(no subject)
Amazon.co.uk tells me that next Monday, the 25th, my shiny boxset of the complete Stargate series will be arriving. SQUEE! I stopped watching it via streaming a few weeks ago. I was about half way through season 4, but the videos were getting hard to find, and I missed about 6 episodes in season 3, so I decided to stop and wait for my boxset and watch them all in their proper glory.
Sean Bean got married. Again. For, like, the 4th time. And how many children is it that he has again? Lol. Hope it all goes well. He's immensely hot. I have such a thing for him.
And yes, I have seen the Indiana Jones 4 trailer, and yes I have squeed and watched it multiple times.
Juno.
Well, yeah, it was good. Juno, or mostly Ellen Page, the actress playing her, annoyed me though. It was her tomboy / masculine thing coupled with the way she sounded like a jaded 50 year old booze-swilling biker thing that got to me. The humour was good, the dialogue, etc, but sometimes it felt forced.
A few things felt empty too - like Bleeker is absolutely in love with Juno and yet when she's having his child, his CHILD, after their first time having sex, he just goes blank. He doesn't speak to her almost for her entire pregnancy, and then we're supposed to believe that they are so utterly in love that they get together at the end and basically live happily ever after? I mean, they can manage the idea of committment, or forever together - but not their own baby? Argh.
Some things just didn't make sense. Like the writer was more enamoured with an idea, with making these grand statements - that whole it started with a chair, ended with a chair thing.
That said, I liked the adoption angle. Jennifer Garner played the straight-laced repressed housewife incredibly well. Jason Bateman as her slacker guitarist husband was equally good. You go from liking him a lot, to liking him really not so much and they both felt exceptionally real, as did their arcs. I was weirded out during that slow dancing scene between Batemen's character and Juno though. It was so intense, I honestly expected either her or him to move in for a kiss. Maybe that was the point of it - to show that he was as immature as Juno, who's only 16, and was attracted to her because of how alike they both were.
Sweeney Todd.
I've been wanting to see this for weeks, and my boyfriend was meh about it, but our opinions were reversed after we'd seen it. I was really underwhelmed and he loved it.
I'm a huge lover of musicals, but Brian always gets that terrified look on his face when I break out Moulin Rouge or Phantom, like, oh my God, I have to sit through 2 hours of melodrama and singing, the agony! I enjoyed the songs, I liked the first hour too - but then I feel the film lost its point. Sweeney is out for vengeance and wants to reclaim his family. He knows where his daughter is but shows little or no interest in getting her back. It's all about Judge Turpin. I couldn't square with that at all. It seemed he cared more about the revenge than his family - even though he was bent on the revenge because of his family.
In the end, he was just killing at random, totally pointlessly, until he even kills his own wife, not realising it's her. He was an innocent victim to start with, he elicited sympathy in me, but by the end, he's as big a villain as Judge Turpin - he's MORE of a villain actually. Maybe that was the entire point of the film, that Sweeney had been warped into an evil madman, but I wanted to feel for him, I wanted him to be a likeable murderer, meaning that I could like his bad acts if he had a real, true reason. I don't think he did by the end of it.
Helena Bonham Carter was awesome! So natural in the part. Very macabre. I felt Alan RIckman was more a caricature, a cartoon than a real character so I've nothing really to say there. I liked the visuals in the film, the sets and the costumes. It was really desaturated, so much so that in the fantasy sequence (which was hilarious) the colours hurt my eyes.
Overall, my reaction is similar to Juno - it was good, but not great and a few things just didn't feel right.
V for Vendetta.
Yeah, I liked it. It was good. I usually love Natalie Portman, and she was definitely amazing here, but her English accent was so hit and miss. It went way above what it should have been. She was supposed to be working class, but she was speaking with an RP accent that seriously didn't suit her and sounded really fake.
Yay for Hugo Weaving. His voice is awesome. Even if we didn't get to see his face, it was nice to know he was there under the mask (well, for most of it, he replaced someone didn't he?) I was really shocked that when Evey was kidnapped and tortured, it wa revealed that V was doing it, rather than the government. I didn't see that one coming, although maybe I should have?
All in all, it was pretty good, although dystopic future films like that make me sad and depressed, much like Children of Men did. Although I just laugh at Mad Max. The upside is, between V and Evey, they changed the evil fascist state of things and brought in a new era. With added explosions and destruction of national monuments!
Lady in the Water.
I LOVE M. Night Shyamalan. People bitch about him being a hack - I just don't see it. Yeah, he's famed for tricking people with the twist ending and basing the entire movie around it, to the detriment of the plot... Nah, don't see it. Only The Sixth Sense and The Village really have twist endings that change your perception of everything that went before. I think he's one of the most original writers and directors ever. It can't be denied that his ideas are unique.
Lady in the Water? It's is REALLY unique. I've never seen anything like it. The eponymous Lady is Story, a sea nymph from a water world, I think, who returns to our world - the water people and land people have separated because the land people became obsessed with war and money. She's here to inspire people and change their lives, bringing them hope, but there is a creature after her (can't recall the name). Basically, it's a hyena with tough pine-like grass intstead of fur.
She arrives here by the pool in an apartment complex. In fact the film never once leaves the apartment complex, but you never get bored because of the many unique characters. Mr. Heep is the caretaker. He's a middle-aged, shy man with a bad stutter, and as you find out, a tragic past that's made him introverted.
He takes care of Story and finds out from some Asian tenants that there is an Eastern fairytale about sea nymphs and this tale guides him in helping Story. He must find Story's Guardian, her Healer and her Interpreter, plus a Guild of people to help her. All these are tenants in his complex and he goes about figuring out which ones they are. They all have to come together, to help defeat the grass hyena thing and help Story get home, because unbeknownst to her, she is a great leader there.
Well, yeah unique is definitely the word. I liked it. I really did. Like Signs though (which is one of my favourite movies of all time) it is very convoluted, and you spend some time trying to figure out the intricate plot and the complex message MNS is trying to put across. In the end I was very taken with the characters though and really enjoyed it.
MNS always plays a character in one of his films, and his largest role yet was in this as Vick, a writer whom Story reveals a huge prophecy about. He's written a book and she says it inspires a boy in the future to become the greatest leader the world has seen, but Vick will pay a huge price for putting this inspiring message out there - think Martin Luther King. I thought it was ever so arrogant of MNS to play this King type character, but he actually did it well. His acting has improved since he played the vet in Signs. He should stick to cameos though, because since I knew it was him, it put me off a little and pulled me out of the world of the film.
Sean Bean got married. Again. For, like, the 4th time. And how many children is it that he has again? Lol. Hope it all goes well. He's immensely hot. I have such a thing for him.
And yes, I have seen the Indiana Jones 4 trailer, and yes I have squeed and watched it multiple times.
Juno.
Well, yeah, it was good. Juno, or mostly Ellen Page, the actress playing her, annoyed me though. It was her tomboy / masculine thing coupled with the way she sounded like a jaded 50 year old booze-swilling biker thing that got to me. The humour was good, the dialogue, etc, but sometimes it felt forced.
A few things felt empty too - like Bleeker is absolutely in love with Juno and yet when she's having his child, his CHILD, after their first time having sex, he just goes blank. He doesn't speak to her almost for her entire pregnancy, and then we're supposed to believe that they are so utterly in love that they get together at the end and basically live happily ever after? I mean, they can manage the idea of committment, or forever together - but not their own baby? Argh.
Some things just didn't make sense. Like the writer was more enamoured with an idea, with making these grand statements - that whole it started with a chair, ended with a chair thing.
That said, I liked the adoption angle. Jennifer Garner played the straight-laced repressed housewife incredibly well. Jason Bateman as her slacker guitarist husband was equally good. You go from liking him a lot, to liking him really not so much and they both felt exceptionally real, as did their arcs. I was weirded out during that slow dancing scene between Batemen's character and Juno though. It was so intense, I honestly expected either her or him to move in for a kiss. Maybe that was the point of it - to show that he was as immature as Juno, who's only 16, and was attracted to her because of how alike they both were.
Sweeney Todd.
I've been wanting to see this for weeks, and my boyfriend was meh about it, but our opinions were reversed after we'd seen it. I was really underwhelmed and he loved it.
I'm a huge lover of musicals, but Brian always gets that terrified look on his face when I break out Moulin Rouge or Phantom, like, oh my God, I have to sit through 2 hours of melodrama and singing, the agony! I enjoyed the songs, I liked the first hour too - but then I feel the film lost its point. Sweeney is out for vengeance and wants to reclaim his family. He knows where his daughter is but shows little or no interest in getting her back. It's all about Judge Turpin. I couldn't square with that at all. It seemed he cared more about the revenge than his family - even though he was bent on the revenge because of his family.
In the end, he was just killing at random, totally pointlessly, until he even kills his own wife, not realising it's her. He was an innocent victim to start with, he elicited sympathy in me, but by the end, he's as big a villain as Judge Turpin - he's MORE of a villain actually. Maybe that was the entire point of the film, that Sweeney had been warped into an evil madman, but I wanted to feel for him, I wanted him to be a likeable murderer, meaning that I could like his bad acts if he had a real, true reason. I don't think he did by the end of it.
Helena Bonham Carter was awesome! So natural in the part. Very macabre. I felt Alan RIckman was more a caricature, a cartoon than a real character so I've nothing really to say there. I liked the visuals in the film, the sets and the costumes. It was really desaturated, so much so that in the fantasy sequence (which was hilarious) the colours hurt my eyes.
Overall, my reaction is similar to Juno - it was good, but not great and a few things just didn't feel right.
V for Vendetta.
Yeah, I liked it. It was good. I usually love Natalie Portman, and she was definitely amazing here, but her English accent was so hit and miss. It went way above what it should have been. She was supposed to be working class, but she was speaking with an RP accent that seriously didn't suit her and sounded really fake.
Yay for Hugo Weaving. His voice is awesome. Even if we didn't get to see his face, it was nice to know he was there under the mask (well, for most of it, he replaced someone didn't he?) I was really shocked that when Evey was kidnapped and tortured, it wa revealed that V was doing it, rather than the government. I didn't see that one coming, although maybe I should have?
All in all, it was pretty good, although dystopic future films like that make me sad and depressed, much like Children of Men did. Although I just laugh at Mad Max. The upside is, between V and Evey, they changed the evil fascist state of things and brought in a new era. With added explosions and destruction of national monuments!
Lady in the Water.
I LOVE M. Night Shyamalan. People bitch about him being a hack - I just don't see it. Yeah, he's famed for tricking people with the twist ending and basing the entire movie around it, to the detriment of the plot... Nah, don't see it. Only The Sixth Sense and The Village really have twist endings that change your perception of everything that went before. I think he's one of the most original writers and directors ever. It can't be denied that his ideas are unique.
Lady in the Water? It's is REALLY unique. I've never seen anything like it. The eponymous Lady is Story, a sea nymph from a water world, I think, who returns to our world - the water people and land people have separated because the land people became obsessed with war and money. She's here to inspire people and change their lives, bringing them hope, but there is a creature after her (can't recall the name). Basically, it's a hyena with tough pine-like grass intstead of fur.
She arrives here by the pool in an apartment complex. In fact the film never once leaves the apartment complex, but you never get bored because of the many unique characters. Mr. Heep is the caretaker. He's a middle-aged, shy man with a bad stutter, and as you find out, a tragic past that's made him introverted.
He takes care of Story and finds out from some Asian tenants that there is an Eastern fairytale about sea nymphs and this tale guides him in helping Story. He must find Story's Guardian, her Healer and her Interpreter, plus a Guild of people to help her. All these are tenants in his complex and he goes about figuring out which ones they are. They all have to come together, to help defeat the grass hyena thing and help Story get home, because unbeknownst to her, she is a great leader there.
Well, yeah unique is definitely the word. I liked it. I really did. Like Signs though (which is one of my favourite movies of all time) it is very convoluted, and you spend some time trying to figure out the intricate plot and the complex message MNS is trying to put across. In the end I was very taken with the characters though and really enjoyed it.
MNS always plays a character in one of his films, and his largest role yet was in this as Vick, a writer whom Story reveals a huge prophecy about. He's written a book and she says it inspires a boy in the future to become the greatest leader the world has seen, but Vick will pay a huge price for putting this inspiring message out there - think Martin Luther King. I thought it was ever so arrogant of MNS to play this King type character, but he actually did it well. His acting has improved since he played the vet in Signs. He should stick to cameos though, because since I knew it was him, it put me off a little and pulled me out of the world of the film.