Fried Rice Movie Week!

Okay, this is something I meant to start yesterday, but things came up. You know how that goes. Besides, isn't Tuesday the new Monday? No? Well, it should be.

Anyway, if you know me or you've been reading Fried Rice Thoughts for a while, you know I love movies. I'd rather see a movie than almost any other leisure activity. If I'm traveling and staying somewhere for a while, I want to know where the movie theaters are. If I visit Mis Hooz in New York, I have more fun with her at the movies than virtually any other quintessential New York activity. I enjoy going to the theater and watching a movie.

But I've been going through a dry spell. For various reasons, I haven't been able to get myself to a theater as much as I used to. Several movies blew through town that I wanted to see, but didn't: The Aristocrats, Junebug, Thumbsucker, Everything Is Illuminated, and Proof, to name a few smaller, "indie" flicks. Serenity was another one. (But I wanted to finish the Firefly DVD set first.) And Elizabethtown - a film I'd been anticipating for months - was in and out of theaters before I could plan an afternoon at the movies. (Maybe that tells me I didn't miss much.)

That was it. I knew something had to change. What had I become? What happened to the man who used to love going to the movies, the man I fell in love with? In an attempt to reunite myself with, er, myself, I've been going to the movies - with a vengeance. And I want to write about 'em.

To whet your (and my) appetite for film talk, here's an excerpt from Stephen Hunter's review of Pride and Prejudice in last Friday's Washington Post. He's the film critic I would love to be.

Is it as good as the superb BBC miniseries of 1995 starring Jennifer Ehle as Lizzy and Colin Firth as Darcy? How the hell would I know? Do you think I watched it? Get serious. Life's way too short for five hours in front of the tube watching ponces and twits flounce and scrape and talk tony Brit. However, many learned people say it is not as good, and that would therefore become my official position.

So welcome to Movie Week! We'll start off with Capote. Tomorrow. (Ahem.)

(Image from "Heart of the City" ©2005 Mark Tatulli/ Dist. by Universal Press Syndicate)