Ok, it’s not like I’m a huge Trekkie or anything. I mean I can’t really explain to you what a nexus is or how to work a flux capacitor. (ok ok I know thre’s no flux capacitor on the Enterprise)
But what I can explain to you is that this movie is like crazy packed with random people, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy, Eric Bana, Bruce Greenwood, Karl Urban, Winona Ryder (seriously), Simon Pegg, John Cho, Ben Cross, even Tyler Perry gets in there somehow. Nutty I tell you. But I have to admit. they had me at Zachary Quinto. and Eric Bana. and Karl Urban. Scifi chicks unite!!
Ok this song gets annoying after about 20 seconds… but the video deserves a mention.
As a member of the female of the species, I am always looking for new interesting, complex and meaningful female characters in literature, film, and music who don’t piss me off. Many times women tend to be (1) damsel in distress, (2) female sidekick, (3) sex object/pretty backdrop, (4) gender quota fodder, and/or (5) all the above, also known as Angelina Jolie.
But every now and then you get just a good, fun wacked out character who just couldn’t be anything other than a woman, and makes me want to take up a martial art. And dye my hair blonde.
Kill Bill is a horrible movie, I mean, make no mistake. It is ridiculously convoluted, the characters are caricatures, the plot is winding and the dialogue is doofy. It’s violent, foul-mouthed, comically overdone. And I love every second of it.
Quentin Tarantino knows that there is a large portion of movie-goers like me who appreciate lunacy and self-aggrandizing storytelling. And the Q man has a profound love for these things, and Uma Thurman’s feet. Not to mention the kind of respect needed to give female characters their room for complexity and gravity.
All this to say, every time I’m channel surfing and Kill Bill (vol 1 or 2 and especially both in order) is on, I am totally sucked in. Even though I own it and have seen it a dozen times.
Which brings me to another point – all the other movies that I own personally tend to be male-centric. All 3 Blades, all 3 Matrix, all 3 Lord of the Rings, all 3 Star Wars… and Chronicles of Riddick/Pitch Black, and ummm Sense and Sensibility. (Yeah. Ok. That last one was a gift.) I still cry every time Whistler dies in Blade. Which incidentally happens again in the third one. Gotta love scifi. I also have things like Fight Club and Boondock Saints and the Fifth Element. I need to go buy things like Bridget Jones’ Diary and Bridget Jones’ whatever-the-sequel-was-called, and something with Kate Hudson in it. Oh and maybe throw in a Susan Sarandon flick for good measure. Somewhere inside there’s a girly girl screaming to get out. She’s taking her sweet time to get out here, cuz shes doing her nails or something…
I avoided watching it for awhile but my mom rented it and I was compelled to it. It’s the train wreck/car accident/what’s that smell thing we morbidly curious people do. we have to see it and figure out where it’s coming from.
the most pressing question of the day: does Colin Firth really play the guitar in Mamma Mia??? because if so, he suddenly just jumped to the top of my list. i have loved him since i first set eyes on him in that really lame Valmont thing. he is cuter than my hello kitty purse. and that’s way cute.
But seriously, one thing that really struck me about the movie version of Mamma mia is that we should all be way more grateful for Pro Tools than we probably are as a society. Let me explain. No there is too much…
See Pro Tools is a program for music production, and a singer’s best friend. It can take your uber flat note and make it pitch perfect. So no matter how tragically offensive their singing may have ended up, you can bet your bottom dollar that it was SO.MUCH.WORSE in the studio! I for one will attest to how difficult it can be to sing. well, it’s difficult to sing on key and maintain good tone. oh and not sound winded. or raspy. or strained. or generally horrific.
I won’t name any names, but let’s just say that the sole highlight for me was the possibility that Colin Firth plays guitar. ‘cuz that’s hot. Other than that, I’ll admit that I sang along – loudly – mostly so I couldn’t hear the actors. It was kinda like karaoke night. Except I miss karaoke night.
