Viewing Diary
1. Pan's Labyrinth
J.G. was really hyped about seeing it, and ended up reading spoilers about it beforehand, but I was just kind of along for the ride, so I didn't read many reviews and just kind of went in with an open mind. A guy I work with warned me that it was way more gory than he'd expected, but I'm not squeamish at all, so that didn't bother me. I swear that at one point I actually thought "alright, a bonesaw!!!" and had to restrain myself from saying it out loud. I like how it kind of took the whole childlike fantasy world Narnia-type movie and just made it a lot more bleak and violent and steeped in history. The visuals were really vivid and looked handmade instead of slick and computerized, which I always like. Reminded me a little of early Peter Jackson stuff.
2. Walkentalk
I do a pretty good Christoper Walken impression, not quite up there with the greats (Kevin Pollak, Jay Mohr, and Kevin Spacey), but not bad, and barely a week goes by that J.G. doesn't demand that I say something in Walkenglish. So I was curious when I saw there was a short film on Youtube all about the fine art of doing the Walken voice. Not as funny as I'd hoped, and the main guy's Walken could've been better, but the other guys at the end are pretty good at it, and they dug up some really good quotes from Walken movies to integrate into the dialogue.
3. Pumping Iron
My friend Mike, who is both a film buff and a Arnold Schwarzenegger superfan, has always raved about this film to me, a documentary about bodybuilding from Arnold's Mr. Olympia years, and is fond of quoting Arnold's speech about how weight lifting feels like "coming day and night." But I never got around to seeing it until one of J.G.'s co-workers, also a fan of the movie, lent it to her. And, man, it really is something. I mean, I've always thought bodybuilders were creepy as hell, but shaggy 70's haircuts really just make it even creepier. Really fascinating documentary, though, and the special features on the DVD were great, especially the making-of featurette and the present-day interviews with Governor Schwarzenegger.
4. "The Venture Bros."
Probably the best birthday present I got this year was the first season of this on DVD, which J.G. gave me just a week after I put it on my list of favorite TV shows of 2006. I've never gotten to watch it as much as I'd like to, mainly because Adult Swim on plays it at like 1am on Sundays unless there are new episodes, which is harder to stay up for now that I have a 9-5, so there were a ton of episodes on here that I hadn't seen at all before. And Season 2 is out on DVD in April, so I might have to get that as soon as it comes out. Some of the special features are pretty entertaining, some of them, like the fake behind the scenes interviews of the non-existant live action movie version, which consists of the creators dressing up like characters and doing the voices, are kind of indulgent and boring. The commentary is pretty interesting, though. And Patrick Warburton as Brock might be a funnier exaggeration of comic book masculinity than the entirity of Sin City.
5. Sugar & Spice
I'd always assumed this was terrible, but J.G. was watching it one day and it was pretty funny, in that chatty, farcical teen movie way, more Clueless than, I don't know, American Pie or whatever.
6. Man of the House
Yet another post-Bring It On cheerleader comedy that was way better than the trailers made it look, especially since the ads drew largely on the two scenes where Cedric The Entertainer danced around and acted a fool. Seriously, dude got second billing for maybe 10 minutes of screentime, which felt very shoehorned in, probably at the behest of the studio wanting more comic relief. Which was kind of unnecessary, because Tommy Lee Jones is great at deadpan comedy when he wants to be (although sometimes he was so restrained with his facial movements that he kind of looked like a stroke victim). But it was a nice trifle to waste a Sunday afternoon on, and kind of earned my respect when I'd really just tuned in to see Monica Keena and Christina Milian in spandex.
J.G. was really hyped about seeing it, and ended up reading spoilers about it beforehand, but I was just kind of along for the ride, so I didn't read many reviews and just kind of went in with an open mind. A guy I work with warned me that it was way more gory than he'd expected, but I'm not squeamish at all, so that didn't bother me. I swear that at one point I actually thought "alright, a bonesaw!!!" and had to restrain myself from saying it out loud. I like how it kind of took the whole childlike fantasy world Narnia-type movie and just made it a lot more bleak and violent and steeped in history. The visuals were really vivid and looked handmade instead of slick and computerized, which I always like. Reminded me a little of early Peter Jackson stuff.
2. Walkentalk
I do a pretty good Christoper Walken impression, not quite up there with the greats (Kevin Pollak, Jay Mohr, and Kevin Spacey), but not bad, and barely a week goes by that J.G. doesn't demand that I say something in Walkenglish. So I was curious when I saw there was a short film on Youtube all about the fine art of doing the Walken voice. Not as funny as I'd hoped, and the main guy's Walken could've been better, but the other guys at the end are pretty good at it, and they dug up some really good quotes from Walken movies to integrate into the dialogue.
3. Pumping Iron
My friend Mike, who is both a film buff and a Arnold Schwarzenegger superfan, has always raved about this film to me, a documentary about bodybuilding from Arnold's Mr. Olympia years, and is fond of quoting Arnold's speech about how weight lifting feels like "coming day and night." But I never got around to seeing it until one of J.G.'s co-workers, also a fan of the movie, lent it to her. And, man, it really is something. I mean, I've always thought bodybuilders were creepy as hell, but shaggy 70's haircuts really just make it even creepier. Really fascinating documentary, though, and the special features on the DVD were great, especially the making-of featurette and the present-day interviews with Governor Schwarzenegger.
4. "The Venture Bros."
Probably the best birthday present I got this year was the first season of this on DVD, which J.G. gave me just a week after I put it on my list of favorite TV shows of 2006. I've never gotten to watch it as much as I'd like to, mainly because Adult Swim on plays it at like 1am on Sundays unless there are new episodes, which is harder to stay up for now that I have a 9-5, so there were a ton of episodes on here that I hadn't seen at all before. And Season 2 is out on DVD in April, so I might have to get that as soon as it comes out. Some of the special features are pretty entertaining, some of them, like the fake behind the scenes interviews of the non-existant live action movie version, which consists of the creators dressing up like characters and doing the voices, are kind of indulgent and boring. The commentary is pretty interesting, though. And Patrick Warburton as Brock might be a funnier exaggeration of comic book masculinity than the entirity of Sin City.
5. Sugar & Spice
I'd always assumed this was terrible, but J.G. was watching it one day and it was pretty funny, in that chatty, farcical teen movie way, more Clueless than, I don't know, American Pie or whatever.
6. Man of the House
Yet another post-Bring It On cheerleader comedy that was way better than the trailers made it look, especially since the ads drew largely on the two scenes where Cedric The Entertainer danced around and acted a fool. Seriously, dude got second billing for maybe 10 minutes of screentime, which felt very shoehorned in, probably at the behest of the studio wanting more comic relief. Which was kind of unnecessary, because Tommy Lee Jones is great at deadpan comedy when he wants to be (although sometimes he was so restrained with his facial movements that he kind of looked like a stroke victim). But it was a nice trifle to waste a Sunday afternoon on, and kind of earned my respect when I'd really just tuned in to see Monica Keena and Christina Milian in spandex.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, February 01, 2007 at 1:43 PM.
You can skip to the end and leave a response.
Post a Comment