Recently, I was thinking about movie reviews, and movie critics, and how they are typically negative and seem to always be looking for what's wrong with a movie, and virtually ignoring what is right. I always find it hard to write about movies because I read so many of these reviews and feel like that's the only way you can talk about a movie is to talk about it's flaws. I have a pretty open mind when it comes to movies, and it takes quite a lot for me to think that a movie is bad. I believe that even if a movie isn't perfect, as long as you enjoyed it, you haven't wasted your time. So I decided, rather than let that keep me from writing about movies I enjoy, I'm going to embrace it and write the way I want to. Thus, I'm starting a new regular feature called Movie Mondays! Here we go!
Nightcrawler
I had the opportunity to see an early screening of Nightcrawler last Friday at Beyond Fest. Jake Gyllenhaal stars in this thriller/drama about a creepy guy who gets involved in the surprisingly crazy world of video-taping accidents and crime scenes and then selling them to news stations.
Jake Gyllenhaal's incredibly creepy portrayal of an amoral guy trying to find his way in life is amazing. If there were an Oscar for Best Creeper, he would for sure win it. Seriously though, I don't see why he couldn't be an Oscar contender for this role. He does such a great job at being an overly friendlyish creeper, which is the worst kind of creeper. With his bug eyes, and over-earnestness, you both kind of hate him and kind of root for him. The lengths to which he goes to to secure good footage is chilling, and even more chilling is how matter-of-factly he does them. The world of crime scene journalism is really interesting and one that I'd never really considered before. You just don't really watch horrific accidents on the news and think about how they got the footage. I really hope that this film does well when it opens wide on October 31. It's such a great, original film, and it deserves to find an audience.
Gone With The Wind
OMG this is my favorite movie of all time. OF ALL TIME. Cinemark is doing a Classics series this summer, and Gone With The Wind was thankfully included. I haven't seen it on the big screen in either a long time, or never, I can't remember which. Though I have it on DVD and Blu-Ray, I actually hadn't watched it in a long time, so I was seeing it with somewhat fresh eyes this weekend. I realized that it was STILL AMAZING. Even at four hours long, my attention never wavered, I didn't wonder how much longer; I just sat there, entranced.
It is as much Scarlett and Melanie's story as it is Scarlett and Rhett's. Both women must figure out how to survive in the post-war South, and despite being very different, they both do. Scarlett is manipulative and ambitious, willing to do anything (before the war) to land Ashley Wilkes as a husband, or (after the war) to never be hungry and powerless again. Melanie may appear weaker than Scarlett, but her quiet strength holds everyone together.
Anyway, Gone With The Wind is amazing and everyone should see it. I read the book several times when I was much younger, and now I have a hankering to read it again. I wonder how different it will seem 10/15 years since I last did.
A couple weeks ago, I started writing this blog post about attending Salt Lake Comic Con, but because I am the world's worst (or is it best??) procrastinator, I am only now finishing and posting it. So, this is happening.
SLCC is another new (to us) convention! This is the second year of the con; last year made records as the biggest year for a debut convention ever! Pretty impressive!
We arrived in Salt Lake City on Thursday, staying at a hotel next to the convention center with a great view from our room! On our way to the hotel, we saw the line going into the convention center, and figured that we would relax a bit and have dinner, and let the crowd dissipate so that we could waltz right in and check out the exhibit hall for a while. So we checked into our hotel, had a nice dinner at Red Rock Brewery down the street, and then went over. The line was still long, but there were two separate ones, one for for regular attendees and the other for people with gold passes, which we had. For some reason that no one could really explain, they stopped the Gold Pass line, while continuing with the regular attendee line - for like 2 hours. A guy in line behind us actually got out of our line, went into the regular line, and got through before we had even started moving again. It was totally ridiculous and a sour start to the weekend. We did eventually get through the line and got our passes, but by then the exhibit hall had closed, so we didn't get to do anything.
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| A real live owl! |
The next day, Friday, we finally go to see the convention! We checked out the exhibit hall and purchased a few goodies. There was lots of awesome cosplay - several people dressed as Lego figures, several Jack Frosts and Elsas, a couple of Star Lords, and a ton of female Loki and Thors - like, literally more female ones than male ones. C'mon dudes, step it up! There seemed to be a lot of live animals out on the floor - there was a booth with snakes and lizards, and a guy walking around with a real live owl! I even held a bearded dragon who I found oddly adorable!
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We also attended a couple panels. Alan Tudyk (of Firefly fame)'s panel was pretty unique - for the Q&A, he had each person who wanted to ask a question sit on stage with him and answer a question from him! And then he gave them some 'shit', as he called it - incredibly random stuff like CDs, programs, a harmonica, some sunglasses. Later, we went to Manu Bennett's (of Spartacus and Arrow fame) panel. He was incredibly open and honest about his life and his career, and he seemed so grateful to have fans. He answered a few audience questions, for which the lines were awkwardly off to the sides of the stage. At the end of every answer, he made sure to direct his attention back to the person who asked the question, which I thought was a very nice and personal touch. There was this one question about Arrow, about what would it be like if he and the main actor traded roles, and he gave this incredibly honest answer; that Hollywood relies a lot on stereotypes, and so someone who looks like him (meaning Maori and thus somewhat dark-skinned; probably not referring to his super buffness), simply doesn't get those kind of leading man, hero roles. He could have given a fluff answer to that question, and instead choose to be super honest, but not at all bitter; simply stating a fact. I always liked him on Spartacus, now I like him even more, and I'm definitely going to have to check out Arrow now.
Saturday! The last day of the show, unlike most cons that also have Sunday. I guess it's the lord's day, and this is probably the lord's town, so no sinful cons on Sundays!
Upstairs from the exhibit hall, they had an area dedicated to a few rows of arcade games! We played Captain America and the Avengers until we beat the final boss. I played Iron Man and hit those buttons until my fingers were sore!
Later, we went to a panel featuring Simon Helberg from Big Bang Theory. This panel was more of a traditional moderated one with Q&A. Most of which, to be totally honest, sucked. I guess they didn't take a page from San Diego Comic Con, and didn't screen the questions before they were asked, leading to a lot of annoying 'Can I have a hug?" questions, questions that had already been asked, and questions that were just plain lame. I'm gonna be harsh for a second and say that the audiences in SLCC seemed to be a bit less... savvy... about how things work. Like, someone asked if Simon could have Howard and Bernadette have a baby on the show - as if the actors just show up and make things up themselves. These kinds of questions make for an awkward moment (and wasted time) as the actor then has to explain how writers and actors and television works. Also, there were a ton of questions from little kids. Is TBBT really a show for small children?? You know, it's cute maybe once, but when every other question is a small child, it gets old fast. SLCC definitely needs to step up it's game, Q&A-wise.
Clearly I needed a drink after all that, so we hit up Bourbon House for some bourbon, and some delish bacon wrapped jalapeno tator tots! We then bar hopped over to The Red Door, which had some very clever Comic Con themed cocktails!
All in all, Salt Lake Comic Con was a decent show. It definitely has some growing pains, and some improvements to make. Does it compare to San Diego Comic Con, though? No, it doesn't, and they should stop saying that it does, and that SLCC is for quote-unquote real fans. Can't we all just get along? Hopefully, they will take a page from SDCC and learn from mistakes year-over-year. SDCC makes a huge effort to do that, and it is always noticeable that when something isn't working one year, they do something to improve upon that the next. Hopefully, SLCC comes back next year bigger and better (maybe not bigger; it's already pretty huge).
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| Some goodies I purchased |
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| I am Balloon Groot. |
Last weekend, I accompanied my boyfriend on a business trip to Seattle, Washington! We were actually just there a few months ago for Emerald City Comic Con; this time, we were in the city for just 25 hours!
We stayed at the Crowne Plaza, in the heart of downtown Seattle. Because I am a member of the very exclusive rewards club (not really that exclusive; any club that would have me as a member, etc.) our room got upgraded to one of the top club floors - we even had to use our key in elevator to get to our floor! Super fancy! It also came with a cocktail hour and complimentary breakfast buffet! And the view from our room was amazing - we could even see the Space Needle and the ocean!
Upon arriving, we had dinner at Hattie's Hat in Ballard. I had a really yummy Voodoo Burger with pico de gallo on it, plus a drink called Bill Murray! It's their #1 best selling drink; I can only assume because it's called Bill Murray, and who doesn't like Bill Murray? Nobody, that's who. It consisted of bourbon, amaretto, and probably Bill Murray's actual blood.
Last time we were in town, we didn't have enough time to go to the Space Needle, so I really wanted to go this time, to add it to my list of towers I have been in. We got all the way there, only to find out that the next available time to go to the top was 3 hours later! No, thank you. Whatever, we got some great pictures from the bottom anyway.
While the boyfriend was working at his business job, I went to check out the Nordstrom Flagship, mere blocks from our hotel downtown. I believe it's the first Nordstrom ever, but don't quote me on that. It was 5 floors of shopping goodness! I checked out every single floor, and even went across the street to the Nordstrom Rack! Our one checked bag was already packed full, so all I could buy were some socks and underwear!
Later on, we went to Pike Place Market, which was surprisingly packed for a Monday afternoon. Don't you guys have jobs? We went directly from there to the airport, back to our home in LA! What a wild 25 hour trip!
