gonzai | Entries tagged with movies

Yesterday was medical day. I had an appointment with the orthopedist - who I swear is needle-happy - and he sent me out for x-rays as well. He thinks it's still just an impingement, but the pain in my biceps and elbow makes me doubt that. Still, he gave me a needle full of cortisone...directly into the space we had already determined wasn't big enough. (It's absolutely killing me today.) Then Mom had an appointment with the same doctor. Went to have blood drawn per last week's doctor. We had breakfast, drove around a bit and went to an open house (turned out the homeowner used to represent me in the Maryland legislature, and yes I voted for him), went to Borders only to find out it closed a few days earlier than it was supposed to, then off to the dentist. He wanted me right back next week to fix a cavity which was odd as I was the last patient of the day. Don't know why they couldn't just do it then. But he also wanted to do cosmetic work to the tune of two grand. I do NOT have two grand lying around. Sheesh. Went home and watched a couple movies - 'The Kids Are Alright' was just that, alright. 'How To Train Your Dragon' was a complete surprise and delight. Might even have to get it some time if the price is right.

Back to the office today, Tuesday had been crazy busy and apparently yesterday was as well. So we went for 3 straight days of chaos, and all signs indicate tomorrow will be the same. Terrific. Watching 'Up In The Air' now, how could anyone turn down George Clooney? And he's nowhere near tops on my list, but I couldn't say no.

Current Mood: sore
Current Location: home
Current Music: 'Up In The Air'

Between the crabs and the fair, I left out the rest of the weekend. So, in short sharp shock format:

Hurt my shoulders some more hauling furniture to the crab feast, which then didn't get used. The left shoulder is getting extreme now (hurts all the way to the elbow) and I didn't sleep worth a darn Saturday night. Also, my back really hates this whole sleeping on it thing.

After the fair, I was working on the computer and my foot bumped the stand. Five minutes later I happen to look down and there's blood everywhere. ?!? Seems that little bump was just enough to split the nail on my left big toe, right down the middle, almost the whole way. Keeping it completely bandaged and making the switch back to proper shoes a month early, but otherwise I don't know what to do with it.

Speaking of a month early, it's September 6th in Baltimore and I had to wear a freakin' jacket this morning. WTF?

While WTFing, a co-worker has been in the office for 3 hours so far today. She has used the facilities 8 times in those 3 hours. (And refused to refill the TP because she's an attorney and such things are beneath her, of course.)

Dumbass of the week was at the crab feast. Guy decided to join a group of people at a table, and appropos of nothing announced "I'm one of the first tea partiers. I'm not a racist. None of us are racists. We just don't want a black President." If his intent was to clear the table, it worked. And I gave him a wide berth the rest of the day. Moron.

Did some movie watching, category 'Weird combinations'. In order of viewing: Temple Grandin, All Quiet on the Western Front (1930 edition), Blade Runner (director's cut), Milk, and the Seven Year Itch. Scary what happens when I try to clear space on the DVR...

Current Mood: bored
Current Location: work
Current Music: The Band, 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down'

It's not done yet, probably 2/3rds done right now, but I have a few thoughts. Firstly, I'm seeing a lot of Firefly here. Clearly Joss Whedon saw this movie more than a few times. Speaking of people who've clearly seen it, Farscape's Chiana seems clearly based on Pris. Harrison Ford is more appealing to me here than in pretty much anything else I've seen him in. I can't imagine how expensive this film must have been in '82 dollars. And it's a pretty slow movie. That's the big objection I'm having, is the slow pace. It's put Mom to sleep, although it's impressive she's even tried it.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Location: home
Current Music: Mose Allison, 'My Brain'

The rock 'em sock 'em thunderstorms continued today and this time, we lost power. It was out for two hours, during which we discovered that candles really don't produce a lot of light, it's hard to eat crabs in the dark, and electricity is essential for just about everything. The power came back just as it was getting too dark to do anything at all, and thankfully everything in the fridge & freezer should be OK. The annoying thing is that while the telephone and internet service are both back, the television isn't. (All three are FiOS.) The settop box doesn't seem to be functioning, despite much fiddling and experimenting. So no Ravens/Chiefs, and no FiOS Movie Night. We thought choosing between 'The King's Speech' and 'True Grit' was going to be tough. Instead we get neither. Blast. Hope it's working tomorrow, but what with the strike and all, if the box is fried we will be sans cable/DVR indefinitely. Nuts.

Current Mood: frustrated
Current Location: home
Current Music: Kermit Ruffin & Bone-a-Rama, 'I Can See Clearly Now'

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I loved X-Men when I was a young 'un (and that was the original, yellow Spandex version) so the trilogy went over very well with me. And I like the Dark Knight movies.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: work
Current Music: David Gray, 'Babylon'

As I have HBO free for the time being, I’ve been indulging in their documentary offerings. And there’s a lot of them. I’ve watched most of this summer’s offerings and a few that have been rerun from last year/earlier this year, and I’ll take a swing at short-reviewing them. They are behind a cut, not because of spoilers (this is non-fiction; either we already know the end, or it isn’t over) but for length.

( To infinity and beyond! )

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: work
Current Music: Joseph Arthur, 'Too Much To Hide'

I want to post a nice, long detailed post about all the movies and documentaries I've watched in the last couple weeks.

However, typing this much? Hurts. A lot. As does my neck and shoulder. Gah.

Current Mood: sore
Current Location: work
Current Music: Joe Jackson, 'The Invisible Man'

Mom will be 70 next week. On August 2nd, no less. I've asked her if she ever thought her 70th birthday would be the 'end of days', as it were. She doesn't think it's funny.

Anyway, I've been amassing little things here and there to give her a birthday weekend. Dinner Friday with her favorite gamers and they're making grilled chicken for her. Taking her out to dinner Saturday and I've zeroed in on a new restaurant which features a large rack of roast lamb (her favorite). Got her Season 1 of Royal Pains (she adores the show) and Toy Story 3 (she keeps complaining she hasn't seen it). Got a birthday card decrying 'little mutts that get into your frosting'. Don't ask. But considering her feelings about CJ, it was definitely appropriate!

I was going to round out her weekend by taking her to some open houses. There's a pair of houses she really likes. They're a quarter mile apart. Turns out they're both open on Sunday. Perfect, right? Wrong. They're open completely different times. And her friends are giving her a party Sunday afternoon, so there's no way to do the second one. Shazbot.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: work
Current Music: America, 'Lonely People'

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'The Lives of Others' and no.

Current Mood: pessimistic
Current Location: work
Current Music: The Police, 'King of Pain'

Started the weekend with some social stuff, gaming both Friday & Saturday, but yesterday and today were pretty much lie around the house time. Did do some shopping and drove around trying to look at houses (didn't see any of the ones I wanted to, but saw plenty of others and had a staring contest with two fawns) on Sunday, and today both dogs were bathed, to their consternation. Also knocked out a few more movies from the DVR - 'Where The Wild Things Are' nearly put me to sleep, 'Magnolia' might have done same if not for the Aimee Mann tunes.

Mostly, though, I wanted to sleep this weekend. And I haven't. Can't get to sleep for the life of me (fireworks do not help, nor do violent thunderstorms or whiny dogs) and if I do, something wakes me up again shortly after. Three days of intermittent naps don't do the job. And I have 8am PT tomorrow. Joy.

Current Mood: drained
Current Location: home
Current Music: Aimee Mann, 'Wise Up'

I'm sitting here watching 'The Book Of Eli', a few days after watching 'Terminator: Salvation', and my first and foremost thought is that if there's ever an apocalypse, count me out. I would not want to survive an event like that. I do like my dystopic/post-apocalyptic media, but I absolutely would rather be one of the ones who dies, the sooner the better, than one of the ones doomed to pick up the pieces.

Current Mood: scared
Current Location: home
Current Music: Talk Talk, 'Life's What You Make It'

It only took 2+ years from release and 2.5 months on the DVR before I finally saw it. (Knew Mom would hate it, so waited for a chance to watch when she wasn't home.) And somehow I never was spoiled for the big surprise, although from the gitgo I had a strong suspicion what the surprise might be and I was right. Cool idea, I must say. Anyway, the critics were right - Marcus was a much more interesting character than John. What I haven't figured out yet is why a guy who was as bad as Marcus once was, is suddenly a guy who will do the right thing. And of course they blew up too much stuff. It's a blockbuster film, after all. But I did enjoy it and it had some unusual depth for a big action film.

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: home
Current Music: Jules Shear, 'If We Never Meet Again'

Just watched Inception for the first time.

Now, I'm a fan of Christopher Nolan. I love the Batman flicks, Memento and especially The Prestige. Generally I understand what he's up to and how he's going about it.

In the case of Inception - exactly what part of this was supposed to make any sense whatsoever? Because whatever part it was, I neither found it nor understood it. Ick.

Current Mood: confused
Current Location: home
Current Music: The Monkees, 'Pleasant Valley Sunday'

Specifically,

Today I:

finally finished sorting and putting away my papers
carried 4 crates of stuff upstairs
stripped and remade the bed
did 2 loads of laundry
broke down CJ's old crate
set up her new crate
renewed her license
took CDs back to the library
burned DVDs
sorted and put away already done DVDs
repaired a painting on the wall that had slipped its frame
did the grocery shopping (did you know they make banana soda?)
finally watched a movie on the DVR (even as I added 2 more, of course)

For the record, the movie was 'The Lovely Bones', so now I know what Peter Jackson & Richard Taylor think the afterlife looks like. Creative fellows, they are. Also, my hand, my shoulder and my back are killing me. I hate to think what I'll feel like tomorrow.

Current Mood: crazy
Current Location: home
Current Music: Brian Eno, 'Lovely Bones' score

Finally watching the HBO movie of the same name. What does it say about a movie that the first non-scripted word in the film is 'motherfucker'?

Meanwhile, just minutes in, it's clear they're making Lehman Bros CEO Dick Fuld the bad guy...not to mention the delusional nutjob. Wonder if he still will be at the end.

Current Mood: irate
Current Location: home
Current Music: LCD Soundsystem, 'All My Friends'

Just finished watching Restrepo. It didn't live up to the hype of course, but you have to give the filmmakers props for voluntarily going to such a lousy place, and feel for the soldiers stuck there for 15 months...if they don't get killed first. It was followed up by a brief bit with Tim Hetherington, who was killed filming in Libya last week. Afghanistan didn't look as bad as I would have thought. More water, trees and greenery, more American West than desert. The other odd thing for me was the Afghan elders, who apparently had a party with hair dye. Kinda disconcerting to see an old Muslim peasant with a hot pink beard. Anyway, a good film for getting a better idea of what the soldiers are doing/going through there, but not transcendent.

Current Mood: satisfied
Current Location: home
Current Music: radiohead, 'High And Dry'

Round 2 of movies before I become one-handed...

( Silkwood, The Thin Man and The Wild Bunch )

Current Mood: nervous
Current Location: home
Current Music: Dave Matthews Band, 'American Baby'

Last year I discovered that one of the best things about a DVR is '31 Days of Oscar', Turner Classic Movies' 31 day marathon of Oscar-nominated films. That movie you've always heard about but never saw? A rare basic cable airing just waiting to be recorded. Last year I recorded a dozen films and watched them, mostly in March when primetime took a break. This year I may have gone a wee bit nuts, with 2 dozen flicks on the DVR, but I also have hand surgery upcoming which will keep me home for at least 5 days. I'll try to throw out some comments on these classics as I work my way through the pile. (All of these films on the DVR are at least 10 years old, so I'm not bothering with spoiler warnings.)

'Stand and Deliver' - Edward James Olmos as LA math teacher Jaime Escalante, who passed away last year. Olmos is brilliant; the movie, not so much. It's a true story, and the script hews very tightly to THE story with only passing glances of character development, background detail or reality, for that matter. (Gangs are briefly addressed, then they vanish. Not in East LA, they don't.) But it is inspirational, and Olmos is awesome. ***

'Stagecoach' - Think of every cliche you can involving Westerns and/or 'start with a diverse group of strangers and kill them off one at a time' concepts. They're all in here. The only reason to not throw this film out is that it's not a collection of cliches; made in 1938/9,it's the source of those cliches. You like Westerns and/or John Wayne - watch it. Otherwise, pass. **

'The Dirty Dozen' - For some odd reason I thought this was a Western. Try WWII mission film. Apparently, at the time this movie was considered incredibly violent and sadistic. Well, until the end, it's tame. And the end...45 years later, it's no big deal violence-wise. We see worse on the news. And the above-mentioned cliche about diverse strangers? Ta da, it's back! The only original thing being, they're all bad guys/creeps, instead of some good and some bad. Definitely exciting, tight storyline, surprising humor. **1/2

'Marty' - Ernest Borgnine won the acting Oscar for this. He deserved it. Mind, I spent much of this movie wanting to strangle many of the characters in it, but in the end Marty wised up. Phew. It's an adapted play and you can certainly tell it was a play first, right down to incongruent scenes of minor characters which leave you wondering why that's in there until you realize that's when the main actors changed clothes/sets/etc. Very simple, very to the point, enjoyable. ***

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Location: work
Current Music: Tommy Keene, 'Places That Are Gone'

Believe it or not, we've never used that function in the two years it's been available to us. But Verizon is now offering certain new films on Friday nights for $2.99 and one of tonight's is 'The Social Network', so we're giving it a spin. Less than 10 minutes in and I want to slug the Zuckerberg character. But it's definitely an Aaron Sorkin script, they're talking so fast we can barely keep up. Back to movie...

ETA Good movie. Very Sorkin-esque. Problem is afterwards I spent half an hour trying to convince Mom that Facebook is not a print tabloid publication. She absolutely does not grasp the concept of Facebook...or web sites...or businesses...etc

Current Mood: curious
Current Location: home
Current Music: 'The Social Network'

When it comes to the television at the gym, there's not much agreement. ESPN seems to have a slight edge, but not by much. And there's a distressing number of sets tunes to Faux News, blecch.

But last night, about 80% of the sets were tuned to the same show. Finding Nemo.

Pixar, the great uniter...

(FYI, usually I settle for ESPN or CNN but now that they're all basketball/Egypt all the time, Nemo was a gift.)

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: home
Current Music: Nina Simone, 'Feelin' Good'

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Entries tagged with movies

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On Seeing Blade Runner For the First Time

When The Lights Go Out

Writer's Block: Live action hero

Documenta-Mania!

There's Want & There's Can

Planning A Birthday

Writer's Block: Subtitles please

One Long Weekend, Over

Apocalypse, Not For Me

Terminator: Salvation

Inception (No Spoilers)

Odd, I Feel Like Tyrion Lannister

Too Big To Fail

Restrepo

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