Random Bits

"Cowboys and Aliens" suffered from way too much plot.

More actual explosions, please.

That is all.

(side note... it is nice to see Harrison Ford being a cocky arrogant badass)

Saw TRON: Legacy 3D on New Year's Day. I should explain that the original TRON came out when I was eleven years old. And whatever plot fails it has, I loved it -the whole idea of the Grid caught my imagination.

So, this new one, with a lot of the spirit of the original, less plot fail (although it has honking big plot HOLES), was never gonna be anything but a win for me. Loved the 3D bits, and the world building.

I loved Quorra - and couldn't figure out why she looked so familiar - she plays Thirteen on House! And while I found Sam kinda dumb (how the hell do you *think* Quorra can move off the Grid, moron?), I did like the way he chose to rebel, and the dive off the tower illustrated his devil-may-care reckless streak he needs in the Grid.

Clu was wonderfully creepy. As for the rest of the programs on the grid, we all knew doublecrossers get doublecrossed, so that was fairly satisfying.

I kinda want to see it again, but I think it can wait until its out on DVD (please do a director's cut! Please?).

Wish there was more Tron, though.

The world building was very satisfying. All in all I give it an A- because eve with the plot holes it was an exciting and satisfying movie to watch (gives new meaning to the phrase "ghost in the machine").

**I saw the 3D UP! last weekend. What a surprisingly lovely movie! I loved Carl and his grumpy-ness. I loved Dug and his obsession with squirrels (one thought... does the South American Jungle have squirrels? How does the Dog Militia know what one is, and that they are awesome to chase?) I love the Wilderness Scout (Russell? Randall? Reynolds?). And Kevin is also a wonderful character. Well done Pixar!

This movie has a love hate relationship with gravity. It is only useful when it is USEFUL if you understand what I am saying. And yes, we all cried at various points. The sniffles in the nearly full theatre were pretty epic.

**Saw the PBS Great Performances "Chess in Concert" on Thursday night. Awesome! Tim Rice did preface the show by saying he thinks they've finally worked out a throughline story that works the best. It has good points, bad points, and parts that were fucking AWESOME. Yes, Josh Grobin cannot act. We know this. However, he does have a gorgeous voice, and was perfect as Anatoly, since he didn't have to do much more than put genuine feeling into the music, he did quite well. Adam Pascal as Freddie was also incredibly well cast - his brash, bold, "Fuck you" attitude as the Ugly American was pitch perfect. Idina Menzel as Florence did well. I wish she had enunciated a little more, because we lost some of her words in the duets, trios and quartets. The man who played the Arbiter was suitably creepy and MIB-like. But one of the stand out performances was for the woman playing Svetlana - she was amazing, even though we don't even meet her until Act Two. "Someone Else's Story," "I Know Him So Well," and "Anthem" were my favorites, followed up with "Nobody's Side," "Pity the Child," and "The Arbiter."

Really really well done, even the bits that don't *quite* work, plot-wise. I loved the whole duality that the minimal set and costuming punched up. Black and white. I also liked the ballet bits of the chess matches. I will be watching it again, for sure.

**Tonight Gwen and I went to see Cadence at TCAN - a Toronto-based a cappella quartet. So much fun! The guy who was the bass/percussion for most of the performance was amazing. The new tenor to the group also quite musical - as a number of their arrangements were done by him. They sort of mimic the tones of instruments - horns, strings, percussion. And they seem to specialize in jazzy music from all musical eras of the twentieth century. And they are incredibly funny. I think I loved the "noir" bits the best. One note guys - "On the Street Where You Live" is NOT a jazz standard. I mean it may be a jazz favorite, I don't know, but it is originally from My Fair Lady and is a MUSICAL THEATRE standard. Lerner and Loewe. 1956. Ring a bell? So there.

I do love their Web site tag line... "Instruments are for Surgeons." LOL! It doesn't sound like they need instruments - they take care of all of that vocally. Awesome - I recommend seeing them if you ever get the chance.

What I can say with no spoilers is this:

Lot gorier than I expected (way more blood and guts). Also a lot more OMG!NAKED than I was expecting, and we got a lot more NAKED!GUY than NAKED!GIRL which was a nice change from the mainstream.

Also - going to the movies on a Wednesday night FOR THE WIN!!! Only about twenty-twenty five people shared the experience.

( spoilers spoilers spoilers... you have been warned! )

This was a netflix movie of Gwen's we watched on Sunday. Starring Keri Russell as a waitress in a small, quirky diner, in a small quirky town, with small quirky people, that specializes in pies. Breakfast pies, savory pies, sweet pies of all flavors. She creates a special pie-of-the-day every day. She is in a loveless abusive marriage, which she has plans to escape from. Then she finds out she is pregnant, and fears she will never get away from her husband. She falls into a not-quite believable adulterous romance with her (married) obstetrician.

The writer/director and co-star, Adrienne Shelley was murdered shortly before the film was completed and released. Which is sort of grim trivia, as trivia goes.

It ends up sort of happily enough though, because it is more the story of a woman learning to be her own savior, learning she is strong and independent and capable of being more and doing more. It is about white knights, and finding you don't actually need to wait around for them. It is a simply told, but rather lovely story about self, and finding your own truth. It is only peripherally about pie, waitressing, and pregnancy.

The best part of the movie is Andy Griffith playing "old Joe" who is old and crochity, but none the less has a bit of a soft spot for Jenna, our pregnant waitress. He steals every scene he is in (Old Joe: [after reading a news column about a woman contemplating suicide] Oh I love living vicariously through the pain and suffering of others.). What a riot.

Quirky and endearing, but not earth-shakingly spectacular, I give it a solid B.

So I saw Mamma Mia! on Christmas eve. My folks had rented it and since I was there for dinner I stayed probably a lot later than I should have to view the movie with them. First impression? Gorgeous place - want to go there! Also, hey Meryl Streep isn't a *bad* singer. And Pierce Brosnan is awful. At singing. He did everything else quite well, and was certainly the right guy for everything else but the singing. But you must give the man props for actually stepping out of the comfort zone to take part in this bubbly prety movie.

Ridiculous plot - but c'mon, it was loosely cobbled together to string the ABBA music together anyway - so that they have *any* plot is amazing. Roughly, for those that *don't* know, girl is getting married. She wants her father to give her away at the wedding. Problem: she doesn't know who her father is. Steals her mother's diary and finds she's got three possible fathers, so she invites them all to the wedding.

Implausible plot device one: they all accept and fly/sail/motorbike to the remote greek island she and her mother live on.

And really, that's all you need to know. The guys dancing along the pier in flippers is a high light. As is the trio of Meryl Streep, Julie Walters, and Christine Baranski as best buddies from way back. Christine is obviously the most comfortable in her dancing shoes in this role. Julie and Meryl keep up, but the economy of motion and incredible control show who the dancer of the three of them are.

The kids who play Sky and Sophie are the stand outs. Terrific movie for a good time, but don't expect the meaning of life. Solid B.

Recently also saw the 2006 movie Lonely Hearts, which is a grim grim grim tale. It is based on a true story from the forties - a guy who cons war widows out of all their money and the woman he hooks up with who keeps him under her thumb with kinky sex - and murder. Can't forget the murder.

Selma Hayek and Jared Leto play the psychotic couple, and James Gandolfini and John Travolta are the cops pursuing them. The whole tale is narrated by the James Gandolfini character - and he has after-the-fact perspective on the whole thing, which is effective. Selma Hayek was wonderful in her controlled deranged state, but the creepy on-the-edge Jared Leto character steals the show. I had to look him up on IMDB because I knew I'd seen him before, I just didn't know where exactly. He does an amazing "intense" - and it seems like something a lot of the roles he takes have in common - they are all very intense in incredibly diverse ways. So while the movie is in no way an upper, it is worth seeing for the acting in it. Solid B+.

Other stuff - got a holiday package from conjured_1! Thanks BB! Yummy! Also, got a holiday card from my boss with gift card enclosed! Awesome! Also Unexpected!

Other news - Kudos to the US Post Office - which lost an Amazon package last week during the blizzard, but between me contacting Amazon to have a duplicate shipped, and contacting the post office to see if they could locate the so-called "delivered" package, I talked to a very nice guy in the deliveries department who said he'd check with the driver, but there was little chance of the package showing up unless it had been delivered to the wrong address and the people there turn it in as astray.

Well, this morning the package must have turned up, because it was delivered! Along with a bill that hadn't been delivered either - so I'm thinking it was left on the truck for a week. But hooray! I can give Gwen her holiday gift before 2009!

Other random - I'm on Facebook... so are a lot of people I know in real life. Someone I grew up with has posted our second grade class picture - me in all my pigtailed glory. *facepalm* thanks... i think.

And for those who are participating in a scavenger hunt, your clue is here.

So Gwen and I went to the movies yesterday afternoon. We go pretty rarely, because OMG expensive! Even for a matinee, it is expensive. Anyway, I have a grand love for the original movie (made in the late 1930s) that was based on a play of the same name by Clare Booth Luce (on Broadway in 1937) - also something I love - and acted in several years ago for a local community theatre company.

So I know the story quite well. I love the story. And they did an AMAZING job with this updated version by Diane English. She did use several hunks of dialogue from the play - and it is amazing how it translates as well today as it did then.

One thing about the original movie is that all of the characters that show up in the movie are women - or female (all the dogs/horses used were female as well). This is something they kept true to in the update.

Every person wandering down the street, getting a taxi, in the stores, in the restaurants were women. Wholly, without exception, all of them women.

The casting is brilliant. And the journey of friendship is way stronger in this version than it is in the original. And it is the strength of that friendship that makes the movie. Mary is betrayed, not just by her husband, but in a different way by her best friend. It is the friend's betrayal that cuts her deeper, and it is her friend's betrayal she forgives first. The journey to independence and strength is better thought out, less "surface."

Love the way they changed the Molly-Mary dynamic to have Sylvie step in and be the "aunt" that Molly can confide in and ask questions about. Jada Pinkett Smith does an amazing job as Alex (an updated Nancy in the original) - their wonderful lesbian author friend. In the original Nancy describes herself as a "frozen asset" and it is never expressly stated, but reading between the lines it is pretty clear she is supposed to be gay - but in the 1930's "spinster" is the closest you can approach to that subject. Today, Alex is out, loud and proud. And also perved a little on Crystal when Mary's friends went to check her out. I didn't know Jada could do such broad comedy - physical, not slapstick, but also turn around and be incredibly subtle.

Debra Messing as Edie, the one who is perpetually pregnant was wonderful - and the birthing scene is one of the funniest in the movie. Annette Benning was perfect as Sylvie, Candice Bergen was a great choice for Mary's mother, and Meg Ryan did a terrific job as Mary - and making Mary a capable woman in her own right.

Debi Mazar as the manicurist, and Eva Mendez as Crystal Allen (aka the Other Woman) round out the cast.

So many cameos that were pitch perfect. Bette Midler as the "countess," Carrie Fisher as the gossip reporter, Joanna Gleason as a society matron. Well done, everyone! I recommend everyone see this - preferrably with your best female friends. Really fine update. True to the spirit of the original.

On the list to own.

I spent the holiday weekend *immersed* in family. Thanksgiving was lovely. Found out I have a new niece or nephew on the way (which I believe I posted about on Thanksgiving itself). Spoke with my uncle and cousins at length about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They all seem to be doing very well.

My birthday celebration was small - and filled with wee relatives playing endlessly with blocks, hide-and-go-seek, and romping merrily on the beds my parents bought for the girls so they can Stay Over at Grandma and Grandpa's. G very gleefully whispered The Secret to me (mommy's going to have a baby!) as we built wonderful things with the colored blocks and the plain wooden oak blocks. B brought the bear she built at build-a-bear-workshop and kept making it sing the birthday song at me. It was a little odd that a mottled pink bear with embroidered butterflies burst out with the tinny deep man's voice chanting "happy birthday" to scratchy music.

M and K and the kids gave me a lovely wind chime. My parents started the fund for the serger I want to get for myself (it is a five thread overlock machine). Gwen gave me a hand-made bracelet (very pretty) and later we went to the movies and saw "Enchanted."

This movie is so cute! A very fluffy film geared towards kids, but that adults will enjoy because it has all the best disney-princess cliches without going too far into meanness. It starts off animated (hand drawn animated!) and the wicked queen sends the princess-to-be to "where there are no happily ever afters" - also known as Times Square, NY. And there all turn into live people (of course). The music and lyrics were written by Alan Menkin and Stephen Schwartz - both brilliant in their own rights. The foppish prince was delightfully played by James Marsden (who we last saw in Hairspray, but is most widely known for his work in the X-Men movies as Cyclops).

And YouTube has a number of the musical numbers... my favorite is the Central Park scene, because it is just so perfect. Here: That's How You Know

All in all, it was a delightful day.

Now I am gearing up for my eight-day stay in Vancouver. I'll leave tomorrow and be home December 7th. But no worries! I'll be online almost all the time!