great. why would anyone do such a thing?

WinXP on a PC meant at least you were working with good equipment with a crappy OS.

now with XP on a MAC, it means you’re running a Crappy OS on a Crappy System.

why.

at the office.

except I’m getting stuff done. Like grading papers, writing up the 15 page academic essay to go with my thesis(which is done! I’m so happy). And a myriad of other things that ought to be done by Monday.

so I watched three movies yesterday. First was V for Vendetta, followed by Broken Flowers, followed by Brothers Grimm.

the best one of the three was Brothers Grimm.

Why’s that? Maybe it’s because it’s telling a story. Pure and simple. There’s no deep meaning attached to anything, there’s no ulterior message that the filmmakers tried to put in, and then jazzed it up with big-shot language and effects. It is a story, and I enjoyed it.

V for Vendetta: If I ever meet the wachowski(sp?) bros. I am going to punch them right in their smug faces. They should stay away from comic books, especially comic books with ideas in them. Because these two idiots take the ideas and make them central, and put aside story and intelligent plot choices(remember the matrix? sorry for bringing that up). Unfortunately, these ideas are portrayed in such a manner that it is EXTREMELY preachy and just so ludicrously dumb that it boggles the mind. ooo! I know what’s smart! Let’s have the guy wearing the mask the entire flick say something SO SMART like “people shouldn’t be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of the people!” derrrrrr. I bet this movie’s going to be hot crap in freshman politics classes. “Oh man, it’s so like brilliant! I never thought of it like that!” that’s because they didn’t think before the movie, and during watching it there was no need to think because viewers were slapped around by the “big ideas” that they wanted to get across. But of course, any movie that digs around the random shakespeare quotes, history(guy fawkes and the gunpowder plot), and random gushing about cultural beauty(and let’s not forget everyone’s favorite hot target christianity(which the movie bags on every chance it leaves behind the “ideas”))…just because you mix all of those “smart” things together does not a good movie make. In fact, it makes a crappy movie. Ugh. That movie was a waste of $4.75.

Then, THEN, broken flowers. That movie was pure pretentious garbage. Right away the movie is slapping you upside the head with what things are supposed to be(as bad as Ultraviolet was, but without the comedy). Right away, IMMEDIATE AND NONSTOP comparison to Don Juan from the movie he was watching, to his neighbour and girlfriend saying it. I was about to turn off the movie, but the character himself said what I was thinking and told his neighbor to stop. Thank goodness. And then the pointing out that the letter is a “sign” that he should change his life. Thanks. Couldn’t have figured that one out on my own. Wow. Now, here’s my problem with movies like this: they walk you through the entire thing, leading you by the hand, and then…THEN!!!…to make the movie seem “smart” they let you go at the end without any answers. Yep. That SURE makes a movie smart. No. Just because there’s some questions still at the end of the movie(when up until then the movie doesn’t allow ANY questions at all, because you’re led to the conclusions by poor plot lines, item placements, and other ex machina(without the deus)) doesn’t make your movie smart. It makes it pretentious.

Brothers Grimm. Good story, nothing out of the ordinary. Overacting all around. The reason this movie tops the others? It doesn’t try to be something it’s not.

Also, best line out of any of these three? “I made that! It’s not magic. It’s just shiny!”

That line comes from Brothers Grimm, but it explains the other two movies so well. They’re not deep, they’re pretentious.