Posts filed under ‘Movies’
Classic Movie Review: Chinatown (1974)
A woman identifying herself as Evelyn Mulwray (Ladd) hires private investigator J.J. “Jake” Gittes (Nicholson) to perform surveillance on her husband Hollis I. Mulwray (Zwerling), the chief engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Gittes tails him, hears him publicly oppose the creation of a new reservoir, and shoots photographs of him with a young woman (Palmer) that are published on the front page of the following day’s paper. Upon his return to his office, Gittes is confronted by a beautiful woman who, after establishing that the two of them have never met, irately informs him she is Evelyn Mulwray (Dunaway) and that he can expect a lawsuit. [Gittes realizes he's been set up and sets out to investigate what is really going on with this case.]
*It is my belief you can’t “spoil” a movie that is nearly forty years old. But just in case you disagree with me, I’m only slightly vague and end up a little spoilery.
I really like Jack Nicholson in this role. Seeing as he won many awards for his portrayal of the private eye Gittes, this comes as no surprise. I think he slowly built the emotional element to his character which added to the mystery of the story. I like the film noir feel and the crime solving aspect of this movie. I felt like the audience slowly put the pieces together along with Gittes and that we discovered what was really going on as he did. I didn’t figure anything out before he did and that was kind of fun. Perhaps his questioning of Evelyn Mulwray was rather unnecessarily violent, and by perhaps, I mean it was, that poor woman. I understand his frustration at that point, but yah, unnecessary violence on a woman definitely. I think it fits with the era of the piece, but I got a little annoyed. Dunaway does an excellent job as the stressed out Evelyn Mulwray, if a little over dramatic in the way of some film noir.
The father was a creep, in many ways, and I really think he should have died. I’m not sure why he gets to live and gets what he wants. I guess I prefer happy endings, or at least justified endings and that doesn’t happen in this movie. Plus, it’s a little frustrating that the woman who is sexual dies instead. I know the movie is from the early 70′s and set in 1937, but it’s always disappointing to me when storytellers punish the sexual woman. Overall a gripping tale of water rights, family incest, and one man’s quest to discover the truth.
How Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Should Have Ended
This is just too much. I love it!
Chris Hemworth Being Manly, Being Thor
Gah. Offered without further comment.
Les Mis from Honest Trailers
First of all, I want to say that I made a slight year error on my blogoversary post. I’ve been at this since 2011, not 2010. Oops. Sorry for the mix-up. I guess this last year has felt like a long year, not necessarily here on the blog, but in my personal life, and so I get length of time mixed up quite often. So, yah. I’ve been at this two years, and it is still one of the things that makes me happiest which the decisions I’ve made. So Woot!
Ok, you all know I had issues with Les Miserables (2012), so I find this hilarious. But you probably wont if you liked the movie. (Thanks Adrian for the tip!)
Nodds and Nends: Miniature Bag End, Firefly RPG, and a Ron Swanson Cake
The very best thing I have found on the internets recently is this miniature Bag End. I mean, it is just too awesome for words!
And if you are hungry, maybe skip this next paragraph, because cakes! Geeky cakes! First up, an Avengers cake via Pinterest. Also from Pinterest is this really awesome Ron Swanson cake. Awesome, because cake. But also awesome because Ron Swanson is an amazing character, and I love him. Parks and Recreation is one of my favorite comedy shows. And finally a Firefly cake from Pinterest. I’ll admit the people don’t look at all like the characters, but the ship looks like Serenity. . . ish.
Speaking of Firefly, an announcement has circled the internets that an official tabletop RPG is in the making.
Random concept art I’ve found includes a digital painting of Mary Poppins, street art of a colorful woman made of flowers and rainbows, and an illustration of Aurora as a zombie in Un-Sleeping Beauty (thanks for the tip Picture Me Reading!).
A wonderful comic of why females are frustrated when they have to “prove” they are geeky. Can’t we all just say nice shirt and only ogle the boobies from the corner of our eyes, like on 40 year old Virgin? Unless it’s the show Lost Girl. Anna Silk’s breasts are awesome and I can’t look away.
Peeps, you’ve probably all heard about this already, but I felt I needed to say a bit about the Kickstarter campaign of Veronica Mars. A movie is going to happen, because fans banded together, and the crew took a cut, and all the Veronic Mars nerds united to say, Hey we want this story told. And this is awesome. Because the best part of life (is not Folger’s in your cup, sorry) but telling stories that have to be told. Check out the Kickstarter campaign. Even though fully funded, you can get in on some extra goodies and help get this movie made. For $35 you get a t-shirt, behind the scenes scoop, and a digital version of the movie within a few days of the movies release. Sounds like a deal to me, especially at the high cost of movie tickets. I understand that some people are concerned about Kickstarter payees not being investors in the sense that they get a return on their money, but in the internet age I do think things will tend toward paying for what you want as you want it instead of a ton of cable shows you hate. And if you want to get a digital version of a movie and a free t-shirt for $35, why is that a bad thing? And I also get, hey we raised all this money for a weird cause, why not raise money for a good cause. But people use their disposable income for entertainment, who is to say they don’t also give to charity? Personally, I think it is cool.
Finally, 40 inspirational speeches in 2 minutes. Somehow it all makes sense now.
Much Ado About Nothing Whedon Style
Here is the trailer. Yes, I’m drooling now. The filmography looks gorgeous. I love Shakespeare’s comedies.
The release date for the film is June 7th, 2013. Hold your horse everyone, and I think I just peed my pants a little.
Nodds & Nends: Le Cats, 3D Street Art, and Frost Flowers
Cats cast in Les Mis as Les Meowserables. Adorable. [via The Mary Sue]
Speaking of cats, I came across illustrator Jenny Parks version of Catniss. Ah hahahahaha. Hilarious and wonderful.
This 3D Street Art is just amazing. It is so amazing that a lot of the street art gets cordoned off to preserve it. I really like it when people interact with the art. It helps give depth and perspective to the pieces.
I shared this Piano Bookshelf with Stephanie a while ago, and she posted it on Twitter, but I wanted to throw it up here on the blog also for those of you who may not have seen this amazing repurposing of a grand piano.
Did you know the stems can blossom into Frost Flowers? Or that that can form into Ice Ribbons? I didn’t. I’ve seen icicles that where as big around as a small child and hung ten feet from the roof of our house, but these creations are even more amazing. Gorgeous. I want to see one in real life! Pictured below is an Ice Ribbon by flickr user Sherri Terris as crestedcrazy. [via The Bloggess]
cc flickr user crestedcrazy
Movie Review: Looper (2012)
My best friend visited over the new year and one evening we had enough time between my work schedule, her workshop schedule, and going to the spa, to sit down for a nice dinner and watch a movie. We chose Looper because it was available on Redbox, we both wanted to see it, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars in the movie. With a holiday coupon that entitled me to a free movie (my Redbox Boyfriend always remembers my birthday and our anniversary. Sometimes I wonder if I have a bunch of fake boyfriends, so I don’t have to deal with a real one… but more on that later) it was a win/win situation.
Joe Simmons, played by Levitt, is a Looper. In the future time travel has been outlawed which means only outlaws use it, and that means mobsters send people back to the past to be shot and disposed of. This is called closing a Loop and Loopers do the closing, i.e. the killing. This includes each looper closing the loop on their own lives with the knowledge that they have thirty years to live and spend the money they’ve accumulated being killers. But something happens to mess up Joe’s head and instead of closing his loop, his future self, played by Bruce Willis, gets the advantage and runs away. His future self is trying to fix the past to prevent a future mistake. Now comes all things wibbley wobbley, timey wimey.
Time travel requires a suspension of disbelief. Perhaps this is why I enjoy Doctor Who so much, the timeliness of the timelines doesn’t matter so much to me and I just willingly believe the purported things that happen because of time travel. Sara does not. Hence a couple of times we stopped the movie and argued what something met, then started the video again, and were lost and even once started the whole thing over. Also, perhaps this is why she doesn’t like Doctor Who, which would be a sacrilege, but I don’t require my friends to have all the same interests that I have. How boring.
While Future Joe is trying to correct a mistake by being a really horrible person, Present Day Joe is trying to prevent Future Joe from completing his mission. At first it is because he wants to get his old life back, but as he grows throughout the story line, eventually Present Day Joe is doing it because it is the right thing. This movie is very . . . . graphic is not the right word because a lot of the gory stuff happens off screen, but the imagery that is burned into your brain from imaging what happened is not pretty. Actually one part of the story line really upset me and I don’t think it was necessary. It should not be OK that violence to children and women is used as a cliche B Plot.
However, I did like the movie in spite of this and the wonky time travel stuff. I liked it because the moral of the story here is not that time travel messes everything and everyone up and we shouldn’t do it- because that message has been said a time or two or twenty. But the moral of the story is that everyone has the chance to change. Change themselves, change their present, change their future, change their story. That is the time travel message I like to see and read about. I don’t mind if things go wonky, as long as the overall message is one of hope. Life can be changed, we can make a difference, and sometimes you get a happy ending with a shotgun.
Below is a version of How It Should Have Ended. If you haven’t watched the movie, then do not watch this. If you have watched the movie you have to watch this, because it is awesome!
Buffy v Edward and McIntosh v Lionsgate
This fabulous mash up of Buffy the Vampire Slayer versus Edward the Vegetarian Vampire is quite well done and was also under legal attack at one point. You can read about the creator’s legal battles over copy right and fair use here. Enjoy! I especially like the Cedric Diggory parts.
