Little Miss Sunshine, and other movies

omg. if you haven't seen Little Miss Sunshine yet, please utilise your preferred movie rental facility and get it!! Immediately! That's an order!! To have Kosh and I in stitches so often throughout the movie, subdued at certain intense scenes, but finally laughing hysterically at the end, well, I can't think of a better recommendation than that without giving anything away. Sure, there are a few places where you have to suspend disbelief, but you'll so caught up with it all that such details won't matter too much. So go watch it, okay?

Phew, now with that out of the way,,, let me take a few steps back, and clarify that I've had this idea at the back of my head for a while now to do just a quick recap of some noteworthy movies we've watched recently [most of them courtesy of Netflix]. Would have just stayed an idea though, if it wasn't for Little Miss Sunshine last night.

Some others, in no particular order:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Movie (1992): starring Kristy Swanson as Buffy, and featuring Luke Perry's big screen debut. Yes, Kosh insisted that since I'd become such a big fan of the series, I needed to see how it first began. While certainly not outstanding [if I remember correctly, Josh Wheadon left the movie halfway through because movie execs were totally going against his vision of the thing], it was interesting to see what had changed/improved in the transition from movie to tv: the well-oiled fight scenes, the dialogue, the mythos,... oh and of course the actual "dusting" of the vamps. Overall, a rather campy movie, but not as horrendous as I'd been led to believe.

The DaVinci Code (2006): Yes so I'm only seeing it about a year after its release, so sue me! Now, I'm one of those tho thoroughly enjoyed the book, loved the pokes and challenges it made to institutionalised christianity, but was also very much aware it was officially a work of fiction. And I looked forward to seeing just how well / badly Ron Howard translated thie book to the big screen. I'd heard a LOT of bad buzz about the movie, even after filtering out the knee-jerk protesting by faith-challenged christians. However, I was happy to find the movie quite faithful to the book as I remembered it, though perhaps it tried to be so faithful that it ended up a bit choppy. Overall, I liked the movie, and would recommend it to anyone who, like me, wanted to see it but was put off by the poor buzz. Of course, I'd go ahead and reread the book too. :-)

Kung Fu Hustle (2005): Caught this on tv - in chinese with english subtitles. I'm not usually a fan of chinese action movies, but this? well, it's more a comedy with action as a means of getting to the comedy. Hilarious, with some thought-provoking moments. Get it!

Kung Pow: Enter the Fist (2002): Couldn't help but get sucked in! This is essentially a spoof of the martial arts genre, taking archive footage of an old movie, dubbing over the dialoge, inserting some new scenes, inserting a new face into the archives,,, it's rather irritating, and yet you. just. can't. look. away!

Stranger than Fiction (2006): So a regular joe wakes up one morning and starts hearing a voice that describes what he does. This narration is worrying enough, but when the voice says that the character is going to die, well, then it's time to get worried. Or amused, if you're the viewer. Dragged a bit too long in a few places, but overall, 'twas as good as I thought it was going to be.

Donnie Darko (2001): This kept cropping up in the Netflix recommendations, so we went ahead and got it. And got blown away. Screwy timeline, dark ominous scenes, child molesters, giant demon rabbits - but was it all just a "dream" in a Tangent Universe? Rent it, watch it, and be prepared to have your horizons stretched.

Running with Scissors (2006): A rather disconcerting glimpse into a majorly dysfunctional family - alcoholic dad, totally unstable mother; Augusten Bourroughs ends up being absorbed into the screwy family of his mother's questionable therapist. One might be reminded of The Royal Tannenbaums [and not just because Gwyneth Paltrow is in both], but, keeping in mind that this is based on real life, it becomes so very much more disturbing.

Of course, some were total bombs... so in the "are we there yet?" category:
(am not even going to link to them, LoL!)

• Superman Returns: it sucked. I was antsy 30mins into the movie, and despite having Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor [I've liked him ever since I stumbled upon The Usual Suspects], nothing could save this movie with a crappy plot.
• Wedding Crashers: relatively entertaining, but omg it went on for way way way way way too long! The last 30mins were torture!
• The Brothers Grimm: a movie with so much potential, but it falls so flat! Tidy up the script, get rid of that superfluous irritating Italian character, and maaaaaaybe it would have been better.

And finally, a shout-out to Reel Fanatic. I don't remember when he'd dropped by with a comment on something I'd written, but when I reciprocated I found his site to be a great source of movie info and promptly blogrolled him. And have used him as a source of recommendations to fill our Netflix Queue ever since. Heck, if it wasn't for him I don't think I'd ever have heard of Little Miss Sunshine. So, do swing by, and see if you appreciate his commentary, recommendations and insights as much as I have.

And now? off to shower / laundry / grocery shopping... and to procrastinate some more on all that French homework LoL!