Movies (recently seen)

[Vesnic]

His Irish accent kept slipping out quite a bit too, like an unrestrained dingdong in a bathrobe.

That guy is sort of a ding-dong, I agree. Can't act for shit. And he's far too pretty for my tastes.

Something buggy about his eyes...

I remember Katie and I had fun watching the Tudors back when that TV Sitcoms site was still functional. Of course we argued a lot over who was the hottest. She went for that Cavill guy and I've always been sort of hung up on Jeremy Northam. He's just so cute and kind of repressed-looking. I want to spank him and stuff crumpets in his face. Of course it didn't hurt that he was playing Sir Thomas Gimme'-More either!

And that's exactly what the point of that show was...sexy sexy sexytime. I was surprised to discover Tudor England was in fact a haven of modern dentistry, antibiotics, depilatory wax and haute couture. Not a trace of shingles to be found anywhere! And I do love the idea of those big fluffy beds with their gauzy curtains beside a crackling fire. They had a far superior sense of aesthetics.

And THAT, at least, is historically accurate, even if it only applied to the ignominious 1%.

I call him Mickey Bugeyes. Cuz he's bug-eyed. And he's a Mick. And he's a bug-eyed Mick.

[End Master]

So I've been enjoying a couple of TV series lately on Netflix.

The first of these is Breaking Bad, which I'd heard the name before, but never knew what it was about mainly because I live under a damn rock and never keep up with what's cool. Anyway I saw the first three seasons and liked them a lot. I like Walter as far as villain protagonists go though Mike the hitman is definitely getting up there. Favorite minor character is the old school Mexican gangster in the wheel chair due to his stroke. Most of the other characters are all right too or at least play the role they're suppose to well. The only character I kind of get annoyed with is the kid with cerebral palsy.

The other series is an old one called Sleeper Cell. I never even heard about this one, but it came out in 2005 and revolved around an undercover FBI agent trying to take down a terrorist sleeper cell. There's definitely an underlining message throughout the show of how not every muslim is a terrorist and some terrorists don't fit the typical middle eastern profile, but it doesn't get overly preachy and maintains a fair balance as far as message/entertainment is concerned I think.

I only watched the first season of it and I thought it was a cool show overall. I can't say that I really liked any of the main characters though (Terrorists or Law Enforcement). I didn't dislike them either though, since I thought all the actors did a good job.

[donteatpoop]

Saw Hannah tonight, very cool movie. Visually stunning, the director had a great eye. The story was a bit simplistic but well told, and the acting was primarily top-notch. Definitely recommend seeing it if you haven't already.

[End Master]

I was going to see the vampire hunter Lincoln movie yesterday, but we got there too late, so we saw Brave instead. It was okay in a fairy tale story kind of way. Felt more like a Disney story than a Pixar story though since you get the whole "princess" theme from it and it doesn't do anything incredibly different.

I think a better name for it would've been Fate rather than Brave. Not that she doesn't do some brave things, but the whole changing your fate stuff that was ongoing in the movie seemed to be more of the focus. As opposed to the ads which make it seem like she's fighting off monsters with her bow.

[dreamshell]

I love Breaking Bad!

I love Hannah!

I saw The Avengers finally - I loved it!

You have been updated, I-Story. *vanishes in a puff of smoke*

[Hi! My name is: Katie]

Breaking Bad is a lot of fun! I'm totally stuck on the cliffhanger and waiting for Netflix to add that next season.

We've been on a movie kick at our house this weekend.

I went to see Brave, it was pretty good. End thinks the marketing messed up, because it wasn't the movie I expected to see. The curls were impressive. I loved La Lune the animated short at the beginning.

I also watched Wendigo. It sucked. The love scene was totally awkward.

I watched The Secret World of Arietty. It rocked. I really enjoy Studio Ghibli productions. This one had a post-apocalyptic vibe that resonated with me. The voice-overs were mediocre, but the rest of it was magical!

I watched Contagion. Am I alone in thinking this was an extraordinarily bland film? Toward the end I found myself hoping the infection spread and killed every living being, and I'm really not a destructive person. I just didn't like much about the world they created, or the picture of humanity.

I bought Wolfman, I'm kind of excited about watching it.

I also watched Abduction this weekend. The one with Taylor Lautner as a kidnap victim. It was like Spy Kids for teens, but Spy Kids might have more complexity. I can see why it didn't do well.

I want to see Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, and Snow White and the Huntsman. End refuses to go see Snow White with me, but I think we might find time to watch ALVH at some point. Anyone else going to see it?

[Locke]

The last season of Breaking Bad is the best so far, IMO. Current favorite series.

When you said "Arietty," I was intrigued - I thought for a minute you meant Silvano Arieti, the psychiatrist - then I looked it up. I never liked the "little people" theme for some reason (Pratchett wrote a decent novel using it, "Truckers," although I still didn't finish the series).

Contagion did have a pretty weak plot. The cinematography was excellent, though. I enjoyed it just on an aesthetic level.

I saw the Avengers, which is everything you can reasonably expect an action movie to be, and I do kind of want to see the Lincoln movie. Waiting to see what others think first, though. I don't usually "get" Burton, and it has the potential to be awesome or fail completely.

[Dragavan]

Breaking Bad is awesome. One of the best shows currently on TV (and not on a pay channel like Game of Thrones is). It's a great study of becoming a bad guy as he slowly slides down that slope to total destruction. I can't wait to see how it all explodes by the end. YAY for car wrecks we can rubberneck to.

Arietty was great too. But then, anything Studio Ghibli does is going to be good. It's like the Pixar of Japan. No matter what they make, I know I will enjoy it.

The rest I can't really comment on.

I've been watching the old 70's Incredible Hulk and Columbo TV series the last couple weeks for some reason.

[Vesnic]

I recently saw "Snow White and the Huntsman", mostly because I had a free movie ticket to burn and it was about 96 degrees outside. I foolishly assumed the movie house would be nice and icy. As I am about so very many things, I was wrong about this; the biggest part of their cutbacks seems to lie in climate non-control. I was sweating through the whole thing, and the seat came right up with me when I stood up after those 2-plus excruciating hours, so melded were we the one with the other.

Anyway, on to the film, which was really the lesser of the two experiences, especially one as extraordinary as feeling my body turn from a solid to a liquid state.

Brief rundown of the actors, so-called:

Kristen Stewart: weirdest new phenomenon since Croc sandals, and not nearly as exciting. I admit, there is a certain anemic allure to someone who never eats, never sleeps and never really talks, but just sort of mumbles and gasps her way through an unreasonable facsimile of real human emotion. She has the sort of strange personality that could once, maybe twice, be mistaken for real genius. But when she acts precisely the same way in every single movie she's ever in, the jeans fade more with each wash cycle, until now I have to shade my eyes for the unfriendly glare emitted by her very aura. Her brand of immature diffidence served her sufficiently in the role of unholy doormat, but her casting was sorely misguided in a role which required elements of both Henry V and Joan of Arc, not to mention the essence of pure goodness supposedly radiating off Snow White's every pore. I can think of several dozen other actresses who would have both looked and acted the part a hundred times better.

Charlize Theron: weird panto overacting, further enfeebled by a fucking awful script which never explained her character sufficiently for the audience to understand why she was quite such a raving lunatic. Miz Theron is really better suited to more subtle performances. Sure, she can shout and scream with the best of them, but these come out hoarse and unconvincing, and in her eyes there is still a softness which humanizes. I think this is what made her performance in Monster so memorable. Crazy bitch? Check. Crazy bitch with a long past and a heap of pain? Check check. She was just a human cartoon here. Wasted, really.

Chris Hemsworth: really the only good and well-fitted piece to this puzzle. As the Huntsman, he was convincingly troubled yet refrained from any florid emoting. A good, tight performance, and this absolutely despite the direction and script, so props to Chris. I hope to see him in an actual shirt someday rather than a doublet or cape.

Sam Claflin: I know I've seen him in something before. I have no idea what he's actually capable of. His character in this movie provided the (extremely) tertiary point of an utterly unnecessary love triangle. It dawned on me that beyond the (very) slight titillation factor, events could have gone off just as successfully without him. Poor redundant lad.

Bob Hoskins, Ian McShane, Ray Winstone, Eddie Marsan, et al.: another astonishing waste of talent. I only hope some of these Brit actors took this embarrassing role for money in the bank to fund more worthy projects. Also, the day this movie was cast must have been a bitter one for dwarf actors everywhere. Yeah I know, I know...they're FANTASY dwarfs, the kind that mine gold and sing songs. They're like...another species...there's absolutely nothing wrong with that! Just ask Hobbit Master Peter Jackson. His leading dwarf in the next big blocksmasher stanches his nostrils at a towering 6'3" or theres abouts. I heard from a friend in the business that old Peter burned out his CGI bills, so he had to resort to putting shoes on this guy's knees, and he was still too tall!

Though speaking of CGI...that was one fairly decent thing about Snow White and the Hungryman. The little fairy things were cute. I wish they'd spent more time in the realm of the faeries and less time caring about that bimbo in the butch chainmail.

Whenever I've discovered a particularly stupid movie, I always like to suggest a thematically related and superior book with which to substitute it and wash away bad memories. Check out Tanith Lee's White as Snow for an interesting and decidedly off-center character sketch of the evil queen and her (very biological) daughter. It makes the whole thing that much more chilling when the old grande dame also possesses something of a Medea complex. Expectant parents need not apply.

[Hi! My name is: Katie]

End and I went to see Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, but when we got to the theater all they had was Snow White and the Huntsman.

End was impressed with K-Stew's single expression, and her attempts to use it in almost every scene.

The scope of the film seemed to expand exponentially during the middle of the film, but it was too little too late. Instead of being a film I might seek out again, it made me want to harken back to more solid fare like the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, or flash-forward to the Hobbit movie. The commercials for the Hobbit resonate with me more actively than anything I experienced watching Snow White. The Huntsman was particularly attractive, and convincingly portrayed.

Hopefully we'll be able to find ALVH somewhere soon, because it looks way better than Snow White.

On a more personal note, I narrated a play for two ten year olds with shadow puppets. My re-telling of the Three Billy Goat's Gruff drew quite a crowd. The boys wanted more blood and gore at the end, but boys are like that, the girls were happy.

[End Master]

End was impressed with K-Stew's single expression, and her attempts to use it in almost every scene.

Indeed. The bridge troll probably displayed one expression more than Twilight girl did. Probably also yelled less than Theron did as well.

I preferred Sigorney Weaver's version of the queen a lot more. They actually did a better job of trying to portray her as sympathetic which they failed to do in this film. There's at least a real dwarf in that movie too.

[End Master]

Saw the Abe Lincoln vamp killer movie. It was okay, it lacked something that I can't quite put my finger on though. The confederate vampires were cool though.

Also just finished watching the complete series of Rome. I'm usually into settings taking place in ancient times anyway, but I liked just about everything in this series. The characters, the dialog, etc. Shame it got cancelled earlier than it should've been. I think under the circumstances though they did the best they could in salvaging most of the planned out 5 season storyline.

So far I've got:

Spartacus series
Rome series
I, Claudius series

If they do any more series on ancient Rome I'll eventually be able to have the entire era in "alternate history" format. I guess I could fill in some of the time gaps with movies though.

[End Master]

Movie/TV Round Up

Managed to see the 4th season of Breaking Bad which was just as good as the rest have been, I feel like I'm at least somewhat caught up on the show now.

Saw The first season of the Borgias. While Jeremy Irons is usually good in whatever he plays in, I'm not exactly wowed by the show yet. Might be due to the whole Papacy setting that I just find rather dull in general despite all the corruption and assassination going on, though It did start getting better towards the end of the season though, so I'm not giving up on it.

Saw Prometheus which is technically the prequel to the original Alien. It deals mainly with the "Space Jockey" race that the crew of the Nostromo found. (One their corpses was in a big chair with its stomach burst open.) They called them the "Engineers" in this one though.

I liked the movie overall. It definitely displayed the connection between the two movies, but maintained its own storyline.

Also saw Dark Knight Rises. It was okay as far as Batman movies go. It sort of suffers the same effect the first Batman franchise did, namely they started adding way too many damn characters and the movie was sort of all over the place in general.

I mean Bane was still the main villain they focused on, but adding Catwoman, Talia Al Ghul and Robin are one of the reasons why the Schumacher movies sucked, throwing in batman characters just for the sake of throwing them in, it seemed like. Even Scarecrow popped up again, but his role was brief enough that it was fine. Ra's al Ghul popped up as a semi-dream and Two Face as a flashback. I imagine they probably would've thrown in the Joker as well, if Heath hadn't died.

The funny thing is while Bruce Wayne is prominent throughout the movie, he's only Batman for about half of it. And while I know they were trying to make Bane a deep voiced Lord Humungus badass, his mechanized speaking device was sort of incoherent at times. Though his speaking style was a more eloquent one, so it balanced out some of the feedback.

Anyway it was still better than the Schumacher movies, just probably ran a little too long and could've told the same story with more focus and less characters.

[Locke]

Didn't care for the Dark Knight Rises.

It was just missing something the previous two movies had. Felt like a very different take on the concept.

[Dragavan]

I completely disagree. I felt DKR was a great movie and Nolan did an incredible job ending his run on the series. I liked the way it tied them all together and ended things in a way that both ends things and tells you the world goes on. I think Nolan just further proved that he is probably our greatest active director in hollywood right now.

I was so amped and happy at the end of the movie that I did something I've never done before... forgot my jacket in the theater. I'm usually the guy reminding others that they left things behind, but I was so excited and busily talking about the movie with my friends that I walked right out and didn't even realize it until the next day.