Buffista Movies 5: Development Hell
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.
The Number 23 sucked so hard it doesn't deserve to be in the same post as Science of Sleep. I was hoping it would be another Wicker Man, but alas, no, it's just bad.
For a movie billing itself as a thriller, it was kind of amazingly boring. 90% of the movie is Jim Carrey's character talking about a book he's reading. The other 10% is close-ups of a shifty-eyed dog. ('Cause that's how we know the dog is evil.)
The fucking CLIMAX of the movie is Jim Carrey STILL TALKING ABOUT THE FUCKING BOOK. Only now he understands What It All Means, so it's basically him RECAPPING the previous 70 minutes of the film, presumably because New Line is aware that most of the audience will have fallen asleep by this point so there's no point wasting money on having anything actually, you know, happen.
I saw the ad for The Number 23 and somehow I just
knew
it was Joel Schumacher. No one does utterly pointless paranoia more pointlessly. Kudos, Joel!
I have a whole list of movies that I want to see, because I haven't been to the cinema since December, in Dublin. The cinema is considerably more difficult to get to here than it was there; it's one of the things I miss. "Bobby" and "Dreamgirls," "Hott Fuzz" maybe--are you getting that in the states? "For Your Consideration" if I had the time and the cash.. Babel" looks interesting, but I've heard mixed reviews.
Also the Irish Film Festival is going on, which means they're finally showing The Illusionist in Ireland. I already saw a bootlegged copy, and I really enjoyed the film; but I don't know if I want to see it again so soon, you know? [link] Those are the films showing this weekend. Maybe something will peak my interest.
Suddenly, there's loads of things I miss about being in Dublin.
"Hott Fuzz" maybe--are you getting that in the states?
Yes! Ironically, the first (US) press screening for it was last night, meaning we technically could have gone to see that instead of 23. (If DH wasn't being paid to review 23, I have to keep reminding myself. My GOD that movie sucked.)
HA. It's very promotionalized over here, for obvious reasons. I was going to give it a pass, but then I realised it's the SOTD guys, and was all enthusiastic.
They brought clips to Comic-Con this summer, and I liked what I saw. Maybe not quite as much as Shaun, but enough to get me into theatres.
(BBCA is running Spaced right now, which is also made of awesome.)
BBCA is running Spaced right now, which is also made of awesome
Oooh. Need to go looking for that.
(If DH wasn't being paid to review 23, I have to keep reminding myself. My GOD that movie sucked.)
Will Fonebone be able to enjoy the satisfaction of turning in a vitriolic review?
I've been watching Spaced on youtube AIFG.
Stylus' Alternative Oscar Picks
Some very interesting picks.
For example, in Best Supporting Actor:
Steve Carell (Little Miss Sunshine)
During the more implausible scenarios in Little Miss Sunshine—a teenager takes a vow of silence to honor Nietzsche, an ex-lover who should be safely tucked away at Yale turns up in a remote gas station, a hospital loses a corpse—Uncle Frank raises his eyebrows in bemusement. Then, without fail, he accepts his bizarre circumstances. The man is an outsider to his dysfunctional family, silently and hilariously commenting on the action with every line of his face. Steve Carrell brings a welcome injection of irony to an absurdist comedy. Just before the suicidal scholar schtick gets old, he unleashes the Frat Pack comedy and joins the zaniness, shuffling birdlike into glass doors with his shoulders shrugged to the sky. [L. Michael Foote]
