What would Harry, Ron, and Hermione do?

Apparently it means checking Amazon every hour and spending oodles of money.  Deals that I've seen that some of you might be interested in as well:

Bridesmaids on DVD for $5.99 (normally $29.98)
The Vampire Diaries S2 on DVD for $12.99 (normally $59.98) (I have been checking obsessively for the past week waiting for the price to drop for Black Friday)
Every season of Supernatural, including S6, for $12.99 (normally $59.98)

I bought Bridesmaids a few days ago, ordered TVD a few minutes ago (also ordered S7 of Boy Meets World for $8.99 yesterday, which is actually more of a present for my sister, who is obsessed with the show), and am considering purchasing S1, 4, 5, & 6 of SPN.  Remember that post where I said I was a compulsive DVD buyer?  I haven't even watched SPN in a month!  But the deals!  The DEALS!

The Internet has made Black Friday so much more accessible for introverts like me who don't want to leave the house.  I can be profligate anyway!  But no, I am not actually that much of a spendthrift.  I'm just spending birthday money before I get it.  I do plan to do some Christmas shopping tomorrow, though.

But visiting Amazon religiously is only a small part of what Thanksgiving means to me.  More importantly, it means I'm extra grateful to be with my family; for good food and a good home; for my relatives and friends; for all of you on LJ.  It means eating a mish-mash of normal Thanksgiving food (cornbread, mashed potatoes, beets) and ordinary food (like spaghetti) because we're vegetarian.  It means ordinarily we'd go see a movie as a family (probably the Muppets), but this year we might skip it because the Packers are playing and my brother and father are obsessed.  And of course, Thanksgiving means "Pangs" (and Chandler in a box).  :)

I hope all of my fellow "bloody colonials" have a happy and safe Thanksgiving, and I hope everyone else has an excellent November 24th!

I saw POTC two days ago and am going to see Bridesmaids in four hours, so I was going to save this all up for one long movie review post, but my love for Thor is too great to share a post.

I’ve always wanted to see Thor because I really like superhero movies, especially Marvel movies, but I wasn’t especially invested in the story  compared to that of other Marvel heroes like Iron Man (I am even less interested in Captain America, though I will see that as well). I also wasn’t really in the mood to see it yesterday because I was so tired and headachy from jetlag, but there’s only one matinee showing of the non-3D version left in theaters, so I knew my opportunities were limited. I’m so glad I dragged myself to the theater, because I loved it.

I loved every single little thing about it, in fact, and while I’m not sure it’s my favorite Marvel movie (it’s kind of hard to beat Tony Stark in terms of pure fun), I think it might just be the best-constructed Marvel movie so far.

( Wonderful acting! Fantastic direction! Great treatment of women! )

Overall, this movie was such a joy to watch. Kenneth Branagh, I tip my hat to you, and I wish you were directing The Avengers.

So yeah, let me talk about The Avengers for a minute…

I don’t really have any interest in Captain America. I’m sure the movie will pull off the premise well, but the idea of a small, “weak” man needing to be buffed up to be a hero doesn’t sit right with me, and I actually liked Chris Evans as the Human Torch quite fine, thank you very much; I don’t want to see him play a different superhero. However, I’ll probably still go see CA since I am a Marvel Movie Fanwoman.

I am more excited about The Avengers, but I am also extremely wary because I doubt that the heroes’ individual storylines will get enough closure, and I suspect the romances will get the short end of the stick (frex, the Jane/Thor reunion will probably be unsatisfying, I don’t know if Betty Ross will be included [and while I like Mark Ruffalo, I really liked Edward Norton as Bruce Banner. ☹ ], I want more Tony/Pepper dammit, etc.).

Honestly, I’m really unhappy about the idea of Joss Whedon directing it. Joss doesn’t seem to believe in happy endings. He also doesn’t seem to believe in happy love. Both of those things piss me off, and I don’t want him ruining these characters’ lives like he’s ruined so many of his original characters’ lives. I don’t want angst for angst’s sake, which he also goes for quite often. I also don’t think he deserves the “feminist writer” accolades for which he’s known, and if Black Widow is the only notable female character or if he fridges a love interest like he fridged Jenny and Tara, I will be so angry.  Actually, come to think of it, he probably is going to kill someone, maybe even one of the Avengers themselves 'cause that's what JW does.  Asshole.

I trust Whedon to pull off the ensemble work (must be so daunting to bring all these heroes together in one two-hour film) since that’s what he excels at, but I don’t trust him with anything else. I don’t want him messing with my beloved Marvel movie characters.

I wouldn't say I was blown away by it, but it definitely lived up to my very high expectations.  The script was indeed as sharp and biting as everyone says it is, and combined with the music (which plays almost nonstop and actually annoyed me a bit after a while) gives the movie an almost frenetic feel.  This starts from the very first scene, before the credits, which is a fantastic volley of dialogue between Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and his girlfriend Erica Albright (Rooney Mara).  You watch their relationship implode- and you understand every iota of Erica's frustration with Mark- and by the end you're blinking and thinking, "Oh wow."  And then you come to the blogging-while-creating-Facemash scene and Mark's voiceover sounds like a computer voice because it's so fast and clipped and ruthless, and again, wow.

A few months ago I heard stirrings of Eisenberg being nominated for best actor awards, but I have to say that while he was very good, I thought the true star of the film was Andrew Garfield playing Eduardo (Wardo) Saverin, Mark's best friend and co-founder of Facebooker.  I totally understand now why everyone fangirls Garfield.  He's just adorable.  He manages to be cute even when he's dressed in a suit trying to be suave and grown up, and he does the kicked puppy look very well.  I no longer care that Garfield is British and 27 and that it's ridiculous for Sony to reboot a 10-year-old movie franchise in the first place; I'll watch him as Spiderman any day.  But aside from the actors, the movie also just seemed to focus on Wardo more.  The other stand-out was Armie Hammer, who played both Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the Harvard students (and 2008 Olympic rowers) whose idea for a social networking site Mark reputedly stole.  I'd heard great things about Hammer, and they were true.  Even in 2D the ginormous (really, really hot) twins seemed a force to be reckoned with, and Hammer did indeed distinguish their personalities.  I haven't seen enough of Justin Timberlake (playing Sean Parker) to know if his acting was good or if he was just playing a villainous version of himself, but either way he was fun to watch.

I also really enjoyed how the story played out.  It cuts back and forth between 2003, when Mark founded Facebook, and 2007 (I think), when he was being sued by both Wardo and the Winklevi.  This confused me at first b/c of a parallel situation at Harvard at the beginning, but once you got the hang of what was happening it was easy to follow.  I had no idea what the timeline of the movie was, but I liked the resolution.  I think the film did a good job of capturing the important events and relationships while not getting bogged down in legal proceedings.  It also emphasized that the movie was really not about Facebook's success but about its founding and the lives and relationships it changed.

I highly recommend The Social Network to anyone who hasn't seen it yet.  I bought it from Amazon the day after it won the Golden Globe.  It's hugely unlike me to buy something I haven't seen before (I was leaving the county within the week and couldn't Netflix it), but I definitely don't regret it.  I still think The King's Speech is better and deserves the Oscar- and Toy Story 3 is still better than both of them combined- but I wouldn't be heartbroken if The Social Network won.
( Specific reactions cut for spoilers )