Well, DH and I rented The Interview on Google Play last night just in case Sony changed their mind again, and all I can say is I'm glad we only paid $6 and now maybe that people have finally seen the movie we can all stop pretending that this is the thing that's going to get us riled up about censorship.
There are a few genuinely funny bits, but overall it's just a dull racist slog. It's aiming at satire, but it's not smart or funny enough to get there. James Franco is playing a raunchier version of Stephen Colbert, but not very well. Seth Rogen is the straight man, but Franco's performance isn't funny enough to need one. There's an undercurrent of homophobia throughout the whole thing. (I think probably they were aiming for satire there too, but as with the Asian jokes, they just wind up being the thing they're trying to make fun of.)
I'm watching Fellowship of the Ring. Poor, doomed Boromir.
I think Winter Soldier after this.
Surprisingly the Hobbit movie was sold out this afternoon, so I saw Into the Woods instead. Emily Blunt and James Corden were awesome, but I'm not so keen on the jobs everyone else did.
I definitely enjoyed the heck out of Into the Woods, but mostly for the fact it was Sondheim and Lapine than for the actors; I felt many of them were easily replaceable. Although, not necessarily with anyone in specific, just that they all seemed so generic. But maybe that's what the story needed, really. It's much more an ensemble piece by virtue of the way all the different fairy tales are wound together. It's only the baker's story that ties them all together.
For myself, I found Emily Blunt and Meryl Streep the most memorable vocally. And for all that I was watching for Chris Pine,
it caught me by surprise that I found his Prince Charming so unlikeable until I realized that was the point of his part.
Once I realized that, I was able to
let go of my preconceptions and absolutely roared with laughter at the "agony" competition with his brother.
It was totally worth the ten bucks I paid to see it. Even my dad enjoyed it and said it was pretty amazing and he is not easy to please.
The only actor in Into the Woods that I was really disappointed with was Meryl Streep -- that role just requires much stronger vocals than she can deliver. Overall, I thought that there were a lot of really good scenes, but it didn't hold together too well, and that it lost a lot of the darkness that should be there.
I'm watching the siege weaponry in Two Towers and remembering how Hubby was offered a job on the movies if he could get to New Zealand. His health had collapsed by then, though I almost wish we'd found a way for him to go anyway.
Saw The Imitation Game. I liked it very much. I remarked to my sister that it was a terrible movie title. But when it was over, it made more sense.
Butterscones Crumpetcakes was great, as was everyone else. Charles Dance will have a hard time getting away from Tywin, though.
I just watched that too. I wasn't impressed, honestly. The movie is paced really strangely and feels more like a highlights reel than a cohesive film - it hit all the obligatory biopic notes and most of the obligatory Britain-in-WWII notes, but the framing device was muddled and awkward. The performances are strong mostly because everyone is playing to type. (There's Benedict Cumberbatch as a borderline autistic smart guy who solves puzzles! There's Charles Dance as the guy in charge of a powerful army who talks down to everyone! There's that guy from Downton Abbey as the guy people feel they can tell secrets to but is politically a little farther left than is socially acceptable at the time! And Keira Knightly, as the girl!)
I liked The Imitation Game, but did not love it. I feel like it would have been a better movie without the framing device and flashbacks. Those flashbacks were totally unncessary, right?? All I thought about during then was
how impractical it was to have young boys in white pants.
I am amazed that was such a hot property unproduced script. I can see how the story would be hot, but that script? Meh.
