The Truth Shall Set You Free

Today I turned to my internet friends to settle once and for all a debate I've had with a number of people about the Steven Spielberg directed film Artificial Intelligence: AI.

Some people believed that the entities (in the picture above) were aliens, while I was strongly convinced that they were an advanced mecha, due to their cybernetic design and deep seeded fascination with and knowledge of humanity. Well, it appears I was right. According to Mr. Spielberg:

They are not aliens but state of the art artificial intelligence, robots at the point of perfection. They have created themselves and continue to procreate without mankind on the face of the planet. Now had Stanley directed it, would you still have thought they were aliens?

So, case closed. (Some Googling could've closed this case 9 years ago, but I guess it's more fun to argue about it.)

The 2010 Academy Awards Nominations

My triumphant return to blogging will include my initial reactions to the announcement of the nominations for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards. First, yes, the Academy Awards are a joke but it's still difficult for me to not find a slight flutter in my heart during this apex of the awards season. Second, as per usual, I have not seen most of the movies up for awards. I would actually like to remedy that this year. Now, to my reactions:

• If Avatar wins Best Picture, I might lose all faith in humanity. I could deal with Cameron winning Best Director (though it would be awesome if Bigelow won for history-sake - I would like to actually see The Hurt Locker before I say whether or not I think she deserves it).
• "[ExtensionOfBob] would love to see a movie win Best Costume Design in which the costume designers actually designed the costumes and didn't pull them from the period piece rack at the costume rental warehouse and toss some accessories with them."
• Precious is up for best editing? Really? That was one of the weakest parts of the film. Or maybe I'm confusing editing with the script...
• I *heart* Woody Harrelson.
• It would be awesome if Gabourey won Best Actress. But is Sandra a lock?
• I'm glad Anna Kendrick is nominated for Up in the Air because she was kinda crazy-good in that, considering it's one of those solid-but-not-typical-Oscar-bait fare type movies. I do think the entire Academy should get kicked in the shins if Mo'Nique doesn't win.
• I hear great things about The Fantastic Mr. Fox. I liked Coraline and it would be nice if it won. Everyone also lost their s*** over Up, too...though the support wanes as the movie goes on, it seems.
• If Avatar doesn't win every tech category, I will laugh myself to sleep.
• A lot of times shorts up for awards become available to view online. I hope this is the case again this year, especially for the doc shorts.
• I think they should expand the Foreign Language Film category to 10 noms as well.
• I hope D9 wins something but it looks like it's up against some heavy hitters.
• Also, Mary and Max might've been the best movie I saw in 2009.

Cosmo Women and 14 Year Old Bbboys

I'm watching High Fidelity for the first time and wondering why I like this movie so much, wondering why so many of my favorite "rom coms" are written from the male perspective. Almost all movies about love seem to find themselves falling back on gender stereotypes, painting each character with broad generalizing strokes in an effort to gain some sort of understanding and insight into why people do the things they do when they do (and don't) love each other. Perhaps rom coms written from the male perspective help to give me insight into which paint buckets the opposite sex uses in its attempts to understand women. (The results usually aren't that shocking.)

With no further ado, my 5.5 (current) favorite movies about adult relationships (adult meaning not about teenagers, as opposed to, you now, adult as in all about the sexy sex):

5.5 L'ultimo bacio
5. The Last Kiss
4. I'm Through with White Girls (The Inevitable Undoing of Jay Brooks)
3. High Fidelity
2. Me and You and Everyone We Know
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

As with anything that's my favorite, this list is bound to no longer be true within minutes. But I'm definitely interested in any suggestions, any passionate disagreements. (I also just realized that *SPOILER* most of these movies have happyish endings.)

Scene from Runaway Bride

       MAGGIE
  I'm going to kill myself.

       PEGGY
  Why?

       MAGGIE
  Because you think I'm all like... "Hey 
  man, check me out".

       PEGGY
   (friendly)
  No, I don't think you're like, "I'm 
  charming and mysterious in a way that 
  even I don't understand and something 
  about me is crying out for protection 
  from a big man like you".  Very hard 
  to compete with.  Especially to us 
  married women who have lost our mystery.

       MAGGIE
  But you haven't lost your mystery!  
  You're very mysterious!

       PEGGY
  No.  I'm weird.  Weird and mysterious 
  are two different things.

       MAGGIE
  But I'm weird.

       PEGGY
  No.  You're quirky.  Quirky and weird 
  are two different things.

John Hughes is dead and we can't stop talking about how wonderful or flawed his work was

kimberly: am I the only one who hates that Some Kind of Wonderful movie?
me: Yes
LOL
I never liked it when I was younger but now I might like it even more than Pretty in Pink I think b\c I've become less of an Andie and more of a Watts according to the Facebook quiz I just took, at least And I totes just bought it the other day
If it makes you feel better, I hate 16 Candles, Weird Science, and Ferris Beuler
Or however you spell his name
kimberly: hahaha
that doesn't make me feel better, no
me: Damn. I tried. Hahaha
kimberly: I don't know if it's partly because I didn't see Some Kind of Wonderful until I was older like late high school or college so I was already area of what complete bullshit it was but yeah, it sorta grosses me out it's dumb that he spends his college money on earrings for a girl and it's gross that that's what's supposed to impress her and I don't get why watts would like him he treats her as a chauffeur!
me: I think that's why I hated it as a kid
kimberly: haha
so why do you like it now?
'cause of watts?
me: b\c I'm more of a dreamer now And I know that love really does suck
kimberly: LOL
I'm not sure that's one of those things you're supposed to "know"
me: http://methodsofmediocrity.blogspot.com/2008/05/pretty-unconvinced.html
Hahaha
I wrote that last year I haven't reread it but like, I always liked that Andy ended up with Blane...b\c it makes sense but their whole relationship was them talking about their relationship
Where Watts and what's-his-face were actually friends
And like, the grown up me knows that Blane and Andie won't actually last But the grown up me also knows that what's-his-face is only settling for Watts And that's what really happens in life and that's what works
Wow. That sounded way more jaded and depressing than I meant it to
kimberly: (just finished reading it...it's very well-thought out)
haha yeah, I was sorta with you until the settling part
so like regarding Pretty in Pink it's interesting 'cause when I was younger like 12 or whatever it was my favorite of the Big Three movies I really wanted to love Breakfast Club, but I was extremely disappointed, to be honest, don't love it all that much
16 Candles was okay but Pretty in Pink was like...at the time, I loooooved Andrew McCarthy and I thought the thing between him and Andie was so hot
BUT
me: Sometimes I adore breakfast club, sometimes it makes me go "Meh". I'm with hortense on always being bothered that the geek is the only one that got no ass
(Also, I always thought Andrew McCarthy was fug until I saw him as an adult in Joy Luck Club...now I think he's hot shit.)
kimberly: I agree with you, like, I remember being surprised that she was originally supposed to end up with Duckie because although I've totally been into other "in love with the best friend" narratives, I didn't feel anything between her and Duckie...Like he had this crush on her, yes, but even that was sorta the painful, not based on any real chemistry crush of people
Really? I was all over Andrew McCarthy
BUT AGAIN
then when I watched it when I was older it's like probably my least favorite....of course, the ending never made sense, even when I was younger...the whole "you didn't believe in yourself" thing but watching it when I was older it was even more like
me: Hahahahahaha
Worst."speech".ever.
kimberly: yeahhh...he's a coward and the fact that he was so easily manipulated and a snob is ridiculous
For real!
AND
me: But they're also just kids. We have to remember that
kimberly: I thought he looked so hot the whole movie except the last scene which was obviously shot later 'cause his hair is a totally different color!
they're 18...I'm pretty sure "love the person you love whether or not they own a mercedes" is a lesson even Michelle would get in season 3 of full house
me: Yeah...they had to reshoot that last scene, b\c in the original ending, it's her and Ducky. So, he'd shaved his head for another movie and they had to give him this shitty wig

Favorite Movie Battles

Here's a list of my favorite battles (with a couple of borderline fight) scenes from film. I have never been a fan of modern war films, perhaps they are too real for me? So there are many that I haven't seen, though I am sure they are as amazing as people think. This list is about my favorites, not necessarily the best and you will see that most (haha, out of 5) are of the speculative fiction variety.

5. The Battle of Klendathu from Starship Troopers
4. The Gladiators Work Together from Gladiator
3. The Battle for Zion from The Matrix Revolutions
2. William Wallace Final Battle from Braveheart
1. The Battle of Helms Deep from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Be Free

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