Thanks to everyone who played in the contest–at 11:29 last night, Bev left the 2,000 comment on this blog.
Bev, will you please e-mail me at b13army AT Yahoo DOT com with your snail mail addy? I’ve got some yarn and something handmade for you and want to talk colors. I like my contest winners to be happy.
***
A while ago Neal suggested that I must see Gothic. As a fan of the English Romantics (I almost made that my area of study instead of Shakespeare. Imagine!), he thought it was shameful that I had never seen Ken Russell’s film about one of literature’s most important contests. I dutifully put the movie on my Netflix queue, only to discover that it was being reissued. All summer I waited for word that it was on its way to us, and yesterday, finally, it arrived. I was so excited about it that I called Neal at work to tell him the good news. I did all my chores and even cooked a lovely meal, then settled in for the movie. Neal gave me a sheepish, "I hope you like it," you know the way you do when you’ve built up a movie or book and then have doubts about your recommendation.
It. Sucked.
I couldn’t even finish it, and I’m pretty good at finishing even bad movies. The aesthetic of the film irritated me; the angles at which Russell shot the actors were beyond unflattering; the story was all wrong. Don’t even get me started about the sound track, which was constantly at a frenzied, built-up state, meaning that the viewer is constantly expecting something big and is constantly denied that big something. Not in a suspenseful way, either.
As Neal chatted with me before work this morning (one of my favorite parts of the day, btw), he was a bit sheepish and unclear about why he’d thought that movie was one of his favorites. I blame it on the 80s. Perhaps it seemed artsy and edgy then, but it did not hold up over the last 20 years.
What’s the worst movie you’ve seen in a while?
I have a very clear memory of going to see that movie and your right it did suck! I’m waiting for the new Elizabeth movie with Cate Blanchett.
Congrats to Bev :o)
hmmmmm…the worst movie I’ve seen in a while…I got nuthin’. I guess I’ve had some good luck lately! :o)
I’m with you on Gothic. Is this the one where he imagines eyes on her breasts? Ugh! A complete festival of overindulgence.
I remember that movie. I went thru a Julian Sands phase. Don’t judge me!
It was something, wasn’t it? *L*
I thought The Fountain was pretty sucky.
I saw Gothic many moons ago, and can’t remember a thing. I must be blocking it from my memory. 🙂
Netflix has definitely opened my world to all the bad movies out there. The most recent sucky movie I have seen? Xanadu with Olivia Newton John and Gene Kelly.
Don’t believe me? Let’s just say Olivia is a greek muse sent to inspire an artist, who hooks up with an aged musician, and the two open a rollerskating disco (in 1980 mind you!) where their favorite bands duel. Think big band vs. glam rock. And it is a musical.
Yeah. Powerful stuff.
I know all kinds of people thought it was just grand, but I thought Babel was pretty low-rate. One of those Hollywood-wants-to-give-us-a-moral-and-at-the-same-time-be-artsy movies.
I just did something a lot like that with “Little Nikita”, which is obviously not a tour de force or anything, but still–I remember LOVING that movie in high school. It turned up on Netflix’s ‘watch it now’ page, so I told my husband I wanted to see it. He was a good sport and sat through it…mostly…but oh dear gods, it did not stand the test of time. Any movie where the ‘big reveal’ is that the main character’s parents are *gasp* RUSSIAN SPIES OMG just needs to be buried and forgotten. Or at very least, laughed at. It was just so, so bad.
Even as a hardcore Ken Russell fan, I feel no call to defend Gothic.
the fountain was pretty crap. before that AI was really suck, and there was some teeny bopper movie in 2000 that was basically just “when harry met sally” but with college kids. that was a waste of my time.
dana and i went to see “knocked up” at the dollar theatre (you KNOW how excited dana was for this!) a couple weeks ago and we were so annoyed and bored and the movie was so unfunny and long that we almost walked out (again: can you imagine dana walking out of a movie?!?). definitely a suckfest. miguel