flickering images make me happy

yea i loved it, and how kitschy the lines spoken by jude law and angelina jolie were. in fact, i loved the dialogue as a whole. minus... gwyneth. she WAS quite pretty, and i was mesmerized by the shine that is her hair. but... in terms of delivery? the machines did more acting than she did.
i'm just a sucker for good hair, though. towards the end, when he hops on to the hover-thing (i'm TRYING not to make this a spoiler...) his hair is doing this beautiful SLIGHTLY undone greased-wave thing. men need to brill-creme their hair again. and wear more hats. and waist-coats. yup.

sorry this one's so brief but... well. there isnt a lot to say! it's ABSOLUTELY beautiful, and... like a live action cartoon. it's fan-flipping-tastic.

oh, and i forgot to mention, this and napoleon dynamite were the two 2004 movies i was anticipating most. and BOTH delivered. i've been waiting for sky captain since i saw the preview before LOTR: ROTK. mmm...

easter: family was all up in vermont, friends were all busy with family. but i made a great day of it anyway!

was meeting up with the boyfriend later, but i figured around 7 or 8 so i had plenty of time for a 4:50 showing. took myself to the movies... and chose ella enchanted, cause i was pretty sure it was one i'd be hard pressed to find a companion for. hehe.

well, GOOD CHOICE. i hadnt been having the best weekend... and this was the perfect movie for that. Eric Idle as the narrator, Carey Elwes as the delightful bad guy, Minnie Driver and Vivica Fox as fairys... it was just... lovely!

i swear i couldnt stop smiling the whole time... even the painfully cheesy musical numbers didnt suck hardcore, they were SUPPOSED to be painfully cheesy.

if you're looking for a light trip into a bent fairy tale... hit it.

my initial review, as written in a little notebook in a wendy's parking lot on wednesday:
"george carlin's best performance to date. still dont like ben, would've liked some lunchbox love, but there was a good minute or two of jason lee and matt damon to tide me over."

now... i'll expand on that. heh.

george carlin plays one of the most compassionate, regular old jersey dad i've ever seen on film. even his harsh words to his son are necessary, and true. he... is really the reason why this picture works so well. him, and the little girl. she rocked out, as well.

liv tyler was also a rather dominating force. as a student writing her thesis on "the habbits of the male porn-consumer" (or something...) and working in a video store on the side, she has quite the character to play. and she does it very well. there's still something about the way she moves her face when she talks, but it doesnt irk me NEARLY as bad as alicia silverstone's contortions, so i can deal with it. she's also not rail-thin, which i REALLY like. sure, she has an amazing body, but it's one with a few CURVES on it, so i'll let it pass. for now :) (if i told you that you had a nice body, would you hold it against me?)

ben affleck... well, i still dont really LIKE him, but he had some great moments in this movie. i'll attribute it to supreme script writing and directing. i even managed to like jennifer lopez, but i think that's mostly cause she wasnt IN the movie long enough for me to get sick of her.

g: but i'm a fat PIG, and all the other girls are gonna be skinny, and beautiful, and i'm UGLY.
o: no no baby, they're only skinny cause they're coked-out whores.
g: i wanna be a coked-out whore...
o: ok ok, alright baby... you can be a coked-out whore. its ok...
(names abreviated cause i forgot. dialogue paraphrased, cause it HAS been several days now.)

overall... most definatly NOT what i was expecting of kevin smith, but it was a plesant surprise. absolutely something i would buy when it comes out on video.

so, with the other boy bowing out for the evening, i was free to take my TRUE one and only man (the little brother) out to the movies friday night. and as an 11 year old, what did he want to see? thats right :) so, while everyone else was going for hellboy or the passion (pussies) (wait... hell...passion... hmm), *we* went to see the mighty scooby doo work his thang. and work it he did.

i still liked the first one a bit better... the whole crazy-island thing and all that. however, that one got a bit weird with all the spirits, and transformations, and... stuff usually beyond the scope of your average scooby cartoon. the second one stayed more true to the traditional "unmasking" aspect of the show. and there were a few GREAT unmaskings, believe you me.

you can get the plotline from any half-decent movie webpage, so i'll not go there. i WILL, however, tell you some of my favorite parts. so read no further if you dont want
SPOILERS.

seth green... what a LOVELY boy to play a geek. and... we all know how i feel about geeks. heh. "this is preposterous, i happen to have a 12-sided-dice right here!" (inside joke.) peter boyle also has a delightful role as a bitter old villain. (you might know him as the grandfather on "raymond" or as one of the original frankenstein's monsters.)

some excelent lines:
velma: yeah but monsters and ghosts are less scary. you unmask them, and there's just a scared shriveled up man inside.
daphne: but, dating's the same way!

patrick (seth green): WHAT, you dont BELIEVE me? ::twitch::
shaggy: right, like, we're gonna make like your personality and split.

there's also a DELIGHTFUL duel between fred and the black knight (the black knight on his ghost-horse, and fred on an Indian motorcycle) backed by the classic... "wanted: dead or alive". beautiful choice of music for the scene :) it was perfect... heh.

so, overall... a lot of fun. if you have a little sibling, or young-minded friends, or just... have never grown up yourself... you'll have a lot of fun, if nothing else.

edit: also, some AMAZING funk-tastic 70's tunes backing up the rest of the movie. good shizz.

from the writer of adaptation, and being john malkovitch... no fucking WONDER i love it!

ESOTSM was phenominal... wow. it was so quotable, i want to go see it with a notepad next time. heh. (me, carrying around a book? how unusual!!) adam took me, and there was JUST the right balance of paying attention... and little side-trips. you know.

but back to the movie... i cant honestly believe i love a movie so much. it was incredibly powerful, and entertaining, and beautiful, and meaningful, and well done... there were some great messages about the perils of technology, coupled with a few standard splashes of love-will-conquer. as adam pointed out, the time-line was a bit predictable, but even that doesnt take away from the film. it made use of a time-honored flashback/foreshadow combination, and if it aint broke dont fix it.

i agree with some of the statements read on other journals about how the character of patrick (elijah wood) should've been more developed, and i think in a directors cut some day we may see that, but as a side story i think he was just fine... i particularly loved the cinematography involved in shooting patrick, where there are many scenes where you dont get a clear look at his face, but his name and his voice keep showing up.

kate winslet... i was very plesantly surprised by. the way in which she inhabited this clementine character so effortlessly was breathtaking. the first time you meet her, she's just this incredible force. i really, honestly couldnt take my eyes off of her.

my mother commented earlier that she hopes jim carrey gets some serious appreciation for his acting talents with this movie... and i whole-heartedly agree. he's proven himself worthy with bruce almighty, the majestic, the truman show... but this is his A-#1 masterpiece.

oh, and this movie has one of the best opening sequences i've ever seen. hook, line, sinker. i was in.

i realize it looks, well, stupid and cheesy and "gross-out-teen-humor"-ish. but... i STRONGLY suggest you go see "Eurotrip". there are, of course, some moments so nasty it hurts. however, it's a truly enjoyable movie. the cameos alone are well worth the handfull of bucks, but there are plenty of clever moments and stitch-inducing jokes handed out by the main characters as well.

it helps if you go with a few friends who have the same sort of sense of humor as you as well... made for a great evening :)

inspired by the fact that my friends mock me for knowing "too much" about movies, i've decided to write stuff down. it somehow makes me important :)

this'll have such silly things as reviews, movies i really want to see, actors' upcoming projects... etc. and perhaps guest reviews every now and then if this sucker gets popular.