Monday, April 16, 2007

(re)discovering beets and asparagus, and other tales of taste

So, you know how there's that idea that your taste buds change every twelve years? That, for example, if you hated Brussels sprouts as a kid, you might want to try them again as an adult because you just might love them? Well, after this weekend, I'm wondering if the same can be said about movies.

If you had asked me at the beginning of 2007 how I felt about B-movies, horror movies, and the like, I would have explained that I don't like violence, thank you, and told the story of how I had to stop watching Casino to throw up. Literally. (I know, I know, Casino is neither B nor horror, but to me it was all so much blood and guts and therefore unwatchable.)

However, two recent viewing experiences have made me wonder whether my tastes have expanded. First, I watched The Descent with friends and, after getting over my inital squeamishness, decided it was one of the most fun movies I'd seen in a long time. I mean, it was creepy and scary, and I'll probably never willingly enter a cave again, but it was also hilariously funny and full of parodies of the horror movie genre. I enjoyed thinking about how and why the director did what he did.

Then, yesterday, Russell talked me into seeing Grindhouse, the new double-feature by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. It was amazing. Seriously. The most fun I've had at a movie for a long, long time. As soon as it was over, I announced to Russell that we'd be seeing it again. As we walked home, I chattered about how much I loved the first movie, "Planet Terror," and how funny the trailers were, and didn't he love the second movie ("Death Proof"), and wasn't Rose McGowan awesome, and what about Marley Shelton and...

So, yeah, pass the Brussels sprouts!

3 comments:

Steph said...

I am so glad you liked the new movie Grindhouse! I was pondering on whether or not to go see it but now I am going too! I also think the movie with the boy on house arrest that sees his neighbor kill the girl...well I forget the name of the movie...but it looks good too!

Austin said...

I went into Grindhouse expecting to hate the first half (Robert Rodriguez's contribution) but love the second half (Quentin Tarantino's). That's basically been my experience with work by those two directors in the past, so I didn't expect any change with this film.

As it turned out, I was very entertained by the cheese-fest (I hate that term) that was Planet Terror and bored to death with the talk-talk-talk-talk-talk-talk of Death Proof. Sure, the last chase-scenes were pretty cool, but was all that girl-talk necessary? The car scene on the way to the bar near the beginning seemed to go on and on and on and on... And then there was the car scene with the second group of women, and the cafe scene with that group...

Let's just say I think Quentin was trying to prove to everyone that he writes dialog well, and that thirty or forty minutes could have been cut out of Gring House, easily.

Shana Banana said...

all i know about this movie is that i contributed to it somewhat with my infamously difficult-to-pronounce name!

:) really enjoying your blog, jen