Your Early Morning Recommendation

I was wandering around the campus bookstore, looking at the required reading for classes that I wish I could take, and I ran across this:

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

It's a graphic novel about a young Iranian girl coming of age during the revolution. She was old enough to start in a French school before the crackdown began, so she tries to figure out who she is right as others begin enforcing the religious laws.

Anyway, it's just wonderful. I ended up buying it and reading it last night (and the second volume, which is just as good).

There is supposed to be a movie out too, and it looks pretty wonderful. I think that's going to go on the old netflix queue

Cinematic

Can you guess all these movies from just these letters?

gah - I only got fifteen

Ever Dance With the Devil in the Pale Moonlight?

So.

Batman.

Is it good? Yes.

Were there problems? Oh my dear yes. Plot holes and magical technology and deus ex machina, but nothing you might not expect. Well, the fingerprint thing was absurd to to the point of laughter, but nothing too hilarious.

Is it the best Batman movie yet? Maybe. It certainly could be argued.

Did Heath Ledger do well? Yes certainly.

Oscar-worthy well? No. Nowhere near.

A Change on Main Street

There's a movie rental chain store that's going out of business near me. It opened last November, maybe. I don't really have any sympathy, 'cause hey, first off, it's a huge chain monstrosity, and second, who in their right mind thinks that expanding a movie rental business now? Well, that and I'm heartless. Surely there's a huge contraction going on right now and without a fundamental change in the business, it's got no shot, right?

That's not what this post was supposed to be about though. The store is running a sale on all their stock. Right now it's 25% off their used price - anyway it ends up being about 7 bucks per DVD. Now, to be honest, I really don't care that much for owning disks - music or movies, but hey, I'd take a look. I ended up picking up four funky foreign flicks (not entirely because of the alliterative possibilities). One of which was Lagaan - a very fun Bollywood song and dance movie about cricket. I mean, seriously, how could I not, right?

The odd thing was you could see the horror that is the film industry on display. There were uncountable numbers of movies I'd never even heard of. The main studio films were about as bad. There were stacks and stacks of Showgirls and Taledada Nights. I guess it makes sense for the rental biz, but I was wondering if they could find a home for all of those. The "Special Interest" section was scarier. There were a whole lot of copies of "Chickfight."

Am I too pessimistic to think that Chickfight will sell out before Showgirls?

Tonight We Watch Movies in HELL!

Watched 300.

I do enjoy a good popcorn boom boom movie. I like explosions and cheesecake and all that jazz. I understand that people enjoyed the visuals. It was striking, and movies that actually have a unique visual vision are rare, so I guess that's something. I can't really form a coherent paragraph, so bullet points will serve.

• Why oh why oh why must every 'historically inspired' group of people go off on the importance of their 'country' and the eternal value of 'freedom' regardless of any historical basis?
• Seriously, even if it was a comment on the modern world, it was incoherent.
  
• Those heroic and noble light skinned people surely showed it to those dark skinned evil foreigners, didn't they?
• Now I ain't no Greek scholar or nothin' but the swipe at Athenians being 'boy lovers?' Umm... Pot or kettle?
• The entire queen's speech - utter crap. Seriously, I speak to you not as your queen but as a mother? What the hell?
• Did Sparta even have the position of queen? Also, didn't they have two kings?

Ugh, I've got to stop now.

I understand that it was supposed to be a melodrama, but still...

I'm over-thinking this, aren't I?

Speaking of Pixar Movies,

Have you seen these quality trailers? Look out Wall-e!

The Little Cars

Ratotoing

By The By

In case it wasn't clear to anyone out there, Ratatouille is simply one of the best movies ever.

That is all.

(Thanks Mr. Fish)

Link Dump

While the blog was gone, I accumulated a few links. Enjoy!

1. Most of those movie junket interviews are pretty pathetic, but here's one from the Ocean's 13 crew that's really hilarious. More actors should take things that seriously
2. Ever wanted to know what it would look like if Las Vegas teenager drew the US mainland from memory? Sure you have. Thank goodness for the internet.
3. The coolest thing ever is attaching a camera with a timer onto your cat and then letting him out to roam the neighbor hood. Mr. Lee is here
   

Jesus Camp

I finally got a bit of time to dive into the Netflix pile, and the one on top was Jesus Camp.

I'm not going to write a full review or anything, but it's worth a quick post. I knew it was going to be rough, but it's hard to compare thinking about it from what I'd heard with actually watching it. It's truly terrifying. At one point the main pastor says that she thinks the film will have liberals shaking in their boots. I guess I am, but I don't think it's in the way she thought I would be.

It was so hard to watch the children. They were so sweet and innocent, and I could just feel them having every bit of their childhood stripped away. Harry Potter is satanic. Ghost stories on a thunderous night aren't godly. Any trouble you have believing in god is an opportunity not for discussion and consideration, but for shame and public humiliation. The image of the little boy sobbing in front of the whole church because he felt it was hard for him to believe in a god you couldn't see was crushing.

I hope that people do see this movie. The main pastor equates her militant fundamentalist training the young with the violent fundamentalist training of 'the enemy.' The attitudes of many of the people in the documentary are dangerous to those of any (or no) faith.

The worst thing is that I hope they're completely wrong. I hope that they will fail utterly. I hope that they and extremists and fundamentalists are a freak minority. If my hopes come true, then those sweet innocent children will be in for a life of frustration, disappointment and failure. What a horrible thing.

It's Full of Stars

Ok. This requires some delicate maneuvering. Someone who shall remain nameless unless he or she chooses to respond here became a Netflix friend and thus learned all the secrets of my ratings. Now comes the ridicule.



I gave Catwoman 3 stars.

Don't start the intervention yet! See, I give three stars to movies that entertained me, even if they're god-awful pieces of crap, which, I do agree, Catwoman was (other 3 star examples - The Beastmaster, Billy Madison, Earth Girls are Easy and The Fantastic Four). I think the problem is that I rarely watch movies that I don't enjoy on some level. I can generally tell when I'm not going to like 'em. I don't think I have many one or two stars at all. A quick check reveals Anchorman, Lord of War, and Red Corner in the 2 star category, and I'll stand by those. I couldn't even really laugh at those, much less, with them. I'm sure I'll get angry huffs of indignation about Anchorman lovers though. I just couldn't take it.

Ya gotta admit, if you watched Catwoman, I bet you laughed. Maybe not where the filmmakers wanted you to, but I bet you did :)