I'm a moron--I keep checking my blog like I think someone may have updated it it for me while I sit here without a thought in my head.
It's just been a busy week. Lots of work, lots of COOKING--I've spent more time in the kitchen in the past five days than in the past five months, I swear. Stupid diet, making me cook. And Todd came home from Ohio on Tuesday night and he wants to spend all this TIME with me. I guess he missed me or something.
We went to see War of the Worlds last night, and I enjoyed it. I am a big fan of 1950s sci-fi movies, the good ones as well as the cheesy ones, and I love the 1953 WOTW--awesome effects for a movie of that era, check it out if you've never seen it. This one was also good...I have never really liked most Spielberg movies; the way he tells a story usually leaves me feeling cold and manipulated, but I liked this one.
The parts I thought were the most effective were the beginning scenes of the lightning, the people of the neighborhood pouring out into the streets, and then the alien walker-thingies coming up out of the street. Very intense...the awe turning to panic felt very real.
I also thought Tom Cruise did an excellent job. He's an actor that I just have never felt interested in, and I've seen very few of his movies, but he was really good, and, I thought, believable. The confusion his character feels as he tries to comprehend what's happening and also tries to do the right thing by these kids that he's found himself responsible for--really well-played. It was like he suddenly realized he had to be the grown-up and he wasn't quite sure how to do that.
From the point where the family gets split up and Tom and Dakota end up in the cellar with nutty Tim Robbins--that was where I started to feel my belief slipping away. Seemed more confused and contrived from that point on to the very unbelievable ending.
I was also disturbed by the really overt September 11 references throughout the movie...I'm just not sure how I feel about Spielberg using that shorthand (the human ashes and dust on Tom's face, the clothing drifting down, the posters of missing loved ones, to name a few) to create a mood in a movie.
Todd's home and we need to get lunch--back to the kitchen for me. Oy.
