Corona | Coming Attractions

And afterwards, just for Jake:

Doctor Who: The Proms at the Royal Albert Hall is on the Sky+ box.

YAY!

Started watching Inception at about 2am this morning.  I woke up on the couch at 7am with a banging hangover and no recollection of the movie past the first ten minutes.  Attempt #2 tonight!

In blatant disregard of Quasar's "Hollywood Takes a Dump" thread, I went to the theater last night to watch Season of the Witch. It wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be, but that doesn't mean that it was good. While I was watching it, I was surprised to find myself thinking that this movie actually had the potential to be somewhat decent, but the climax then completely ruined the experience and made me feel foolish for entertaining that thought.

I'll say a few words about the movie and I'll probably drop some spoilers in order to make a few points, so if you feel very strongly about not wanting your enjoyment of Season of the Witch to be spoiled, you might not want to read the following paragraphs.

The premise of the film is that Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman are crusaders of the 14th century, who get fed up with killing innocent people in the name of God and decide to leave the campaign they're on. On their way back home, they encounter vast regions without human life. When they finally reach a city, they discover that a plague similar to the Black Death has befallen the land, so they decide that they're going to stock up on supplies and get the hell out of there. However, when a squire notices the crest on Nic Cage's sword, he realizes that he's a crusader, so the two men are arrested because they're recognized as deserters who need to be punished. Before they're thrown into the dungeon, though, a priest requests that they talk to the local abbot, who (surprise!) has also been afflicted by the plague. He tells the crusaders that the local authorities have captured a witch who they believe is responsible for the plague because she has conveniently confessed to the crime. Instead of just killing the witch, however, they want to take her to a monastery that is said to possess the last remaining copy of the Key of Solomon, which contains some sort of incantation that can reverse the witch's magic, but only if the witch is present. Because the journey to the monastery is long and dangerous, the abbot wants to enlist the services of Nic Cage and Ron Perlman in exchange for their freedom. Cage accuses the church of hypocrisy and claims that his oath of allegiance only pertains to God, not men, and refuses to cooperate. However, upon seeing that the supposed witch is a very young woman, he changes his mind and agrees to undertake the journey under the condition that the woman is given a "fair trial" upon her arrival at the destination.

Despite the somewhat ridiculous notion that any commoner, let alone a woman accused of being a witch, could receive a fair trial in the fourteenth century, the premise of the movie is pretty interesting. The crusaders' disillusionment with the church's hypocrisy and corruption sets up some ambiguities for the rest of the film. Is the girl a witch or is she wrongfully accused? Other members of Cage's party (which includes Perlman, a knight from the city, a priest, a questionable guide, and an altar-boy wanting to be a knight) argue about whether the plague is related to the "witch" at all, since it has even spread to places where the witch had not been sighted. Strange things do occur along the journey, but at first it's not clear whether they are the girl's doing or whether the men's imaginations are playing tricks on them.

About 50 minutes into the movie, I was actually engaged by what was happening on the screen and was enjoying myself. As it got closer towards the end, though, it became more and more apparent that there is some kind of demonic force at play here. Once the movie gets to its climax, we even get full-on winged CG-demons, possessed priest-corpses, and magic spells. I guess the disappointing part was that after the initially negative portrayal of the church, its violent excesses are excused or even redeemed in the end because it turns out that the witch was actually possessed by a demon who indeed caused the outbreak of the plague and wanted to destroy the Key of Solomon. Everything that made the movie interesting is thrown out the window during a spell of about 20 minutes.

The acting was all right. Nic Cage delivers his usual performance of monotonous-sounding speech juxtaposed with angry shouting. Ron Perlman does his job pretty well as Cage's war buddy. What always bothers me in pseudo-historical movies like these is that there is no consistency when it comes to English accents. The inhabitants of the city where Cage and Perlman are captured seem have British accents, but they all differ slightly in register (which might make sense, I guess, depending on the social class of each speaker). As far as I can tell, Cage and Perlman just talk the way they usually talk. The guide, played Stephen Graham (who is actually British), sounds like a Brit trying to speak Yank. The girl/witch also has some inconsistencies in her speech. The differing accents were pretty irritating at first, but I think I got used to them during the course of the movie.

The Princess Bride is on TV.  Yay!!!!

Also got an offer to go and see The Kings Speech this afternoon but not sure I can drag myself off the sofa.

We went to see Season of the Witch last night, too, Mal Shot First.  atrejub suggested inviting you, but I assured her it was highly unlikely that you would go.  Where/when did you see it?  We saw it at the Esquire at 7:51.  

One of the speakers was blown, which made the dialog a lot louder than the score and some of the sound effects.  It was more distracting in trailers for other movies than it was during the actual movie.  Still, I recommend going elsewhere if the movie you want to see is playing in theater 2 at the Esquire.

I was disappointed by Season of the Witch.  The Tomatometer often lets me down--especially with movies with very low scores.  I wanted it to be thoroughly awful, but like you, found that it wasn't as bad as I was expecting.  Of course, a movie could end up with a 0% Tomatometer simply because every review was only slightly negative.  A movie where 80% of the critics said, "Holy shit, this is one of the worst things I've ever seen!" could end up faring better.  This is doubly true when it's the case that it's so bad a reviewer gives it a positive score for being so bad it's enjoyably bad.

Since it was Cage, and since the score was so low, I had some small hope that he would at least punch a few women.  In that regard, I was pleased.  While I don't remember him punching one, he does stab one in the stomach.  He also knocks one out.

It occurred to me while watching that both Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman have played characters who have come from Hell. 

The Swollen Goi... wrote:

It occurred to me while watching that both Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman have played characters who have come from Hell.

But, was Hell all the fouler for their presence?

 The time has come. Either later tonight after work, or early tomorrow morning I will watch the first episode of Dr. Who. 

Going to see King's Speech tonight.

Rewatching "Blade," it's been awhile. I really like the color and sound.

Space Tycoon wrote:

Going to see King's Speech tonight.

Great little movie.

I assume you won't like it.

Please tell me you've completely forgotten to watch, Adam.

I hear if Adam starts watching Doctor Who at the first episode Rose, Christopher Eccleston will be canceled as the Doctor.

Are you talking the first episode of the new series, with Christopher Eccleston, or the very very first Doctor Who ep? Cause if it's the latter, I'm assuming a rip in space time will occur and everything Doctor Who related will be wiped from existence. Don't do it!

Spent most of my weekend watching Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. Just as good as I remember!

Perhaps wiping Doctor Who from existance is the very thing needed to create a rupture powerful enough to actually bring the tardis into our reality.

Sort of a spill over to fill the void.

 The very first episode of Dr. Who Series 1 featuring Christopher Eccleston has now been playing on my TV for two minutes. Update to come...

 Hooked. Sorry kids, I like this so far. The doctor is charming and funny, Rose is hot, and a plastic arm is now strangling the Doctor. Hard to beat that. 

Adam54 wrote:

Great little movie. I assume you won't like it.

Why is that?

I only ask because I saw it last night and thought it was rather charming.

Adam54 wrote:

 Hooked. Sorry kids, I like this so far. The doctor is charming and funny, Rose is hot, and a plastic arm is now strangling the Doctor. Hard to beat that. 

That's it. It's doomed. Ecclestone will now only last one season tops!!

Adam54 wrote:

Rose is hot...

You might want to check her out in Secret Diaries of a Call Girl.

 Y'know, I think I might at that. 

She shows her boobies.  Sort of.

It was okay, but I wasn't interested enough to seek out seires 3.  I'm talking about Secret Diary, not Doctor Who.

Oh, and Sue Ellen, that one chick who commented on your FB page about "Doc who?!" sounds like a vapid whore.

 Don't even get me started. Every time I post anything anywhere about anything she follows me around Facebook and says "really Adam? Really?????? Gonna lose some man points on that one!" I'm sure she's gonna have something ignorant to say either to me or you about your comment to her. 

We won't be FB friends a second longer than I work at the job I'm at. 

Finally saw The Hangover.  Meh.

Since Amazon decided to drop the price down to $20, I broke down and ordered the Superman Complete Animated Series. If they had a Teen Titans complete box set, I'd probably order that too, but thankfully, they don't (yet).