Wednesday 16 July 2008

Wordy Wednesday at the Movies

The Good...

Whilst I was away, I bought a couple of DVDs to watch on my laptop. One of them was Pickup on South Street, starring Richard Widmark, with Jean Peters as the heroine. I'd never heard of her, but she was certainly very attractive. It also had Thelma Ritter in it, which is why I bought it in the first place, and her performance was brilliant. It turns out that she was nominated for an Oscar. It's a pity she didn't win.

Jean Peters in POSS

...The Bad...

I also finally got around to watching "The Thomas Crown Affair". I'd never seen it before, and didn't really know what to expect, but it was okay. Steve MacQueen plays a respectable millionaire who decides to become a bank robber, and with the old US censorship having been abandoned, the bad guy's allowed to get away with his crime. And the dosh. And Fay Dunaway.


...Julia Roberts

"Thomas Crown" is sort of like a heist film, which put me in the mood to rewatch "Ocean's Eleven" with Helena. It has a 12 certificate, but I didn't think there would be anything unsuitable in it. Apart from the warning on the back of the DVD case "Bad Language: Some mild, twice strong".

I've no particular problem with Helena hearing swearing - after all, she'd better get used to it, but she thinks that "Shit" is a bit shocking, so I was bracing myself for the two "strong" times.

The first one is when Elliot Gould says something about "the fucking desert". "What did he say?", Helena asked. "The desert", I replied deadpan, and she seemed satisfied. The second time is later in the film. The Chinese man says "Way yu fuk in bin?", which may be strong swearing, but given that he spoke no English up to that point, he was probably referring to "#103 : Vegetables and noodles in a slightly spicy Szechwan sauce". Either way, Helena didn't seem to notice.

It also reminded me of how ugly Julia Roberts is. I know that no-one else seems to agree with me, but they should have given her a part in "Planet of the Apes", and saved themselves a lot of make-up.


But one shouldn't go by looks. She acts well and the film was as entertaining as it was the first time I saw it, and there are a lot of actresses and films you can't say that about.

20 comments:

Bee said...

I agree about JR, I've never thought she was attractive but I do like her movies.

You forgot to mention Brad Pitt who IS the star of that movie.

Bee said...

I had to go translate an dnow I'm back.

I watched the remake of Thomas Crown Affair with Rene Russo and Pierce Brosnan. I was bORED TO TEARS!

And, Rene Russo is a man.

Jean Knee said...

I don't know why people get so fucking upset over a couple swears. lighten up people!


I missed the delicious Thomas Crown Affair and had no idea about Rene Russo. man

Brian o vretanos said...

Bee:

And I agree about RR.

Jean Knee:

Would you let Lean watch it? I suppose she's still a bit young.

I haven't seen the remake of TCA - Life's too short.

Bee said...

(:-O

Bee said...

jean knee said the "F" word...

Ha ha!

Brian o vretanos said...

She's only trying to shock us. I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction...

Anonymous said...

I was going to comment until I was horridly offended by the language usage in this comment section.

Oh wait, I wasn't offended.

I just wasn't going to comment because you called Julia Roberts ugly ;-)

Brian o vretanos said...

Chris:

It's just a matter of personal taste, I suppose. I don't know many people who share my aversion to her.

Anyway, I'm glad you changed your mind. We'll have to persuade Jean Knee to use bad language more often ;-)

Dan said...

Brian
I've been arguing with The Wife for years about Julia being ugly.

When the Mark Walberg version of Planet of the Apes came out he said that Helen Bonem Carter look very pretty in her Ape make up.
"She looks like Janet Jackson" he said, I don't think Janet was very happy about that.

Jean Knee said...

what the fuck is so shocking about the f word?

Fuckers



I really wanted to call ya'll asswipes

P.S. Julia has a huge ugly mouth

Jean Knee said...

could you hear my accent when I said ya'll?

Brian o vretanos said...

Jean Knee:

Yes, the accent made all the difference.

Linguistics people call those words "magic words", since there's nothing inherently wrong with them. "Trousers" used to be shocking.

Brian o vretanos said...

Dan:

That reminds me of when Arnie was talking about Terminator 3 and he was explaining that the Terminator this time was a woman built from artificial parts "just like Cher".

Jean Knee said...

Like he can talk, he's made of steroids


After nuclear warfare the only things that will still be living are roaches and Cher

poor thing gets a bad rap

Brian o vretanos said...

Jean Knee:

What a cheery thought.

Sully Sullivan said...

Oh no I fully agree that Julia Roberts is not good looking. Her and Sarah Jessica "Horseface Disgrace" Parker. Those are the two most overrated celeb women in the looks department.

Brian o vretanos said...

Sully:

I'm glad it's not just me. Oh, and I agree totally about Nicolas cage being overrated...

Tracy Rambles On And On said...

I've never understood the appeal of Julia Roberts either.
And did you know that she also happens to stink? She doesn't use any kind of deoderant and I've read in a few magazines that she sometimes has an odor.
Maybe Planet of the Apes would have been perfect.

Brian o vretanos said...

Tracy:

I suppose when you're as rich as she is, you can smell as bad as you like.