easy to fuck up writing lady characters who are into sports; they can be presented as butch and scary and sexless, or they can really obviously be into it just to impress the menfolk. (I feel like I've seen a lot of movies with hyperfeminine stiletto-heeled lady sports reporters, but I can't think of any specific examples, so maybe I imagined that.) But anyway, Bailey is none of those things. She's just a really competent, smart lady who grew up with boxing and then with robot boxing and loves the sport and knows it upside-down and backwards, and her love of boxing comes off as a very natural part of her bond with Charlie. I would have loved to see more of her, but their relationship was sweet and understated and it really worked for me.
I got kind of a found-family vibe from Bailey and Charlie and Max, and I guess I shouldn't have, seeing as Max is Charlie's actual son. It's the whole "how do I shot human relaitionships" thing, I guess. Anyway, it was A+++++ comfort movie material and I did not in the least mind seeing it twice. Well, once and a half, but still.
I also saw Contagion tonight, and it was also good, but it was just kind of quietly solid and I don't have a lot to say about it. I went because one of my favorite used bookstores keeps sending out emails all "Guys!!! Guys, we rented out a bunch of our stock as set dressing for Contagion! Go see this movie and admire our books!" and it turned out that somehow this movie filmed across the street from me and I didn't notice?? So if you've seen Contagion, that big grey armory building that the movie puts in Minneapolis? That's actually across the street from me. I spend every morning staring at it while I wait for the bus. I'd know it anywhere. Also, I can't really explain why without ruining it, but Jude Law's character in it is particularly fucking great.
I feel like now is a good time to make a thoughtful post about why I like some things and not others. Why the trailers for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy make me squeaky with joy, but the War Horse trailer makes me gag and The Ides of March just depressed the hell out of me. Why Hugh Jackman being an endearing jerk in Real Steel and Jude Law being an entertaining jerk in Contagion felt worth my money, but Ryan Gosling being a bland jerk in The Ides of March felt like a waste? (Wait, no, that one answers itself.)
But it's 2AM Friday night and I'm tired and overcaffeinated and I'm going to go write about teenagers tearfully confessing their love to each other instead. I am much too good at this kind of scene. I've written like three versions of it already and will probably go through several more before y'all actually see it.
Except, first, last night I was too busy being annoyed by Ides of March to express my feelings about trailers, so here they are. I've been to four movies in two nights, so...lots of trailers.
* I give zero fucks about the Johnny English movies, but I give about a million fucks about Gillian Anderson and I desperately want to see her play Thinly Vailed Parody Of M. Conflict :(
* I am cautiously interested in John Carter? I don't get why they knocked of Mars off the title, and I have a pretty good idea of how godawfully offensive the books probably are. And it looks suspiciously like a "heroic white man saves the helpless aliens" story. So I'm waiting to see how that works out. It looks really beautifully designed, though, so I will probably at least give it a shot.
* No particular intentions to see Puss in Boots, but massive props to Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek for happily starring in an animated spoof of their own movie franchise.
* When was the last actually good Christmas movie? I honestly cannot think of one. I don't think it's going to be Arthur Christmas.
* Guys, I am trusting your judgment here: should I see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo? I had no idea what it was for a long time--at first I had the vague idea it was YA, because the title sounds like it, and then I found out it was all full of grimdark and gore and stopped caring. But the trailer looks tremendously interesting, and has lots of cosy mystery mixed in with the grimdark, and I am awful easy for that. And I do love Daniel Craig. I'm not sure there's any way to decide whether I'll love or hate it unless I just take a chance and go see the thing.
* Seriously, War Horse. Looks like such cloying empty schlock. And my tolerance for sappy things is pretty fucking high.
* The The Dark Knight Rises trailer is godawful. I don't say the movie will be godawful--I can't, because my hatred for the trailer stems largely from the fact that it tells me nothing about the movie whatsoever. I've seen Batman Begins and TDK several times each, I don't want a fucking clipshow.
* The trailer for the new Sherlock Holmes is completely ridiculous and I love every bit of it, but what I love most is Watson's lovely warm Ravenclaw scarf. WHY DOES WATSON HAVE A RAVENCLAW SCARF
I know people have written AUs/fusions/what-have-you about Moffat's John and Sherlock being at Hogwarts, but have people written AUs about them at Victorian-era Hogwarts? Surely someone must have. I would love that fic so much. I don't even care whether it's Guy Ritchie's Holmes and Watson or Sir Arthur's, as long as they're Victorian.
This was a well-made movie, you guys. The fights were great--I know shit all about boxing, which means my opinion has nothing to back it up, but I think it counts for something that even though I know nothing about boxing I still enjoyed the fights hugely. (The boxing consultant was Sugar Ray Leonard, who is apparently considered one of the greatest boxers there has ever been, so I am unsurprised. The fighting looked smart to me; it made sense.) The robots were well-designed and lots of fun to watch. The little kid somehow managed to be written as a believable little kid despite having his shit together way better than Hugh Jackman.
Evangeline Lilly is--well, Evangeline Lilly was already my dream girl, so admittedly it would be difficult to improve on that. But it's really easy to fuck up writing lady characters who are into sports; they can be presented as butch and scary and sexless, or they can really obviously be into it just to impress the menfolk. (I feel like I've seen a lot of movies with hyperfeminine stiletto-heeled lady sports reporters, but I can't think of any specific examples, so maybe I imagined that.) But anyway, Bailey is none of those things. She's just a really competent, smart lady who grew up with boxing and then with robot boxing and loves the sport and knows it upside-down and backwards, and her love of boxing comes off as a very natural part of her bond with Charlie. I would have loved to see more of her, but their relationship was sweet and understated and it really worked for me.
I got kind of a found-family vibe from Bailey and Charlie and Max, and I guess I shouldn't have, seeing as Max is Charlie's actual son. It's the whole "how do I shot human relaitionships" thing, I guess. Anyway, it was A+++++ comfort movie material and I did not in the least mind seeing it twice. Well, once and a half, but still.
I also saw Contagion tonight, and it was also good, but it was just kind of quietly solid and I don't have a lot to say about it. I went because one of my favorite used bookstores keeps sending out emails all "Guys!!! Guys, we rented out a bunch of our stock as set dressing for Contagion! Go see this movie and admire our books!" and it turned out that somehow this movie filmed across the street from me and I didn't notice?? So if you've seen Contagion, that big grey armory building that the movie puts in Minneapolis? That's actually across the street from me. I spend every morning staring at it while I wait for the bus. I'd know it anywhere. Also, I can't really explain why without ruining it, but Jude Law's character in it is particularly fucking great.
I feel like now is a good time to make a thoughtful post about why I like some things and not others. Why the trailers for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy make me squeaky with joy, but the War Horse trailer makes me gag and The Ides of March just depressed the hell out of me. Why Hugh Jackman being an endearing jerk in Real Steel and Jude Law being an entertaining jerk in Contagion felt worth my money, but Ryan Gosling being a bland jerk in The Ides of March felt like a waste? (Wait, no, that one answers itself.)
But it's 2AM Friday night and I'm tired and overcaffeinated and I'm going to go write about teenagers tearfully confessing their love to each other instead. I am much too good at this kind of scene. I've written like three versions of it already and will probably go through several more before y'all actually see it.
Except, first, last night I was too busy being annoyed by Ides of March to express my feelings about trailers, so here they are. I've been to four movies in two nights, so...lots of trailers.
* I give zero fucks about the Johnny English movies, but I give about a million fucks about Gillian Anderson and I desperately want to see her play Thinly Vailed Parody Of M. Conflict :(
* I am cautiously interested in John Carter? I don't get why they knocked of Mars off the title, and I have a pretty good idea of how godawfully offensive the books probably are. And it looks suspiciously like a "heroic white man saves the helpless aliens" story. So I'm waiting to see how that works out. It looks really beautifully designed, though, so I will probably at least give it a shot.
* No particular intentions to see Puss in Boots, but massive props to Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek for happily starring in an animated spoof of their own movie franchise.
* When was the last actually good Christmas movie? I honestly cannot think of one. I don't think it's going to be Arthur Christmas.
* Guys, I am trusting your judgment here: should I see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo? I had no idea what it was for a long time--at first I had the vague idea it was YA, because the title sounds like it, and then I found out it was all full of grimdark and gore and stopped caring. But the trailer looks tremendously interesting, and has lots of cosy mystery mixed in with the grimdark, and I am awful easy for that. And I do love Daniel Craig. I'm not sure there's any way to decide whether I'll love or hate it unless I just take a chance and go see the thing.
* Seriously, War Horse. Looks like such cloying empty schlock. And my tolerance for sappy things is pretty fucking high.
* The The Dark Knight Rises trailer is godawful. I don't say the movie will be godawful--I can't, because my hatred for the trailer stems largely from the fact that it tells me nothing about the movie whatsoever. I've seen Batman Begins and TDK several times each, I don't want a fucking clipshow.
* The trailer for the new Sherlock Holmes is completely ridiculous and I love every bit of it, but what I love most is Watson's lovely warm Ravenclaw scarf. WHY DOES WATSON HAVE A RAVENCLAW SCARF
I know people have written AUs/fusions/what-have-you about Moffat's John and Sherlock being at Hogwarts, but have people written AUs about them at Victorian-era Hogwarts? Surely someone must have. I would love that fic so much. I don't even care whether it's Guy Ritchie's Holmes and Watson or Sir Arthur's, as long as they're Victorian.