unprofessional opinions from a professional

Learn Your Vows

Tim Burton movie #2: Corpse Bride. If I’m not much mistaken, this was Tim Burton’s first animated feature since The Nightmare Before Christmas (which technically isn’t even a “Tim Burton film;” he produced it, while Henry Selick directed). I remember having very high hopes when it came out, but not getting around to seeing it until I was in film school. Overall, I think I definitely like Corpse Bride. I don’t love it, and I don’t dislike it. I think it’s just a little more mediocre than I was expecting.…

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Need More Brains

I feel like I’m about to be such a disappointment, talking about yet another television series instead of a movie. At least it’s an entire series, right? Right, guys? I don’t think Netflix’s intention was ever to be The Place to binge-watch tv shows, but that’s kind of where they ended up. Still, that isn’t a bad thing for anyone except Hulu and Amazon Instant. The disadvantage to watching television on Netflix is you have to wait for a show or season to be posted; the advantage is you don’t…

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Saint George and the Space Monster

I’m not generally one for watching a single episode, out of order, of a television series I don’t watch consistently. That being said, I’m never one for turning down a recommendation. So when my dad suggested the Halloween episode of Space: 1999, I said “sure!” He later informed me that it wasn’t a true Halloween episode, but he assured me that “Dragon’s Domain” was spooky enough to count for my project. I must confess that I didn’t find it especially spooky, but parts were definitely kind of scary. I did…

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Uninvited from what?

Busy days happen, but that’s only half of an excuse. As a result, two posts today: one this morning, one later tonight. I love a film with a good twist. The only downside is that it’s hard to talk about a movie with a twist without giving away the entire surprise. What can I say about a film when I can’t tell you my favorite part? Especially since I want to compare it to another film with a similar twist, but that’s the only thing they have in common. Spoiler…

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The Zodiac in the Zodiac

Miller isn’t terribly fond of horror movies, and since it was his turn to pick again yesterday, we went for a serial killer movie instead. One of the more famous titles, partially on account of the all-star cast, mostly because of the subject’s more prominent position in American true crime mythos, perhaps because he has never been definitively identified. We chose to watch Zodiac. My first observation is that Zodiac is an extremely long film. After a long day at work, I had little desire to watch it all the…

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We’ve come for your daughter, Chuck

Due to the nature of the holiday, Tim Burton is going to be featured here quite a few times. The first of these, at the request of my mother (happy birthday, Mom!), is Beetlejuice. It’s funny, I know I watched Beetlejuice as a child, but my earliest memories of it only date to the age of fourteen or fifteen. We’re a family of movie quoters, and Beetlejuice quotes were among the more common. Plenty of “I, myself, am strange and unusual,” or “This thing reads like stereo instructions,” or of…

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Seven Days

Apparently I do requests now, too! I was chatting with a friend yesterday about this little project and he kindly asked if I would watch The Ring and let him know if it was as good as he remembers from his childhood. Having no other particular plans for yesterday’s film, I happily obliged. The Ring is one of those films made interesting simply by virtue of being based on a work from another culture. Films like Big Trouble in Little China play well because the story itself was written for…

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You know what ol’ Jack Burton says at a time like this

I was in the mood for something lighthearted yesterday, but it’s still a little too early in the season (in my opinion) for Tim Burton. So I did something a little roundabout. John Carpenter is perhaps best known for Halloween, The Thing, and They Live, the former two being some of the classic 80s horror films and the latter being equally classic but less horror. He’s also gotten accolades for Escape from New York, one of my personal favorite action films. But my favorite John Carpenter film, and the film…

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Don’t Hang Up!

Miller and I went wandering into Walmart yesterday for storage solutions, and naturally we had to stop by the bargain Blu-ray bins. We each walked out with four movies (with digital copies included!) and paid about $30 each. Total. $30 for four movies! These days we’re lucky if we can find one movie we want on Blu-ray and digital for $30. So when some of our favorites were going for five or eight bucks a pop, we went a little crazy. Among our spoils, we picked up – and watched…

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I Got a Rock

Minor correction to yesterday’s post: I said “today I watched” in reference to a film I’d actually seen the previous day. Rather, I started it that day – Saturday – and watched the rest Sunday morning. It was starting to get late and I had an early morning. Just to clarify. Miller had planned out a date night for us yesterday, so I let him pick the movie as well. (Not sure if I’ve mentioned before that my fiance and Miller are one and the same.) He isn’t a huge…

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