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No Adventures, Review of "The Prestige"
May. 27th, 2007 10:30 pmI was going to write about some sort of adventure today, but I didn't have one.
I blew off ultimate frisbee so I could go on the Cool House tour, but it turns out that's in June.
I did sleep late, eat out, do laundry and dishes, and slightly help R. make the housing for the subwoofer for his truck by holding up one end of the big giant heavy board while he was sawing it in half and by keeping an eye open for this one carpet store which he was told "you can't miss" but which doesn't seem to exist, even in the phone book.
I also did a little organizing of stuff, which is nice. And we watched some "My Name is Earl," which is fun, but which is one of those shows (unlike "Firefly") where it's more fun to spread out the viewing of the episodes.
Yesterday we watched "The Prestige" on DVD with Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine and, as Tessla, David Bowie. One thing about watching videos at home is that I can just leave if I don't like it. The characters seemed all yucky. Plus I got to ask R. what happened afterwards without having to watch it myself. There was a very interesting and tight plot. However, I don't think people should risk their lives or otherwise do anything horrible for a goal like magic.
I have several biases. One is that whether you're making a handkerchief disappear or an elephant, it's all amazing to me. So I think you should just stick to the safe, reasonable, nice things.
In fact, the longer I go through life, the less impressed I am with things magically appearing before me, and the more I want to know the story of how it got there. If no one sees how it got there, then it doesn't have to be a nice story, does it? Well, if it's not a nice story, I'd rather not support it. It's truly magical that so many things are just waiting for us in stores, but so many of the stories--how food gets processed, how clothes get made, how music gets popular--are not nice stories.
I also have a bias toward dilettantism. That's because I think that if you focus everything in one direction and something goes horribly horribly wrong, then you won't have anywhere to turn. Also of course because so many different things are interesting, how can you ignore ALL those other ones? (Of course, you have to ignore most of the other things no matter what you do.) But this movie reminds me that dedication and drive can go too far. I mean, sure, if your goal is something important like saving the world from evil Westerners, you've got to do what you've got to do, but for magic? No.
That whole dog-eat-dog world thing is not something I normally want to watch a movie about either. Every Christmas time when all kinds of obscure businesses are desperately advertising that their product or service would make a good Christmas gift, it freaks me out a little bit. Like if I don't buy a home security system for my friends and family, I will be part of the reason why people in that industry are starving. I prefer to think there's some way we can all make a decent living rather than that we have to fight each other tooth and nail for every little scrap.
So I have some weird psychological reasons for not enjoying this movie. This is probably one of those cases where my interest in social sciences ruins my appreciation of a perfectly good movie. If you like magic or physics and you don't have these kinds of issues to make you overly squeamish, you might like this movie. You do get to learn lots of interesting things about magic, like what is meant by the term "the prestige." However, if you are the type of person who is afraid of clowns, or just thinks they are a little inexplicably creepy, this is probably exactly the wrong kind of movie for you.
Link of the day: Safer Car from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration - See if there are any recalls for your car. I learned that if I ever spot a crack or break in the little red button on one of my front seatbelts, I can get it replaced for free.
I blew off ultimate frisbee so I could go on the Cool House tour, but it turns out that's in June.
I did sleep late, eat out, do laundry and dishes, and slightly help R. make the housing for the subwoofer for his truck by holding up one end of the big giant heavy board while he was sawing it in half and by keeping an eye open for this one carpet store which he was told "you can't miss" but which doesn't seem to exist, even in the phone book.
I also did a little organizing of stuff, which is nice. And we watched some "My Name is Earl," which is fun, but which is one of those shows (unlike "Firefly") where it's more fun to spread out the viewing of the episodes.
Yesterday we watched "The Prestige" on DVD with Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine and, as Tessla, David Bowie. One thing about watching videos at home is that I can just leave if I don't like it. The characters seemed all yucky. Plus I got to ask R. what happened afterwards without having to watch it myself. There was a very interesting and tight plot. However, I don't think people should risk their lives or otherwise do anything horrible for a goal like magic.
I have several biases. One is that whether you're making a handkerchief disappear or an elephant, it's all amazing to me. So I think you should just stick to the safe, reasonable, nice things.
In fact, the longer I go through life, the less impressed I am with things magically appearing before me, and the more I want to know the story of how it got there. If no one sees how it got there, then it doesn't have to be a nice story, does it? Well, if it's not a nice story, I'd rather not support it. It's truly magical that so many things are just waiting for us in stores, but so many of the stories--how food gets processed, how clothes get made, how music gets popular--are not nice stories.
I also have a bias toward dilettantism. That's because I think that if you focus everything in one direction and something goes horribly horribly wrong, then you won't have anywhere to turn. Also of course because so many different things are interesting, how can you ignore ALL those other ones? (Of course, you have to ignore most of the other things no matter what you do.) But this movie reminds me that dedication and drive can go too far. I mean, sure, if your goal is something important like saving the world from evil Westerners, you've got to do what you've got to do, but for magic? No.
That whole dog-eat-dog world thing is not something I normally want to watch a movie about either. Every Christmas time when all kinds of obscure businesses are desperately advertising that their product or service would make a good Christmas gift, it freaks me out a little bit. Like if I don't buy a home security system for my friends and family, I will be part of the reason why people in that industry are starving. I prefer to think there's some way we can all make a decent living rather than that we have to fight each other tooth and nail for every little scrap.
So I have some weird psychological reasons for not enjoying this movie. This is probably one of those cases where my interest in social sciences ruins my appreciation of a perfectly good movie. If you like magic or physics and you don't have these kinds of issues to make you overly squeamish, you might like this movie. You do get to learn lots of interesting things about magic, like what is meant by the term "the prestige." However, if you are the type of person who is afraid of clowns, or just thinks they are a little inexplicably creepy, this is probably exactly the wrong kind of movie for you.
Link of the day: Safer Car from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration - See if there are any recalls for your car. I learned that if I ever spot a crack or break in the little red button on one of my front seatbelts, I can get it replaced for free.