Netflix Diary
Man, I went back and checked the last time I did this, it's been like 9 months. In fact, since we got Netflix last year, we've rented less than 40 discs, which is probably partly because we've been following a lot of prime time shows this past season. Hopefully for the rest of the summer we'll start to take advantage of it more.
Super Size Me
Finally saw this after hearing about it forever, and I have to say, it was kinda better than I thought it would be. I don't really feel like I learned anything I didn't already know, but it was entertaining and well put together. J.G. expected it to put her off fast food forever, but I knew better, and I swear, I went to McDonald's 3 times in the week after seeing this. In my defense, it was mainly because I had coupons, not just a contrarian move.
Saved!
I guess this came out around the same time as Mean Girls, but they seemed really samilar to me in a lot of ways, same kind of plot taking place in very different schools and social circles. Eva Amurri is so hot in this. The movie took place in Maryland but I think the filmed it all in Vancouver or somewhere like that. I think I was fooled while watching it, though, since suburban MD looks more or less like suburban everywhere else.
Resevoir Dogs/Pulp Fiction
J.G. had never seen either, or really any Tarantino besides Kill Bill (which is one of those things that makes me slightly aghast at our 'generation gap,' even though I'm less than 2 years older than her), so we got both of these at the same time and watched them in a row a while back as a little mini-marathon. I'd only seen RD a couple times before and I've kinda decided I don't like it that much all in all, aside from a few great scenes. Pulp Fiction, on the other hand, I saw maybe 3 times in the theatre just in its initial run, when I was like 12 or 13, and it's aged pretty well for me, despite influencing the past decade of shitty crime movies with overlapping, non-sequential storylines about hitmen who make witty pop culture references and so on and so on.
Sunshine
I can respect the ambition of a historical epic like this, but it felt kind of tedious. The idea of having Ralph Fiennes play the men of 3 different generations of the same family was novel, but ultimately he played all 3 characters the same with slightly different facial hair for each one. And each one had a tiresome love affair subplot that seemed to suggest that noone in this family can fall in love with someone who wasn't married to someone else or related to them or something else complicated and tragic.
Showgirls
J.G. decided to rent this because one cable channel kept playing a heavily edited version, and she figured if she was going to watch it she should see it in its full NC-17 glory. I think she expected it to actual justify its misguided 'cult classic' status, though, but it was about as boring as I expected it to be, the occasional entertainingly over-the-top scene among what was otherwise no shittier than your average mainstream rated R flick.
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
I'd seen this already but J.G. decided to rent it, and then we had the disc in our apartment for approximately a month and she never watched it. I don't really know why, she always talks about needing to be in the mood to watch certain kinds of movies, I guess it's kind of heavy at times but I don't really understand that. At the time, it was playing on HBO a lot, so she rationalized putting the disc back in the mail without watching it by saying she'd catch it on cable, but I don't think she ever did. I was actually channel surfing recently and ended up watching it for a little while, and caught the most intense and hardest to watch parts, so maybe I see where she was coming from. I think I'd like this movie a lot more if they cut out all the shit with actors I don't like (Kirsten Dunst, David Cross, Mark Ruffalo) and their uninteresting subplots, even if that stuff is somehow important to the overall movie.
Super Size Me
Finally saw this after hearing about it forever, and I have to say, it was kinda better than I thought it would be. I don't really feel like I learned anything I didn't already know, but it was entertaining and well put together. J.G. expected it to put her off fast food forever, but I knew better, and I swear, I went to McDonald's 3 times in the week after seeing this. In my defense, it was mainly because I had coupons, not just a contrarian move.
Saved!
I guess this came out around the same time as Mean Girls, but they seemed really samilar to me in a lot of ways, same kind of plot taking place in very different schools and social circles. Eva Amurri is so hot in this. The movie took place in Maryland but I think the filmed it all in Vancouver or somewhere like that. I think I was fooled while watching it, though, since suburban MD looks more or less like suburban everywhere else.
Resevoir Dogs/Pulp Fiction
J.G. had never seen either, or really any Tarantino besides Kill Bill (which is one of those things that makes me slightly aghast at our 'generation gap,' even though I'm less than 2 years older than her), so we got both of these at the same time and watched them in a row a while back as a little mini-marathon. I'd only seen RD a couple times before and I've kinda decided I don't like it that much all in all, aside from a few great scenes. Pulp Fiction, on the other hand, I saw maybe 3 times in the theatre just in its initial run, when I was like 12 or 13, and it's aged pretty well for me, despite influencing the past decade of shitty crime movies with overlapping, non-sequential storylines about hitmen who make witty pop culture references and so on and so on.
Sunshine
I can respect the ambition of a historical epic like this, but it felt kind of tedious. The idea of having Ralph Fiennes play the men of 3 different generations of the same family was novel, but ultimately he played all 3 characters the same with slightly different facial hair for each one. And each one had a tiresome love affair subplot that seemed to suggest that noone in this family can fall in love with someone who wasn't married to someone else or related to them or something else complicated and tragic.
Showgirls
J.G. decided to rent this because one cable channel kept playing a heavily edited version, and she figured if she was going to watch it she should see it in its full NC-17 glory. I think she expected it to actual justify its misguided 'cult classic' status, though, but it was about as boring as I expected it to be, the occasional entertainingly over-the-top scene among what was otherwise no shittier than your average mainstream rated R flick.
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
I'd seen this already but J.G. decided to rent it, and then we had the disc in our apartment for approximately a month and she never watched it. I don't really know why, she always talks about needing to be in the mood to watch certain kinds of movies, I guess it's kind of heavy at times but I don't really understand that. At the time, it was playing on HBO a lot, so she rationalized putting the disc back in the mail without watching it by saying she'd catch it on cable, but I don't think she ever did. I was actually channel surfing recently and ended up watching it for a little while, and caught the most intense and hardest to watch parts, so maybe I see where she was coming from. I think I'd like this movie a lot more if they cut out all the shit with actors I don't like (Kirsten Dunst, David Cross, Mark Ruffalo) and their uninteresting subplots, even if that stuff is somehow important to the overall movie.
This entry was posted
on Saturday, July 15, 2006 at 5:00 PM.
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Yeah, that was pretty funny when Ruffalo is boucing on the bed in his white skivvies.
As far as showgirls goes: If you are ever in NYC, check out the Upright Citizen's Brigrade and see "SHOWGIRLS: The Best Movie Ever Made. Ever."
You'll laugh AND pee in your pants. -Mat