I did like the bit where Buckaroo asks Perfect Tommy to give whatsername his jacket and he's like, "Why me?" And Buckaroo is like, "Because you're perfect." And he's like, "You make a compelling argument, sir."

Finally finished The Hunger Games, and now I am all WTF over Cinna's casting. He is, like, my favorite character (in a story where I am constantly rolling my eyes about the makeup and clothing), and the chosen actor is beyond off what I imagined for the role.

I'm so excited by that casting. He looks great in the trailer. Can't wait.

Have you seen the photos, Juliebird? Because I thought that too, but when I saw the promos, I thought it would be okay!

I wonder if I'd like the comic book.

The comic was pretty terrible. The novel, on the other hand, is great. Well, it's great if you liked the movie, so... never mind, I guess?

Part of why I like BB is the meta. Kind of what Scrappy said; there's a presumption that you already know these characters, that this is just one episode in a series of popular stories, and as a result there's a whole universe you're being dumped into without any explanation. (In the book there are footnotes citing adventures in other, nonexistent books.)

But I know it is... polarizing. Until the internet I didn't even know it had a cult following -- for a long time the only people I knew who'd seen it and liked it were my immediate family.

For obscure, there's always Eric the Viking and Yellow Beard, which feature many members of Monty Python. "Us Yellow Beards are never more dangerous than when we're dead!"

I just watched Green Lantern, and I liked it. It wasn't up to par with the Marvel crop, but it was a serviceable comic book movie.

but it was a serviceable comic book movie.

What service did it provide? Entertainment? Diversion? Was it actively pleasurable, or were you Not Bored While Watching It? Will you think back on it fondly? Will anything linger from it? Is the baseline set at: "I can see why they cast Ryan Reynolds and that's probably about as good as I could expect the CGI to be."

Ha, you know I used that word to bait you, Hec.

I spent quite a while trying to decide what grade to give it because, yes, it was actively pleasurable (though it took a while to really get going), which usually gets a movie a B+ in my book (pretty much everything starts there and goes up or down), but it wasn't really as good as most movies I've given a B+ to, nor as clearly niggling at me like most movies I've given a B/B+ to. I went in knowing that it wasn't going to be amazing, so I felt an obligation to be hard on it in acknowledgment. It was definitely flawed, but it was entertaining and coherent and there were some cool special effects and a Hero's Journey and a hot Blake Lively (who, thankfully, actually did something useful at one point).

Ha, you know I used that word to bait you, Hec.

I'm nothing if not constant.

Or, you know, boringly pedantic predictable.

And that's a fair defense of a "serviceable comic book movie."

It's funny I was watching the retro channel tonight and saw two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and one of Route 66, and they were all so much better crafted in the script than you generally see anymore. They weren't genre-savvy and meta and self-referential. They were dramas with odd and distinctive narrative beats and payoffs.

In lots of ways Television writing is close to its zenith now. The medium itself is being explored in richer ways - taking advantage of the long narrative form. But there was something to be said for that era when scripts were "teleplays" and written very tight. Like short stories instead of chapters in a novel. Like little plays.

I saw Tin Tin with Matilda today and it was a serviceable entertainment. Extremely well made and the tribute to the source material was sincere and well-rendered. And yet, I felt much the same way that I did after watching Hugo Cabaret. This is an elegant machine, but it's a kind of pastiche. It doesn't have the verve or rawness or strangeness or originality or odd dramatic beats or curious narrative choices that will stick with me. It was well made. Serviceable.