Movie Monday!

Watch this clip! Or this one! Or this one (my favorite!)! Or this one! Adam introduced me to the "intentionally misplaced" clips from the Lawrence Welk show that have been on SNL recently and OMG... Kristen Wiig! OMG!

Some movies I've seen recently:

Hot Tub Time Machine - if you saw the commercials, then you know what you're in for. It's a silly movie that knows that it's silly - which is the best part! The whole movie is a joke of the movie itself. None of it is too serious. We saw it at the Dollar Theater and it was well worth the price! We laughed the entire time. John Cusak was great, even though I had doubts. I loooooove Cusak, but I wouldn't have ever picked him to be in a cheesy bro-mance movie, but he pulls it off. There are certainly more than a few nods to his 1980's movie career (the hot tub takes the guys back to the 80's) although I would have liked to see more. But no matter! It's gross and raunchy and totally hilarious.

Heathers - when I was in junior high, my mom called me "Veronica" because, like Winona Ryder's character, I was the only differently-named girl in my clique. Mine were all Jennifers, and none of them were evil (or necessarily popular - we were the dorks drinking Cherry Pepsi and eating Funyuns at lunch I can't believe I was never Homecoming Queen!). I haven't watched this movie in 15 years (gulp) at least and I have to admit that from the start, my pre-adolescent Christian Slater crush flared up. *heart palpitations* The movie actually holds up. Although, any kid born after Law & Order first aired would be pointing to forensic evidence galore, the movie itself is still fun. And reminds me of the Faith No More song, "Star A.D." lyrics "When you die, you'll become something worse than dead. You'll become a legend." [new cross stitch??]

Pecker - I love John Waters's movies. He's so awesome and Pecker is essentially the story of himself. A Baltimore boy who makes it big with his outsider art that becomes famous and eschews fame in exchange for exposing the rest of the world to real life (in Baltimore, of course!). Edward Furlong pulls it off so well, which honestly you wouldn't expect. And Martha Plimpton, as always, is my favorite.

Kill Bill Volumes 1 &2 - it had been a while since I'd watched these and I suddenly wanted to see them again. Now I am starving for more! When the movies were first released, Tarantino had cast a few young children (4-5 years old) who will become essential characters in the next installments and I'd heard that he was holding off on making the next volume until those kids were grown (it was reported back then that those exact actors were contracted in advance to be in the next volumes) so that they could reprise their own roles. It's been more recently reported that volume 3 is due sometime around 2014. I'm excited already! The movie is not just beautiful and completely fun, but it's really layered. I'm not smart enough to decipher it all, but I really really love the themes of honor in the films (all the characters are trained as Samurai warriors and they fight with swords - except for one major incident in which someone uses a gun) and even the fun little quirks like the airplane seats that have a place for you to hold your sword.

Big Top Pee Wee - this movie crushed my soul a little bit. I'd seen it when I was young and didn't remember any details and watching it now, I know why. The fun moments are few and the story is... ludicrous. Even for the Pee Wee Herman universe. It felt like someone's fun idea got mangled by Hollywood and turned in a disaster. One example of the horror: Pee Wee is engaged to be married. And! He cheats on his fiancee and has sex. Boo hiss.

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men - A fantastic book by David Foster Wallace that is exactly as it says - interviews. I couldn't fathom how it could be made into a movie, but wow! John Kracinski (Jim from the office) wrote the screenplay, directed, and acted in it and... wow! Hats off! It was really fantastic and a beautiful movie.

A Serious Man - of course, Ryan loved it. I was just lukewarm. It took a LONG time for the story to get going and even then... it just went. It's a Coen Brothers movie, so it doesn't necessarily give you the satisfaction that you're looking for in an ending. This one left me itchy.

Whip It - I stayed away for a long time because of all the hype surrounding this movie. It was pretty cool, but was still pretty formulaic. Ellen Page was great, as always, and Kristen Wiig is awesome. I liked it, but I didn't love it.

Tyson - who knew that a Mike Tyson documentary could be so interesting? Not me. Ryan rented and watched it and then said "you have to see this" so I did. It's not ultra revealing if you know anything about Tyson, but it was still interesting to hear it in his own words. And after watching the Holyfield fight, knowing the story behind it - yeah, that jerk deserved to be bit (essentially, he was cheating and head-butting and Tyson's only recourse was biting).