Careful on the GIS

So tonight I screened the classic "Boys from Brazil" with Gregory Peck and Lawrence Olivier. If you don't know this book or movie, the skinny is that Mengele who was alive and on the lam when the movie came out cloned Hitler 94 times. And there were little Adolphs around the world who were growing up. The movie has everything: fine actors, Nazis, and Steve Guttenberg.

Check it out if you haven't seen it. Worth a look see. However when I was using the Google Image Search to find the poster art you see above, that's not all it came up with. You might imagine that if you search for Boys from Brazil, that perhaps in the internet land that other people might have different needs. Like this photo for example.Stay classy San Diego.

Erin Go Bragh

Greetings Sports Fans, 

I just viewed Michael Clayton, which I enjoyed very much.  There were three actors nominated for Oscars in it.  Tilda Swinton (supporting), for the big corporation's chief counsel.  Tom Wilkinson (supporting), the batshit attorney. And finally George Clooney, the protagonist And of the three of them, Swinton won.  I'm not sure why.  I mean Clooney was Clooney so that's not hard to figure out.  But Swinton was on the screen for not a very long time and didn't blow me away.  

What I did enjoy was the feel of the movie and the pace.  And the credits.  Now mostly the credits are where I jump up and eject the Netflix disc, or try and get busy with the girl I've been plotting to make out with since the beginning of the movie.  But in this case, the credits end with him (Clooney) taking a cab ride through midtown during the day.  There is something cool about watching him just sitting there, the camera focused on a guy in the backseat that seemed to be a good place for the movie to end.  

You know how at the end of the roller coaster there's that long stretch where the air brakes come on and you get to yell at each other "Awesome!" or "Let's go again!" or "Mrs. Hansen, Tommy got stung by a bee and dropped his Epi-pen on that last loop."  I think that part of the ride is like the credits in a powerful movie.  They allow you to sit there and take it in, before getting up and getting back to reality.  And I liked the way the director here chose to do it.  Well played.  

I'm tired of awful movies

So I drove back from MD today and I'm quite tired. So for mindless entertainment, I popped in a movie from my Netflix queue. Next, with Nick Cage and Julianne Moore. This movie is heavy on the mindless part and really short on entertainment.

Oh, and for as awful as Cage is as usual, Moore is 10 times worse. Like turd sandwich bad. Like my eyes and ears are bleeding bad. I should eat this DVD so that no one needs to go through this pain.

That's really all. My friend Chuck told me not to watch this movie. I'm sorry Chuck. I should have listened.

Wait....this seriously got worse. A lot worse. How does a crappy movie have a worse ending? I wouldn't even eat this DVD. It's not fair to my stomach.

The New Year's First Post

Happy 2008 to my handful of faithful readers. I spent the evening playing Wii and eating chinese food with my favorite gun for hire at his swanky digs in Boston. We screened two films this evening on his giant TV. They were the GrindHouse series directed by Robert Rodriguez and Tarrantino. Basically two separate films with similar casts, shot similarly and then screened in theaters together.

The first one, Planet Terror was good. I do love me some Rose McGowan, especially when she has a machine gun as a prosthesis. And Bruce Willis spoke like 9 words, but they were manly words. Asides from that, it was general zombie mayhem with a little Toxic Avenger thrown in for good measure.

The second, Death Proof, was about a guy who kills girls with his car. This was the Tarrantino film and was much slower to get started and then got really fast, really quickly. Good stuff. Vanessa Ferlito was excellent and sounded straight out of Brooklyn which made me smile.

Verdict: Check these films out. And do watch them together for the effect. And the fake preview before Planet Terror is actually becoming a movie.

Tryptophan Movie Roundup

So on a weekend where you're eating more than is humanly possible, and need to break up that eating with 2-3 hour digestion periods, what's better than movies to break it up? So without further adieu....

Deathwatch: This movie was about an evil trench in World War I. I made the fam sit through it the morning of Thanksgiving. It was decent, not great. A little low-budget and it had a neat twist at the end. But it really wasn't worth sitting the stuff before the twist.

Verdict: If you like movies about war or horror then this isn't for you. However if you've been searching for a horror movie about trenches, then you need a life and this probably still isn't the movie for you.

Next up was the much awaited American Gangster, which is the movie about Frank Lucas, the real life black NYC crime boss in the 60's and 70's. I had heard from friends and readers of this blight on the internet that they found the first hour a little slow. I actually liked the whole movie and thought the first hour set up the film nicely. Some highlights in the movie for me:

• The movie was filmed heavily in the 28th Precinct in Harlem, where yours truly used to be a cop. It was neat seeing a lot of the buildings I pulled people out of making cameos.
• Armand Assante was excellent as a local mob kingpin. Really good and subtle work and much more courageous than his work in Partners in Action. Welcome back from TNT movies Armand. We missed you.
  
• The cops in this movie are not New York cops. They're from Jersey, which I'm not thrilled about. The NYPD guys come off looking pretty poor actually. But it's reality.

Verdict: Good movie. Good cast. If you like Denzel, the mob, guns, or pretty much movies in general, you'll like this.

Finally, I finished up with the exciting Ryan Phillipe/Chris Cooper flick, Breech. It covered the takedown of Robert Hanssen, who is thought to be the one of the most damaging spys the U.S. has ever known. Phillipe plays Eric O'Neill who was an FBI kid on the track to be Agent and got asked to spy on Hanssen. And so he does and it leads to Hanssen's capture and then he decides he doesn't want to be an agent, which is virtually a lock for him . Takes guts, but don't worry. He goes on to be a lawyer at one of the biggest firms in the country.

Verdict: Decent spy flick. You won't be unhappy by watching it, but you really won't be missing anything if you don't see it.

That's the scoop for now.

Movie Roundup

Today on Movie Roundup, I've got three movies to share with you. I had meant to write this a few days ago, but then tonight I saw No Country for Old Men, more on that soon.

First up, Host. This is a South Korean sci-fi movie basically involving a creature that steals a little girl and their family's attempts to get her back. It was good, with crisp clear effects. It also had a good sense of humor, much like another Ramblings fave, Kung Fu Hustle. But good story, even if America does come out as partly evil. Though I think given world events, a movie made outside this bubble might be justified in thinking that.

Verdict: Good action/thriller that would never have been filmed the same in the U.S.

Next on the list was Illuminados por el Fuego, or Blessed by Fire. This movie was about an Argentine who has flashback of him and buddies in one of the most lopsided contests since the original Olympic Dream Team took on Angola in 1992. I'm speaking of course of the Falklands War, or the Malvinas war, depending on which side you support. It was a good movie, made even better by the scarce material I had seen on the conflict. It weaves a current story with flashbacks well and tugs at the heartstrings.

Verdict: I liked it. If you are at all interested in the conflict, like war movies, or enjoy hearing spanish, then you will too.

Finally, I took in No Country for Old Men, which is the Coen Brothers new film. It was heavy. It is the sort of movie you find yourself following straight through and then sitting staring when the credits start rolling. It should be called "No Movie for Candy Asses." It was violent and yet slow at the same time, but in a good way. The movie also went against several Hollywood cliches, which I won't go into so as not to spoil them. But I like film and I liked this movie on several levels. Asides from the mentally imbalanced man sitting to my right that apparently thought the whole movie was a comedy, it was a perfect viewing experience.

Verdict: It can wait until DVD, but it can't wait much longer after that.

And that's all for now.

Weekend Movie Roundup

This weekend I saw two movies that came in those awesome red envelopes. I enjoyed both of them tremendously.

Let's start with Zodiac. It was a great movie that seemed to have everyone in it. My favorite surprise character was Anthony Edwards, who fit his role perfectly. The Director apparently wanted someone who represented good and order, so he rang up Dr. Green. The movie did start off with some decent violence and gore, but then it transitioned into the investigation. Oh, and I have come to love Robert Downey Jr. more and more. The movie was well shot and had some great visual effects. Not quite a straight thriller or crime drama, it really hit the mark.
Verdict: If you like crime drama or good movies, rent this.

I followed that the next night by King of New York. This is an older movie (1992), but it holds up well again thanks to terrific casting. Christopher Walken is pretty much awesome in most everything, this being no exception. I really liked Wesley Snipes and Lawrence Fishburne too. I'm not sure I'll ever like David Caruso however. Gritty and dark, it's a great portrayal of 1980's New York City.
Verdict: If you like violence, or Scarface, and perhaps want to remember when the subway cars had graffiti, rent this as well.

Movie Trifecta in Play

Today, after seeing the Sox spank their way to the ALCS, I took in a film at the Somerville Theater. God bless local community cinemas. $7.

Eastern Promises. I won't give a very in depth review. Mostly because a friend of mine has already done a better job reviewing it than I can. It was well done. Cronenberg also did History of Violence with Viggo Mortenson and it's obvious. The film was incredibly violent, but very beautiful at the same time. It's worth a look, but you can wait for DVD.

And then came home and caught the last hour of Field of Dreams. And yes, I bawled like a baby when Costner asks his dad to play catch with him. Happens every damn time.

Catch up...

Alright, I have a bunch of stuff and there's not a lot of time to dilly-dally.


First, Tammy Faye died. I'm sure most of you know this. I can still see her and her husband sobbing "I have sinned" after it was found they were embezelling tons of cash. Her bio is here. I don't really care about this, but it seemed pop culture worthy.

Second, I saw Transformers last night. Oh my God did I love this movie. Some might not remember the older Transformers movie, which my friend Steve showed me. That was good. This is better. The characters were great. John Turturro and Bernie Mac were perfect in parts that didn't eclipse the movie. Also, in a world of CGI and unbelievable action scenes, most people aren't that impressed. I was throughout this entire movie. Very well done melding of CGA and real life action.

I didn't like the fact that this movie, just like the 2nd Matrix was a very long GM commercial, but I guess the sponsors needed to get their bucks worth somehow.

My favorite reason for loving this movie was that sitting in a crowded theater in Burlington, MA surrounded by families and their kids, I felt a kinship with this movie. When Optimus Prime growls "Autobots, roll out," I had this big grin on my face. I watched the cartoon and played with the giant clunky plastic toys, which any normal child will tell you was 10 times cooler than the lame Go-bots. And so there was a great joy in seeing my childhood brought to life, and I secretly loved that I got it and most of these kids just thought this was a cool movie.

Finally today, I am almost all packed for my trip down to Paraguay. I am excited. However, I need to travel through Brazil, which has not been scoring points on aviation safety recently. First there was this. Then there was this last week, which I posted about earlier. And finally this morning, the radar across the country went dead with planes in the air thanks to a short circuit. And the radar snafu happened after Reuters wrote their little summary entitled Brazil's Deepening Aviation Crisis.

Awesome. But the way I look at it, if I can survive Harlem and a few summers of the Rucker, then landing in the Brazilian rainforest is nothing. I hope to post from down there. Don't know about any photos, but I'll at least write a little bit. If I miss you all and need a little America, a place just opened to help with that.

Bandwagon is leaving town...

So I became the last person in the world to see The Departed. I loved it. It was pure Scorcese. My favorite line was probably this one.

"Fuck you, fuckin' queers. Fucking firemen gettin' pussy for the first time in the history of fire or pussy. Go save a cat from a tree, you fucking homos."

Oh, that made me laugh. So go see it if you haven't already. I'm going to buy it. It was a nice way to wind up the weekend, after I worked on Saturday.

Awesome Movie

Run, do not walk, to the video store (Netflix queue) and rent or buy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. One of the darker comedies I've seen in awhile. It stars Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr. Both give great performances. It had action and incredible dialogue and editing. My favorite line was probably when Val Kilmer is standing over an evil henchman and utters the line, "This isn't good cop, bad cop. This is fag and New Yorker. You're screwed."

That and where Robert Downey Jr. is complaining about the L.A. women and says, "I swear to God, it's like somebody took America by the East Coast, and shook it, and all the normal girls managed to hang on." Really funny. It was a perfect day-off afternoon film. I'm going to add it to my library.

Other incidental numbers: The Ford hit 136,000 miles today.
I've lost 10 pounds.