WG and his movies...

[icarus]

Once again I am loathing wildernessguru's choice of movie. This one is "campy medieval action flick" meets "Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

This movie is really stupid. Deliberately so.

He's enjoying it.

Man, this is stupid.

...

How long is it?

Comments

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

What is it, dare I ask?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Army of Darkness. I really wonder what these guys were on when they did this movie.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Greed?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

No, I'm thinking acid.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, when will it be over? This is like... someone wrote a movie for Jim Carrey and then couldn't get Carrey to do it.

*counting the minutes*

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Carrey is at least watchable, even at his most self-indulgent.

*browses Google* Oh my god! There are not one but TWO new novels by Mary Gentle I have never heard of before, set in the ASH continuity?! And focusing on gender politics? *wants*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Carrey is amusing. This guy is soooo not him.

There are not one but TWO new novels by Mary Gentle I have never heard of before, set in the ASH continuity?! And focusing on gender politics? *wants*

Huh?

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the non sequitur. She's a hard fantasy writer who works a lot with gender issues and war. And women with big swords who wear proper armor rather than chain bikinis.

[bramble-rose.livejournal.com]

Obviously a guy thing. My two teenage sons just critiqued it:

Awesome, probably one of the best movies ever made. Because Bruce Campbell like every other man of merit, has a breakfast of beef jerky topped with tabasco sauce. He's a man's man.

uh. ok. They are still going on about it. Next you must make him watch Pride and Prejudice, or My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I've had it. I'm bringing home a costume drama. In Chinese. With subtitles.

This movie is crap. It's also boring crap.

The "man's man" they're talking about? He's cracking up and barely able to deliver his lines with a straight face. Which is the only good thing about the movie.

And it's so not enough.

The pacing sucks, too.

See, I like camp. I enjoyed Conan The Barbarian, so I'm into stupid swords and sorcery movies. But this is lame, designed to play to adolescent fantasies.

The plot (such as it is) is a shambles. It's borrowing shamelessly from everything from Gulliver's Travels to, well, you name it.

This guy tries to do long Jim Carrey comedy, and it just falls flat.

God, this is boring.

Icarus

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

I should watch Farewell My Concubine again. I only saw it once, in the theater.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Brilliant movie. Unfortunately, wildernessguru liked it.

He complained when I picked up the Japanese version of Shall We Dance? I'll have to look for something along those lines.

Icarus

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

The international edition of that movie (which is the version I saw) is missing 18 minutes. I don't know what got edited.

[sociofemme.livejournal.com]

Lemme guess... an Evil Dead movie? My own suffers from a similar gap in taste, and that sounds familiar.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

No idea. It's just really, really bad. Dialog sample:

"Right. Bring me forth INTO THAT CASTLE."

Now they're trying to do Monty Python... god, this is fucking lame.

[sociofemme.livejournal.com]

Ah. Army of Darkness. How much facepalm is there in the world, that I know that?

[tonicollins.livejournal.com]

What an accurate description of Army of Darkness. Don't look now, but there's a sequel.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Let's not tell him that.

I'm looking for ideas on films he'll hate. First: he dislikes subtitles. And art house movies drive him crazy (though sometimes they drive me crazy). I need to take revenge for the last two hours.

Icarus

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

I LOVE La Nuit de Varennes, but James remembers absolutely nothing about it because he fell sound asleep in the first five seconds.

It has Casanova AND Tom Paine. (Not, obviously, playing themselves.)

[tonicollins.livejournal.com]

The only subtitled movie I can think of off the top of my head is the original La Cage aux Folles. Art house movies tend to make me glaze over so no help on that front.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

They make him glaze over, too. *beams*

Seriously, I've been considerate. I pick movies that I know we'll both enjoy, unless it's something I desperately want to see. He on the other hand has not shown me the same consideration at all. It's not just this film. He's had the most sexist, violent, awful crap playing -- and I've had to put up with it.

I developed a high tolerance for blood when I was researching SNAFU (http://www.icarus.slashcity.net/stories/snafu.html), but I've completely maxed out. It's been a steady diet of mindless, pointless violence, and I'm done being considerate of him.

He is now going to watch (or at least tolerate in the same room with him):

- Hamlet
- Ran
- Henry V
- The Twelfth Night (with Helena Bonham Carter)
- That flamenco version of Carmen I love
- The 5-hour BBC Pride and Prejudice
- Gay porn
- Japanese animation with little girls and cute fuzzy animals
- Solaris (the original)
- Katherine Hepburn in anything
- All About Eve
- Singin' In The Rain (and other Gene Kelley movies that strike my interest)
- Hairspray
- Queer As Folk
- The new Dr. Who (if it turns out I like it)
- And lots of cool Asian films as they strike my interest

If it turns out he likes them -- great. But the goves are off, man.

Icarus

[moonprincessnat.livejournal.com]

Army of Darkness is, indeed, one of of the Evil Dead movies. Third one, in fact. 'Course, I kind of like it, but only because I'll watch just about anything with Bruce Campbell (loved Brisco Country, Jr. You just can't take it seriously. In fact, my husband even had the board game, if you can believe it.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

He's also passing really bad gas, which suits the film nicely.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Very fitting critical comment.

[twistedrecesses.livejournal.com]

Are you watching Army of Darkness?

[twistedrecesses.livejournal.com]

Indeed (having just scrolled up the comments), it would seem you are.
...Does it help if I tell you that this one is in many ways better than the first two?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, god. I've promised him, if he watches the other two in the same room with me I will MST3K them, all the way through.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Yep.

[mark356.livejournal.com]

Well, the good thing about being on the computer while he watches those movies is that you get the benefit of having watched them with none of the frustration. I remember when I was in Japan, I was doing my homework on the tables in the common room while some dormmates were watching this really bad near-future science-fiction movie. The plot made no sense even for the people who were supposed to be watching it, but about two-thirds through the movie, there was a big WHOOSH! and one of the characters was just sucked up into the sky for no reason whatsoever. I laughed for about fifteen minutes, after which there was another such WHOOSH!. At that point I vowed that this must be the very best movie in existence-- but I would never be able to stomach just sitting down and watching it through all the way.

[retrofit88.livejournal.com]

(waaay behind the times, and I confess I actually like these movies...)

Bruce Campbell's autobiography, "If Chins Could Kill" has a fascinating and hilarious account of the filming of "Evil Dead" (the first in the trilogy). It's basically a bunch of kids in their 20's running around freezing cold woods in Michigan making a movie with one camera and absolutely no clue. But for the friends and family they convinced to invest money, the return on investment was astronomical.

And the guy who directed all of these? Sam Raimi. He of Spiderman fame. A few more years, a little more money... :)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I hate this mindless crap-ass movie with the power of a thousand suns and I don't want to know if you like it -- I prefer to respect my friends in the morning.