Only Words

The familiy is off to Stuttgart to dance in a competition. Yay! I grabbed the opportunity to get my nails done, eat out at the steakhouse and spend a free movie ticket on Life of Pi.
Have to say the steak was expensive but not very good. When I order a large rumpsteak I don't expect about a third of the steak to consist of fat. I know, rumpsteaks come with fat on one side, but this one had fat on three. :( And I had been looking forward to my steak for weeks!
Luckily, Life of Pi was worth watching. I never knew what would happen next - which is a rare treat. Beautiful cinematography, very clever story with a neat twist that I honestly didn't see coming, but which made total sense with hindsight. Also, Depardieu's brief cameo was brilliant. Gee, he was revolting! I have a few issues with some of the dialogue which sometimes sounded pompous, but that may have been the synchronization.
We had a really mild day today, even some sunshine. The city was packed with people. Everybody seemed so happy that finally the snow is gone...

As for the rest of the weekend... well, some Fringe, some tidying up, and, hopefully some writing tomorrow. :)

So. Hubby and I just watched Cabin in the Woods.
Memo to myself: never watch Joss's stuff in German. Somehow the German voices felt wrong. Unfortunately, the movie theatre only showed the German version.
Second memo to myself: do not watch slasher or zombie movies - even if Joss makes them.
I suppose the meta is more fun if one watches the iconic movies of the genre on a regular basis.... I certainly recognized a handful of the references (I watched Evil Dead ages ago, and back then it scared me so much, I actually looked away until friends said it was safe to watch again), but i guess you have to be a fan to enjoy them.
I fail to see the fun in buckets full of blood and I hate character death. Friends lent me their walking Dead DVD but it's still sitting on my shelf, because zombies = scary.
So, CitW was fun, often clever und sometimes surprising, sometimes predictable. I don't regret watching it - but I won't rush out to buy the Bluray. Avengers on the other hand....

Has anyone seen tbis movie? Is it any good? How are the 3D effects? I often disagree with published reviews - and I often disagree with mainstream movie taste, that's why I'm asking you guys.
The trailers looked good, but is the story okay? I don't know the anime series and I don't care whether Asians are only cast as bad guys (I believe there was a heated discussion going on). I just want to know if it's an enjoyable movie with a half-decent script and suited for family viewing.
I enjoyed the Vampire's Apprentice but thought that Percy Jackson was rubbish. (Just to give you an idea what kind of movies I enjoy).-

Thanks in advance. :-)

sucks! I don't understand why the movie industry produces so much crap. Shouldn't these peole know what they're doing? They spend oodles of money on lackluster scripts that mostly focus on linking disjointed special effects sequences with long drops, enormous explosions, collapsing buildings/caves/mountanins and what not. Why don't they spend money on a script that tells a story that doesn't need the special effects?
*grrrr*
Sorcerers Apprentice looks like fun - but also too expensive.
Iron Man 2 got sucky reviews. Let's-make-the-sequel-even-bigger is not a philosophy that leads to good movies!
Sherlock Holmes was great fun - because the acting was fun. Excellent popcorn movie. Must. Get. on. Bluray. :-)
But mostly I feel that the bigger the budget, the greater the disappointment.
Are there any movies out there that I shouldn't miss?

Gacked from petzipellepingo

1. Pick 15 of your favourite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search functions. Totally cheating, you dirty cheaters....


[..] This is where I ommitted a few names, because they would have made it too easy.

Die Hard 4 had an unexpected effect on me: it sparked a sudden appetite for old (and not so old) Bruce Willis movies. We started by watching the original Die Hard again. Still a fabulous action movie. A few days ago we followed up with 16 Blocks (much much better than the trailers led me to expect, but when the credits rolled and I saw Richard Donner credited as directer I ceased to be surprised. Awesome performance by BW, by the way). And tonight we watched The Last Boyscout again, a slightly over the top movie but with great visuals and great one liners.

Well, and then I found myself wondering: what's my favorite Bruce Willis moment? This is my answer:

5. Dancing the jig at the end of The Last Boyscout
4. Butch looking for a weapon and picking the Katana in Pulp Fiction
3. Shooting down the helicopter in DH4 - with a car. Dude!
2. "Just once, I'd like a regular, normal Christmas. A little eggnog... a fuckin' Christmas tree... a little turkey. But, no. I gotta crawl around in this motherfuckin' tin can." - DH2 - ever so cute
1. Pretty much the whole of DH, like the scene where he takes off his shoes and socks, and his conversations with Al. *sigh*

Honrary mention: timing a breaking & entering by singing certain songs - Hudson Hawk. Stupid movie, but it had several charming moments.

So. Spill. What's your favorite Bruce Willis moment?

We went to see the new Bond last night. ( Find my opinion behind the cut (no real spoilers, though) )

Good Stuff:
I'm in Berlin, yay!
On Monday Mr. E and I took the kids to the Berlin zoo to see the panda bears and polar bears. It was a great day trip. Afterwards, the family drove back to Braunschweig, while I stayed behind. Hurrah!
Being in Berlin on my own, without the family, is great. No demands, no tidying up after everyone. No one who needs meals cooked. It feels like having Free Will back - with capital letters. I'm staying with our friend L. He invited me out to a very therapeutic sushi last night and to PotC2 and Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. Yay! I'd seen PotC2 before, albeit in German, and was pleased that I enjoyed it just as much the second time round. I know the reviews were mixed, but I like part 2 a lot. ( cut for spoilers ) F&F3 was not the kind of movie I normally see, but it was okay. Too many cars, and let's not talk about the characterisation of the females, but I decided not to look the gift horse in the mouth, and fun was had.
Tomorrow I'm meeting drc1. I'm sure we'll have lots to talk about.
A friend lent me his first season of CSI - and I enjoyed it a lot, mostly because I find Gil Grissom adorable. I look forward to borrowing the other 4 seasons.
Tomorrow or on Friday, L and I are planning on seeing the new Superman movie. The reiviews aren't overly favourable, but I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy myself. Not sure if that's because I've lowered my standards, or if that's because I'm trying to foster a carpe diem attitude these days.
Every now and then I get feedback for my old stories. It's gratifying to know that people are still reading stories like Things Present - Things Past, and Cues and Balls.
On Saturday, Mr. E, Tina and Toyah are performing live on stage - for the first time together, because Toyah decided very recently that she wants to dance on stage too. Yay Our dance club has a big venue in Wolfenbüttel. If you'd like to see what it looks like you can go here and watch Tina dance a Slip Jig and a Light Jig. Oh, and the other clips are cute as well. Of course, the show on Saturday will be bigger and much more elaborate.

Bad Stuff:
A couple of weeks ago I had an infected root canal on my lower jaw. It good operated, and now it feels fine, but on my upper jaw there's another infection. And the surgeon that I want to see is on holiday until the end of the month. I'm not in pain, but I can feel that the infection is slowly spreading. How can a dentist screw up two root canal treatments at once, hey? Well, at least I have the nagging suspicion that the infections may be responsible for my constantly aching feet. Lately it's gotten so bad that I can no longer go dancing. Which screws with my tempter. *sigh* Having to spend a large chunk of your earnings on medical bills sucks!

So, now you know what I've been up to lately. And now I better get back to my writing. I'm currently poking several of my writing projects with a stick to see whether they still have life in them. Right now, I'm working on my dance play. It would be nice to get something finished.

*waves*

The Wild - we took the kids to watch the latest in animated furries. Tina thought it was meh, Vicky was entertained, but not thrilled. We adults thought it was pretty dull. Nice animations, but the storyline was way too predictable and saccharine. A bit like a Madagaskar clone, only Madagaskar was waay better. What is it with Disney lately? Why are all the conflicts solved through violence? We watched that abysimal Cow movie a while back, I forgot the title, and it was so utterly bad, I am still trying to wipe the yodling cowboy from my memory. Will avoid all things Disney in the future, even if the trailer looks promising.
I am getting a bit annoyed with the rampant post-modern "humor" that permeates recent animation films. I appreciate that the film makers try to tmake the movie entertaining for the parents as well, but a good movie needs more than a script full of haphazard tongue-in-cheek references to other movies and fast editing.
I hope Over the Hedge is better, because the kids are really keen on it. So, only 1,5 out of 5 roars for The Wild.

I saw V for Vendetta tonight. I wish I could have seen it in English. So much depends on the voice of the main character. Still, the German version was well-dubbed. I thought Natalie Portmann made an excellent Evey, Stephen Rea and Stephen Fry also worked for me. As for V, I thought that the body language was very appropriate.

I came across the comic in 1985, long before Alan Moore reached his current cult status. Back then, V for Vendetta appeared in a magazine called Warrior, together with Miracleman, Warpsmith, Laser Eraser & Pressbutton and several other fabulous stories. In fact, I worked for the comic shop that produced and distributed said magazine (I *was* the mail order department). Unfortunately, I never met Alan Moore, only his editor and a few other people involved in the comic biz. Warrior magazine was cancelled before V's story was complete. When DC comics produced a colored version, I was finally able to read the ending. It's still one of my favorite comic books ever.

I heard that Alan Moore is unhappy with the movie and withdrew his support. That's a shame. The movie is very close to the comic books. Many sequences are frame by frame renderings of comic book panels. On a visual level, V for Vendetta delivers. The casting is good too. After The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (gag me with a spoon!) I'd feared the worst, but I needn't have worried. The political message of the comic was never compromised. On the contrary. Once or twice I thought the script could have been a tad snappier, but all in all the movie was worth the admission price. Definitely.