#so I watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005)

[zu-is-here]

*sigh* l'amour ♡

[f4ngb4ng]

"it's yours"

-- john to jane smith in mr. and mrs. smith (2005)

(it being his life, her hit, his love)

[thesewordsareallihavetogive]

normally I'm not very critical of movies but oh my gosh. the one I just watched was so bad (I sat here for a while trying to figure out the best way to word this but the benadryl has already kicked in. no thoughts head empty). like genuinely how the fuck did this get funding. How did it make it into THEATERS?

[girlintodust]

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡ about me ⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

˖࣪ ໒꒱ my name's Jo, nini is a childhood nickname!

˖࣪ ໒꒱ i'm 20, aries, infp, bisexual

˖࣪ ໒꒱ i speak english, spanish and italian

˖࣪ ໒꒱ i'm a college student majoring in philosophy

˖࣪ ໒꒱ some things i love: books, reading, coffee, coke zero, going out for walks, music (especially discovering new music you know it'll become your favorite), classical music, people watching while smoking, pencil sketches, pinterest, old hollywood films, japanese culture, rain and winter, cats, pretty rings, listening to people talk.

˖࣪ ໒꒱ pls MDNI directly (explanation below) ⤵

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡ important! ⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

˖࣪ ໒꒱ this blog is destined to all things i love which is a mixture of a couple different aesthetics. however, i migth use this account to vent sometimes: i suffer from an eating disorder, depression and anxiety. while i DO NOT encourage eating disordes by ANY means (this is NOT a pr0 an@ acc) i might talk about it or reblog things related, so please be advised. my dm's are always open to anyone who wants to talk, but i will not be giving advice or stats. i might also reblog or post +18 content.

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡ my favorites ⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

˖࣪ ໒꒱ books: the secret history (henry winter apologist), the solitude of prime numbers, to the light house and mrs dalloway by virginia woolf, anne frank's diary, kafka's metamorphosis, the stranger by albert camus, jane eyre, wuthering heights, madame bovary, the bell jar, simone de beauvoir's memoirs of a dutiful daughter, alejandra pizarnik's diaries, prozac nation.

˖࣪ ໒꒱ movies: crimson peak, pride and prejudice (2005), into the wild, amelie, the grand budapest hotel, leon the professional, chungking express, all about lily chou-chou, howl's moving castle, the wind rises, marie antoinette, girl interrupted, edward scissor hands, alice in wonderland.

˖࣪ ໒꒱ music: lana del rey, fiona apple, ethel cain, ichiko aoba, her's, the smiths, plums, mazzy star, the cranberries, beach fossils, radiohead, the cure, kate bush.

˖࣪ ໒꒱ people: matthew gray gubler, nana komatsu, sylvia plath, jane birkin, hope sandoval, tim burton, humphrey bogart, audrey hepburn, gregory peck, keira knigthley, kirsten dunst, sofia coppola, anya taylor joy, elle fanning, pheobe tonkin, fiona apple, aaron hotchner, spencer reid, theo james, kate moss, franz kafka, vladimir nabokov, albert camus.

[erikahenningsen]

Hi! I'm loving your ficlets on AO3. I saw that you wanted request to go here. Could you possibly do one where Regina and Janis are in a relationship but they haven't actually used the girlfriend title and Regina calls Janis her girlfriend and Janis is surprised and happy by it? Alternatively could you do one where Regina calls Janis babe/baby for the first time and Janis is basically surprised Pikachu? Thanks a bunch! Looking forward to reading more of your stuff.

Janis hates going to the mall. She'd much rather do her shopping online, or in thrift stores, where there are not children screaming and running around her in Sephora and it doesn't smell like burnt coffee and hot dogs.

Regina loves the mall, and she genuinely considers it to be her civic duty to go there as often as she can. Janis once asked her why, and Regina ranted at her for an hour about diminishing third places and fast fashion.

Everyone once in awhile, Janis will agree to go to the mall with Regina, and then Regina will do something she equally does not want to do, like go with Janis to an art gallery without complaining.

Relationships are about balance, right?

(Never mind that Janis isn't entirely sure what they're doing is a relationship, considering that they haven't talked about it. Cady, who was born in 2007 but whose brain is like a watch that stopped in 2005, keeps hassling Janis to "DTR.")

It's a Saturday afternoon and Janis is walking through the expensive part of the mall with Regina, iced coffee in one hand and a small shopping bag containing a new eyeliner in the other, when a woman around Janis's mom's age with bleached blond hair stops Regina.

"Regina, sweetie, is that you?"

Regina frowns for a moment, then her features smooth out in recognition.

"Hi, Mrs. Smith," Regina says, gingerly accepting a hug. "How are you?"

"I'm good, honey," Mrs. Smith says, touching Regina's hair in a way that, Janis can tell by the way she ever-so-slightly wrinkles her nose, Regina doesn't like.

"Janis, this is Mrs. Smith, my mom's tennis partner," Regina says, then turns back to Mrs. Smith. "And this is my girlfriend, Janis."

Regina keeps speaking to Mrs. Smith, but all Janis can hear is girlfriend, girlfriend, girlfriend. It isn't until Regina turns and gives her a strange look that Janis realizes she's smiling like an idiot.

"Well, I'll let you girls get back to your shopping. Give your mother my love," Mrs. Smith says before kissing Regina on the cheek and walking away.

"Why do you look like that?" Regina asks.

"I'm your girlfriend, huh?" Janis says.

Regina freezes. "Shit," she mutters to herself, like she hadn't realized what she'd said. "Well, yeah. Of course you are."

Regina says it authoritatively, confidently, but she's kind of looking over Janis's shoulder than at Janis, and her cheeks are growing red.

"Cool," Janis says, shifting her shopping bag to the crook of her other arm so she can hold Regina's hand as they walk. Regina looks pleased by this development.

"Can we stop in Free People?" Regina asks, lightly tugging Janis toward the store.

"Sure, anything for my girlfriend," Janis says. "Whatever makes my girlfriend happy."

Regina gives her a dirty look. "Now you're just making it into a joke."

"I would never," Janis insists. "I take my girlfriend very seriously."

"I can't stand you," Regina mutters, but Janis can tell she's suppressing a smile.

"That's not true."

Regina sighs like this greatly pains her. "No, it's not."

[servants-hall]

All Creatures Great and Small: Samuel West on his Yorkshire heritage, meeting his fellow cast members and finding Siegfried

All Creatures Great and Small actor Samuel West talks to Stephanie Smith about his Yorkshire heritage, first meeting his fellow cast members – and finding Siegfried Farnon.

paywalled article - full article copied below

If there is a magic formula for making a hit TV drama series in the 21st century, All Creatures Great and Small has bottled and then gift-wrapped it. Values are key and, says Samuel West, the upcoming Christmas Special spreads a much-needed message of decency and kindness.

“It’s about people coming together in difficulty, to support each other, at a time when so many terrible things are happening in the world,” he says. “It’s got absent friends, people who are missing, people who won’t ever come back, just like life.”

Samuel plays Siegfried Farnon, the Yorkshire Dales vet with a short fuse and a huge heart. It is a role that he has more than made his own, even for those who remember Robert Hardy in the original BBC series that ran from 1978 to 1990.

Samuel West and Peter Wright in All Creatures Great and Small Meets The Yorkshire Vet. Photo: Channel 5

The “new” Channel 5 adaptation launched amid a pandemic-crippled UK back in September 2020, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the publication of If Only They Could Talk, the first of the James Herriot bestsellers penned by Thirsk vet James Alfred “Alf” Wight. There have now been four TV series made (and we are talking to mark the release of a DVD box set of them).

All Creatures has been a great success for Channel 5, with viewing figures for the fourth season peaking at 3.7million. Samuel saw the show’s potential from the off. “I was already thinking about Channel 5 as a good place, because they had given up Big Brother and so they had to fill about 250 hours a year of schedule, and they started filling it with drama, which was delightful.”

When approached to play Siegfried, he was already a respected actor, with a rich and varied career mingling theatre, TV and film, radio and voiceover work. Nominated in 1993 for a BAFTA for Howards End, his film credits also include Jane Eyre, Van Helsing and Notting Hill, while his TV work includes the BBC’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (filmed in York in 2015), Waking the Dead, Any Human Heart, Slow Horses, The Crown, Small Axe and four series of Mr Selfridge. He was artistic director of Sheffield Theatres from 2005 to 2007.

He learned that Golden Globe and BAFTA award-winning production company Playground was making the new All Creatures. “I had just finished watching Playground’s Wolf Hall, which I had adored, and that period stuff is hard to get right, and expensive to do well,” he says.

The treatment he was sent included a back story about Siegfried, written by lead writer, Ben Vanstone. “It was beautiful,” says Samuel. “Almost sort of Chekhovian in its detail and the cables that ran through the man. They had set a lot of things in this past that had made him layered, and I realised, just from thinking about the man, and looking at the books and remembering Robert Hardy’s performance in the 1970s, that he was going to need a lot of playing. It was going to need vocal and physical size. But I thought, if I am on the right track and I know where I am coming from, I think I’m quite good casting.”

He met Nicholas Ralph (James Herriot), Rachel Shenton (Helen) and Callum Woodhouse (Tristan) on the train from Leeds to Skipton for a couple of days’ rehearsal. Samuel says: “At the end of the journey, I thought, what lovely people, and at the end of the rehearsal, I thought, this ensemble really works, and then they cast Anna Madeley and she was the icing on the cake that was already rising.”

Siegfried is often spotted reading The Yorkshire Post. “Quite right, too,” says Samuel. “ I also love the paper. I think your editorials are sometimes some of the most sensible things I read all week.”

In this series, Siegfried is a widower, a detail not in the Herriot novels but echoing the life of the real man who inspired the character, Donald Sinclair, whose first wife, Evelyn, died of tuberculosis. He was married to his second wife for 53 years. She was called Audrey, which just happens to be the lesser heard name of Anna Madeley’s character, Mrs Hall.

Samuel discovered more about Donald Sinclair when he teamed up with real-life vet Peter Wright while making the programme All Creatures Great and Small Meets The Yorkshire Vet, which airs on Channel 5 just before the All Creatures Christmas Special on December 21. He also visited The World of James Herriot with Alf Wight’s children, Jim Wight and Rosie Page, and has incorporated into Siegfried’s portrayal some of the details they passed on. “My father says, do as much research as you can because, even if only 10 per cent is useful, the more you do, the bigger the 10 per cent is. Except he says I say that.”

Samuel’s father, actor Timothy West, is Bradford-born. Family legend has it that Timothy’s father (actor Lockwood West, known as Harry) was on tour there at the time. “It's not true,” says Samuel. What actually happened was, in pre-NHS days, he and his wife, Olive, also an actor, had been told of an inexpensive maternity home up in Yorkshire. Samuel says: “They were playing in Eastbourne at the time. She went by train to Bradford, had the baby, and Harry continued to do eight shows a week.”

Samuel - who has two daughters, aged nine and six, with his partner, the playwright Laura Wade - plans to save the All Creatures Christmas special to watch with his father and mother, fellow actor Prunella Scales. “My father, in particular, is quite cross that he’s not in it, but he can’t be in everything,” he says. “And we would have to be related - we look increasingly like each other.”

The All Creatures Great and Christmas 2023 episode will be broadcast on December 21, at 9pm in the UK on Channel 5 and My5.

[cantsayidont]

Real hater hours:

MR. AND MRS. SMITH: Antagonistically dreadful sort-of spin-off of Simon Kinberg's uncomfortable 2005 domestic violence comedy (which starred Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie), with Donald Glover and Maya Erskine as two weird losers (Glover's character is a former Marine drone controller, Erskine's was turned down by the CIA for being too sociopathic) who join a mysterious espionage firm that sends them on highly paid secret missions while requiring them to pose as a married couple, John and Jane Smith. John and Jane of course sort of fall for each other for real, more out of a desperate desire for connection than from any real chemistry. It's an interesting premise, with a distinctive off-kilter sensibility and an array of distracting high-profile guest stars like Paul Dano and Sarah Paulson, but it seems categorically resistant to ever being fun: John and Jane's missions never come into focus, so mostly what we see are them having marital spats as they distractedly do spy stuff and murder people as part of missions that take place mostly off-screen and whose purpose even they don't really know. Maya Erskine is actually great, but Donald Glover is Donald Glover, and since he co-created the show and directed its awful finale, the whole thing reeks of his customary misogyny. I thought it might be okay background noise, but I cannot stress enough how much I ended up hating the show. By the final episode, watching it was the psychological equivalent of walking on blisters.

Maybe it's just me, but I've also started to find media with this level of constant, casual, brutal murder (see also the JOHN WICK and EQUALIZER series) really off-putting. It's not the violence per se, it's the weird nihilism — protagonists who murder people with the same level of disdain as someone distractedly playing Candy Crush on their phone. It doesn't even have the over-the-top balletic style of John Woo's Hong Kong movies, it's just mean and pointless, and I'm pretty tired of seeing it.

[silveragelovechild]

A week or so ago, I got an email inviting me to attend a screening of the first 2 episode of “Mr & Mrs Smith” at a Cinemark Theater. I had planned to watch the series (starring Donald Glover) so I signed up for the tickets.

The series is “inspired” by the 2005 movie starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The biggest change as far as I can see is that, unlike the couple from the movie, Mr & Mrs Smith of the series work for the same secret agency.

In the first scene, I thought for a moment that they were screening the wrong show. Instead of Donald Glover and his costar Maya Erskine. Alexander Skarsgard and Eiza González were featured. The reason was revealed quickly. They were the “old” Mr & Mrs Smith, and their top secret agency would soon need to hire replacements.

The first episode is intercut with Glover (John Smith) and Erskine (Jane Smith) being interviewed individually for their new jobs; and the duo as they conduct their first mission. The organization is so secret, they are interviewed via text message by someone codenamed “Hihi”

Glower and Erskine are hired, given a luxury brownstone in NYC, and plenty of gun and other weapons at their disposal. The audiences learns two important details - both previously worked for organizations like the FBI or CIA and were released (fired?). They couldn’t get jobs elsewhere but were recruited via email for this one. It sounds like it’s well paid AND neither of them have any qualms about killing.

Extended portions of both episodes involve the two awkwardly discussing their situation. They only just met and need to pose as a married couple. But they are are reluctant to share any personal details of their former lives with each other. And they seem to know nothing about their employer. These conversations involve lots of pregnant pauses. To be honest, it wasn’t clever banter. I grew impatient with the slow pace.

In their two missions it appears Mr & Mrs Smith were being tested by their employer. Although their behavior during the missions might have been played for laughs, I wasn’t impressed with the espionage skills, nor their ability to communicate with each other. It’s implied that their employer wasn’t too impressed either, based on the last text message sent.

The show is a black comedy with gallow’s humor - which can sometimes be fun. But the character played by Glover and Erskine are the stars of the show. If I’m going to watch them for 8 episodes I need to like them on some level. But both came off too indifferent to life. So why should I care if they live or die?

I think if you’re a fan of Donald Glover you’ll probably like “Mr & Mrs Smith”. But I think I’ll pass.

Unintentional Ironic Humor:

Before the screening started, the audience was told not to uses smart phones to call, text, or take photos. BUT in the middle of one mission there is a scene where the Smiths conduct an extended texting each other in a theater while a play is being performed. WTF? I guess it’s a case of “Do as I say” not “Do as I do”.

[unsociableandtaciturnbarbie]

Here we have a Tik Tok which I randomly scrolled upon two nights ago (whether it got added to my favorites collection is between me and whoever is monitoring my Tik Tok activity). This Tik Tok is fairly simple, but it’s really funny to me. It starts with a picture of a bunch of nurses/doctors running with a stretcher captioned, “she’s losing blood what’s her type?!?”, then the next slide is a collage of nine photos of Matthew Macfayden’s Mr. Darcy from the 2005 Pride and Prejudice movie (1 of the 9 photos being the Hand Flex itself). The joke here is that the doctors were asking about the patient’s blood type and instead we are provided with the patient’s type in men (Type, according to urban dictionary, is “a preference or what you look for in a significant other”). This is accompanied by lyrics from the song Soaked by Shy Smith (feel free to look up the lyrics, but I’m afraid of Tumblr’s moderation). This template with the play on the word “type” is used across Tik Tok for all sorts of characters and celebrities both real and fictional (Please read “all sorts of characters” as “I’ve seen a Simon from Alvin and the Chipmunks one under the same sound”). I’d categorize this template as one of the many varieties of thirst traps which the internet has to offer and just thinking about Mr. Darcy in the context of a thirst trap is incredibly funny to me. This thirst trap in particular was really good, I think, in its use of the song Soaked because two of the included photos are of him obviously having just come out of the rain (part of what I like to call the Wet Darcy Effect) and even though I don’t think that’s what the writer of the song was going for I like to imagine it was. The fact that the Hand Flex got its own picture in the collage also really made this Tik Tok complete for me. Side note: When I first watched the 2005 version I didn’t really care about the hand flex, but my mom pointed out that it’s probably the only time in this era that a man and woman would be making skin to skin contact except for maybe dancing (even then they should technically be wearing gloves). So, the hand flex is meant to be a sort of reaction to sparks Darcy is feeling just by helping her up into a carriage…I was soon converted to a Hand Flex fan. This is a really good example for me though of what we started to get into at the end of class today with “Darcymania”. What is it about Mr. Darcy that makes him such an object of internet fascination? Jane Austen wasn’t exactly writing him to be some sort of incredibly hot heartthrob with crazy sexual appeal; he’s just described as a handsome rich man with a tendency to be incredibly awkward and possibly even proud in social situations (which during regency times made him a catch for sure, but modern standards tend to be raised past money). And yet, the Wet Darcy Effect has spread its ripples of staring at soaking wet regency men through popular media from TikTok thirst traps to Bridgerton (see image below).

I think there’s definitely a level of adaptations having influence here, especially with something like Mr. Darcy in the rain or in a pond that never actually happens in the book. But, there’s also something to be said about Mr. Darcy the book character. As an avid romance consumer, I do think there’s something incredibly romantic about falling in love with someone you’re determined to hate, as Mr. Darcy does in the book. Even in the first few chapters we’re getting lines that are certainly making my heart melt like, “Darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by her.” Additionally (as we’ll get into later so I don’t want to spoil it too much) he’s willing to accept the consequences of his actions and rectify them for her. If we’re thinking about Mr. Darcy with a sort of “I can fix him mindset”, then I’d argue he does the fixing by himself by the end of the book. I wish I could come to a conclusion on why the internet has made the jump from “Mr. Darcy is a good romantic interest” to “Let’s make thirst traps and put him half-dressed on candles like you would with religious figures (see below)”, but I cannot. As someone who has personally made the jump from “Hey, he’s kind of an intriguing character” to “my roommates buy me things with his face on them”, I can kind of see the appeal, but crossing the line to sexualizing him and making thirst traps has never once occurred to me so there’s definitely still some missing pieces.

Here's the Tik Tok link for crediting purposes:

[is0gild]

I got tagged by @superfan44 to do his 100 Favorite Movies Challenge. Rules are simple: create a list of 100 of your personal favorite movies in alphabetical order and share it, then tag others to do the challenge.

I thought coming up with 100 movies would be hard, but once I got started they just kept coming and I actually had to remove some from the list when I was done to stay under 100 haha! List under the cut :)

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

358/2 Days The Movie (2013) *

Adventures in Babysitting (1987)

Army of Darkness (1992)

Back to the Future (1985)

Back to the Future Part II (1989)

Back to the Future Part III (1990)

Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

Beetlejuice (1988)

Being John Malkovich (1999)

Big Hero 6 (2014)

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

BlacKkKlansman (2018)

Chicago (2002)

Chronicle (2012)

Coming to America (1988)

Deadpool (2016)

District 9 (2009)

Earth Girls Are Easy (1988)

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Ever After: A Cinderella Story (1998)

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Evil Dead II (1987)

FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992)

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Frozen II (2019) **

Get Out (2017)

Ghostbusters (1984)

Ghostbusters (2016)

Groundhog Day (1993)

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Hancock (2008)

Hocus Pocus (1993)

Hook (1991)

How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

Howl's Moving Castle (2004)

Independence Day (1996)

Interview With A Vampire (1994)

John Q (2002)

Jurassic Park (1993)

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) ***

Labyrinth (1986)

Lilo & Stitch (2002)

Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Megamind (2010)

Memento (2000)

Men in Black (1997)

Moana (2016)

Moulin Rouge! (2001)

Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005)

Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Pride and Prejudice (2005)

Princess Mononoke (1997)

School of Rock (2003)

Scott Pilgrim vs the World (2010)

Serenity (2005)

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Space Jam (1996)

Spaceballs (1987)

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Spirited Away (2001)

Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983)

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

Tangled (2010)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)

Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)

Tetris (2023)

Thank You for Smoking (2005)

The Avengers (2012)

The Cabin in the Woods (2011)

The Iron Giant (1999)

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

The Mummy (1999)

The NeverEnding Story (1984)

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

The Princess Bride (1987)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

The Secret of NIMH (1982)

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Titan AE (2000)

Treasure Planet (2002)

V for Vendetta (2005)

WALL-E (2008)

Warm Bodies (2013)

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

Wonder Woman (2017)

Wreck-It Ralph (2012)

Zombieland (2009)

* Does this one actually count as a movie? Feel like it's a bit of a stretch, but it does say "The Movie" right there in the title xD And it's ME, I feel like my list would be incomplete if I didn't include something starring my fave fire boi lol! ** What?! Frozen II on the list, but not the original Frozen?! That's right, it IS possible for one of a person's utmost fave characters of all time to be in a movie they thought was only okay xD Don't get me wrong, I do like Frozen, it just didn't make the cut for this list! Frozen II on the other hand came out in theaters at a time when I only had to pay $15/mo for unlimited movie tickets and I loved it so much, I was seeing it 2 or 3 times a week x'D *** I know rules didn't say to point this out, but I feel like I had to do it anyway: Utmost. Fave. Movie. Of. All. Time. RDJ and Val Kilmer in a comedic whodunit? Movie gold! Watch it. It's good!

Okay, now to tag people! Remember this is just for fun, absolutely no pressure to actually do this, only if you want to! Tagging: @basiliskonline @daughterofkyne @astranovus64 and to anyone else reading this who thinks creating a list of your fave movies sounds fun, I tag you as well! :D

[weaselandfriends]

Share the 0/10s and 1/10s from the movie ranking masterlist too please

Letterboxd doesn't allow 0/10s, so 1/10 is the lowest it goes. Mine are (in chronological order):

Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966)

Orca (1977)

Jaws: The Revenge (1987)

Poltergeist III (1988)

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)

Troll 2 (1990)

Carnosaur (1993)

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)

Digimon: The Movie (2000)

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)

Hannibal (2001)

The Master of Disguise (2002)

Shark Attack 3: Megalodon (2003)

Darkness Falls (2003)

House of the Dead (2003)

The Room (2003)

Scarecrow Slayer (2003)

Raptor Island (2004)

Alone in the Dark (2005)

Dragon Wars (2007)

Rubber (2010)

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

Furry Nights (2016)

Selfie from Hell (2018)

Most of these are not the most controversial choices, and many barely qualify as films. To be a 1 out of 10 you either have to be obviously incompetent in every possible regard (Manos, The Room, most of the other low-budget horror trash here) or else notable and unique in your atrociousness. Digimon: The Movie is a movie that is bad in a way no other movie has ever been; there's almost something admirable in how fundamentally fucked the film is in every conceivable way, especially considering the movie is pieced together from bits of actual movies that are, if not masterpieces, significantly better than this Frankenstein thing. Then there's the class of films that are completely full of themselves despite being pretty terrible (Hannibal, Rubber, Only Lovers Left Alive), where any shred of competent filmmaking is tanked by the complete tonal mismatch.

I have 143 2/10s, so I won't list all of them (many are low-budget and/or straight-to-DVD horror films), but here are a few honorable mentions among movies people may have actually seen or heard of:

Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1989)

Super Mario Bros. (1993)

The Flintstones (1994)

The Parent Trap (1998) (This film may not actually be that bad, but I was forced to watch it about 200 times as a child, so I hate it)

What Women Want (2000)

Reign of Fire (2002)

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005)

Eragon (2006)

Teeth (2007)

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Transformers (2007)

Jumper (2008)

Burn After Reading (2008)

Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009)

Watchmen (2009) (Still better than the original comic, which I loathe)

Dragonball Evolution (2009)

Land of the Lost (2009)

Public Enemies (2009)

Year One (2009)

Gamer (2009)

Jennifer's Body (2009)

The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)

Clash of the Titans (2010)

The Last Airbender (2010)

Devil (2010)

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 (2011)

The Hunger Games (2012)

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 (2012)

Sharknado (2013)

Sharknado 2: The Second One (2014)

The Imitation Game (2014)

The Equalizer (2014)

Night Is Short, Walk on Girl (2017)

High Life (2018)

[f4ngb4ng]

also the use of weaponry to convey mental state???? goes crazy

[hellcheer-munson]

I never fail to be absolutely shocked at how horrible some people can be, especially when they hide behind Anonymous. I know it's not much but just know those comments say SO much more about them than they ever would about you. This is Tumblr. We're all here because we love *something* and want to share that love. Enthusiasm for a movie or show or characters or ship or whatever is awesome! I know it's hard after getting messages like this but just remember, your posts about Titanic are showing love whereas those anon messages are pure hate. That's what they have in their heart and it will eat them alive if they continue on that way. You keep on posting about Titanic or anything else that happens to have your interest at the time and focus on what you love, not on some small little tiny-minded person filled with hate. Titanic is wonderful! I'm old enough I saw it in the theaters when it first came out, lol! I even have the VHS set (2 tapes because it was too long to fit on one). Anyway, take care of yourself and hang in there. <3

People truly are absolute dickheads. Like if people are going to be that awful, at least have the courage to come off Anonymous. It’s ridiculous.

Oh my gosh that’s amazing. My mum was heavily pregnant with me when Titanic came out - it came out on 19th December 1997, and she had me on 13th January 1998 (though apparently it was released on 23rd January in the UK… still, she definitely wasn't going to see a three hour movie whilst either three weeks from delivering or three weeks after having a baby!) I'm actually just about old enough to remember VHS tapes (I had a lot of Disney VHS tapes and also video tapes that my parents recorded things on) but by the time my parents showed me Titanic, we had a DVD player.

Okay I’m going to be super geeky, I’m sorry... I remember how I first watched it: my mum bought some DVDs off Amazon when I was about 7? 8? I might have been 9 even - I was still in junior school so I was definitely at least 7 or 8, meaning I probably first watched it somewhere around 2005-2007? Anyway, one of the DVDs she bought was Titanic; I remember my mum telling me and my sister about the film, she presented it as "this ship that sank and loads of people died", and I remember it came in a 2 disc DVD set because it was so long! I remember exactly where the change over is on the discs too; it’s the scene just after the Titanic hits, Captain Smith says “Well, I believe you may get your headlines, Mr. Ismay.” And then you have to change the discs over 😅 I actually realised last year whilst trying to rewatch the film that the second DVD was broken, so I ended up buying two more copies of the film on DVD - I tried to get the same special edition again from a secondhand store, they didn't have it so I ordered it to be delivered, and because I wanted to watch the film again ASAP, I bought a copy they did have... so now we have two intact copies and then a copy where only the first disc is intact, which is kind of hilarious.

I'm... doing slightly better now, I think. I'm still feeling super low but... oh well. I'm just trying to survive, which is the best I really can do to be honest.

[denimbex1986]

Sometimes a birthday present doesn’t quite suit. In the early 1990s I bought a copy of Ripley Under Water by Patricia Highsmith for my mum. But it didn’t take.

“You have it dear,” she said after starting it, then abandoning it. “It’s not really my cup of tea.”

It’s a lovely hardback with an image of something tied in a bag under water on the cover. A body.

It was my induction into the world of Tom Ripley, Highsmith’s amoral but fascinating protagonist. I was immediately hooked and have since read quite a bit by Highsmith, including all her Ripley books.

The new Netflix series Ripley should inspire us all to read more Highsmith. Her novels are all quirky, dark and compelling and her short stories are simply delicious. More than a decade ago I received a book for review – Nothing That Meets The Eye: The Uncollected Stories by Patricia Highsmith.

This is a great introduction to her oeuvre. It’s a big book and I would treat myself to a story each night. There are all the twists of Roald Dahl and the ease of Somerset Maugham in her style.

Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, is a classic and it spawned an equally classic 1951 film, produced and directed by none other than the great Alfred Hitchcock, the perfect man for the job. The screenplay was by Raymond Chandler and Czenzi Ormonde and it starred Farley Granger, Ruth Roman and Robert Walker.

More cinematic treasure was to be found in her Ripley books. The five novels in which he appears – The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley Under Ground, Ripley’s Game, The Boy Who Followed Ripley and Ripley Under Water (the book my mum rejected) were published between 1955 and 1991.

The protagonist, Tom Ripley, is a career criminal, con artist and serial killer who always gets away with his crimes. In every novel, he comes perilously close to getting caught or killed, but ultimately escapes danger.

Is it wrong to say that I love Ripley? Some years ago, I even wrote a kind of Ripley story myself and set it in the Brisbane suburb of Wilston, of all places, which is where we lived at the time.

It’s called Incident in Wilston and involves a criminal living in Wilston who has to dispose of a body. It appeared in the 2014 anthology Black Beacon’s Subtropical Suspense edited by Cameron Trost.

It’s a tribute to Ripley and that is rather obvious. I call my lead character Tom Ridley as a nod to Ripley.

We recently watched the new Netflix series Ripley, based on Highsmith’s first Ripley book, and it is just so good. Steven Zaillian’s eight-episode series is, according to The Guardian’s film critic Peter Bradshaw: “sumptuous and instantly addictive”.

“Starring the incomparable Andrew Scott as the charmer aesthete and serial killer … it’s a seven-star luxury hotel of a TV show in arthouse black and white,” wrote Bradshaw.

I couldn’t agree more. It’s a slow burn, excruciating at times. And if you know the story it’s even more excruciating because you know what’s coming and it’s never good.

The Italian settings are magnificent and it’s a feast for any Highsmith fan. I hope there may be a follow up because Zaillian has only really scratched the surface.

Highsmith’s first three Ripley novels have been adapted into films. The Talented Mr. Ripley was filmed as Purple Noon (Plein Soleil) in 1960, starring Alain Delon as Ripley, and under the original title in 1999 starring Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Cate Blanchett. That film was masterfully directed by Anthony Minghella.

Ripley Under Ground was adapted into a 2005 film, starring Barry Pepper. Ripley’s Game was filmed in 1977 as The American Friend starring Dennis Hopper and under its original title in 2002, starring John Malkovich, who is wonderfully creepy. That’s a cracker and it also stars one of my favourite actors, Dougray Scott.

The Australian playwright Joanna Murray Smith’s play Switzerland, a Sydney Theatre Company production that came to Queensland Theatre in 2016, was a fascinating window into the world of Patricia Highsmith. (It’s called Switzerland because this is where the American author spent the last 14 years of her life.)

Queensland actor Andrea Moore starred as the author and she was perfect in the role. In the play Ripley comes to life and visits Highsmith, planning to kill her. It was delicious stuff and, frankly, deserves a revival, particularly now that a whole new generation is switching on to Ripley, a character we shouldn’t really like. But we do.

Film critic Sam Jordison wrote, again in The Guardian, that “”it is near impossible, I would say, not to root for Tom Ripley. Not to like him. Not, on some level, to want him to win. Patricia Highsmith does a fine job of ensuring he wheedles his way into our sympathies”.

In the Netflix series Andrew Scott’s portrayal of Ripley is utterly brilliant. As critic Peter Bradshaw says, Zaillian’s adaptation give us “much more of Ripley’s essential loneliness and miserable vulnerability”.

That allows us to empathise with him and to want him to succeed, as wrong as that is. And he does succeed.

If you are just starting out on your Ripley journey and haven’t read the novels yet, you have a treat in store.

But there is so much more to Highsmith. Her books are mostly still in print, so dive into the murky waters of her world. But be careful, because you never know what lurks beneath.'

[c-40]

A-T-4 081 Whodini Escape

Historian JayQuan talks about things you'd hear 'around the way' music familiar to your ear but you didn't necessarily knowing what they were. Because I turned 10-years-old in 1984 unless it broke into the charts a lot of hip hop and electro was like that but I clearly remember Escape by Whodini

Escape was the first hip hop album to enter the US top 40. Run DMCs debut album and Escape both have a claim to first hip hop album to be certified platinum in the US. It was a commercial success and is considered a classic

The album was recorded at Battery Studios in London and engineered by Willesden Dodger, Nigel Green

“Whodini came to America as an import," lead writer Jalil explained to JayQuan in a 2005 interview. “Our recording home Jive/Zomba was based in Europe, and that’s where we recorded. They had SSL boards (Solid State Logic mixing consoles) long before the states. That’s the reason why it sounds so good when people sample “Friends."

Like Kurtis Blow, Whodini were represented by Rush Management

Mr. Magic introduced Jalil to mogul, promoter and manager Russell Simmons, and Simmons introduced him to Larry Smith in the legendary Disco Fever night club, and that meeting would eventually give birth to the Whodini sound.

This introduction was a few years before Larry Smith would produce Whodini. I've read several slightly different accounts from Jalil but in each one Larry Smith agrees to produce because American health care is so backwards. Initially Jive hired Larry Smith and Russell Simmons but Simmons couldn't make the recording session. I've mentioned Larry Smith a lot, he's in Orange Krush the band who backed Kurtis Blow from the get go, him name is on writing and production credits for a lot of great hip hop from this era, including Run DMCs first two albums

Jalil says that multi-instrumentalist and producer Larry Smith wasn’t initially impressed with Whodini’s output up until the time of their initial meeting. An accident where one of Larry’s guitar players “Sliced off a couple of fingers” servicing an automobile put Larry into a position where he needed funds, so he invited Jalil over to check out some music. “5 Minutes of Funk” was one of the first songs that Jalil heard in this batch of music (Ja says that "5 Minutes of Funk" originally contained a Rock guitar bassline). Jalil also had a beat in his head that he had been beating on his mattress trying to bring to some sort of fruition. When Larry heard Jalil’s initial idea, he replied “That’s would take three different kick drums," to which Jalil replied “Thats what i'm hearing.” That beat would become “Friends," and along with “5 Minutes of Funk” would be the lead single from Escape.

Larry Smith who would produce or be a producer on four of Whodini's six albums. Produced Run DMCs first two albums

A month before the release of Escape, Whodini along with Run-DMC, Kurtis Blow, Fat Boys, and Newcleus embarked on the Swatch Watch Fresh Fest Tour across the US. There had been an earlier Sugarhill Revue Tour with artists from that label and there had been the New York City Rap Tour across Europe in 1982 but if we ignore those Fresh Fest was the first hip hop arena tour - some consider it to be the greatest hip hop tour of all time

Friends

Five Minutes Of Funk

Freaks Come Out At Night the video features footage from Fresh Fest

Big Mouth "Big Mouth" was a cautionary tale for those who spread rumors, and don't know when to shut up. "I used to get angry and all uptight, but you can say what you want, just spell my name right," Ecstasy raps. Musically "Big Mouth" is one of the few times that Larry Smith produced a nearly all drum machine track for Whodini. One of the genius elements of Larry's production was that he crafted very melodic pieces for Whodini, while supplying Run-D.M.C. with mostly beats. Music critic Tom Terrell says that "Larry envisioned Whodini as the Cadillac Seville to Run-D.M.C's Electra 225 hooptie."

Look out for Run and Jam Master Jay in the video

All quotes from https://rockthebells.com/articles/classic-albums-escape-whodini/

[screenandcinema]

New Shows Coming in 2024

Now that we discussed the new movies coming in 2023, how about a list of the new shows I am most excited about coming to television and streamers in 2023? So I present the shows I am most excited about that are likely coming out this year (in alphabetical order):

3 Body Problem (Netflix) - From David Benioff and D.B. Weiss comes this science-fiction series based on a Chinese novel of the same name

The Acolyte (Disney+) - Taking place approximately 100 years before the birth of Anakin Skywalker is this new Star Wars series starring Amandla Stenberg.

Agatha: Darkhold Diaries (Disney+) - Kathryn Hahn reprises the role of Agatha Harkness in this Marvel Studios series co-starring Aubrey Plaza.

Creature Commandos (Max): This animated series is the kick-off of the new DCU's Chapter One: Gods and Monsters. Whatever that means.

Dune: Prophecy (Max) - Set 10,000 years before the films, comes this series about the origins of the Bene Gesserit.

Fallout (Amazon Prime) - Based on the acclaimed video game franchise comes this post-apocalyptic drama.

The Franchise (HBO) - From creator Armando Iannucci comes this new comedy about the production of a superhero film.

The Girls on the Bus (Max) - Melissa Benoist stars in this political drama about female journalists embedded with presidential campaigns.

Manhunt (AppleTV+) - Follow the chase for John Wilkes Booth in his historical miniseries series starring Tobias Menzies. The show is based on the non-fiction book of the same name, but unlike other books with shows based on them coming out in 2024, I actually read this one.

Masters of the Air (AppleTV+) - Who wouldn’t be excited for a new World War II mini-series from the creators of Band of Brothers and The Pacific?

Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Amazon Prime) - Donald Glover and Maya Erskine star in this series based on the 2005 film of the same name.

The Penguin (Max) - Colin Farrell is once again Oswald Cobblepot in this limited series that takes place a week following the events of The Batman.

Ripley (Netflix) - Andrew Scott is Tom Ripley in this new series based on the novel The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Shōgun (Hulu/FX) - Visit 17th century Japan in this historical drama based on a 1975 novel.

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew (Disney+) - From Jon Watts and Christopher Ford comes this Amblin-style story set in the Star Wars universe starring Jude Law.

Looking back at the 15 shows on my New Shows Coming in 2023 list, I watched 6, haven’t started 6, and 3 are finally being released in 2024.

-MB-