Amy's Movie (and TV) Blog

Further Proof That Americans Don't Vote the Way They Should

2008-07-28T16:20:00.000-07:00

I need to start this post by admitting that I did not vote last week for any contestant in SYTYCD (So You Think You Can Dance). If you want to make fun of me for watching this - go ahead. I love it, and will happily babble on to you about it if prompted. I know I shouldn't complain about the results of a vote I didn't participate in - but I'm going to anyway.

I just need to vent a moment about Will getting voted off last week. WTF? He clearly was the best male dancer on the show. CLEARLY. And probably the best dancer period. Will - you were robbed. If you were at my house right now I would apologize for not voting for you.

OK, I fell better.

The Dark Knight Doesn't Disappoint

2008-07-28T16:05:00.001-07:00

I hate going into movies with super-high expectations. Especially summer movies. I was already surprised this summer by how much fun I had watching IRON MAN. I just loved IRON MAN and really admire the makers for pulling off a highly entertaining super-hero movie. I don't think super-hero movies are easy to make, especially the first ones in a series when you have to tell the dreaded "origin" part of the story. So many times the second super-hero film is better because you can just dive right into the action.

But what about the Dark Knight. I was afraid the hype would overwhelm my movie-going experience. That I would be too sad about Heath Ledger to properly pay attention. That I would be too distracted by how hot Christian Bale is to properly pay attention. But, no. None of that happened. I was sad after seeing the film about Heath's death, but his performance is so all-encompassing I dare you to think about anything else but his character when he is on the screen. There is so much talk about a post-humous Oscar for Ledger's performance - I hope there would have been the same talk had he not died, because he really put 90 percent of the actors who have portrayed super-hero villains in past movies to shame.

He's scary, and mad, and frightening, and he scared me. I think this was the most disturbing PG-13 movie I have ever seen - and that's counting me being intensely freaked out as a young girl about the whole pulling the heart out of a living person in INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM. Christopher Nolan did a fantastic job of weaving together multiple storylines, moods, action sequences, and kept everything going at such a good pace I felt ready to see more, even after 2 and a half hours.

And Christian Bale, in addition to being fun to look at, does a great job of not being a super-hero. Because Batman isn't really a super-hero in the traditional sense. He's just a guy. A guy with Bat Gadgets and seemingly unlimited wealth, yes, but he's still just a man. Hopefully Bale and Nolan will be back for more in a few summers.

You Go Girl!

2008-07-10T15:52:00.000-07:00

I was very pleased several months ago to hear that one of my best friends (and certainly an awards winning movie friend) Jennie was writing about film for Suite101.com. You can read her profile and check out her articles here. She has an ongoing series of articles about the upcoming film Watchmen and some great women-who-kick-ass-centric stuff as well. Great reads which I highly recommend subscribing too. Great job Jennie!!

The Departed Take 2

2008-07-09T15:02:00.000-07:00

I was really excited to see The Departed when it originally came out. Unfortunately I never got around to seeing it in the theatre and when I saw it on DVD I was extremely distracted (long story, actually I can't remember why I was distracted but I remember BEING distracted). I didn't come away with any strong feelings for the film either way after that initial viewing and after just re-watching it on HBOHD (woohoo!) I now believe I wasn't even in the room for half of the film.

That is a really good movie. And I didn't remember half of it. I'm so pleased Scorsese got his Oscar for this film and not Gangs of New York or The Aviator. I liked both of those as well but believe The Departed is by far the superior film. Such a great cast, involving story, well-paced editing (not a shocker, the editing of his films is always impressive to me). It's like I discovered a lost film. It makes me wonder what other films I "watched" in the last 2 years of pregnant/newborn blearydom that I should re-watch now.

Tropic Thunder Silliness

2008-07-09T10:38:00.000-07:00

Thank you Cinematical for pointing me to this very funny mockumentary trailer for Tropic Thunder. These people really have too much time on their hands.

Movies I'm Looking Forward To

2008-07-08T16:23:00.000-07:00

Film - Alice in Wonderland
Why I Want to See It - Directed by Tim Burton
Releases . . . who knows, just heard a virtual unknown has been cast as Alice

Film - Avatar
Why I Want to See It - James Cameron has been talking about this for YEARS and I am giddy about the return of 3D to movie theaters
Releases . . . 2009

Film - Burn After Reading
Why I Want to See It - The Coen Brothers next film (George Clooney also helps)
Releases . . . Sept 12th, 2008 see the hysterical trailer here

Film - Australia
Why I Want to See It - Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman star in a historical epic directed by Baz Lurhmann. See the cheezy trailer here. OK, I'll admit I also want to see The Edge of Love which you can check out here.
Releases . . . Nov 14th 2008 for Australia, not sure for The Edge of Love

Film - Savage Grace and Blindness
Why I Want to See It - I love Julianne Moore so much I wasted several hours of my life watching The Forgotten and Freedomland. Sure Children of Men helped even the score, but she still owes me another good one.
Releases . . . Savage Grace had a limited release this May but was totally off my radar until I saw this trailer. Blindness opens Sept 19th, 2008, creepy trailer is here

Film - He's Just Not That Into You
Why I Want to See It - I thought I would be more excited about the remake of The Women coming out later this year but after seeing the trailer for this I'm giving it my chick-flick slot.
Releases . . . Feb 2009, check out the trailer

Film - Changeling
Why I Want to See It - Angelina Jolie sometimes makes me wish I was a lesbian, oh wait, that's why I want to see Wanted. This one was also directed by Clint Eastwood.
Releases . . . Oct 31, 2008

Film - W
Why I Want to See It - Oliver Stone takes on the Prez. I don't think it will be a good movie, but I still want to see it, if only to see Richard Dreyfuss play Dick Cheney.
Releases . . . Oct 17, 2008

These are but a few of the films I am looking forward to seeing. What are you looking forward to?

Baby TV

2008-07-08T08:27:00.000-07:00

One of the habits I would like to not pass on to my daughter is my somewhat extreme television watching. It's such a habit to enter a room and automatically turn on the TV - even if I have no intention of watching anything right away. But I then will usually get sucked in. To stop this habit I thought I would follow the advice of the AAP and not show TV to Saffron for the first 2 years of her life. I knew this was probably not going to happen but why not set your goals high?

The first roadblock to this challenge was defining what it really meant. Does this mean not having the TV on while she is in the room, even if she can't see it (she is known to contort herself in awkward positions to get a glimpse of the plasma) or does it just mean not putting on TV for the sole purpose of HAVING her watch it (Baby Einstein, Teletubbies, etc)

I have tried to not have the TV on at all which really is better for me as well. I get a lot more done if I am not constantly distracted by the TV. But I have chilled out about having, say, Wimbledon on in the background while she is playing on the floor. I can tell you right now that the kid is going to be very knowledgeable of the Olympics in a few weeks as well.

But I was still not crazy about the idea of setting her in front of the TV to watch "Baby TV". It just doesn't make sense to me that babies can learn anything from television shows until they can understand their surroundings a little bit more - which for me I think is older than 1 but younger than 2 - really it's like the Supreme Court trying to define pornography - I feel like I'll know the time when she can learn something from Sesame Street when I see it. And I haven't seen any signs of that yet. I'm sure for every kid/parent duo it is different.

But fast-forward to yesterday when Saffie was having a truly miserable day. There was crying, eye rubbing, yelling out from the crib, crying, whining, pouty lips, etc. The kid couldn't get to sleep. After trying everything I could think of to get her to relax I finally set her in a stroller beside my chair and put on a Lullaby Baby Einstein DVD which I had received as a gift. And there was the magic of TV. It soothed her, distracted her from whatever was bothering her, actually put her to sleep in about 20 minutes. Sure she only slept 45 minutes but she slept - and was much happier afterwards.

Good job Baby TV!

Miranda After All

2008-07-07T12:16:00.001-07:00

After seeing the Sex and the City movie (which was better than I had expected) I was reminded that in the Sex in the City universe I am a Miranda. I say this feeling wholeheartedly that Miranda is the least cool of the 4 Sex ladies, but there it is.

For me Carrie is too style over substance, Charlotte is too proper and naive, and Samantha is (let's face it) too whorish for me. Sure Miranda has her faults, but when she was a single, independent career woman in a big city - so was I. We did dumb things but at least we knew we were doing them (or pretended too after the fact), and tried not to repeat them. We both ended up leaving the big city we loved to get married with children and don't regret it for a second.

Ideally I would have seen this film with my LA girlfriends who really knew and know what it's like to be a single woman in a big city. Sorry, but if you were married or were with the person you married before you graduated college, you've never really been single in my book. It can get ugly being a lone wolf in a huge metropolis, but I wouldn't take back those years for anything - mostly because of the memories I have of hanging out with my girlfriends, swapping stories, cracking each other up, and being there for each other when there was no one to snuggle with at home.

Sex and the City the series was a great friend to the single girl and Sex and the City the movie was a nice reminder that while some of us ladies will always be single and loving it - it's ok to leave singledom and the city if that's where your happiness lies. If you'd like to know which one of the Sex and the City ladies you are most like take this quiz. According to this quiz I am 50% Miranda, 40% Charlotte, 10% Samantha, and 0% Carrie.

Maybe the Strike Wasn't All Bad

2008-07-07T11:39:00.000-07:00

I am not a fan of writer and actor strikes because the people who are sometimes harmed the most are the lowly production assistants and other hard working behind the scenes people who have no money in their bank accounts after about 3 days of unemployment (unless things have changed dramatically since my time in LA).

But when I saw this post about Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog from The Movie Blog and learned that this silly project may not have happened without some free time on Joss Whedon's hands during the last writer's strike I thought, ok, silver lining!

Depressing Double Feature

2008-07-07T11:14:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I was left alone to babysit (I guess it's not really babysitting when it's your own child, but that's beside the point) my snoozing daughter while my husband was chatting with his parents and sister down the street. This left me alone to watch movies - yeah!

I watched The Savages and Evening. I wanted to watch these film solely because of the casts (Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman for The Savages, and Claire Danes, Vanessa Redgrave, Toni Collette, Glenn Close, Meryl Streep, etc. for Evening). I knew enough about these films to know that Josh would not want to see them but that was about it.

Had I known that The Savages was about siblings taking care of their father in the last few months of his life and Evening was about siblings taking care of their mother in the last few days of her life (ok, fine it's really about the mother's memories of a past love, but her children are there) I would not have watched them back to back. How depressing.

They were both good in their own ways - Linney and Hoffman can do no wrong in my book. If you are a watcher of the Independent Film Channel I would recommend The Savages. If Lifetime Network is more your cup of tea then Evening has your number big time. And if you are a fan of both go rent them - but do yourself a favor and space them out!

Entertainment Weekly, You've Got My Number

2008-07-07T10:15:00.000-07:00

I look forward to getting Entertainment Weekly in the mail as much as I used to look forward to getting Premiere magazine back in the day. I clearly have some kind of psychic link with the writers as they tend to love so many of the same things that I love. In many cases I have become so annoyed at their incessant praise of a film or tv show that I never watched that I will seek it out. And they were right . . . it was damn good.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a good example. I was never interested in watching this even though my good friend Josie told me about a million times it was the best show ever. When I was pregnant last year and out of school I took the time to watch all 7 seasons of Buffy. My husband Josh watched them all as well (although most of his viewing time was on a plane). We both now agree with Josie and the writers of Entertainment Weekly that Buffy kicks some serious ass.

I always knew I would love Arrested Development but somehow missed watching it when it originally aired. Thanks to Entertainment Weekly I never forgot about the show and now whenever I see Charlize Theron I say to myself in a silly accent "Mista F!" and crack myself up.

The best advice (tv wise) from the writers of EW has been to give The Wire another chance. I remember when The Wire debuted the EW reviewer raved about the show but warned viewers they needed to watch at least 3 or 4 episodes to really get hooked. After that, you were hooked big time. I watched only 2 shows. What a mistake! I am now almost done with Season 3 and I have to say The Wire is one of the best television shows I have ever seen.

Thanks Entertainment Weekly - and a special shout out to Stephan King who has consistently suggested books that I have read and liked (many of which are not horror novels). For EW's list of Tv shows you should have watched over the last 25 years check this out.

Welcome!

2008-07-07T10:13:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to my film and tv blog. I decided I needed an outlet for all of my random media opinions, knowledge, rantings, etc. and so . . . here is my new blog! Let me know what you think.