December 7th, 2006
Feel free to try to convince me to change my mind.
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| Thirteen Things about N. Mallory |
Gone With The Wind — Though I did read the book. I absolutely couldn’t stand Scarlett or Ashley. I did love Rhett Butler, of course, the rogue. Still, I’m not sitting through a technocolor movie of the story.- Pulp Fiction — Gratuitous violence. Well, I think that’s what it is. That’s what it seems to be from the descriptions I’ve garnered from my male friends who’ve seen it and the commercials. It just seems to glorify violence and after seeing Natural Born Killers in the theater, I can’t stomach that kind of glorification anymore. More
Tags: Thursday Thirteen, meme, bloghopping, movies
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 11th, 2006
- Thanks to the change in the weather, everything hurts.
- I can’t even take any alleve, advil or asprin (even if I took asprin) for the inflamation of the finger because of the upcoming kidney biopsy.
- My popup windows are screwed up on my home laptop so that when my “insert a link” window opens for wordpress, it’s less than an inch wide and is not resizeable and I can’t see what I’m typing in the url field.
- Don’t forget to stop by Brony’s 100th post and be one of her 100th commenters.
- I made pizza casserole over the weekend. Yum. I’m still finishing up leftovers thought…the problem with being single…or is it the blessing?
Last weekend I numbed my brain with Memoirs of a Geisha (excellent), Kingdom of Heaven (not so good), X-Men: Last Stand (disappointing), and Domino (eh). Fortunately, Netflix has already delivered the next set of movies.- I also got all caught up on Sci-Fi’s series Eureka, which I will definitely be buying the DVDs for. Very cute series…Northern Exposure meets Area 51.
- There’s been too much talk about Folley in the news as Saturday night I dreamt I was trying to stop a child predator in a grocery store and a mother wouldn’t heed my warning, but when her kid got molested she was angry at me for not stopping it.
- I know I haven’t been discussing the world’s problems as much on here lately. I’ve still be following them…but with my own health crisis, Pugly’s kennel cough, and my recent troubles with friends, I just want to write about other things for a bit.
- In fact, if anyone is interested in starting some sort of coffee club, knitting coven, or just getting-together-to-get-away-from-stuff club in the Portland, ME area…let me know.
- I’m really starting to dig knitting. I’m wondering where everyone buys their supplies online and what the best needles are and what sort of gadgets I should be buying.
- I finally got everything sorted with my Amazon Rewards Credit Card. I got all of the gift certificates they owed me since February…I just spent $225…it’s going to be like an early Christmas next week. I bought lots of little stuff — movies, cookbooks, and books rather than one or two big things. I need to go clean off my Amazon wish list now, I guess.
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Tags: discombobulated, movies, knitting
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
August 31st, 2006
We all have these movies. You know what they are. You’re flipping through the channels or the tv guide and there it is. It’s not an Emmy winner. It wasn’t even that great the first (hundred) time(s) you saw it. But you can’t help yourself. You’re drawn to it. Your fingers automatically work the remote control and the next thing you know, you’re sitting mesmerized on the futon with a Big Gulp in one hand and another hand stuffed in a half empty bag of Baked Doritos and the credits are rolling and you can’t remember how you got there…
These are thirteen of mine…
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Tags: movies, Thursday Thirteen, blog meme, bloghopping
June 12th, 2006
O.K. You would not know that I got a gazillion things done plus was feeling like I was dying plus had a sick puppy over the weekend with all the movies I watched. Plus, I put the new theme in…and when I use my entertainment system, it mucks up my wireless internet so I couldn’t work on the theme while I was doing that so there. 
Anyway, here goes my movie reviews for this weekend.
The Graduate - Yes, I know it’s an oldie. I’d never actually watched it. I knew the premise, of course. Who doesn’t? Basically, cold, calculating experienced Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) seduces a young, confused Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman), who then falls in love with her daughter Elaine (Katherine Ross).
I found this to be a very surreal story, basically a bunch of rich people acting on impulses and perhaps societial expectations. I don’t think the movie is written in a way to let you feel empathy for any of the characters, except perhaps Elaine — though even she makes her choices to follow along, doesn’t she?
Anne Bancroft is absolutely stunning as she was until the day she died and Dustin Hoffman was quite the looker then. As far as classics go, it’s worth a watch, but I don’t think I’ll watch it a second time.
Rumor Has It - Well, now you know why I rented the above movie. You don’t need to have seen The Graduate to understand what’s going on in Rumor Has It; there’s a nice little explanation at the begining about how Charles Webb’s book and then the movie ties into the story that you’re about to see with Jennifer Anniston, Shirley MacLaine, and Kevin Costner.
Jennifer Anniston’s character Sarah Huttinger spends the movie on a quest to discover the true meaning of happiness in marriage as best as I can tell. It’s an odd series of twists and turns and a strange journey of self-discovery as well as a search to learn more about a mother she hardly had the chance to know. It’s a cute movie; worth viewing. I’d watch it again if it were on. Plus, Jennifer’s hair was gorgeous as always — damnit.
Garfield - After watching Garfield, which was a darling film, by the way, I feel very bad for my cats. I feel like they deserve some sort of extra treat or something since I brought a puppy into the house. I mean, seeing how Garfield felt when Jon just upped and brought Odie home out of the blue and then started doing all of that stuff with Odie and letting him sleep in the bed and all…
Anyway, I think the movie truly captrued the essence of the comic strip, though I did think that Nermal wasn’t cute or perky enough for the role.
- Underworld: Evolution — Ask anyone; I’m a sucker for a vampire flick. I really liked the first Underworld movie with it’s gothic imagry and even how it kind of resembled Vampire: The Mascarade, a roleplaying game I find way too dramatic and a little too unyielding. Anyway, I liked the first movie. I liked the way it ended with that big dark possiblity hanging over the future — the hunter becoming the hunted.
I wasn’t particularly pleased with the second movie. I didn’t particularly get it all, I guess. It just seemed stupid to me. What was with the Immortal father of the two brothers? If Marcus was that powerful to begin with, why hadn’t he done something before? These sorts of questions bother me.
If you want to see a lot of supernatural fighting and killing, this movie is for you. There’s some nifty fight scenes, some cool special effects too. Suspend your logic and belief for a few hours. It definitely lacks the charm of the first movie where you were working out the mysterious pieces of who was betraying who…there’s still that hint here, but basically, you already know who the betrayer is from the last movie; it’s just a matter of unravelling still how far it went.
In Good Company — I’m not sure what I was expecting here. This was another one of those self-discovery movies, I think. The cast is excellent — Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, Marg Helgenberger, and Scarlet Johansson.
Dan Foreman (Quaid) is an ad exec who’s company is bought and he is down-graded from the sales exec and replaced by Carter Duryea (Grace) who is half his age and has absolutely no experience in ad sales. An uneasy friendship forms, of course, as both face problems both in the office and at home — a friendship put in peril by Carter’s secret affair with Foreman’s 18 year-old daughter Alex (Johansson).
Don’t go into this expecting the an ending where everything ties up neatly and everyone lives happily every after. However, this has a very realistic ending and I liked it very much. I thought it was well done and I could relate to several of the characters on more than one level. I wish Marg Helgenberger had gotten more air time as she’s a great actress, but maybe next time, right?
Tags: movies
June 9th, 2006
I think I just might be a little more in love with John Cusack…
CHICAGO John Cusack’s motivation for his latest film grew out of something he did not see — flag-draped caskets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Pentagon policy bans media coverage of America’s war dead as their remains are returned. The administration of U.S. President George Bush has strongly enforced the ban, something Cusack describes as “one of the most shameful, disgraceful, cowardly political acts that I’ve seen in my lifetime.”
So the actor started looking for a project that would illustrate “what happens when the coffins come home.”
The result is “Grace Is Gone,” a small, independent film in which Cusack plays a man whose wife Grace is killed in service in Iraq. Filming wrapped last month. The movie’s producers — who include Cusack — will be looking for a distributor or film festival opportunities.
Cusack’s character, Stanley, delays telling his two daughters about their mother’s death, instead taking them on a road trip while the former military man sorts out his complicated feelings about the war.
While Cusack’s motivation for taking the part are political, he insists the movie is not. “It’s kind of a spiritual story about grief and, hopefully, a little bit of redemption,” Cusack said recently. [“John Cusack Movie Inspired by Ban on Press Photos of Flag-Draped Coffins” (Editor&Publisher)]
Hat tip to Shakespeare’s Sister.
Tags: John Cusack, movies
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 5th, 2006
I ordered a lime green pet carrier from PetEdge.com for Pugly that looks like a purse. We are going to be so styling going around town now. 
I hope it arrives today because tomorrow he’s going with me to visit the gals at the beauty parlor/spa while I get my hair done and I know he doesn’t like his regular carrier. (I also ordered him an exercise pen for outside since I don’t have a yard.)- I’ve had a low grade migraine most of the week that nothing has helped to reduce the pain of.
- Happy Cinco De Mayo! I was going to make Tamale Pot Pie, but I think I’m just going with the usual traditional Friday Chinese take-out. I’ll make Tamale Pot Pie tomorrow. (see the comment about the migraine above.)
- I’ve got to pick up around my apartment. Sunny’s coming tomorrow and with Pugly around, I kind of let a few things backslide this week. I really want to get a Bissell Spotlifter too. I have the cheapest Bissell spot cleaner and it’s o.k. but I’d like the one in the commercial where the woman talks about the mystery stains and how she just leaves it to do it’s work and comes back. Actually, I’d like an upright. I’m forever spilling Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper, which it turns out is a red soda. (Am accepting suggestions on how to get this out of light tan carpet)
Netflix sent me Brokeback Mountain (Widescreen Edition), Casanova, and Price of Milk (Ws) this week. It’s going to be a weird movie weekend.- Oh, and surprisingly, The Naked Truth got mentioned on The Hotline Blogometer yesterday. I had no idea anyone but like ten of you were stopping by.
- I really would like to find a spellcheck function that works with Wordpress 2.02.
- I’m sorry that there’s been a couple of disruptions with my server (Libby) on my new webhost the last couple of days. Not my fault and nothing as bad as the old host.
- I like the look of this new theme “Almost Spring” by Beccary, though I am still trying to add a few finishing touches of my own. You know me, always fiddling.
Tags: discombobulated, movies, the puppy, Wordpress
