Movies

[Lisa]

Hitchhikers: My school FINALLY got Restraunt at the End of the Universe and the third one (can't remember the name) in! I checked them out today.

And for all of you who have been following the list of books my mom has banned, that is still one of them. She just doesn't know I have them.

Dad sent us this really scary parody of Star Wars called Thumb Wars. Scary as in creepily funny, in a weird way. Hilarious, but WRONG!

[worlebird]

Originally posted by Lisa:
And for all of you who have been following the list of books my mom has banned, that is still one of them.

Really? I haven't been able to find anything in your previous posts (but then, there are a lot to go through). May I ask why she has banned them? I don't want to start an argument, I'm just curious.
I do censor my own children's media intake, but they're still so young that G rated material is all that is appropriate for them. I don't know what I will do when they get older, but the thought of actually banning certain books isn't something I currently feel comfortable with. My attitudes may change as my children get older.

Anyway, I'm just wondering, if you wouldn't mind expounding a little.

That is all.

[Cress]

I'd have to agree on the Trillion's accent comment. At first I didn't notice it, but now that you mention it, it doesn't seem right.
I personally didn't understand really when the book explained the improbability drive, or I just forgot, so it was one of those things that I just nodded and said "Yup, they can go anywhere really fast".
The restaurant joke was pretty bad.
I didn't notice the Belgium joke.
The thing that really bugged me was how big Marvin's head was. I NEVER imagined him like that, I always thought he would be more of a traditional looking robot. Kind of skinny, maybe in the style of C3PO.
I personally can't understand why a parent would ban a book. That would just make the kid want to read it more. My mom has only once wanted me not to read a book, and then she just asked me not to read anything by that author after I finished that book since it looked trashy. That did bug me since she hadn't read it and was just looking at the cover and saying it was trashy.

[Lisa]

Worlebird
Really? I haven't been able to find anything in your previous posts (but then, there are a lot to go through). May I ask why she has banned them? I don't want to start an argument, I'm just curious.
I do censor my own children's media intake, but they're still so young that G rated material is all that is appropriate for them. I don't know what I will do when they get older, but the thought of actually banning certain books isn't something I currently feel comfortable with. My attitudes may change as my children get older.

Anyway, I'm just wondering, if you wouldn't mind expounding a little.

That is all.

Meh. It's all page 20 of this topic or before. Then we realized that this is the "Movies" topic and ended that discussion. I'm 13, but I think I read on about a college level.

Seriously, she's only ever either a) mentioned or b) asked me not to read four books/series.
1. Wheel of Time-Robert Jordan (This was mentioned twice because I kept reading them after she asked the first time, and she'd already forgotten the second time.)
2. Hitchhiker-Douglas Adams
3. Anne McCaffery in general. (Come on! They had two books at my elementary school! They must've been okay!)
4. Orson Scott Card (Just mentioned. She found Xenocide behind my bed and asked my brother (while I was at the library) if it was appropriate. He said he hadn't read it, but I think he was lying.)

Yeah. Like I said back then, she's pretty cool about it. I walk into the bookstore, we all get our own stuff, and mom doesn't ask what I bought. Then again...well, if Anne McCaffery's bad, then if she knew what ELSE I was reading, the list would probably be longer. (The ELSE refers to Tamora Pierce's "Song of the Lioness" books. Not quite as bad, but still...)

Oh yeah. It's not about the violence or anything; it's the ones with "mature" or "sexual" content.

Like we discussed earlier, children who read extensively, like me, are the ones who need monitoring. Others who don't read at all, they're considered great if they read a magazine, or even something pretty dirty. When you have to beg and bribe to get kids to read, you're not going to limit their reading material.

Also, she doesn't really ban them. Just...put them on hold. Until I'm older.

[Birdhead]

But there's so nothing wrong with Tammy. I would- and did- give Tammy to my little sister when she was eight.

Then again, I gave my little brother Preludes and Nocturnes for his thirteenth birthday and I still feel a little bit creepy about that, because I just re-read the... I forget the title... oh yeah- The Collectors. Um, you know the one- the Cereal Convention? And then I got a little bit worried.

But then, if I censor- which I make every effort not to do- I censor for violence and not sex. So me and your mom are pretty much opposite. :P

PS: really nothing wrong with (a lot of) McCaffrey, either. I mean, I don't think there's anything wrong, stop, but I can see how some of the books might have content that would bother your mother. Not much, though... *sigh* Oh well, I guess she's your mother and it's obviously not stopping you read much.

Oh god, topic drift. Who saw The Interpreter? I just saw it recently and I was really impressed; it was also exciting because you could see the New Zealand desk in the General Assembly all the time!!! Plus, I've been to the UN, and it was pretty cool recognising the buildings and the security tent (really) and all that kind of thing. More than that, I thought Nicole Kidman was pretty good- bizarre accent, but- and the film was interesting although obviously it shied away from anything too controversial, which was a shame. Plus, I thought it was extremely wierd that, even in the last bit of the movie where she's all "I love Africa, I missed it so much", they pan to shots of New York. Not Africa.

I just thought that was... odd.

[Kathy Li]

Ooo. I've been meaning to see The Interpreter.

As for weirdnesses, despite the ad taglines that mention Pollock's other thrillers, you have to remember this is also the guy who directed Tootsie. Besides, he probably shot all the beautiful views of Africa he wanted to in Out of Africa.

[Hogosha]

My psychiatrist just introduced me to "What the BLEEP Do We Know!?" I haven't actually seen it yet, but my mom's going to order the movie.
I'm ready to cram some major quantum physics into my brain.

[Cress]

Wait, wait. Is Out of Africa the movie about the Jewish family that moves to Africa during World War II? Because that was a really really really good movie.
What's "What the Bleep do we know" about?

[Birdhead]

Besides, he probably shot all the beautiful views of Africa he wanted to in Out of Africa

Heh. Well, he could have at least shoved one in there, couldn't he've?

I haven't actually seen Out of Africa ot Tootsie so, hmm.

[Kathy Li]

Cress, not sure, I've never seen Out of Africa. I just remember that it had Meryl Streep and Robert Redford in it.

Birdhead, yes, he could have shoved one shot in there, but I think they blew all their budget getting into the UN. The UN was really the star of the flick. Had a great time with it. The accent that Kidman was going for was South African, and she did pretty well, with only the occasional lapse into American.

p.s. a mostly-teaserish Goblet of Fire trailer is up on the Apple website. And apparently, the film's website (mostly placeholders) is up.

[Birdhead]

But they filmed in Africa anyway. Or at least a very plausible (? I've never been to Africa ) fake. About ten minutes or so of footage at the beginning. So, er, I have to wonder how much more effort it would have been...

As for lapsing- wouldn't she be lapsing into Australian? Okay, so perhaps not (apparently it's a very big thing, or certainly used to be, for Aussie/Kiwi actors and actresses to audition and talk with American accents, or something. Like ti affects their employability, which I find bizarre if they're able to consistently fake a good one, but anyway.)

As for South African- that's weird, because I know one or two South African expats- reasonably recent, like five to ten years, expats- and they, um, didn't talk much like her. I suppose it wasn't a bad acent, though- it didn't grate, or anything, which some accents do (See: South American, See: Australian, See: Gore and Invercargill).

AND re the GOF trailer: it doesn't make me very excited. On the other hand, I really like the poster- which is strange, because UGH, COMMAS PLEASE. But it's actually very eye-catching and interesting in a way the trailer isn't, really (especially that sequence at the beginning with them from the three movies... what was with that?) It's got the whole Muggle-Clothing problem, but actually when I look at it it makes me care less about it- whereas what they've done to Hermione, who's freaking wearing Pansy Parkinson's dress, and whose costuming has generally been done shockingly, makes me mad.

Yeah, now that I think about it? I care less about the fact that it's Muggle clothing that about the fact that it's a little too modern and the vast majority of my problem with it is the way they're dressing Hermione, because it's representative of the whole production's total lack of empathy with Hermione. They get her wrong consistently and it makes me very sad. It doesn't help that Emma Watson, who I'm sure is very lovely, just doesn't understand Hermione at all. *sigh*

Anyway. Rant ended.

[Peter Murray]

Originally posted by kli6:
p.s. a mostly-teaserish Goblet of Fire trailer is up on the Apple website. And apparently, the film's website (mostly placeholders) is up.

And, yet again, WB have messed their site up for people in the UK. Every time I try an URL from harrypotter.warnerbros.com, it's automatically changed to harrypotter.warnerbros.co.uk, and I get an error, either because they can't manage to keep the sites in synch, or because the paths are different on the two sites. Huh.

Hmmm. That trailer was so small on my screen I can't even see how you know it's Pansy's dress that Hermione's wearing! Frilly pink instead of floaty periwinkle blue, I suppose. That's a really odd change - you can come up with reasons why things have to be left out to keep the film a reasonable length, but changing a dress colour?

Oh, and I've said it before, but it's *gasp* relevant - Cedric Diggory is played by Robert Pattinson, who played Giselher in Ring of the Nibelungs, which was written by DD and Peter Morwood (and Uli Edel).

[Cress]

Huh. Interesting poster. Yeah, I really don't think they've been doing her very well. First they made her a bratty snit, and then when she actually got to be nice she was all girly and clothes-obsessed. Like her comment about how her hair looked from the back. Completely not her.

[Kathy Li]

Tui: re: accent. Yeah, I found it funny she wasn't lapsing Aussie, too. As for the accent, I don't know from South African accents (I went to high school for a year with someone who had a South African accent, but I can't remember it now). Then again, I think Kiwi and Aussie accents sound alike.

Y'know, I hear what everybody's saying about Hermione, but y'know, I don't care. They're the Harry Potter books, not the Hermione Granger books. And the flick's directed by Mike Newell. That's enough for me. Into the West is one of my all-time favorite flicks. And just to see a Harry Potter (finally!) directed by someone British is worth it to me.

Not to mention that I can tell Newell's finally going to give Gambon a chance to really inhabit the role of Dumbledore, and I was desperately hoping that Gambon would get the role since before the first film was cast.

BTW, I just caught the first teaser trailer for The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, and my hopes have dropped. The CGI looks not the greatest. And the screenwriting credit has my heart plummeting down into my shoes. In writing credits, an "&" indicates a collaboration; an "and" means a rewrite, as in they fired the old writer and brought a new one in (the order in which they worked on the script is the order given). There are four people credited, with one & and two "ands". That's an awful lot of screenwriter shuffling, which is never a good sign.

[Cress]

I saw the trailer for Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe too. I didn't notice the screenwriter thing. I really don't know stuff like that, but it's a good random thing to know. I thought the CGI looked bad too. Aslan was SO obviously CGI it was just sad. Is it just me not remembering the books right, or is Lucy supposed to be that young? I truly can't remember.
Personally I care more about Hermione than Harry. I don't particularly like Harry but Hermione is my favorite character in the books, so the fact that they messed her up bugs me.