Media Consumption pt. II
Where was I before I was so rudely interrupted by gaping facial wounds? Ah yes.
Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story-- Remember those 50 cent family movies I was talking about? Anna picked this one last Monday. It wasn't too bad but it wasn't great, either. The characters seemed more real than your average feel-good family movie even if the plot resolution was awfully far-fetched. The only two reasons to see Dreamer is that a.) you're a preadolescent girl with a thing for horses (and your Mormon parents don't mind you being exposed to the ugly world of gambling on horse races) or b.) you're one of those oddly terrifying adult fans of Dakota Fanning. Personally, the best part about this particular movie for me was seeing Kris Kristofferson getting work. I pretended that the movie was a Blade prequel. You know, what Whistler was doing before vampires slaughtered his family.
Memoirs of a Geisha-- This was a beautiful movie. My god, the composition of each scene was like a the embroidery on antique kimono. I had read the book, which was most excellent, when it first came out and while major plot-points, important names (I don't think I would have caught character's names quite as easily had they not been vaguely familiar) and the historic time-line stuck with me, my poor memory didn't retain any details. Even if the director hadn't gone strictly by the book, I wouldn't have noticed. The parts were well cast, the dialog was pitch-perfect and at no time did my suspension of disbelief come crashing down by some silly hack of a plot twist. I walked out of there wondering if I would have made a good geisha. They were artisans who carried much of the Japanese culture, not prostitutes. Their main job, when not performing, was to make wealthy men feel at home in tea houses by bringing up conversational gambits, pouring drinks, proposing games, making witty comments, singing the odd song, adding a bit of sexual tension to what would normally be a sausage-fest.... Then I realized that I do that all the time when Corey's card playing buddies come over. Perhaps I ought to start charging for my services.
Tristan + Isolde -- when I first saw trailers for this one, I was worried that it was going to be like Romeo + Juliet, a weird modernized mix-up of a classic tale. Not so. I only half-remember the story mixed in with the Arthurian legend but it seemed pretty realistically medieval to me, even if all the actors had good teeth and a lack of goiters/poxes/lice/etc. It's a heart-breaking story and the director remained faithful to tradition. Do you remember the execrable 1995 remake of The Scarlet Letter that was written like bad fan fiction; "like, what if Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale got it on even after they made her wear the A and then like they live happily ever after once they get rid of that old guy who was, like, stalking her"? Demi More reportedly said that it was okay to give it a happy ending because not that many people had read the book! I was so happy that Tristan + Isolde ended sadly like it was supposed to. Sure I was rooting for the young lovers, but, well, it's an old story and shouldn't be tampered with. So no, it's not a good one for a first date. You'd just look at each other at the end and ask "what's the point? It's all doomed, anyway," and then you'd go home to listen to Bright Eyes while writing sad proclamations in your Live Journal. The actors did a lovely job and it was quite exciting for a costume drama. There were some good skirmishes, sackings, and vengeful beheadings. I missed the first love scene due to my aged bladder, dammit.
The cool thing was that semiauto had expressed wanting to see Tristan + Isolde on her journal so I proposed we go together. We met for coffee first because it would be weird to sit next to some woman I'd never met and try to gauge how she felt about the whole thing through a two hour movie. She's from the same town I am and went to the same high school, hung around the same area after that, and both ended up in Ames. She's five or six years younger than me so I'm not sure if we'd ever met back then. She looked vaguely familiar but it could just be that I was hoping that I would know her. Silly, I know. Anyway, she was smart and funny and we got along famously. I'm hoping that's not the last time we meet. It's just about impossible to meet new girl friends when my house is over-run with Peter Pan's Lost Boys.
Wallace and Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit Yet another 50 cent Monday movie. The kids had seen it before but I missed it. They didn't mind going again, though, which tells you how much they liked it the first time. They caught all kinds of jokes that I didn't think they'd get so perhaps a second viewing cleared up a few things for them. I've always liked Wallace and Gromit and wasn't disappointed in the least by the feature-length film. This was a charming movie, silly, witty, and outlandishly fun. No wonder I've heard several NPR reviewers rave about it. So many children's movies are so full of bad jokes to keep mom and dad from walking out that it turns into a muddy mess like most of the recent Disney offerings. Wallace and Gromit are more in the vein of Monsters, Inc. or Babe. The humor is designed to appeal to everyone, not talk over kids' heads half the time like, oh, say, Disney's Hercules. Kids just don't get irony and sarcasm so why confuse them? I'm gonna buy this one when it comes out on DVD and perhaps order myself a wedge of Stinking Bishop, the cheese that brings poor Wallace to his senses.
Not sure what my next Thursday Night "Go See a Girly Movie" movie is going to be. I'll let you know how it turns out. Tonight we finally finish the last three episodes of Samurai Champloo. I kind of don't want to watch it because I've grown quite fond of Mugen, Jin, and Fuu. I'll miss them. Samurai + hip hop = genius. Who would have thought?
Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story-- Remember those 50 cent family movies I was talking about? Anna picked this one last Monday. It wasn't too bad but it wasn't great, either. The characters seemed more real than your average feel-good family movie even if the plot resolution was awfully far-fetched. The only two reasons to see Dreamer is that a.) you're a preadolescent girl with a thing for horses (and your Mormon parents don't mind you being exposed to the ugly world of gambling on horse races) or b.) you're one of those oddly terrifying adult fans of Dakota Fanning. Personally, the best part about this particular movie for me was seeing Kris Kristofferson getting work. I pretended that the movie was a Blade prequel. You know, what Whistler was doing before vampires slaughtered his family.
Memoirs of a Geisha-- This was a beautiful movie. My god, the composition of each scene was like a the embroidery on antique kimono. I had read the book, which was most excellent, when it first came out and while major plot-points, important names (I don't think I would have caught character's names quite as easily had they not been vaguely familiar) and the historic time-line stuck with me, my poor memory didn't retain any details. Even if the director hadn't gone strictly by the book, I wouldn't have noticed. The parts were well cast, the dialog was pitch-perfect and at no time did my suspension of disbelief come crashing down by some silly hack of a plot twist. I walked out of there wondering if I would have made a good geisha. They were artisans who carried much of the Japanese culture, not prostitutes. Their main job, when not performing, was to make wealthy men feel at home in tea houses by bringing up conversational gambits, pouring drinks, proposing games, making witty comments, singing the odd song, adding a bit of sexual tension to what would normally be a sausage-fest.... Then I realized that I do that all the time when Corey's card playing buddies come over. Perhaps I ought to start charging for my services.
Tristan + Isolde -- when I first saw trailers for this one, I was worried that it was going to be like Romeo + Juliet, a weird modernized mix-up of a classic tale. Not so. I only half-remember the story mixed in with the Arthurian legend but it seemed pretty realistically medieval to me, even if all the actors had good teeth and a lack of goiters/poxes/lice/etc. It's a heart-breaking story and the director remained faithful to tradition. Do you remember the execrable 1995 remake of The Scarlet Letter that was written like bad fan fiction; "like, what if Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale got it on even after they made her wear the A and then like they live happily ever after once they get rid of that old guy who was, like, stalking her"? Demi More reportedly said that it was okay to give it a happy ending because not that many people had read the book! I was so happy that Tristan + Isolde ended sadly like it was supposed to. Sure I was rooting for the young lovers, but, well, it's an old story and shouldn't be tampered with. So no, it's not a good one for a first date. You'd just look at each other at the end and ask "what's the point? It's all doomed, anyway," and then you'd go home to listen to Bright Eyes while writing sad proclamations in your Live Journal. The actors did a lovely job and it was quite exciting for a costume drama. There were some good skirmishes, sackings, and vengeful beheadings. I missed the first love scene due to my aged bladder, dammit.
The cool thing was that semiauto had expressed wanting to see Tristan + Isolde on her journal so I proposed we go together. We met for coffee first because it would be weird to sit next to some woman I'd never met and try to gauge how she felt about the whole thing through a two hour movie. She's from the same town I am and went to the same high school, hung around the same area after that, and both ended up in Ames. She's five or six years younger than me so I'm not sure if we'd ever met back then. She looked vaguely familiar but it could just be that I was hoping that I would know her. Silly, I know. Anyway, she was smart and funny and we got along famously. I'm hoping that's not the last time we meet. It's just about impossible to meet new girl friends when my house is over-run with Peter Pan's Lost Boys.
Wallace and Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit Yet another 50 cent Monday movie. The kids had seen it before but I missed it. They didn't mind going again, though, which tells you how much they liked it the first time. They caught all kinds of jokes that I didn't think they'd get so perhaps a second viewing cleared up a few things for them. I've always liked Wallace and Gromit and wasn't disappointed in the least by the feature-length film. This was a charming movie, silly, witty, and outlandishly fun. No wonder I've heard several NPR reviewers rave about it. So many children's movies are so full of bad jokes to keep mom and dad from walking out that it turns into a muddy mess like most of the recent Disney offerings. Wallace and Gromit are more in the vein of Monsters, Inc. or Babe. The humor is designed to appeal to everyone, not talk over kids' heads half the time like, oh, say, Disney's Hercules. Kids just don't get irony and sarcasm so why confuse them? I'm gonna buy this one when it comes out on DVD and perhaps order myself a wedge of Stinking Bishop, the cheese that brings poor Wallace to his senses.
Not sure what my next Thursday Night "Go See a Girly Movie" movie is going to be. I'll let you know how it turns out. Tonight we finally finish the last three episodes of Samurai Champloo. I kind of don't want to watch it because I've grown quite fond of Mugen, Jin, and Fuu. I'll miss them. Samurai + hip hop = genius. Who would have thought?