[Crowdsourcing] What Film To See

Okay, today I have a dilemma. I am thinking of going to the cinema with my girlfriend this weekend but I don’t know what to see. I know that comedy/romance/romantic comedy is the best bet for dates, so I’ve narrowed it down that far. I was hoping to ‘crowdsource’ (okay, perhaps that’s too fancy a concept to describe this bit of advice-asking, but it might make more people view this post and put down their advice) a resolution.

So, if you could read this list of films and post your advice on which I should see with my girlfriend in the comments section, that would be great! Thanks.

• The Change-Up (wikipedia)
• Friends With Benfits (wikipedia)
• One Day (wikipedia)

I must say, reading those wikipedia articles on them, I am leaning towards Friends With Benefits now. However, your advice is still very welcome so I can be sure I’m making the right decision!

Another Good Night

Me and J-O had another nice night watching a movie together (Megamind). Not as good as the last one but it lifted my spirits at least – for the time anyway. But once she’d gone to bed, I realised I’m still sat here alone, she’s still hundreds of miles away. It’s times like these when I wonder if it was all worth it. Before her, I was lonely, sure. But not this lonely. I didn’t have the hope that somebody would come along and be with me; in many ways that was comforting. To know I’d always be alone, to not get my hopes up that I would find somebody. I could get on with my life.

But then I think, although I may feel lonelier than ever sometimes, at least I have times – sometimes quite sustained – where I’m very happy. I think that in many ways I’d rather be really sad sometimes and really happy sometimes, then sad most of the time and kind of happy only very occasionally. I don’t know really. I can only hope that we can be together one day soon, that all this deep loneliness will have been worth it. That I can finally be happy.

Avatar 3D: The Verdict

OK, I’ll level with you: I didn’t see Avatar in 3D when it first came out. But with the whole movie industry trying to push 3D down our throats, I thought that now that Avatar 3D: Special Extended Edition is out, I’d see what all the fuss is about. This is my verdict:

Practically pointless.

OK, so I suppose I should explain why. Pandora (the planet) is a sublimely beautiful planet. It’s such a bright, vividly imagined world, so alien yet so believable. And that’s just in 2D. It’s so great in just 2D, that 3D doesn’t actually make it any more believable or engrossing. Not to mention the fact that the 3D is only really noticeable in a few scenes when there’s something small in the foreground like snow or ash. All other scenes just look the same as in the 2D version. Not to mention that 2D isn’t really 2D anyway; it doesn’t look flat, it’s just that the screen is flat – you can still see when something is in the foreground and something else is in the background.

Basically, I don’t see the attraction. Sure, the 3D is better than when you had to use the blue-and-red glasses, but it still isn’t actually that great. I don’t think it’s worth the extra money. And I think that Avatar is a brilliant film without it. In fact, I’d say the extended scenes added much more to the film than the 3D did.

So Funny and Cute

Like I said in my previous post, I went to see Kick-Ass today. It was great. It was pretty gory, which E didn’t like, although I didn’t think about that when I was watching the film. As we were walking back – me, E and several other friends of mine – E said she wasn’t feeling well, and that she was feeling cold. It was at this point she decided to link arms with me, as I was walking along beside her, so she could get warm. It was really cute, and it was a bit of a strange feeling to have her cuddling up to me like that. One of my friends that was walking with us remarked that we made a ‘cute couple’. I didn’t respond to it. It was nice of her to say, but as I’ve said before, I don’t like E in that way. And this event proved it to myself that this was the case – I didn’t get ‘excited’ (if you see what I mean). I was just content for her to be cuddling up to me as a friend, to get warm. It was completely innocent. It was really nice, really cute – E is so funny. I was just glad to have helped.

Thinking Time

I went to see Kick-Ass earlier. I loved it, it was amazing! Hit Girl and Big Daddy stole the film for sure, their scenes were absolutely amazing! As usual, I quite liked how the ‘geek’ got the girl, it gave me hope. But then I realised, I wasn’t like him at all – at least he put himself out there and tried, unlike me. After me and a few of my friends walked to the pier at the town quay, where the Hythe and Isle of Wight ferries leave, where my friends decided to catch the free bus into town. Given that it would be a long time before the free bus came, I decided it would be better for me to walk.

Living in Shirley, I estimated it would take me half an hour to get home from the pier. That half an hour, as usual when I walk home from the cinema in the evening, was a great time for thinking. Or a bad time for thinking maybe, because most of the thoughts were negative. But I did have some good ideas for some poems, which I’ll probably post in the next few days. In the end I managed to make it home in 35 mins, which was pretty good. To give you a bit of a reference, Google Maps estimates it should take 55 mins to walk that distance. Result!

I’m so sad.

Subtle Hint?

You know that Bulgarian girl I said I fancy? Well, the other day she seemed to hint to me that she liked me too. When I say that, she seems to like me anyway, through our general conversations, but this was a more obvious hint. Perhaps. I could just be reading into it too much.

Anyway, so this supposed ‘hint’. We were talking about films, and she recommended ‘Euro Trip’. So I went on IMDB, and here is the plot summary: “When Scotty’s German online pen pal suggests they meet, he initially freaks out (he thinks it’s a guy). But then he discovers that she’s (a she and) gorgeous, and heads out with three friends after graduation to meet her. As they travel across Europe, the four friends have comical misadventures.” Sound like a sort of similar situation? Okay, so I might be reading too much into it.

She does like me, as a friend at least, that much I can be sure of. But I have doubts that she likes me in any other way. I mean, she’s never actually met me in person. But if she does make it over, I’ll ask her out anyway, and maybe she’ll say yes, and we’ll become closer. I know it probably sounds silly that I like her despite we’ve never met. But she seems like a really nice, hard working, not to mention pretty, girl – and I’m completely bowled over by her

Avatar (Important Films Part 3)

Avatar was the last film I saw in the “noughties” (I watched it on 31st December 2009). It was amazing! They take a plot that is, essentially, quite cliched – a person infiltrates a ‘hostile’ group but ends up being turned and becoming one of them – and makes it brilliant. The characters are so well-rounded, the ‘aliens’ so human and believeable, the world the creator creates so stunning that you cannot help but be deeply moved by it and feel a real connection with the characters. It’s one of those rare films that surpasses the hype and seems to be greater than the sum of it’s parts.

I particularly liked (of course) the romance between Jake and Neytiri. I did suspect it would happen from the moment they meet in the film, because that’s how films work, but they managed to still execute it in a fairly natural way, unlike, say, Spock and Uhura in the recent Star Trek film, so it doesn’t seem contrived (though it is). It is the prime reason that Jake defects from the humans to the Na’vi (aliens) and I like it because it demonstrates (okay, again, it’s a film, but still) the power of love to change people. I know that seems like hyperbole but that’s just how I think, okay? (Sorry to be rude. Just ignore me. I really ranting at myself there, pay it no heed.)

Get Over It (Important Films Part 2)

Get Over It is a film in which a guy gets dumped by his childhood-sweetheart-turned-highschool-lover, and then gets into the school’s production of A Midsummer Nights Dream in order to win her over again. He enlists the help of another girl, played by the fantastic Kirsten Dunst, to improve his acting skills. During this time they become increasingly attracted to each other but he still wants to try and get back with the other (supposedly really hot but kinda bitchy too) girl, not quite realising where his true feelings lie. In the end he decides not to get back with his girlfriend but instead declares his love for Kirsten Dunst’s character on-stage during the production.

I like this film because of the decision he makes, the type of girl he goes for – the right type. He realises that what he chasing maybe hot, but ultimately, she doesn’t love him. He realises that the sweet, shy girl is the right person for him. And, as you probably know, the geek or the shy one getting the girl, or in this case, the boy, is really something that I want to believe is possible. It also shows that guys should not think with their cock like they usually do but actually think who is right for them, who is the right one, who is the one for them. Not some silly, granted, hot, but trophy, girlfriend/wife e.t.c, but a sensible, down-to-earth, shy but beautiful girlfriend/wife that he can love, and who will love him. As you know, I think our society’s obsession with looks is detrimental to our well-being and the healthiness of society, so the fact he goes for love, not looks, is what is so commendable about this film.

At this point I hear you say ‘but there are lots of films like that’, and, kind of, you are right. However, that is usually a hot girl or hot guy falling for a shy girl/shy guy, but with this they are both more or less ordinary, which for me makes it special, as not many films do that. It gives me hope that an ordinary guy like me can get, yes, an ‘ordinary’ girl, but also, at the same time, although she is ‘ordinary’, she is, because of that, extraordinary. One day, a ordinary, nice girl will find me, I hope, and will love me for who I am.

The Truman Show (Important Films Part 1)

Yesterday I mentioned that I have to start doing more interesting posts. Funnily enough, I came up with one today! I just watched The Truman Show on Film4 and it was great. It was the first time I’d seen it. I’d heard about it before but never got around to watching it. Now I have, I have to talk about it! Also, over the next few days I think, I’ll discuss other films I have particular attachments to. It won’t be films I just really like, like Star Wars or Airplane! or something, but a film that actually means something to me.

For those of you who don’t know The Truman Show, it stars Jim Carrey (one of my favourite actors) as a man called Truman whose life is a reality soap opera, televised 24/7 to billions across the globe, unbeknownst to him. It basically shows the exploitative nature of reality TV (which I dislike), but I’m not going into that. I want to talk about how he ends up escaping from his constructed life.

Basically, he slowly discovers it through random events, but underneath all that, really, is his love for this girl he briefly met, who tried to tell him what was going on. His love for this girl clearly occupies his life and it is really his quest to find her that leads him out. I like it because it shows the power that love can have. You could argue that it isn’t properly love because he never really knew her, but somebody can still love someone just from one fleeting moment, precisely because it is brief and the person always wonders what it would be like if they’d got with that person.

I always wonder ‘what if’. ‘What if’ I’d done this, what if I’d done that. How that would of affected me. How it could have made me a better person. Practically every decision I make, I question myself about later. Why did I choose one path? Why did I not go the other way? Often I want to go back and change whatever decision – but I can’t. I’m struck with me how I am.

One thing bad I would say about The Truman Show is the ending. Yes, he escaped, but they didn’t show the reunion of him and the girl he fell in love with. That to me suggests that perhaps it didn’t happen and therefore my conclusion that this film shows the power of love falls flat. I really hope they did get together at the end. I don’t know what I’d do if they didn’t.