Before watching the movie:
I remember all my classmates in middle school going nuts about this movie when it came out. I had no idea what it was other than a funny name and some incessantly repeated, grammatically shaky line about a school. I later learned Zoolander is a fashion model, and he has a rival model, and that’s about it. Apparently there’s an international assassination plot that he gets involved with somehow, but that’s not funny enough for people to talk about, I guess.
Before watching the movie:
Jeff Daniels plays a hunter who has to end his dry spell soon, prompting a change of habits or superstitions or something. Weird things happen. I really don’t know what to expect.
I think this started as a play, since I recall first hearing of it as a community theater production.
Before watching the movie:
I’m fairly sure this is the movie I recall coming out at a time when I was too young to be interested in it, but I thought that it was a few years earlier, like 1997 or 98. Still, I definitely remember the title, nothing with that title came out in the 90s, and the summary is about what I remember.
I was surprised by the star-studded cast. Most of them are people I wouldn’t have heard of in 2001, but I know now are big names. I’m not sure if I knew any of them other than Whoopi Goldberg and Cuba Gooding Jr. at the time. I guess I knew of John Cleese and Rowan Atkinson, but I didn’t know they were in this movie.
I also just found out this is vaguely based on It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, which make sense, because it reminds me of “The Amazing Race” and that movie. Hopefully, it will have better pacing than “Mad World”, which dragged a bit at times from having to support so many characters and generally being long enough to be the only nonmusical film I know of with an intermission.
September is Stage Musicals Lunar Cycle
Before watching the movie:
I’m vaguely familiar with the basic story. Probably less than I should be, since I saw the Wishbone episode several times and I read The Canary Trainer, which is basically “Sherlock Holmes solves the case of the Phantom of the Opera”.
I’ve even heard some of the music (that organ fugue theme is inescapable, especially around Halloween), but I still don’t consider myself knowing this movie very well. I’m not even sure I’ll be able to comment on its faithfulness. Continue reading
Before watching the movie:
Eleven years ago sometimes seems like not very long. Sometimes it’s still odd to me to think that a movie that’s so well established wasn’t always there. I remember seeing the poster for The Majestic at a theater when it was running.
I never really gave much thought to the fact that this is set in the McCarthy-era 50s. I’m especially fond of the 50s, and this is one of the more interesting aspects of the decade.
The story seems to center around a theater, which is sure to please movie people, but in light of Hugo and The Artist cleaning up recently, I wonder if there are really that many more movies about movies or if it just seems like that because waxing nostalgic about farming, dentistry, or factory work doesn’t trip the self-gratification alert.
Before watching the movie:
Action. Comedy. Probably little to do with the TV series, but attached to one anyway. Angels.
Apparently the martial arts angle is an addition to the TV series. Having only been exposed to promos for the movies and that famous bathing suit photo of Farrah Fawcett, fighting is an integral part of my understanding of the show. Not that watching the movie is going to help me understand what else there was (probably espionage infiltrations).
Before watching the movie:
It’s not often that I come across a science fiction movie that I’m not looking forward to seeing. This film should have everything going for it. It was made recently, so should have a clean, appealing aesthetic. It’s about robots and what it means to be human. It was made by Stephen Spielberg. So why have I put this off for ten years?
I’m not looking forward to the story. It sounds too sad for me to enjoy. A child android is programmed to be completely human, but he’s still a robot in society’s eyes. Wait, that sounds like Bicentennial Man without Robin Williams. The problem I expect is that the robot in that movie was on a quest to make society understand him, but in this movie, since he is a child, I only expect harsh treatment and crying. Admittedly, that’s a little too simplistic. I fully expect this one to fall in the category of movies I liked better than I expected because my expectations were too low.
Before watching the movie:
I remember a time in this blog when I sought out movies generally considered bad to give them a chance at some small redemption. Looking back at recent selections, I guess I haven’t shied away from the duds, but I haven’t looked for them either.
It’s my understanding that either this, Patch Adams, or Bicentennial Man was Robin Williams’s worst comedy film. I liked Bicentennial Man, and a look at the description for this movie sounds interesting. It could almost be a sequel to Mrs. Doubtfire, with Williams again playing an out-of-work children’s performer.
All of the above isn’t to say that I went out of my way to find this movie, I just noticed that.
Before watching the movie:
I randomly found this movie on the shelf at the library, and I was intrigued. I’m somewhat breaking my rules for selections (I try to have a minimum age of ten years), but I’m very interested in seeing how this turned out. I have read the Bradbury short story this is based on, and I’m interested in discovering how they adapted it into a feature. My guess is that the characters have to battle through the alternate world they create, but I’m hoping to be surprised. For one thing, the happy ending they’re probably going to build to makes the title meaningless.
It also features Ben Kingsley, so there’s that.
Before watching the movie:
M. Night Shyamalan’s works have had a wide range of quality. It originally seemed as though his output just got worse over time, but in the light of not only the glaring plot holes in The Sixth Sense, but also the fact that some have noted a similarity to an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark, it may be considered that Unbreakable is Shyamalan’s real zenith of quality.
So why is it the movie I’m the least familiar with? My guess is that while “6th Sense” has a lasting buzz, and I was paying attention to the ad campaigns of the later films, Unbreakable stands in my blind spot. Too old for me to notice, too average to remark on. Here I go remarking on it.
From what I understand, it’s a deconstruction of superhero stories. Not terribly original and not well-timed. (Superhero movies were about to have a classical comeback after America went into security blanket mode, but nobody could have predicted that.) All the same, I hear good things about this film, and I expect good things.
Yesterday's Movies 