Author Archives: tony

Chasing Amy

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Well well Mr Smith.  Chasing Amy isn’t as entirely comic as Kevin’s previous movies, but it’s far, far deeper and emotional.  It has comic moments and plenty of laughs, but it delivers a sophisticated and intelligent look at relationships, gender and sexual choices.

Jay and Silent Bob are in evidence but far less prevalent, as the more mature material dictates, and while the backdrop is essentially ‘two guys who are life long friends and who’s friendship is strained when one of them gets involved in a love relationship that is complex’, and so almost the same as Clerks, the details of the relationship and the depth of the material is much greater.

Chasing Amy is intelligent, funny, incisive and emotional.

Kevin Smith made me watch another love story (in which a girl kissed a girl), and I liked it.

Mallrats

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I’m sad.  I’m sad that it took me this long to see Mallrats.  I’m sad that I didn’t realise before what I was missing.  I’m sad it didn’t do too well in the cinema.  I’m sad I wasn’t there to support it.

Mallrats is an honest to goodness homage to John Landis and John Hughes and the movies of a generation.  It pays tribute and builds upon movies many people my age grew up with, including Kevin Smith.  It’s quirky, it’s truly funny, it’s heartwarming and it’s well worth watching.

Some of the acting is a little stiff, I’m not sure all the actors were as onboard as they could have been especially in some of the early scenes with Claire Forlani, however that smooths out and what we get is a classic comedy of teen angst.

The movie tells the story of two newly dumped guys who finally realise what they’re missing and work to gain back the girls they discover they love.  Jay and Silent Bob ensure everything goes to plan, no matter how crazy the plan, and chaos ensues.  But, funny chaos.

It’s not sophisticated, it’s not deep, but it evokes a memory of movies that I lived with and loved deeply, and it made me laugh and laugh.  I loved it, I’ll love it again, and I’m glad I own it.

Odd movie connections

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One of the weird things about writing down all the movies you ever saw (work in progress) is that when you go to add movies you watched recently, you find out the other movies from that year.

Did you know, Chasing Amy was out in the same year as Flubber (1997)?  I remember watching Flubber, but I have no recollection of hearing anything about Chasing Amy at the time.  It was the same year as Fifth Element and Con Air and Liar Liar.

Mallrats came out in the same year as Twelve Monkies, Judge Dredd and Mortal Kombat (1995).

Not really enlightening, just something that amused me as I was adding new entries.

Kevin Smith – wow

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So, wow.  Apparently I’m a dick for ignoring all the Kevin Smith stuff I’ve heard over the years, and dumb for never managing to catch any of his flicks in the cinema.  I mean wow, I sorta knew, but can’t believe I missed it.

Fantastic.  We just watched Mallrats and Chasing Amy (reviews for both soon).  Superb.  I love the dialog, the style, the control and the pitch.  I can’t believe a single director has so far gotten me to watch four love stories and love them all (clerks, clerks ii, mallrats and chasing amy).

Kevin Smith wrote this in a reflection on Mallrats,

See, I grew up on those movies; all through the eighties, it was stuff like ‘Porky’s’, all the John Landis flicks, and the twisted classical tragicomedy ‘The Last American Virgin’.

And John Hughes movies.

I was there, right next to him, watching that stuff with him.  National Lampoon’s Animal House, The Blues Brothers, Ferris Bueller, Stripes, Weird Science.  It’s part of me too, part of my love of cinema and movies.  I can watch Animal House a hundred times and never get tired.  I can watch John Belushi a thousand times and never get tired.  I can watch John turn around on that ladder and waggle his eyebrows at the camera and laugh, every, single, time.

Kevin Smith’s Mallrats is a brilliant homage to those movies, his performance at the end of Mallrats is a brilliant homage to Belushi in Animal House.

Kevin Smith – I’m sorry I missed your previous movies in the cinema.  I’m sorry this blog post reads like a wet fanboy love letter.  I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you man, when you needed me.  I’ll try harder, I promise.

Ah America, shame on you

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Well, not all of you, but anyone who voted for this,

California has voted to ban gay marriages only months after the practice was legalised, in a move which left thousands of homosexual couples stranded in a legal limbo.

The proposal to limit marriage to members of the opposite sex was approved by 52.1 percent of voters, compared with 47.9 percent who voted against, with 95 per cent of votes counted.

Dentist

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So, dental appointment tomorrow (finally) to have the tooth looked at.  Here’s a rundown of how I’m feeling.

  1. I hate going to the dentist even when my teeth are fine, it’s an incredible invasion of my personal space, and dentist visits as a kid were not happy times.
  2. I hate not really knowing how much it’s all going to cost.
  3. I fear how much work will need to be done, whether they’ll need to or be able to remove a single molar or whether it’ll need all my wisdom teeth out.
  4. I fear how much extra stuff wrong they’ll find which will need more work and more money to correct.
  5. I ultimately fear being told that ‘they’ll all have to come out’.
  6. I find medical professionals and their receptionists intimidating, cold and impatient.
  7. I have an irrational fear / worry about not being able to open my mouth wide enough.

Hopefully, writing out why I’m so worried about it will help me deal with it.

I want to not go tomorrow so strongly that it gives me butterflies just thinking about the time of the appointment.  I am going to go, because I am stronger than my stupid fears, but it doesn’t make the fears any less troublesome to deal with.

Obama did it, America did it.

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Well, they elected a president with vision, intelligence and some respect in the rest of the world.  I hope it works out for us all.

American bloggers are writing “remember where you were when Obama was elected”, well, it should be easy for me.  I was in bed.

Good luck Obama, hopefully this is the start of eight years of not randomly invading places because it seems like a good idea at the time.

Never forget

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Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason, why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

Remember, remember, the fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot!
A stick or a stake for King James’ sake
Will you please to give us a fagot
If you can’t give us one, we’ll take two;
The better for us and the worse for you!

or

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I can think of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t’was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli’ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England’s overthrow;
By God’s providence he was catch’d
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!