Movies Move Me

[trinityofone]

Interesting article about the upcoming Narnia movie: Keep Your Foul Paws Off Aslan. Basically sums up my nervous anticipation/apprehension. Except for this line:

...the big Hollywood movie adaptation of the first chapter (well, technically the second) of the "Chronicles of Narnia"...

::grumbles about revised book order and spits bile everywhere::

Saw War of the Worlds yesterday. Very intense, cool beginning...after which it sort of fell apart. Still, it's worth seeing...just don't take your younger siblings or anything. There was a long line of summer camp kids waiting to go in as we left, and I could just see the tear-and-snot filled extravaganza that was going to be. This is definitely not a movie for kids.

Now that I'm in L.A., I officially need to see at least one movie a week. I think Dark Water'll be my next one. I can't believe it's directed by Walter Salles, a.k.a., I Directed The Motorcycle Diaries and Now I'm Doing a Ring Knock-Off Why? But I'm easy. I'll see it.

I'm also looking forward to...

Wedding Crashers - The Owen. The Vince. The Christopher. I'm there.

The Bad News Bears - Bad Santa made me think Billy Bob Thornton might be kinda hot. Shut up, I'm weird.

The Island - I didn't just say that. You can't prove anything.

The 40-Year-Old Virgin - Steve Carell!

The Skeleton Key - This will suck. But it has Peter Sarsgaard in it, so who cares.

I am so, so shallow.

What are y'all looking forward to?

Comments

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I am desperate for Serenity, but I'm going to be out of the country when it comes out! ::sob:: (I will leave alone the idea that you haven't watched Firefly yet--how is this possible?) I saw Mr. and Mrs. Smith and it was fun but highly stupid. Neither The Fantastic Four nor The Pink Panther look promising to me, despite my love of comics and Steve Martin (has he made a good movie since Bowfinger? I can't think what it would be). Sky High had one of those trailers that basically tells the entire movie, yet I understand your urge to see it, because I am a dork. As for King Kong...that's something I'm highly dubious to see remade, yet I know I will be queuing up on opening night so, yeah. I am a bit excited about that. ;-)

That was probably way more of a response than you wanted, so shutting up now. *eg*

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Nor have I had friends who have invited me over to watch it

I wanted to! My dad made me leave Berkeley five days early! ::weeps::

hey, that's Fred!

Actually, it's not. Fred was played by Amy Acker; Serenity (and Firefly) stars Summer Glau as River "I can kill you with my brain" Tam. They do look alike, though.

I'd be more excited about PP & KK (okay, not PP--it just looks bad) if I weren't so painfully sick of remakes.

[darcydodo]

well, technically the second

Pah, I say. Pah.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

That shall be our rallying cry! ;-)

[deema.livejournal.com]

I think Narnia trailer looked great and I am very much looking forward to it!
I will watch "The Island" while intoxicated and will enjoy it.
What does the phrase "Han shot first", or in this case your icon, refer to? I don't recall him having a western style shoot-me-first competition. :)

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I think intoxication would be a good answer to The Island. I am embarrassed that I am weak enough to want to see Ewan McGregor running around and blowing things up, but...well, I am. It also has Steve Buscemi! And Sean Bean! Eeee!

"Han Shot First" has to do with the stupid changes George Lucas made to the first Star Wars movie to make it look like that, instead of Han just blowing Greedo away as he does in the original version, Greedo fired first and missed, thereby "justifying" Han's retaliation and his status as a good guy. I have a whole rant on it here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/girlwithjournal/146733.html).

[deema.livejournal.com]

Just read the article. You know, he does have an occasional point there, but I think he is overall too critical. When he dissed Finding Nemo and both Shreks - what was that about? Surely, most of the children book adaptations look like shit, but I have hopes enough that this one will come out good (although the evil witch does look rather cheezy in the trailer). We can only wait, right? Five months till christmas - fingers crossed.

Mark Morford for President!

[ilgattopardo.livejournal.com]

Thanks for linking that typically fabulous Morfordian rant. God, it would be a travesty if they murdered the Narnia books. The thing is, they really are tacky Christian allegories (even as a nine year-old I noticed, and re-reading them as an adult I was amazed that I overlooked it so much), so it's not unreasonable to maintain that in the movie -- provided they stay true to the book and don't give it the Disney/Passion of the Christ makeover. Morford makes a great point about the reason for the original magic of the books, which I'd never really thought about clearly. Like Milton, Lewis (who incidentally, I might add, was not only an Oxford man, but born in Belfast) was far too good a writer to allow his purpose of "justify[ing] the ways of God to Man" to get in the way of good storytelling/poetry -- and, as with Satan in Paradise Lost, the really memorable stuff in Narnia is all the (basically pagan) magic and wonder.

But why the bile? Ok, it depends on what the meaning of "technically" is, but The Lion, the Witch... is "technically the second" chapter (as Star Wars -- giving it Lucas' new name would be to endorse the kind of pointless and eviscerating revisions you allude to so wittily in your fabulous icon -- is "technically the fourth" chapter of its series).

I've never heard of any of these films you're looking forward to. A great part of being out of America is avoiding all the marketing hype! I'm looking forward to: Howl's Moving Castle (not released in Europe yet. I suspect it could be exception to the rule that great children's books get slaughtered on screen -- a rule which it kind of proves by being Japanese). I have modest hopes for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: even though Tim Burton's been off-form for about a decade, the trailer looked interesting, and I'm encouraged by the apparent return to the book, rather than the old film (of which, by the way, I was never a fan). I'm curious to see War of the Worlds, actually, but I'm even more intrigued by
this (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/01/movies/01spie.html?8hpib).

Re: Mark Morford for President!

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Thanks for linking that typically fabulous Morfordian rant. God, it would be a travesty if they murdered the Narnia books.

My pleasure. You know, it's interesting: I used to pray that all my favorite things would get adapted into movies (Neverwhere, sigh) but now I dread it. I think about Constantine and I quake and I dread it. Stupid Hollywood! Grr.

The thing is, they really are tacky Christian allegories (even as a nine year-old I noticed, and re-reading them as an adult I was amazed that I overlooked it so much)

They really are. I almost can't re-read them anymore. I re-read The Silver Chair recently and was shocked at how thin a lot of it is, and even how narratively ridiculous it is that Eustace and Jill do practically nothing. (I still like Puddleglum, though. He and Marvin could probably convince an entire village to kill itself.) But you're right that The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe still works for its "pagan" parts, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader remains spectacular. (Reepicheep!)

The bile is due to the fact that it is no longer possible to buy the books in the order they were written; all the sets now start with The Magician's Nephew. I think starting with that book instead of TLtWatW presents a completely different reading experience, and that inserting The Horse and His Boy before Prince Caspian likewise interrupts the narrative flow of the series. Yet that's now the "official" way that the series will be introduced to a whole new generation of readers. And that makes me mad! (As you can see, I am able to get ridiculously mad about anything.)

I'm freaked by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I'm not sure I want to see it--even for the Johnny. (And for the record: I don't like the old movie, either.)

I'd heard about Spielberg's 1972 Olympics movie, but I didn't know that it was being written by Tony Kushner. Now I'm intrigued too! Thanks. ;-)

Re: Mark Morford for President!

[ilgattopardo.livejournal.com]

The Silver Chair is indeed egregious, although even it has plenty of thrilling stuff in it. Puddleglum is fun, but it bothers me that (if I recall) the real reason he's so miserable is because he hasn't accepted the Lord "Aslan" into his heart as his Personal Lord and Savior (an expression which is only worthy of being spelled in American). This reminds me of the Christian Union fuckers in my school, who -- in disbelief that I could call myself an atheist -- would say things like, "But don't you think that Christians are so much happier?" Well, sweetie, I'd be happy if I thought the Easter Bunny was real, too, but at some point we have to grow up. There are positive reasons to be religious; so don't give me this crap that Jesus is My Security Blanket, and don't get religion just because you're scared of an alternative. That kind of argument is unworthy of Lewis (and in fairness, like old Satan again, Puddleglum is so much more entertaining than bloody Jill and Eustace). Still, it's that kind of evangelical garbage that might ruin the Narnia films.

Anyway, sorry about that ranting. I didn't realize that the books have been "officially" re-ordered -- how very George Lucas! That would get me mad, too, for the same reasons you give.

Re: Mark Morford for President!

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I have never thought of the Puddleglum thing that way. Damn, is my naivete persistent!

don't give me this crap that Jesus is My Security Blanket

Of course not. Jesus is Your Homeboy. ;-)