Then...

September saw me take a bit of a fall of my own making. I realized two weeks into the month that, unlike my September schedule, I had not actually scheduled a film a day in August; it was more like 5 a week. Being the stubborn person I am, I tried to get through it anyway. Well, I couldn't. I finished the month with 7 to go, which is about the same rate I had kept in August. I had originally thought about trying to add the 7 to the 25 I'm scheduled to watch this month, but I would just be making the same mistake. So, they will go back into the mix to be picked another month.

So, this is my first real setback. At least I know my limits.

Now...it's on to October.

Holy Cow, Batman!

Comic Book: The Movie 2004
Mark Hamill
Kevin Smith
Stan Lee
Bruce Campbell


When I sat down to watch Comic Book: The Movie, I honestly thought I was just watching a documentary. All the actors on the cover, guys involved in the comic book world, were billed over their own names, and it seemed to take place at a convention.

Boy was I wrong. Sort of. This is not a documentary. It's a mockumentary. Mark Hamill is in it, but he doesn't play himself. It's about a huge comic book nerd, Donald Swan, who becomes famous as a comic book nerd via his online fanzine, and ends up being invited to be a technical adviser for a movie being filmed based on an old 1940s comic called "Commander Courage." The studio gives him a camera crew to make a documentary of his adventure to California, including his all expenses paid stay at the San Diego Comic-Con. Unfortunately, for the movie studio, Donald doesn't like the changes the studio has made to the original comic book in making the film, "Codename: Courage," and he sort of fumbles his way around, trying to make the changes he thinks are necessary.

So, since this movie was such a surprise within the first two minutes, I decided that this post will be something I haven't done since the beginning: I'm just going to highlight my mental running commentary that occurred while watching this film.

**I paused the DVD so I could type this: OMG Peter David is in this movie. I nearly hyperventilated seeing him. I cannot believe I have a DVD with Peter David in it. Sadly, I doubt anyone reading this even knows who he is. Peter David is a writer of both fictional novels and comic books. I used to read Star Trek: The Next Generation books when I was a teenager, and he wrote my favorite ones. He has a web site at peterdavid.net, which I highly recommend. He's a funny, funny guy. Oddly enough, I actually met him at the San Diego Comic-Con held a year after this movie was made, and even had my picture taken with him. He's the most normal person I've ever encountered during my rare and brief encounters into the comic book world.

Donald, concerning how he was going to approach watching the movie being filmed: "So I resolved to keep an open mind and try to stop hating it so much." So true.

This is so great. 3 middle aged guys sitting in a comic book store arguing over whether or not Spider Man's web should shoot out of his butt since that is from where spiders actually shoot their webs. I have witnessed very similar arguments.

That's total BS. I know of no comic book fan that loved Pearl Harbor. I know of no nerd whatsoever that loved that movie.

Woah. Hugh Hefner talking about comics.

lol Mark Hamill incorporates Kevin Smith's giant spider story from Evening With Kevin Smith.

Remember, kids, Kevin Smith says to rip your comic books in half when you're done reading them.

Ricky, the camera guy, does a great impression of the voice of each Beatle. His John Lennon was especially good.

As someone who actually went to Comic-Con, I can say the floor of the convention is ten times more packed than what the movie shows. And I cannot imagine it possible that anyone could walk around the floor and just bump into an awesome guy like Ray Harryhausen. Guys like that would be mobbed by fans on the floor. I want to watch Seven Voyages of Sinbad now.

omgomgomg Joe Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5.

There is this bit where an agent sees Ron Perlman at the Comic-Con, who's promoting the Hellboy film, and tries to offer him a role for the Codename:Courage movie, and Perlman points to the creator of Hellboy standing a few feet away from him and says, "That's Mike Mignola." I am embarrassed to admit that I did that very same thing the next year when my husband and I were there. Seth Green is a huge comic book fan and helped a friend to create a new comic book. They introduced the first issue on the floor. My husband and I got in line to get a signed copy. Well, Seth Green was there and I turned into a total fangirl about Robot Chicken, ignoring the guy who actually wrote the comic book sitting right next to him. Watching this scene in the movie made it doubly embarrassing.

Oh wow! If I had never been to the Comic-Con I would never have been able to recognize the dude that played Chewbacca! How appropriate that he would be the only guy in the movie that would make any reference to the fact that Mark Hamill is playing the character, asking, "Is he somebody famous?"

Matt Groening! Oh, how I love The Simpsons.

"Giant. Mechanical. Spider." Man, Kevin Smith's story about how when he was asked to give a try on the Superman script the producer told him he needed a giant spider in it will live on forever in the comic book world. Even funnier, J.J. Abrams is in this, probably because at the time Abrams was trying to write the script for the new Superman movie, before it finally moved on to Bryan Singer.

I can't believe Mark Hamill was able to get Jonathan Winters and Sid Caesar to do this thing. I am going to treasure this DVD forever.

And we get to the end, where Mark Hamill, as Donald, tells the fans to not buy in to the movie, even though it has the comic book name, because the movie studio doesn't give a crap about being true to the comic book or any of the values it upheld; the movie studio only wants our wallets. It's a plea for the studios to stop making bad movies and plastering the name of a comic book on as a title.

It also deals with something that I am not sure I can get behind. One of the things a lot of the middle aged comic book fans keep trying to say is that movies like The Fantastic Four are great because those old comic books were more lighthearted. They say that the movies that are "edgier," a word that is sneered at in this mockumentary, aren't really comic books. For them, true comic books are more wholesome and fun. A lot of these people tend to be Marvel fans rather than DC ones. DC practically built dark and edgy when they started Batman. Perhaps it is just my age, but I like the darker, moodier comic book movies. Of course, I also like the first Spiderman movie. I just think there's room for everything except a bad script.

Overall, if you aren't familiar with the comic book world (cartoons, movies and comic books), guys like Bruce Campbell and Kevin Smith, this thing will probably bore you to tears. I, on the other hand, have a surface familiarity with everything, and I had a heck of a time playing Spot the Cameo. I think anyone who is really into comic books are cartoons would really love this DVD.

October Fest

I am particularly happy with the movies I randomly picked this month. This looks to be the best month so far.

Oct 1: The Triplets of Belleville
Oct. 2: McQ
Oct 3: Brotherhood of the Wolf

Oct 5: The Wizard of Oz
Oct 6: Joyride
Oct 7: True Crime
Oct 8: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone)
Oct 9: Phenomenon
Oct 10: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Oct 12: Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Oct 13: The Muppet Christmas Carol
Oct 14: Silverado
Oct 15: Bewitched
Oct 16: Ghostbusters
Oct 17: They Died With Their Boots On

Oct 19: Fiddler on the Roof
Oct 20: Clerks II
Oct 21: Boys Don't Cry

Oct 23: The Neverending Story
Oct 24: Stage Fright

Oct 26: Peeping Tom
Oct 27: Little Caesar
Oct 28: Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Oct 30: House of 1000 Corpses
Oct 31: The Attic Expeditions

In honor of Halloween, I thought it apropos to end the month with horror movies.

As for TV, I have:

Thundercats (HOO!), Vol. 1
The Office, Series 1 (BBC)
CSI Season 7

I am really looking forward to October.

Well, I tried

I've had to stop watching Hercules. I really liked this show when I was in my late teens, early twenties. Now, I think it's just awful. I really did try, but enough is enough. This is going to be the first thing I've given up on. Even though I have sat through some movies I think are pretty bad in the past six or so weeks, they were individual movies. Watching episode after episode of something so bad seems like a waste, not to mention stupid.

So, that leaves CSI: Miami, which I'm watching right now. I decided to take a day off from doing homework today, so I've had quite a bit of time. I plan on making my October schedule in an hour or so. Should be fun.

Screwballing Around

Libeled Lady (1936)

William Powell
Myrna Loy
Jean Harlow
Spencer Tracy

William Powell and Myrna Loy are a wonderful pair, legendary for their performances in The Thin Man series. They had a tremendous amount of chemistry. Jean Harlow was famous (especially as a sex symbol) in her own right, and I bet a ton of people even today have heard the name Spencer Tracy. The one thing that surprises me about this cast is that even though Tracy did some comedies with Katherine Hepburn (the love of his life), I have never thought of him as a traditional screwball comedy actor. He was all right in this one, though.

As with all screwball comedies, the plot is silly. On the day he is to be married, an editor of a newspaper (Spencer Tracy) finds out that his paper has committed libel. He drops everything, including his long-suffering fiancee (Jean Harlow), to try and fix things. It seems that the paper accused the daughter (Myrna Loy) of a very wealthy man of stealing another woman's husband, which later turned out to be untrue. She is so angry, in a detached sort of way, that she decides to sue for 5 million dollars (in 1936!). Desperate, the editor hires a "heel" (William Powell) to try and seduce the woman, making the lie seem true. Of course, to make the scandal work, Powell has to actually be married, so Spencer comes up with the crazy idea of Harlow (his own fiancee) marrying him temporarily, just until this whole thing is over.

Of course, along the way, Powell falls in love with the rich heiress. At the same time, Powell treats Harlow, who is desperate for affection she isn't getting from her former fiance (who still calls himself her fiance), with a faux type of affection, which Harlow likes a great deal. This leads to Spencer becoming jealous, which Harlow intended all along.

You get all that?

It doesn't really matter because the plot isn't the point. The real entertainment comes from watching the characters try to deal with the various individual misunderstandings and sticky situations. The best part, though, is Myrna Loy. William Powell just seems to light up in every scene he shares with her, and her sarcastic voice is a character in its own right. Spencer Tracy and Jean Harlow did have a sort of chemistry, but it wasn't as sublime as what Powell and Loy were always able to show.

I really want to watch The Thin Man right now.

On a side note, I had wanted to watch The Agony and the Ecstasy tonight, but I got home an hour later than I expected so I am going to have to reschedule again. I was originally supposed to watch it and Mean Creek but the Heston/Harrison movie is nearly two and a half hours long. So, I switched it with Libeled Lady, which is just over 90 minutes. This way, I will at least get some decent sleep tonight. The movie I'm scheduled to watch tomorrow night isn't too long, so I will, hopefully, finally, be able to watch Rex Harrison and Charlton Heston go at each other, so to speak.

Hail to the Chief

This month has been crazy busy. I was sick for a few days, had a bout of insomnia, and have just now regulated my sleeping. On top of all that, I've been busy with school and watching depressing after depressing Cubs game. I am so ridiculously behind on the reviews, but I am only 2 movies behind schedule. The weird thing is that I'm moving right along with the TV DVDs. I'm already done with Looney Tunes, almost done with CSI and a third of the way through Hercules.

So, I have some catching up to do.

First up, Shadowlands, the true story of how C.S. Lewis went from an old, arrogant, and comfortable bachelor to a man in love with a divorced American poet, but only admitting it after she is diagnosed with cancer. I love, love this movie. There is much to admire about it on an intellectual level, but the real draw for me is that it is one of the few chick flicks I can stand. Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger are absolutely wonderful together, and the rest of the cast complements them well. This is also the first movie I really cried while watching, but it wasn't because I found it so romantic (I do). I was a teenager when I saw this for the first time, and the idea that true joy and pain are tied together seemed quite profound at the time; it still does today. On another note, the direction and cinematography are fantastic. Sir Richard Attenborough directed this the same year he was in Jurassic Park. It's too bad that he hasn't done much since.

Next, Cinderella, the black white televised musical starring Julie Andrews. Wow. What an absolute bore. The guy that played the prince was particularly awful. The saving grace of the entire thing is Ms. Andrews. Her performance is sparkling and her voice is a joy to hear. This aired years before she got her start in movies, and even this early it is clear she's going to be a star. I can't believe the people that made My Fair Lady gave the role of Eliza Doolittle to Audrey Hepburn because they weren't comfortable with someone who had never been in movies. At least she got the last word at the Oscars the next year.

A little over a week ago, my husband and I watched In the Valley of Elah. I hadn't scheduled the movie on a day he could watch it, but I had coincidentally switched the order. I am glad things worked out the way they did. He and I were both in the Army, and it was nice to watch it with someone who understood it the way I did. As you may have guessed, this movie focuses on the Army. In particular, it's based on a true story of a soldier who ended up dead under mysterious circumstances shortly after getting back from Iraq. Starring Tommy Lee Jones (love him), Susan Sarandon and Charlize Theron, this was an interesting movie. Primarily, it's a murder mystery. Jones plays the father of the dead soldier, a military vet himself. He does everything he can to find out what happened to his son. He's also a dick, which ends up helping him get to the bottom of what happened. Underneath the main story lurks an examination of what the war in Iraq is doing to our soldiers. Spoiler alert: it isn't pretty. Overall, the movie has some interesting things to say, but I found it a bit unsatisfying. On the other hand, there is nothing satisfying about the real story, so this is to be expected. Oh, and though Sarandon is not in it much, she is particularly memorable.

Tonight, my husband and I watched My Fellow Americans. A hilarious movie about two ex-presidents who loathe each other yet wind up helping each other when they get caught up in a dangerous conspiracy and hunted across the country by the NSA. My husband and I repeat some of the lines in this all the time, yet I had forgotten how truly funny this movie is. This is one of the funniest movies made in the past couple of decades. It's a shame it's not mentioned more. James Garner and Jack Lemon are wonderful (when are they not?) and have wonderful chemistry, but the script is just as good. A minor rant: the DVD was full screen. I had no idea, and I'm angry because I know, at least when I bought it, it was the only version available.

There are a few movies I own only because I love one of the actors in them so very much. January Man is one such movie. I don't even want to summarize the plot. Look it up on imdb if you're interested. The fact is, it's mediocre at best, despite a pretty good cast. And yet, Alan Rickman is in it, playing a role very different from what we normally see him play in American movies. So, I bought it. *sigh* At least he's good in it; as always.

Well, that's it for tonight. I still have 5 reviews yet to do, along with the 2 movies I plan on watching tomorrow, Mean Creek and The Agony and the Ecstasy (was supposed to watch this last week). We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Now is the winter of our discontent...

Richard III (1955)

Richard III: Sir Laurence Olivier
King Edward IV: Sir Cedric Hardwicke
George, Duke of Clarence: Sir John Gielguld

Directed and Produced by: Sir Laurence Olivier

Sir Laurence Olivier is almost universally acknowledged as one of the greatest actors of modern times. I have seen him in numerous roles, and they have always made a strong impression (though not always a good one). The words "Is it safe" from Marathon Man still send shivers down my spine. To watch Richard III is to watch a master give a course on acting.

This film is little more than a deliberately staged play, only moving to location shooting in the climactic battle. This may not be to everyone's taste. Still, Olivier makes the film worth watching at least once. His face is a bit hard to recognize at first due to the gigantic prosthetic nose he wears, but the first time I saw his eyes, his sly look, I knew it was him. Besides the exaggerated nose, his body is also costumed in such a way to accurately reflect Richard's physical deformities; hunched back, deformed left hand, and uneven legs. Sir Laurence wears them well.

I've always thought Richard III to be the most monstrous character Shakespeare ever wrote; it is said that this was deliberate since Richard III did murder the ancestors of the Queen for whom Shakespeare wrote. Oliver does a great job of playing such a monster. I enjoyed his effective us of shadows throughout the film to reflect many of the evil deeds committed.

Despite this darkness, Sir Laurence does an excellent job of conveying the character's sarcastic view of his actions and life in general. His choice to have Richard address the audience directly rather than use a voice-over was a correct one. The careless, dismissive manner with which he describes his dastardly, evil deeds is very humorous. I found myself laughing at several points, something I never did when reading the play. There is nothing subtle about Richard III - he's just plain evil. Yet I was never once bored by anything Richard did. Much of this credit goes to Sir Laurence.

The main disappointing aspect of the movie is that, though the cast features one of the greatest groups of actors of all time, most of the amazing talent is wasted. I am not sure if it is due to bad direction or if Olivier is just so overwhelming that everyone else pails, but Gielgud really disappointed me. He had one decent monologue, but he was ridiculously boring. Ralph Richard, who played Lord Buckingham, was the only one who was able to stand his ground against the director/actor.

Overall, I found this movie to be an excellent adaptation of the play, if a bit boring in parts. I also thought the bit thrown in from Henry IV, which allowed Richard to talk about how he so easily killed people, was a stroke of genius. Still, I found the staging to be a bit too deliberate for my taste, and the sound of the voices was jarring from time to time, whenever an actor had to raise his or her voice over something that made a lot of noise.

A few other things:

I had no idea Sir John Gielgud had red hair. He even resembles Danny Kaye a bit. I found myself admiring his hair at a few points. Like a lot of people my age, I had only seen him in Arthur, made when he was quite old. A part of me believes he won that Oscar because Hollywood realized it was probably one of the only chances they would get to give one to such a great actor; one who mainly stuck to the stage.

It is such a shame that so many of the great stage actors did not start doing movies until later in their careers, and many chose bad ones.

Sir Laurence was famous for being able to accurately affect any accent. Listening to him in this film, I almost forgot that his regular voice did not resemble the traditional Shakespearean English.

The first monologue of the film is staged so well, I think it qualifies as one of the greatest in film history. My eyes were riveted to the screen the entire time. And I am not sure, but I don't remember a single cut. I think Olivier did most if not all of it in one take. Amazing.