Repo! The Genetic Opera

Danni: So, I know you liked the atrocity that is Repo! The Genetic Opera, but why?  What is there possibly to like about it.  I certainly can't find a single things except for the comic book stlye breaks/narratives.  I didn't like any of the characters. I didn't like the story.  I hated the music.  I didn't like the special effects.  I especially didn't like Paris Hilton.  Whoever inspired her to start acting needs to be shot down in an abandoned warehouse in New Jersey


Erin: Why New Jersey? That's so predictable. Why not Kansas or Oklahoma?
And, well...I liked the campy nature of it. I like strange things, like Invader Zim and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I liked the music. But then again, my favorite types of stories are those Orwellian ones about how horrible the future is going to be if we don't change the present...like Metropolis, Brave New World, 1984... Although to be honest, none of the characters are likable, and that dance scene during that song all about how Shiloh is 17 - which is a stupid song in the first place - was just ridiculous. I thought the ending was a weird twist. Talk about a downer ending - that whole thing with Nathan poisoning her came out of nowhere for me.


Danni: You're right, New Jersey is too predictable.  How about Texas?  Nobody likes that horrible state anyway.  I wish we could just give it back to Mexico as some sort of peace offering or something.

Have you ever read Jhonen Vasquez's comics? He's the creator of Invader Zim and he wrote Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Squee! (a spin-off of JTHM).  You'd like those, I think.

I loved Brave New World and 1984, those are some of my favorite books, but I just thought Repo! was for angsty goth teenagers and it wasn't really my style.  It was when I was, like.... 13, but not so much anymore.  Also, I didn't even know what was going on during the entire dang movie because I'm horrible at understanding lyrics in a song.  I'm completely deaf in the upper frequency, which means I have basically no understanding.  I can hear, I just don't understand what people say.  Sooo.... there goes 98% of the movie.  

Erin: That's okay with me. I never really cared for Texas much either, although I have friends from there.

I have read a bit of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, and I liked it, but I was an idiot and threw it away while spring cleaning. I need to get some more again.

Wow, sorry about that. The plotline was a bit goofy - seriously, the world is corrupted by organs? - but I've heard of worse plotlines in horror movies. Isn't there one horror movie where trees are the villains?


Danni: We could possibly make an exception for Austin.  That's a pretty cool city.  Unfortunately, when I went there I went to a little buttmunch town called Marfa.  You know what's in Marfa? A random Prada store and that's it.  

JTHM is amazing.  One of my favorite comics of all time.  Also, I love Tank Girl.  ave you ever read Tank Girl?  It's pretty phenomenal, if I do say so myself.

I have to agree, the world being corrupted by a lack of organs is pretty ridiculous.  Making it into a musical?  Even worse.  I tried looking up this tree movie and all I got was a movie appropriately titled, "Trees".  Is that it?

Erin:  Marfa? Wow. That sounds way too close to Barf. And at first, I read "Prada" as "Panda", and I was about to say, that's pretty awesome! But Prada...not so much.

I've never read Tank Girl, but I have the movie based on the comics sitting in my Netflix Instant Play Queue.

I'm not sure that it was just the trees doing it, but plenty of horror movies have really lame plotlines. There was one Shyamalan (or however you spell it) movie where the environment was causing people to die...I mean, seriously?  I actually like the fact that Repo! is a musical. I think it helps make it campier. There's also a musical about Cannibals. I look forward to watching it.

Danni:  It is way too close to barf.  It's a disgusting little towna nd I hat eit.

The movie is good.  I liiked how it didn't follow the comics and just had it's own story.  I loved Lori Petty... couldn't imagine a better TG.  

You know what a great horror film is?  The Blair Witch Project.  I LOVE that movie.  It did for camping what Jaws did for the ocean.  Shall I post Repo?  Or is there more to talk about?

Hairspray: The Musical

Danni:  I've never seen Hairspray except for one scene and I thought maybe the musical was a spoof of sorts.


Erin:  Hahaha. No, the original musical is based on a Jon Waters movie called Hairspray. The stage musical came out...6th or 7th grade and won like 8 Tonys and a Grammy. Then recently they re-made it into a movie. With Zac Efron. Major 'ew'-ing.


Danni:  Zac Efron is a very unattractive person.  Not just physically, but he just looks like a sex offender to me.  A mustache-less sex offender.  I get the feeling he raping you with his ridiculously blue eyes.  He actually reminds me of those children from The Bad Seed.....


Erin:  I haven't seen the Bad Seed yet...still. I didn't like the way they changed Hairspray to make it a movie, plot-wise. I didn't really like John Travolta as Tracy's mom...and I didn't like Zac Efron as Link. He's unattractive and neither his look nor his voice fit the time period. *shrug*.


Danni:  I haven't seen The Bad Seed either.  It used to be watch instantly on Netflix, but ours got canceled before I could get it.  :(  Oh, how I wish I had Netflix again.  I do have to say that I liked Amanda Bynes in Hairspray.  She was just cute and funny.  But I just don't like musicals period.  They're all so... chipper.....


Erin:  Not all of them are chipper though (West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Were the World Mine - though it's not a starge musical - Chicago). I liked Amanda Bynes in the movie too but they didn't give her character enough to do. She was in so much more of the original musical.... And you should totally get Netflix again! So many good movies for Instant Play...it's great for doing homework :)

Danni:  Fiddler on the Roof I like.  From what I saw of Hairspray (which wasn't much at all) I think it's mostly poop.  All of the characters annoy me except for Amanda Bynes' character and I have a feeling that it's because she didn't talk as much as everyone else and also wasn't a racist.  Zac Efron annoyed me throughout and Jon Travolta struck me as an annoying whiny mom-thing.  He/she just pranced around knitting or folding clothes or some crap and whined about how she was unloavble and was forced to live a life of captive misery.  *YAWN*  And then there's the main character, whatshername, with her obnoxiously optimistic and cheerful attitude.  Nothing is more agitating than an overt optimist.


Erin:  And what about Christopher Walken? For some reason I just really loved him in this movie. Nikki Blonsky made a fairly good Tracy, she had a good voice for the part, but main characters are almost never interesting. But something was taken out of her character when the musical was Disney-fied. There were so many dirty jokes and if-you-know-what-I-mean moments that - thanks a lot, PG-Rating - got deleted. This being said, I probably liked it better, adaptation-iwse, than Mamma Mia. It is a travesty that they cut "Mamma, I'm a Big Girl Now" from the movie. It's one of Hairspray's most well-known songs and the musical just isn't the same without it. Amber (Brittany Snow) has a much more prevalent personality in the stage musical. Another hilarious and inappropriate thing cut out of the movie is Penny (Amanda Bynes) declaring at the end "I am now a checkerboard chick!" By the way, on the note of racism, you do realize this takes place in the early 60's, right? Be black was just starting to be cool. Penny's end get up (in the stage musical, at least) is a go-go dress and go-go boots.


Danni:  I was sad that Christopher Walken was in Hairspray.  I like him.  He's a badass.  And that's as far as my knowledge of this horrendous movie goes.

Mama Mia was another god-awful movie/musical I had the great displeasure of seeing.  Amanda Seyfried's neck-vien-bursting, crazy-eye-bulging creeper smile gave me terrifying nightmares for the following 3 months.  The flipper on the dock dance also made me want to curl up in the fetal position, sob my little eyes to Jupiter, and urinate all over the people sitting in front of me.  

The Lizzie McGuire Movie

This is what dreams are made of.

Erin:  Okay so, first I gotta point out: no one has a middle school graduation. It just isn't done. Second: None of these people actually looks like middle schoolers. I don't know a single middle schooler who looks or dresses like that. At all. Or, for that matter, I don't think there's a single high school that would send their prospective students on a trip to Italy.

Danni:  I want to go to Italy and meet a pop star who's only intention is to screw me over and ruin my friendships.  What's more, is that this friendship is with a kid named GORDO.  I would never stop being friends with a kid named Gordo.  You know, I once had a friend named Axle.  I thnk my life lost some of its luster when he moved away.  I always remember the whole cast of Lizzie McGuire having the worst clothes ever.... everyone except Gordo.  He's a genuis narcissistic oddball, set on logic and rationality.  I appreciate that in a middle schooler.  You know, I think that trio represents the human subconscious.  Call me a psychoanalyst, but Gordo is totally the ego, Miranda the id, and Lizzie the pansy superego.  


Life is tough when you're forced to wear a unicorn sweater.

Erin:  Oh, you know what, that totally happens to everyone when they go to Italy! Didn't I ever tell you about the time I went to Italy, completely evaded my adult chaperones without any suspicion, became an Italian pop star without anybody noticing, and ditched my true friends for people I didn't know, had corny lines and seemed like complete skeezes? 

The thing I don't really understand, thinking about it, is why Gordo is friends with Lizzie. Lizzie is a complete materialistic ditz who cares way too much what other people think of her, and Gordo is...not.

I think your analysis makes sense, although I've seen animated movies with more deep of character.

Completely off-topic, have you ever seen the movie Spirited Away?

 Danni:  I'm impressed.  I can't even accomplish such feats the next block over.  Gordo is friends with Lizzie only because they've been friends since day uno.  She's familiar and comfortable.  Unlikable, but constant.  Gordo being friends with Miranda makes just as much sense as being friends with Lizzie.  Gordo should be the loner kid that creeps everyone out, but totally becomes famous in 20 years and everyone pretends like they've been buddies forever. 
 
Yes, I have seen Spirited Away.   Good moive.

Erin:  I agree with your sentiments about Gordo. He's got more going for him than he lets on. Maybe he hangs out with Lizzie because he's secretly and subconsciously afraid of the success he would have without her? Some people are just like that - afraid of success. 

I don't really remember Miranda's characterization that well. I haven't seen the TV show in a long time and she's missing in the movie for some reason (I think they claim she went to visit family in Spain), though I'm pretty sure she was just a black-haired version of Lizzie?

This movie is really insulting to Italians. It's basically portraying them as clueless people who couldn't tell a fake accent from a real one. Wouldn't you know if someone was faking an accent if that's your accent originally and they've had no time to practice? And why is it that, if Paolo and Isabella are Italian pop stars, that no one finds it strange their music is recorded in English? or that they only speak in English? I would find that strange. Also, Lizzie's pale, so the explanation that she's blonde because she "went to the islands" doesn't really make sense. And what islands?

I thought so too, I liked it a lot. My mom refuses to watch it with me because it's anime.

Danni:  I think she was just a black haired version of Lizzie, probably added for diversity's sake.  Every Disney show is insulting to everyone who isn't American.  Remember that one Disney Channel Movie, "Step-Sister From Planet Weird" or something like that?  Where this alien family fleed to Earth to escape the evil bubble tyrant on their bubble planet, and everytime the wind blew they'd freak out and hide under the Earth family's SUV...?  Totally insulting to bubble people.

Erin:  Hahaha. I don't think I ever saw that one; the main character in The Color of Friendship is black though... And having black hair really isn't that diverse. Way to go, Disney. 

Come to think of it, I don't think I knew anyone that naive or stupid back in middle school. How about you?

Danni:  Well, Disney doesn't want to push it, you know... supporting diversity is like supporting racism against white people.  If black people are hired over white people while still being equally qualified for a job, how are we, the white people, supposed to stay on top?  It's just not right!
 
By the way, The Color of Friendship is VERY diverse.  A white person from Africa is totally supporting the minority... granted that girl was from South Africa, but whatevs....


The Lizzie McGuire Movie has got to be one of the worst lessons for Disney watchers everywhere.  "Yes, kids.  When you go to a foreign country, sneak away from the people you trust to ride away with some strange Italian man who says he's a popstar.  If he says he wants your help "performing", take his word for it!  You will become rich and famous as an international superstar!  I mean, honestly, what have you got to lose? Har har har".

Erin:  I don't know if I'd say Lizzie McGuire was the worst, but it certainly was the most obvious lesson in bad lessons. I mean she basically runs away, and what's the great punishment? She's getting grounded. If that were anybody from our high school on a class trip, they'd be like...expelled. Doc Martin would not put up with that.

Danni:  Oh, fo'sho.  More like get whisked away by a mob of human traffickers and sold at an abnormally large price for being a blonde, American virgin, but you know... getting grounded works too.

Donnie Darko

Danni: I like the originial Donnie Darko, not the Director's cut. The whole movie is overrated though.

Erin: I have the director's cut, I like it because it explains a lot more than the original does. Why do you feel it's overrated?

Danni: I feel that the vast majority of people that watch the movie don't get what's going on (and you wouldn't without watching the director's commentary), which I think is a lame way of going about making movies. It just tries so hard to be something it's not. The vast majority of it's "cult" following is due to it's status as an "intellectual cult film", nothing more.

Erin: Mm. I think I was obsessed with the movie for awhile, but probably because it was a "cult" movie. I like those...weird, obscure, hard to understand what's going on. My 2 fave tv shows (X-Files and Buffy) fit that realm too,but I think the writers did a better job of explaining).

It is kind of a bad way to go about the movie - and frankly, I find the director's cut a little boring. I guessed what was going on before I saw it, but I had to watch it several times before it clicked. And even with the director's cut I'm not sure I understand the point of it all. What, for example, was the point of Grandma Death? Was she, like Donnie, a time traveler? I know that she wrote that once science book and all, but seriously? She's in the plot for that and that alone?

I like it for the same reason I like Frankenstein: No actual draw to the plotline or any of the characters, I just like to debate theories about what's actually going on.
It's also a little existentialist - don't you think? You get to the end of the movie to find out that the entire point was that Donnie was supposed to die. One has to wonder - what was the point?

I get what you say about the vast majority of the people watching it not understanding it, though. My dad did that. He got about 1/2 through and turned it off because it was depressing.

A lot of people are like that -liking things only because of what they symbolize as opposed to what they really mean. I think that's where a lot of stereotypes become accurate. But idk.

Also, wouldn't the world technically have been better with Donnie alive? He exposed a lot of injustices in the world. It's sort of like what they were discussing with Watership Down (I think? Idk)

Danni: I've watched that movie about 2938572304986 times and I still don't really see a point. Maybe there wasn't one (check one for extistentialism!).

Grandma Death, I always thought was the real, true Frank, essentially. Her book guided Donnie (and Frank guided Donnie to Grandma Death for this purpose).

I was mostly curious about Cherita Chen, though. I never understood her purpose. I thought maybe she was Donnie's angel or something, since she was the angel is the talent show, she loved him, they had this special connection throughout the entire film (he stood up for her, he told her, "I promise, that one day, everything's going to be better for you.") I don't know. But even if she was, she didn't save him (very un-angelic don't you think?), she didn't do anything in general. She just kind of stood around all day. (point of angels = nothing? Check two for existentialism).

Really, nothing in the movie mattered at all, particularly Donnie's efforts to save mankind, because in one version it was all a dream and in the other he got smooshed by a jet engine. Existentialist movie? Sure, why not.

Erin: 1. Me either. Seen it way too many times to count...I have never watched a film so pointless. I mean, even Towelhead - as horrible and horrific as it was - had a point. This was just like..."What?"

2. Ah, good point. I was beginning to wonder if maybe it was Gretchen. She does show up around the same time as Frank, and seems to work as a catalyst for Donnie.

3. Hm, I never thought about that before. I just kind of felt sorry for her because, as you point out, she doesn't seem to serve a purpose. I think maybe this entire thing would work better as a book because then characters like her wouldn't be as left out for time limit (or whatever other strange reasons).

4. Wait, in which version was it all a dream? I must have never seen the original, because I don't remember an ending that didn't involve Donnie being smooshed by jet engine. Just that it was considered a dream to everyone else.Although what would serve the point of making an existentialist movie? And if we're going to make an existentialist movie, why make it a depressing one in which the main character is obfuscating schizophrenia? Why not have it just be another version of Alice in Wonderland (in my own mind, THAT is also existentialist, and I think people are just trying to make sense of nonsense, but YMMV)?

Danni: Gummo was the most pointless film I've ever seen in all my life. My old Lion King Sing-a-long tapes were more useful than that (though, Gummo wasn't a bad movie).

I thought Gretchen was the Deus ex Machina since Donnie repeats "Deus ex machina" over and over and Gretchen finally gets run over and the hoodlums scram. So, maybe she is the angel after all.

Yeah, I felt horrible for Cherita as well. She always bugged me though because she was ALWAYS around... and for what? Someone to poke fun of?

The original Donnie Darko I think... or does Mad World play, Donnie wakes up, starts laughing and THEN the Jet engine smooshes him? Maybe it was just an alternate ending I watched as a special feature on one of the DVDs. But I know in one, he doesn't die.

Isn't existentialism a depressing philosophy all together? Even Alice in Wonderland is somewhat depressing. I think a happy existentialist movie wouldn't make much sense, considering it's a very apathetic idea. Apathy and happiness don't really go too well together, but that's just from my own experience. Other people may be perfectly happy apathetics.

As for the point I missed above, I think the world wouldn't be any different with or without Donnie. Especially if you want to look at it from an existentialist perspective.

Erin: Gummo? What is Gummo about? And ah, the Lion King...the best cartoon of the 90s, perhaps. And you can learn a lot from the Lion King! The Circle of Life = energy never dies, just goes from one thing to the next.

Hm. I didn't think of that. I kind of forgot what the Deus ex Machina was...I wanted someone to slug those two guys, all they ever did was cause pointless trouble. But then again, the movie may have been more interesting from their points of view - or, for that matter, Cherita's.

I don't know, I just know that all the times I've seen it (to my knowledge; it has, after all, been 3 years since the last time I saw it), it has ended with Donnie being hit by the jet engine, "Mad World" playing, and everybody waking up as if from a very bad dream. And the family standing outside as Gretchen goes by (she stops to ask some kid what happened).

It is, though I love it. It's so nice (sarcasm). And true, even Alice in Wonderland is depressing. But at least it's got some fun, zany characters - even if they are all insane, kind of cruel and sadistic, and very unhelpful. It's kind of a creepy story, in a way, but it has some fun bits to it. And it also at least has a very clear point and journey: Alice is trying to get home (I guess that's debatable) and exploring along the way. Alice in Wonderland is also kind of about an alternate universe...

I have met people who are happy apathetics, but I personally don't understand how they're happy being that way.

True; from an existentialist's point of view, Donnie has no significance. But I still don't see any point in his death. Who's to say that his death ensures his mothers, his sisters, Frank's, or Gretchen's survival? Gretchen's father is insane, and we know at the end of the movie he's come back. She probably would have died anyway, and more brutally than being run over by a car (honestly, though, who gets attacked by some hoodlems and then just lays in the middle of the road?); Frank and friends were already going along the route of grandma death. The Hoodlems could have seen them as a threat and shot Frank and his friend anyway. His younger sister, at least, would have wound up on that same trip anyway. Sparkle Motion's going to competition is not dependent on the perv's house being burnt down by her brother. And Donnie's death does not mean that storm will go away. The storm will still be there. It has to be, because otherwise the events of the movie would never have happened in the first place; Donnie would not have died.

I personally like a theory I found that says that the Frank Donnie is seeing is Dead Frank, who is ensuring that the events of the movie happening. I'm not quite sure why I like this theory though.

**and wow my opinion flip-flops too much...I agree with Danni. I like the movie in general and the director's cut because it explains; at the same time I think the director's cut is boring because it explains *too much*.

Danni: Gummo is just an hour or so of watching kids run around some desolate town in Ohio, drowning cats, huffing, and thinking a lot about sex. It could've ended anywhere, but in order to fit the "movie schema" they ended it around an hour. There's some cool cinematography in there though, and a super cute bunny boy that never talks and plays the acordian.

Did you ever see S. Darko? It's the sequel and it's basically Samantha suffereing the same stuff Donnie did, kinda. It's a horrible movie. There's one guy with a "rash" and you never find out what it is, where it came from, why it's there.

I love Alice in Wonderland as well. I'm sort of disappointed that it's EVERYWHERE now though, I'm almost getting sick of it, which is a shame, because I really used to adore that book.

I can see how someone could be apathetic and happy. They just have to be very accepting and content, which is rare.

Yeah, I never understood how Donnie's death saved anyone else. The vast majority of events in that film were completely independent from everything else. I thought that was weird for a film who's theme was action --> consequence, action --> consequence. Another reason the movie is difficult to understand. So much of it is illogical and even contradictory.

Erin: Wow...sounds kind of pointless...and boring...and weird.

No, I didn't, but it's in my Netflix queue. I've heard it's horrible - that's why I can't wait to watch it. Lol....So in other words, they'd have to have the DNA of a domesticated dog or cat in their genes??

I like the book so far. I got really mad when the movie was being over hyped 4 months in advance. I love Tim Burton too, but honestly, I'm not going to go singing the movie's praises until I've actually seen it. He *can* make a bad movie, after all (though I actually liked Mars Attacks!).

That is kind of contradictory. You would think that would be the point of the movie, especially since it's stressed so early - unless that's the point? Are they trying to surprise us on purpose? If so, those sneaky bastards! Props to them. But I somehow doubt it.

Danni: The entire movie I was just sitting there all, "What the heck?" and when the movie ended, "What did I just watch?"

Oh, my god, I LOVE Netflix. That thing is my hero. Where would I be without it? Bittersweet moment: Getting DVDs for super cheap from a closing Hollywood Video.

Yeah, I was excited when I heard he was doing a remake of Alice in Wonderland, but I saw it, it was good, but Tim Burton isn't what he used to be. I would love to see him make another "Vincent", but I'm thinking those days are long gone from Burton now.

Sneaky Darko writers/directors! How dare they trick us (if that's what they're doing), if not -- how dare they make a movie so impossible to grasp!

Erin: Lol. I think that's how I felt the first time. I was very depressed afterward...I don't know if I knew why though.

Netflix = the most awesome thing ever. Your Bitersweet Moment sounds fantastic, too. What did you get?

I still think he's visually brilliant. And there are parts of it I definitely liked (I still love the Cheshire Cat). I don't think anyone else could have done a better job at it. I've never seen Vincent, though. What's it like?

Danni: I got Clerks, Clerks II, and Coffee and Cigarettes. :)

He is, I won't deny him that.

Vincent is about this kid named Vincent Maloy who wants to be just like Vincent Price (Vincent Price narrarates!) Here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxQcBKUPm8o

First and Foremost (or something like that)

This is the blog of both Danni and Erin. We are huge movie fanatics and after a discussion about the movie Donnie Darko, it was pure destiny that we created a blog for the purpose of, as Erin so delicately put it, "tearing movies to shreds".

Our input will be color coded:
Danni appears in purple.
Erin appears in green.

Feel free to comment our posts with your own opinions/feedback on films, our views, or whathaveyou.

Enjoy!