A New Margarita Classic?

After a string of ridiculously bad movies over the last decade, the release of a new Nic Cage movie is call for some sort of celebration for those of us in Margaritaville, and "Knowing" seems to be no exception. Just reading this review was almost enough to make me want to actually pay to see it! (We usually like to unleash our snarkiness in the comfort of our own homes, but hell, we had a blast at our first "in house" margarita movie experience, Oliver Stone's "W," so why not make it two?... Turns out it's pretty easy to smuggle margaritas into a theater!) Still, the thought that Mr. Cage might actually profit off our impatience is enough to make me reconsider. I guess I'll just have to re-watch Neil Labute's horrid remake of "The Wicker Man" to get me through until the DVD comes out. "HOW'D SHE GET BURNED?"

Netflix Fridays: What are we watching now?

Wow... it seems as though we've hardly had time to return any of our discs since our last, belated, post. Still, we've managed to get through an entire cycle of our 3-at-a-time discs. Thank goodness we don't have to make time to exercise in our lives! So here's what's on our viewing agenda this weekend:


John Adams: Disc 1 - We've heard nothing but amazing things about this movie - and it's an HBO project with the amazing Paul Giamatti & Laura Linney, so how wrong can it go? And, let's face it, the acclaimed book it's based on... well... chances are I'm just not going to get around to reading it any time soon. So, this'll have to do.




Recount - My, it's an HBO theme! This film is about the infamous Florida recount which propelled George W. Bush into the white house... you remember him, right? He's the guy who broke the world? Aaaah, yes, that's the guy. It has a pretty cool cast and the best thing - in our eyes - is that it was written by one of our favorite incidental TV actors, Danny Strong. You may remember him as Jonathon from "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" or Doyle on "Gilmore Girls" and if not... skip the rest of this blog and GO RENT THOSE!



Battlestar Galactica: Season 3: Disc 6 - At long last, we're finishing this season up. I'm eager to start season 4 so that we only have the current season left. Once a series ends, you have a pretty limited window before everyone starts spilling its secrets to you!



OK, everyone, that's it for now, have a great weekend!

Yahoo's Top 100 Movies to see before you die

OK - let's get the first question out of the way: I've seen 82. That's being pretty conservative, actually, as there are a bunch of movies like 8 1/2 and Wild Strawberries which I know I saw in high school but I don't remember a thing about them, so I'm not counting them. But let's get to the real point of reading any list at all: bitching. Bitching about what was included. Bitching about what was left off. Is there anything better? You can see the whole list here if you want join in the bitch-fest in the comments section but here are my initial thoughts:


The Movies I Can't Stand: Blade Runner (what a boring, over-praised piece of crap), Princess Mononoke (Not a fan of anime. At all. HATE it), The Searchers (Every time I hear someone praise this movie I try re-watching it to see what I'm missing. I've come to the firm conclusion that they are all crazy and I - as usual - am right: it sucks)





The Movies I Can't Believe Were Included: Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid (I know I'll catch heat for this one, my husband even owns this, but to me the only joy in this movie comes from Redford & Newman's chemistry. The rest comes off as dated) , Enter the Dragon (Bruce Lee?????) , Terminator 2 (Yes, you may have loved this movie when it came out, but have you seen it recently? It's pretty silly!)



The Movies I Wish Had Been Included: North by Northwest (One of the most perfectly constructed films. Ever.), Metropolis (Gripping. Beautifully shot. Completely ahead of its time), Tootsie (OK, this may be the funniest film ever. How could they forget it?), Amadeus (simply majestic, gorgeous, lavish and filled with amazing performances. Yet they have Titanic which - while lavish - has nothing else to offer), The Princess Bride (Just criminal that it was not mentioned)



The Movies I am So Glad They Remembered: Die Hard (The best action movie ever), Do The Right Thing (finally this film started getting some love after AFI included it on their list), Groundhog Day (No one seemed to like this movie when it came out, but over the years its following has grown considerably), The Lady Eve (One of my very favorite films ever.)

Mark Your Calendars...

Oscars will be March 7 next year. Clear your schedules, book a room at the Oscarnazi inn today, and start sewing your Clint Eastwood voodoo doll!

Netflix ... Friday? - What are we watching now

OK - So Friday came and went. Sleepy. Busy. You had better things to do with your weekend than rent movies anyway, right? Right. There wasn't too much action this week anyway, as Darby O'Gill and the Little People took over St. Patrick's day, we squeezed in a viewing of a new margarita classic, "Poseidon," and there was plenty of good TV to be had as well including Lost, 30 Rock, The Office and Bones. So anyway, here's a look at what we are watching:


The Women (1939) - George Cukoor directs an all-female cast in this catty tale about battling and bonding that was edgy for its time -- and is one of the many wonderful films to come out of the year 1939. We were interested in checking this out after the long-in-production remake came out this year and was critically drubbed.... and hey, isn't the original always better? (Unless - of course - it's "The Poseidon Adventure" and then it's equally margarita-tastic.)



Battlestar Galactica: Season 3 Disc 5 - I thought we were at least in season 4 by now! Man, we're dragging this season out. The thing about this show: it's very well-done and thought-provoking but it's so damn serious. It really does need more yucks. I'm not talking about becoming as campy and silly as the original series, but get someone like Joss Whedon behind it and you can certainly balance serious-minded material with wit and humor. (Although, truth be told, I'm a little down on Joss at the moment. Dollhouse is not exactly lighting my world on fire, but I digress).



Saturday night Live: The First 5 Years - OK, I though this was going to be a "best of" show. I wanted to re-live the glory of "Land shark," "Babs' Uvula," "Samurai Optician," and others, but it turned out to be a fairly disjointed and somewhat tiring documentary on the first 5 years of the show. Wow! They all did drugs and had a lot of sex? No way! Fame went to their heads and they became assholes? I'm shocked! They really pushed the envelope and got things on TV that were shocking for the time? Zzzzzzzzzz.... I will definitely have to check the write ups before impulsively adding things to the queue.


That's all for now... see you Friday... maybe? Oh, and if you have 98 minutes - and a LOT of tequilla - to kill, check out Poseidon. You won't be disappointed.

Twilight, it's the Awesomest Movie Ever!

From Guest Writer Gianna Fregosi:

Fans of Vampire flicks...this is not the movie for you. What do you get if the Disney Channel decided to make a tween-goth love story-Well you would get Stephanie Meyer's idiotic anemic vampire love story Twilight. If you thought you were going to get a dark, menacing, atmospheric love story, this is not the flick for you. If, however, you want to see a brooding pretty boy vampire with all the menacing danger of a bunny rabbit this is the movie of your dreams.

Kristen Stewart plays Bella, new transplant to the overly cloudy town of Forks, Washington. Instantly she is mesmerized by the oh-so-lovely Cullen family, well make that Edward Cullen (Rob Pattinson), super-dreamy and unattached to boot!

After the expected series of conflicting interactions with Edward (He hates her, He likes her, He hates her etc.), and odd occurrences: he save her life by stopping a truck with his hand, his eyes keep changing color, Bella uncovers Edward's true identity-vampire. This realization doesn't seem to bother her at all, no it intrigues her.

Edward finally admits who he is and shows her his true self. Thought vamps burned up in the sunlight? No, silly, that's a myth (along with just about every other piece of established Vampire-lore). Edward doesn't burn up in the sunlight-he sparkles! Of course now that pretty vampire boy is also pretty sparkly vampire boy-how can Bella resist.

This leads to some pretty inane dialog Ed:'So the Lion fell in love with the lamb.' Bella: 'Stupid lamb.' Ed: 'Stupid masochistic lion.' We also get the 411 on Edward's 'family' they're vegetarians, meaning they don't feast on humans only animals. It's all so wonderful and harmless, who wouldn't want to hook up with a vamp?

Of course since this is an 'epic' love story there has to be conflict. Edward decides to take Bella home to meet the folks. Ever wonder what Ozzie and Harriet would be as vampires, Carlilse and Esmee Cullen are the answer. They welcome Bella in with open arms, make an Italian dinner ('She must be Italian, her name's Bella) and invite her to the family baseball game. It's at the baseball game that we run into a different kind of vampire family, they don't live by the same code as the Cullen's and want to snack on Bella. Even though they leave, Edward knows that they aren't going to rest until they've 'snacked' on Bella. This leads to a cross-country escape, with a climatic scary moment and finally ends with Edward taking Bella to the prom.

The problem with Twilight, is that it has no teeth so to speak. The Cullen vampires are so wholesome and sweet that never once do you feel like there is an element of danger. That's why Meyer's brings in the 'bad' vamps, which is easier to digest than having Edward pose any sort of a threat. When you strip away all elements of danger and conflict, well vamp Edward is about as exciting as a moody Goth boy. I have no problem with rewriting vampire-lore, Joss Whedon has done this to great success. However, it seems Meyer's stripped away everything vampiric about Edward to make him into the perfect teen heartthrob. And that's just boring. Of course this film and book series has legions of fans who go ga-ga over it and Will tell you 'It's the awesomest movie!', and if you're 12 years old, and a girl, I'll give you a pass.

Netflix Fridays: What Are We Watching Now?

Hi all three of our regular readers (at least as far as we know from our "followers".) Well, the Oscars are over and we have a couple months until the Summer movie season gets going. In between there's... "Escape from Witch Mountain?" Needless to say, we're hungry for things to blog about here. Anyhow, I thought it might be fun to talk a little bit about what we're currently netflix-ing once a week to give you (three) our thoughts on what we're watching or suggestions on what to skip. Have an idea for something we should add to our queue? Let us know in the comments section. So, here we go:

What we have at home currently:

An Evening with Kevin Smith - A collection of video segments from a cross-country lecture tour Smith did of college campuses a few years back. Smith is an entertaining - and thorough - storyteller. An answer to a single question usually takes about 5 minutes for him to answer. He's surprisingly candid about his job, the upper-ups in Hollywood, and his talent level. He's also surprisingly well-spoken blending his notorious foul mouthed tirades with handfuls of "SAT words" and articulate analysis of film making. It's actually even more entertaining than his films are.

24: Season 5, disc 5 - 24 is always an enjoyable adrenaline rush. Watching it on DVD is the only way to go in my humble opinion. I can't imagine the intensity of a season being dragged out over 4 or 5 months. When you watch it in batches, it's almost like peanuts: you just don't want to stop. We had heard that this was the best season from most people (except for John & Stacey) and would have to place it right up there. I see the criticism of it being a little too "over the top" for the first half of the season, but once the real "big bad" was revealed, it down-shifted into damage control and a direct line of taking him down. Plus, there's no cougar traps or Jack pulling a convenience store robbery to bide time. Yet.

Dr. Katz: The Complete Series: Disc 5 - If you never saw this awesome show when it originally ran on Comedy Central in the mid-nineties, or haven't seen it since, you should really check it out on DVD. A lot of the featured comedians went on to larger fame, a lot didn't. Still, by and large, the comedy holds up as does the always entertaining cast of Jonathan Katz, H. Jon Benjamin as his son Ben, and Laura Silverman as the prickly receptionist.

That's if for this week. Have a great weekend everyone!

Margarita Movies: Xanadu

Perhaps the cream of the crop when it comes to "Bad Movies We Love" would be 1980's musical extravaganza, "Xanadu." Improbably starring Olivia Newton-John as a heavenly muse sent to Earth to help open a roller-derby disco, this movie has it all: atrocious acting, bad special effects, a rocking soundtrack featuring ELO, Gene Kelly (in his last screen appearance) on roller skates... Hell, it even has an animated sequence for no reason! And if that doesn't tempt you, ask yourself this: where else are you going to see a bird in leg warmers? Uh huh, I thought so!

The "story" centers around frustrated painter Sonny Malone, laughably portrayed by Michael Beck. You may remember him from his future appearances on "Murder She Wrote," "Diagnosis Murder" and "Walker, Texas Ranger"... no? ... oh, OK. Anyhow, his job re-painting album covers in large format doesn't "inspire" him anymore. Enter Olivia - because what better use of a daughter of Zeus than to inspire a frustrated painter to open a roller disco palace? Makes sense to me! Unfortunately, poor Sonny doesn't have any money, either. Enter Gene. Poor Gene is a washed up, but still wealthy, jazz musician whom Olivia had helped "inspire" 40 years earlier. He's lost his vision since Olivia left him, so what better way to get it back than enter into a shady deal renovating an abandoned warehouse with a shiftless artist who you met hours earlier on the beach? Makes perfect sense to me!

The film just continues to spiral into a cocaine fueled train wreck from there. Despite past encounters with Da Vinci and Michelangelo, Olivia's muse somehow falls in love with the vest-wearing Mr. Malone, and he must take on Zeus himself to win her. Wacky shenanigans, bad montages of trying on outfits (a staple of any 80s film), and much, much rollerskating follows. Needless to say, all ends well for love. Wish we could say the same for the viewer. So next time you're in the modd to get really drunk, watch a screen icon shed all his dignity and credibility for one last paycheck, and get impossibly catchy, late-era disco songs stuck in your head for weeks, this little beauty will be there.

They call it Xanadu.

Rorschach Test: What will you see when you watch the Watchmen?

Everyone seems to be asking “Who will watch the Watchmen?” Mainly because it’s a slogan from the book. I was going to ask the same question too, but when I thought about it, it became pretty obvious: many, many people will watch the Watchmen.

The real question is what will you see? A really cool movie? Over-stylized crap that misses the point? Something just a little more disturbing than you expected? I think that what you see in the movie hinges greatly on what your relationship to the comic book is.

Watchmen, written by Allen Moore, is considered the Citizen Kane of comics. In a time (1985-1986) when your classic superheroes were becoming stale, Moore asked some hard, comic book questions: What if there really were superheroes? What kind of people would become superheroes? How would it really affect the world? He then set out to write the anti-superhero comic.

Without going too much into it, the book is dark, dense and considered to be un-filmable. So, of course, someone filmed it. And according to most of the early buzz, the movie is extremely faithful to the source material to the point of reverence.

But because enjoyment of the movie will be shaped by feelings for the book, most of the audience will break up into three major groups.

The first group is the uninitiated: They have never heard of Watchmen. They think that maybe Allen Moore used to play James Bond or something… didn’t he host a game show in the 70s? They are anticipating the movie because they have been hearing about the whole legal megillah in the news and they are being told that they should be greatly anticipating this movie. The trailer looks cool, so they’ll go see it. This is the majority of the audience.

These folks will most likely be bewildered by what they see. It is very different from any comic book movie they’ve seen. They will like the stylization and the general “coolness” of the movie: the real-time-to-slow-motion action sequences, the moody soundtrack, the sleek art direction.

But they will be a little turned off by the general lack of action and the un-likeability of the characters. As dark and brooding as The Dark Knight was, Bruce Wayne is a stand-up, moral guy. Not-so-much with the Watchmen. You really don’t want to cuddle up to The Comedian… he just might try to rape you.

The second group is the other extreme: the religious zealots. They have read and re-read Watchmen. They have dressed up as Rorschach at least once for Halloween (or Comic-Con). They believe that God lives in Allen Moore’s beard. They might have a smiley face with a drop of blood tattooed onto our asses. If not, they want one.

While awash in the excitement of their favorite comic brought to life, they will probably be annoyed by this movie. They will cringe when content is sacrificed and replaced with style. And, according to the director, there’s a lot of content that is sacrificed. And according to the trailer, there’s a lot of style.

The religious are already irritated that the comic-within-a-comic is not included (yet, they are happy that it will be on the DVD). They will appreciate a good effort to make Watchmen into a movie but let’s face it: you might as well make the bible into a movie. I mean the whole Bible.

The third group is the smallest. I call it: me. I’m sure there are others out there like me. We are new to the Watchmen experience. We only recently even heard of Watchmen. I first heard about Watchmen when I saw the first trailer. I got the book as a birthday present shortly after. I’ve only read it five times.

The timing of this movie is perfect for us. We love Watchmen, but we are only vaguely aware that Allan Moore has a beard. We don’t have the smiley face tattoo, but would like a blood-spattered smiley face button.

We can see the movie more objectively than someone with a true passion. We will not see sacrilege in omissions or misrepresentation of characters. We will be able to enjoy the ride while still understanding the context of things that are glossed over.

Even so, I am expecting this movie to be over-stylized to compensate for the loss of content. I know that you can’t put everything from the book into the movie. But I still have trouble imagining how you can put enough of it into a movie. Seriously, show me how time is simultaneous without loosing the audience. Right now, my biggest problem is how the movie is being marketed as a whiz-bang action movie. It really isn’t about the action.

In the end, my prediction is that in all of these groups, their basic opinion of the entire movie will be the same: “It’s OK.” You have too many people from too many angles that you need to please. And you can only satisfy each group so much.

First, you need to have the nerd-cred. Without any approval from the hard-core fan base, you’re not going to get a comic book movie off the ground anymore. Spider-Man and the new Batman movies are chock-a-block with nerd-cred.

Then you need to appeal to the masses. The dumb, awful masses who want everything in washed-out, easy-to-digest servings. This is easier to do with a comic book franchise. Dole out The Green Goblin here and Dr. Octopus there.

It is a tough balance that you need to strike either way. Spider-Man and Batman have been able to successfully strike these balances. But with source material that is as uncompromisingly un-balanced as Watchmen, it becomes one hell of a challenge.

In the attempt to appeal to nerds and appeal to the masses, Watchmen will loose most of it’s punch. It will most likely be like hearing Led Zeppelin performed by the London Philharmonic. Robin Williams without the cocaine. A martini with too much vermouth.

I hope that this is a really great movie. I'd be surprised if it is a really good movie. But I expect it to be an OK movie.