Favorite Movies

Haven't been updating because of school and work and all that. And been watching fewer movies too.

Let's see,  in one month I've only watched Captain America, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and  Bride and Prejudice. Rise of Apes trumped the other two, not because they  were bad or anything (they were all pretty darn good actually), but because I had to hold and comfort two scared friends while watching apes take over the planet. APES TAKING OVER THE PLANET IS SO FREAKING SCARY, MAN. And at first you're all sympathizing with Caesar. And then Tom Felton is mean and has an American accent. And then I'm the only one laughing in the theatre when there's that circus orangutan. And then before I know it both G. and A. are whimpering and crying and I have to pat them comfortingly. Rise of the Planet of the Apes definitely makes one of my favorites. 

lol circus orangutan

All that made no sense. Okay whatever, here I go with my favorites, in descending order.

• Pope Joan
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes
• Super 8 (see Summer post)
• Sita Sings the Blues 
• Ip Man 1,2
• Tombstone
• ชั่วฟ้าดินสลาย
• มหา'ลัย เหมืองแร่
• Inglourious Basterds
• A Better Tomorrow 1,2,3

...

I just realized that a lot of these have the "Epic Line." You know, when at the climax there's this Epic Line. Like for Rise of Apes, it'd be SPOILER 

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Picture-heavy after the jump.

Favorite Books. And by favorite I mean "inducing giddy obsession"

Pink llama is there to add balance. I bought these classics at one book fair sale for <100B each, which is why they're all the same Wordsworth editions. 8D

In order of favorite to most favorite.Won't repeat Brontë/Austen stuff. 

Future Posts

• Favorites
• Contemporary
• Friends vs. HIMYM
• Things That Made Me Cry
• Things I Laughed At
• Khaled Hosseini
• Thai edition
• Chinese edition

Aroi wa.

Clockwise from top left: Coconut pie, ขนมตาล, ขนมกล้วย, ขนมฟักทอง

Brontë vs. Austen

Haven't done a books post yet, so here I go.



I've read one of each by the three sisters: Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, Charlotte's Jane Eyre, and Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. And two by Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice (I felt like it was almost required of me) and Emma.

For me (but not for most people, according to asking around) Brontë trumps Austen. Wishy-washy acoustic coffee-shop music is not enough for me, but something with lots of bass and strong vocals is. In the same way,  Austen, while pleasant, isn't enough, but Brontë's dark gothic plots are. I'm not sure if that made sense. Okay lemme try again:

The worst thing that can happen in an Austen book is an uncomfy social situation, but in a Brontë it's eternal damnation/lifelong unhappiness/doom spanning generations. For me, the latter's just more entertaining. When I express these views to Jane Austen girls they give me this look of disgust and say that I'm "sadistic." Which I am okay with. 

The one on the far left reminds me of that hobbit. Merry, I think. 

Summer Blockbusters

Okay, after three four posts on unknown indy stuff it's time to go to the opposite end of the spectrum. If I've been talking about the nobility of the film world--good-taste but possibly snooty and inaccessible stuff--then it's time to talk about the loud, mainstream crowd. Here is the Summer Blockbuster edition. Reviewed in order of worst--> best.

What the crap is this?


Transformers 3: Even Worse Than the Last One
The only reason I paid money and took time to watch this was because we were at the theatre and there was nothing else to watch. This movie was playing every 10 minutes, seriously. So for convenience's sake, we went in.

I went into the theatre in a good, forgiving mood. There's no way it could be worse than the second one! Megan Fox's super-realistic acting is gone! Maybe the robots got new sound effects! Maybe there will be some improvements--

WRONG.

Three hours of ear-eye-brain torture.

NEEDS A MUTE BUTTON

First of all, call me traditional but the hot girl is about a foot taller than Shia LeDouche. By the way, he got even douchier than he was in the last movie. The garbage script attempts to deal with the "I'm a hero, what are my responsibilities?" issue, but it completely fails and I end up laughing.  I feel bad that Leonard Nimoy has to stoop so low to work on a film like this.

And then there was that action scene climax that was over an hour long. Is it really necessary for the other building to fall on top of the glass building so the railings will connect and the two kids can escape only to run into an ugly robot blah blah blah. The fact that the girl was running around in stilettos for hours was more impressive than all of the robot-building smashing. I leaned back and tried to sleep but it was too loud. Then I thought that I should've taken some sort of sedative. I closed my eyes and I swear, there were tears.

By the third hour of the film I'd lost my mind, and so had my friends. We'd taken to laughing out loud at "serious" parts of the film, like when that paper hits Patrick Dempsey's face, when the robots say a sentimental goodbye to LeDouche, and especially that line that goes something like

You didn't betray us. You betrayed yourself.

That killed me.

EU Film Fest: Verdict

The audience: About 20~50% Thai. They range from teenage all the way to 80+. I wasn't really there for the kid movies, so didn't see any kids. (I came late to The Magic Tree.)The rest of the people were probably European/American expats. One nice thing about this winnowed-out audience is that at the end of the movie you can lean over to a neighbor and ask, "Wait, so...they're dead?" which is what the person next to me did. So I tried asking when I got confused too, and guess what? People who go to film fests are nice enough to explain the artsy-fartsy stuff.

The venue:

A bunch of photos of Bangkok in the 50s

  

Vintage ads.

A Mona Lisa done by a kid. There was a whole section of these. 

There's a spiraling ramp on the upper floors with an unbroken line of graffiti on the walls. That sentence didn't make sense. So go see it for yourself. 

There's a little library on the underground floor. Full of thick art books. Dead silent. But "No Sleeping" allowed, lol. 

All in all, I'd say that I had a great time at the festival. Sure, five indy movies in one day is hardcore, but Mika and I did it because we are HARDCORE ARTSY PEOPLE. Looking forward to next year's. Or even better, a film/art/etc. festival sooner than that. Tell me if you know anything about one!

On a completely unrelated note, I must say that the best Bubble Tea is the one by Miss Mamon (sold at Central Rama 3 and Central Pinklao). And I'm not just copying BK Magazine either. I went and bought and tasted. For once, the pearls weren't all tough and rubbery like Dakasi's. And the tea was a perfect blend of milk, tea, and sweetness. Mmm. T_T

Look, even the cup is cute. One con would be that the CUP IS NOT BIG ENOUGH

  I'll post about more well-known movies right after. Get ready for rants, both bad and good.