5 posts tagged “movies”
Doctor Who 4.11
Ever since I was little, I never liked the what-if episodes that show a very different path and life. I don't really know why, but they just leave me feeling very, very sad. So this episode essentially had several strikes against it before it began. But props to me for realizing it was a "what-if" ep from the promo.
So while I may not love the episode like many other people do, I liked it a lot, all things considered. Reasons: Rose and Donna. Donna and Rose. I love those two together! They just played so well off of each other. And Rose! Good to see Pete's World Torchwood taught her well. I was so proud watching her be all expository and technobabbling. She was still Rose, but she had bits of the Doctor worked in with her. The way she strutted around, knowing everything. The way she looked at the trouble and adventure. She had this smile on her face when she explained things to Donna when she ended up at U.N.I.T. Not to mention she did the whole saluting thing that the Doctor did. I love that they had that connection, even though they didn't know it. I think the most Doctory Rose moment was when she told Donna she was "the most important woman in the whole of creation". If that didn't come straight from the Doctor's playbook... I smiled with that line and the way Rose said it. Again, so much like the Doctor. I'm not going to lie, I love that she's adopted much of his personality, not that I blame her, the dude's kind of infectious with his clever words and strutting. Oh the strutting.
Oh lord, I missed Rose. I missed the way she took things on, I missed the way she talked, I missed chavtastic Rose! And what I love even more if that Billie loves being Rose. I watched the Confidential episode, which means this episode was pretty damn important to me, and she just seemed to happy to be back. David was giddy as can be about it, but Billie was so adorable. So this return was planned when she left, I thought RTD had just BSed that, but apparently Billie said the arrangements were made right as she decided to leave, which kind of makes me love Billie even more. Too bad I can't get through an episode of Secret Diary of a Call Girl without getting really skeeved out. I'd like to watch her every week, maybe I'll try to watch it more. But back to the cast, David is as adorable as ever. He kept pestering RTD to explain 'Bad Wolf', and the way that he talks about the show is like a fan. Actually, all the actors talk about it like fans, I love that. They just have this keen insight into the story and the characters, it's really impressive.
Oh Doctor Who, I love that you are a family friendly program that isn't afraid to nuke cities and imply genocide! That's what makes this show so brilliant, it doesn't dumb down reality to fit the younger demographic. It really is a show for everyone, adults and children. But not going to lie, this is the kind of episode that would have turned me off of a show for a long time if I saw it when I was 10. I think I had similar experiences when I watched shows that did this, I just got so sketched out that I had to walk away from the show. So... good thing more kids aren't nutty like me, right?
I see a few people wanting to rewatch "The Runaway Bride", because they can't remember why they hated Donna so. I'm more than a little curious myself, I hated her. I just could not stand the sight of her. But watching that little bit included in the episode, and eventually the scene that led to the Doctor's death, that sounded like the Donna we knew. And to be frank, the Donna we saw this week was the angry, shouty, kind of funny Donna that seemed straight out of "Runaway Bride". This week's Donna was very different from the compassionate and caring that makes her a great companion. I'm debating watching it again, maybe I hated that Donna because she was snippy with the Doctor, and nobody does that to our pretty boy. Back to Donna, I was dying seeing her go off on her boss after she got fired. That was so amazing, and stealing the stapler? Perfect.
So... is Donna special? She's got her own unique time signal thingy. Sorry, I didn't pay enough attention during the exposition to really get what that means. So, was Donna teleported to the parallel world? Was she physically in that tent, but her mind went elsewhere? To another Donna in another world? I'm still shakey on the details of how this worked, might just chalk this up to timey-wimey stuff. But back to Donna and her parallel worlds. What role will she play in the big finale? Maybe she's like they key to keeping the universes safe. I'm not going to lie, I wished that Davies seeded this in throughout the series. I understand that not everything is planned in advanced, but this felt distinctly tacked on in this episode. Lets see how this plays out. I'm still worried about Donna, I don't think she's still in the clear, safety wise. Remember, River Song acted like Donna had died when she met the Doctor.
4.12 Preview
OK, I just need to take a moment to flip the fuck out: Sarah Jane - Check. Martha Jones - Check. Jack Harkness - Check. Ianto and Gwen - Fuck Yes! How did I NOT KNOW GWEN AND IANTO WOULD BE IN THE SHOW? Like, that is just so incredible, having those two meet the Doctor (I hope anyway). After all the vagueness Jack gives them, they deserve some info straight from the horse's or Time Lord's mouth. And Martha! And Jack! OK, I am so pumped for Rose to see Jack again. I wonder if she knows she brought him back forever? The Rose we have now is very different from the Rose who absorbed the Time Vortex and saved Jack. I wonder how she'll react, I don't even think she remembers. And Jack's always had a little something for Rose, well to be fair Jack's got a little something for everyone, but Jack will be so thrilled to see her. I keep replaying this moment in my head from "Bad Wolf" when Jack realizes Rose hasn't been vaporized. "Rose could still be alive!" He's going to be happy to see her again.
I know this is a really big longshot, but Gwen/Gwyneth from "The Unquiet Dead"... Maybe it'll come up. Like a line that she looks familiar, or maybe the Doctor will see something very odd about her. Or... you know... it could just be let go.
Rose and Martha! I've been looking forward to this for some time. Mainly because Martha got sick of hearing about Rose. In "Utopia" she had this line when Jack mentioned Rose. "OH! She's blond!" We'll see if Martha's really over the Doctor when his old companion comes back.
Donna and Rose already met, sort of. Now that she knows, or will know, that it's Rose, I wonder if she'll react differently to her. I don't see why, Donna just knew that Rose was gone, so she'll probably be happy for her.
And Rose and the Doctor. Well, we've already seen him be terrified by her warning (loved it!), but I don't doubt that we'll see some incredible hugging. Oh there will be hugging. And tears. Lots and lots of tears, mostly mine. I've only been waiting two years for this, that's all. I wonder if Rose will notice a change in the Doctor. I wonder if the Doctor notices how much Rose has changed? All I know is I can't wait. Is it Saturday yet?
Thought I'd do an update on the Transformers 2 filming. I saw them setting up, and tomorrow and Tuesday will be the shooting days. There was a helicopter with a big round thing attached to its nose, which I'm guessing is the camera, and they were doing aerial shots. It was so cool, the helicopter was flying almost sideways so the camera was facing the college campus. It's looking like my sister, her friend, and I will be getting up super early and spending the day stalking the set. Rainn Wilson will be there, so I'm going to try to get him to sign my second season Office DVD set. Shia is apparently kind of a douche, the PA's described him as "inaccessible", I hope Rainn is much nicer, he seems nice. Check out my Twitter or Plurk pages for updates, I'll be checking in there.
I had a busy day finishing up OotP and I went out to get some Harry Potter stuff to wear to the midnight movie. Now I'm planning out how I'm supposed to watch 3 HP movies tomorrow. I'm currently watching Sorcerer's Stone, which is reminding me how tiny and cute everyone used to be
But because I was so busy, I seemed to have missed the memo that Dead Like Me is coming back. Now don't get me wrong, I really liked it, but on the list of shows I'd think would come back from the dead, ironically this wouldn't be near the top. I never thought it had the base to do this. Weird.
So I'm behind on TV, and the local lakes have frozen over and I want to go skating. The problem is this weekend is going to be so packed with shit to do. On top of that, I'm going to a fencing thing tomorrow, except that I might not have to go. The thing is my coach hasn't responded to my email nor the message I left on his home phone. I need to be at school at 6:50 am, so if it turns out I didn't need to be there I'll be so fucking angry. There are 4 girls going, so I figure I'll be needed to carry shit. I just really wish I knew if I HAD to be there. I really don't want to go... at all. I'm so behind on sleep and TV, and I have a ton of films I want to see before the Oscars in a few weeks.
Speaking of Oscar nominated films, I saw The Queen tonight. I was so intrigued by the royal family. In the US, we don't really hear much from or about the Queen. It was a great insight into British culture. I can't help wondering how much of that film was documented facts and how much was artistic license.
Last night my school had a Shakespeare festival, and I did a number of scenes with classmates. It was a ton of fun, and today I got a bunch of compliments, especially from my teacher. I dunno, it's weird for me to get complimented, it's so awkward. I kinda just act really shy. Dunno, it was a mad fun night though.
Lost 3.07 + Heroes discussion
Well, it was a good episode, but I didn't get that OMGAMAZING feeling. It's just...nothing happened. Lost has this way of tricking viewers into thinking we learn stuff, like Kate and Sawyer got off the island. Well, we knew they were getting off there. We also really knew Jack would do the surgery and Ben would live. Plus, Juliet impregnating male mice? That's just weird. Maybe she was doing male uterine implants? That whole thing was very hard for me to believe. Plus, her sister looked like she was undergoing chemotherapy, which if it was the case, she would be in no position to have a baby, the treatment would kill the fetus. Why is she sick and having a baby? Maybe she didn't have cancer and all of that was a side effect of her treatment. The sad thing is that these questions I have, which are valid, won't ever be answered. Lost only answers the big mysteries they create, not the little ones. Remember Walt? Well, no doubt his out of the picture, but there are boatloads of unanswered questions, like how he does what he does, why did the Others take him, etc. Speaking of the Others, what happened to the Others who took the two kids from the tail section? Also, is Locke of the the good ones? What does that mean? Most importantly, WHY THE FUCK HAVEN'T WE HEARD FROM PENELOPE AND WHAT WAS THE PURPLE SKY ABOUT? Sorry, but those two mysteries I thought needed to be resolved more than Jack, Kate, and Sawyer being taken. Also, I was kinda disappointed that Jack's interaction with Kate didn't have this underlying tension because of the Skate sex. I mean, I interpreted Jack wanting Kate off as a sign that he still cared, even though he was hurt. He was showing her that he was the better man. I also thought part of it was that he didn't want Kate near him. He knew that they were far from camp, and I thought Jack needed for her to be far away. But alas, their conversation was pretty much one dimensional.
Lately I've been on this Heroes is better than Lost kick. Which is weird, because I still call Heroes "Lost for dummies." I still think that, it has it's predictably elements, and I'm rarely shocked. Lost, on occasion, has really left me stunned. Take Eko being killed, or Penelope. Plus some Lost theories stem from 18th century philosophy, plus the characters' namesakes are the same philosophers. That adds a different angle and layer to the show. But in the past few weeks, I've put my interest in Heroes and not Lost, to the point where I was like "meh" about the show coming back. Heroes, in the first half of the season, has balanced the many characters and plot lines extraordinarily well. Rarely do I watch episodes and think "where the fuck is so-and-so." I also rarely think "There are way too many characters and things going on." I cannot stress the number of times I've thought those things during Lost's first season. Heroes found the formula. My problem with the show was twofold. First, I thought for a show about superheroes, it took itself way too seriously. You need to show some sort of WTF-nests when this situation arises. The second thing was that the plot was overwhelming the characters. We skipped the characters reacting to their powers, and we got more of a "oh...OK" reaction to finding out that they could do some crazy shit. Then, as if by magic, everything clicked, and all the problems were resolved. Now I find myself bearing Mohinder and Niki, and I've stopped worrying that the show is moving too quickly. Unlike Lost, it has a plan. We know that this is all heading towards the nuke at the end of the season, and they have to stop it. It really is a comic book, and I'm OK with that. I think more shows should learn to chapter their seasons, so we don't end up like Lost, dropping subplots all over the place. Every subplot on Heroes plays into this nuke plot, or if it doesn't, it plays into the characters' relationships, therefore feeding the series' plot as a whole. Now, I know that Heroes is young and Lost has developed some of these problems with age. Most of the problems with Lost started early into the first season. It had, maybe 5 or 6 amazing episodes to start, but then it just went downhill fast. It began to ignore characters and plots. We had massive gaps in between character appearances. We had bigger gaps between plot points. I mean, we originally had the monster in episode 1, and we still have no clue about what that is. Heroes, we have everything we need to know, but still have openings to introduce characters with powers and new characters who we later learn have powers, and we'll have more great disasters. Plus we'll have Sylar, who I don't see going anywhere anytime soon. Or maybe now.
OK, I saw Grey's Anatomy from yesterday. Reactions for 3.15
OK, it was a fantastic episode, but someone told me it would be better than last years Super Bowl extravaganza. Sorry, but I'm not sure anything can trump that. This was still very good and shocking and emotional. Seeing a pregnant woman crushed beyond recognition is just heart breaking. The ending was kinda like a shocker-but-not-shocker. Mer falls into a lake! OMG! SHE'S TOTALLY GOING TO DIE!!! Right. Oh well, two more parts, and knowing Grey's they'll just get better and better. They've reached their mid-season moment, and it will just rise and keep going from there. Though I always worry that after these intense arcs that the episodes that follow can't meet the impressive standards that the episodes before created. It happened right after the Super Bowl eps (yeah I know their titles, I'm just too lazy to write them out) and it happened with the last episode of the season and the beginning of this season. Oh well, I'm along for the ride, which is really how you need to take this show.
Since getting my Wii last week, I've gotten Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and I am hooked. I'm playing it hours a day, homework be damned! It's so captivating. I'm really pumped for some of the Nintendo staples to come out, like Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Brothers, and hopefully a Mario Party somewhere. I'm also ready to get the new SSX game when it comes out. I've been pretty bad at beating the games, but I hope to do that.
Randomly, can someone get that "WEEWOO, WEEWOO" sound out of my head from Gwen Stefani's "Sweet Escape" song? Please? I'll pay money.
I have a lot to say about TV from this week :-) Beware of spoilers if you are behind on any show.
Battlestar Galactica 3.12
So...wow! I was pretty unexcited about the cliff hanger at the end of "The Eye of Jupiter" but I thought this episode really kept some suspense. Per usual I was insanely intrigued by Baltar, Three, and Six. I really do love Baltar's character, particularly the way he encouraged Three to fulfill her destiny. I got the sense that this was Baltar not really buying into this actually working, but hoping if it does that Three would find out if he's a Cylon. I just loved how reassuring he was, it was too kind and comforting to be Baltar's words. Last time I heard him be like that was when he basically told Boomer it was OK to kill herself in "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 1." So, Three saw the Final 5, and one of them she felt to apologize to, and that one Baltar was right about. So... I have no idea who it could be. My friend thinks I'm giving the writers too much credit by assuming there will be clues in previous episodes. I think she's wrong.
You see, we assumed the whole bit with Starbuck's apartment at the end of the episode was retconned, you know, just taking previous events and making shit up about it. But then I got nerdy.
This is from "Valley of Darkness", 2.02! I plan to listen to this week's BSG podcast to see if Ron Moore mentions if they planned this as carefully as I hoped or if it was "Oh, that's a cool design, let's use that again" thing. I guess I'll find out later.
General 24 Rant
I really like 24. I like it better when I can watch 4 or 5 episodes at a time, but I like it. I have a problem with their portrayal of this season's Average Joe Terrorist. See, they introduce this Muslim family with the father being unlawfully and unrightfully taken away. Then you see his son being harassed by some asshole racist neighbors. So this Muslim boy, who appeared to be the start of a storyline featuring unsubstantiated racist profiling on a personal lever, stays with a friend's family who is fully supportive of him and do not believe him to be a terrorist. Well, guess what? THE MUSLIM IS A FUCKING TERRORIST. There was even a line where the family goes "so they were right!" That's right, those assholes in the beginning were actually justified. That is what bothered me. This basically said "most likely, if you are beating up a Muslim, they're probably terrorists anyway!" That is overstating what happened, but it is kinda what went down. I thought, for once 24 would show an innocent's perspective to what is going on. Show what a poor Muslim boy goes through when terrorists go wild. But they don't, they embrace the stereotype worse than ever. If only this boy (Kumar if you were wondering) wasn't shown first as the victim, I wouldn't have a big problem. The fact that the aggressors now come off as being right, that is wrong.
Heroes 1.12
So, initial reactions: HEEEE!!! I swear, this show just finds different ways to be awesome. I watched the episode twice :-) Once with commentary from nbc.com, which was the funniest thing...ever. Plus, Sendhil is very sexy with glasses. So I've been theorizing my effing ass off with this show. Maybe it's because I think everything is so much simpler and straightforward than with other shows *cough*Lost*cough* So, let's start with Claire and who her father is. My money's on this mysterious Linderman, who we have yet to see. Tim Kring made a point by having us not see him yet, and he obviously is a very important character. The Haitian stated that Claire's parents worked for HRG, but what if even The Haitian doesn't know who the father is? I also think that Linderman is in charge of the whole HRG production. Simone said something very interesting. She said Linderman is a big collector of Isaac's art and owns almost every piece. Sure sounds like someone who knows that the paintings predict the future. Plus he has the dough to finance HRG's operation...
So, Peter. The reason he collapsed at the end of "Fallout" was because he was absorbing too much power. Think about it: Nathan, Isaac, Hiro, Claire, Sylar, The Haitian, Matt all in the same town. At one point they were pretty much in the same building or close to it. That's a shitload of abilities to be experiencing, even if he only sorta got a gift or a piece of it. I'm stuck on Peter's ability to dream the future. What's up with that????? I mean, I honestly believe it's related to his mimicry. Which brings me back to Simone's father. Peter was his nurse, and Peter probably spent 12 hours a day, 7 days a week with the guy. What if Simone's father had the future dreams? What if Peter, if exposed long enough, can permanently assume someone's power? Dunno, I'm kinda shaky on that theory, but it's probably the one I'm sticking to the most.
Veronica Mars 3.10
So after the amazingness which was "Spit & Eggs" I wasn't sure if this episode would be good. It was actually very, very good, even if Veronica and Logan only were broken up for what amounted for 1.5 episodes. I hoped they would have more onscreen not-dating. Oh well. At the end I felt so badly for Piz, though once again, I hoped he and Veronica went further so as to increase the emotional response and pain for Piz. Actually had V and Piz hooked up, it would have just complicated everything, and made great drama.
So this whole murder mystery is pretty much the last mystery arc. R.T. decided to drop that aspect of the show, and frankly I'm skeptical. I don't know how he'll pull that off with this show. Will he just amp up the character drama, which IMO would lead to melodrama? Will he put more of a focus on the MotW's, which I'm not big on in general (though the monkey this week was super cute)?
-- End Spoilers
I think if you haven't seen the Scrubs musical episode you should make it your mission to see it ASAP. It was pretty much as amazing as I had hoped. And yes, it's on my ipod, and yes I've watch it more than 5 times.
In random news, I saw Pan's Labyrinth and it was so amazing, like I could see it over and over and over again. It's probably the best movie I've seen in a while, and I've seen some great films lately (Dreamgirls and Happy Feet). I recommend that everyone see it.
What movie can you quote by heart?
Submitted by clamhead.
As sad as it may be, I can quote nearly every line from Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.
Will: You cheated!
Jack: Pirate.
