So excited beyond my ability to excite.

I hoped this wouldn't look like it sucked.

Oh does it so not look like it sucks.

My weekend. Not your weekend.

So I've run through my four movies and had several requests for thoughts. I oblige.

Wristcutters: A Love Story
In a few words: It's good. It's really good.
( Using more words (light plot synopsis spoilers) )


Dark City
In a few words: I really wanted to like it more than I did.
( Using more words (general opinion, no real spoilers) )


Zodiac
In a few words: Sort of okay for what it is, but nothing spectacular.
( Using more words (fairly spoilery in terms of discussing the presentation, but it's nonfiction, so how spoiled could you really get?) )


Hard Candy
In a few words: See. This. Movie.
( Using more words (general opinion, no spoilers) )

And there it is. Sadly, I don't expect my Netflix stock to replenish for a few days, and Mike never has anything I want to see. Although, oo, he does have Colors right now and it's been a long time since I watched that. Hmmmm.

Just finished Wristcutters: A Love Story, and actually enjoyed it. I would've loved more detail on the whys and hows of the world, because that's just how anal I am, but it was a good movie regardless. Recommended for something a little bit different and oddly uplifting, given the subject matter.

My next randomly grabbed envelope contained Dark City. Putting on mute and going in ...

ETA: Okay well shit, Keifer Sutherland AND Richard O'Brien? I'm only a few minutes in and I think I already love it.

Today is going to be a day. I can tell already. And I can tell this on 4 whole hours sleep. I'm sure that's not contributive.

It's going to spike back to 90 today. And despite sitting here in that "There's no way I slept enough" haze, I"m actually in a perky mood. It's my Saturday, dammit, and I'm going to love it and hug it and call it George.

I think today is going to be a day for vegging on the couch and watching movies. I can feel this. I've got four awesome cool movies I've been wanting to see and I think today's the day. Gotta keep working that 8-at-a-time Netflix gifts me after all.

For being as wiped as I am and considering how hard I'm probably going to crash later, I'm in a surprisingly good mood.

(And haven't forgotten my promised content post either.)

There's 124 minutes gone, never to return.

Crystal Skulls.

Hated.

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaated it.

I've sat through Boogie Nights and Starship Troopers, and never before have I wanted to walk out of a movie.

I firmly believe that a better script could have been written by anyone, absolutely anyone. Barry, my stoner neighbor? Could do better. The nervous and overly helpful lady at the supermarket? Could do better. My long dead hamster, Dagmar? COULD DO SO MUCH BETTER.

I started hating it about 10 minutes in and never recovered. I wasn't even given the courtesy of having giant ants pour out of the movie screen and eat me.

I think I have lost faith in absolutely everyone associated with this steaming pile. Except for John Hurt, who was clearly in no way at fault and can be excused for anything.

I've done nothing but rant since I left the theater 90 minutes ago, and I feel I could still be going strong by this time tomorrow.

hatehatehatehatehatehatehatehatehate

Little Miss Sunshine is a freaking awesome movie.

I decided to pop in Sweeney Todd. Interesting so far. It's not George Hearn and Angela Lansbury, but seriously, who expected that? Johnny Depp lacks a lot (read: all) of the vocal power I expect out of Sweeney Todd, but he has a great presence which almost makes up for it. Taking the big boom out of the songs and turning them into creepy whispers instead does work, in a roundabout way.

Only, I thought I read somewhere that they cut "Green Finch and Linnet Bird"?

Because I hear this vapid trill starting, and ... Ahh CRAP, she IS singing it.

God I hate this song.

And you too, Joanna. I hate you. And Anthony. You should both be in pies. Arg, why must you be integral to the plot??

Damn you, Sondheim!

Imagine it in a sing-song voice and it works, trust me.

Today is pay day! And we're not talking salted peanut logs. (Because ew.)

It's nice to get a check again.

It's even nicer that I thought I'd have to go up there to get it on my day off but lo, direct deposit kicked in already! Smell that? Smells gooood.

So now I am flush with cash. I've already squirreled away a good bit into savings to kick off the renewed house-saving extravaganza. Docked another bit for bills. Now it's our turn.

Mike and I are taking a portion of my check plus some of the stimulus and get to spend it for fun. I'll leave him to talk about what he's planning to get. Me? I'm still a bit up in the air. But I think what I might do is finally get that widescreen LCD monitor I've been wanting for a few years now.

I am, in fact, looking at this one. Thoughts?


In other news, last weekend we saw Iron Man. I won't go into much, as it's pretty much been talked to death online. I'll simply say that I really did like it, even as much as I hate Tony Stark. And that Robert Downey Jr. was pretty much perfect. I'd definitely rank it up there among the best comic movies.

During the previews though, we saw a trailer for a one-night-only showing of Rambo: First Blood the following Thursday. Have I mentioned how much Mike loves his classic action movies? Because Mike loves his classic action movies. I think I was sitting next to a small lake of drool when we heard about it. Long story just slightly less long, we also caught Rambo yesterday. I'll also leave it to him to talk about if he wants. I will only say that 1) it was better than I remember; 2) I neither needed nor wanted the 20 minute Sylvester Stallone interview before it started; and 3) the original ending? Kinda blows.

Looks like this is either a regular thing (these one-off movies) or something they're just doing for the summer. Next up appears to be Death Note followed by the (a?) Bleach movie. Not interested in either, but we'll have to keep an eye out. There are plenty of old movies I wouldn't mind seeing on the big screen.


Oh, and speaking of movies, one more thing I can solicit an opinion on.

Netflix gives us all the free eight-at-a-time subscription, right? We split that up, so Mike has some and I have some. Problem is that my some are sitting there and I haven't watched them yet. Which I'd like to do. So pick me one of my movies for today, and I think that I'll watch it around lunch. I've not yet seen any of these, so they're all good choices for me. I've got: Raising Arizona, Little Miss Sunshine, Across the Universe and Sweeney Todd. Thoughts, take two?

Until then, I think I'm gonna go chill with Rock Band for a bit. I love days off. (And getting paid!)

Conversation last night:

Mike: "What did we get from Netflix?"
Me: "I was in the mood for a bad movie you wouldn't want to see. I got Bring it On."
Mike: "A movie I don't want to see, huh? Bring it On. Isn't Eliza Dushku in that?"
Me: "Yeah."
Mike: "And she's a cheerleader?"
Me: "Yeah."
Mike: "You fool! What were you thinking?!"

Heath Ledger just found dead.

Gotta love the Internet. I found out a few minutes ago. Nothing much about it anywhere. Then refresh, and suddenly LJ's exploded with the news and Wiki's already updated. It's a different world.

Shame about Heath Ledger though. More a shame for his family. I've only seen him in a few things, but he was very good in all of them.

100 degrees in Portlandish today. I originally typed that as "1000 degrees". Not far off really.

To escape, Mike and I went to see Transformers. I never actually watched the cartoon, so my expectations weren't that high. Mike loved the show, and was skeptical as hell. But hey, air conditioning.

As it turns out, we were both pleasantly surprised. So much better than Rise of the Silver Surfer which we saw last week. It'll never be on a Best Movies Evah list for me, but for 2 1/2 hours of eye candy, it was fantastic. And air conditioned!

While we were there, we saw tickets on sale for Order of the Phoenix. I thought it might actually have been on this afternoon with the times of 12.15, 12.30, etc. Nope – midnight showings. However, as we were paying for Transformers, Mike asked when the show would be on tomorrow. First one? 11am. And hot damn, you can buy tickets in advance.

So sitting in my wallet are two tickets to see OotP tomorrow morning on Mike's birthday. After that, we'll probably get lunch and then hit Ground Kontrol. As promised, he gets to play as much as he wants for as long as he wants. And I have multiple $10 rolls of quarters to back that up.

To the guy we saw sitting all by himself at the front of the 12.15am line? You're still hardcore in our book, friend.

Okay, this looks hilarious. Anybody free 15 June?

I was going to talk about Spidey 3, but Mike pretty much said what I was going to say. (Warned for spoilers) The only thing I'd add is Peter going evil visually by turning into the lead singer from Panic! At The Disco. I'm not sure if that was dumb or hilarious.

Overall though, pretty enjoyable. Sandman, you freakin' ruled.

My wounds are healing nicely. My hand is now less gross, although the massive scab forming looks a bit like something left on the rack after cooking hamburgers. (Now consider that that's less gross, and you see how far we've come.) I've been able to upgrade from wrapping half my body in no-stick gauze pads, and now have but a giant bandaid on my hand. And it's starting to itch. Which, yes, good, but also BAD. NO SCRATCHY.

Today I'll be dragging myself to the auto body shop to get an estimate on fixing Willowy, then calling State Farm and saying "Pay me, bitches." Just like that.

( And now I leave you with this. )

I just saw a promo for that new Halle Berry movie. Is it just me, or does she have the exact same facial expression in every single scene?

We watched Scarface last night. Neither of us had seen it before. The credits roll at the end.

MIKE: And they all lived happily ever after.

Plucked from sistakaren is this little movie quiz.

Mike and I managed to get 17/20. The missing three are driving me bonkers, so if anyone is able to guess them, please put my tortured mind at ease. We can't figure out the 2nd, the 8th, and the 14th.

Right at this very second, there's an in-theater recording of the new Harry Potter movie trailer on YouTube here. I give it another couple of hours before it gets taken down, so if you want a day's jump on the real deal, act fast.

What did we end up seeing? Nothing, actually. A mini-personal crisis erupted, which is by far more entertaining than any silly movie. Instead, we had a nice long dinner with a side order of renewed betterness.

Had we actually entered the theater instead of sitting in the parking lot however, then we would've seen Cars. X3 was winning, but I liked oblique_ref's suggestion of us seeing it together and tearing it apart after, so I'm saving it until we can work that out.

But hey, maybe movie this weekend. Crisis replaced with sweet, buttery popcorn!

I've had this really, really strange aversion to seeing X-Men 3. I'm not sure why it is (and should figure it out, because I'm curious), but my desire to see it has actually been negative. At the same time, however, I've sort of wanted to too. What can I say, I'm strange.

Here's where you come in. Anybody seeing this in the next two and a half hours (up until about 6pm PT), I'm curious for your opinion. We're doing a spontaneous movie-and-dinner night, and have to decide on what to see. I'm being wishy-washy, however, and can't make up my mind when it comes to X3. So.


Poll #748790 X3 - Yay or Nay?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Should JW go see X3?

ETA: Obviously please feel free to say why you think I should or shouldn't. I only ask for no spoilers, regardless of how you vote.

<sees trailer commercial for Click>

<glares angrily and slowly draws line through idea in The Big Screenplay Book>

Gr. My version wouldn't have starred Adam Freaking Sandler. }:(