So far I'm none too enthusiastic about the latest offerings by television networks. The strike last season really messed up more than just shortening last season's shows. However, there are two shows, only one of which is brand spankin' new that I've recently discovered. And a third that is in its second season. What surprises me is that they all star men. Sure, there are a number of them out there, but typically the shows I have enjoyed in the past focus on female characters--The Golden Girls, Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars to name just a few. I also realized that these three shows that I've been watching most recently have to do with murder. I'm not entirely certain what this says about either myself or the state of television, but if you want to hear what I have to say about the shows themselves, then read on.

Continue reading "three* men on tv" »

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I know it's been ages since I've posted anything. But it's not really my site, so the guilt I feel is only a fraction of the guilt Leah and David should feel everyday they don't post anything, so I don't feel too terrible about it.

I've seen quite a few movies over the summer and have enjoyed the majority of them. Some of them were even quite good. I'm not going to mention any of them right now. Instead, I have a suggestion for the next time in the near-ish future when you're wanting to marvel at things that are so horrible but you can't quite turn away from the screen. Because they have been immortalized on celluloid (or 1s and 0s in the case of DVDs), you can be in horrified awe of them over and over again. Did I mention that neither of them are actual horror films?

Continue reading "gawk and awe" »

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I spent most of the other week in New York. I arrived around noon on Wednesday and headed out. First, to my bagel place. It doesn't have the best bagels, but it does have a signed photo of Mel Brooks. I then walked over to Bryant Park, which is the backyard of the main branch of the New York Public Library. You know, the one with the lion statues, Patience and Virtue in front. Then I hopped on a subway to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and spent an insufficient amount of time on the Gustave Courbet exhibit. I then meandered through Central Park over to Lincoln Center and had late lunch with a friend. I had forgotten how much walking is required in New York. But it was a good thing I got some walking in, because the rest of my time was spent in a darkened theater (at NYU's Cantor Center to be precise) watching a wonderful array of orphan works during the 6th Orphan Symposium.

Continue reading "sitting and clapping for orphans" »

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In my ever so humble opinion, the title of this post should be conveyed in the tone and manner of Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest, when she expressed her displeasure with some wire hangers. Loud and threatening. With just a tinge of hysteria and and a whiff of madness.
Dubbing is for me currently what colorization was during the 1980s-1990s. It's terrible, needless and ruins the film. (Though this does not mean that I have given up my hatred for colorization. Constant vigilance!) Allow me to explain my burgeoning distaste for dubbing.
I have a number of channels included in my cable package. In fact, I'm sure a number of parental units (certainly mine) would sigh heavily and shake their heads over the number of channels included, but add throwing their hands up in the air in despair over the cost of what I pay for said cable package. There are a number of channels I even forget about. One of these is AZN: The Network for Asian America. It does a combination of Korean, Chinese and Indian programming (possibly Japanese as well, though I'm less sure about this).
Back when all my channels were bright and shiny, I made a point of checking in sporadically to see what Hindi movies they were showing on AZN. And then, over a weekend, I discovered they were showing a marathon of a South Korean mini-series/soap opera, Dae Jang Geum (Jewel in the Palace is its common English title). I stumbled upon it during the middle of its 51 episodes, and despite the fact that it was in Korean, with Chinese (presumably) subtitles, I was sufficiently drawn into the story--and trying to figure out what the characters were saying. Dae Jang Geum is the story of the first female royal physician in 16th century Korea. I really enjoyed the episodes I was able to watch, but since I had come into the middle of it, and for some reason missed the end, have always wanted to watch it in its entirety. Since none of my four libraries--yes, 4! own it-- and neither does Netflix and I'm not so enamored of it that I want to buy it, I occasionally check back to see if it's showing on AZN. So far no luck. However, during my most recent search I saw that they had shown a Korean film, Gamunui yeonggwang (Marrying the Mafia). The synopsis sounded silly and cute and since AZN wasn't showing it again, and Netflix had it, I decided to rent it.
Bad decision. It came and I became intensely irritated within 2 minutes of watching it and ultimately had to stop watching it. Because of the dubbing--though I suspect there were other areas of the production that I would have found lacking. All the dialogue had been dubbed into English. It's just wrong! And more to the point completely unnecessary. I understand that there are those who feel that subtitles are even more disruptive in a film, in that having to read the words on the screen detracts being able to watch the action on the screen. However, when the words coming out of a character's mouth do not match the movement of that character's mouth, I find that even more disruptive. Plus the translation is never perfect, and while this holds true for subtitles, at least you have the knowledge that the words the screenwriter wrote are actually in the film. For a while I toyed with the idea that perhaps it was done it a rather convoluted homage to the films of Bruce Lee, when the dubbing was horribly (and hilariously) mismatched with the character's mouth action. But frankly, it was too well done in Marrying the Mafia.
Now, you may want to take smug satisfaction in the knowledge that the US film industry does not dub foreign films. Try holding onto that satisfaction when I point out that instead they have gotten into the habit of remaking the entire film. A lot of them are Asian horror films, and most seem to star Sarah Michelle Gellar, though the one currently out in theaters is The Eye, starring Jessica Alba and is a remake of a Chinese film, Gin Gwai. Frankly, the whole situation is completely unsatisfactory. Come, rail against it with me!
Though, save some energy for the fight against panning and scanning of films broadcast on network and basic cable television. Once more into the fray!

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The other weekend I saw two films; 27 Dresses and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. I have no particular affinity for Katherine Heigl as I've never been a fan of Grey's Anatomy or of Roswell, her first television series. Though if you wanted to be somewhat amused and disturbed on a couple of different levels, I'd suggest that you rent My Father the Hero, which was one of her first film credits. She plays the teenage daughter of Gerard Depardieu's character whom she tells everyone at their vacation resort is her lover. Or you might want to rent it just to hear Emma Thompson's voice. She has an uncredited role. Or rather her voice does, briefly. Emma Thompson doesn't actually physically appear in the film.
Anyway, I saw 27 Dresses primarily because the trailers and ads for it looked cute. And it was. In "my-everyone's-so-pretty-but-wait-aren't-there-people-in-New-York-City-other-than-these-white-and-oh-so-pretty-people" kind of way. Leah has seen it as well and put in a request that I write something about how the romantic comedies of today do not hold up under comparison with romantic comedies of yesteryear. Which is absolutely true. I agree with her completely. And I might even write about it one of these days. But not today.

Continue reading "some dresses and one big mess" »

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For the past few months, a friend and I have been getting together during the week and inevitably we see a movie. While we aren't able to meet every single week, we recently met twice in a row, ate some food and saw a film. The first film, Beowful, was awful. The second film, Juno, was awesome. The viewing experiences, however, were reversed. The viewing of Beowulf was fairly pleasurable--I added the fairly because since it's in 3D and I wear glasses, having to adjust to wearing an additional pair is not exactly a thrill a minute. The viewing experience of Juno, sadly, was not that great--in large part because we did not follow my rules for watching films in the theater.

Continue reading "awful to awesome and back again" »

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While this is the place where I babble about films, I want to take a quick detour to discuss television. Never fear though, I'll wind my way back to films soon enough. It's quite likely, that with the exception of Leah and David, everyone is well aware of the writer's strike which has, and until resolved, will continue to affect television and film production. Which basically means we're starting to be inundated with a few mid-season replacement shows and a rather obscene number of reality and game shows. You can practically feel my excitement over this, can't you?

I've lately been hearing and reading about people's plans to deal with the lack of quality--or at least somewhat palatable shows. Most of these plans involve reading. As do mine, but I thought I would share specifics of my plan.

Continue reading "the thes/gert is named and then dies" »

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Irene recently mentioned her degree in film studies, but she neglected to tell you that she also has a masters in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation (MIAP!). But what really qualifies her to write about movies, which David and I nagged her to do for us for months, is the fact that she really, really loves movies.

When we were little, on weekend nights we would sneak upstairs into the TV room, after Mama and Papa had gone to bed, and watch old movies on AMC until the wee hours of the morning. Of course, this was back when AMC was still a good channel and actually showed classic movies, which apparently is doesn't do anymore. We watched most of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies, as well as Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn (sometimes together!), and lots of other great stars. Sometimes we were disappointed and had to sit through a boring Western until another musical, comedy or drama would come on, but usually we were lucky.

After a few years, though, I started staying up late reading and leaving Irene to watch movies by herself. Which she did, with impressive regularity. And she still does, because, did I mention this, she really loves movies ? And TV. So if you have any questions about old, new, obscure or box-office movies that you'd like answered, feel free to ask her. We always do.

UPDATE: Irene has informed me that part of the reason AMC sucks now, is that Turner bought out RKO's archive, simultaneously making Turner Classic Movies way cooler to watch, and AMC not at all.

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Picture it: A director has just informed an actor that the scene they will be shooting has the actor's character--who is, it turns out, not only mute, deaf AND blind BUT has also lost his feet and hands longing for his true love who is about to marry another. The actor, after almost giving himself whiplash with all the double takes over his character's disabilities states that he's sure the film will be a big critical hit, win tons of awards...and be a complete dud at the box office. The actor suggests putting in a song and dance number--obviously, he further explains, a fantasy sequence due to his character's above mentioned infirmities and states firmly that said number should revolve around disco.

Continue reading "pain of disco" »

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It should be no secret by now that I love movies--films--moving pictures--cinema--motion pictures--photoplays--whatever you prefer to call them. If I am going to see a film in the theater, I generally prefer to see more than one. I usually limit myself to two or three in one day, but I recently set a new record for myself. 5! Five films in a row. The first started at 10:50am and the last one ended around 10:10pm. I was pretty pleased with myself--and some of the motion pictures as well. Not all of them, but some.

What might be less known is that I have rules for when I watch a moving picture in the theater. These often have to be amended when I watch with a friend or family member, but I tend to stick to them fairly consistently when watching talking pictures alone.

Continue reading "rules to watch by" »

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The other weekend, I saw American Gangster and Michael Clayton. Both were excellent. Great acting, above par directing, nice production design and in the case of American Gangster, lovely 1970s attire.

But the films are not what I want to discuss. No, rather one actor from each film. Nope, not the gifted Denzel Washington, distinguished George Clooney or even Mr. Telephone-chucker himself, Russell Crowe. Nay, instead I'm going to direct your attention to actors Josh Brolin and Robert Prescott. Now, some of you may only know Josh Brolin as the son of James Brolin. Or perhaps as the step-son of Barbra Streisand. Others may know him as Diane Lane's hubby. Likely still others are drawing a complete blank. The same goes for Robert Prescott--drawing a blank that is, not that La Streisand is his step-monster or thinking he's enjoying wedded bliss with Diane Lane.

Continue reading "a goonie and a real genius" »

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Leah and David have been bugging me to start posting about films for a little while now. I haven't until now in part because I am excellent at procrastinating and also because there's been a lull in interesting films being released. I would like to state clearly that these posts will consist primarily of my babbling about films. Terribly exciting I know, but at least it will be a break from Leah and David's monotonous posts on what fun they're having on various other continents.

This past weekend I saw The Darjeeling Limited, Elizabeth: The Golden Age and Gone Baby Gone. Yes, all in one day. Overall, they were...fine. Ideally, I think I would have switched the order in which I saw them and save The Darjeeling Limited for last. Since the last two were somewhat heavy in overall tone, saving the quirky Darjeeling might have improved the overall viewing experience. However, I do not set show times. I merely attend them.

Continue reading "A Trip to India, 16th century England and Boston" »

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