Movie Monday

I’m really lazing around today. Usually my blog would be up hours earlier but I didn’t awaken in the early hours. It was an interesting weekend. Let’s just say the leaking ice maker which led to spackling and painting work was also the herald for a now totally defunct refrigerator. I learned two valuable economy lessons with its demise.

1. When you need a fridge immediately, the sale will start next week.
2. In this economy, kitchen appliance stores no longer have an ample stock of the “big stuff” in their warehouses. Everything is J.I.T (just-in-time); you order and you wait. Which is not OK when your fridge conks out, the weather is close to 60 and when you open the fridge doors you have a full-to-the-brim stocked freezer and fridge staring back at you which is going to SPOIL.

And now for my commercial endorsement: Lowe’s in Flemington, NJ had the new fridge here and installed within 18 hours. Fast service; really nice installer; kudos to them.

Now on to Movie Monday:

I guess I could review Wolverine; NOT! Wolverine (the character that is) reminds me of Edward Scissorhands. You remember the movie where Vincent Prince almost completes the creature Johnny Depp plays except he dies before he can finish the hands, hence, Edward Scissorhands. I see Wolverine as the sequel with some dialogue like this:

VP: Ah, now you will not have scissors for hands but these beautiful alabaster hands.
W: (looking at his Grecian perfect hands) Hmm. Dad, I really love these hands; they’re gorgeous but you know, those scissors did have some great uses: chopping onions; cutting meat, toenails; cutting out coupons. Do you think there is any way for me to have these beautiful hands and my scissors?

Well, he didn’t get exactly what he wanted but thus Wolverine was born.

I probably shouldn’t admit this but I don’t really care about the origins of Wolverine. I sort of liked the X-Men movies. They were pretty dumb but they are great background for multi-tasking. The same with Van Helsing and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I do like movies which entertain and educate but except for some quality foreign films, Hollywood seldom produces these. Of course, with the only important demographic being 16 - 24 white males for them......wait a minute, have I started talking about the Republican party?

This may be a good time to pull out the old website (and I do remember this site from a long while back) at:

http://www.moviecliches.com/

It is what the link says, movie cliches which are always fun to remember. For example on heroes:
1. Stripping to the waist makes the hero invulnerable.
2. The hero will always be paired off with a female character. The sidekick never will.

Or what about this one: When there's an intruder somewhere in the house, the thing that jumps at the heroine in the dark turns out to be her cat, even if it comes from places cats wouldn't be, like inside a cupboard! As soon as she relaxes, the killer will show up and strangle her.

Roger Ebert tackled the omnipresent movie cliche once in a discussion of horror films. I’m sure you’ll find some of his favorites here. I also remember Ebert saying that we learn about life and how to act from watching movies. Check out this site and find out how cliched the movies think we live our lives.

Click around. These cliches will make you chuckle. Some will make you think. And then you can add your own.