Category: Movies and TV

Last night’s episode of Buffy featured the return of Marc Blucas as Agent Riley Finn – Buffy’s ex. When I learned this, I was excited. I imaged a showdown between him and Spike, perhaps a temporary and ill-fated re-kindling of the Buffy-Riley relationship, or something. Instead, Riley served as a way to show just how pathetic Buffy’s life has become. He swoops in all heroic-like with his perfect wife and his exciting life, a sharp contrast to Buffy’s incredibly mundane existance. Indeed, this season, almost all of Buffy’s problems have been connected to her personally – there aren’t any outside forces causing havoc for her: Willow, The nerds, friends of Anya, Riley, Spike – these are all ‘domestic’ problems for Buffy. Where’s the Big Bad riding in guns a-blazin’?

Earlier I’d mentioned how disturbing Buffy had become – in a sense, it’s become disturbingly mundane – Willow has been castrated without her magic and simply mopes around for Tara; Xander and Anya have become incredibly boring – this wedding planning schtick has gotten tired quick; Dawn, who looked to be a source of never-ending trouble at the beginning of the season simply mopes around the house; Buffy is simply learning how to live a mundane life and Spike, while interesting, is much less fun than previously – there’s no edge at all anymore. Even last night, when it turns out that he’s the ‘big bad’ of the episode, doesn’t really get come-uppance. Just dumped. Which was inevitable, as the show didn’t let the relationship develop in any interesting way. the ‘Dark Side’ of Buffy that this relationship was letter her explore was never very well developed and now looks to simply disapear. Willow, who I was hoping was going to become the ‘Big Bad’ of the season as she got addicted now barely registers at all. If the theme of this season is exploring one’s dark side, which many of the episodes are about (the entire Nerd-villans thing is really all about that), it’s just not working terribly well. It just feels….restrained, in a way that Buffy has never felt before.

So I was just thinking last night, while watching Buffy, just how dark this season has become. It’s adult in the most horrifying, brutal reality sense of the word – the crushing weight of finances, drifting family, realization of responsibility, etc. The 3 arch-nemesis(es), who started the season so humourously have crossed the line now. No longer a way for the viewer to indulge their own superhero/villan fantasies, they crossed a serious line last night, with abduction, rape (mental if not physical) and finally on to murder. Then, they lay it on Buffy. That 2 of them think that it’s cool that they got away with murder is just really, really disturbing. Buffy, of course, has been battling her own demons. Believing that she came back ‘wrong’ as an excuse for how she’s been feeling, she’s forced to confront the fact that she simply has some ‘twisted’ desires. It really was wrenching to watch he sob to Tara ‘please don’t forgive me’ – she’s aghast at what she’s becoming all desires and darkness…

After a somewhat questionable start to this season, I’m getting right back into it – oddly, it’s beginning to rank how the first few episodes of Law & Order:Special Victims Unit did — I love the show, but am incredibly disturbed by it at the same time. I’ve ended up no longer watching L&A:SVU, but hopefully I won’t feel the same need with Buffy.

There’s a fun argument going on over at salon about the merits of Star Wars vs. the merits of Lord of the Rings as movies.

There are a couple of articles that should be read, they’re linked to from the beginning of the article I’ve linked to, which details the readers’ responses.

Read this article at the Globe and Mail. It’s a great peice about Buffy.

So every commercial I’ve seen for Black Hawk Down have quoted a litany of people & sources who praise the movie as ‘one of the best movies of the year’.

That may yet prove to be true. However, when the movie is being released January 18^th, isn’t that damningly faint praise? I mean, how many films have been released this year? A couple dozen, at most (at major theatres)?

Of course, I fear Black Hawk Down will nothing more than a contextless void of American Jingoism, praising America’s military whilst completely ignoring all that led up to the situation itself (and the link I post is a pretty favorable one).

Just to confirm that I am indeed a super-geek, I went to go see Lord of the Rings again last night. I went because my brother is in town overnight, and wanted to see the film and I was perfectly willing to see it again. I saw it theatre 4 of the Capitol 6, which is this dinky, dark, old-school theatre: the screen was maybe a quarter of the size of the one at SilverCity, the seats were small, cramped and far too well used to be comfortable, it was too hot and the projector’s light was wearing out so the screen was darker than it should have been. Essentially, it was a terrible viewing experience. The movie, on the other hand, was still wonderful. And, as I expected, I noticed all sorts of things that I didn’t the first time around – like when Frodo is laying injured and Arwen comes to their aid, it is in the clearing with the Trolls who turned to stone in the sun from the Hobbit, as Bilbo related in the opening sequence to the kids at his birthday party. Oddly, the movie seemed shorter this time, as I always knew how long until it ended, whereas when I first saw it, I couldn’t remember when the first book ended. Also fun was that this crowd was much more reactive to stimulus than the one on Tuesday, there were actual shrieks last night – which made the watching more enjoyable, I feel.

Just got back from seeing LOtr: The Fellowship of the Ring. Will write more later, but know now that it rocks! It was sooooo good in so many ways! I will see it again! and again! and probably some more after that!

I’m going to see LOtr: The Fellowship of the Ring tonight!!!!!!!!!!!

–Batmanuel, in ‘The Tick’.

From Salon

Dear Diary…

Last night I saw George Clooney and Brad Pitt and Matt Damon! They are so dreamy! George Clooney wears that middle-aged, scruffy-yet-dapper look like nobody since, well, since Ol’ Blue Eyes did! And Brad! with those chiseled features, clear blue eyes! Sigh! I could stare into them forever! Matt Damon of course, everybody’s favourte shy boy-next door! Audrey thinks he’s creepy, but I think he’s just misunderstood. Oh how I’d love to bring him home and make him happy. I wonder what our children would be like?

So yes, I saw Ocean’s Eleven last night. And was it good? well, read on…

Continue reading “Ocean’s Eleven”