07-22-2005

551) Phantoms. Affleck was the bomb in Phantoms, yo! So this started out pretty creepy and from what I remember of the book (I went through my Koontz phase shortly after my King phase in high school) it was a pretty decent adaption, but then it took a turn into standard issue action/sci-fi and lost it's momentum. Kind of a waste.

552) Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid. Well, they followed the Alien/Aliens formula of "bigger and more" for the sequel pretty well, but this one has the distinction of making a good sequel to a crappy movie instead of a good sequel of a good movie. At first I was kind of pissed off at the outrageously exaggerated southern accent of Kadee Strickland. There's nothing I hate more than Hollywood types attempting to talk like us and failing miserably. But then I remembered she was in The Grudge speaking in a "normal voice" and then being shocked at how southern she sounded in the making of feature on the DVD. So it turns out that really is how she talks. Which makes her totally hot. Anyway, yeah, it was dumb, but it was good dumb.

553) Barbershop 2: Back in Business. It's a night of sequels I see. Just as good as the first.

552 down, 448 to go.

Spent most of the afternoon packing and moving some stuff to the new apartment. I only took light stuff like clothes and books and DVDs but going up and down those stairs was murder. Sarah helped later on and Lee is coming tomorrow morning to help me move the bigger stuff, which I am not looking forward to. All in all it hasn't been that bad of a move so far but moving the couchs and my giant bookcase up the stairs tomorrow is going to be a pain. Also, thanks for the concern, Leslie. You're a peach.

07-21-2005

548) Ice Princess. Shut up.

549) Last Man Standing. Update of Yojimbo which, if you want to ape a plot, that's a good one to choose. However you should also stick with that plot. The different ending and the "good guy-inization" of Bruce Willis's character took away from the movie and Willis himself played it too serious. Mifune (and Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars) played the role with a sort of bemused detachment that fit the character more. Willis was just too emotionless. Whatever.

550) Man of the House. Hot girls in sassy outfits. That's about all there is to recommend this one.

550 down, 450 to go.

Looks like I'm getting cut. The real doctor saw me today and within five minutes had me figured out. My knee cap is way off track (like, almost on the side of my leg) when I bend my leg and it's tearing into the ligaments underneath causing a huge build up of scar tissue and that's making the problem worse every day. Unfortunately I won't be able to have surgery until August 19th because he's booked up and I'll have to have time to do a bunch of crazy exercises to build up my leg muscles so I won't have to go through a long rehab. Good news is I'll be on crutches for a few days, will have to take it easy for about a month and come back in to have fluid drained (ew) a few times but basically once the surgery is done I'm good as new. Sort of bad news is that he checked my right knee and it isn't as bad as the left but the same problems are there and it will probably have to be worked on a few years down the road. Oh well, at least I know what's going on now and can quit worrying that I'm going to need a whole new knee or something (though I'm still pretty enamored of the idea of being "more machine than man now, twisted and evil"). Also sort of bad news, I have jury duty next week and I was really hoping I could get the surgery done then to get out of it, but no such luck. Curses.

07-20-2005

545) The Fearless Vampire Killers, Or Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck. Better than I was expecting, but it still had that laxity of direction inherent in a lot of late 60s movies. Most of the humor is episodic in nature; many of the scenes are nothing more than buildup to a punchline and more often than not the laugh isn't worth that much setup. It's disatisfying, doesn't serve to advance the plot and is a big reason I don't really care for a lot of the "great" movies of that era.

546) Shakespeare in Love. It's getting to the point where I can't even stand the sight of Gwynnie. The teeth, the wooden acting, the inability to create more than four distinct facial expressions. It's just too much to take. And it's such a shame because this was really good except that I simply couldn't get past her.

547) Ricochet. What a psycho movie. Gleefully violent, disgustingly vulgar and twisted sense of humor, completely insane performance by Lithgow... What's not to like?

547 down, 453 to go.

My favorite Seinfeld episode was on today. I shed a tear every time that desk gets destroyed.

I have an appointment tomorrow at 2 to see the real doctor I was supposed to see last time. We called to get him to look at my x-rays and see what he thought and now he wants me to come in so he can have a look for himself. I don't know if I really feel any worse or not, but I certainly don't feel any better. The brace is doing a decent job at keeping me from stepping wrong when I do walk but I doubt it's actually fixing anything. It still doesn't keep me from having to step very carefully though, I'm still at an old man hobble getting around and walking is seriously nerve wracking. Each step and I'm like "this is the one where it folds and I can't breathe and then I cry" cause buddy it is seriously starting to hurt whenever it slips. I know the Celebrex isn't helping. Quick word of advice, if a doctor wants to prescribe that stuff to you tell him where he can take it twice daily 'cause that stuff is evil. So maybe tomorrow I'll have some answers on what is going on and they can either cut me and get things fixed or he can dope me up on some pain killers and I won't care anymore.

07-19-2005

542) The Hard Word. Stupid.

543) Inner Sanctum. Kind of a clunker. The only real misstep out of the Noir Box Set so far. I mean, it wasn't bad, but the "clever" setup was pretty obvious and there wasn't really anything to the story other than the clever setup.

544) Entrapment. I went back and forth between liking and hating this one about a million times. Whatever.

544 down, 456 to go.

07-18-2005

538) Impact. Nothing special. Entertaining at least.

539) Catwoman. Yes, it's as bad as you've heard. Maybe worse.

540) Bride and Prejudice. So not in the mood for movies right now. Which is a shame, this probably would have been good if I had really wanted to watch it.

541) Ned Kelly. Depressing.

541 down, 459 to go.

Worked 'til noon today, at which point I thought I would pass out from the pain. Also, Celebrex? The devil. Besides Lee's mom, Robin tells me it worked her brother over too. Not happy. Tired.

07-17-2005

534) They Drive By Night. Decent drama, nothing spectacular. Starts off as a character drama and then takes a weird turn into a murder/noir film.

535) Angel Face. Eh. Jean Simmons does an excellent job as a total psycho, but otherwise it wasn't anything special.

536) Friday After Next. Still funny even if it's one trip back to the well too many.

537) The Joy Luck Club. Not as girly as I thought it would be. Charity talked me into getting this one last night when we got The Notebook and I almost took it back unwatched this afternoon but I'm glad I didn't now. Again, she cried. Such a girl. But for real, it was a pretty good story that I could get into so I'm down with it.

537 down, 463 to go.