(no subject)

Hot Fuzz was such good fun. It's sacrilege to say, perhaps, but it was definitely funnier than Shaun of the Dead. The parodies of the buddy-cop and action movie staples were spot-on because they were lovingly done with real admiration for what came before. Just, you know, amped up to ridiculousness. Shaun of the Dead was as much a dry commentary on modern society, interpersonal relationships, and drop-out syndromes as a riff on the zombie movie. I like it better, I do think, just that Hot Fuzz was funnier. Definitely worth your time at the cinema.

It also upholds my theory that there really are only so many British people allowed to wander around on celluloid 'cause there was hardly a person in that movie you hadn't already seen in every other thing having a British person in it. Some of them are just older.

For another thing, it's actually quite lovely to see movies in the middle of the week. I just rucked up to the theater, bought a ticket in record time (no pre-order necessary!) because there were no lines, and we got perfect seats even though we sat down only fifteen minutes before the previews. Best of all, you miss most of the obnoxious pre-previews ad campaigns and "entertainment" segments narrated at you by a failed actor who is but one more taped segment attempting to be hip and pithy from filming himself blowing his brains out and shoving that reel on instead. No thanks.

Would be better if such mid-week venues could be cheaper, 'cause then I'd do it every week. But if there are ones I want to see in theaters but don't need to see opening weekend (like the Fantastic Four sequel--how's about we do that one in the middle of the week, ivy03?) or that I would be ashamed to have anyone else know I'd gone to see and would like to minimize my chances of being spotted in a less crowded theater (::coughcough::Transformers::cough::), I would definitely go on non-weekend nights.

A bit of humor out of tragedy

You know what I lost in the great flood of the basement? Lots of crap I had on tape. I'm talking about 90s music videos (Third Eye Blind! Matchbox 20! God I had no taste!), some old Daily Show episodes (back when Craig Kilborn was on, old), episodes of The Simpsons, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, Tales from the Crypt, and Farscape. I even had the summer movie blockbuster special and the Oscar specials from the last runs of MST3K (still funny to this day? Crow/Servo introducing "A classy French film--La Confidentiale!" Mike: "Uh, I think that's L.A. Confidential" "No, no, Mike, it's a classy foreign film!")

And then there is the one tape that--well, let's just say that I used to enjoy the cheesy-ass Saturday night specials on the Sci-Fi Channel on a deeper level than I enjoyed more recent outings, like Gryphon or Manticore. I had one tape that I can still recall all the movies I taped on it. The first was probably the best--literally: it was the least bad of all the ones on there--called The Advanced Guard (for some reason, on Amazon, it's been renamed "The Colony;" I say, fuck that).

What can I say? There was a cute guy in it! Granted, that's my excuse for just about all of the movies on this tape that got ruined, but still! Cute boys = I will give it a chance.

Then there was His Bodyguard, which, I SWEAR, is the only schmoopy TV movie I've ever watched more than once (Ohmygod the tagline makes me want to time-travel and kill myself: "She's got two things to protect. Her client. And her heart." WHY AREN'T I DEAD YET!?!) In that case, I think it was the chick who was hot. The deaf guy, not so much. I'm embarrassed by that one, so let's move onto the ones that I shamelessly do not repudiate. Even ones I really, really, really should distance myself from, like Guyver 2: Dark Hero.

I have never seen the first Guyver movie, but I hear it has Mark Hamill in it. I think, actually, I did see part of that one, but I never stuck with it. Guyver 2, though, maaaaaaan. Again, cute guy (alas, he has since taken down his picture from the IMDB that was super-cute, but here's one I found where he looks like Will Riker--double sexy!). Also? Story featured monsters. And people being monsters. And angst up the yin-yang. Lots of angst. Like livejournal angst. Like livejournal crossed with emo song-inspired fanfic angst. Lapped it right up. This was probably my favorite. For those times when The Advanced Guard was too "plotty" or "dramatic" or "well-acted" for me.

And the last was some bizarre movie with Balthazar Getty, the Borg Queen, the chick who plays Daisy Adair from Dead Like Me and that French guy that isn't that French guy from The Matrix Reloaded. Ah-ha, I found it: Habitat. Fuck me, but I couldn't think of the title of that one for the life of me. But I did remember all the people I mentioned above correctly--Balthazar Getty was the unholy spawn of the Borg Queen and that other French guy, and his girlfriend was Daisy Adair. That's what I remember. Oh, and I think the ozone was gone. Or something.

Weeeeellllllllll, now that I've got all these remembered, I need to go about re-acquiring them for old-time's sake, methinks. I wonder if I can get these in the same $1 section of, like, Wal-Mart (only not Wal-Mart 'cause I'd feel too guilty shopping there) that my mom gets her other classic movies from (she bought my brother-in-law a movie reviewed by SomethingAwful, making him only the second person--ivy03 having the distinction of being the first--to have seen one of the movies they've reviewed). I certainly am not paying what Amazon wants for them. I should just throw them on my Netflix queue if I can. Hell, I bet Netflix has the rights to stream these since all they seem able to stream are super new, super lame action movies and D-rate sci-fi sequels (not the original piece of crap, only the sequel knock-offs thereof).

Should be fun! Anyone up for a movie night?