Crackfic at the movies...

[neotoma]

sanj and I spent Sunday watching movies -- specifically Wallace and Grommit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Gunshy, and Excalibur.



Wallace and Grommit: the Curse of the Were-Rabbit is adorable, cute, and filled with homages. Which is what you really expect out of a W&G movie, anyway. The Snoopy & the Red Baron sequence was pure genius... but so was the rest of film.

Gunshy was the oddest of the bunch -- a movie in which almost every actor you actually recognize is playing against type. It's best to go in unspoiled, but the basic premise is this: DEA Charlie Mayeaux is teetering on the edge of a totally break-down after a disastrous meeting that left his partner dead and his cover identity seriously compromised. He has one last case to finish before retirement, but whether he makes it, falls to piece, or is discovered by the criminals he's trying to arrest, is a total crapshoot.

sanj and I think it's a total crackfic, because where else are you going to get gay mobsters, a hitman who only wants to grow tomatoes, a therapy group who are WAY over-eager to help their newest member, and a nurse who kidnaps her latest proctology patient onto a date? In movie that still has a coherent and absorbing plot?

In other words, I highly recommend it.

Excalibur was fun, in the '80's-cheesy-fantasy way. It was odd to see so many big name actors in this thing, until you realize that almost none of them were known in America when it was made. I have to say, Helen Mirren was quite the babe when she was young (not that she's not a babe now...) and Patrick Stewart makes any scene he is in 200% more believable. Also, Clive Swift as Sir Hector made me wonder if the reason he was at Camelot all the time was that he was avoiding Madame Hector back at his own castle...

The sheer number of Irish accents popping up made me giggle, because Ireland is not the first place I think of for Camelot. It really comes off as if John Boorman grabbed every actor he knew and drafted them -- not to mention his kids, who play Igrayne, the Lady of the Lake, and young Modred.

I suggest that SW prequel ficwriters watch the scene where Gawain accuses Guinevere. If you don't wind up with bunnies about Qui-Gon Jinn, newly knighted, drunk off his ass, and making a diplomatic scene, I don't know what you need for inspiration...

I still have Love Actually, Rob Roy and Michael Collins left to watch... anyone up for a mini-festival for Liam Neeson movies?

Comments

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

I love Excalibur. I went to see it when it was released in 1980, I think it was.

Sure, some of the styling dates it very clearly, and yet, there's not a bad attention to Arthurian canon, and it has Nicolas Clay in it, and quite honestly any movie that has anyone that pretty, is worth the price of admission.

And the musical score is aces, too. I have a soft spot for the scene where the last of the Knights ride out against Mordred, via an orchard with "Carmina Burana" going it, and all the blossoms falling.

And Gabriel Byrne. What else does a movie need?

and I must have nicked umpteen visual refs from that movie in my last big fanfic

He shot it in Ireland for the landscapes. There are electric pylons all over the rest of the UK.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Can I say that I thought Nicolas Clay was much more attractive when he was 'crazy Lancelot' than when he was 'squeaky-clean Lancelot'. Though you do have to admire the two naked scenes he did -- nice to see equal opportunity nudity in a movie. Though I'm a wee bit squicked since finding out that Igrayne was played by Boorman's daughter; that just seems very wierd to me.

I'm not sure that I liked the score. They used "O Fortuna" *three* times. There are other songs in Carmina Burana, after all.

I don't mind that he shot it in Ireland. But the fact that it's set near Cornwall -- Igrayne's husband is the Duke of Cornwall after all-- makes me wonder why the heck are there all these Irish accents popping up.

[twistedchick]

I also went to see Excalibur when it came out; it is one of my favorites because it clings far more closely to Mallory than Tennyson or musical Camelot.

Though Uther in armor with Ygraine... ouch.

Would love to watch Love Actually and Michael Collins; not so fond of Rob Roy.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the armor made me wince too. Though it didn't look they had another costume for him...

Well, maybe you can enjoy Gunshy, then. It's quite the wacky movie.

[modillian.livejournal.com]

I too saw Excalibur recently and was amazed by all the smoky shots. I'm not all that familiar with the real story of King Arthur, but the plot seemed a great deal more miserable than the usual mangled stuff. It's good to know the story isn't all peaches and cream.

I agree with Twistedchick; Rob Roy is...interesting. There's lots of good sword fighting, though. And um, be careful. Check out the warnings under the "rated R" box. It surprised me. *Refuses to spoil you.*

[jedirita.livejournal.com]

Wow! I just saw Were-Rabbit on Saturday! We're like on some kind of wavelength...