01-08-2005

Since I'm four ahead of the game coming into the weekend and have plans for tonight I'm going to take it easy. I've already watched Love Actually and I think I'll hit Kid Galahad later on, but other than that I'm through for today. Love Actually was pretty good, but I always feel a little cheated with movies like this. Most of the individual storylines could have been their own movie (except the tired Keira Knightly Best Friend's Girl one. blech.), but instead we get stuck with what amounts to a collection of movie anecdotes. I especially wished the Laura Linney story had been more developed because it had a lot of potential that just got lost by the end. Even Rowan Atkinson was lost in the shuffle, which is totally surprising since he usually steals everything he gets near. I'll update later with Kid Galahad and anything else (I'm toying with The Tall T but I'm not sure if I'll get to it).

25 down, 975 to go.

01-07-2005

Gregg Allman and Friends are playing a concert here later this month and the radio ads are referring to him as "The Greatest Living Blues Legend." I'm sorry, did B.B. King die and I just missed it? Should I call and check on Buddy Guy? Didn't think so.

22) Arabesque. Very 60s, very international. Loren is gorgeous as always, and even with my widely known disgust of feet, I would have had no problem giving her that foot rub. Peck seemed a little odd trying to pull off the cavalier one liners in tight situations, but the nice man on TMC informed me after the movie that his role was originally written for Cary Grant so it kind of makes sense. Grant probably would have pulled them off better, but I could see why he'd turn down the role after having made Charade, another "chase" movie, with the same director only a few years earlier.

23) Rage at Dawn. I'm sure I'm going to wind up watching some old western that I've already seen and just didn't realize it because I watched so many as a kid with my dad. I love these old B westerns for some reason. If I was some Hollywood big shot I'd demand to be given free reign to direct my own western after making some big budget affair that made a studio tons of money. Anyway, I borrowed this from my old man as part of a big set of twelve that I got him for his birthday a few years ago and I'm really looking forward to watching the rest. Angel and the Badman is the only movie in the set that I've even heard of but the others sound pretty good too so I'll probably be hitting them pretty hard this weekend.

24) Flight of the Phoenix. Yawn.

24 down, 976 to go.

01-06-2005

UH MUH GAW! THE OC? AWESOME!

So for real, yeah I watched The OC last night. I'm not proud. I started watching them because I always have to tape them for people and I absolutely hated it and couldn't figure out the appeal, and then came Lindsay. So in love. Other than her, Kirsten is the only character I can even stand. The rest? Hatred. Shut up Seth. Shut Up Ryan. Shut up guy with the freaking huge eyebrows. Shut up slutty mom (though I am totally hot for her in a "totally hot for slutty moms" kind of way). Shut up guy living on a boat. Shut up Marisa. Shut up AND put a bag over your head Marisa's friend who's name is a season that I can't ever remember (Summer? Autumn? One of those). I hate you all!

19) Murder My Sweet. One of Van's professors wrote Somewhere in the Night, and I tried my best to read it despite it being one of those dry and academic accounts of something that's pretty exciting. It does, however, contain a very useful list of noir movies that I'm sure I'll be taking advantage of. I've already seen a lot of the majors (Maltese Falcon, Rififi, Touch of Evil, The Killers, etc.) but the minor noirs are usually the ones that have the best stories. Even though I enjoyed this one while I was watching it, it suffered from the same fate as most of the detective movies in general, and Marlowe movies specifically, in that I don't really remember a lot of the details now that I've watched something else. Private detective, someone gets killed, there's a tough dame (or two) and a couple of tougher guys and there's some sort of enigmatically named object they are all trying to find. That's about all I remember, but that's also about all I remember from The Maltese Falcon, so whatever. I'll watch more, but they'll just run in with the others.

20) The Transporter. Save The Professional, Luc Besson has always been style over substance, so I was certain the Transporter would be one of those half baked storylines who's only purpose is to show a lot of action and stuff blowing up real good. I didn't also figure there would be so many contrived ways of showing Eric Statham with his shirt off, but that's what I got. I hope he got payed a ton of money for playing the dumb action hero after he played the clever guy in both Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch.

21) Wrong Turn. So the mountains of West Virginia are filled with inbred, cannibal hillbillies. So that's how Robert Byrd keeps getting sent back to the senate. ZING! Anyway, the plot to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre now has two copycats in the past few years (three if you want to count the remake, which wasn't as bad as everyone said, but why mess with success?) House of 1000 Corpses sucked, and disappointingly so because I had really high hopes for it at least being a so bad it's good kind of movie. Instead it was just bad. At least Wrong Turn knows it's a cheap scare for the teen market and doesn't try to be some sort of Auteur's vision of a horror masterpiece (take notes Rob Zombie). Plus, Eliza Dushku makes me want to La La. YES! I finally got to use that! It was also only 1 hour 20 minutes, so it was a pretty quick watch and kept a quick pace the whole time without resorting to a bunch of gore for gore's sake holding us up. Get them into the woods, get them chased, get some of them killed, and get the rest out (more notes for you Mr. Zombie). Nothing special, but I enjoyed it.

21 down, 979 to go.

01-05-2005

16) The Human Stain. My friend Van had to read this at Columbia so he sent me his copy and even though it was a very detailed and long read, I enjoyed it immensely. The filmic adaption was unfortunately forced to sacrifice most of the character development from the book so I was very dissatisfied with it. The overall theme of the book made it over to the movie, but I really don't think an hour forty five could do justice to the story. I don't know if I would have liked it without having read the book, but I did get the feeling that a couple of the racier scenes could have been sacrificed for more storytelling. Whatever.

17) Scotland, PA. Macbeth, set in 1970s rural Pennsylvania. HAHAHA. Brilliant! Excellent soundtrack! Can't say enough good things! Watch this movie!

18) Chasing Liberty. I can't decide if I like Mandy Moore or not. I mean, she was dumb enough to be the first of Fez's gullible and underaged action, but she's totally adorable and A Walk to Remember was the smartest first step into the world of Hollywood a crossover pop star has ever made. This didn't really help her. I tried my best to like her, but all the dramatic scenes reaked of high school drama club and the "funny" parts (and the whole thing really) were so ludicrous and predictable that I had to laugh anyway because it was just too funny that the parts that were least funny were supposed to be the funniest. Charity stopped by to show off her new haircut, which was very cute, and she stayed to watch a little and even though I could laugh at it for being awesomely bad she couldn't take it at all. So bottom line, Mandy Moore is still adorable, Chasing Liberty is crap, and I wish I had Johnny English on DVD.

18 down, 982 to go.



18 down, 982 to go.

01-04-2005 Part II

When I was a junior in high school I never ate lunch at school. Instead, me and my friend Mikey would always go hang out in our lunch/study teacher's room while everyone else was at lunch and read or goof off or whatever. At one point during the year, his student teacher (Mr. Carol I believe?) would usually hang out in the classroom grading papers or whatever, but we would always get to talking and he was a pretty cool guy so we would usually distract him from his work and talk about stupid crap for half and hour until study hall began. So during this time I was madly in love with a girl named Meg Wright, but of course things never really worked out (though I did get my one date and had an excellent time the weekend before she got back together with her college boyfriend. ugh.) and I announced to Mikey that I was over her. Mr. Carol (?) seemed kind of perplexed over this and wanted to know how anyone could get over her and I thought that was kind of weird but then we figured out he thought I had said Meg Ryan so a good laugh was had by all and we pretty well agreed that there could be no getting over Meg Ryan. Which sucks for Dennis Quaid. I say all of this because I did finish Flesh and Bone last night after all, and I absolutely loved it. It was a little uneven and the whole James Caan subplot could have been entirely left out (I never thought I'd see the day when I'd say a movie could do without James Caan) and it would have still been a well acted character piece, possibly even a better movie. But even with it I was totally drawn in by both Quaid and Ryan and it just made me kind of sad for poor Dennis. I mean, Russell Crowe? Really Meg? Russell Crowe? Proof of Life? Really? So yeah, despite my obvious bitterness with Meg, she was perfect in this and made me remember why I loved her in the first place. My only real sticking point? Gwynnie. Not because she was bad or anything, it was just kind of weird seeing her with the younger Quaid and Ryan since I kind of think of her as a pretty young actress. She just seems out of place. But whatever. 15 down, 985 to go.

01-04-2005

Foolish Side Project Update: First season done. And of course, after I finished the last episode of season one I couldn't sleep so I popped Road Trip in just to fall asleep to and wound up watching the whole thing. So a movie I've already seen has now slipped it's way in when I could have been furthering the tally. Damn it! On with the count.

13) Buena Vista Social Club. I'm going to link to Ebert's review here, because I pretty well agree with his take on the annoying camera work and the cutting of the songs, but for the most part I was more interested in the footage from Cuba. At the very start when photos are being shown of Cuba during the Cuban missile crisis and of Castro and Che I was trying to keep a sharp eye out to see if I could spot the government minder that was surely lurking just out of frame. when showing the picture of Fidel and Che playing golf, the question "Who won?" is posed and the reply is "Fidel. Che let him win." and what goes unsaid but is clearly visible in the man's eyes is "because he knew what was good for him." The rest of the footage is just sad. Ebert makes reference to the beautiful decay of Havana, but how can you see economic stagnation and poverty as beautiful? The scenes of the musicians in New York aren't condescending, but revealing about how much these musicians and the Cuban people in general have lost under communism, namely the vibrant culture this music embodies. So that's my political soap box for today. As for Ry Cooder, he didn't really seem like he was so much a part of the movie as just in the movie. I don't know if they turned him up in the mix so he could be heard clearly whenever the camera focused on him (which was a lot), but his playing sounded like he wasn't part of the band, just some guy with a guitar trying to jam along over a CD recording. I don't know, I was dissatisfied with the movie even though I liked the music and was kind of looking forward to seeing it. But what else was I to expect from the douche bag that brought us Wings of Desire?

14) The Last Samurai. Well, I could jump right back on that old political soap box and be all "so the moral of the story is that the warmongering American soldier finds peace and redemption by joining a feudal and death obsessed warrior class in their rebellion against the evil and corrupting westernization of their culture because even though they are fighting their emperor they feel they are truly serving him by maintaining the old feudal system in which they were they highest class and all others were second class servants subject to their whim" but instead I'll just say I really liked the scene where Tom Cruise realizes the secret to samurai success is the motivational technique of positive visualization. Did you positively visualize hooking up with the wife of the man you killed earlier in the movie too, Tom? Did you? Cause I'll bet you did! I watched Shogun not too long ago and by the end I was pretty tired of it, but I'd watch it another 10 times before I'd see this again.

I'm going to start in on Flesh and Bone tonight though its getting late and I'm sure I won't finish it. I need to get a little ahead since I'll be attending a birthday party for my friend Steve on saturday. Donna has the House of Sand and Fog tivoed and she seemed pretty eager for me to see it so I'm sure it will be getting an appearance here soon. Another quick sports aside, Oklahoma blows it at the end of the season, AGAIN. Shock!

14 down, 986 to go.

01-03-2005

I had a cold all last week so I didn't work at all, and going back today sucked. Especially this time of year when we are crazy slow. I did manage to do a good bit of cleaning up the mess made in my absence and now my knees are killing me. Maybe I should have had that surgery after all. Anyway.

11) Beat the Devil. I can honestly say I've never seen a movie like this before. Not quite a screwball comedy (or even a comedy really), it certainly had an absurd sense of humor, eccentric characters and an improbable story, but it all works so well! Made me wonder if Wes Anderson saw this a lot as a kid. I'll have to pick this one up to keep, I'm sure I'll want to see it again.

12) Bad Day at Black Rock. I'm sure I'm probably supposed to like this movie, but I just couldn't get into it. Sturges's movies are usually slow paced but its always for a good reason. This time it just seems dull. And despite the Amazon review Tracy was miscast and ubelievable as the one armed tough guy. I'm sure it was a culturally important movie for its day, but it just doesn't relate, though I wonder how long it will be before some genius decides to update it for the post 9/11 world and has a bunch of rednecks murder a muslim.

Sports related aside: Curse you Virginia Tech! You beat Bama in the Music City Bowl but you decide to roll over for Auburn?! You are dead to me!

Johnny English Update: It was on HBO tonight when I got home. Do you know how hard it was not to watch it? No, you don't. But believe me, it was hard!

Foolish Side Project Update: About to finish the first season of Alias. Hopefully I'll stay awake.

12 down, 988 to go.

01-02-2005

One day in and the project is already putting a strain on my personal life. My friend Sarah was mad at me for not hanging out with her because I had to stay home Saturday night to watch more movies.

I woke up at noon on Sunday, a good two hours later than I had planned on (why is it if I want to stay asleep all day I wake up at 8?) so I was already a little behind schedule. Plus, the Steelers/Buffalo game was actually on our local CBS affiliate so I was interested in watching that since inconsequential games of northern teams never get shown here. Quick sports aside, I was glad to see that the "resurgent" Bills couldn't beat what was essentially a second string Steelers team, but I was very sad for Shaud Williams. For those that don't know he was a big name running back at Alabama that didn't go in the draft because he's "too small" but got taken as a free agent by Buffalo. Anyway, he's actually been getting some time on the field and was doing pretty well up there but since the Bills are never shown here I hadn't gotten to see him play until Sunday, when I watched him miss a shovel pass on a third and short. He showed poise and talent in recovering the ball and at least getting it back to the line of scrimmage, but still. So Shaud, better luck next year. During commercials and at half time I started in with the movies, so here's Sunday's list.

6) Deliver Us From Eva. It was actually pretty enjoyable if totally overstereotyped and predictable. I think its funny that there seems to be some sort of film segregation going on in the teen movie market. First The Taming of the Shrew is updated for the white kids with 10 Things I Hate About You and then for the black folks with Eva. And then there had to be a black remake of Can't Buy Me Love with Love Don't Cost a Thing. I'm just wondering when Mean Girls is going to get it's update.

7) Bruce Almighty. Jim Carrey usually gets on my nerves but he was tolerable and Jennifer Aniston is always adorable. The movie was actually pretty intelligent for a lowbrow comedy but nothing special. Worth seeing to discover where my roommate got the whole "It's GOOOD" thing from.

8) 48 Hours. I used to have this crazy theory as a kid that movies with a set time in the title should last that long. So like 48 Hours would really take two days to watch and theaters would be outfitted with beds and stuff and you would sleep when the characters slept. I thought that would be so cool, but then you'd have to think about movies like 40 Days and 40 Nights or 9 1/2 Weeks and spending that much time with Mickey Rourke is probably not such a good idea. Anyway, like Jim Carrey, Eddie murphy tends to bother me, but he stayed low key in this one and it was played like a cop drama instead of a buddy comedy (which I'm sure Another 48 Hours will be when I get around to it, a la the Lethal Weapon series). I thought his singing Roxeanne in his cell was priceless, but I guess anyone singing Roxeanne is pretty funny, including The Police. I was kind of shocked by the amount of vulgarity in the movie, which also kind of shocked me that I would notice. When I was younger I noticed a lot of swearing and nudity because I didn't want my parents hearing it coming out of my room and deciding to investigate, but as I get older I find that I'm actually offended by it. Which is hypocritical because I swear like a sailor most of the time, but whatever. I also wasn't too thrilled to see Superman's mom getting mixed up with the likes of Nick Nolte. Jonathan Kent, where are you when we need you?

At this point I took a quick break to hit the grocery store for more Cokes and potatoes (the mashed potatoes from Saturday? Yeah!), and really, just to get up for a little bit. My buddy Tim came over and asked if I was sick of watching TV yet, and really I'm not. I would have watched this much TV anyway. I got lucky that there was no Simpsons or Desperate Housewives on so I didn't have to stop and watch them and could remain on schedule.

9) Welcome to Mooseport. I love Gene Hackman. I love Ray Romano. I love Maura Tierney. And I find myself strangely attracted to both Marcia Gay Harden and Christine Baranski. How could I not like this movie? Easy. It was dumb. Though a cameo by Chi Chi Rodriguez helped ease the pain because my niece and I used to try to guess how people with odd names got them and I had this crazy story about how his father was stung by a bee during the naming process and that's how Chi Chi became Chi Chi. And it's just fun to say. Chi Chi.

10) Kangaroo Jack. The first, and I'm certain not the last, of movies I'll be embarassed to say that I watched in the name of the project. A lot of weirdly adult situations for a kid's movie. When it was in theaters my sister took her kids to see it and was telling me all about it and how funny it was and it was at that point that I realized my sister is a grown up and has had kids for way too long. Anyway, I probably would have been a little uncomfortable taking kids to see it myself because having to explain why Jerry O'Connell grabbing Estella Warren's breast because he thinks it's a mirage and then having an awkward conversation about thinking they weren't real, no wait, not that kind of not real is funny would just be weird. The only genuinely funny point in the movie was during the flight to Australia when the two dopes were discussing the money in the bathroom and the stewardess thinks they are talking about poop. Hee. poop.

So that was Sunday. 10 down, 990 to go.

Johnny English Update: I want to see Johnny English again! The more I think about it the funnier it becomes. I'll have to buy the DVD at some point because it definetely has the makings of an everyday movie for me. I get on these weird kicks where I'll watch a movie over and over again for weeks and doing anything else feels like time that I could be spending watching said movie. Former everyday movie all stars include Billy Madison, Out of Sight, Leaving Las Vegas, and the most recent, Lost in Translation.

Foolish Side Project Update: In addition to "the project" and the five shows that I'm going to keep up with (The Simpsons, Arrested Development, Desperate Housewives, Gilmore Girls and One Tree Hill. Yes, I'm such a girl for watching Gilmore Girls and One Tree Hill), I've taken to trying to watch Alias. Sarah has all the DVDs for the first three seasons and season 4 starts wednesday. I've been watching episodes after I'm done with the daily movie schedule and I'm currently one episode away from completing the first season. I'm going to try and get the other two done in the next few weeks and just record this seasons until I'm caught up. And of course, football. I'll have to at least off and on watch the Sugar Bowl tonight (please Hokies, don't make us listen to Auburn fans whine for a whole year about how they should be the national champions) so that's it for college football until the fall, but I'll have to watch the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl so that's going to eat into some weekend time for the next few weeks. I'm going to try to build in some extra movies each night of the week and get a little ahead of schedule to stay on track, but we'll just have to see.