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sarea
Tonight we saw what was possibly the worst. movie. ever. Okay, maybe not ever, as there are plenty bad movies out there, but it really ranks up there. Or down there, depending on how you look at it. It was a stinker. We couldn't stay through the whole thing and had to leave. What movie, you ask? It was The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. I was ready to go 5 min. after the movie started, but I was doped up on Dayquil (I'd like to visit Jade JUST ONCE without getting sick) and slept through bits of it. I figured I wasn't enjoying it because I was missing parts, but then Jade turned to me and said, "I want to kill myself and so does Robbie," and they hadn't slept through any of it (poor them). It turns out we were ALL ready to leave 5 min. in, but were thinking the others might be enjoying it or that we weren't giving it enough of a chance. Forrest stayed, but it appears that even he didn't like it. And people, he even likes movies like Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever. That's how bad it was.
The four of us do not have similar tastes in movies. Maybe in a very general sense, but often we'll have differing viewpoints about whether or not a movie is good, or how good it was compared to something else, etc. So for ALL of us to dislike the movie, enough to walk out of the theater before it ends? Quite unusual. And tells you something about the movie.
From the trailers, I thought it was a silly Bill Murray comedy, and was willing to give it a shot. "Wes Anderson" meant nothing to me, though now it is seared into my brain as someone whose work I will avoid like the plague in future. I have hated/disliked every film of his that I've seen. I hated Rushmore (I know a lot of people love that one, including Robbie -- see, we're all coming from different viewpoints!), was extremely underimpressed with The Royal Tenenbaums, and now have had an hour and a half of my life sucked away by the terrible Life Aquatic.
You know who else I'm done with? Owen Wilson. He's never done much for me, but I liked him in Zoolander. Every other thing he's ever done has looked utterly stupid and I've managed to avoid most of it. Now I will make it a certainty.
Also, we rented Queen of the Damned and Wrong Turn, for the prettiness. Stuart Townsend in QotD, and Desmond Harrington in WT. In fact, we also recently rented Ghost Ship to satisfy our DH crush, and it was a passably entertaining, if you like that sort of movie. The little girl from A Series of Unfortunate Events is also in it, and I have to say, it has one of the best/creepiest horror movie openings I've seen.
And oh, I know how much you all have missed my Alias commenting. Well, here we go...
Alias: Authorized Personnel Only
*pulls hair*
That about sums up my reaction to this 2-hour season opener. It reminded me of the old Alias. The old BAD Alias, that is, not the old GOOD Alias.
The whole APO (one letter removed from being dog food, which is really rather fitting) organization is so contrived it's embarrassing. And ridiculous. But you know what, I'm willing to look past it (to a point). They realized that last year sucked eggs, and they needed to start fresh, clear the slate, gather the troops and regroup. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and let them do that, no matter how lameass I think it is. But there were just too many other problems to let it go completely.
* Nadia: Is she in or out? Traumatized by her experiences or not? One minute she's dropped out of intelligence completely, telling Syd she "can't" do it anymore, and the next she's accepted an invite to APO, all smiles? Because of one mission? This needed to be far more drawn out.
* Syd/Vaughn: OMG this was possibly the worst offense, but there were so many I really shouldn't give it the crown. They realized that Syd and Vaughn getting together immediately after the events of the last season was stupid, too quick, and not earned. They contrived breaking them up, which I also thought was dumb -- I mean, if you're going to have them passionately embrace in the season finale, if you're going to go there, then just fucking go there. Don't take it back in the season premiere by telling us that's what you're doing, because you're too lazy to do it right. But then, after that, to allow Syd and Vaughn to sleep together again, after one stupid mission???????????? Now you're just being ludicrous. This entire relationship is so lameass and so J.J. Abrams.
* Yeah, like no one is going to notice that every "inner circle" CIA agent associated with SD-6 just coincidentally quit at the same time.
* They're even giving Sydney the same fucking cover story of working at a bank???? OMG PLEASE. Okay, you know what? Yes, the show was best when these people were working in this dynamic, and S1 and S2 were the best of the show. But you can't just -- put them back exactly as they were, as if nothing had ever happened!!!!! These characters, whether you like it or not, have moved beyond that. To contrive to bring them together again, exactly as they were, just makes the show look bad. This is now stale. This is you grasping pathetically for the glory years. Take what you have and make it good in a NEW, FRESH way. Jeez.
* Seriously, everyone is in APO except Weiss? Clearly he has to be brought in at some point, because why else is he in the OPENING CREDITS??? Why keep him on and not David Anders, when they never fucking DO anything with Weiss??? Don't get me wrong, I love Weiss. But they never do anything with him, and he has far less reason to be a regular on the show than someone like Sark, imho.
* If they're going to go there w/ Sloane, you know who else could go there? Yes, Sark, of course. It'd be so awesome for him to be part of the CIA crew. But you know why they won't do it? Because Sark is a threat to Vaughn. Everyone around Sydney right now isn't a threat to Vaughn, and Sark would be. Even if they didn't write it in intentionally, there would be sparks, because every interaction between the two of them would be fraught with tension, and they can't risk that. Because then the interest would be around Syd/Sark, and they can't have that. They need to support their little pussy boy, Vaughn.
* Vaughn losing it and burning his house down because of Lauren? So fucking stupid.
* Who the hell is looking after Dixon's kids?
* Best part of the episode was Marshall, and not just because he mentioned Sark. :D "Am I dead?" Heehee.
* WTF Irina put a hit out on Sydney? WHY? Or is this just something she and Jack cooked up, but because Lena Olin isn't coming back, they had to have some alternative story of her really being dead? Jade and I find it incredibly hard to believe that if Jack did kill Irina, that he wouldn't have extracted some information out of her (like why she was trying to kill Sydney, if in fact she was) first.
* Oh, great. Now we know where the Syd/Nadia rift is going to come from. Obviously Nadia is going to find out that Jack killed Irina, and that Syd knew but covered it up, and then it's going to be this big old thing a la Faith going evil, and Sloane is going to be Nadia's Mayor.
* That's how they 'concluded' the whole Rambaldi thing? They're going to do exactly what they did last season, which is to say that Sloane and Nadia found whatever it was in the time that we saw them last, turned it over to the government, and that's the end? WTFever. Such lazy storytelling. I can only look past it because of the whole slate wiping thing. Ugh.
* I can't believe the fact of Jack killing Irina was the only thing Syd found in the vault. What was on that sheet of paper that had her name at the top, with the year 1974 or whatever? Because the Irina thing also does not explain any of the things Lauren was saying when she was telling Syd about it ... something about the coincidence of her and Nadia both being agents, about Syd's memory coming back, about how the CIA of course knew how to find Syd during those missing years, etc.
* I love how Dixon was Syd's partner again, only HE WASN'T AT ALL. All her missions were conducted with Jack or Vaughn. So lame. "We're going to recognize in this episode what we were doing wrong all last year, but we're not actually going to do anything to change any of it."
* GIVE ME SOME DAVID ANDERS IN THE NEXT EPISODE OR YOU'RE GOING BY WAY OF WES ANDERSON, J.J. ABRAMS. *soothes self with icon*
Tomorrow we're going to the OC to hang with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
drusillageek, and maybe play some miniature golf. I am so good at it, just ask anyone.
The four of us do not have similar tastes in movies. Maybe in a very general sense, but often we'll have differing viewpoints about whether or not a movie is good, or how good it was compared to something else, etc. So for ALL of us to dislike the movie, enough to walk out of the theater before it ends? Quite unusual. And tells you something about the movie.
From the trailers, I thought it was a silly Bill Murray comedy, and was willing to give it a shot. "Wes Anderson" meant nothing to me, though now it is seared into my brain as someone whose work I will avoid like the plague in future. I have hated/disliked every film of his that I've seen. I hated Rushmore (I know a lot of people love that one, including Robbie -- see, we're all coming from different viewpoints!), was extremely underimpressed with The Royal Tenenbaums, and now have had an hour and a half of my life sucked away by the terrible Life Aquatic.
You know who else I'm done with? Owen Wilson. He's never done much for me, but I liked him in Zoolander. Every other thing he's ever done has looked utterly stupid and I've managed to avoid most of it. Now I will make it a certainty.
Also, we rented Queen of the Damned and Wrong Turn, for the prettiness. Stuart Townsend in QotD, and Desmond Harrington in WT. In fact, we also recently rented Ghost Ship to satisfy our DH crush, and it was a passably entertaining, if you like that sort of movie. The little girl from A Series of Unfortunate Events is also in it, and I have to say, it has one of the best/creepiest horror movie openings I've seen.
And oh, I know how much you all have missed my Alias commenting. Well, here we go...
Alias: Authorized Personnel Only
*pulls hair*
That about sums up my reaction to this 2-hour season opener. It reminded me of the old Alias. The old BAD Alias, that is, not the old GOOD Alias.
The whole APO (one letter removed from being dog food, which is really rather fitting) organization is so contrived it's embarrassing. And ridiculous. But you know what, I'm willing to look past it (to a point). They realized that last year sucked eggs, and they needed to start fresh, clear the slate, gather the troops and regroup. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and let them do that, no matter how lameass I think it is. But there were just too many other problems to let it go completely.
* Nadia: Is she in or out? Traumatized by her experiences or not? One minute she's dropped out of intelligence completely, telling Syd she "can't" do it anymore, and the next she's accepted an invite to APO, all smiles? Because of one mission? This needed to be far more drawn out.
* Syd/Vaughn: OMG this was possibly the worst offense, but there were so many I really shouldn't give it the crown. They realized that Syd and Vaughn getting together immediately after the events of the last season was stupid, too quick, and not earned. They contrived breaking them up, which I also thought was dumb -- I mean, if you're going to have them passionately embrace in the season finale, if you're going to go there, then just fucking go there. Don't take it back in the season premiere by telling us that's what you're doing, because you're too lazy to do it right. But then, after that, to allow Syd and Vaughn to sleep together again, after one stupid mission???????????? Now you're just being ludicrous. This entire relationship is so lameass and so J.J. Abrams.
* Yeah, like no one is going to notice that every "inner circle" CIA agent associated with SD-6 just coincidentally quit at the same time.
* They're even giving Sydney the same fucking cover story of working at a bank???? OMG PLEASE. Okay, you know what? Yes, the show was best when these people were working in this dynamic, and S1 and S2 were the best of the show. But you can't just -- put them back exactly as they were, as if nothing had ever happened!!!!! These characters, whether you like it or not, have moved beyond that. To contrive to bring them together again, exactly as they were, just makes the show look bad. This is now stale. This is you grasping pathetically for the glory years. Take what you have and make it good in a NEW, FRESH way. Jeez.
* Seriously, everyone is in APO except Weiss? Clearly he has to be brought in at some point, because why else is he in the OPENING CREDITS??? Why keep him on and not David Anders, when they never fucking DO anything with Weiss??? Don't get me wrong, I love Weiss. But they never do anything with him, and he has far less reason to be a regular on the show than someone like Sark, imho.
* If they're going to go there w/ Sloane, you know who else could go there? Yes, Sark, of course. It'd be so awesome for him to be part of the CIA crew. But you know why they won't do it? Because Sark is a threat to Vaughn. Everyone around Sydney right now isn't a threat to Vaughn, and Sark would be. Even if they didn't write it in intentionally, there would be sparks, because every interaction between the two of them would be fraught with tension, and they can't risk that. Because then the interest would be around Syd/Sark, and they can't have that. They need to support their little pussy boy, Vaughn.
* Vaughn losing it and burning his house down because of Lauren? So fucking stupid.
* Who the hell is looking after Dixon's kids?
* Best part of the episode was Marshall, and not just because he mentioned Sark. :D "Am I dead?" Heehee.
* WTF Irina put a hit out on Sydney? WHY? Or is this just something she and Jack cooked up, but because Lena Olin isn't coming back, they had to have some alternative story of her really being dead? Jade and I find it incredibly hard to believe that if Jack did kill Irina, that he wouldn't have extracted some information out of her (like why she was trying to kill Sydney, if in fact she was) first.
* Oh, great. Now we know where the Syd/Nadia rift is going to come from. Obviously Nadia is going to find out that Jack killed Irina, and that Syd knew but covered it up, and then it's going to be this big old thing a la Faith going evil, and Sloane is going to be Nadia's Mayor.
* That's how they 'concluded' the whole Rambaldi thing? They're going to do exactly what they did last season, which is to say that Sloane and Nadia found whatever it was in the time that we saw them last, turned it over to the government, and that's the end? WTFever. Such lazy storytelling. I can only look past it because of the whole slate wiping thing. Ugh.
* I can't believe the fact of Jack killing Irina was the only thing Syd found in the vault. What was on that sheet of paper that had her name at the top, with the year 1974 or whatever? Because the Irina thing also does not explain any of the things Lauren was saying when she was telling Syd about it ... something about the coincidence of her and Nadia both being agents, about Syd's memory coming back, about how the CIA of course knew how to find Syd during those missing years, etc.
* I love how Dixon was Syd's partner again, only HE WASN'T AT ALL. All her missions were conducted with Jack or Vaughn. So lame. "We're going to recognize in this episode what we were doing wrong all last year, but we're not actually going to do anything to change any of it."
* GIVE ME SOME DAVID ANDERS IN THE NEXT EPISODE OR YOU'RE GOING BY WAY OF WES ANDERSON, J.J. ABRAMS. *soothes self with icon*
Tomorrow we're going to the OC to hang with
drusillageek, and maybe play some miniature golf. I am so good at it, just ask anyone.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 01:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 02:45 pm (UTC)<3
no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 07:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 07:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 08:37 pm (UTC)I do have BIG problems with Nadia, though...What teh hell? Vowing to kill the man who killed a mother she didn't even know? that's cool...And you just KNOW that there are going to be big issues with that later.
And where the hell IS Sark? They mentioned him, but we didn't even get a sneaky peek!
Marshall is the best part of the show. Especially him saying that he had breakfast with Sark. Hilarious.
---Am looking forward to your ALIAS updates, they are always awesome :)
no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 10:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-07 06:55 am (UTC)Gawd. Seriously. Last night's episode just. plain. SUCKED! Ugh. Right now, judging by that first episode alone, I'd say S3 isn't looking quite so sucky after all.
*is not pleased*
no subject
Date: 2005-01-07 07:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-07 11:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-07 03:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-08 08:04 am (UTC):-l
no subject
Date: 2005-01-08 08:09 am (UTC)And yes, Dixon was Syd's partner in S1 and also part of S2 up until Phase One. Then they made him an assistant director of the CIA in S3, and now in APO they say that he's Syd's partner again, that he's back in the field where he belongs. However, in the entire episode, he did not really serve as her partner even once, which is what I was saying was lameass. :p
no subject
Date: 2005-01-08 08:11 am (UTC)I know!! And you know this is going to be this big drama thing between the Bristows and the Sloanes.
Heehee, I totally missed the breakfast reference. I must have been laughing too much from Marshall saying that he's visited Sark twice just to see a familiar face. :))
no subject
Date: 2005-01-08 08:15 am (UTC)That is so sadly true. Sigh. Also, thanks re: the nom about PP! I hadn't realized until you pointed it out to me. Looks like it's up against some pretty tough competitors. I don't give it much of a shot, but I really appreciate that it was nominated. : )
no subject
Date: 2005-01-08 06:57 pm (UTC):X :X :X