Recently in Pop, Pop, Pop Culture Category

So Hublet and I were going to go see No Country for Old Men on Friday, but all the showings were sold out.  Since this was our only opportunity to see a movie for the foreseeable future, we were determined to See A Movie, Dammit!  This, coupled with my Medievalist roots, explains how we ended up seeing Beowulf.

I am torn.  I know what Gaiman was probably going for with the screenplay, but he ended up with Danes and Geats as a bunch of frat boys with better tats and leathers, and he fell into the po-mo trap wherein a simple tale of heroism and human foibles leading to a great king's downfall and ultimate redemption isn't good enough - we need a naked water demoness!  And a magic cup!   And a mysterious open ending in order to drop the anvils of  "temptation never dies" and "heavy is the crowny cranium" with a dash of "who are the real monsters" hoo-ha onto the heads of our unsuspecting audience!

That said, it was visually interesting, although CGI people are still creepy with their dead, dead, eyes and jumpy movements.  Really.  We just haven't got the hang of CGI people yet.  Although the Angelina Jolie character was the least artificial looking one.  Not sure if that means that the effects people were unduly obsessed, or if Ms. Jolie's facial characteristics are scarily artificially smooth in real life.

Bottom line - this movie will make it REALLY easy for teachers of Beowulf to tell who's actually done the reading and who cheated by watching the film.

The Fabulous Moola is no more.  I remember watching her on GLOW, Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, way back in the 80s.  Recently a friend of mine was involved in making a documentary in which she was featured.  And I seem to remember a segment for the Daily Show several years back in which Moola discussed training female midget wrestlers in her S.C. home...I believe the phrase, "that's my damn midget" was bandied about, which is why it has stuck in my memory. 

I was going to title this, "Seen any good movies lately," but alas, I go too infrequently.  Of course, I can't blame that on The Boy or the cost of a babysitter, either.  I can, however, blame it on the fact that I haven't seen an interesting movie trailer in many, many months.  There are 2 possible reasons for this:

1. The folks in charge of trailer-making suck.
2. The folks in charge of making movies are making boring useless movies.

The latest ads for films I've seen either on TV or at the theatre have featured, in no particular order:

• Pained middle-aged people being played by either Susan Sarandon or Tommy Lee Jones.
• Animated bees, which might be interesting, except that Jerry Seinfeld's voice is so distinctive and distracting that I can't pay attention to the bee as a character because every episode of Seinfeld ever made is running through my head as soon as I hear him speak.
• George Clooney striding purposefully up a hill - why?  We don't know!  But it's George Clooney!  And he's STRIDING! UP! A! HILL!
• American flag imagery over a backdrop of despair.  Gee, I wonder if this is a war movie?  And if so, I wonder what sort of take on it the moviemaker will have?  Hmmmm.  It's a puzzle!
• Russell Crowe versus Denzel Washington in the dark, with guns and wet pavement.  Woo.
• Vampires!
• Angelina Jolie with a tail.  In 3-D.  And CGI.  And it's Beowulf.  I'm...well, uh...Huh.

And these are the ones that have at least made an impression on me - God knows how many others are floating around out there.  Sigh. At least I enjoyed 3:10 to Yuma.

 

Okay, so I was trying to find the Graduation mini-movie from Kim Possible, which apparently ISN'T AVAILABLE for either download or purchase - don't get me started yet again on my craptastic DVR which isn't TiVo and which therefore SUCKS because it doesn't understand the concept of ONE HOUR MOVIE and only recorded half the episode, thereby ruining our family's entire evening of fun and viewership, DAMN YOU DIRECTV DVR! - and ran across a phenomenon called ToonTown, which is like EverQuest for the Elementary set, except free. Well, this is from Disney, so obviously you can pay for "an upgraded experience," but there's a lot to do for free, so free it is.

The Boy and I created a toon, and I thought, "This'll be fun for a few days."

Famous last words.

That place is freaking addictive!  We fish, and play games, and defeat evil cogs by throwing pies in their faces, and have pets and help friends in battle, and  - good grief.  There's a reason I never started World of Warcraft, or any other MMORPG.  I understand my limitations, and my tendency to be sucked into the internet.  However, I grossly misunderestimated Disney - a mistake I shall not repeat, friends.

So now I have my toon, and The Boy has his, and he uses his TV time on ToonTown. 

Good news - no TV.  Bad news - I've become obsessed with completing the task that will give us Frame 16 of the Sound Gag Training Movie, so that we'll have a new and improved weapon in our anti-Cog arsenal.

I can't believe I just typed that sentence.

Sigh.

At least my TV Boyfriend and his Geeky Ginormous TV Brother will return tomorrow evening, so I can be distracted from my burning need to defeat Cogs.