AUTHOR: Nate DATE: 3/04/2008 03:12:00 PM ----- BODY:
Answer: NO!! I was watching the movie "Becoming Jane" recently. It stars Anne Hathaway (cute having an actress named Anne Hathaway* play someone period right?) as Jane Austen and presumably we see how she gets her ideas for her stories. Maybe it's true, maybe it's not but it closely mirrors many of her various novels. That's not what bothered me. What bothered me is you have James Macalvoy's character discussing what to do for the night with a compatriot and after two of his friend's suggestions he says in turn, "Been there!" "Done that!" This is such an irritating nod to the catch phrase of the late 20th century. Was it meant to draw a laugh? I'm sure. But instead, it just irritated me. I think I much more enjoy humor or plots where people from the past are involved in the future than things of the present are injected into the past. For instance, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure? Good. Jack the Ripper in Modern Day? Good. Bunch of medieval people singing "We Will Rock You"? Bad! That's what is nice about time travel movies. It allows us to view the past through the glasses of today because we actually have a character there to do that for us. Anyway... in short, don't see this movie. It blows. It's filled with a lot of montages too(she's writing! ooh!) which is the sloppiest and clumiest way to advance plot that I know.

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-------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:Blogger Nate COMMENT-DATE:3:23 PM COMMENT-BODY:* Anne Hathaway = Shakespeare's wife -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:Blogger Dyna COMMENT-DATE:5:27 PM COMMENT-BODY:So... I take it you're not a Shrek fan -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:Blogger Nate COMMENT-DATE:8:03 PM COMMENT-BODY:i like the parts of shrek that don't rely on this. -------- AUTHOR: Nate DATE: 1/31/2008 11:45:00 AM ----- BODY:
Some notes from around the league. Err.. of Nate. GIRL POWER This is my newest guitar pupil. Look at Polly rocking out! Polly took guitar lessons when she was 10 years old so her guitar is 3/4 size. And hasn't really touched it since then. I started teaching her a month or so ago. She's getting better. And we changed her strings. Which were 10 years old. Those strings were older than all of my nieces and nephews. Speaking of... CAT SCRATCH FEVER This is my niece Caroline. Pretty cool cheerleading outfit right? Wonder what sort of cool uncle got her that? Sidenote: They play Ted Nugent's song "Cat Scratch Fever" at Panthers' games. Because they are panthers. Still, I feel like it is the first time I have heard that song since being a child growing up in the 70's. YOU'RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME, MONETARILY Jason Garrett, the Cowboys' offensive coordinator, was given a raise by Jerry Jones, the Cowboys' owner. He now makes 3M a year. What is interesting about this is not only is he the highest paid assistant coach in the land. He also makes more than the head coach, Wade Phillips. I thought this would be remedied by a new contract for Wade. But it hasn't happened yet. This was a month ago. How awkward is that? IDOL WATCH '08 Since there is not much new on the airwaves these days what with the WGA strike, I have been watching American Idol. Ok, that's a load of b.s. I would have watched it anyway. They are really amping up the whole this contest is a life changing experience for people with sob stories galore. "Singing on American Idol will bring my dad home from Iraq!" "This is my version of 'Funkytown' to let my sister with cancer, I am thinking about her." It's ruthless. And tasteless. But it makes for good trashy television. Still, I'd rather we just cut straight to the awesome and pitiful performances. I've said it before, I'll say it again--Ryan Seacrest earns his $ on that show. He has to keep a straight face talking with the crazies and show genuine compassion to the cry babies. He does it all. And he's able to keep his smarm factor down which was off the charts in season 1 and 2. SUPER JACKED FOR SUPER TUESDAY I'm pretty excited for Super Tuesday to roll around on Feb. 5th here in the NYC. Because it's the first time it really mattered. Get to make a real difference on who might run for the Dem nom. You want to know which way I'm voting? Here's a hint: I'm going with the young man. PICTCHAS Because I pride myself on being a good uncle, I did some research the other day. I netflixed "High School Musical". For youse not in the know, kids everywhere are crazy about HSM and Hannah Montana. They are really batshit crazy about this stuff. I got my niece Kayla this Wii game where you can sing all the songs from HSM. I wanted to do some duets with her but I didn't really know the words. Well, later I made a mix of the songs and then I watched the movie. Now, I'm ready! But you know what? The movie's not half bad. The one thing is disturbing is they have this brother/sister team and their relationship is a little weird I think. They sing a song that the main love interests sing too. Until I saw the movie, I didn't realize they were brother/sister. Ummm... creepy. Still, it's a good song. In other movie news, I think they are going too far with the "Computers Are Cool" notion. And just general technology. It's one thing to have a sci-fi movie. It's another to have current technology and spin a thriller from it, ridiculously. Enter ONE MISSED CALL. This movie is the evolution ripoff of The Ring. You'll remember in the Ring, people watch a video tape of some weird scattered grainy images. 24 hours later, they die. Then there was that movie where if people visited some website, 24 hours later they'd die. Well, now, apparently someone leaves a voicemail on your phone and it's your death. You're listening to a recording of how you die. And then ho hum. 24 hours later you die. Come on people, it needs to have sort of thread of reality if you're making it out to be a modern day picture. What sort of voodoo is being done so someone can travel back in time with a recording of someone's death? I don't buy it. Still, maybe this is more exciting than in the vast number of movies where you need some sort of exposition to take place, ,or plot development, and it takes place in front of a computer, normally Google. APT I start painting this weekend for the living room. New Year's resolution here we come!

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-------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:Blogger Heather COMMENT-DATE:10:33 AM COMMENT-BODY:Goodness gracious, she's adorable.

Dimples are the answer to World Peace. -------- AUTHOR: Nate DATE: 4/15/2007 12:57:00 PM ----- BODY:
It took long enough, but I finally saw The Lake House today. I'm doing my taxes and saw it on-demand on HBO so I fired it up. Actually, I started to watch it last night but I fell asleep watching it. But finished it this morning. So here's the report! As you might know, it concerns this titular Lake House. It's one of these fancy artsy glass houses on a lake, actually up on stilts too. And Sandra Bullock used to live there, but now Keanu Reeves lives there. She leaves him a note with instructions for forwarding mail. Only here's the kicker kids, two of the instructions don't make sense. First, it says, "Forgive the paw prints in the front" but there are no paw prints! Whoa. And it also says that it's 2006 when in fact, it is 2004. Yowza. What's a guy to do? Well, he writes her back and tells her that's just dead wrong. But then as it happens, a dog runs through some paint while he's working on the little walkway in front and gets PAW PRINTS there. Did you just get chills? Because I did. So he writes her back and they gradually realize wait a second, we actually do live two years apart from each other. This is told through an excruciating montage of letters and voice over and them reading aloud their letters as well. They try to figure out ways to intersect their lives outside of the magical mailbox. They have some chance encounters where they meet but the other doesn't realize that it's the mailbox guy or gal at the time. This is where the plot starts to not make a lot of sense. Even if you buy the whole mailbox dealie bobber. There's just a lot of time travel paradoxes that are hard to follow. Ok, first off---she complains about no trees or missing trees so Keanu plants a tree at the housing development where she is at. Which then by the time she lives there becomes a big tree. Like in a split second. So you see, he can effect things in the future, but she can tell him what happened in the past. Now, here's something that I'll give to the writers. They set up some things that happen and you don't really think about it but then later it all starts to come together in a dramatic fashion. I'm once again going to assume you aren't going to watch this movie and thus ruin it for you if you do. In the beginning of the movie, Sandra sees some guy get run over by a bus. She's a doctor so she tries to go save him. But he's dead. Later on, they are supposed to meet for dinner someplace but he doesn't show up. The reason? Because it's the SAME DAY FOLKS! Did you just get chills? Because I did. So seriously though, that's pretty slick. Because he's the guy that got hit by the bus. Double yowza. And the whole time before she realizes this, she gets pissed at him and breaks it off(through the mailbox) with Keanu. Talk about unfair fighting folks. Aren't you not allowed to bring up things in the past? Plus, she's getting mad at him because he didn't show up. But there's a pretty good excuse, he's dead! Geez Louise. Girls are such ball busters. But I don't understand when it's all said and done why this mailbox is magical. I mean, I suppose maybe the mailbox knew they were supposed to be together? And until that was cemented the mailbox was unhappy. Also, you've probably realized this movie should not be called the Lake House. It should be called the Mailbox. And you know what? It wasn't half-bad. It wasn't great. But it was better than expected. So I give the Lake House(aka The Mailbox) a C+. I feel like there was a missed plotpoint where maybe Sandra's guy(she has a boyfriend of course that makes it harder for Keanu to get with her at first) runs over the mailbox or hits it with a baseball bat. Just a suggestion directors from the future if you are remaking the movie and reading this blog. Through the magical internet that lets us send messages back and forth two years apart.

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-------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:Anonymous natasha COMMENT-DATE:12:55 PM COMMENT-BODY:I could talk about this movie for a long time, and i did in my own blog, but I just wanted to say I agree that there were some plot points missed now that you mention it. Sadly, I am saying this unironically. -------- AUTHOR: Nate DATE: 3/05/2007 09:40:00 AM ----- BODY:
I convinced my friend Polly to go see it finally! So we went yesterday. What is "it" you innocently and ignorantly ask? Why, "Music & Lyrics" foolios! The five readers of this blog know that(I was about to write 10 but I didn't want to overestimate)I had been eagerly anticpating this movie ever since saw the preview while watching another ro-co, "The Holiday". It came out on Valentine's Day but I didn't get to see it for whatever reason or another until now. So... What's it all about? The long and short of it? It was pretty good. It wasn't great. I don't put it up there with like When Harry Met Sally or even as much as say My Best Friend's Wedding, or for that matter Four Weddings & A Funeral, or Muriel's Wedding. Quite a lot of wedding ro-cos, eh? I suppose it follows. Let's go over the ingredients. They do indeed meet cute. She's the fill-in plant waterer and she comes in and gets pricked by his cactus and then leaves abruptly. The next time she comes in, she absent mindedly finishes the lyric to a song he's composing. They've the best friend components of course. With Hugh's manager being his, played by the tall guy from Everybody Knows Raymond, and Drew's sister being hers, played by the tall gal from 3rd Rock From The Sun. (She actually steals the show in this movie. She's in love with Grant's character from back in the 80's.) A word about the age difference between them---seemed almost borderline. Or maybe it's just Hugh looks a little gruff around the edges these days. I just imdbed them to check. Interesting. Mr. Grant is older than I thought. He's 47. And Drew is 32. So 15 years between them. If she were younger than 30, it would be a little oogie. But it still kind of works. They returned Hugh to his normal stuttering witty yet a little incompetent Brit self as opposed to his recent turns as cad. Which makes sense because he's trying to trade in on his cache as a member of the 80's ficitional pop band, Pop!(that exclamation point is in the name. Not the end of my sentence.) They're basically Duran Duran. Or really Duran Duran meets Wham!(again, not the end of the sentence, but end of band name). The movie opens with a video from Pop! and it's hilarious. They effectively lampoon most elements of the early 80's video. 1) black & white checkers on the background 2) ridiculous side-to-side dancing and snapping 3) having one person inside a tv talking to the other bandmate, a sort of Max Headroom effect 4) lame plot scenario that the bandmates act out All they needed to do was add the Aha effect where they look it's a drawing and they're all set. Anyway... so they meet, she becomes his lyricist to write a song for this Britney Spears type. And they get overwhelmed at one point and sleep together. Then he says something out of turn at one point about how he wishes that love would be more like a business relationship, you state what you want and then you either take it or leave it. Which she then scathingly includes in the lyrics of the song they are working on. Suffice it to say, he does something to get her back and yes it's a song. And no he never wrote lyrics before, and yes they're actually not bad. (By the way, they both sing pretty well, or well enough. They sound cute singing together which is the most important thing.) The movie ends with the video from the beginning but in pop-up video fashion with the epilogue. Nice touch. I don't think I can give this movie a higher grade even though it was fine. But I've really almost explained the whole movie to you. That's it. In most great ro-cos there's a lot more than just one misstep. I don't know. Maybe that's the reason it was only 96 minutes long. Felt like it was missing some beats to it. (Nice musical pun there Shelks!)(I try.) Music & Lyrics: Solid B

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-------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:Blogger logangal COMMENT-DATE:10:24 AM COMMENT-BODY:yay! thanks shelky! -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:Anonymous Dyna COMMENT-DATE:11:23 AM COMMENT-BODY:Thank goodness you're seeing these so we don't have to.

I'd actually like to see you do breakdowns/reviews of older ro-cos (are they no longer rom-coms?)... particularly forgotten ones. Search 0-2 stars on netflix and go to town. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:Blogger Will Hines COMMENT-DATE:2:27 PM COMMENT-BODY:I love the move of making a parenthetical comment, and then a second one that answers the first one.

This movie sounds kinda fun. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:Anonymous natasha COMMENT-DATE:8:17 PM COMMENT-BODY:First of all, you GAVE AWAY THE ENDING!! What if I thought they DIDN'T end up together???? And of course those words came back to bite him in the form of lyrics. Of course. In other news, when did I get so bitter about ro-cos?

Also, I saw Hugh Grant in HD and let me say, he is indeed "gruff around the edges". Or rough. But I like your expression better. Regardless, I thought the same thing about their age difference. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:Anonymous Dyna COMMENT-DATE:6:13 PM COMMENT-BODY:Are you going to see Starter for 10? -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:Blogger Nate COMMENT-DATE:12:33 PM COMMENT-BODY:starter for 10. hmmm... i might. a quiz show based ro-co? why not? i prefer ro-co to rom com just for sound sake. also, porter mason first introduced me into ro-co instead of rom com and i have embraced it since then! --------