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Jan. 10th, 2005 08:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
For some reason, I can't eat. I'm just... not hungry. I'm actually kind of hyper, too, which is weird--I think it's a side effect of my cold medicine, because I switched from Tylenol Sinus to Drixoral. But in the last 48 hours, I've had two Slimfasts and a sandwich. That can't be good.
Heard back from my agent--the Matrix looks fine, she says. Which is basically what I needed to hear--that it's okay, it works, and by extension the rest of the (completely unfinished but extensively drafted) book will work, because it's all pretty much like that. After doing Phantom this weekend, I did realize something (yes, something else) about the whole process, as well: the better the movie, the further afield I have to go for the funny. Like, dragging in something else one of the actors was in, or adding some surreal, loopy element. And say what you will about The Matrix, but the FIRST movie is extremely well-made. Great pacing, great story, great action sequences. It's when they made the sequels that the thing started to wander all over the place.
But if the movie--no matter how much I enjoy it; "good" and "enjoyable" are not necessarily the same thing--is sort of... well, I don't even want to label it, but if it's a Phantom of the Opera or a Van Helsing, you can pretty much just transcribe what's happening and it's dead funny. I almost feel guilty taking credit for it, you know? I just wrote down what I saw. Granted, I bring a certain way of seeing things to the table, I guess.
Speaking of which: it's time for the official Just Because I Wrote a Parody Doesn't Mean I Didn't Like It speech that I have to give out every few months. People who like the movies always seem sort of sad--or, in the case of Harry Potter, downright angry--that I'm making fun of something. (Strangely, King Arthur was the one movie that no one took me to task for. Make of that what you will.) Here's the thing: Everything is funny to me. I make fun of movies I hate. I make fun of movies I love. If I really love a movie, I tend to have a Rocky Horror-style running patter that makes it hell to watch with me. It's making fun, people--providing and creating the fun. FUN. Fun is not bad. We're not mocking the movie until it runs home cryingunless it really, really deserves it, and oh my Lord do I dislike Independence Day. But mostly? These things tend to run 4000-5000 words. I'm not writing that much about something I despise, and if I do--if I were really, truly disgusted--you would know it. Trust me.
Because see, this is the thing: Movies are just funny. Just, as a medium. They just are. They're not real life, and the coincidences and contrivances necessary to make everything that happens relevant and timely and meaningful to this particular group of characters, even in the best movies, can be really, really funny if only you stop to think about it. Even the most realistic, naturalistic movies are still life compressed into two or three hours. And if it comes to that? Life's pretty funny, too.
And then, on top of that, you have "good" and "enjoyable" as two completely different--and subjective!--qualities. I find The Fellowship of the Ring to be both an extremely well-made movie and enjoyable as all hell on top of it. Another movie I saw recently that was both good and enjoyable: Picnic at Hanging Rock, an old favorite. So we're not even necessarily talking about popcorn levels of enjoyment here. I enjoyed the hell out of Troy and Van Helsing and King Arthur. In fact, Eye of the Beholder is a movie that is so incredibly, awesomely bad I went from pure hatred to adoration in two viewings. On the other hand, I wrote a review to that effect, and got taken to task by a reader who thought it was brilliant. But then take a movie like Unforgiven. Objectively, I can admit that it was a very good movie. But dear God, do I never want to see it again.
So you have to keep that in mind when you read a "Fifteen Minutes," or, for that matter, most Harry Potter or LOTR parody out there: usually it's done with love. I mean, I can point out how dunderheaded the casting priorities in Phantom of the Opera are, or how awesomely cheesy some of the songs are, or how ridiculous some of the plot holes are, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to go see it again next weekend.
P.S. I think most of y'all have been over at
m15m, but there are a couple of icon entries up over there, too, and we'll probably be adding more. I feel bad spamming everyone over and over again, but... really, it'll probably be weeks before I put another movie up. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Heard back from my agent--the Matrix looks fine, she says. Which is basically what I needed to hear--that it's okay, it works, and by extension the rest of the (completely unfinished but extensively drafted) book will work, because it's all pretty much like that. After doing Phantom this weekend, I did realize something (yes, something else) about the whole process, as well: the better the movie, the further afield I have to go for the funny. Like, dragging in something else one of the actors was in, or adding some surreal, loopy element. And say what you will about The Matrix, but the FIRST movie is extremely well-made. Great pacing, great story, great action sequences. It's when they made the sequels that the thing started to wander all over the place.
But if the movie--no matter how much I enjoy it; "good" and "enjoyable" are not necessarily the same thing--is sort of... well, I don't even want to label it, but if it's a Phantom of the Opera or a Van Helsing, you can pretty much just transcribe what's happening and it's dead funny. I almost feel guilty taking credit for it, you know? I just wrote down what I saw. Granted, I bring a certain way of seeing things to the table, I guess.
Speaking of which: it's time for the official Just Because I Wrote a Parody Doesn't Mean I Didn't Like It speech that I have to give out every few months. People who like the movies always seem sort of sad--or, in the case of Harry Potter, downright angry--that I'm making fun of something. (Strangely, King Arthur was the one movie that no one took me to task for. Make of that what you will.) Here's the thing: Everything is funny to me. I make fun of movies I hate. I make fun of movies I love. If I really love a movie, I tend to have a Rocky Horror-style running patter that makes it hell to watch with me. It's making fun, people--providing and creating the fun. FUN. Fun is not bad. We're not mocking the movie until it runs home crying
Because see, this is the thing: Movies are just funny. Just, as a medium. They just are. They're not real life, and the coincidences and contrivances necessary to make everything that happens relevant and timely and meaningful to this particular group of characters, even in the best movies, can be really, really funny if only you stop to think about it. Even the most realistic, naturalistic movies are still life compressed into two or three hours. And if it comes to that? Life's pretty funny, too.
And then, on top of that, you have "good" and "enjoyable" as two completely different--and subjective!--qualities. I find The Fellowship of the Ring to be both an extremely well-made movie and enjoyable as all hell on top of it. Another movie I saw recently that was both good and enjoyable: Picnic at Hanging Rock, an old favorite. So we're not even necessarily talking about popcorn levels of enjoyment here. I enjoyed the hell out of Troy and Van Helsing and King Arthur. In fact, Eye of the Beholder is a movie that is so incredibly, awesomely bad I went from pure hatred to adoration in two viewings. On the other hand, I wrote a review to that effect, and got taken to task by a reader who thought it was brilliant. But then take a movie like Unforgiven. Objectively, I can admit that it was a very good movie. But dear God, do I never want to see it again.
So you have to keep that in mind when you read a "Fifteen Minutes," or, for that matter, most Harry Potter or LOTR parody out there: usually it's done with love. I mean, I can point out how dunderheaded the casting priorities in Phantom of the Opera are, or how awesomely cheesy some of the songs are, or how ridiculous some of the plot holes are, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to go see it again next weekend.
P.S. I think most of y'all have been over at
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Date: 2005-01-11 03:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 03:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2005-01-11 03:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 03:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 04:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 03:21 am (UTC)Sounds like a good philosophy to me! :3 And just from the ones that I've read, it's easy to see that you don't do them with any sort of malice intended. Anyone who can't see that either isn't reading it right or is taking themselves and the movie in question waaaaaay too seriously.
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Date: 2005-01-11 04:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 03:28 am (UTC)Legends of the Fall. Dear God, may I never be forced to witness it again, even if Brad Pitt was hot. There was so much wrong with that movie it made my head hurt, even if technically it was well-made.
Slimfast? Are you dieting, or is that just easy food to grab without having to stop Making Funny?/nosy
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Date: 2005-01-11 03:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2005-01-11 03:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 04:12 am (UTC)(And thanks!)
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Date: 2005-01-11 04:03 am (UTC)One of the things, I think, people have a problem with, when it comes to parodies, is that it isn't OMG SO SERIOUS when it's talking about the movie. For some reason, people like to pretend what they like is flawless, and that's not right.
Now, I am a huge Tolkien fan, but I know that when you wrote The Lord of the Rings in 15 Minutes, it's going to be funny, because I can accept that it's not perfect.
I think that's why. That's all, really.
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Date: 2005-01-11 04:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2005-01-11 04:04 am (UTC)Welllll.... then again, maybe they would be, but whatever. Point is, ...
dammit.
*wanders off, searching for point*
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Date: 2005-01-11 04:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 04:08 am (UTC)I'm so glad The Matrix was fine...and I can see them making a compliation book of the posted online thingies, it's been done before, I just received a book for review that was serialized originally on some gent's blogger.
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Date: 2005-01-11 04:32 am (UTC)POINT FOUND!
Date: 2005-01-11 04:14 am (UTC)Re: POINT FOUND!
Date: 2005-01-11 04:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 04:21 am (UTC)-ps-do u mind if i show my friends your icons, may i use them? if i say u made them? they are sooooooo cool!!!!!!
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Date: 2005-01-11 04:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 04:31 am (UTC)(Sidenote: I actually reallyreallyreally LOVE Independence Day, if only because it's SO overblown and cheesy and expensive and hilariously bad. Plus, you just can't go wrong with that cast: Jeff Goldblum + Bill Pullman + Will Smith + Randy Quaid + Brent Spiner + that one kid who looks like Mexican Keanu... DAMN, THAT'S HOT.)
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Date: 2005-01-11 04:34 am (UTC)(Yeah, that kid *was* kinda hot...)
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Date: 2005-01-11 04:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 05:24 am (UTC)I'm sure if I had context for any of the others you'd written, regardless of the feelings I had about the films I'd love the m15m treatments.
(I was going to make some comment in which I compared your glee over the cheese to the sheer agony evident in some of the more brilliant TWoP recaps of truly bad television, but it kind of got away from me and stopped making sense.)
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Date: 2005-01-11 05:28 am (UTC)(For real, there's a new Star Trek: Next Generation recap of a terrible old episode up today--I didn't even watch that show, and it's frickin' hilarious.)
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Date: 2005-01-11 05:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 05:53 am (UTC)Does that mean that someone took you to task for Van Helsing? 'Cause that would be amusing.
-Clayr
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Date: 2005-01-11 06:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2005-01-11 06:11 am (UTC)and i rented van helsing - which i never thought i would do, but there you have it.
and now i'm trying to get hold of dracula (1979) cause i'm dying to see that one...
and - don't ever do that when you're taking a "serious" friend with you - i saw king arthur the day after i read your parody... and i had a hard time keeping a straight face and not burst out laughing... specially with the 'girliest kid ever' taking the ring off that guy he "loved for like 5 seconds"...
okay i'm rambling here... haven't slept for 48 hours... gotta love insomnia...
Lorien__
cheerleader and nutcase
ps: can't WAIT to see what you did to my favorite movies ...
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Date: 2005-01-11 08:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 08:37 am (UTC)i cried in independence daywhat? why are you all looking at me like that?
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Date: 2005-01-11 10:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 11:10 am (UTC)I find most movies very predictible and within 10 minutes have the plot figured out. With The Sixth Sense I think it was more like three minutes into the movie! But I don't care because I go to be entertained and if the movie isn't entertaining enough I'll sit and make it so to the point that I have Jillian laughing even at sad parts in the movie.
They are loaded with humor everywhere and I just can't resist.
In the Harry Potter movie where they opened with Harry playing with his wand under the sheet I thought "typical boy at 12 to 13." Playing with his "wand."
I love the movies but yes there is a lot to be said for finding the humor in life!
For one it helps you get through the bleak trying times of your life and it is just plain enjoyable!
Life is too short to be taken so seriously 24/7 and some people need to realise it is just in good fun as you say.
I for one loved the Phantom. The costumes were great, I had never seen it on Broadway to compare it to the movie and I always go into a movie with no expectations. I just go in to escape the world outside and leave my problems and pain behind.
I'm not looking for a movie to solve the world's problems, just entertain me for two hours!
I figure if I go in and have an open mind about the movie (even pieces of pure fluff like Booty Call or Not Just Another Teen Movie) I will always find something to make those two hours enjoyable either thru the movie or my own input of it.
So just keep on finding the "funny parts" in movies to share, because I for one love what you do, and I know most others do too from the comments on your posts!
Loved the Phantom in 15m!
Christina
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Date: 2005-01-11 08:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 03:55 pm (UTC)So can we expect an ID4 in Fifteen Minutes in the book, or as a treat someday down the line?
I love that movie as a beer and popcorn film, but can see why it would be eyegouging material.
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Date: 2005-01-11 03:56 pm (UTC)Just wanted add my name to the list of
Date: 2005-01-11 04:16 pm (UTC)Just wanted to say thanks for making my work days more interesting since I found your parodies :) So cheers! *raises glass*
p.s. - hope the cold is better soon :)
Re: Just wanted add my name to the list of
Date: 2005-01-11 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 11:45 pm (UTC)Hm, looks like I need to take another look at this movie. I got it whilst still high on my Ewan McGregor obsession (and back when I still liked Ashley Judd), saw it once, hated it, and never looked at it again...