Comments piling in an Open Thread …
Movie clips and corny gags …
We throw together some Metacritic links
And hit “Submit” while Wrather nags …
Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Are there other holidays? I don’t know! (It’s not Tet for about a month)
In TV news, The X Factor had its first winner last night in Melanie Amaro. In movie news, every movie worth seeing is out now, somewhere: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Artist, We Bought a Zoo, War Horse, Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows, and of course Mission Impossible: G-g-g-ghost Protocol (zoinks!).
Are you getting everything you wanted for the gifty season? If not, treat yourself to a selection from the Overthinking It Gift Guide. Something to delight every taste and budget.
Finally, our friends in Massachusetts at ImprovBoston have announced open submissions for Geek Week VI, coming April 2012. Do you have a sketch, improv or multimedia show that’s at least a little geeky and at least a lot funny? Submit it as a show concept! Who knows? You might even get to perform with us!
What pop culture item do you hope you’re getting for the holidays? Sound off in the comments, and to all a good night, for this is your … Open Thread.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is still not open in my town. So I’m going to see Young Adult instead.
That was a really dark movie. Charlize Theron is amazing, but it’s something of a tough watch.
Yeah. And [Spoiler Alert] I don’t really think she learned anything. That particular go-back-home-and-fix-everything fantasy might be over, but the core troubles remain.
Actually, it reminds me of It’s a Wonderful Life, of all things. The financial setback is cast aside, but the fight with Potter and the existential dilemma of always setting your own dreams aside aren’t even close to done. If you think about it, it’s a very sad movie, because you know that one day Potter’s going to win.
My new theory is “It’s A Wonderful Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” George Bailey gets critically injured when he crashes his car into the tree. The rest of the story of George meeting Clarence, seeing what the world would have been like if he’d never been born, and happily reuniting with his family was an extended fantasy while he’s delirious and dying from from his wounds in the crash.
Yeah, definitely.
*SPOILERS FOR YOUNG ADULT*
Metaphorically killing Buddy Slade seemed to signal that she’s over this particular high school fantasy, but she’s still an alcoholic, probably has some severe emotional issues, and doesn’t seem to have anybody in her life who’s interested in helping her.
I thought Charlize Theron gave the best performance I’ve seen this year. She did a lot of subtle things with her eyes and expression that I found fascinating.
Yesterday, I had a friendly chat with the manager of my local theater, an 18plex operated by Cinemark. He informed me that he is only responsible for keeping the doors open. The corporate offices send the movies, make the schedules, decide how many screens should be devoted to Twilight, and even provide guidelines on how much popcorn to have on hand for any given weekend. So the decision on what movies to show, and when, is decided far in advance by someone who has probably never been here.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy will be opening on Christmas Day, for some reason.
My family doesn’t really celebrate Christmas, so here’s Barack Obama overthinking it:
http://imageshack.us/f/689/20111220121911.jpg/
Re: War Horse — people are so jaded about war, we have to see it from the perspective of a horse to remember how bad it is?
Spielberg is a master manipulator who is able to coax tears from you – but I don’t think he ever learned how to earn those tears organically. I’m not excited about that movie at all.
As far as Spielberg goes, his sentimentality reaches a saturation point where it starts to feel manipulative and that varies from person to person. And that goes for any media really, I think everyone feels tired of it at some point.
But, there was a scene in Waltz with Bashir where a soldier recounts their platoon seeing a bunch of dead horses and it was the thing most of the soldiers cried when seeing. It baffled everyone and themselves that they were crying over the horses more than all the other atrocities they’d seen. So the horse concept isn’t just crass manipulation by Hollywood.
I’m actually under the impression that Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy won’t be opening at all in Vegas. That vexes me. I’m terribly vexed.
I saw Sherlock Holmes 2 a few days ago. It was pretty bland, I’m not sure how much there is to overthink, tbh. That would prolly require another viewing, and I’m not spending more on it.
I’m interested in seeing TinTin, actually. I went to undergrad with a guy going around the world to various locations in the comic series to investigate the accusations of the series as racist/imperialist/etc. So I’d be curious if any of the stereotypes and such that are reported to be in the comic are in the movie. Never read it, though, I’ll admit that now.
Alsoalso, am I the only one interested in The Iron Lady? I hear it made a lot of people close to Thatcher quite angry for portraying her as a crazy person- and not necessarily in the sense that she passed her policies, but that she had tripped out dreams and some other rather bizzare stuff. My guess is they portrayed her as feeling guilty for all of the austerity or something to appease the Liberal Media and the like…
So how about the upcoming soundtrack to The Hunger Games, eh? Taylor Swift (featuring the Civil Wars), The Decemberists, Arcade Fire… I’ve been overthinking the song by Swift from it, released a few days ago, and I don’t think it’d spoil the story to say I don’t think it’s necessarily from the perspective of the main character, Katniss. Which, to me, is a really interesting way to go in terms of song-release and emphasis. I can totally see this song as the one playing during the credits, though, so I’m anxious to see how it gets used in that sense. Here’s a link to it, in case anyone cares.
http://youtu.be/YFEDTtKaFzU
I was gifted the book and couldn’t put it down. The tone of the song fits that of the book in general, but the words make me think of a character other than Katniss as the one “singing” them (and actually, the tone seems to fit that person by the end more than her). I just can’t really explain why without getting too spoiler-ee. I guess specific lines remind me of specific events and that person’s perspective as they take place in the story.