marcicat | Entries tagged with flix-of-the-net

Ongoing:

~I continue to think that the lyrics of most Christmas songs include a hefty dose of ‘la la la snowing, la la la glowing, something something something merry christmas to you!’

~Gift wrapping. Nearly done? I think?

Surprises:

~Got my donation done at work. Firefighters came for safety inspection, left with toys. Adorable.

~I hugged my dentist. (She started it.) It was definitely unexpected.

~Still no snow. Should have knocked that one off on the first, I guess. But maybe some relatively frozen precipitation this week?

Movie List:

~Yes, Virginia
~Arthur Christmas
~Die Hard
~Charlie Brown Christmas
~The Muppet Christmas Carol

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

I heard it was a Christmas classic, so naturally I watched it for one of my holiday movie viewings. (Though I think I “heard it” from a Sentinel fanfic, which might not be the most reliable source.)

Overall Reaction: Surprisingly enjoyable!

Last night I did a “wrap presents, watch Die Hard” evening, and the two activities mesh together well. Highly recommended! (You don’t actually need to pay very close attention to Die Hard — there’s shooting, there’s yelling, there’s continuing to fight despite ludicrous levels of injury.)

The movie got an R rating back in 1988, which seemed to mean lots of swearing but not the kind of super-explicit violence that an R rating usually means today. (Turns out ‘Live Free or Die Hard’ was the first in the series to be rated PG-13, which I feel like I might have known at some point, but had forgotten.)

And it does, in fact, all take place on Christmas Eve! (Though it took a long time, so maybe it was actually Christmas by the end?)

My Conclusion: Well worth watching just to see the origin of all the famous quotes and screen caps.

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

A Newer Fic:
I hear your heart beat to the beat of the drums, by TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel
(Skyfall gen featuring — among other things — the Q branch Christmas party.)

As one they turn to see Bond, standing behind them in an even fancier tuxedo than usual, looking vaguely bemused at their version of Christmas festivities.

An Older Fic:
Last Candle, by persephone_il
(Technically, not a Christmas fic. But Hanukkah is a December holiday.)

“It’s a holiday about setting things on fire, eating fried food and singing about it.” He leans back against a counter, looking at Eames like a challenge. “What’s not to like?”

A Yuletide Fic, Since I Just Netflixed Die Hard As My Next “Holiday Movie:”
I’ll Be Hard for Christmas, by Aja
(John McClane and Matt Farrell in DC at Christmas, playing Congressional committee bingo and starting a scandal.)

“Hey. Check it out. I got the Subcommittee on Transportation Safety and Infrastructure Protection on Wednesday, and the Committee for Infrastructure and Transportation Safety on Thursday.”

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

I did not expect this movie to be a tear-jerker. And yet!

Seriously, I went into this movie thinking it was a humorous animated children’s movie about… something having to do with Christmas. (It’s also possible I was somewhat influenced by the Inception AU story And Try To Keep It All The Year, by and_backagain, in which Arthur is Santa’s son.)

What I got was a movie about dysfunctional families (aren’t they all?) and way, way less competency than I was hoping for based on the previews. I did like the elves in general, and Bryony in particular. I just didn’t think the total movie package lived up to the promise of the first five to ten minutes.

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

I have a netflix subscription, and the whole household, theoretically, can use my account to view stuff instantly. This includes my parents.

SO AWKWARD.

Because really, I would love to remain convinced that the only things they watch are period costume dramas and educational documentaries.

(I’ve reluctantly admitted that in fact, most of their viewing is actually reality tv. But not all of it.)

And now I am in that place of not quite knowing whether or not to have that conversation — the one that goes: “You do realize I can SEE EVERYTHING you’ve recently viewed, right?”

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

Still funny! Some parts were significantly *more* funny, now that I wasn’t worried about the plot!

Things I Like About Britt Reid
1. He asks for help.
2. He’s a fan.

(At one point I actually said, “Britt Reid is tumblr.” He spends basically the entire movie going, ‘FEELS! I HAVE ALL THESE FEELS! WOO! EXPLOSIONS! WHAT’S HAPPENING?! I HEART ALL OF YOU!’)

As for fic, since I’ve already recced the one where Britt is an Irish Setter, how about a shoutout for The Last to Know, by maderr (an exploration of how being awesome is it’s own reward).

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

TRYING TO FIGURE OUT THE EVIL PLAN
“It’s a rule the world thing.”
“Gotta be!”
“So what’s the power of the monkey?”
“Easy — everybody fears monkeys!”
“No, that’s just you, Ron.”
-Ron, Wade, Kim

EVILDOERS BICKERING
“There’s no such thing as mystical monkey power!”
“You wouldn’t know mystical monkey power if you held it in your tiny little hands!”
“Aye… They are wee small digits!”
-Drakken, Monkey Fist, Golfer!baddie

EVERYBODY PICKS ON DRAKKEN
“Kim Possible?!”
“Why do you always act so surprised?”
“Hm. I don’t know.”
-Drakken, Monkey Fist

EVILDOER PLOTS ARE ALWAYS SO COMPLEX
“We tried crushing her spirit. Can we not simply crush *her*?”
“I’m with the mad golfer on this one.”
-Golfer!baddie, Monkey Fist

IT ACTUALLY WAS A PLUSH FLAMINGO-GOAT CROSS
“Is that a Flamingoat? But that’s the rarest Cuddlebuddy! They only made 10!”
-bb!Kim

GOOD GUYS FTW
“Confused?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Oh, good. I thought it might just be me.”
-bb!Ron, bb!Kim

NOTE:
I *love* Jim, Tim, and Wade in this. Also, Ron’s parents appear! (Briefly.) Non-fact-checked googling does indeed turn up meat cakes as a classic Norwegian dish. WHO KNEW? (It’s educational!)

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

Netflix sent me the Kim Possible movie “So the Drama,” which had several predictable outcomes.

1. It renewed my love for the Kim Possible “movies.” (Confession: I never actually watched the show.) Since Netflix also helpfully sent along “A Sitch in Time,” I now have plans for tomorrow night too!

2. Trying to be more observant of these things after my despair over the Harry Potter experience, I can’t help wondering where the Stoppable family is. Is this like Power Rangers? Does he just have an offscreen family?

3. Apparently this movie came out in 2005. I had to go back in my livejournal to find out what the heck I was doing in 2005. (Post-college, pre-current job, my lj says I was camping, watching movies, and participating in nanowrimo for the first time. Neat.)

ALSO! An interesting Disney fact — in this movie, there’s a sticker on Ron’s mirror that says “No on 65.” Being the curious fan that I am, I googled it. Turns out this was in protest of Disney’s then-rule about shows only getting 65 episodes. Who knew? (Lots of people, actually, it was very easy to find. Thanks, all of you in-the-know sharers!)

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

A few weeks ago I watched the pilot episode of Star Trek Voyager on Netflix (the one with the Caretaker). It was pretty good! And the opening credits sequence was total flashback time. (Such nice opening theme music!)

Afterwards, I sort of wanted to watch some more Voyager, without, you know, making a huge commitment or anything. So I skipped to the end and watched the finale.

Really, I should have clued in when — after more than a decade — I could still remember the title of the pilot episode as well as (most) of the key plot points, and all I could remember of the finale was “the ship had armor.” (Seriously, I was *shocked* when the Borg showed up!)

So the finale was kind of sketchy. I mean, plus side: it was sort of like the writers threw everything into the pot, which is fun. Time travel! Klingons! Borg! Romance! Board games! The ready room! Having a baby! It was like a retrospective of all Star Trek ever. The downside was that the conceptual basis of the episode was 1) very creepy to me, and 2) time travel was way better done in that episode of Deep Space 9 (twice actually, if you count the tribbles, but I was thinking of the one with the hostages).

Biggest conclusions: In the future, somehow Starfleet managed to make their “campus” look like a horrible prison building. (An interesting contrast to *actual* prison from the pilot episode, which was all green open spaces (that we saw, obviously, I’m sure it was horrible and prison-like in other ways).)

Also, I think they should have had some ship’s pets.

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

Just as a heads up for those with Netflix viewing options — Captain America: The First Avenger is now available for instant view! (I don’t visit my queue that often, so I just noticed today, but I figured others might be in the same boat.)

That brings us to an instant viewing queue of: Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America. Not a bad day’s viewing for a vacation day! (Though now I am faced with the Olympics vs Marvel viewing dilemma!)

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

Wow, that was a really weird movie. I think I would have liked it better as a graphic novel, actually (according to wikipedia, that’s what came first). I have an easier time with the whole fantasy-melds-with-reality in reading than I do in movies. (Also my problem with the Harry Potter movies. Okay, one of my problems.)

In an interesting note, the actress who played Ramona Flowers was Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who looked familiar because she also played Lucy McClane in Live Free or Die Hard! (Note to self: July 4th is almost here, which would make this a good time for a re-watch!)

In other news, I almost bumped this film from the top of the queue for a Chris Evans film, just to get my Avengers-actors fix, but I didn’t swap things around fast enough. Then, who should appear in this film but Chris Evans! (How did he get his eyebrows to looks so intense the whole time?)

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

Movies I Want To See Before I See Avengers (in no particular order):

1. Star Trek Reboot
(because I keep meaning to rewatch — again — and I keep not doing it, and because it was epic on the big screen and I want Avengers to be that good, but maybe with a plot that makes more sense)

2. The Three Musketeers (2011 version)
(because netflix just sent it to me, so it makes sense to watch it so I can send it back and hopefully get…)

3. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
(because once you’ve read a bunch of Clint-undercover-as-Brandt fics, ‘Ghost Protocol’ starts to look more like an Avengers prequel)

4. Iron Man II
(because it’s still available for instant viewing on Netflix, and it actually *is* an Avengers prequel)

So basically it’s all Avengers, all the time right now for me, which is my way of distracting myself from my total inability to handle work right now. The good news is, it’s working. The bad news is, I need to keep my job so I can afford to go to the movies!

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

I ended up with this movie because for some reason, Netflix refuses to send me *either* Puss in Boots or The Muppets, and Ghost Protocol (aka the one with Hawkeye) isn’t actually out yet. I was prepared to intensely dislike it.

It was… less intensely dislikable than I’d expected, actually. I had to fast forward over some parts, because the combination of nerve-wracking suspense and not being very invested in the characters didn’t make for spellbinding viewing, but that’s okay, because it’s a two hour and eight minute movie, and it really could have been more like 90 minutes (possibly less).

Biggest problem I had with the movie: Ethan’s crazy eyes. Seriously, he kept doing this *I’M A PSYCHOPATH ABOUT TO SNAP* thing with his eyes, and it was hard for me to tell whether it was an acting thing or an actor thing, and either way it was really distracting. (Even worse, his movie!wife Julia started doing it too, just to super!confuse me.)

Fic I’d love to read: Any and all stories where Declan and Zhen are the Clint and Natasha of the spy world, and work together being awesome (as they clearly are) without having crazy-eyes!Ethan around. Really, I just want to see more clever spy tricks, less ‘shoot everything, then shoot it again.’

Crossover potential: Tom Cruise and Nicolas Cage decide to (what else?) steal the Declaration of Independence. Both of their support crews throw up their hands in disgust and go bowling instead.

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

First, when it comes to exercising (say, on a treadmill-like machine), the Spiderman animated series from 1994 is a much better choice than Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes or Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes. The sound level is more consistent, there’s less plot to follow, and it’s funny!

Second, I go back to work tomorrow, which is sort of — it’s been *five days.* What if I’ve forgotten how to do my job? I have been studiously reminding myself of my alarm code, computer login, and copier password (cleverly almost all identical), but I have concerns!

Third, and I blame the internet entirely for this — my mental narration really needs to get itself out of “I have had it with these motherfuckin’ snakes on this motherfuckin’ plane!*” mode and back into something classier, preferably before I slip up at home or work and start interjecting profanity into every other sentence, Star Trek IV style.
(*From ‘Snakes on a Plane,’ of course.)

[3a. tumblr is not helping]

[3b. ...and then he said, 'And I'm going to steal the Declaration of Independence.']

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

Why in the world does ‘Puss in Boots’ have a “VERY LONG WAIT”? There is no possible way you could not have predicted the demand for this movie would be high, even if it was the dumbest film ever to be considered part of the Shrek franchise (which I don’t know if it was, obviously, since I haven’t seen it — no offense intended to any of the Shrek or Shrek tie-in films).

POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS:
1. ‘Puss in Boots’ is going to be released to the instant view queue relatively soon, and Netflix is willing to piss people off until then.

2. Netflix hates cats.

[Netflix, take note! Hating cats? NOT COOL. Putting movies on instant view? VERY COOL.]

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.