In Which I Catch Up On Movies I Should Have Watched Long Ago...And Some Television Too

So I watched a few movies this weekend. It was cold and rainy and weather like that is just made for watching movies, drinking red and canoodling with the girlfriend. (Not necessarily in that order).

So, I watched Juno, Foxfire,Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Office Space. (And I started Thankyou For Smoking but 'fell asleep' before it ended. I'll go back to it, cause what I saw of it was Pure. Awesomeness.)

Juno. I was pleasantly surprised by this, even though I had high hopes because Diablo Cody, who wrote it, is totally one of my crushes. I've just reread her memoir Candy Girl, and highly recommend it. So anyway, Juno. Def worth seeing. Excellent dialogue, a kick arse soundtrack and no nasty last minute family values moral at the end, which would have totally sucked balls and runied the film. I should have had more faith in Diablo. Here she is, cause she's so cute and I love her pin up girl tat:



So, on to Foxfire. Sadly, this isn't a patch on the Joyce Carol Oates book on which it was based (seriously, read the book). The time period of the film was inexplicably changed to the 80s (the book is set in the 50s)which really reduced the 'shock factor' of a group of high school girls forming a gang to take revenge of men who fuck over women (there's more to it than that, at least in the book, but that's the gist). Character back ground stories were non existent, character development ditto, and there was no narrative thread. At all. Very bloody disappointing, and not even a young Angelina Jolie with short lesbo hair, showing her rack could save this film. The soundtrack was quite good though.



Finally, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Wow, is this film worth watching. It's almost a return to the Woody Allen genius of Manhattan, Love and Death, Radio Days, Husbands and Wives and Hannah and Her Sisters (and these are just a few, obviously, of his great films - I could go on and on). I love Woody Allen and can even forgive him for The Curse of the Jade Scorpion and other sub par movies, because even the worst of them have moments of dialogue related brilliance. Vicky Cristina Barcelona, on the other hand, pretty much has it all. Witty dialogue? Check. Gorgeous locations? Check. Engaging and well developed characters (particularly the women)? Check. Excellent ensemble cast? Check. Gorgeous women? Erm...check. Three times over.

Speaking of which. The thing I was surprised about was Penelope Cruz. I've never been a fan. But she was really excellent in this film - it was like she'd found and moved into Crazy, and was very comfortable there, thankyou very much. But seriously - watch this film. The only thing I missed was seeing Allen himself. But you can't have everything. This hotness kind of makes up for it though....



I also rewatched Office Space because girlfriend had never seen it. I won't rave on here about it's magnificence cause I'm sure you've all seen it...However, I'm just going to go ahead and say if you haven't seen it....watch it.

I'm off to see the new Star Trek movie tonight, too. I'm a bit precious when it comes to fucking with the Star Trek timeline (the reason I hate Enterprise with a burning passion)and I don't think it's ever a good idea to go back. And, Leonard Nimoy will always be the only Spock I love. Having said that though, the reviews have been excellent and even Star Trek nerds have good things to say...so I am going to go in with an open mind, and hopefully I'll be pleasantly suprised. It cannot be worse than that last piece of shit movie Nemesis anyway....

I also have a lot of TV watching to do. I'm a compulsive reader of blogs (obvs) and keep reading about all these awesome shows.

At the moment,I am watching:

Arrested Development
30 Rock
Battlestar Galactica (the shame! Not to have finished yet....)
Weeds
Pushing Daisies

What I have to watch but haven't started yet:

Chuck (yay, Season One has just arrived on DVD)
Dollhouse
Parks and Recreation
Better off Ted
Mad Men
The United States of Tara (written by aforementioned crush, Diablo)

I don't know how I find the time to hold down a job, really....

What are you guys watching at the moment? Have I missed any cool shows?