Setting: This morning, in the car. A CD of random iTunes purchases is playing.
Penny: Daddy? Is this song still about Alex?
Me: Well, the last one was sort of a silly joke about Alex. This one is sort of about you.
Penny: Why is this song about me?
Me: Well, because it's about a daddy and how much he loves his daughter.
Penny ::small pause::
Penny: Daddy, when can I get a diamond?
So... I apparently started this Netflix entry back in January, and then promptly forgot about it. I just now went to start a Netflix entry and found this one already half-begun, sitting in the Unpublished pile. So... typity type! Things I are getting from Netflix, and if I can remember, why!
Serpico (NF)
So, the first bunch of these movies, I've already watched, so you sort of get capsule reviews instead of me saying, "Gee, I sure hope this doesn't suck, and I can't remember why I put it in my queue."
Anyway, Serpico is a '70s cop movie starring a young (YOUNG!) Al Pacino, doing a great job as the clean cop on the NYPD, when everyone else is on the take. Based on a true story, I went around for a while afterwards saying, "My job really isn't that bad. Not at all." Hammer of perspective & such.
Lonesome Dove (2 discs) (NF)
Yes, I love Westerns and had never seen Lonesome Dove. It was fantastic, even if fabled nemesis Blue Duck had a bit of a gut.
Quills (NF)
A fairly enjoyable heavily fictionalized story about the Marquis de Sade's time in prison. I have a dilemma about this movie, because while I enjoyed it on initial viewing, I started Wikipediaing the various historical figures involved, and... I don't know. It just bothered me, the gentling and softening of Sade. If that's what the writer and directors felt they had to do to make a movie with the message they wanted, about the urge and need to create.. pick a different subject. Sometimes, villains are villains.
I know, it's a concept I've expressed before.
The Thief of Bagdad (1924) (NF)
A classic fantasy silent movie, starring Douglas Fairbanks as the thief who falls in love with the princess and needs to retrieve some fantastic treasures to win her hand in marriage, it's got a flying horse, and some really neat special effects for its time, and I made Penny watch it and it was so slow, I think it's going to be really tough to get her to watch....
The Thief of Bagdad (1940) (NF)
This here fantasy adventure won 3 Oscars, naturally techie ones. Visual Effects, Art Direction Color, and Cinematography Color, the story of the banished blind prince teaming with the thief to win the princess's hand in marriage... it's supposed to be fantastic. I hope I get to watch it soon, I've had it in house since March.
Sharpe 2: Sharpe's Eagle (NF)
Sharpe 3: Sharpe's Company (NF)
Sharpe 4: Sharpe's Enemy (NF)
Sharpe 5: Sharpe's Honour (NF)
Sharpe 6: Sharpe's Gold (NF)
Sharpe 7: Sharpe's Battle (NF)
Sharpe 8: Sharpe's Sword (NF)
If you think I'm going to individually comment on all these you're absolutely mental. The continuing adventures of Richard Sharpe in various British wars, Brian Cox leaves after the first two, and that's a shame because he was just fantastic as the "engineer" (spy) who maneuvers Sharpe around for Wellington's purposes.
The Chronicles of Riddick (NF)
CONAN IN SPACE! IT'S CONAN IN SPACE! Geez, if you didn't find this fun, what the hell do you like?
Second Sight: Series 1 (NF)
I have a fascination with origins. Where something came from, how it got started, what something was like when it started, that sort of thing. For whatever reason, I stuck this in my queue with the idea I could see what else Clive Owen had been up to around the time of Croupier, which I really liked.
The Indian Runner (NF)
No idea where this fascination with movies directed by Sean Penn comes from, but there hasn't been a clunker yet. This movie is more or less a movie version of the Springsteen song Highway Patrolman, which I've liked since first hearing Johnny Cash's cover of it, and then the original.
Really, you don't get pop songs that tell a real story, one beyond, "Gee, that girl sure is purty." That's been one thing that's attracted me to certain country artists lately, that story put in song form.
Infernal Affairs (NF)
Geez, no idea why this specific Taiwanese cop movie is in my queue over any fifty other Taiwanese cop movies. I'm sure I had a reason at some point. Looks like Netflix's recommendation system might just have worn me down, I don't know. Still, Tony Leung is pretty good. I have hopes. Not high ones, but still. Some.
The Wedding Singer (NF)
Adam Sandler, don't let me down here. I keep hearing this is fun movie (word to avoid: good), and the soundtrack is... generally received well by someone of my age bracket.
Yup. Getting old.
Sideways (NF)
Nominated for a bunch of awards, highly acclaimed at the time, blah blah, it's been out so long the backlash has arrived and I know people who generally revile it. I'm hoping for doesn't suck, again. I really like Paul Giamatti, so... there's reason for hope.
The Black Pirate (NF)
Why is this in my queue? Somebody explain this? Did I get on a mini-silent movie kick, with this and Thief of Bagdad? Ah, I see a review from someone so... I'm guessing that was it.
Okay, all done for a while. Back to silent running.
295 in queue, 6 in saved, last 5 are Let the Right One In, Jersey Girl, Taxi to the Dark Side, The Wild Geese, and The Wrestler.
Yes, I am looking forward to Coraline, thanks for asking. :-)
(no, this blog isn't going to suddenly become active again or anything. No worries.)
This is a Netflix entry, that I started at the end of December. Here it is, the beginning of March, and I've only watched one of the twenty discs that make up the next 20 list.
Suffice it to say, if I didn't have time to write this entry, I haven't had time to watch the movies, either. Things have been busy.
MORE...Part of the reason I quit World of Warcraft ... was also that the style of my play had become something I no longer enjoyed. There is a very mechanistic way to go about your business in WoW that is deeply counter to my nature. I like discovering my entertainment via an intuitive process, and it seemed to me that the game was essentially "about" running Molten Core over and over again to get a complete set of of numerically maximal lootz. I could see this point approaching, like the bright eye of an onrushing locomotive, and decided that I would rather slam my dick in a car door.
I'm not quitting... but that "the game begins at level 70" bullshit is just that.
Older than sin, and his beard could grow no whiter. He wanted to die.
The dwarfish natives of the Arctic caverns did not speak his language, but conversed in their own, twittering tongue, conducted incomprehensible rituals, when they were not actually working in the factories.
Once very year they forced him, sobbing & protesting, into Endless Night. During the journey he would stand near every child in the world, leave one of the dwarves’ invisible gifts by its bedside. The children slept, frozen into time.
He envied Prometheus and Loki, Sisyphus and Judas. His punishment was harsher.
Ho.
Ho.
Ho.
(written by Neil Gaiman, published in Smoke and Mirrors)
(Merry Christmas.)
Whoo, another Netflix entry! We'll see how many of these discs I can get through before January 1st. Again, most of these movies have been in my queue for forever.
MORE...
