I booked an extra days holiday on Tuesday, so I’ve only worked a 3 day week this week. It’s been such a nice change of pace. It also helps that I’ve got a week off from the 14th June. That means I have 5 working days to get through before I’m ready to relax. It’s been ages since I had a proper holiday, so I need this. I’ll finally get some proper reading done. Of course, I won’t actually do that but it’s a nice idea.
Just like my last TBT film review, this film has found a new lease of life in recent years. There’s something about the internet generation and supposedly underdog films. I never watched this when it was released because I was pretty beyond my Disney phase in 2001. I mean, yes, I still loved the classics of my childhood but would I actively go and see the new releases? Hell no! I was a super mature 13-year-old at that point. I wouldn’t be seen dead at a Disney film. Well, maybe I’d ironically go and watch Monsters Inc with my friend for someone’s birthday and pretend that I didn’t secretly love it. But The Emperor’s New Groove was released during that era of Disney when I wasn’t watching any animated films from the studio. So, why not finally watch it?
I went to take some photos yesterday and couldn’t find one of my latest reads. It’s not the first time that it’s happened but I’m normally able to find it after a bit of rearranging. I could not find this book anywhere. So, I decided to start organising my books. Starting with collecting ones that I could get rid of. I admit that I’m a bit of hoarder when it comes to books. Even if I don’t like a book or am unlikely to reread it, I’ll hang onto it for all my life. I have books from university that I still own for no reason. I’ve always lived in a house full of books and it just feel natural to keep them. But I was ruthless and managed to get the first box full of stuff I didn’t need. Here’s hoping I can keep this momentum going and get my madness down to a less chaotic level. Oh, and I did find the book eventually. It was inside a little pouch that I’d recently bought along with my Kindle. Past Laura really isn’t really my favourite person right now.
I have to be honest, I wouldn’t have watched this film if it wasn’t for its link with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. From the Netflix trailer, it just seemed like any other family animation mixed with every repetitive homicidal AI sci-fi film. Yes, it looked good and there were elements that really interested me. Mostly Olivia Colman. I didn’t think it was gong to be bad but I just wasn’t the market for something so seemingly unoriginal. Then this weekend happened and I hadn’t watched a new film for today’s post. There was only one thing to do. Find the quickest and easiest thing to watch on Netflix.
It’s been a busy week at work so I haven’t been reading as much as last week but I’ve been doing okay. I have managed to finish another book and I should be able to get another one done before Wednesday. Well, that’s the plan anyway. As I know all too well, things never quite go according to plan. Of course, it hasn’t helped that it’s been raining on my breaks all week, which meant no chance to read outside. Instead, I’ve been wandering around the local shops. I even managed to pop into the independent book shop. Of course I bought a book but it could have been a lot more. I think I got a bit carried away with being surrounded by so many options again.
Shrek is celebrating its 20th birthday in 2021 and, apparently, not everyone is happy about it. In the Guardian this week, Scott Tobias decided to write a diatribe against the animated film that has captured the attention of millennials and beyond. It’s hard to ignore the fact that the film has achieved cult status and is still a very strong component of meme culture. Yet, according to Tobias, it’s not worth it in the slightest. He seemingly has nothing good to say about it. So, we have to ask, how did everyone get it so wrong? Why is he the only one who can see the DreamWorks animation for what is really is? Or rather, we should be asking, what exactly happened to Scott that means he is so against fun? And what exactly was he expecting from a film about an Ogre that’s based on a fairly crude picture book?
After Groundhog Day, I always wondered why people tried to keep making comedy time loop films. Once you’ve found something so perfect what do you expect to add? It’s always the same thing anyway. We see people experience grisly deaths, drink, take wild risks, and fill the time as best they can. It’s not like there’s been an awful lot of originality. That doesn’t seem to stop anyone trying to do something new. Last year, Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti starred in the latest attempt and, in another great example of unoriginality, it centres around a wedding. I knew that the reviews for this had been good but, I have to admit, I wasn’t exactly overjoyed by that concept. Still, Samberg is a great performer. He may not have written this but I had to believe that he wouldn’t sign on to do any old shit.
What is it about the week following a bank holiday that makes it so much harder? I guess its partly trying to fit 5 days of work into 4 days. However, this has been a super weird week. Some moron decided it would be funny to smash a load of windows at 1am on Thursday morning and 3 of ours got broken. It was an early hours wake up call that resulted in very little sleep. Meaning I’ve been spending the rest of the week trying to catch up on sleep. Meaning I’ve not done as much reading as I normally would have. It’s very disappointing but I can’t do anything about it now. Thankfully, May is a pretty easy one for my reading challenge.
This week was the first time in ages that I watched one of the original Star Wars films. It’s not something that I’ve done purposefully but because I have so many other options now. Between all of the streaming services that I’m subscribed to and my own film collection, I just have too much choice. So much choice that I rarely go back to beloved classics. I’ve probably seen the prequels more often than any of the other films in the franchise. Not because I prefer them (although, I do think they have their positive points) but because they don’t demand my attention. Watching one of the original trilogy should be an event. You should be watching it and not doing anything else. These days, I’m rarely able to just sit and watch a film. I’m either writing, taking photos or just distracted by something. Not this time. When I turned on A New Hope on Star Wars day, I was determined to watch this as it deserved.
Yipee ki-yay, motherbooker 