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May. 28th, 2016 09:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Just watched Dead Pool via On Demand, and that's a kick ass flick. There really is no other term for it. It's actually better than the actual film "Kick Ass" and does a superior job of satirizing superhero flicks. Found it quite funny in places. And Ryan Reynolds clearly had a blast with the role. It also follows the comics fairly closely. (Yes, I read some of the Dead Pool comics back in the day, and X-Force, and Cable, and the X-men. I actually am more familiar with the characters in this film than I am the Avengers flicks, because I never really read the Avengers. Unless they did a crossover with the X-men. They rarely did that.)
Anyhow, I enjoyed it. A sort of metanarrative critique of superhero films. Quite witty in places, and stuck rather closely to the source material.
As an aside, one of the jokes was "There's a British Villian" in the front credits. [Goo Goo Perfect Idiot, Hot Chick, British Villain, Comic Relief, Moody Teen, CGI Character...]. Tis true, US movies and television series seem to like British or Russian villains. During a good portion of the 1930s,1940s and 50s, it was German, actually this was true in the 1960s and 70s as well. In the 1980s? It was mostly Russian (that whole cold war thing). 90s? Mexican drug lords. 00s? Arab and Persian. Seen a few French, not many Swedes or Danish, not quite sure why...it's not like there's a huge Scandiavan community in Hollywood or anything.
What I sort of liked about Quantico is the bad guy is a white guy who speaks with an American accent.
And the heroes are the Persian, Arab, and Isralie. Nice.
Not sure why US movies swing towards British speaking villains? Possibly a dastardly plan just sounds more convincing if delivered with a British accent? The British actors are better at playing convincing villains? (Certainly more fun.) Or it's a hold over from the Revolutionary War, which seriously? Was over 100 years ago, you'd think we'd have gotten past THAT by now? Of course the Civil War was over 100 years ago, and some people are holding on to that too...(Note to self, no one ever gets over wars, probably not a good way of resolving problems.)
Must be annoying if you're British. Doesn't bother me, but then I'm not British. (Although I do have British heritage, quite a bit actually. ) Now that I've noticed it - I find it rather amusing and somewhat absurd. Why are we casting Brits as the villains??? Aren't they our allies? Don't we like them? I like them. I doubt it's deliberate. I don't think the producers or writers are thinking - "I know we'll make the villain British" so much as "you remember Alan Rickman in Die Hard? He was amazing, can we get someone who sounds just like him? Or maybe Jeremy Irons?" They just happen to be British. Or "we want a snooty guy, who is upper crust, and talks like Henry Higgins."
2. Allergy flare up from hell resulted in vertigo late Thursday night. Not a pleasant experience. Quite frightening in fact. Doing whatever is possible to avoid a reoccurrence. Since then, been a bit on the wobbly side. Did make it to work on Friday, but was miserable. This round the left eye and left nostril decided to drip fluid all day long, making wearing contact lenses impossible. On Thursday, it was the right eye and right nostril. My eyes were bloodshot by the end of the day. Got home, sinus headache and vertigo almost came back. So took out contacts, lay on bed with a cold compress, and meditated for 30 minutes. Then drank nettle tea. Had a light dinner of sushi over salad.
Watched tv, went to bed.
Got some nettle tea from a friend and I've been drinking it all evening long. It's actually helped quite a bit. Put it in a jar, added boiling water, let steep for 6 hours, and then drank it.
No clue what caused it. But it appears to be going around. A lot of people who aren't normally affected by seasonal allergies are getting sick. Also the weather has been wonky. Actually that is an understatement. Last week it was in the 50s and 60s, 40s at night. This week it's in the high 70s and 80s, 60s and 70s at night. Today? Went up to 90 degrees, and the air outside is thick and hard to breath. We've had an air advisory for the last few days.
Anyhow, have decided to relax this weekend. Sleep. Watch tv. Read. Write. Not do too much. Feeling better tonight. So, so far, so good.
Anyhow, I enjoyed it. A sort of metanarrative critique of superhero films. Quite witty in places, and stuck rather closely to the source material.
As an aside, one of the jokes was "There's a British Villian" in the front credits. [Goo Goo Perfect Idiot, Hot Chick, British Villain, Comic Relief, Moody Teen, CGI Character...]. Tis true, US movies and television series seem to like British or Russian villains. During a good portion of the 1930s,1940s and 50s, it was German, actually this was true in the 1960s and 70s as well. In the 1980s? It was mostly Russian (that whole cold war thing). 90s? Mexican drug lords. 00s? Arab and Persian. Seen a few French, not many Swedes or Danish, not quite sure why...it's not like there's a huge Scandiavan community in Hollywood or anything.
What I sort of liked about Quantico is the bad guy is a white guy who speaks with an American accent.
And the heroes are the Persian, Arab, and Isralie. Nice.
Not sure why US movies swing towards British speaking villains? Possibly a dastardly plan just sounds more convincing if delivered with a British accent? The British actors are better at playing convincing villains? (Certainly more fun.) Or it's a hold over from the Revolutionary War, which seriously? Was over 100 years ago, you'd think we'd have gotten past THAT by now? Of course the Civil War was over 100 years ago, and some people are holding on to that too...(Note to self, no one ever gets over wars, probably not a good way of resolving problems.)
Must be annoying if you're British. Doesn't bother me, but then I'm not British. (Although I do have British heritage, quite a bit actually. ) Now that I've noticed it - I find it rather amusing and somewhat absurd. Why are we casting Brits as the villains??? Aren't they our allies? Don't we like them? I like them. I doubt it's deliberate. I don't think the producers or writers are thinking - "I know we'll make the villain British" so much as "you remember Alan Rickman in Die Hard? He was amazing, can we get someone who sounds just like him? Or maybe Jeremy Irons?" They just happen to be British. Or "we want a snooty guy, who is upper crust, and talks like Henry Higgins."
2. Allergy flare up from hell resulted in vertigo late Thursday night. Not a pleasant experience. Quite frightening in fact. Doing whatever is possible to avoid a reoccurrence. Since then, been a bit on the wobbly side. Did make it to work on Friday, but was miserable. This round the left eye and left nostril decided to drip fluid all day long, making wearing contact lenses impossible. On Thursday, it was the right eye and right nostril. My eyes were bloodshot by the end of the day. Got home, sinus headache and vertigo almost came back. So took out contacts, lay on bed with a cold compress, and meditated for 30 minutes. Then drank nettle tea. Had a light dinner of sushi over salad.
Watched tv, went to bed.
Got some nettle tea from a friend and I've been drinking it all evening long. It's actually helped quite a bit. Put it in a jar, added boiling water, let steep for 6 hours, and then drank it.
No clue what caused it. But it appears to be going around. A lot of people who aren't normally affected by seasonal allergies are getting sick. Also the weather has been wonky. Actually that is an understatement. Last week it was in the 50s and 60s, 40s at night. This week it's in the high 70s and 80s, 60s and 70s at night. Today? Went up to 90 degrees, and the air outside is thick and hard to breath. We've had an air advisory for the last few days.
Anyhow, have decided to relax this weekend. Sleep. Watch tv. Read. Write. Not do too much. Feeling better tonight. So, so far, so good.
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Date: 2016-05-29 03:27 pm (UTC)But if US film-makers really, really want to infuriate British people the reliable way to do it is to make a film that exaggerates US versus UK contributions to the two World Wars (eg U-571 for the most notorious recent example)
Which was about 75% of the WWII movies made between the 1940s-1970s. LOL! That'll teach you not to get your history from fictional movies, won't it?
It's a tribal thing or rather a nationalistic thing. People have a tendency to embellish their country or tribes role in things over someone else's. Look at how we emphasize the horrors that Germany and Japan and Italy (okay not so much Italy) wrought during WWII, yet turn a blind eye to our own complicit acts and horrors?
We like to create black and white villains, and over-emphasize the heroic role we play on the world stage. The UK is as guilty of this as the US is, actually all countries are. I don't know a country that doesn't do this. It appears to be human trait, not necessarily a nice one.
The difference is that the US has more media clout/power in regards to getting the message out than other countries do. Even though India's Bollywood is so much bigger and more productive than Hollywood, Hollywood and the US is better at distribution and has broader distribution. Few films created in India are actually seen in theaters outside of India. Yet, India produces more films. Japan produces more comics than the US, yet the movies made from comics tend to be US comics. And the distribution of the Japanese comics isn't as widespread. It wasn't until the last ten years that you could find them in Barnes & Noble, now shelves are dedicated to Magna comics. But the distribution still isn't at the same level as say Marvel and DC.
I had a writing teacher tell me once that the US's biggest and most influential export is its media presence. He's not wrong. You can write a book, comic, song, television show, film, etc -- but if you don't have a distributor who push it out to a broad audience, the message doesn't get heard. Also, how you tailor the message -- if you do it in a way that pulls at the heart strings and emotions of your audience, resonates with them - you have them in the palm of your hand.
Just look at the US Presidential Election and what Donald Trump is doing, it's somewhat reminiscent of what Hitler did -- which was find a great marketing person to push out your message to the biggest audience imaginable. Trump is a marketing genius.