Stigmata - what a bad movie
I came home from a faaaaaaaaaabulous night out with Billy (who is a London friend of mine, and who will be in NYC for one day before moving on to Norwalk, Connecticut), to turn on the TV and find Stigmata on. The movie came out in 1999 and I actually remember going to see it in the cinema with Mary Barbara, at Purdue. I found it completely and utterly awful at the ripe old age of 21, just like I find it completely and utterly awful now. My prevailing memory of this movie (the plot escapes me) is that it was cut like a music video and made me dizzy.
When it came on this evening, I decided to IMDB it and find out if the director managed to ever direct anything after it (the answer, as it were, is 'not much'), and I realized that before he directed this movie, the director directed... music videos.
Good call, 21 year old Beth.
In other news: I still haven't seen the new Batman movie. This is now a tomorrow priority. Also: must procure IMAX tickets to it, too. I've heard that's amazing. So looking forward to it.
Monkey Dust
I was talking to some of my coworkers about Monkey Dust the other day, and what a great freaking show it was. One of the BBC 3 gems that aren't quite mainstream material but are fabulous anyway. The show takes kind of a Robot Chicken format, animated, but is not quite so laugh-out-loud funny. It's more dark commentary on British society and popular culture funny. After living in the UK for six years, there were still some bits of the show that Jamie had to explain to me, as they were so British-centric. Some of the show was a bit more universal.
I have the first season on DVD (region 2). I don't think they released the second or third due to licensing problems with the music, from what I heard. It's a shame because it's really brilliant. Here's a clip, though, marketing agency-themed - appropriate to the discussion we had the other night. :)
Rebranding God
Movies I have seen recently
I keep doing work over the weekend parked out in front of pay-per-view and other cable delights. I think I'm going to ditch my premium channels, though, in favor of Netflix. I've also been to the movies lately...
In no particular order:
- Iron Man: Awesome. When did Robert Downey Jr. get attractive (still short, though...)? Needed more Jeff Bridges in a bathrobe with a White Russian...
- Forbidden something or other: That new Kung Fu movie with Jackie Chan and Jet Li... It was sort of like the Lord of the Rings (complete with the scouring of the Shire), only in some weird Kung Fu place.
- Enter the Dragon: After seeing the aforementioned forbidden movie, it came out that I hadn't seen this one. Jamie remedied that after giving me a look of utter disgust.
- Meet the Robinsons: This was, like, a Pixar movie. Cute but I don't really want to think about the disruptions in the space-time continuum there.
- Stardust: Wasn't as good as the first time I saw it. Still cute, though. A movie to play in the background.
- The Holiday: I liked it. It's a chick flick. I'm a chick. Yep.
- The Godfather Trilogy: This is stretching back a month or so here, but I did see this for the first time recently. The last one sort of lost focus. The other two were awesome.
- Casablanca: Continues to be awesome. In my next life, I'm coming back as Ingrid Bergman. I will settle for aspiring to her level of fabulousness in this life.
I'm also slowly getting through Battlestar Gallactica (sp?) with Dustin.
There also needs to be another day in the week so I have time to see all of these movies, and do all of the other things that keep me occupied on the weekends and during the week.
Japanese commercials are so much better than ours
I wonder what a Japanese Superbowl commercial would be like...
CSI: The drinking game
As devised by Beth & Dustin
Drink:
- During The Who theme song
- Every time one of the CSIs makes a pithy or punny remark
- Every time they find ejaculate at the crime scene
- Every time someone uses the cool flourescent flashlight thingie
- Every time, without being pressured for it, the suspect spills both motive and confession
- Every time they go into a casino
- Every time they zoom in on a surveillance video or photograph or anything, and it's in high definition
- When there's actual character development
- Every time a CSI chick wears an LVPD vest with a tank top so it looks like she's got nothing on underneath
- Every time someone mentions "epithelials"
- Every time Beth forgets to fast forward the commercials (added 01/31/08)
That's all we have for now. To be updated, possibly...
Best movie intro EVAR
Pirates 3
Pretty hard to follow in a lot of places.
However, loved:
- Hugely Dalí-esque surrealism
- Fabulous allusion to Bush's groping of Merckel
- Keith Richards
We have liftoff
The embassy has finally gotten back to us: we have a visa. They have asked for James's passport, no additional documentation or evidence required. This is them unofficially admitting fallibility. The best possible outcome. We win.
Tomorrow, James's passport gets couriered to the embassy. The conservative estimate of when we should get it back is Monday.
I was enraged this morning. At the situation. At the attorneys. At being jerked around. Now I'm just trying to come down. It's exhausting, utterly. I feel like I've been beat up.
Tonight, though, I get to go to the National Gallery with Gareth and see his film, The Bandit King, as it gets its first public showing as winner of a recent contest they had. It's the film I worked continuity on.
I can't wait.
AIDS helped me lose weight! Err...
Note that they had to rebrand these babies later because of, well, AIDS.
Thanks to Simon for pointing this one out.
