At the recommendation of grendel317 and dream_wind, I added Cold Comfort Farm to our Netflix queue. fosteronfilm was dubious as apparently he’d seen the 1968 version and it had traumatized him as a wee boy. “Orphaned girl goes to live with scary relatives!” he cautioned. But I knew y’all wouldn’t point me at a dreary and depressing tale.
And my faith was not misplaced. I loved Cold Comfort Farm! Quirky and funny, and yes, Rufus Sewell was uber hawt. I drool in his general direction. I had some trouble with the accents, occasionally squinting at the screen (because that helps, ffft) when I couldn’t parse the dialogue and then turning to Matthew with a “what’d he say?” ‘Course Matthew is worse at accents than I am, but that’s the virtue of DVDs: pause and re-playable. And, of course, Kate Beckinsale was adorable. I highly recommend it, and gobs of thanks to grendel317 and dream_wind for the suggestion.
Craving more Rufus Sewell, we then got out Dark City to re-watch. That’s simply an excellent SF-noir movie. The voiceover is unfortunate (are there any good voiceovers?) as is the casting of Keifer Sutherland, but those negatives are more than adequately compensated for by Rufus Sewell (and his bare rump in the opening scene), Jennifer Connelley–who both sizzles in her torch song numbers and pulls off loving/scared/concerned wife with total credibility–and The Strangers, deliciously-dark-and disturbing bad guys. And really, the set, ambiance, and mood should be credited as characters too, since they’re as tangible and salient as the people in this film.
Rufus Sewell. Yum. Might be time to re-watch Dangerous Beauty. Matthew suggested I see She Creature, but I need more convincing.
Writing Stuff
I think I’ve come up with a topic/theme to blog about for my Writer’s Vanity guest blogger spot tomorrow: “Why I Write and the Sense of Wonder.” Just gotta squeeze all the thought fragments together and come up with a coherent bit of wordage. Whoa, didja see that hamster go? Erm, yeah.
New Words:
– 1300 on a new YA novel. Going to try this again. Meep. Just taking it one page sentence at a time.
– Been letting my backbrain dwell on where to take the picture book. This is harder than I expected, and I expected it would be pretty damn hard. Oof.
Received:
– Thumbs up on another query/pitch to Writing-World.com. Now I have to write the article.
500/day
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Matthew suggested I see She Creature, but I need more convincing.
After seeing what She Creature is about, I think I can understand the objections. A horror movie with a mermaid…eech (ok, I’m too squeamish for that kind of thing, whatever the horror movie, I end up hiding under the cushions because I can’t bear the suspense…)
I’m right there with you. I’m a total wimp when it comes to horror movies–which always seems to astonish folks who’ve read my horror fiction. But I’m usually okay with camp and traditional monster movies, like vampires and mummies. Except I don’t know if She Creature qualifies as either of those.
Hum, I’m okay with vampires and mummies, but I got the feeling this was more edge-of-your-seat horror (or in my case, under-the-seat).
She-Creature is scary and atmospheric until about 3/4 of the way through the movie, until it devolves into a stupid monster movie with a ridiculous ending. But the first half? Very nice.
Well, that’s better than I would’ve expected, which is stupid monster movie from the very start . . .
Glad you enjoyed it! I agree with your evaluation of Dark City, too. Richard O’Brien does creepy quite well.
Thanks again for the recommendation! I doubt I would’ve seen it otherwise.
just did an imdb search. sewell is pretty. oh and you might appreciate this: today is pierce brosnan’s birthday. he’s 53.
53? Is he really? Huh. Well, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. He was in his 20s during Remington Steele. Happy Birthday to Pierce!
Don’t forget he was the Evil Hottie in A Knight’s Tale. Heheheh.. Evil hottie. 🙂
I know I saw A Knight’s Tale, but I’m drawing a complete blank on it. Hmph.
Ah, Rufus! I just watched Tristan + Isolde (meh), Knight’s Tale (yay!), and She Creature (AHAHAHA!!!) within a week. He’s a really cool actor. I’d forgotten he was in Dark City!
She Creature is actually a really, really cool little monster movie. I liked it a lot. For what it was (a low-budget monster flick) it was very enjoyable. It’s worth checking out at some point . . . it had some really good moments.
Thumbs up from you for She Creature, huh? I may have to cave and give it a try.
If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend Dangerous Beauty (despite the rather unfortunate and inappropriate title). Sewell is superb in it, and it’s just an amazing movie, one of my very favorites of all time.
Oh! It’s also got Oliver Platt, Fred Ward, and Catherine McCormack in it. I really should see it!
I ♥ Dark City! I love Jennifer Connelly and, like you, slobber a bit over Rufus Sewell. Did you see him in A Knight’s Tale? (Corny but fun movie!) What about Tristan & Isolde? I think that’s coming up in my Netflix queue…
I’m pretty sure I saw A Knight’s Tale but I’m drawing a blank on anything about it. But I liked Tristan & Isolde.
Aw, shucky-darn.
I personally think that Cousin Amos’ sermon to the Quivering Brethren is Ian McKellen’s finest hour. Even better than “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!”
I find it’s one of the best depression lifters ever.
I did my fair share of giggles during that scene! Thanks again for recommending Cold Comfort Farm!