Wiendish Fitch

Thank you! I think it is lazy beyond belief. Oh, it's a fun conceit sometimes, and it's fine and dandy when it's done well (the American House of Cards, for instance) but lately I feel we've been bombarded with mediocre, unnecessary reboots and the like, and I'm tired of it. Duck Tales? Great show back in the day, but why a reboot? If kids today (God, I'm getting old) want to watch it, what's stopping them from getting the DVDs from Netflix? Or checking out the numerous TV sites that undoubtedly stream episodes? It's not broken, don't fix it. No one asked for it, so why bother? Likewise, Boy Meets World was a merely okay, white bread, middle of the road sitcom that had its time in the sun, why do we need a show about Cory and Topanga's kid? Who cares? It sure doesn't say much about Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel that they can't move on in their careers from characters they played when they were friggin' children. Not that I ever thought they'd conquer Shakespeare or Beckett, but still... I honestly can't decide which is more disturbing: the idea that the younger generation just unquestioningly joins the Kat hate train despite not even being a sparkle in their parents' eyes when she was on the show, or the idea of not-getting-any-younger adults still carrying the torch of hatred for a fictional character*. I've read some of the anti-Kat stories ('cause I have no life) and I find them not only badly written (natch), but despicable. One story had Kat accuse Tommy of still loving Kim, and Tommy's gallant response? He threatens to "kick [Kat's] ass". And, no, he is not framed as the bad guy in this scenario. The story ends with him back with Kim, happily ever after. Yeah. Fucked up stuff out there. *Okay, at the risk of being hypocritical, I admit I still hate Dawn from Buffy, but I almost never think about her or the show anymore, and I'm sure as hell not going to vent my seething hatred in fanfiction.

Margot Robbie was born the year Fresh Prince of Bel Air premiered. Let that sink in.

See, this is why I prefer the original, 1950 Father of the Bride. Being a Golden Age MGM film directed by that most stylish and stylized of directors Vincente Minnelli, it has that certain fantastic mood that you'd expect, the kind that movies back then could get away with. Is the wedding in that one bloated and overpriced? Sure (though, to be fair, it's nowhere near as ridiculous as the 1991 version), but, as one author put it, MGM films back then "only had a passing acquaintance with reality". I'm sorry, but in the more cynical, modern 1990s, Father of the Bride just doesn't work.

I also think Marilyn Monroe is criminally overrated, and the ongoing deification of her kind of nauseating. An ardent fan of hers told me that she felt bad for Monroe, and wished she could have "been her friend and helped her through her problems". I think Judy Garland, Vivien Leigh, Rita Hayworth, Gail Russell, and Gene Tierney needed friends much more than Monroe did, but no one seems to care about them. And, sweet juggling John the Baptist, enough with the onslaught of Monroe biographies!! I swear we must get 10-20 new Monroe biographies a year (meanwhile, I have found all of two biographies of Myrna Loy, a woman who outclasses Monroe in every respect)! The woman has been dead for over 50 years, we are not going to learn a single new thing about her! Trust me on this! Screw Some Like it Hot, I think The Apartment has the greatest final line in a Billy Wilder movie ever (with Sunset Boulevard nipping at its heels).

I hope you like it! It has a wonderfully offbeat "Meet Cute", and side-splitting banter.

UO that only a film geek such as myself would care about: I think Bluebeard's Eighth Wife is one of Ernst Lubitsch's most unsung movies, and I don't get the bad rap it gets. I think it's hilarious, and Claudette Colbert and Gary Cooper just sparkle together.

I can watch it over and over, it always warms the cockles of my cold, cold heart. Not to mention it indulges my more smugly-inclined geeky side, because I love being able to name the movies they show in the montage (hey, I'm a woman of limited talents, what else can I do?).

Oh, that's good. Never mind, then (though that still doesn't excuse People magazine's omission).

I second that exclamatory question! Look, I know Shirley Temple was hardly everyone's favorite (even I grew disenchanted with her as I grew older), but surely her achievements, such as being the youngest Oscar winner ever, becoming an ambassador to Czechoslovakia and Guam, speaking publicly about breast cancer in a time when you couldn't even say "breast" on TV, and NOT becoming a pathetic casualty like other child stars, merits something?! It's bad enough fucking Joan Rivers got not one, but two People magazine covers, and all Temple got was a crappy little paragraph buried in a random issue (that's right, her death didn't even warrant a cover story).

I can't make up my mind about Sam Claflin. For all I know, he might be brilliant, but you could have fooled me, because he keeps getting cast in really bland, thankless roles. I've seen Snow White and the Huntsman more than once, and I always forget that he was in it. I agree that Finnick Odair has the same problem as (gag) Edward Cullen: he's such an otherworldly fantasy of a man, that no actor alive can bring that to the screen. Claflin, bless him, does what he can, but it's as if the screenwriters couldn't meet the challenge, so they just gave up. Claflin's next big project is the adaptation of Me Before You, a book I really liked (in spite of the presence of tropes that I despise). He's co-starring with the ever-reliable Emilia Clarke, and the part of Will is pretty complicated, so that will be the proof in the pudding regarding his acting talent and leading man potential.

Jupiter Ascending was such a weak, forgettable little burp of a movie, I don't think it did anyone's career any harm. Still, it would have been amusing for Redmayne to be the second actor in history to win an Oscar and a Razzie in the same year (in his defense, he was a million times more fun to watch in JA than either Mila Kunis or Channing Tatum). I was thrilled Redmayne won (though, for the record, I'll never forgive the Academy for snubbing David Oyelowo). His portrayal of Stephen Hawking is the main reason to watch The Theory of Everything, an otherwise merely okay film. I'm looking forward to The Danish Girl, it sounds like a fascinating story. I'm also glad Felicity Jones's career is gaining momentum, I've liked her for years.

Regardless of whether or not Chloe Grace Moretz becomes America's Sweetheart or not, I think she'll be just fine and dandy. One thing's for certain, I'm sure she won't tumble down the rabbit hole of misery most young actors do. Seriously, look at her IMDb quote page; she's more mature and well-adjusted than actresses twice her age.

I never, ever, not even for half a second, hated Kat the Pink Power Ranger. In fact, I vastly preferred her to Kimberly, and thought the hate directed towards her was more than a little insane.

Do you mean the character or the actor? Because I've never been a Jerry Lewis fan, but I thought Jerry Langford in The King of Comedy, while not a saint, was just a normal person who did absolutely nothing to deserve what happened to him. He even gives Rupert sound advice about starting from the bottom up, working hard, and honing your craft. Unfortunately, just like in real life, Rupert doesn't want to hear that, he wants success right now. You all made good points about society being the real villain in The King of Comedy, but my issue is whether others realize that? I don't think Rupert Pupkin is, in any way, shape or form, a heroic or lovable character, and I'm pretty sure Martin Scorsese has said we're not meant to root for him. My point (I probably expressed it poorly) was that Rupert is just as bad as Eve Harrington, but he's forgiven more easily. Rupert may not have hurt any close friends, but he's just as guilty of entitled narcissism as Eve is, and he takes the path of least resistance to get what he wants (certainly in a more dramatic fashion than Eve). Also, just because Jerry lived, it doesn't mean Rupert should be let off the hook. What if Jerry had a heart attack and died due to the ordeal? What if Rupert's accomplice Masha finally snapped her final strand of sanity and decided to kill Jerry for shits and giggles? Any number of things could have gone horribly wrong! If Rupert Pupkin is really considered a hero for underdogs, then we're all officially doomed. Oh, well. At least TV Tropes agrees with me. For my own mental health, at the end of The King of Comedy,

Ginger was too good for either of those losers. I was annoyed that she went back to her loutish fiancee. Bobby Cannavale specializes in playing men that no sane woman would ever want to date, much less marry. In The Talk of the Town, when Nora rips poor MIchael a new one because he had Leopold arrested, I wanted to smack her in her mealy little mouth. Don't mind me too much, though, because Michael is played by Ronald Colman,and I'm naturally very protective of him. Every scene with Victor Moore in It Happened on Fifth Avenue fills me with rage. It doesn't help that his character is a sanctimonious, hypocritical, entitled squatter who is treated as a saint by everyone else, but Moore has one of the most punchable faces ever, combined with that creepy leer and mumbly speech. I find I can't enjoy the Astaire/Rogers musical Swing Time because of him.

Down to Earth is cute, but definitely flawed. I'd recommend it only to absolute diehard Rita Hayworth fans. As for other notable Hayworth musicals, I'll admit Cover Girl didn't do much for me (I really hated the sexist undertones and what an unsupportive jerk Gene Kelly's character was), and I really hated You'll Never Get Rich (Hayworth is such a haughty, fickle bitch, you'd swear she was the "other woman", and Fred Astaire acts like a whipped puppy throughout). My favorite Hayworth musical is You Were Never Lovelier. Frothy and goofy? Sure, but it's done so well, and she and Astaire dance gorgeously together.

Sorry to change the subject, but I've noticed an interesting double standard regarding two similar characters in two different movies. Eve Harrington from All About Eve is universally agreed to be an irredeemable villain, and rightly so. She's a calculating, two-faced, backstabbing, ungrateful, ruthless little social climber who wants to a successful actress right now, and is willing to cheat, hoodwink, blackmail, and screw over (or just plain screw) anyone to get what she wants. Then there's deluded, self-impressed, quite dangerous nutcase Rupert Pupkin from The King of Comedy, who wants to be a famous comic right now, so he kidnaps his favorite late-night talk show host, holds him hostage, and basically blackmails and terrorizes his way onto TV. I think that Rupert is just as ruthless and entitled as Eve. Yet I am amazed at how so many people root against Eve, yet cheer Rupert on. I've read an alarming number of reviews defending Rupert, some claiming that he is a "hero for underdogs", that he's a "kinder, gentler Travis Bickle" (damning with faint praise if ever I heard it), that "all he needs is a shot". Eve gets all the well-deserved vitriol, but Rupert is seen as misunderstood and sympathetic. The hell, I say. Rupert's no hero, he's a deranged loser of the highest order who stalked, terrorized and kidnapped an innocent man who did him absolutely no wrong. He's a basement-dwelling, bottomless pit of narcissism with delusions of grandeur and who believes that the world owes him something just for being alive. History has been shaped for the worst by people like Rupert Pupkin. People like that are not to be pitied and admired, they should be treated with disdain and extreme caution. My point is, Rupert's no better or different than Eve, so why are so many people more eager to view him in a positive light? Is it because Eve is a woman and not "likable"? When male characters are unlikable, they are praised for being complex. Female characters? Not as much.

Here's the weird thing: Aidan Quinn doesn't have that charismatic "pop" that's essential for leading men, and he tends to get cast as real stiff-necks… but damned if there isn't something about him I can't take my eyes off of! I don't know what it is, maybe it's the stolid dependability he emanates. That, or those pretty blue eyes (I'm a sucker for nice eyes)...

Louis Jourdan was a very versatile actor: so charming in Gigi, and so caddish in Letter From an Unknown Woman and Madame Bovary. He had quite a life, too. He was a member of the French Resistance, was married for over 60 years to his childhood sweetheart, and his only son died at 29. Rest in peace, Mr. Jourdan.

I didn't like Pitch Perfect for a myriad of stupid reasons, one of them being Beca's satellite love interest blithely claiming that The Breakfast Club had "the greatest happy ending ever". Okay, 1. I hate The Breakfast Club, but I've already shared that UO, and 2. I can think of a thousand happy movie endings that are head and shoulders above the ending to The Breakfast Club! Singin' in the Rain, The Iron Giant, Monsters, Inc., The Princess Bride, Random Harvest, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Bridget Jones's Diary, Sixteen Candles, The Apartment, and those are just a few off the top of my head!

My Scrubs UO is that I grew to loathe Dr. Cox. I thought he was a hateful, despicable, self-righteous bully, and his treatment of Elliot made my skin crawl.

Me, too. I think he's talentless, witless misogynist. So, "in fifty years, we'll all be chicks", eh, Adam? As a woman, I have to ask: What the ever-loving fuck is wrong with that, you ignorant jackass?!

I'm glad others agree that Dean's acting hasn't aged well. I think Rebel Without a Cause is overwrought, overrated, and kind of goofy. Splendor in the Grass is a much better film about teen angst and parental friction. Furthermore, we all like to say "better to burn out than fade away", but I think that's a little unfair and not even entirely true. John Wayne, Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Audrey Hepburn, Katherine Hepburn, and Paul Newman are just a handful of actors (I can think of a bunch more) who died after aged 60 and are still considered legends. I'm sure if you'd asked them, certain celebrities who died young would have said they'd like a few more years on this earth.

Agreed. I'm learning to be okay with asshole protagonists, but when the show tries to frame them as lovable, awesome, or completely in the right, that's what I take issue with. For me it works best the story isn't in the least bit preachy, is presented in a funny manner, and they still don't lose sight of who the protagonists are (movies like Kind Hearts and Coronets and Trouble in Paradise come to mind), or if the antiheroes are surrounded by people little better than they are (Vanity Fair, The Last Seduction). Hmmm, I've noticed that movies and books seem to do this better.

I couldn't get through The Pirate, either. Gene Kelly in brownface acting like a creeper (moreso than usual), Judy Garland behaving like a shrill idiot, piles of noise and "whimsy", it was just too much for me. When MGM musicals were good, they were damn near magical. When they were bad? They were baaaaaaaaad. Yolanda and the Thief also suffers from too much whimsy, a clunky plot, and one of the dumbest protagonists I've ever seen in a movie (seriously, Yolanda? You really think your guardian angel just makes phone calls and sets up appointments to see you instead of, you know, appearing right before you?!). Poor Lucille Bremer, she was a good dancer, but couldn't act hot in the Sahara. The only thing Yolanda and the Thief has going for it is "Coffee Time". I'd put it under the heading of "Fred Astaire's Greatest Number from One of His Worst Movies"*. No joke, it sucks you in, and I dare any of you not to clap along. *I say "One of His Worst Movies" because I'd sooner watch Yolanda and the Thief over, say, The Belle of New York (even gentlemanly Astaire thought it was a steaming turd).