watched recently (november & december 2012).

(I tag this post ‘movie reviews’, but this is more of ‘movie notes’.  I don’t write reviews.)

War Horse (2011);

I watched this movie with my cousin back in Turkey.  I actually bought it on DVD.  I have to admit, I watched it mostly because Benedict Cumberbatch is part of the cast.  I think cousin watched for Hiddleston.  No, please don’t get me wrong, it proved to be a wonderful movie, full of hope and beauty in the middle of the disaster that is war.  I really did sympathise with the horse and its people.

the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011);

This was refreshing.  Probably my favourite movie of the year.  A bunch of senior citizens move to India in search of themselves.  If you want a serious, yet light-hearted watch, get this one.  I have it on DVD as well.

Batman Begins (2005);

I have a difficult relationship with comic-based films.  Where I’m from, comics don’t play such a role in pop culture as they do in the US, so I always take the entire super-hero shabang with a huge grain of salt.  But it was entertaining, and I liked it.

Friends with Benefits (2011);

This was fun.

the Dark Knight (2008);

Same as Batman Begins, see above.  I have to add, though, Heath Ledger’s Joker is really something to behold.  After reading and hearing so much about it, my expectations were high, so I was sure I’ll end up being disappointed.  Not at all.  RIP Heath Ledger.

the Queen (2006);

I’ve wanted to watch this movie for ages, and I finally did, and I’m glad I did.  I wasn’t aware that it dealt with the Royal Family’s (especially the Queen’s) reaction to Lady Diana’s death.  Helen Mirren is great as Queen.

Mirror Mirror (2012);

I don’t really know why I watched the movie, aside from the fact that I enjoy fairytale retellings.  Snow’s step-mother is obviously psychopathic, but not in an entertaining way.  The CGI was enjoyable, I liked the action and the costume design, and the Bollywood-ish scene at the very end was a touch uncalled for, but quite entertaining nonetheless.  Sang that song for three days straight.

Just Go With It (2011);

I usually enjoy Adam Sandler movies, but this one I found rather obnoxious.  Also, I found it racist on quite a few occasions.  I’d like to blame it on the dub.  I watched dubbed to Russian, and sometimes translation inadvertently changes the dialogue from something that’s innocent to something that’s, well, racist.  It’s not to say that Russian, or any other translators, are racist, it’s just that sometimes dialogue changes are made which make it unintentional – though still inexcusable.  Anyway, I’ll leave translation woes for some other time.  Like I said, I’d like to blame it on the dub, but I can’t.  I found the movie racist.

Brave (2012);

I wanted to love this movie more than I did.  I couldn’t, and I can’t quite explain why.  Nevertheless it’s enjoyable, and I don’t regret watching it.

Aside from these movies, I’ve also caught up on The Mentalist and finished watching fourth season of Castle.  Castle is good formulaic entertainment; and The Mentalist is always great.  Usually a show starts to annoy me a bit somewhere around S3.  The Mentalist is the first series in a long, long time where it hasn’t happened.  I’m always waiting anxiously for next episode.

watched recently (october 2012).

(Despite the fact that the tag says ‘movie reviews’, they are not.  I write basic notes on stuff I watch, rarely discussing their merits or shortcomings.)

Sex and the City (2008); Sex and the City 2 (2010)

I’ve watched Sex and the City television series when I was a teenager, so naturally I wanted to see the film.  I missed it in theatres and for some reason never bothered renting, buying, or downloading until this year.

I’m writing notes on them together, but really, these two are separate.  The first one focusses on Carrie’s wedding with Mr Big.  It was… charmingly predictable.  The part I enjoyed most was Carrie moving back to her old apartment and finding an assistant.  And the clothes.  Yeah, I enjoy the clothes, though I still don’t get why the fuck one would wear heels at home.

(Though I did have a friend who insisted on wearing wedges all the time, because she had “short ugly legs” – her words, not mine.  Bollocks, ladies – your feet need rest.)

The second one talks about the women’s trip to Abu-Dhabi.  All of them are also dealing with their own problems – Charlotte is struggling with the role of mother; Miranda has problems with her boss; Samantha dreads menopause; Carrie can’t figure out how marriage should work.  The luxury of their stay in UAE is over-the-top and made me cringe a few times.  Other than that, I really don’t know what to say about the movie, aside from the fact that I loved Carrie’s green dress closer to the end of it.

I really only watched these movies for the visual.  I may know diddly squat about fashion and interior design, but I can surely appreciate a beautiful object when I see it.

I realise that Sex and the City – the television show, the movies, the book – GOD THE BOOK – are all intended as this… I was going to say light-hearted, but air-headed is more to the point in this case.  Anyway, I understand that the whole shabang is intended as easy entertainment.  I do, I really do.  But somehow, through their problems and revelations, all I could think at times was, “Jesus, there are people dying.”

Another thing that always annoyed me about the franchise is that it perpetuates the impression that Cosmopolitan has been cultivating for women for God knows how many years: women, no matter how smart and accomplished, really only think about relationships and image all the time.

You know, I suppose if you merged the quartet into one persona, slightly subduing their main cultivated traits, one’d get a more rounded, believable character than one gets when observing them all separately.

Does that make sense?  I mean, if you merged Carrie with Miranda, and added Samantha and Charlotte to the mix, it would’ve been a more believable person.

When Harry Met Sally… (1989)

I’ve wanted to watch this one for a while, and finally got the chance.  It’s cute and funny, and nicely written.  I knew, of course, how it would end, but I really enjoyed the friendship aspect of their relationship.

Sense and Sensibility (1995)

I finished reading the book and immediately watched the movie.  This was great.  Elinor and Marianne (Played by Thompson and Winslet) are two sisters, who through the course of the movie find themselves in conflicting romance situations – but react to them differently.  I really enjoy Thompson’s scripts based on Austen novels.  I love Austen, but at times her characters are a touch hard to believe in.  Thompson shows the side that Austen had to conceal in the 18th-19th centuries.

Margin Call (2011)

Finally finished watching this.  Oh, it’s not that it was bad and therefore took me so long to finish.  It was actually quite good, but my circumstances don’t always allow me to sit and watch a movie to completion.

Anyway, this is a beautifully filmed movie with great writing and very good cast.  The ending scene is powerful.  Do watch.

American Pie (1999); American Pie 2 (2001); American Wedding (2003); American Reunion (2012)

I remember being in high school, and the first movie was all the rage.  I didn’t watch it back then, because that’s the thing with me and movies – I usually watch them ten years later, when everyone’s completely got over them.  My favourite from the sequence is probably the second one.  The fourth one had a lot of moments as well.

the Birdcage (1996)

The owner of the flat cousin and I are currently renting in Istanbul has left a small stack of DVDs on his shelves, this one amongst them.  I’m glad it was there, because otherwise I probably never would’ve watched the movie, and it was pretty good.  A gay couple’s son is about to marry, and the girl of his heart comes from a very strict conservative family.  The parents are about to meet, and the son asks his fathers to somehow turn their household into a ‘straight’ one.  It’s a great comedy with some beautiful dramatic elements thrown in.  Worth a watch.

Hot Fuzz (2007)

After all the tumblr gifs and my love for Spaced, how come it took me so long to watch this?  I have no idea.  Anyway, this is hysterically funny.  Word of warning, though, I didn’t expect the amount of ‘blood and gore’ in it, but it’s there, epically.  It’s all fun though and quite often mixed with bolognese, so it’s OK.

Cruel Intentions (1999)

I knew how this movie was going to end before I started watching it, because I once caught the ending on TV.  I mean, doh, another film Alex watches fifteen years later.  It’s an okay movie with a great soundtrack.  Despite being pretty…  I dunno, ‘outrageous’ is too much, but it’s there somewhere – it’s pretty believable.  Plus it has a journal.  Journals are nice.

Dangerous Liaisons (1988)

I watched Cruel Intentions before I watched Dangerous Liaisons, so I had an outlining of the plot in my head.  Cruel Intentions was a remake for the young and the modern, though, and Dangerous Liaisons, I hear, sticks pretty closely to the novel (which I downloaded and plan on reading sometime soon).  Anyway, compared to the events unfolding in Dangerous Liaisons, the drama of Cruel Intentions is child’s play.  Dangerous Liaisons is much crueller than its modern-based counterpart.  If you watched (or plan on watching) one of these, I recommend picking up the other one ASAP and compare.

the Phantom of the Opera (2004)

Musicals and I, we have this thing.  I love them.  But in order to watch them, I have to be really, really, really in the mood for a musical.  Otherwise I just laugh through the thing, sleeping through the more lyrical parts.

Bend it Like Beckham (2002)

I had this movie categorised in my mind as ‘Keira Knightley plays footie’ movie, but it proved to be much more than that.  A girl from a conservative Indian family in the UK really wants to be a professional football player.  Her parents, each because of their own reason, are against it.  A beautiful story of female friendship unfolds.

the Notebook (2004)

I knew what was going on from the very first minutes of watching the movie.  So obviously I had a precise idea of how the entire ~*~turbulent romance~*~ was going to end.  Sadly overrated.

Midnight in Paris (2011)

I loved this.  It’s a story about a writer who is enamoured with the idea of Paris in 1920s – and of his relationship with his girlfriend (and her parents).  It’s beautifully written, greatly filmed, the cast is great.

Three Men in a Boat (1975)

I read the book twice – once on my own, and once with mum.  I wanted to watch a couple of adaptations with mother, but unfortunately, I have to watch them on my own, as my mother is not quite fit to watch new films, especially ones with subtitles.

Anyway, aside from this story…  Are you familiar with the book?  Then you know what the movie is about.  It’s pretty close to the novel, albeit shorter.  If you’re not familiar with the book – it’s a story about three men (and a dog) who decide to take a Thames boat trip to improve their health.  Fun stuff ensues.

Being John Malkovich (1999)

I feel like I was supposed to like this movie, but I didn’t.  I stopped somewhere in the middle by chance and then never returned to watching it.  It’s a story of a puppeteer who takes a job in a (really odd) office to make a living.  In that office he discovers a cabinet which leads directly into the mind of John Malkovich somehow.  I stopped at that point where his colleague decided to sell tickets.  I don’t know what happens next.  I’m kind of sad, because this was on my watch list for Sean Penn and Brad Pitt cameos.