Spontaneous Musings

[Edited on Tuesday 10/4/05]

5pm on a Sunday. Three-day weekend almost over, but it was more or less relaxing. Good weekend for seeing films, beautiful, sunny, so no one in the theaters. Spent quite a bit of time outside as well, soaking up the rays, chatting with folks, getting stuff done, coming down from the assorted stresses of the week. Working a little on my novel. It's coming along nicely, I think, although slightly stuck word wise. Oh and I'm writing this from my spanking new red arm-chair. Always been a chair person, prefer them to couchs actually. Much more comfy. ( comedy of errors on armchair )

Saw several movies this weekend. Only cost me $14. Saw two for $7 each, and got one free. [I'm splitting two of the reviews into two posts now - Serenity in this one. History of Violence in a new one.]

The most thought provoking of the films and the one I'd recommend everyone see, well everyone above the age 18, is A History of Violence directed by David Croenberg and based on the graphic novel of the same name.
[cut and moved to new post]

I saw Serenity the day before. At 1pm, in a fairly empty movie theater. Few people I knew had ever heard of it. Mentioned it to several, work, outside of work, all without exception gave me blank looks. The only ones who had heard of it I'd met online.

( Thoughts on Serenity, which contains spoilers. )


The third film I saw was Corspe Bride, which was delightful. Enjoy Nightmare Before Xmas more. Not sure why. Henry Selik did not direct Corpse Bride, he only directed Nightmare, but I sincerely doubt that's the reason. The direction seemed smooth. No, it may have been the songs, the characters, the story itself. I liked Jack better than Victor. He resonated more somehow. But then as you well know, the Jack character is snarky and
a bit of a bad boy. Victor is disarmingly meek.

Of the three movies, Corpse was the most beautifully rendered - a visual banquet for the eyes. It also had the best trailers - Harry Potter and Chicken Little and Zathurtha, only feel a need to see Potter, but the other two trailers at least amused. Serenity and History of Violence forced me to endure 10 minutes of horrendous images from a horror movie I refuse to ever watch, called Saw II, which takes gratuitious images of sadistic torture and horror to a whole new level, making one wonder about the creators of these things. I think one of my problems with Serenity, was I realized half way through that like many sci-fi movies it was a horror movie. And I'm not a huge fan of horror. I appreciate it but it also grates. Plus I think I've overdosed with shows like Lost, Invasion, Threshold, Night Stalker, Supernatural, and BattleStar Galatica. So, Corpse Bride, which pokes fun at the things that scare us and horror and death was in a way a welcome relief, much like Dead Like Me has been lately. A movie that instead of pumping up my adrenaline, decreased it with laughter. This week I felt as if someone had pumped me full of adrenaline and my heart was outracing my feet, making me restless and antsy.
So it helped to have a few films, Corspe Bride and I Capture the Castle to bring it down a bit.

Didn't have a favorite character in the film but did enjoy it. Was a nice little romp.

I Capture the Castle was the last film, watched it last night on DVD. Nice female coming of age story during the 1930s. About a failed writer and his family. The story is told through the perspective of the youngest daughter, who falls for her sister's fiancee and deals with her father's struggle to write again after 12 years of nothing. Marc Blucas is in the film and does a decent job with very little. He still has very little screen charisma, yet oddly more than Henry Thomas of ET fame, so comes across better than expected in the few bits he appears in. Bill Nighy works well as the father. And I enjoyed the actress playing Cassandra. Haven't read the novel that it is based on, so cannot comment on how closely it follows the book.

Felt less lonely this weekend, alone and with Wales, than during the week surrounded by people. It's an odd thing, but there are moments I feel less lonely, alone, then I do with many people.