October 16th, 2006
I watched The Insider last night. It was one of those movies that’s been traveling up my Netflix queue for awhile. O.K. It’d been on there so long that I’d actually forgotten pretty much what it was about. My vague recollection was that it was about a whistleblower who went to 60 Minutes. That’s a really boiled down summary of what it is.
One man told the truth. Another reported the story. Both paid the price. The Insider — a true tale about a Big Tobacco scientist (Russell Crowe) who exposed industry secrets, and the newsman (Al Pacino) who fought corporate forces that would have squelched the story — offers a glimpse into power, media and money in America. A thought-provoking and thrilling film. [Netflix]
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Tags: The Insider, Netflix, Russell Crowe, Al Pacino, Christopher Plumber, movie, 60 Minutes, Mike Wallace, Jeffery Wigand, Lowell Bergman, tobacco industry
October 5th, 2006
Update: For some reason Nov. 9th’s Thursday Thirteen is coming here. It should be going to: Thursday Thirteen Things Most People Don’t Know About Me.
So, here they are in reverse order from watched sometime in the Summer to mailed this very Monday…the last eclectic thirteen movies I watched through my Netflix account and even what I thought about them.
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| Thirteen Things about N. Mallory |
Casanova
Lasse Hallstrom’s witty romantic comedy stars Heath Ledger as Jacamo Casanova, the infamous and dashing player of 18th century Venice who holds the key to every woman’s heart — all but one, that is. Francesca (Sienna Miller) detests the lothario’s conquering approach to matters of love and rallies against him in her writing … which only makes her more alluring. But to win her over, Casanova must first decide what kind of man he truly is.
I thought this was a rather charming movie, reminescent of Shakespearian mistaken identities and misunderstandings. Certainly it has a touch of Taming of the Shrew but with a less distasteful ending for those of us who thought Kate was a little too submissive at the end of William’s version. 
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Tags: Netflix, movies, Thursday Thirteen, meme, bloghopping
June 5th, 2006
So, I watched probably way too many movies over the weekend…and you get the benefit of my opinions on the subject. I put the DVDs in my 5 disc-changer in no particular order and basically pressed play, so there was no rhyme or reason to the order of how I watched what except the last which I watched on the We channel last night. 
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Tags: movies, Audrey Hepburn, Diane Keaton, Netflix
May 25th, 2006
Peter: “Forget them, Wendy. Forget them all. Come with me where you’ll never, never have to worry about grown up things again.”
Wendy: “Never is an awfully long time.”
I’ve had a subscription to Netflix since August of 2004 and practically since I’ve been a member, I’ve been trying to get a copy of the 2003 version of Peter Pan to view ever since. It’s been out of stock or something up until last week. Anyway, it was well worth the wait.
Once again I was treated to a world where one boy refuses to grow up, where Wendy Darling is an enchanting storyteller on the verge of adolescence and the Darling children have the most charming improbable St. Bernard nanny. Once again, I was treated to sword-fights, flights of fancy, heroes, Lost Boys, blood-thirsty pirates, Princess Tiger Lilly and her Indians, and the fabulously infamous fearsome 
Captain Hook — that lonely dark villain who is symbolically the lonely, unloved boy all grown up and the father who forced his children to grow up all rolled into one. (Following tradition Jason Isaacs played both Mr. Darling and Captain Hook and managed to play both sides of the coing extraordinarily well, I might add.)
The movie itself is breath-takingly done. Really it’s a piece of art, every bit of it — the dialog, the imagry, the special effects, the lighting. Most certainly it’s one of the few movies based on J. M. Barrie’s original work that actually sticks to the original story fairly well. And with today’s opportunities in special effect technology, J. P. Hogan was able to truly bring to life Barrie’s world of fairies and pirates and alluring but treaturous mermaids.
The cast itself could not have been better chosen. Jeremy Sumpter and Rachel Hurd-Wood were absolutely perfect as Peter and Wendy. Both had such innocent faces and they were so easy to believe in their roles as being on the verge of something new but not quite reaching there — she wanting to make that next step and he never quite willing.
I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and I’ll be considering adding it to my permanent collection of DVDs. Peter Pan with all of it’s magic and fantasy and fairies, of course, has always been one of my favorite children’s stories and sometimes I still pull the book off my shelf and read about Wendy and Michael and John and Tinkerbelle. Such an age of innocence.
If only all of our problems could be so easily resolved by sword-fights and kisses and ticking crocodiles.
Tags: Peter Pan, Netflix
