Movie Watcher

Seem to be in movie-watching mode lately.

Caught a before noon showing of "Hairspray" on Saturday. Of course my goal now is to win a lottery ticket to see the show on Broadway so I can compare.

Since my roommate was in the traveling production of the show he already shared some differences - like the addition of the seduction scene. He also told me that those sitting on either side of Ricki Lake as agents in the audience at the end were writers/creators of the musical. I also read that one of the songs that they play over the end credits is sung by Ricki Lake, Nicky Blonsky and Marissa Jaret Winokur (who was the original Tracy on Broadway).

It is a fun movie, but I was disappointed that the relationship between Tracy's parents never advanced to a kiss. They do on stage - according to my roommate. Wonder if it was a studio choice or the actors... I was pleasantly surprised with James Marsden's skillz in the movie. Admittedly, when he first started showing up in movies I thought of him as just a "pretty boy" but more and more that pretty boy is showing he has talent to boot! ;) Amanda Bynes just seemed a bit out of place with her character - not quite like Penny in the original movie, nor (from what I hear) like Penny on stage so once again don't know whether it was a choice by "the powers that be" to tone her down or was it just her?

Speaking of Hairspray actors...My parents heard that Christopher Walken grew up in Astoria. His dad even ran a bakery there - trying to figure out where that used to be and if it was even close to where I live.

Sunday after I volunteered I battled the pouring rain to see "Once". Have been wanting to see this movie ever since I saw the trailer before "The Waitress" (if you still haven't seen this movie - GO! Run! NOW!) in May.

As a whole I'm glad I went and saw it. The music is well used - but some kind of have the same emotional arc. They start out soft and build to this yelling and then taper off again. The lyrics are always different though! :) I think the aspect of the storyline that really impressed me was the strength of the female lead. She stuck to what was right - no matter. And made the male lead better for it.

Tuesday I spotted an ad on craigslist asking for people to come see a movie (for free) that hadn't been screened anywhere yet. They wanted people (specifically over 25 - the movie took place in the 70s so I suppose they wanted people to somewhat get all the movie references and what not) to come in and give their opinion on the rough version they had so far. Saying that the director and producers would also be present.

The screening was in the same building on the NYU campus that I saw the short film I was in screened. No directors or producers were introduced but we were told that we were going to be viewing an avid of the movie. Which means no sound editing has been done, nor color correction, among other things. Basically we were looking at a movie sans spit and polish.

The movie was "Multiple Sarcasms" starring Timothy Hutton, Dana Delany, (they played husband and wife, just like in Kidnapped - wonder which was filmed first?) Mira Sorvino, Stockard Channing (who looks like she may have had a bit of work done) and Mario Van Peebles. I was expecting good things....

They gave us sheets to fill out at the end of the show asking who our favorite or not so favorite characters, parts of the movie, etc were. What could be done to fix it or did anything need improved?

On the surface the original plot line presented seemed promising and then somewhere along the middle it kind of couldn't decide what kind of movie it should be. A man grappling with his choices in sort of a midlife crisis starts to write a play and all of a sudden it switches to an independent movie version of a romantic comedy. Much like Tim Hutton's character - the plot line was lost and wanting... The movie has so much potential though so I'm hoping they got useful feedback and can rework accordingly. Will be interesting to see the finished product - or read reviews on it. According to IMDB, it is set to release in 2008.

And tonight I saw "Broken English". Where the lead character played by Parker Posey happens to be named, Nora. Although most of her character traits were nothing like me...

After seeing a scattered plotline in Multiple Sarcasms it was nice to see a movie with a plot line that although maybe a little too neat in the end - was solid. Parker was steps away from portraying a character that you just wanted to shake and say - SNAP OUT OF IT! But she managed to just hover near that territory so you still wanted her to find what she was looking for instead of being indifferent towards the character. I don't know that I'd recommend seeing it in the theater - but put it on your future rental list. (Even if it is just to watch the all to brief appearance of Justin Theroux's character - well acted, but made me wonder what kind of personality Justin has in real life.)

Now to watch my rental (To Have and Have Not - Bogey & Bacall's first movie together) that's been sitting for over a week!

Oh. And memorize lines...