Movies of the Week
The variety of the types of movies and games I get to "audit" at work for sex, violence, and profanity content at work keeps it very interesting.
This week for example, I've watched "The Thing Called Love," a little known 1993 coming of age country music movie set in Nashville but starring very un-Nashville actors (River Phoenix in one of his last roles before he died, Pre-Speed Sandra Bullock as a ditzy hick named Linda Lue, a pre-chick flick staple Dermot Mulroney, and Samantha Mathis, a girl with a New Yorkish accent who would later become Phoenix's girlfriend.) The movie's not an amazing one, but its fun watching these actors sing (not lip sync) these country songs with zero irony. Actually part of the point of the movie was that country was the favorable enemy of irony.
"I remember the first time I heard sarcasm," laments Mulroney's character, who goes on to say he likes country because "It just makes you laugh or cry."
The second movie I did this week was "Regarding Henry" a cloyingly sentimental "Lifetime" channel-ish fantasy about a chain-smoking, workaholic corporate lawyer (Harrison Ford) who gets shot in the head by John Leguizamo in a convienance store holdup. When Ford's character emerges from his coma, he becomes like Forrest Gump, a simple-minded but perceptive soothsayer and of course he treats his family and coworkers better, quits his corporate whoring job (and smoking!), and becomes an all-around good guy. The sugar coated message the filmmakers want you to come away with is "Stop and Smell the Roses and Enjoy Your Life", but it comes across more as "Getting Shot In The Head Makes You Awesome."
Next up was "Tommy Lee Goes To College," a "reality show" on NBC last year, and I use reality in quotes because in the first episode when you first see Tommy's blonde and tan Maxim-friendly chemistry tutor walk over to sit near him she is posing in the doorway while a fan is blowing her hair around with the graphic "Hot Tutor" in the background. Right.
That said, this show wasn't bad. To Tommy's credit, as much as the producers of the show obviously want him to be the stupid, fish out of water, rock star who goes crazy while "taking" classes at the University of Nebraska, he seems sincere about wanting to actually try to do well at his classes and his marching band gig.
The ridiculous scripted events like when Tommy and his gang of "House of Lee" frat pals break into an art museum to hang up a rockin' Mona Lisa version of Lee, still can't hide the fact that during most of the two months he was on campus, Lee did what most college students do... study and...well, not much.
Now I just finished doing the most British movie ever at work, "A Room With A View," which is one of those classy British Merchant-Ivory movies. At first glance i thought it was a James Bond movie but realized thats "A View To Kill." This is one with Judi Dench as Miss Eleanor Lavish and Helena Bonham-Carter as Lucy Honeychurch! Here's part of the synopsis:
"Later, out in the countryside, George impetuously kisses Lucy, and her aunt, horrified, whisks her back to England. There, Lucy is engaged to Cecil, a prissy man, who likes Lucy's "freshness" and "subtlety," and kisses her lightly, only after asking her permission. "
And here's a conversation:
"Mother doesn't like me playing Beethoven. She says I'm rather peevish afterwards." "Naturally, one would be rather stirred up."
Yep, that's right, comically British. The most disturbing thing though is a 5 minute nude scene involving three men (including a priest and a teen who couldn't have been over 18 or 19 years old). Sure, sure, this was 19th century Britian, and the mores and culture was different, but is it really necessary to show three men, penises dangling and all, wrestling, chasing each other, splashing each other. It was the most unintentionally gay straight scene since the locker room scene in Top Gun. (Oh and by the way, it was rated PG, so BEWARE PARENTS before you unsuspecting son or daughter picks up that innocent looking costume drama!)
But enough of that, now I'm on to "Best Pals Donald & Daisy Duck: Volume 11". I'll be covering my eyes because of all the naked tail. Duck, that is.
The variety of the types of movies and games I get to "audit" at work for sex, violence, and profanity content at work keeps it very interesting.
This week for example, I've watched "The Thing Called Love," a little known 1993 coming of age country music movie set in Nashville but starring very un-Nashville actors (River Phoenix in one of his last roles before he died, Pre-Speed Sandra Bullock as a ditzy hick named Linda Lue, a pre-chick flick staple Dermot Mulroney, and Samantha Mathis, a girl with a New Yorkish accent who would later become Phoenix's girlfriend.) The movie's not an amazing one, but its fun watching these actors sing (not lip sync) these country songs with zero irony. Actually part of the point of the movie was that country was the favorable enemy of irony.
"I remember the first time I heard sarcasm," laments Mulroney's character, who goes on to say he likes country because "It just makes you laugh or cry."
The second movie I did this week was "Regarding Henry" a cloyingly sentimental "Lifetime" channel-ish fantasy about a chain-smoking, workaholic corporate lawyer (Harrison Ford) who gets shot in the head by John Leguizamo in a convienance store holdup. When Ford's character emerges from his coma, he becomes like Forrest Gump, a simple-minded but perceptive soothsayer and of course he treats his family and coworkers better, quits his corporate whoring job (and smoking!), and becomes an all-around good guy. The sugar coated message the filmmakers want you to come away with is "Stop and Smell the Roses and Enjoy Your Life", but it comes across more as "Getting Shot In The Head Makes You Awesome."
Next up was "Tommy Lee Goes To College," a "reality show" on NBC last year, and I use reality in quotes because in the first episode when you first see Tommy's blonde and tan Maxim-friendly chemistry tutor walk over to sit near him she is posing in the doorway while a fan is blowing her hair around with the graphic "Hot Tutor" in the background. Right.
That said, this show wasn't bad. To Tommy's credit, as much as the producers of the show obviously want him to be the stupid, fish out of water, rock star who goes crazy while "taking" classes at the University of Nebraska, he seems sincere about wanting to actually try to do well at his classes and his marching band gig.
The ridiculous scripted events like when Tommy and his gang of "House of Lee" frat pals break into an art museum to hang up a rockin' Mona Lisa version of Lee, still can't hide the fact that during most of the two months he was on campus, Lee did what most college students do... study and...well, not much.
Now I just finished doing the most British movie ever at work, "A Room With A View," which is one of those classy British Merchant-Ivory movies. At first glance i thought it was a James Bond movie but realized thats "A View To Kill." This is one with Judi Dench as Miss Eleanor Lavish and Helena Bonham-Carter as Lucy Honeychurch! Here's part of the synopsis:
"Later, out in the countryside, George impetuously kisses Lucy, and her aunt, horrified, whisks her back to England. There, Lucy is engaged to Cecil, a prissy man, who likes Lucy's "freshness" and "subtlety," and kisses her lightly, only after asking her permission. "
And here's a conversation:
"Mother doesn't like me playing Beethoven. She says I'm rather peevish afterwards." "Naturally, one would be rather stirred up."
Yep, that's right, comically British. The most disturbing thing though is a 5 minute nude scene involving three men (including a priest and a teen who couldn't have been over 18 or 19 years old). Sure, sure, this was 19th century Britian, and the mores and culture was different, but is it really necessary to show three men, penises dangling and all, wrestling, chasing each other, splashing each other. It was the most unintentionally gay straight scene since the locker room scene in Top Gun. (Oh and by the way, it was rated PG, so BEWARE PARENTS before you unsuspecting son or daughter picks up that innocent looking costume drama!)
But enough of that, now I'm on to "Best Pals Donald & Daisy Duck: Volume 11". I'll be covering my eyes because of all the naked tail. Duck, that is.
