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JammerLea

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Posts posted by JammerLea

  3. Posted

    Haha, EternalSammich was reading comments to me out loud while I was driving. It's like my own personal podcast lol

     

    To add in my own opinion on Sharpay's "popularity", she reminded me of the students I'd refer to in late 90s high school as "preps". The ones who were stuck up and thought they were hot shit, but weren't actually popular. They wouldn't think twice about being a bitch to someone they didn't like, and thought they were funny in the process. Though Sharpay isn't nearly as cruel as the couple I had the displeasure of being at odds with. I was already in college when HSM came out, so I don't know if that stereotype was still a thing or not in 2006.

    • Like 6

  5. Posted

    Jammer, you've got a lot to answer for. After two days of begging, I finally gave in to my kids and bought all three soundtrack albums, and they've been playing all night tonight at our customary bedtime dance parties. This could be a long month.

    Wildcats sing a-long!!

     

    I'm gonna pass the blame on to Rifftrax, because I never would've watched this movie without their commentary. (See also: the whole Twilight series)

    • Like 5

  6. Posted

    Okay one more thing I wanted to bring up...

     

    If Troy and Gabriella liked singing so much... why didn't they just try out for choir? I mean, for a musical you also have to consider acting ability, stage presence, and the ability to follow a set choreography, right? But singing one song during karaoke doesn't display any of these skills. Gabriella, in fact, was the worst and started off the karaoke song with her arms crossed over her chest. This pose is the sign of someone who is very uncomfortable to be in that spot, and I'm not a pro, but wouldn't such a stance hinder one's singing ability as well?

    • Like 8

  8. Posted

    Man, when I was in school our big sports teams were so bad, we were the ones winning games on Friday the 13th. I cannot fathom how a team would get such praise to warrant a full color, wall-to-floor poster of one season's team.

     

    Oh, we did have walls of old trophy's from different competitions, but that was it as far as sports accomplishments.

     

     

    My school's real claim to fame was receiving a mention in Playboy magazine, but that's kind of off topic.

     

    • Like 5

  9. Posted

    Why did Troy have a secret spot in the garden that the rest of the team instantly knew about when they had to look for him later on in the film?

     

    Seriously this bothered me. He specifically stated that he would go to that spot to get AWAY from his teammates. Someone must've ratted him out.

     

    Also wtf was the moment Sharpay went to look for the mysterious voice (Gabriella) in the bathroom, and NEVER SAW HER even though she walked right past the corner Gabriella was hiding in. Does Sharpay have no peripheral vision, or what?

    • Like 9

  10. Posted

    Any guesses as to what Troy's mother does for a living? Did you see the size of their house (complete with basketball court)? There's no way they can afford all that, plus very nice ski trips, on a High School basketball couch's salary.

    Coming back to this - I wonder how much a basketball couch earns

     

    But seriously is that all Troy's dad does? I could understand if his dad was also the gym teacher, but that's never mentioned. I'd find it odd for him to hang out on campus during regular school hours if he's only a coach.

     

    *EDIT*

     

    My dad helped coach softball for a while when he was working a full time job, so I don't understand why Troy's dad can't have another job, but... not if he's wasting time hanging out around school.

    • Like 5

  11. Posted

    I would argue that removing the bowler hat and suit (and going back to something that was said on page one or two about the third movie and Ryan (that is Sharpy's brother right? Seriously why do you name one twin "Sharpy" and the other "Ryan") wanting to come out (or the actor wanted the character to be revealed as gay) and Disney nixing it. I think in the Disney safe world, any hint of androgyny is okay for being "weird" but when we all come together and accept each other, you need to conform to cultural norms.

    Actually I think it's pretty fucked up that Disney couldn't handle Ryan coming out as gay, but yet it is COMPLETELY OKAY FOR TWO SIBLINGS TO PLAY ROMANTIC INTERESTS TOGETHER IN MUSICALS idk how romantic Kelsi's musical production is, but they mentioned the siblings playing Romeo and Juliet and that's more than I need to know. Srsly this is the most uncomfortable thing about the movie for me, just have them be super close best friends or something what the fuck

    • Like 9

  12. Posted

    Wow, I sleep for a couple more hours and this is up to 6 pages?!

     

    Okay since there's commenting on the songs...

     

    I like the songs that didn't make sense a lot better than the ones that did. Mostly because of the choreography. They felt more fitted for the world of musical. The karaoke and musical audition songs were very stiff in comparison, and never really stood out as much visibly or audibly to me.

     

    Though I will add that Gabriella's solo song "When There Was Me And You" never stood out at all and I totally forgot it was a thing. I get it's a way for her to release the angst of a broken heart, but I think it would've been better if maybe there was some split screen thing going on where we could've gotten some of the angst Troy has trying to deal with his unsupportive friends. Something to really shine a light on how THEY feel about things? Idk, maybe I'm thinking about it too hard. The only thing I took away from her solo was "Because I liked the view", and I was like "what view? were you were looking at his ass?"

     

    "Stick to the Status Quo" is by far my favorite song, just because it's catchy, I like the choreography a lot, and we get introduced to these other characters that seem interesting and I wish they got more screentime.

    • Like 9

  13. Posted

    There's still a lot I want to talk about, but I'm still behind on sleep from work this weekend and it's my day off so Imma go back to bed.

     

    I will leave off that I utterly enjoyed Taylor's (the character) reaction when she found out Gabriella was smart, as she totally had that whole "Whoa, that's hot." sort of look, and we spent the rest of the movie believing she had a thing for Gabriella (Chad isn't that great, come on).

    • Like 7

  15. Posted

    Most interesting from this: given that this movie is set in the protagonists' junior year (given that number 2 is the following summer and number three is subtitled 'senior year'), WHERE ARE ALL THE SENIORS IN THIS MOVIE? Why is there no fuss over graduating students? Why are there no older students in the musical? Why are there no older students in the basketball team? In number 3, there are younger students (a basketball player, 'Rocketman', and an aspiring musical theatre girl, 'Tiara Gold' - oof to both names) who aspire to take the place of Troy and Sharpay after the older guys graduate. Why are there no older students in this movie? It seems like the juniors run the place.

    Maybe their school system is worse than mine and the seniors were kept in a separate building.

     

     

    This was my dumbass school system, all different buildings btw

    Elementary school: Pre K ~ 4th grade

    Middle school (North): 5th grade

    Middle school (South): 6th ~ 7th grade

    Junior High: 8th ~ 9th grade

    High school: 10th ~ 12th

     

    The junior high and high school were eventually joined by the building of a gym between them (ca. 1993), before that they had to walk to the middle school to use the gym.

     

    • Like 4

  16. Posted

    Is this because sports scholarships are a viable way to get an affordable post secondary education? Do schools receive more money for championships? Is this just something played up in movies or are movies and tv not that far off from real life?

     

    I'm still half asleep, so I won't say too much on the movie yet, but for this... I think it's that the US society is obsessed with sports. I'm not, but I know a lot of people who are, and it really IS that crazy and SOOO much money goes into it. If you've ever heard the phrase "the arts are the first to go", putting more money into sports is often painfully the reason for that. I'm not saying sports are bad. I was on a few teams here and there, and for kids I think they can be good extracurricular activities for students to learn and grow from. However, even at my tiny school I would see a "sports first" sort of attitude. We would have pep rallies before big games (just basketball and football), where we were pulled out of the classroom to sit in the gym to watch the team and cheerleaders try to get us pumped up for the game.

     

     

    I cannot say that the enthusiasm the entire student body in HSM has for the championship game is legit, as in reality there are plenty of students who just do not give a shit (i.e. me), but the overall "this game is the most important thing ever" pushed by people who are so sports obsessed that they only put value in a student's sports ability (i.e. Troy's father, Chad), is kind of realistic. It's pretty magical that they come around in this movie.

     

     

    Ahhh, I see Taylor Anne kinda beat me to this, but I'll still post mine, since I'm from a different part of the country. It's pretty much like this all over.

    • Like 9

  19. Posted

    I know I've been in theaters when some people are heckling or just being rude in general, but I've somehow gotten pretty decent at tuning them out, to where my roommate will complain about someone sitting nearby after the movie and I'm just "Huh? Really?"

     

     

    I love MST3K stuff too, but I prefer it to be saved for home, or when it's being done by actual professionals and not just people who think they're funny.

     

     

    As far as audience reactions in general, I'll never forget the first time I went to see The Lion King in theater. My little hometown theater was absolutely packed. The movie got to where they were fighting off Scar and the Hyenas... Rafiki did that kung-fu crap and ended with the flying back-fist and the whole audience was in awe just started applauding him. At the time 12 year old me, was like "Wow this is a magical moment!" but looking back... you all just applauded an animation. Okay.

     

    Btw, sign me up for the Adam Scott fanclub too.

    • Like 5

  24. Posted

    I don't have a problem if Jason wants to propose a JLS. Those are his thing and he delivers them well (this one was particularly good). I'm just tired of people trying to make the same joke like they're being super clever. The first couple of times were fine, but I feel like we're in double digits of people saying/writing, "What if maybe X died doing Y and the rest of the movie is a JLS?"

     

    If you can telll that joke well, then I'm all for it, but most people don't bring a creative enough twist to it so it comes off as kind of lazy.

     

    I just want everyone to be the best versions of themselves that they can be. Don't try to be Jason. He's already the Platonic Ideal of what a Zouks can be. You're not going to be a better him, you know? :)

    The way Jason delivers his Jacob's Ladder theories is very much HIS thing. He has a specific tone, as well as natural comedic timing, that even though we KNOW what he's going to say before he says it, it still manages to be funny and we're excited to hear it. I think by this time it's somewhere between a running gag and a catchphrase. It's not easy to pull off so well if you're not Jason.

     

    That said, it would be a lie if I didn't say my roommate and I have tossed that joke into our own movie discussions.

    • Like 4

  25. Posted

    Alright, so I just had a very disappointing day for pictures. It's a beautiful morning, I had the sun behind me, I was the only person at the site (other than a forest ranger who probably thought I looked pretty suspicious pacing up and down the shore trying to find landmarks) but I came up completely empty-handed. When I got to Maple Lake, I walked down to the pier and then I looked really closely at the screengrabs I had of the movie. The pier that's standing today is on the same part of the shore SOME FIFTY FEET NORTH of the one constructed for the house. Furthermore, after scouring the internet for a precise location of the house, I came across an article that led me to believe the house was actually constructed over land which was then dug out to fill with water (pictured below: a production still showing the house under construction). This made it completely impossible to line up a good shot. Again, it bears repeating that the house was demolished after shooting because Maple Lake is part of the Cook County Forest Preserve District and filming was only allowed under the condition that the site was to be left as it was before construction. Also, after taking a look at the Willow Springs wikipedia page, I noticed that The Lake House is the only entry under the "Culture" section, which is the perfect indicator of how fucking boring this town is.

     

    Lake-House-being-built1.jpg

     

    I love your posts jsyk

     

    I grew up visiting and being on lake front property in the midwest and I've never seen a residential building built OVER the water, so I wonder how practical/durable this sort of structure is.

     

    The picture above definitely shows a wall to keep out the water (I also see markings showing the presence of a previous water level on the posts under the house). But it really makes me question how they followed the rule for "filming was only allowed under the condition that the site was to be left as it was before construction", if they indeed had to dig out an area for the water to fill. I want to know more on how they built this thing lol

    • Like 5
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