Tea and Dragons

I just watched, out of curiosity, the most recent GI Joe movie.  That's two hours of my life I won't get back, but I was quite amused to see about half the cast from the Mummy movies show up.  Arnold Vosloo always looks so weird with hair.  

I just watched Deep Impact, though I can't remember why I put it on my Netflix list.  Aside from too much of the music copying the soundtrack of Apollo 13, it was halfway decent.  And I was delighted to see so many familiar faces, including the marvelous Tucker Smallwood and of course Charles Martin Smith, whose role in Starman makes this one all the better (though I could see his fate coming a mile off, sheesh).  

The spaceship looked like a Shuttle mated with a Firefly... 

I just watched Waitress, and after some thought I have to classify it as a horror movie. 

( Spoilers!  )

Not a film I will recommend. 

I've seen several films lately. 

At the risk of offending some of my flist, Thor was a complete waste of celluloid, or whatever they're storing it on these days.  I do hope this does not screw up The Avengers.  Coulson was the only decent part of that film, and I don't even like him much.  

I have now, in rapid succession, seen all the Harry Potter movies.  I maintain that the first few are inevitably silly, given the framework of the books, but I enjoyed bits of Goblet of Fire and was unexpectedly--and inexplicably--fascinated by the first Deathly Hallows.  Perhaps because the trio is finally starting to act like budding adults--perhaps because it breaks out of the Hogwarts pattern.  

But they are clearly made for fans of the books.  Way too much was left out (I've read only one or two, and not in years) and characters popped up, were seen briefly, and disappeared without history being given, which makes no sense in the context of the films alone.  Who is this Tonks person, for instance?*  Or the weaselly little fellow who pinched the locket? 

Which isn't to say they're not enjoyable.  I was interested enough to see the final one in the theater, after all.  The soundtracks are magnificent, the special effects mostly seamless (dragon!), and a lot of the acting is quite good.  I'm particularly impressed with the main three, who do a terrific job of carrying the characters through so much and through such a changing time of their own, and I'm deeply amused by Gred and Forge, though Ginny can't express an emotion to save her life. 

I also ended up feeling sorry for Draco Malfoy, who managed to miss being either a hero or a decent villain and ended up a sort of wimp.  Not that he didn't behave decently in some places, and in fact his back-and-forthing is in a way much more realistic than everybody else's determination, but from the beginning he felt set up to be a solid enemy and instead just became an annoyance. 

My favorite moment is evenly divided between Snape setting his cuffs to smack the boys and Harry hopped up on luck serum.  The runner-up is Harry backed into a tree by Hermione in a rage--the most powerful wizard around clearly knows his superior when he sees her.  *snerk* 

On a completely different note, why doesn't soda go bad once the bottle is opened?  Seems to me it should at least ferment. 




*Don't bother answering, the questions are rhetorical.  Wikipedia can be quite useful. 

Snabbled from...somewhere.

What's your guilty pleasure? List 5 movies/TV shows you have a hard time justifying. Don't justify them....just tell us why you love 'em.

1. The first one that comes to mind is of course Independence Day. There's so much wrong with this movie, from the science to the attitude, but there's also so much to love. Irresistibly quotable. It doesn't pass the Bechdel test, really, but I do like the female characters all the same. Plus, doggie!

2. Solarbabies. Whatever you have to say about this movie, I don't want to hear it. The concept's original, or if not is a riff off an obscure British kids' book, and I do enjoy a good postapocalyptic tale. I adore Bohdai; that was exactly the sort of thing I wished to have happen to me when I was a kid.  Heck, I'd take it now.  And I love how the good side wins against terrible odds.  

3. Time Trax, which has not aged well.  On a recent rewatch I was appalled by its attitude towards women.  And yet, Dale Midkiff still makes me melt, and he had the gift (and still might!) of treating the stock female characters who passed through as real in a way I find hard to describe.  Also, the vision of the future was pretty interesting.  

4. The Boy Who Could Fly, which never was appreciated as much as I thought it should be.  Because it's spot-on, in so many ways, and yet doesn't quite do the expected thing, much to my everlasting delight.  Also, have you noticed the cast?  

5. Hackers, which is an object of much scorn, but by golly it's fun.  And contrary to common expectations, Ms. Jolie can act, and quite well too.  And I always want to know more about Razor and Blade.  Plus, any club where you can rollerskate inside is cool.  

Just finished watching Air Panic, apparently sometimes known as Panic, which was on my Netflix list solely because it has Rodney Rowland, whom I adore unabashedly.  I can't tell if this was a made for TV film, though it should have been; it was made, I believe, pre-September 2001, which excuses the plane crash scene, but it is now both less entertaining and more ridiculous.  

Well, the whole thing is ridiculous, though it includes a few good performances, Mr. Rowland's among them.  It's got some interesting computer graphics and a nicely chewy villain, but the plot has holes they could drive one of the planes through and the pacing is a joke.  And does every airplane movie have to do that stupid Airplane window-crash homage?  It's been done, guys.  

It was interesting, however, to see Tucker Smallwood, who starred with Mr. Rowland in the stunning Space: Above and Beyond a few years earlier.  I was also amused to note that one other cast member was on both Castle and CSI while another was on CSI:Miami, and there's more than one Star Trek franchise alumnus in there too.  

Despite all the negatives--and this is a bad movie, no biscuit--it gets points for an older woman as a main character (hard to describe properly) and a heroine who kicks tail several times and also makes the first real move in the obligatory romance between herself and the hero.  Also for making use of Calvert Cliffs, which I didn't think was all that well known, though I believe the geography was way off there, fellas. 

Plus, of course, Mr. Rowland, who--like most of my other favorite actors--gave the role more attention than it deserved.  Professionalism, it's a wonderful thing. 

Huh.  It occurs to me that I may have seen him the very day he got back from filming this thing overseas.  I don't remember, now, where they said he'd come from, but boy howdy was he jetlagged.  Still cute though.  *grin*  

Snabbled from mingsmommy and trialia. 

1. Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Strike out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search functions.

Note: I've done this kind before, so two of these are recycled since no one guessed them the first time. 

( Quotes...  )

Just watched Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.  A sublimely silly, ridiculous movie.  I found it deeply amusing, and of course I really enjoy Angelina Jolie's work as it is.  Plus, adorable geek-boy.  I was snickering at the slash potential in the beginning and hoping he would bite Joe out of sheer irritation by the end. 

But all the characters were white except a few Tibetans, and they were either stereotypes or villains.  Seems to me the filmmakers could have done better than that. 

Also, ( spoiler. )

ETA: From the trailers, I'd assumed that Ms. Jolie's character was the Sky Captain. 

Max Headroom is coming!  At last, at last!! 

I just watched Sands of Oblivion, which is one of the worst movies I've ever seen, and I've seen the theatrical version of Highlander II.  *headshake*  Just...wow.  It cribs from the recent Mummy films in a huge way, including reusing at least one prop, and they manage to get through the entire thing without, IIRC, using the name Anubis despite two archeologists and the huge jackal-headed thing chasing them around.  It is appallingly bad. 

The reason it ended up on my list in the first place was because it has Morena Baccarin and Adam Baldwin.  But even they can't save this thing.  Their characters are married, but if you're expecting a liplock, forget it.  I'm no archeologist but I could see the mistakes, and the haircut on the sheriff is...well, I've never seen anything quite like that.  The survivalist has his moments if you can get through the first few minutes of him, but how many shots of someone changing gear on a dune buggy does one film need? 

If you do choose to watch it (for laughs, I hope, or possibly Ms. Baccarin's legs) bear in mind that there are several deaths worthy of a blatant B-grade horror film.  Obviously fake, but it can still be alarming to see someone decapitated by a bucket loader even if you know it's coming.