Alphabetical Movie – Harry Potter 1-8
Call me lazy but I figured that a single post that covered the entirety of the Harry Potter film series was sufficient.
I have, in the past several weeks, watched approximately 24 hours of film devoted to J.K. Rowling’s retirement plan. Most of it is good. Some is very good. None of it is great and none of it is awful.
That’s actually not too bad for a run of eight movies. It can be fairly argued that the source material is so strong that it should result in stronger films. I can think of plenty of examples of strong source material being made into bad movies. Go ahead and watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas if you doubt me. I’ll wait.
By the way, I’m going to be going into spoilers about the books and the movies so when you get done watching that terrible film, don’t come back if you don’t want to learn any secrets.
I fucking HATE Rick Santorum
Hate is a big word. It isn’t a word you should just throw around because it gets people interested. I don’t, honestly, hate a lot of people. I dislike people. I don’t enjoy spending time with some people. You need to be a special kind of jackass for me to hate you.
Rick Santorum is a special kind of jackass.
Alphabetical Movie – Gunga Din
I think it is harder to dislike a movie that is considered a “classic” than it is to criticize a popular modern film. I mean, if the movie is seventy years old and people still love it, who am I to say that I don’t really enjoy the film?
Take The Dark Knight. A great many geeks (and movie fans) thought the movie was exceptional. There is, however, a small but vocal group that will say the movie is a complete piece of crap.
You can start a similar debate over such modern “classics” as Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, Star Wars, and so on. These films have their devoted fans but also a vocal group of people willing to argue that the fans are complete idiots who fail to recognize that Fight Club is the greatest film ever made.
Alphabetical Movie – Groundhog Day
What is it about Andie MacDowell?
You see, I really don’t like her and in spite of that, she appears in a large number of films I really enjoy.
Let’s be fair and say that I don’t like her as an actress. I think she has a limited range and comes off as very stiff and unconvincing. I’m sure she is a fine person and if I ever met her socially I’d feel awful I was saying nasty things about her acting ability.
Why not save a step?
Today is Carl Sagan’s Birthday.
I remember watching “Cosmos” with my dad when it first aired on Public Television many years ago. Sagan’s lyrical way of explaining complex scientific concepts were as memorable as that accent that has resulted in “billyuns” of imitators.
I remember also that it was the first time I saw anyone openly suggest that it might be OK to think of a world without god.
I really wish there was a “shut up before you make more of an ass of yourself” button on the internet
About a month ago, I blogged about mysogony on the internet. In a dialogue that has been growing over the last couple of months, female bloggers have started to point out that they are subjected to the kind of verbal abuse guys will never experience.
As an example, they created a hashtag on Twitter. If you want to see what female bloggers have to deal with, check it out. You may have to scroll back a bit to actually see the horrible stuff these women get thrown at them. A long way, actually, because even on this hashtag, the idiots on the internet have reared their ugly heads.
Alphabetical Movie – Gremlins
Watching Gremlins inspired some talk about rules and our inability to follow them. Let us start with a consideration of the rules that we are given at the beginning of the film when Gizmo is sold to the foolish father of our protagonist.
Rule #1 – Don’t expose them to bright light. It hurts. Sunlight will kill them.
Rule #2 – Don’t get them wet (we can hope that they are self cleaning)
Rule #3 – Don’t feed them after midnight.
Should it stay or should it go now?
A few days ago, there was a rather heated exchange on a Facebook fan page I follow. As is the case with the internet, the exchange became less than civil in approximately the amount of time it takes for forcefully hammer a few keys and hit send with a smug smirk on your face.
After a time, someone stated that they felt the entire negative thread should be deleted as it reflected badly on the organization in question.
I couldn’t disagree more. To me, that was the worst of all possible responses.
I’m going to use some examples to illustrate my point and one of them is going to use offensive language. I’m bringing it up now so it doesn’t come as a surprise later.
Alphabetical Movie – The Green Mile
It is, I suppose, fair that The Green Mile will always be known as Frank Darabont’s second best prison movie. Being mentioned alongside The Shawshank Redemption should be fair consolation, right?
I think that The Green Mile is an excellent film that mingles hope and despair in equal parts. The films ending seems to provide a glimmer of hope after an absolutely devastating moment of despair but to me, it borders on nihilistic.
Before the fold, I suppose I should mention that just about any Alphabetical movie blog may contain spoilers. This one certainly will.
Grail Diary 