ruby24

I watched a couple of movies this weekend. The first was Magnificent Obsession (1954), the movie that made Rock Hudson a star. It was a pretty good 50's melodrama, from the master of those, Douglas Sirk. But not as good as Written on the Wind, All That Heaven Allows and Imitation of Life (all of which I LOVE). And then after all these years, I finally sat down and watched Spartacus (1960). I liked it! I'm not a huge fan of the sword and sandal epic from this era, but I think I enjoyed this one more than Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments and Cleopatra. Probably because the actors were so entertaining, particularly Peter Ustinov, Laurence Olivier and Charles Laughton. But I haven't seen that many of these, I guess. What are the best of the other big epics from this era?

If Joker does lose his memory, even for a short amount of time, I have to say I can very easily see Harley attempting to "reshape" him or something, and thinking she now has another chance to make him different. I know the season was about her coming to terms with finally getting over him for real, but one of the things I actually liked about the show was the way it seemed to acknowledge (in its own way) that victims of these kinds of abusive relationships are constantly backsliding and most of the time it takes years of failed attempts and relapses, etc. before finally, actually moving on (and some never do). It's kind of like fighting an addiction- you're always a "recovering addict," never a former one. So I could easily see another episode of her jumping at the chance to "redo" him if she finds out his memory is gone.

"Where's my goddamn electric car Bruce?!" Ok, that line had me in stitches. This season was very good. I'm excited we only have to wait, like six weeks for Season 2! That's awesome. Shows should figure out how to do that more often, lol. Apparently we're getting Catwoman and Batgirl next season, so that's cool. One of my favorite parts of the show is seeing all the various DC heroes/villains show up and how they do them. I know the show's about Harley but I kinda wish it was called "Gotham City" or "DC World" or something, just so we could get more of the other characters coming in and out. Harley's not even my favorite character on this, it's Ivy. And maybe Kite Man. I'd be cool with a big rotating ensemble with episodes centered on a different character every week, but familiar supporting ones there. Because really, part of the fun is knowing these characters already and they assume we do, so the jokes play on their known characteristics. They could do that with ALL of them.

I watched Hold Back the Dawn (1941) tonight. A great tearjerker, very emotional. And this is definitely one of Olivia de Havilland's best performances. She was a great actress because she really did have a lot of range. Even though she was most known for Melanie in Gone With the Wind, she could be funny (The Strawberry Blonde), crazy (The Snake Pit), dramatic as hell (The Heiress), and even when she played a kind of good but naive character like in this movie, it was NOT just Melanie all over again. She had a toughness about her that really comes across in this. I was impressed.

I'm sure Ivy will be back somehow. Regrown or something. Also, I figured the season finale had to end with one last Joker/Harley confrontation, so him doing something like this makes sense.

So I guess Veronica now sees the business battles between her and her dad as just the Father/Daughter bonding that it is? Because using it as a way to "fire him up" is implying that it's all just fun and games after all, so...whatever I guess.

I finally watched Road to Morocco (1942) the other day. It's a movie I've been meaning to get around to for years. It was amusing, although some of it's definitely dated (and racist). I think the other Road movie that's supposed to be good is Road to Utopia (1946), right? I wasn't planning to watch all the Road movies, but I figured I'd check out the best of them.

I think the Parks ARE bad though. I mean, the father is an asshole with his constant complaining about the way the Kims just smell like "poor." He even convinces his wife, who's so oblivious to everything, and once he mentions it she suddenly has to roll down her window to avoid the made up "stench." And frankly, at the end when the violence happens he doesn't give a shit about the woman who works for him who was literally just stabbed in his yard, all he cares about is his son fainting. I had a feeling when I saw it that wealthy people would identify with the Parks and not be able to even notice what about them sucks, because they aren't painted as cartoon villains, but I think the message is that being rich MAKES you suck because you will always live in your own little bubble and not give two shits about anyone else, like the people whose flats flood over completely when it rains while you're out planning your day parties.

Guessing they will never even address the fact that whoever this imposter is, Barry is actually, you know, sleeping with her since they're married. You'd think that'd be a big deal once the real Iris gets back, but I'm betting a million bucks they will never even bring this up. And the only reason they can get away with that is because the show is SO sexless you'd be forgiven for thinking Barry and Iris are just roommates.

I don't think it's just that it was non-linear, it's that there didn't seem to be any reason for it to be done that way. It served no purpose to the story. I think she did it because the movie has been made eight times or whatever, so she thought doing it this way would be different enough, but that alone isn't enough of a reason to do it that way. You have to make sure it works. When everyone looks the same age in past and present, it does get confusing and you wonder...why is this being done this way? Amy looked ridiculous when she was trying to act 12 even though she didn't look it, Laurie looked ridiculous when he was supposed to be in his twenties (they didn't even try to make him look older).

I wish they had shown how and why Future Sabrina came back in the first place. She never comes up with plans/ideas on her own (it's almost always Ambrose who comes up with the idea/spell/whatever), so whatever happened in the future it had to be her figuring out that she had to go back to the past with someone else. And that Sabrina knew all about the dangers of time/paradoxes/loops, so what originally happened there? I do think her Queen of Hell self will become a villain that she'll have to fight next season.

Ok, every single time Lucifer's onscreen I'm completely distracted by his ungodly hotness and can't even hear anything he's saying. It's like, really bad, lol.

So Hiram is obviously faking this illness, right? To make Veronica love him again? And Hermione, I guess is in on it, since apparently she has no character anymore (also, she literally tried to have him killed, and now she's all broken up about him being sick? That would have occurred to me if I was Veronica, but I guess it might not be real). Still, if they just wanted Veronica to rejoin her family she could have just caved normally- we could all see it coming anyway. I had a pretty good laugh watching that Terminator dude coming after Archie and Kevin in the hallways and no one doing anything about it. What the hell was that?! And seriously Archie got his face smashed in a mirror, his head dunked on a sink and toilet, strangled and beaten, and by the end of the episode he is no worse for wear at all. I guess he really is indestructible now after all the beatings he takes. Looks like next week the show remembers Archie and Veronica are a couple, because I'd sure forgotten. I briefly thought her and Reggie were dating again after seeing them interact in the last episode.

I'm guessing that since this Hiram/Veronica thing just keeps going around in circles, what will eventually happen is that Veronica will end up teaming up with him, like he suggested. Since they haven't gone in that direction yet, and they keep saying stuff like he's not all bad (her sister who hasn't been seen again said that) and suggesting like in that therapy episode that Veronica secretly idolizes him or sees him as what she wants to be or something. So I'm guessing she'll wind up embracing her family name and coming back into the fold by season's end. By the way, are Archie and Veronica still together? I've forgotten.

I think Jonn's is about the money, since Martian Manhunter's look is CGI, right? I can understand more why they're able to do that less. Makeup is just about a choice of it taking too long. But it's not like it's his whole body, does it really take three hours?