For A Few Movies More

With Dean and Nis overseas and my store of easy listening articles currenty exhausted the site’s content has dropped the last couple of weeks here at A Few Movies, so I have decided to take it upon myself to do what I do best and write a blog about myself. But sadly this is still a movie site and not everyone finds me as interesting as me, so I have decided to take it upon myself to do what I do kind of well and write a blog about my most recent movie viewings. And what better way to start this self indulgent piece than with a film inspired by one writer’s narcissism:

Julie and Julia

I was a little apprehensive heading into this film: Lady’s choice from the Quickflix queue; cooking theme; two female leads, what more could I ask for? But then again it did have Meryl Streep, I am learning to cook now that I have accepted adulthood, and Lady’s choice now means Tucker and Dale vs Evil later. But the icing on this cake – or should I say the strawberry coulis on this Orange Bavarois – was that the movie was actually very enjoyable.

As a film it is very well made and the parallel storylines in different generations and countries works a treat. It is funny and well paced and appealing to all demographics. You get that feel good feeling without any of the bitter after taste of vomit singeing the back of your throat – just that more-ish linger of buttered pastries.

But beyond the natural appeal of the film I found the whole life of a blogger thing very engaging. I have been trying for a good couple of years now to catch somebody’s attention with some carefully crafted wordsmithing, and to see the true story of someone who actually did it made me feel inspired (and jealous). The other appealing aspect was the embracing of a passion. Julie loved cooking but hadn’t quite realised how powerful that love could be. “So what do I love?” is what Julie asks herself. And in doing so the viewer is compelled to ask themselves the same question. So what do I love? I love movies and this site helps me there but it has never been my major passion, more a hobbyish motivator than a potential career as a film critic. I love music, but I am less educated there than film. I love sports but I feel that market is too saturated and wants journalism degrees. So who knows? I’m trying creative writing as well but as yet limited success. For now I’ll just write about the other movie I saw.

Insidious

I really want to see a scary movie that is solid for the whole 90 minute run. Most don’t make it that long and those that do are usually stupid. Insidious is stupid. There is 30 minutes of haunty housedness that works pretty well for the most part and then comes the story line.

How do we justify this haunted house?

Simple really. What you do is you bring in a mother-in-law from out of nowhere, who introduces three new ghostbusting characters, two of which are comic relief parts that butcher the scary atmospheric foundation that you worked so hard on creating, the third a poorly cast Betty Crocker-esque ghost hunter who explains that people can leave their bodies and enter the almost cool-named “Further” where dead souls are wandering around, and in doing so they leave an empty vessel for bad spirits to enter like the red faced demon who is haunting the child.

How do we resolve this dilemma?

Simpler! You fix it by hypnotising the previously apathetic father who actually knows how to “Further travel” but conveniently forgot about it til now when his mother showed up a scene earlier to pre-empt this plot point, all the while effectively neutralising the mother/wife who, until now, was the main character but will now fade into background quicker than the red faced demon who proves incapable of achieving anything other than exhausting the small CGI budget by crawling sideways along a wall chasing he kid but apparently failing to be even remotely bad ass because we never see him again.

But how do you close out the film?

Simplest! The father’s body gets taken over by the old lady demon from his past and cut to the credits.

Holy shit are you fucking kidding me. If I ever manage to crack the big time like Julie I hope it is because I write something better than that.