i · seem · to · watch · a · lot · of · movies

I've been watching movies again for a good long while, but never seem to remember to log in here while they're fresh in my memory. I'd like to remedy that, but make no promises. Here's the cream of the recent crop of my hours spent in front of the screen:

"Ghost Town" (2008)
Starring Ricky Gervais, this turned out to be a charming movie about a man who dies, is revived, and afterwards is able to see ghosts (but really, really doesn't want to). His character is a total social outcast, someone who doesn't care about others, but his new life changes him. He falls in love, he becomes a feeling human being, and watching that makes this movie magical. It's a comedy, and he is truly funny, but it's the transformation that makes this movie memorable.

"Please Be Kind Rewind" (2008)
Starring Jack Black and Mos Def, this little film is packed with unexpected imagination and cheer. Plus, their versions of blockbuster films are hilarious.

"Priceless" (2006)
Starring Audrey Tautou, who I loved in "Amélie", this romantic comedy has mistaken identity, a man determined to do anything to be with the woman he loves (including becoming a boy toy), actual romance, and even a little revenge. I love how Irène (Tautou) takes Jean (played by Gad Elmaleh) under her wing and teaches him how to be a better concubine (er...what's the male equivilant? Gigolo?).

Hmmm...wonder what I'll watch tonight?

Been working my way through this volume -- watched episode #15 last night. And OH MAN! it is good! Last night's episode ended with Soo-jin threatening to commit suicide if Hyun-woo leaves her. Of course, he already broke up with her, returning to his True Love Eun-soo (even though he doesn't remember the time during his amnesia, when they fell in love for the first time and were engaged. He just fell in love with her again, you see ♥), but Soo-jin just can't let go.

Will Soo-jin take the pills? Will Hyun-woo make it out to the inn where he originally fell in love with Eun-soo, in order to re-propose to her? Will being at the inn trigger a re-awakening of his lost memories? Will these questions be answered, only to reveal further plot twists? *grin*

I resisted it for as long as I could, but the undeniable urge to watch Korean TV dramas was...well...undeniable.

I check them out of my library, and so because of the way they came in, I started this one with episode 10. I'll back-track easily -- Korean dramas lend themselves to flashbacks anyway.

Here's the set-up of tonight's new indulgence: Hyun-woo is the reluctant future successor of his father's chemical company and is engaged to be married to the beautiful Soo-jin. Eun-soo lives a simple life, running a bed-and-breakfast with her elderly father. Their two lives collide one fateful night when Hyun-woo loses his memory in a car accident and is taken in by Eun-soo and her father. Over time, love blossoms between them, but what will happen when Hyun-woo regains his memory?

I'll tell you what happens -- Eun-soo goes to Seoul to work for Hyun-woo, even though when he regained his memory, he lost all recollection of what happened at the inn! His heart recognizes her though (naturally) and that causes lots of difficulty, especially as he is now back with Soo-jin. (mwah-hah-hah-hah... So juicy!)

What I like about Korean dramas is that they are heavy on entangled relationships, confused hearts, sentiment and every possible plot twist that can be wrung out of the scenario. Not so much sex -- but it scarcely matters when you've got amnesia, deadly illnesses, secret identities, and blindness in almost every story!

:D

Well, it wasn't exactly a "heart-stopping thriller", but then, I hadn't expected it to be. I was curious, however, and that rated it a check-out. And it was okay. It could've been a lot better. It could have had a tighter plot, and a sneakier director, and a better use of its cast. (I mean, Sean Bean, and he was barely utilized. Shameful.)

It would've made a good made-for-TV movie, though.

I shouldn't have watched this movie. And I shouldn't have enjoyed it. And I really shouldn't have laughed out loud through-out it.

But I did. Gods of the Silver Screen help me, this movie was surreal and fun and bizarre and I loved it.

I'm going to go to movie-lover's hell.

Oh anime, sweet anime. This is the final disc in a series I've been watching, about an adorable young girl who was rescued from a big creepy castle by a kind young man, and welcomed into his family. *aawww*

Oh. Did I mention she's a vampire who has to drink his blood every full moon, who has a hidden destiny as a goddess of destruction, and who likes to wear kitty-ear caps?

Yeah.

Anime. There's nothing like it. *grin*

(In the interests of full disclosure, I will confess that my absence here has been due entirely to the fact that I've been reading in the evenings. *gasp* How dare I?)

Fooey. The last volume. What am I gonna do for candy now?

Still, it was interesting how they squeezed up several volumes of the manga (which I'm also reading) into a three-episode arc to wrap up the story even though the manga doesn't end there. They didn't do too badly, though it was a little disjointed. It ended well, and solidly, so I can allow the animators their liberties. I'm generous like that.

I loved this when I saw it in the theater -- and I still do. I might have to buy it.

I understand from the reviews and comments made when it came out that not everyone was intelligent enough to follow the the time-travelling aspects of the plot. Their loss. This is an elegant and graceful film, at times almost more like a stage production than a "movie", and I like it as much for what it leaves unsaid as for what it says.

The last few days I've been working my way through this volume (There are seven episodes in each volume, after all!), feeding my craving for sweetness and harmony and the sort of kind heartedness you can only find in anime.

Only one more volume in this series...do I save it, or go for the total devourment? Only my whim can tell...

I got my next dose of anime candy in the mail today, and I couldn't wait for a single second before I devoured it. I couldn't help myself -- it's so pretty!

I think if I wasn't such a lazy ass tonight I would've stopped watching this film at about a half-hour in. It's not that it was bad, it just wasn't the "explosive new wave musical" as advertised on the packaging. Standard, cute, but ultimately kind of blah.

But, being quite the lazy ass tonight, I watched the whole thing. Thank goodness it was only 90 minutes long.

This is the movie I watched last night but had no time to post about, and the night before I watched "Superman Returns" (2006), starring Brandon Routh. Both were films I brought home from the library more to check them off some invisible, internal list than because I was truly thrilled to find them available.

The Superman one I hadn't been excited about even from it's release, so I sat down to watch it out of a sense of duty as comic book-fan. I was surprised to find at the end of it, however, that I had been sucked in. Part of it was because Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor was truly delightful, but the main was how haunted this film was with references to the Christopher Reeve Superman movies. Brandon Routh even managed to sound like Christopher Reeve. The film never really finds itself because of this ever-present homage (and Bryan Singer's use of Christ imagery in several scenes was a bit embarrassing), but at the end, I realized I had enjoyed the film, nonetheless.

"You, Me and Dupree" was another watch-it-to-get-it-over-with kind of film, but again, I was sucked in. True, it was a bit uneven, but there was a sweet solidness underneath the fluff that gave me a sense of satisfaction when the credits ran. And I got some truly good laughs out of it, too -- largely in regard to Lance Armstrong. Hmm. Odd.

Still, it seems I have a greater tolerance for all sorts of films than I thought I had -- I must truly be a film junkie! *oh dear*

Aahhh -- nothing like five episodes of an animated Japanese high school soap opera to kick the weekend off properly!

Computer-generated fluff for those with tired brains, which is why I chose it tonight. But it surprised me with some clever film references and quirky secondary characters, so not a complete waste of my time after all. How about that!

Judging from the onslaught of pre-teen fluff ads at the beginning of this DVD, I was convinced I was going to be watching a "Princess Diaries" sweet and light confection, but in fact, this was a solid romance about one young woman confronted with the hard choice of going with her heart or going with her life-goals.
It didn't go where I thought it would -- it was a bit of a ramble, but a pleasant one.

What I like about this film is that it is elegant. It is precise. Every detail has weight and meaning. In the heroic rescue scene, we know the man is dead before we even seen him, because Bruce Willis' character takes a step back from the door he just opened, in reaction to the smell.

Every sound in this film has texture. When Bruce Willis' character is confronted with the memory of his childhood near-drowning, it's not only the curve of his eyebrows and the pain in his eyes that shows us his fear, it is also there in the sound of his breathing, suddenly quickened, suddenly harsh.

The elegance of this film is in its pacing and in its soundtrack, and in the restrained and spare manner in which it explores the what if? at the heart of its premise.

But most of all, I like this film because it is the best comic book movie I have ever seen. It makes me believe in heroes.

What a sweet film! By the end I really was rooting for the guy, and I thought it was cute how every time something positive happened they showed a shot of him singing in his car. :)

I watched Volume 1 last night ("A Great Transformation?") mostly because I needed the comfort this endearing anime could give, but tonight I watched the second volume simply because after getting a little taste, I have to watch it all!

This is my favorite anime for picking up one's spirits, because the heroine is so determined to be her best self and help others. She's always saying things that make Boy Scouts look like Scrooges. And she gets to fall in love all the while, too. *happy sigh*

This was really a very interesting movie, using Shakespeare's Tempest as its inspiration, but veering off into its own quirky avenues (mostly inhabited by Raul Julia as this film's Caliban).

It left me wanting to read the original, and somehow, left me wanting to watch Howl's Moving Castle again. *huh*