topbeagle - A digital magazine for all things everything

Butterfly

2012-01-03T16:18:00.002-05:00

F-4U

2012-01-02T20:47:00.001-05:00

2012-01-02T20:46:00.000-05:00

The real Simpson grade school

2012-01-02T20:44:00.000-05:00

Mckim, Mead , White -- MMB 1919-1915

2012-01-02T20:31:00.000-05:00

Metric Terminal 5 NYC May16, 2010

2010-05-17T11:43:00.003-04:00

Metric rocked the house in at Terminal 5 in New York City. The sold out was filled by the usual hipsters, indie rock fans and feminists with their girlfriends. Metric is a band comprising of a strong rhythm section and charismatic female lead singer and a mediocre guitarist. The sound was mixed to highlight vocals and drummers. The band focused more on recent material but also threw in plenty of old favorites.

The venue was quite comfortable with is a great air conditioning unit which felt like you are watching an old door show, and a very clear sound system.

Metric featured a light show which was unexpected but the strobe light was annoying to painful.

They played for about an hour and a half. It was a Sunday night after all

Oceans (2010)

2010-05-05T13:28:00.002-04:00

Disney’s Oceans isn’t the best nature documentary I have seen but it is worth a look. It is mostly a dark blue and gray visual sensation. There are a lot of waves and it is easy to become sea sick.

Unlike most ocean documentary where dolphins take up most of the time and ham up the screen, the one focus’ on some less well known sea creatures.

For better or worse, they barely mention the effects of climate change and pollution. Although, it is good to not feel lectured and powerless about it, there is not an appreciation given to effects on oceans’ wildlife. Growing up in South California, you spend a significant amount of time by the ocean. The power of the ocean and the sites of its many birds and mammals are ubiquitous themes. It is not hard to see the pollution or the dead seals on the beach that arrive every hour. This would be my biggest criticism of the film.

On the bright side, there is the best underwater photography ever filmed. Why this was not in 3D is my question. It looks great! Despite that it lacked structure and seemed long. It is didn’t have the usual story telling of Disney nature paradigm. This is good or bad depending on your opinion. I found it somewhat refreshing then I missed it.

If you are going to see this, see it on the biggest screen possible and sit near the front.

Lend me a tenor (Broadway 2010)

2010-04-27T12:38:00.003-04:00

Lend me a tenor is a fun irrelevant farce with a great cast playing on Broadway right now. It stars Tony Shalhoub, Anthony LaPagia, and The Hangover’s Justin Bartha. It is directed by Stanley Tucci.

Despite being fun, it is good but not great. It tries to be Marx Brothers/Neil Simon play without the brilliantly witty dialogue and the subtle drama. Many of the jokes are hackneyed and the plot is far too predictable for someone that such matters usually doesn’t bother much.

Although stage direction is great, the actors do a lot with their space and play with audience’s sense of spatial intuition; the play itself leaves much to be desired.

It is basically an English, as in England, comedy written in the 1980’s trying to be a Jewish-American comedy from the 1930’s. The stereotypes are right but the insights and sole’s are all wrong.

Mostly the plays survives on the presence of Tony Shalhoub and the funny facial expressions of Justin Bartha, the rest is often a lot of sex jokes.

I would not recommend paying a lot of money to see this.

Kick-Ass (2010)

2010-04-21T17:56:00.004-04:00

Disturbing and completely unoriginal, yet thoroughly entertaining is Kick Ass. This movie, in Tarantino style, copies the first Spiderman movie almost shot for shot and set design for set design.

It is part of the realism genre of comics; like this could really happen without radioactive spiders and such, but Kick Ass fails miserably at this. The main character, Kick Ass, is beat up pretty bad and suffer nerve damage giving him a greater capacity for pain. So, basically, it is the same plot line as The Simpson’s where Homer becomes a boxer.

This is a movie that is NOT for kids, but every kid will want to see. The characters practically live in a kid universe, except when they have damage adults.

Still, the highly stylized violence, which is patterned after The Watchmen, gets disturbing when you a grown man beating up on an unconscious ten-year-old girl.

The last bit of violence is pattern after the Nick Cage, who is batman like father figure in the film, film The Rock. I think that might be an homage or something.

There the usual teenage romance, but much like Harry Potter you just go with it. There is a funny bit where Kick Ass gets the girl because she thinks he’s gay. Feel that tolerance!

Overall, I am not sure. Comic book fans will see it and like it, because it is so familiar. I am not sure about everyone else. I liked it.

Jersey Shore Season Two Plot Lines

2010-04-14T14:42:00.004-04:00

Dear MTV,

I have to admit I am not biggest fan of the Jersey Shore even though I love the show. None of my T-shirt professes a fist pump logo. I will probably never GTL and I am only a quarter Italian. Still, this is what I would like to see on the Jersey Shore season two.

I think it would good to start off the show with good ole Pregnancy scare. Sammy Sweatheart thinks she’s pregnant. They have to get a test, may be a few. The house is worried. The show writes itself.

For the second episode, the whole cast is invited to WASPY country club affair. All of them have to dress up in proper clothes but they find a way to Guido it up.

There should be an effort to reform them. So they should have some battles with the Italian-American organizations that rebuff them. For a little more drama, include an old Italian priest comes to talk to them. They have to respect him as he hits them with his old world ideas.

They should also have baby sit small children who really get on their nerves. In the end, the kids should be little guidos.

Another episode could center on the entire Jersey shore being out of hair gel. What will they do?

As a final episode, it would be cool to have the season end with a big brawl with Irish stereotypes.

As an after thought, either Mike or Snookie should go on the ‘Apprentice’ and Paula D should go on DWTS.

The XX (2009)

2010-04-13T17:34:00.003-04:00

Probable the best chill release of last year, The XX, they cut it slow-core. I think if you grew up on The Cure, well so did these guys. They bring a post-goth/slow-core feel with beguilingly happy lyrics and great retro references like a VCR. There are even love songs on this one. Not girlfriend in coma lyrics or love song played on radio stations with the words “Power” or “Hot” in them, but love songs for girls wearing black makeup.

I like the electro-pop sound mixed with real instruments like a Zero 7 release. The songs are short and have an art show aspect to them, and the same time can really assuage the recovering melancholic.

Must Download
Crystallized
Islands

If you have no idea who The XX are, you may already have heard them. Remember back back in the day when Moby put his album PLAY on every commercial, TV show, etcetera for exposure (U2 is doing it ad nauseam , “Blackberry , really guys?”), well The XX are no different. Maybe you are big Apolo Ohno fan, then you might recognize “Intro” from an Olympic commercial. There are other examples that I choose not to get into.

This English band has been well received across the pond, they seem to be unnoticed here from sea to shinning sea, which is a shame, because it is good download.

Date Night (2010)

2010-04-12T14:36:00.002-04:00

Good cast, bad movie. Date Night misses the mark. It is a good movie to watch on TBS, maybe before Conan.

I like Tina Fey and Steve Carell they make a good comic team, but do they have be in a movie with a stupid script? It was like being sick and watching some bad TV show from 70’s or 80’s. There were plot lines tapped from ‘Scarecrow and Mrs. King.’

We have suburban couples that live a dull life with their two kids. Their friends are getting a divorce. Oh no, how will they take it? I sure hope the audience hasn’t seen a Woody Allen movie. They try to live it up in New York City. It goes OK until they get caught up in a criminal syndicate. Corrupt cops chase them and Marky Mark is the only one who can help them out without his shirt on. Oh there are uncomfortable situations that come up when his hot Israeli girlfriend comes down almost naked and asks if Tina and Steve are going to join them for sex.

The couple fights for most of the movie. It’s annoying. Not funny!

There are some respites of humor. Anytime Carell and Fey are allowed to let loose, you see how good the movie have been if they could have just cut loose. The blooper real at the end of the film was some of the funniest moment and that is when the movie has already ended.

My favorite part of a small scene with James Franco and Mila Kunis playing a thief and stripper being held at gun point by Fay and Carell; hopefully that will be on utube sometime soon.

In summary, wait for cable.

Gomez Live: Volume 1 (2010)

2010-04-07T15:31:00.003-04:00

Gomez Live: Volume 1 is a digital download available on the band’s website. You get 15 live songs from their live show for the price of an average download. The quality is pretty good. They’re no drunken conversations drowning out the music and you don’t have to try to hear the music over the ambience of the crowd. You can hear the instruments pretty good and the vocals are strong. So, what I am saying is that it is not a crappy live download.

It captures the Gomez live sounds. I find there live show to be like U2’s, meaning that it is far superior to the album. I saw this show twice, once in Toronto and then in New York.

As much as like this download, it is not for everyone. It is not one of those live albums that is a thinly veiled greatest hits i.e. any live album from The Rolling Stones. There are some deep cuts and it excludes many of their hits. I would have really liked a live version of “Pieces of me” from their last studio release. This is also not their complete live set. It is abridged.

For the Gomez fan, this is a must have. I have always thought of Gomez as being the closest one is going to get to seeing The Beatles live. I say that, because they have three lead singers with different styles plus great harmonies. The band takes turns on who has the leading vocal from song to song.

Well, I think this is great release. I do like live recordings if you haven’t figured that one out yet.

Ghost Writer (2010)

2010-04-06T15:19:00.003-04:00

Ghost Writer is by far the best movie out this year. It is also best political thriller in the past tens years. It has three things going for it: great script, great cast, and great director.

The story goes that a ghostwriter from the world of popular biographies is chose to replace a recently deceased Ghostwriter ghosting an autobiography of a former British Prime Minister, i.e. Tony Blair. Our hero has to go a remote eastern seaboard resort like Block Island, RI. where the Prime Minster is staying with wife and staff.

As our hero assumes his role scandal breaks out and he finds evidence hidden by the former ghostwriter showing inconsistencies and probably inappropriate relationships with the Prime Minister. The new ghostwriter the murky trail into a dark dark path. There are plot twists and murders. He becomes very close to the Prime Ministers wife and then the Prime Minister political enemy.

Ghost Writer stars Ewan McGregor is his best role in a very very long time. The supporting team includes Olivia Williams, Timothy Hutton, Pierce Brosnan and Kim Cattrall. It is first class class that works very well.

The Director is legendary and controversial director Roman Polanski. The movie has a 1970’s look to it. It reminded me most of ‘Three Days of the Condor’ (1975).

The movie is quite long but worth it. It is highly recommended.

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

2010-04-05T17:17:00.004-04:00

My first guilty pleasure of the year, I thoroughly enjoyed Hot Tub Time Machine, a title that truly describes this movie. It’s like ‘Old School’ meets ‘The Hangover.’

I really like that this movie plot is so stupid that they don’t even try to hide that fact. All the characters easily accept that a hot tub can take them back to 1986. The movie dedicates less than two minutes to an explanation of time travel with the only credentials being that it is from a guy from writes ‘Star Gate’ fan fiction.

The movie plays on popular 80’s movies such as ‘Back to the Future’, ‘Red Dawn’, and any stupid movie that takes place in a ski resort.

The movie starts with three friends who are down on their luck. One tries to kill himself with a mix of whiskey, auto fumes, and a Motley Crue power ballad.

The three plus one ( the nephew of the John Cusack character) take a trip to a ski resort that they used to go to in their prime only to discover it is now a first class dump. Somehow, it really doesn’t matter, they have a working hot tub. They party. They get stupid. They end up in 1986. Don’t ask.

Now they in 1986 as they the ages there were at in 1986. The audience sees them in there 40’s but everyone sees them as teenagers. Only through mirror do we see them in there youth.

As in any time travel movie they can’t do anything that didn’t in the past lest irrevocably change the future. Chaos theory, what not!

I know what you’re thinking. Didn’t we see this plot in an episode of ‘Family Guy?’ Of course, we did. It worked there and it works here.

There are minor roles for Crispin Glover, George McFly in ‘Back to the future,’ and Chevy Chase. In true 80’s teen spirit there are copious amounts of drugs and brief nudity. They do a good job of picking music you may not have heard since 1986, such INXS’s ‘What you need’ and Poison; anything from them.

It is more than fair to stay that Rob Corddry and Craig Robinson carry the film.

I enjoyed this movie from beginning to end.

Beageface

2010-04-05T16:08:00.001-04:00

She's out of my league (2010)

2010-04-02T11:26:00.002-04:00

March isn’t the best times for movies. She’s out of my league was so bad. Although better than The Runaways, this one was simply flat, a type of boring.

Ok, Premise: loser guy gets a hot girl. Moral of the story is hotness is in the eye of the beholder and often a state of mind.

Now, we have these films in the past and liked them. Why is this one different?

It has a horrible supporting cast. Our hero played by Jay Baruchel, graduate from almost all Judd Apatow productions since ‘Undeclared,’ has no one to play off of. All the other characters are so blah and the situations aren’t all that interesting. He can’t play the lovable loser when every one is an even more content loser, he comes off as the alpha-male. The girl, Alice Eve, who looks a perfect Scandinavian beauty, has no personality. Alice is actually British, but most likely a descendant of the Viking invasions.

There is a Hall and Oates tribute band in the film, which makes me think there might be Hall and Oates renaissance, which is a little scary.

Krysten Ritter was the bitchy friend of the hot girl, but somehow I didn’t buy it. She seems too nice to be believable in that role. Was Cathy Griffin not available?

To be fair there were a few chuckles here and there but this one should be missed.

The Runaways (2010)

2010-04-01T12:42:00.001-04:00

It’s hard to believe that movies can still be this bad. The Runaways shows bad film-making, bad acting, and a bad script. They even made very good-looking girls look really ugly: Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart.

The premise of the story, if you can call it that, is the true story of an all girl rock band, The Runaways, from the late 70’s that makes it then self-destructs. It could have been an interesting movie as some of the girls became known in the 80’s: Joan Jett, Lita Ford, and Micki Steele of the Bangles. Instead it is poorly focused on the lead singer Cherie Currie, whose memoir the movie was based on.

The movie focuses on the starting of the band with Joan Jett. In a clichéd feminist moment she rocks out when her guitar instructs her that as a girl she can only play lame music. There is an almost ten minutes seen of Dakota Fanning lip singing to a David Bowie song. Lets skip the uneven formation of the band which is includes fictional characters. Why are there fictional characters in this? Where there legal issues?

The audience gets a rock n’ roll for Dummies seminar from Michael Shannon playing record producer Kim Fowley. It is one of the few times the movie has any energy.

The rest of the movie, which characterizes their rise and fall, is a just drug hazed lesbian orgy that goes on forever.

It might be early, but this could possible be the worst movie of the year.

Broken Bells (2010)

2010-03-31T14:31:00.002-04:00

I love this download. I can’t stop listening to it. I am big Danger Mouse fan and so/so James Mercer’s band the Shins fan. Demon Days, produced by Danger Mouse, I think is the best release of 2000 – 2009. Broken Bells has that Danger Mouse sound, which I would describe as centering on a clean recording of each instrument. It reminds me more of a classical or jazz recording than a pop or rock recording.

The songs were written both by Mercer and D. Mouse. For Mercer’s part, his voice has more gravitas than his work with The Shins. The sound has a depth wrapped in an indie pop song. I think it’s brilliant!

Must Download:

The High Road
Vaporize
You’re Heads On Fire
October.

I would suggest the whole thing, even though last two songs sound like mediocre songs from a New Wave 80’s band.

The first song, ‘The High Road’, which was also the first single and digital download from the website last year, is a haunting rhythmic ballad and beautifully transitions to their second single, ‘Vaporize’ it speeds up a little and dips into great melodic and thoughtful lyrics into an electric bridge. The next tune, ‘Your Heads on Fire’ is neo-sixties pop ballad in the sprit of the great British band ‘Manic Street Preachers’. Next, ‘The Ghost Inside’, Mercer has a late 70’s falsetto and it almost has a ‘Hall and Oates’ feel to it. ‘Sailing to nowhere’ is punctuated with Beatles sound trick and great strings. I guess you should just listen to the whole thing.

I was surprised and pleased to that this recording debuted at number 7 on the Billboard charts.

I realize that is album speaks to me in that the sound is like some of stuff I like from the 90s, but is different enough to make it interesting. Of course the sound engineering was never as good in the 90’s as it is here. The year is young but this might be the best release of the year.

Contra - Vampire Weekend (2010)

2010-03-25T14:28:00.002-04:00

It started to be good year musically with the sophomore release from Vampire Weekend. Contra is an upbeat and intelligent outing for our Columbia University graduates. In true Ivy League fashion there are esoteric and outrageously privileged lifestyle references.

The Paul Simon, Graceland, sound is still there but less. It reminds me of a 60’s surfer band mixed with an Afro-Reggie sound.

Must Download:
Cousins
Taxi Cab

Although, the whole album is good, which more than I can for their first release, ‘Cousins’ and ‘Taxi Cab’ deserve a special attention. ‘Cousins’ is explodes in your ear, It’s fast and they throw a lot at you. It is no surprise that it is the first single, especially of all the tracks on Contra this one most sounds most like ‘A Punk’. ‘Taxi Cab’ is a slow melodic tune, much like a lullaby. I find myself humming the gentle melody while walking the streets of New York City.

Honorable mentions are Horchata and I think Ur A Contra both are sweat and seem to depict a romance set somewhere in Greenwhich, Ct. To throw you a negative ‘A Diplomats Son’, is a tune I have to skip every time it comes up. It sucks on so many levels.

I think the best thing about Vampire Weekend is their youthfulness. We seem to be attracted to music made by young adults; most songs on the radio from young people. I was listening to a somewhat recent Paul McCartney song. I thought it was just as good as some of his Beatle work, but it wasn’t because he just didn’t sound right. There was something hopeful, youthful and something else; Vampire Weekend has that here.

Best of the Decade: The Strokes-This is it (2001)

2009-07-01T23:20:00.003-04:00

We're Back Baby!

After a long long time the blog is back. Honest to Blog to borrow from Juno.

I wanted to start by looking back this decade. It seems like this decade's theme was fear.

Of course we are still in it. The future seems uncertain, but I think there was some good stuff there, and I wanted to focus on that for a little while.

I can't help thinking about the decade, the 00's, if you will, without thinking of the Strokes first album This is it.
In hindsight it doesn't seem that great, but it really did back then. It was the first time I had heard the word indie music, before it was called Alternative.

The strokes came in at that last part of the 70's nostalgia scene and proclaimed "The 80's are back" And so they were, and it started with the late 70's -early 80's sound that was The Strokes.

It was somehow refreshing to here a very rough recording of a band that would probably sound the same live as they did on the record, and without special effects. These guys were young and fresh. The were super big amongst college and young adult , usually white, scene.

These were the people who had never heard Tom Petty and The Cars loved them. In truth, The Strokes literally lifted that sound and put in on their record without so much as putting their own take on it. It is more of a copy than a derivative.

Tracks like 'This is it' and 'Last Night' are still good to listen to every now and then.

These guys made being a rich kid from New York City with a Jew-fro cool, which hadn't been done since the early 1970's .
After this record they have declined in popularity, but they had their fifteen minutes.

Bedtime Stories(2008)

2009-02-14T09:29:00.001-05:00

I think this was one of the best films of 2008. If you have kept up with my blog you know that I have seen a lot of movies this year, and to be completely honest I haven't written about most of the movies I have seen.

I know there has been a lot of talk about Bedtimes Stories not being so good. I respectfully disagree. I loved it.

I think it is harder to do clean comedy. In the heady times of the Apatow era that we are living in, the audience might be looking for 'adult' comedy of sex jokes, bad words, and gross-out humor. Bedtime Stories stars Adam Sandler who appeals highly to the 10 to 13 old boy crowd, and now the age range just got lower. This movie seems to be made to try to recreate the magic of Night at the Museum of a couple years ago, which was a wonderful movie that put adult comedy stars to make a clean kids movie, and somehow came out with really good family.

The story is quite simple. Adam Sandler finds himself working as a handyman in a Los Angeles hotel. His estranged sister asked him to babysit her two children while she goes to a job interview in Arizona, because the school, which she is the principle, is being torn down. She raises her kids without such good things as T.V. and sugar.

In Sandler fashion, he plays a blue-collar hero that doesn't get along with the snobby people he encounters. He takes on his new job as baby-sitter without qualms. He likes the kids and the kids feelings are mutual. The conflict comes in two folds. The owner of hotel sets up a competition with the snobby villain to see who will run the next big hotel in his company. The next conflict is that he doesn't get a along with his sister's pretty friend who is also looking after the kids, who is a bit of perpetually exasperated eco-enthusiastic, Felicity. I mean Kari Russell.

Sandler starts telling bedtime stories to get the kids to go to bed, and he finds out that stories come true the next day. Of course, his stories are narcissistic self involved hero stories about himself.

Sandler is helped by his friend Micky who is played by Russel Brand; who you might remember from Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Bedtime stories is a charming comedy. Totally clean,and totally funny.

Fanboys(2009)

2009-02-12T10:56:00.004-05:00

Well worth the wait! Fanboys was suppose to be released in September then later in the fall. I am really not sure how long this movie has been pushed back. It's out now!

This is one of the greatest nerd movies of all-time. This is movie made for Star Wars fans by Star Wars fans. All general sci-fi fans can appreciate it this. I haven't laughed so much at the movies since Zach and Miri make a porno.

Fan Boys is a period piece; set circa 1999. The first new Star Wars movie has yet to be released. For four Star Wars geeks who have spent more time of their lives arguing Star Wars than Shakespeare there is no greater event in their mid-twenties of life. Except one of them is terminal Ill and will not live to see the new movie.

Our young rogues set out on a across country pilgrimage to nic a copy of the new Star Wars movie. Along the way, they battle Star Trek fans at the birthplace of Kirk, a pimp played by Seth Rogan. They run into Billy Dee Williams, Carrie Fisher, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith,and many of the Judd Apatow crew. The movie stars Jay Baruchel ( Tropic Thunder, Nick and Norah's Infinite playlist, Undeclared, Knocked up) and Kirsten Bell (Forgetting Sarah Marshal). Let's not forget William Shatner, who can score anything.

When they do break into the Skywalker Ranch in Modesto California, they want into a Lucas Film fantasy film props from Star Wars and Indiana Jones. The best part is when they enter a room with Darth Vader, R2D2 and C3PO, Indi's hat, and other treasures. Well, before they the get caught. However, the guards who include the actor who played Darth Maul eventually let them go after administering a nerd test to see if they know more about Star Wars than they do about sex. They all pass.

The ends with the start of the Phantom Menace, when one remarks "What if it sucks?"

I can't imagine that all people will get this film. It would not surprise if many critics have trashed this film. Maybe because they are not nerds or maybe because they are Star Trek fans; who knows! Not everyone will get this joke when a doctor played by Carrie Fisher is kissed by one of our hero's who tells her that he loves her, and she responses with "I know." Not everyone will remember that Han Solo and Princess Leah interaction, but those people shouldn't be watching this film. For the rest of us,we'll laugh our off through out the film.

Bryan Sarkinen at the Westminster Dog Show

2009-02-11T13:33:00.001-05:00

A Note from Bryan:

"Wanted to let you know that a show that I shot for CNBC is airing at 9PM tonight. It's called "American Originals" and is about the Westminster Dog Show."

Frost/Nixon(2008)

2009-01-15T00:39:00.003-05:00

Nixon/Frost is another nice guy Ron Howard history movie. Much like Apollo 13 and is others there is no real bad guy. In fact, this may be the kindest representation of Richard Nixon that I have ever seen. Frank Langella gives a brilliant performance as Tricky Dick, but he lacks, in his performance, the Nixon's Redneck quality. It is easy for another from Southern Californian to spot the Okie in Nixon; as he is our son from Whittier, California. Langella gives Nixon a statesman like quality only befitting the great Ben Franklin. Likewise Michael Seen seems too sweet and nurturing than the real David Frost who always seemed a bit crass to me. You can catch the Real Nixon and Frost interviews on DVD, and David Frost was on the Daily Show last month taking about it.

As a film, it is very enjoyable, but it lacks any real drama that will truly gets you sucked in. It seems like there might be some good drama coming at times, then movie pulls back.

The story of the movie, tells the tale of talk show host David Frost, a Brit. He is an entertainment television host in the 1970's with funny hair and shirts to go along with it. He wants to interview Richard Nixon after Watergate. It is the holy grail of interviews. So, they offer Nixon a truck load of money. The Nixon camp thinks that they can just walk all over Frost and take his money.

Frost has the opportunity of a life time, in fact it was the big break of his career. The only problem is nobody else can see the potential, so he has problems getting funding. Everyone turns him down and he and his friends finance the project alone.

He does hire a couple of solid investigators, but they need to Frost to really sell it hard to Nixon. Nixon being an old pro and a quick mind walks all over him. In the end, Frost gives it his college try and has a show down with the former owner of Checkers, the dog. The loser of the in 1960 Presidential elections does admit to wrong doing in Watergate.

Frost/Nixon is the perfect medium brow film to make you feel like an intellectual when you are not. I should mention that it has a terrific cast that make the movie very watch-able of Rebecca Hall, Oliver Platt, Sam Rockwell, and Kevin Bacon.

The Spirit(2008)

2008-12-30T23:26:00.002-05:00

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)

2008-12-24T13:24:00.001-05:00

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)

2008-12-24T11:54:00.002-05:00

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)

2008-12-24T01:33:00.002-05:00

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)

2008-12-15T11:03:00.002-05:00

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

2008-12-12T22:14:00.001-05:00

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

2008-12-11T14:32:00.005-05:00

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

2008-12-11T01:15:00.004-05:00

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

2008-12-08T23:08:00.003-05:00

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

2008-12-05T19:27:00.006-05:00

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

The Long Tail: Why the future of Business Is selling less by Chris Anderson (2006)

2008-11-21T01:33:00.001-05:00

Maybe 2006 was a blur to me. Maybe it was the year that books by writers from Wired magazine didn't seem to matter much. Almost self-proclaimed futurist Chris Anderson pontificates in perfect Generation X prose a single idea over and over again. To extrapolate a feature article from Wired; well to be generous it could have been a book chapter, into a whole book is not an art form.

In an idea he shares, would Anderson have spent so much time watching reruns of Gilligan's Island if there was something better to do? Probably not.

He offers us a the salvation of giving us an insight into the life since 2000. Now, this could be of great use to my Grandfather who thinks of Bob Newhart as a young guy. But really, Anderson is preaching to the choir.

But . . . ok maybe this book is for middle age men looking at the new media and scratching their heads.

This book provides full descriptions in e-commerce sites such as google, netflicks, amazon, itunes, etc, and how they work.

He makes the point that when people have more options they are not going to be sitting around watching TV. He punctuates these points with interesting factoids, such as that a top TV show now would not make the the top 10 shows in the seventies, because less of the population is watching TV.

I can relate. My TV watching declined significantly when I moved to New York City where there are a thousands better things to do than watch TV. A case in point I can watch John Oliver on the Daily Show or I can go we him perform live at Comix on 14th street.

Actually, speaking of the Daily Show, Anderson tells us that more people watch it on-line than see it on TV. Still, he goes further. He predicts that formats of shows will change as people see TV content on the web or through Tivo. He has a point with Handheld devices , such as, the iphone, who wants to sit through a scheduled half hour of TV to see the one good Simpson joke. He makes this analogous to buying individual tracks of an album on itunes instead of buying the whole CD for one song. Why should I spend $10 on the last U2 CD when the only good song is Vertigo. This is liberation!

Google (+it's services like utube), itunes, amazon are making fortunes by giving people exactly what they want and for a lot less money and time. Now I have more money and time to try out new music, for instance, often based on the sites suggestions with customer reviews to back it up. Far out ,if I may barrow the expression.

So what is happening here? How is it different than what has happened in the good ole days.

As Anderson quotes some dude, people are filled with general and specific (niche) interests. On-line stores have infinite self space, so now I can get that music of German groove and funk from 1967 to 1974 that I heard in Canada but couldn't find in one New York city record store. It's really good by the way.

So, why could I not find this music today. It's the same reason why there was a radio show called 'Name that tune.' Limited shelve space equates to limited choices. In the 1940's everyone knew the latest Benny Goodman hit. Today, I don't think I have heard a song that went to number one on the billboard chart since Outcast's "Hey Ya." And my german music would not have many buyers besides me, and Costco can only sell so many CDs so they stick to the hits. Maybe if I couldn't find my german music on line I would have bought "Fifty cent sings the Journey catalogue, 'Don't stop believing in the da Hood'" Ok, sadly that isn't a real CD.

So, what is happening with the virtual store front, such as Amazon and itunes, is that people will be able to buy their niche interests. True, they only sell a few of those each, but aggregate that and the sales equal the sales of the hits. People generally flock to stores that selling everything than specialty stores, but on-lines are both. This is the long tail, in a standard deviation there is hump then lines goes off. It is where this line going off is where the money is.

Anderson gives us most of this is the first chapter and the rest of his goes over it again and again from slightly different directions.

Fall Central Park 2008

2008-11-17T23:58:00.001-05:00

Farragut North (Atlantic Theatre Company, The Linda Gross Theatre 336 West 20th Street)

2008-11-16T17:48:00.001-05:00

November 13, 2008

Got a chance to see the hottest play in New York City. Bad weather got me the last ticket. Farragut North is play loosely based on experiences of working on the Howard Dean and Hillary Clinton campaigns of 2004.

The play starts in a bar couch with two political hacks, their assistant and a New York Times reporter. Just what you would expect to paint the scene of back office politics. Chris Noth ( you know from Law and Order and Sex and the City) is the senior hack. Broadway star John Gallagher Jr. plays the hotshot Stephen. Stephen has the press in the palm of his hands. The banter goes back and forth. Noth takes up most of the space as the guy as gained a considerable amount of weight, he is much bigger than you may remember from TV. The chemistry doesn't work. The actors seem forced. Gallapher dominates the scene, Noth doesn't seem comfortable with that. Nevertheless, the scene works, because characters and conflicts are set up.

Everyone leaves except Stephen. Two things happen that set the story in motion. Stephen meets Molly. Molly is an attractive 19 year old intern. I wish that she wasn't an intern. I mean you know where this is going. An intern, come on! Molly is played by Olivia Thirlby. Olivia Thirlby couldn't look less like Monica Lewinsky, but her shadow is all around this character.

The second thing is that Stephen gets a phone call from the opposition in the Democratic Race. He meets this guy and doesn't tell his boss Noth. Stephen is asked to jumped ship. He told that the polls have been manipulated, and Stephen's candidate is not way ahead but in fact way behind. Stephen is conflicted and gives a tenuous "no!" Stephen goes back to the bar and screws the intern.

The next day, Stephen realizes that he has committed mutiny and confesses to his boss (Noth).

Stephen tries to make amends for his action, but things have changed. Shortly, knowledge of Stephens meeting is leaked to the New York Times reporter. He is confronted by the reporter. Now Stephen knows he in deep trouble. He tries to find out who screwed him. It seemed obvious to me that it was Noth. However, in the play, Stephen laboriously confronts everyone else but Noth. Until the lastly, Noth spills the beans.

This is a very good scene. Stephen is being a whinny little bitch. Noth plays it perfectly. He is the man. Watching the play you wonder what women see in Noth. He just looks an old fat guy. Here, though, he shows that he is a man's man.

Stephen goes backs and begs for the job on the other team, but they won't hire him. They just wanted Stephen out of the game. Either on their side or just out. It would look bad to hire him at this time under this heat. They knew that Noth was big on loyalty so they figured they would get Stephen or Noth would fire him. Stephen has just been screwed again.

He returns to his hotel room drunk and Molly, the intern, enters. After almost beating her. Stephen call the New York Times reporter from Molly's phone, and tells her about Molly and Noth. So, now everyone gets screwed.

In the very end, Noth is fired too, because of the scandal with the intern.

The play has excellent acting. A smart script full of bad words and fast double talk. The play obviously has more relevance before the Election. It does lack in overall story. It is a little predictable. Except for Noth's character there wasn't much character development. Olivia Thirlby plays exactly like she does in every film I have ever seen her in; that and the fact you never her face the audience directly was very disappointing. Still, it is very good, but it could have been much much better.

BryanSarkinen Wedding: http://www.bsarkinenwedding.com/

2008-11-12T23:12:00.005-05:00

Bryan Sarkinen launched a new website (http://www.bsarkinenwedding.com/) to promote his wedding business. So how is it?

Well, it takes a while to load on my machine. The intro page, which is a bunch of little windows opening up to little wedding scene from Bryan's work, are numerous and distracting. This is a shame because if you look at Bryan's prices, they are quite reason, and a deal when you see their quality.

If you can get pass the the start of that mess, go to the video section using top navigation. On the side navigation you will see option to many different types of weddings that Bryan has shot and edited. This is the best part. These snippiest of wedding are a hollywood like production value and editing. Shot in digital video, the picture comes alive. You don't feel like you are watching someone's wedding, it feels like you are watching a movie. This is the best part to watch a wedding and not feel like you are. Bryan as a videographer captures those moments that grasp the excitement and beauty of the occasion. With smart editing, the final products is enjoyable to your college-age pal and to your mom.

The rest of the site provides a testimonials, a bio on Bryan Sarkinen, prices and contact details. The bio page lists many of Bryan works out side of Wedding Videos. There are too many projects to list here but you can go to the site it for yourself. What Bryan is demonstrating is that his lens goes beyond what you get with Videographers. So check it out here

Challenging (2008)

2008-11-06T18:02:00.001-05:00

Challenging will probably grab a best director Oscar nomination if not Best Picture as well. This is a very good and racist picture that almost all credit goes to the director, Clint Eastwood.

Why racist? Because this movie is set in Los Angeles in 1928 and it is an all white cast. Los Angeles at the time had very high populations of Mexican-Americans and Chinese Americans. There is never a Chinese person shown once, and only time you see a hispanic is in police custody. There was a white influx into California after the Dust-Bowl and the Great Depression, but this movie predates that.

I doubt that most people will notice this but they should. As a true story, there should have been more of an effort to get the details right. There are many inaccuracies, such as showing Union Station and Los Angeles city hall when these structures were built in the 1930's. Not to mentions that these locations were built on Chinese neighborhoods and what was old Mexico at the time. This is where Charlie Chaplin filmed most of his early work.

The movie tells a story of a mother, Christine Collins played by Angelina Jolie, who son goes missing. Collins is a single mother. The LAPD brings a child a few months later that is not her child. They convince her that she is wrong, but that doesn't last for long. At the same the police are finding out about horrible crime that would be later know as the Wineville Chicken Coup murders.

The Wineville Chicken Coup murders was a heinous murder of young boys. Twenty boys were murdered, molested, killed and chopped up by a young man who would search for boys to kidnaped off the streets. The police stumbled on it when they picked up a kid who was wanted for being in the country illegally from Canada. He confessed, and his uncle was picked by Canadian law enforcement for the murders.

One of the boys who was said to be one of those killed was Walter Collins, the son of Christine Collins.

Interesting enough, Wineville has since changed its name to Mira Lomba, which is town over from where my Grandfather grew up. He was eight years old at the time. I told him, it was lucky that he wasn't picked up by this murderer. My grandfather failed to see any humor in that.

The movie goes further to tell the story of Christine Collins battle with the LAPD. By not accepting that the boy was hers the police put her in a mental institution, which was a common practice of the LAPD at the time, to commit women who challenged them.

Collins is helped by preacher played by John Malkovich, who is on a crusade to expose the LAPD for its abuses of power.

The movie takes us in the court room drama of two trails. One of the LAPD and the other of the murderer.

What the movie does best is to keep the audience involved in every scene. All the emotions are squeezed out of every scene. Every situation is rich, tense, and rewarding in its outcome no matter how horrible it is.

The director and writer do a very good job at exposing how people are manipulated and coerced. Christine Collins has one thing she wants, she wants her son back. Everyone can understand that. The LAPD detective twists and recasts that into every plausible situation to discredit her. It is so real and I have seen it so many offices. This part of the movie can be studied to understand this phenomena.

Angelina Jolie is interesting her. She makes you uncomfortable. There is something about her that does that. It keeps you awake and interested. The only time you feel you are seeing her as a real person is when she is going crazy at the asylum. She seems to have a hard time playing normal. She seems to be good in movies with a strong director and a strong cast, so that movie to goes on around her. Then her air of instability works to give the movie an edge. Tom Cruise does something similar.

If you see this film, remember that it is very long and emotionally draining.

Last Night (2008) by Moby

2008-11-06T00:38:00.001-05:00

Last Night is Moby's best work since Play This work was released at the beginning of the year. It is surely one of the best album of the year.

If you are true fan of Moby going back to the early underground days in the early 90's, and you have stumbled across this review; you will probably see me as a poser. You would be right. I only got into Moby with Play, which I think is one of the best album of the nineties; up there with U2's Achtung Baby and Radiohead's OK, Computer. I never went back and really explored Moby's pre-Play works. I have been up-to-date since then though.

The cover looks like an American Apparel add. It is all 80's retro, except that the 1980's never had such high resolution digital pictures.

Moby gives his mission statement like he does with all his releases. This time Moby is trying to gives the listener a taste of what is was like going out in New York during his youth. He regales us with tales of sneaking out from his elitist Connecticut suburb and taking the Metro-North rail into the city on a school night during high school.

Moby a habitual night owl, continues to describe the surreal world of night. He gives a very sober account, but you wonder what he might have been on during those time, as raves are not known for being drug free.

Must Download:

ooh yeah
Disco Lies
the stars

Like most good Moby works, you don't hear him sing so much. There are loops of Black soul singers in much of the work. Some of it does remind you of previous releases. In the song live for tomorrrow reminds you of When its cold, I like to die, but this time the structure is much more sophisticated which leads to a beautiful ending.

Through much of the album I can't help feeling that I am listening to something new, but familiar. It has the uncomfortable feeling of something you like but are not used to. Your mind has to adjust. Once your ear adjusts, you're into it.

I find that this work doesn't go very well with the rest of CDs in my collection. Maybe this is because I have no 80's dance music that Moby's is trying re-interpret. I say "try" because this so NOT 80's music. It is more 90's retro than 80's. The song hyenas like his contemporaries Air, French Band, and there is something updated in here too.

Last Night would have made a perfect follow up to Play. Somehow tracks from this CD could have gone well next to The Strokes or The Killers.

In the end Moby sounds like Moby, and he does a very good job. He creates a very good album too.

Maybe Eminem is right that nobody listens to Techno, but maybe they should.

W. (2008)

2008-10-31T01:42:00.001-04:00

Brillant! A bio pic on a sitting president. I think this is the first time this has been done. Not only that, but a president that the country is so divided on. W. seems sort of doomed to begin with. Those on right will not take any negative criticism, and others want a conviction on George W. Bush. Then there is the fact that most people are tired of Bush, and probably do not see a movie about George W. Bush as entertainment.

As a film maker Oliver Stone has to make his main character, our president, likable enough that the audience cares about him and his story. You really like W. after watching this film. You feel sorry for him.

The story finds Bush after 9/11 and the time is during the events that lead up to the Iraq war and then the Iraq war quickly turning into a disaster. The movie shows events that lead up this moment using flash backs. According this movie W. thinks about his life a lot.

We meet the young George Bush Jr. in a Skull and Bones hazing ritual at Yale. We learn that he gets into trouble, has bad grads, and is a disappointment to his father. As he gets older we see W. as a womanizer, a man with a major drinking problem, and basically getting through life as spoiled rich boy with his father getting him out of jams often. There seems to be no end to what George H.W. Bush, W's. father, will go for him. However, young W. always pines for his father's acceptance and outward displays of affection, which seem to be hidden behind an old world waspy guard.

It is overly simplistic, as it is like Homer Simpson as George W. Bush, but get some broad brush stroke on the major events of his life. Nothing that Bush does is ever with malice. He is either having a good time or just dumb.

Oliver Stone doesn't show W.'s use of cocaine. This is probably because audiences don't like to see that. Audiences can accept alcoholism just so long as it is rehabilitated by the end of the movie.

The great part of the film is W. as president. While the back story was entertaining, the White House story is where Stone nails it.

So, how do you make a film depicting the events of the past almost eight years that are so horrific. Well, I guess you don't show them. The Bush administration has had a disaster to deal with every few months. First there was the dot-com bubble burst, then the biggest 9/11, then war in Iraq and hurricane Katrina , and now the financial meltdown. How could you put all of this in one film and do it justice? Well, Stone basically ignores it, except for Iraq.

This scenes, statements and situations are taken right from well documented news conferences, pictures and popular books that most people have seen on the evening news. The meetings were shown just has Paul O'Neal described them in Ron Suskind's book "The education of Paul O'Neal",and the description of the Dick Cheney's concept of the One Percent doctrine is done perfectly from Ron Suskind's book of the same name. The One Percent doctrine is if you think there is a 1% that something bad could happen you act like it is a 100% chance that it will happen. Of course , the problem with this is that it foregoes reason, probable cause, and means you are 99% wrong all the time. If you are familiar with other books on the Bush Administration you will see allusions them too. Not just Ron Suskinds.

The administration's chemistry and personalities seem pretty right on. If you are familiar with cover of the book Hubris that scene is recreated. Also, Bush's tendencies of giving people nickname will be found too.

The dynamic between the Colin Powell and the Neo-Cons seems to be as it has been written. That dynamic is that you have Colin Powell who is a military expert. and the Neo-Cons who see the world as through there ideological prism. They clash.

In the movie, W. is very much maneuvered by these Neo-Cons. W. wants to see the world as fitting into his own simple views.

Stone gives W. a very decent personality. He is not prejudice; more so than probably any president in history. He treats everyone the same respect no matter what social class they are in. He just seems over in his head, and is how the movie ends.

This is, of course, not a complete story. That is obvious. And it is not clear how much Stone got right, but it looks he did something right.

This is a very interesting movies. It is one that you want to talk about at length after it is over. In someways it is not really over yet.

Passengers (2008)

2008-10-30T01:09:00.002-04:00

Not even a pretty girl can't save this one. See the picture above. That is face you will be making for an hour and a half if you go see this film.
This is basically a film that starts with one idea, throws it out, then tries to pull a fast one on you.

The story if you can call it that, is this. Anne Hathaway plays Claire comes to what appears to be a hospital and is greeted by Andre Braugher; who usually plays roles like Angels. He discloses that Claire has two masters degrees and is working on a Ph.D. We assume that he is her boss and that she is some sort of therapist. Claire meets Eric, a surviver that seems to have extraordinary knowledge about her and coming on to her at the same time.

Claire starts group therapy with the survivors and visits Eric one on one. Eric seems to be out of reality and really manipulative, which Claire dismisses as Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome(PSD). Since the audience believes that Claire know more about PSD than they do, we let it go.

The movie here tries to be a story about a therapist working with a group survivors with Hathaway doing her best on having that blank and present therapist face. Then very quickly and unconvincingly the movie turns into a cover up thriller with the airline covering up the cause of the crash. There is a creepy airline guy who is always poking his head around and antagonizing Claire. Luckily, at this time, Claire starts sleeping with Eric, after she follows him after his countless/shameless manipulations of her.

In the final act, we learn that Eric is dead. You could see it a mile away. We learn that everyone else is dead, but there is still 30 minutes left in the movie. Do you think Claire is dead?

OK, so the passengers are dead. Not sure why they are in group therapy then. The creepy guy turns out to be the pilot. Doesn't seem to make too much sense why he is antagonizing Claire. But he does carry about a briefcase with a list of the dead, which would have to been compiled after crash when, of course, he would have already been dead. But let's not let logic get in the way here. Being that spirits of the dead tend leave briefcases around, Claire finds it. Guess what? Claire's dead. You kinda suspect that five minutes into the film, because, there is a long open credits bit.

Think the movie would be done there. The audience is not that fortunate.

It is probably a safe guess that this film will not be showing on your next flight.

Ardsley, New York at Sunset

2008-10-28T23:56:00.002-04:00

ardsley_at_sunset

Golden Delicious by Mike Doughty (2008)

2008-10-28T00:31:00.003-04:00

Another great disappointment in music for me was Mike Doughty's Golden Delicious out this year. I am not sure what happened here. I think maybe he has a record contract that required him to put out a new disk even if he wasn't ready. This is the worst work I have heard from him.

I have followed him since a co-worker at a coffee shop introduced me to Soul Coughing. Doughty's was the lead singer. I have so far followed him since then. I have made it out to Brooklyn to see him solo and without a record contract. He would sell his CDs from a backpack after the show for $10 each. and stuff was great.

Much of the tracks on this new album sounds like reworking of older material from his solo career or Soul Coughing days. Other songs are actually from EP's that he sold from that backpack. These EPs have been released commercially since his record contract came to be.

Still all is not lost. Doughty has a very East Village feel. This , of course , where he has lived for many years. His music has a the shape of some of those dirty lonely streets. "I got the drop on you" has a eerily intensity that drops the mood of work down, and is the first good songs after many bad tracks.

This musical direction charts a direction of New York City rarely leaves itself. The East Village is so far removed from the rest of the city that it is hard to find yourself there if you have no business there, and the residents make you feel it. For most people it is like going into another world, but it is in fact a deeper layer of New York city with an undercurrent of sadness for some reason that I never could figure out. At same time it is rich in every way. You can here this here, but I would suggest "Skiddish" for that, which his best work.

There are three songs worth checking out:

I got the drop on you
Nectaring
Book of Love

Mike Doughty does a beautiful cover of the Magnetic Field's classic "Book of Love" in his live show. He recorded it and it is available on the itunes version of Golden Delicious. Either version is a must download.

You also might want to check out my friend Scott's review of Golden Delicious here.

Sex and the city movie (2008)

2008-10-27T23:40:00.003-04:00

Go out and grab your girlfriends, a cosmo (or two or three), and sit back and enjoy the "chickflick" of all chickflicks. Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and 'the girls' are back for one more shot at love, romance, and happiness.

We see Carrie and the girls 5 years later (from when the show ended) and between conversation and flashbacks we were caught up to what's been going on in their lives over the last few years. In short... Miranda is with Steve and they are having marital problems. Steve cheated on Miranda, she got mad and moved out. Charlotte is living her happily ever after married life, adopts a baby, has a bunch of really adorable dogs, and gets the best news of all...she's pregnant. Samantha has temporarily put her mojo to rest and is still with the same youngin' actor/model living in LA now. She's bored out there though and flyes back to NY every opportunity she gets. She also has a really hot naked neighbor. That leaves our girl Carrie. What happened to her since that kiss with Big (Chris Noth) - whose real name we finally find out - in Paris? Well...she and Big are together again (after many more breakups) and they finally decide to get married.

Get married???? WWHHHAAAATTTT!?!?!? That's right. Dream come true (you'd think). It started out as a small wedding, but because of the status and connections of Carrie and Big, the wedding process turns into a three ring circus. Unfortunately, Carrie is left at the alter. She's devestated. Crushed. Broken. Takes her girlfriends on her honeymoon with her. Doesn't help. You see Carrie heal and try to get over Big over the next few months. We've all been there. Been hurt. Try to recover and move on... But not really ever letting go. It's a tough road, and through it all we have our friends.

So how does this story end? Miranda and Steve try to work things out, Charlotte has her baby and is as happy as ever, and Samantha leaves her youngin' and moves back to NY where she belongs. Carrie, well Carrie in true 'Sex and the City' fashion, goes to get her shoes that are still in 'her and Big's' apt before the lease runs out and she looses her shoes forever and finds Big there, waiting. They get married - a small, circus free wedding this time and live happily ever after (I hope)

Overall, this movie was great. The emotions were real, the girls were back and in rare form and the clothes, bags, and shoes were all fabulous. Its an enjoyable, fun filled must see movie.

By Lauren Boykin

WILLING SERFS OF AMERICA

2008-10-27T23:35:00.000-04:00

WILLING SERFS OF AMERICA
"Deer Hunting With Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War" by Joe Bageant (2007)

In "Deer Hunting With Jesus", Joe Bageant takes on the great question American politics: why do the white working poor America vote Republican, given that the party demonstrably works against their self-interest? And who better to answer that question than Bageant himself, a son of the working class who returns to his hometown of Winchester, Virginia in middle age.
"Deer Hunting" is a series of essays about working-class life - a life Bageant reveals to be in crisis. In the 1960s, he writes, a man could walk into the Rubbermaid factory in town, earn $1.65 an hour full-time, and comfortably support himself and his family. In 2007, his old friend was still working at the factory, but struggling to make ends meet while pulling overtime. Company-funded health insurance was gone; the tidy hospital that gave basic medical services to the community had largely been converted to an old folk's home, while those people that were sick had to eke out their Medicare benefits to get service from a hospital in the next town. Meanwhile many are being crushed by the debt on their subprime mortgages and car loans. In short, the dignity of labour has been torn away. Where once a man could do unskilled or semi-skilled labour and live decently on it, or at least know that his children would enjoy a better life, now men are struggling to stay solvent, destroying their health with long hours while competing with each other for overtime. Marx would have recognized it as the atomized proletariat.
Bageant argues that there is a simmering class war: the workers are silently enraged at their poverty, their constant economic oppression. The Republican party has simply taken advantage of this rage (and also stoked it not a little) by presenting it with a target: the champagne-sniffing, fine-art-appreciating, Volvo-driving "liberal elites" who, along with their improbable stooges the unions, are the reason the poor remain poor, taxing the working man and giving the money to homosexual-run art galleries and crack whores in the cities. By contrast, the Republicans are ordinary folk just like them. The shots of George W. Bush clearing away brush in his ranch resonated greatly in Winchester, especially when contrasted to shots of John Kerry windsurfing.
The eight essays in the book are hit-and-miss. American Serfs and "Republicans by Default" which examine working-class rage and its co-opting by Republicans are (I think, at least) the best. "The Deep-Fried, Double-Wide Lifestyle" and An Authorized Place to Die, discussing commercialism-as-solace and the health care system, also make for interesting reads. "Valley of the Gun" starts out with a tantalizing discussion of working-class gun culture and then veers into a predictable defence of Second Amendment rights. "The Ballad of Lynndie England", about the villain of the Abu Ghraib prison, somehow manages to paint her, unconvincingly, as a victim. (In fact, "The Ballad" could have been taken much further if it had become a fuller discussion of the role of women in the working-class crisis. The book is all about rage, remember, and rage is almost entirely the monopoly of men). Despite the ups and downs, the book is a quick and easy, not to mention illuminating, read, and I recommend it to all liberal elites.
We live in interesting times. I wonder what will happen now that housing bubble has well and truly burst, now that many Republicans, finally disgusted with its liberal-baiting tactics, seem to be abandoning their party, now that a liberal, elite black man with tremendous charisma is going, in person, to the white working class to promise them change. Somehow I do not think much change will take place - the poor will remain poor, and will be forgotten - and their rage will simmer on.

By

Jan De Bakker

More thoughts on Nick and Norah's infinite playlist (2008)

2008-10-27T00:19:00.004-04:00

More thoughts on Nick and Norah's infinite playlist (2008)

For the ultimate review of this movie see Jan De Bakker's review below (apologies for the generation X style of that phrase. I am, by the way, proud to be too young to be a part of generation X).

I saw this movie too and had some thoughts on it as well. I also review the soundtrack, see below.

This is a highly anticipated movie, mainly because it stars Michael Cera. Cera is a Canadian actor who starred in the two biggest teenage movies of last year: Juno and Superbad. Cera is sort of on the verge of being an icon of his generation. Now that GenX is reaching their 40's, a new generation emerges. Cera is introverted, stable and good natured, which is the complete opposite the previous generation that celebrated "trash talking" and extremism of aggression.

So, the question is: will Nick and Nora follow in the tradition? Well, it sure tries.

You meet Cera who goes by the name Nick now. He is broken up with his girlfriend. You kinda wonder if the girlfriend is Ellen Page. He looks and dresses the same as in SuperBad, except that he is changed from green hoodie to a blue one. If you want one yourself, the one he wears in the movie is from American Apparel. His room looks just like Juno's room with the cut outs all over the wall. He lives in a house that looks like his house from Juno too.

He is met by his friend Thom, played by Aaron Yoo, who wants him to play in their band for a gig in New York City. We learn that the band members are gay except Nick. He tells him that it is "hard being straight" and Thom couldn't understand that. Yoo is an interesting actor. He represents a growing asian presence in films. Almost every teen orientated film seems to cast him. Always in a small role where he is gay or asexual. He not so much playing an asian stereotype like -Jackie Chan, but he is clearly subjugated. John Cho of Harold and Kumar fame makes an appearance later in this film. Ever notice that the only time you see an asian male actor being aggressive to another person in a non-racist stereotyped way is when they doing so to another ethnic?

Well, I am proud to say that this film is directed by Peter Scollett. Scollett is someone who was at NYU when I was there. Two of my good friends were in classes with him at Tisch.

Now with this in mind, the when the movie gets to New York from the safety of the close New Jersey suburbs, it is shot in all the NYU kids nightlife pallet. If fact is you are thinking of going to NYU, you should check out this movie for taste of your nightlife. Scollett got the look and feel of being out on a Thursday through Saturday night downtown. NYU students study on Sunday.

The girl in the film Norah is played by Kat Denning. Denning does a good job playing an introverted cold and stuck up girl with a lot of money who is highly troubled. Basically like many of the girls you would meet if you attended NYU.

The trouble is that Denning and Cera do not pair up well. Cera needs to be paired with a extremely lively and loud partner. Jonah Hill and Ellen Page had more personality than most people can handle. Cera seemed to absorb that, and it create a pleasing dynamic. When you pair two introverted people it is kinda boring. In fact, the most interesting chemistry was between Nora and Tal , played by Jay Baruchel (Canadian). Jay Baruchel has a lot a of presence in his bit role as the manipulative friends-with-benefits guy that Nora is involved with when she meets Nick. Baruchel standout very much when is away from his Judd Apatow brothers such as Seth Rogan.

The movie also makes a bad move by having Nick and Nora have sex or whatever they were doing. One thing that movie has going for was a kinda innocence to it that has been seen from Rushmore to Juno. Somehow, the way it is was done here has that sleazy feel that teenage sex had in the 1980's teenflicks.

Nevertheless, movie has it's moments. It greatest accomplishment is cinematography is the shot at the end. It ends with a kiss on the escalator in Madison Square Garden going to Penn Station. It is really ugly place in New York, but it is a very beautiful romantic shot. So, maybe there was beauty there after all.

At other times the movie is boring without a lot going on. I would say about 45 minutes could have been cut out There is not real conflict presented. Everything just seems too safe. Overall, it is a cute movie, and I would recommend it.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

2008-10-25T20:23:00.001-04:00

TIKKUN O'LAM IN MANHATTAN
"Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist"

What is it about romances that draws us back to movie theatres over and over again? I mean, it's the same story every time, isn't it? My literature humanities instructor in undergrad would probably have said that it is an expression of the Universal Human Experience. Whatever. I just like seeing people in love with each other*.
"Nick and Norah" is one such romance. Michael Cera as Nick plays essentially the same character as he did in "Juno": an awkward, kind and irrepressably geeky high school senior. Norah (Kat Dennings) is a moody, "stone-cold Jap" stuggling to come out from the shadow of her rich father. Both are huge music geeks in tune with the underground hipster scene. The movie takes place over a single night in Manhattan, as Nick and Norah, along with a motley assortment of friends, try to find the secret location of a surprise concert to be given by "Where's Fluffy". Hints to the concert's venue are only given by rabbits drawn in improbable places, and indeed as the group of teenagers meet, disperse, and meet again in various misadventures in the nighttime world of Manhattan, it is in fact as if they have gone through the looking glass. In the course of this midsummer night, Nick and Norah fall in love, fall out of love, and fall back into love in the inevitable sonata of the love story. And through it all, of course, there's a great and nearly constant soundtrack. Now I am not myself a huge music geek in touch with the underground hipster scene, so don't recognize the songs or the bands, but I definitely appreciated the music.
"Nick and Norah" is really a reflection of American Graffiti. Both are movies about a group of teenagers spending a night on the town and coming of age in twelve hours. For Nick and Norah, this happens in the hipster music scene in New York, while American Graffiti takes place in the car-racing scene in Modesto, California. But there is a fundamental difference. American Graffiti is about what those who lived in the Swinging Seventies would be pleased to call "self-realization": each of the characters in the movie come of age, but they do so individually, as separate entities. The entire movie takes place on the night before college begins, and while they all grow up overnight, they also know that they must part ways in the morning and seek their own way as adults. "Nick and Norah" by contrast is all about coming together: the main characters do so, of course, but so does everyone who, after patient searching and red herrings, is finally unified by the ethereal music of Fluffy. And while American Graffiti takes place on the Anytown, California strip, Nick and Norah pointedly takes place in Manhattan, devoting several shots to its cityscape and celebrating it as the great crossroads.
Near the end of the film Norah says that her favourite part of Jewish philosophy is Tikkun O'lam, the "repair of the world", because it brings broken pieces of this world back together again. And that's what this movie is all about. It's a charming morality tale in which the self-centred, those who are only in it for the money or the sex, are cast into the outer darkness, while the just seek, lose their way, persevere, and finally find each other and the concert at the end of the night.

*except on public transportation.

by

Jan de Bakker

Weezer (the Red Album) – Weezer (2008)

2008-10-21T00:44:00.001-04:00

Weezer
This is probably the biggest disappointment in entertainment for me this year. This CD really sucks!

It has about two and a half good songs, Pork and Beans and Troublemaker.

Must download:

Pork and Beans

Pork and Beans is about as good as anything Weezer has ever done. The music video is one of the best modern music videos I have seen. They use the stars of youtube reenacting their best youtube moments. The song spent weeks at number one on the Billboard Modern Rock chart. It is simple song with nerdy anti-conformity tip. It basically says “Hey, I’m gonna do my own thing.” It is sort of a classic in its own right.

Troublemaker is cool because Mr. Rivers C. is playing with language a la Eminem. It is about three years too late, but I appreciate the effort. The song is playful and doesn’t take itself seriously at all, which is refreshing.

It is all down hill from here. I heard that the whole band contributed songs this effort. Big mistake.

I am not sure where this leaving the future of the band. It is really a miss album.

I think what I really liked from Weezer was in the root of the music was 80’s hair-band style music with a John Lennon circa The Plastic Ono Band like lyrics, which was packaged in a nerd-cool envelope. This is not really the case here, but maybe they needed to go in a different direction.

Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist Soundtrack (2008)

2008-10-16T23:56:00.003-04:00

For some reason, the soundtrack to Nick & Norah’s infinite playlist looked good. Maybe because the Juno soundtrack was so good, and this movie has Michael Cera from Juno and SuperBad in it. Nevertheless, the soundtrack is really good.

It reminds me a bit of Blurs’s Parklife in that it is the mix of different styles of music under one umbrella that gives it character and makes it interesting to listen to.

It is a good listen to from beginning to end. I brought the 18 track itunes editions. I think that is the best value as you get a couple more good songs from it and the itunes qualities is good.

There are a few must download songs if you don’t want get the whole things. So check out:

Speed of Sound by Chris Beil
Middle Management by Bishop Allen
Ottoman by Vampire Weekend
Xavia by The Submarines
After Hours by We are Scientists

What’s cool about the soundtrack for me is that I don’t really know these bands. Being a few years out of High School and College I can’t say that I am down with new bands.

This is indie music which is a genre that evolved from Alternative which evolved from New Wave. So if you can name a good White Snake song, this is not for you. Also, if you have ever corrected someone for pronouncing Fifty Cent as it is spelled and not saying ‘fitty cent’, then this is also not for you. You know who you are.

Now, the indie genre has many sub genres to it. Over the Bush years indie bands have stretched from The Shins to The Vines with a 1980’s retro tip. So, it's cool that this soundtrack is like a sampling of the subgenres within the indie genre. The songs are mixed so that the subgenre’s change from track to track.

It is hard not to hear echo’s of such earlier bands like The Cure and Echo and the Bunnyman but like every retro experience some things are changed. A case in point, in the 1990’s kids dressed in 1970’s clothes except their hair was really short. No one had short hair in the seventies. For a fuller explanation please see Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.

Anyway, this soundtrack is worth checking out.

Toronto, Canada

2008-10-16T20:57:00.002-04:00

The Dark Knight (2008)

2008-10-16T20:52:00.001-04:00

Batman aka Bruce Wayne (played by Christian Bale) really was The Dark Night in this movie. It’s just a shame there wasn’t more of Batman without the armor. This movie was the sequel to Batman Begins. Usually when you hear the term ‘sequel’ you think, oh no, disaster. That was not the case in my opinion on this movie. Batman is on a quest, his usual quest of saving Gotham from it’s unusual villains, continue building his empire, and trying to get the girl as well.
The villain this time is ‘The Joker.’ He’s played by Heath Ledger. Let’s take a moment first to remember Heath Ledger. His role as The Joker in this movie was his last before his untimely death. He died just as the movie production was wrapping up, so there were no re-takes of any (or maybe very few re-takes) of his performance. His performance was amazing. He portrayed the most psycho-like Joker I have ever seen. From the way his head twitched, to his voice, to the way he licked his lips, to the way he held his knife. He was serious and focused. He knew what he wanted. One of those things he wanted was to hurt Batman – not just physically but emotionally as well.

As for the plot…Wayne Enterprises (Batman’s company) is negotiating with a Hong Kong based securities firm who also happen to be negotiating with Gotham’s mafia. Jim Gordon, the Lieutenant is trying to expose this scheme between the mafia and this firm while the new District Attorney – Harvey Dent (played by Aaron Eckhart) who the people of Gotham just adore and his girlfriend the other District Attorney – Rachel (played by Maggie Gyllenhall – who could not act at all in this movie) and who Batman is in love with – are trying to put behind bars. In the midst of all this the Joker comes in and ruins everyone’s life. He forces Batman to choose between saving Harvey or saving Rachel. Batman chooses. Rachel dies and half of Harvey’s face gets blown off (oops, did I just spoil the movie for you). Harvey then turns to the dark side to avenge everyone for the death of Rachel. (Nevermind how Batman must feel). At the end of the movie, Batman and the Joker have a fight typical of comic book characters brought to the big screen. I think we’ll have to wait until the next movie to find out what ‘really’ happens.

Batman himself gets an upgraded bat-suit, new car, motorcycle, and gadgets. He’s helped by Alfred, his long time butler, and Lucius Fox – head of the board at Wayne Enterprises. All of which I thought worked very well in the movie. ‘Batman: The Dark Night’ was action packed, had a fun cast of villains, some old friends, and made for a great summer blockbuster.

By Lauren Boykin

Hamlet 2 (2008)

2008-09-21T23:59:00.003-04:00

Not as bad as it looks. Really!!!

This stars Steve Coogan, who is best known from some British television work that is barely known in the United States.

It tells a story of a talentless actor working as a high school drama teacher in Tucson, Arizona who is trying to save the drama department, which is basically him and his students.

It has the usual clichés of the students bonding at the end, and the pulling it together spirit of theatre experience. Given that if you have worked in theatre you will no doubt in enjoy this film; as it has all the right moves as lets say Noises Off. With that in said, I only know this because I had an ex-girlfriend who worked in an improv place in Austin Texas during her high school in the 1990’s.

The movie has a couple of things working for it. Coogan has a great talent of looking like a loser so much so that you feel a little bad for him, and he genuinely has some chemistry with his young cast.

The rest of the movie is supported by the supporting cast that really nails their bit parts. Catherine Keener plays his acerbic wife. Amy Poehler plays an ACLU lawyer. David Arquette and Elizabeth Shue around the cast of well-known actors. But I must mention the racially ambiguous actress Melonie Diaz who I am seeing in more and more movies and really liking. Maybe she is someone to look out for.

Like every movie of this sort, it climaxes with theatre piece of, you guessed it, Hamlet 2, which features a faux-blasphemous number called “Rock me sexy Jesus” Jesus portrayed as some Keanu Reeves character circa Point Break . This is about as blasphemous as any Christian fundamentalist youth retreat.

In conclusion, Hamlet 2 is barely good, but it works.

The return of topbeagle.blogspot.com

2008-09-21T22:53:00.002-04:00

Boston
After a couple of months of being away, topbeagle is back!!!!

Here is a pic from Boston -August 2008

Damon Albarn’s Honest Jon’s Revue, July 12th 2008 – Lincoln Center

2008-07-21T20:12:00.006-04:00

There are few times that I can say that I was at the best show in the city, which in someway might be the best show in the country; at least for one night. Saturday, July 12, 2008 at 8:00 p.m. in Lincoln Center, I saw Damon Albarn’s Honest Jon’s Revue. This was the show to be at. It was not sold out. It was not widely advertised, but the right people were there. David Bryne from the Talking Heads sat three rows in front of me. Much of the New York music Industry came in there casual yet cool (but not hipster) clothes into the sometimes stuffy air of the Avery Fisher auditorium to see a show of mostly African Music; of musicians who most of whom have never left Mali, according the guy who arranged the travel. He was sitting right behind me.

Of course, Damon Albarn is the lead singer of Blur, The Glorillaz, and The Good, The Bad, and The Queen. Honest Jon is a music label from England where all the performers belonged to.

I feel more unqualified than usual to review this. I have never heard African music before; not like this anyway. I loved it. It was a joy. It was unpretentious. Everyone was just having fun.

To his credit, Albarn would hide when he felt that too many people were looking at him, and not playing proper attention to the musicians.

The music arranged to very traditional music to a great brass section to some Senegalese dudes rockin’ out in French. Totally kicked ass!

Albarn played the last song. It was a happy performance, and I was glad I didn’t need to be rushed to hospital afterwards, because I was very sick that night. I was ready to see the show and go to the hospital right afterwards. Oye Vey!

I wonder if Radiohead can beat this.

Abba is the Greatest Band in the Entire Universe, Ever

2008-07-21T19:54:00.003-04:00

What I liked the most about "Mamma Mia" is its deft characterizations and the way in which the score draws from a wide palette of emotions to evoke a subtext for each scene....Ha ha, just kidding. The plot is transparent, character development is pretty much nonexistent and the movie is all about the singing and dancing. Which is what's so great about it.

"Mamma Mia," based on the stage play of the same name, is basically a giant revue of Abba songs. The plot centers around Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), who is getting married at her mother's hole-in-the-wall hotel on a Greek island. The problem: she wants to be given away by her father, but she doesn't know who her father is. It turns out she was conceived in a one-night stand sometime in the swinging days of 1988 (hey, I'm only following the movie's chronology) and there are no less than three possible fathers: Stellan Starsgard, Pierce Brosnan, and Harry Firth. Undaunted, Sophie invites all three to the wedding. Hilarity ensues, and so does music, as the characters sing (and generally also dance) an Abba number in each scene.

The musical numbers were all good, and several were great. Meryl Streep (as Sophie's mom Donna) writhing in sexual frustration on a rooftop while singing "Mamma Mia" is hilarious. So is the sight of a singing, dancing chorus of men clad in swimsuits and flippers. Some of the actors, ahem, sing better than others, and some of the dance numbers were more crisply performed than others, but nobody seemed to mind, on the screen or in the theatre. The acting is exactly what the movie needed: hammy, with a lot of slapstick.

The best aspect of the movie was definitely the chemistry the actors seemed to have with each other. Everybody looked like they were having fun, and Meryl Streep was having the most fun of them all. So even though the plot isn't much and some of the singing and dancing isn't exactly spot-on, I was carried away by the sheer ebullience coming off the screen. It's a bunch of people doing Abba songs. What's not to like?
REVIEW BY JAN DE BAKKER

Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008)

2008-07-18T14:13:00.004-04:00

Totally not familiar with the Dolls series or book series that this comes from. I went into this with the knowledge of a cute trailer and a basset hound on the cover. I was sold.

I am happy to report that this is a wonderful kid’s film. I am a little surprised. It is generally a smart movie.

Decorated with a great cast of supporting characters, it stars Little Miss Sunshine’s Abigail Breslin.

There are a lot things that make this a really good movie. There is a vast world of Kit Kittredge which goes from Roaring 20’s to the beginning of the depression. There are the usual things which are right out of the Little Rascals series, such as a tree house, a dog companion to fast talking news paper men. There are so many well developed characters that there is little to no wasted space. Most of the supporting characters have been stars of films at some point and actors such as Stanley Tucci bring great characterization where ever they go.

The story is actually pretty good. It goes from a depression era hardship story to a “Little women” narrative to a good ole fashioned mysterious to a slap stick let’s get the silly bad guys.

As far as I can tell from my stories from my grandfather, who was basically a kid when this movie is set, is that the details of the story are correct. The little facts, the mood, and events seem quite accurate. I asked him about it after I saw it and he confirmed what I asked, but he had never heard of a hobo writing style.

I didn’t this to be a girl movie per se despite the title. I have seen movies like Princess Diaries, which I thought was a good movie but I thought was definitely for girls. I did feel that about this one.

This is a fun little movie. It as about as G rated as it can be. This is a very clean movie. Overall, I thinks its great.

The Wackness (2008)

2008-07-17T14:06:00.004-04:00

OMFG! They have already made a 90’s nostalgia movie. This is a film about a teenager in the summer of 1994 in New York City. I was a teenager in 1994 in New York City. Dude, do I feel old!

The Wackness is a historical period piece centered on a teenage boy circa 1994. It is another coming of age film. There has to be, like, ten a year, but unlike Rushmore, Napoleon Dynamite, and Juno, which are basically the same movie, where the audience sees a quirky and somehow brilliant lead character , and how the world reacts to him or her, this one is pre-Wes Anderson, Old Skool, where the teenage character is the only sane person in a sea or crazy or shallow people around them.

This is not a happy drug film a la Harold and Kumar. Instead this is a moody and sometimes dark feature where the character has some seriously instabilities in his life. His parents are losing their apartment and he might have to live with his grandparents in New Jersey. He has graduated High School and had gotten into his safety college. The only support he has is Hip-hop, which provides a false persona that he has control of his life, which is really has no control over anything at all. The only personal support he has is a therapist whom is pays in drugs. He tries to take care of his family by trying to sell enough drugs to save his home.

Our hero’s name is Luke.

A social outcast and loner, people his age, who are mostly lost, bored, and wealthy kids (like from the movie Kids) are only interested in him for the drugs. He does meet one girl, Stephanie; Juno’s honest-to-blog friend played by Olivia Thirlby. Stephanie is uses Luke mainly because she is bored and Luke is a distraction.

In the end, everything falls apart for Luke, but somehow like every teenage films, he will survive. I guess, such films are a solute the resiliency to an age group that knows much drama real or imaginary.

A tribute to the nineties, The Wackness drops as much nineties references that it can per second of screen time. Whether it be a Zima, biggie Smalls, or having Mary-Kate Olsen who seems like a living relic under 30 years old, the film never lets you forget the time period. Sadly in the pre-9/11 movie the CGI World Trade Center towers they get wrong. Maybe the outsourced the work. The towers don’t look right. They look shorter and fatter than the original structures looked.

Overall, the movie is rather depressing. The characters, all of them, are lost. Despite the fact that these types of people are plentiful in New York City, they are not the majority; nor do represent life and vivaciousness of the time, especially in the nineties.

Obama New York City

2008-07-13T23:18:00.001-04:00

Hello Kitty New York City

2008-07-13T23:16:00.002-04:00

Hello Kitty New York City

Ugly Americans: The true story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who Raided Asians Markets by Ben Mezrich

2008-07-02T15:13:00.001-04:00

This is my favorite book that I have so read this year. It is a delightful read. It is very male book with elements of chasing girls, mentors, finance, motor cycles, and risk. I wonder if a woman would get so much enjoyment out this book.

This is another Ben Mezrich true story where he takes someone’s story and makes a thriller out of it. These are truly American stories. They have many American ideals, such as Rags to Riches with smarts and hard work, and the idea that anything is beatable.

Ben Mezrich is best known for his books about M.I.T. students who beat Vegas in blackjack. This work he ups the ante by taking the story out of Las Vegas where the one day winnings are in the thousands to the world Financial markets where a the one day winning are up in the hundred of Millions.

The story takes place in the roaring nineties, and it is a story that can only happen in that time for two reasons. The Asian financial markets were being born in a modern sense, hence being raided as well and the computer age was coming into fruition.

Mezrich calls our hero John Malcolm (we don’t know is real name). We meet Malcolm on a plane with Ivy League football stars on a plane to Japan to play an exhibition game there. He is going to Princeton University, and he has at Princeton on a football scholarship.

While in Japan his crew meets up with some arbitrage traders in Tokyo. They handout business cards and a job offer of sorts.

He does try out for the professional football. He doesn’t make it and it beat up more than anyone because the others don’t like boys from Ivy League colleges.

As Malcolm struggles to find a job at graduation, he gives one the traders a call, and the next week he is on a plane to Osaka Japan to start a job which he does not understand.

Completely clueless Malcolm enters a world that he could have never imagined. I don’t want to give away too much of the story.

The book is interesting because for a lot reasons. One, it gives a fairly realistic culture of the world of finance and of Japan; especially being an American in Japan. I can tell you from my own experience that it is realistic. At the time of the book Westerns mainly Americans and the British were taking the Asia for all they could. There was a lot of money involved and things that usually go along with that. The Yakuza, which is the Japanese mafia, were after Malcolm and his cohorts. He even got involved in Neil Lesson, who is the trader who brought down Barring of London; Britton’s oldest and most prestigious bank ( “Rogue Trader” with Ewan McGregor is a good movie about that bit). Lastly,sex is a part of that much money. The ubiquitous sex industry run by the Yakuza is in every part of business in Japan. The testosterone is pumping everywhere and fast cars and motorbikes lead to Malcolm taking stupid risks that the Yakuza eventually take advantage of.

While everyone else is corrupting themselves Malcolm finds love with a Japanese girl who is very much off limits.

Malcolm who grew up poor in New Jersey to a single mother becomes on the verge of making 500 million dollars.

There is never a dull moment in here. There is also no wasted space. There is going on and much to keep track of. It is really one of those stories where it ends of far from where it starts that only a true story can be that fantastic.

Wanted (2008)

2008-06-29T00:16:00.002-04:00

This is not a stupid action film. This is a great action film. One of the best. Story, well, lets not be concerned with that so much. Let’s just say there is enough there to keep your interest up, but if you think about it for a second allusions to Fight Club ,Star Wars: A New Hope, and The Matrix are more than obvious.

It stars my main man James McAvoy; who has the distinction that nothing I have seen him in as been in even remotely mediocre. The Last King of Scotland, Atonement, Ten for Starters,Penelope have all been great. He even had a small part in the T.V. series of Band of Brothers. Wanted was no disappointment. It was great.

The movie is gripping or probably unintentionally funny at all times. There is not one dull moment. The styled violence gets better and better. It is surely something that I have not seen on the screen before.

The movie is set in Chicago, and makes Chicago like an amazingly cool city. I was just there last year, and I surely didn’t think so.

It also starts Angelina Jolie in a role somewhat similar to her husbands role in Fight Club, which gets less interesting the more you think about it. She looks really good in a dress, but I guess she is a sex symbol for men and lesbians alike. That f#$ked-up girl role really fits her.

The actors carry the film and the non-stop action is full of an endless supply of cool moves. I don’t want to give too much away but there is a good twist in there to look forward to. Also, like the movie Speed the climax of the film is in the middle, and then the movie picks up again.

The dialogue is surprising good. There are some biting phrases, which are sometimes aimed at the audience.

There’s not too much more to say about it, except that Danny Elfman did the music. It is not too long, and it surely one of the best movies to come out this year. I have been see one too many hero movie. One more comic book movie would surely drive to me to library, but this one is an exception.

I highly recommend Wanted, because it is one great ride.

Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House (2007) by Valerie Plame Wilson

2008-06-28T21:06:00.003-04:00

This is a book written two parts. The first part is written by Wilson with much of it redacted with blacked out sections shown on the page, and the second part is an afterword written by Laura Rozen. The afterword is written from the public record that is meant to fill in much of the pieces that was redacted by the C.I.A. So, the book is really all over the place.
The book is not that well written. Even taking the redactions into consideration the author loses focus and writes about three different books in one. She is not a professional writer and her emotions seems to be shot from the traumatic events in her and her families lives due to the well documented outing of her C.I.A. agent status and the right wings war against her family.
I wanted to read this book because I wanted know about a woman’s experience being in the C.I.A. It is a perceptive that I have never heard before. I do get that buried in somewhere within the emotional life of Ms. Wilson, which not a criticism. The woman is learning how to feel. She is getting her life organized her brain and is obvious when reading this.
What is surprising is just how likable the author is. She is very girly girl. She tries to tries to write the book with a tough bravado. She does this with her chapters on her C.I.A. special agent training on “The Farm.” However due to the redactions and the fact that it just didn’t seem like her, it doesn’t last for very long.
Next.
Probably the most fun you have with this book is the time she is a working as mother with two small children and as a C.I.A. agent. She is totally a mom, and she has working mother concerns all while having this super risky important spy job.
Then comes the dark side. While working for a part of the C.I.A. that was looking into nuclear proliferations in the outside world, a request from the Vice-President Office came in to have a lead that the Iraqi government was looking to buy Yellow Cake Uranium from Nigeria. Plame writes that it was suggested to her ask her husband former ambassador Joe Wilson to look into it. She would have been derelict of her duties if she did not follow through with that. It was common practice that people outside the agency, such as business people or former government officials to carry out some important matters such as this. Joe Wilson went pro-bono ( meaning that only expenses were paid) . He found nothing, wrote his report and they went on with their lives until the President, she writes, used a few words citing Yellow Cake Uranium and Iraq to sell the war on Iraq. Wilson wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times, debunking those words in the Presidents speech. After that everything fell apart.

The right wing declared war on the Wilson’s. Most egregious from the office of the Vice President and Carl Rove leaked Valeria Plame Wilson’s name to the press. Supposedly Carl Rove who is member of the Wilson’s church said that Valerie Wilson was “Fair Game” in retaliation to Joe Wilson. The so-called liberal press printed her name and protected their sources; hence exposed her status putting her and her contact lives in jeopardy. It was a political retaliation for crossing the administration.

She goes on and tells about how the war on the Wilson’s went as far as death threats, lack of protection from the C.I.A., tax audits, and more. Right wing donators threatened Universities and High Wealth individuals to make sure that Joe Wilson’s consulting business would go bust and that he would not get any speaking engagements. Plame speculates that these tactics were a dry run on the swift boat attacks on John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential Campaign.

Although, some justice eventually came her way in the form of “Scouter” Libby being prosecuted for the leak by the federal government. The toll taken on her family and her career was more than most people could take.

Towards the end of her she is pouring facts and unbelievable stories from her experience. It is upsetting, and it is clear that it is probably not over.

It was hard to read, because it was really upsetting. What was good about it is that is a first hand account of a family being hunted by the right wing for saying anything that contradicted it.

Speed Racer (2008)

2008-06-26T07:47:00.001-04:00

I think this has got to be the most underrated movie this year. Granted this movie was no intellectual giant, but it was highly artistic.

Now this is one of those movies which I did not get around to reviewing it while it was in the theatres, and I am not familiar with the sixties Aimee cartoon. I am not familiar with the characters and plot outside of this movie. I think my older sister was a fan of the T.V. show, but I am not sure.

Speed Racer is the best movie that looks and acts like video game that I have ever scene. At least this will be the case until the live action Pokemon movie comes, which talks are still underway. John Goodman who plays Speed’s father looks like he jumped out of Super Mario Brothers and on to the screen. The action sequences, almost all CGI, look like a video game on steroids. The rules of the races are only the rules you had playing with your matchbox cars as a kid, which is the fun of the movie.

The world created in this movie is incredible to watch. It is a hodgepodge of every cartoon from the 60’s to the early Nintendo games of the late 80’s. It has a 1960’s look to it as if the 1960’s were in the future. The dialogue had the simplicity of a Charlie Brown special. The colors are bright and vibrant, which makes it a visual delight. It is a movie to see on the big screen because it will lose its grandeur shrunk. It is something that I have never seen before on film, and I am sorry that I only saw it once on the big screen.

It is directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski, who are the guys from The Matrix. They tell the story in an interesting and novel way at least in the start of the movie. They give it a family feel throughout; even with the mysterious (who was never that mystersous) yet protective Racer X.

It stars a great cast John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, and a delicious Christina Ricci as Trixie. What was great about Trixie in this movie is that she was core character who helps Speed Racer without doing it with tired feminist feel that is so boring after watching it for 20 years. So she was a smart, capable, beautiful, woman without the attitude.

I think Speed Racer is more of an art film then a summer blockbuster, which it proved not to be. It is more style than story. I suppose I am its target audience or at least the type of person who would get a lot of it. Being that I am too young to know of the old Speed Racer cartoon and I cannot speak the nostalgia feel of it, but do know he that silly jumping out the car and giving a “thumbs up.”

I do think that this movie is worth a shot for most people. So give it a chance.

The Promotion (2008)

2008-06-18T07:49:00.002-04:00

This is a film that leaves you with no solid answers. It is basically a competition between to flawed men to become the next supermarket manager.

Being one of those off-the-beaten pass comedies that are usually so distained by Americans that they only live in small art theaters, then if they’re any good have a cult following; meaning they have a small audience. This is usually the guy or girl listening to The Shins on the ipod who knows more about movies than his or her current job.

The Promotion is no exception. It is really slow, which can be good for a indie movie, but it is also saturated with subtle humor and wisdom.

The movie stars Stifler (Seann William Scott) from American Pie and big lovable loser John C. Reilly. Not be forgotten the ultimate nice-girl in film/TV Jenna Fischer.

What is striking about this movie is how realistic this story could be. You have Stifler who playing a not so ambitious guy who is trying to work his way up in his job that he took in high school in a supermarket. At age 33 this will be his first big promotion. He is an assistant manager who is looking to become a manager of a new store. The conflict comes in when Richard (Reilly) comes in from Canada to also compete for the same job. Both men are presented as very flawed, but not too flawed. They start to sabotage each other as they go into the interview process and each have a lot to loss if they don’t get this job; such as their homes and wives. They start to crack under the pressure, and it comes down to who will be more broken.

Now this isn’t some Hollywood movie where you watch a bunch of crazy funny scenarios a la some screw ball comedy of the 80’s. Instead, people just seem as petty as in real life.

In a way, this is not a good film to see if your motivation when seeing movies is to escape, because it can really feel like someone’s work. This seems to be the trend these days and Jenna Fischer, from the Office TV show, presence is no coincidence.

Overall, I liked The Promotion, because it left me something to think about after the movie was over. It also left me a little stressed.

Almost forgot, this is yet another movie where Jason Bateman has a small part.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

2008-06-16T14:24:00.003-04:00

Like most Judd Apatow movies, this one is not so much about the main for character or story line but instead about it is all the interesting, quirky, and charming supporting characters. Like if you remember Superbad, McLovin’ with the two cops were the best part of the films. I have talked to girls who have said that they wished the movies was about them. (for McLovin fans check out funnyordie.com “McLovin’ Fund” which was has Forgetting Sarah Marshall’s Kirsten Bell). I really loved everyone in this film except for the main character Peter, played by Jason Segel; who by the way also wrote the screenplay.

The movie is basically guy loses girlfriend and is depressed. Goes to a report in Hawaii and finds his ex-girlfriend and her new guy in the same resort.

I found the Peter character to be winy, boring and complete uninteresting, which might come from the fact I never really bought into his performance. The film does spend a lot of time with him, but if you can forget about him, you are in for a bit of a treat.

There were a lot of things that I liked here. First of all, you have the Apatow regulars like Jonah Hill of SuperBad, who plays this waiter, a soften down character of what he normally does, who is in love with a British pop star Russell Brand, who is staying at the resort with Peter’s ex-girlfriend Sarah Marshall. Russell Brand is this very funny character who is a microcosm of what you think a overconfident- oversexed British pop star should be. Sort of like a cross between Sting, Chris Martin and George Michael. He has cheesy songs about saving world, is recovering from his substance abuse issues, is a sex addict, and basically a nice guy. The ex-girlfriend, played by Kirsten Bell, is surprising normal except that she is an actress from TV crime shows. The spoof of those shows is way overdue and watch to credits to see another CSI parody along with Jason Bateman. The supporting characters are so well defined and more interesting that you cheer when they appear and you really don’t want them to leave. My favorite was the young Christian couple who waited for there honeymoon, for whatever people do on their honeymoon. The woman is really excited and the guy complains to no end. It’s really funny. The cast is rounded out by Paul Rudd, being Raul Rudd, and Mila Kunis, from Family Guy and That 70’s show, basically playing her role straight as the love interest of Peter.

There are some funny musically numbers. My favorite was when Peter plays a really depressing song, then after a few bars you realize that it is the opening song to the Muppet Show.

Overall the movie is very long and the story is tired. However, there is this new comedy team. It looks like the Will Farrell, Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn crew have been supplanted with this lot and this style of humor. In summary, if you know and like the name “Apatow” this movie is for you, and if you are tagging along there are some good laughs in there when Peter isn’t crying or showing his shlong.

LeatherHeads (2008)

2008-06-12T07:46:00.002-04:00

This is really a throw away movie. I saw it months ago and didn’t really think it was worth writing about. It might be ready for rental now. Check itunes.

The reason why this movie is so disappointing is that it had so much promise based on who was in it. It is a George Clooney movie. I like George Clooney, a follow Taurus, usually makes really good movies, and I will go and watch; asking questions later. The cast was rounded out with Renee Zellweger and the U.S. Office’s John Krasinski.

Besides having A-list actors in it, the look of film was cool. It has that Jazz age look but in beautiful color, which I haven’t seen before. Finally the plot, the beginning of the American football league is an interesting topic. It really could have been a good movie.

About the only thing it did well as the Art Direction and Cinematography. It looked beautiful. Being a fan of silent movies from the 1920’s of Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin, I can say that Leatherheads showed the period quite accurately. It even matches up with my Grandfather’s descriptions of the 1920’s. He even played football in the early 1930’s.

The colors in the film were beautiful. Chicago looked great and so did everything else. Sadly the rest is mediocre.

The movie is too long. The acting outside of Clooney is pretty bad. Jokes are lame. Frankly, it gets boring a lot. Leatherheads missed the blue note in the Jazz age.

The Visitor (2008)

2008-06-11T09:26:00.002-04:00

The Visitor is a smart, educated film that should not be overlooked. The movie year has been slim on good movies to say the least. This is by far an exception.

It tells a story of a professor who is listlessly living out the last years of his life alone. He puts on a façade to the nothingness of his life. Forced to present a paper that he didn’t write at NYU or face losing face he leaves Connecticut to goes to his unused apartment in on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He finds a couple living there. He let’s them stay and befriends the dude Tarek who is a Syrian musician. Tarek teachers Walter, the professor, to play the African drum. Tarek plays the drum in a jazz band. The friendship, music and life of the couple staying with him renews his own life. During that time, the NYPD picks up Tarek and he is held in detention for his immigration status.

The movie is filled with spectacular performances by Richard Jenkins, Walter. Jenkins would be my vote for the Best Actor for this year. Haaz Sleiman plays the charismatic Tarak, and Danai Jekesia Guira plays his girlfriend. All three of them give a very realistic performance, and the audience is intrigued by their character development.

I like the themes in this movie. In the movie the characters have realistic challenges and are often powerless in their own struggle. Life in New York and America can be overwhelming, but the theme of life coming through and is heartwarming. Tarak is put into the criminal justice system which leads to immigration detention. The movie does a good job at conveying the process, and the hopelessness of it.

There is a little business where Walter goes out with Tarak’s mom, which is a little weird, but not as weird as You don’t mess with the Zohan; if you saw that movie then you know what I mean.

Another thing I like about this film was the character of New York City. The locations are some of the best of the city. There are many shots of the Village in the NYU area. It captures the life of it well.

There are no happy endings in The Visitor, but the essence of the characters stay with you and the image of a 60 year old man carrying around an African drum is endearing.

Dreams of My Father (A Story of Race and Inheritance) by Barack Obama

2008-06-09T08:30:00.002-04:00

Barack n’ Roll, baby! Barack Obama won the democratic nomination being the first blackish dude to ever be accomplished such a feat.

Barack Obama maybe the first generation X president. Part of the hope that he gives is often felt by young people. Those people who are ready to kick out the Vietnam War generation of the Vietnam War, Watergate, and the Reagan Revolution. We are really tired of that combative culture of a generation spoiled and not appreciative that they were living in the highest time of American wealth and status so far.

If you have any question that Obama is the Gen-X candidate then read the Dreams of My Father, which is not be confused with John McCain’s Faith in My Fathers, which was also a good book. The names sound alike. His mother was a child of the sixties and a bit rebellious. She married a Kenyan and a Malaysian. Took her family to live in Malaysia, and only when immersed in that culture did she come to value being an American. Barack was the child of all that.

Brother Obama went to college in the 80’s and grad-school in the 90’s. By the way, he went to Columbia College at Columbia University.

Remember in at the start of the campaign, there was the question “Is Obama, really black?”? Well, this is why. Barack was conceived with Kenyan father of many wives, and a white woman. He was raised by her and sometimes her parents. On a side note, I attended a tapping of the Colbert Report where a columnist from Salon.com argued that Brother Obama was not black.

Remember when they were saying “Obama is Muslim”, because of his Kenyan family which he almost never knew growing up and that he lived in Malaysia when he was very young. People tried to scare up these facts. Hillary Clinton was nice enough to dig up a picture of Obama in Muslim looking clothes from a trip to Kenya he took to see him family there and gave them to the right wing media site, the Drudge Report; who always thanked the Clinton campaign for digging up dirt on Obama.

Anyway, to say the least Brother Barack is not your average black guy.

He went by Barry before college.

What I like about the book was how honestly and detailed, Obama described not fitting into an ethnic stereotype, which is something that I can relate to. For Obama, he had blackness inherited, but he did not inherit the African-American experience. He really didn’t grow up with it, except when it was trusted upon him.

Barack throughout his life, basically, learns to be black. Other black’s kinda accept him, but not totally. They think the Kenyan bit is cool, but it is nothing they can relate to. As Barack has one foot in and out of the door he has a unique position observe racism and its hypocrisies.

As far as race affects him as well as he observes it Obama takes it in deeply and personally, and in this there is a very favorable view of his character. The book is filled with well though out insights. You can see that he judges things from as many angles as he can find. He also seems obsessed with it. He sees the hypocrisy of both sides. His conclusions ring as true and biting at the same time. He even sees the hypocrisy in his own mother. He describes a situation of her, and his younger sister (who he barely mentions in his book) going to see an old movie where black people are portrayed as happy children, and she, his mother, is in love with that image. He also describes other areas of racism in his family.

The world and situations he describes are in direct conflict with the right wing exsertion that racism is dead, and should never be spoken of in a context prior to 1970. In a way, this book great because it speaks of a taboo of race in America.

The last part of the book he decides to really get into the black community in Chicago where he works as a community organizer. It is at this time where he meets his controversial preacher, which he has disowned in the election. It seems that in order for him to really be accepted in that community he has to drown himself in it, and it is where he leaves the reader. He is about to leave for Harvard Law. You wonder if he so immerse in the black community does he see the world outside of that, and in the election I am sure that will be asked this over and over again. This will probably where Obama the candidate, I suspect, will be vulnerable. Barack saturated himself with some of the most radical of the Chicago black community. It does not mean he is a radical, but some people will falsely accuse him of being guilty by association. Also, let’s not forget Hillary Clinton’s race laced stabs at him, which I thought was race bating. Clinton wanted Obama to defend himself on her racist smears, which would have been political suicide because he would be breaking the taboo on race. The double standard is that people can make subtle racist remarks, and the victim can not defend themselves; outside of saying “that was stupid” lest be punished for bringing to view that there is racism in America.

His image the post-race candidate is silly. Does “post-race” even make sense?

Does the book make you want to vote for him? The answer is well yeah, but not entirely.

I wanted to read it because I knew nothing about Obama. I chose this book because it was written before he was a candidate. So, a reader today is missing about 13 years of the Obama story.

As a book it is filled with insights, and is really well written. I think you can feel some of his training as a lawyer; for better or worse. You get the Gen-X perspective on things.

Of course, can Obama beat the real American Hero, McCaine?

Sex and the City in Time Warner Center

2008-05-22T21:49:00.003-04:00

Kim Cattrall was promoting the new movie by the Time Warner Center the other day, and I was there by chance : )

Iron Man (2008)

2008-05-21T19:14:00.002-04:00

It was the best thing out in a while on May 2nd. Iron Man, it looked good from the previews. Maybe it would be a better Superhero film, or maybe it would just go in the trash like The Punisher, Daredevil, and Ghost Rider. In the end, Marvel has enough superheroes to last another 10 years.

Ok, but this one looked better. First off was the cast, A-listers; Robert Downey Jr., he was nominated for an Oscar stars. Gwyneth Paltrow actually won an Oscar. Then it’s directed by Jon Favreau, the guy from Swingers. Maybe there would be a Vegas scene and some guy saying “money!”

The trailer was cool. Iron Man was cheeky, and the movie takes place in Afghanistan, so maybe it is up-to-date. It could be something that we can relate current events to or something to make feel like we are winning that war. How many movies even mention Afghanistan?

Finally, it made over $100 million, it’s first week. It is the first major hit of the summer of 2008 film schedule. So it must have done something right. Marvel now has a film studio to make sure we are not superhero deprived ever again.

So, all of that stuff did work good enough. Iron Man is in no way classic or even a movie to see twice, but it is good. Favreau threw in touches a la Swingers to take it out of the Marvel Universe to make you forget you are watching comic book movie. There are scenes in Vegas, pole dancers, and plenty of hard liquor. You wish that there were more of those touches. Downey keeps the movie going with his delivery and charisma. In fact, Downey carries the film.

There is one cool actions scene, but the big one at the end was lame. Nevertheless, expect see more of Iron Man. Iron Man II in a couple of years. Tony Spark, Iron Man, makes an appearance in the new Hunk movie this summer, and if you wait till the very end there is an interview scene with Stark who alludes the Avengers, which is an Marvel comic. Don’t be surprise to see an Avengers movie at some time.

The best thing about this movie is that it doesn’t really seem like a hero movie. The character is really well developed for any movie, and Tony Stark does have any real powers except being a really smart guy, which is refreshing.

The Nine, Inside the Secret World of THE SUPREME COURT by Jeffrey Toobin (2007)

2008-05-19T23:53:00.002-04:00

The Nine seems to be that book that everyone has heard of but no one has read. No worries, read my review instead.

I have to admit my interest in this book is fill the gaps of my knowledge of the United States, and to continue to understand the times I am living in, which is sometimes spurred by the constant right-wing extremist rhetoric that come across.

The Toobin book is not linear history of the Supreme Court. It goes far back as 1972, but it picks up in the Reagan era, and it ends in 2006. The author travels in an odd pattern of telling the story. He jumps around a lot but somehow it works. At one time you are in 2002 and then back in 1992 and so on.

At best this book charts the Right wing of the Republican Party taking over of the court by the second Bush administration. It highlights a bit the division within the Republican party between the moderates and the Evangelical Christian right, which eventually the latter have completely taking over in the second Bush presidency.

Toobin mostly focuses on Sandra Day O’Connor. She was a Reagan appointee in 1981. She might not have been chosen to the court if Kenneth Star, who was in charge of her background check, had done with his homework to see that she had ruled on abortion cases. O’Connor, much like Bush former Treasury secretary Paul O’Neil, was pushed to the left as the far right came into power; not so much by a change of mind, but rather as the Party went to further to right, it left many behind. Both went from loyal conservatives to outspoken critics of the George W. Bush White House. \

O’Connor was the swing vote for almost 25 years, and she decided tone and outcome of many of the courts biggest cases with those 25 years from Abortion to Bush v. Gore.

The book is neither too deep in legalese; meaning you don’t have to a lawyer to read it, neither is it dumbed down. In fact, I hear that the book is popular amongst lawyers.

My biggest criticism of the book is that I felt the author could have gone further into the cases that the Supreme Court ruled on. For example, I wanted full explanation of Bush v. Gore, but I felt that he barely touched the subject.

I thought what the The Nine did best was give the reader a solid understanding of the Rehnquist Supreme Court and then give a good taste of the Roberts’ Supreme Court. Both are very different. Both court represent the very different sides of the Republican Party, and to borrow the phrase from John Edwards, although he never meant it this way, represent the two different Americas.

The Supreme Court as it stands right now is George W. Bush’s biggest triumph and lasting legacy. Love it or hate it, it’s the law of the land. Toobin shows the last thirty years of the court in rational and compressive manor.

Smart People (2008)

2008-05-15T08:19:00.001-04:00

Probably a movie to see before it is completely out of theatres. Smart People grew on me the more I thought about it; as it seems to be one of the only films that I have seen this year with substance. I have always tried to avoid Dennis Quaid movies. It has been a life long effort, but he works in this one.

Truth be told, I only saw this movie because it has Juno’s Ellen Page in it. She’s great! The scene that introduces her is completely Juno. It is as if the film makers are reminding the audience where they know this girl from.

The movie is billed as an old crusty academic brought back to life. In fact, the week it opened the week as the The Visitor opened, which is a movie that is billed the same way. Smart People is more than that.

What I found refreshing were two things, despite Ms. Page. First is that generally smart people were the subjects of the film; in an American culture that praises stupidity and dumb luck. Like in any movie, it starts with conflict. An un-smart adopted brother comes to live with the family. Unlike most movies, he is not hero; the family is not saved by his stupidity. Their smartness is not killing them and they need to lighten up, which can only be accomplished by a fun loving hedonist. Although, the brother is a changing force, he neither solves all their problems nor is all their problems solved by the end.

The second thing that was refreshing is that it was a good family drama. It was one without a political agenda, and the characters dealt with the pettiness of everyday life.

The worst part of the movie, was the Page character comes on to her adopted uncle which was a little sickening, unfortunately, he doesn’t reciprocate. Again, there was the old woman playing unconvincing a younger woman. Sarah Jessica Parker, SJP, plays woman who is suppose to be about 28 years old, when SJP looks very much her age of 43 yrs. old. She is a good choice as a romantic interest for crusty old Quaid, because they look close enough in age.

Smart People has no real center of drama. Instead, it is series of drama’s big and small. Everyone in the family has a problem and is insensitive to the others problems. Their value is overlooked by each other, and nothing gets fully resolved; but somehow everyone soldiers on, and it is that which makes the movie enjoyable. When it ends the view is left wanting more. You feel like want the story to continue, because it makes so much progress in its own way and you care about the characters. Caring about the character is something which is a bit rare so far in this movie year. So, I highly recommend this one.

What Happens in Vegas (2008)

2008-05-14T08:08:00.001-04:00

Definitely competing for the worst movie of the year, What Happens in Vegas fails to meet my lowest of expectations. I never thought this movie would be good. I expected some cheap laughs. Maybe a reliving of my youth, as That 70’s show is one of my all-time favs. From the trailer, that promised a romantic comedy, it looked like Ashton Kutcher was reviving his role as Michael Kelso from That 70’s show; like Kelso grew up and was living with Carmon Diaz. In fact, there were about three Kelso moments but that was it. Overall the movie seemed to be a testament of why people hate America.

It seemed to be a mix of self absorbed, stupid people with lots of money, who are psychotically aggressive. The plot is pretty true to the trailer. Two people down on their luck go to Vegas to feel better about themselves. After a night of heavy drinking they get married. The next day the hit a jackpot which motivates them to stay married. They are ordered to stay married for six month in order to cash in. Then somehow they fall in love.

I don’t know what to say, it was really bad. Almost everything about it didn’t work. Cameron Diaz working on the floor of a stock exchange that was as believable as the reactions she was getting to the stupid way she spoke. Queen Latifah as Marriage therapist, come on, don’t these roles have to be at least somewhat believable. I did some how buy Ashton Kutcher doing nothing and hanging around the house all day.

I think what was most insulting was the idea that when one acts as a stupid over-the-hill clubber the higher one gets in life. I am not sure how old the Diaz character was suppose to be, but she looked like she was in her earlier forties. Diaz has not taken very good care of herself as she is only 36. Kutcher , 30 looks about 24 years old, so maybe they were going for the Kutcher really life senario of being married to a much older woman. It was just a little bizarre.

The movie is barely watchable. Rob Corddry is comic relief in a movie that should be a comedy, but I have been soap opera’s with better story lines. Coddry is good as always.

The movie seems to be shot mostly in the DUMBO area of Brooklyn, which my favorite area in that borough, so that was cool. I always find it funny to see people doing things in movies which you could never do in real life. There is a scene in the movie Kutcher and Corddry are hitting golf balls in a park in DUMBO. You so can’t do that.

Anyway this movie is so bad.

Penelope (2008)

2008-05-08T07:29:00.002-04:00

Penelope is a little movie that most people probably will wait to see on T.V. This is fair enough; especially as this is another late review, where the movie has left theatre, but I thought I might get it out anyway.

Penelope is short and sweet updated fairytale. It is a delightful story of a girl who was cursed by a witch to have a pig’s noise. The curse can only be broken when a suitor of blue blood marries her. Her parents, especially her mother, being of high society, in London maybe New York or a hybrid of the two, hide in her room till she is of age. Upon time that she is ready, they send in boys with blue blood to meet her. The problem with that being that when they get a look at her they go running to woods or anywhere they can get to. To off set this Penelope hides behind a two way mirror when she meets them in an effort to not scare them off too quickly.

Now being that she is such a mysterious girl of wealth and stature there is a media interested. A newspaper man, little man, goes after picture of the young woman; as none exist in the public spectrum. He finds a blue blooded boy, played by James McAvoy, who is down on his luck to walk in with a secret camera to snatch a shot. He is collected by the parents along with other boys, but he misses the sight of Penelope when the others run. He stays. He keeps coming back, talking to her through a wall until he can take a picture. He ends up liking her and he doesn’t run when he sees but he cannot marry her because he is not really of blue blood, which no one knows.

Penelope runs away to the city, and is discovered. When she learns to love herself the curse is broken. She finds the young man of her affections and they go out.

It is a charming little movie with a blight and vibrant look to it. It marks Reese Witherspoon’s first producer credit. She is also an actress in it.

Penelope is a great family film that is totally watchable for adults.

Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008)

2008-04-29T15:39:00.003-04:00

Can’t help feeling a little disappointed with this sequel. The first one was a classic. I am not saying that Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay wasn’t funny. You laugh through the whole movie, but the laughs seem hollow. It lacks focus and purpose, which might be hard to comprehend since the last one, an all-night odyssey to get to White Castle, seems noble somehow.

In this one, Kumar brings a bong into a plane and everyone thinks it’s a bomb on their flights to Amsterdam. (get it bong v. bomb) Both are mistaken for terrorists and sent to Guantanamo prison. They face real terrorists and prison abuse from the guards. They manage to escape and make it back to the U.S. then make their way to Texas in an effort to clear their name and stop the marriage of Kumar’s ex-girlfriend.

It’s this Kumar romance that kills it. It makes the movie boring, because the rest is great!
Actually, Kumar is lame in this one. He makes the same faces and delivers his lines in a tired manor. Something in the chemistry with Harold doesn’t fly either.

The movie takes place right after the first one finishes. Maybe too much time elapsed between the makings of both films; something of the sprit of the first one is missing.

Now, what really does work is the critique of our post 9/11 world. The film neither takes an all pro or all against stance. In fact, President Bush is the hero of the film. Somehow Bush is made fun of and honored at the same time.

In the film, Kumar is randomly stopped for a searched at the airport. Kumar makes it clear that it is not entirely random. When on the airplane an old woman sees him as an Islamic terrorist just because of the color of his skin. When Harold and Kumar are in custody, the government agents believe they are terrorists despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Rob Corddry is the best part of this movie. He brings the most life and energy into it. He plays the myopic Homeland Security agent. There is another agent played by Roger Bart, who represents a silent faction of American Society disagree with these tactics but keep their mouths shut for the most part.

The trail of two idiot stoners is a perfect vehicle to poke fun at the country. It makes it clear that white people view non-whites through lens that are often negative and are unable to lose their prejudices or see clearly. Of course, some people are cool, but they aren’t the ones who cause all the trouble for Harold and Kumar.

It is nevertheless refreshing as ever to see a Korean and Indian guy going through the world in a non-ethnic stereotyped portrayal. Neil Patrick Harris, no doubt, makes his appearance in the film, but, sadly, is shot to death in the end.

There are plenty of pot jokes and potty jokes. It seems like it would get better the more times you see it. So it will be true cable movie. Alas, it is no Harold and Kumar go to White Castle.

21 (2008)

2008-04-25T18:43:00.004-04:00

This movie had the best trailer I have seen all year. With The Doors rockin’ in the background, youth and money set the adrenaline pumping with a dark and almost illicit excitement. Did the movie live up to that? Well, let’s get to that later.

Based on the book “Bringing down the House” by Ben Mezrich and bits taken from his other book “Busting Vesgas”, 21 is totally the pre-summer hit of the year.

It stars Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey, and Laurence Fishburn, and tells the story of how a team of M.I.T. students take Vegas for millions.

The main appeal of this movie, I think, isn’t all the stuff that’s good about it. I think it’s the money. Like a television game show, people like to dream about making mad money in a casino. In the movie, the kids are card-counters, and audience walks out feeling “Hey, I can do that too” and in this economy, wouldn’t THAT be nice.

What the film doesn’t show is the hours of practice each member of the team gave and the fact that these true event transpired in the roaring 90’s, when the casinos were a lot less sophisticated. In the book, there is an essay from one of team members about card counting, which gives an idea that this was much more completed than even the book lead on. I read the book.

Ok, but why spoil people’s fun. Let’s focus on other aspects of the film besides card counting.

Something I found irritating was that it was shot like postcard or travel show of Boston and Las Vegas. There is nothing original or interesting in the cinematography.

The cast is stronger than the script. Jim Sturgess does his best American ascent and shows he is a very decent actor in a way that was much to my surprise. One thing that the film did that was very right, was to show the very nerdy/geeky lifestyle of most of those at M.I.T. Trust me it was on target. Sturgess, who seems like he in his real life ever had any difficulty getting a date, was ON on every beat in his reactions on screen to having an attractive woman interact with him.

Kevin Spacey and Laurence Fishburn act very much like you would except them too. They carry there roles well adding some believability to the rest of the young cast. Aaron Yoo, who was in Rocket Science, shows himself again to be interesting and entertaining presence.

The biggest criticism I have heard about 21 has been from the Asian community. The real team was mostly Asian, mainly Chinese, and in the film the main characters are white, while the two Asians in the movie have small and almost unimportant roles.

My thoughts on that are, the criticism is justified but not entirely. I think maybe the movie wouldn’t be as commercial if it was a race movie. In America we like to believe that race doesn’t matter and we make anyone suffer who points that it really does. In real events the main characters were half-Asian. They were half white and Asian or half Hispanic and Asian. This mixed creates a look that the team wanted, because they could pass a multitude of nationalities that are best known for being obnoxious with money. Mainly, that Asian, Greeks, Arabs, et cetera, with money are seen as so distasteful in their behavior that it would distract the casino pit bosses from card counting system going on. By the time story of “Busting Vegas” takes place, which is a few years after this story, a group of Asian kids at blackjack table was very suspicious. So, that’s one side it. The other, I think, is the fact that there are a lot of Asians at M.I.T. and is reflected in the Blackjack club. The people in the story were almost all from Asian decent in one way or the other. So, it seems to me that probably a big reason not to show that is because, the producers figured that only Asians and few others would go see a movie full of Asians without Martial Arts. Finally, someone can argue that making a movie full of Chinese makes the movie about something other than students playing blackjack, and that is just the society we live in. I am sure you have your own thoughts.

A side from that long digression, the movie is good. The story is really exciting. I imagine this movie being a big hit with older people who doesn’t make it out to the movies very much, when it comes out on DVD and T.V.

It’s a bit long; somewhere around 2 hours, but you don’t really feel it. In short, this is a good one!

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)

2008-04-24T16:42:00.005-04:00

This movie is so bad that it is funny. I am not sure what is up with these sexy historical dramas. With the cable show The Tudors and this one, it seems to be a trend. Also, let’s not forget all those Elizabeth movies.

The Boleyn Girl is a quasi-historical telling of the English King Henry the 8th, and his many women. Specifically, the divorce of Catherine of Aragon, which lead to the English split with the Roman Catholic Church, and beheading of Anne Boleyn; who gave birth to Elizabeth the 1st. The story, albeit, is told from a feminists’ point of view.

The strongest part of the film is its star power. Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, and Eric Bana are the main characters. I would probably would not see this obvious soap opera if it did not have Portman and Johansson, probably the two most beautiful women in film right now. From what my sister tells me Bana is also attractive. So this is the selling point all three of them in the same movie.

Not advertised but The Boleyn Girl also stars Jim Sturgess. He is the charismatic leading man from the recent hits Across the Universe and 21.

Another interesting aspect is that it seems that the movie was shot on location at the Tower of London; so that actual places where these events really took place.

Sadly, that’s where the realism ends. The rest of movie is a bit of a joke, and not even a cheeky one at that. There is such high drama it is suffocating. It is easy to laugh at it, because it is so over-the-top. It makes a Mexican soap-opera look like a BBC special.

On a bit of a disturbing note, Anne Boleyn, the agent of deceptive change that causes everyone great suffering and also the split of the church, is played by Natalie Portman; a Jewish girl is the icon of Semitic beauty. The good girl, who is blond and very Nordic looking, is played Scarlett Johansson. In the end Boleyn, Portman, gets beheaded. This is the classic anti-Jewish myth. I hope I am wrong in seeing this anti-Semitic theme.

Anyway, the movie is bad. Even the eye candy doesn’t make it worth it. The events are so laced with a feminist residue so that it spoils any historical relevance. It would be a good Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie, if anyone remembers that old Comedy Central show. I am not even sure that this movie is still out in theatre as I have taken forever to get this review out. Nevertheless, skip this one.

Shine a light (2008)

2008-04-17T15:40:00.003-04:00

Stones
This is the IMAX Rolling Stones concert film directed by Martin Scorsese. Should this film have been? No! I’ll tell you why.

The Stones are too old and ugly to look at them for two hours so close and so large that you can see the dust collecting on their copious wrinkles magnified across a huge screen in a crisp digital image.

Another thing, it is shot at the Beacon theatre in New York City. The Beacon is beautiful but small theatre. The seats are practically stacked right on top of each other. Since it is so tight, the cameras don’t have much flexibility, and they certainly cannot to take advantage of grandeur of the IMAX format.

The film starts of with some drama about Scorsese not having the set list, it needlessly takes up 20 minutes of dead time.

Mick Jagger is the only member of the Rolling Stone with any charisma, and he is barely in it outside of singing.

Now let’s get to the actual performance. The Stones will always be the Stones, but now they are a band held together by a daily schedule of medicine to keep them going. Although the Stones are a five piece band, a whole other band supports them and almost carries the entire rhythm. The geezers do their thing and Mick Jagger has more energy than he should at that age.

They are a flickering flame. Sometimes they sound good, often they are flat like a stale soda. It’s really sad, but it’s been this way for a while. I remember going to the Stones concert in the 90’s with my sister, and it was the same way. You wished that they didn’t play an old favorite just so that you didn’t hear them murder it, but as my grandmother used to say “You murder it, but you can’t kill it” – so all of the Stones standard were performed and pleased the crowd.

They brought in some fresh blood to add plasma to the supply. Jack White of the White Stripes and Christina Aquilera join them, and old blues man Buddy Guy. Jack White looks like the happiest guy in the room to be playing with Mick and company. Maybe he understands that his moderately successful band has just been knighted by a band with a stature only lower to the Beatles with a singer as Rock ’n Roll as Elvis Presley.

Scorsese does mix clips of them current Stones with vintage clips of them, which reminds the audience that these guys were once young.

Although, they are in a more nature environment of a theater, which where they got there start, like the Beatles. A better IMAX concert film is U23D whose stadium presence fits the format comfortably. Shine a light is not worth the money.

Wigfield: The Can Do Town That Just May Not by Stephan Colbert, Amy Sedaris, and Paul Dinello (Audiobook)

2008-04-09T14:11:00.002-04:00

Audio was the way to go for this one. Really a book written by Stephan Colbert would be better preformed by the Actor/Comic/Narcissist. Amy Sederis and Paul Dinello preformed multiple rolls and while Colbert did his shtick as Russell Hokes the investigative journalist out to find the story a lifetime, his lifetime, in Wigfield; a town that may not really be a town. It could be just land held by squatters, but that is just what the law says.

A former street painter, Hokes painted the dashes in the center of the highways; he decides that he must be a writer. His first work of fiction is his resume.

After blowing most his advance in a Mexican resort, because he needed a little “me” time, Hokes hits the open road looking for the great story of the American small town, and this is the joke.

Much like the Colbert Report, Colbert and Company pokes fun the media’s decades old news story of the decline of small town America. This story takes the view that real America, the heartland, are small almost all white small towns in the bible-belt, and it being destroyed by “them.” The good true real Americans, with pristine small town values, which are good especially as oppose to “them.” I always sensed a bit of racism in this view and a distortion of fact. So, I enjoyed that this work takes the view of that small towns are not always inherently good and can just as bad as or worse than anywhere else. It really takes that point to town.

It is as funnier as anything as I have come across in a very long time. It makes fun self-righteousness in many forms by making the point that sounding self-righteous doesn’t make you right.

The book is like taking all the funniest jokes of a good sitcom for its entire lifespan and condensing into one book. Brilliant!

As an audiobook it sounds like a play recorded for radio sans a lot of cheesy sound effects.

The rest of the story is that the town of Wigfield is about to be destroy when the local dam is suppose to be destroyed. Here the old anti-government attitude by good ole fashion values is poked fun at here. These satirists are minor sociologist too.

Anyway, Russell (Colbert) has to get his story before there is nothing left or his publisher won’t give him anymore money.

Wigfield: The Can Do Town That Just May Not is highly recommended for constant laughs.

Under the Same Moon (La Misma Luna) – 2008

2008-04-07T20:37:00.002-04:00

By far the best movie I have seen so far this year. Under the Same Moon is highly satisfying and a truly heart felt movie. It is sort of Homer’s Odyssey of Mexican illegal immigrants.

It tells the story of Carlitos (little Charles). Carlitos lives in Mexico with his grandmother. He lives a little better than most people there, because he mother left three years ago to find work in America, send money. His dad is somewhere in Texas. He is not really part of the picture. Carlitos mother Rosario means to send for him but she can’t earn enough money, and instead calls him from a pay phone in Los Angeles at set time on Sunday with a phone card. The situation doesn’t really work.

However, when his grandmother dies. Carlitos is alone and better off alone than being around some loosely related family member who want a cut of the money his mother sends back to Mexico for Carlito’s care.

Fully aware of his situation, Carlitos goes off in search of his mother in America. He crosses the boarder with some help by a Mexican-American couple that is looking to make a little money by hiding a small child inside their Mini-Van. They are stopped by boarder guards due to unpaid parking tickets,their Mini-Van with Carlitos inside it get impounded.

He gets out, and makes his way to a bus depot, but realizes he is flat broke. A junkie there tries to sell him into slavery, but he is rescued by a woman that helps out illegal immigrants get to where ever they are going.

The group of men, living in this woman’s boarding house of sorts, take care of Carlitos and plan to take him to California, but they are raided by the INS during a day job at a farm. Carlitos and Enrique escape. Enrique, one of the the men, takes care of Carlitos as they try to get to Los Angeles.

The movie is both humorous and a little tragic as good stories are. It is very well acted which may go unnoticed by people who refer to anyone with a Spanish last name as one group as oppose to have a distinct nationality.

It makes a strong point that people who cross the boarder have a hard life. With White people, who must be unemployed to have so much time on the boarder with shotguns ready kill any Mexican they see, and a American system that promises them a better life to take the worst jobs, but then criminates them for doing so. It puts a face and a story to villainized group of people living in America.

Besides all that, it tells a very human story, which has been told in every culture from the earliest to writings to stories that have yet to be told.

The movie is never dull. It gets into a lot of humor of the Mexican people. There is a lot of music, some cheesy moments and a tear-jerking ending. It is the best movie out there right now.

Drillbit Taylor (2008)

2008-04-02T15:13:00.004-04:00

This is by far the worst movie I have seen this year. It might be the worst movie I will see all year. It is the second worst movie I have seen in two years. The number one worst movie in two years being Reno 911.

Watching this movie you see why Owen Wilson tried to kill himself. When I first heard about that, I thought it was sad for a human being to try to take his own life. Now, I respect Wilson for the effort.

So, is there anything good about this movie? Well, yes there is one thing. In the movie, the kids are being bullied, seriously bullied, by two kids. The movie got this right. It showed a world almost invisible to adults of kids brutalizing other kids. It shows the humiliation of this. It shows how these bullies appear so cute to authority figures. How parents don’t get it either. In the end, the kids who are victims get in trouble for bringing it up. I think it is only now with school shooting that this is getting any kind of attention. There is something so unconscionable about this that it can only be thought of as a common phenomenon.

There is some where serious satisfaction when the bullies finally get their ass kicked in the end.

Other than that the movie tries to be another SuperBad, and fails miserably. The two Laurel and Hardy, fat guy and skinny duo, fail by a lack of chemistry or charm. The hero Drillbit, Wilson, has as much presence as Pauley Shore. The plot is so bad that I won’t even get into it. OK, three kids are getting the sh*#t beat out of them hire homeless body guard Drillbit, and all hell breaks loose.

The worst part was that somehow the whole movie didn’t to work in this day and age. I kept on trying to see if it was suppose to be get 20 or 30 years ago when the plot would have made more sense. But the technology always gave it away. Still there few cell phones except for a couple of adults. School security had a pre-columbine aspect to it, which meant that there was none. A few myspace or facebook jokes would have been good.

Despite adorable, 18 year old, Valerie Tian from Juno, none of the actors have any likeability including Wilson. I really can’t say enough bad things about this movie.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008)

2008-04-01T15:10:00.002-04:00

Miss Pettigrew Lives is a pop song like movie. It is enjoyable right from the start. It is quick, and has little substance.

There is really not much to the film, but it is a lot of fun. Ms Pettigrew, played by Frances MacDormand, is a down and out nanny in Victorian pre-war London. She is a Chaplin-like character in drab clothes and eating from soup charts while watching the upper class from a far. She meets Delysia LaFosse, played adorably by Amy Adams. Delysia is an actress/cabaret singer/gold digger. She lives with night club owner in London, is screwing a young theatre manager, and is singing with her love Michael. Michael plays piano.

While juggling her three men each with something to offer her, she meets Ms. Pettigrew who steals an assignment from Nanny Temp situation. She uses some quick thinking and gets Delysia out of one jam after another. Ms. LaFosse, not her real name, decides to keep Ms. Pettigrew as an asset. She takes her shopping, introduces her to her glamorous life where meets the “the bitch” and the love interest. It has all the makings of girl movie.

After this set up is over most movies spend sometimes milking what they can from the audiences’ attention before they reach the ending climax. This one doesn’t do that. After the set-up, the movie goes right the climax. Brilliant!

Never missing a beat, Delysia has to pick her man. They, of course, fight over her first. There’s fist fight. Think Bridget Jones diary. Delysia’s story gets resolved. Ms. Pettigrew finds herself in the same place where we first found her; again like a good Chaplin short, but this is chick-flick, and Ms. Pettigrew has her romantic ending.

Overall, the movie is very entertaining. It is taut in that very little is wasted. It draws you in very quickly then it’s over. Amy Adams is joy to watch as she plays her girly alpha-female role a la Enchanted. It is fun little throw-away film.

The Know-It-All: One Man’s humble quest to be the smartest person in the world by A.J. Jacobs

2008-03-17T13:58:00.001-04:00

This is another book by a neighbor of sorts. A.J. Jacobs, I saw him speak at a J.C.C. of Manhattan talk on the Upper West Side. From how he seems to describe every nuance of his life, I gather he live somewhere in the West 80’s. I rarely make it up there.

Jacobs takes the reader through his adventure of reading the encyclopedia Britannica from A to Z.

He describes why. It is not really to be the smartest person in the world even though it is what he tells people. It is to regain his perceived lost sense of being the smartest boy in the world. Today, he finds his mind rotting in a perfect storm of pop-culture, which he works, lives and breathes. He is often surrounded by other know-it-alls, such as his father and brother-in-law.

Most of the time he reads , if you will, to us sections of the Britannica that he finds interesting; shares his thoughts, and kvetches about life. He endless describes his wife Julie, so much that you feel that she is the greatest woman who ever lived. I guess he loves his wife. They are trying to have a baby in the book, so I guess the book as sex appeal. Just to give it away. They do succeed eventually.

The book is peppered with vignettes about the relationships with his boss, his father, his brother-in-law, and his appearance in ‘Who’s wants to be a Millionaire’ TV game show.
Not to mention joining Mensa, meeting so-called smart people including Alex Trabrek; whom he mistakes for a Mexican gardener and who’s personal contact excludes him from getting on Jeopardy, which is the New York Times of games shows apparently.

The author does sound like your whinny little friend who spends a lot of time in doors and has share every little thought with you; like a less neurotic Woody Allen. He does write so conversationally that the book reads like a very long conversational letter.

You learn interesting things and not-so interesting while following A.J.’s adventure in reading. For instance, the average of a person in Roman times lived to be 29 years and that there is no entry for Tom Cruise, which is slight to Julie.

It does get it boring in the middle as he goes on and on with the , , and ‘who cares’ . However, after putting the book to do something else, anything else, it picks up again, and in the end there is wisdom.

This is where this project/effort by the author and the reader of the The Know-It-All becomes a success. Because all involved puts a lot of information in their mind, information that will soon be forgotten, and comes out of with wisdom.

Jacobs learns to appreciate life in modern times. He learns that intelligence and knowledge might not be the same but live in the same neighborhood, which might be a quote from the book. He learns to appreciate his father, brother-in-law, and feels more prepared to raise his soon to be new born baby.

For the reader, the reader gets some knowledge at Jacob’s expense, some wisdom at Jacob’s expense, and not laughs also at Jacob’s expense. Get the book from the Library and there will be no expense to you.

The Beatles, The Biography by Bob Spitz

2008-03-06T15:11:00.002-05:00

Just what the world needs, another biography of The Beatles. Surely, the pantheon of knowledge is lacking study of the Fab Four. The Beatles’, who are the most celebrated, studied, covered and renowned rock band ever, story is as a part of modern culture as any musical figure in history. The Beatles are really the first band, so to speak. Before The Beatles, you had Elvis, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and the Crickets. It was usually some dude or some dude and his backing band. After The Beatles, it was all Rock Bands, The Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, etc. The few that followed, for example Elvis Costello with his band and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, were, in fact, referencing the old style for effect.

The Beatles in fact did not invent the genre but they developed it, so much that there has been very little ground that they did not cover. Like anyone is a young field, think Steve Jobs and Bill Gates in 1979, the new world was their’s to dominate. If you can be the first at something, do it.

Again, there has been much ado written of The Beatles. I have only read one other book on them, Here, There, and Everyway: my life recording The Beatles by Geoff Emerick, which was the best music memoir I have ever read. Still, I have seen the Anthology and other Beatles specials. I have listened to “Breakfast on with the Beatles” on the radio in High School. So, I think I know a thing or two about them.

And maybe, do because this book by Spitz offered little new information. There weren’t enough details that really told the story. The most detailed section was about Brian Epstein’s homosexuality.

Spitz does cover the whole story, but mostly with highlights. However, there were a few new things for me. He does dig in on Yoko Ono more than I seen before. She is greedy and out to destroy to The Beatles so that she can get John Lennon all to herself. Ono would be motivated by the financial security and legitimacy that Lennon would bring her.

He also details Lennon’s misery in his highly successful life. Lennon is angry and impulsive. Spitz takes the excuse that he is an artist, and offers little other explanation. You do get the idea that Lennon, for all his acting out, doesn’t take control of his life and instead to just reacts to it, which is explained by his childhood of being passed around from his mother to his aunt, and his exposure to his mother’s various boyfriends. Throughout the drama of John Lennon, as bad as that was, he bitch seems worse than his bite. He was easily taken advantage of and he instead punished those that were weaker than him.

Spitz goes pretty easy on Paul. Even Emerick who couldn’t be more aligned with Mr. McCartney was more critical.

What I think I got most out of the book, maybe because it was what I was most interested in were the bits about the song writing. Spitz describes Lennon and McCartney both as artists. The difference between there styles being that Lennon was a sculptor and McCartney a painter. Lennon would makes songs out of something else, a child’s drawing, a poster, another piece of art. While McCartney would use things that came out of him without even Paul understand exactly how. “Yesterday” came out of a dream and “Michelle” came out of a need for a song; and John remembering that Paul did some French thing.

There are facts here and there, which I didn’t know much but probably could have gotten from another source, like Ringo got paid less or Twist and Shout was recorded with John screaming while being horse , sick and in pain, which you can hear once you are aware of it.

I somehow doubt that this is the best Beatles book out there. In fact, if you are looking to learn more about them, I would suggest the DVD of the Anthology over this book. However, it’s fun learning about The Beatles, and I enjoyed it as a fan.

I think that success of the book is based on the success of everything new of The Beatles come out with years, decades after they broke up. They could release new Beatles CDs of the band turning their guitars and it would generate a charting position. People are looking to recapture something, and maybe something new will do that, even if it’s just the same and the packing is different. I am not sure what that “Something” is, but I know that it is certainly there.

Semi-Pro (2008)

2008-03-04T13:36:00.005-05:00

About 10 years too late. Somehow a retro 70’s movie seems passé in this retro 80s, soon to be retro 90s era. Semi-Pro is another common man Will Ferrell feature with a strong supporting cast, but unlike Anchorman and Teledega Nights this one lacks something in Ferrell’s character development. Still, it follows the genre of a common alpha-male kinda getting somewhere in a semi-professional talent pool, which is funny because we can all relate to that in someway.
It is really well edited. The movie moves very well also. It turns out to be an underdog Basketball movie that you have seen before many times over. However, they do a good job of it, and the movie is mildly entertaining throughout
The supporting cast really does support Ferrell tired shtick. One might even say that the supporting carries the film, most are up and coming character actors that you know from the Daily Show or movies like Superbad. Also, actors like Woody Harrelson can hold their own.

As for the Ferrell character Jackie Moon, he doesn’t seem as well developed as his previous films, nor does the movie seem to be as focused exclusively around him.
Semi-Pro starts out with a hilarious song over-the-top sexual song sung by Farrell and an introduction equally as funny. You see Jackie Moon in his natural environment, which is almost exactly like the start of Anchorman. Then it goes into that underdog sports story, and loses some steam.
Sadly, there are no guest appearances by the Wilson brothers or anyone like that.
Overall, it is worth a Saturday matinee price but probably not any more than that.

A Three Dog Life, A Memoir, By Abigail Thomas (2007)

2008-02-29T11:09:00.002-05:00

This work by Abigail Thomas is a true story; her story of a chapter in her life. Maybe it is summation of a life of experience. These kinds of stories are not hard to find. I am sure they are not as well received as this one, with its awesome lauds from everything newspaper to author Stephen King. However, for me, it’s a little different. It turns out that Thomas lived about three blocks away from me at the time of this book. We shared the same streets, and shopped at the same Market in the Columbia University area of Manhattan. Although, I have no memory of this woman, I am sure that I must have past her on the street or even waited in line with in the Westside Market.

OK, so this book seems a little more real to me. Got it?

The story focuses around one event and its aftermath. Thomas’ husband was hit by a car returning home after taking their beagle Harry for a walk. Rich sustained massive brain damage. He lost short term memory and control of much of his mental functionality. He was emotionally all over the place sometimes going into unexplainable rages and paranoia.

Abigail’s life changes immediately. She has to handle what happened to her husband while handling what happened to her. The book in many ways is a story of adaptation, which seems to be a strength of the author. If you ever had to adapt to a sudden and traumatic change in life, you can easily relate. What she is does best and what is best about the book is her ability to document the process honestly and with great sympathy.

At the start of the book, she starts out with one dog, Harry. By the end she has three. I think her favorite is Harry the beagle, but I am biased. I am sure that I have seen this beagle as I noticed every beagle on the street, so I am sure that I must have noticed a neighborhood beagle on Broadway or Riverside Drive.

The title of book is taken from an aboriginal saying that during especially cold nights the more dogs sleep with you. Anyone who has an indoor dog know that on cold night dogs will get in bed with you, roll into a ball, and lean right up against you. If you have a beagle, you know that the beagle will do the same but take up most of the bed or couch.

I liked that Thomas is a true dog person. She gets them. This is evident in all of her little insights about the personalities and skill sets of her dogs.

In some ways, her book it is quite frightening and lonely. It frightening what her husbands goes through, and what she goes through with her husband. Rich is healthy individual who had a terrible thing happened to him and lost everything except his wife. You sort of know that he is going to die soon. It hangs over everything. It is a lonely experience to go through her loneliness, until you realize that she seems excel in loneliness.

In many ways, she is a happier and stronger person after this tragedy; one because she learns how to rely on herself and she learns to find comfort where she can find it. She, of course, finds comfort in her dogs. Who wouldn’t? She finds comfort in her Husband in his new life. She moves to Woodstock to be near the facility that he now lives in.

Although as I fell deeper into the book, more annoyed I got with Abigail. I found that the book lacked insight and wisdom. In sometimes, I wondered if she liked her husband better after the accident, whom she related to more as dog than as a human being. She is definitely woman who prefers solitude; more immersed in her own thoughts than with other people. She seems to come to terms with after a life time of fighting, and feeling bad about it. It’s not uncommon, I have met people like this, and I think she is one of them.

My favorite passage is when she describes how she used feel unnerved that there was something else going on and she wasn’t there, and now she hopes they are having a good and don’t call her.

Maybe it’s a story of depression and loss. There are hints of sweetness and strength which are certainly not mutually exclusive. It is certainly a powerful story, well written, and very touching.

Be Kind, Rewind (2008)

2008-02-24T21:42:00.003-05:00

Who would have thought Mos Def and Jack Black would be a comedy duo? I guess it is in the long tradition of rapper being film stars that Mos Def must follow.

Be Kind, Rewind is the first good art film to arrive in 2008. It is written and directed by Michel Gonfry. Gonfry is the great French director who started in music videos and moved on to film; like Spike Jonze. He made my favorite film of 2006, The Science of Sleep.

He did another great job with this one. It is interesting, funny and really really sad. The film starts off slow and finish to a rousing finish without a happy ending. Instead, it has the poor will inherit the earth kind of thing going on.

The story of the film is that Mr. Fletcher, a kindly old man (played by Danny Glover) runs a video rental store in a depressing part of New Jersey with ultra-nice guy Mike (played by Mos Def). Jerry, a crazy guy (played by Jack Black) owns a nearby business, is always hanging around. One day, when Mr. Fletcher is away scouting other video stores because the city is set to demolish his building due to urban redevelopment and building code violations, Jerry erases all the videos. So, in a last ditch effort to keep the store running, Mike and Jerry shoot the movies themselves; starring them, just two guys with a video camera in the great state of New Jersey. Along the way, they pick up Alma (played by Melonie Diaz) in a dry cleaners store. This is when the movie picks up speed. The chemistry between the three in one of the best part of film, and something I haven’t seen in film yet.

After a bunch of thugs liked their rendition of Ghostbusters, all three of them start making sweded films. “Sweded” means that they made there own versions of the film. Just like previous Gonfry movies, this wear his stamp comes in with brilliant homemade looking props and art. The film really gets fun and funny here. It picks up a warmth and joy. Then the Gonfry takes it all the way. A harsh reality folds in and never leaves. You are left feeling “Well, at least they tried.” : ( I left feeling really sad.

It really had a Chaplin feel to it. Everyone in the movie was poor and ethnic. They lost every time. The “Man” was always after them. Still, they persevered. It was shot in very urban industrial parts of town; in poorest of areas.

Nevertheless, you have not seen this before. Maybe you have lived it. Maybe you recreated films in your backyard growing up with your video camera. I did. It was like beautiful homage to that.

I have a feeling that a couple years from now and going forward Be Kind, Rewind will be one of those college and hipster cult movies that will be studied and copied into culture.

Busting Vegas by Ben Mezrich

2008-02-22T12:55:00.003-05:00

The full title is Busting Vegas: The MIT Whiz Kid Who Brought the Casinos to Their Knees. This is a true story that reads like a thriller. My heartbeat increased and I was on the edge of my chair for the minor cliffhangers. It seems fantastic and realistic at the same time.

Busting Vegas is not the first book by Mezrich written about MIT to kids taking on casinos black jack tables. Bringing Down the House which is another book on the subject has been made into an upcoming movie called “21.” While we are on the subject, Busting Vegas is not the only book by Mezrich about Ivy League kids. Ugly Americans is another book on my list.

“Make money playing blackjack” is all it took. The story focuses around Semyon Dukach who was a MIT student. He comes from a poor background as a Russian Jewish immigrant. Semyon finds this flier on campus; “Make money playing blackjack.” The flier said to attend a meeting. It is lead by a guy named Victor (maybe not his real name). Victors makes teams of students. They go to Indian Casinos and practice Victor’s methods for beating the house. Victor then takes those who he thinks would be the best at taking on high stakes gambling and puts them into an elite team. Once the new team is assembled he teaches them the Three Techniques. These techniques are quasi-legal. It’s not card counting or anything that has been seen before, and they really work. Armed with fake IDs and personas they fly down to Vegas. They quickly make mad money. In minutes they are up thousands of dollars. Even though part of the act is to make a scene, the Casino get wise to the kids are winning every time they bet big.

Now the ugly side of Vegas shows its head, Semyon and his buddy are separated. His buddy gets the crap beat out of him in a windowless casino back room, and Semyon is taking to coffee with a British consultant who tries to get a picture of his new enemy.

The casino’s are now on to them. Everywhere they go, the network of Gambling industry identifies them and this British consultant is tracking them. Nevertheless, they travel all over the world, sometime making enormous amounts of money and sometime just getting away with their lives.

Eventually there is too much heat and problems in the group. The team eventually disbands with their lives, but just barely.

It is fair to say that these types of teams and veterans of them are still hitting the Casinos today.

I found the book a bit like a Harry Potter book, in that it starts out a bit slow then by the end you can’t put it down.

I loved this book. It was exciting and I recommend this book to anyone.

27 Dresses (2008)

2008-02-18T17:29:00.008-05:00

This is really a delightful movie. Yeah, it’s chick-flick, but a really good one. 27 Dresses could have been a summer release. I am really not sure why it isn’t.

What I really like about this movie is how it is two stories, kind of like T.V. in that way, except that it is perfectly interwoven together. The first story is the underdog story. Our heroine Jane (even the name is plain), played by Katherine Heigl, is the girl who does everything for everyone else; basically she is taken advantage of by everyone in her life. She has become a wedding planner/fixer for her friends at no charge. She loves Weddings and is a big sap. (Watching this I think, I am starting to understand Women’s obsession with weddings. I think it is big dress up party with lots of planning, where the woman can be Princess for the day. If you have any thoughts on the matter, please leave a comment) While at one of her crazy New York Weddings she meets this guy, who is really annoying to her. This is the second story. There is a little Jane Austen thrown in here. So, as you guess it, he is annoying till she loves him.

James Marsden, Kevin, the guy, does a really good at playing a sensitive emotional guy who hides it over an abrasive veneer. Heigl makes her part believable giving a nebbish countenance throughout the movie. You can overlook how soooooooooooooooooooo beautiful she is and believe that she is this Cinderella type character. By the way, James Marden plays the Prince in Enchanted. The supporting cast is rounded out by Judy Greer; who looks really old; who plays Jane’s bitchy friend, and Edward Burns who plays Jane’s boss who Jane is also in love with.

The drama comes in when Jane younger sister comes in and goes after George (Burns). In the chick-flick storyline, there is “the bitch,” which is sadly Jane’s sister. The one, Jane has to stop the Wedding because of, but should Jane be with George or Kevin?

The movie works because it has a smart script and smart cast. It is another movie set New York City. Again, much of the same locations are used in this movie as they are in Enchanted, Cloverfield, and Definitely, maybe.

I think if you love Weddings, you will love this movie. It is always about Weddings and it leaves out the stressful parts. There are plenty of good puns and watch out for British humor. The title 27 Dresses are the 27 bridesmaid dress that Jane has, and are plenty of jokes about that.

I really liked this movie. I really didn’t expect to, but I did. I highly recommend it, especially if you are a girly girl : ) It’s really cute!

Definitely, maybe (2008)

2008-02-16T16:07:00.005-05:00

Definitely,maybe is this year’s Valentine’s Day film. It is suppose to be a cute movie on how a divorced father tells his daughter how he met her mother. It all starts because in her school when he is picking his daughter up from school, a sex education class was taught. This starts a series of questions from the daughter to the father. The father, here played by Ryan Reynolds, makes the story of his romantic life a game for the girl played by Little Miss Sunshine’s Abigail Breslin. Now, this sounds like a good story, except that this guy so doesn’t work.

Reynolds seems completely miscast. Although he does a good job with Maya, the daughter in the film, he is boring and unbelievable in his role of the nice single guy. Even if you try really hard to take him serious, because, you know, it’s a movie, you can’t. You are just watching a bad actor.

The women in his life are better. Abigail Breslin plays were role as a feminist daughter; a bit like Lisa Simpson minus the sweetness. She is rude and abrasive. The three girlfriends are written perfectly, and are a pleasure to watch. Sometimes I felt that Rachel Weiss is too typed cast as a selfish manipulative bitch. She was definitely the best actress here. She doesn’t seem like she is the character that she always portrays and that is a little distracting.

The movie is much too long. The parallels with the political Bill Clinton are just not necessary. I did mention that this is a period piece of the nineties? They take an hour to make five points that they could have made in 20 minutes. This movie could have been much better is they just edited it down. You start not to care after a while, and just hope that the movie would pick up the pace, then just end.

It wants to be a tearjerker. Through the film there are scenes you are suppose to cry at. You see them coming a mile away, and you feel so cheated when they come over and over again.; although, if you are feeling really bad about life, then you might appreciate them. If you do, please consult a doctor!

So what works on with this film? Hmm . . . let me think about that one. (time passing) OK, the soundtrack was great. It was early 90’s music, the new retro. Also Rachel Weiss, Isla Fischer ( Ali’g’s girlfriend), and New York City were good things about this film. It was funny. I have seen Cloverfield, Enchantment, and this one, and all three films are shot in the exact same places in Manhattan. I might do a photo essay just to prove it. Another funny thing is that with Manhattan prices so out of control, somehow New York City has been become this upper middle class setting for movies.

Anyway, wait till this is the hallmark movie of the week. Not a lot here that is worth your money.

D-Sides – Gorillaz (2007)

2008-02-15T15:31:00.002-05:00

D-Sides because these are the B-sides to the Singles off of Demon Days. So, I guess these are the tracks that didn’t make it on the album. From the sound of it was probably a good thing. Demon Days was a perfect album and maybe the best of the decade. These tunes are in the same vein but not in the same league. With exception of Hong Kong, the rest of these songs are probably only great for Gorillaz fans, which D-Sides is a must have.

Must Download Hong Kong

Hong Kong is a beautiful Damon Albarn ballad which is done with someone on a traditional Chinese instrument where the strings are plucked with devices that are placed on each finger, which I think is called a Gu zheng.

Other goodies are We are Happy Landfill, and The Swagga ( or “Whoo” Song).

What disc really is is a good groove album, something to put on at the beginning of a party when people are arriving. Gorrillaz have always been a mixture of cool non-pop music presented through, you know the guy from Blur. This release is less hip-hop and more trance, reggae, electronic and groove with some cool vocals.

The second disc is just nine remixes, and most of them are the song Dare, which just reminds me you how good Demon Days is. The one cool thing that D-Sides proves is that the right songs got on Demon Days. Don't get me wrong. D-Sides is great, but not for everyone.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby

2008-02-11T11:45:00.000-05:00

This is a great book, Very deserving the praise you will find on cover from the New York Times, Washington Post, and Financial Times lauding the book as one of the best books in a hundred year. The The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a gripping, heart-wrenching, tautly poetic prose, which you picked and really can’t put down. The story, if you can call it that, as it is not a straight narrative, is told in vignettes. I read it in a weekend, and mostly in one sitting. You don’t want to put in down, because it goes down so easily, but also because it is so sad that you don’t to carry that feeling with you for a long time.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly tells a true of an editor of Elle Magazine in Paris who has a stroke, which in a previous day would have surely left him for dead, but now days he is has a condition known as Locked-In syndrome. He communicates through blinking one eye. He composes the book by someone going through the alphabet until Bauby indicates which the right letter is by blinking. What you get is an internal world of person who is alert but has lost all functionality with his body, hence losing his ability to communicate to the outside world. His mind stays active. In his prose is the world of a man in complete solitude. His sentences are perfect pithily prose, but you also get a sense how much time he has spent inside his own head.

He describes his situation of having no control over his situation without frustration. I don’t know of any other record of someone in his condition.

If you have ever worked or volunteered in a hospital with a population with severe neurological trauma, you know that these people exist. They lay there alone or piled next to each other like a Victorian asylum to human misery; not quite alive and not quite dead.

The courageous part is that this man never lost his consciousness of everything and his spirit remaines strong; grasping on to life where ever he can get it. But you know he is going die. In his memories, he romantically shares the memories of his life; it’s tragic that a life could boil down to a few precious moments.

He knows he is dying. He doesn’t die in the book, but it is written on the cover that he dies a couple days after its French publication.

The book was a huge success internationally. It has been made into a movie that is out now, and is suppose to be very good. I am not sure if I am going to see it. I am still touched and sadden by the story. I am not sure if I want to go through that again.

In Our Nature – Jose Gonzales (2007)

2008-02-08T10:19:00.000-05:00

The name Jose Gonzales just screams out SWEDEN. When Jose Gonzales is a Swedish dude who like Sia (who is somewhere on this blog) has branched out successfully from the group Zero 7, which is where most people have heard of him. Of course, you had to have heard of Zero 7 first. Well, even if you haven’t, Jose Gonzales’s In our Nature is a perfect little CD.

The album art looks like he asked Sia if he could use the same designer from her Color the small one or Tori Amos’ Little Earthquakes. It is white and naturalistic.

The music is vocal and guitar orientated and nothing else. His voice is active and charged, but at the same time melodic like Joao Gilberto. There are 10 songs and they all work. It lasts for about 30 minutes. There are no throw away songs. It’s all good!

Gonzales whose parents are from Argentina before moving to Gothenburg Sweden maintains a bit of a Latin American classical feel. His vocals, melodies or energy certainly do not. He neither does he have that American folk singer feel too. His vocals are smooth and consistent; almost calming, but at the same time don’t put you to sleep. Still, they are very chill.

The lyrics seems conscious of the human experience and it that way you could say that is a throw back to the 60’s, but it isn’t. The sixties were an angry time. The music is looking for peace not just socially, politically, but internal. No more shock and awe for peace.

The music just goes by very quickly and enjoyable. You can put it on do something; feel calmer and it’s over before you know it. So, you put it on again, and the same experience. It sounds like a perfect C/D to put on a Sunday morning with that cup of coffee and the paper.

Even though the vocals are the lead in most popular music since the beginning of music, here the guitar offers the most emotion and the vocal are more in a support role. Tchaikovsky once said that guitar (classical) was like a whole orchestral in one instrument, and that is certainly true here.

Gentle would be the word to describe the feel. Gentle in its approach to bigger and non-gentle topics. I would say that In our Nature is one of the best albums of the decade.

iCon by Jeffery S. Young and William L. Simon

2008-02-07T20:28:00.000-05:00

The full title is iCon Steve Jobs The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business. So, this is basically a book about Steve Jobs president and founder of Apple Computers, Next Step, Pixar, and the ipod.

I really can’t believe how over-the-top this book is. It could either be written by Jobs himself or maybe his mother. They say that the world of Apple is a cult of personality that follows Steve Jobs. There is some truth to this. I have only owned Apple/Mac. I have seen Jobs at an Apple keynote, which the only word that is sufficient “Mesmerizing.” I even paid full price for a crappy biography of Steve Jobs.

Still, this is just a non-stop uncritical laud of the computer guru. There is nothing here that you couldn’t of gotten by just following the news and an Apple press release. It is so sanitized that you could feed it to the I.C.U. I guess, I had holes in my knowledge of Jobs, so it filled in the gaps. I keep that in mind when I think I paid $17 for this, and I get paid in dollars. {It ain’t what it used to be}

There is almost nothing about the technical advances, war with Microsoft, or the brave new world of the “i” in front everything. I found the T.V. movie “Pirates of Silicon Valley” to be more informative, not to mention more entertaining.

Now, let me take a step back, there is a guilt saying anything bad about it for the same reason is why I am so angry about the flakeyness of this book. You see the Mac is the Jew of the computer world. Always fighting for market share, if not survival itself. Ruled by a brilliant yet impetuous G-d; that sometime flies off the handle. Totally over-represented in the computer world, and in the advancement in the industry. You will find Mac in top positions, and in the entertainment industry; and saturated in large urban areas like New York City. If you own a Mac you have had to perry an onslaught of attacks and ridicule personally from the Microsoft community; who even though have about 90 percent of market find Mac’s 3 percent so dangerous. By being put through this the Mac-users becomes a battle harden expert on the Mac with loyalty enviable to any company. With such a culture you know that when the Microsoft Operating System is a part of computer history that there will still be a Mac.

Sia – Some people have real problems (2008)

2008-02-06T13:26:00.000-05:00

Last month Sia released her second disc in the U.S. It is her third or forth in the U.K. and Australia. Most of her fans, of course, came to know her through her vocals in the band Zero 7, which she shared the duties with Jose Gonzales, and others. Her first album,Color the Small one, was highlighted by the song ‘Breathe me’, which was used extensively by the HBO show “Six feet under.”

Here in, Some people have real problems, Sia continues with her slowcore, white girl soul sound, but now a tweeny pop sound comes in, and somehow it works. It is much better than Color the small one with the exception of the songs Sunday and Breathe me, wasn’t too much to write home about. This new one as a whole is better as a complete package, with a few strong tracks, but none as strong as the Zero 7-esque one’s that are mentioned above.

Still, there a few good tracks. My favorite is a wordy tune called Academia, which has a girlie “I am the Walrus” feel to it. Buttons is an unlisted and the last track has pop feel, and is the song that she opens up with in her live show. Electric Bird, Death by Chocolate, and You will be loved are all highlights of the disc.

It has a good flow: dark, slow, melodic. It is a chill album for those chill moments. Still it never is up to the quality of Zero-7, and is in no way a great album. I feel that I will forget about it soon as new and better stuff comes out. I like Sia, and this work is an improvement for her solo stuff, and it seems like record of transition.

I had the chance to see her in concert where she preformed most of the songs on the C/D. It did sound good live.

So, this is a good album but not a great album. Right now it is on my rotation of what I am listening too, but I am not that excited about it. For me it is completing with great outings by Radiohead and Jose Gonzales (who I am sure I will review soon), and that isn’t a fair, because those two works are probably in the best of the decade category.

Sia does deliver a heartfelt and definitely worthy work. The songs do grow on you. Still it never researches greatness. Maybe she will in her next.

Giants win the Superbowl

2008-02-03T23:14:00.000-05:00

This evening the Giants won the Superbowl. It was a great game. In true New York City fashion things got a little wild on the streets. Along Broadway on the Upper West Side you could hear car honking their horns, people shouting. Even the NYPD got into it by flashing their lights driving by. Mcdonalds employees came out hugging people and offering booze. People were shouting from cabs. Of course, it died down about fifteen minutes later. Nevertheless, it was an exciting moment.

Then we came to the end by Joshua Ferris

2008-01-31T18:18:00.000-05:00

I guess this was a very really good book, because in the end I found that I really cared for the characters. I had an emotional reaction to their misfortunes at the end of the book.

I picked up this book when the New York Times put it in its top ten book of 2007 (fiction). I can’t remember exactly when about the article made me want to read it. I paid for price at Barnes and Nobles, which is something I rarely do.

The book is basically about life in an office. This time it is a Chicago ad agency, but it could be any office in the U.S. In the story, everyone is slowly being laid off, as it is set in the dot-com bust of a few years ago, but it rings true today. It was unnerving reading a story about people getting laid while lots of people in my own office have been dropping or “walking the Spanish” as they put in the book.

The book, which is Then we came to an end is a perfect book about the culture of an office. Really, I think every college or high school should be forced to read this book, so they can ask themselves if this (“the office”) really for me, or they can prepare themselves, because working in an office is like, especially when you are young, being in first grade again. You have to do so much more than kindergarten, which is basically college and especially grad school. You have recess, try to talk to your neighbor and look for a place to take a nap. This book captures everything about that perfectly. Ferris, the author, does it with much whit and insanity. He gets the archetypes right. The bitch, the boss, the scape goat, etc., and all their disorders are presented like the Canterbury tales or more aptly the Decameron.

I hope I didn’t forget to mention that it is so funny. There are definitely some laugh out loud moments. lol.

While I was reading this book, I used it as a guide of office pranks. I switch people’s chair to see if they would notice. I went to different floors to determine who had to the best coffee. It was the fifth floor on my building. These and other great ideas I lifted right the pages much to my co-workers’ bewilderment.

There is the TV series “The Office” both in UK and US versions. That’s really bizarre, and not too realistic because it is so extreme. It’s funny though. This book has too be drawn from real experience because some of the stuff written about has that “it must be true feeling,” because you can’t make that stuff up, and there are time where you think that this part of book is out of the author’s imagination. At other time you figure he was just a fly on the wall.

The Chicago part seems dead on. I hear the same voices and styles when people my Chicago office tell stories. It has the same feel.

This is Joshua Ferris’ first book, so you can’t anything else by him. He lives in Brooklyn now, maybe his next one will be more ghetto. Totally great book, read it.

U23D (2008)

2008-01-30T18:59:00.000-05:00

U2 in IMAX, really? Do I really need to see Bono eight feet tall and coming right me? Not only that but in 3D too? OK, the answer is probably not, but as a hard-core U2 fan I made it to the IMAX as soon as I could.

Does it work? Well, sort of. It is just a few highlights from their Vertigo Tour in Argentina. It lasted for about an hour and 20 minutes. The 3D aspect of it becomes inconsequential after a while as you just get absorb into the show. And what it missing are the long dramatic shots of the band from a far away place, which is so much a part of their character.

So what does work? U2 works. The concert is awesome. Bono’s voice sounds really good. In some of their DVD releases his voice sounds a bit dodgy, but not this time. They make a smart decision of skipping a lot of their hits and going into what they call ‘The Dark side of the heart.’ This is the U2 that makes Axel Rose and Lars from Metallica U2 fans. This is the best part of any U2 show. In songs like Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bullet the Blue sky, and Love and Peace, it is easy to forget it is in 3D.

The problem of putting a live U2 show into a box is the box itself. U2 is essentially a stadium band. The have an ability to connect 55 thousand people and make them feel like some small community. This is done through a mixture of their music and body language. Despite how high tech the bands shows can be, they are always better when they are stripped down. Their body language is sometimes biblical, grand, and dramatic and somehow with that the guy in the noise bleeder seats feels like he is a part of the show.

Another character of a U2 is the Audience, which is really diverse. Even in the IMAX theatre, which was really packed, their were college kids through parents with children. The U2 crowd can sing 5 verses of any U2 song and Bono often asks them to do it.

There is really nothing here that isn’t their latest concert DVD. Still, it is the closest you will get to being at a U2 concert without being at one. At the end of the show, people in the audience seemed surprised on how good it was. So, yeah, is does renew your faith in the band. It was a good show.