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Movie and other media reviews
We have watched a lot of movies and the suchlike over the holidays. May I recommend to you:
Skyfall
I have never read any of the Bond books, and I absolutely despise the old movies with Moore, Connery, and Dalton. I would rather trim my husband's nose hairs than be forced to watch those. I did enjoy the reboot withRemingston Steele Pierce Broson, but I love Daniel Craig's take on Bond, especially in this latest movie (we somehow missed seeing the second one). I like the humor in the movie (as I remember it from my single watching in the theater years ago, the first Craig Bond movie, while good, was heavy on the trauma and the drama and very light on the humor), and I also like the little wink-wink at the fourth wall. This movie is nowhere near as campy or fourth wall breaky as Live Free or Die Hard, but Skyfall reminds me of it just a bit in the way that the film is clearly reveling in Bond being badass in a way I don't remember it doing in the first film. Q is adorbs, Javier Bardem is the best villain ever, and I deeply enjoy that this movie is pretty much all about M and features Judi Dench heavily. My only real quibbles are that Bond seems to stand around and watch people get killed a whole bunch rather than trying to save them. I also thought the way his parents died must have been this Thing--like they were slaughtered by terrorists or something or held hostage and tortured in front of Bond when he was a child--but wikipedia tells me that died in a mountain climbing accident. Which, okay. Losing your parents as a child is traumatic, but doesn't explain the significance their deaths and the ancestral home takes in the narrative of the film.
The Last Lovecraft
What a gloriously ridiculous movie. I love it. It clocks in at under a hour and a half so it's a perfect movie for a weeknight. The movie incorporates comics and other drawn elements in a really cool way, and the humor is super fun. I need to check and see if this is a Yuletide fandom because if not, it needs to be. The basic premise is that this dude finds out he's the heir of Lovecraft and responsible for keeping Cthulhu from waking. He is not pleased with the mission.
I Sell the Dead
Another short movie, this one follows the grave robbing exploits of a Victorian con man and his apprentice (Dominic Monaghan) as the apprentice narrates their misdeeds to a priest (Ron Perlman) on the eve of his execution. Incredibly funny and one of those movies where you just know everybody was having such a damn good time making it. Another Yuletide hopeful.
Iron Chef Redemption
My girl Alex is the next Iron Chef! Whoooooo! I would have been just as pleased for Amanda Freitag to earn the honor, so I was thrilled it came down to a battle between them both. Also stoked that Alex won her first battle as Iron Chef against the chef who kicked her off her first run at the title. My one quibble with the Iron Chef franchise is the way it's judged. I sometimes feel like the Iron Chefs win because they are the Iron Chefs and that if the judges tasted blind, the results might be different.
Skyfall
I have never read any of the Bond books, and I absolutely despise the old movies with Moore, Connery, and Dalton. I would rather trim my husband's nose hairs than be forced to watch those. I did enjoy the reboot with
The Last Lovecraft
What a gloriously ridiculous movie. I love it. It clocks in at under a hour and a half so it's a perfect movie for a weeknight. The movie incorporates comics and other drawn elements in a really cool way, and the humor is super fun. I need to check and see if this is a Yuletide fandom because if not, it needs to be. The basic premise is that this dude finds out he's the heir of Lovecraft and responsible for keeping Cthulhu from waking. He is not pleased with the mission.
I Sell the Dead
Another short movie, this one follows the grave robbing exploits of a Victorian con man and his apprentice (Dominic Monaghan) as the apprentice narrates their misdeeds to a priest (Ron Perlman) on the eve of his execution. Incredibly funny and one of those movies where you just know everybody was having such a damn good time making it. Another Yuletide hopeful.
Iron Chef Redemption
My girl Alex is the next Iron Chef! Whoooooo! I would have been just as pleased for Amanda Freitag to earn the honor, so I was thrilled it came down to a battle between them both. Also stoked that Alex won her first battle as Iron Chef against the chef who kicked her off her first run at the title. My one quibble with the Iron Chef franchise is the way it's judged. I sometimes feel like the Iron Chefs win because they are the Iron Chefs and that if the judges tasted blind, the results might be different.