I've seen some great movies lately.

First, my Peckinpah box came in, and the print of Ride The High Country is so beautiful that I found myself near tears several times throughout the movie (especially at the end, natch). Up next is The Ballad of Cable Hogue because I need distance before re-watching The Wild Bunch and emotional fortitude before going through both prints of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid to see the differences from each other (and from the Laserdisc copy I have on VHS, which is apparently a completely different cut).

Second, Off The Charts: The Song-Poem Anthology. I don't know how many of y'all picked up the Song-Poem Anthology Do You Know The Difference Between Big Wood And Brush?, but this is a not-too-enlightening-but-quite-fun movie more or less inspired by the anthology. Song-Poems, if you don't know, are based on those "send in your poems & we'll turn them into big hits" ads running from the 60s to today. The aspiring big hit writers send in their poems, along with a couple hundred bucks, and the companies would record a song with the poems as lyrics. Naturally, 95% of the product was complete shit, but there's a few where you can hear these hardened studio hacks suddenly feel the song and let loose, and those are represented on the anthology and in the movie. Biggest revelation (SPOILER for the, lessee, none of you who care) is that free-jazz saxophonist Ellery Eskelin is the son of Rodd Keith, who sang the near-perfect song-poem "How Can A Man Overcome His Heartbroken Pain?".

Third, last night we watched Kings and Queen, a Godardian look at a very fractured family. I don't want to say too much about this movie (and I think several people have recommended it here), but it was beautiful, funny, and poignant, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

Oh, and we've been catching up on the first season of Battlestar Galactica, partially spurred on by the fannishness of some here and Strega's generally high ratings on TWOP. We've just gotten through a few terrible episodes, but overall the series has been quite enjoyable.

Article on Snakes on a Plane. With the script.

OK, the script is fake, but it's pretty funny....

eta: link might help: [link]

I just saw a trailer for Date Movie.

Alyson Hannigan seems determined to test the limits of my love for her.

Eh. She's still pretty. I probably won't see it unless I decide to get high for it, though. (Hey, it worked for Not Another Teen Movie. )

I just watched Dark City, something I had been planning to do for a while. It's... unsettling. I don't think it packed as much punch as it could have, though I definitely enjoyed it.

I saw The Matador and Tristram Shandy today. The Matador was good, but not great. The plot and tone are kind of all over the place,but Pierce Brosnan's performance is fantastic.

Tristram Shandy, though, I loved. It was hysterically funny. Other than that, it's difficult to describe, but I think it would play well with most Buffistas.

[eta: Oh, and after dinner we went back again and saw Roving Mars, which is terrific. If you've followed the rover news as it's unfolded, the movie won't show you anything new, really (though the scenes WITH LORI IN THEM of the rovers being built/tested are extremely cool), but if you like IMAX movies with Buffistas in them, it's definitely worth the 40 minutes.]

Probably a silly question but is Tristram Shandy really based on the novel?

It's based on the filming of the unfilmable novel. So yes and no.

It's based on the filming of the unfilmable novel. So yes and no.

Exactly like Naked Lunch then!

I love Dark City. It's not a great movie, but it's stayed with me.