Okay, I’m sure by now that I have made a few of you wary. Yeah, I make odd t-shirts. Yeah, I’m slightly obsessed with music. Yeah, I make my own freaking wine. And yes, I write anything from romance, to mainstream fiction to horror.
So why not just prove how weird I can be? (Believe me– aced the nerd test. So what if I watched every single episode of Star Trek The Next Generation? Okay, more than once? And yes, my good friend Christy and I get together for entire days of ” Anime Theater” Have you watched Saiyuki??)
I’m a Monty Python Fan. Seriously. My dad used to sneak me out of my room on Saturday nights to watch Benny Hill and MP. He had to sneak because my mother did not think the shows appropriate for a kid. Well, they weren’t, but my dad found my amusment entertaining and he hated laughing alone. Besides, someone had to help him eat those bags of Reese’s and Snickers.
I was mature for my age but to this day, I still find British humor a good fit for my sillier palate. And though it pains me to admit, every now and then that Benny Hill ditty will crawl into my head and bop around a bit. Sad, aint it?
But the love of MP grew with me and eventually included my brother and sisters as well. My poor, poor mother put up with year upon year of Holy Grail movie nights and to this day, we proudly wear black knight t-shirts, order shrubberies and look for newt morphing spells.
Good times.
There are a lot of movies I will rewatch if I happen along them. Interesting enough, I don’t usually enjoy violent films. I like psychological horror over “kill all the stupid teenager movies.” I love good dramas like The Shipping News, but then I also get a kick out of Eight Heads in a Duffel Bag and I laughed myself silly in Bad Boys 2. “Do you ever rub your leather?”
Suppose it’s the moment or the mood.
There are violent movies that suck me in every time and they’re usually by Quentin Tarantino. I know! I know! Doesn’t fit with my “love everyone personality” but we all have dark sides. (grin)
One is Kill Bill Volume 1. I have to admit, I haven’t watched Kill Bill 2 yet because damn, I don’t want it to be over. Vol. 1 is the oddest, most stylistic entertaining film! Doesn’t matter what scene I hit, I get sucked in for the duration. I love the main character, “the bride” played by Uma Thruman– ex moniker Black Mamba. Uma rocks now.
Okay. People complain about the violence. Yeah, it’s bad. Disgusting, over the top bad — sometimes outright sadistic and gut twisting bad. To me, it’s so tongue-in-cheek it adds a distinct flavor, a sort of in-your-face homage to old, good anime movies or the Kung Fu theater shows I snuck out of my room to watch. It’s supposed to be over-the-top. That Quentin has dark humor down.
My husband hadn’t seen the movie and the other night, he came in on the gory anime sequence in the middle. Frankly, I’m surprised he stayed. If I hadn’t seen the beginning, seen our vengeful heroine’s fight to come back from utter hell, I might not have stayed either. But this scene sets up my other favorite character in the movie so nicely, I ignored the ick factor. And the gore gets worse, culminating in one mad, frenzied and yes, again ‘tongue-in-cheek yet strangely funny with its Happy Days style music in the background” scene that boggles the mind. Orchestrating that scene alone… wow.
I love, love love the intelligent dialogue and the mood. It’s a clevor movie. It’s not one where you have to think, you don’t cry (I’m a movie bawler– I’m talking the whole tissue box kind.) and it’s not difficult to follow the theme. Revenge, plain and simple. But if you pay attention, there are real hilarious gems in there. Notice Uma on the plane? heh heh
And since you know I’m audibly inclined, ah… the music. I can’t believe I don’t yet own this soundtrack. That scene in Okinawa. The symbolism, the return to every Japanese fighting movie I ever watched on late night TV and the incredibly melodramatic yet poignant spaghetti western music. Gets me. The cool rock numbers, the campy and wildly entertaining female muscians playing music that would easily be at home in some sixties beach scene. Then you get that piece with exciting crescenedos that showcase the utter stillness of the ultimate fight scene between “the bride” and O-Ren Ishii. What is the name of that piece?
So, if you can bring yourself to see the violence as a part of the style, let yourself get beyond it to the meat of the whole entertaining package, you’ll have yourself a rollicking good time.
Wow. I need to find myself a “I have vermin to kill” t-shirt.