Helen Mirren, my hero.

She is so smart. So funny. So sophisticated and graceful in a way that implies strength, knowledge, and charm. It is hard to be candid, smart, and relatable while still holding on to an air of grace as she does.

She is a person I watch when I think of the kind of person I want to be.

Someone here is an ENORMOUS girl.

Most the time I'm just one of the guys at the comic store, but periodically I GIRL IT UP, HARDCORE.

Very much looking forward to:




Should I chase this with a poop joke to restore my credibility? Good call.

T4 Teaser Trailer is up at io9

The new Terminator 2: Salvation teaser is up and is very teas-y at io9.

Spoilers SUC: Why I Loved WALL-E

New spoiler filled post up at Spoilers SUC: Why I Loved WALL-E.

Spoilers SUC- Over-Thinking Harold and Kumar 2

New spoiler-filled review up at Spoilers SUC.

Link-O-Rama

This is the most disappointing news story ever. Summary: My shower gel is probably giving a sea otter cancer right now. I know that this world is filled with worse troubles, but I LOVE my shower gel. MURRRR.

Interesting article on interracial marriage and rogue legal clerks.

Awesome story on Bruce Wayne on GCN.

Spoilers SUC: The Golden Compass

Spoiler-filled review of The Golden Compass is now up on Spoilers SUC.

Shortest review ever: totally glad I didn't spend ten bucks. Thanks Netflix!

Shyamalan, I'm never defending your lame-ass again.

To read my enthusiastically unenthusiastic (and super-spoiler filled) comments on the so-called "movie", The Happening, go to Spoilers SUC and check out [What] The [hell is] Happening. Reminder: Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers.

Go!

Speed Racer is, if not the most, certainly in the top 4 most visually stunning films I have ever seen.

The design work, particularly the colors in the movie, was literally amazing. I left the theater wishing that I lived in a world that beautiful and bright. The race scenes were absolutely fantastic in creativity, action, and design.

The overall treatment of the film was adorable and really hearkened back to the original cartoon.

Speed Racer was very funny, often touching (a little clumsily), and always a joy for the eyes.

If anyone tells you not to see this movie, they have no joy in their crusty little soul. Seeing this movie is an absolute must.

In fact, I think I will see it again in the theater. This movie is far to wonderful to just catch on DVD. The big screen is definitely the way to go.

New Blog!

I’ve run into a problem with wanting to make more in depth comments about movies and books, but not being able to due to spoiler concerns. So I’ve started a companion blog to Seattle Umbrella Conspiracy, SpoilersSUC. After I watch or read something and feel compelled to jabber about it I will jabber on SpoilersSUC and simply provide the link here on SUC Classic. Every time I update SpoilersSUC I will link it in a post on SUC, so you do not need to add it to your feeds, unless you are too lazy to click the hyperlink.

Hopefully this can be a good forum to discuss movies immediately after I see them without ruining them for the slow pokes.

So, if you haven't seen Indiana Jones 4 and don't want to read the spoilers do not click the link, but if you don't mind the spoilers, my first entry is Over-Thinking Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull.

Advice for you.

I just want to make sure that if you are twiddling your thumbs saying, "Ho-hum, what shall I do tonight?" the answer is see Iron Man. I saw it last night and was very impressed.

It isn't about being a super hero and it isn't just about power and responsibility. It's about regrets, learning, greed, success, war, about who is really a 'good guy', and being an American at war and what that means.

It was fantastic. Well acted. Well written. Very funny.

Yes, I read comics. But this movie would have still been awesome, even if you think comic books are sophomoric, and super heroes are cheap. (Debbie Downer!)

I don't want to oversell it, but go and see it for yourself. (So that I can discuss it with someone.)

Please tell me someone is going to this.

Please!

Why So Serious Secret Event.

Stupid working in the burbs.

Oops, almost forgot:

Most adorable plot summary for Meet the Robinsons:

Meet The Robinsons. An animated Disney film, very loosely based on the book A Day With Wilbur Robinson. Tom Selleck invents a time machine. (We'll just pause to let you absorb that piece of info.) And then a villain named Bowler Hat Guy travels back in time to sabotage a memory-scanning machine that a kid named Lewis has invented, which gave rise to all the amazing inventions in Tom Selleck's utopian future. ("Tom Selleck's Utopian Future" will be my next band name.) So Tom Selleck's son Wilbur has to travel back in time to our time, to make sure Lewis repairs the memory-scanning machine.

On io9.

Awesome Rituals 1

Every spring I go to IMDB.com and click to see what movies are ahead of me in the summer. I'd like to report that never before has a summer been so promising with literally a dozen movies I would actually not be completely bitter to pay $10 to see.

Kicking off my spring/summer movie extravaganza:
Harold and Kumar on April 25th. (Mysteriously not April 20th.)

Movie nobody will want to see with me:
The Happening on 6/13.

Movies tied for "Most Looked Forward To":
Iron Man on 5/2 and Dark Knight on 7/18 (the day after my birthday- surely not a coincidence).

Is it crazy to put movie release dates in your Outlook calendar? Hope not.

Me vs that girl you think you know.

I have now had 3 people tell me that they can't believe that I didn't like Juno that much.
Fine, I'm a pretentious music listening, thrift store shopping, Michael Cera adorer, so maybe this should be right up my alley? I can buy that as reasoning. However this is NOT the proffered reasoning.

The reason that these people think I should love Juno is that I am just like her.
Worse than that, I have been told that maybe they liked the character Juno because she reminded them of me.

I know that being smart and spunky and full of music references should be complimentary... and yet I do not like it at all.

Not one little bit.

I told you he was hot, but you didn't believe me.

Javier Bardem

In No Country for Old Men, totally not hot:














In real life, totally hot:




















*sigh* Some androgynous statues have all the luck.


















Pictures shamelessly liberated from BWE, who would never sue me, because that is simply not how they roll.

Making posts out of nothing at all.

I got a couple of great new CDs: Once (Soundtrack) and Mike Doughty's Golden Delicious. I am revelling in fantastic new music. I miss buying music all the time. I've decided to go back to buying more music, even though it is costly. I will pile them on the floor and roll around in amazing noise!

------

I had a date on Friday, with that tricky young man and the long and short of it is that he is a wily bastard and if I am not carefully I will find myself disoriented in Vegas with a ring on my finger.
You see, I had a plan. A plan to make him not like me. It failed.
Miserably.
I wanted to bring up ex's, marriage, politics, religion, my family, and in spite of the fact that looked at my phone 4 times, he was not discouraged.
At the end of the date, nestled in a crowd of people waiting for tables, he asked if he could take me out again. I notified him that that is a violation of the rules; and then I said sure, because people were looking at me like, 'you are a bitch'.
So I guess now I have to dodge his phone calls for the next week until I'm in the clear. If he doesn't leave a voicemail I won't call him back. If he does I'll wait 4 days and then be too busy to hang out with him.
If this doesn't work, I will registering for a Kitchen Aid stand mixer and new baking dishes from Crate & Barrel- so cross your fingers. Or it'll cost ya.

-------------

Saturday Paul & I checked out the AMC Best Picture movie marathon in Kent. Starting at 11 am:

Michael Clayton- which I had thought I would have no interest in, but it was incredible and certainly the best narrative film. My favorite of the bunch. I loved the conditional morality and it reminded me in some ways of Wall Street. American capitalism gone mad. 5 out of 5 monkeys.

There Will Be Blood- was very well made. It was a character or maybe mood piece and the acting was amazing, but at the end I was left with a meh sort of 'well that was a movie wherein nothing happened'. I guess there was no standard story structure and it bugged me. 4 out of 5 monkeys for being diverting and having such great acting.

Atonement- I read (see skimmed) the book, so I cheated. The movie was quite good. The costuming and cinematography were excellent. Paul and I were impressed by the casting. 5 out of 5 monkeys.

Juno- I am a killjoy, and while I laughed, I felt like it was overworked, with Juno's every sentence crammed tight with flippant talk and music likings that were pretentious and a bit out of character. So intentionally aiming for that youthful indie audience. Bleh. I still liked it- but I could never love it. 4 out of 5 monkeys.

No Country for Old Men- I also read this (although I didn't spend a lot of brain on it). It was a better movie than a book. It was done very well, but it also did not have a standard narrative format. There was a collective groan and boo when the movie ended. It was very good through. 5 out of 5 monkeys.

Curse you, The Eagles! Curse you to hell!!!!!

The Good, the Bad, and the Snarky: At Random

Here, read this random crap and make sense of it if you can:

I had a wonderful Saturday of baking and watching cartoons. Yay cartoons! I was able to watch cartoons (Skunk Fu, TMNT Fast Forward, Viva Piñata, & The Batman) from 9 am till noon and could not have enjoyed it more.
I made two kinds of fudge and some sugar cookie dough (currently in my freezer). I also made chicken pot pies from scratch. Being me, I made the pies without a recipe and they turned out very well.
It was incredibly freeing to not have to so much glance at a clock for a full day. I didn’t have to wear makeup or change out of sweats. It was awesome.
My apartment is kind of mess now, but I should have it under control tonight (I hope).
I still have several additional kinds of treats to make and I am trying to figure out how to make all of the different cookies in the allotted space of time.* And I still haven’t finished sending out Christmas cards, nor have I started wrapping presents, nor have I finished making some of them. Somehow I must fit in extra time between this weekend and Christmas. 3 days would suffice. I need one of those little time turner thingies like Hermione has in Harry Potter. Somehow I just don’t think that will happen though.

************

Sunday I went to see I am Legend with some friends and I was most impressed. I can’t recall any story details for the original novella, but I have seen the previous films based on the book, Omega Man and The Last Man on Earth, about a jillion times and I think that I am Legend stayed pleasantly close to the general atmosphere of the previous films. Will Smith did a great job, and the effects were good. There were some plot elements that I would have liked fleshed out- I certainly would have watched another half-hour of film to get more plot and character development. But overall the movie was very satisfying and well worth the months of anticipation. (Hell, I was satisfied by the trailers. I am very excited for the new Batman movie.)

If you liked I am Legend, Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston, is quite easy to get your hands on and well worth a viewing as well. I particularly enjoyed that movie’s development of the albino/vampire/cannibal/mutants. The Last Man on Earth (mid-sixties Italian movie) was very sophisticated for the time, but was not as cohesive. Vincent Price was the star and the story was rather exclusively his; there was not a lot of development there. I picked up a copy a few years ago in one of those dollar dvd bins, and if anyone wants to borrow it they’re welcome to.

****************

I also watched the zombie comedy, Fido (Sunday is cannibalistic fiasco movie day at Ye Olde Family Homestead). Fido is set in the 50’s (post zombie war) and tells the story of a young misfit who befriends his household zombie/butler and finds himself in some trouble when his zombie gets a bit out of control. Everyone needs to rent this movie. It was funny, heart-warming, amazing, and had zombies in it. I flat out loved it.

***********

I finally joined Facebook over the weekend, and rather than ending my irritation with social network sites, it has caused a worse problem: cyber-smuggery. Instead of being a fun little tool, it has given snarky people who I barely know or hang out with an excuse to be snarky about how long it took me to get there and what is on my profile. It is exhausting to deal with these ass-muppets, and I should have stuck to my guns about joining in the first place—let that be a lesson to you kids about peer pressure.

So to summarize:

Cartoons, Cookies, Pot Pies, Fudge, Sweatpants, I am Legend, Last Man on Earth, Omega Man, Fido = Good

Makeup, Clocks, Facebook, Peer Pressure, Snarky Ass-Muppets = Bad

*In a dimly related note, I have decided to really do a lot of chocolate Christmas treats this year- mainly because I’m not really into chocolate, so I won’t eat them. I am embarrassed to admit that I’ve owned the pair of black slacks that I am wearing for 4 years and this is the first time they’ve felt snug. I better keep a close eye on my food and exercise habits this Christmas.

I don't want to seem obsessed, but...

Here is a little bit more T4 information for those who consider that franchise to have been an overwhelming force in the very foundation of their personality. Uhm... I mean for people who really like movies about robots with nipples.