Kick-Ass: B (Movie) and Proud of It

I’ve watched Kick-Ass in the cinema right after it was released, and I was thoroughly entertained. I nearly titled this post “Nicholas Cage: B (Movie) and Proud of It” because the last movie of Cage’s that I enjoyed was also a self-aware B-movie, Ghost Rider.

Now, there’s a funny thing about descriptors, that is touched in Philosophy of Language; the part where the reason they had received the name no longer applies. For instance, you might have got the term of distance “foot” from a real person’s foot, but if after the measuring was done (12 inches, or 31 centimeters) the measurements had changed, you didn’t then change the “size” it refers to.

Likewise, Kick-Ass enjoys the highest production qualities, and good acting and directing. Yet it’s a B-movie, partly because it makes a conscious choice to be one. Well, I’m unsure that today any movie is a B-movie that is not aware of its status, and it’s always better to embrace it for its full potential than to succumb to it unintentionally.

Revisiting Memories. Re-Watching Gladiator and Braveheart.

Image via Wikipedia

So, my girlfriend lives next to a cinematheque, and watches a lot of films. She does however have some gaps with some more mainstream films, and recently I’ve been trying to close some of those gaps. We’ve watched Gladiator a couple of months back, and Braveheart last weekend. This was also a chance for me to re-watch Braveheart after not watching it for around 7-10 years. Gladiator had been re-watched since the time I’d first watched it, but I also own the DVD.

This is a chance to revisit our memories, when we re-watch an older film, or re-read a favourite book. This is not something we can do with people or occasions, because those interactions have passed, and the memory does change the event, and even changes as time goes on.

Movies, books, and other static media experiences, however, do not change, and remain the same as when we had first watched them. Except that they do not.
The sequence of events is the same, in the film, in the book. But there is no story in a book, there is no story in a film. The story, the relations, the live people, the motives, the emotions; the place where they really live and breathe is within our minds, within our hearts. And as the saying goes, you can’t enter the same river twice (disregarding those who said you have no “unity” so cannot enter it even once ;)) as such, you don’t really read “the same book”. You have different experiences.

Month in Review – November 2009: Purchases and Media.

Well, it’d please you all to know that while I’m not sure what’s going on with Figure Friday, there will be Figure Monthly rolling out next week, for October, and shortly thereafter November, at the very least. This very entry should have gone up earlier this week, but school is putting the crack down, as well as dealing with the public beta of the Hordes wargame which is currently ongoing.

Read on for last month’s media consumption and purchases, which had been relatively light, due to both school and a new girlfriend taking away from my free time. Also, happy birthday to me ;)

Media:

Media Month in Review – October 2009.

So, it’s time to cover what-all I’ve watched/read during the month of October. I’ve went to Icon 2009, the largest Israeli convention of the year, which might get a post of its own. I’ve also begun my third and final year of my B.A., which had been helpful in reading more books.

I am considering every so often perhaps making a post where I give one paragraph to several movies/books I don’t want to talk about at length, but want to give more than a sentence. Opine below.

Uninhibited Media Consumption? Click picture for source.

Read on for my media consumption of lastmonth, which had been quite significant, though I’m not sure if as significant as the spending list. Then again, buying takes less time than consuming what one buys!