so i really was not interested in seeing iron man. in fact, i was a little peeved that this guy, whose basic function in comics is to be an annoying jerk and doesn't have any terribly interesting plot lines or well known enemies, gets a movie and we're *still* waiting on wonder woman. i didnt find the character that compelling so i figured i'd give the movie a pass.

then i saw this and this. and if those two guys say to go see it, who am i to argue? the theaters around here are pretty much showing it starting every half hour, so it was pretty easy to waltz into a 12:30 showing.

and seriously, i was totally blown away. this movie had no business being this good. the visuals were amazing-- it was pretty hard to tell what was cg and what wasn't in many cases. the acting was great (i mean really, robert downey jr was pretty much typecast, right?), and every time i winced in anticipation of a sour note, they managed to avoid the trap and take the plot in a better direction.

i don't want to say too much, since there's some spoilers that you must be surprised by. but it was a great movie, both entertaining and not overly cartoony, and probably signals the death of dc movies. also: under no circumstances short of fire should you leave the theater before the credits are over. seriously, i'm still totally geeking out about that bit. it's ridiculously awesome.

sal had the brilliant idea to go see juno today. we had free passes (with free drinks and popcorn) from the last time we gave blood, and though neither of us *technically* has the free time (he's got a lecture to give tuesday and i've got a nobel laureate to impress on the same day) we packed ourselves up and headed out into the Real World.

i was a little worried, since i know it's gotten good reviews, but a lot of times i seem to react differently to especially indie-esque movies. but both theresa and megan mentioned it, so that was enough for us to decide to see it for free. i was still uncomfortable for the first few minutes of the movie, but i soon figured out what was up and got a lot more comfortable. the dialog, mostly juno's, is a bit overly-cool (like the first season of buffy-- does anyone really talk like this?) but settles down toward the second half of the movie.

i'll probably write a protected entry later, so as not to spoil anything, but suffice to say by the end of the movie was *very* satisfied (yes, i can be overemotional, but i did shed a few happy tears during the last act). it was a free pass well spent, let me tell you.

oh, and sal just pointed out that the actress who plays juno was kitty pryde in the x-men movies. i'm a little ashamed i didn't notice that....

stolen from metalcrowe, a funny but difficult meme:

Go to IMDb.com and look up 5 of your favorite movies. Post three interesting IMDb "Plot Keywords" for these 5 picks. Have your friends guess the movies.

1. beautician, ice, p**** enlarger [editted to avoid search engines, you know what it is] real genius, jonandandrea

2. midlife crisis, robot as menace, manic laughter the incredibles, jonandandrea

3. horse, marbles, spanking also: ladder animal house, jonandandrea

4. shot in the butt, overprotective parent, dancing on table 10 things i hate about you, jonandandrea

5. serial killer, communal dining hall, presumed dead harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban, therockdiva

because i can never play by the rules,

6. cake, diction lessons, squeaky voice singin' in the rain, seeinginmenow

7. wheel, moaning, batting cage when harry met sally, therockdiva

maybe not my 7 most favorite movies of all time (i can't think hard enough to narrow that down) so just 7 i thought of off the top of my head. ready go!

sarah (4:54) : update your blog woman. how i am supposed to procrastinate if you won't enable me.

i dont really have the energy for anything deep (this week so far is crap health-wise, bah) but in the interest of keeping sarah from writing her quals (prelims?) i figured i might as well do some writeups on movies i've seen recently. feel free to peruse, ignore, or otherwise disagree!

( movie #1: hairspray )

( movie #2: harry potter and the order of the phoenix )

it's been a very fun day so far. this morning i woke up and had the idea to go see an early showing of ratatouille before doing our usual sunday errands (sadly, the hiking trail we usually walk has been closed since last tuesday, when a good portion of the area was on fire, thanks whoever couldn't go another half hour without a cigarette). mostly because i've heard such wonderful things about it from people whose opinions i trust (basically, if lloyd drops praise for the movie in multiple entries, it must be good!) and because it just feels like summer to go see a cartoon. we even sprung for popcorn, since it seemed appropriate for a fun-type movie.

and good golly was it fun. i spent most of the afternoon trying to come up with a movie i've enjoyed that much in a theater between the incredibles and ratatouille... and i really don't think there is one. granted, i haven't gone out to the movies much in grad school... but incredibles came out early in my first year, and it's now almost my fourth year. not to mention the fact that both movies were made by the same company (pixar owns my soul apparently). i scanned my dvd shelf, since we do tend to buy movies we liked in theaters... and there's a grand total of TWO that have come out since we started grad school-- the aforementioned incredibles, and serenity, which i was too gutless to see in a theater, so it gets left out of this equation.

what does that say about movies? they just keep getting bigger and bigger... but seemingly less and less interesting. of the movies i can remember seeing since winter of 2004, they've all been passable entertainment, but either not entirely enjoyable (x3) or just not as exciting as i hoped (superman returns, harry potter 4). even the cartoons have been lacking in something... i hesitate to call it soul, but when i compare ratatouille to shrek 3 and happy feet (just to name two recent examples), there's just more to ratatouille. that's sad. i recognize that it's always hard to create good art, and even harder to get people to recognize and pay for it, but if people are spending hundreds of millions of dollars (spider-man 3 and evan almighty were both in that range, and not exactly well-received by critics) shouldn't we be getting more bang for the buck?

anyway, i really enjoyed the movie. of course there's a certain segment featuring the female chef collette that completely won me over (you'll know it when you see it.) i love that the writers managed to throw in a hint of feminism as part of their overall message without turning it into a bra-burning. and good lord is the movie gorgeous. i wonder if i'm going to be the old granny who still gets impressed by water and fur animation in 60 years when it's pedestrian to everyone else, but it so far has not ceased to amaze me. and that bread! it's the most beautiful bread i've ever seen!

so pixar gives us another winner. i live in fear of the day that they let us down, but for now i'm going to enjoy the greatness they've already given us!