Movies Seen: *First Time Viewing
Toy Story
Toy Story 2
Barton Fink*
New York, I Love You*
Peter and the Wolf (Stop Animation)*
Man on Wire*
Possession*
High Fidelity
Week my week I am a movie maniac. Who instilled this madness in me? Let’s see. My dad doesn’t like movies for the most part, although I know he has his favorites. My mom likes to watch movies. She probably watches just as many as I do. She doesn’t like the Sci-Fi though. Tsk tsk. Hard to believe I spawned from the same DNA. I guess some of it came from my siblings. Kim, Marta, Andy, even the great Robyn Chrisjon. But not every scrap of my love for the art can be traced in my family line. I’ll have to look deeper.
Let’s talk about the week shall we? It’s not in order. In fact, I’m not even sure if the last is complete. Too much free time on my hands, sigh.
Toy Story, Toy Story 2:
IN 3D!!!! My first 3D movie experience…. Not counting Captain EO (HEART!). And it was a doozy let me tell you. I sat in the theatre grinning like the idiot I am. Luckily I was among friends, thank you Aaron and Kempo. Its much easier watching movies... “For children”… With friends there to identify you to the local law enforcement as a good citizen. Hey, I’ll bet everyone has an ice cream truck. Mine just has spinning rims. Anyways, the movies. I’ve seen them so many times I can practically quote them line for line, but seeing them on the big screen again, IN 3D, was awesome. I want all my pixar films in 3D! Wall-E in 3D would have been sweeeeeeeeet.
Barton Fink:
Shall we talk about how I love the Coen bros.? I mean, who doesn’t? Who doesn’t that I know? Who doesn’t that I respect? NO ONE that’s who. Right, Barton Fink. I watched this under threat of duress from my love, otherwise known as Sarah Roberts. I don’t know why I have such a hard time listening to other people when they tell me I HAVE to watch something. Maybe because I find most of the time people don’t listen to me when I put forth the same advice (THREAT). But Sarah has yet to steer wrong (at least, not that I can remember…), so I should just do what she says. I am glad I was forced to watch this great film. I should have known it would have been great. Let me just say, John Goodman is a man that deserves more rolls. Scary rolls. Because that man had me worried for my life. Ok, not my life, but John Turturro’s. This movie was a scary fine wine. Or, I guess I should say a delicious soda, as wine always seems to taste how I imagine feet would.
New York, I Love You:
Wow is the first thing that comes to mind when I remember seeing this. Basically, this movie is part of a series of movies that take place in different cities (Paris, je t’aime and Tokyo!). The movies themselves are a series of short films. New York is either my favorite, or Paris still holds that spot, I haven’t decided yet. But New York’s stories were constantly tying together, and not in any confusing way. They way you watch it is that each story is separate. It’s got Chris Cooper and Robin Wright and Orlando Bloom and Natalie Portman and Ethan Hawke and James Caan and Andy Garcia! It was so good, I really recommend it if it’s playing nearby. And rent Paris, Je T’aime too. Both super really good. Tokyo I can go with out.
Peter and the Wolf (Stop Animation):
Once again, Sarah’s evil hand was in this. An attempt to get me interested in the soon to be out Fantastic Mr. Fox, Sarah rented a stop animation version of Peter and the Wolf from 2006. Just to let you know, it’s not the animation that is making me weary of the Fantastic Mr. Fox, it’s the voice acting in the preview I’ve seen several times. Those actors sound like someone shot their puppy right before recording the tracks. Anyways, this animation that was once again forced upon me was very good, albeit short. Of course, the story and music involved in peter and the wolf are not very long. I still marvel at the effort people have to put in to produce stop animation at all. I have watched making of documentaries about the Nightmare Before Christmas, and I would shoot myself if my job was to move the puppets bodies ever so slightly for the next shot. Bravo to those who have the patience.
Man on Wire:
Yesterday. What a terrible awful day. Knowing I had an exam to take in my one class this semester, I tried desperately to cram as many notes into my already full noggin as possible. I left my house feeling ill prepared for what was to come. And having now taken said exam, I can say that I feel my fears were right. I’ll know on Monday. Having a full 45 minutes before class began again, I went and bought myself a piece of “shame pizza”, the kind you get to make yourself feel better. I returned to the class, weary once more to what movie I would have to see. Last exam, we had to watch Swim Fan. ‘Nuff said. This time however, our teacher decide we need to see what we had been missing all our lives. Well, maybe I was the only one. Man on Wire is a documentary, which is a dirty word as far as I’m concerned. This documentary was not what you’d expect. The story filled me with tension, excitement, fright, and joy. I was on the edge of my seat wondering how, what, where and when. A note to those of you who are afraid of heights, you might want to sit this one out.
Possession:
A nice little film. It’s about two literary experts going after a mysterious series of letters to find out the true history of a romantic poet… hello? Are you sleeping? Yeah, it was good. I like Jeremy Northam and Aaron Eckhart. And Gwyneth Paltrow is good too.
High Fidelity:
Ah John Cussack, can you do anything wrong? What’s that? Must Love Dogs you say? Blaspheme! If you haven’t ever seen High Fidelity, let me advise you to stop what you are doing and go rent it. It’s a funny, personable, touching movie. It speaks to the snob in all of us, whether you’re a movie snob (cough), music snob, or something else entirely. And it’s got Jack Black in it! You like Jack Black right? He is really quite toned down in this. It’ll be ok, I promise.
So, you may have noticed a bit of a format change since the last site update. I don’t know about those reviews… they are getting harder to do. SO I thought I’d just sum up my weeks viewings. This is really rough, but hey, it’s my first time. I will try to be more entertaining in the future I promise.
Also please respond to my posts, because I would love to get some conversations going.
Joel
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