I am proud to announce that I pared down what is probably a record high of 109 movies watched in 2007 to only 79 movies in 2008. However, that's still more than the 57 books I read, and I'd prefer those stats be reversed. Yeah, yeah, I know what I can do about this -- read more, sit in front of the tv less. From the way things started looking towards the end of 2008, what with the toddler's (non) sleep schedule and fear of anything on the TV that isn't Dora the Explorer, cutting down on TV ought not be too hard.
In fact, on my list of things to do before January 20 is cancel my subscription to Netflix (GASP!) because the movies we want to watch aren't appropriate for children. Since the kids don’t care if they rewatch things, they can stick with their current library instead of us paying $X a month to have those little red envelopes gather dust on the living room mantel.
In my movie stats, I did not include the time I spent watching TV shows. Considering how episodes piled up on the TiVo and got deleted when a certain man person taped football games over them, it's a wonder I kept up with any TV at all in 2008. We switched to TiVo from Replay TV in Summer 2008, and there was a bit of a learning curve.
I am also proud to announce I watched 5 movies in the theatre this year, which meant 5 hot dates with my man person, despite his TiVo slip-ups. In previous years, I averaged 1-2 movies on the big screen. In 2008, we saw Batman: Dark Knight; Zack and Miri Make a Porno; Ironman; The Hulk; and Enchanted, which I have since seen several more times because we have the DVD and the girls love it.
Like books, I rate movies on a scale of 1-5, nothing below a 1. Nearly all my stinkers were taped off TiVo because I thought they would have a romance or at least be something I could watch in front of the kids. Three movies got a DNF, one due to a football taping accident. Stinkers (scores of a 2 or below) were:
Dragon Wars starring that actor who played Max from Roswell. It got a 1. Yes, that's how I have it written in my chart....I am professional! It was insanely stupid, poorly plotted, badly acted, and main characters DIED at the end. Sorry for the spoiler, but you'll spoil your day if you rent it, trust me on this. Even if you're drunk.
Tornado starring Bruce Campbell. Hey, if a flick has Bruce Campbell, I try to give it a chance, but he was playing a standard character without quirks or humor. Why did he even bother? I hope he got some beer money.
Superhero Movie with Leslie Nielson. Why, why, why? Because we rent anything with superheroes in it. Hubby is a comics fan from way back. But not even he was a fan of this movie.
Husband for Hire with Mark Conseulos and Mario Lopez. It sounded like it had a category romance premise, which intrigued me, and both of those dudes are hot. And both of them were bad actors in this movie. I was in need of beer money after watching it.
Alvin and the Chipmunks. The girls liked it better than I did. It wasn't even innocuous enough to be innocuous. I wish Jason Lee hadn't been in it. Unless he got a lot of beer money.
Pirates of the Caribbean 3: Don't hate me because I didn't like it! It was a tooth thing. Johnny Depp's teeth were gnashing on ham, Orlando Bloom didn't smile through the whole movie, and Kiera Knightly kept her teeth so tightly clenched whenever she talked, it was difficult to bear. It was probably also difficult for her to drink beer through them, but since she looked like she hadn't partaken of anything but water and diet pills in years, it hardly mattered.
Bridal Fever with Delta Burke. Taped from Lifetime or Hallmark. It wanted to be a funny chick lit but instead it was one cliché after another, and a bit boring to boot. It had a romance author as a secondary character (Ms. Burke), who was written in a way that made me want to crush a beer can on someone's' head.
Mansfield Park on PBS. I guess it wasn't a stinker, it was just dull. It was disjointed, and the other version of Mansfield Park I saw at some point put this one to shame. It's almost like I have had a beer black out since I've watched it because even reading my notes I hardly remember it.
Girl's Best Friend with Janeane Garofalo. I wanted to like this because it was about a girl toting a dog and a car cross country, but it wasn't funny enough. The most interesting part was the gender reversal where the heroine played the typical male slacker commitment phobe role--and she liked to drink beer, I'm sure.
Isn't it funny how I'm willing to name the movies I didn't care for but not books I didn't care for? Ok, it's not particularly funny, it's kind of sad. Industry politics, author backbiting, and all that. But still, there they are. Feel free to disagree, but don't drive me to drink with your arguments or anything. There isn't a lot of beer left in my house at this point.
I didn't give any movie above a 4 in 2008. Not even a 4.5. Was I picky or unlucky? Probably both. 4's were awarded to: Northanger Abbey; Sense and Sensibility (can you tell we watched those new PBS Austen flicks?); Zack and Miri Make a Porno (hilarious!); The Hulk (love Edward Norton); Ironman (did not love Robert Downey Jr like I love Edward Norton, but I love him a little bit now); Enchanted (loved James Marsters in this but not so much Patrick Dempsey); Batman: The Dark Knight (if it had been less emo I would have rated it higher, but hey, it's Batman); Bigger Than The Sky (a little known movie about a community theatre and sad sack hero); Pan's Labyrinth (though I wish I'd never watched it, I cannot deny the quality); Stargate: Ark of Truth (quality doesn't matter--it's the gang!); Juno (I've heard people feel this promotes teenage pregnancy, but I thought it made pregnancy look like hell); Dan in Real Life (in which I realized I kind of like Dane Cook and find Steve Carrell extremely unsexy); and Knocked Up (painful to watch but in a good way).
I enjoy movies as a storytelling medium. They are books on screen, only I can finish in two hours or less. While I'm capable of devouring a book in a short space of time, that rarely happens like it does with movies. I don't get two hours to sit and read. If I have two free hours, I work. Or spend it watching a movie with my husband. Reading is just not a shared experience, even when he's on his side of the bed reading Buffy Episode 6 and I'm on my side reading Buffy Episode 7. Yes, we do discuss it, inasmuch as he discusses anything, but it's not the same as experiencing a story together.
For my 2007 movie watching post, go here: http://blog.jodywallace.com/2008/01/my-movie-year-2007.html
How about you? Got any movie experiences from the past year, good or bad, to relate? And do you feel differently about awarding a movie or tv show a scathing review in a public place as opposed to a book?
Jody W.
http://www.jodywallace.com/
A SPELL FOR SUSANNAH--In Paper, Samhain Publishing
LIAM'S GOLD--In Electrons, Samhain Publishing
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5 comments:
You should have seen Australia. I loved it! I enjoyed Kung Fu Panda and Iron Man. I'm sure there were more, but I can't remember. I wanted to like The Women, but it was boring. And Meg Ryan's face lift and her weird lips kept distracting me.
We loved The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons and liked Yes Man!, but we saw them in 2009.
I'm searching the archives for the movies we saw last year. I don't know whether it's old age or what, but we didn't go to the theater as much as we used to. But I did see the Dark Knight and thought Heath Ledger was amazing. Also Aaron Eckhart. Man, don't you just want to reach through the screen and stick your finger in that chin dent of his? I also saw (I think it was last year) 10,000 BC, which was stupid but I liked it anyway. Always fun to see world building on the big screen. Hmm...what else? 27 Dresess? Was that last year? I liked that even though James Marsters looked so much younger than Kathryn Heigel. Knocked Up was terrific--c'mon, who can't resist the slacker-who-does-the-right-thing concept. Also enjoyed Superbad, tho its clearly a movie for men who are stuck in 7th grade...
Saw Slumdog Millionaire at the end of the year. Highly recommended, though it was a lot darker than I expected.
I probably saw more, but who can remember?
This year--in fact, last night, I saw Gran Torino. A lot LESS dark than I expected. Or less violent I should say, since it was pretty intense. Lots of humor, too. The "real" kind that comes from character not pratfalls. Not a kids movie, but definitely worth seeing. Great script.
Actually, last year was the year of NCIS. On the suggestion of our mututal friend, Marie-Nicole Ryan, I started watching, and she was right. It's a great show.
I liked Marsters in 27 Dresses. I like him in a lot of things, in fact. And ditto on Superbad. Annie it surprises me you liked that, good for you!
Edie, I am scared of Australia. Will it make me cry? What about Benjamin Buttons?
Australia will not make you cry. I was worried about that one, too, but it ends well. There are a few possible teary parts along the way, but no worries overall. It's a great, old-fashioned sweeping romance.
A friend who saw Button told me she sobbed and it was only the fact that she saw it with her son that prevented her from doing the ugly cry. So I'm skipping that one.
I totally agree with you on Dragon Wars. O...M...G was it stupid. And I am so easily entertained, so you know it was stinkworthy. The only reason I watched it was because Jason Behr was in it. It made me sad that he was making such a hideous movie. I mean, seriously, how does this crap get made?
However, I'm a big lover of all things Pirates of the Caribbean, so I loved all three.
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