The Lion King Directed by Roger Allers/Rob Minkoff June 24, 1994 319 on the List
Tonight's movie is mostly a tribute, and less a pseudo-review, because I feel like everyone has seen this one. All people. Also because I'm flirting dangerously with betraying your trust again, as today is seven days since the last time that I posted nine days late. I'm reliable, no?
I picked this one as a slight nod to the Academy Awards tonight. They showed a short clip of a handful of film stars recalling the first movie experience they ever had, and the impact it had on their lives. So here's mine. The Lion King was the first movie I ever saw in theaters and thus was the gateway drug that led to my quite healthy addiction. It even won a couple Oscars, a few Golden Globes, and an Annie or two. And who knows what that last one is.
This is one that I will be raising my kids on, as I was. Because, frankly, I turned out awesome.
School of Rock Directed by Richard Linklater October 3, 2003 188 on the List
I slipped again. Nine days since my last post. It'll probably happen again, so I'm not going to lie about it. What I will lie about, though, are my feelings for Jack Black.
I love Jack Black.
That was the lie I talked about earlier.
School of Rock is the only film in which I've ever truly enjoyed Black. And don't you bring up "Kung Fu Panda", because that was a terrible experience.
I will admit, I liked Tenacious D in high school. But I haven't seen it since then, and since everything I liked in high school was stupid, I can only assume it was, too.
I don't like that he can't be involved with anything unless he can say "Skeedlybop! Doo doo diddly doouuuueeeeeew".
I don't like his obsession with the word "awesome".
I don't like that he LOVES The Foo Fighters; they are the worst.
I don't like that eyebrow thing he can do that I can't do.
My generation being what it is, we were never quite struck with the glory that was Superman. We were quick to point out how ridiculously overpowered he is, and how this ultimately makes him unattractive as an outlet for the preteen pursuit for power.
One thing that personally got me interested was a show called Smallville. You may remember it. And I'm not talking about what became of it - 10 seasons is reserved for Friends - I'm talking about the first few seasons. That's a Superman I could relate to - he had all the power in the world but he had no idea how to utilize it. (I am mostly saying that I am awesome, here)
After around Season 4, he pretty much grasps everything and becomes Superman. So again, it's hard to tell if the show just turned to poop, or if the idea of an all powerful being - save for little green rocks - goes full circle and ends up just being boring.
Think about that setup for a moment. Every scenario plays out the same way; he's on his way to fight someone: he wins immediately or they have implemented Kryptonite in their weapons somehow, subdue him, and then he wins later. There's no real danger of losing him, so losing interest takes hold - if he was real, we'd take him for granted until he snapped and eyebeamlasered us all.
Approx. 143 minutes later: Let me begin with a spoiler. This is for the people who have seen it, so if you haven't it's probably not even worth spoiling it for yourself:
Spoiler
So, when he "reversed" time - and I'm not even going into how that would probably have WAY adverse effects on the whole globe and ultimately worse than a teeny nuke - and goes back to save Lane...
He wasn't there the first time for a reason - to build a makeshift dam for that little town that was about to learn to swim real fast. When he reverses time, he never returns to them, despite obviously reversing the new 'Present' to before the mini-dam was built and after it needs to be built. Meaning he sacrificed an entire town's population for one flighty reporter.
Correct me if I'm wrong, I may have just missed something, but that was a little concerning.
But the TIDE, though! Something with the oceans - I mean c'mon! Did no one know about the earth back then? Did they still think it was as flat as that little sheet of whatever that captured those prisoners at the beginning?
I think they'd lose California anyway, what with all the not-okay that Superman just carried out.
But I digress.
unSpoiler
Superman: The Movie is a piece of work. I didn't hate it, I have to say. I enjoyed it at all the right parts, wished it had better CGI at all the others, et cetera.
I've always found it funny that back in the 30s, when Superman was first thought up, someone in a writing board room somewhere said "A futuristic society will have crystals! Crystals everywhere! That's what Kryptons are all about - crystals!".
I don't have much else of an opinion, but I will sum up something I learned from a man called Bill that I've always found fascinating.
-------
Superman is the only superhero that doesn't use a mask to fight evil, in fact, he uses a mask when he isn't. Clark Kent is his mask; with his squirmy nature, glasses and bad posture.
And what is a superhero mask? It's what Peter Parker, Bruce Wayne, Tony Stark all think a superhero is - anonymity. So essentially, Clark Kent is what Superman thinks of non-superheroes - us. He believes us to be weak. And that's how he fits in.
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All that aside though, I think even the most asinine of us could recognize a man without his glasses, and not fulfill the writers' assumption that we would all naturally think, "Is that...? Golly no! He's far too confident to have ever worn glasses! How silly of me! What an idea! I best stop this 'rational thinking' nonsense before any form of intelligence threatens to invade again!"
Pulp Fiction is the best movie you should never watch with your grandmother. I say that under the assumption that your various Gam-Gams all enjoy The Godfather and Inception.
There are so many quotable moments from this movie that if you've ever seen it, you just thought of three.
I'm not even sure where to start with this film, as I've seen it a thousand times. But to counteract that, I happened to watch it last night with my roommate who promptly pointed out two things I'd never noticed before, and were most certainly purposefully orchestrated by Tarantino. The ability of this movie's script to be drilled into the mind of someone, in the same way the lyrics to American Pie were but in a much more pleasant and purposeful way, and still reveal things every time you watch it is astounding.
I still am continuously captivated by Tarantino's way with words. His dialogues are always mesmerizing, and considering he originally planned on being an author, one can see why this is a strong-suit. One can also ponder why he doesn't then dish out a best-selling novel, so even the Amish can revel in wacky violence - but hey, I just write the blog posts.
I really do love this film, its sequence is brilliantly arranged - a particular moment involving a Mr. Vincent Vega reminds us that Tarantino giveth, and Tarantino taketh away. Then Tarantino ...giveth again.
Though certain scenes, mostly just the overdose situation, are something to bat an eye at - furiously, even - the rest is a genuine masterpiece that will stand the test of sensitive stomached girlfriends everywhere.
The Virgin Suicides Directed by Sofia Coppola May 19, 1999 262 on the List
Tonight, I'll be starting The Virgin Suicides, a film I don't really understand. But I don't know much about it, really. What I do know is that it has received a lot of underground praise, has a reasonable cult fanbase, and is on this here list. It's even directed by Francis Coppola's daughter. That's The Godfather, folks.
I'm excited to delve into this one, so here we go.
Approx. 96 minutes later: Well. That was awful glum.
Upon finishing this film, I'm sure most people long for a deeper meaning. They ask; why is this happening? Was there a way to stop it? Who the junk names their daughter Lux? Fair questions.
But I think this went deeper than that, in that it didn't. There aren't any answers. Those things happen, and by the end, the narrator and his friends are clearly frustrated by the turn of events. And that's the point. They're driven mad by the idea of all this, so you are, too. You don't get answers because no one has them.
In my Composition class recently, I learned about this poem, called This is Just to Say, by William Carlos Williams.
"I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold"
Now, 90% of you, like me, don't "get" poems. So the first thing you're scrambling for is a deep meaning, right? This must be about how sin in general is extremely tempting, and more often than not, we partake in it, even if our roommate was planning on eating it - something far-fetched like that.
But no!
It's worse: this poem is just about someone who thinks chilled plums are the yums.
No one wants to feel stupid or played - although personally, I feel that poems were created for that express purpose - so, naturally, we try to understand everything. "Oh, I see what you did there." But, do we?
The point is The Virgin Suicides resembles that poem in many ways. It dares us, with its sheer simplicity, to figure it out. Come up with an answer. Make our high school Literature teacher proud. And in doing that, we miss out on one of the true beauties of life: sometimes, cold fruit tastes good. And that's all.
Kill Bill Vol. 2 Directed by Quentin Tarantino April 16, 2004 423 on the List
Today, Anna and I wrapped up the Kill Bill collection with Vol. 2.
I love this film. I think this is by far one of Tarantino's brightest, and happier works - a sentence that will be regarded with horror by the likes of Anna, who still found it a tad sinister.
Again, this is one of my favorites, so there's not much to add here. I'll hand it over to her.
Annalysis: "It was super sad. And the credits were my favorite part.
I wish that I had known before that the story is about what happens when psychopathic killers become romantically involved.
There's a lot more cussing than the first movie."
It's pretty late and she was too tired to offer any more wisdom. She owes me a novel for her next segment.
