NYistas: Gothamist is give away five pairs of tickets to March of the Pengiuns here.
Buffista Movies 4: Straight to Video
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
Teppy me too!!!
It's an idea that never crossed my mind until just this minute, and my mind is still sitting there saying, "Nuh and uh."
Very, very pretty and thrilling and I want to see it two or three more times, but it didn't punch my crybuttons the way Spidey 2 did. Thoughtful and dark, and the fight scenes didn't bother me the way they did Hec, and wall-to-wall intelligent, engaged, exciting acting.
I was meh on Holmes, though -- she was fine, and I do agree that part of the problem is that Rachel was large with the speechifying and otherwise somewhat flabbily written, so there just wasn't much there there for any actor to work with. And still.
Hec mocked me for saying this last night, but I would've preferred seeing someone like Claire Danes or Aly Hannigan in the role, anemic as it was. In the right roles, they're both extremely emotionally present actors, all naked and skinless onscreen, compelling an empathetic reaction from the audience whether the audience wants to give it or not. Which helps hugely in making a whole person out of a speech-giver or just an anemically written generic love interest.
And they're both extremely attentive to whoever they're in a scene with. There were a handful of moments in BB when Bale gave Holmes a really interesting, unexpected line reading, or a look that undercut what he was saying, or a glance away, or some small physical detail that opened a door to something more interesting or surprising between them, and her response just fell oddly flat. Not bad, she was never bad, but I kept getting pinged by little missed opportunities to react and move somewhere new with the dialogue. And God knows, her dialogue didn't allow her many such opportunities, so it was extra-pingy when they were missed.
Still, oh so very good, all told. I stayed up way too late last night after we came home, scrolling back here through the whitefont and clicking on the links to all the crack-headed reviews (the 9/11 parallel was probably truly the worst, but it had some fierce competition).
One of my co-workers (who's a huge Sci-Fi fan -- very big into Trek [TOS, I think]) just stuck his head in my door and told me he saw Batman over the weekend, and so we geeked out for a few minutes. Most excellent.
My second thought after "omigod! They're doing it!" was "I hope someone writes good fic!"
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe one-sheet now available. [link]
Want. Now. Please.
ETA: So far, every movie I've seen this year that I was looking forward to, I've enjoyed thoroughly. H2G2, Sin City, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and Batman Begins. Oh, and Preview!Serenity. Now that just needs to hold for Mirrormask, Corpse Bride, HP:GoF, Final!Serenity, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Lion Witch. And maybe Rent and The Producers, though my fears of their suckitude puts a damper on my anticipation.
Napolean Dynamite seemed like somebody said "let's make a movie about all the worst parts of High School". It had its moments and some quotable lines, but all in all I thought it was pretty much horrific.
Why the hell did I watch Chronicles of Riddick? Why, oh, God, why?
I watched it with my nephew, but then seeing bad SF movies together is sort of a bonding ritual for us.
In happier news, I saw Batman Begins last night. Loved it. And yeah, I saw the Alfred/Luscious, but then my slash goggles are pretty much wired to my head. I really liked how they emphasized Bruce's love for Gotham, and how it related to his love for his father. It was a lovely movie, on many levels.
I loved that too, Calli. I think that was one of the best developed aspects of his character.