Not Watching Tonight: Stir of Echoes

The first night I tried to watch this movie, Hud was at work (as usual) and the kids were asleep, so I might as well have been home alone. I thought I was going to watch this movie while I picked up the house, folded laundry and washed dishes, but I couldn't even make it through the menu clip because it was too creepy. I thought maybe I could mostly just listen to the movie and not look if it got too scary, but even the sound was freaking me out (and I was catching glimpses of the TV reflected in the windows and the door to the microwave when I didn't want to). For a while it remained to be seen whether I would be able to convince Hud to watch this movie with me or whether I would just return it to netflix unwatched. What I was certain about was the fact that I would not be watching the movie that night, nor any other night that I was effectively alone. Especially after midnight! That's OK, I needed to just go to bed anyway.

Last night I managed to convince Hud to stay up with me and watch it. He'd seen it before and really didn't care about it but I guess he must love me because he agreed to watch it again anyway. My characterization of the movie? Utterly forgettable. My reason? Turns out I'd seen it before too, and had completely forgotten this. Even as I watched, parts of it seemed vaguely familiar, but overall it was like my "literary amnesia" except I suppose in this case it's "cinematic amnesia". 

It was creepy, and I was glad to have Hud there with me, but I hope that from now on I can remember that I've already seen this movie, so that I won't bother watching it again.

Cloverfield

This was one of Hud's picks, but I had heard enough about it that I was curious. I knew that it was a sort of Monster-Attacks-Manhattan movie, but that was about all I knew; for some reason I had the mistaken idea that "you think it's a monster but it's really something else" and I waited throughout the entire movie to find out what the "something else" was, only to be sorely disappointed.

This movie reminded me of The Blair Witch Project--not at all because of the plot, but entirely because of the jerky hand-held camera work, along with the "oh my gosh I'm so scared" acting throughout.

It's a good thing it was short. I couldn't have sat through much more of it. Not because it was too scary (it wasn't), not because it was awfully boring (it marginally kept my interest), but because how much of the same thing can you watch over and over again? Monster wreaks havoc, people run and scream (mostly away from the danger but a scant few straight towards it) repeatedly. In fact, 35 minutes into the movie, I asked Hud, "HOW long is this movie again?" It could have ended at 40 minutes and I would have been satisfied.

We watched the "alternate endings" and they weren't sufficiently different from the acutal ending to be of any interest. My husband's take: the best thing about the movie was that it had a character named Hud. In fact it took some getting used to, hearing them hollering "Hud" over and over again! Too bad Hud got munched up by the monster right before the end.

I do have one question about the movie. What happened to Marlena? Did she EXPLODE??

The Rocketeer

I don't know what possessed me to pick out this movie. It's a nice little Disney family movie--you know, the kind I usually pick out for my Friday night movie night with the kids--the kind I usually only half pay attention to as I do laundry and wash dishes or scrapbook. Maybe if I had sat down and paid attention to the entire movie I would have enjoyed it more, but I didn't, and I found it quite boring. I have a feeling that if I *had* watched it with my kids, even they would have found it boring.

When I first started watching, I thought the main character (played by actor Bill Campbell) was quite handsome, and I wondered why I hadn't seen him in any other movies. However, as the movie wore on, I realized he was very dull, and I became glad that I hadn't seen him in any other movies.

One more parting insult: the score (all orchestral, that I recall) was particularly uninspiring and VERY Disney (and not in a good way).

The Spirit

The Spirit is Hud's movie. I was just kind of along for the ride on this one. I should have gone to bed instead of staying up late to watch, since I have to be up super early for work tomorrow, but I figured I need to hang around with my husband every now and then. So why is it that he went to bed halfway through the movie and I stayed up until it was over? I guess because I'm stupid. He'd seen the movie before and realized how worthless it is. I had to stay up and see for myself.

I had seen previews for The Spirit, and I had never intended to actually watch the movie. I have nothing against movies created from comic books, but this one never really caught my interest at all. I headed into it with the preconceived notion that I would regret staying up instead of going to bed. Surprise, surprise... I was right. Believe it or not, the movie itself is far worse than the previews let on. This entire movie can be summed up by one of its characters' lines. Octopus says, "There's shot to hell, and then there's just plain ridiculous." This movie falls much closer to "just plain ridiculous" in that spectrum. There are serious movies, and there are funny movies, and then there is The Spirit, which somehow got lost in limbo between the two genres. It is far too cornball to be either serious or funny. 

I guess I can relent and say ONE good thing about this movie. It was frequently visually stunning, as if a comic book had come to life. I am sure that was intentional, and they did a good job in that case. However, this one quality was nowhere near buoyant enough to keep an entire movie afloat. 

Too bad there will probably be a sequel, judging by Scarlet Johansson's last line as the character Silken Floss (yes, the entire movie was THAT corny--she was among good company, like Sand Seraf and Plaster of Paris), which was, "We start from scratch. Who knows what I'll do." I can only hope that this movie was such a flop that someone will realize they should use the money that might have gone towards a sequel and feed the starving children in Africa instead.

Electra Glide in Blue

I knew nothing about this movie other than that it is about a short cop. Oh, and that it stars the guy from Beretta (which I've heard of but never seen... and apparently he murdered his wife in real life...?) Hud had watched this movie, and then he put it on *my* netflix queue. (Yes, we each have our own). In fact at first I assumed he had mistakenly put it on my queue instead of his, but no, he really did intend to add it to mine. Hmmm. Apparently this is one of those "cult classics," but have you ever heard of it? It's definitely not a "cult classic" in the same league as The Rocky Horror Picture Show or Heavy Metal  (because I've at least heard of those other two, and have even seen one of them). 

I didn't really know what to make of this movie. Maybe I didn't understand it. But I couldn't figure it out. After we watched it I asked Hud what the point of the movie was and he replied, "Does a movie always have to have a point?" Then, reading the netflix synopsis, I asked Hud what the main character's "delusions about himself" had been, and Hud replied that he didn't want to dissect the movie like a book in English class. Oh well. I am guessing the character's delusions had something to do with being alone.

I must say I was surprised that the main character got shot dead at the end of the movie. I didn't see that coming at all. Although I think that the point was, this was the first time he had ever deviated from "proper police procedure" and look where it got him. 

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince!!!

I had been waiting to see this movie since last November when it was SUPPOSED to come out. Well, the time finally arrived, and I was so excited! Excited enough to go see the midnight show on the first day the movie was released! It had been a while since I read the book, so I really didn't remember many details, but I knew this was the one where Harry learns about horcruxes, and we get to see Harry and Ginny kiss!! ^^ But I was not looking forward to seeing Dumbledore die. In fact, I was in denial about his death and thought for sure he was still alive almost all the way through the 7th book.

It would have been fun to do a five-movie marathon and watch all of the previous Harry Potter movies before going to the theater... but I really didn't decide I was going to the midnight show until the day before, and by then I already had other plans for that day. Plus, people with kids (me) don't have time for five-movie marathons. But each of the Harry Potter movies, as the books, stand alone just fine. 

My assessment: Awesome! This may be the best Harry Potter movie yet. I'll have to reread the book before I can decide for sure, but it seemed to be pretty faithful to the book and didn't leave out anything that should have been absolutely necessary to leave in. I think they added a little to it, but mainly for laughs, which is just fine with me. The Harry/Ginny kiss wasn't what I expected, but it was cute and sweet. And even though I was awfully tired by bedtime the next night, I think it was totally worth going to the midnight show. Fun!

Our local theater put on 4 midnight shows. I was glad we bought our tickets several hours in advance--the first 2 shows were already sold out at that point, and our show was sold out by the time we got to the theater.

The Gift

This movie was fine, as far as murder mysteries with "things that go bump in the night" go. I had to clench my jaw a few times to keep from biting off my tongue in fear because I knew something was about to jump out at me. But it wasn't one of those movies that gets so scary that I start thinking something is sneaking up behind me in real life. I remember watching a movie once (could it have been White Noise? I'm not sure) that got me so rattled that I had to call Hud at work in order to feel a link with reality. This one never got that bad. 

Suspense thrillers may be my favorite kind of movie--especially those with unforeseen plot twists that keep me guessing throughout the whole thing. This movie was somewhat disappointing in its lack of twists and in how obvious the killer's identity was from the moment the main character, Annie (Cate Blanchett), went to his house. We did get a nice little montage of all of the possible murder suspects right before the final confirmation of the real one that sort of briefly caused me to doubt my certainty (fulfilling its intended purpose, I'm sure). But I can not think of a single thing that was revealed in this movie that surprised me. By the time the characters figured out each "surprising revelation", I already knew. Oh, except for the blue diamond. I didn't know what the heck Buddy was talking about until they actually showed the blue diamond. But I did already understand its significance. 

OK, so I will admit that I didn't guess the killer right from the beginning. In fact I probably at some point or another suspected every single character in the movie except for Annie and her kids. So to say that I guessed who the killer was, out of the many I suspected, is kind of cheating. It was bound to be one of the many.