I'm watching Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. I resisted it fiercely when it first came out. Partially because of everyone circle-jerking about how cool Firefly was, and partially because of the circle-jerking about how cool this was. I don't know why I resist things people say are cool. Recommendations come with too much pressure, I think. What if I don't like it? Then I would have to defend my dislike.

But I like this, so it's all good.

You know what? Emily and Steve are wonderful people. But I invite them into my home, they bring Zombieland, and I end up having a sex dream about someone in the movie. Not a good someone.

Fuck you, Emily and Steve. But in the nice way, where I want you to continue to bring movies over.

Zombieland was awesome. I know I'm one of the four people left on the planet who hadn't seen it yet (those four people being Emily and Steve and Joe and me), but I'll put spoiler cut, anyway.

( Zombieland )

beatlesjill79 and I played Beatles Rock Band so much yesterday that my arm actually aches today. You should not be able to injure yourself with video games. They're supposed to be designed to elicit the least amount of physical activity possible. Jill also coined a new term, "Beatles Burn," which is where you insult someone with a Beatles reference. Like when she told me that I'm not a very good "Paperback Writer," or when I told Joe that he had Paul McCartney's Wings-era hair.

Christian finally went back to school after a week off. He had Roseola and couldn't go back until after the rash went away. So, things are back to normal at Casa Jen.

Battlefield Earth. I sat through it, because I was with a group of people who stayed. I fell asleep about a quarter of the way through, and when I woke up, it seemed like we had been watching it forever. To this day, I have no idea what was going on in that movie. What the plot was, what the point of it was, why the books in the library with the caved-in roof hadn't rotted away, etc.

Tim Burton's remake of The Planet of The Apes was a close second.

While my children went to a family function, Joe and I went to see Nine. My opinion of it is... mixed.

I think if I didn't love the musical so much, I would have liked the film better. Maybe I wouldn't have spent so much of it criticizing what they left out and inexplicably added. I do not understand the presence of the new songs, at all. I also don't understand why someone would adapt a musical with so much music if they didn't want, you know, songs in the movie. But whatever.

Daniel Day-Lewis was amazing. Absolutely amazing. I liked his voice, I liked his interpretation of the character, I liked everything about him. Which is what made the absence of "The Bells of St. Sebastian" and "Only With You" that much more annoying.

Nicole Kidman was... ugh. She screamed her way through "Unusual Way," to the point that I wish they had cut that one. The character's presence in the movie was so diminished, I don't see why they bothered to keep her at all. And I don't understand what the point was in changing Claudia's last name from "Nardi" to "Jenssen." Are there never any blond women in Italy?

Penelope Cruz was fantastic. I have literally never liked a single thing she has ever done, except for this. I think she and Daniel Day-Lewis were the high points of the movie. I don't quite understand what the suicide attempt was added for. Of course, I don't understand why they changed so much of the story, in general, but hey, whatever floats your boat, I guess.

I liked Judi Dench, Fergie, and Sophia Loren. Actually, I really liked the fact that they added words to the waltz for Sophia Loren to sing, even though I felt removing the title song was a stupid, stupid choice.

Kate Hudson and Marion Cotillard really surprised me. I wish they would have left in more of Luisa's songs, and to be honest, I wish they hadn't added Kate Hudson's song. They could have cut the character of Stephanie entirely, since they weren't going to use the storyline that involved her, and cast Hudson as Claudia. She is certainly a better singer than Nicole Kidman, and probably wouldn't have destroyed one of the best songs in the show.

Honestly, I think I would have loved this movie, if I had never, ever known anything about the musical. A lot of the negative reviews it's been getting are unwarranted, I think.

All the smoking made me really want a cigarette though. I quit ten years ago, to give you some perspective. There was that much smoking in this movie.

I went to see District 9 tonight.

( Here be spoilers. )
I wish someone more capable had made this movie.

I decided that I needed to go and see Observe and Report to keep from being like the people who shout about killing prostitutes in Grand Theft Auto but have never played the game to find out that killing hookers is a really bad move in that game. I was waiting for the inevitable date rape scene that I had heard so much about. It never really came. Here is my long-winded explanation, behind a cut for people who haven't seen the movie but are planning to and don't want to hear anything about it.

( Read more... )

ETA: Bah, I worded this badly. Basically, what I wanted to say was that Ronnie is not functioning on the same mental level as everyone else, and Brandy takes advantage of him to get what she wants, including the sex, in the context of the script.

A couple of people on my flist have done this one, and I thought, well, since I've acquired so many new LJ friends lately, this might be a helpful primer about me. So, if you've known me since like, 2006, you're not going to get much new info, probably.

These are in no particular order of importance.
( Meme )
Last night, I took a break from real life obligations and went to see "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans" with Joe and spiderjill. It was okay. I hope that it's the last one, now that they've come full-circle. About halfway through the movie I realized that I'd seen Lucien in something else... and then, in the car on the way home, I looked up IMDB on my blackberry and realized who he is. HE WAS TONY BLAIR IN "THE QUEEN." Great, now I'll never be able to watch THAT movie again. I'll just keep expecting him to turn into a werewolf and eat Helen Mirren.

On they way to the movie, Jill said something about a Warehouse, and Joe was like, "Wait, does that mean that at the full moon--" and I was like, "Yes, Joe, at the full moon, it turns into a house." We went out to dinner at The Craftsman, which is probably one of the better restaurants in Portage. Joe got pork osso bucco, and I got the seared tuna and crab cake. My dinner was... not so good. But the tuna was excellent. Next time, I'll asked for just that, hold the terrible, bland crab cake. We'll also split the desert, net time, because it was HUGE.

The showing we wanted to see at Celebration was not going to be possible, because there were no freaking parking spaces at the theatre. So, we decided to go to the mall and kill time before going to Rave downtown. We went to Macy's, and I got an awesome cubic zirconium necklace on clearance for EIGHT DOLLARS. Jealous of my mad shopping skills? It's okay. I could teach you, but I'd have to charge.

The best thing that happened all night was when we were in this Chinese/Japanese imports store. There was all of this Deathnote jewelry, so I go, "Oh, Joe, this would be perfect for your Deathnote cosplay!" real loud, and wander away. About five minutes later, Joe comes up to me and goes, "Thanks a lot, Jen. That kid over there was like, 'What character are you going as?'" I laughed like crazy. It was the best trip to the import store, ever.

Repo! clips on YouTube. Love them, as I love them, as these are my three favorite songs:





This one is gory and also has a spoiler, just warning:



And the trailer!

OMG, I just saw Repo: The Genetic Opera. It was, no kidding, so much better than I imagined it. This is going to get heavy rotation at my house! It was so beautifully creepy, so haunting and pretty. Even the gore was lovely. I basically want all of Blind Mag's costumes, and all of Amber's wigs. Oh, and the Graverobber. Not his costumes or wigs, I just want HIM. Goth boys are so freaking gorgeous, especially when skulking about in cemeteries.

I also watched "The Dutchess" a few days ago, and it was so good, though heart-breakingly sad. I think I might attempt to make the wig she wears to the political speeches, because that was quite lovely. It will be a while before I watch that one again, though, because I felt so terrible for her, and it pretty much made me want to kill Ralph Fiennes.

I have to do the most horrible thing today. The thing I detest more than grocery shopping (yes, it is possible). I have to go to post office. Ugh. DO NOT WANT. On top of that, I've caught some terrible bug, and when I tried to take Dayquil for it, it upset my ulcer. New rule: no cough syrup type medicines on an empty stomach.

Oh! Bit of important LJ news! Ever since the, what, five now? Friendpocalypses that I've participated in, I have a huge, huge flist, and as a result, I've been missing entries from my friends I've had since practically the beginning. So, I've made a new filter, with just the original pack of friends on, so that I no longer miss those entries. So, if I've become your friend through Friendpocalypse, you must forgive me if I miss one or two of your entries. Make new friends, but keep the old and all. You understand.

1. Pick 20 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDB and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them in a note for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. NO GOOGLING/using IMDB search functions. That's cheating and it ruins the fun.

1. "Letting everyone down would be my greatest unhappiness."
   
2. "I wish I liked anything as much as my kids like bubbles."
   
3. "You should've gone to China, you know, 'cause I hear they give away babies like free iPods. You know, they pretty much just put them in those t-shirt guns and shoot them out at sporting events."
   
4. "He didn't kill you because you weren't armed. No sport."
   
5. "Why would he wanna kill you in public?"
   
6. "If she ever kisses you, I'll turn you into a prince."
   
7. "Brad, for 14 years I've been a whore for the advertising industry. The only way I could save myself now is if I start firebombing."
   
8. "Angel, ha! She's a female! And all females is poison! They're full of wicked wiles!"
   
9. "From the first moment I met you, your arrogance and conceit, your selfish disdain for the feelings of others made me realize that you were the last man in the world I could ever be prevailed upon to marry!"
   
10. "God kills indiscriminately and so shall we. For no creatures under God are as we are, none so like him as ourselves. "
    
11. "That woman is a woman!"
    
12. "So if you believe in Father Christmas, children, like your Uncle Billy does, buy my festering turd of a record. And particularly enjoy the incredible crassness of the moment when we try to squeeze an extra syllable into the fourth line."
    
13. "Fabulous dress. The ecclesiastical purple and the pagan orange symbolizing the mystical symbiosis in marriage between the heathen and Christian traditions?"
    
14. "Come a-runnin'? I'm no woman to be honked at and come a-runnin'!"
    
15. "I can jog all the way to Texas and back! But my daughter can't!"
    
16. "Hey everyone! Come see how good I look!"
    
17. "But Your Majesty, I don't think you mean pairs of male elephants."
    
18. "Will someone please save these people from themselves!"
    
19. "Is this a habit of yours? Falling off of stuff?"
    
20. "Pathetic? To die for love? How can you say so? What could be more glorious?"
    
    Get at it, Flist.

OMG SARAH JANE! YES!

In other, less dorky news, I went to see Twilight. Joe and I had the choice of going to either Twilight or Role Models, and he was like, "Role Models looks stupid, let's just see Twilight."

SCREW YOU, JOE I WILL NEVER GET THOSE TWO HOURS OF MY LIFE BACK.

Yesterday, spiderjill and irish_faery2 and I went to see Mamma Mia. Second time for me and Cristin, because we're bad, bad friends and went without Jill the first time because we're impatient. But yeah, basically, Mamma Mia is my new favorite movie. It was kind of a given that it would be, because I mean, okay, Abba, but made into a musical. That's the winning formula for pleasing Jen, right there.

So, after the movie, we had our usual fight over picking the restaurant. Not over which one to go to, but over who had to suggest one in the first place. I'm not kidding. In the FIFTEEN YEARS OF OUR FRIENDSHIP, Jill has never picked the restaurant. She tried to pass it off like she picked the other night, but she didn't, really, she just suggested Hot N' Now, and there hasn't been one of those in our area in like, ten years, plus the building where it used to be burned down. You're busted, Jill. Now all of el jay knows it.

So, we ended up coming to consensus on Texas Roadhouse, and we went to eat there. And it was delicious and yummy. But my feet swelled up, prompting an emergency run to Target, "Just real quick, to get a pair of flip flops." Except we were there for like, and hour, and we all bought stuff we didn't need, like too many shoes. But the shoes I got were cute, so there. And after that, we went to Barnes and Noble. I picked up a few paperbacks and the second season of Rome, because they were having an awesome sale, on top of which they applied my member discount, so hooray, I could finally get it at a price I believed was reasonable. I'm sorry, the first season was worth eighty dollars. The second season, not so much.

After Barnes and Noble, I had to head back home. So, Jill rode with me over to drop Cristin off at her apartment, and on the way out of the complex, we go by this dumpster. And Jill goes, "Wait, did somebody throw away a tuba?"

Cue the screeching tires here. I play tuba, and haven't had my hands on one in YEARS. Namely, because they're super, super expensive. So, we pull a super u-turn, and we get there JUST as another car pulls in. It's this couple, and they're throwing away their trash, and they were totally not impressed at my hysterical freaking out to find that, YES, GOD YES, someone threw away a brass instrument. I grabbed it, shoved it in my car, and we headed straight back to Cristin's where I knocked on the door and yelled, "HEY YOU WANT A TRASH TUBA?"

The catch is, it's not really a tuba. It's either a baritone or a euphonium (I can't tell the difference between the two, because it's a very slight size comparison, and the shape of some parts, so unless I had two different ones in front of me, I'd be unable to tell). But I don't figure it will be that difficult to pick up and play, just a matter of finding the right ombishure, and I have played one (briefly) in the past, when our baritone player was absent for like, two weeks in high school, and there was a chance she would miss the band concert.

It's in the back of the Buick right now. It needs substantial work. It has about a half-centimeter crack in the rim of the bell, it's missing one of the screws that keeps the bell attached, and there is HELLA denting on the thing. It goes to see the repair guy at Marshall tomorrow for an estimate, but even Joe agrees, hey, the repairs are cheaper than buying a whole new instrument, and he's super psyched, too.

I'm still going to call it the trash tuba, though.

The weekend seemed really, really long for some reason, and then I realized that yesterday was Tuesday, not Monday, and that it is now, in fact, Wednesday and I've missed most of my week believing it was a weekend. However, it was at least filled with normal stuff to do.

On Friday, we had some friends over, just on a whim, and made chicken out on the barbecue. This turned into Joe and Scott getting completely hammered and playing Rock Band until early morning. On Saturday, Scott woke up to find that one of our cats, George, who has a massive behavior problem, peed on him in the night. Which lead to me making a desperate venting post to cat_lovers, which turned into an internet fight that I probably could have done without.

On Sunday, I went to see West Side Story at the Barn Theatre in Augusta with my Aunt Cathy, my cousins Christina and Cheri, and their cousin Katie. It was an okay show, but it seemed kind of amateurish by the Barn standards. I mean, this is an Equity house, you'd think they could have managed to cast a Maria who didn't sound like it pained her to sustain her high notes. And there was absolutely no chemistry between her and Tony, who, by virtue of looking and sounding like Clay Aiken, got right on my nerves real fast. Anita was a great singer and dancer, but she never looked at the other characters while singing... she sang out at the audience. Which doesn't make any sense, considering in her songs, she's usually SAYING something to someone else. It was really bizarre, because she was obviously miked, so why the need to belt at the audience? During the "A Boy Like That/I Have a Love" scene, she delivered all of her lines to Maria, then the music starts and it was like BAM, she's facing the audience through the whole song. Which didn't give Maria much to do, other than argue with the air. It was very strange.

The absolute best parts of the show were the dancing, which was absolutely spectacular, and the guys who played Riff and Bernardo. They were the only members of the cast who didn't seem like they were on stage with the singular motive of completely recreating the movie or making themselves stand out as doing a super job, so they were very natural in their roles. And even though the music was stripped down, it was done so without sacrificing anything, somehow.

Anyway, it made me remember how much I loved West Side Story, and how I haven't listened to it in a while. It was worth it to go just for that, but the most fun was just getting out with my family.

On Monday, I don't think I did a damn thing.

Yesterday, though, Jill, Scott, Warnament, Joe and I drove up to Grand Rapids to see The Dark Knight. We waited until yesterday, rather than go on opening night, so that we could go together AND see it on IMAX (which is no fun to go see on opening night... we learned our lesson from "The 300").
( Here be spoilers )

Every time I watch Green Card, totally gasp out loud when he slips up during the immigration interview. I've seen this movie about a hundred times, but my heart still breaks at that part, and I totally make this big giant gasp.

Occasionally, I will buy a movie on DVD that I have never seen before, but figure that I will like, anyway. Most of the time I like them, only once or twice has it been a dud.

HOLY MOLY. The Other Boleyn Girl is probably the worst adaptation of Anne Boleyn's story as I have ever seen. The "She was a deformed witch who had her head cut off" version of her life you hear in history class in school is more accurate than this. Granted, it's based off a Philipa Gregory novel, but she must have based her novel 50% off of some of Warnick's research, 50% off of fucking fairy dust. The whole thing is just... wow. daytime drama at it's most over the top and completely implausible. Way to ignore anything of historical importance, rush through the very stuff that makes the story interesting in order to cram in more shots of Eric Bana with his shirt off, and bust out of no where with a really bizarre rape scene.

The filmmakers and Natalie Portman get extra points for making Anne out to be alternately the harlot that history made out of her and the single weakest woman in Tudor England. Way to defame a totally rockin' woman, Hollywood!

Because I'm going to tell you. I have had the WORST allergies lately. The kind where nothing really runs or moves or anything, it just sort of sits in your sinuses until you feel like the front of your head is going to blow off. Gross.

Because of this, I have been in no mood to post in my ElJay. I have been commenting on communities, but it seems like no one on my friend's page is updating their journals, either. Maybe everyone has allergies. Or everyone unfriended me, which I find unlikely.

Over the weekend, my son broke his nose. It happened at school on Friday, during recess. That was fun. It's not all mashed out of shape or anything, thank gods. It's just swollen and bruised looking. Like we beat him. FUN TO GO OUT IN PUBLIC!

On Saturday, we had a barbecue with Scott, Raven, Cristin, Christina, Sarah, and of course, spiderjill. There was food, karaoke, and later a bonfire and much metaphysical discussion. Raven told me the absolutely creepiest story about a funeral he went to, and I shall never go to an open coffin visitation again.

On Sunday, because it was a long weekend and Christian was spending it with his grandparents, I did NOTHING but play Mariokart all day long. Oh, and complain about my allergies. I had wanted to get some stuff done outside, and maybe go for a bike ride, since I just found out it's still okay for me to do so, but the pollen count was super high. Next time, fair bicycle, next time. I watched The Tudors that evening and had a sobbing, hormonal break down. I don't know how I'll make it through next week's episode.

On Monday, our power was out. There was a huge storm in the night and the entire town was out of power. Damn. We drove to my grandmother's house to brush our teeth (we have a well, so the water goes out when the power does) and then to my other grandmother's house to retrieve Christian. Then, off to Kazoo to pick up Jill for a late lunch/early dinner type thing. We went to Texas Roadhouse, where the only thing I really like is the six oz. sirloin with a sweet potato. I thought I didn't like the way my steak tasted, but I realized my sense of taste is being tortured by the smell of the snot in my nose (thank you, Jen, we didn't want to know).

Yesterday, we saw Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull. I really, really enjoyed it. I don't understand why so many people haven't liked it. It's no where near as bad as Temple of Doom. We realized a few things from this movie:

• Every temple Indy goes to is destroyed or otherwise ruined forever. He is a terrible archaeologist.
  
• If you know Indiana Jones, it is possible that your face will melt at some point.
  
• Native peoples in scary masks and makeup can fit in impressively compact spaces.
  
• There is no way for a native English speaker to affect a Russian accent without sounding like they're out to get Moose and Skvirrel.
  

In other news, I have churned out another fanvid. Try to contain yourselves. This one is for Labyrinth, it's a Sarah/Jareth pairing type thing. I don't like the way it turned out at all, I'm going to redo it. The only thing I liked was how I got the dancing in sync with the music.



Now I'm off to check out my Flist and then, hopefully, to work.

But who am I kidding, really?

Okay, you know that meme where you make ten statements about yourself, but five of them are lies? Well, this is the movie version of that. Post five true statements about yourself pertaining to movies you've seen, and make five up. Then, it's up to your friends to guess which are true, and which are lies.

1. I have never seen any of the Die Hard movies.
   
2. I believe the movie Sister Act would have been better if Whoopi Goldberg's character had become a nun at the end.
   
3. Back To The Future is one of my favorite movies.
   
4. Of the Star Wars films, Return of The Jedi is my favorite.
   
5. At age fourteen, I went to see Pulp Fiction in the theatre with my mother.
   
6. One of my aunts took my cousins and I to see My Girl in the hopes that it would cheer us up after the death of one of our other cousins. It didn't.
   
7. I was given a brown fedora that was used on the set of Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom by my uncle, who bought it at an auction. I then destroyed it by wearing it all summer while riding my bike and pretending to be chased by Nazis.
   
8. I almost choked to death during There's Something About Mary.
   
9. As a child, the film Labyrinth terrified me when it was shown at a school Christmas party.
   
10. I have been glared at by numerous friends for laughing during Philadelphia, specifically when Tom Hanks collapses in the court room.
    
    I'm not tagging anyone, but someone should do this, so I can guess yours.

Expected side effect of knocked-upness. I'm feeling urpy. I'm going to lay around all days and watch movies. Watching the Johnny Depp version of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory right now.

Christian is determined to watch Sweeney Todd (the movie, I don't care if he watches the stage show). Joe and I have understandably outlawed it, but the little snot is persistent. Yesterday, I was going to go lay down and take a nap. I told him so, and he said, "Okay, I'll be good. Oh! Where are you keeping Sweeney Todd?"

I ended up taking it to bed with me and laying on top of it.

I'm very tired today. I'm not sure why I'm so tired, I just am. I'm watching My So-Called Life and it's so cool to see it from a different perspective. When I was younger, I thought Angela's parents were so unreasonable. Now, I sympathize with them so much. I also resolve to lock up my husband and my daughter until they are both past their difficult phases. First, I must obtain said daughter. Someday.

Anyway, I picked up The Tudors at the same time, because it was only twenty bucks. Twenty bucks for Tudor-ey goodness? Sign me up.

I'm totally psyched about the Other Boleyn Girl! beatlesjill79, irish_faerie2, we need to figure when we can go see it (and bring Anna. We must also get her involved in LJ madness).