must…watch…this movie

Trailers

All I want to do is watch Apple Trailers!!!

specifically, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Earth Days, Extract, An Unlikely Weapon, The Invention of Lying, World’s greatest Dad,  Where the wild things are, Despicable Me, Love Aaj Kal, Heart of Stone, White on Rice, The Way We Get By.

There are movies where the write-up has made me want to watch the trailer.

Comedies, Family films, Animated, Foreign films, and documentaries. Yup.

I’m predictable.

The Fall

Absolutely beautiful. And I’ve never been so taken by a child actor before. She didn’t seem to be acting. She just was this cute, english-as-a-second-language five-year old. And Lee Pace (the lead) was so good with her, and he played both the antagonist and protagonist so well. AAhhhh, I loved this story.

It’s not a movie for kids, because of the violence (lots of people get shot, thus earning it’s R rating), but this wasn’t gratuitous violence and you probably won’t notice it at all.

The Fall

I want it in 1080p. This is one of those films that is BEAUTIFUL and SO well done.

Fireproof

Have you ever watched a school play? You know all the actors, you recognize the set because you’ve been working on it in art class for the last few months. You have a crush on the lead, and occasionally someone forgets their lines and you feel the tension – you’re rooting for their sucess, because you take pride in this production you had something to do with. You’re not passively consuming when you watch it, you’re watching friends perform something they’ve rehearsed a thousand times and you’re enjoying it, whether you like Julius Caesar or not.

I was part of the school play – not as an actor (surprisingly enough, I blossomed into the dramatic later in life) – but as one of the two art students who made the sets, costumes, props, etc. We got art credit, and skipped lots of school. It was fun.

I don’t have the same personal connection toFireproof, but it gives me the same vibes. You can tell the script could use some work, the actors over-act, it’s the “I’m acting this way because that’s what my character would do,” sort of acting, rather than the “I’m inhabiting the role, I AM Wolverine,” that you get from such masters of the stage like Hugh Jackman.

Nevertheless, you begin to “play along.” You can laugh where they want you to laugh, even if it seems a bit forced, or adds little to the plot. You bite your nails during the action scenes (they were actually quite well done). Sure the editing could have been a little tighter, sure there were moments where I can imagine directors such as Bryan Singer saying, “I’m bored,” as it ran about half an hour too long.* And while the Christian message was overt, and the solution a little too easy, you get to a point where it stops being surprising that they’re talking about Jesus, and you start actually listening to the words they’re saying. “Ok, this is meant to be an object lesson – sure it’s preaching in the middle of a film, barely masked in dialogue, but this is the point of the movie and I’m learning here, so that’s ok.”

It’s like watching the church’s Christmas play. You “get” it. You know their acting won’t earn them Oscars any time soon and the sets are distracting, you never lose yourself in the story but you’re still listening. And that’s what Fireproof is, it’s a story. It might actually make you cry, even if it’s horrible acting. It might actually make you laugh, at both the parts intentionally funny and not.

But hopefully, if you do decide to watch this movie, you can learn something from it. I think that’s what Fireproof is – it’s a message. It’s clearly designed as such, and you can see that construction, but the characters – all unpaid volunteer actors – are endearing. Some of them are not even that bad.

Oh, and in a surprising twist, while everyone has a Southern accent (other than our main character, for some reason), the comedic relief is not a black guy. The trusted friend, confidant, and moral guide is black, and the funny guy is white.

Yea, it’s worth watching.

*If you’ve ever seen behind-the-scenes bonus features on any of his movies, he sits in the editing room watching footage and says “I’m bored,” “Boring,” whenever something isn’t fast enough paced and thus quite effectively keeps his movies exciting. I think I saw this for his work on Superman.

X-Men Origins

Things that bothered me about this movie:

1. That everyone calls it “Wolverine” when the title of the film is clearly “X-Men Origins.”
2. The sparkly, diamond-skinned girl (a la Twilight). Just because your mutant power is skin AS HARD AS diamonds doesn’t mean you should LOOK like there are diamonds all over you.
3. The horrible, horrible CGI.
4. Ryan Reynolds. Yes, he’s funny. But he is not an action hero.
5. The hobbit/Lost guy.  “Dominic” something. Too recognizable, IMO.
6. Will.I.Am can’t really act.

What I enjoyed about X-Men Origins

1. Canadian Rockies
2. The scenes of Wolverine & his brother fighting in the war (although, you’d think they’d be a SMIDGE more unstable if they fought in the civil war, WWI and II, AND Vietnam).
3. The Korean guy.
4. The fat guy.
5. The love story.

Now to go see STAR TREK :D :D :D

I think if I had the self-control to NOT watch poorly-reviewed movies I’d have saved a lot of money by now. Oh well.

Christmas Movies!

In this order, I am interested in seeing:

Yes Man

Bolt

The Tale of Despereaux

Australia

Rachel Getting Married

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Milk

(Maybe) Seven Pounds

A Good Day

Snow falling gently, little wind, warm boots and lots of fake fur to collect snowflakes around my face – the walk to work this morning was a blessing.

I read an article today that inspired me.

It’s about ministering to the sick.

I was the first to comment on the article.

And the author is from Timmins! Yay Canada!

Movies I Saw

Today I went to Blockbuster and held in my hands at least four movies that I wanted to see. I was actually surprised that there was such a bounty to choose from. Usually I can wander the walls of Blockbuster for an hour without finding anything particularly interesting, then succumb to venturing down the aisles of “old” movies, eventually renting “Airplane,” or some other lame movie you once heard was “a classic,” and end up regretting ever even suggesting Blockbuster in the first place because of all the time (and now money) you’ve wasted on the whole thing.

But today was different, and I suspect it’s my rampant Movie Trailer watching that has enabled me to make such an educated decision on so much of what’s out there now.

Together, my dear friend/movie buddy Hannah & I settled on Penelope, and Son of Rambow (two movies I’ve had on previous lists of “Movies to See”).  We watched them both. When we tried to take a break after the first one, we soon realized there was nothing else to do. It was a rainy Saturday well spent.

My Review:

Two thumbs up, way up. I loved how Penelope wasn’t conventional. It’s “ugly-curse” wasn’t like Beauty and the Beast or Shrek. There wasn’t that oh-so-familiar betrayal that comes when the girl realizes the guy had ulterior motives for dating her… (I’m not giving anything away, it’s just that I was predicting that and it didn’t happen). Oh, and there was a little person in it. Short person. Midget. Who was a great actor. That brought me great joy.

Son of Rambow made me cry at the end, and laugh a lot. These little boys were adorable, and hilarious, and great actors. The storyline was quite original, too. I think I should buy this one. There was quite a bit of swearing, but when it’s coming out of the mouth of troubled kids I feel like it’s forgivable. I’m not sure it’d appeal to kids, though, unlike Penelope, which definitely had a great message for young girls.

Other movies to see (many of which are at Blockbuster):

Wall E

Hancock

Get Smart

Kung Fu Panda

Ironman

The History Boys

THe “Jaff” (the Fall)

Dr. Seuss Horton Hears a Who

Son of Rambow ***looks so gooooooood***

Be Kind Rewind

Penelope

The Last Mimzy (? maybe? is it lame? I dunno…looked interesting…)

Movies to See

lately I’ve been entertaining myself by watching movie trailers because I have a cold. bleh. and I’ve been home for the last two days – and tomorrow.

Happy Go Lucky FUN! I just want to see if it makes me happy, or overly critical.

Rachel Getting Married I can’t wait to see Anne Hathaway in this darker role

The Lucky Ones This will probably make me cry, but I just love Rachel McAdams! She’s so cute.

Milk This will make me cry, too. Sean Penn has that effect.

The Brothers Bloom If for nothing else than to see Rachel Weisz breakdance. Plus, it looks like a good Oceans 11-type romp.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas This will make me cry. A-freaking-lot. But it looks good.

Yes I’ve watched this trailer four times. In a row. It’s funny. I look forward to a good Jim Carrey film again.

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist I really hope this turns out to be a good movie. It just looks so fun and innocent…ish.

Crash

I love love love love love love love this movie.

It’s so raw, and just makes your jaw drop, and your heart break, and the tears flow.

Even though it’s Hollywood, I think it touches the truth, and weaves a really beautiful story out of the lives of these characters. It made me feel like so much of life is completely out of our hands; things happen to us that we never could expect or prepare for. Even our judgment calls, seem to stem from someplace “other” at times.

The racism in the movie shocked me. I didn’t think there could be that much racist dialogue in one movie.

All in all I would definitely recommend it. I held off watching it for probably two, maybe three years. I was afraid of it being too depressing, to be honest. I thought I had to be in the perfect mood. I wasn’t today, I was just bored. Now I have a headache from trying not to cry, which I have never learned not to do, as it gives me a headache. And the tears came anyway.

Really beautiful movie. I’m glad I own it.