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sub_dividedGood weekend. I spent most of it wandering around the woods on ours and our neighbor's property. We built a platform in the trees across the creek a few weeks ago, and it already has beer cans strewn all over it. I can't really blame the trespassers, though, since it's such a perfect place to get smashed.
June 19th was Juneteenth, a holiday celebrating the last day of slavery in Texas on June 19th, 1865. That's two months after the end of the Civil War; apparently no one bothered to tell them it was over. Kind of like Andrew Jackson in New Orleans, except that at least that helped him win the Presidency. In honor of this year's Juneteenth, here are the TV networks according to Chris Rock:
ABC = Anything but Coloreds
NBC = Nothing but Caucasians
WB = Where's the Brothers?
UPN = Under-paid Negros
CBS = Cut a Brother some Slack?
Since nothing I could say aboutThe Prisoner of Azkaban could possibly be as hilariously insightful as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
falxumbra's "Alphonso Cuaron, you make me think bad, bad thoughts about that little boy, and oh, do I ever thank you for it. ("Oh, yes, I get loads of beatings!" "Right, Dan, could you do that line again, with a little more enthusiasm, maybe? Yeah? Perfect."), " I guess I'll just say that the movie was a bit like the series. It started out well, got better toward the middle, fell apart in a truly embarrassing way at the end. You know.
I went to see it with my brother, who hasn't read the books. Going to see a movie like this with a non-convert is eye-opening, as it forces you to see the thing from their point of view. And this is what I saw:
1) Little girls who sit behind you explaining the plot suck.
2) Unintelligible English muttering.
3) Deus ex Machina Deus ex Machina Deus ex Machina. The kids don't do stuff; they have stuff happen to them.
4) On that note, how the hell does Remus always know to show up when Harry is in trouble? He have some kind of radar?
5) Lupin is named Wolfie McWolf-Wolf.
6) When not involving random Deus ex Machina, the plot is rather transparent. It's because Cuoron cut out all the unimportant camouflage information that Rowling likes to throw in to confuse things.
Meanwhile, the non-objective part of me went OMG! You kick ass, Hermione! HP is hot! Dementors are creepy! I also dug the cool camera shots, water-fades, and cute, homey little details that Cuoron threw in. I thought Daniel Radcliff (the Pot-ster himself) was the worst actor in the movie, and wondered why Sirius was so short. And poor Ron, reduced to a high-pitched coward with a one-word vocabulary. Brilliant!
Mostly, I missed the stuff Cuoron took out, especially the stuff on the Animagus. Actually, scratch that, I just wished that it'd been more obvious that he had taken things out. Even with all the junk missing, the pace was still all "random stuff keeps happening to us!"
At least until the climax, which descended without warning and then sort of imploded. (Worst. Confrontation scene. Ever.) Radcliff does has the "bitter teenager" part down, albeit a few movies early; he should be fine for the fifth one. I don't think I'll go to see the next one; the fourth book was my least favorite.
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My boss told me last week to get my ass in gear, but I told him I'm shiftless.
June 19th was Juneteenth, a holiday celebrating the last day of slavery in Texas on June 19th, 1865. That's two months after the end of the Civil War; apparently no one bothered to tell them it was over. Kind of like Andrew Jackson in New Orleans, except that at least that helped him win the Presidency. In honor of this year's Juneteenth, here are the TV networks according to Chris Rock:
ABC = Anything but Coloreds
NBC = Nothing but Caucasians
WB = Where's the Brothers?
UPN = Under-paid Negros
CBS = Cut a Brother some Slack?
Since nothing I could say aboutThe Prisoner of Azkaban could possibly be as hilariously insightful as
falxumbra's "Alphonso Cuaron, you make me think bad, bad thoughts about that little boy, and oh, do I ever thank you for it. ("Oh, yes, I get loads of beatings!" "Right, Dan, could you do that line again, with a little more enthusiasm, maybe? Yeah? Perfect."), " I guess I'll just say that the movie was a bit like the series. It started out well, got better toward the middle, fell apart in a truly embarrassing way at the end. You know.I went to see it with my brother, who hasn't read the books. Going to see a movie like this with a non-convert is eye-opening, as it forces you to see the thing from their point of view. And this is what I saw:
1) Little girls who sit behind you explaining the plot suck.
2) Unintelligible English muttering.
3) Deus ex Machina Deus ex Machina Deus ex Machina. The kids don't do stuff; they have stuff happen to them.
4) On that note, how the hell does Remus always know to show up when Harry is in trouble? He have some kind of radar?
5) Lupin is named Wolfie McWolf-Wolf.
6) When not involving random Deus ex Machina, the plot is rather transparent. It's because Cuoron cut out all the unimportant camouflage information that Rowling likes to throw in to confuse things.
Meanwhile, the non-objective part of me went OMG! You kick ass, Hermione! HP is hot! Dementors are creepy! I also dug the cool camera shots, water-fades, and cute, homey little details that Cuoron threw in. I thought Daniel Radcliff (the Pot-ster himself) was the worst actor in the movie, and wondered why Sirius was so short. And poor Ron, reduced to a high-pitched coward with a one-word vocabulary. Brilliant!
Mostly, I missed the stuff Cuoron took out, especially the stuff on the Animagus. Actually, scratch that, I just wished that it'd been more obvious that he had taken things out. Even with all the junk missing, the pace was still all "random stuff keeps happening to us!"
At least until the climax, which descended without warning and then sort of imploded. (Worst. Confrontation scene. Ever.) Radcliff does has the "bitter teenager" part down, albeit a few movies early; he should be fine for the fifth one. I don't think I'll go to see the next one; the fourth book was my least favorite.
***********************
My boss told me last week to get my ass in gear, but I told him I'm shiftless.
