The Spirit(2008)

I am starting to think there is not a super-hero movie out there that I will not go see. No matter how bad it is, I am there. Punisher, Daredevil, Ghostrider, and now The Spirit.

At least with one you can say, "well, there were some interesting visuals!" All that Frank Miller noirish shtick. All that was there, but it didn't have the striking effect it did with Sin City. Nor, did it have the quality of actors.

The story had the structure of the first Spiderman movie with that whole "Who am I?" question that the story was sandwiched around. The images the Spirit running across rooftops in the highbred of New York and Chicago was always Spidey-esque.

Remember in Sin City that every scene was so over-dramatic that no real character development was really necessary. They try the same here, but it doesn't work because the scenes really don't work. Only Scarlett Johansson, the only talented actor in the ensemble, had any development, but that seemed almost by accident.

There some weird Nazi scene that I really didn't like. It is the only time I have scene a black man dressed in full S.S. Nazi uniform. There are times when surreally meant scenes fail. There was that great game show scene in Natural Born Killers that really worked. It was funny , disturbing and somehow brilliant then there is the The Beatles' Yellow Submarine movie that just failed entirely.

Oh right, the story. What story? The movie was that bad.

I think The Spirit tried marry elements of the first Spiderman, Tim Burton's Batman movie, and the Frank Miller style. Nah. it didn't work.

Look, I figure if you are a male under 12 years old, you will like it a lot. If I saw this movie at age 10, I would have dragged my mother to Toys R' Us for get me a Spirit action figure.

Doubt(2008)

An intriguing, disturbing, insightful and a power movie. It comes from the hit play on Broadway. Tells the story of a implied gay priest in the 1960's at Catholic school who takes an inappropriate relationship with a black boy at a recently integrated school. The principle, a head nun, takes a suspicion of him because she suspects he is a homosexual. One day, one of the nuns smells alcohol on the boys breathe after he comes back from a private conference with the priest.

The head nun, played by Meryl Streep, Sister Aloysius Beauvier, starts a crusade against the priest. In that process, she speaks to the mother who is more worried about her husband beating her son because he suspects his son is gay. The mother is complaisant to an inappropriate relationship her son and the priest, because, at least, someone is caring for her son despite the price.

The priest played by Philip Seymour Hoffman is obviously protecting the child and is aware of his situation, but he is hiding something. It is never clear what he is hiding. Is it that he is gay? Is it that something happened? Or is it that something happened in his past? Whatever it is he fights hard to hide from Sister Beauvier. She threatens to bring out some past allegation from a previous school he worked at. She doesn't really know anything, but she buffs and he resigns.

The story seems like a side bar of the real story of moral themes of kindness, doubt, fear, gossip and suspicion. The movie is filled with discussion of these themes.

The movie is heavy. You walk out unsure of a lot of things.

Merly Streep's performance is the best I have seen this year. She probably deserves another Oscar. There were are very strong performances by Philip Seymore Hoffman, and Amy Adams who's body language is still very girlie like in Enchanted despite being a troubled Nun.

Doubt is one of the few cerebral movies out this year. Definitely one of the best. I actually paid full price on this one!

Yes Man(2008)

I think Jim Carry is giving us tales of Morality. I feel like the last few Carry films I have seen were like funny allegories. Lair Lair, don't lie. Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind is almost a It's a wonderful life tale of your life is precious no matter how much pain your in. This one,Yes Man, tell the audience that is you say yes to life good things will happen, and if you say no bad things will happen, but you have do it responsibly.

This movie was number one at the box office last weekend. Again, it the economic downturn a funny light hearted movie is needed. Isn't funny during booms (e.i. the roaring 90's) people like disturbing entertainment. Well, in times like these it is quite the opposite.

Jim Carry plays Carl who is miserable cloistered man who avoids as much social contract and effort to enjoy life. He attends a self-help talk that persuades him to say yes to everything that comes his way. At first this looks disastrous but in the process unexpected good things happen to him.

This is really good role Carry who tried be a serious actor, but I think he was too good at being depressed. Nobody wanted to a favorite funny man so sad. So, he went back to silliness. This movie has both aspects.

This movie has your usual Carry stick, funny faces, a funny musical number, playing with language and conversations. The movie G rated enough for older kids.

It co-stars Zooey Deschanel, who couldn't look like a more perfect girl, and Danny Masterson, from That 70's show, who is still playing Steven Hyde.

If you couldn't tell I really enjoyed this one. I think it is great fun little movie. Good you want to get your mind of things.

Four Christmases (2008)

I think the current economic crisis has contributed this film being a hit. It was number 1 at the box office for two weeks. With times seeming so bad and maybe getting worse, people need something light and really quite, frankly, stupid to watch. Four Christmases is one of the worst movies I have seen all year.

It was starts with a good premise. The premise that that people work so hard to develop themselves into the people they want to be, but their families still see them as they saw them before they left for college. So, the movie could have explored the conflict was when these people have to confront the conflict in contrast.

Another thing it had going for it is the cast. It was like trying to be the ultimate date movie. It stars human Barbie-doll, Reese Witherspoon. Every girlie-girl loves her. Then for the guys it has the Swingers reunion with Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, and the guy who played "Sue." Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek and a few country guys round out the cast. They could have added the Jonas brothers to make the movie try to appeal to larger demographic or just added one minority I don't remember seeing one person of color of any kind.

The idea of this movie that a unmarried couple go to see their families for Christmas. Both families are divorced and our mismatched couple of Vince and Reese have been avoiding these type events for the past few years. I am not denying that this could have been a good movie but it is so cheesy that it would make the Bollywood audience embarrassed. In fact, the only thing that this movie is lacking is a series of song and dance numbers.

Many other things don't work as well. Reese and Vince as a couple. Vaughn towers over her like the Empire State Building to a hotdog vendor. Reese as a former lesbian doesn't work either. Nor does the excessive shots Vaughn gut. He has really let himself go.

Really the word banal does cover the blandness of this one. In these times we don't have money to spend on such crap.

Role Models (2008)

The Alchemy of Comedy troupes seems to be working this year. It seems like the Apatow touch of style and actors are combining with others of the crude male variety. There was the excellent Zack and Miri, make a prono, which combines Seth Rogan and Kevin Smith. This time you have the mostly the Apatow crowd running with the guys from the The State,One Hot American Summer, and Reno 911 crew.

Maybe you are wondering why such a stupid looking movie such as Role Models is still showing. The reason is that it is pretty good. In the tradition of the Bad News Bears, The Mighty Ducks and any other films where reluctant males have to come to the rescue of eccentric kids where the movie metamorphosizes into a family movie, Roles Models does that too but better.

Why Better? It is better because usually in these movies you have really boring intro where the dude is down on his luck and basically crabby. Here you have Paul Rudd and Stiffler from American Pie acting like some overly sexed Martin and Lewis team. There is story about their friendship and Rudd and his girlfriends. There is a movie right here without the two kids who enter their lives by Plea Bargain.

The movie easily can be retooled into a sitcom a la the Simpsons. There are enough well developed secondary character that everyone is interesting. Most of them are from Apatow films. You got the doctor from Knocked Up, the nerdy kid from Drillbit Taylor, the newly wed from Forgetting Sarah Marshall and let's not forget Paul Rudd and McLovin'.

Oh the Story? Well our heros work for an energy drink company that tries to get kids off drug and on to energy drinks. Stiffler dresses up as a Minotar Beast for the kids. Rudd is depressed that his life has amounted to this, and his girlfriend can't stand him anymore. She leaves him.

Rudd, depressed, crashed the company car, and both are in it and charged. His ex-girlfriend, a lawyer, gets them a thousand hours of community service. They entered a help the children big brother program run by an ex-crack whore. Their little Bro's are a very angry little boy and McLovin'. McLovin is a Harry Potter looking Medieval re-creationist who might not have reality that far in his hands. As you can imagine, it doesn't go so well at the start, but the guys start to love it when they realize that these kids look up to them like gods. Just when they start to enjoy it is when the get kicked out. Later, somehow they all fight as a they all fight as a team in a Medieval re-creationist war dressed liked the members of KISS, which kinda lose in the end.

What makes this movie good is all the little characterizations and quirky interactions between them.

The Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame Annex Soho

I guess Rock is really dead. Maybe it died with Jack Black's "School of Rock" movie where Rock 'n Roll got reduced to a historical recreation club for kids. Rock seems to have splintered down an endless series of niche markets. To mark the death of Rock and to water down what Rock is, we have the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, where you can see old guitars, shoes, and scraps paper like you are touring the ancient Egyptian wing of your local museum. And is worth it? Is it worth the $26 dollar price of admission in these harsh times? Well, frankly NO.

You can see more interesting Rock n' Roll memorabilia at your local Hard Rock Cafe, where $26 at least gets you a burger, fries, soda, and salad.

The annex seems like it is based on the Holocaust museum. You walk into a hard room with your other guest, like you do in the Holocaust museum to simulate what it would be like to be sent to a concentration camp, except this time you where snippet's of music, then you see a film.

OK, I have to admit I liked the film. The sound was great and it hard to want to sing along. After a pretty cool film you are given a headset. There are images of bands, like the Beatles and U2 that light up and the head set plays their most popular song. Like, "I can't get no satisfaction" for the Rolling Stones. No history. They make sure you don't learn anything. Then you walk and look really non-interesting items that the rock stars just gave away. There are some hard written song lyrics, but it is unclear when these were written. The assumption is that they are written at the creation of the song, but it never says that and they look too neat to be made in the throes of creation.

There big exhibit was of the "The Clash". I mean I like a some of their songs but not enough to look at 12 pairs of there boots.

At other times, as awesome as Rap is, is it really Rock n' Roll?

Isn't Rock n' Roll suppose to be anti-establishment? This place thinks a nose piercing and a tattoo is really sticking it to the man.

The whole thing could have been a Morgan Stanley corporate event.

An Evening with "The Daily Show and and Friends" Thursday, December 4 @ Comix

John Oliver at Comix
An Evening with "The Daily Show and and Friends" Thursday, December 4 @ Comix

From a location what I believe used to be local dive bar "The Village Idiot" the newish New York City comedy forum Comix presents periodically the test platform for the writers of the Comedy Central' Daily Show to test new material. All this for $15 and a two drink minimum.

After Tattoo Jack gets your Stella, you sit down for three comics and a MC/warm up guy. This guy was a gay Pakistani. I have never seen a openly gay Pakistani. He had a good joke. He spoke of the old 80's Christmas song "Do they know it's Christmas", which was a British pop song for Ethiopian famine relief. Our gay Pakistani retorts do those those Brits know they are Muslims? Take that Sting!

The next guy so was so horrible I won't even mention him by name. It was just an uncomfortable set for everyone. He just made the audience nervous with his unabashed hostility.

Then Finally relief, Rory Albanese walks up. He's a pro. He does very little and gets a joke. He is good with using the mic to have sound effects. I appreciate this. He is from Long Island and gets the local perspective in with jokes about Jersey et al. However, he starts to lose the audience by getting too much into your face. He comes off as just plain mean at times, so much so that you can't relate and therefore he is no longer funny. Rory was a funny guy but he needs to a little off his shtick.

The star of the show was John Oliver, who is a regular on the Daily Show. He took over for Steven Colbert as John Stewart's main reporter. Oliver's style was refreshing as it was confident and respectful. He drifted between middle and highbrow humor but not so stuffy as to walk around like some animal. John was my favorite because he took things further than most. He seemed to go with the notion of what if I explained the world as of everyone was confidently and purposely trying to do the right thing. If people weren't incredible dumb and filled with vice. It's funny to me!

Cafe Local 144 Sullivan St New York,NY 10079 (212) 253-2601

Cafe Local 144 Sullivan St New York,NY 10079 (212) 253-2601

I knew there was something right in the world when I found out that Craig Walker opened up his own Coffee shop.

Craig owns Cafe Local in Soho, which is the cleanest cafe I have ever seen. The beans are fair trade. I have a half pound ground for stove top expresso in my apartment right now.

The coffee for immediate consumption is less expensive than any coffee chain operating in Manhattan. The staff are young and friendly. Even Bill Clinton stopped in one day, and stayed awhile.

If you ever wanted to see the real Soho; see what New York is all about. Stop in order something and hang out. No one will bother you. Long time residents will come in and out. Craig only lives a couple of blocks away. He comes in and out refilling supplies, which come from quality Manhattan stores. You might recognize him from Television. Craig is an actor who has been on the T.V. show Law and Order, commercials and many other projects.

Cafe Local isn't the easiest to find. so good way to get there is to start on Houston Street and Sullivan Street; walk down the west side of the street and it is the green store front pictured above.

Best damn beef chow fun

A chinese food suggestion so powerful that it came from NASA. Yummy Noodles had the best damn beef chow fun I have ever had, and it was dirt cheap. Please let that metaphor let your imagination run amok. The place was very clean. The service was quick.
46 Bowery
New York, NY 10013
(212) 374-1327‎

Pre-Macy's Thanksgiving parade Balloons 2008

Outside the Mus. of Natural History amongst thousands of people the balloons are inflated and displayed to the general public




That's Ronald McDonald




That's a Keith Harring float





That's Pikachu