Books or movie quotes...
When ever I think or see someone wink, my head goes too Field of Dreams and the young kid who winks at the pitcher and gets a ball to the head. "Why'd ya do that?' 'He... He winked at me!' 'Don't wink at him kid.'
Its just one of the weird things that goes on in my mind.
Kristy C
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Monday, December 15
Saturday, October 4
Happily Ever After or Why I Like Action Flicks
Growing up, I've always loved me a good fairy tale. Something about them just rocks. Plus, they have the same ending. Happily ever after. And I like that in my stories.
Which comes to why I adore action movies. Good guys fighting bad guys and the good guys always win.
In horror, you tend to have bad guys survive, while the 'good' kids just manage to live to the end.
In drama, you often have lovers who never really talk, and near the end one of them ends of killing themselves. Or they do talk, but one of them dies anyway. Most of the time, its just that one of them dies... Only important part.
In comedy, its a crapshoot. Sometimes you get a good one but all too often, its just bathroom humor and low end comedy. Not something I enjoy.
In thrillers, you find another crapshoot. Sometimes they're well made and a good mystery, but other times they're only a little better than a horror film.
And in action films you tend to have good guys and bad guys. Sure, some of the good ones are doing bad things, but they're also the kind of people with honor. Not easy to have honor when you're all evil.
Action films can be more horror driven, thriller driven, even comedy driven. And strong storylines aren't that common. Most of the time its about the good guys stopping the bad guys from doing something. During the course of that stopping, fist fights, knife fights, gun fights, car fights and many other types will appear. Explosions happen, impossible feats of physics...
Then the good guys kick butt and walk/ride off into the sunset, alive to fight another day.
Sure, if the bad guys win you'll see them next time. Its like Arkham Asylum... A revolving door for the baddies.
A good movie to understand what I'm talking about is a rather bad one called Jake Speed. Not easy to find, no one very famous is in it. But no matter how weird the good guy is, he's always good. Or listen to some Philip Marlow radio shows. Again, you'll see that kind of person.
They always do what's right. Sometimes, it goes against the law but those times are for a specific purpose. Say, a young kid was apart of something and sticking him in jail would do more harm than good. Our good guy will keep him out of jail, while making sure those guilty are punished.
Please understand, there's nothing wrong with the genres mentioned above. I just don't enjoy them as often. Sure, there are exceptions to almost any rule, but for me those are just that... Exceptions.
Kristy C
Which comes to why I adore action movies. Good guys fighting bad guys and the good guys always win.
In horror, you tend to have bad guys survive, while the 'good' kids just manage to live to the end.
In drama, you often have lovers who never really talk, and near the end one of them ends of killing themselves. Or they do talk, but one of them dies anyway. Most of the time, its just that one of them dies... Only important part.
In comedy, its a crapshoot. Sometimes you get a good one but all too often, its just bathroom humor and low end comedy. Not something I enjoy.
In thrillers, you find another crapshoot. Sometimes they're well made and a good mystery, but other times they're only a little better than a horror film.
And in action films you tend to have good guys and bad guys. Sure, some of the good ones are doing bad things, but they're also the kind of people with honor. Not easy to have honor when you're all evil.
Action films can be more horror driven, thriller driven, even comedy driven. And strong storylines aren't that common. Most of the time its about the good guys stopping the bad guys from doing something. During the course of that stopping, fist fights, knife fights, gun fights, car fights and many other types will appear. Explosions happen, impossible feats of physics...
Then the good guys kick butt and walk/ride off into the sunset, alive to fight another day.
Sure, if the bad guys win you'll see them next time. Its like Arkham Asylum... A revolving door for the baddies.
A good movie to understand what I'm talking about is a rather bad one called Jake Speed. Not easy to find, no one very famous is in it. But no matter how weird the good guy is, he's always good. Or listen to some Philip Marlow radio shows. Again, you'll see that kind of person.
They always do what's right. Sometimes, it goes against the law but those times are for a specific purpose. Say, a young kid was apart of something and sticking him in jail would do more harm than good. Our good guy will keep him out of jail, while making sure those guilty are punished.
Please understand, there's nothing wrong with the genres mentioned above. I just don't enjoy them as often. Sure, there are exceptions to almost any rule, but for me those are just that... Exceptions.
Kristy C
Tuesday, September 2
Spoilers and What they do to those around you...
The other day while I was at gaming, a few friends mentioned Guardians of the Galaxy and how amazingly great it was. I've yet to see it, money constraints and all that. So I commented to them about that.
And they seemed to have ignored it, or figured what they were sharing wasn't all that important. Except it put elements into my head of 'OH, look for that... And hmm, wonder what that means?'
When I saw both Thor 2 and Captain America 2, I made sure to keep from talking or mentioning much of anything beyond 'HOLY CRAP... IT WAS AWESOME!!' to them. Well, and laughing at someones pointed comment about 'Better put on my pants.'
But that was subtle and not something others would be looking forward to in a movie.
I remember a few years ago when I saw.. I think it was Harry Potter 6. 5 or 6, I know that much. And I jokingly put up a status of 'Holy crap!! When ____ and ____ happened? Didn't see it coming. And I loved when ____ happened. So cool.'
The difference? I could have been talking about a million scenes in the movie. Nothing to say what I was actually mentioning.
Another time, after having seen The Expendables, I commented on what I loved. 'Explosions, fights, loud guns, sexy guys, burning rivers of fire, and explosions. Did I mention explosions?'
Ok, I guess that time I gave away the whole movie, but at the same time you were expecting those things anyway, so did I actually give you any spoilers?
When someone says 'I haven't seen that yet' the polite thing to do, is STFU, or at the very least walk away so they can't hear you. Hard enough to avoid learning of things you haven't seen, without friends talking.
Kristy C
And they seemed to have ignored it, or figured what they were sharing wasn't all that important. Except it put elements into my head of 'OH, look for that... And hmm, wonder what that means?'
When I saw both Thor 2 and Captain America 2, I made sure to keep from talking or mentioning much of anything beyond 'HOLY CRAP... IT WAS AWESOME!!' to them. Well, and laughing at someones pointed comment about 'Better put on my pants.'
But that was subtle and not something others would be looking forward to in a movie.
I remember a few years ago when I saw.. I think it was Harry Potter 6. 5 or 6, I know that much. And I jokingly put up a status of 'Holy crap!! When ____ and ____ happened? Didn't see it coming. And I loved when ____ happened. So cool.'
The difference? I could have been talking about a million scenes in the movie. Nothing to say what I was actually mentioning.
Another time, after having seen The Expendables, I commented on what I loved. 'Explosions, fights, loud guns, sexy guys, burning rivers of fire, and explosions. Did I mention explosions?'
Ok, I guess that time I gave away the whole movie, but at the same time you were expecting those things anyway, so did I actually give you any spoilers?
When someone says 'I haven't seen that yet' the polite thing to do, is STFU, or at the very least walk away so they can't hear you. Hard enough to avoid learning of things you haven't seen, without friends talking.
Kristy C
Friday, August 22
Things I like... Xanadu
So, I'm sure some of you have heard of the movie Xanadu. Most likely, you've heard that its a bad, terrible, horrible movie. Well, you've heard correctly. At least in part.
Xanadu isn't a great movie. They spent a lot of money on songs and special effects, and neglected to buy a plot. It however is not a terrible, horrible movie. I've seen those, and they tend to be called 'Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell', a film with no Nymphoids, not barbarism and no dino's. But, that's a post of another color.
No, Xanadu falls into the category of 'Cult Classing, Bad Film.' Rocky Horror and Buckaroo Banzai fall into that same genre. Movies that you'll most likely either love, or hate. There isn't really an in between with them. I'm not a fan of the former, and I have seen it. And the later is one I enjoy.
The story in Xanadu is however interesting, if you look at it away from the bad acting on some part and the overdone special effect [both of which I think actually make it a great movie.]
Start with an artist. One who wants to be something. He dreams of stepping out into the world and showing his skills and being recognized. Sadly, he seems doomed to live in a world of 'paint by numbers' as he calls it. What does he do? He takes album covers and paints them larger, so they can hang on the side of record stores.
To quote Gene Kelly's character as he hears just that, 'Sounds like you should take long lunch breaks.'
He wants more, but when he tries... Nothing comes of it and he is forced back into this dark, dank world he hates.
Until he is kissed by a women. She skates up to him, kisses him, then leaves.
No starts the film, as he searches for her and ends up joining forces with an older man to open up a night club.
Xanadu.
Through all this, we routinely break out into song and frequently do so on roller skates. Electric Light Orchestra provides almost all the music. And, its actually pretty good. I've grown to love almost every song from that movie and can easily start singing at any time.
Of course, as all good romantic comedies with music storylines go, we must lose the girl for various reason, then fight for the girl.
For me, its in the lead up to this that the movie passes on its best message.
Sonny, the young artist, says that without the girl, the dream is dead.
Danny, Gene Kelly's character, tells him different. He says that dreams don't die, we kill them. He continues by saying that if he really loves this girl, then he has to fight for her and get over his whininess.
I won't share how it ends, but its not quite the typical way. There is an amazingly HUGE skate and dance sequence that lasts a good 20 minutes, with Olivia Newton-John singing most of it.
What I will do, is tell you how this movie inspired me.
Not sure when I first saw this, but I know I was young and impressionable. But I was still me, and after one viewing on my VHS tape, I wondered 'Which muse was Kira?' She started to give a name before being kissed, and so I went to my enciclopedia and looked up the muses.
This moment was where my love of greek mythology, and mythology in general, started. I researched, checked out books, learned and enjoyed. I may not have as much knowledge on the subject as others, but I know enough to make me happy. And it sparked a love affair that's not gone away and in fact is showing up in my current WIP story.
In the scene described above with Gene Kelly, I also realized something that helped to change me. Dreams are alive, and when we give up... We kill that dream.
Some years ago, as described in another post, I had to see my dream change to become reality.
Heres how I see it. Our dreams are like a caterpillar in a cocoon. Its at our mercy, trapped in a small space. We THINK we know how it'll look when it comes out. That's the constant dreaming.
When it emerges, we see the reality of it. Here is where it can live or die once again, when we're faced with those changes.
Yes, Xanadu is a badly made movie. But to me, it was something that helped inspire and change the course of my life. I never gave up on my dreams, because Gene Kelly told me I'd kill them if I did.
Kristy C
Xanadu isn't a great movie. They spent a lot of money on songs and special effects, and neglected to buy a plot. It however is not a terrible, horrible movie. I've seen those, and they tend to be called 'Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell', a film with no Nymphoids, not barbarism and no dino's. But, that's a post of another color.
No, Xanadu falls into the category of 'Cult Classing, Bad Film.' Rocky Horror and Buckaroo Banzai fall into that same genre. Movies that you'll most likely either love, or hate. There isn't really an in between with them. I'm not a fan of the former, and I have seen it. And the later is one I enjoy.
The story in Xanadu is however interesting, if you look at it away from the bad acting on some part and the overdone special effect [both of which I think actually make it a great movie.]
Start with an artist. One who wants to be something. He dreams of stepping out into the world and showing his skills and being recognized. Sadly, he seems doomed to live in a world of 'paint by numbers' as he calls it. What does he do? He takes album covers and paints them larger, so they can hang on the side of record stores.
To quote Gene Kelly's character as he hears just that, 'Sounds like you should take long lunch breaks.'
He wants more, but when he tries... Nothing comes of it and he is forced back into this dark, dank world he hates.
Until he is kissed by a women. She skates up to him, kisses him, then leaves.
No starts the film, as he searches for her and ends up joining forces with an older man to open up a night club.
Xanadu.
Through all this, we routinely break out into song and frequently do so on roller skates. Electric Light Orchestra provides almost all the music. And, its actually pretty good. I've grown to love almost every song from that movie and can easily start singing at any time.
Of course, as all good romantic comedies with music storylines go, we must lose the girl for various reason, then fight for the girl.
For me, its in the lead up to this that the movie passes on its best message.
Sonny, the young artist, says that without the girl, the dream is dead.
Danny, Gene Kelly's character, tells him different. He says that dreams don't die, we kill them. He continues by saying that if he really loves this girl, then he has to fight for her and get over his whininess.
I won't share how it ends, but its not quite the typical way. There is an amazingly HUGE skate and dance sequence that lasts a good 20 minutes, with Olivia Newton-John singing most of it.
What I will do, is tell you how this movie inspired me.
Not sure when I first saw this, but I know I was young and impressionable. But I was still me, and after one viewing on my VHS tape, I wondered 'Which muse was Kira?' She started to give a name before being kissed, and so I went to my enciclopedia and looked up the muses.
This moment was where my love of greek mythology, and mythology in general, started. I researched, checked out books, learned and enjoyed. I may not have as much knowledge on the subject as others, but I know enough to make me happy. And it sparked a love affair that's not gone away and in fact is showing up in my current WIP story.
In the scene described above with Gene Kelly, I also realized something that helped to change me. Dreams are alive, and when we give up... We kill that dream.
Some years ago, as described in another post, I had to see my dream change to become reality.
Heres how I see it. Our dreams are like a caterpillar in a cocoon. Its at our mercy, trapped in a small space. We THINK we know how it'll look when it comes out. That's the constant dreaming.
When it emerges, we see the reality of it. Here is where it can live or die once again, when we're faced with those changes.
Yes, Xanadu is a badly made movie. But to me, it was something that helped inspire and change the course of my life. I never gave up on my dreams, because Gene Kelly told me I'd kill them if I did.
Kristy C
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