wedding crashers

a nice comedy, with a predictable romcom story arc. it seemed to be pretty high on quotable lines, though i couldn’t say for sure, since i don’t tend to repeat movie lines much any more.

snow crash

perhaps not as good as the diamond age, but it still is kind of cool to see how people were imagining the internet/Metaverse back in 1992.

match point

first, let me say that this was a good movie, and quite worth seeing. it’s a story about a bunch of bad (or, at least, not-good) people, much in spirit of closer. now, on to the story.

i hate having to save seats in movie theaters. the presence of jackets to drape over seats mitigates my displeasure somewhat, but not entirely. part of the problem stems from the fact that i don’t particularly like it when people cordon off whole rows (and generally choice rows, at that) for their own personal use. the rest of it is that i don’t like having to constantly field the questions and the glares regarding the seats’ availability.

so, when a man put his jacket down on the two seats directly in front of lea and me, and ingratiatingly requested: “would you be the greatest people in the world, and save these seats?,” i felt no obligation whatsoever to say yes. what could be worse than saving seats for your own friends? oh, that’s right, saving seats for some stranger. that being said, i wasn’t entirely opposed to indicating to anybody who directly asked that the seats were, indeed, taken, if the jacket wasn’t clue enough. so, my response was, “i can’t make any promises.” the man looked confused, since he obviously was expecting an affirmative response, but he didn’t say anything, and just sat down, and saved the seats himself.

about a minute later, a woman came down the aisle, and informed us (lea, myself, and the man in front of us) that her husband had lost his wallet, and that he had been sitting in the seat currently occupied by the jacket of the seat-saving man. after a bit of rummaging, lea discovered the wallet on the floor, and handed it over. the woman gratefully informed her that “now something good will happen to you!” this is all fine and good, a wallet was found, the day is saved. then, however, the seat-saving man uttered, at a decibel level which can not be described as under his breath, that “maybe that will make up for him.” the woman sitting to the man’s right (across the jacket-saved empty seat) showed considerable restraint by checking her laughter to a snide snigger.

so, there you have it. evil seth strikes again — fortunately, however, this time lea footed my karmic bill.

brokeback mountain

this was certainly beautifully shot, but it just doesn’t seem like the movie of the year.

serenity

this doesn’t qualify as a thinking-man’s sci-fi (a la primer), especially given the way the whole “little girl as weapon” thing was left underdeveloped, but it was fun none the less. combined with fever pitch, it made for an enjoyable night of movie-watching.

fever pitch

cute. i guess the combination of nick hornby, the farrelly brothers, drew barrymore and jimmy fallon is bound to end up a little strange, but it was a nice (if not exceptional) romantic comedy.

the diamond age

i read this, once upon a time (i.e. my freshman year in college), but i had forgotten pretty much the entirety of the book. this was my book-for-lea-to-read of the year, and i figured i should probably refresh myself on it (though lea read it before i “checked up on it”). this and snow crash are fun reads (at least, i think snow crash is a fun read … it’s been six years since i’ve read that one, too, and it’s on its way to madison as we speak).