Haha, today is going to be a busy day later on. We've got Movie Sign, the Rifftakus meeting afterward and while all that is going on, the Lakers are going to play the Magic in game two of the NBA Finals. The Lakers could win the championship, the Dodgers have the best record in baseball ... good times for Los Angeles sports fans. :D
Also, congrats to Roger Federer for winning the French Open. I need to watch more tennis ...
Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone (2007): The first of the new Evangelion movies is basically a remake of the first six episodes of the original series, except with 2007 visuals instead of 1995 visuals. (There is one entirely new scene at the end, though, with Kaworu speaking with one of the SEELE dudes.) I enjoy the original show, so I like this as well. The redone visuals really add a lot to some of the more iconic moments in the early part of the series, such as Shinji and Misato watching Tokyo-3 open up while the sun is setting. It has been a while since I watched Evangelion, but the movies seems noticeably bloodier. When the Angels are defeated, man, you really know it, haha. Something to note is that this is actually my first time hearing the Japanese cast. Megumi Hayashibara is freaking creepy as Rei. Jeez.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939): Good movie, but this could never, ever be made today. It would just be too ridiculous and unbelievable, for better or worse. Not that today's politicians are any more corrupt than they were at this time, but I think the public perception of that corruption is on the whole much more cynical than 70 years ago. But, yeah, this is still a good movie, regardless of that, even if a couple of things are a bit over the top. (The hired thugs attacking the children spreading newspaper reports about Jefferson's filibuster is just so clownishly evil. It made me laugh more than it angered me, haha.)
Up (2009): Haha, man, I keep waiting for Pixar to stumble, but with every movie it delivers the goods. Up is no exception. It is not quite as deep as WALL-E (although I would argue the first 10-15 minutes are as emotional as anything in that movie), but the pure sense of adventure and the overall humor of the movie more than makes up for that. I would have to go back and watch other Pixar movies again to back this up, but I think Up is one of Pixar's funniest movies. One running joke in particular had me cracking up every time it came up. The best part is that it combines something very broad with something very subtle. Jokes like that are difficult, haha. Pretty much everything in this movie works -- I can't think of a single thing I dislike about it. Well, maybe Russell, the kid who tags along with Carl, the old man at the center of the movie, can be a bit annoying at times, but eh. He is annoying in a funny way instead of an annoying way, if that makes sense.
Everyone should see Up so that I don't have to worry about spoiling people. :O
On the queue for this week: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Tropic Thunder (2008)
Total Movies: 80 (Gaslight, The Last King of Scotland, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Darjeeling Limited, This Film is Not Yet Rated, Diary of the Dead, Bullets Over Broadway, Interiors, Husbands and Wives, The Professional: Golgo 13, Lars and the Real Girl, Lolita, Quills, Hamlet, Iris, Manhattan Murder Mystery, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, The Savages, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Stranger, Love and Death, Harold and Maude, Spartacus, Scarlet Street, Sabrina, Zelig, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask), Stardust Memories, Barry Lyndon, Be Kind Rewind, Radio Days, Deconstructing Harry, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Creating Rem Lazar, Undefeatable, Ninja Terminator, Ninja Dragon, Rumble Fish, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, In Bruges, The Bank Dick, Marathon Man, Clannad, Air, Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress, MirrorMask, Slither, It's a Gift, Splendor in the Grass, Waitress, North by Northwest, Monkey Business, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, The Brave One, 3:10 to Yuma, Bringing Out the Dead, Gurren Lagann: Gurren-hen, There Will Be Blood, Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder, The Princess Bride, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Spellbound, Frenzy, Anatomy of a Murder, Clue, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Changeling, Shadows and Fog, Into the Wild, Rosencratz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Synecdoche, New York, Carlito's Way, Shoot 'Em Up, Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Up)
