Dave’s much anticipated Movie Marathon was a few weeks back, and it was a highly enjoyable 24 hours (as usual). I can’t add much to what Dave and Jorge already said, except that I TOTALLY called who patient zero was in [REC] before anyone else, and I was only one of three people to make it all the way through Human Centipede.² For the record, I’m not proud of that accomplishment – it’s an hour and a half of my life I want scrubbed from my memory banks.

This intense glut of movie watching has lead to a flurry of my own movie watching lately. This weekend alone, I watched Iron Man 2 (meh), John Carpenter’s The Thing (love!), The Spirit (hate!), Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (love! – with some reservations³ ). I also started watching Six Reasons Why and Primer through Netflix, and intend to go back and finish them sometime soon.

(Here’s the thing: I’m quite enjoying my Netflix subscription. Sure, there’s not a lot of current programs on, and you have to be willing to explore what’s there. I’ve discovered a few programs that were new to me and have loved, a few I knew about – and hadn’t watched – and hated them, and others I knew about but hadn’t been able to watch when they were on and am now all caught up. The function I would like to see available in Netflix Canada, and from what I hear it’s available elsewhere, is a wishlist queue, or somewhere I can tag movies or shows I want to watch later in case I can’t find them later. Right now, the closest thing to that is watching five or ten minutes of it so that it’s in my recently watched queue. The major drawback of that is that the queue gets cleared at the end of the month, so I have to log into my account online the see what I started watching.⁴ )

But I’m still reading. Real books, and maybe a few ebooks occasionally. Maybe that will be next month’s post.

1. tm Gilmore Girls
2. And, as I took great pains to point out, the creation wasn’t a centipede – it was a millipede. This is because it had two limbs per segment and it moved slowly. So there.
3. Namely, I find it too campy in spots, if that’s possible.
4. If this were Twitter, it would have a hastag of #firstworldproblem.

2. While I was home, I took the opportunity to watch a couple of movies on TV that I hadn’t seen (or hadn’t seen all of ) before. The first was 17 Again, which was surprisingly good. There were some genuinely funny moments, especially between Mike’s nerdy best friend and the principal. And while I know I may not be alone in acknowledging that Zac Efron is a pretty, pretty guy, he’s actually not that bad of an actor. The second was It’s a Boy Girl Thing, which is a mostly Canadian production, about two teenagers who swap bodies [1. It seems that I had a theme going on, what with two movies about body swapping. ] I’d seen parts of it before, liked it, but never actually got to see the whole thing. It also is surprisingly good – I thought that both of the actors who were playing the teenagers did a good job of mimicking the body language of each other when they were supposed to be in the opposite bodies. Certainly worth checking out.

3. A few weeks ago, when I posted about this year’s theme, I mentioned wanting to have more meatless weeks. There are many reasons for it, both personal and environmental, in addition to examining how often I fall back on eating meat or meat products. It’s worth noting that I am still drinking milk and eating eggs, as they are important sources of calcium and protein; while I do enjoy soy milk and have used egg substitute successfully on a number of occasions, this whole thing is about awareness, not making radical changes. [2. It's also worth noting that the milk and eggs that I do consume come from organic sources in the province. ] That day marked the first day in what was going to be my first meatless week of the year – I had a menu all planned out, including lunches that didn’t include lunchmeat, and was pretty gung-ho about it.

Except, here I am, three Sundays later, and I am still meatless [3. Except for a cheat when I made soup one day - I didn't have any vegetable stock and had to use chicken stock. ] I haven’t run out of meal ideas, and have often surprised myself with my inventiveness, especially when it comes to lunches. Yesterday I was craving one of my favourite comfort foods, chicken and dumplings, because I still wasn’t feeling great; however, this morning I looked at the chicken in the freezer [4. I also vowed to clean out my freezer, so that chicken is going to get eaten at some point. ] and then looked at the corn I froze this past summer, and decided that corn chowder is just as comforting, especially with biscuits. As well, most of my meals this week don’t involve meat, such as the veggie fajitas I’m going to have for lunch this week, the roasted tomatoes with pasta, and the curried tofu possibly Friday or Saturday. It’s become less about “I am only going to do this for one week” and more about “let’s see how long I can keep this up.” [5. Sort of like when I was still running on the treadmill - one day, instead of alternating between walking and running, I just ran to see how long I could go without stopping. In the end, I managed about 15 minutes - go me! ]

4. There will be a full post about this later, but I managed to fit in some reading this month. I was reading five books in total which leads to all kinds of distractions, and only managed to finish two of them.

I expect there will be fun, frivolity, and, if things go all to hell, shenanigans.

The highlights:

Death Race 2000 – I arrived after it had already started, and Dave got me caught up. It was a great ice breaker movie because I could turn to the person sitting next to me and say, “Did Sylvester Stallon really just insult her by calling her a ‘baked potato’?”, or exclaim in amusement with everyone else when David Carridine put on a mask to have sex [4].

Lifeboat – This is a movie I never would have chosen to watch on my own, but I’m glad I saw it.

Glengarry Glen Ross – Since I got back, I’ve been raving about it to anyone who makes the mistake of passing through my line of sight. It was a truly awesome movie with so many outstanding performances, although I’d have to say Jack Lemmon was my favourite. He could go from depressed to obsequious to furious to begging in the blink of an eye.

Hard Core Logo – I have lengthy theories about the dysfunctional relationships in this movie, but in the end, it’s a bittersweet movie about a rock band.

Audition – All I know of this movie is that at one point, the cries of horror from those still standing woke me up. I snickered and went back to sleep.

In the end, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

(As for my NaNo story, sadly I’ve fallen rather behind. Sunday when I got home, I was too exhausted to write more than 500 words, and yesterday I didn’t get any done either. Maybe I’ll have to pull an all-nighter tonight.)

[1] Which was all of us, since we all nominated a slate of movies, and then ranked the nominees; the winners being the ones with the most votes [2].
[2] Or the ones Dave wanted to watch and snuck in.
[3] Seriously, go read his post! The funnest part of the whole thing were the photos and movies we made for each movie we watched – we weren’t just passive participants, we were ACTORS!
[4] And the dancing!

Anchorman – Pretty cheese and over-the-top, but in a good way. Will Ferrell is a genius, and the rest of the cast was pretty great as well.

Blade Trinity – Not bad. Saved by actors other than Snipes. Some funny dialogue bits, occasionally not meant to be funny at all.

Bridget Jones : The Edge of Reason – Meh. Not my favourite, but I do like Renee Zellweger.

Dodgeball - I saw this movie around the same time as Anchorman, and some of the actors appear in both, so I sometimes mix the two up. I’m not a Ben Stiller fan (except for Mystery Men), and didn’t change my mind after this film.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – This was my favourite Harry Potter movie so far. A lot of the “incidental” action – trips to the library, Quidditch matches, etc, were cut, and made the story less cumbersome. The actors are better at playing their characters now, and the addition of Michael Gambon as Dumbledore was excellent. And I liked Alfonso Cuaron’s directing better than Chris Columbus’ because Columbus tries too hard to make his child characters be mature and intellegent, like short adults, instead of letting them act like children. Now that most of them are teenagers, they’re finally able starting to act their age.

Hellboy – Another meh movie. I do think that any film that uses Tom Waits in the soundtrack is worth watching at least once.

Hero – Stunningly beautiful. The cinematography, the costumes, the fight scenes – all bold and striking. The story? Confusing – I’d have to see it again to be certain who was really crossing who.

Shrek 2 – Better than the original, and more geared towards older kids or adults. The best line in the movie is when Fiona is looking for Shrek, and calls out “Shrek?” Puss in Boots responds, “For you baby, I could be.” (You have to hear that line being said by Antonio Banderas to really understand the impact.)

Spiderman 2 – In general, meh. I liked it better than the original, though. (Bonus fun trivia: in the scene where Spider Man is forced to take the elevator, the actor who plays the guy in the elevator is Hal Sparks. Sparks plays Michael Novotny on Queer as Folk, a character that owns a comic book shop and writes a comic book about a gay superhero.)

So why does this irritate me? Because there wasn’t a female character in the original, and adding one now doesn’t make much sense. It strikes me as if the producers/directors decided to add a woman to the cast to a) add sexual tension; b) appeal to a female audience; and c) be PC.

And it bothers me that I’m irritated by this. I feel like I’m being disloyal to the sisterhood by mentioning it. I should be pleased that they’re making an effort to portray women as being as capable as men at surviving under harsh conditions. It’s just that I felt like rolling my eyes when I saw the poster – “Oh great. Another attempt at demonstrating women can kick ass when necessary.”

(Oh, and in the original, the crash happened in the Sahara, and was filmed in California and Arizona. In the update, the crash happens in the Gobi Desert (Mongolia). Guess where it was filmed? Yeah, I said “the Sahara!” too. Actually, it was filmed in Namibia. Psych!)

Secondly, lest you think I’m a new member of the Ryan Reynolds Fangirl Club, I’ll have you know that I used to watch “Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place” many years ago. I wasn’t a faithful viewer, but I did like the show. I’d always lumped him in with Jason Lee and Ben Browder in the “Sarcastic, But Cute” category. (Of course, now I’m going to have to move Lee to the “Cute and Geeky” category, and rename the category “Sarcastic, Cute, and Ripped.”)

First things first – Ryan Reynolds? Smokin’. Just so you know. (Had he and Parker Posey – as a baddie – not been in the movie, it wouldn’t have been good at all. The two of them had some of the best lines/scenes in the movie.)

As it was, it wasn’t a terrible movie. There were some questionable plot holes, and Wesley Snipes basically phoned in his part. There wasn’t much sword fighting and/or martial arts, which is why I (eventually) liked the first Blade movie. (I thought it was dumb the first time I saw it in the theater, and then a year or so later, rented it and changed my mind.) There was more shooting in this one, although the archery aspect was pretty cool.

This time, I made sure I wrote down the previews:

• XXX (Triple X): State of the Union – as soon as I saw Willem Dafoe, I knew he was going to be the bad guy. The presence of Dafoe doesn’t always mean he’s going to be the baddie, but generally you can count on him to be up to no good if he’s in the movie. Otherwise, I have no interest in this one.
• Assault on Precinct 13 – ah, a remake. Not an Ethan Hawke fan. But I do admire John Leguizamo (he of the semi-unpronounceable last name), even though I always think of him as the Character Most Likely To Die Tragically (I don’t know why), and I admit to a weakness for Gabriel Byrnes.
• The Ring Two – umm… no. Too scary. Besides, is a sequel really necessary? (I haven’t seen the first one, and since I enjoy sleeping with the lights off, I don’t plan to either.)
• Constantine – I know it’s based on a comic book character, so I’m going to wait and see what the reviews are before I make any rash decisions to see this one.
• Darkness – it seems that this one was made almost three years, and is only being released now – not a good sign. Karen wants me to mention that she kept her eyes closed for the whole preview. I was digging through my purse looking for a pen and paper, so I missed most of this one. But it also looks scary.

So, basically, I won’t be seeing any of those movies.

The previews were long and slightly dull. Here’s what I thought (because I know you want to know what I was thinking) :

• Meet the Fockers – um, no. I’d rather not, thanks. Dustin Hoffman scares me a little. Also, De Niro looks past his “best before” date. Just sayin’.
• Hide and Seek – oh look – more De Niro, looking slightly less dried up. And – awww! Dakota Fanning is all Goth! She’s what – 10? Nice to see Hollywood is making the kids cynical and pessimistic earlier.
• The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou – I love Wes Anderson. His movies are quirky and weird, and often have the coolest soundtracks. I can’t wait for this one.
• Finding Neverland – I don’t remember this. (I called Karen and asked her what previews we saw, but I don’t remember seeing this preview. Also, she said to make sure that I mentioned that the previews were, like, half an hour long, and mostly car commercials*)

Additionally, I was floored – nay, shocked! – to discover that Karen’s a fan of the Blade movies. So we are most certainly going to see Blade: Trinity when it comes out. We did the Lame White Girl Posse knuckle-tap-thing to seal the plan. (It was at this point Kris and Lise began to question the wisdom of being seen in public with us.) I think we all agreed that Ocean’s Twelve looks like fun, the poster for the new Star Wars film is cool, and that Johnny Depp will be a very interesting Willy Wonka.

Afterwards, we retired to Tim Hortons, where Kris got scared by an extra-smiley chocolate chip smile cookie (it was seriously freaky).

(* For the Canadians – have you seen the new Bell commercial where the guy looses oranges down the stairs and two girls help him pick them up, and then he holds the subway door open for the old lady – the “pay it forward” concept commercial? From now on, start calling it the “pick up an orange, get a toy” commercial. ‘Cause, that’s what it comes down to, really.)

Brief update: finished The Englishman’s Boy – FINALLY! It was okay, in the end. I wouldn’t reread it, but I wouldn’t tell people not to read it. I liked the last chapter a lot more than the rest of the book, because it tied in to the first chapter, and then brought the whole story to a satisfactory, if unhappy, ending. We meet to discuss it on Tuesday.

I went to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on the IMAX screen at Science North yesterday, with a fellow Dal grad who moved to Sudbury in the summer, and a co-worker of hers. It turns out the co-worker has family in the same area where I’m originally from down south. At the end of the outing, I got invited to a Stitch n’ Bitch yet another co-worker of theirs is hosting. Looking forward to it – must start Christmas presents for my sisters, so this is as good an excuse as any to start.

As soon as I finished TEB last night, I started Going Postal. Utterly and completely brilliant! It has all the elements of a classic Pratchett novel – reluctant heroes! Highly intelligent tyrants! Fiendishly evil villains! Weird old guys! The Glom of Nit! (Hey – read the book yourself if you want to know what that is!)

Superman never made any money
For saving the world from solomon grundy
And sometimes I despair the world will never see
Another man like him
Crash Test Dummies, Superman’s Song

We were making pancakes yesterday morning, listening to the CBC, when we heard the sad news that Christopher Reeve had passed away.

He went from playing a superhero in the movies to being one in real life.