Worst Movie Ever?
You've Been Asleep for a Hundred Seconds
I had a great time watching the Oscars at my place on Sunday with Jeanine, Misty, and Nick, but during the red carpet pre-show stuff I reached a new low of nerdom. There was some one wearing a Kimino in the background which cause some one to ask "who is that?". Now you couldn't see this persons whole face but you could see their jaw. I instantly blurted out "Oh, that's George Takei!" And not a second later the screen revealed that it was indeed George Takei, of Star Trek fame. Which caused a profound wave of embarassment to wash over me. I then looked up and saw a my evil-bearded Spock action figure on the window sill and I died a little inside.
I have long held that the most compelling television show ever would be if Animal Planet could throw out all their ethics and start a show pitting different types of animals in a fight to the death. It would be completely wrong and evil but just imagine: lion vs. tiger, tabby vs. chihuahua, toucan vs. parrot, cougar vs. wolf, eagle vs. leopard; cockroach vs. dung beetle, or two roosters vs. a single turkey. I'd hate myself for it but I'd be glued to the set for every episode; especially that rooster-turkey show down.
The 2008 Presidential race is already in full swing two years out, which is rather weird as things didn't really get going last time until the summer of 2003.
Lots of great music last year! Full reviews of the top ten to come later.
I saw Ray Davies at the Moore tonight. I was surprisingly psyched for this show and was listening to the Kinks all day in preparation I was hoping he'd do a wide variety of Kinks stuff and only a limited about of his new album. Unfortunately He mostly did a combination of the Kinks oldies radio rotation and way way to many of his mediocre new songs. He even managed to flub "You Really Got Me" by including an accordion in the arrangement. Sorry Ray, accordions should only be included on polkas and songs from weirdos like Tom Waits and They Might Be Giants not on classic rock tunes. But Ray saved the evening from being a mild thumbs down to make it a mild thumbs up by closing with 1979's "Low Budget".
Holy crap! Someone has gone recorded songs for a Silence of the Lambs musical. Its called fittingly Silence! Songs include "# If I Could Smell Her...", "Are You About a Size 14?", and of course "Put the Fucking Lotion in the Basket" Read more and download the tracks here.
I promise this blog is not going to become just as series of YouTube posts but this was too funny to not share. It's a ridiculous stry reported in a ridiculous mannner. At first I wasn't sure if this was for real or some sort of brilliant comedy sketch. The very end is the best part. And as always bad mustaches are very funny.
Another legendary lost pilot. This one is from Ben Stiller and stars Jack Black has an astronaut named Jack and Owen Wilson as the voice of his motorcycle, Heat Vision. It is even more awesome than it sounds. My favorite part is Ron Silver the villian.
I have wanted to see this pilot for at least 6 or 7 years. I think i first saw a clip for it on an A&E Biography of Conan O'Brien. Now thanks to the wonder of the internet here is Conan O'Brien and Robert Smigel's 1991 lost pilot Lookwell starring Adam West. Look for In the Bedroom director Todd Field as Jason.
For the first time in my drinking life I went out on St. Patrick's Day. As rule I always try to avoid drinking holidays with the exception of New Year's, but so-called holiday's like St. Paddy's, Mardi Gras, and Cinco De Mayo are a no-go for me. But this year I was drawn out of my boycott by the specter of a band called cover band called Def Leprechaun playing at the Sunset Tavern mere blocks from my Ballard home. Would this mean a tiny Joe Elliott impersonator? One could only hope!
1. Me and You and Everyone We Know - Strange, weird and totally affecting. I knew I'd probably like this but I waited until DVD because it seemed too serious. But to my surprise this movie was totally serious and really funny. Weird funny but still funny. Surreal, real, and sweet all at the same time.
A few months ago I joked to Misty that song "The Mariner's Revenge Song" off of the latest Decemberists album was secretly about Alvin Davis and Harold Reynolds. Now the guys over at the U.S.S. Mariner blog have posted alternative lyrics that make the song about the worlds most frustrating baseball team. Ladies and gentlemen, "The Mariners' Revenge Song".
I caught the new Potter flick on opening weekend. Solid flick definitely better than the first two movies but not as good as the third. My old friend Nick how ever had a much more passionate reaction and here it is:
I liked it considering the amount of things that go on in the book and that they need to make it fit into a couple hours of screen time. Still, I wish they would have just made it a 5 hour long movie and put in the first half of the book. I did feel cheated on not having any World Cup scenes. (BTW, did you ever see the Daily Show's report some years ago from Harry Potter camp where the kids essentially played Ultimate Frisbee while holding brooms between their legs...).
The pace was really quite fast and I'm not sure if someone hasn't read the books if they will really catch on to what is going on. For instance, the whole gilliweed (sp?) exchange with Snape misses something without the Dobbie/House Elf sub-plot, though they try (and fail) to infer that Moody made it happen. I also think the SPEW thing is important to the Hermione character development (not least because I was once an idealistic laborista-type myself...). I do think that the Dobbie aversion might be to some sort of Jar Jar Effect, but the house elves are cool and fit the spirit
of the story, whereas Jamaicans in Space do not...This also tells me that that part of the story will not be carried forward at all in Book 7.
The only thing that grates on me every time I see this movie (my 6th viewing will be on Thursday--its only like $3 here), I am developing a strong aversion to the current Dumbledore. He moves too fast. I like the All-Knowing, Metered Albus of the first two (Richard...whatshisname...). In fact, I think even Richard's dead corpse would be better than the current one. He's too cartoonish and the scripts make him too obtusely sage-like rather than the behind the scenes mover and shaker that he is until the end of Half Blood. I was appalled at him rushing at Harry and almost tackling him after his name was drawn and they convene down in the dungeon. Ahkh! The best contrast is how the two Dumbledores handle candy be it the Everyflavor Beans in the first or the Licorice Snaps in the current one. Acting, acting, acting...
The one major flaw in the screenplay though is the disemboweling of the whole Crouch and Crouch dynamic. It was murdered. The whole denial of having done anything at the Wizengamot is the crux of that story and they just had him do the admission (and weird tongue flick) once he was caught in the pensieve recollection. I think that could have been written into the screenplay without adding any additional scenes or taking up any more time.I did wish there was more character development with the Champions, though I did get all choked up when Cedric bit it (especially when Harry's clinging to him once they get back to Hoggies). Of course its always easy to feel empathy for good looking people...Fleur was a little one dimensional and should have been waaaaay more French. Instead of the formidable woman that she is portrayed as in the books, she comes off as the standard heroine in distress. I couldn't get enough Diggory and Krum and that's the theme of my main dissatisfaction with the film. NOT ENOUGH. MORE, MORE, MORE. It wasn't so much the omissions, but the aversion to straying from only Harry's story. I sort of feel they did a Rita Skeeter on the book.
Also, you just can't have enough Rickman and I know that in the 6th installment it will be all Severus, all the time, but still...
The twins were great, but again, it would have been nice to have the Pearcy sub-plot and the foreshadowing of the weak character of Cornelius Fudge. After all, he's not just a silly, weak politician, but duplicitous and that comes to light in Phoenix and this would be a good set up. Shades of Bill Bennett... :)
Alas, not enough Sirius, but I can see that being made up for in Phoenix so as to get maximum tears. If I got all sniffly over Cedric, I'll be a basket case when Sirius goes through the looking glass (although, I'm absolutely jones'd about his evil cousin--but that's partly because she's such a good character when Jim Dale reads her on the audio versions).
Still, I'm glad they didn't change any of the themes or alter any of the storylines in fundamental ways that would have diverged from the book. Although, the Myrtle scene was a bit overdone and I hope it doesn't portend them mangling the Luna storyline in the next installment.
I liked the way they did Moody, but (like Lupin in Azkaban) he wasn't anything like I was expecting, but I liked the way they rendered both of them.
And now here's my geek hang up: Bulgaria's colors are NOT RED & BLACK. I understand why they did what they did, but its like in Dune where they screwed up the coloration of the Houses and instead opt for the standard Hollywood color wheel (red = bad, [insert a McCarthy joke of your choosing here]...). If British Pinewood wanted to be considered more than just a shadow of American cinema, they should challenge these cinematic stereotypes...okay, I'm done geeking out. Putting jam on my nose...
I will end my ramblings on the whole ball/love subplot which I thought was done superbly. I really do like how Daniel, Rupert, and Emma deliver all their lines through out the movies. They just so good at being these characters. "It will never wooo-ork." sings Granger to Fred & George as they enter with their aging potions or Radcliffe's "How could anyone figure that out, Ron," after Grint goes through the complicated way in which he really did tell Harry about the dragons.
Recently for the second day in a row, I overheard a co-worker weep uncontrollably and appear to have nervous breakdown of sorts. The first time, I wasn't sure what to do. I was the only one else left in the office, so I figured I'd leave this person to their solitude. But the next the sobbing became a total freak out/argument in the middle of the day, all while I was working with other co-workers to try to solve a rather tricky problem. Eventually we are all a little rattled by the goings on nearby that we postpone resolving the problem for a time and retreated to our individual headphones and more mundane tasks. When I fired up my iPod I was greeted by a fantastic Jeff Tweedy cover of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" which immediately soothed my jagged nerves. Gob Bless you Jeff and Bob for returning me to normality.