And I love getting my kids in on the action. I often ask them while we're watching something where they've seen the leads actors before. It's fun to see whether they can put a voice to a name when we're watching an animated movie.
I don't expect to share anything new but perhaps it'll help someone out there or will start conversation. What I post is only my opinion. I don't confess to know anything about professional movie critiquing, but I'm just an average person who likes to watch movies and likes to have conversations with other people about them too.
Whenever I get out of a movie, I'm dying to talk about it with someone. I like feedback, I like to see what other people thought of what I just saw and compare notes.
So let's see what happens.
I might also talk about some of my favorite movie stars and my favorite movies I have in my collection and see what are other people's favorites. I'm not deep and philosophical but I love to see other people's talent and what they're trying to bring across the big screen. I love to be moved to tears, I love happy endings, it's necessary for the good guy to win at the end, I love justice, but I also love eccentric, quirky, subtitles, and sci-fi. I pay attention to details sometimes - I love to look at the background of room sets and see what's on the bookshelf or the wall. If I could be handed a movie set job, it would be set decorator or continuity director. Not to say these jobs are easy or the people who have them aren't brilliant already, but I think it would fun, which is probably showing how much I don't really understand about those jobs.
So there might be some chatting about different film genres, favorite movie sets or locations, wardrobe, and favorite movie lines.
But, I don't just see movies to see movies. I generally avoid MA+ rated movies ("R") in the theatres but I might rent one from time to time and keep my thumb on the fast-forward button of the remote. I avoid very violent, evil, or raunchy movies (which will tend to be MA+ anyway). I will read reviews on these sorts and ask people their opinion of the movie and most likely, will still not see them. I'm a very visual person so lonnnnngggg after a movie is over I will still see pictures in my head that I wished I wouldn't have seen. Sometimes just a movie short will do it for me. That's why I've never seen Pulp Fiction, Hannibal Lector, or Heath Ledger as the infamous Joker.
It's important to know our weaknesses and to avoid them at all costs. It's important to take care of our spirit and to watch what goes in so what comes out is good and encouraging. That's why I love happy endings, but I don't want to compromise to get to them. Even if Hannibal and the Joker get their just desserts at the end (which I don't know if they do since I've never see the films) I don't want to see their evil and mayhem first. But again that's me. I don't mind seeing an alien blown to oblivion by a tough, gun-toting chick, but I hate seeing guns held to human heads and having the trigger go off. I love seeing two people fall in love, but I don't want to see how Hollywood gets them to express it in the bedroom. And if a character even looks evil, I'll probably avoid the movie (hence not seeing Silence of the Lambs or Dark Knight, which says a lot for the makeup department!).
So for starters, what are your favorite sort of movies? Are there any you purposely avoid? If your name could appear anywhere in the credits, where would we see it? Let's talk movies, and don't forget the popcorn!
5 comments:
I ran across your blog by sheer accident tonight and I must say - well done! It's refreshing to "meet" someone else who loves to talk - in depth - about the movies they just saw. But I disagree with you on one point:
I dislike trying to pick the lead actors from previous movies I may have seen them in. My partner does that - often - (and so does my Mom, incidentally!) and I can get so frustrated because I just want to watch the film! When I watch a good movie I hate being interrupted with "oh - where was she from? Yes, she's from Scrubs!" At the end of the movie I enjoy reflecting on parts the actor has previously played - but while I'm watching it I prefer to see them as who they are trying to be, rather than who they were trying to be in previous films.
While I don't mind watching an MA movie, I am fairly sensitive to "sensitive subject" films. E.g. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. It's not just the holocaust subject, but the ending of the movie - I took a long time to just get over that. I kept repeating to myself: "the senselessness". So now I will often need to know what a film is about, including the ending, before I commit to spending 2 hours of my life absorbing sensitive subject matter.
I also tend to stay away from horror films. Although a few months ago my boyfriend and I spent a good evening watching the new Nightmare on Elm Street movie with the lights turned low and (yes, here's where you'll approve) popcorn. I was probably more in the mood to create the classic "boyfriend-girlfriend watching a scary movie moment" and burrow my head in his shoulder during scary moments rather than to actually watch a horror movie. I have tried to watch other horror movies, such as The Ring. But I didn't last. I also didn't have a shoulder to burrow my head in at the time either, so maybe that had something to do with it.
But as far as good movies go - I just watched The Help. I enjoyed it. But I enjoyed the book more (as most people do). Particularly when I discovered that the movie left out the critical ending to Abileen's life-after-house-cleaning career. I thought the characters were thoughtful, and the majority of the actors "looked" like I imagined the characters to look like while I was reading the book. With the exception of Skeeter. While Emma Stone quickly grew on me as Skeeter, I imagined someone less gorgeous, perhaps more of a rectangle figure than the lovely curvy one she has, and with more 'untameable' hair. Her hair was jealously perfect throughout the movie.
Well, I hope this is a decent start as a response to your new blog, and I'd love to hear your thoughts about The Help, Janine, if you have read it and seen the movie. Also, I'd like to know what books-to-movies are your favorites: which you thought turned out really well and which movies-from-books really failed and should NEVER have been made.
Also, do you enjoy your popcorn buttered? Or simply salted?
Cheers!
I have fond memories of you and I getting to the theater hours early to stand in line to get good seats - I also remember our "triple show" days - my goodness we spent a lot of time n theaters in our youth :) I'm glad you've started this blog!
oh, and regarding set location: It's quite interesting living in an area where a lot of films/tv/commercials are made, because I'm familiar with the area and it's interesting to see how they "fudge" locations - blending disparate areas to make them look adjacent, or making small changes.
One interesting example isn't here in california but in Massachusettes - there's a scene in "The Good Son" where the boys are running through a graveyard and they come to a well and look down the well. They camera shows the view looking down the deep well. The graveyard is actually in Marblehead and the well is indeed there, but the well has been filled in and used as a planter for many, many generations (in fact my stepfather's ashes are hidden there in that well). Many things filmed here in Orange County like to make everything appear as if it's right on the ocean, when most of the coastline is dotted with small bungalow cottages and restaurants/retail shops. Not a lot of high end dining and certainly not the gigantic mansions they like to show sitting right on the water. It's so funny to see my neighborhood reinvented so frequently.
I've also enjoyed seeing the oil derricks and catalina island (both located off of Long Beach, CA) appearing in the coastline shots of Miami in Dexter. Plus, a lot of california filmmakers seem to forget that the doesn't set over the ocean on the east coast - always good for a giggle!
California gets used for a lot of location shooting for other states - it's always amusing to catch sight of a familiar neighborhood or intersection or road when the action is supposed to be on the east coast.
Anyway - a few random thoughts on location shooting. I'm sure NY residents have many of the same stories.
Kimbob! Brubaker, Somewhere in Time, and...Terror Train? (1980!) was our triple show. A drama, romance, and scary movie. That was so fun and I often think of that when I go to the movies. And now as a conscientious adult I'm horrified to think we only bought one ticket for 3 movies! ha ha. And they still haven't come up with a better way to prevent that either!
I remember watching one of the Die Hards and seeing a chunk of a dead-end San Jose freeway being used and thought that was pretty exciting. And over here in Melbourne from time to time you can see bits and pieces of town in t.v. shows. I laughed when you commented about the sun going over the east coat ocean sunset...there aren't any kookaburras in the jungles where Tarzan lives either (but they do have that sort of jungly call)! Thanks for commenting - it's so fun to chat with you!
Britzy - Thanks for your comments! Your mom and partner sound like my kind of people! I probably drive my poor kids crazy when I'm asking them about where they saw the actor from...I'll keep that in mind when I see movies with my daughters.
I'm getting to be like you when I have to know the ending of a movie to see if it turns out alright. I rarely go into a movie without knowing what it's about. In fact, I don't think I ever have. I was very shocked and horrified at the ending of Boy with the Striped Pajamas, but it was such a good movie I tortured myself and watched it again, and then I tortured myself even more and read the book! BTW, I think I'll blog about books turning into movies...that's a good one.
And I'll be reviewing The Help soon, so stay tuned!
I like my popcorn slightly buttered, but give me a bag of kettle corn and I'm very happy! and I miss flavored popcorn - grape and cherry were my favs!
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