tales from the rock

caught the 1986 blockbuster (not really) Lucas tonight.  that’s some pretty good second tier smack from the 80’s man.  most lesser fans will only be able to recall the winona ryder, corey haim, and charlie sheen appearances, but the hardcore also know this is one of the great jeremy piven’s first roles.  that guy has about 80 roles in between ’spike’ and the current ari gold, and let me tell you, he hasn’t had much hair on his head for any of them.lucas is really the original rudy, and the end scene, while not a tear jerker, is a nice sports related feel good moment.also present in that sequence, the first appearance of ‘menacing asian guy’ - very rarely seen in the mid 80s. 

watched Black Snake Moan last night, starring Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci, and Justin Timberlake.

reviews on this movie are very polar - either people love it, or they hate it.  I certainly didn’t hate it, but I also think I missed a lot of the complexity the filmmaker tried to layer in.  still a thumbs up.

the 3 things I learned from this movie:

1. Christina Ricci has a well fine body,
2. If Justin Timberlake wants to become a serious actor, he’s taking the right steps, and
3. if you EVER need someone to say the word(s) MotherFucker out loud for ANY reason, then Samuel L. Jackson is your god damn man!

great flick.  loved the cast, the visuals were great, and the the story was really entertaining.  you could see a lot of it coming, but thanks to some ‘magic’ late in the story, they were able to throw in a couple unseen twists.

The Prestige follows two rival magicians as they seek to outdo, and simultaneously ruin the other.  early in their careers, a horrible accident introduces the rift that would keep them at each other forever.  Michael Cain plays a great character, who walks wolverine through his part of the story.  the movie shows you the face of love, hate, commitment, disappointment, victory, and what it means to not even notice the power these emotions have over you when you have lost the forest in the trees.
the movie is far from great, but I certainly don’t feel like I wasted my life watching it.  all in all, a positive rent.

some stories are easy to tell.  maybe good stories just tell themselves.  this one had the help of Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges.  even without him, this is a good movie.

the sport reality show/documentary is one of my favorite genres, and ‘Heart of the Game’ ranks right up there with the best of them.  I’m not really sure how you judge a movie like this.  cinematography is usually ignored (since most of these shows are shot on DV cams, or whatever a filmmaker can find).  luck seems to play a major part as well - you can’ t really tell whats going to happen over a 7 year period before you start since there is no script for life.  maybe this instinctive foresight is what makes a good documentarian.  even editing a final print is tough, since any ’story’ that emerges is only visible in hindsight, and you can’t go back to get the footage you missed.
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so, after mocking my movie watching in his blog, Tom IMs me and tells how funny Clerks 2 is. wtf. it was close to the top of the spool though, so I threw it in to see if I can trust Tom’s opinion.
past reccomendations make this one suspect. first of all, most of his past movie watching experience was from watching cam movies for fucks sake. and then there was ‘Better Luck Tomorrow’, his all time hype film that I wasted money on.

the other thing this flick has working against it, is time and its own history. Clerks is like the slacker Star Wars. like Star Wars, its fans can’t wait for the sequel, but you know the sequel has no chance to live up to the mystique of the original. we alreayd know Jay and Silent Bob, Dante has put on about 40 fucking pounds, and well, Kevin Smith is just not a nobody anymore.

it was fun to watch the original team in action though. Smith’s feeble attempt at a story line didn’t really affect anything, since you were just waiting to see which fuckhead was going to do the next fucked up thing (like the language? it’s inspired by the movie)

I’m also not sure if Smith was copying luca$ on purpose or what, but some of the dialog was pathetic - especially the quasi-homo love soliloquy Randal drops on Dante near the end. for fucks sake.

ultimately, not a lot of knee slappers, but plenty of crudely crafted humour that only a fan would appreciate. I’m a fan. twas appreciated.

final words: shut the fuck up gobot, you never go A2M!

found this at the bottom of the spool, and managed to watch it in a couple of nights.  decent flick, nothing special.

kind of pointless to go over the plot, so I’ll just review the strong points.  Vince Vaughn is a stud.  Owen Wilson is always a good sidekick.  cameo by Will Ferrell had him on point.
lots of hot chicks is a plus.  more nudity would have made it plusser.

all in all, a fun flick.  I’ll never watch it again.

so it was a special occasion on saturday.  for the first time in 3 years, the wife and I went out to the movies!  we used to hit the saturday matinee often, but having the kid really put a damper on that.  we had to stay close to home though, so even though I desperately wanted to see Rocky, we ended up catching ‘Children of Men.’

while not a horrible flick, I think it left a lot on the table.  the problem most people seem to have (as I peruse the user reviews on Yahoo!), is that for whatever reason, this movie describes a scene - a moment in time - vs telling a story, which is what most people expect.

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finally had a chance to sit down and watch this documentary/editorial by Al Gore, and I must say, it’s better than I expected.

while it does harp on his belief that the industrialized nations of the world, and primarily the US, are the cause of the current global warming episode, he really focuses on the impact of the warming that is in fact happening.
we are the mass consumers - I definitely am.  I believe the money I earn entitles me to spend it how I wish - I leave lights on, and brush my teeth with the water running, and I drive my car.  a lot.  everywhere.  and I like it.  unless something is priced out of my reach, or priced such that it hurts my wallet, I’m ignoring any consequence of my actions.  I’m also educated enough to acknowledge that I am the only one that can stop myself from behaving this way.  this is my inconvenient truth.
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since I ‘rent’ so many movies, I thought I’d start reviewing them as I watch them. this will also serve to help populate a community app I’m going to start working on for the ‘hou. the first movie will be M. Night Shyamalan’s “Lady in the Water”.

this movie was crap.

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