300 (2006)

I thought, while watching this movie, the director must love Hero. Later I found out that cinematographer on this movie, Larry Fong, was also most wonderfully responsible for Hero. It also reminded me of Gladiator except that it was shorter. And because of Queen Gorgo (Lena Hedley).

The storyline is concentrated on one event, 300 hundred Spartans versus a horde of D&D monsters. Everything was spelled out so I wasn’t distracted from the content of the film. Guys hacking and slashing in not much clothes.

The Persian ‘god’ king sends his envoy to King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) of Sparta demanding submission. Spartans believe in strength and freedom above all else, and King Leo will not capitulate. Unfortunately, he’s caught within the strictures of custom from mustering the Spartan army.

He calls for volunteers.

SPOILERS

Shop Around the Corner (1940)

Two co-workers Alfred (James Stewart) and Klara (Margaret Sullavan) can barely be in each other’s presence without bantering or squabbling depending on your point of view. Alfred has more seniority at work than Klara, a point he uses to his advantage every chance he gets. They don’t realize that they are anonymously exchanging love letters. None of it makes a lot of sense but it is delightful.

I liked this version much better than the version You’ve Got Mail (1998). I think part of it was that James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan were younger and just starting out in their jobs and their romantic lives. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan were running their businesses and they seemed too experienced to get caught by their own misconceptions. I believed that Stewart and Sullavan could be determined than their initial judgments of each other were correct.

Plus, Ernst Lubitsch directed it and I loved Heaven Can Wait (1943).

Category Romance Parody

This is a contest for a category romance parody that I found on Dionne Galace’s blog. It’s called The Unfeasibly Tall Greek Billionaire’s Blackmailed Martyr-Complex Secretary Mistress Bride. Tumperkin is the hosting on her blog, Is It Romance?” There are three chapters so far with a different authors signed up for each of the six chapters.

All three chapters had me grinning, and if you’ve ever read a category, you’ll doubly appreciate it.

Here are some of the pertinent rules given by Tumperkin:

Each chapter must contain a minimum of three elements from the title. For example, chapter 1 establishes *unfeasibly tall*, *Greek billionaire*, *martyr-complex* and *secretary*.

You get one point for every time:

- Molly indulges her martyr complex
- Nico mentions his belief that Molly’s a whore
- Nico cuts Molly off mid-sentence
- You make a reference to the global hummus industry

6. You get ten points for every time you use one of the following phrases

- To her consternation, Molly’s nipples hardened

- What was the point? Nico never believed her!
- He came, roaring his pleasure.

Oh, here is the cover:

P.S. Be warned that, while reading the chapters, your nipples may harden. Please do not allow your consternation to stop you from finishing it.

Jumpin’ Jack Flash/Pride & Prejudice

Jumpin’ Jack Flash (1986) – According to reviews, this is bad movie. They’re right.

Goldberg stars as Terry Dolittle who works in a bank in New York handling international currency exchanges. She is a somewhat lonely, free spirit who wears childlike outfits with amazingly bright sneakers and covers her desk at work with toys. A man calling himself Jack (Jonathan Pryce) contacts her through the computer and asks for help because he’s trapped behind the Iron Curtain.

According to Wikipedia.org, it is the first film to feature online communication. It was also Penny Marshall’s first film. This was Whoopi Goldberg’s first film after her performance in The Color Purple

The main problem is that the pacing is slow and the comic parts aren’t very funny. Please highlight: I was shocked that Terry didn’t ask Jack for I.D., she just accepted that he was who he said he was viz: spy and good guy. More: Also, too bad there were no kisses for this interracial couple.

---

Pride & Prejudice (2003) – Modern P+P set in Utah. Maybe if I hadn’t been reading Flirting with Pride and Prejudice and been reminded of how much I adore this book, the movie wouldn’t have seemed so crappy.

Elizabeth Bennet (Kam Heskin) is single college woman with four wacky best girlfriends and a history of poor dates. Her dream is to write a novel but she must contend with being wooed by a raffish Jack Wickam, dullard Collins and being irritated by book publisher Will Darcy (Orlando Seale). No points for guessing anything that happens. Well, the fact that it’s a satire on dating within the Church of Latter Saints surprised me. Apparently, some parts were cut that introduced this part so it seems a little weird.

Elizabeth, (channeling B. Jones?), knocks over, drops and trips over everything. She jogs a lot in the movie and I kept expecting her to have skinned knees.

Sugoicon 2007 cosplay

These are from way back in November 2007. I didn’t take the pictures and had to get them sent to me. I don’t know who some of these characters are. Let me know if you do. The Neo Queen Serenity lady was very sweet to us.

Neo Queen Serenity

cool dude

Ranma 1/2

Ranma and Shampoo

Helsing

Ninja at rest

warrior

costume dramas

The inability to analyze is still with me. So, I rented a few movies, locally and online. I felt in the need of something pleasant.

I watched this one for an assignment last week actually:
Jumpin’ Jack Flash (1986) – it’s a bad movie but it was still an interesting look back at how Goldberg, computers and women were portrayed.

Pride & Prejudice (2003) – Modern P+P set in Utah. I have thoroughly disliked this movie for the first hour and a half. But things have picked up a bit in the last half hour. The actors are all good.

Sapphire and Steel (1979) a SF TV show from the U.K. Some kind of time-traveling detectives? People have raved about this, so I’m giving it a try.

Satya (1998) Indian musical about a gangster. I picked it it up because I recognized the name but I’m fairly sure it’s not a feel good movie. A few of the songs I sampled looked like fun.

Scarlet Pimpernel (1999) I’ve not seen this version. The costumes look great. I thought I’d try though my heart belongs to the 1982 one with Ian McKellen.

The Moonstone (1996) Based on Wilkie Collins’ mystery. The beginning seems promising.

Oh, and, well, I was embarrassed to admit it but I got High School Musical too. I think it has dancing in it.

daffy-down-dilly

Image via Wikipedia

I’m feeling a little pressured lately but not so much that I haven’t been enjoying the daffodils in the last week or so. This nursery rhyme comes from a collection of short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne (which I never knew before). Yeah for Spring!

Daffy-down-Dilly

Has come to town

With a yellow petticoat

And a pretty green gown

Soap Operas Worldwide

Written by Marilyn J. Matelski. It’s very readable and covers quite a few countries. The social overview and the types of soap operas are described. Then the countries are covered and series are described in greater detail. Included is an appendix with a brief description.

Australia has some of the most popular soap operas. USA has a number of popular soap operas, and distribute the most glamorous ones to other countries. South America has had the most influential ones that set the conventions for most other counties.

What surprised me is how often the soap opera is used as “social marketing” for health and economic practices that the government wishes to encourage. It’s like a fictionalized public service announcement. The soap operas also included plugs for various political races. Although nothing was mentioned about such tactics in USA soap operas, it made me wonder.

I wish I could watch some of them. I once saw an episode of Coronation Street (in the 1980s) in Canada.

The author briefly mentioned Internet soaps but I’ve never been able to get into them. If anyone knows a good one, please let me know.

Snow Men and Skeletons

The Rut by Phil Selby with an amorous snowy couple (I’m not sure if it’s work-safe). For some reason I’m reminded of the time Homer Simpson got the snowplow.

See Mike Draw by Mike Jacobsen with a woman reminiscing about her late husband.

Oh, and check out their competition site Pencils at Dawn.

The Lake House (2006)

A time-slip love story….

I had this movie laying by my TV for several weeks before watching it. Most of the reviews I had read dismissed it, and I was reluctant to watch something lackluster. On the other hand, I like Bullock and Keanu and romances. It was better than I thought: I enjoyed it.

The story is of a man named Alex (Keanu Reeves) and a woman named Kate (Sandra Bullock) who correspond via letters, except that he’s writing from two years in the past.  It’s based on a movie called Il Mare (2000).

He is an architect and she is a doctor. There is female dog named Jack. And there is a glass house on stilts over a lake. Those are all the important characters.

There are a number of twists both in time and in plot They don’t make sense but that’s to be expected in ‘time travel’ movies.

I was trying to think what people might object to. Keanu is not known for his expansive performances but in this movie, he seemed quite at ease and natural.

Another sticking point may have been that the movie is rather low key. Nothing blows up, nobody gets food lobbed at their body, and no sex.

It is engaging and, in places, sexy. I liked the characters and believed that they were real people with little effort. I was moved by the conclusion, a bit more than I would have expected.

Also, Alex and Kate convinced me that they really, really liked each other. And what more can you ask of a romance?