Beasties watching Beauty

Last weekend I planned to go see a Sunday morning viewing of the live action remake of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. I looked it up on Friday night and all the seats were sold out. I haven't seen a book out like that ever--not even for Rogue One.  So I waited until this past Saturday. Even one week later the Saturday morning viewing was sold out and I had to squeeze in with a bunch of kids and their parents. Ugh.

Beauty and the Beast--the cartoon movie from 1991--is my favorite animated film from Disney and I was a little trepidatious about it being messed with. Although I still find the animated version to be superior, I am pleased at how the live action version turned out.

I suppose the only criticism that I have is that this seemed too connected to the animated version. Maleficent was basically pretty much separated from Sleeping Beauty. Cinderella and the Jungle Book were their own movies. Pete's Dragon--was hardly connected to the original. Each one of the above could be watched without seeing the originating movie. With Beauty and the Beast, I feel like this movie has to be watched along with the animated film.

As I told my sister, Disney has got some cash cows going with these live action remakes, Star Wars, and Pixar.

Rogue One - Thumbs Up

I went to the first local showing of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. I didn't want any spoilers to come my way and I knew that they would be coming at me if I waited for the weekend when I usually go to the movies. Paying the premium and ahead of time was a good decision.

So I'm not going to ruin it for anyone else with important spoilers but I will say:

Yes, some familiar characters make appearances. Technology is almost there where you can believe you are looking at the same person you saw almost 40 years ago. 

A lot of the scenes in trailers were not in the movie. I would be interested in how many changes were made--how the story evolved during production.

Now that I've seen how people have have rated this against other Star Wars movies, I would have to disagree with them. I would place this in the middle of the pack. From favorite to least:

• The Empire Strikes Back
• A New Hope
• Return of the Jedi
• Rogue One
• The Force Awakens
• Revenge of the Sith
• The Phantom Menace
• Attack of the Clones

My Bridget Moment

See also: Top 20 Movies for me.

I was supposed to go see a movie with my friend Kevin but it looks like I was blown off. Well I had been eager to go do something all day and I wasn't going to let the fact that I was alone stop me from having a good time.

As I have mentioned before, I am a fan of the movie, Bridget Jones's Diary. I identify with her in many ways. Largely the fact that I am over thirty and still single. So I thought that it was appropriate that I change the movie choice to the latest installment of the series, Bridget Jones's Baby.  Little did I realize that I was be identifying with her just a little too much this evening.

So I go to the theater thinking that if I get there late, I can slip into the crowd unnoticed. Nothing like a bunch of couples looking at a singleton with pity. I get up to the ticket counter and the guy there asks me which seat I would like. All the greens were available to choose. --They were all green.

Fuck.

Well, I am here already.

I go into the empty theater and pick my seat. It seemed like ages but finally I hear the door to the room open and I hear a couple of voices. I breathed a little sigh of relief. I wasn't going to be alone.

Then nothing. A few more minutes to go before the movie starts and no more people have come in. As slyly as I could, I looked back and made out one couple in the back row. In the entire theater, it was me and a couple.

I sink lower into my seat.

So the movie starts and gets on. --Great by the way. Go see it.--- Finally, the credits come up. I hope that the couple gets up to go and so I wait a few moments. I don't hear the doors open. They were going to sit through the credits. I knew that I was going to have to walk past them in order to get out. Well I've already suffered enough what's a little more right? I walk past them, give them a little nod, and zoom, I'm outta there.

I start walking for the exit and put my hand in my pocket to bring out my keys. They're not there. I freeze. Crap! They must've fallen out of my pocket while I was watching the movie. I had two choices, I could either go back and pass the couple again or pretend to go to the bathroom and go back when they left. Yes! Let's do option B. I head for the bathroom when a worker comes out with a bag of trash. Another starts sweeping the hallway.

That's it. Plan B is shit. I had to go back.

I go back in, pass the couple, get to my seat and feel around. No keys. I grimace at the thought, but I put my hands deeper into the crevices. Nothing. Could they have fallen through to the ground? More horror as I reach down there and feel around, bumping into popcorn and who knows what else. Still no keys. I bring out my phone and use it as a flash light. Still no keys.

By now I am in a near panic. If I don't have keys, I am going to have to call someone to pick me up, bring me to my parents where they have a spare, and then bring me back. And I'm sure that the couple--who still have not left--are watching this with amusement.

On my left, I catch a glint of metal and with some relief, I found my keys. I pop my head up and the couple is looking right at me. I walk past them again, give them a little nod again, and zoom, I'm outta there. Not before that same worker from the bathroom says, "have a good night."

I awkwardly smile and nod to the guy and continued to walk on forward--because that's what Bridget would do.

It Was a Fair Day

My sister came over from Ann Arbor to spend a day at the county fair. Although I had planned to be at the fair earlier this week, a gout attack in my knee kept me from going. It has been raining this week which has impacted the fair. With more rain in the forecast starting around noon, we decided to go early. When we got there, it was muddy and the place was free from the crowds as it was just opening.

I go to the fair for food. This year's selection included some good, if small, tacos from El Amigo Pepe, and elephant year, and a mozzarella dog. A huge disappointment was a pork stick which was dry and did not taste good. It was given to Charlie, our mom's dog.

Kris had agreed to go to a Fil-Am picnic with mom and dad. I was volunteered to come along as well. The food was okay. As usual, I was a fan of the pancit. Oddly enough, there was no lumpia. I was introduced to some nice people but I'm afraid that I won't commit their names or faces to memory. Being surrounded by strangers was awkward for me so I used a lull in the rain as an opportunity to go Pokemon hunting. After that, Kris and I decided to head back to the fair once more.

Family at Fil-Am picnic

Later on, at my suggestion, we decided to go to the movie, Sausage Party. The showing that we wanted was sold out so we headed to a Vietnamese restaurant for some pho. I've never had real pho before and here was an opportunity to go try it. Kris was up for it. That stuff is delicious, let me tell you. I would definitely go there again.

Kris enjoying some pho.

Sausage Party as about as nasty and as funny as I expected from Seth Rogen. I would feel compelled to smack the shit out of any parent that brought their kid to such a movie.

h/t Sony Pictures Entertainment

It was a great day.

Wonder Woman is With Me

IBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and I was not impressed. It’s hard to admit since I have wanted to see Batman and Superman together in a movie ever since I watched the Justice League cartoons. If Marvel could bring together comic book heroes in The Avengers, couldn’t DC do it too? As much as I was hyped about Batman and Superman, it was surprising that it was Wonder Woman was the one that I found the most interesting.
saw

The movie starts out a year and a half after the events of Man of Steel. The people tend to either love Superman or fear him. Bruce Wayne was in Metropolis to see the death and destruction caused by Superman and General Zod’s fight. He sees Superman as a potential threat-an unstoppable being that he cannot control. Clark Kent/Superman is troubled by the fact that his heroic deeds also come with costs-often collateral damage. Lex Luthor decides to use Batman’s cynicism to engineer a showdown between the two heroes so that he can eliminate Superman.

Batman reminded me of the Dark Knight movies so there wasn’t really anything new to me about him. I’m not happy about the version of Superman that is tortured and conflicted. What I really wanted to see was more of Wonder Woman who, maybe, has ten minutes of screen time. Fortunately, she will be given her own movie next year.

I don't want to go into space anymore.

...Okay, really, I still do.

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure to watch Gravity.  I found myself on the edge of my seat for most of the movie as it was so intense.  It was visually stimulating and a real emotional driver, especially at the end of it. Even if it does seem like another simple survival story punctured with factual errors, I join the ever growing chorus of netizens  and recommend you see this movie.

***SPOILER ALERT***

There are essentially two characters in this movie: astronauts Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney).  Disaster strikes when their space shuttle is destroyed, contact with Houston is cut off, and they must find a way to get back home.

It's a very intense movie. Within the first few minutes we see the shuttle destroyed. Ryan is flung off into space. (If it was me, I'd have already lost all hope and resigned myself to death.) You might have wondered if we were about to watch 80 more minutes of her tumbling out into space.  No, but you will see her face the grim situation as she locates her dead crew members. This movie doesn't let you catch your breath for long for the mission to get home by any means possible starts right up.With the shuttle destroyed, an attempt is made to get to the International Space Station.  That's a scary proposition in any event, much less with a jet pack and another person in tow.  The two astronauts do make it to the ISS but their momentum is so fast that they can't manage to grab and latch onto the station. The two are just about to have blown their chance when Stone's foot gets tangled in some lines.  Kowalski is at the other end of their tether and decides to sacrifice himself to prevent Stone's tenuous connection to the ISS from breaking and dooming them both.  Without Kowalski, Stone is now on her own to try an make it back to Earth.  Unfortunately the ISS's Soyuz capsule can't get her to Earth but it could get her to the Chinese station, Tiangong, and its Shenzhou capsule.  So the rest of the movie is seeing her taking on this seemingly insurmountable challenge for if she can get into that Shenzhou capsule, she'll be able to get down to Earth.

Visually speaking, the movie is spectacular. I purposefully sat up closer in the theater than I do usually because I knew shots of Earth were going to be jaw dropping. It wasn't just that but the long interior shots of the space stations and capsules give you perspective that still photography just doesn't. So when you go see it, see it up close and in 3D. 

What I liked about this movie was that it touches you on a most basic emotional level.  It reminded me a lot of Alfonso Cuarón's previous work, Children of Men. Ryan's child died and as a result she has also died in a sense. She is a shell of a woman performing her duties and letting the rest of the world go by.  As she tries to survive though, we see her come back to life. Death is absolute and scary but Kowalksi embraced it for the small chance of saving the life of another. I think that his act, and Stone's final appreciation for life generally as well as her own, should all make us want to enjoy and make the most of our own for however long that may be. The best part of the movie is where she has made a decision that will lead to one of two things: survival or death.  Whichever consequence she encounters she is at peace and as an audience member, I was actually at peace as well. In that moment, she did the best she could and no matter what happened, you can respect and be inspired by what she had done.

Initially, I wasn't interested in seeing this as I thought would be another survival tale and that there wasn't possibly enough plot to keep me interested. Word of mouth, though, was strongly positive and I thought I'd give it go. I am definitely glad I did.  

When it comes to sci-fi, I always like to nit-pick and this movie did not escape notice.  First I was annoyed by the fact that they were in a shuttle (which have been retired) working on the Hubble telescope which is nearing the end of its service life.  Also, there was the suggestion that Hubble orbits at the same altitude of the ISS or that communications satellites were even lower orbits when in actuality it is the ISS in lower orbit with Hubble in a higher orbit, and communications satellites in a even higher orbit.  I think I scoffed too loudly when I heard that Stone was a medical doctor and that she was up there with only 6 months of training.  When the debris hit, I knew it was wrong for it to becoming in like stampede.  Later on when Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted about the actually science inaccuracies I learned a few additional ones like the direction of the debris was coming at the wrong direction during the ISS scene.  But hell, I was more stoked that I had the same observations as Tyson.  I feel more intelligent as a result.

Anyways this has been long enough.  Go see Gravity.

Fixated on Flint

I told my movie buddy, Kraig, that I wasn't keen on watching G.I. Joe: Retaliation.  The move franchise hasn't captured my attention like the cartoon used to do. The same is true about the Transformers series as well.  However, I told Kraig that I would go see it with him if he wanted and so we did.  As I thought, it was largely a boring movie to me.

There was one thing that I want to comment about and that is the character of Flint. When I was a kid watching the cartoon, I had this strange feeling for Flint that I did not have for any of the other Joes.  I couldn't tell you why, I just did.  Only later did I realize that, yes, I do get crushes on fictional characters--two-dimensional, cartoon characters.  Yeah, don't laugh.

Flint was missing from the other two movies, although Dennis Quaid came close to looking like him as far as I was concerned even though his character was Gen. Hawk.  Flint made his appearance in this movie and whoa boy did I get that strange feeling again.  Only this time, I don't feel so ridiculous about it.  

The Hobbit Post

I remember back in college when I heard about this fantasy film that was coming out.  I was only vaguely aware of The Lord of the Rings.  My dad had read the books and recommended that I read them as well.  I never took his advice as I was not a fan of fantasy.  In my mind, it was superficial medieval stories infused with magic and monsters.  Had it been a sci-fi story, I'd be more inclined to try it out.  So the movie, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring came and went.  But eventually it made it to Wells Hall.

MSU's Wells Hall showed (and probably still does) free movies to dorm residents.  Otherwise it was $2 for students.  I had known that the movie was critically acclaimed and so I went.  I was blown away and became and instant fan.

Fast forward to now and I have been waiting with excitement to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

The story starts off slow and we hang around the Shire for far too long in my opinion but once the company gets on their way, they run into problem after problem.  I wonder if their journeys to the Shire were met with half problems that they encountered on their way to the Lonely Mountain.

Some complaints out there go to the high frame rate.  Personally, I didn't even notice the difference.  Of course, I don't go to a high tech theater.  I also watched the 2-D version and I think that people who aren't keen on 3-D will still be satisfied with the picture.

Still, I wasn't that impressed with the movie. I enjoyed it but it was nowhere near as good as Jackson's previous LOTR films.

I Wish I was Taken Away

My friend, Kraig, and I saw Taken 2 this morning. Considering how much I like the first film I had high expectations. Alas, like so many sequels, this was a stinker. There were no memorable lines. The flow of the movie was disrupted by having a segment with Bryan and his daughter and then another following with Bryan and his ex-wife. Also, the antagonist and his goons seemed to be pretty weak. They knew they were dealing with a badass and it looked like they were trying to muddle through the operation. It’s no wonder they got mowed down.

My tweaks:

• The Albanians already knew where Bryan was in Los Angeles.
• They would have taken his daughter and wife.
• They would have killed his wife causing him to go bat shit crazy and give him more reason to kill with such zeal.

 My advice: save your money. Just forget that it exists and be content with the first movie.

Just Keep Walking. Just Keep Walking.

While Michigan State was getting murdered by Notre Dame, I was watching the movie, The Way Back.  I couldn't watch the game because it is on ABC channel 57 which doesn't broadcast far enough into Michigan where I live.  So what do I do?  Watch a movie and The Way Back, I thought, was excellent.  Check out the trailer:

h/t to Clevver Movies for uploading to YouTube.

The Hunger Games

Last week, I kept hearing people talk about some movie called The Hunger Games.  At first I was under the impression that it was some teeny girl love story--something like Twilight.  I was not interested in seeing something like Twilight.  Still, I kept hearing about it so I decided that I would YouTube it and see what it was about.  I saw this trailer and I was sold.  If you don't know what it is about, watch the trailer.  Go on, I'll wait.

My friend Kraig and I saw it yesterday.  I really liked the film.  Just under "loved."  I only have two complaints: The damn shaky camera and they seemed to gloss over the story's more political/societal message.  Kraig apparently didn't appreciate it.  He said that he didn't like the idea of kids killing each other and it made him lose a little more faith in humanity.  I tried to tell him that the point of the story is to show how revolting this situation is and that it shows sparks of that very humanity that he thinks they were lacking.  Perhaps he will need to sit through the sequels.

I liked it well enough that I asked my sister if I could borrow her books.  Now I'm not a fan of teen love stories but the rest of it--great stuff.

*video h/t to TheHungerGamesMovie on YouTube.

Too much of a good thing is… good.

A double feature is when you see two movies back to back right? Two friends had asked if I was interested in seeing two movies. First up was Jennifer who asked if I wanted to see Bridesmaids. Up next was Kraig who also wanted to see X-Men: First Class.

Jennifer described Bridesmaids as being the chick version of the The Hangover. Seeing as how I liked the Hangover films, I didn’t object to seeing another comedy. I didn’t go in with high expectations and I think that helped me to leave the film very impressed. The movie centers around a woman who has been picked to be a maid of honor. She isn’t at a very good place in her life, though. She’s broke. She lives with disturbing roommates and among other things, she keeps hooking up with a douche bag fuck buddy. Due to these pressures along with competition from another member of the bridal party, hilarity ensues.

My friend Kraig apparently is the go-to guy for all things cartoon. I like the stuff but he knows the stuff. The last X-Men movie I saw was The Last Stand and I did not like it so I was hesitant about seeing this one. I think that because it was reboot/prequel/whatever, I was won over. Personally, I think that it is a good movie. It’s not hot stuff but it kept my attention and the characters of Professor X and Magneto were refreshed. Mystique was even more interesting because I saw a whole other side to her and I kind of mourn over the character’s evolution to the dark side.

If you haven’t seen these movies and have thought about them, I would recommend them as being well worth the ticket price. Unless you’re in a city like New York where seeing a movie sets you back $20. I mean, really, at those prices you’re bending over and holding your ankles.

It took me a few days but...

Earlier this week, with my workload being light, I helped the inventory control team with a new project. Without giving too much of my work info away, I’m basically scouring three warehouses, finding product and weighing them. I’m not too sure what this is about, I think it has something to do with international shipments and dealing with customs requirements. Anyways, I was sneezing and having a runny nose. It was gross and this seemed like a classic allergy attack. Trouble is, is that it still freakin’ freezing around here. Turns out I’ve caught the cold. Yay me.

I’m just slightly bummed as I had a dinner planned for this weekend. Also, my friend Season will be flying in from Florida tomorrow. I’m eager to see her again but I probably should let this cold run its course before I try to put together a mini-reunion.

Oh and if anyone is interested, Kevin and I saw “I Am Number Four.” I didn’t know much about it before going in other than that Glee gal was in it. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it had aliens in it but you know, I’m a geek like that. It was pretty decent. Not a spectacular movie but enjoyable. They better make a damn sequel, that’s for sure.

A Cup of 80’s New Wave

Last week I tweeted this picture daring someone to identify what movie I was watching with the hint that it was from the 1980s. Sadly no one responded but it is from The Flight of the Navigator, one of my favorite movies from when I was a kid.

In the movie, a kid named David falls into a ravine and loses consciousness. When he wakes up, it is 1986, eight years later. He hasn’t aged and everything and everyone around him seems to have moved on. Meanwhile, NASA has taken custody of a disabled UFO and eventually make a connection between David and the spacecraft. Wanting to know more, they take David to a base where he is given a room as the tests NASA plans to do will take place over a couple of days. When David turns on the television with his “remote control wand,” he sees something odd to him—a music video.



I did not know this group nor the song that was playing and as far as I know, I never heard the song on the radio. Whatever it is, all I know is that it tends to linger in my mind. At first, I thought I would track it down by something another character in the movie (played by a young Sarah Jessica Parker) mentioned: Twisted Sister. Yeah… it didn’t take me long to figure out that the song that I was looking for was not by Twisted Sister.

But I have now found it and thanks to UltimaThule8888 for posting it.



Blancmange? Nope, I never heard of them except for that one time in that one movie.

I Hate it But… Like it?

I’ve just finished up the movie Hamlet. It’s the fourth time I’ve seen it and what I like about it is that every time I do, I gain some new insight. I catch an inflection or a phrase that has a deeper meaning. I can make a connection from one scene to another. It’s great… except that I hate Shakespeare.

Reading Shakespeare and even watching it live or on screen is torture! If I was watching it done in Spanish, I’d probably enjoy it more. I think the reason why I hate it is because I can understand half of it and other half leaves me all confused. It’s the most frustrating foreign language (it might as well be classed as that) I can try to work through.

It’s still awesome, though, when you make those mini-revelations.

Even if they’re not, it was pretty gay.

Netflix has been suggesting that I watch Dostana for little while now. It looked to me like a Bollywood movie and I generally tend to avoid movies in other languages as I feel like I end up reading the subtitles rather than enjoying the film. The closest thing to an Indian film that I’ve watched is Bend it Like Beckam (which has become one of my favorite movies, period). Feeling in the mood for something different, I gave Dostana a shot and I am so glad that I did.

Two straight men attempt to go after an apartment but the girl that they would be living with has a protective aunt that will not allow men to live with her so they decide to pose as a gay couple. I know what you’re thinking, and that plot device was what kept me from watching it earlier. I mean, haven’t we’ve seen something like that before? So as you probably guess, both the straight guys fall in love with her and hilarity ensues, right?

The dance sequences are one of the elements that I surprisingly liked. I believed that these kinds of things did not belong in movies unless there was a reason to. While they mess with your head—now is this really happening—they do fit it rather well and I found myself wanting to dance a bit myself.

h/t to PremGatha for the vid post.

Now before you go ahead and check it out yourself, know that it is a fairly long movie. I’m not shitting you—it actually has an intermission. Some plot lines come up and get resolved within the entire movie. For example, one of the men comes out or rather is found out by his mother and goes all the way through to her final acceptance. But this is also where my biggest problem with the movie comes in. The movie is pretty much perfect in the first half but the mood changes quite a bit in the second when the two guys start their plots into winning over the girl.

As for the gay angle, I found it interesting to get a glimpse into Indian views on homosexuality. I won’t pretend to know that I have a good idea as I am not at all familiar with their culture but based on what I saw, it seems that they are still pretty homophobic. The movie could not even present an actual kiss between two guys. One of the more interesting lines of dialogue was when one guy told his soon-to-be-wife that he would never kiss another man, not even for her. Seriously?!

I would recommend this movie. It’s available to stream on Netflix.

A Yogi Bear Movie?

I'm not sure if I should be horrified or excited.

Justice Served... With a Side of Fries

Since the changeover to digital, the number of effective channels that I have been able receive has went down from eleven channels* to three**. So I haven’t been too thrilled about it. When I moved to the new place, I decided that I wasn’t going to continue with satellite or get cable. That was too much money to spend per month. Besides, most of the television shows that I was watching were available to stream on the internet. As long as I had high speed internet I’d be fine. Unfortunately the summer is the dry season of worthwhile television shows so I have signed up for… Netflix.

To my surprise, I actually like this service. For nine bucks a month, it’s practically a steal. The cheapest rentals around here are $1 so I figure that if I watch at least nine movies a month, I’d be making it worthwhile. And I’m probably four or five months ahead at this point.

With Netflix, it’s been a trip into my past as I have been able to dredge up some almost-forgotten films and even television shows. Anyone remember that Around the World in 80 Days mini-series with Peirce Brosnan? Was anyone else upset when Earth 2 was canceled and now wishes to see those precious few episodes that aired? My last few movies that I watched were adapted from some of my favorite books that I read as a kid: A Wrinkle in Time and Where the Red Fern Grows. A Winkle it Time was pretty bad but the Red Fern, I liked.

If you like movies but don’t want to spend all that money on a DVD that you’ll probably only watch a few times, I think that Netflix would work well. I’m pretty sure my dad and sister would probably appreciate all the anime crap that is on there. :P



* 7-ABC/Chicago, 9-WGN/Chicago, 11-PBS/Chicago, 16-NBC, 22-CBS, 25-I forget, 28-Fox, 34-PBS, 46-Some Religious Channel, 50-What was UPN, and 57-ABC

**16-NBC, 22-CBS, and 28-Fox.

It couldn't have hurt

This YouTube channel is awesome!

h/t to HISHEdotcom

Overthinking Yoda

Raise your hand if you thought Yoda was a “human.”

I don’t know about the rest of you but I raised my hand.

When I was young I was too smart for Star Wars. So smart I was dumb. I won’t get into why humans were in a galaxy far far away, existing in the past but seemingly living in the future. Nor will I discuss how measuring time using units of distance was wrong. Let me just talk about Yoda.

First I knew that some species that looked “human” were infesting the Star Wars galaxy. I mean they were everywhere. They couldn’t be real humans because real humans are here, in our galaxy, in our time. So if they weren’t humans than their condition must be different. I seriously thought that these humans had long life spans like 1,000 years. It’s just that at the end of their lives they ended up all short and pruney like Yoda. What sold me on that idea was when Yoda says to look “When nine hundred years you reach, look as good you will not.” Surely that means that in 900 years, Luke was going to end up looking like Yoda only uglier. Sounded reasonable to me at the time.

*Shrugs shoulders*