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Random observation and a couple of quickie movie reviews
It's fun, the way actors pop up in different shows. I've always joked about the Vancouver casting pool, and part of the fun of being a fan is spotting an actor from, say, Stargate in Supernatural or one of a zillion other shows filmed there.
Every now an then, though, the crossovers don't work. I felt that way about SPN's casting Fredric Lehne as the yellow-eyed demon (I know, every other fan thinks he was fantastic). It just didn't work for me, because he's just too recognisable an actor.
But today, I got my ultimate actor-recyle-double-take. Sterling K. Brown (Gordon Walker in Supernatural) had a small role in one 5th season episode of Alias. I've been re-watching Alias lately - I find it a good soundtrack when I'm writing SPN fic - and I reached season five this week. Man, I wasn't even watching the screen. I was writing. And I heard his voice. Instantly I'm like, "No, Syd, don't trust him, he's a bad guy!" Of course, he's not...not in this show. Gotta tell ya, Gordon Walker wearing a natty suit and cuddling a baby...that's so wrong.
Yesterday I did a movie double-bill 'cause it was match day in Cardiff and I didn't want to leave the safety of the cinema. Seriously, whover thought it was a good idea to build the Millennium statium in the city centre should be shot. It screws up public transport every single time there's an event, and walking the streets is freaking scary.
But...movies. So, I finally got to see The Accidental Husband. For about three quarters of the movie I really enjoyed it. Now, here's the thing. I realise that genetically I'm a girl, but I'm missing the rom-com gene, okay? Mostly, movies billed as "romantic comedy" strike me as neither. Mark Kermode (with whom I generally agree about movies) gave this a terrible review. So I was pleasantly surprised to find this one is actually funny. I'm a little bit confused as to why this intelligent, wealthy woman didn't call a lawyer right at the beginning...I mean, isn't that what Americans do? But I do recognise a plot device when I'm beaten over the head with one, so okay, we'll let that pass. The movie is funny, the characters are mostly believable, I enjoyed the set up and there's a perspective on a Hindu family which I really, really enjoyed. The only trouble with the whole thing is Jeffrey Dean Morgan's character so did not deserve to get the girl in the end. I mean, he's a rat. I get that he had reason to do go along with the prank in the beginning, that's fine. But he fucks up her life a week before her wedding, he sleeps with her when he knows she's engaged to another man...and he gets the girl in the end. Don't get me wrong...I'd pick John Winchester over Mr Darcy any day of the week and twice on Sundays, but what kind of message is this film sending? Smart girls go for utter bastards? Or is it just New York firemen can do no wrong?
*shrugs* I just don't have the rom-com gene. I know.
My second movie of the day was The Other Boleyn Girl. I do try to avoid seeing movies of novels I've enjoyed, but costume drama (and Harry Potter) tends to be the exception. Philippa Gregory's novel is an original and emotional take on a well known historical story. The TV adaption wasn't bad. The movie, as an adaption of the novel, sucks. Gone is the intelligent Anne with her insights into the complex religious questions of the day; now she's an over-ambitious cock-tease. Gone is Cardinal Wolsey; this key character is just missing from the enire film. Henry is a pathetic fool ruled by his dick...they cast a young actor who could have portrayed the warrior king, but was given no chance to. The whole subtle subtext of women trying to survive in a man's world is just gone. Gone, too, is George Boleyn's homosexuality, one of the things that makes PG's novel stand out among a hundred others which tell the same story.
That said, as a movie it's okay. Not great, but okay. The rivalry between the sisters is built up well, as is the sense of politicking all around them and how everything in the lives of these people hangs on the king's whim. The settings and costumes are real, and most of the actors wear them well. The inevitability of the ending - we all know Anne was executed, right? - kind of makes the attempt to build some tension into the climax a little futile, but still. Not bad.
But I'm afraid I know my history a little too well and this plays so fast-and-loose with the history it might as well be fiction. It is fiction, I guess. Maybe what I mean is it needs an AU label, like fanfic. I guess the film makers figure the nuances of betrothal would be too complicated for the dumb American audience the film is supposed to please, so Anne actually marries Percy; then the audience is supposed to forget about that as he goes on to marry someone else and, of course, she marries the King. Yet this never comes up at the end, when it would be a most logical excuse for Henry to dump Anne (and, historically, was considered as grounds for divorce before he decided to cut her head off instead). The omission of Wolsey is a huge mistake; glossing over the massive political upheaval of the break with Rome as if England were merely tossing out a noisy neighbour. But what really makes the movie fall down is the script has so little sympathy for Anne. The script is horribly misogynist, portraying her as this conniving seductress who somehow took in the king of England with a coy smile and a low-cut dress, so that her downfall seems to be no more than she deserves. Natalie Portman does her best - and she's a very good actress - but somehow the film never quite convinces.
My writing: I am up to 33,000 words on Never Say Die, but that doesn't include the handwritten stuff. I'm beginning to see the end now. I need to do some hard work outlining the climactic scenes; the real challenge of this fic is going to be making that part convincing.
I've got my Sweet Charity fic coded and ready to post, but I promised my buyer she'd get to keep it to herself for a while. So I'm going to post that toward the end of next week.
Every now an then, though, the crossovers don't work. I felt that way about SPN's casting Fredric Lehne as the yellow-eyed demon (I know, every other fan thinks he was fantastic). It just didn't work for me, because he's just too recognisable an actor.
But today, I got my ultimate actor-recyle-double-take. Sterling K. Brown (Gordon Walker in Supernatural) had a small role in one 5th season episode of Alias. I've been re-watching Alias lately - I find it a good soundtrack when I'm writing SPN fic - and I reached season five this week. Man, I wasn't even watching the screen. I was writing. And I heard his voice. Instantly I'm like, "No, Syd, don't trust him, he's a bad guy!" Of course, he's not...not in this show. Gotta tell ya, Gordon Walker wearing a natty suit and cuddling a baby...that's so wrong.
Yesterday I did a movie double-bill 'cause it was match day in Cardiff and I didn't want to leave the safety of the cinema. Seriously, whover thought it was a good idea to build the Millennium statium in the city centre should be shot. It screws up public transport every single time there's an event, and walking the streets is freaking scary.
But...movies. So, I finally got to see The Accidental Husband. For about three quarters of the movie I really enjoyed it. Now, here's the thing. I realise that genetically I'm a girl, but I'm missing the rom-com gene, okay? Mostly, movies billed as "romantic comedy" strike me as neither. Mark Kermode (with whom I generally agree about movies) gave this a terrible review. So I was pleasantly surprised to find this one is actually funny. I'm a little bit confused as to why this intelligent, wealthy woman didn't call a lawyer right at the beginning...I mean, isn't that what Americans do? But I do recognise a plot device when I'm beaten over the head with one, so okay, we'll let that pass. The movie is funny, the characters are mostly believable, I enjoyed the set up and there's a perspective on a Hindu family which I really, really enjoyed. The only trouble with the whole thing is Jeffrey Dean Morgan's character so did not deserve to get the girl in the end. I mean, he's a rat. I get that he had reason to do go along with the prank in the beginning, that's fine. But he fucks up her life a week before her wedding, he sleeps with her when he knows she's engaged to another man...and he gets the girl in the end. Don't get me wrong...I'd pick John Winchester over Mr Darcy any day of the week and twice on Sundays, but what kind of message is this film sending? Smart girls go for utter bastards? Or is it just New York firemen can do no wrong?
*shrugs* I just don't have the rom-com gene. I know.
My second movie of the day was The Other Boleyn Girl. I do try to avoid seeing movies of novels I've enjoyed, but costume drama (and Harry Potter) tends to be the exception. Philippa Gregory's novel is an original and emotional take on a well known historical story. The TV adaption wasn't bad. The movie, as an adaption of the novel, sucks. Gone is the intelligent Anne with her insights into the complex religious questions of the day; now she's an over-ambitious cock-tease. Gone is Cardinal Wolsey; this key character is just missing from the enire film. Henry is a pathetic fool ruled by his dick...they cast a young actor who could have portrayed the warrior king, but was given no chance to. The whole subtle subtext of women trying to survive in a man's world is just gone. Gone, too, is George Boleyn's homosexuality, one of the things that makes PG's novel stand out among a hundred others which tell the same story.
That said, as a movie it's okay. Not great, but okay. The rivalry between the sisters is built up well, as is the sense of politicking all around them and how everything in the lives of these people hangs on the king's whim. The settings and costumes are real, and most of the actors wear them well. The inevitability of the ending - we all know Anne was executed, right? - kind of makes the attempt to build some tension into the climax a little futile, but still. Not bad.
But I'm afraid I know my history a little too well and this plays so fast-and-loose with the history it might as well be fiction. It is fiction, I guess. Maybe what I mean is it needs an AU label, like fanfic. I guess the film makers figure the nuances of betrothal would be too complicated for the dumb American audience the film is supposed to please, so Anne actually marries Percy; then the audience is supposed to forget about that as he goes on to marry someone else and, of course, she marries the King. Yet this never comes up at the end, when it would be a most logical excuse for Henry to dump Anne (and, historically, was considered as grounds for divorce before he decided to cut her head off instead). The omission of Wolsey is a huge mistake; glossing over the massive political upheaval of the break with Rome as if England were merely tossing out a noisy neighbour. But what really makes the movie fall down is the script has so little sympathy for Anne. The script is horribly misogynist, portraying her as this conniving seductress who somehow took in the king of England with a coy smile and a low-cut dress, so that her downfall seems to be no more than she deserves. Natalie Portman does her best - and she's a very good actress - but somehow the film never quite convinces.
My writing: I am up to 33,000 words on Never Say Die, but that doesn't include the handwritten stuff. I'm beginning to see the end now. I need to do some hard work outlining the climactic scenes; the real challenge of this fic is going to be making that part convincing.
I've got my Sweet Charity fic coded and ready to post, but I promised my buyer she'd get to keep it to herself for a while. So I'm going to post that toward the end of next week.