green_dreams | Entries tagged with movies

First, if I can help, please let me know. Please? I'm checking in, but I can't see everything.

Third, I am am afraid I am quite tipsy. It's a strange soft feeling, and not unpleasant. It's a bit unnerving; I am not at all used to being this tipsy.[1] I keep getting the urge to read the Ramsey Campbell-based Chaosium mythos supplement, for some reason.[2]

Last, the unicorn; The Last Unicorn. Because someone said they didn't understand the appeal, and I get that they don't get it, but that's not the point. And

theweaselking and I were talking about it to them and to each other and then he played the opening music, and I cried, and it wasn't in a bad way and we are watching it now.

I do not say it is a movie immune from criticism, but for me it is not "brilliant" or "terrible". It operates on an alternate criteria stream.[3] ( Cut for... schmaltz? But okay. ) I hope you are well. I hope you and yours are well, and you are taking care and being taken care of, and I wish you only the best. Let me know if I can help.
---
[1] Sample dialogue, petting the cat: "Her eyes are very green. Her eyes are green as limes, which is how Poppy Z. Brite described the eyes of the vampire Zillah in her first novel which I can't remember the name of but it wasn't Drawing Blood. Also, Z is for Zillah who drank lye by mistake in the Gashlycrumb Tinies."
[2] It sort of makes me a teeny bit sad how few people I expect to follow that statement.
[3] I have been using Leverage as a comparison point for everything from Game of Thrones to The Last Unicorn tonight. It is for me a show about handling cruelty with grace and compassion and wit, and making amends, and balancing scales. It is a good collection of stories.

Back in December, I mentioned that I'd picked up a collection of eight horror movies for five bucks. The recognizable one[1] is the original Night of the Living Dead, so I'm not going to be putting that on. However! There is also Colour from the Dark, a movie which instantly raises the burning question "Did the writers read "Colour out of Space", or is this a direct ~~rip-off~~ ~~tribute~~ derivative of the very-understandably-forgotten The Curse[2]?"

A family accidentally frees something from the Earth's womb while drawing water from their well and now a sinister glow is seeping into their lives.

Really, it could be either.

========

...okay, that movie was a lot better than I expected. ( Surprisingly pleased reaction, possibly spoilery discussion but haven't you read the story anyway? )
---
[1] There's usually one that everyone with a passing interest in the genre will have at least heard of on compilation DVDs, and the rest are what I am going to charitably call a grab bag. F'r ex, on the 10-movie Werewolves, Vampires, & Zombies DVD compilation, you have the 1973 The Satanic Rites of Dracula with Christopher Lee. (I don't think this applies to DVDs with paired movies nearly as well. But you get three or more movies in the DVD case? Ohyes.)
[2] It's not the most memorable thing about the movie, but I confess that what always first springs to mind about The Curse is the fact that Lucio Fulchi was credited Louis. WTH.

Current Mood: content

Piper is doing much better; she still whimpers when she moves (and screamed a couple of times, dear god), but she's crashing out and sleeping a lot. We've gotten her up the stairs, let her fall asleep in front of the fire, and the day seems to be turning into a Mad Max marathon interrupted by pauses to find out if she's complaining because she wants to roll over, be brought water, be helped up, get more pills (strict schedule, puppy), or just get tummy rubs.

Hadn't ever seen the first two Mad Max movies. Mildly surprised by how non-post-apocalyptic the first one was. The second one, on the other hand...

To understand who he was, you have to go back to another time. When the world was powered by the black fuel, and the desert sprouted great cities of pipe and steel. Gone now, swept away. For reasons long forgotten, two mighty warrior tribes went to war and touched off a blaze which engulfed them all... Their world crumbled. The cities exploded. A firestorm of fear.

I'll, uhm, be over here, trying to wipe the Deadlands: Hell on Earth off my TV screen. (This may prove difficult. It's an enduring setting.)

If Piper keeps improving at this rate, I expect we'll need to set up the baby gate soon to keep her from trying the stairs by herself. This is encouraging in terms of progress, but honestly, she was having trouble with the hardwood stairs being slippery before the surgery, so it is sort of horrific in terms of things to visualize. It's not the up, it's the down.

Nothing much else, today. Mostly counting down the time to Piper's next dose.

(Right, we've just seen a... a bicycle-auto-gyro-copter-thingy. The Wasted West ain't going nowhere.)

Current Mood: tired

Thoughts on starting A Boy and His Dog: wait, Joanna Russ thought the ending was the particularly misogynistic part of this movie?

Thoughts on finishing it: ...I think she was right.

Anyway. I'm, uhm, going to chalk that up as useful to have seen for context of the genre, be vaguely depressed over how unremarkable most of it was and mildly glad that it prompted Russ to write something on the topic, and go have a very hot shower.

Current Mood: dirty

Movies. Yes.

Went to see Warm Bodies yesterday. It's pretty much what I expected; fluffy little feelgood movie. Really nice soundtrack, though. I don't think it's exactly a romcom, although I'm having trouble articulating exactly why... Most of the funny bits seem to come from the zombieness, not the relationship. (A romzomcom, rather than a zomromcom? (Who worries about something like this?))

I needed to stay up until midnight last night for Piper's medication schedule, so I put the 2002 Carrie TV movie on in the background. It's amazingly faithful to the book, which is actually kind of nice; I liked Tommy Ross in the book, and in the original movie, he's a bit of... well, not much. Billy Nolan was creepy as hell, too; I think there was more about him in the book (faithful not being the same as complete), but I think I might actually be confusing him with memories of Buddy Repperton from Christine. Also it made it easier to follow.

Today... ugh, I don't know. Up until 1, up again at 6, Piper's assorted medication until 8:30, and then I fell asleep again until just a bit before we went to the vet again. Currently waiting for bloodwork results, and trying to decide if I have the energy or focus from knitting. The Emperor's New Groove is playing; we tried watching the latest Walking Dead but I think I pretty much tuned out most of it.

I'm not really watching new things; even Warm Bodies was pretty by-the-numbers, and the Romeo and Juliet references were cute, not new. It's been a long sort of weekend.

Current Mood: exanimate

The box store near our place is being bought out, so everything is on sale. This means it is possible to do things like buy horror DVDs for somewhat less than $2. Or, perhaps, an eight-movie collection for less than $5.

These are going to be terrible.

I have started with After Midnight, the standalone DVD. The frame story is about a certain Professor Derek teaching a course in the psychology of fear, and I am bravely resisting comparisons to Clive Barker's "Dread". We start with Allison (our protagonist) and her friend (you know, the protagonist's friend... it's an 80s movie, you can fill her in) going to class, with Allison explaining that she didn't sleep well, and she has a bad feeling about the class they're going to take...

( Plot summary, spoilers, very quick rating. )

Current Mood: amused

Continuing from the previous post: John is showing me movie trailers. Zombie, zomcom (Warm Bodies, it looks cute!), horror, vampire, and then something that opens with a woman recovering from her recent widowing.

"I loved everything about him. His hands, the smell of his skin..."

Really, can you blame me for thinking "that'll make it difficult to assemble a replacement from spare parts and murder victims"?

Current Mood: amused

John has made my day SIX BILLION times better.

ETA: He did it twice. I've mentioned this one nearly seven years ago, and then again three years back.

Current Mood: ecstatic

Rather quick, rather flip notes, as I down coffee before work...

First; There are movies I haven't seen. Quite a lot of them. Two that came up this morning were Scarface and Johnny Got His Gun (because the morning drive music included "Jack Sparrow" and "One").

What else am I missing? What movies are really worth seeing (and trust me, the expectation that I've already seen it is not to be trusted)?

Second; So I'm on goodreads. It allows for a five-star rating system, and for me that basically seems to boil down to (1) I'm rating this because I want to establish I thought it was terrible, not that I just didn't bother to rate it; (2) pretty bad to not-great, but with redeeming moments; (3) decent way to spend some time; (4) everyone interested in the genre or subject matter should try reading this; (5) everyone should try reading this.

There's a whole lot of things falling into the three-star category, including some things that I'm feeling a little bad about, because they'd be four-star books if five-star ratings weren't reserved for truly amazing things. And I'm wondering if I should reorganize, give everyone-should-try-this books their own shelf and stretch my ratings out so that there was a middle ground between "decent" and "everyone interested in the genre or subject matter should try reading this".

I may be putting a bit too much thought into this, but I wondered.

Current Mood: thoughtful

Holy class warfare, Batman.

(Also? I think that would have been a much better movie if Batman had not been around for the second half of it. John suggests that Batman showing up in a wheelchair to actually have a plan would have been good.)

Overall, I would go see a movie about one of the characters--yes, a specific one, setting aside details because I'm fuzzy on what is and isn't a spoiler--but I would want it to be better than this one.

Current Mood: annoyed

Oh, Kickstarter, why do you do these things... Someone's making a Slender Man movie, apparently. And me being good about my credit card. The timing, it kills.

Current Mood: curious

I confess, I quite missed the nuances of the Thor movie. But a blogger and historian has thoughtfully examined it, and provided an explanation for what might have initially seemed like an awkwardly written and presented story. For example:

The way Wayland the Smith went overboard designing these insane helmets was a great way of communicating his silent protest over being forced to build that ridiculous whopping robot thing.

It's so subtle! And a much more satisfying explanation--indeed, an explanation at all--for some of the costuming.

They also look into the Avengers movie, and its trenchant commentary on nerd culture and the envisioning of the future.

Current Mood: amused

The city will not actually be removing a wall of our living room!

(There's still going to be scaffolding and brick removal and stuff around the front porch next week, though.)

It feels like Monday. Keep reminding myself that this is not the case, and there is a long weekend coming. I keep getting jittery over details. If I don't stop waking up at three in the morning, I'm going to start going to bed around eight until I feel better.

Also: picture! And link to the story, if you click it.

ETA: John has improved my day!

Current Mood: relaxed

...and by "this", I mean "me". Just got in from the late showing of The Avengers. We were going to the earlier one, but it was sold out, so we all went for dinner and hung out for a bit. And now are home.

Some quick notes, not spoilery:
(1) Much love for Banner. More the more I think about it, actually. I... really bought him. Been there, know that guy.
(2) Heee, the lines.
(3) Liked Loki and Thor much better than in the Thor movie.

But yes. And aside from that, something happened on the way to the movie:

I ran into a friend.

This hasn't happened in... years?

I mean, I see people, sure. But I don't meet them by chance--and no, I don't count meeting a knitting friend that I know from knitting at the knitting store where we both go a fair bit as meeting by chance. Meeting the knitting friend that I know from knitting because she is headed one way after dinner and I am headed the other for a movie and our paths happened to cross? That is meeting by chance.

Nice feeling.

Right. Sleep in order.

Current Mood: content

Was watching Community, and missed a reference during the paintball episode. Apparently the calls of "Study group! Come out and play-ee-ay!" were a play on a scene from the movie The Warriors.

I had heard of this movie! See, the poster features in one of the local Sugar Mountains. But I had not seen it, and apparently this was surprising. I am watching it now.

It came out in '79, by the way. (It's a very 80s movie, nonetheless.) As such, I am not really worried about spoilers. Therefore, I watch.

( Much less snark than I expected. Probably not hugely interesting. )

Current Mood: sleepy

So, John and I are driving around, and between the GPS in the cars and our phones, it's a very well-informed trip. And it came up in casual discussion that many many horror movie plots have been rendered unworkable by the existence of these things--GPS systems and cellphones.

This is pretty obvious stuff; it ties back to the truism about horror movies being, in many ways, about isolation. Being able to dial 911 and start hiking out with a map that shows you your heading and the distance to the highway makes things a lot more manageable. (Or, you know, the amusing values of being able to Google something like "chainsaw sabotage"... But I digress.)

We went back to it later, a bit. If you eliminate the tactical elements of isolation, then what you're left with is two options. There's social isolation ("they won't believe me" or "they didn't believe me")[1] which has a long and storied history, including those godawful fifties movies about the aliens landing and the teenagers being the only ones to see them. Or else there's self-imposed isolation, where the protagonists don't want to call for help; what that sprang to mind was them being in a haunted house where they had no right to be[2], but Session 9 is also a beautiful example. The guy needs the job, there's no way to leave and get it done, and he can't afford to take the time to call for help. Alright, yes, there is definitely an element of social isolation there; that's fine. One kind doesn't need to do all the work.

So I am discussing this with John, and he points out that splitting up becomes a lot less frightening, a lot more manageable, if you have something like Google Latitude in place. You know where people are, you can track them. And I nod in agreement, and then he smiles and points out that it isn't true.

"You don't know where I am. You know where my phone is."

I do confess I shuddered. (A lovely moment over lunch, to be sure.)

Because that takes it out of isolation and into uncertainty, which is the other great foundation of horror. The world crumbling out from under you, slowly or suddenly. In some ways it ties to isolation--not having anything you can be sure of to reach out to--but it's a basically different development. It's the horror of "The calls are coming from inside the house!", which relies not on there being no-one to help but on the space that you were sure was safe being taken away.

So that's something else to look to, I guess. Not sure how much good it'd be for movies, which don't necessarily have a lot of time to establish certainty, but definitely something to keep in mind for written work.

(ObDisclaimer: no, not all horror movies rely on isolation. Scream, f'r ex, handles the advent of the ubiquitous cellphone quite well.)
---
[1] See also: all the travel horror that involves being surrounded by those terrible strange Other People (usually brown).[3]
[2] Or this 90s movie about four suburban guys out for a night on the town who accidentally see a murder and don't want to call for help because they hit someone with their car... I will try and look up the title later.
[3] ...echoes of HP Lovecraft, actually...

Current Mood: thoughtful

Cutting through the mall by work to get home today, and discovered that the Friends of Library and Archives Canada were having their annual book sale.

I got off lightly...

the Dark Forces anthology hardcover;
du Maurier's Don't Look Back collection;
In Darkness Waiting (I haven't read much John Shirley that's just John Shirley);
James Herbert's Others;
Matthew Lewis's The Monk[1];
Stephen King's The Colorado Kid (am interested to see how it ties into the Haven TV show);
John Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar, my very own copy in lovely condition--I may have squeaked in an undignified fashion when I found it;
Rough Trade by Dominique Manotti, translation of a French crime novel;
King Solomon's Mines (from original copyright edition);
an ARC of Graham Masterton's Master of Lies;
the Short Sharp Shocks collection; and
the Bloom County collection Classics of Western Literature.

Most books there seem to be going for a dollar each, and the sale is on all weekend, so if you're local it might be worth visiting.

========

Back from dinner and walking the dog, and browsing the movie theatre site.

The Straw Dogs remake is out. Interested, but it'll be a bit of a downer--either because it's meant to be or because it was a bad adaptation.

Fright Night remake still playing. Only in 3D and only at the nearby theatre, though. I may go see it anyway; 3D non-matinee showings are stupidly expensive, but I liked that movie. It was a weirdly comforting thing that is pleasant for emotional associations that are not fully defined (because I do not feel like dissecting them, although I may get to it later). Like a fluffy chai latte.

And Rise of the Planet of the Apes is still on, and can still be seen as a matinee. So that is also a possibility.
---
[1] *waves tiny flag for gothic novels, here. And on that note, Candle in the Attic Window is on presale and there's a contest for free copies here*

Current Mood: thoughtful

In two hours and fifty minutes; the second-last Harry Potter movie, the third episode of Misfits, and a five-hundred piece puzzle all completed.

I like puzzles. I had forgotten that for a bit.

Current Mood: content

John showed me this trailer. I found it creepy as all hell, which I understand is the point, and then of course I got to the end of the trailer and saw the title and...

Ohyes. I will be there.

(The link above is to download the trailer. If you're one of those who'd rather not know which story it is before watching the trailer, I recommend that one. Otherwise, it is on YouTube.)

Also, the scene at 0:55 makes me think of "Lost Hearts"; I know the BBC did an adaptation of it for the screen already, and would very much like to get my hands on it.

Other news... relatively little. I have a bruise about the size and colour of a small plum on my arm, and I really do think either the bus drivers or the bus brakes are being a little peremptory these days. And it's Friday, TGIF.

Current Mood: chilled

So I was thinking of organizing my books on Goodreads, as you do. Was thinking about putting on a "haunted houses" tag. And I've been going through a lot of stuff on TV[1], and now watching Marchlands, and...

I like haunted house stories. And I'm trying to pinpoint exactly what they are. Asked John what he thought the best written and movie ones he'd read or seen were, and he said The Shining and The Others, respectively. Switched the book choice to IT, though, and I cannot dispute.

There's the Haunting of Hill House, of course. And The Shining. Hell House, The Others. Then you get Rose Red, The House Next Door, House of Bones, Apartment 16, the Dionaea House, Ghost Ship, The Overnight, The Dwelling, The House of Lost Souls (which I actually just finished)...

John also suggested Event Horizon. I will agree and add in the town from Uzumaki, in the same "well, yes, but wait?" vein that his selection of IT gave me. Yes, absolutely, but the fact that I'm including them both makes me think that I don't understand my own definition as well as I thought.

So. What makes something a haunted house story, rather than just a ghost story?

( By the way, might be spoilers. Very very incoherent rambling and spoilers. )
---
[1] Okay, Fright Night is pretty much what you'd expect from an 80s horror movie, but that last scene with Peter Vincent (who has awesome eyebrows, FTR) and Evil Ed? That was actually quite beautifully done.

Current Mood: thoughtful

A few days later [in June 2011] on the opposite side of the Atlantic, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam signed a bill into law that makes it a crime to use the web to "transmit or display an image" that could "frighten, intimidate or cause emotional distress" to anyone who sees it. Those found guilty face a maximum of one year in jail and a $2500 fine.[1]

And, on the flipside

The US Supreme Court recently struck down a 2005 California ban on the sale of violent video games to those under eighteen. Speaking for the majority in the court's 7-2 ruling, Associate Justice Antonin Scalia wrote "California's argument would fare better if there were a longstanding tradition in this country of specially restricting children's access to depictions of violence, but there is none." He went on to cite the circulation of Grimm's fairy tales to children. "The basic principles of freedom of speech and the press, like the First Amendment's command, do not vary when a new and different medium for communication appears."

I'm annoyed by the first and relieved by the second, but... why on earth am I hearing about this from the latest issue of Rue Morgue, again?

The clerk at Mags'n'Fags was stocking the shelves and offered it when she saw I had the last issue, and I picked it up on impulse, since the cover had a Fright Night splash and a mention of a new John Shirley collection. (Also, I think I need to take a look at Haven; I do not have enough creepy in my TV viewing.) I've been sort of looking forward to it--Fright Night--since I saw the trailer and pegged the movie at the thirty-six second mark.[2]

This vaguely confuses me since I never saw the movie. I recognize the cover art, sure, but I am thinking I actually need to skip the articles on it since they are absolutely full of spoilers, and I persist in misremembering the line on the back of the VHS case as "Michael likes his drinks warm, red--and straight from the jugular!" Michael being the mortal protagonist, I am clearly off-base. (And now I'm just wondering even more how I recognized the movie, since misremembering the villain's name so throughly means it wasn't his introduction that tipped me off.)

Huh. Apparently Haven is based off Stephen King's The Colorado Kid. Will see if it feels as much like King as happytown did.

This early morning (relatively) rambling has been brought to you by an internet connection and fifteen minutes of free time.
---
[1] Also, apparently there is no use for the Oxford comma in the writing of Tennessee bills. Not overly impressed.
[2] In a fit of "I am in early, yay," I just grabbed the trailer and checked.

Current Mood: cheerful

Okay. I know how often the word "zombie" showed up in Night and Land of the Dead. How often was it used in Dawn (the original) and Day (ditto--oh, look, all the originals)? I don't *think* it was used in Dawn, but I can't remember.

(Am utterly blanking on Day, to the point where I can't even say I don't think it was used; only line from that I can remember is "Hello Alicia.")

Current Mood: curious

Have seen X-Men: First Class.

Am honestly really happy with how they handled the relationship between Erik and Charles, and Erik's slow change into Magneto. I would watch it again for that quite happily. Raven was a nice counterpoint to Charles (yes, really, the not-pretty mutants do have a hard time of it, you genial ass) and the question of fitting in, and needing to fit in--well, it's X-Men. I don't think there's much new to be said about it, but it was said well.

Emma Frost did not help. Cold poise works for the character, but I was trying to see someone who actually cared or hated or seethed or had some kind of reason to do what she was doing, and I only saw a flicker of it once, when she was talking to Erik and Charles. The rest of the time, she felt like Betty Draper on a rather odd photo shoot.[2]

The 60s vibe was fun when it showed up (and I actually think that's not a bad era for the Hellfire Club). Groovy mutations, indeed.

There were a couple of clunky speech moments, and a couple of times that a scene was set up and then did not deliver in a way that rather threw me.[1]

( Spoilers. )

Overall I'm glad I saw it, and I could easily see getting it on DVD, to have around and watch again. It was a superhero movie, it had a lot of cameos, it wasn't bad most of the time and was fun a lot of the time and I really did love Erik and Charles, mostly Erik. I think it's pretty accessible to people who don't know the setting, although the second scene with Erik might throw people--hell, it threw me. (Again, footnote 1.)

Forgive it the clunky spots and enjoy?
---
[1] ( Spoiiilers. )

[2] The double-sized white fur Cossack hat paired with the garter-belt-and-leggings? I cringed.

Current Mood: cheerful

Okay, a first note on the movies: I understand that there are many remakes, I understand they particularly seem to crop up in summer, but there is still a bit of dissonance in finding out at the same time that they are remaking Straw Dogs and Fright Night.

(For the record? Totally called Fright Night. And I've never seen the original. S'there.)

Anyway, went to see Priest.

Overall, it was one hell of a combination of Judge Dredd with the Night Train[1] adventure from Deadlands, but the dialogue could have used a *little* work. Just a little. Eeensy bit.

Like, enough work to have the professional vampire hunter who is rather prone to stating the obvious (they all are--this movie is *not* subtle) say something like "There wouldn't be a hive guardian if the hive was abandoned" instead of "But why would there be a hive guardian if the hive was abandoned?"

But it's an okay action movie, and the Wasted West sequences are just lovely.
---
[1] The Night Train is a meatgrinder of an adventure for Deadlands, a cheery Old West setting which started going to hell when the Battle of Gettysburg was called on account of zombies. It has a rather unsettling setup, goes through PCs like butter (details are spoily), and leads to summaries like

One of [Our Heroes] died, and the other three came very, very close. Well, okay, TWO of them died, but one of them hasn't noticed yet.

and while I was looking for an informative link I found out that there is a sequel. Fear Levels and bliss, here I come.

Current Mood: cheerful

It is entirely possible that

sivi_volk is the only person I know who files Titus andTromeo and Juliet next to each other on his video shelf. In fact, on top of each other.

Just sayin'.

Current Mood: silly

Four-and-a-half hour round trip to see a movie, and I missed the first five minutes. Which was okay, but I am kind of glad I did not pay more than $3.50. Gary Oldman and Billy Burke were wasted on it; okay story, pretty if somewhat implausible setting, CGI werewoof has great cuddly floppy paws does he yes he does! And some of the acting needed to be shot.

(Actually, I suppose the problem was that not enough acting was shot, since the camera was busy with a lot of mechanical line reading instead.)

However! Bus ride there and back gave me a chance to finish Scott Westerfeld's So Yesterday, which I keep wanting to described as "Scott Westerfeld does Bellweather." As that is not helpful if you don't know Scott Westerfeld[1], I am trying to expound... Adventure teenfic about trends, with a sort of twenty-minutes-into-the-future feel to it. Maybe. Or maybe I'm just getting old.

(Also, he wrote Peeps, which is one of the neater takes on vampires I've seen in a while.)

I think my cold, or whatever it was, is breaking. That's a nice change.
---
[1] If you haven't read Bellweather, do. I will wait. Go on. (It's by Connie Willis, if you need help finding it.)

Current Mood: thoughtful

...I was unprepared.

Going to see Source Code was pretty typical; a while back John showed me the trailer, and then I noticed it was playing, and then I had a weekend. Differences began arising in that John was the one who asked if I wanted to go see it; it's usually the other way around.

Looking at the trailer, I was expecting a kind of typical sci-fi adventure. Something will go boom, techno-magic allows you--our protagonist--to keep trying to fix it. Stop it. Do something which will allow for a lot of on-screen explosions.

It's not like that. It's--I want to say clever, and that doesn't do it justice. It's smart. It's not necessarily subtle, but there is actual characterization and multiple motivations--hell, actual motivations--and a story which trusts that wou can make reaasonable inferences and does not feel the need to beat you over the head with details. (And there are some deeply awesome details.)

Highly recommended. Go take a look.

Current Mood: impressed

Just got back from seeing it. Trying to sort out impressions... bit hard to break down.

It's not about mental illness, only about institutionalization for same as a mechanism of social control. (I would rather not get into some of the things people were institutionalized for because I have been thinking sort of gloomily about Pennhurst for a couple of days and I have moments when I am holding my mood up by the skin of my teeth.)

Apparently some critics hold that it is hard to follow. I have absolutely no idea how it could be hard to follow. Maybe if you left the theatre to take a phone call every twenty minutes. Maybe. It is not always clear what a dispassionate third-party real-world observer would see happening if they were there, but it's not hard to follow at all.

It is an absolutely beautiful movie. Seriously. They had me at the shot of the asylum in the rain. There's a lot of T&A, although for what it's worth (which I think is something) there's relatively little oh-noes-I-am-helpless-T&A. (Plus an in-character rant fairly early on about how on earth anyone could find brainless meat sexy.) Mind, the power of the protagonist is that she can make men want her, and I trust that can be unpacked.

Also, it's not like most of the movie isn't covered in the trailer, but ( there may be spoilers. )

I will probably pick it up, I think.
---
[1] ETA: removed for the weight of the word.

If there is a happier summation of Galaxy Quest than "I do believe in fairies" with a side-order of rayguns and awesome, I have yet to hear it. :D

Happy New Year, everyone. Hope it's a good one.

Current Mood: happy

My laptop's hit the point where it can actually have the lid closed and restart again upon opening. Much glee and delight ensued. (Need to update/reinstall all the programs on it, but for now... Glee.)

Got back to one of the temp agencies, and need to head out for errands in a bit. Suppose it's been a fairly useful morning, all told.

Watching Gangs of New York in a sort of desultory fashion. It has a bad tendency of dropping into travelogues, but it's okay for background. It keeps occurring to me that I could be watching Sharpe instead. Or Brick, or State of Grace.

Current Mood: okay

Dental work's finally done.

Went looking for Christmas cards today, and could not find anything that didn't have preprinted sentiments. Got some of my yarn weighed.[1] Watching The Walking Dead; I keep getting a bit of déjà vu from when I read the comic, but it's not spoiling the show any.

(Speaking of comics, rediscovered 100 Bullets in collection at the library. Noir series, very neat concept that allows for one-to-three issue stories while unfolding an overarching plot in the background. Worth checking out if you like that kind of thing.)

Hoping to get out to see RED before it leaves the theatres, but keep doing other things instead. And I need to get started on Christmas presents, too. (Possibly not knitted ones. I tried swatching the See You Later socks (Ravelry link), and I... well. I did not do so well.)

Looking for ways to sync Thunderbird between my laptop and my PC[2]; found a couple of options, not sure how much trouble they'd be to implement. (I want to do the same thing with Firefox, but that is much less trouble.)

Looking for work continues. One possible job to be hopeful about, but they are saying they need information to give me a T4 for the work on the contract, and this is leaving me unoptimistic.[3]

S'yeah. Not exciting, but mostly pleasant and productive.
---
[1] Do not laugh. First, it gives me yardage. Second, it lets me know how much postage I need to use.
[2] Oh, and such a PC I have! It is... delicious.
[3] People contracted to do work? To the best of my knowledge (since I had to look into this sometime last year), they are not employees. They do not get a T4.

Current Mood: calm

No, really, just can't sleep.

Have Hannibal Rising on as background noise. Really not impressed--( spoilery ), all the while being pursued by everyone's favourite alcoholic authority-bucking Irish cop from The Wire. (I thought I saw Martin Ruber from The Lost Room, but it was just a lookalike.)

So. You know. Bit surreal.

...I suppose being able to articulate all this means I'm not as utterly blank as I was yesterday. That said, *still* can't sleep, and I've been writing this for half an hour.

Going to walk Pipes in a bit. It will do her good, and I might as well do something useful.

Current Mood: annoyed

I watched Session 9. And I have just put in Frailty. For the next movie, I was thinking Jacob's Ladder (since What Lies Beneath didn't *quite* seem to fit.)

Suggestions for other movies in the same vein?

(Also: vaguely saddened by the fact that AFAIK none of the ones I mentioned except What Lies Beneath pass the Bechdel Test.)

Current Mood: thoughtful

I am running on four (4!) hours of sleep. I'm in a very nice mood. But four hours of sleep!

Reserve the right to be a leeeeetle bit spacey today.

Had great fun not getting home until 2:35 a.m.

("Hammeroids". Heh.)

Okay going for coffee and to work.

Current Mood: exanimate

Well. The cat has been fed gooshyfood, the dishes have been done, the laundry is ready to come out of the dryer, and the Aztec Gold is starting to look orange rather than merely dingy brown. I was getting a bit nervous about that.

I'm watching Knowing. It's okay. I don't know if they actually use Farenheit in MIT classes on physics, perhaps they do, but it snapped my disbelief suspenders. Still, it's background noise while I poke at writing and check the dye bath every five to seven minutes.

Current Mood: content

Bored.

Library not yet open. Internet access available. ...gah, I don't know. Everyone I'd normally talk to to kill time is AFAICT working or still asleep.

I figure the library will open in twenty, and then the lobby should clear out and I will feel considerably less bad about watching a movie in here while I knit. (Not doing that yet; am sitting on bench, laptop would slip off my knees if not held in place, which makes knitting sub-optimal.) Meantime, my mind's sort of rambling all over the place.

I kind of wish I'd brought Hunter, but carrying a 300-and-change page book on top of the laptop seemed a bit much. May see about grabbing a PDF of it.

Eighteen minutes. Gah. Maybe I'll try writing something.

silent_lorelei's review of Legion made it sound pretty much exactly as terrible as I expected--

--ooooh, if I don't hear something by afternoon, I can maybe go grab Alice in Wonderland at the World Exchange--

--but a couple of the ideas were kind of interesting. I did like the ice-cream man in the movie trailer, and the question of why the little old lady demon shrugged off one attack but not the other has me thinking, of all things, about Scott McCloud. You know how in a car accident, you're more likely to say "He hit me!" than you are to say "His car hit my car!"? Something to do with that, with the extension of perception of self to cover objects at hand.

Mhm. I'm rambling. Also kinda wishing that the copy of Slasher I was looking at hadn't been sold. I'm getting that weird itch to run a game again, and Slasher and Hunter are both looking interesting. Mind, I've got core NWoD (or possibly Savage Worlds), not like I need anything else...

Orpheus, dammit. Someday I will run an Orpheus game, and it will cover the metaplot. All of it.

Current Mood: restless

So I have watched Terminator: Salvation and I would just like to say that I am deeply, deeply sorry.

( There's something witty someone could say about the movie already being spoiled, I'm sure, but I'm just tossing up a cut for the sake of politeness. )

My eyes.

Current Mood: thankful

Went out. Saw movie for cheap, discovered giant soft pretzels are not great but okay, wandered into factory outlet on impulse after show, picked up two pairs of jeans for $15 each. (Marked down 85%. Good bleeding Christ, women's clothing, etcetera.)

Now I'm sitting here with a pound and a half of cherries, a mellow dog, and a noise level that's either dropped or else I've gotten used to it (probably both, as we had to turn off one of the upstairs industrial fans since it kept blowing the breaker).

Two pairs of jeans. Two *new* pairs of jeans. And they fit. :D

Current Mood: happy

Suspira is playing at the Mayfair in just under fifty minutes. Not making it, which is a shame. Had been looking forward to it for a week.

In other news, Amazon is... uhm... well. Last time I took notice of them, I was annoyed by search engines rabidly filtering out teh gey.

This time I'm just kind of boggling over the fact that they unpublished George Orwell's 1984. And Animal Farm.

No, really.

I'm just kind of sitting here, snickering phrases like "double-plus unbook" and "we have never sold 1984 in Eurasia".

Current Mood: amused

Dear everyone-who-gave-me-the-shower-scene-speech about Psycho:

What were you *thinking?*

Yes, the shower scene is well done. But it's not a patch on the sight of Marion's face pressed against the bathroom floor, or Norman's mother in the basement with the lamp swinging and the shadows moving in her eye sockets, or that final scene with Norman as the camera slowly fades out. That one was Gomer Pyle Full Metal Jacket levels of creepy. 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers Donald Sutherland levels of creepy. And that is *after* the expository lump of the psychiatric explanation.

Odd to think that at the time it was probably required.

(Also, vaguely amused to note that Marion's boyfriend was named Sam Loomis.)

Current Mood: amused

Been catching up on Final Girl, and snagged her top fifty movie list.

~~Halloween (1978) dir: John Carpenter~~
~~The Exorcist (1973) dir: William Friedkin~~
~~Psycho (1960) dir: Alfred Hitchcock~~
~~Night of the Living Dead (1968) dir: George Romero~~
~~The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) dir: Tobe Hooper~~

Frankenstein (1931) dir: James Whale (read the book)
~~The Shining (1980) dir: Stanley Kubrick~~
~~The Thing (1982) dir: John Carpenter~~
~~Alien (1979) dir: Ridley Scott~~

Nosferatu (1922) dir: F.W. Murnau (two thirds of it, and then I fell over)
~~Dawn of the Dead (1978) dir: George Romero~~
Bride of Frankenstein (1935) dir: James Whale
~~A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) dir: Wes Craven~~
~~Jaws (1975) dir: Steven Spielberg~~
~~The Blair Witch Project (1999) dir: Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sanchez~~
~~The Haunting (1963) dir: Robert Wise~~

King Kong (1933) dir: Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack
Rosemary’s Baby (1968) dir: Roman Polanski (rtb)
~~Dracula (1931) dir: Todd Browning~~
~~The Evil Dead (1981) dir: Sam Raimi~~

Poltergeist (1982) dir: Tobe Hooper (rtb)
Black Sunday (La Maschera del Demonio) (1960) dir: Mario Bava
~~The Phantom of the Opera (1925) dir: Rupert Julian~~
~~An American Werewolf in London (1980) dir: John Landis~~
~~Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) dir: Jack Arnold~~
~~Friday the 13th (1980) dir: Sean Cunningham~~
~~Evil Dead II (1988) dir: Sam Raimi~~

Alucarda (1978) dir: Juan Lopez Moctezuma
~~Carrie (1976) dir: Brian DePalma~~
~~Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) dir: Francis Ford Coppola~~
~~The Fly (1986) dir: David Cronenberg~~
~~The Fog (1980) dir: John Carpenter~~

The Wolf Man (1941) dir: George Waggner
~~House on Haunted Hill (1959) dir: William Castle~~
Night of the Demon (1957) dir: Jacques Tourneur
Frankenstein (1910) dir: J. Searle Dawley (rtb)
~~Dellamorte Dellamore (Cemetery Man) (1994) dir: Michele Soavi~~ such an excellent movie
Thriller (1983) dir: John Landis
~~The Addiction (1995) dir: Abel Ferrara~~
~~Aliens (1986) dir: James Cameron~~
~~Phantasm (1979) dir: Don Coscarelli~~

The Thing from Another World (1951) dir: Christian Nyby
Zombi 2 (1979) dir: Lucio Fulci
~~The Mist (2007) dir: Frank Darabont~~
~~Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) dir: Jack Clayton~~ (migod, a decent adaptation)
The Living Dead Girl (1982) dir: Jean Rollin
The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1962) dir: Joseph Green
~~The Return of the Living Dead (1985) dir: Dan O’Bannon~~
Suspiria (1976) dir: Dario Argento
Salem’s Lot (1979) dir: Tobe Hooper (rtb)

Also Don't Look Now (which I haven't heard of), and The Brood (haven't seen it, read the book).

She's also got a list of ten very good horror movies that you probably haven't seen. I hadn't even heard of six of them. Will be taking a look, I think.

Current Mood: optimistic

I cannot properly express exactly how odd that movie was.

Going to bed now. May try to be more coherent in the morning. The post-dawn morning.

Current Mood: weird

So. El Topo has a midnight (well, 11:55 p.m.) showing at the Mayfair tonight and tomorrow.

On the theory that there are not many times in my life I'm going to get to see something this strange on the big screen, I'm going to be there tonight. Should be fun. :D

Current Mood: quixotic

So. I'm watching Threads.

I cannot properly express exactly how bleak this is, although it does occur to me it might not have been the best choice for post-midnight viewing.

(And I was in such a pleasant mood after the quiet evening in and the glass of wine...)

Current Mood: depressed

Apparently the local movie theatre sells $6 tickets for pre-noon weekend showings. I am thinking either The Haunting in Connecticut (11:15) or Race to Witch Mountain[1] (11:10), tomorrow morning. Anyone else interested?
---
[1] Hush up already I am a geek and I am not ashamed.

Current Mood: quixotic

The next person who talks to me about how a government job is all fluff, just for slackers, means I'll have tons of free time...

I have a hatchet. And if I can't find one, I will buy it. Jesus, they are running me ragged. It's *good*--I feel useful, I'm getting stuff done--but holy god am I ever wiped.

I have acquired a new cellphone. I will need to re-enter all my contacts, so I am making comments screened, so if you want me to have your contact number/e-mail address[1], drop it in a comment.

Also picked up V for Vendetta (cheap!) and Teeth (not cheap, but not particularly expensive, and an *awesome* feel-good chick flick IMHO) on DVD.
---
[1] I have been known to text from my phone when bored. "Oh god so cold." "Send booze & G Oldman." "But seas between us braid hae roar'd/Sin' auld lang syne."[2]
[2] It was New Year's. I missed John.

Current Mood: tired

Took John out to dinner last night. Discovered I don't like (traditional, gin-and-vermouth) martinis, but bellinis are okay. He explained calculus to me once we were done eating, and when we left the kindergarten teacher at the next table told him she'd blame him if she had nightmares about it. She was laughing about it; nice lady, I think.

Came home and fiddled around with the Random Art Prompt Generator for a bit. Caught All the Boys Love Mandy Lane and then couldn't settle on anything to watch, so I eventually curled up and rewatched Teeth. Discussions of why I classify that as a comforting feel-good chick flick are welcome, but probably kind of redundant.

Work starts tomorrow. Need to iron blouses.

Current Mood: content

Nazi... undersea... werewolf.

(I contemplate this and giggle.)

Also, watched Alien vs. Predator last night. Never has a movie given my husband such justification to repeat the phrase "face full of alien wing-wong". I'm just sayin'.

Besides that, he complains about the guy reading Predator heiroglyphs as if they were English. I, however, simply want to know why the Predators are using the Gregorian calendar (and, not incidentally, whether they go day-month-year or month-day-year. The hatching date being October 10th neatly prevented me from discerning this.)

Current Mood: giggly

So. I shall begin with a slice of life:

"Dammit, I really wanted those socks to fit."
"Yeah, it sucks."
"I mean, I bought those XL socks for me."
"Awh, I know. Don't worry."
*sneef*
"We have knives."

So, in the interest of avoiding a recreation of one of the older versions of Cinderella (which would totally ruin the nifty rainbow tie-dye job on the socks, anyway), does anyone know if there's a way to stretch mohair socks?

========

And on a totally different note, Eight-Legged Freaks is okay but I'm thinking I might want something more uplifting. Teeth or something, maybe.

========

So, The Unborn is playing tomorrow. Anyone interested in catching it at the AMC? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

========

Still nothing on the strike. Dammit.

Current Mood: anxious

I have been out of the house for 5.5 hours. And I spent 1.5 of those walking briskly. Headed down to the AMC, found I'd just missed the cutoff for the movie I wanted to see, and wandered over to Chapters to kill time. Picked up a new Repairman Jack novel, Bloodline. I'm missing Infernal and By the Sword, and need to grab those. Grabbed a sandwich and fluffy-drink at Starbucks and then headed back once the next showing was due to start.

So. I saw The Spirit.

Please understand that I am coming to this from a perspective that... well... look, I love the Sin City books. The art--all of it, the layout and the style and the pacing and the setting and the writing (yes I said the writing goddammit, it works for what it is)--is beautiful. But Frank Miller still makes me want to remove something from his anatomy with an axe. I howled when I heard he was adapting The Spirit. I grumbled and I prepared for utter disappointment and I think there might have been an aside or five in there about needing an alibi.

What I am trying to say is, I went to see this movie not prepared to cut it any slack.

...I really liked it.

It was fun, the action could've come right out of the pages of a Spirit issue, and it was just--dammit, the word that keeps coming to mind is goony.

...in fact, I think I need to own it.

Walked home afterwards, and it was distinctly brisk--I wish I'd had my gloves--but not freezing, so I was able to read some more of Bloodlines. And that was my day so far, and I think my legs are going to kill me tomorrow if I don't go soak in a hot bath, but then I have nothing against hot baths so it's all good.

Current Mood: cheerful

Audience of Strangers

Entries tagged with movies