Overbooked and Underpaid: Notes from a Yes-aholic

A Day At The Movies: Skyfall

Today I went to the local "Cine-multi-mall-plex" and saw Skyfall and I learned a few things.

1) It's a  problem when the pre-movie commercials for coke and other sundries, combined with the coming attractions, take so long that I have consumed almost all my popcorn and half my soda before the film even starts...

2) Tactical error - buying a large soda, even when slpit with my husband - creates an urgent need to use the bathroom approximately 40 minutes into the movie. There is typically no quiet moment during a James Bond movie in which to act on this urge. So I must suffer for the next 2 hours.

3) Great as the movie was, I couldn't resist noticing that when Bond stands on the roof in the final scenes, I knew it was just to create the above shot for the posters...

Now for the film:

I have a complicated relationship with action movies. Some of them, like the Bond Franchise and the Bourne movies, I absolutely adore. Others leave me cold.

In assessing why this is so I have come to the conclusion that it is all about humor and cleverness. An action movie that has a great sense of humor and witty dialogue will often win me over while a straight, "shoot 'em up and make sure lots of stuff blows up" movie will lose me. 

I also cannot stand gratuitous violence or cruelty. The second Mission Impossible movie lost me when the villian was too psychopathic. Likewise for the Dark Knight. Loved Batman Begins, couldn't get out of the theater fast enough after Heath Ledgers's genuinely cruel performance in The Dark Knight.

Great music and an engaging lead actor are also a must.

Skyfall has everything I look for in an action movie and more.

I grew up primarily during the Roger Moore Bond era and only discovered the Sean Connery Bond movies after I hit college. So my first impression of the saga that is Bond was pretty campy. I didn't realize how campy until I married a Bond fan who had all the original Ian Fleming books. After reading those I was pretty sure Roger Mooore's James Bond did not line up too well with the character in the books.

This made me a die hard Connery fan.

Then came Timothy Dalton.

Do I even have to explain how far away from the books the two Dalton films are? In Timothy's defense it's pretty hard to act your way out of bad writing and wretched plot.

So I was ecstatic when Pierce Brosnan took over the role. The Brosnan films brought us out of the campy 70's and politically correct 80's and realigned us with Fleming's cold war vibe. No more silly villains like Drax and Max Zorin (first role I ever saw Christopher Walken in - who knew?)

After a good run with Brosnan, we arrived at Daniel Craig.

I heard all the anti-Craig hype before I went to see Casino Royale and really didn't know what to expect. 

He had me within the first 40 seconds of the film. And by the end I knew I was finally seeing the James Bond onscreen that I had read about in the books. Low tech, gritty, majorly beat up and battered, eminently flawed.

Skyfall remains completely true to all of the above. Not only does it build nicely on the groundwork laid by the first two Craig Bond films, it elegantly nods back to the Connery movies. I don't want to include any spoilers but, suffice it to say you will feel a great wave of nostalgia and satisfaction when the Astin Martin and the Bond theme music show up.

I enjoyed literally every minute of the movie.

So go see it right now!

End notes:

- I wasn't sure how I would like Judy Dench as M when she first appeared in Goldeneye - suffice it to say she has set the bar for M pretty high 7 films later.

- The new Q is brilliant - terrific touch to make him young and hip

- We get to continue to evade silly gadgets and stick to the nitty gritty of weaponry

- Javier Bardem - perfect villain. Just the right mix of sanity and insanity

- Adele singing the opening credits - another brilliant choice. I thought I was listening to Shirley Bassey for a moment. The Skyfall theme might have been too close to "Diamonds Are Forever" for some people but I liked it.

 

 

Pic Of The Week: Will We Be Cooked?

One thing is clear - come Wednesday, approximately half the country will feel like this.....

Ice Scrapers I Have Made

 

I live in the Northern Midwest.

I have lived my entire life in the Northern Midwest.

Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Chicago, Wisconsin.

This means that I have experienced Winter.

And I really mean Winter. 

So, round about December, there is really no excuse for A) being unable to assemble  a matching pair of thermal gloves or mittens B) not knowing where anyone's snow pants are C) not knowing where any boots are and - most importantly - D) not being able to find a single ice scraper.

Having said that, I of course have excuses for all of the above:

A) My children think all gloves and mittens are there for the taking. So they take them. And never bring them back. Which is how I've come to view our school lost and found as a sort of glove and mitten exchange where I can - for a brief moment in time - borrow a pair of mittens to replace the ones my child has donated - for a brief moment in time - to your child.

B) and C) I carefully put snow pants and boots into storage - usually in about July.

Yes, July.

Because, in Wisconsin you might still need your boots and snow pants in May, and by June - when you are just about sure you don't need them anymore - you still might. And by July you are tired of kicking the boots every time you enter the back door.

Each year, as I stash everything away, I select a new foolproof "I can't possibly forget where I put them this time" location. 

By August I have forgotten the site of the foolproof "I can't possibly forget where I put them this time" location. 

By September I don't care. 

By October I know I should care but still don't. 

In November the temperature will be 65 and sunny on Tuesday and, without warning, a blizzard will descend on Wednesday - followed within 36 hours by subzero temperatures. One minute I need my garden shears and the next minute I need:

D) Ice Scrapers.

Which I cannot find.

Because there is a conspiracy.

To understand the theory behind this conspiracy you have to embrace the idea that, unlike winter outerwear, ice scrapers fall more into the ball point pen/comb/nail clippers/brush/scissors category.

All items that - no matter how many you may buy to have on hand - you will never ever be able to actually find one when you need it. 

The author Douglas Adams explained it this way - at least when it came to ball point pens (which he calls "biros", both dating himself and pegging himself as a Brit).

Adams opined that there was a planet dedicated entirely to being a vacation spot for ball point pens  and that, whenever they felt the urge, the pens simply slipped through an inter-dimensional corridor and sloped off to their alternate planetary home for a little R & R. Reappearing when it would be the most convenient to them and the least convenient to you.

I agree with this theory wholeheartedly. I just think Adams didn't take the theory far enough. It definitely includes, at the very least, all the items I mentioned above.

And it most definitely includes ice scrapers.

Which is why, every winter, it is entirely not my fault that I don't have any.

What I've used instead:

Books (whatever is in the car trying to get back to the library - obviously hardcovers work better than paperbacks)  

Credit Cards (relatively effective as ice scrapers, no longer very effective as credit cards afterward)  

Spatulas (really ineffective - the plastic ones don't have enough of an edge and the metal ones scratch the windshield)

CD cases (very effective and my scraper of choice yesterday - I would however, recommend removing the CD first as snow gets inside the case)  

Tupperware Lids (reasonably effective unless they are circular)  

My Shoe (utterly useless - I was really desperate)

Repeatedly pushing the button that puts de-icing liquid on the windshield and trying to sort of melt it off through an anti-freeze windshield wiper combo while cranking up the defroster inside the car.

This last takes forever because the car takes so long to heat up. It also pretty much shreds the wiper blades.

Tomorrow I'm off to buy approximately 25 ice scrapers in hopes that one or two of them will be handy.

I'm sure they will all have disappeared by Christmas.

 

Copyright © 2009 by Anne Morse Hambrock, all rights reserved