Movie Rec

[rispacooper]

Or play rec. Whatever. The point is a while ago the BBC aired a few TV movie-length redone versions of Shakespeare plays called, "ShakespeaRE-TOLD". I rented the set--containing 4 movies/plays, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, Taming of the Shrew, and A Midsummer Night's Dream--mainly for James McAvoy, as he is on the cover, but I haven't actually watched his yet. He's in Macbeth, and I have to be in the right mood for Mackers.

Anyway the Much Ado is cute, though short on some of the hot bickering sexual tension in my opinion. The guy playing Benedick was willing to humiliate himself though, so it definitely had moments of funny. But the highlight so far, my absolutely favorite, has been Taming of the Shrew.

Shrew is hard to produce in modern times for various reasons and yes, they have changed some elements, Petruchio is more crazy than a jerk, for example. But um...oh my, they made it funny, they made it hot, they made Kate so sympathetic and yet *such* a bitch, (the actress playing her, whose name I don't know, but I know her face, just went for shrew and got it. She's mean and cutting and intelligent and biting but also just...lashing out at her beautiful sister and the idiots she works with who aren't as smart as she is etc...) The way she holds up her middle finger and says "Swivel" is pure awesome. And then, to match Kate, they have Rufus Sewell.

Rufus Sewell. Normally, I'm not the biggest fan. (He's a good actor, but I've never gotten the physical attraction thing I guess.) But oh sweet holy christ. You can hardly blame Kate, he was fucking hot (and funny, and smart, and completely insane). And oh yes, he shows up to their wedding drunk and in drag. Love love love. How could I not? The heat (and comedy) only get better on their "honeymoon" where his hurt feelings = messing with her until she takes up smoking.

Big smile on my face. Oh yeah.

Comments

[senor-coconut-1.livejournal.com]

I have never gotten the physical thing with Rufus, either. One of his eyes is just...off and he kind of reminds me of the bad guy in Ghost, which I only ever watched once because my mother was watching it and I had nothing better to do and I was, like, 13, so please hold off judgments about my Patrick Swayze movie experience, because we all know that you can start at Dirty Dancing and end at Donnie Darko, maybe Red Dawn for the laughs and Roadhouse only when you are smashed and think Tom Servo had something when he sang the praises of Patrick Swayze and still get the entire Patrick Swayze experience without ever having to sink to the depths of Ghost. So let's just pretend that the movie does not exist but, theoretically, if it DID exist, the guy who would be the bad guy looks a little like Rufus Sewell.


I just woke up from a nap after three days in DC.


Holy crap! I dreamt Robert Downey Jr. kissed me...but in a friendly way...because I knew him since I was in high school and he really wanted to get with Heather Graham (like in that crappy movie Two Girls and a Guy, which I WILL admit to seeing if only because there is a hot scene between those two and RDJ has a chubbo in the scene and you can totally see it and yes it's crap because as HOT as Heather is, she can't act even if her life depended on it, and as cool as having Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood as a mother should make you, Natasha Gregson Wagner continually ruins her scenes in every movie I have seen her in, including every scene in the Buffy movie because she, like, ohmygod, sounds less like a stereotypical 90s SoCal teen and more like she's reading off the cue cards. So there).

But, alas, Heather Graham found out that RDJ was a cheating cad and dumped him and I, the long time friend, was still there as the good friend.

Ok, I really got online to look up a recipe or two and here I am writing a novel in your LJ.

Maybe I should go back to sleep?

Or maybe I should use this mand-altering state for what it's worth and start my novel? I could get about 1000 pages done in 45 minutes at this pace.

[rispacooper.livejournal.com]

hahaha It's all good. Robert Downey Jr is and shall always be cool. And he seems pretty honest about his chubbos.

Yeah Rufus Sewell...he's just...not my type. Normally. But apparently, Shrew-taming in a skirt= Rufus hotness.

Sleep is good. But so are novels. Hmmm...

[dlasta.livejournal.com]

Much Ado and Taming of the Shrew were *fantastic*. Loved the new Hero with a backbone and Bea/Ben chemistry. However, the cross dressing, mentally imbalanced Petruchio was a strike of genius. That and the horribly bitchy yet somehow, magically likable Kate were pretty much priceless. (That 'Swivel' and Shirley Henderson's face and voice. Awesome.)

I liked the Midsummer Night's Dream (despite still hating Hermia with passion) and couldn't get into Macbeth.
Which is weird because when is McAvoy ever not interesting? It's probably the Mcbeth that curbs my enthusiasm.

What I don't get is why not make more? Seriously, I can come up with several stories by Shakespeare that could really use that modern twist.

I'm dying to get my hands into those similarly done Canterbury Tales from 2003 but so far no go. Poo.:/

Ps. I totally agree with you about Rufus. Never before has a man in bad drag looked so good. Wtf.

[rispacooper.livejournal.com]

Canterbury Tales? Well that will equal a lot of fart jokes...Luckily, I don't think fart humor will ever die.

There's already a Macbeth adaptation set in a restaurant, which is why I was surprised they did a chef story again. Maybe it just seems less original. ??

I wish they'd shown Kate and Petruchio making out while he had the skirt on. Just to hit a few more of my kinks. Ah well. :(

[dlasta.livejournal.com]

Just because it most likely has fart humor doesn't mean it couldn't be..good-ish.:D

I think the Macbeth retold was supposed to be a nod to the previous restaurant!Macbeth. Blah, blah, something?

I heartily believe that the skirt in question is a frequent visitor in their bedroom. Kate tells herself that it's just because she's a busy woman and an easy access is never a bad thing. :)

[rispacooper.livejournal.com]

The world needs more boysinskirts.

Macbeth in skirts??? Now there's an idea I can get behind (cue silly laugh).

I was just wondering if a modern Tales would include the farts, or just skip over that part.

[dlasta.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Fuck world peace.:D

Skirt=kilt. It's destiny?

And thank you, now I *need* to see the modern CT to see if they did include the farts. :P

[rispacooper.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm driving to work and I'm like...fuck it's Scottish. Kilts...

Though in Shakes' time, just tights, I guess. That's like the most annoying part of the drag too. All work, no fun. :(

[dlasta.livejournal.com]

:D

Could have been worse. Think Spanx.