A blog
Tonight my yoga instructor read a poem about living in the moment, and then shared this quote from Kung-Fu Panda:
The Past is history; the Future’s a mystery, but Today is a Gift, that’s why it is called the Present.
Sure, it’s cheesy, but I thought it was cute. Made me want to see the movie.
Gio, Kenny, Vidya, and I (all of whom once lived in a Seattle apartment building named after The Ramayana) saw a fantastic film at SIFF called Sita Sings the Blues. It’s an animated version of the Ramayana, told from a very pro-Sita perspective and set to Annette Hanshaw jazz numbers from the 20s. And if that doesn’t already sound amazing enough – the animation is stunning, was all done by one woman (Nina Paley), and was created entirely in Flash.
I believe the only way to see the film is at screenings and film festivals for now – but it’s certainly worth checking out if it makes it to a film festival near you. Nina Paley is apparently investigating DVD distribution options and hopes to have more news by the end of the summer.
I don’t watch very many movies. I think the last film I saw in the theatre was Thank You for Smoking (back in March or April, I believe), and Kenny and I don’t even rent enough films to warrant the smallest NetFlix package (fortunately, when we do get the urge to rent something, we can walk across the street to On 15th, usually armed with a 2-for-1 coupon from QFC).
Well, it seems that family visits often offer opportunities to catch up on movies, which we certainly did during our Thanksgiving week in Slidell. We watched 3 films that proved less than popular with their audiences (which changed with each film, but always included Kenny, his cousin David, and me):
And one that we enjoyed a good deal: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, starring Val Kilmer and Robert Downey, Jr.
We also attempted to see Stranger than Fiction at the local Slidell cinema, but we left early into the film because the picture was out of focus and shaking (we tried to stick it out, but we were all getting headaches). Incidentally, David saw Stranger than Fiction after arriving home in New York and he enjoyed it, so maybe we should try to head out and see it in theatres rather than waiting for it to arrive at On 15th. :)
I kind of liked it! Yes, the dialogue was cheesy (as to be expected), but I do agree with Matthew, who argues that it was not quite as bad as the dialogue in Episode II.
The special effects were stunning, the fights were entertaining, and I actually found the story compelling — i.e., I found myself feeling some of the emotions that the audience was supposed to feel. This is certainly more than I can say for Episodes I or II. While not a great film, it was quite enjoyable and a fitting end to the series.
Some Thursday evening geek humor for the hax0rs and Star Wars nerds out there (is one of those a subset of the other?)
Slate reviews Episode III, and they don’t hate it. I’ll let you know how I feel after Friday afternoon.
(And for those of us who are not big Star Wars geeks, they also provide a nice little guide to refresh the memory on what this whole saga is about anyway…)
Every now and then (perhaps to remind myself why I rarely pay $10 for a movie), I spend $10 and go see a movie. So last night I saw my first film in the theater in almost 7 months – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I don’t think my expectations were unreasonably high, and I had already read a few lackluster reviews, but I was still more than a little bit disappointed by the film. Perhaps if I hadn’t reread the book yesterday, I would have enjoyed the movie more (for one thing, I wouldn’t have noticed just how much the movie’s plot strayed from the book’s). But really – it just wasn’t that good.
The crappy Hollywood-ized romance between Arthur and Trillian was perhaps the worst part.
It did, however, have its moments. I thoroughly enjoyed the dolphin song in the opening scene. It’s actually pretty common for people who move to a different team at Microsoft to send out mail with the subject line “So Long and Thanks for all the Fish”; I expect that I will never be able to read such emails again without breaking out into song. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find an mp3 of the song anywhere – anyone have any leads on this? ;)
This promises to be a banner week for me, because not only did I already see a movie in the theater on Saturday, but I’ll be seeing another one this Friday! (I have even lower expectations for that one, but it’s one of those films you are required to see, and work is taking us to see it anyway…)
Speaking of ligers, did you know that they actually exist? I was sure that this was just something the overly-imaginative Napoleon dreamed up, but if there’s an article about them in Wikipedia, then they must actually be real.
That’s the most amazing thing I’ve learned all day.
Update 04/13/2005, 9:56am: The story gets even crazier.
If I do start posting more about film (no guarantee that I will, but I thought I’d warn you just in case), you may start to get the feeling that I’m a harsh critic. And I think this is pretty accurate. If I spend two hours of my life sitting on a couch watching something on a screen, it had better be worth my time. But at the same time, I generally don’t like movies that aren’t comedies, because I watch movies to be entertained, not saddened or freaked out or have my mind blown (there are exceptions here, but I really have to be in the mood if I’m going to watch something heavy).
I don’t like most of the movies that I see, and there is only one person I trust to recommend films for me: my mother. I trust her, because, like me, she dislikes actresses like Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones, and cheesy epic blockbusters like Titanic and The English Patient (we wholeheartedly agree with Elaine on this one). And she enjoys John Cusack, Bend it Like Beckham, Young Frankenstein, and Clueless just as much as I do.
I’m not saying that I have impeccable taste (for that, of course, is a matter of opinion), only that I am somewhat particular. :) So just be warned, in case I start criticizing your favorite film at some point (and yes, I really truly hated Garden State). Just so you can get some idea of what I actually do like (and so that I can prove that I don’t hate everything), here are a few of my faves, in no particular order:
And now perhaps you think I’m not necessarily harsh, just arbitrary…