Yesterday I forgot to mention the films I watched over the weekend (very unlike me but probably a good thing after my mammoth post about
Pushing daisies). On Saturday before I headed out for my disaster evening, smelly got
The Assassination of Jesse James out from the DVD shop. I'd planned to watch it before getting ready to go out, but the film was so long (or did it just seem like that because it was so slow) that I never bothered watching the ending and went to glam up instead. The trailer for the film seemed so good and I was ready for a action filled, psychological '
single white female' western. That's NOT what the film is like. It was impossible to remember all the character's names and I found myself asking who was who about a hundred times. The plot never really develops and there's no real action to speak of... the film just kind of plods along like a 5 year old re-telling what they'd done at the weekend, "and then this happened, and then that happened, and then this happened". So, as you can tell, I wouldn't recommend watching that one.
The other film I watched on Sunday was
Pan's Labyrinth. Everyone had raved about how good it is, but I'd always been put off by the 'Pale Man', a monster with eyes in his hands. Anyway, I got past that and decided to give it a go. I'm not put off by films with subtitles as I watch a lot of Korean and Chinese films and hate badly dubbed movies, so the fact that the film is in Spanish didn't bother me at all. The story is about a girl who's widowed mother marries a Spanish captain during the Spanish civil war. The girl is the reincarnated princess from the underworld and discovers this fact when she wanders into the labyrinth at the back of her new home and meets a faun. The faun gives her three tasks to complete before she can return to the underworld as princess. The story also follows the struggle between her step-father, the captain, and rebels in the Spanish civil war. The film is quite dark with some shocking violent scenes from the captain and his interrogation techniques, but it's not at all the horror I had expected it to be. It's a complex combination of fairy tale fantasy, Spanish history and darkness, which leaves you wondering if any of it was real or not. Definitely worth a watch.
Finally, the last film I watched over the weekend was probably the best out of the three. It's one of my all time favourites and is an oldie...
Uncle Buck. For those of you who haven't seen this film before, it's brilliant.
John Candy is hilarious as the bum uncle who is asked to babysit his nieces and nephew when their parents have to go out of town. Of course, this leads to all sorts of funny mishaps and misunderstandings as he struggles to take care of 6 year old Miles and Maisy and his tear away 15 year old niece Tia. It's worth watching just for the 80's outfits! It's definitely up there with
The Breakfast Club and
The Lost Boys as one of my fave 80's films....
Yesterday I forgot to mention the films I watched over the weekend (very unlike me but probably a good thing after my mammoth post about Pushing daisies). On Saturday before I headed out for my disaster evening, smelly got The Assassination of Jesse James out from the DVD shop. I'd planned to watch it before getting ready to go out, but the film was so long (or did it just seem like that because it was so slow) that I never bothered watching the ending and went to glam up instead. The trailer for the film seemed so good and I was ready for a action filled, psychological 'single white female' western. That's NOT what the film is like. It was impossible to remember all the character's names and I found myself asking who was who about a hundred times. The plot never really develops and there's no real action to speak of... the film just kind of plods along like a 5 year old re-telling what they'd done at the weekend, "and then this happened, and then that happened, and then this happened". So, as you can tell, I wouldn't recommend watching that one.
The other film I watched on Sunday was Pan's Labyrinth. Everyone had raved about how good it is, but I'd always been put off by the 'Pale Man', a monster with eyes in his hands. Anyway, I got past that and decided to give it a go. I'm not put off by films with subtitles as I watch a lot of Korean and Chinese films and hate badly dubbed movies, so the fact that the film is in Spanish didn't bother me at all. The story is about a girl who's widowed mother marries a Spanish captain during the Spanish civil war. The girl is the reincarnated princess from the underworld and discovers this fact when she wanders into the labyrinth at the back of her new home and meets a faun. The faun gives her three tasks to complete before she can return to the underworld as princess. The story also follows the struggle between her step-father, the captain, and rebels in the Spanish civil war. The film is quite dark with some shocking violent scenes from the captain and his interrogation techniques, but it's not at all the horror I had expected it to be. It's a complex combination of fairy tale fantasy, Spanish history and darkness, which leaves you wondering if any of it was real or not. Definitely worth a watch.
Finally, the last film I watched over the weekend was probably the best out of the three. It's one of my all time favourites and is an oldie... Uncle Buck. For those of you who haven't seen this film before, it's brilliant. John Candy is hilarious as the bum uncle who is asked to babysit his nieces and nephew when their parents have to go out of town. Of course, this leads to all sorts of funny mishaps and misunderstandings as he struggles to take care of 6 year old Miles and Maisy and his tear away 15 year old niece Tia. It's worth watching just for the 80's outfits! It's definitely up there with The Breakfast Club and The Lost Boys as one of my fave 80's films....
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