Day: December 25, 2007

OMG I just say On Her Majesty’s Secret Service for the first time. I didn’t realize that George Lazenby stepped in when Sean Connery bailed after the second Bond. Basically, my review equals a thumbs up and I want to see it again eventually – Diana Rigg is radiant. George just looks (inner lawyer has s-canned that comment) uh, can’t say that either. How about he’s maler than Roger Moore and less male than Timothy Dalton. Nothing, of course, outmales Sean Connery. I trust this clears things up.

Also saw Director’s Cut of Blade Runner.

The soundtrack is like an animal at bay; the colours have been refreshed and cleansed, leaving the movie still dark but with dreamlike spots of brightness. They got rid of that cornball ending, the movie makes more narrative sense and the performances are still riveting. About half an hour into the movie you stop saying – and there’s another and another and another SF / anime trope. It’s like a waterfall of tropes. It’s a visually sumptuous brainstretcher of a film.
Also saw All The Real Girls.

Picture every undereducated duckwit you ever met. Colour him ‘asshole’. Watch him struggle – usually without success – to become a better person. Nobody dies and he smartens up about one quarter of one percent. Still, it’s progress, right?

In a couple of places, this movie made me so mad, that I had to chase down the source of this unreasonable burst of biliousness. After a brief cogitation, I figured out what made me so irritable and calmed down. I’m not married any more, I’m not married any more. I never have to be mad again if I choose not to be. I’m sure I will be, especially when I’m driving, or back seat driving, but really, I don’t have to experience all the wackiness of hormones and digestion that goes with being mad. It was quite a thought provoking movie. It made me think a lot about female stupidity and male abuse.

It’s 4 in the morning…. I napped so much yesterday that I can no longer sleep. So now I’m up, and while I’m here I might as well review Black Snake Moan.

Movie about redemption where nobody gets killed?  Yes there is some violence.   Sign me up.  Christina Ricci gives a performance somewhere between possessed and mesmeric (and she don’t wear too much clothes)  and Samuel L Jackson is great, and they do their own singing, and how can I as a Unitardarian not like a movie in which Christina Ricci sings a hymn “This Little Light of Mine”? (which is in Singing the Living Tradition, the UU hymnal).  The soundtrack is uniformly excellent.
Jeff and Andrew I also watched two fifths of Spike Lee’s She Hate Me but he turned it off when I got up and walked out the room.  Lee, in my view, doesn’t leaven his bitterness with enough humour, and when he does use humour it’s not much fun.  He keeps making peep peep noises about not hating women and being misinterpreted but I don’t f2cking buy it. The hell of it is I love Spike’s visual style and economy and pacing and music – but I can’t swallow the bile.  The best part of the movie was watching the credits and seeing SO many talented actors on the playbill – and getting hopeful.  Great opening credit sequence too.  I just can’t buy the rich gorgeous lesbians paying for sex to have a baby thing.  Any group of women that smart should be able to come up with a plan for finding babydaddies that doesn’t involve spending money.  Hell, I’m not that smart and I could do it.  If you’re going to do a movie about how the good guy always gets screwed, try not to make the motifs quite so obvious.

Merry Christmas!  May the transcendent wonder of a new life infuse your being.  And if you’re not a transcendent wonder kind of person, have a good day filled with friends, food and family.