Reviews by charidotes20

I've decided to review all of the movies of Tom Cruise that I've seen-- which I guess is actually only three: The Last Samurai, Valkyrie, and Minority Report.... And if I had to rank them, I guess that that would be the order that I would put them in, yeah-- just because I'm thinking of the guy. And.... Why could that be? (Seriously, though, this is nothing against Katie Holmes: I just like to keep myself amused.)

I think that I actually saw this movie with my brother in theatres, the day that it came out (!), even, which is *extremely* unusual for someone like me.... Even now. I mean, I *never* go see the, opening night, I guess you call it, right? Lol. (And I'm also not a big one for holidays.... Although going to stuff with my brother isn't so uncommon-- it's actually one of the only ways that I get out at all, to be honest, since my brother is a little bit more fiscally.... Well, it must have something to do with that he's a Taurus.)

Anyway, I suppose that I really liked this movie at the time-- although I kinda like it less now, that that I'm not as much of a WWII guy.... (My personal history is odd and difficult to explain, ha!).... But, yeah, at the time, I was enormously pleased with myself that there was this movie about this German dude-- whose name meant more to me than the name 'Tom Cruise'-- since I'd read about this whole deal in a book or something.... (Read: Wikipedia.) I guess I was also in this Germans-aren't-Nazis phase, I guess.... (But I know now that the better way to prove that is to read 'Grimm's Fairy Tales' or something.... Not about army officers.... *added to list of mistakes*....)

But anyway, given the choice again, I'd have picked something where the exposition about Nordic mythology-- which I'm actually quite into *now*, much more than before-- is given by someone other than Hitler.

And, you know, what was it that the guy said-- "We've got to make peace before the Allies are in *fucking Berlin*!" And some part of me was, like-- Oh.

But it was a decent movie. (But just like I just decided that 'The Last Samurai' was more of a '10' than a '9'-- I also think now that this is more of an '8' than a '9'....)

And maybe I even learned something....

(8/10)

I've decided to review of all of movies of Tom Cruise that I've seen-- which I guess is actually only three: The Last Samurai, Valkyrie, and Minority Report.... And if I had to rank them, I guess that that would be the order that I would put them in, yeah-- just because I'm thinking of the guy. And.... Why could that be? (Seriously, though, this is nothing against Katie Holmes: I just like to keep myself amused.)

"There is some comfort in the emptiness of the sea, no past, no future."

This won't be the best review that I've ever written, but I remember being kinda impressed by this movie, and by Tom's performance in it, whenever I saw it.... I enjoyed it much much more than I thought that I would.... I guess that I unconsciously had this image of Tom Cruise as a moron, and, especially back when I saw this, I sorta had this assumption that *the American* in a movie like this would of course be a giant loser moron in one way or another, (just like George Clooney in "The American" goes out of his way to make himself look like a mass-murdering fuckhead for some reason), but Tom Cruise, again, honestly, to my surprise, in this movie, not only learned how to fight-- and he did have to *learn* how to do it-- but he also was very.... Contemplative, human.... Intelligent-- and convincingly so. And he discovered the ways of the Japanese and of the samurai without making the movie an anthropological documentary, and he became, I think, just as good as any of them-- and without stealing their thunder, either, again, in my opinion.

And, in fact, some of the dialogue was *very* well done.... Although I'm not sure how effective it would be to try to copy out a paragraph or two.... but one exchange that stuck in my memory for some reason is, when Tom is asked what his rank is in the army, and so on, and he says that he's a captain. And because this man-- who is basically still a stranger and a foreigner to him, at this point-- evidently expected him to be a general or something, he asks-- "Is that a.... Low rank?"

And Tom pauses slightly but noticeably, before deciding....

"It's a middle rank."

And, you know, on reflection-- that movie, was, I think, slightly better than perhaps I appreciated before.

(10/10)

"And above all remember: don't make any friends, Jack. You used to know that."

Wow, anti-social. Harsh, dude.

And, wow, what a moron I was to think that a film called "The American" with George Clooney was going to be a comedy. That illusion was more or less shattered by the time the opening credits rolled....

And, yes, corpses are incompatible with comedy, in my book.

So much for escaping-the-dark-past, and all that crap.

And I thought that I was going to watch George Clooney trying to be romantic-- watching George Clooney trying to be romantic can be funny, I think.... Oh! Soft-hearted assasin!-- but it ended up being more about him having these long artsy half-English half-Italian conversations with a priest and assorted other losers, and pretending to be a photographer who takes pictures in the mountains and having people calling him "l'americano" and telling other people about the people that he liked that he shot.... And basically just walking around alot, and having lots of really really dull non-conversations.

(And the only thing that I learned in Italian class was "gelato" and he doesn't have any goddamn gelato.... Just have a little gelato, dammit. It's like ice cream, only more Italian. And for God's sake, say something soothing for a change, the last thing I need right now is everybody's voiced and unvoiced gripes and griefs....)

I should really just stick with Steve Carell movies, if this is the alternative. There was no Steve Carell-y growing up experience.... Just lots and lots and lots of scenes with no dialogue.

{I remember once, when I still read foreign newspapers online-- to improve my artsy language skills-- I really liked this one from Spain, (and God knows why I gave a damn about politics in Spain, and so on), and it was called.... *smiles*, 'Espanoles!', no, no.... 'Este Pais', so, anyway.... One time they reviewed one of these really moron artsy flicks that people like George Clooney do, and I guess that it must have had the Spanish George Clooney in it, whoever the hell he is.... And the whole think had literally *no dialogue*-- and all because it was about the fucking ETA, or some such trash.... "We have created a movie without ideology." Yeah, or dialogue.... And knowing all that is almost as amusing as knowing that PC people in Spain aren't supposed to say "Spain"-- it's "this country" or something instead, and all because *Spain is different*.... And I suppose that you're not allowed to call the guys in the worker's council in Barcelona-- "Spaniards!"-- either.... *waves hands*, God, what fucking bollocks it is, knowing about all that trash.... Do you know what was the first thing that they taught us in Italian class? (Even before gelato!) The articles. "Not 'il americano', 'l'americano!', 'l'americano!' *guy rides off on bike*" Although, in class, I had to listen to the worst sort of ancient Italian shrew that you've ever met in your life.... God, if I could only even tell you about it....}

And, yes, I do think that I can escape history, Christ-boy. Now stop being so goddamn boring.

(6/10)

"(To Steve Carell) Dude: teach me."

We are told that, in her youth, Jane Austen wrote "burlesques of popular romances". (Which is why she gets the cameo in "The Pirates!", you see?) And what, you might ask, is a burlesque? Well, it's more or less what it sounds like, but if you need an example....

*smiles*

And what's funny is, when I saw "Pride & Prejudice" with Keira Knightley-- and I guess that she was 'seeking a friend' back in 2005, too, eh?-- I sorta vaguely remembered reading the novel, kinda.... (There was a letter!).... And when I started watching this, I sorta vaguely remembered having seen it before, kinda.... (There was a box!)....

And, although I don't like the idea of "required reading", (even now! After all, anything that lumps Jane in with the Brontes and Dickens and Chekhov and Tolstoy is worthy of some suspicion!), I have to admit, that, as a Steve Carell fan, this movie was sorta required watching for me. ;)

But that was okay.... I got through it. ^^

And, although I'm against the idea of education-by-compulsion-- "And now, nothing remains, except to assure you in the most animated language of the violence of my affections": required rimes with *unrequited*, you see?-- I'm just gonna dip into the bag of hypocrisy, just this once, and say: that the entire Shakespeare Club ought to forcibly compelled to watch this movie.... And you know what I mean!

Although, yes, George certainly has his problems, just like Fitz does....

(I mean, it's not as though this were some novel, say, by the author of Crime & Punishment, where Bazarov is as bad as he really is, but the tarts of Fulham are like swans floating across a placid sea of wisdom.... Does that make sense?)

And, I don't know, I hope that all of my reviews are good.... but I hope that this one is the best.

"I always thought that there was something wrong with me, because it had never happened to me.... But now I realize that it was just waiting for you...."

"I am waiting for, that newer speech, that, that will do me good.... I am waiting for the introduction, for when the film, finally begins....

I'm waiting at, the end of the world, where even the atoms feel giddy....

I'm waiting at,
The iceberg's edge,
For November's heat,
The end of physics--
And all of the things ungiven...." (Ich Warte, ~"I'm waiting": Kudos to Blixa Bargeld.)

But none of us are waiting for the Battle of the Nile, or for fucking Fallujah.... And Jane & Steve, at least, can tell you that....

And, anyway, I like to think of myself as a very Aquarian boy-- February 10th, actually. (1989). And, (just like 'The Hobbit' doesn't start on a Wednesday for no reason), February is a good month, since it belongs to Juno Februa, Juno the Purifier....

*shrugs*

*starts dancing*

Let the Sun, shine!

No, really, I want to see the baby riding bareback on the horsie! *giggles*

Ok, for once I'll explain something-- that's basically just a fancy allusion to the number 19.... And, marriage. *nods*

.....

But I really like the moon, and the eighteenth card, because the moon, turns.... and the moon, shines.

So.... "don't make it bad.... then you can start, to make it better."

So I'm listening to "Hey Jude", and my mom-- who's one of these, let me tell you how it was, people-- just walks past it, like, I have these, Very Important, that are, So Important....

*sighs* "So let it out, and let it in...."

You know how our parents are like, Let me tell you, I remember.... they were probably stoned and on acid at the time, I bet they don't remember which band did "Hey Jude".... (Was it Pink Floyd????).... I know my mom doesn't, and I know who else doesn't....

I'd swear it on his fucking box of bibles.

And then there's the other guy, the google guy. Well, google is satan, okay. I can't get anything from those people.

And people with these very important.... shit to smear, you know.

"Well you know that's a fool who plays it cool by making this world a little colder."

"So let it out and let it in."

"You have found her, now go and get her, and remember, to let her into your heart, and then you begin to make it better."

I used to like those clever lines out of books, you know, "I am more an antique Roman than a Dane....", you know. "Pro...." No, 'Hey....' Hey, Caelio, did I ever tell you, how I met your mother?

"Thus do I counsel you, my friends...." Because there is advice, but.... it's, it doesn't even have to be advice.... it's not even a letter....

Go, ahead, turn it up.

NA, NA, NANANA, NANANA, HEY JUDE.

NA, NA, NANANA, NANANA, HEY JUDE.

NA, NA, NANANA, NANANA, HEY JUDE.

And the other song that I really like, is "Come Together", because 'one and one and one, is three'.... and I'm a holy roller. ;)

{Four of wands. ;0}

(10/10)

Some people might think that this is petty, but it's just my own damn opinion, and whether it's deluded and artless or not, I'll leave to others to decide. And maybe I just got forced to sit through one too many of these during elementary school during the 90s: I am not claiming to be the mythical Objective Audience here.

But, basically, I understand that this is what it was like during the 60s. (But you don't understand! Well, I can sure recognize this being the 60s-- is that good enough?) But I also thought that it was too damn long.... And, to be honest, even though I wouldn't mind watching a women's flick-- I don't like to flaunt literary nonsense, but I have read "The L-Shaped Room"-- but I don't like it when I'm supposed to dislike a large proportion of the ladies in the cast because of the whole ugly *race* issue.... And, to be honest, I don't like being implicitly disliked by our little heroine here! (Sorry, but that's actually how I feel!)

So, no! this is not going on my list of favorite films.

But, since everybody likes to hear about irrational biases, let me open up and share some of mine:

I had to watch it with my family, and whenever my (rude, white) family likes something, I take that as a good rule of thumb for something to avoid liking-- call me crazy.

And, call me a self-hater, but I have a sort of auto-suspicion that flares up whenever I'm asked to lionize an intellectual at the expense of the socialites.... It's just so damn *common* these days, and it's almost stupidly easy to figure out how easy it would be to use this movie to demonize everyone who plays cards.... (And, unfortunately, I'm a well-educated twenty-three year old man, (unemployed), who knows well enough that he ought to suppress his real feelings about life, feelings, and the universe, but.... I don't know. I guess it's not so unfortunate after all, because I guess that I'm suppressing my desire to suppress all this-- aren't I?)

And, I mean, it's not a *terrible* movie.... It certainly has lots of *drama* and *accuracy*.... If you're into that kind of thing....

But, I don't know-- 'Sometimes I am in need of other pleasures, of little joys, of reasons for living, or even, of existing.'

*shrugs* So, you can go save the world; I'll hang back here and try to get a seat at the card table....

Yeah, even though it would be stupidly easy to use this movie to demonize everyone who plays cards.

{Do you prefer books to cards, I say that that is singular, said Mr Hurst....}

{*smiles* And now it's your turn to be honest about something-- *why* don't you like the white socialites-- really? Is it because you don't like Kim Kardashian?}

{*laughs* I mean, she's actually sitting there, actually reading the actual literal text of the race laws of the State of Alabama, or wherever-- and when is the last time that *you* sat down and read the actual literal text of some Law passed by Congess-- the 9000 pages of lawyer's prattle, which can usually be summarized in four sentences or less-- and it's like.... 'Do you have fun?' (You don't like Kim Kardashian, do you? You do realize that this is the 1964 equivalent of *People*, right?') '(imagine her doing it with a Southern drawl) Is that important?' ('Oh no, I would rather read the text of a law, than read about Kim Kardashian....') And I'm sitting there, trying to figure who hates Kim more-- the Alabama State Legislator, ('Would *Moses* have been reading trashy magazines, instead of giving Laws to God's People!?'), or the Ism girl, who must needs be at war with the It girl-- i.e. Edie Sedgwick, for example. (A white girl, born in Santa Barbara California, whose kinsmen had been illustrious hardboiled Civil War (Northern) generals, who were probably scandalized as fuck to hear that she ended up being a slutty socialite, instead of sitting in church to hear about the Laws that God gave to Moses!}

{*laughs*}

{And, I don't know how to explain it really.... In some ways, 'historical fiction' is way more useful than (political!) 'history', and you know what I mean, even if this is still within living memory, and therefore (semi!) contemporary.... It's just that people were *very* hardboiled back in the 60s.... Not everybody was like Edie Sedgwick, no.}

{I mean, I've read a short history of Mexico, so I know all about all of the racist white Mexican intellectual elites who wanted to promote European immigration during the 19th century to further impoverish, &c., the native Indian masses.... but that doesn't mean that you could drop me off in Mexico City and expect me to be able to figure out how to order myself some tacos.... That's the thing. *Really* understanding a period comes from understanding *what it was like*, and that comes from fiction-- not from the 'non-fiction' of politics-- because it comes from *people* and even the bare biographical details-- born 1911-- a time of political unrest in general, including suffragette stuff, but obviously one does not participate in political rallies as an infant-- yet another example of how often the knowledge of political history *simply isn't relevant*, biography trumps history, really, but even bare biographical bones do not quite equate to the living flesh of fiction, if the *setting* is more important than the *characters*.... *laughs* And that is the surest way to misplace the setting, too! }

{*laughs* God! I'm just such a locquacious mick, well, I guess that I have my father to blame for that! And much else besides, maybe! I mean, do you know how men like him acted back in the 70s! *laughs*}

{And my mom, in the pitch-black midnight ignorance of her knowledge of me, thinks that *I* would have fancied the *writer*-- as though *I* were like *HER, herself*!!!.... And how annoying it is, when that 70s speech of hers seeps into our life today-- 'Close the door, Teddy.... We're negotiating cold air.'}

{*laughs*}

{But anyway, she's almost like Atticus Finch.... *or Patrick Stewart*.... hero-as-caricature, you know? Unconscious caricature, I mean!}

{*laughs*}

[Seriously, though....

Some people are always stepping into--or perhaps *backing into*-- the future, facing the other way.

But there comes a time when you have to just....

Turn around.]

.......

Because nobody's ever made this movie before, because I'm Rip Van Winkle-- I've been asleep for twenty years.

And I never read about Atticus Finch, because I have a vendetta against my elementary school librarian lady.

And no one has ever done this before, and I'm so original, and I'm the hero, and I don't have to do anything to be the hero except to get weird with people when they try to talk to me, and it will go on for twenty hours, because I can do whatever I want, because I'm the hypocrite....

And just to prove I'm the hypocrite, I'll....

*gets bitter* What, can't I dream?

*stamps foot* I am the hypocrite!

*storms out*

(7/10)

Yes, this is the best show that I never want to see again.

I mean, I've seen some of this show-- maybe about as much I will-- and I can tell that it is an extraordinarily well-done, and very *gritty* drama.... yeah, pretty dirty and gritty. So.... I suppose that I have learned some from it, and, yes, it passed the time a bit as well... but, *now*, I am a little averse to peering too deeply into the pool, if you know what I mean....

Ronald D Moore, of Battlestar Galactica fame, once praised this show very highly, (it was actually on the BSG DVD's commentary-- and yes, I watched the commentary, and assembled my acronyms-- the BSG DVD's RDM commentary and director's cut, and everything.... But it was all too much.... The commentary on the Sopranos DVD was far less intellectual, and they had the actors do it instead of the executive producer-- this was my scene.... I worked with that guy.... It was less well done, but that was really *just as well*, in *all* seriousness, if you know what I mean....) And, yes, I can absolutely see what he means, since this show is as least as good as Galactica. But, although this might just sound corny, there comes a point where it's just exhausting-- *too damn 'good', too damn real!*, you know?

And AJ & Meadow are pretty fucked up, don't you think?

And, since I don't have the stomach to make any comparisons with *an even more popular* show with a certain, uh, *geographical* connection.... And I don't really want to think about the episode with Sir Ben Kingsley's cameo.... Think about 'Johnny Sack'. Would you want to go to his daughter's wedding? Would you be there as his guest.... or as his 'guard'? (Do you think that your friend Natalie would be there with your wipes?) What about-- back to Ron's show-- Admiral Cain? Would you like to be there at her funeral? (If the coffin weren't perfectly straight, would you have to adjust it?) Would you have even survived that long?

Now think about Steve Carrel's movies.... See a difference?

(The pilots on the aircraft carrier talking about the casualty lists is just a useless metaphor for the fact that your parents are a fucking embarassement, and talking about how you think you'll get killed in combat one day is just code for saying that you don't think that you'll ever get out of it....)

Now, can anyone raise their hand, and tell the class why Anthony Junior & Meadow Soprano are so fucked up?

.....

"So he was a spy, that was the problem?"

"I don't know."

".... Well, it takes alot of guts to shoot a man in the back of the head," he said.

So, there's that.

My mom watches trash; she's just like my dad.

I hate being the responsible one.

(9/10)

Would I want to be inducted into this particular order of nobility? Not especially, actually.

I mean, I suppose that they were all just too damn talented, or something.... One might almost ask Lady Chekhov here-- or any of them, actually-- if you're so damn clever, then why can't you figure out how to be happy.

And, although I see how often allusion is the better part of illusion, but.... Incidentally, Wittgenstein-- for all his similarity to these people-- would have despised them, I think.... And so might many other people-- more than we might assume, maybe?-- who also have been made to learn a little too well what it's like to actually grow up in this sort of family, or.... Other community.

Isn't it odd? What we come to envy is worth so little, in the end.

*shrugs* Although the flick itself is decent, I guess.

(I mean, does anybody watch these Royal Tenenbaums and say, Oh sure, that's just what I want my family to look like....

No, no.

And that's why it's funny; you gotta pull laughter from the pain, you know.)

{P.S.-- BTW, Wes Anderson's thing is, I suppose, comedy, but that's just the thing-- instead of just being allowed to have fun, comedy often has to make room for the problems that no-one else will take aboard. (Related: the pregnant teen couple is going to end up on the cover of the 'low-brow' magazine, while the readers of 'high-brow' magazines muse upon what oil will look like once we build the Starship Enterprise; if there are about forty teen couples who line up all at once, the newsmag might deign to give them about a fortieth of the space that the popular, general interest mag does.... for one.) I mean, if it's about a war, political nonsense, or a serial killer-- I mean, is *just one* murder really enough? perhaps for a very *light* drama, but for something *serious*....-- then the dramatists will take it, but if it's anything else-- your lousy parents, for example-- then it's left to the comedians like Wes here. And, in general, and unless I'm totally out of my mind, I think that drama is basically valued more than comedy, although-- yes, cliche-- that is changing, and the situation is rather different now than it was even, say, ten years ago.... Much less compared to how it was back when D. W. Griffith decided to try to make himself the new Tolstoy or whatever way back in the 1910s and 20s....

And I realize that this could be seen as too long, but.... Yeah, basically, I guess that I just like Wes Anderson, and, I don't know, 'people like us', better than all that other nonsense!}

{P. P. S. And, you know, the thing is.... That after a long series of improbable events, your house will explode: unless you ditch cable, and upgrade to DirectTV. ;) }

(8/10)

The opening scene deserves some kind of special ribbon.... and so does the last.

This is the anti-apocalypse movie....

("(You guys sure have) lots of guns and potato chips." How could I have forgotten that line?)

And it sure beats 'Anna Karenina', Keira. ;)

And the war-in-space movies. *smiles*

It's good to come down to earth....

Keep Calm & Carry On.

I'd by lying if I didn't say that some of this does disappoint me....

But, hey, 'Penny' and 'Dodge' are great names.

And it made me feel good to see Steve Carell with Keira Knightley...

And I guess that's all I've got. :)

(9/10)

After I finished watching this--I don't even remember when, it must have been a year ago--it was a move or two ago, I know that much....anyway, when I was done watching it, I just had to listen to "Proserpina", a song, "Proserpina", for about an hour, I guess. A while, that long....

"Whose sounds mine inner sense is faith to bring,
Continually together murmuring,
Woe's me for thee, unhappy Proserpine!"

And, you might notice, if you read me, that I don't *quite* post the most *formal* reviews on the site....even though I try to keep my point-rakings....systematic, or something....anyway, I tried a kinda formal review once, and it sorta failed, for me....I mean, even after I fixed it up a bit, it still just felt like I....cheated, somehow. I guess I'm just....different, like that.

Anyway, at least I'm mature enough to know that a movie does have something to do with the actors--in my sci-fi days, I didn't like to think real-world like that--so, anyway, Johnny Depp defs did a very good....performance, in this movie. And, in a way, it's the hardest kind--like Tony Shalhoub's *Monk*, in a way, it's that performance which, in a way, we *don't* like, which is....

I don't know. Something.

I once knew a....certain sort of speaker....and he was a bit like A. Monk, and, once, he was actually making fun of himself, (for once), and so he smoothed out the pages of that big book, just like Monk would, but the people who didn't watch the show couldn't understand the performance, it was a mystery to them....

'Whose sounds mine inner sense is faith to bring....'

Secrets. A secret window, *a secret garden*....

But I guess they were right to give it the name they did; this movie isn't really about how an English garden grows....

It's too sad for that. Chthonic, if you don't mind my saying.

But it is a very good performance.

'Continually together murmuring....'

......~~~

Johnny Depp: And now that I've admitted what a bad person I am, I can feel free to.... go on being a bad person.

John Turturro: Sneaky sneaky sir.

Adam Sandler: Hey, what the hell are you doing, are you making fun of my friend?

John Turturro: He did in fact, make it seem as though I were a killer.

Adam Sandler: God! why the hell would you do that to my friend!

Johnny Depp: *holds up hands* I can explain!

Adam Sandler: Yeah! Explain it to this, pal! *he punches him out*

John Turturro: Sneaky sneaky sir.

Adam Sandler: *still beating up Johnny Depp* You have no idea how much grief I go through because of freaks like you! You fucking skinhead!

John Turturro: I think that you knocked him out cold, sir.

Adam Sandler: *realizes that he did* Oh, you're right.

John Turturro: Sneaky sneaky sir.

Adam Sandler: I know, right. Let's go get some Hawaiian Punch.

John Turturro: Clever joke, sir.

Adam Sandler: Thanks, Emilio.

Ron Livingston: Hey, guys, what's happening?

John Turturro: *genuinely surprised* I'm surprised to see you here; I thought you were in the army.

Ron Livingston: I know, right; they let me out. *points to Sandler, with curiosity* Hey, I thought you got locked up for assaulting your quarterback.

Adam Sandler: *shrugs* Well, they let me out, right?

(9/10)

Sometimes men didn't have a voice either, you know? A-hahaha! But he found his voice. So that's good. I personally didn't think that it was an absolutely outstanding movie, but I thought that it was a good movie, without any major flaws.

And it is kinda cool. Sometimes this sort of thing makes me wish that I were British--it's good to have a king. And, although it was interesting to have such an interesting portrait of George VI, as well as cameos for his dad George V, the ubiquitous Churchill--to exclude *him* you have to put it before 1874 or after 1965, I'm telling you--and an interesting sidelong glance at the whole mess of 1936, if you know what I mean. ("Don't I have any rights?" "Many privileges--it's not the same thing." Then again, I've seen at least one interpretation of those two--in "Any Human Heart"--where they came off very badly, and very plausibly too. I'm never quite sure *what* to think about 1936....)

On the other hand, I don't enjoy all that the way I used to, and I don't really like seeing and hearing all the hardboiled-ness of the....30s, actually, or, in this case, of the old Greek education as well. And, as someone who's gone from being a history student to someone who doesn't want to hear about anything that happened before....Seinfeld, say....well, in general I like to dismiss the entire past millennium with an artful flick of my wrist. But, you know, that's *entirely* subjective....and the fact that there's still really nothing for me to find fault with in what they did, must surely speak to how good a job they did at what they set out to do.

And, you know, I keep telling this boring little story, but, although I have seen the movie *now*, and I did like it, at the time I passed it up to go see "Black Swan" (*with Natalie Portman*) instead. I guess....I just didn't want to listen to two boys talk with each other for the whole thing, I guess. NOT because there's anything *wrong* with that--and, you know, it's good to see that old WSC, as I call him, didn't give *all* the speeches, especially before he was PM, obviously, and obviously the respect that the country had for its King was unique, and not something that Winston could ever have...especially since he was basically always a crazy old man, even when he was young, ha! ^^ But, you know, given the choice, I would still choose the insecure young lady dancer with the intelligent dissolute French dancing instructor over the stuttering smothered British king and his independent expert Australian voice coach. Although I actually did like the coach--it's nice to see a guy like that who can think for himself--and the king who had to overcome crappy circumstances is a good story. (And, again, sometimes everything about monarchy is vaguely reminiscent of Grimm's Fairy Tales--at its best, at least.) But....given the choice, I'd still rather watch Natalie Portman, rather than two boys. Again, NOT that there was anything at *all* wrong with them....*but*, I just don't like to feel....well, *starved* really. I guess it's because I'm a little French myself, despite my respect for (and moderate amount of knowledge about) the British monarchy. ;)

I suppose I must be boring some of you to tears, since this is all about myself....I wonder if George V ever had to give a good speech? He seems like he would've been good at it.

Anyway, just so you don't throw stones at me, I'll say something good about the movie for real--when the Australian guy tells the king that (SPOILER! Hahaha) no, he doesn't have any *credentials*, and he hadn't even pretended to have any--"There are no letters next to my name."

Ah, that was good, *good*--"There are no letters next to my name."

It must have been quite a thing to say, back then, back when everything had to be Greek, to be any good....but even today, in this time of frantic credentialization, when *everyone* is scrambling to get as many letters next to their name as they possibly can....I don't know, it's just a very *brave* thing to say--"There are no letters next to my name."

And, you know, just basically, overall I just thought it was solidly good, even though I didn't think that it was *absolutely* the best thing ever.

(Although I suppose it beats listening to my mom chatter and whine at the dog, if that's what you mean....Oh, I'm cruel!)

Anyway.

(8/10)