recovery

[juldea]

On the way home from Baltimore, tpau's style of driving was disagreeing with me, so I took a Dramamine. Note the bottle says, "Marked drowsiness may occur." I only remember about an hour of the 8 hour drive home, and that includes multiple stops for bathroom breaks.

But that's not all - I was dropped off at home at 2:30am Monday morning. Came inside to where londo was waiting, went to bed, and slept until 4:30 Monday afternoon.


We ate a fairly huge dinner and watched the two movies alexx_kay has been nagging me about, The Maltese Falcon and Some Like It Hot. Both of the movies were lent to me because they were on the IMDB top 250 movies of all time (51 and 44, respectively) and alexx_kay said he'd never met someone who didn't like them... which I guess makes londo and I the odd ones out, because we weren't impressed by either. He liked Falcon better, I liked Hot better, but top 50ish movies ever? No way.

Anyway, due to the 4:30 wakeup, I went to bed at 3:30 for a 2-hour nap and then woke up to get here to work, so I'm a little off kilter. I plan on skipping dance tonight and just going to bed early, although I need to do some laundry too...

Comments

[tpau]

you hav edance on tuesday? what kind?

[juldea.livejournal.com]

belly

[anitra.livejournal.com]

Hm.. I do like both of those movies quite a lot... however, when I've shown Some Like it Hot to others, they're usually not impressed.

I think a lot of older movies will be gradually pushed off the top of the charts. They use different humor and emphasis, and are generally less appealing to younger generations.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Nod, I think it's inevitable that older movies will slowly be pushed off of the charts, simply because fewer people see them to vote on them whereas the new blockbusters get millions of viewers who then log in and vote.

I want to point out that both londo and I really love Casablanca (he's only seen it once, recently, and I've seen it dozens of times).

[eor1312.livejournal.com]

i dont like either of those movies particularly

Off kilter

[sjo.livejournal.com]

It takes me about a week to get back to normal after a con, especially if it's one that requires a good bit of travel. Longer if I manage to get myself ill.

I adore "Some Like It Hot" and "The Maltese Falcon" both. But then, I am a lunatic fan of old movies.

Re: Off kilter

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Well, as I said in another comment, I adore Casablanca and Seven Samurai and Citizen Kane (amongst others - those are just the ones I saw in a quick glance of the top 20), so I deny that it's an "old movie" thing...

Falcon didn't have, to me, a coherent plot or characters. The two who were supposed to be in love never, ever even slightly convinced me of it, and I have no clue how Gutman, Cairo, and O'Shaughnessy were really intertwined. Nor do I have any understanding of Sam Spade's motivations or personality. It all just went over my head. :P

Hot was, as I said, my preferred of the two, and it did have its amusing moments, but it didn't keep me in stitches. Many of the gags were predictable, and many that weren't were plain nonsensical ("Nobody's perfect!") or stupid ("I'm not very bright!"). I guess the whole drag thing was a lot more amusing back then, but now I've seen it done a bunch and better (Birdcage!).

But that's my rant. :)

Re: Off kilter

[sjo.livejournal.com]

It's a fair rant.

Falcon is rather typical of Dashiell Hammett's writing -- he also wrote The Thin Man upon which the movies were based. Nick and Nora Charles were modeled loosely upon himself and Lillian Hellman (sp?). I think that Hammett had a rather unconventional ideal of love. Sometimes I think it's one that my spouse shares, but we won't go there for now.

Hot seems trite, and the gags predictable, because it is the model from which other movies copied. In a lot of ways it's a historical piece, you know? "Here's where we got a lot of routine gags you see in movies now" or the like. I will never claim that Hot is high art, but it's a cute film. And, I confess, I like Marilyn Monroe.

Re: Off kilter

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Marilyn Monroe is indeed visually likable - londo and I spent most of the movie ogling her. (He didn't believe me, before we had put the movie in, that it would contain as much cleavage as it did. His protest was, "1959!" and mine was, "Marilyn Monroe!" Hehe.) However, her voice began to grate on him, and when reading up on the movie afterwards it became apparent how dumb she is (read the trivia on IMDB), she becomes much less likable.

Hrm, perhaps I should try to read some of Hammett's stuff, see if I like it better in print...

Dashiell Hammett

[sjo.livejournal.com]

His books rock.

I might be biased by the fact that he lived in Baltimore. But still, his stuff is good.

Re: Off kilter

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Marilyn Monroe may not be *likeable*, but migod is she ever *watchable* >;-)

I do have the book of The Maltese Falcon, if you're interested in borrowing it. But the Bogart movie really was a very faithful adaptation, so if you didn't like the movie, I don't hold out high hopes for the book...

[oddharmonic.livejournal.com]

As a veteran anti-nausea drug user, regular Dramamine puts me out for an hour or two after taking one. Dramamine II gives me vertigo.

[flyingindie.livejournal.com]

You have to remember that one of the reasons those movies are so loved is that they were fairly revolutionary at the time of their release. They were once innovative and hip, but now some people see them as predictable because they have been copied so many times.

[crazybone.livejournal.com]

The Maltese Falcon was hard-boiled Hammett detective novel from the 40s. The film translates almost page for page.
That said, those stories were more twisted morality plays than straight stories. In the case of Falcon it's about the folly of greed and avarice.
There is no such thing as love in a Hammett story. Lust sure, but
not love in the romantic sense. To Hammett love is BS, Spade starts
to care for O'Shaugnessey and gets betrayed. No one is to be trusted
No one is what they appear to be.
The initial motivation for Spade is straight revenge for his partner
being killed, whether that's the real motivation is up for debate.
Just my $.02

[sjo.livejournal.com]

There is no such thing as love in a Hammett story.

Not true. Nick and Nora Charles love one another. They're just weird about it.

[crazybone.livejournal.com]

I'll take your word for it as I proffes ignorance on The Thin Man
series. It's on my ever-expanding To Read list though.