Films, Doom and Babies
Feb. 6th, 2003 11:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lathanyThis morning my Mortal Kombat DVD arrived from Black Star. Amazon have been out of favour ever since the Xmas present mess; unfortunately Black Star only do DVD and video so I will probably have to return to Amazon at some point for reading material and CDs.
We will probably watch it over the weekend. Had it arrived yesterday morning we would have seen it last night, instead of Whatever It Takes. Whatever It Takes is one of a (cheap) set of three videos which I was tempted to buy because it included Cruel Intentions (the last of the set was She's All That).
I was interested in Cruel Intentions because I studied a translation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses as part of my last-but-one OU course (I have seen the Close/Malkovich film but not the Bening/Firth one). I had heard that the Geller/Phillippe film was a praised adaptation, so I was interested to see it. I think it is remarkably faithful to Laclos' original ideas (which lead to him being practically outcast by society - poor man). The main difference being that Annette is not the wimp that Madame De Tourvel is and the consequences of that change the ending for that character.
She's all That is a Freddie Prinze Jr film, probably most notable for Sarah Michelle Geller's uncredited appearance (and if you blink, you miss her). The main storyline (ugly ducking becomes beautiful swan) has been done before. Better. But it was watchable enough.
Whatever It Takes was actually rather better than we expected. The "little" film of the three (no big names), it came a comfortable second in watchability. The main storyline (a Roxanne one) has been done before, but the side-lines were all nicely thought out and much more original. The stuff with the statue was just great. Although I would certainly never have gone to see it at the cinema or bought it for itself.
Anyway, enough "High School" films already. Mortal Kombat is, IMO, the best of all the fighting game adaptations. OK, the plot is marginal and some of the characters fail to convince. However it stuck to the cinematics (and humour) of the original games and some of the martial artists are genuine. Much better than that Street Fighter rubbish where they avoided the cinematics side (except for Bison), then wondered why they were left with such a mediocre film. Plus Christopher Lambert as Rayden is just really nice. It also has a decent soundtrack which I have occasionally heard used in roleplaying games.
Doom-wise, I have reached Icon of Sin (level 30). And have had no success completing it. I have now cheated and used the invincible mode to help line up where I should be firing rockets from, but I doubt I will finish anytime soon.
The babies, meanwhile, have found new ways of messing up the lounge. Ryan can take the lid off the tub of bricks and Beatrice is getting more mobile by the day. Fortunately she is currently more interested in trying to stand than trying to crawl, but the day when I have to chase two of them round the room is not far away.
We will probably watch it over the weekend. Had it arrived yesterday morning we would have seen it last night, instead of Whatever It Takes. Whatever It Takes is one of a (cheap) set of three videos which I was tempted to buy because it included Cruel Intentions (the last of the set was She's All That).
I was interested in Cruel Intentions because I studied a translation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses as part of my last-but-one OU course (I have seen the Close/Malkovich film but not the Bening/Firth one). I had heard that the Geller/Phillippe film was a praised adaptation, so I was interested to see it. I think it is remarkably faithful to Laclos' original ideas (which lead to him being practically outcast by society - poor man). The main difference being that Annette is not the wimp that Madame De Tourvel is and the consequences of that change the ending for that character.
She's all That is a Freddie Prinze Jr film, probably most notable for Sarah Michelle Geller's uncredited appearance (and if you blink, you miss her). The main storyline (ugly ducking becomes beautiful swan) has been done before. Better. But it was watchable enough.
Whatever It Takes was actually rather better than we expected. The "little" film of the three (no big names), it came a comfortable second in watchability. The main storyline (a Roxanne one) has been done before, but the side-lines were all nicely thought out and much more original. The stuff with the statue was just great. Although I would certainly never have gone to see it at the cinema or bought it for itself.
Anyway, enough "High School" films already. Mortal Kombat is, IMO, the best of all the fighting game adaptations. OK, the plot is marginal and some of the characters fail to convince. However it stuck to the cinematics (and humour) of the original games and some of the martial artists are genuine. Much better than that Street Fighter rubbish where they avoided the cinematics side (except for Bison), then wondered why they were left with such a mediocre film. Plus Christopher Lambert as Rayden is just really nice. It also has a decent soundtrack which I have occasionally heard used in roleplaying games.
Doom-wise, I have reached Icon of Sin (level 30). And have had no success completing it. I have now cheated and used the invincible mode to help line up where I should be firing rockets from, but I doubt I will finish anytime soon.
The babies, meanwhile, have found new ways of messing up the lounge. Ryan can take the lid off the tub of bricks and Beatrice is getting more mobile by the day. Fortunately she is currently more interested in trying to stand than trying to crawl, but the day when I have to chase two of them round the room is not far away.
