Category Archives: Film

Celebrities, Film

For the first time I watched Whitney’s “Bodyguard” movie.

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I was really impressed, especially with her emotion.  The writing wasn’t always spot on, but it was a good watch and had some unpredictable surprises.  The most poignant moment for me was the way they weaved the Dolly Parton song in as a country song first.  Having it reworked the way it was to express something so different in such a different genre shows the universality of good music.  I’ve always loved Dolly’s writing and I still think she’s underrated for the genius she is.

I really enjoyed the colorblind casting as well.  This was the first big hit of a movie I believe to do that, but it was in Whitney’s other favorite movie of mine (made for TV) which contained nothing but Rogers & Hammerstein songs that was truly colorblind.  In Cinderella with Brandy as the princess (casting suggested by Whitney herself when she had decided she was too old to play the role herself and instead played a young fairy godmother), Whoopi Goldberg and a white man had an Asian son, for example.  The entire medieval town had people of all shades, especially within families.

I hope people enjoy this picture I include of Whitney which I had never seen until after she died and I found it from what I believe was a European magazine spread.

I cried when she died because like Michael Jackson, she was definitely part of my life’s soundtrack.

Film, Television

Movies and shows I’ve been watching….

The latest episode of The Office was poignant enough to make me cry (the proposal scene).

Unique experience watching Metropolis, 1920’s sci-fi German, Marxist film restored last year to a length of 2.5 hours.

We watched Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner on Netflix and I was amazed at the countless scenes that I had never seen before!  Truly a movie before it’s time.

Watched The Bubble about a modern Arab-Israeli gay romance.  it was bittersweet, but enlightening.  I think they could have found far hotter men to portray the main characters.

We’ve been watch a lot of Keeping Up Appearances but I’ve complained to Netflix that many of the episodes look like they have tracking problems when you watch them through a PS3, which is how we watch all of our Netflix on the big screen.

Other series we watch regularly have been The Sarah Silverman Show and Strangers with Candy.

We could not get through Earth 2, the series, but we probably kept watching it longer than we would have because Tim Curry was in it for a while.

We watched the entire newer Battlestar Gallactica series but unfortunately the pilot movie and Caprica are not available through Netflix streaming (yet).

I watched the first several episodes of the new V still have the old series on VHS tape in my garage, believe it or not), but I’m behind in the latest episodes and hope to catch up, even if that means having to subscribe to Hulu Plus.

 

Celebrities, Film

Weekend was mostly Moving and Movies

My family helped me tremendously with a lot of moving and I got to watch a bunch of movies when I collapsed, especially on Saturday night.  These included:

1.  Oscar Nominated Coraline with Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher and Saunders and French.

2. The 2001 version of Planet of the Apes with hottie Mark Wahlberg, who I can’t explain why he turns me on so much, except for that (probably roid-enhanced) rocking body.

3. Evolution, a kind of silly sci-fi comedy, with David Duchovny (typecast), Julianne Moore (always stunning), Orland Jones (annoying) and very sexy Seann William Scott, whose comedy timing wasn’t exactly on in this movie, but he’s still very easy on the eyes.

4. Hackers with a young Angeline Jolie.  It reminded me of War Games mixed with Tron and was embarrassingly outdated, speaking of their speedy 28.8 baud modems.

Film, Streisand

Oscar Review

I predicted Mo’Nique would be the best supporting actress and Sandra Bullock would e the Best Actress.  I also predicted that Bigelow would be the first woman to win as best director, as so beautifully given by Barbra Streisand!

As I suspected, Elinor Burkett pulled a Kanye West at the Oscars last night; what a loser.

I was also glad to see an African-American writer win for best screen adaptation for Precious.

In a way I’m glad Avatar did not win best film because I’m finally seeing it tonight, and it would probably be too crazy at the theater if it won.  I don’t think science fiction films have ever really won best film, and pure commercial value (although they never adjust for ticket prices or inflation) does not mean Oscar win either.  More artistic movies, like Hurt Locker, are apt to win.  They needn’t be epic, and the timing and politics for it were right.

My friend Ed helped me BBQ last night and Alex and her friend Kaylea joined us for watching much of the Oscars and the subsequent Barbara Walters special with Mo’Nique, Bullock and a retrospective since Barbara says she is not going to do anymore of these types of shows.

Celebrities, Film, Technology

Fan pages for people on Facebook who have no particular following

My favorite “Mommie Dearest” quote is “Because I am not one of your FAAAAAAAAAAANNNS”  There are some excellent remixes of it on Youtube.

I have lots of friends on Facebook (almost the maximum, even though I’ve had to rebuild the profile several times) and other venues, but those numbers pale in comparison to the number of people I actually have in my computer’s personal address book.  I pretty much have kept track of everyone I have worked with, done business with, went to school with or socialized with at least my second year of law school (1996).  I’ve used the same basic electronic tool to do it, too (Microsoft Outlook), which I’ve customized the hell out of.  I should have database expertise on that alone.

However, I still can’t fathom having a fan page for myself just for the sake of having one.  If I reach the maximum number of friends on FB, then I will weed out the ones who have been evasive or who have incomplete profiles.  A fan page to me, would require that I have some special title or elected position that warrants admiration from complete strangers.  Perhaps some day I’ll be a well-published author with books on various subjects and will have actual “fans” but for now I’d really rather just have friends.

Those who have invited me to their fan pages, whether or not I’ve met them in person or not, should not be offended if I don’t join.  If I really like someone’s art work, I’ll join their fan page, but media whore that I am with all of the times I’ve been on TV and in print and with all of the columns I’ve written and articles I’ve self-published or formally published, I still can’t imagine myself crossing into the line of self-proclaimed celebrity without a body of work that stands on its own.