Thursday, January 08, 2015

Tommy's Mindlessly Stupid Project, Volume 9

Well, that corridor from Thanksgiving to Christmas is a big old heaping bunch of bullshit.  Doing my damnedest to get my writing project back on track, and though I was able to spit out 800 words tonight, it felt mechanical, and my feeling afterward was that it was just no damn good.

I also lagged behind on this part of my project.

I'm still ridiculously behind where I am viewing (I'm nearly up to the H's), but I did spend a good bit of December re-watching Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, Elf and March of the Wooden Soldiers.

Anyway.  Just a few thoughts on flicks I own.

Cold Mountain    (2003, D: Anthony Minghella)

I think I own this owing to my love of the Charles Frazier book, which is up there among my favorites.  The movie itself is not bad.  It's actually pretty good.  But the book is poetry.  And while I initially hated Renee Zellweger's Ruby Thewes, it's actually the performance I enjoyed most this time around.

It made me miss Philip Seymour Hoffman, too.  I don't know why I like him so much as Veasey, but I do....

The Conspirator    (2010, D: Robert Redford)

I just like this flick.  I'm not going to tell you it's a great flick.  In fact, it's a bit of a galumphing mess.  I watched it originally because the husband of one of my workers is big into the re-enactment scene, and got to go be part of the filming.  I ended up liking the flick enough to pick it up in a $5 bin, he said, trying not to damn with faint praise....

Contact    (1997, D: Robert Zemeckis)

I love this movie.  Every time I watch it, I like it a little more.  It's a story of faith.  Religious fervor isn't limited to the religious.  Somehow, after seeing the flick a dozen times, I found myself laughing at the irony of Ellie's fate at the end, the lone recipient of a message from a higher power, with no scientific means of proving her statements.  Previously, I'd found it sad for Ellie.  Don't know why it hit me different this time....

Contagion    (2011, D: Steven Soderbergh)

Another movie that is something of a mess, yet it works on the frightening level I need it to.  This flick makes me want to rethink a career working with the public.  Makes me wonder, if and when such an event takes place, whether I'd be one of the first exposed to a virus.

Crazy Heart     (2009, D: Scott Cooper)

Beautiful flick.  One of Jeff Bridges's finest roles.  Maggie Gyllenhaal is great, but the real miracle of this flick is making it so that I don't pass out when I roll my eyes every time Colin Farrell speaks.  He is actually believable in this.


1 Comments:

Blogger Gladorn said...

"The Conspirator" reminded me of a sorty... Once upon a time I was employed as an interpreter at a local park of historical significance. During one of the events, I was hanging out with the reenactors. Pretty interesting bunch. They are a whole lot of fun if you understand them, but could come off as pretty scary if you didn't.

At the time, there had been filming of a movie in the area about the American Civil War. There was an open casting call for reenactors and there fore a lot of these guys had been in the movie. And therefore this movie was what half of these guys were talking about. (Forgive me, but I can't recall the name of the movie.)

Well, one guy in the group had gotten picked for a close up scene with "Abraham Lincoln." (Most are just way in the background, he was up front and got film credit.) His story about it was hilarious. It ended up with "But I had an ulterior motive for being there." He then showed a photograph of him in his historical clothing, sneaking around a door, with an 1851 Navy.

You just had to be there. I miss those days.

8:47 AM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home