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healingmirthI'm assuming that everyone who has any inclination to see The Hurt Locker has already done so. You don't need me to tell you whether it was good or not, right? I finally watched it today. I was surprised, when I first saw the trailer, to see Jeremy Renner, who was fine but somewhat unremarkable in The Unusuals. I am really not a good judge of whether it is writing, acting, cinematography, directing, whatever that is the elevating force in a work, so I'm not sure how much credit to give him. He's certainly a good actor, but I need to see more to know whether he's an actor that I'd watch in anything. I'm not sold yet.
It's not an easy movie to watch... I think this is the first war movie, or thing about the military in general, even, that I've seen which is about the lack of camaraderie. There are lots of things that carry the crazy mofos banner, but usually they're crazy mofos together, or crazy mofos who are really, truly going to get someone killed, whereas The Hurt Locker gives us a crazy mofo who is really, really good at his job and still leaves room for the tragedy that he is (now? or that he always was) totally unsuited for civilian life. The scene of him standing in the cereal aisle totally kills me. I feel like I've seen that swamped by choice thing elsewhere, but I can't remember whether it was a news story about vets, or some random fanfic.
Speaking of war...movies. Okay not really, but I needed a seque. I have no idea what's going on in this picture of Alexander Skarsgard, from VMAN (bzuh?) Magazine, but I appreciate his hairdo. In contrast, Stark Sands in photographs seems to have two expressions: About to cry, and terrified. But look at that! He's smiling like his life is not being threatened by the camera. Or, he's singing, actually, but hooray for animation in the facial area. His eyes are smiling!
I've been meaning to rewatch A Knight's Tale since Yuletide, because I hadn't seen it other than on basic cable in years. (ETA: Wow, way to not complete a thought there.) I miss Heath Ledger, which is not surprising. I also miss seeing Alan Tudyk in things, and I'm not sure whether I'm up to watching Dollhouse for his episodes, even to see him in something different. Also Paul Bettany. And James Purefoy (should I have watched Rome?) The good news is, the movie's still as good as I remember, and now that I remember which character is which, I can read the fic without wasting a lot of time tabbing to character lists.
Remember all those teen movies about ten years ago? The ones about the popular kids and the outcast? The ones that would, somewhat inexplicably, feature Sisqo and some sort of line dance at the Big Party? Most of them starred Freddie Prinze Jr. Is anyone, other than Disney, still making shallow teen movies?
Finally, as proof that sometimes, even I know when to turn horrible TV off, I submit: Beauty and the Briefcase.
I only made it about ten minutes in, but in that amount of time, we established that our protagonist lives in New York, where she can't find a single, solitary man to date. As her narration informs us, this is either because there is something wrong with each man she passes on the street, she has an extensive checklist, or because she works in fashion and all the guys are gay. She desperately wants to write for Cosmo, to the extent that she has a Cosmo shrine on the wall of her room, the cheap-rent room that her best friend, a flighty, contradictory, and yet well-connected photographer, found for her. And then she gets a pitch meeting at Cosmo, which leads to her completely fabricating a resume, interviewing for a "business-y" job that she has not even done the barest amount of research for, in order to date business-y men, and write some sort of article.
I never watched Lizzie McGuire, but I quite liked A Cinderella Story, before Chad Michael Murray spent 800 years on One Tree Hill and did whatever it is that made everyone hate him. I had hopes that Beauty and the Briefcase would be a similarly cliched, innocuous romantic comedy, but nope.
Also, there is another Wall of Text on the horizon about Green Day and/or American Idiot. I have furniture being delivered next week, so maybe I will spend the rest of this week panicking about that, and not spamming the internet.
It's not an easy movie to watch... I think this is the first war movie, or thing about the military in general, even, that I've seen which is about the lack of camaraderie. There are lots of things that carry the crazy mofos banner, but usually they're crazy mofos together, or crazy mofos who are really, truly going to get someone killed, whereas The Hurt Locker gives us a crazy mofo who is really, really good at his job and still leaves room for the tragedy that he is (now? or that he always was) totally unsuited for civilian life. The scene of him standing in the cereal aisle totally kills me. I feel like I've seen that swamped by choice thing elsewhere, but I can't remember whether it was a news story about vets, or some random fanfic.
Speaking of war...movies. Okay not really, but I needed a seque. I have no idea what's going on in this picture of Alexander Skarsgard, from VMAN (bzuh?) Magazine, but I appreciate his hairdo. In contrast, Stark Sands in photographs seems to have two expressions: About to cry, and terrified. But look at that! He's smiling like his life is not being threatened by the camera. Or, he's singing, actually, but hooray for animation in the facial area. His eyes are smiling!
I've been meaning to rewatch A Knight's Tale since Yuletide, because I hadn't seen it other than on basic cable in years. (ETA: Wow, way to not complete a thought there.) I miss Heath Ledger, which is not surprising. I also miss seeing Alan Tudyk in things, and I'm not sure whether I'm up to watching Dollhouse for his episodes, even to see him in something different. Also Paul Bettany. And James Purefoy (should I have watched Rome?) The good news is, the movie's still as good as I remember, and now that I remember which character is which, I can read the fic without wasting a lot of time tabbing to character lists.
Remember all those teen movies about ten years ago? The ones about the popular kids and the outcast? The ones that would, somewhat inexplicably, feature Sisqo and some sort of line dance at the Big Party? Most of them starred Freddie Prinze Jr. Is anyone, other than Disney, still making shallow teen movies?
Finally, as proof that sometimes, even I know when to turn horrible TV off, I submit: Beauty and the Briefcase.
I only made it about ten minutes in, but in that amount of time, we established that our protagonist lives in New York, where she can't find a single, solitary man to date. As her narration informs us, this is either because there is something wrong with each man she passes on the street, she has an extensive checklist, or because she works in fashion and all the guys are gay. She desperately wants to write for Cosmo, to the extent that she has a Cosmo shrine on the wall of her room, the cheap-rent room that her best friend, a flighty, contradictory, and yet well-connected photographer, found for her. And then she gets a pitch meeting at Cosmo, which leads to her completely fabricating a resume, interviewing for a "business-y" job that she has not even done the barest amount of research for, in order to date business-y men, and write some sort of article.
I never watched Lizzie McGuire, but I quite liked A Cinderella Story, before Chad Michael Murray spent 800 years on One Tree Hill and did whatever it is that made everyone hate him. I had hopes that Beauty and the Briefcase would be a similarly cliched, innocuous romantic comedy, but nope.
Also, there is another Wall of Text on the horizon about Green Day and/or American Idiot. I have furniture being delivered next week, so maybe I will spend the rest of this week panicking about that, and not spamming the internet.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-24 02:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-24 03:19 am (UTC)I can only hope that her love interest is tragically dying under some sort of magical curse that requires an shallow airhead to stalk him, so they can live happily ever after.