Ugh, I've recently read a book I hated and watched a movie I hated.
Evening, by Susan Minot, is the worst book I've read since The Bridges of Madison County, which is the worst book I've read in my entire life. And not in a so-bad-it's-good kind of way (I'm looking at you, Twilight), just plain old bad. The plot is about an old woman dying of cancer who starts reminiscing about a weekend in which she had a fling with a tall, dark stranger she met at a wedding decades before. She makes him out to be this romantic figure, "OMG after we went swimming he passed me a towel without even wiping off his face first, what a gentleman" when in fact he was just some smarmy dude who was cheating on his pregnant fiance.
The Will Be Blood....more like There Will Be A Really Long And Boring Movie With A Fucked-Up Ending. Yes, Daniel Day Lewis is a great actor, but his character is a nasty oil tycoon who only cares about beating the competition, and doesn't even seem to have any fun or enjoy his money doing so. And it's 2 hours and 38 minutes long, spitting in the face of my No Movie Should Be Over Two Hours Long Unless Francis Ford Coppola Is Involved policy. And the soundtrack was very odd and jarring- it sounded like the opening of a Lost episode and didn't go with the desert scenery at all.
So do yourself a favor and skip both of the above.
In happier entertainment news, I have started watching The Wire and am completely hooked.
13 comments:
I loved There Will Be Blood and was really disappointed when No Country for Old Men beat it out for best picture last year at the Oscars. I am a fan of the dark disturbing movies and tv shows. I made my mother watch it last week and she wasn't a big fan.
I am glad you said this because I thought I was the only one in the world who wasn't awed by it. Yes DDL is awesome but I just didn't get it. I only liked the part about drinking your milkshake. I laughed the whole time. Not sure if I was supposed to.
ah -- haven't seen "there will be blood" but i remember the trailer looked good. perhaps i'll get it on netflix AND like it, just to spite.
my b-mo friends were raving about the wire when i was there last summer. i'll have to check it out (did i mention i don't have a tv? cause i don't.)
Loved that movie, and that's Johnny Greenwood from Radiohead on that badass soundtrack. Not Bollywood enough for you, I guess.
Yes, There Will Be Blood, kept promising something but didn't quite deliver. I also thought the music was "off". It sounded like something scary was about to happen and didn't. I kept making MJ pause the movie so my 3 year old who was wandering in and out of the room would not see anything disturbing. I would have liked an alternate ending, killing the "minister" was not only not justified but it didn't seem to serve any purpose, except to put DDL in prison for the rest of his life. I think I needed a commentary to explain it to me.
How are you going to rent a movie if you don't even have a TV?
Yeah, a lot of people I know liked it, but I think it fell into a category of movie that I always dislike: businessman gets rich and becomes more eccentric and mean in the process. A la Citizen Kane and The Aviator, which most people think are great movies but I consider them total snoozers. TWBB also reminded me a little bit of The Assaassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford- the minister is a lot like the creppy Casey Affleck character.
Maybe if TWWB had ended in a dance number to Paranoid Android instead of a bludgeoning, I would have enjoyed it more.
p.s. Buddes, Mrs. V totally called you out! Oh snap.
Eileen, I didn't realize you like your movies so vanilla. TWBB is pretty intense and different, but I thought that's what made it cool. And the Johnny Greenwood soundtrack grows on you. Sort of like all Radiohead music. Plus, how the hell can you like the dark and disturbing Wire and not find TWBB fascinating in the same way?
By the way the Wire is #85 on stuffwhitepeoplelike.com, and sure enough, when in Bmore last year, my mom called, I told her where I was, and she immediately exclaimed "Ooooh, have you ever watched the Wire??!" I died laughing.
Ugh, I hated there will be blood. I appreciate film, art, and good acting, but I had no care for Daniel Day Lewis' character, and hence when the entire movie was about him i just was not entralled. Also, no women characters in the film and too much dead space. Anyways, I just wish I could have those 3 hours back and would never watch it again.
Gotta agree with JR and Maria, I really liked There Will Be Blood. I think about it all the time, a year later. So, that must mean something.... I liked the music -- it is a sorta horror movie.
Compared to this years "best of" contenders, its not even close -- B Button is awful.
I'll put a good word in for Citizen Kane, but I'm right with you on There Will Be Blood. Started out great, but loses it way after the first forty-five minutes or so, and turns out to be (much like Magnolia and Boogie Nights) an overly derivative, continually repetitive, and wildly overrated dog.
Also, Daniel Day-Lewis is great -- when is he not? -- but that last act in 1927 make zero dramatic or historical sense whatsoever. The preacher is already undone by his own bad investments, so having Plainview go nuts on him with the milkshakes, bowling pins, and whatnot is tantamout to killing a gnat with a sledgehammer.
Plus -- sorry, gotta put my history hat on here for a sec -- NOBODY lost money on the stock market or anywhere else in 1927. It was virtually impossible. The stock market went up 400% between '26 and '29, people were making huge profits in a nationwide real estate boom (particularly in Florida), etc. etc. That's why it got so ugly when the bottom dropped out soon thereafter. My negative impression of the movie has little to do with this particular fact -- I'd already checked out by then anyway -- but I did find it irritating.
Also, welcome to The Wire! I tend to follow the WWMCND rule (What Would McNulty Do?) these days. Unfortunately, McNulty tends to get mindboggling drunk on Jamesons and stick his head where it doesn't belong, so it isn't really working out too well.
mrs. v,
renting movies doesn't require a tv. all it takes is a netflix account:) also, watching the movie doesn't require a tv either — i took the high road and bought one of those "computers."
double snap -- snap dragon in fact!
hey now bigglesworth, be careful where you snap. mrs. v's my momma.
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