Vegging out is kind of fun! I can't remember the last time I stayed in my apartment all day! I can't even preten to have read anything. All I did was talk on the phone and watch movies. This is so cool! I should do it more often...
Psycho aside, I've never found Hitchcock's movies particularly scary; they're more general psychological thrillers. Marnie seems like Hitchcock's attempt at pseudo-Freudian interpretation. The basic plot is that Sean Connery's character (strangely) pursues a woman who won't have sex with him. She has rabid reactions to lightning storms, the color red, and men touching her. Her horribly scarring childhood event was cliched and predictable, and the movie dragged on for too long to reveal it to the viewer. But I guess in 1964, topics addressed in Marnie weren't kosher for public discussion, so a film can be so indirect for two hours. It reminded me of Butterfield 8. The two movies polarize the issue of abuse: Elizabeth Taylor's character in B8 becomes the slut, while Tippie Hedren's Marnie is the psychotic virgin. Both films also isolate a legitimate social problem, by placing assault solely in the realm of the lower classes; and both seem like vaguely disguised morality tales about the dangers of single motherhood.
So after that mega-downer, I watched The Medallion. It totally dripped cheese!
But I love all Jackie Chan movies, no matter how dorky. They're so formulaic and logic-defying, it's awesome! Sure, they sometimes appeal to stereotypes -- the gangsters, the stuffy or bumbling Brits, and the "magic" of the "Orient" (here I use the "postmodern quotes"). But they're funny! And they're always intergenerational --there's usually a kid involved. I also love how Jackie Chan movies are these happily oblivious East-meets-West tales, with a random black guy thrown in for added dimension. It's a brilliant, reliable success story. And hey, The Medallion is one movie aimed at American audiences where you actually see an Asian male kiss a woman on-screen. Go Jackie!
When I ransacked the family collection of DVDs, two I hadn't seen included Kingdom of Heaven and The Passion of the Christ. I refused to see both in theatres, but ran off with the former, since it at least features Orlando Bloom. However, history nerds shouldn't watch epics. Period (no pun intended)!Basically, this movie is trying to be a metaphysical Braveheart. But at one point, Orlando Bloom says "I have lost my religion," and I couldn't help but sing the REM song to myself! After that, I couldn't take it seriously and had to stop.
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