twincityhacker | Entries tagged with american films

I wasn't going to see Avatar. And then I had the oppertunity to see it for free in the movie theater because of a strange customer appreciation gift, so I went. My expectations were so low, the plot of the film managed to overtake them!

( I'll even have a cut for talking about the story. )

On the other hand, the film has some of the best world building I have ever seen. The director farmed out the language to an acutal linguist. The set designers and Sigourny Weaver went to talk to a bontonist to make sure they weren't fucking up the terminology. And the film was fucking gorgeous in 3D.

What's on your desk, right now?

A steno notepad holding notes of ~~my entire semester's academic life~~ notes on two projects for sociolinguistics and notes from "A History of the Peloponnese War." The first book in a series on the social history of the Welsh Language called The Welsh language before the Industrial Revolution covering the time period from the Act of Union in 1536 to, well, the Industrial Revolution, for a project in languages of the world.

And one blue gel-ink pen with a .07 point.

...

Some of the notes in the steno pad are over the use of language in the film BladeRunner that I just took a few minutes ago. On the movie merits, the first half was interesting, then there was a half-hour of fail chased by a twenty minute chase scene, returning to decenty for the last five minutes or so. On the language front, I took copious notes on the use of Japanese and Chinese, with a few guesses on what lanuage some looters were speeking.

I completely failed to notice that Gaff was the one I was supposed to be paying attention to, as he was the person speaking "cityspeak" which is a mash of French/Hungarian/German/Japanese/English. Actually, no, he spoke a mash of French/Hungarian/German in one scene and the rest of his dioluge was a name and two sentences in English. The mash was being translated by a Sushi chef to the audience as it's supposed to be a slang-talk.

Neither the linguist nor fangirl are amused.

Current Mood: irritated
Current Location: library

I watched Pride last night as part of a "diversity awareness" program. It's about an all black swim team from an outskirts of Philadelphia who manage to get really good really quickly and stay in school and keep their rec center.

It was also really predictable, and very corny. The plot was a bit like the Music Man, if Harold Hill wasn't a con-artist and was a inspirational sports movie dealing with race.

I did enjoy myself, as I was sitting behind two guys that also are cursed with having to do running commentary on films, and the actors and actresses were very, very pretty and the seventies fashions they chose for the film were quirky instead of just hideous. There was also free food.

We also came to the conclusion that if you know it's a sports movie, the more blacks or other minorities you have on the team, the more likely that they're going to win the game. Apparently, the only exception to this is "Hoosiers" were the all white people team wins against the all black people team. But then the producers stuck black people all over the place in effort to make Indiana appear less racist in the 1950s.

I continue to rec Torchwood like mad, with no success. I am now known as the "crazy British television fan." I'm going to try to rec "In & Out" to the person who is doing the diversity movie series. And only gets really corny in the last twenty minutes! ( for people who seen the film, the graduation scene. )

Current Mood: bitchy

Fandom Review of the Year!

My current favorite pairing: Jack/Everyone.

The Best fannish show aired this year: Captain Jack Harkness, Torchwood. I took time out of a Disney vacation to watch this, and was still a bit sniffly when I went to the Magic Kindgom for supper. I'm not sure how that ranks on "complete nerd" but I'm sure it's high on the list.

The Best fannish show seen this year: The Invasion, Doctor Who. Aliens! Subtext! Animation! Doctor/Jamie! Zoe in a sparkly catsuit!

The Worst fannish show aired this year: Heroes. The Wonder Twins, Claire's stalker boyfriend that's a weird combo of her biological and adoptive fathers... not enthused.

The Worst fannish show seen this year: Flip this House, with the batshit environmentalists that put in solar panels but not air conditioning.

Biggest fannish surprise of the year: Tin Man. It managed to reference the 1939 Wizard of Oz film and was barely contaminated by the suck!

Best new tv show aired this year: Flip this House.

Best new tv show seen this year: Countdown with Keith Olberman.

Fallen angel: I would say "Doctor Who" except this is the first time I've actually watched an entire season, so...

Best merchandise: Captain Jack action figure. Or the Torchwood novels.

Best tie-in: John Barrowman pimping his album EVERYWHERE. Strictly Come Dancing with special hip action! National Lottery with knowing grin! A Day With John Barrowman, complete with pink hair straighter, John telling us how he's going to chill on Saturday with chocolate cream cake and a lot of vodka tonics, and Scott quickly biting into his food so he doesn't have to talk! Backstage at a photo shoot where John complains about the price of hair products! The creation of the phase "John Barrowman is a teenage girl who uses cheep hair product and wields a mean straight iron!" Which I still need to put on a icon!

Best comic book series: Don't read comics. But my best fannish book was "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"

Best movie of 2007: Sicko. Or Shark Attack Three: Megaladon.

Current Mood: blah

I really watch to watch "Blue Hawaii" right now.

Current Mood: exanimate

First, I should preface this with the statement that my tolerance for gay jokes are low, low, low.

Right. How I said that "I Now Pronouce You Chuck and Larry" as terrible? It wasn't. It was just cringeworthy. The most frustrating thing was were I could see where a good film was in there, but it just wasn't dragged out into the light properly.

I still don't know why it was so important it was for me to see it, but I'm happy I did.

...Now, there has to be a slash re-telling of this sucker, right?

Current Mood: content

My grandmother just sent me a Danny Kayne film - The Inspector General. Which is apparently an adaptation from hell that would have people all up in arms if made now.

But, it's Danny Kaye, it's one of the ( fannon ) actors that Jack borrowed from. Or at least watched every single film that he ever made, and probably every stage show, like Carry Grant.

Though, really, Danny Kaye reminds me a bit of John Barrowman as well. = )

Current Mood: amused

I went to the free showing at the second run student theater, and they were showing "Casino Royale." The movie was still cheesy action-adventure goodness, and the movie was still tangled up in thoughts of Mary.

Other than that: shoot me before I fic again. Right now? Torchwood/Casino Royale. Bond wants information, Jack wants a shag. Except it has plot, or at the very least conspiracies.

Yesterday was pretty cool and there were quite a few luckey brakes, such as even though I was late to math, I got there just in time to recive the inclass quiz - and I could actually complete the quiz, would may be seen as even more fortunate.

Not much else happened - besides class - for the rest of the day until fencing, where I am going to the touney. I ordered my knickers too, and they ended up being cheeper than I thought. And I was making my way back from fencing, and I decied on a whim to go buy a ticket to see the Phantom of the Opera silent movie that was playing at the audiotorium. I thought I was going to go in late when this guy just randomly hands me a ticket for the balcony since I'm a student. Though I'm so glad I went, as there is no way that seeing the Phantom on a television can compare to seeing the film on a screen - especialy with live organist accompaniment.

Though the most exiciting thing about the film was the scene in color. Dear god, I see things in color all the time with sound to boot, but having the film in tinted black and white, and then suddenly color was amazing. Though I was a bit confused as The Phantom of the Opera is billed as a horror film, and it was more of a comedy/tragedy thing. Or at least, the 2006 audience found 1925 drama as hysterical. = )

Though, fast film fact: In the British verion of the film, one of the pieces that the Phantom plays on the organ is Bach's Fuge in D Minor. It's the first recorded time that music was paired with a mad organist.

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Bach - Fuge in D Minor

Snakes on a Plane. I went in with my $3.50 to see Samuel L. Jackson and lots of snakes. I ended up with all of that plus a fairly good movie. Except for the occasinal incidnece of gore that I could do without, but hey, I'm just not a fan of cinenamatic gore.

( spoliers )

But the most surpising thing about the film was that it had a fairly good score.

Though the tittle sequence with the guy on the bike just riding and ridding, I thought that I had acciedently walked into a remake of "Manos": The Hands of Fate, and thought that it would be dark soon, and then there would be no escape. Then I mentaly slapped myself and saw with releif that the credits was over.

And, I did look up what was playing at the Drive-In, which is located localy in Rockford. (When I say "local" I mean it's located 40 min. away.) The doubble bill was Snakes on a Plane and Clerks 2. I'm not sure whether I wanted to see Clerks 2 or not so I just went to the Jasper 8 instead.

Current Mood: geeky

And Lo! Twincityhacker ventured out of her Den of Doom to go see Monster House with Kat, as Kat had IMed her asking to come with. So verily I went and the movie was good.

Well, "good" meaning I snarked though the whole thing (quietly, as I am no Mike Nelson) and had her laughing thoughout the whole thing. 'Cause really, was I the only one thinking of "The Amazing Colassal Beast" when the house got all smashed up and was still chasing them? Especialy when it knocked over the telephone polls?