A transfusion turns a priest into a vampire and then there’s just a boatload of sex and blood and murder and vampirism and oh I did NOT like this movie at all.
In fact, of all the movies I saw in 2009, which was not really very many, this is the one I really wish I had never seen (with The Wrestler and Gran Torino as #s 2 and 3 – those reviews are spoilerific, btw).
I’ve beyond sick of hearing people whine about this movie and how much they don’t like Julie Powell. Particularly since that really ain’t the point at all. Also: Amy Adams is fantastic in this but isn’t getting credit for her performance due to the aforementioned wendy whiner whinging.
Yes, Meryl Streep is fantastic, as is Jane Lynch as her sister. Both are almost unrecognizable they’re so fully sunk into character here.
And while it’s great to honor Julia Child with her current resurgence of popularity, as my friend GirlDetective reminds people, this movie would not exist without Julie Powell (and her book)*. I like how this article puts it as well.
You know, Julie Powell didn’t have a well-off diplomat for a husband (and didn’t come from money either). She didn’t get to learn to cook on her leisure during the day, gallivanting around. She had a shitty job and a shitty apartment in a hard city to live in and frankly I say more power to her.
I loved the blog / didn’t like the book (had a very different tone / style than the blog. Maybe too heavily edited?) / loved the movie.
*I left a long comment there you can peruse as well.
Yes, it’s a little ridiculous to be writing about this now when I saw it back in September! And anyone who wants to has seen it already. I’m just trying to whip through things and close out Snip PROPERLY for the year although why I feel I MUST do that, I really can’t say.
Anyway…. it was a really great movie. Effects were great, acting was great, intense storyline, very satisfying. My #2 movie of the year. (Hurt Locker was #1.)
I’m so pleased there is quality sci fi being made again. There’s just nothing like seeing it on the big screen.
Really yicky in some ways. But ends better than it seemed it would.
And it is just filmed in such a classy way. The clothes, the sets, the music. You want to visit this world only NOT with Sarsgaard and NOT with all the idiots who never step in to address a situation that is clearly bad from the very beginning.
The lead, Carey Mulligan, has a very Audrey Hepburn-esque quality. Lovely performance by Olivia Williams, nice to see her somewhere other than Dollhouse.
Nicely done but sometimes hard to watch. In the way 13 is a well-done movie but something I never, ever, EVER want to see again. This isn’t as harsh as that, but it’s in that vein.
Leisurely paced but not slow. Heartaching but not completely breaking. Really nuanced performances. Lovely music. Thumbs up all ’round.
ETA: And I forgot to tell you that my favorite drummer Jay Bellerose (from here and he played at this show also although I didn’t know it at the time) played in the movie / on the soundtrack. Oh YES! 🙂
Quite lovely.
I feel like I’ve seen a zillion movies about Elizabeth so it was nice to visit with a different monarch for a while. Emily Blunt was fantastic.
And I loved that she got to have a love story (and not a salacious one), even if it that meant I cried through a lot of it. Very nice interplay between the couple.
Very charming. Wonderfully voiced. I really love the puppet look vs. traditional animation.
Well. I guess I’ll have to eat crow. I thought this movie looked really, really dumb (as I may have mentioned here and also here) and I went to it somewhat against my wishes.
And I really enjoyed it.
It’s super heavy handed, almost clunkily so (“I AM A GOOD GUY! SEE THE SIGN ON MY HEAD!”), and very typical in its… racial… assumptions, let’s say, but despite that (or because of it?) it totally works on one’s emotions and I just couldn’t help but care about the characters.
And it doesn’t hurt that Sam Worthington is really kinda secretly sneak-up-on-you hot. (I have told you that before even though I didn’t know his name then and just called him that “half-terminator dude”.)
We paid for 3D and I thought the effects were SO MUCH BETTER than when I saw 3D Beowulf, but I am wondering if there’s a difference between 3D on the regular movie screen and 3D on Imax…
So I like to have movies on in the background when I’m crafting but they generally have to be movies I both like and have seen a million times. I once had a friend come over and ask:
Her: “What do you do with all these DVDs?”
Me: “What do you mean? I watch them.”
Her: “You rewatch movies?”
Me: [Stunned Silence.]
Wednesday
Thursday
And I’m off to the theater to see Avatar today. I actually think the previews make it look really, REALLY DUMB, but Steve keeps SWEARING it’s good and Carlos suggested it. So we’ll see.
Even though I am waaaay behind on movie reviews (which is odd considering I haven’t even seen very many this year, I’m going to tell you about last night’s flick anyway! I’ll get all caught up on Snip over my “winter break.” I’m sure you were concerned heh…
So last night I saw the new Clooney movie (I believe it’s set to come out 12/25 [per IMDB] but I have connections…)… It was a really good solid flick. My friend Steve is calling it, at this point, his #1 of the year. I don’t feel quite as strongly as him, but I did really enjoy it.
As Jason Reitman movies are (Juno, Thank You for Smoking), it’s chock full of dialogue and witty interplay. Clooney is really charming for a character with some very fucked up ideas about how to live life, and the interplay with Vera Farmiga is pretty great.
It’s quite bittersweet and the ending is either really sad or sorta hopeful depending on which members of our group you ask. We all enjoyed it. We also enjoyed that they credited someone as playing “Makeout Dave.” I plan to introduce myself as Makeout Carolyn in the future. Hahahaha.
I oddly happened to be with a group of people who mostly have not seen “The Departed”* and was really weirded out the whole movie by how different Farmiga’s face looked from her (awesome) performance in The Departed. Lo and behold, she was pregnant (or had just been pregnant?) during the filming. That must’ve been a body double in the one, fairly gratuitous, random look at her nekkidness.
*I didn’t think those people existed. Watch The Departed. It’s good!