sunday 13 september

at home – dvd, lovefilm

basically an alien-predator hybrid lands on earth, looking to spawn an army and kill everyone

well, this passed the time.  p and i both like the aliens and the predators so we enjoy seeing the aliens face-hugging people, drooling acid and punching holes with their second heads, and seeing the predators being just generally badass.

this one sadly had rather less of a premise than the previous installment, which, although it ultimately felt like a video game, it at least had a plot. this one just gives us the predalien and that’s it. the predalien heads for earth wanting to gobble all of us up and the predators arrive to stop it.

the predalien is pretty cool, though, and has lots of new tricks up it’s sleeve. it was also nice to see the predators and aliens on earth and in an urban setting, something which we only saw in predator 2 (and then only the predator, of course). seeing them running around in streets and indoors was pretty cool.

cast:

the predators

the aliens

the predalien

saturday 28 november 2009

at home – sky box office

dennis quaid investigates grisly murders connected with the four horsemen of the you guessed it

where does sky box office find these films…? there was this, that waz, anamorph and others. do they get released in cinemas in america? i don’t know… i really haven’t ever heard of any of them by the time i see them on the box office menu. anyway, they aren’t all bad, although many of them seem to be a bit lacking in some areas.

still, they’re mostly fun and so was this.

let’s first mention the failings, briefly. well, the whole horsemen reference was entirely unecessary. i can understand they need something exciting and evocative to grab our attention but, really, if they’re going to use the symbolism of horsemen of the apocalypse then they should at least follow through with it. as it is, a bunch of people simply call themselves horsemen and throw around labels like pestilence and war for the fun of it. pestilence and war (or famine and death for that matter), while they are nasty killer types, don’t in any way have anything to do with their namesakes which, really, defeats the object.

and then, the apocalypse. well, there wasn’t one and there wasn’t going to be one. they try to deflect attention from this by mentioning that the word apocalypse originally meant “the lifting of the veil”. well, that may be mr. clever etymologist, but the unveiling in revelation isn’t a jolly occurrence. because of this the ending was a bit anti-climatic as one expects at least the threat of some sort of disaster.

that aside, though, and it may sound like it’s the kind of thing that’s hard to overlook, the film was quite fun. really. the way the killings were done, the motives, the killers, the investigation – all of that was quite cool. if only they’d left out all of the horsemen rubbish. really, someone should’ve said.

it’s a bit unfair when one just writes one brief paragraph of positive criticism to two long ones, but isn’t that just the way – there’s often less to say about things that are good except that “they are good”. but yes, all of the above mentioned were well done – and considering this was a thriller, that’s most of the elements covered – except for the overarching theme.

which makes you miss the 80s. in the good old days you could just pop dennis quaid into a thriller and call it something nice and vague/sexy/ominous depending on which way you wanted to go with things. and, as dennis quaid is the star in this it was the perfect vehicle for it! ’cause , to be honest, who was going to see this? mostly people who actually watched dennis quaid in the 80s!

but everything has to have a hook nowadays. and a hook with screaming capitals and slanted writing, with little curls and effects, and blood dripping of them. the story and the hook don’t actually come together? who cares – as long as the hook is great! sad, really. especially when they have a nice original premise - no, not the apocalypse thing (although, if they followed through with it, it too could be a good premise), no, i mean the real premise. i’d say what the premise is, but it’s a nice surprise, so i won’t spoil it if you happen to have nothing to do on a rainy night and you see this is on and you decide to check out what the hell i’m on about.

there are other good things too. the film is nice and atmospheric and well filmed. dennis puts this film on like an old glove – the man can do thrillers in his sleep. ziyi zhang (the willful one from crouching tiger) is pretty good too. and clifton collins jr. (who’s name i’ll never remember) was also good as the sidekick guy to dennis quaid. collins is that ratty looking actor who plays ratty looking characters in police and gangster films.

ah – so i have managed to go into more detail about the positives of this film!

what a ramble! and what did p think of it? pretty much the same thing as me, though in far fewer words of course!

cast:

dennis quaid (hoora!)

ziyi zing!

clifton lee collins, of course

friday 27 november 2009

at home – sky movies

will ferrel and john c. reilly’s parents get married and they all have to move in together

imagine my surprise when p decided to watch this! there was no coaxing, no hinting, no anything from my part. she just said “shall we watch this?”. i said “are you sure, p?” and asked her again, just to make sure. but she was cool with it.

so we watched it and i laughed. i think p liked it too – not as much as me, of course, but i think she sort of likes will ferrell now!

let me ask her what she thought. this is what she says: “i thought it was funn- not funny, silly. i thought it was silly. not funny ‘haha’, silly”. that sounds like a success to me!

and it really was. very silly! haha! i liked it.

i think the funniest thing for me was the whole bit with dale and brennan’s brother’s wife. haha!

cast:

will ferrell

john c. reilly

the dad from six feet under

that woman from parenthood, mary steenbergen, apparently

friday 27 november 2009

at home – sky movies

eric stoltz likes this rich girl but he doesn’t know that mary stuart masterson (who plays drums) is actually better for him!!

p and i saw this long ago and as we were just sitting around yesterday when it came on, so p put it on.

i remember finding all of it much more frustrating the first time round, but then i guess that’s what one is meant to feel – frustration and fear for eric stoltz hanging out with the rich people who one knows are just messing with him, and then the added frustration at knowing that mary stuart masterson was better for him and that she actually liked him but he couldn’t see it!!

it was nice to see eric stoltz and his blue eyes again – and to see him so young! and mary stuart masterson (it takes forever to write that name!) too. the rich girl didn’t look nearly as glamorous as i expect she must’ve back in the day and, in fact, she looked a but old-ladyish!

poor old elias koteas was good. i’d forgotten about his part in this and enjoyed watching  him again. i say “poor old” because p always comments that she thinks he’s trying to be robert de niro. i don’t know if i agree with this but it’s one of those comments that really sticks and so it’s now a lingering thought in my mind whenever i see him!

ah – and i got to hear that soundtrack sound effect that quintin’s brother derek always used to love imitating…

cast:

eric stoltz

mary st… masterson

marty mcfly’s girlfriend

elias koteas

thursday 25 november 2009

at the movies – vue

paranormal activity

we had the week off and i’d been paid on the 21st so we could go to the movies again!  it was the return of nachos for p and popcorn for me! or so i thought… because the vue didn’t have any salt popcorn.

yes.

i’ll repeat that: no salt popcorn.

you ask me they should’ve just closed the place down. how can they open up the cinema without having salt popcorn!? it’s mystifying.

initially i decided i would have nothing, but then p convinced me that i really would rather have something, so i bought some doritos. not salt popcorn, but something at least.

so, in we went and within 20 minutes i was out for the count! the fool holding the camera insisted on jerking it back and forward all the time! i can handle normal hand-held filming but not when they insist on imitating how an amateur handles one, flinging it from one extremity to the other.

i had to look down and eventually turned my whole body from the screen as i listened to the film and watched the bits when the fool put the camera down adn the screen was still. luckily for me those were the moments when things actually happened!

i felt sorry for p, though, because my motion sickness was putting her off and i knew she wasn’t enjoying it as much as she could’ve.

getting through my nausea i managed to enjoy the film quite a bit. although, i thought the horror could’ve escalated. it was creepy enough to sustain a feeling of fear and there were just a bit too few juicy scary bits with them (as seems to have become a faux-documentary staple) relying too much on the shock revelation at the end for punch.

that’s not to say that the ending revelation wasn’t cool – it was. and, also, there were lots of other quite interesting bits too – like the ouja board and the footprints – but i felt they could’ve followed through a bit more with them…

the acting was good, though, and quite believable. also, the motivation for filming it all (which is often a bugbear of mine) was well sustained. i always ask myself “why are they running around with a camera throuhg all this!?” but here the camera use seemed justified.

charlotte managed to enjoyed through my nausea so i was glad of that. and she got to watch the big horror of the year, so that was nice.

cast:

two unknown people

24 november 2009

at home – sky movies

brad the pitts and frances mcdormand try to blackmail john malkovich

i really wanted to watch this at the movies but it was another one of those which i, or we, just never got around to…

charlotte knew how much i wanted to see it so when it came on in an idle moment she thought we’d give it a go!

it was weird. i mostly enjoyed it but i felt that it totally lost its direction halfway through! the ending was particularly abrupt and happened with no build-up at all. there was no indication that the story was coming to an end.

nevertheless i enjoyed it – it was fun to watch. frances mcdormand wasn’t as good as she can be but john malkovich was on form as usual and it was great to see brad the pitts doing some comedy work again! he’s so good at it yet he seldom does it.

charlotte thought it was very weird indeed and didn’t quite know what to make of it. she likes john malkovich, though, so that helped. but then, george clooney “doesn’t do anything” for her, so he didn’t help.

i liked jk simmons too – he was funny! the last lines, even though i didn’t know it was the end at the time, were the funniest lines of the film. afterwards charlotte and i repeated it to each other and laughed

ah – yes – before i write that line, an early one from john malkovich was funny too:

Osbourne Cox: I have a drinking problem? Fuck you, Peck, you’re a Mormon. Compared to you we ALL have a drinking problem!

okay – here are those funny lines that charlotte and i liked:

CIA Superior: What did we learn, Palmer?
CIA Officer: I don’t know, sir.
CIA Superior: I don’t fuckin’ know either. I guess we learned not to do it again.
CIA Officer: Yes, sir.
CIA Superior: I’m fucked if I know what we did.
CIA Officer: Yes, sir, it’s, uh, hard to say
CIA Superior: Jesus Fucking Christ.

charlotte: what did they do?!

(and i just learned that p didn’t even know who they were! haha! )

cast:

brad the pitts

frances mcdormand

john malkovich

george clooney

tilda swinton

jk simmons

sunday 15 november 2009

at home – sky box office

tom hanks gets called to the vatican to solve a mystery

we’d planned to go to the movies again as our sunday film has quickly become a tradition. even after the first one it already felt like a tradition! unfortunately we were both broke so we couldn’t go. but we wanted to have something of a sunday film experience so we decided to get something on sky box office.

charlotte’s sudden nachos addiction meant that i was sent out into the wild in search of the ingredients for her nachos treat – a quest from which i returned nearly an hour later. but charlotte’s little gleeful smile made it all worthwhile. she really loves these nachos!

so we went for angels and demons and it did exactly what you’d expect and passed the time. ewan mcgregor’s accent wasn’t noticably annoying, so that was a bonus and tom hanks was dependable as always. this time he had a new foreign brunette with whom to run around and solve puzzles and she was okay too.

the main assassin guy did a better job than paul bettany did in the last film. he was really quite efficient and a bit menacing too…!

hooray for sunday movies!

cast:

tom hanks

ewan mcgregor

an italian brunette

sunday 8 november 2009

at the movies – vue cinema

megan fox eats boys

we loved going to the movies so much when we saw 9 that we made plans to go again the next sunday. charlotte also loved the nachos and really wanted to have some again!

we both enjoyed the film a lot – we like teen horrors. and this one also had a bit of an 80s feel to it. it was really slick and fresh. i was quite impressed!

megan fox also surprised me. not only was her acting good but i thought she played the role intelligently.

that guy from the oc was also quite good in his small role and the girl from mamma mia did pretty well too.

cast:

megan fox

that girl from mamma mia

that guy from the oc

sunday 1 november 2009

at the movies! – vue

the world has ended and a bunch of puppets jump out a window to save the world (sort of)

the princess and the bear finally actually went to the movies! after seeing batman begins in june 2006 the only other film we’ve seen at the movies together has been the dark knight a year and a half ago. two films in three and a half years – i can’t believe it. especially since we love watching movies so much.

but somehow it just hasn’t happened. we’ve been too tired in the weeks and we’re so busy on saturday nights… so we’ve just fallen out of the habit.

halloween was coming up and i thought it’d be nice for us to go and watch a horror film on hallween night. we tried to arrange it but in the end it fell through. as a backup charlotte was thinking we could perhaps go on the sunday afterward but i don’t usually like doing things on sundays so i wasn’t too keen on the idea.  then, when sunday came around, like a little girl hopping around charlotte asked if we could go and because she was so excited and because we hadn’t gone in such a long time i said okay.

well – charlotte loved it! and so did i. it was so nice going to the cinema together again. and we got lots of nice snacks - popcorn, coke, nachos.  it was a real treat!

and the film? it was quite fun. i didn’t know too much about it beforehand – i’d just seen the trailer and thought it looked cool. i liked animation and apocalyptic stuff too, so it was right up my street.

the animation, as you’d expect, was very good! and those little puppets look so cool.

i do think it was a bit too dark, though and the story could’ve done with some light relief. either some more humour or some happier elements, as the tone was a bit relentlessly dark. i suppose the other thing they could’ve done would’ve been to add another villain or setting. that would’ve given it just a bit more variety.

but overall it was quite good. and charlotte enjoyed it too, which was good.

cast:

the puppets

voices provided by:

24 may 2009

at home – tv

ben stiller works in museum which comes to life at night

we saw this the first time one night in jericho. then it came on again and we were just slobbing around so we decided why not watch it again.

it’s the kind of film you can watch twice ’cause it’s such fun. we enjoyed the monkey and the t-rex and attila (ot was it gengis?).

our favourite bit was the scene where owen wilson ties up ben stiller and is about to drive a train into his head:

Jedediah: Fire up the iron horse, boys.
Larry: Hey, blondie!
Jedediah: Names Jedadiah.
Larry: Jedadiah, stop the train, please!
Jedediah: No can do, crackerjack.
Larry: Whats going on here?
Jedediah: Somebodys got to pay.
Larry: Pay for what?
Jedediah: I don’t know, just pay!

that bit where owen wilson goes “i don’t know, just pay!” made us laugh so much. we kept on saying it over and over and giggling away like teenagers. i tried to find it on youtube but no-one seems to find it as funny as we do.

(haha! charlotte just read it and we did the whole “i don’t know, just pay!”  thing all over again. )

cast:

ben stiller

owen wilson

robbie williams

and some other pretty well-known people