Chick Flicks

Everyone who knows me knows I don't do chick flicks. I can't. I find most of them over-the-top, inane and just downright stupid. To like a movie, you need to buy into what it's saying, even if it's not believable-and there are not many chick flicks that can do that for me-and most of them are from the 30's and 40's. However, I watched two in the past two weeks (I'm not quite sure how that happened, now I need to watch The Terminator again) one of them was In Her Shoes. This was a really good movie-I was startled at how good it was. Cameron Diaz (last seen in that crappy movie The Holiday-the one that helped convince me I hate chick flicks) was really good. In g=fact, I got quite irritated as I realized that while she was really good in this, she's made not only terrible movies ever since, she's also chosen terrible parts. What happened? She plays a woman who is a mess-she's dyslexic (which means that she can't read the teleprompter for the job she wants), she's screwing people left and right-a guy she met at her high school reunion, some other guy she meets by chance, various and sundry guys who name she never learns. She can't keep a job and winds up crashing with her sister-the lawyer. The responsible one, who is a little overweight and wears glasses, played by the wonderful Toni Collette. However, this all goes to hell when Cam sleeps with a guy who was supposed to have a date with her sister and her sister walks in on them. Toni throws Cam and she doesn't know what to do-there's nowhere to go-Dad and his bitchy wife (their mother died when they were very young) are out of the question...but she manages to find a very old birthday from her Grandmother and tracks her down in a retirement community in Florida. The fact that Grandma is played by Shirley MacLaine also put me off. I've never liked her and all her movies annoy me-the "cute" ones she made in the Sixties, to the "hip" ones she made in the Seventies-and don't get started on the Eighties, because I HATED Terms of Endearment. The best movie of that year was The Right Stuff and I'll stand by that until the day I die. That said, Shirley was actually pretty good as the cranky Grandma who hasn't seen Cam in many years and is a little baffled as to why she's come to visit. In the meantime, while Cam is hanging out with the older folks, reading to them and actually earning some money, her sister has quit her job and taken up dog-walking to earn a living. She loses some weight, meets great guy-and freaks about her relationship with the great guy and the whereabouts of her sister-and runs away to meet up with Cam and Grandma. So, Cam finds her calling helping the older ladies find great clothes and accessories, she calls the boyfriend and brings him to Florida on a ruse and all's well that ends well. I admit that I wasn't really looking forward to this movie-but it was really good. Cam plays the lost girl very well-and you don't like her very much when she's sleeping with her sister's crush. But by the end of the movie, she grown up, a bit. She recognizes her faults and what she's done and she atones for it, while her sister, at first crushed by it, gains self-confidence and moves on-she forgives Cam and is a better person for it. And even Shirley is good as the cranky Grandma who is happy to see her grandchildren, even if it means coming face-to-face with how her daughter died. And I cried at the wedding scene. What's wrong with me?

My other chick flick was Nine Lives. I don't have much to say about this movies-it was very good, the performances in it were touching and really good (except when they're being acidic or mean) and it was REALLY depressing. Robin Wright Penn was wonderful, Holly Hunter was sexy and mean-they were all good but I couldn't watch it again, even for William Fitchner, who I can't take my eyes of of-I just couldn't do it. I hope my Netflix movie is something more cheerful...

Two Pop Culture Moments

I got the Paul Potts CD (yes, I know it's not supposed to be released yet in the States but I got one. Don't ask how. Yes, I liked it. The song choice is NOT imaginative and the songs don't stretch him, but who expected that? He had only two or three weeks to make it, so there was really no time for mulling over song selections. Still, his voice sounds lovely and I quite liked it. And he's going to be on the final of America's Got Talent! This is show I would never watch, but Paul will on this episode, so I'll watch that.

The other thing is about the whole Tom Cruise/Valkyrie/Scientology mess. In case you haven't heard, Tom Cruise is making a movie about Count von Stauffenburg. The Count is a hero to many Germans, as he was a leader of a plot to blow up Hitler in 1943. The plan did not succeed and the Count and his allies were put up against a wall in Berlin neighborhood and shot. I actually saw the spot in Berlin many years ago-it's in a courtyard of a nice building and my friends and I were going to the French Embassy which was located in the building. We saw the plaque on the wall and as I translated it...well, it was Berlin moment, which means it was interesting and horrifying at the same time.
The Count is a hero to the German people, he's one of the few who actually stood up to Hitler and wanted to do something about him (although all the Berliners hated him as an upstart Austrian, many were too afraid, with good cause, to do anything about it out in public). The Count had to know the price he would pay if his effort did not succeed-and being shot by a firing squad was actually not too bad, considering what could have happened to him. And the Germans hate Scientologists-they consider it a dangerous cult-I'm not sure if it's been outlawed there or not but the German government has NO love for the Scientologists. So, you can imagine the uproar when the most prominent Scientologist in the world decided to play a true German hero. The Army said no and then they said yes we will let you shoot in Army headquarters. The governement said no, we won't let you shoot-and first it was because "you're a Scientologist" but then it was because of "logistics". So Tom Cruise is now shooting his movie (can't I know where and this is a publicity still) all I know is is that this picture makes me feel the exact same way I felt when I saw a picture of Colin Farrell from Alexander-that emotion can best be expressed by the phrase "you have to be kidding". I can't paste in the picture so here's the link
http://defamer.com/hollywood/defamer-wardrobe-dept/tom-cruise-can-really-fill-out-a-uniform-280322.php

I'm sorry, I just can't buy it. He looks like he's trying very hard to be a hard-nosed German officer who is trying to save his country from a madman but instead looks like he's playing dress-up. I think the Germans in Hogan's Heroes (as others have noted) look far more convincing. While I find the subject fascinating, I don't think I can bring myself to see this movie.

Oh Please, Redux

I just want to make a few comments on the brouhaha going on between the City Paper and the LNS idiots. I've seen the LNS-ers crawling all over Georgetown, in their plaid shorts, Izod shirts and flip-flops, while the girls wear the most colorful sundresses ever. I usually run into them in Banana Republic (I always wonder why they're there-isn't BR a little too downscale for them?) and they always annoy me with their poor manners (bumping into people, never holding the door, generally being obnoxious) so I can't say I'm surprised that the when the City Paper outed them as racist, ill-mannered jerks, they fully lived up to what I had always thought of them. I've met some very wealthy people-and they were incredibly nice and polite-two descriptions you would never use to describe this group. But also, come on...Rusty on I Hate DC http://whyihatedc.blogspot.com/ had a beef them about a year ago-they haven't changed so why is this news? I do find it funny that the LNSers keep saying they're going to sue, this is wrong, blah blah blah. I will quote a post on Wonkette that said "...Theses Douchebags illustrate perfectly the difference between being elitist and being elite. The former is a state of mind that rarely has anything to do with actually being the latter". I would like to point out that the LNSers called Adams-Morgan "The Ghetto" and all I can about that is that if it truly is the ghetto, then my rent should be a lot cheaper.

Oh Please

I'll write more later about what I've seen lately (Coffee and Cigarettes and In Her Shoes) and what I've read (Spin Control, Glasshouse, Invisble Prey, The Sons of Heaven), but right now I'd like to point out the David Duchovny, while talking to the press aboout his new show, said he expected to get an X-Files script in the mail soon (the mail? Really? Not a messenger or Fedex? Hmmm...) and that he and Gillian were both on board to do it. Please, for the love of God, stop teasing me! Why are you doing this? I know, it's my fault and at this point I really shouldn't care but I'd like them to just shut up about it until they're actually shooting (speaking, Gillian looks SOOOO much better as a redhead, can't she please go back to red? Also, not to be catty, but she'll need to lose a little weight if she's going to fit into those suits. Yes, I know she just had a baby-but if they don't shoot until next spring, she'll be fine. But David will need to get a haircut because right he looks kind of crappy.