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next_to_normal) wrote2011-09-07 05:36 pm
next_to_normal) wrote2011-09-07 05:36 pm
Entry tags:
My Netflix binge continues
Well, my Netflix subscription renewal is at the end of the month, at which point I will have to give up either the DVDs by mail or the streaming, since I'm not paying for both. My DVD queue has 472 items on it. Instant queue has 76. Guess which one I will be cancelling, lol. Besides, I can stream for free a lot of other places, so I'm using this time to clear out as much of the queue as I can, haha. The results are under the cut.
Tangled - Cute, as Disney movies go. It doesn't seem to challenge the Disney paradigm too terribly much, despite all the talk about it. It's neither a coup for feminism, nor really a shift toward attracting male audiences. Though Rapunzel is spunky and snarky and gets to do more than sit in a tower waiting to be rescued, she's hardly a groundbreaking female character. And while Flynn is more involved in the adventures than your standard Prince Charming, he doesn't reach, for example, Aladdin's status as a lead. Y'all know how Zachary Levi is my TV boyfriend, and Mandy Moore is one of the few Disney pop stars that I don't hate, so I found the combination of them rather enjoyable.
A Little Princess - I can't decide if this was a rewatch or not, haha. I've read the book, and I thought I'd seen the movie, but... some of this wasn't familiar to me, perhaps because they changed a lot from the book. Or perhaps it was a different movie version that I saw? (For reference, it was the 1995 version starring Liesel Matthews as Sara.) Anyway, it was mostly for nostalgia's sake, though I can't remember now what prompted me to add it to the queue.
The King's Speech - Kind of a letdown after all the Oscar hype. I mean, it's a good movie, but not exceptional, you know? Colin Firth is Colin Firthy. Helena Bonham Carter is slightly less HBC-esque than usual, perhaps owing to the fact that she's playing a real person (and royalty, at that). I have to say, though, it was kind of hilarious to watch this after The Tudors, because it cracked me up to see them going through a lot of the same formalities, but wearing modern(ish) clothes. Very disconcerting. But in a fun way.
Blood Creek - Oh man. Confession: I only watched this because of Henry Cavill (of The Tudors), who is my latest TV crush. It's one of those cracky horror movies that's so bad it's good. Nazi zombie horses, that's all I'm gonna say. HILARIOUS. Michael Fassbender also stars as the undead Nazi zombie-master, though you'd never be able to tell under the six thousand layers of make-up and prosthetics. The plot is pretty nonsensical, and the humor is almost certainly unintentional, but it was damned funny, I'll give 'em that.
I Capture the Castle - Heh, another Henry Cavill-inspired choice. Actually, I started watching this movie ages ago, because it had Bill Nighy, Marc Blucas, and Rose Byrne, but I quit halfway through for one reason or another. Too quirky, maybe. Anyway, this was a reminder to give it another shot, and it's good, though from what I've read online, it seems it pales in comparison to the book. It's a 1930s period piece about an eccentric English family living in a crumbling castle, for which they can no longer pay the rent. The arrival of two wealthy American brothers is a ray of hope to elder sister Rose, who is more than willing to marry for money. Meanwhile, Cassandra, the level-headed younger sister, isn't interested in marriage, but this new development marks a coming of age for her as she experiences her first love and discovers that life is a lot more complicated than she thought.
Tangled - Cute, as Disney movies go. It doesn't seem to challenge the Disney paradigm too terribly much, despite all the talk about it. It's neither a coup for feminism, nor really a shift toward attracting male audiences. Though Rapunzel is spunky and snarky and gets to do more than sit in a tower waiting to be rescued, she's hardly a groundbreaking female character. And while Flynn is more involved in the adventures than your standard Prince Charming, he doesn't reach, for example, Aladdin's status as a lead. Y'all know how Zachary Levi is my TV boyfriend, and Mandy Moore is one of the few Disney pop stars that I don't hate, so I found the combination of them rather enjoyable.
A Little Princess - I can't decide if this was a rewatch or not, haha. I've read the book, and I thought I'd seen the movie, but... some of this wasn't familiar to me, perhaps because they changed a lot from the book. Or perhaps it was a different movie version that I saw? (For reference, it was the 1995 version starring Liesel Matthews as Sara.) Anyway, it was mostly for nostalgia's sake, though I can't remember now what prompted me to add it to the queue.
The King's Speech - Kind of a letdown after all the Oscar hype. I mean, it's a good movie, but not exceptional, you know? Colin Firth is Colin Firthy. Helena Bonham Carter is slightly less HBC-esque than usual, perhaps owing to the fact that she's playing a real person (and royalty, at that). I have to say, though, it was kind of hilarious to watch this after The Tudors, because it cracked me up to see them going through a lot of the same formalities, but wearing modern(ish) clothes. Very disconcerting. But in a fun way.
Blood Creek - Oh man. Confession: I only watched this because of Henry Cavill (of The Tudors), who is my latest TV crush. It's one of those cracky horror movies that's so bad it's good. Nazi zombie horses, that's all I'm gonna say. HILARIOUS. Michael Fassbender also stars as the undead Nazi zombie-master, though you'd never be able to tell under the six thousand layers of make-up and prosthetics. The plot is pretty nonsensical, and the humor is almost certainly unintentional, but it was damned funny, I'll give 'em that.
I Capture the Castle - Heh, another Henry Cavill-inspired choice. Actually, I started watching this movie ages ago, because it had Bill Nighy, Marc Blucas, and Rose Byrne, but I quit halfway through for one reason or another. Too quirky, maybe. Anyway, this was a reminder to give it another shot, and it's good, though from what I've read online, it seems it pales in comparison to the book. It's a 1930s period piece about an eccentric English family living in a crumbling castle, for which they can no longer pay the rent. The arrival of two wealthy American brothers is a ray of hope to elder sister Rose, who is more than willing to marry for money. Meanwhile, Cassandra, the level-headed younger sister, isn't interested in marriage, but this new development marks a coming of age for her as she experiences her first love and discovers that life is a lot more complicated than she thought.
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Yes. I felt the same. It is inoffensive and unsurprising, and those do not in themselves seem sufficient reason to win an Oscar. I agree about HBC though; she was my favorite part.
I think what I found most interesting about Tangled was the complex relationship Rapunzel had with her stepmother, who was in turn working from more complicated motivations than I usually expect from a Disney villain.
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I did like the relationship between Rapunzel and Mother Gothel, and heh, I suppose any motivation is a step above most Disney villains, which often seems to be "because I'm eeeeeevil!"
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Also meh @ Tangled. I enjoyed the Moore/Levi work, but yeah. Meh.
/not tickled
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My cousin had a chameleon once. She left the heat rock on too long, and it sizzled to death. :(