movie rodeo roundup

I watched a lot of movies this weekend.

I watched Animal House for the umpteenth time. Did so cause of the passing of John "Dean" Vernon "Wormer" quotation quotation quack quack. The best part about watching movies over again is finding something new in 'em. Right? Well, I noticed something new to me during the roadtrip sequence -- when Boon is trying to call his girlfriend Katy at 6 AM and she's not picking up her phone (cause she's sleeping with Professor Donald Sutherland) the radio in the background is playing "Hey Paula." That's the song that Boon and Katy sing to each other earlier in the film, when they're high and goofing around with each other. It's an obvious injoke to the couple, and playing it again when Boon first begins to realize their relationship could very well be over is a subtle little ironic underscore. Wonderful.

I know Animal House is seen as a juvenile film, fulla crazy wacky shit that's been forever ensconced in our pop culture pantheon, quoted and overquoted by people who haven't even seen the thing ("Toga! Toga! Toga!") but there really is some solid filmmaking behind it. I do rather like John Landis' stuff, even if he became an asshole later on in life.

( Don't know if I got anything new out of Amadeus but I watched it again, too. )

( Got some new releases out of the way, too. )

( And after watching The Life Aquatic, I know what I want out of life. )

I also saw I, Robot but I can't write about it tonight cause I'm tired. I will say, however, that it was not as terrible as I feared, and it actually had some interesting sci-fi angles and brought up some good sci-fi issues, but I swear to god Will Smith should have been as far from this project as possible. I want to write a screenplay for a Will Smith vehicle and name it simply "AW HELL NAW." Anyway. I'm off to obsessively edit this post a zillion times, and then pass out.

I'M ON TO YOU STEVE ZISSOU

Oh holy crap. I had just gone to bed and I was lying in between pillows with a cat at my foot and I was just lightly nodding off and thinking about The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou and if I had said all I really wanted to say about the film, and I knew there was one point story-wise that had bugged me, and I thought and I thought and I thought and then I jumped up and went "OH SNAP" and the little cat ran off thinking she had done something wrong like snore or something and now I'm here pounding like a madman on the keyboard and I'm trying not to lapse into profanity even though I'm all "OH MY GOD" and stuff here.

Don't read beyond the cut if you haven't seen the film yet. I'ma discuss heavy plot points and spoilers.

( OKAY HERE )