Movie Time

It's Friday Night... I'm home alone.... and I've just watched a movie.  Gave me the idea to do a weekly movie recap of what I have watched.  Share the wealth for those who are looking for a good movie to watch.  Most of the movies I watch are Netflix Instant View.  If you don't have Netflix... well, I don't know what to tell you... 

This week has been an emotional roller coaster for me in real life.  So this week I tried to find movies that would not make me think too hard or cry too much.  And in the process I found my favorite characters of two of my already favorite actors.  I also took a walk down memory lane with an old favorite and learned that no matter how bad the preview makes it look, some movies aren't all that bad.

Read at your own risk and don't judge too hard when you see what I have been spending my time watching...

 

First up, a random walk down memory lane for me.  I am all about animated features.  Rock-A-Doodle was one of my favorites as a youngin.  I probably have not watched it in 12 years, so I was very happy when I saw it on Netflix.  Originally released in 1992, it's by the same people who did An American Tale and The Land Before Time (both all time favorites of mine - even though I will always cry like a baby during Fievel's song and when Littlefoot's mom dies).  It has that same classic animation feel to it that makes you curl up with a stuffed animal and appreciate the good things.  

Rock-A-Doodle is about a rooster named Chanticleer who's voice brings up the sun.  When it's discovered that the sun rises even without his call, he is shunned from home and makes it in the big city as The King.  It's pretty much the best Elvis impersonation I've ever seen.  The evil owl's have a plan to make it night all the time, until Edmund takes it upon himself with the help of some other animal characters to bring Chanticleer back.

This was just a nice happy movie for me.  The animation is classic and nostalgic.  The music is all Elvis inspired.  Definitely a great watch.

Easy A was surprisingly good.  Emma Stone is a new favorite of mine.  Her sarcastic delivery of lines makes me smile... probably cause it kind of reminds me of me...

It's (very) loosely based on The Scarlet Letter.  Olive accidentally starts a rumor regarding the loss of her virginity.  The trend catches on and before she knows it people are paying her (via gift cards) to say that they had been a notch added on her belt. 

The cast was just perfect, my favorite being Stanley Tucci cast as the father of Olive.  He had some of the funniest lines in the movie.  Amanda Bynes as the God obsessed antagonist trying to get Olive expelled, even if she was a little too fake tan orange.  It runs in the same family as Mean Girls and all in all a good teener movie to pass the time.

 

I hate to admit this one.  I am NOT a Nicolas Cage fan.  I laugh at the ridiculousness of just the previews of his movies.  When I found out they were making a movie based on the segment on Fantasia that is known the world over I was skeptical.  When I found out it stared Cage I flat out revolted against the movie.  When I saw the first movie still of him with that awful mop on his head I rolled my eyes and said Hell No!  Does no one remember the travesty that was Haunted Mansion???  Alas...  it was on Netflix.  So fine... I will try it out.

I was pleasantly surprised.  Yes, Cage delivers his lines with a little too much melodrama (even for someone playing a non aging wizard who was apprentice to Merlin).  Jay Baruchel provides the tweener comedic relief in his klutzy wizard in training apprentice.  The plot line is your typical Disney main stream...  Klutzy kid likes girl, klutzy kid finds out he is special or magic or whatever (always accompanied by a mentor), klutzy kid saves world, klutzy kid gets girl.  We've seen it all before.  Alfred Molina really made it as the antagonist sorcerer. The magic fight scenes are fun.  Car chases through New York while using magic to switch up the car you are in.  Creating a mirror portal that transports into a mirror world. 

It may have been because I had NO expectations whatsoever.  You could probably say I had below zero expectations even.  Maybe it's cause I was watching it late at night and not paying 100% attention.  Perhaps it's cause I didn't really spend any money on it.  Either way, I have to say it was not terrible.  And that is making me hate myself just a little bit.

Benny and Joon.  I will start this off by saying I am a HUGE Johnny Depp fan.  I love him in pretty much everything.  I had never seen this film... and it made me love him even more.  That being said, this may be the favorite role I have seen him in.  

Depp plays Sam, a quirky unwanted man who acts around like someone of the silent film era (it may be my obsession with Charlie Chaplin that made the character so appealing for me).  He is pushed onto Benny, who already has his hands full with his sister Joon who is mentally ill.  In all it's a love story, but also one of acceptance and joy.  Depp has a little scene where he is playing it up Buster Keaton style and it was so spot on.  That along with Chaplin's dinner roll dance made the whole thing well worth it.

Ah..... Charlie Chaplin...  I have been in love with him the last few months.  It might not be healthy, but I don't really care.   Now... imagine Robert Downey Jr in the role of Chaplin and you have yourself one of my new favorite movies. 

The movie goes into the behind the camera life of Chaplin.  Starting out with him as a child, slum living with a mother slowly going insane.  Shows his leap from stage actor to screen movie star.  Goes into his marriages and sordid affairs.  It's a great cast, including Kevin Kline as the great Douglas Fairbanks.  This movie is based on Chaplin's autobiography so I can only assume on how accurate it is.  The movie itself is set up as a flashback as Chaplin is talking over his book with an editor.

Watching this movie came on the coat tails of reading Sunnyside which revolves around several people's story, one of which being Chaplin at the time of the war and the issues he faced with not fighting.  It goes into that a bit in this movie.  It's just uncanny watching Downey Jr perform as Chaplin.  It just absolutely became and new favorite movie as well as my new favorite role of Downey Jr. 

Well my dears, that is all from me for now.  Time to snuggle down with the kitty, put on some Chaplin shorts, and fall asleep for a new day...

Living With and In Technology

I hate living in this technological age.  Everything is connected.  No matter what.  And, yes, I realize the idiocy of venting this on an internet blog... thank you very much.

Remember the good old days, when you got into an argument with someone and you could slam the phone down into the cradle with that satisfying sound.  The person on the other end of the line heard a slam and a click and a dial tone and KNEW you were pissed.  If you were really pissed, hell.... unplug the line.  This came in handy too when you were horribly depressed and just wanted to forget the world and imagine that the world had forgotten you. 

Now however, in the age of internet and smart phones, if you want to ignore someone, its a huge process that unless you are really SERIOUS about not talking to someone, it's just not worth it.  First off, on a cell phone, hanging up on someone in a rage, just doesn't have the same dramatic effect you got with a nice big receiver hitting it's cradle.  There are times that I will keep on talking thinking there is someone on the line listening, when in actual fact one or the others phones has simply cut off.  No noise, no warning... just sudden silence and the imposing feeling that you are talking to yourself.  I wonder how many times I have hung up on some one in a rage and they continued talking as if I was still there.  Not to mention the only way to stop someone from continuously calling your cell phone until you pick up is to turn the thing off... in which case...there goes my clock... And I don't know about your phone, but it takes about 30 minutes to turn my android back on so lord help you when you decide you are ready to talk to them again... or if there is a sudden emergency.

Speaking completely hypothetically, of course, lets say you are having a discussion that turns sour with someone on google, gmail, chat, talk, whatever...  In the midst of the conversation you grow tired of the circling of words and decide to sign off on the convo.  BYE!  Close the browser and have done with it.  Seconds or so later and <beep> your phone gives off it's tiny notification alert.  Looking at the screen...  the person you just left in a huff is responding to your chat, completely ignoring the send off you just sent now it's being automatically transfered to your phone.  What the what!?!  So now, unless you want to scramble through the settings of phone and chat and figure out how to un-sync the account without destroying the phone settings entirely for after you have had your little tantrum, you are stuck...  Are you mad enough to not answer the chat?  Cause you know that person isn't going to stop until you respond.  Or, worse yet, if you don't respond it will probably make things all the worse in the long run.  Do you respond and possibly further the words and hurt feelings...  or do you ignore and do just about the same thing. 

It's a god damn double edged sword is what that is...

FUKITOL

You know those days where you just want to laugh and cry and run around screaming all at the same time...

Let's just say my day started with a bang..... By being rear ended at 8am right across the street from my work.  I have this instinct of looking in my rear view mirror anytime I slow down or stop.  It stemmed from two rear end collisions in my life as well as a general lack of trust in the entire human population of planet earth.  So I am in the right hand lane to turn right with about 7 cars ahead of me stopped at a light that had JUST turned green.  I slow to a stop with plenty of room and look in my rear window just in time to see a guy in the left hand lane swerve into the right hand lane in front of the car behind me.  I had exactly enough time to think, "shit, that guy is goi....."  and WHAM!  Right in to the back of me.  Tires squealing, metal crunching, neck whip-lashing.  I pulled to the side of the street and he followed.  He was actually quite nice and forthcoming.  I wrote down EVERY bit of information I could derive from insurance, drivers license, and car registration.  And we went on our way.  I was so shaken... literally shaking.  I've been in accidents, but never as the driver in a one on one situation with my accidenter.  I had no idea what I was supposed to do.  Perhaps call the police.  Take pictures of the damage.  I don't know.  All these thoughts were going through my head and all I could think was... god damnit, I just want to get to work... 

I don't like that heart pounding, hand shaking feeling.  Not when it is in a non controlled instance.  Those feelings are fine when I am at Disneyland staring at the goat on Big Thunder.  But damnit all if I want that on a daily basis and unbeknownst to my.

Now I have to wait and see how the guy wants to handle things....  but I can feel my neck getting tighter... even through the Tylenol/Codine I just swallowed.........................

Soooo....

...weary.  I'm just tired.  I'm tired of life.  I wish against wishing that things would get better.  Things aren't necessarily BAD...  they just suck.  I'm sick of struggling in life.  I wish just once, something would go easy... or at least easier.  When I first started this blog, I was unemployed and lonely and depressed.  Now I am just tired and weary and stuck.  I fear writing in this blog because I don't want it to become a woe unto me place.  But I think I just want to write things down.  I'm determined to make it through and write more...  so from here on out... once a day, you are going to be privy to whatever is in my head.  Perhaps a book review (I just started a great book by Erik Larsson), maybe a gripe over my day, movie reviews, maybe even some random stream of consciousness writing.  Who knows.  Perhaps I should change the title to Grab Bag of Emotions... haha.  For now, this thought process came to late and I am super excited to watch Chaplin, so that is all for tonight.... more tomorrow... you lucky follower you...  o_O