Monday, September 17, 2007

I went to see Death At A Funeral Sunday night. I kept hearing it was like 4 Weddings and a Funeral, which I thought was passably clever, but not the funniest thing ever. Anyway, this was a little darker, actually, and a bit heavy on the scat. I don't know if it was the strange isolation of being one of 5 people in a massive theater or what, but it felt a little hollow. Anyway, worth watching on cable or dvd, but I wouldn't bother with the theater.

[I woke up today thinking "that movie wasn't very good." The trailer I saw on tv for it was funnier. They did manage to convincingly portray a very dysfunctional family, which was more uncomfortable and sad than funny. They also didn't manage to resolve issues with two major characters, so I'm also trying to remember what happened.]

Standout performance was Alan Tudyk, the brilliant character actor from Plano, Texas, of all places. I'm dazzled - I've always thought he was British. Someone should let him coach Miss Johansen on accents.
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I'm reading The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett, volume I of the Discworld series. Fan-bloody-tastic. Full of snort-yer-beverage-out-your-nose laughs on nearly every other page. Some of it's hilarious, and some of it's just dazzling for being, well, dazzling. Here's one I loved:

She snorted and stood up, tossing back her hair scornfully. It was red, flecked with gold. Erect, Liessa Wyrmbidder was entirely a magnificent sight. She was also almost naked, except for a couple of mere scraps of the lightest chain mail and riding boots of iridescent dragonhide. In one boot was thrust a riding crop, unusual in that it was as long as a spear and tipped with tiny steel barbs. "My power will be sufficient," she said coldly.


Quite.

Anyway, fantastic characters, and I love that one of the über-badasses of the book is female. ROWR!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm going to have to read this book. Sounds like my kind of thing, chain mail and all. ;)

DBA Dude said...

Damn your enthusiasm - I just realised that I have not read this book for over 15 years and I now feel an urgent need to dig out my copy and do it again :)

phlegmfatale said...

lainy - Yes, you must!

dba dude - yup, time for a re-read.

Christina RN LMT said...

I once owned the entire (up to then) series in hard-back (the SF Bookclub's editions).
In one of my extremely painful yet necessary weedings-out of my bookshelves, I donated them to the library.
I SO SORRY!
When you moved as much as my family did in those days, it was better not to have too much stuff.
Maybe I can check them out from the library here, and it will all have come full circle!
And Silver can read them too!
Yay!

Christina RN LMT said...

I forgot...
the only movie I've ever seen with Alan Tudyk was A Knight's Tale, where he definitely stole the show.
And he's cute, too!

phlegmfatale said...

christina - Well, one has to cut the cord and travel light, occasionally, for sanity's sake.

Yeah, he's adorable.

g bro said...

Man, you're really getting into this boots-and-whip-and-spanking today. Post photos, please!

4 Weddings and a Funeral WOULD have been passably clever IF gay kilt man had machine-gunned Andie MacDowell and Hugh Grant in the 1st scene and left some room for the rest of the cast, who were excellent.

g bro said...

For the best in almost spankings, go see Sir Galahad.