Hilarious, good fun. Somewhat spoofing all those zombie / apocalypse movies (“28 Days Later” and the like) but came up with some original stuff to fill it out. Quite enjoyable.
Big Screen: Zombieland
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Category Archives: Flicks
Big Screen: Whip It!
So much fun!! I loved it just as much as my dad did. Sucks that more people didn’t see this because you really missed out on one of the most fun evenings at the movie theater all year. ALL YEAR, PEOPLE.
Loved how un-Juno-like Ellen Page was in a role that could have felt very similar. Loved her interactions with her parents; loved the teams, the camaraderies vs. the rivalries. Loved the music and the boy. LOVED IT.
DadReaction: The Time Traveller’s Wife
Note he has not read the book (yet); I have not seen the movie. I LOVELOVEDLOVED the book. Which is why we will be reading it in our challenge this year.
Really good. Sad, sad, sad, but you knew that. One of the first movies this year in which I bought the romance–but I REALLY bought it. Eric and Rachel are so super together. Really tears your heart out. And the time stuff is handled so well–you feel like you’ve known these two for YEARS.
DadReaction: Away We Go
Hilarious friends they had–yet there was a real ring of truth in lots of the scenes. JK and MR I thought were really good –and good together. (That first sex scene was too much for the people sitting in front of us though: they stood up and stomped out.)
I liked it too. Although I have a quibble with one bit of it that I didn’t mention there. Maybe I’ll write about it later.
DadReaction: Whip It!
WONDERFUL movie. Does everything right that most growing up movies do wrong vis a vis romance, winning, etc. This was just great. Drew–well done!! Ellen Page–Babe Ruthless: tremendous! Good ensemble acting, from top to bottom. Lots of smiles, growls, tears, cheers–I LOVED THIS MOVIE!!
Took me back to when I’d come home from Mass on Sunday and watch–ROLLER DERBY!!! My team was the Bay Area Bombers! They had both men and women jamming in alternate periods–but this was really cool.
Highly recommended. (Minor aside–Zoe Bell, the stunt woman from Deathproof was one of the “Hurl Scouts”–I think her track name was “Bloody Holly”.)
DadReaction: Zombieland
FOUR STARS! High-larious! There’s a mid-flick cameo that’s worth the price of two admissions. A hoot throughout. Woody Harrelson’s finest performance.
Best of August
The best movie I saw in August was a tie between District 9 (fantastic!) and Inglourious Basterds (exhilarating!).
The best book I read in August was White Time by Margo Lanagan, followed closely by a pair of wolf books by Patricia Briggs. Wow, those are two authors I just love. You may note there are a few reads on that list from August that I’m just not even bothering to write up, mostly continuations of trade paperback mystery series. Bygones. A girl’s gotta get caught up somehow.
The best gig I went to in August was The Knux‘ set at Lollapalooza. But, as with the rest of the year, there just hasn’t been any real competition in this category. I read a LOT this year but I did not go to many shows.
My favorite tunes in August were… Damien Rice, apparently. I was mostly running around doing stuff like a crazy lady in August and not doing much listening.
DadReaction: Hurt Locker
I’ve already told you how much I loved Hurt Locker (twice). Dad loved it too.
OMG!!Fabulous!! Will James was so intense!! And how they’d freak out when they didn’t know what was happening!! You can see why the guys in Iraq just blast away. Super.
I include the following paragraph for hilarity’s sake, perhaps you need some humor in your day. No, we are NOT going to become bomb defusers.
But hey: when I came out I wondered: am I too old to do this shit? Because I would LOVE to do this shit!!!! What do you think? Look–the UN must need people to defuse all those minefields around the world, no? LET’S DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Research it! We’ll do it together. (As your Mom said when I mentioned this, “You’re probably too old–but, on the other hand, nobody would care if you died.” Exactly!!) So let’s do it!!
ETA: More musing on The Hurt Locker. Funny: Your mom really put off by it–something about the guy disturbed her. But I’m sitting there thinking: I could be that guy!! In fact, it reminded me of some of the calls I went out on when i was with Temperature Control at Purdue*–you’d walk in alone to these insane situations–steam pipes busted , heat going wild, animals freaking out in their cages, HUMANS (worst animals on earth) freaking out, and: WOW! what a buzz you’d get from the challenge!!! Just the challenge to be focused while all this chaos was around you. I mean, I so get that: that it could be your happiest time on earth.
That little smile on James’ face at the end, when he’s gone back for another tour and he’s walking out to deal with whatever’s out there. Yeah, yeah….
Oh, reminds me: one of my favorite movies is about another bomb disposal squad–called Juggernaut, w. Richard Harris, David Hemings. Seen it? Worth a look. Richard Lester, of all people, directed.
*Note he has a PhD and an MDiv but yes there was a time when he had two young kids and a wife and worked at Temperature Control to pay the rent.
DadReaction: Julie & Julia
It gets my award for most JOYFUL movie of the year. Grinning the whole time. The mod. story (about the blogger) has been sort of carped at by reviewers, but I thought Adams and the guy were v. believable and funny and neurotic–I mean, the stories, eras, women are different but, boy I’d say Adams held her own with Streep. Of course, Streep is getting the praise and she is super–esp. playing such an outsized, well known drama queen like Julia Child. Great impersonation, but she’s in the character–you laugh and cry with her, fight with her.
I thought all the humor was very character driven and not contrived (as in the romcoms of the summer–TheProposal and themoviethatmustneverbenamed), and I thought both lives were very gently led to the paths they took. Back and forth between the eras very good too–and interestingly, both eras have a grim background: 9-11 with the mod story and the McCarthy witchhunt in the Child story.
So you get this genuine search for joy in ordinary life, no matter what the world’s doing, which is of course how we all live. And the movie takes you to the joy. Highly recommended.
Big Screen: Inglourious Basterds
I came out of this movie with a huge grin on my face, I just enjoyed the fuck out of it. Then I turned to Carlos and said “WASN’T THAT GREAT” and he shrugged and said: “Eh. I wasn’t into it.” Um WHAT?!
Yeah, I don’t know. People explain to me what they don’t like about Tarantino movies and usually those are exactly the things that I DID (do) like. I like the stylized violence and the comic/graphic novel chop chop and the over-the-topness of it all. I like that the characters you expect to have morals don’t, and the ones who seem completely cold do.
In this flick in particular, I just thought there were some brilliant casting moves, some great performances*, it was vivid visually. I loved the settings; I loved the tweaking of the history. I loved seeing an irreverent look at WWII frankly.
Although I think this article has some decent (critical) points…I don’t think his movies are all schlock and awe, and to some extent, yes I think you can safely assume that his whole nonchalance attitude about a “deeper message” is just yet another subterfuge. And while yes, you should not adore something for its aesthetics if it’s morally bankrupt like the Nazi propaganda films, Tarantino films are NOTHING like that to my mind. This flick’s “Are you going to take your uniform off?” Q & As (and their result!) alone have a very (correct) moral message. [Trying not to be spoilerific there.]
*”Ryan” from The Office stuck out like a sore thumb for me. He’s the one that I just could not see in his role. He always seemed way too clean and showered compared to the rest of the Basterds.