extrospection season, pt. 1

I've had it with introspection! It is wearing me out and it's the wrong season for it anyway. Who navel gazes in the summer?? Everyone knows that the time for all of that soggy insomniac self-assessment is in the fall when it rains for 45 days in a row! So, I decree it to be Extrospection Time (you can sing that to hammer time if you try really hard). What does this mean? What does anything ever mean around here? Lists, baby!

Let's start with movies. Movies I've recently watched (some not for the first time):

Pirates of the Caribbean 2: -- I enjoyed this but found it somewhat exhausting. But ... PIRATES! also, (don't read this part until you see the movie, Martina) I already liked Jack Davenport from other things (UK vampire series Ultraviolet, for one) but I must say his bitter, broken, drunken and wickedly sarcastic Norrington was a beautiful thing to behold.

Batman Begins: (DVD) Christian Bale is so perfect for Batman! He's really got a handle on the Bat Issues and can also play a convincing feckless billionaire playboy. I adore Michael Caine as Alfred. I thought it interesting that Morgan Freeman was about the only american in the cast.

Scoop: It has to be said -- Hugh Jackman is a sexy bitch! I thought this was a perfectly pleasing non-demanding way to spend a couple of hours. PLUS, Giles from Buffy was in it briefly and (unrelated to Giles) I am pretty much a sucker for magic shows in movies. No, I don't know why (that would require introspection, which I am OVER). Woody Allen and Scarlett Johansson have fun comic chemistry.

Pride and Prejudice: (DVD) (the new one that came out this year) -- I liked this when I first saw it, but I think I like it even more now. I had some quibbles because some things weren't very Jane-ish and seemed pretty modern... but you know what? that's okay! It's an adaptation, not a literal translation. I watched this with commentary which was fun. The director had a thing against bonnets and computer generated rain and was totally in love with his whole cast. He was also pretty free with the "we decided to sex this up a little." (most ridiculous example in my opinion was Lizzie in the sculpture gallery at Pemberley.) That little tacked on bit at the end with Lizzie and Darcy was pretty ri-goddamned-diculous too, but overall I say thumbs up.

It Happened One Night: (DVD) I love Claudette Colbert's nose. I don't think she'd still have it if she were making movies today. I mean, she'd have a nose, but it would be one of those ones that everybody gets. (also, my dead uncle looked like Clark Gable. I should find a picture.)

You've Got Mail: This was on TV, so I watched it because I promised my cousin I would give it another try. I owe her an apology. This was not as egregiously horrible as I remembered. I still think it should be a lot better than it is considering the people involved, but it's not The Great American Stalker Movie and I regret the distress I caused her by insisting it was for over an hour. (yeah, we make our own fun!)

10 Things I Hate About You: (DVD) From the middle of the Teen Movie renaissance of the late 90's/ early 00's (are they on a 20 year cycle or something?) when every movie ended with a prom. This was the Taming of the Shrew from the "let's remake classic shit into teen movies" phase, which I largely enjoyed. (Emma/Clueless was better, though.)

The Shop Around the Corner: (VHS) the 1940 movie from which You've got Mail was remade. This is an Ernst Lubitsch movie (same director as the charming Ninotchka) with James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. It is so delightful I hardly know where to start, but let's start with Sullavan. I love that she is 18 shades of cranky, but they don't try to make her "cute" (I'm looking at you, Ms. nose scruncher Meg Ryan). She's crabby. Crabby, clever, scrappy and besotted. It's sweet, I tell you! I still have qualms about the whole part where he knows she's the one he's been writing to but she doesn't. It just seems unfair, (all's fair, I know, I know) although it was handled with a lighter and therefore less offensive to me touch than in You've Got Mail. I also thought the subplots made a lot more sense in this movie than in YGM. It's just better, okay? (although my cousin may never know it since she said that she rarely watches black and white movies. I should have argued with her about THAT for an hour.)

more extrospection to come!