metaphorical
Here's what I wish was a metaphor for 2009 so far:
And here's the real metaphor:
So in the spirit of embracing unfulfilled promise, I thought it might be entertaining to take a look back at an utter failure of 2008, namely my vow to see and write about more movies. I first made the resolution in '07, and I honestly did a better job of it that year simply because that was the year I discovered the New Bev. For '08, all I have is a bunch of movie stubs and sad little notes. Let's take a look!
Cloverfield 11:59 pm Thursday 01/17/08 (Midnight showing)
My notes, verbatim:
"Camera work was necessary for emotional effect. Compare to Children of Men cinematography, and Blair Witch. The monsters were very creepy but the overall realism is the biggest innovation w/o a doubt. The found footage aspect isn't too gimmicky, and the "flashbacks" were used to amazing effect. Great use of humor, and the love story was sweet."
Be Kind Rewind 7:50 pm Friday 3/14/08
If you thought the Cloverfield notes were bad, get a load of this loveliness. A big fat nothing! Ha. I rather liked the movie and had some strong opinions on it, so I'm surprised I never wrote anything down.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 7:45 pm Wednesday 6/4/08
Double Fail! Once again, I've written nothing. Although, if you look ever so closely, you see I've written something on the back of the page, as if there was something I wanted to mention, but I wanted to come back and write something better later. I'll just come out and say it, I was perving on Harrison Ford. It really says that too, "I should really not be surprised, but still totally perving out over HF in Indy". I'm glad now that I recorded that valuable insight, if only so I can look back and say with certainty that I didn't enjoy Kingdom of the Crystal Skull just for the mooning-over-Shia-LaBeouf's-pompadour-and-douchey-little-stache factor, because that totally didn't develop until later.
The Dark Knight 11:20 pm Saturday 7/19/08
Hey, some words this time!
"Standout performances. Well served by replacing Katie Holmes. Heath Ledger's performance is electric. Everything is so well done it becomes even more than the sum of it's parts.
CLICHE CLICHE CLICHE!!!"
The "cliche cliche cliche" thing was in reference to my own words, not the movie. Man, was that movie ever good.
Pineapple Express 10:00 pm Wednesday 8/6/08
"Finally figured out the real reason not to make stoner movies, stoners want to have a smoke break!!
James Franco is so funny and accurate but also sweetly naive. Seth Rogen's character is pretty annoying but his charm brings a likability."
Jeez, that's it? I know I saw Righteous Kill a few months ago, guess I missed writing anything on that one. Judging by these other entries, let me try to approximate what is apparently my style: "Deniro and Pacino have easy chemisty. 50 Cent was surprisingly good though the role didn't require much. Carla Gugino is a total babe homina homina beep beep ahooooooogaaah!"