Thursday 27 December 2007

Ho Ho Holiday viewing

Some thoughts on my holiday viewing of TV and movies (which was sparse):

Christmas Eve: Taped Ella Enchanted in the afternoon to watch that night with the spousal unit. I thought it would be something light and silly with a sweet ending for us to watch, and it was. It was completely inconsequential, but nice light fare for the holidays -- once we got past wondering what dark things could befall poor Ella if she ever ran into a pushy flirt in a bar who would never expect a woman to actually do the rude things he was slurring over his beer (she was bound to be obedient).

Christmas Day: Taped the Dr. Who special but haven't watched it yet. Watched Love Actually, which I had seen part of before, but never the whole thing. Turns out it sucks actually. And I really hope our Christmas dinner guests didn't follow my advice to watch it that night as a holiday film, as the nudity, cursing, and couple of bleak story lines would make them wonder what my concept of a holiday film is. Not that those aspects of the film bothered me (the bad script topped that list), but our guests wouldn't have appreciated such scenes in a Christmas flick. And did anyone else notice that the film was oddly weight obsessed? Everyone kept saying Natalie, the chick who worked for the PM, was fat. I think the joke was supposed to be that she was not fat, but the joke just didn't work. Why was it funny to say she's fat when she wasn't? So that any woman in the audience her size or bigger would feel bad? For that matter, why would it be funny to call her fat if she *was* fat? Then the rock star kept calling his manager chubby. Which was true, but why was that funny? Why was childish name-calling among adults part of a feel-good holiday film? Then the dad made fun of the overweight sister of the cute Portuguese waitress. Again, why was it funny? No real attempt at humor was made. Some writer for this film had a complex or something. Or just wasn't a terribly good writer, as was made obvious by 90 percent of the crap in this steaming pile of dog poo of a movie. Don't get me wrong, lots of things made it bad, but the weight thing just stuck out because it was so mean and unfunny. And because I freakin' hate movies that try to make all women feel bad by stressing that a woman who is average-sized or only slightly overweight is a huge fat cow (screw you, Bridget Jones Diary!).

Boxing Day: Watched the Christmas episode of To The Manor Bowen. I've really enjoyed this show following a designer and his family as they remodel a country home. This final episode in the series was a bit of a let-down because it was largely a clip show, but that's why it's good to film it first and then fast-forward. Then we watched the movie The Lives of Others. Wonderful film. One could even argue it as appropriate for the holidays, as there was sacrifice and redemption. Sort of. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it was the best movie I've seen in awhile.

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