Miscellaneous Movie Musings

[blueerica]

I caught the last half of The King and I (the 1956 version) this morning and it reminded me how much I love movies from that time. Though they seem silly, they're just so relaxing... innocent, even.

[wolfy999]

Night at the Museum....just bought the DVD....such a fun movie!

[innerSpaceman]

Heheh, speaking of The King and I ... I had an odd movie thing happen over the past week.

zapppop called me just after seeing 300 for the first time. His roommate, Gemini Cricket, wanted to see it again on Imax for some unfathomable reason , and took zapp with him. I got a text after the movie to the effect of, "that was so homo." And the person I was with when I got the text (my daughter, Shanti) got into a conversation with me about how flaming-queenlike the Persian Emperor Xerxes was portrayed in that film.

Even though Xerxes was shown to have nothing but female sex slaves in his rather debauched traveling hareem, it was pretty clear to us that he was as gay or gayer than the typical beefcake-loving fan of the movie 300.


What does this have to do with The King and I? Well, nothing ... precisely. But just after that conversation about gay Xerxes, I come home to find in my Netflix envelope a movie called One Night with the King. It's the story of the Jewish holiday of Purim, and the legend of Esther - who marries the Persian King and uses her influence to save all the jews in Persia from an extinction edict.

Oddly, though ... they changed the King in the movie from Ahasuerus to Xerxes ... the same Xerxes from 300 (though played decidedly less gay, and much more gay-appealing Spartan-bodied) - even though this movie was made about a year before 300.

I just found that a very odd thing to do, and certainly a very odd coincidence. And I found blueerica's noting of The King and I another tiny coincidence when I came to this thread to post about One Night with the King.



That is all.




oh, except that I was also surprisingly entertained by A Night at the Museum ... really a much better movie than One Night with the King.

[wendybeth]

In keeping with the royal turn of this thread, I finally saw 'The Queen' last night. Liked it, thought Helen Mirren was deserving of her Oscar, but the choice for Philip was odd. (Maybe he was chosen for his name- Cromwell...) I like James Cromwell, but I'm not sure he was right for the part. Charles comes across as odd and wimpy as I expect he is in real life, and the actor who played Blair did a decent job, although they laid on the 'everyman' a bit thick- I mean, does anyone believe Tony Blair does the dishes after dinner?

[Gemini Cricket]

I watched 'The Queen' last night too. And I'm not talking about zapppop.

I love Helen Mirren. Love love love. She's third only to Dame Judi and Dame Maggie.

I also have the hots for the guy playing Tony Blair.

[blueerica]

I like coincidences.

[CoasterMatt]

I like fresh maple bacon on vanilla ice cream...

[Babette]

I just saw The Invisible this afternoon. I really thought it was going to be more suspenseful, mysterious and clever. It was ok to good for the first 2/3 but then it just got lame. One thing that saved it was Justin Chatwin. He should be sold with popcorn at the snackbar - yum-mee!

The girl with the beenie, no beenie, beenie with hoodie, hoodie only, hair deal was totally lame.

I have to say all through the movie I was thinking "awesome music". 30 Seconds to Mars, Snow Patrol, Remy Zero, Deathcab for Cutie just to name a few artists. I want to get the soundtrack.

[Alex]

I expected to review The Invisible for MousePlanet but then they decided not to do press screenings. So I just assumed it would be crap. I like that they still put together the press publicity package though I'm not sure who will be using it without screenings.

Second time this year Disney has skipped on screenings.

We're in a lull at work so I skipped out for two long lunches this last week and saw:

Vacancy - Not particularly scary or suspenseful and really serving no purpose. But I did admire it for its simplicity and straightforwardness. It does not try to be bigger or more important than it is. Plus I love Frank Whaley for some reason. Luke Wilson looks like he's on some kind of steroid treatment that has put on 30 pounds of water weight. Getting very chubby in the face.

Next - I think Philip K. Dick is the teflon of book-to-movie adaptations. No matter what things are going to slide and a great movie is impossible. Sure there have been a couple decent ones (Blade Runner, Minority Report) but most suck outright. The idea of Nicolas Cage being able to see and respond to events 2 minutes in the future is intriguing but is inconsistently implemented and beyond a few sight gags and Groundhogs Day option examinations isn't really explored. Jessica Biel is pretty though. Sadly , Julianne Moore just completely fisfired on this one, completely overplaying her tough-as-nails FBI agent role.

Ad then it wraps up with the ultimate, rightfully, derided movie ending.

If you have any interest at all in either, wait for DVD.

[innerSpaceman]

One I wish I hadn't waited for DVD for was Notes on a Scandal. I finally saw it, and I loved it.

Judi Dench should stop playing agreeable, cheeky old dames and take on much more total evil bitch roles. She was fantastic!

The story moved right along at a perfect clip, the script was clever, and the music by Philip Glass was beautiful and haunting.


As I understand it, the piece was adapated from a novel told entirely in first person, as diary entries. As such, I think they did a great job adapting it to film and retaining a sense of that. Voice-over was the obvious choice, and they didn't overdo it. Mostly, though, they got that first-person feeling by keeping the camera on Judi Dench's character (whereas a lesser director might have thought the effect could be best achieved by sticking to her P.O.V.). And, well, since Dench was an absolute malevolent marvel to behold, the choice was excellent all round.