Let's do it for Johnny!

I read The Outsiders in high school, but I never watched the movie. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I started looking into seeing the movies made from the books I enjoyed when I was younger, and vice versa. This went bad quickly. See my review for the book Forrest Gump.

But my library had the new, uncut version of the movie in the library, so I decided it was time I finally watch it. I knew that Patrick Swayze and Ralph Macchio were in it, but the rest of the cast was rather lost on me. It was a shock to discover Emilio Estevez and Tom Cruise were in it. These two were favorite actors of mine growing up. This is a very, very pretty cast. They are all so young and fresh looking, despite the constant bumps, cuts, and bruises they get.

Bye, Bye Blackbird

I planned on seeing Public Enemies in the theatre. Not only am I a Johnny Depp fan, I’m also familiar with John Dillinger.

I have a tendency to want to know more about infamous bad asses in history. Anne Boleyn, Rasputin, Charles Manson. They don’t have to have done good in the world, or even been charismatic. I just have the strangest fascination with people who flipped systems on their head, or were anomalies in their time period.

John Dillinger fits in there. Charismatic, smart, and fighting against what was happening in his time period, which was the Great Depression. He was a bad ass during one of my favorite time periods, the 20’s-30’s. In both movies and images, the 20’s are a beautiful time period. Ironic, since this was the time of great loss and poverty. I think I suffer from “the grass is greener” syndrome. Every time period looks prettier to me than the time period I’ve lived in. Remember, child of the 80’s here. You grow up with enough spandex and crimped hair and EVERYTHING looks better before I was born.

Note: I finally figured out how to do a jump cut. You're welcome.

Remember: a smile is cheaper than a bullet

When I found out it was almost my turn to get a copy of District 9 from the library, I asked my Twitter people if it was niece-appropriate. I was met with a resounding, “NO!” I trust my peeps, so I didn’t question it.

Then when it finally came time to pick it up, niece was with me, and asked if I’d seen it yet. I said no, and she informed me how GREAT it is. And I sighed and asked how she’d seen it. Apparently my mother’s boyfriend had it, and they watched it. Now that I’ve seen it, I am EXTREMELY irritated that she’s seen this. While she’s a child that fell head over heels in love with the Lord of the Rings movies when she was about 4 or 5, and can handle most forms of fantasy violence, she is not comfortable with curse words, either in movies or real life. The violence and obscenity in this movie is SO overwhelming, and I’m really annoyed that she watched this at age 10.

That being said, now for my 27-year old thoughts on District 9.

Ain't that a kick in the rubber parts?

Two movies this time, one that I picked up at a friends' insistence (read: demand), the other because of a Whedonverse alumni.



It should be said, I have issues with Woody Allen.

I have no doubts he is as talented as everyone says. Up until this moment, I had never seen one of his movies, but I’d heard how talented, funny, and self-depricating he (and his movies) were.

However, he lost pretty much any ounce of credibility I once had for him once I learned about the situation with his adopted stepdaughter, whom he had been around since she was a young child. The creep factor was too much for me, and I’ve never had any inclination to watch his films.

However, there was a roadblock to my decision not to seek them out.

Oh, the cleverness of me

When my 10-year old niece comes to spend the night at my house, in general it’s a veg fest. We watch movies, eat junk food, play with my psychotic cat, and in general act like big kids. The movie part is not always easy, as the majority of movies I own are not "niece-friendly". Lately we’ve been having a BTVS marathon, as she was born in ’99, and when the shows went off the air she was still too young to comprehend the storylines. She’s enjoying them immensely.

The last time she spent the night, we finished up Season 2, but I wasn’t ready for her to start Season 3 yet. Truth be told, the last handful of episodes of Season 2 are so emotionally draining for me, I wasn’t ready to keep going. Plus I don’t want to rush through the seasons. 10 is still very young to watch the exercise in disgust that is season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Anticipating this, I told her to pack some movies from home so we’d have something else to watch, as well.

I'm not broken

To say I am heartbroken about the demise of Dollhouse is to say I am heartbroken by Sarah Mclachlan's ASPCA ads.

The problems with Dollhouse, in my highly biased opinion, didn't have so much to do with the show itself as with the outside factors. So let's begin.