Miscellany

I saw Gone Baby Gone over the weekend, which was very good, which I will write about later, but in the meantime...it included trailers for two movies that I am stoked for:


love that kid from Superbad. and the girl from Hard Candy.


I would not be nearly as excited for this if I hadn't loved The Squid and the Whale so much.

The Office

One thing I've been watching for awhile but not writing about is The Office (American version). My friend got me into it when we used to watch The OC every Thursday, probably about halfway through season 3, so I've been watching the first few seasons ofn Netflix. I wanted to catch up before season 4 started but obviously that didn't happen--we're now about to the point where I started watching. One interesting thing that I didn't catch the first time around is how they made Roy into such a dick while he and Pam were engaged. I think when I started they had just broken up, and Jim was starting to date Karen. I wish they did more with the tertiary characters. Stanley is my ultimate favorite, followed closely by Kelly and Phyllis.
The first few season 4 episodes were not so great (I don't think they can sustain an hour), but last night's was pretty good ("Climb on top of her and think of Stanley!")

Reign Over Me

I was very excited to see Reign Over Me when it was out in theaters, mostly because I am (embarassingly) a sucker for anything with Adam Sandler, and I like Don Cheadle too, and I like the Who song. And Liv Tyler was cute if kind of unbelievable as a psychiatrist. It ended up taking me over two weeks to watch--I fell asleep during the first half, and was meh about finishing the rest of it. It was a pretty decent movie that was suitably funny in the funny parts and dramatic in the dramatic parts, but for me, it raised some interesting questions about whether it is too soon to dramatize 9/11. Is it just me, or is it weird to have a movie about a man who is grieving over his fake family who died in a real tragedy? I might not have even been thinking about that if my fiance hadn't pointed out that no children were on any of the planes. (Not only were Sandler's wife and three daughters killed, but their poodle too). I know there are tons of war movies with stories of fictional soldiers but, I don't know. It seemed emotionally manipulative.

The other problematic thing, for me anyway, is that Adam Sandler's whole career is based on the fact that when he yells loud, apropos of nothing, it's funny. So when he freaks out in the movie, it's almost funny instead of having the intended tragic effect.

I wish...

that they would put Freddy's Nightmares out on DVD. I've never seen it and was totally not cognizant of its existence at the time it was one, but I bet it's awesome. Plus, I read that one episode goes into Freddy's backstory which, despite rumors to the contrary, I am pretty sure they are never going to explore in a prequel. No one wants to see a movie about a child molester/murderer, especially not a wisecracking one. I know there are always debates about whether Freddy was actually a molester or JUST a murderer but 1. what a dumb thing to argue about, even on the Internet and 2. I think it's pretty clear that he was both. Anyway, I know I said a few posts ago that anthologies never work, but I think they work much better on TV than in a movie.

Halloween: Resurrection

Halloween: Resurrection might be the worst movie I've ever seen. What could have been kind of a cool idea-fake Michael Myers hanging around, not knowing the real Michael Myers is there too- was just stupid. I hated stupid Busta Rhymes and Tyra Banks. And the movie started with the clumsiest exposition outside of the beginning of a Babysitter's Club book. Jamie Lee is in the mental institute. One nurse asks the other who the patient is. The other nurse says, "Let me tell you about her." Cue flashbacks. UGH!! And it's not good-bad, which is excusable; it's boring, the cardinal sin for horror movies.

Poison Ivy

Back in the day, my mom put on Poison Ivy for my sister and I cause she thought it was a movie about camp. It lasted about 3 minutes, until the dumpy main character, Sylvie, (played by Sara Gilbert, Darlene from Roseanne) said "lips are supposed to be a perfect reflection of another part of a woman's anatomy." Click.

This is such a piece of trash that I'm surprised the Roseanne people didn't have more of a problem with Darlene starring in it right in the middle of their third season (a la whats-her-name from 7th Heaven posing in Maxim). An "erotic thriller" that's neither erotic nor thrilling, Ivy stars Drew Barrymore as the title character as a wrong-side-of-the-tracks girl (scholarship is code for poor) who moves in on Sylvie and her family. She kills her emphysema-ridden mom and sleeps with her gross dad (Tom Skerritt), including a scene featuring his pale, thrusting butt which may be the least sexy thing ever in life. My notes read "ew, you can see his butt."

Drew is pretty good in this, though miles away from her flowers and sunshine persona of today. I think this was her major comeback vehicle post-rehab--the only titles I recognize after it on her IMDB are the Amy Fisher Story (also 1992) and then that bit-part in Wayne's World II. And then her career seems to pick up again in 1994-5 with Bad Girls, Boys on the Side and of course, Scream.

Anyways, though not erotic nor thrilling, it was definitely entertaining, probably because of my unabashed love for badass teen girl movies (like the godawful Thirteen).

Creepshow 2

Creepshow 2: dumb, dumb, not scary. The only segment I was really interested in was The Raft, since it's based on a King story from Skeleton Crew. Though it retained the sense of dread from the book, the kids were so obnoxious that it was hard to feel sympathy when they got eaten by a giant oil slick. Especially the last guy, who touched his girlfriend's boob, then threw her to the monster and swam for his life. In fact, pretty much every character in this movie is completely unlikeable. I feel like these anthology movies never work.