Jul 28, 2005 01:47
Hey. How is everybody? That's swell. Not too much has happened I guess, but it's been a few days so I feel mildly obligated to update. I can't think of anything exciting yesterday or the day before, back until the last day I posted. However, today I bought new movies! That's technically inaccurate since they were used, but I bought used movies which are new to my posession! I purchased Krzysztof (close enough) Kieslowski's "The Three Colours Trilogy" consisting of Blue, White, and Red. He's obviously not American, so don't think it's some salute to the US. It actually is for the colors of the French flag (go figure, he's Polish) and the values they represent. Critics usually favor Red, but my favorite was Blue. So I guess I'll have to watch them again and see what's the deal. I also got Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America". There's a decent history cut-wise to this film. It was originally released in the US at about 148 minutes. Then it was released again at 226 minutes. This was the version I saw a few years ago. This was also the version that was originally released in the US, however the maker's finally got their act together and released the 229 minutes version. I know that with a movie this long three minutes are not a big deal and probably won't even be noticeable. You're right, but for some reason, I strongly desire the director's cut of whatever movie is available. Screw the studios! It's not their heart and soul that was poured into a film, only their money. The director is the one who puts it all out there, and I believe their vision is probably the purest and most accurate of what the film is intended to be. So whenever possible, get the director's cut of a film. There's another movie that I would also like to see the full version of (or any version for that matter). It's Bernardo Bertolucci's "1900". It also stars De Niro (I forgot to mention he's in "Once Upon..." with James Woods and Joe Pesci). If I recall correctly, the full version of it is 318 minutes. What few VHS copies are available in the US are 248 minutes or so (and probably full frame....) Even the longest ones available on ebay are only 302 minutes. They're finally releasing the 302 minute version on DVD in Europe I believe, but that does me no good. So in summary, Paramount needs to change their NC-17 policy and release full versions of every movie I want to see that they own the rights to (these conclusions aren't always connected, but in the case of "1900", they are).
Also, for anyone who is in Lexington (Pat) or for anyone who can get their easily enough, Bruce Campbell will be appearing at the Barnes and Noble on Aug. 4th showing a movie that he wrote, directed, and starred in. It's sure to be awesome/hilarious (one of the two) since Bruce is involved. If you don't know who Bruce Campbell is, might I suggest you rent the Evil Dead trilogy (1, 2, and Army of Darkness), Bubba Ho-Tep, or watch the Spiderman movies. In part 1, he's the announcer at the wrestling thing and in part 2, he's the usher for the play. He will be there at 10 o'clock. I don't know if they're just showing the movie, or if he's speaking, or signing autographs or what, but if it weren't so far away and on a weekday, I'd go. I'm still thinking about going anyway and asking for Friday off, we'll see...
Okay, movie speech is over and reviews are to come. That leaves the subject of what I had for dinner. I made chicken parmesian tonight! (Technically, it was chicken mozerella, but I don't think that's a real dish). I managed to pull it off and with only two calls to my mom to ask her what the heck I was doing. And I think it's pretty safe to say that it was the best thing to ever happen in the history of food. I went glutton on that thing. Seven decent-sized pieces of chicken, a quarter bag of mozerella, a can of sauce, and a box of rotini are all going to come back to haunt me tomorrow. I literally need to hibernate. And sometimes people use "literally" when they mean "metaphorically". I guess they consider it ironic. However, I meant literal. I'd probably be good for a week or so. Seriously, that was a ridiculous amount of food. Okay, movie reviews time.
The Emperor's New Groove-I know what you're thinking. What the blood-clot list was this on? It was on no list. About a year or two ago, Ashley Shely recommended I watch it. It looked funny, so I kept an eye open for it. And I have a co-worker who's kids watch it all the time, hence he watches it fairly often. So he let me borrow it. (I didn't ask, he just brought it to work). I'm cool with that. So I watched the movie. It's definitely not anywhere near the Disney classics like Aladdin or Lion King or Beauty and the Beast, but for the silly little movie it was meant to be, it was good. There were some scenes that could have been straight out of the Marx Bros. movies. Also, the guy who played Putty on Seinfeld does one of the voices, so it didn't hurt that everytime he spoke I imagined Putty squinting and saying the line. David Spade was kind of annoying, but I guess he's almost always like that. If you're looking for a short, silly animated film with some good voice-actors, this should suffice.
The Baby-random cult movie I impulsively got! This was a huge mistake. The cover looks all cool. To summarize, there's the family that has a grown man (the son/Baby) in it who still acts like a baby. A social worker is assigned to his case and wants to know why he acts like that. Eventually the mom feels threatened with how much time the worker puts into the case and the fact that she's trying to improve Baby whereas the mother wants to keep him acting like a baby (they use a cattle prod for reinforcement of baby behaviors...). The ending is supposed to be a twist, but it's just stupid. However it was a blessing that a film that dumb managed to answer a question it kept bringing up throughout the whole film. A dumb question with a dumb answer, but an answer none-the-less. What I wouldn't have given for Baby to have been played by Edith Massey...(sigh)...
Okay, sleep. Bye.