Burningbird

I'm sitting here with what I call a 'dirty margarita'. I learned this one from a restaurant a while back. Instead of salt around the rim, which the bartender considered equivalent to drinking Boones Farm apple wine–with a straw– you get that necessary salty tasty by pouring the margarita straight up with green olives–just like a martini.

Well, I don't have a martini glass, but I can make a mean 30 or so proof margarita, and I throw several green olives at the bottom. It's so much of a better drink, and it's a giggle playing with the olives. When you're drinking margaritas that can melt plastic, it's necessary to have something to do with one's tongue.

I watched two charming movies this week. The first was Monster-in-Law with Jane Fonda as the mother-in-law to be with Jennifer Lopez as the bride. I guess the snooty types would call it 'predictable' but I don't care. I hereby forgive Fonda for selling out the cause of women while she was married to that macho prick (who was a good environmentalist) for so many years. She has finally become a good actor.

The second movie was The Wedding Date with Debra Messing and Dermot Mulroney. A spurned woman hires a male prostitute to be her date at her sister's wedding in England, where her ex-fiance is the best man. Of sure, it's a rip on Pretty Woman, and there's even a couple of scenes that seem to realize this in a tongue-in-cheek manner. ButDermot Mulroney. He would be worth it, even at 3000.00 pounds.

Actually, it was three charming movies this week. A few days ago, I watched a third lovely little movie, this one from Australia: Danny Deckchair. What I liked about it was that it wasn't an Australian movie geared toward the US market. They didn't exaggerate the accent or have all the characters wear hats with the sides pinned up — not to mention knee socks with the khaki shorts. No, this is the story of a man, a dreamer disappointed in life, who decides to attach several helium balloons to his lawn chair during a Bar-b-que. While watching a game on TV, his friends let him go and he flies away, away, until landing in the backyard of a women traffic cop in a place many miles away, where all the people are the type of people we'd like to live with. And then it goes from there.

The people at Rotten Tomatoes absolutely loathed all of them. However, If I only tell you about movies that would impress you, then I'd be marketing myself, rather than being myself, wouldn't I? None of these movies are what you would call great cinema. But then, none of us are what you would call, great people. What's wrong with simple people and simple charms and uncomplicated, gentle giggles–or a little romance?

Or a dirty margarita, and all of the above.

Okay, I've had my break. I've had my brakes, too. (Damn, but I'm a clever chicky.)

Back to explaining regular expressions in the book. I'm in the right state for it now.

I treated myself to a lady night out and went to see the new King Kong. The small neighborhood theater was showing it on one of the smaller screens, and there were two women together in one side, a man by himself in the back, and an older couple behind me, to the left, and that was it.

I sat forward, close to the screen, with a small bag of popcorn and water I brought from home. The seats are actually pretty comfortable but it was cold, so I snuggled under my coat. The sound levels were just right and so was the screen size. As for the movie, I thought it was an excellent adaption of the 1933 classic. The movie was long–three hours–but I wasn't tired until the very end when I creaked to my feet during the ending credits.

Note that what follows could be considered somewhat a spoiler, though reading wouldn't lessen enjoyment of the movie.

I thought Peter Jackson did some things exceptionally well in the movie, and others could have used improvement. For instance, his Kong was magnificent–real and vibrant, and absolutely wonderful. The interaction between him and Ann Darrow (played by Naomi Watts) was easily the most charismatic of the movie, though I consider Adrian Brody to be one of the most sexy men I've seen in movies (outside of Johnny Depp, of course).

I liked Jackson's portrayal of Darrow as a strong woman, capable of caring for herself, possessing of both spirit and a sense of humor. This didn't lessen her need for help to escape, or protection from the giant beasties running around Skull Island. Unlike in the original, she didn't need to be the helpless, screaming woman to make Kong more frightening. The impact of Kong's size was more evident when he had her in his hand and was running with her through the jungle, her being slapped all about by trees and plants.

Darrow and Kong, excellent. At the same time, though, Jackson could have cut out 20 minutes of staring into Watts tear filled blue eyes. At three hours, we could have safely cut at least that much with no impact on the showing. One can only stare at wet, blue eyes for so long before it gets tedious. Jackson did the same thing with Lord of the Rings, too, except there we sat staring at Liv Tyler's tear filled blue eyes. I can only guess that at some time in the past, Jackson must have heard about eyes like 'dew drenched bluebells', because he spends too much time in his movies having us stare at them.

I wasn't particularly enamored with Jackson's interpretation of the character of Carl Denham (played by Jack Black). He crossed a line at some point that made Denham less an obsessed director and more a sociopath. Still, the scene where Darrow crosses to safety, as she passes Denham and the others waiting to trap Kong and he pays her no attention–this after a voyage filled with fulcome compliments and seemingly sincere concern–is one of the most pivotal and best in the entire movie.

I did like Jackson's version of the shipboard members, but where he excelled was with the island natives; his natives were superb. They were otherworldly and horribly frightening–about what one would expect of people forced to live on the edges of the land, because of the fear of what lay on the other side of the wall. The jagged, dangerous and fogged in approach to the island only helped to add to the effect, and I was mesmerized by the scenes. It was wondrous.

I was less impressed with the beasties in the island. The mix of Kong with the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park was, I thought, disappointing. No matter how much he tried, Jackson was not going to be able to get the dinosaurs to be as good as Jurassic. More importantly, though, this was a cheap gimmick the movie did not need. If we consider that King Kong is big because all of the island creatures were big, why would we need dinosaurs?

Big bugs, big bats, King Kong, and a T-Rex: which of these don't fit?

However, Jackson made up for it by the scenes on the boat and back in New York. The scenes in New York were worth going to the movie just to see. In addition, there was enough action, and heights, to have me jerking about in my chair and probably providing entertainment for all of those seated behind me. I'm with AKMA in I almost hurt myself against my seat trying to pull back from the scenes on the skyscrapers.

The original King Kong is still, after all these years, an excellent movie; yes even with the claymation awkwardness. I was wary about another new Kong, after that abysmal version from the 1980's. I was concerned that the story would be lost in the effects. However, Jackson's King Kong did not disappoint. On the contrary: it made for a delightful lady night out. I hope, though, that in his next movie, Jackson holds the dew drenched bluebells.