all I’ve been doing since getting back is watching movies!!.. and generally putzing around. it’s definitely good to be at home, but at the same time, incredibly frustrating to find things to do with friends. there is nothing to do in podunk fremont! waaaaah!! it’s back in suburban hell!
getting friends together to hang out is pretty treacherous — harder than it is in LA, that’s for sure. part of it is because it’s hard to find things to do in the bay area (none of us know san jose well enough to be ok with wandering around drunk there.. or maybe that’s well enough, hmm). mostly it’s people related. the biggest problem so far has been this being 21 business. I have a bunch of friends who’ve recently turned 21 and want to abuse their newfound access as much as possible, some who have absolutely no interest, some who want to but can’t because they’re not 21 yet, and some who want to go but can’t because they’re working the next morning, etc. it sucks major butt. so.. I’ve gotten out, but it’s been rather challenging — in both finding people to hang out with, and also things to do. I’ve ended up watching lots of movies. so far, I’ve seen shrek (twice), kiss of the dragon, final fantasy, tomb raider.. so far, everything’s been very “eh,” but I guess here are some specific-ish remarks.
shrek: great animation, great script, lots of fun to watch. the first time I saw it, I couldn’t get the “look! it’s fat bastard!” thought out of my head. :) it was a lot better the second time around. there were some hilarious disney-skewing references in there. kinda gets me thinking about where disney’s place in modern society is. consider that when disneyland was built, the postwar generation had their kids grow up in “sanitized for your safety” type worlds. you had the self-esteem movement, all these lax parenting techniques. the baby boomers grew up in an idealized world, and have slowly been smacked back into “the way things have been.” so now it’s kind of come full circle.. have you seen those “parents. the anti-drug” commercials on tv? they feature teenagers saying stuff like, “I hate you. I lied, you caught me. you invaded my privacy. blah blah blah” and then, “thanks.” the baby boomers grew up thinking that they should raise their children to be “pals”… and now it almost feels like parents need permission to be parents and disciplinarians.
…. but back on the disne note. it feels like we’re finally disillusioned with the meticulously manicured plastic disney world.. and the backlash is now here. we have “reality television.” we have movies like american pie that are portray high school life in less idealized — albeit far raunchier — than we’ve been used to in the past. after spending years in a blue besparkled sleeping beauty dream, we’re now inundated with “reality.”
… shrek was a great movie. :) I really liked everything about it.
kiss of the dragon: it’s jet li kicking ass to a rap music soundtrack! black people have been good to jet li. =P KOD is similar to romeo must die, but far more violent and bloody. Jet Li is such a bad-ass. =) thankfully, they don’t try to pretend there’s too much of a blooming love affair between the jet and the lead actress. that’s kind of what pissed me off about RMD. in movies like that, the lead actors inevitably kiss. why didn’t aaliyah and jet li kiss? is interracial dating still as taboo as ever? or is it because it’s a black woman and a chinese guy? are chinese guys not allowed to be sexual creatures? are black people possessive of their women? (for the record, I say all of this with my tongue firmly placed in my cheek. -grins-)
… ok, but back to the movie. :) KOD was pretty cool. I kind of got tired of the fight scenes after a while.. I think it’s just cuz I wasn’t in the mood for a big action movie. but if you are, this movie’s great. =)
final fantasy: visually stunning movie. i think it’s easier for people who’ve played the game to be impressed with the story, the way it looked, etc. it doesn’t have the “summer blockbuster” epic movie feel yet… I think that’s still difficult to accomplish technically at this point. there are just too many details to worry about. in final fantasy, only one person really has hair. there are still limitations for how real the CGI will look… it still takes sooo much work to produce scenes and motion. FF is an accomplishment. I enjoyed it. =)
tomb raider: fun movie. there was a LOT of focus on angelina jolie’s boobs. I personally found that more distracting than arousing. I also thought the guy she was interested in was so not hot.