tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39052825526465821622024-03-12T21:46:07.824-07:00Dirty Ass Aisles w/ SandmanSandmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03111284293470639368noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3905282552646582162.post-19896801436559012952007-11-26T14:25:00.000-08:002007-11-26T15:01:12.772-08:00Russians hate throats.............<div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >Well, the people have spoken, the poll is closed and the next DAA marathon will be......................a tie:<br /><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-family: verdana;">Offensive/Creepy Movies</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-family: verdana;"><br />&</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-family: verdana;"><br />Here's why Nicholas Cage Sucks</span><br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></div><span style="font-weight: bold;"> <span style="font-family:verdana;">I can do that. </span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />In the mean-time, here's a new review................</span><br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></div><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-weight: bold;">____________________________________________</span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/rentgl0.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/rentgl0.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-weight: bold;">____________________________________________</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-family:verdana;font-size:180%;" >Eastern Promises</span><br /></div><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/eastern_promises.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/eastern_promises.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" ><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >2007</span><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" ><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Directed by David Cronenberg</span><br /><br /></span></div><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />I created this blog only a month ago, so I missed the opportunity to review this movie when it was first in theaters early this year. But it's coming to DVD this Christmas, and so I figured I'd give my thoughts and persuade those who haven't seen it to definitely give it a rental/buy. </span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />As I was walking out of the theater for </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >Eastern Promises</span><span style="font-family:verdana;">, I went straight to where I always go to think about a great movie. The bathroom. Mostly because I have the bladder of a 5-year-old girl, but also because of the whole thinking thing. Anyway, as I was taking a piss, the guy at the urinal next to me was having a discussion about the movie with his friend at the sink. He said something to the effect of, "Man, it was okay but Cronenberg has lost his edge. He's gone mainstream."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Well </span><span style="font-family:verdana;">I couldn't disagree more, guy I just made up for dramatic purposes. If "mainstream" means creepy Russian mob movies with 14-year-old rape victims and homo-erotic undertones, then I'm kinda worried to know what your idea of a cult movie is. No........what we're witnessing isn't a merging into the mainstream. It's a truly demented director attempting to become a truly masterful one, which is a hell of a lot more disturbing if you think about it. He's always been good with the edge, but now there's actual characterization and cool-filter cinematography and meaty stories that we care about. You just know he'll find a way to use all those things for evil. My, what big teeth you have now, grandma. All the better to scar you for life with.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">The bare bones of this flick is that a London mid-wife (Naomi Watts) finds the diary of an unidentified Russian woman who she just watched die while giving birth. The newborn baby is now an orphan, and so she figures the best thing to do is to get the diary translated so she can find any surviving relatives. But she soon finds out that what's in the diary may be more dangerous than she thought. Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen) is a driver for the local Russian mob boss, charged with the task of retrieving the diary at any cost.<br /><br />That's all you need to know for now.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">Although this wasn't one of my top favorites of the year, I was extremely impressed by Cronenberg's choices. In this film, he shows a newfound deftness for taking every single scene, no matter how small, and bringing out the complex fears and intentions inside each individual in the frame. I would go so far as to say that a majority of the drama in this film is not in the dialogue, but in reactions and mood, which is not an easy thing to achieve. And likewise for the storyline, Cronenberg's discipline is commendable. He's smart enough to allow so much of the action to happen off screen, and not be literally shown or spelled out to the audience like we spent the first half of the movie staring at a urinal cake. This material could have easily been turned into a 2 and a half hour gangster epic, but Cronenberg doesn't indulge. And on the same token, when it comes to the kind of caricatured Russian gangster stereotypes we see in most American films, in any other director's hands this might have easily just been </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >Law and Order: Brighton Beach</span><span style="font-family:verdana;">. While some of the cliches are still there, they are mostly handled with a much more authentic touch than usual.<br /><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/5009_image_1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/5009_image_1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">For a minute, I thought this was a remake<br />of <span style="font-style: italic;">Blood In, Blood Out</span>. MILKWEED!!</span><br /></div><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">As for the question of whether or not he's lost his "edge", all you have to do is watch the movie to see otherwise. You will see things in Eastern Promises that I'm pretty sure you've never seen in any other film. At least not with so much.........clarity. Enough time has passed since it's release for just about everyone to hear about the infamous bath-house brawl scene. Simply calling it "graphic" would be doing a disservice to anyone who's ever died a horrible death. Gruesome and painful to watch is more like it. </span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />Anyone who keeps up with movies will know that this was Cronenberg's second collaboration with Viggo Mortensen. The other was 2005's <span style="font-style: italic;">History of Violence</span>, a movie that was praised by critics and movie-goers, but not by me. I thought the acting was mediocre and the story was pretty underdeveloped. But this time, everything clicks, and that's mostly because of Mortensen himself. I really think this is a career building role for him. Maybe not as far as audiences are concerned, but just industry-wise, I'm sure a lot more scripts will be sent his way that don't involve him being told to suck Demi Moore's dick. He's incredibly good here, and obviously I don't have to point out that the same is true for Naomi Watts and Vincent Cassel, two actors who always jump out of the screen.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">Is this a perfect film? Far from it. Like I said, it's probably not going to be on my top ten of the year list (not really sure yet). There are a couple twists that are supposed to be shocking, but I don't think they are even necessary at all, and the ending is too forced in some aspects. But the performances and the direction are brilliant, and wherever the logic may lag, the suspense still keeps you tangled up in the spectacle. <span style="font-style: italic;">Eastern Promises</span> is a gripping gangster flick without a single gunshot, that will surely go down as a benchmark in the careers of both the director and the lead actor. And if I'm not as excited as I could be for the finished product, what I am excited for is the possibilities in Cronenberg's next 10 films. The guy is only 64. He has plenty of time to gross us the fuck out some more.<br /><br /><br /></span>Sandmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03111284293470639368noreply@blogger.com54tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3905282552646582162.post-75696714479092847082007-11-19T12:09:00.001-08:002007-11-19T12:47:33.516-08:00Interview w/ Billy Mitchell<span style="font-family:verdana;">Last week I reviewed a new documentary called <span style="font-style: italic;">The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters</span>. Great movie, it's one of my favorites of 2007. It's the story of................just read the review first, and then come back to this post. The point is that after I made that post, I received an e-mail a couple days later from someone giving me great compliments about the review, as well as my amazing writing skills (can't argue with that). It was signed "Billy Mitchell". For real. The same Billy Mitchell who, in the review, I called a "larger-than-life douchebag", and even compared to Big Ern from Kingpin. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">I wrote him back, and we carried on a long conversation about the film and how it portrayed him. I didn't apologize for my statements, and he didn't ask me to. He is well aware of what makes a movie good, and that you need a "bad guy" just as much as a hero.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> I asked him if I could interview him for the blog, and he was all in, so for your reading pleasure, here is my phone conversation with the "gamer of the century" Billy Mitchell.................</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;font-family:verdana;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);font-family:courier new;font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 153, 0);font-family:verdana;" >DAA Presents:</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-style: italic;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >The Man, the Myth, the Hair</span></span><br /><br /></div><br /><a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/billy_mitchell_top10_gamers.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/billy_mitchell_top10_gamers.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Billy Mitchell:</span> Mr. Sandman! What's your real name, by the way?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sandman:</span> Mike. Doesn't sound as cool, huh? How are you doing Billy?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> I'm doing great, glad to talk.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> Great, let's get this started. I'm not really too interested in the actual movie since you've already cleared up so many things through public statements and other interviews. But I do want to ask you one thing that sort of pertains to the film and the way you were portrayed. I assume I'm not the first blogger/critic that you've contacted the way you originally did with me?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> Oh no, if I see any article or review about me, I always like to send a quick e-mail to the writer, mostly positive. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S: </span>Is that your way of showing people you're really not this villain as portrayed in the movie, or is it something more spontaneous?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> It's really just my way of saying "thank you". These people, including you, this is their profession and they put a lot of effort into writing the piece. I can't get too angry because they can only report on what they see. My father was always tough with the "thank you". I learned how important it was very early on, and so I always show appreciation whether it's a journalist or a family coming by my restaurant to meet Billy Mitchell and play a game. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> But sometimes, don't you read some of these no-name bloggers bashing you online and just scream at the screen like, "What the hell have YOU accomplished!!?"</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> (laughs) I try not to let it get to me, I stay positive.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> Okay. Because I've accomplished things, Billy Mitchell. I want you to know that. One time in the 4th grade I got a trophy for baseball. Well........you know, all the kids got 'em, it was more of a participation trophy, but I'm still proud. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> (laughs) I will say this, though. And this is the first time I've ever told this to anybody about the movie, but what really flipped my lid was when I realized that the producers included Roy Schultz in the film <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">(NOTE: Roy Schultz is a fellow gamer who had negative things to say about Billy in the documentary)</span>. For 20 years now I've avoided Roy. He is one of the most unethical and unpleasant humans you will ever meet. I choose not to deal with him because of past threats of violence, and the producers promised me that they would not include him in the film. After the movie was completed I was denied a copy of the screener, although the "hero" Steve Weibe was given one. </span><span style="font-family:verdana;">These producers, I let them into my home and trusted them.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> So when I finally saw the movie and found out that Roy was involved I flipped my lid. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> That's understandable. Like I said in our past conversation, I'm a lid-flipper. If I was in your shoes............</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> I'm not mad at how I was portrayed, but I really didn't like how others were portrayed. They criminalized good friends of mine, claiming that they broke into Steve Weibe's house when even Steve himself will tell you that is false. It's just a movie, it's Hollywood. I mean, you don't really believe that I sit there and answer every call like, "Hello, World Record Headquarters" do you?? </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> Well.........you did it at least once that I know of.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> True (laughs). But my point is the odds of catching me in that state even once are about as good as you breaking the world record on Donkey Kong.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> You know, one of the things I actually thought was missing from the movie was a more in-depth look at this whole underground gaming community. It really seems like a huge subculture that I never knew existed, at least not to that extent. In your own words, how would you describe the competitive gaming community to someone like me who has no idea?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> I've been asked that a lot over the years. There was one reporter in particular, a lady who came to an arcade with me and they were filming and she asked, "How do you explain this? This is crazy! People spending every waking hour here playing video games!" And I just looked at her and asked, "Wasn't there something that you did when you were a kid as a hobby?" And she said she used to play softball. So I told her, "Okay, you played softball. And if you weren't playing it, you were watching another team play, or talking about it with friends who also played softball. You played on weekends, in your spare time whenever you could, and you kept those memories after responsibilities took over." She said "Yeah". So I said, "Well, as kids we didn't play softball, we played arcade games. We played 40-50 hours a week, and now that we are grown up we still play if we have leisure time. We have less and less time as responsibilities come but it's still what we remember, a common bond." That's how I would explain it. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> Sure. Is it still just as much of an obsession as it was when you were a kid?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> The truth is that the last time I played ANY video game was when I broke my last record, months and months ago. My son plays football, daughter plays sports, my wife is doing her thesis for her doctorate........I just don't have the time anymore. I've lived and died in a breath with gaming. Eventually you replace your dreams with other dreams.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S: </span>Well put. From what I have seen in the movies and TV shows dedicated to this topic, it seems as if classic arcade games like PacMan and Donkey Kong are held in a higher regard than newer games. Is that the case, or is the classic gaming thing just more of a small specialized part of it?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> No, you are very perceptive. Games of today are definitely looked down upon by many people in the gaming world. I always make the comparison that some people can get by on their looks, while others have to get by on a whole lot more. The games of today have such amazing graphics, the technology is so great, but the result is that many of them are just getting by on looks alone. Many gamers, including myself, argue that classic games had a lot more depth. They weren't a lot of kicking and punching and blood flying everywhere. There was more skill involved in the actual game play.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> So, you would say it takes a higher skill level to.........</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> To reach the highest levels in the older games, yes. It's a common saying that "video games" started in 1987. That's when the machines started showing up where you die and you don't really die, you know. It just asks you "Do you want to continue??" And you just put in another quarter and keep playing right where you left off. It was a joke we used to tell guys, "Oh you got a new record? How much did it cost you?" Before 1986, with the classic games you couldn't do that, you had to make every game count. It was about conquering the unknown. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S: </span>Where I grew up, video games were never really a hobby on the level that they are in your world. I assume that it's more of a suburban middle-America phenomenon. Would you consider it a fringe culture, something made up of social outcasts......or is it much more mainstream than I'm giving it credit for?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> Oh, classic gamers are definitely outsiders. If you took the Top 100 gamers, what I would call the "inner circle", well over half of them are what many people would consider dysfunctional. Not me.........I don't say that, but other people might. These are extremely introverted people. But the other half are the complete opposite. I have gamer friends who are attorneys, scientists, writers, obviously very functional people. We always say, "Half of us are dysfunctional, and the other half just pretend we aren't." (laughs)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> Sometimes it can get to the point of being a problem in other areas of social life?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM: </span>I've thought about this a lot. When people do things with their minds, like psychics and mystics, it's a noted fact that a large amount of these types of people end up in losing their minds and going to insane asylums. I sometimes think that when you play a video game, you are calculating and processing things on a level where maybe your mind doesn't belong. If you can do something to fry or overload a computer hard-drive, maybe that's also the case with the human brain. When I walk into my restaurant, I see things that you don't see. This door is more squeaky than it was last week, 80% of the tables are full. It's not always fun. Sometimes it's annoying. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S: </span>How often do you practice? Do gamers train like football players and other athletes? </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM: </span>Normally when you come under pressure, you perform better. You don't have to practice much. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> Practice or not, you've accomplished some major records over the years. But what was the biggest failure you've had?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM: </span>That's a good one, I've never been asked that. I thought at one time that I would be able to make a living at video games, and that's the hardest thing truthfully. I thought I could operate arcades and have fun, earn a living with my passion, and that wasn't at all the case. Even when I had my kids, I thought I could balance my passions with my responsibilities, and it's not even close. My kids took over (laughs). </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S: </span>I definitely know how that is. You were in an MTV episode of True Life about gamers.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> I sure was. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> See, I do my research. One thing that stuck out from that show was when you mentioned the "groupies" that you and the other famous gamers were getting back in the 80's. Describe that scene for me. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> Well, there were two parts to that, the guys and the girls. With the guys, it was more about comradery and competition. There was one time back in the 80's, I walked into an arcade in San Francisco and there was one guy I had already been warned about. He had it out for me, and he was so on fire. He wanted to hurt me, because the record I claimed on PacMan, he didn't think it was possible. So I had my eye out for this guy. And I didn't know that he was sitting behind me already, watching me play the whole time with this real intense look. Once I got to a certain point in the game that was certain death for anybody, no matter how good a player, all of the sudden I hear him wail, "This guy is FUCKING AWESOME" <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">(NOTE: Billy didn't say the F-word. He doesn't use profanity)</span>. He's screaming and getting excited. Every move I make, he's saying it over and over, "This guy is fucking awesome!!" This is a guy who 5 minutes ago wanted to smack me, and now I'm his favorite player. So that's the guys.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> The girls, get to the girls.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> When it came to the girls, first of all there was always more guys than girls in these arcades. But the girls would come up and want your autograph, a picture. The truth of the matter is when you're a kid, you have less responsibility. Now that I have a wife and kids, BOY do I have responsibility (laughs). All the guys in professional sports, you don't want to mess up and read about yourself in the papers, you know. I always carry a picture of my wife in my pocket, and I'm not bashful about showing it. If a girl seems TOO happy about seeing me, I just start talking about my wife. You're 22 now.........<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> Correct.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> In your "hey-day" you might say.........if you sat down at a bar next to a nice looking girl, and she just started talking about her husband and showing you pictures, you'd go find another bar stool, right?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> Hell yeah. Maybe a whole different bar. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> So you know. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> Speaking of wives, my wife is from Florida, her family still lives there. I know you have a chain of restaurants down there (Rickey's). Next time we go I might have to stop by. What would you recommend I order?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM: </span>Gotta have the wings! Matter fact, e-mail me your address and I'll send you the Habanero hot sauce. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> Dope. Alright, this is a movie blog, and you're somethin' of an 80's icon, so what's your favorite 80's movie?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> Too many to name. People always talk about how much time we spent in the arcade, but the truth is every minute we didn't spend there we were in a movie theater. We saw EVERYTHING. We'd watch one, then go back to the arcade again. My favorites? Any action movie, anything with Harrison Ford, all the Star Wars, anything with Sylvester Stallone. To everyone's surprise, not the geeky movies or the ones about computers. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> So no War Games? </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> (laughs) That's actually a good one. Anything with Matthew Broderick in it.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> One of the things that was consistently brought up in almost every review I read for <span style="font-style: italic;">The King of Kong</span> was your hairstyle. Even your wikipedia page mentions it.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> Yeah, if you see any picture of me from the 80's, you'll notice that I always had short hair. It wasn't until the mid-90's when I was 30 years old, that rebellious stage, that I started growing this. It's just that most pictures of me are from 1999. I guess I'm somebody who doesn't like change. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> Fair enough.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> It's funny but I always notice that the ones who pick on me the most are always the bald guys (laughs). Sometimes I do wonder if maybe it's time for me to get a haircut, but I think I'll wait until I stop playing games. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> You like that it's recognizable for now.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> Yes, definitely. I was walking through Times Square and people would run up to me and want to take pictures. It's flattering. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> Do you think you could win in a fight against a real live gorilla who somehow learned how to throw barrels?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> I'm sure I could. People don't realize but if you get to the end of the game in Donkey Kong, Mario has a hammer but he also has a gun under his belt (laughs). No, the truth is if I come across a gorilla throwing barrels I'm gonna run like hell. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> Good answer, Billy. Good answer. Well as you know, I'm a rapper here in Texas, and because of that most of my readers all over the world are Hip Hop fans. Are you a fan of Hip Hop at all?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> Actually, I can't say that there's a single bit of music that I don't enjoy. All genres. But when I have the radio on it's usually talk shows. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> So, you like rap?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> Yeah.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S:</span> Can you name any of your favorite artists?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> No.</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">*Uncomfortable silence*<br /><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S: </span>Well Billy, thanks again for talking to me. I now officially retract my statement, you are definitely not a douchebag. Anything else you'd like to add before we go?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BM:</span> Well, what I've learned from gaming is that whatever you enjoy, whatever your passion, if you develop an attitude to do that to the best of your ability then you will be successful. The same passion I have for gaming is the same that I have for business, for being a better father and husband. A passion for success doesn't sit in one aspect of your life, it runs through all of them. That's what gaming has done for me. The fact that someone even wanted to make a film about me just shows that's when it's all said and done, I'll still be Billy Mitchell, and they'll still be whoever they are. I can't be mad.<br /><br /><br /></span>Sandmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03111284293470639368noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3905282552646582162.post-80889441113708904012007-11-15T13:17:00.000-08:002007-11-15T14:20:38.276-08:00Newness and Fresh-tivity...........<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;">1. New Header^<br /><br /></span> <span style="font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;" >The first person who can tell me what (great) movie it's from gets a<span style="font-weight: bold;"> *</span>brand new Cadillac V-series convertible.<br /><br /></span> <div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;" >2. New Poll<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;" >On the right side of your screen. Apparently people liked the whole movie marathon idea, but I can't decide what the next topic should be so ya'll do it for me. It's how I live my life.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;" >3. New underwear</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;" ><br /><br />Very nice, tastefully made. Inedible, no catchphrases, no holes in the wrong places.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;" ><br /><br />4. New Song on Myspace Page (free download)<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;" >http://myspace.com/dthesandman</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;">5. New Extremely, Enormously, Insanely dope looking "Ultimate Edition" DVD of the classic film </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;">I Am Cuba</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Packaged in what appears to be a cigar box-shaped DVD case:</span><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/1358810h.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/1358810h.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 102, 0); font-family: verdana;">New Special Features:</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0); font-family: verdana; font-style: italic;">- Video Interview with Martin Scorsese</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0); font-family: verdana; font-style: italic;">- Original Trailer</span><br /><i style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0); font-family: verdana; font-style: italic;">- The Siberian Mammoth</i><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0); font-family: verdana; font-style: italic;">, Vicente Ferraz's Award-Winning Documentary on the Making of </span><i style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0); font-family: verdana; font-style: italic;">I Am Cuba</i><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0); font-family: verdana; font-style: italic;">- Interview with Screenwriter Yevgeny Yevtushenko</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Coming November 20th!</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;font-size:78%;" ><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;font-size:78%;" >*offer void in all 50 states and every country on earth except Taiwan</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></div>Sandmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03111284293470639368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3905282552646582162.post-38928316368611854232007-11-14T08:00:00.000-08:002007-11-14T08:39:31.972-08:00DAA Documentary Double Feature!!<span style="font-weight: bold;">Today we're gonna do a double feature, two of my favorite documentaries that have just been recently released on DVD. </span><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">____________________________________________</span><br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/rentgl0.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/rentgl0.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-weight: bold;">____________________________________________</span><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255); font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;font-size:180%;" >King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters</span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:180%;" ><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255); font-weight: bold;"> </span></span><br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/kingofkong-fistfulofquarter.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/kingofkong-fistfulofquarter.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >2007<br />Directed by Seth Rogan</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />Some of the greatest documentaries of all time succeeded on the strength of bringing the viewer into a strange subculture. Maybe one that they never knew existed, maybe just one that they hadn't been interested enough to explore before. <span style="font-style: italic;">King of Kong</span> is in that tradition, and the subculture in question this time is competitive gaming. Imagine a world made up of thousands and thousands of Dwight Schrutes, and you might get an idea of where this is headed. </span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />In this world, Billy Mitchell is king. Mitchell had 15 minutes of fame as a teenager in the 80's after grabbing the highest recorded score in the world on the original arcade version of Donkey Kong. In 25 years, nobody ever came close to beating that score, elevating Billy to the level of poster-boy. He's essentially spent the last couple decades showing up at random conventions and arcades, wearing tight pants and talking shit to 12 year olds. In 1999 he was named the "gamer of the century".<br /><br />But now it's the new millennium, and finally a real contender has risen to the challenge, threatening Billy's longtime record. That man is Steve Weibe, a white bread suburban husband and father of two who has a small chip on his shoulder. Well, maybe not so small....the guy has pretty much failed at everything he's ever done. But he's determined to stake his claim at something, and if it wasn't baseball or garage band super-stardom, then goddamn it, it's gonna be jumping over barrels thrown by a cartoon gorilla.<br /><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/17kong-600.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/17kong-600.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >Steve Weibe, being watched<br />by the creepiest referee ever</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />If Mitchell is the reigning king of this underground world, then his kingdom is Twin Galaxies arcade in Iowa, which we find out is widely considered to be the epicenter of competitive gaming across the globe. Yes.....Iowa is the epicenter of something. Get out the permanent markers and make your signs, you earned it.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">There is a kind of shameless hero-worship going on at Twin Galaxies that really is hilarious. In the minds of these fanatics, their arcade is CBGB's circa '74 and Billy Mitchell is Lou Reed. You know........without the creativity and heroin and actual vagina contact. They literally believe that Mitchell and others are just one step away from posing on Wheaties boxes alongside legendary basketball and football stars. And as condescending as I'm being right now, and will no doubt continue to be for the rest of the review, one thing this film makes very clear is that not just any average person can gain this level of skill on these arcade games. It takes a person of extremely high intelligence and coordination. And just like virginity, that's something that nobody will ever be able to take away from you, "gamers".<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">Some critics have claimed that this is a one-sided film. And believe me, it is. In the best possible way. It's very obvious that director Seth Rogan set out from jump street to turn this almost laughable situation of obsessive gamers competing for bragging rights on the internet into the classic underdog story, complete with suspense and emotion and a villain. It really works, maybe better even than the large majority of scripted fictions released this year.<br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />But hey, you gotta give credit where credit is due. This dramatic "battle" only flies because Weibe truly is a decent and mature person, and Billy Mitchell truly is a larger than life douchebag. The only way I can describe him to you accurately enough is.....just imagine Ernie "Big Ern" McCracken from Kingpin, with a mullet and less acne scars (amazingly, *rimshot*). The "referee" team at Twin Galaxies are given a little more slack in the movie, but still they are mostly shown in the middle of enormous nerd-style delusions of grandeur. Which, to be fair, is how most people (and by that, I mean me) would see them even without fancy editing or direction from any filmmaker.<br /><br /></span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/143910288908.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/143910288908.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >Yes, this is Billy Mitchell. </span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />The climax of the film starts to really build when the good people at Guinness Book of World Records contact Twin Galaxies and announce that they are taking submissions for top scores on classic arcade games like Donkey Kong. Mitchell and Weibe both make a pilgrimage to another famous arcade called, and I quote, "FunStop", where they will spend 4 days attempting to out-Kong eachother. </span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />This film was a million times more entertaining than it had any damn right to be. It's easily one of my favorites of the year, and if you look hard enough you might still be able to catch it at the smaller arthouse theaters in your city. Go see it. Rent it. Whatever you have to do. </span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;font-size:180%;" >Deliver us from Evil</span><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;"> </span></span><br /></div><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/deliver-us-from-evil-poster-0.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/deliver-us-from-evil-poster-0.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >2006</span><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" ><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >Directed by Amy Berg</span><br /></div><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >"Remember, the only time Christ ever got angry is when he went to church."</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><br /></div><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />This next amazing documentary film from last year's pile of great ones is nothing like <span style="font-style: italic;">King of Kong</span>. It's not uplifting, or suspenseful, or funny in any way. Frankly, it's horrific and infuriating. </span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Deliver us from Evil</span> tells the story of Oliver O'Grady, a priest in California who (let's just get it out of the way now) screwed more little boys and girls than No Child Left Behind. Over a 30-year career in the church beginning in the 1970's, it's believed that he molested and raped literally hundreds of children. I won't go into details, but when they begin to (tastefully) lay out the worst of O'Grady's offenses, it's almost unthinkable what this man did.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">Many of the victims of O'Grady's abuse are interviewed in depth as adults, and just the scenes with those men and women alone make this as heartbreaking a movie as I've ever seen. As one psychologist explains in the film, worse even than the basic trauma of sexual abuse itself is the "spiritual trauma" that comes from being abused by a priest, someone who to a child represents God in the flesh. These now-grown victims will never be fully stable or mentally healthy.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">If you are religious to any extent, perhaps what may frighten you most in this film is that a few "bad apples" could thrive within an institution of faith. And that is certainly a fair and optimistic outlook. But if you are not religious, what might frighten you most (as it did for me) is the fact that there is this second power structure inside American society that is, for lack of a better word, allowed to handle it's own "problems", even when those problems are serial child molesters like O'grady. Predictably, if you give any such power structure an option, it's going to protect itself before anyone else, including children. And that's exactly what happened. All of the bishops and cardinals supervising O'Grady during his two decade-long rape fest chose time after time not to report him to the police, or even to do so much as warn the local authorities that there might just be a semi-sorta-kinda-maybe dangerous man living in the neighborhood. Not even the smallest amount of precaution was taken to keep him away from children. On the contrary, O'Grady's is one of the classic cases of the catholic church moving a known sexual predator from one parish to the next, with much more intention to prevent bad publicity than to promote public safety. In this movie we see clip after clip after excruciating clip of bishops and cardinals lying in police investigations and court depositions, claiming that they had no knowledge of this......no recollection of that.....never knew the extent of this...... all of which is proven to be complete bullshit through court documents and even letters written by the priests themselves to O'Grady and others.</span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />Less than halfway through the movie it becomes painfully clear that even with his monstrous past, O'Grady is the most honest priest we will see in the film. And make no mistake, he is VERY honest about his past, treating the camera as an impromptu confessional booth.<br /><br /></span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/deliver-us-from-evil-6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/deliver-us-from-evil-6.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">O'Grady crying and apologizing for years of..........naw I'm just </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">playing, in this scene he's joking about being aroused by little boys in swimsuits. </span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />Technically speaking, of the two documentaries I'm reviewing, this is by far the more well-crafted (weller-crafted?) one. The music score, the graphics, the pacing. It is beautifully made, which makes it all the more disturbing. The most discomforting scenes in the movie are not with the victims describing what happened to them, but with O'Grady himself walking the streets of Ireland (he was deported to his home country after serving only 7 years in prison) standing next to children in the park and on street corners, and he's just smiling and enjoying life. You can almost see his head turn to catch a glimpse of a young boy walking with his mother in one scene, and you think, "If these cameras weren't here right now....."<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">It makes you want to punch the closest person.</span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />That being said, I'm not recommending this movie on entertainment value. I'm recommending it for it's importance. I think everyone should see it and share it. We all think we know enough about this topic, but there is a huge difference between reading an article in the paper or hearing it out of a comedian's mouth, and actually following the trail of despondent victims, sacrificial lambs left in the wake of a seemingly remorseless pedophile-priest and his near endorsement from church superiors. If I owned a video store I would keep this in the horror section.<br /><br /><br /></span>Sandmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03111284293470639368noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3905282552646582162.post-60783261622641479372007-11-06T13:35:00.000-08:002007-11-06T14:54:28.438-08:00Tomorrow they'll wrap a fish in it..........<span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">OK my people, got some fresh new category-headers for the blog thanks to </span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Colin</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> in Canada. Thanks dude. Let me know what ya'll think.<br /><br /><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" ><span>________________________________________</span></span><br /></div><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/theaterko6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/theaterko6.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">____________________________________________</span><br /></div><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255); font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;font-size:180%;" >Death at a Funeral</span><br /><br /></span></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/death-at-a-funeral-big.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/death-at-a-funeral-big.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255);font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >2007</span> <span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" ><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255);"><br />Directed by Frank Oz</span><br /><br /></span></div><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Frank Oz doesn't exactly have a hip cult following as a director. But I guess there's no real easy way to bring together fans of <span style="font-style: italic;">Dirty Rotten Scoundrels</span>, Yoda, and <span style="font-style: italic;">The Muppets Take Manhattan</span>. So if you're already in such a situation as a tough box office draw, it's hard not to see it as just a little masochistic to make your next movie a British comedy about death.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">It's obvious from the title where and how we'll be spending our time in this film. The man in the coffin was the patriarch of a family full of enough sons and daughters and relatives and friends to fill up an hour and a half. Daniel is the eldest son responsible for the funeral arrangements, and therefore, the one under the most stress. Robert is his successful novelist brother transplanted from his New York party life back to England for the funeral. While everyone in the family naturally expected Robert to deliver the eulogy because of his literary talents, nervous Daniel is the one given the honor instead. This causes a conflict that makes up the meat of the first half of movie. </span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />Really, who cares? Oz has proven that he knows how to make great comedy, but NO director could have made that main plotline that I just described interesting. At least not in the context of black comedy. But that's just one of the major conflicts between characters that doesn't work in any developed way. There are others. For that reason, it's safe to say this is far from one of Oz's better films. The more I think about it, it's really sort of like a wealthy-white British version of a black 'hood' comedy. All the same elements are there. Overblown stereotypical characters, kiddie-pool depth dialogue, forgettable storylines, and when all else fails, have someone make a funny face or say something inappropriate in front of a priest. Or a preacher if you're LL Cool J. Zany antics!!!</span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />Don't get me wrong though, there are laughs in this flick. Good ones, and more than a couple. But the actual writing of the jokes will have nothing to do with that. It's all in the talent and timing of the actors at work and their performances, or more specifically, two of the performances. The great Peter Dinklage (<span style="font-style: italic;">The Station Agent, Elf</span>) has by far the most interesting sidelined story as the dead father's secret gay midget lover in search of a pay-off, with the threat of airing out the father's dirty laundry at his own funeral. That's just good stuff.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">The other great comedic performance of the film is by Alan Tudyk, who we also saw this year in <span style="font-style: italic;">3:10 to Yuma</span>, where he played the veterinarian Doc Potter. Not the best role of that particular film, but maybe the best of this one. Most of his time on screen is spent tripping balls from an accidental dose of mixed hallucinogens (which he thought were Valium pills). Has it been done a million times before in other movies?? Sure. But this one should go down in film history as one of the more entertaining, and that's no small compliment. I really enjoyed the whole sequence. When it's all said and done though, it still simply remains in the realm of a running side-gag and nothing more.<br /><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/000466586629.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/000466586629.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >Tudyk (middle)</span><br /><br /></div> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />By the time the film gets to it's obligatory impassioned ending speech that's supposed to bring the family down from chaos, we really don't care about the characters enough to find it profound or conclusive. If only Oz and the screenwriters would have put as much effort into the heart of the film as they did into the ass, it could have really came to life. </span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />Wait for this one to come out on DVD. You'll definitely laugh, but not nearly enough times to make you feel better about ticket prices. </span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-weight: bold;">____________________________________________</span><br /></div><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/rentgl0.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/rentgl0.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-weight: bold;">____________________________________________</span><br /></div><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-family:arial;font-size:180%;" >Ace in the Hole</span><br /><br /></span></div><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/396_box_348x490.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/396_box_348x490.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >1951</span><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" ><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >Directed by Billy Wilder</span><br /></div><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">50 years before Dustin Hoffman and John Travolta attacked the lack of ethics in news journalism in <span style="font-style: italic;">Mad City</span>, the great director Billy Wilder and Kirk Douglas were already delivering knockout blows with <span style="font-style: italic;">Ace in the Hole</span>. And although it was never officially presented as such (that I know of), <span style="font-style: italic;">Mad City</span> is as close to a remake of the latter as any film has gotten in those 50 years.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">Kirk Douglas is Charles Tatum, a disgraced loud-mouth newspaper reporter from New York City who has been fired from 11 different papers for everything from wild drunken behavoir to sleeping with the boss's wife. He wanders into a small daily newspaper building in Albequerque, New Mexico, offering his services for a fraction of what he used to make in the big cities. His plan is to wait. Wait for just one big story to fall into his lap so he can earn his spot back in the big leagues. His chance comes when him and a young journalism grad happen to be the first on the scene at a crisis situation in a small town in the middle of the desert. A man was trapped after the walls of the cave he was digging in collapsed on top of him. The man's father sees it as a tragedy, but Tatum sees it as the best thing that could've happened. He knows this could be the big story he needs, and he gets his wish when thousands of people start flowing in to see the rescue effort. It's the biggest story in the country. But for how long? How far is Tatum willing to go to keep his story on the front page?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Without a doubt one of Wilder's best films, <span style="font-style: italic;">Ace in the Hole</span> has incredible social commentary for it's time, not to mention fantastically sharp and layered dialogue. Check it out if you can find it. </span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(204, 153, 51); font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;font-size:180%;" >The Illusionist</span><br /></div><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/B000K7VHQ401LZZZZZZZ.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/B000K7VHQ401LZZZZZZZ.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="color: rgb(204, 102, 0);font-size:85%;" >2006</span></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="color: rgb(204, 102, 0);font-size:85%;" >Directed by Neil Burger<br /><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">The <span style="font-style: italic;">Deep Impact</span> of *magixploitation movies last year, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Illusionist</span> basically played second stage to Christopher Nolan's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Prestige</span>, and in many ways rightfully so. The latter was much more epic, action-packed, and memorable. But <span style="font-style: italic;">The Illusionist</span> was by no means a bad movie just because it was the lesser of the two. I loved it, and I actually just watched it again last night. </span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />One of the biggest reoccuring problems critics claimed to have with the film was that the magic tricks were "impossible" or "too unbelievable", and that this somehow took away from the film. And true enough, the illusions that Edward Norton's character pulls off are well outside the realm of realism. But that's ultimately a huge part of what makes the film work, and what sets it more in the tradition of great fantasies than <span style="font-style: italic;">The Prestige</span>, which was more in the tradition of great thrillers. In other words, you will most definitely be asked to suspend your disbelief here, but if you can do that for movies where alien robots turn into fucking deisel trucks, I'm pretty sure you can do it for a nuanced period piece.</span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />At this point it goes without saying that Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti are two of the greatest American actors working today, so you won't be shocked at their pitch-perfect performances. But besides those two, the director took a big chance with some of the other choices for the main players. To be more specific, Jessica Beal and Rufus Sewell. Niether of them have ever shown me anything special, mostly working in summer blockbuster throwaways like <span style="font-style: italic;">Stealth </span>and <span style="font-style: italic;">A Knight's Tale</span>, respectively. But they both do great jobs in this movie, especially Sewell who plays a sociopathic prince, as if there's any other kind. You really hate him, but more importantly, you really don't know whether he will get his in the end or not (haha!........."get his in the end"), which has been a great thing for any movie to accomplish as long as movies have been made.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Don't get it twisted though, I'm not reviewing this one over <span style="font-style: italic;">The Prestige</span> because I think it's the better film. After seeing <span style="font-style: italic;">the Prestige</span> twice, it's honestly one of my favorite movies of the last 5 years. I just think that in the jumble last year, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Illusionist</span> got lost partly because of critics unnecessarily comparing the two, and partly because it was just a damn jumble last year, period. If you haven't seen this one, I suggest you go grab it.<br /><br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:78%;" >*you like that one? COPYRIGHTED BITCH!!<br /><br /><br /></span>Sandmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03111284293470639368noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3905282552646582162.post-71261762230664036422007-11-05T14:48:00.001-08:002007-11-05T15:07:28.717-08:00You digitally restored my heart, Criterion. My heart.<span style="font-family:verdana;">This might be the first time I posted twice in one day, but I had to point something out that you might have missed............November 2007 is the SHIT!!!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Scientific fact. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">5-6 of my most anticipated movies of the year are being released this month in theaters, and to top it off, Criterion finally got around to finishing/releasing my second favorite Akira Kurosawa movie ever, </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 102, 0);font-family:verdana;" >Drunken Angel. </span><span style="color: rgb(204, 102, 0);font-family:verdana;" ><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Here's what the cover will look like:</span></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/413_box_348x490.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/413_box_348x490.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">To be released November 27th, full digitally-restored transfer. And straight from the Criterion website, here are just a few of the special features...........</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >- A 30-minute documentary on the making of Drunken Angel, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >- </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >Kurosawa and the Censors</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >, a new, 25-minute video piece that looks at the challenges Kurosawa faced in making Drunken Angel</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >- New and improved English subtitle translation<br /><br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">Have you ever wanted to take a release date, lay it down next to a fireplace and make sweet love to it?</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />You have? That's just fuckin' sick. I was just joking........Jesus Christ. I'm gonna have to ask you to leave now.<br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>Sandmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03111284293470639368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3905282552646582162.post-41314965957236464942007-11-05T09:39:00.000-08:002007-11-05T10:02:39.730-08:00Won't get fooled again........<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;">Well, I got a couple e-mails and messages from people who want another DAA movie marathon. So that is coming very soon. </span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;">But for now, here's one I really liked from early this year that was recently released on DVD:</span><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);font-size:180%;" >The Hoax</span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/The_Hoax_-_poster_72dpi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/The_Hoax_-_poster_72dpi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family: arial;">2007</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">Directed by Lasse Hallstrom</span></span><br /></div><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Clifford Irving is a failed novelist. Rejection after rejection from the publishers leaves him desperate and tight for cash. But then, one day he excitedly informs his agent that he has been contracted to write the book of the century.........<span style="font-style: italic;">The Autobiography of Howard Hughes</span>. And this is during the early 70's, a time when Hughes was maybe the most secluded and sensationalized socialite on earth. People literally thought he had died long ago and been replaced by an impersonator, ala-<span style="font-style: italic;">Bubba-Hotep</span>. In other words, anything written about his life (with his consent) would be guaranteed gold.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The problem is, Clifford Irving has never met Howard Hughes, and he's just making it all up as he goes along.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Hoax is the true story of one of the most memorable cases of fraud in American history, ironically profiling the infamous man who damn-near-successfully scammed one of the biggest publishing houses in the world with his own fabricated profile of an infamous man. Granted, we've seen plenty of movies about bullshit artists over the years. A good deal of them based on true stories as well. But what separates The Hoax from another similar film like, say, <span style="font-style: italic;">Catch Me If You Can</span>, is that you can really see how people would want to believe Irving's absorbing lies (thanks in no small part to a great performance by Gere). He was obviously a talented man, although more so in mouth than ink. There are scenes where Irving's researcher and partner-in-crime Richard Suskin (played by the underrated-due-to-ugly Alfred Molina) just sits silent in meetings, in awe at his friend's ability to talk his way into literally millions of dollars in advances for this fake biography.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">And who the hell was going to argue with him? Howard Hughes was insane as far as everyone was concerned at the time, even his closest friends. So if his lawyers came out and issued public denials, it wasn't too hard of a task to convince people that it was all part of Hughes's "big crazy plan". He had a lot of those back then. What's one more?</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/photo_10_hires.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/photo_10_hires.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Director Lasse Hallstrom doesn't just make movies with flawed characters. He makes movies about the flaws. To that end, I've always considered <span style="font-style: italic;">What's Eating Gilbert Grape</span> to be his most successful film. And after a steady stream of epic almost-too-heartfelt Oscar snacks (Cider House Rules, Unfinished Life, etc), I guess it's kinda nice to see him return to a smaller story, at least in scenic scope.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Just off the strength of Hallstrom's name I had already expected this to be, at the very least, an interesting character study. But what I didn't expect is for the movie to be as funny as it is. Gere impressed me immensely, he plays it to perfection and shows us Irving as he was.....a likable but insanely audacious man with balls the size of baby pandas.<br /><br />There are a couple side stories working in the film, all of them interesting and fully developed. We see Irving's own decietful relationship with his wife Edith (Marcia Gay Harden), and his eventual paranoia that Hughes is out to kill him for his fraud. But this man's panda-balls are the real heart of the story. Well, not literally, although some scenes like that in the movie might have won it a lot more festival awards. But as it is, watching Irving almost crumble beneath the weight of his own lies as people confront him, and then watching him work his magic once again leaving everyone in the room satisfied and sanguine, it's just one of those "shocking true story" films that really lives up to that description. Check it out.</span>Sandmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03111284293470639368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3905282552646582162.post-63322915555930847462007-10-31T12:22:00.000-07:002007-10-31T15:03:42.644-07:00The Good, The Great, and the Ugly<span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >Okay, I was out for the weekend workin' on mastering down the new SouthBound album, but I got three new reviews for ya'll today................</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;font-size:180%;" >Zodiac<br /><br /></span></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/zodiac_dvd_ws_front_final.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/zodiac_dvd_ws_front_final.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >2007</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >Directed by David Fincher</span></span><br /></div><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">David Fincher is one of a handful of current directors who consistently prove the theory that in the right hands, a less-than-great actor can become great for a couple of hours. We've seen it a million times (think Travolta in <span style="font-style: italic;">Pulp Fiction</span>, and then anything he's ever done besides <span style="font-style: italic;">Pulp Fiction</span>). In this case, I think it's safe to say this was one of the best roles of Mark Ruffalo's career. It definitely shocked the hell out of me, for one.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Robert Downey Jr., on the other hand, didn't shock anything out of me. He's just a cool soda.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Zodiac</span> is Fincher's sprawling procedural about the real-life crimes of one of the most notorious serial killers in American history. Nobody was ever charged with the actual murders, but there were plenty of suspects. It's in this uncertainty of the killer's identity that Fincher is able to inject a very realistic sense of paranoia among the different men attempting to solve the case in their own ways, from the detectives on the hunt to the journalists riding the tail of a sensational story. You can read it on their faces everytime they cross paths with a new suspect, "Am I sitting right next to a serial killer, or does he just seem more like a monster because I already think he might be one?"</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">This isn't <span style="font-style: italic;">Se7en</span>. There is no moment of clarity during the last shocking 10 minutes that leave the killer's motivations exposed, or even the killer himself for that matter. Instead, the real theme of this movie is less about the crimes, and more about obsession and how all the people around the case slowly fall into it. Most notably the main detective leading the investigation, David Toschi (Ruffalo) and Robert Graysmith, the young San Francisco Chronicle journalist (Gyllenhaal) who attaches himself to the Zodiac mystery the way Amy Winehouse attaches herself to a hot spoonful of black tar heroin. We already know that the case was never solved, so we follow the frustration in these characters as they build up solid evidence only to watch it fall to pieces again and again.<br /><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/zodiacweb.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/zodiacweb.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Robert Downey Jr, playing Colonel</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Sanders in his early years as a gay English professor </span><br /><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">In my opinion, this was the great underrated movie of 2007. Beautifully shot and acted, with a tone of anxiousness that really gets under your skin. When it came out early this year, it wasn't a big success at the box office at all. You could probably blame that on opening the same weekend as <span style="font-style: italic;">300</span>, but you could also make the case that simply put, it just didn't have a hook to bring people in the theater. Whatever the excuse, for a fairly big budget film ($60-70 million), the studio barely made their money back on it. And on top of that, it got mixed reviews to say the least. Some critics loved it, others thought it was too long, which as I mentioned in my review for <span style="font-style: italic;">American Gangster</span>, is not a worthwhile critism as long as you enjoy everything you see on screen during that time.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Interestingly enough, looking at the details for both movies I just noticed that they share exactly the same running time at 2 hours 40 minutes. If anything, we might take this is a sign of the major movie studios becoming more flexible with their talented directors, allowing them to put out the film they want instead of forcing them to leave half of it on the cutting room floor. I hope so.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-family:arial;font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Limey<br /><br /></span></span></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/B00003CWSX01LZZZZZZZ.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/B00003CWSX01LZZZZZZZ.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >1999<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >Directed by Steven Soderbergh<br /><br /></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >"There's one thing I don't understand...............and that's every motherfuckin' word you just said."<br /><br /></span></div><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Out of Sight</span> was a mainstream crime flick that managed to be surprisingly intelligent. <span style="font-style: italic;">Traffic</span> was a mainstream epic mosaic of the drug war that took over the Oscars in 2000. You might have missed it, but in between those two great films, Steven Soderbergh made another movie, a very un-mainstream and psychologically grounded neo-noir thriller.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">At it's core, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Limey</span> is the story of a father with regret. Terrence Stamp is Wilson, a British ex-thief fresh out of prison after a nine year robbery bid. While he was serving time, his daughter moved to Hollywood to pursue an acting dream. She is dead as the film opens with Stamp whispering the words, "Tell me about Jenny". At that point we don't know quite how she died, but it's clear that Wilson doesn't believe it was an accident. For the next hour and a half we follow Wilson as he delves deeper and deeper into the mystery surrounding his daughter's death. He meets up with Eduardo, one of Jenny's friends from acting school (played by the extremely underrated-due-to-ugly Luis Guzman) and with Eduardo's help he soon discovers that his daughter was living with a wealthy record producer named Terry Valentine (Peter Fonda), a man with a shady past of his own.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">The quote at the beginning of my review is in regard to the fact that through the whole movie, Stamp is laying on the Cockney slang/accent thick. Some people like that little quirky touch, but personally I felt that it being played for comic relief just took away from the authenticity of the film, and frankly, made for some very bad pieces of dialogue in an otherwise well-written script. We're supposed to believe that not one character in the movie can understand what he's saying, while we the audience understand him just fine. But you know, one small gripe.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/limey_420.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/limey_420.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family:verdana;">Back to a positive note, one of the great surprises of this film is it's use of flashbacks. We've all seen flashbacks in movies where the actors dye their hair and put on some cheesy 60's attire, and it never feels like anything more than a forced plot device. Well, call Soderbergh whatever you want but you can't call him uncommitted, because in order to acheive the authenticity he wanted from the flashback scenes with Terrence Stamp and his daughter, Soderbergh actually bought the rights to one of Stamps early films (<span style="font-style: italic;">Poor Cow</span>, 1967, coincidentally directed by the same Ken Loach that made <span style="font-style: italic;">The Wind That Shakes the Barley</span>) and cannibalized scenes from it for <span style="font-style: italic;">The Limey</span>. It works incredibly well.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Even as you read this review, it still might sound as if <span style="font-style: italic;">The Limey</span> is the same run-of-the-mill revenge thriller that we've seen a million times. But what separates this movie from so many others is Soderbergh's stylishly contemplative hand on the source material. The music, the dialogue, the way he shows us a character's face while they speak from another part of the conversation. It all gives the story more surreality than it would ever have by itself. And even though we only see Jenny in flashbacks, the unresolved relationship between the father and daughter is fully developed, leaving the final revelation of the truth about the girl's death just as poignant as it is satisfying to the plot.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Find it and rent it.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >And now for one i didn't like......................</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;font-size:180%;" ><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Tape<br /><br /></span></span></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/ethan_hawke1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/ethan_hawke1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" ><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"> 2001</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Directed by Richard Linklater</span></span><br /><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Okay, here we have a 2001 film by Richard Linklater, a man who I owe a huge thanks to for establishing the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.austinfilm.org/">Austin Film Society</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. The film collections that are put together by that organization at local theaters here in Austin have given me way too many hours of enjoyment, watching everything from lost French classics to African cinema to Hitchcock on the big screen. So I'm almost tempted to not say anything bad about the guy, especially since I love most of his other films. Don't you?? "It'd be a lot cooler if you did."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Sadly, I do have to say something bad. Very bad. This movie is just painful to watch, although admittedly less so if you don't spend the whole 90 minutes punching yourself in the neck like I did. I just wanted to feel SOMETHING, since I damn sure wasn't getting any help from the screen. But regardless, it's an equally hard film to get through with or without the throat abuse.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Essentially, this movie is a stage play. Three characters, one location, lots of talking. While I'm not opposed to this set-up in general, Tape becomes the ultimate example of how disastrous such a set-up can be in the wrong hands. In order </span><span style="font-family:verdana;">for this kind of experiment in setting to succeed, </span><span style="font-family:verdana;">it has to rely on a real sense of tension and intelligent writing, neither of which can be found here.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">The three characters in question are Vince (Ethan Hawke) and John (Robert Sean Leonard), best friends from high school, and Amy (Uma Thurman), the girl who they both dated back then. John is in Lansing, Michigan showing his debut film as an up and coming indie director, and Vince came along to support his friend.....or at least that's what he claims. It soon becomes clear that he has other reasons for the reunion, something he has to get off his chest. It just so happens that Amy now lives in Lansing as an Assistant District Attorney, and what John doesn't know is that Vince has invited her to the reunion as well. What secret does Vince know about the other two? What horrible event happened 10 years ago??<br /><br /></span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/tape1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/tape1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">"Ain't you that dude from House?"</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">I won't give away any of these thrilling developments that make up the meat of the plot, but I will say that the basic conflict that is revealed actually did have the potential to be extremely interesting, and well worth a film treatment. But not this one. Every action by every character is irrational and unrealistic. Every plot twist is weakly transitioned. And most importantly, every single piece of dialogue is horribly written and just plain irritating.<br /><br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >"Well, fuck you then, I'm gonna leave!"</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >"Fine, leave!"</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >"Tell me this, why do you want me to leave this hotel room?"</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >"I don't. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >You're</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" > the one that wants to leave because you can't take the truth!"</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >"What if I stay?"</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >"How?"</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >"By not leaving."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >"Why?"</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >"Because I want to ask you one more thing before I go!"</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">It's seriously that bad. I do good impressions.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">And just as icing on the (urinal) cake, Linklater's direction is amateurish at best. You get the feeling at times that he's doing it on purpose, perhaps to add some realism (which would be forgivable), but at others it just seems like failed attempts at "cool" camera experimentation (unforgivable). Either way, the result is something near student film-ish. This is one of my least favorite movies ever.<br /><br /><br /></span>Sandmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03111284293470639368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3905282552646582162.post-82742738800073603232007-10-26T13:53:00.000-07:002007-10-26T14:19:02.609-07:00War on Terror (now with potatoes!!!)<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;font-size:180%;" >The Wind That Shakes the Barley</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" ><br /></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" ></span></div><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" ><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/windthatshakesposter.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/windthatshakesposter.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);font-family:verdana;" ><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);font-family:verdana;" >2007</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);font-family:verdana;" ><br />Directed by Ken Loach</span><br /></div><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" ><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" ><span style="font-size:85%;">"What we've done here today is sent a message to the British, that if they send their savagery over here, we will meet it with a savagery of our own."</span></span><br /></div><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" ><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">For once, a movie that is tangled and imperfect on purpose. Violent revolutions are never clear or comprehensible, and this film most definitely mirrors it's own subject matter. Bloody, chaotic, and challenging. </span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />Our government would call them "insurgents" today. Back in the 1920's, they just kept it simple and called themselves revolutionaries. The Irish Republican Army. The story of the IRA's early years are told here through the eyes of two brothers, Damien (Cillian Murphy) and Teddy O'Donovan. After British colonial soldiers murder one of their innocent friends for refusing to give his name in English during a random search, the young men in the village vow to take up arms and fight against the occupation. Teddy steps up as a leader, but Damien is hesitant to join the fight at all. He has plans to go to London to study medicine, and at this point his political views are hinted at being of the non-violent socialist variety. But his views change quickly after seeing one too many attacks on innocent countrymen first-hand. He chooses to stay and fight alongside his brother and friends. </span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />The rest of the film follows Damien and his "regiment" through their successes and failures, captures and escapes. At 2 hours, it is filled with everything from brutally realistic torture scenes to difficult political debates between the characters. There are more than a few battle scenes, but it never feels like an action movie. It's clear that director Ken Loach has no interest in making the violence too entertaining.<br /><br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/02.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/02.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />I'd be lying through my gapped teeth if I claimed to have understood everything that was said in the movie. I honestly didn't. Some of the thick Irish accents here make <span style="font-style: italic;">Trainspotting</span> look like Blue's Clues. At times I just said "fuck it, I get the gist of it, let's wait for the next scene." But I want to stress that even in those few moments where you may get lost in the language, the overall plot points never drift or lose their significance in the drama. I think that's a great testament to Loach's power as a filmmaker, and his long-since-proven ability to make lucid what seems impossibly ambiguous and abstract, including even dialogue in this case. </span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />Cillian Murphy is off to a somewhat slow start in his career. He's been in a handful of very good films (<span style="font-style: italic;">Breakfast on Pluto, Girl with the Pearl Earring, Batman Begins</span>, etc) but no truly great ones. And even in those he has yet to have anything resembling a real moment of greatness. That being said, this is his strongest performance yet as far as I'm concerned, and I predict that he has that greatness in him somewhere. With his character, he holds a kind of quiet alertness that really strengthens not only the tone of the movie, but the positions he represents in the political spectrum compared to his comrades. The rest of the all-Irish (obviously) cast is solid as well. </span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />Beautiful cinematography. Just in case you never knew why Ireland is always associated with the color green, this movie will leave no doubt. </span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />To sum it up, this is a fiercely political film that is always sympathetic, but never romantic. Well-acted, perfectly paced and confidently directed by a veteran. Realistic and devastating. It won the Palme D'Or at Cannes this year, and for what it's worth I've already watched it twice in the last two months. Definitely worth the rental if you can find it.<br /></span>Sandmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03111284293470639368noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3905282552646582162.post-52372779750240980972007-10-25T14:51:00.000-07:002007-10-25T15:22:52.291-07:00Across 110th Street..........I was lucky enough to get into a free screening for the much-anticipated Ridley Scott crime epic <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">American Gangster</span>. I guess this blog is finally good for something. Here's my early review:<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 153, 153);font-family:arial;font-size:180%;" >American Gangster</span><br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/american_gangster.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/american_gangster.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 153, 153);font-family:arial;" >2007</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);font-family:arial;" ><br />Directed by Ridley Scott</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 153, 153);font-family:arial;" ><br /></span></div><br />Despite what many critics say, Russel Crowe is not our generation's Steve McQueen. He's not the new Paul Newman, or Richard Burton, Nicholson, Caine, or even Pacino. No............the fact of the matter is that Russel Crowe is our Russel Crowe, and as much as it shames me to type those incredibly hammy and cliche words, it's the honest truth. There's no other way to put it. The man is in his prime, the type of prime that builds legendary actors. He has starred in not one, but two of the best films of 2007 (<span style="font-style: italic;">3:10 to Yuma</span>), and in both he overtakes entire ensemble casts of great actors. The same can be said about Denzel Washington, the real focus and star of this movie, as there is probably nobody else that could have done this character justice quite like he does.<br /><br />Frank Lucas was the right-hand man to Bumpy Johnson, one of the most famous black gangsters in American history, the man who ran prohibition-era Harlem. Lucas learned everything from him, and when Bumpy died, Lucas took his spot in the New York City crime underworld. And then some. Through a cousin in the military during Vietnam, he managed to secure a heroin supply straight from Indonesia. The purest of the pure, while the rest of the flashy Harlem drug kingpins (Nicky Barnes most notably, portrayed in this film by Cuba Gooding Jr.) sold weak product, diluted and cut to shit. And he sold his for half as cheap. He gained a monopoly fast, putting everyone else out of business, and eventually going over the heads of even the most prominent New York Italian mafia families, to whom he paid no dues. But he did offer them a deal to buy their product from him. It was unprecedented. On the other side of the law, there was Richie Roberts (Russel Crowe), an almost inconceivably honest cop surrounded by crooked ones, who is assigned to lead the efforts to take Lucas down.<br /><br />This film wastes no time, in true Ridley Scott fashion. From the moment the first images hit the screen with a thundering bass and string score, you know you're in for a visceral visit to a surreal and gritty version of an already gritty reality. And however inconsistent Scott has been throughout the years, that's one thing you can count on from him. A unique experience.<br /><br />This movie works on many levels. An intelligent drama. A 1970's period piece with immutable authenticity. A dual character study of two men devoted to principle in their own opposite ways. A truly exciting and fluid action movie, which by the way is nice to see after the frustratingly unwatchable action sequences we've seen in <span style="font-style: italic;">Transformers</span> and other films this year. But most impressively, it is both a nuanced noir and a big-budget gangster shoot-em-up at the same time, a formula that really makes me happy to see done right. It also works as a kind of drug dealer procedural (yeah, I just made up a genre. Credit me damnit) with a myriad of heroin schemes reminiscent of <span style="font-style: italic;">The French Connection</span>. And just incase you had any doubt, one of the Italian mobsters actually makes that same comparison by referring to one drug operation as, and I quote, "This is the French Connection dope". Not exactly subtle, but it reminds you that many of the greatest fictional crime movies from the 70's were based on real life events, and that the story of Frank Lucas is a gripping one in that mold. Almost everything about Lucas's story is exaggerated here for effect. For example, Bumpy Johnson died at a nightclub, not in an electronics store while giving a dramatic speech about the "good ol' days". And I highly doubt all of Lucas's cocaine baggers were really supermodels (believe me I'm not complaining). But as film is an exaggerated medium by nature, I really don't think anyone is going to give a damn. I sure don't.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/americangangsterpuba.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/americangangsterpuba.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >".......then you just throw in<br />some parsley leaves and BAM,<br />turkey noodle casserole."</span><br /></div><br />The supporting cast is sprawling and superb. Every role is filled with talented actors and actresses. We get to see more of Chiwetel Ejiofor, who as I said in my last review, had a breakout role in the Petey Greene biopic<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>Talk</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">to Me </span>earlier this year. He's solid here as well, playing Lucas's brother. Another one of the better minor characters is Josh Brolin (star of the upcoming <span style="font-style: italic;">No Country for Old Men</span>) as a crooked detective with his own drug and shakedown operation. The great Ruby Dee plays Lucas's mother. Wu-tang don RZA plays a cop on Crowe's team. We also see two other rappers, Common and T.I., playing father and son in Frank Lucas's family-staffed crime syndicate. And we see them like we should always see rappers in films............in 2 minute increments. But seriously, I have to point out, with so many rappers getting face-time in this movie, and with an unnecessary but always welcomed cameo from Fab 5 Freddy that comes out of nowhere, one might jump to the conclusion that Ridley Scott is a, *gasp*, hip hop head?!? Well, probably not, but just for the sake of my own entertainment I'm gonna keep imagining him bangin' out to Sean Price in his Lamborghini while sipping green tea. It's just better that way.<br /><br />I also really enjoyed seeing Idris Elba (Better known as Stringer Bell from The Wire) in a great, if brief, role as a rival Harlem gangster threatening Lucas's control of the neighborhood. Idris doesn't always choose the best scripts (<span style="font-style: italic;">The Reaping</span>, etc), or maybe he's just not offered the best. But when he is given a chance with a strong character, he consistently proves that he has a very powerful presence on screen. Top billing presence, if you ask me. There is a scene between Denzel and Elba in this film that is truly unforgettable. I'll just leave it at that. The kind of scene that people tend to remember in movies like this.<br /><br />You know, one major advantage to the gangster movie genre in general, is that it appeals to the masses. Always has, always will. So you know that when a great one comes along, it will get all the recognition it deserves. It definitely won't be overlooked. And just as it was with another of my favorite films from 2007, David Fincher's <span style="font-style: italic;">Zodiac</span>, I'm sure the biggest critical complaint we will hear about <span style="font-style: italic;">American Gangster</span> will be in regard to the 2+ hour length of the film. For the most part though, this is just a half-ass method of writing a "balanced" review. You have to find SOME flaw, right? But trust me, when the only real complaint from critics is that an amazing movie is amazing for too long, you're in safe territory.<br /><br />As for me, I can't recommend this movie enough. I believe it's Ridley Scott's best film since <span style="font-style: italic;">Blade Runner</span>, exactly 25 years ago. It comes out November 2nd, so definitely go check it out.Sandmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03111284293470639368noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3905282552646582162.post-36654398238331241192007-10-24T17:28:00.000-07:002007-10-24T17:59:20.338-07:00Microphone Fiend<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Talk To Me</span></span><br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/ttm_poster.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/ttm_poster.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">2007</span> <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Directed by Kasi Lemmons<br /><br /></span></div><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span> <span style="font-family:verdana;">After <span style="font-style: italic;">Talk to Me</span> was over, I got the same distinct feeling I remember getting while watching the great 1984 documentary, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Times of Harvey Milk</span>. I know, it's a strange comparison, but what they both make you ask is "Why the hell haven't I heard more about this guy before now?"</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">This is the true story of Petey Greene, a man who develops a love for being in front of a microphone while in prison, where the warden allows him to use the PA system as a kind of one-man soul station, with his own brand of shit-talking in between songs. He's a hit inside the walls, and once released he almost obsessively clings to a dream of getting a real job as a DJ at a major radio station in his home of Washington DC. His struggle to get on air is no easy task, especially living in the 70's when the concept of opinionated "shock jock" call-in shows weren't exactly established in the medium. But once he finally gets his shot, the response is overwhelming. He becomes a local celebrity almost immediately, a voice for the people saying exactly what everyone else is afraid to say, for better or worse.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">And imagine, that's only the first 20 minutes.</span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />The rest of the film follows his rise right to the edge of national stardom, and his infamously self-destructive refusal to take that last step. And while we've basically already seen the first act of this movie damn near shot-for-shot many times before in Good Morning Vietnam and other similar films ("Did he just say that?? I want him off the air because I'm an uptight old man!!!" yadda yadda), it never feels redundant of those films, mostly because of Greene's real life persona and opinions.</span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />Let me be very clear on this point though, this is not a well-written movie. Not by a longshot. In fact, it borders on ridiculously formulaic at times. But what it lacks in design depth, it makes up in being genuinely funny and consistently beautiful to look at. Every cliche is handled with a certain cleverness that makes them easily forgivable, but damnit there a lot of cliches to forgive. For starters, director Kasi Lemmons clearly has some kind of unhealthy fetish for montages. There are support groups for less.</span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />What really saves this movie from the depths of mediocrity is the acting. At this point in his career, It can be too easy to instinctively credit Don Cheadle for carrying a film. And for good reason, since he has done exactly that more than a few times in recent years. But the truth of the matter is that as electric as Cheadle is on the screen, the show is completely stolen by a breakout performance by Chiwetel Ejiofor in the role of Dewey Hughes, the clean-cut black program director at an all white radio station who takes a huge risk in putting Petey on the air. He really is great here. In fact, it's hard not to notice that as the movie flies in it's many directions, we eventually start spending just as much time watching the Hughes character on screen as we do the actual main character of the biopic. The reason for that becomes pretty clear when you find out that the idea for this film was pushed and pitched by Hughes himself, and that one of the two screenwriters for the film is Hughes's son. As a result, instead of him being just portrayed as a supporting character in Petey's life, the main focus of the movie quickly becomes the friendship between these two men over the years. This is far from a bad thing, though. It really works. Maybe even moreso than if it was just a straight-forward character study of Greene alone, as the tension between Greene and Hughes is one of the strengths of the drama.<br /><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/hughes540.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/hughes540.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">The Real life Petey Greene and<br />Dewey Hughes, laughing<br />at the way you dress<br /><br /></span></div><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">Now, if I could just take a minute to speak about the beautiful Taraji Henson without dribbling spit like Troy Aikman after his 9th concussion. No really...........if I could do that, I would. I'll just type through the moist keys. She shocked a lot of critics with her incredibly vivid performance in Hustle and Flow two years ago, especially after a more or less throwaway role in Baby Boy. I can imagine the name of her character in the script she read for Baby Boy just saying "black female who is alive with two legs". History repeats itself because the thing about her presence in Talk to Me, as wonderful as she is playing Greene's longtime loyal girlfriend, is that she is perfectly cast for a far too broadly written role. Her character is basically a walking stereotype for the first 2/3rds of the movie, but she mines as much potency out of it as she possibly can, and it miraculously manages to balance out thanks to her efforts. At least enough so that you do believe her at the moments when she becomes the voice of reason for the film. Just barely. </span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />This is not a perfect film by any means. The final scenes want desperately to be the standard climactic tear-jerkers, but because of impatient pacing and empty dialogue, they really pack no punch at all. But that matters much less than it should thanks to the fact that there is one VERY powerful and effective sequence in the middle of the film, pertaining to the death of Martin Luther King, that already satisfies that demand. But that may be more of a testament to the worth of King's life than any movie's ability to dramatize it. </span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />I opened this review with a comparison to <span style="font-style: italic;">The Times of Harvey Milk</span>, and I'll close it with another one. They both tell stories of real men that ultimately remind us that from time to time, a person can still become famous for telling the truth, and not just for fucking Bret Michaels in the garden tub of a rental house. As far as I'm concerned, that's a pretty hopeful message. Good stuff.<br /></span>Sandmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03111284293470639368noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3905282552646582162.post-41551405446656758512007-10-21T10:13:00.000-07:002007-10-21T10:32:48.382-07:00Goddamn trains.........never can rely on 'em<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 153, 51);font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-family:verdana;">3:10 to Yuma</span></span><span style="color: rgb(204, 153, 51);"> </span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/yuma.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/yuma.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(204, 153, 51);font-family:arial;" >2007</span> <span style="color: rgb(204, 153, 51);font-family:arial;" >Directed by James Mangold<br /><br /></span></div><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >"I don't believe you. You're not all bad."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >"Kid, I wouldn't last five minutes leadin' an outfit like that if I wasn't as rotten as hell."</span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br /><br />You like that line?? I sure as hell do. Let's just skip the foreplay and say that I loved this movie even more than spitting on people's heads from the second floor of the mall. I had a great time. At the movie, I mean. </span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />Next month (jumps up and down like a japanese schoolgirl) we will see the release of <span style="font-style: italic;">No Country For Old Men</span>, the new Coen Brothers film adaptation of the book by the same name by the great novelist Cormac McCarthy. In a way, you might consider that McCarthy's second assist on screen this year, because if you look close enough, it's obvious that Russel Crowe's portrayal of ruthless and sardonic outlaw Ben Wade owes a great debt to the similarly murderous character of "The Judge", from that author's dark masterpiece <span style="font-style: italic;">Blood Meridian</span>. If you've read the book you'll see it just as fast as I did. The perfect mix of traveled wisdom and insanity, expounding philosophy one minute and stabbing someone in the neck with a fork the next. Nice. And of course, that familiar sketchbook.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">But that's just an example of how inspired the characters are in the movie. More importantly, Wade is an infamous gunman who, after robbing a stagecoach with his posse, is on the run from the law again. He's a little too overzealous with his escape plan and is captured in a small town after taking way too long to finish sexin' up a green-eyed barmaid, proving my long-held theory that being a minute-man is actually a good thing. Take that, every woman I've ever known.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">Standing behind the hand-cuffed Wade with a gun to his head is Dan Evans (Bale), a disgraced one-legged rancher whose lack of success, charisma, ambition, and bravery has left it difficult for even his own sons to respect him anymore. So when he accepts an offer to help escort the captured outlaw Wade to the train station where he will be taken to Yuma prison, it becomes more than just an opportunity to earn some much needed quick cash. It becomes his last chance at a respectable legacy, however small. If only they can make it to the train station before Wade's gang catches up to set him free. </span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />With bullets!</span> <span style="font-family:verdana;">Dum dum DUUUUUUM!!!</span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />There is no part of this movie that can be said to be anything less than a complete upgrade from the original 1957 film, which I admit I was never particularly a fan of. The man behind the improvements is director James Mangold, who has a knack for getting deep inside the head of the imasculated male struggling to regain respect. We've seen that in previous films on his resume, most notably Cop Land, which was a cowboy flick in it's own way. It might be time for this filmmaker's name to be more recognizable because he has struck just the right note once again, there is not a boring second in this film. And likewise, not a boring character. There is a rare overflow of talent at work here, from the two amazing lead performances down to every single minor supporting role. Peter Fonda as an aging bounty hunter, Ben Foster as Wades psycopathic right-hand man. But one of the big surprises for me in the movie was Dallas Roberts playing the role of the sheriff who arrests Wade and leads the transport to Yuma. We saw Roberts in Mangold's last movie, the Johnny Cash biopic <span style="font-style: italic;">Walk the Line</span>, where he played Sun records CEO Sam Phillips. Here he plays his character of Sheriff Butterfield with a certain restive nervousness that really serves as a huge part of the tension and constant fear surrounding their journey. You may have also seen him in the HBO show <span style="font-style: italic;">The L Word</span>, but I doubt you would admit it in public, you silly goothe.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/310toyuma.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/310toyuma.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />As consistently intelligent as the screenplay is, one major flaw is that you will definitely be asked to suspend your disbelief at Crowe's choices and motivations during the last, say, 20 minutes of the film. In that respect, it might have been better served staying truer to the original Elmore Leonard short story, instead of making the same mistake that the 1957 film does in softening the third act. But if you are able to let it slide, then you will be rewarded with one of the most entertaining movie experiences of 2007. And although I easily still consider this one of my personal favorites of the year, and truly hope that Bale is considered come oscar time, I have to say that with a more logical resolution it could have been more than just one of the best of this year. It could have been one of the greatest westerns of any year, period. Oh well.........like our sickly friend Roger Ebert always says, you can't judge a film for what it isn't. But he says that through a tube nowadays so maybe it just sounds more profound.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">Either way, see this movie immediately. If you end up liking it even half as much as I did, I would also recommend a great (and greatly overlooked) western from Australia last year called <span style="font-style: italic;">The Proposition</span>. And with two more supposedly superb westerns rounding up the last leg of 2007 (Brad Pitt's <span style="font-style: italic;">Assassination of Jesse James</span>, and the aforementioned <span style="font-style: italic;">No Country for Old Men</span>) I think it's safe to say that it's a great time to be a fan of the genre. </span>Sandmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03111284293470639368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3905282552646582162.post-73291663808425320132007-10-20T09:55:00.000-07:002007-10-20T09:58:08.909-07:00Open Letter to Michael Caine<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">RE: The Sleuth remake</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Dear Mike,</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Really? You sure??</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Love, </span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sandman</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">P.S.- You're not gettin' any younger, that's all I'm saying. </span>Sandmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03111284293470639368noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3905282552646582162.post-4455358677077173852007-10-19T13:32:00.001-07:002007-10-19T14:23:40.311-07:00DAA First Movie Marathon: Spy Thrillers<span style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:180%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0); font-weight: bold;">Dirty Ass Aisles Presents-</span> The Spy Movie Marathon!!</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Here's the deal...........I love a good spy thriller, but I hate Bond movies. All of 'em. I can definitely see why it's such a popular franchise, but it just ain't my cup of tea. At all. But fortuna</span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">tely, I promise I would never stoop to the level of boring/angering all of you with some long pretentious diatribe laying out all the specific (and obvious) reasons why I don't like the Bond films. No, I would rather be constructive, and offer my own suggestions for some spy films that I feel go above and beyond. So without further dumb rambling, here is a list of 8 of my most favoritest secret agent flicks ever, to be watched back to back in a spy movie marathon like a good meth binge. Consider it an anti-Bond marathon, full of (mostly) realistic characters and</span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> situaitons, and above all, just good filmmaking.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Let's get it started with.................</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >1. The Spy Who Came In From the Cold<br /><br /></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/200px-Spy_cold.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/200px-Spy_cold.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />The Spy: </span>Richard Burton</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who's Trying to Kill Him: </span>Witty Communists</span><br /></div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br />Maybe one of Richard Burton's best roles ever. Maybe the </span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">best spy movie of the 60's, period. A couple months ago I was flipping through the TV, and I noticed that it was playing on the Turner Classic Movie channel, and even though I've seen it many many times, I just had to sit my ass down and watch it again. Don't have to tell me twice.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Simply put, you can't have a decent spy movie discussion without this one in the mix. It's essential, and so I had to make it the kick-off. </span> <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /><br /><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">2. Munich</span></span><br /><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/munichdvdart.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/munichdvdart.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />The Spy:</span> Eric Bana</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who's Trying to Kill Him:</span> Palestinians</span><br /><br /></div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br />A very rare accomplishment, an homage that actually manages to outdo many of the films it honors. This was Speilberg's love letter to the 70's spy thriller. It's the true story of small group of Israeli assassins sent on a mission to hunt down and kill the people responsible for the terroristic kidnapping and murder of 11 Israeli olympic athletes in 1972. Can a movie possibly have a more polarizing subject as it's focus??? I submit........*clears throat*.......that it cannot. </span> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /><br />But at the end of the day, the real subject of this movie is patriotism, and all the conflicts (inner and public) that come along with it. And for what that's worth, I've rarely seen any movie handle that better than this one. </span> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /><br />And as far as spy movies go in general, there's always been somewhat of a bias from movie geeks towards the 60's and 70's. But I really think there have been some great ones coming out in recent years, and this is probably the best of that crowd. </span> <span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" ><br /><br /><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >3. Three Days of the Condor</span></span><br /><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/threeDays.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/threeDays.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />The Spy:</span> Robert Redford</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who's Trying to Kill Him:</span> Watch and find out.............</span><br /><br /></div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br />This is the Robert Redford I like to see.........back before he had the charming cabin-in-the-mountains speech patterns of my grandmother in every movie. The whole time I was watching <span style="font-style: italic;">The Last Castle</span>, I just kept thinking about Christmas cookies and hugs. And we won't even talk about the yawn-orgy that was <span style="font-style: italic;">Spy Games</span>. </span> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /><br />And while this one isn't much of a masterpeice compared to some of the others we've been talking about so far, it's probably one of the most purely thrilling thrillers on the list. The pacing is great, action is always happening, story is always unfolding piece by piece. And if you didn't already know, this is just one of many great political thrillers from director Sidney Pollack, who these days would rather act in excellent thrillers (see: <span style="font-style: italic;">Michael Clayton</span>) than make them much anymore. And even when he does get back behind the camera, the results are extremely underwhelming, almost take-offs of his past work (see: <span style="font-style: italic;">The Interpreter</span>). Not a good look, Sidney. You're doin' just fine but seriously, come on back home where you belong.<br /><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">4. Army of Shadows</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/385_box_348x490.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/385_box_348x490.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Spy:</span> Lino Ventura</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who's Trying to Kill Him:</span> Nazis in occupied France</span><br /></div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /><br />Melville's masterpiece about the French Resistance. Just mentioning this movie makes me want to scrap this whole spy-marathon idea and just start a Lino Ventura marathon right now. He can't not be amazing in any movie he's in, and this particular movie itself is amazing in it's depiction of the imperfect world of espionage, as opposed to the perfection that we usually see with superhuman heroes who know all, see all, kill all, and hump all without getting chlamydia. DON'T LIE TO ME!!! The spies in this film are clumsy at times, flawed in not only their execution but in their motivations as well, and they rarely succeed in their missions. I mean, talk about flawed characters, we can clearly see that the main character has an unhealthy kind of blind hero worship devotion towards his "chief", a radical leftist writer turned resistance-leader. And I won't get into it in detail, but the ending is heartbreaking in it's moral ambiguity.<br /><br /></span> <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">5. Eye of the Needle</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/3422-large.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/3422-large.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Spy:</span> Donald Sutherland</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who's Trying to Kill Him:</span> The Allied Powers circa WWII</span><br /></div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /><br />Donald Sutherland plays a German spy, one of the cold-bloodiest assassins ever to be put on film. I know what you're thinking........."Donald Sutherland as an assassin?? Cold-bloodiest?? I don't think that's a word, Sandman." </span> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /><br />Well, you know what, get off your damn high horse, hypothetical reader!! Because Sutherland is surprisingly believable in this movie. I love that so many of his violent actions are open to some level of interpretation, because you never really know just how much he hates or loves his job of killing people. Especially since during the course of the movie, he's forced to kill multiple people who just happen to cross his path at the wrong time and see too much for their own good. It's implied that he's somewhat reluctant to do them in, but really, how reluctant can you be?? His job is way better than mine any day of the week. </span> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /><br />Botton line, this is just a beautifully shot film from the early 80's, and one that just might change the way you look at Donald Sutherland forever. Check it out. </span> <span style="font-size:130%;"> <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" ><br /><br /><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >6. Our Man in Havana</span></span><br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/coverOurManInHavana.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/coverOurManInHavana.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Spy: </span>Alec Guiness</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who's Trying to Kill Him: </span>Cuban authorities, among others</span><br /></div><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I'm a huge fan of Graham Greene novels, almost dick-rider level of fan if we're being honest. He could do no wrong. The adaptation of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Quiet American </span>a couple years back was like heaven in a sex sandwich glazed in satisfaction sauce as far as I'm concerned. And while I still think that was the best Greene adaptation on screen, this 1959 flick directed by Carol Reed comes a close third after <span style="font-style: italic;">The Third Man</span>, which was also directed by Reed. Kinda makes you wonder if maybe he wasn't on dick-rider status, too. </span> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /><br />The Plot? Obi-wan kenobi is a clueless british salesman in Cuba in need of money, so he takes a job selling "intelligence" to the British intelligence agencies. The problem is, his "intelligence" deserves the quotation marks I'm putting them in because it's all entirely made up. Complete bullshit. But the British agents don't know this, in fact they take it VERY seriously, as do all the other covert agents of all affiliations lurking around Cuba. And they all have questions for our hero the salesman.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Nice synopsis, right? I don't know why Amazon keeps turning down my applications to be a synopsis writer for their site. Apparantly, they consider it "unprofessional" to write film descriptions while sniffing paint at a public library. </span> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /><br />At any rate, Our Man in Havana has the perfect combination of suspense and comedy, and the fact that this movie isn't out on DVD yet almost makes me believe the crazy homeless guy who stands on the corner by my apartments warning people that Satan is roaming the earth causing "many troubles". That's the real conspiracy here. </span> <span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" ><br /><br /><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >7. The Lives of Others</span></span><br /><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/51ij-8GwhCL.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/51ij-8GwhCL.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Spy:</span> Ulrich Mühe</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who's Trying to Kill Him:</span> His own job</span><br /></div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /><br />If I could go back and re-do my Best of 2006 list, I would have to slip this one in somewhere in the middle. I caught a late-pass, but better late than never for a film like this. Essentially, the story is about a German spy having a change of heart, in both his outlook on the world and his moral stance on his own position in that world. Even though it won the Oscar for best foreign film last year, it seems like everybody needs the same late pass that I got because it's completely unknown to most people, as far as I can tell. Which sucks because it deserves all the notoriety that <span style="font-style: italic;">Munich</span> got that very same year. </span><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" ><br /><br /><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >8. Casino Royale</span></span><br /><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/casino-royale-movie-poster.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/d_the_sandman/Blog%20Pics/casino-royale-movie-poster.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Spy: </span>Daniel Craig </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who's Trying to Kill Him:</span> The "evil-doers" (c) George Bush</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br />You know what, fuck it. I said this was supposed to be the anti-Bond list, but truth be told, Casino Royale still fits just fine in that category. A perfect end to the marathon. </span> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /><br />What an undeniably great movie this is. I'm almost glad that Tarantino handed this project off to someone else, because who knows what it might have looked like if he didn't (The New Bond: Henry Winkler?). To be fair though, I'm sure we would've got some outstanding Bond girls out of that deal.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">And there you have it. That's what I would consider THE perfect spy-thriller movie marathon. Looking back over the list now, this wasn't intentional but it reads more like a list of some of the greatest leading men of all time at the top of their collective game. I hope you take my advice and check out at least..............well, 8 of these films. At least. They are all well worth the rental/download.<br /><br />I hope you enjoyed the suggestions. I'll probably do this kinda thing a lot on here, when I have the time. More regular reviews coming soon. And I've gotten alot of comments about how people love this blog, and one suggestion to organize it a little better, so look out for some basic categories in my reviews. New films (still in theaters, new this year, etc), general rental suggestions (older movies that are great), and movies I feel are TRASH (similar to what I did with Bully). But really..............thanks for the comments, but fuck ya'll for sending them privately. I still have a whopping 0 comments so far and I'm already 4 posts into this thing, so I would appreciate some feedback on here since ya'll "love it" so much.<br /><br />Yep.<br /></span>Sandmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03111284293470639368noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3905282552646582162.post-81292188184289078642007-10-18T12:44:00.000-07:002007-10-18T13:04:19.046-07:00Don't Believe the Hype: BullyEvery once in a while there's a movie that I missed, that has a certain level of hype or cult following behind it. It gets to the point where so many people are recommending it to me time after time, that I decide to search it out and see it immediately. Most of the time this kind of situation ends great, and I find a new favorite. But sometimes the masses are wrong, the hype is unworthy, and I just want my time back. That's exactly what happened with.........................<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" ><br />Bully</span></span><br /></div><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" ><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.laserdisken.dk/billeder/forsidealm/1069947977127297.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://www.laserdisken.dk/billeder/forsidealm/1069947977127297.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" ><br /><br />Directed by Larry Clark</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >2001</span><br /></div><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" ><br /></span></span><br />Just for the record, I liked Kids. I never thought it was a masterpiece like some people did, but I have to admit it was pretty unforgettable and original in it's own way. There was some good acting here and there, and actually some worthwhile cinematography to be seen. I have seen two other Larry Clark movies as well, Gummo and Wassup Rockers, both of which made me want to drink 8 bottles of cranberry juice and eat 3 whole cabbages just to take a nice big stinky piss on the DVD's before returning them to the store. So needless to say, I'm not what you would call a Larry Clark fan. But everyone kept telling me that I was missing the boat, saying "you have to see Bully. Forget all those other ones, that's his best. If you liked Kids, you'll LOVE Bully".<br /><br />Like I said, I did enjoy Kids for what it was. So I took their word for it and expected to like this one on a similar level, just based on the recommendations of more than one person whose taste in movies I respect. RespectED, that is.<br /><br />What a worthless experience.<br /><br />After watching Bully, I realized what I hate about Larry Clark movies the most, pedophilia aside of course. It was a tough decision. So many things to choose from, but I finally did it. What I hate most is the fact that he's so great at capturing how kids really talk in real life. That might sound like a compliment, but it's definitely not, because it just makes you remember that listening to real kids talk is like nails on a chalkboard, if the chalkboard was inside your head and the nails were a shotgun. It's something you usually avoid at all costs in your daily life, or at least you would if you valued your short time on this earth. In other words it's just irritating dialogue<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span>, and not worth filming or watching. Only in rare cases can that kind of teen-talk realism be pulled off with any watchable success (Elephant), and even then, it has to rest on some pretty amazing cinematography, mood, and tension, all of which Bully just doesn't have.<br /><br />Besides all of that, this movie contains what is probably one of the worst cases of bad camera-work that I've ever ever EVER seen in a (non-student) hollywood movie. I'm talking about the scene where the gang of would-be murderers are all in a circle outside the "hitman's" house discussing the plan, and the camera is panning around while they talk. That is easily one of the shittiest miscarriages of direction I've seen on film in years. It was frustrating to watch. I literally had to pause the movie and get a glass of water. Why? I couldn't even tell you. I can only imagine how fried on peyote the editing team must have been to decide it was a smart move to leave that shot in the movie, instead of re-shooting it, or just cutting it out completely for that matter. But more importantly, the fact that Larry Clark can be THAT weak of a technical director at times, and still receive neverending praise from critics and movie geeks alike, just proves that people don't watch Larry Clark movies for the direction, or the acting, or the screenplay. They watch his movies to see people get raped and murdered. Period. They know it's going to happen sooner or later, because they've heard it from 10 other people just like I did. So they watch these 2-hour movies just to see maybe 10 minutes worth of vaginal and head trauma. And that's fine with me, I won't judge anybody. That's just not my thing.<br /><br />Because I'm mentally stable.<br /><br />This movie definitely has some kind of muddled message, and above all, it obviously does want to be a psychological study of these admittedly fascinating characters, but it's painfully clear that those ambitions are far beyond Clark's capabilities as a filmmaker to reach them. As usual.Sandmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03111284293470639368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3905282552646582162.post-43754029590870278662007-10-15T08:50:00.000-07:002007-10-15T11:26:19.763-07:0010/15/07 Reviews<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:180%;" >The Lookout</span><br /></div><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:180%;" ><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://urbanpollution.com/images/works/3035.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://urbanpollution.com/images/works/3035.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Scott Frank made a career in the 90's out of adapting Elmore Leonard novels for the screen, as he did with Get Shorty and Out of Sight. When it came time to cash in that clout and finally push his own first original screenplay for The Lookout, the early word was that David <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Fincher</span> was slated to direct it. But Frank decided to helm the project himself and go for a directorial debut. And while the movie falls short of where it could have been in the hands of a more seasoned director, Frank still handles his own and turns in an incredibly understated <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">noir</span> with overstated characters.<br /><br />The great Joseph-Gordon Levitt plays Chris Pratt, who we first see in a beautifully surreal and tense opening scene with him and his friends in their tuxedos and dresses, Chris at the wheel driving them all away from Senior Prom. He wants to show his girlfriend how driving with the headlights off, the fireflies will <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">illuminate</span> the road and it's as if you can literally reach up and touch the stars. As Chris drives faster and faster with no headlights on a country road, fireflies dotting the sky above their heads, his passengers become more nervous by the second and you know exactly what is coming next. This scene is so well-crafted, that it almost threatens to set the bar too high for the rest of the movie. And in a sense it does.<br /><br />After the crash, which kills two of his friends, Chris is left with short-term memory loss and less-than-perfect motor skills. He's forced to leave little notes around his house to remind him of how/when to carry out even the most mundane daily tasks, a-la-Memento. Just making dinner is a daunting task. What's worse, damage to his frontal lobe leaves him unable to control his anger and curse words at times, and at other times he just tells women he wants to fuck them straight out. Some might call that freedom, but for Chris it's a pretty frustrating handicap in his daily life. Either way, "sorry, my frontal lobe is damaged" has become a new favorite excuse of mine at the clubs.<br /><br />Chris lives with a blind roommate (Jeff Daniels) who he met in physical therapy after his accident, and works as an overnight janitor at a small local bank. He has ambitions of moving up to the position of teller, if only he can prove to the bank manager that he is capable of remembering what money is, much less handling a lot of it. But his ambitions are met with little interest by the boss. Levitt does a solid job of convincing us that his character Chris is at the end of a certain type of rope, tired of being pitied and dismissed because of his handicaps, which makes it all the more believable when he decides to take an offer by a group of criminals to be the lookout in a heist on his own bank. It's believable because Pratt is thirsty for responsibility and power of any kind. Thirsty to prove his competence at something, even if that includes a little <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">getback</span> at some of the people who held him incompetent. But as the day of the heist draws closer, the morality of his decision weighs on him and he becomes unsure of whether or not he even wants a part of the plan anymore.<br /><br />Levitt is on point, as usual, but we should expect no less after great performances in movies like Mysterious Skin and Brick. But for my money, the show-stealer here is Matthew <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Goode</span> as Gary <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Spargo</span>, the mastermind behind the bank robbery. He creates a strong, charismatic, intimidating character who you could easily see convincing anybody to be a lookout on the heist, much less Levitt's weak character.<br /><br />This isn't a masterpiece by any means, and to an extent it isn't even as good as the critical acclaim it has already been showered with this year. The biggest flaw for me was that this was not Levitt's best performance. But at the end of the day, the Lookout is an undeniably well-made, suspenseful, above-average heist flick with far-above-average performances from the entire cast. It works best as a character study, and the fact that we never fully know which two friends died in Pratt's car crash allows director Frank to play some subtle mind games with the audience without resorting to an overplayed hand of gimmicks. See this movie. I can't recommend it enough, and although it won't be on my top ten list for the year, I'm sure it will be on many others.<br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);font-family:arial;font-size:180%;" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" >Tsotsi</span><br /></div><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://papercuts.tscpl.org/tsotsi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://papercuts.tscpl.org/tsotsi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />In my opinion, one of the funniest developments of the last 10 years or so in the movie world is the rise of the "non-actor". Especially in films from South America and Africa, where the method seems to have become somewhat of a new standard. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Ya'll</span> know what I mean............in movies like City of God, where the main characters are played by non-actors, regular people from the actual cities and slums that the movie is set in.<br /><br />The reason I find it funny is because it takes all the air out of this bullshit myth in <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Hollywood</span> that acting is this exacting craft that takes years and years of school and training to perfect. America is the home of the actor who takes himself/herself too seriously. The dirty little secret is, and always has been, that virtually ANYBODY can give a great performance in a movie as long as they are able to connect with the character and live in the moment when the director says "action". And to their credit, some of our greatest actors have admitted this point for decades, including Dustin Hoffman and others.<br /><br />At any rate, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Tsotsi</span> works as a movie because of a non-actor, the lead character. It works because you have never seen a character like him before, he is as unique as anybody you would just happen to meet on the street. His emotions, his fears, even down to his mannerisms, it's all mesmerizing. Without him in the role, it's possible that the storyline would not have been believable at all. It all rests on his insecurities, because without those his motivations would have been forced and false.<br /><br />Great movie. I don't know if it quite deserved the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Oscar</span> win against so many other great foreign films last year, but it's still amazing.<br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >A Mighty Heart</span></span><br /></div><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.thehollywoodnews.com/artman2/uploads/1/mighty_heart.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://www.thehollywoodnews.com/artman2/uploads/1/mighty_heart.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Another one from early this year, A Mighty Heart is just a great piece of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">filmmaking</span>. It's the true story of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">terroristic</span> kidnapping and eventual beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, as seen through the eyes of his wife, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Mariane</span> Pearl (Angelina Jolie).<br /><br />I've only seen one other movie from this director, and that was 2004's highly flawed Code 46, which I watched on a friend's recommendation and wasn't impressed at all. I admit I loved the tone, but it was so sloppy that I actually remember specifically thinking that the movie would have <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">benefited</span> greatly in the hands of a different director. But A Mighty Heart caused me to second-guess myself on that presumption, because it is so well done, so perfectly woven within itself from scene to scene. I have to assume that Michael <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Winterbottom</span> finally found his own style with this one, or at least returned to it. This movie has such a distinct style, especially in the way he handles flashbacks and the contemplative scenes where most other directors would beat you over the head. For instance, there's a scene after Daniel Pearl is kidnapped, where Angelina Jolie (playing his pregnant wife) is in a bathtub and you can see her pregnant belly pushing out of the top of the water, and this is inter-cut with quick shots of an ultrasound of the unborn baby. The film is full to the brim with similarly nuanced scenes. It's all very intelligently done and understated, which is a rare thing to see these days. It doesn't insult the audience's intelligence.<br /><br />One of the best parts about this movie for me was that the true story itself provided an overwhelming amount of sub-text. Almost every scene is flooded with clashing cultures............American authorities talking to Pakistani police talking to Indian journalists talking to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Mariane</span> Pearl, a French woman, who is trying to find her Jewish husband captured by anti-<span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Semitic</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Jihadists</span>. It's an amazing accomplishment for ANY director to translate all of that coherently and make it realistic, especially without depending on hyperbole to shape the minor non-<span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">American</span> characters to make them more digestible for an American audience. But here it all comes together beautifully.<br /><br />I won't even mention the whole "racial controversy" around the casting of this film, because it's beyond silly and not worth <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">anyone's</span> time. It was a non-issue even when it was an issue, and even <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">more so</span> after you actually see the movie. Jolie BECAME <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Mariane</span> Pearl, case closed. I have seen many interviews with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">Mariane</span> Pearl, I followed the story when it happened, and it was amazing to me how much Angelina Jolie looked and sounded like her. Even the mannerisms. It still didn't really sink in for me until I saw an episode of Charlie Rose months later, where Jolie and Pearl were sitting side by side promoting the film, and it gave me a new appreciation for the film to see Jolie's real life personality next to the woman she became. Very striking. I would guess that she will get an <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Oscar</span> nomination for this.Sandmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03111284293470639368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3905282552646582162.post-36315540455001345212007-10-12T18:20:00.000-07:002007-10-15T09:08:53.179-07:00"You's fancy pantses................all a you's"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://industrycentral.net/content/actors/images/polito3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://industrycentral.net/content/actors/images/polito3.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I need a second job. Shit, I need a fifth job. Somebody told me the other day that I would be a great movie critic, blahzay blahzay catfish yap yap yap ralph nader. I admit I wasn't really listening until he said that occasionally movie critics get paid. That part I remember. Sounds great!! But where would I start?? I don't have a journalism degree.......or even a goddamn botany degree for that matter. No respectable publication would ever hire me without any experience no matter how good I write, unless it's not a respectable publication, in which case I'm not comfortable goin' back into THAT line of work. So I asked a friend of mine who is an actual journalist with a degree and experience and a job to give me some advice on where to start. He told me to start a blog. I called him a homo (no homo). I told him blogs were for soccer moms and serial lames. But then he explained that if I started a blog, I could write reviews and use that to show any newspaper or magazine that was dumb enough to ever consider hiring me to their staff.<br /><br />So here we are.............Dirty Ass Aisles, my new blog named after the lovely health hazards they call movie theaters on the southside of Austin Texas. Here I will review as many new movies as I can afford to, but mostly just great movies from all genres and time periods that I love and think everyone should check out because I said so.<br /><br />In conclusion, I already feel like a febreeze-scented soccer mom for creating a blog in the first place, but many people said that they would love to read a movie blog if I ever made one, so if I don't have at least 12 comments on this intro post by noon this sunday, I'm gonna pull a Yakuza-move and cut off my pinky in shame. Thank you.<br /><a href="javascript:void(0)" tabindex="10" onclick="return false;"><span></span></a>Sandmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03111284293470639368noreply@blogger.com0