The King’s Speech

Well, compounded by my slight desire, “Hurricane” Irene, no public transportation and absolutely nothing to do, we finally watched The King’s Speech this weekend. We’ve had it from Netflix for about three and a half months – sorry next guy in line.

The cinematography and costumes and all the stuff that goes along with a period piece were great, but in the end, it was a bit of a snooze. I was more impressed with the sunset.

My review: rent a rom-com instead.

Famous Movie Lines

Yesterday, I watched the Jerk in between football games. When the crazy murderer guy was shooting the cans and Steve Martin said, “He hates these cans!” it got me thinking. If I had the option to meet a screenwriter, I would ask them this question: “When you write a movie, do you know when there’s a line in it that’s going to become interwoven into American culture?” For example:

Did Sidney Howard or Victor Fleming know Rhett’s line, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” would become so widely recognizable?

Did Rob Reiner, Aaron Sorkin, or Jack Nicholson know the line, “You can’t handle the truth!!” would become so frequently quoted or referenced?

Did Richard Linklater or Matthew McConaughey know Wooderson saying, “That’s what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age,” would be so widely quoted and laughed about in the social lives of twenty-somethings?

Did Michael Curtiz, Julius & Phillip Epstein, or Humphrey Bogart know, “Here’s looking at you, kid!” would become one of the most notable movie quotes of all time?

I suspect these directors, writers and actors would tell you sometimes they knew, sometimes they didn’t. I just imagine it being such an interesting conversation – much like the conversation between Iris and Arthur in The Holiday about the very same topic.

The Cove

Last night tbf and I watched The Cove, which I believe won the best documentary Oscar. It was literally the most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen. I was shocked and disgusted that people (anywhere) would be capable of something so horrifying. In no way have I ever considered myself an animal rights activist – quite the opposite, really, but what they do is just SO wrong. These people in Taiji, Japan literally herd dolphins into a cove while they’re migrating by putting metal poles into the water and beating on them to mess up the dolphin’s sonar/communication and drive them into a panic. Once the dolphins are netted in, these trainers come in and pick the ones they want for sea world or wherever (I will never, ever go to Sea World, btw), then these men murder all the others – including all the babies. You can tell that the dolphins can anticipate what is going to happen and that they’re literally panicked.

The team who made this documentary hid cameras in the hills around the cove where the killing takes place and got HD video of the slaughtering. The water turns blood red; the dolphins swim and flail around trying to escape. You can see that they’re in pain and they don’t die quickly. It’s so painful and appalling to watch.

The thing is, you can’t even eat dolphin, it will give you mercury poisoning, but they pass it off as whale and are able to sell it. This documentary was one of the most painful things I’ve ever watched. And one of the saddest parts is the activist who wanted to make this film is the man who captured the 5 dolphins used for Flipper, which is what essentially started this whole dolphin frenzy around the world. He said he’s spent the better part of his life trying to undo what he started. It’s incredibly sad.

Now that I’ve seen this, I’m sad and disgusted and just feel helpless. What in the world can I do to stop these terrible people killing tens of thousands of dolphins in Japan?? They clearly know it’s wrong, they tried and tried throughout the documentary to keep anyone from filming anything – all the video they obtained was through secret cameras and life risks. It’s incredible and what’s even more incredible is that this won’t be stopped because it’s a worldwide political matter. So so so unnerving.

Definitely watch The Cove if you haven’t seen it, but be ready to become completely unsettled.

Movie Marathon Day

Today I had a movie day. It was supposed to be rainy outside all day and I never see any movies anymore, so I decided to go see a couple movies I’ve been wanting to see.

First, tbf and I went and saw Couples Retreat after meeting up with his brother-in-law for brunch. The movie was cute. It never made me laugh out loud, but lets be honest, not much (on tv or in movies) makes me laugh out loud. I thought it was cute and would definitely watch it again. I enjoyed the cast full of familiar faces, although I didn’t buy Kristen Davis’s character’s (Lucy) relationship with her husband and what came of it in the end. In the end, I definitely enjoyed this movie and wished I had seen it second.

Then I did a bad thing. For the first time ever I snuck into a movie!

However, I saw the Invention of Lying second, and I don’t think I would have stuck around to see a second movie if I had seen this one first. A few weeks ago, Ellen had Jennifer Garner on her show promoting this movie. I a. developed a giant girl crush on Jennifer Garner, and b. decided this movie sounded so funny. Then she had Jason Bateman on to promote the movie as well. Ironically, he was in both of the movies I saw today. The idea of the movie sounds cute. No one in the world has even thought to lie and can’t conceive of it, but the main character, Mark Bellison – played by Ricky Gervais – manages to lie to his mother as she is dying to comfort her about the afterlife. I promise, I didn’t just ruin the movie. He then realizes what he can get out of lying to people and basically makes himself rich and powerful to get the girl, Jennifer Garner, who is not interested in him. It ends in a cute way, but overall, I was disappointed and didn’t find this movie to be as good as I was expecting. It seemed to be express someone’s opinion and dislike of religion and seemed to have too many untertones to me. Too bad — it seemed to have potential.