I got some audio editing done today, but wow, my body simply did not WANT to be there, sitting, doing audio editing. What's worse was, I found a couple of errors in the recording (including two or three--or five--spots where there was feedback in the microphone), but I couldn't simply run over and re-record those bits . . . I have to wait until I get home, then do so, and hope my performance matches (and I can find where to put them all).
For my movie from the library this week (it was from two weeks ago, actually, as I forgot to get one this week, and had to return two the last time I went over), was 2020's LAST CHRISTMAS. I hadn't heard anything about this one, except that it stars Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding. But wow. It was directed by Paul Feig, who did BRIDESMAIDS, but also did the GHOSTBUSTERS remake*, and it had the well, daring audacity/poor taste of featuring George Michael songs all throughout the picture.
It's about this girl Kate who is described as the most selfish woman in the world, who works in an all-year Christmas shop, and meets this dude named Tom who is a manic pixie dream boy, but pops in and out of her life like he's on furlough from the military or a nearby prison. But he teaches her to care about others, and be less self-centered, I guess, and dude, the George Michael songs . . . you don't know how many times I had to pause the movie, get up, and go do some more editing, write in my blog, or simply sit on the toilet as a release from it.
I had to stop watching for a good hour after the "Dawson's Creek" moment, where the male lead tells the girl he has something to tell her, and she jumps to conclusions, accuses him of being afraid of commitment, and walks off, and he just stands there, shaking his head, letting her go, even though she's wrong. If there's a person alive who hates that trope more than me, I will gladly give them my heart this Christmas.
By this point, I considered just quitting on the movie, because I recognized that it wasn't working, and there had been times when I thought, "Oh, this is just bad." Took me probably four hours to watch a ninety minute movie. And then, we get to the Shyamalan moment . . . and yikes, that just fell flat too. I reeled, because it was almost shockingly bad. Except that, I'd say, about a quarter to a third of the movie DID work, and had nice character moments from Michelle Yeoh and Emma Thompson, but man, the rest . . .
I'm not entirely regretful that I watched it. Clarke is super pretty throughout most of it (I feel like they tried to plain her up from time to time, to mixed results), and I do like George Michael (or I did, before watching this). You know what it felt like? From time to time I will encounter these people who absolutely loathe LOVE, ACTUALLY. They hate it, and consider it one of the worst flicks of the 21st Century. And LAST XMAS is as if a group of those haters got together and decided to make a film parodying LOVE, ACTUALLY, only deliberately making it bad. Except they were going off of a script by somebody who wasn't in on the joke, who had written something sincere and heartfelt, who ended up throwing themselves off a bridge the night of the premiere. But hey, that's just me.
Or is it? I can't wait to get back home and find out what kind of Rotten Tomatoes score this flick got. If I had to guess, I'd say about a 34%. We'll see.**
I did some editing, grabbed my exercise bike and went for it, riding a little over two miles, read a chapter of the Houdini book I'm nearly done with (it's not very good, but I still would love to see a movie about his friendship [and the falling out] with Arthur Conan Doyle one day), and then I started packing up. If I leave now, it'll be nearly an hour earlier than last week. Huh.
I wonder, the next time I hear Wham's Last Christmas, if I will remember this movie, and if I'll be tempted to turn it off. Or simply shudder and go on with my day.
Arcove or Exercise: Both
*Hitler on a Hitachi, I hate it when people call remakes "reboots." I hate it . . . so much. Except GHOSTBUSTERS 2014 probably was a reboot, as they were starting a successful series over again, but still.
**Whoops, it got a 46%. Guess more people enjoyed it than I thought.
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