On another side note, We are not going to back down. So Bush ” THE CHILDREN HAVE THE SNIFFLES” lets get going, the camo boys are ready. We have a couple unruly kids in the playground, and we have to start spanking now. Before the good kids get traumatized…..peace out.
Was it big? Yes, Was it Good? Yes, Was it long? Yes, Is there awards in its future? Yes. Was it the best picture of 2002..No. Martin Scorsese-s film about the draft riots of the civil war, and the gang riots for territory in New York has a huge scale and it-s all up there on the screen. Leo does ok, Cameron not so good, but Daniel is simply amazing. Broadbent and Gleason are also amazing, as usual. There are not a lot of fancy Scorsese shots in the film. Long cave walks and occasional slow-mo are the extent of it. There was more of a straightforward Amistad feel to the film, a little dingy and very dark. The shots of five points and the housing of the immigrants around it are very interesting. My biggest problems were Diaz-s accent, the plain boringness of all the second gen actors,and the lack of release at the ending. This film wonderfully builds the tension for 2.5 hours then the ending becomes so large and scattered that it loses its focus. The movie is a great piece of celluloid but not a great film. Once the riots started and the blacks blamed, the galleria audience started to get restless, but nothing to bad. Harry Knowles of AICN nailed it for me: “I was far more interested in seeing the movie that would have ended with that opening battle than the movie that began with it. “
A Republican and a Democrat were walking down the street when they came to a homeless person. The Republican gave the homeless person his business card and told him to come to his business for a job. He then took twenty dollars out of his pocket and gave it to the homeless person.
The Democrat was very impressed, and when they came to another homeless person, he decided to help. He walked over to the homeless person and gave him directions to the welfare office. He then reached into the Republican’s pocket and gave the homeless person fifty dollars.
Now do you understand one difference between Republicans and Democrats?
1. Cheech and Chong are getting back together to make 2 movies!
2. David Fincher will direct MI:3!
3. Battle Royal 2 finished filming
While this year was great, and I do mean GREAT!!!, Next year is gonna blow it’s doors off.
Dont believe me?……broadband users click HERE
When in middle school (1982-he he) this was as far as I got. And by that time I still liked-The Hobbit- the best (easier to read). So after the wonderful Fellowship I knew this one was going to be darker and bigger. I was pumped. The film was great- don-t get me wrong, but I was not as pleased compared to fellowship. Jackson still has a few issues with filming close-ups in battle scenes. But his wide-open battles are very special indeed. I loved Jackson so far and was willing to give him license with the story, but elves at helms deep? I thought the idea was that the elves abandoned the humans till Return of the King?-oh well. Arrow effects are always more fun. And what-s with the small door on the side of helms deep-jeeez. Anyways this was a great sequel and moved the story along nicely. Another good: Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli are becoming friends and brothers, not just warriors with a cause, and I like that a lot. The only thing that made me wince was the transformation of Gandolf. When he was-the Grey- he was very human and had an underlying knowledge. When he became-The White- I was expecting and all powerful, all knowing Super-Gandolf, instead we got an anti-social Alzheimer-s dude with white hair-weird. Maybe it was the artwork on the books that messed me up on that. P.S. Gollum was the bomb! He should get an academy nod (both in effects and the actor who played him)
One more side note:
Dead Zone (third best TV show last season-after 24 and Alias) starts up again this weekend on USA
Frida (3.2 of 5)
Story of the wife of Diego Rivera, a Mexican painter in the 20-s 30-s and 40-s. More tragic than uplifting, but the color palette in the film was amazing. Art Direction and cinematography should get a nod this February. Salma was good; Molina, Golino and Rush were superb. As well as Salma breasts which make about 6 appearances in the movie. The story was jointed and has bad flow, and was probably the reason for limited release in probably one of the hardest markets so far this year. The art to life transitions were wonderful but Amele still takes the cake on this arena. Probably would have done very well in Mexico if it wasn-t in English. Saw at the regal in Rolling Hills, Clean and bright and only adults in the theater. Side Note :Come on chick directors-you need to step it up if you want to be among the greats. Amy Heckerling is the closest but she hasn-t even broken the top 100. I think James Cameron-s ex. Kathryn Bigelow has the best shot since she is still making films.
Extreme Ops (3 of 5)
Ahhh so much potential. Seemed like a fragment of a movie instead of a complete movie. Canada-s own Christin Duguay (The Assignment, Scanners 2, Live Wire) is one of my favorite second tier directors. He is incapable of making a sub par shot, no matter what the budget is. But the is story needed about 4 or 5 more rewrites. Not that what was up there was not good…just incomplete. It-s the story of making a commercial for a Sony camcorder, showing extreme sports people using it in extreme situations. With 80 percent of the commercial done, a very cool commercial I might add, the final shot is a skier using the cam while racing an avalanche. So the crew heads off to Austria. Great shots, great stunts, great dog chase. Bad ending. Saw this at the AMC 9 in Union station in Washington DC. Boy I thought the Galleria was bad. The screen was the same size as mine-literally. They had no VOT center so they put the voices through the left speaker and the music and sound through the right. Lame beyond belief.
Die Another Day (3.8 of 5)
New Blood, New Style, New Meanness, and a New Chick. I haven-t seen bond this pissed since License to Kill. The beginning takes a new twist by capturing and torturing Bond for 14 months-all the way through the title sequence (the weakest so far-but still fun). Bring in new character Jinx and one of the best sword fights I have ever seen, and this bond is worth the price. A few hooky escapes and a lot of coincidences doesn-t make this the best Bond, but almost all the slow parts were cut out to make a fast and nonstop Bond. Saw this in Pentagon City mall in Virginia, not bad considering they were using technology from the 70-s ..old seats, old speakers, old screen.
Rams do it again.
This was going to be one of the hard ones, SD leads there division and are playing well. We come in 5-3 with a 3rd string quarterback. We dominated this game. But every trip to the red zone-except the first one. Resulted in a fumble recovered by SD. We fell behind in the first and it just got worse til the 4th. Then something amazing happened. The Rams from 1999 showed up. We didn-t skip a beat, Issacc did his best catch ever for a touchdown. Wilkins and Bly did the most perfect onsides kick ever, followed by another touchdown strike. When the dust settled, the team I gave up on at the half performed one of the best games of the season. And 3rd stringer Bulger threw for 450 yards. Zowwie!
I Spy (1.5 of 5)
Little hint; Never see a movie at the South Bay Galleria on a Saturday when a Hip Hop (8 mile) is playing. This many black people don-t live in Redondo or Torrance. I guess since they destroyed the theaters in Hawthorne during the riots and cant find a place to park at the Pacific this is the only theater they can goto. But good god, there were 300 people in the lobby and Deb and I were the only whites there-almost in the whole mall, we apparently didn-t get the memo. Anyways-even the added excitement of 4 crying babies and Deb getting hit from flying projectiles (Skittles) couldn-t save this movie. Betty Thomas is a journeywoman director that needs a script, she didn-t get one. She goes out on a limb for no one, and that-s how the movie felt. It was very cheesy throughout, Eddie was over the top and irritating just like METRO and SHOWTIME. Owen is Owen, he has the range of a single pump daisy air rifle from the 60-s. So if you can believe he can play a RIO on an f-18 then I guess he can be an insecure spy. Chases were lame, Famke was hot, but the real surprise was Gary Cole. He was hardly used but very neat when on the screen. So it was in focus and had 3 good lines:-Smells like ass soup in here- was one, otherwise is was not worth the matinee price. I don-t know maybe I-m just bitter about writing a short story about 15 years ago about a stolen optical pass though camouflage airplane called the Chameleon, and that-s what the main spy gadget is-grrrrr!
Rams Win !! 3 in a row. We dominated AZ, even though the score looked close. I was down in San Diego for a Volleyball tourney and a few Birthdays. My Brother Mike wrenched his back on his European Vacation. So he was barely mobile. Anyway we went to a local La Mesa Bar to watch the game. TV-s were small but the food was good, wings above average. And the people were nice. The 20- TV with the ram game was 40 feet away, and OK for me but Deb had a hard time seeing it. So hopefully I am going to be able to stay home for the rest of the season, or cry a lot.
Stat of the Week: Attacks on civilians by Palestinian armed groups :128 attacks / 350 civilians, most of them Israeli, were killed since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa intifada in September 2000.
All the Answers in the Movies:
1. Is the American flag over Mecca the only way to solve all of this? – West Wing
2. Nuke the site from orbit – only way to be sure – Aliens
3. Well you know what I’d Do – I’d start blastin’ – Rio Bravo
Everything looks broke, I thought the defense would step and make it a real tight game. Nope didn’t happen, may never happen this year. Dammit. So from this point on…I would like a win against Oakland and really want a win against Washington (Only cause I am going to the game) Other than that…bring on the draft!!.
Latest dose of the democrat mentality:
NY Times Pool: When asked whether it was fair for Lautenberg to replace Torricelli on the ballot, 54 percent in the Quinnipiac poll said no, but only 30 percent said they would not vote for Lautenberg because of the switch.
Red Dragon (4 of 5)
A closer adaptation of the book than Mike Mann-s MANHUNTER, but creatively it was on the same level. While Ralph Fiennes and Emily Watson kicked ass over Manhunter (sorry Joan Allen but she did- The BJ sealed it for me), everything else goes to Mann-s version. Yes Cox-s Hannibal was very good and creepier because he was just like you and me. While it sounds negative, I give both films above average marks. The ending in red dragon was more fun. Edward Norton is fun watch, but lacks the intensity that William Peterson brought to the character. And I would hope that the someone like Farina would be my FBI contact, not the drab Keitel. Most of the movie was an on going comparison for me. Until Emily and Ralph were onscreen, then all comparisons were turned off and I just enjoyed the film. Went to the AMC 30 in Ontario Mills, they have 4 big theaters and this was one of them. A perfect presentation, considering AMC was the source.
Well, it got as bad as it could get. We play Dallas, who looked bad opening day as well as on Hard Knocks on HBO. Should be the easy team we need to get back on track. First play hand off to Marshall, 20 yard run-. and-fumble! My god, could this get any worse-Warner back to pass-picked off under pressure then compound fracture of pinky (out 8 weeks)-ahhhhhhhhhh!!! It-s only the first drive!!! Enter Jamie Martin- 4 beautiful passes-.all dropped by receivers. The Superbowl run is over. After the half the defense plays perfectly and Jamie controls the clock. But we lack High-Octane. Then we lose to the 3rd worst team in the last 2 seconds.
Good News: Ummmmmmmm-maybe more reps for Jamie can make us a .500 team. And rooting for a .500 team to win is usually fun (no high expectations). I would feel better if Pace on O and Williams on D were back. But maybe we can slide by till they are ready. If we can get Warner back by Philly game in December and the defense does what it has been doing all year, we can win our weak division.
P.S. 4 and 0 Chargers are looking good and fiesty!!
Deb and I celebrated our 3-year anniversary on October 1st, she bought me Outback and I got her 2 hours at DuBunne.
1) The next time you see an adult talking during the playing of the National Anthem…..kick their ass.
2) When you witness firsthand someone burning the American Flag in protest…kick their ass.
3) If you witness someone calling an enlisted Marine “Sir,” stand back…..a Marine will kick their ass.
4) Roseanne Barr’s singing of the National Anthem is not a blooper….it was a disgrace and disrespectful. Laugh, and sooner or later your ass will be kicked.
5) Next time Old Glory passes by during a parade, get on your damn feet and pay homage to her by placing your hand over your heart and quietly thank the military member or veteran lucky enough to be carrying her……of course, failure to do either of those will earn you a severe ass kicking.
6) What Jane Fonda did during the Vietnam War makes her the enemy. The proper word to describe her is “traitor.” Hate her or else (asses will be kicked).
7) Last but not least, whether or not you become a member of the military, support our troops and their families. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas that you enjoy with family and friends please remember that there are, literally, thousands of troops overseas wishing they could be with their families. Thank our military for the sacrifices they make every day. Without them, our country would get its ass kicked.
Ram Game Three: Loss-.Dammit.
Rams lose on Monday Night Football and I have become numb too it all. I see what is going on and it kills me that we can-t overcome it. For the last three years we had so much power that overcoming the loss of key players and mistakes was easy. Now we seem one dimensional, and it-s never the same dimension that fails. We came out good, sure 91 yards to a TD is great, but Warner was throwing some of the worst passes I have ever seen. On the second drive we lost marshal and our key against Tampa Bay. Now all they had to do was get Warner. St. Clair gets better each game, but this was a great front 4 he was going against. Warner was knocked silly, and the only defense that can beat us :COVER 2, TB did perfectly. 2 of the 4 picks down the stretch were Warner-s fault. But it was Marshall-s replacements that hurt us by doing bad routes, Warner was throwing where they were supposed to be, and picks resulted. Trung looked horrible, but third string rookie RB Gordon looked great. Also playing great was our defense, almost all of their points came from their defense, because we shut their offence down. We played at 60% not enough to beat TB, but should be OK against the Cowboys-.maybe.
Updates:
Put up a new Movie Trivia Contest in Daily Fun.
My top car choice for next year has a new website: The Honda Element
The Banger Sisters (2 of 5)
An-Indy-, dammit, about 2 groupies from the 60-s that meet each other after 30 years. Hawn is the Penny Lane character from-Almost Famous-, and Sarandon is the-Faruza Balk- character who grew up to be a straight laced mom. The producers shoot for a R-rated Disney flick. But it comes off more like a flick about 50 year old irresponsible sluts. And the mix hurts it in the long run. The one bright point is Jeffery Rush. An anal-retentive innocent, think spacey-s character in-Pay It Forward-, who gets caught up with Hawn along the way. The F-words (and pictures of all the celebrity penises they had) are the only things that made the film R, and it didn-t need them. Saw in San Diego, Indy = Bad Sound, so that didn-t matter.
Saw the game at Bar behind Qualcomm Stadium, A nice little place that reminded me of the sports bar at Mammoth. Will probably go there again for the AZ game.
Angels tied up the World Series, a very exciting one I might add, 1-1 this weekend also. Game 3 tonight in SF. I have a meeting at HOOTERS tonight to pick up some HK DVD-s from jimmy. Hopefully it wont be to rowdy.
White Oleander (1.5 of 5)
Not only was this film a Chick-Flick it was even edited like one; fractured scenes/thoughts/plot. It had good acting and an intriguing story line, but failed in delivering the goods. Saw the film with my Mom and Deb, and all three of us were asking questions after the film. Pfeiffer did her best acting to date, of a woman all men should be weary of. Hell every woman in this film warrants running away from while they are asleep. This was an Indy film with big backing so the failure gets multiplied a few times. Two critics summed it up for me : ROGER EBERT–The performances are often touching and deserve a better screenplay- and PETER TRAVERS-”…the estrogen overload damn near did me in.” Saw in San Diego at the Rancho, nothing in the picture was big screen quality so the lack of big sound and clean picture at the theater was no big deal.
Sorry I haven-t written, Kind of a weird chain reaction weekend.
Sunday I watched my new Shaolin Soccer DVD ..AGAIN-.I think that is 6 times now.
See review below. Then on Sunday I had a Double whammy-My Birthday and the most frustrating Ram game I have ever seen.
For my birthday deb got me a new rams emblem for my car and a new dodger shirt from my yearly DODGER/PADRE game with the family. And she even decided to cook for me on my-Football Day/Sunday-. All was great, and then all fell apart. Giants went up 10-0 when a tipped pass landed in Jason Sehorn (who Martz just happened to call overrated not to long ago) it was a truly slow start. And just was we were starting to heat up, god stepped in and told the refs:-THE RAMS SHALL NOT WIN THIS GAME!- The next 2 quarters showed some of the worst penalty calls I have EVER seen. A P.I. on Aneas when he was in front of the receiver trying to catch the ball, a fumble called back cause Collins was ruled down, 3 off sides never called and bouncing INT. Jesus!! When we had the ball going down for the win with 2 min left-I knew a pick was coming…and I was right. Maybe god just wants us to start with a challenge. Oh well, off to Tampa.
-A Palestinian boy was shot dead today while stoning an Israeli tank.– AP
Boy, I hope the other kids were watching, cause the-Things Not To Do List- doesn-t seem to have enough entries in Palestinian Territories.
Shaolin Soccer (4.7 of 5)
This is the Hong Kong Version not the Miramax-Kung Fu Soccer- or whatever they are going to call it. The DVD is subtitled in English but there is more action than words, so it works out just fine. It-s a comedy/action film about a down and out soccer star and a middle-aged streetwalker. But this is no ordinary streetwalker, in his youth he and his orphan friends were trained by shaolin monks, til the teachers death while the boys were in their teens. Each of the boys mastered a skill: Iron Leg, Iron Head, Iron Shirt, etc.. The Ex Soccer star sees the-iron leg- in action in a street fight and comes up with a plan to create a soccer team to play in the national championship. The old friends are gathered, and the training begins. There is a love story, good vs. evil, and much more. What made this different were the effects. Hong Kong effects have been sub-par compared to US digital. And while not perfect , the effects make the story fun and very watchable. I grew up on 70-s Kung Fu movies, and the same people who loved those films made this film. Stephen Chow is considered the Jim Carrey of Hong Kong, but the fact that he writes/directs/produces and stars in this great film kind of moves him above that. I can see why Disney (Miramax) wants this film, a little trimming and a great family film can come from it.
Whitney Houston at Superbowl XXV
John Byner-s BIZARRE on HBO (Canadian skit comedy show with nudity) and 18 year old named Celine Dion in 1982.
And Kelly Clarkson in the Final Episode of the-2002 American Idol-.
Kelly was amazing, and I even cried when she could not sing her now signature song because of her tears of joy. Pop music is not about singers it-s about music; Catchy songs with people who cant even hit the second registers. But there are singers, good singers, there are just hidden away on Broadway and opera houses and obscure sections of Record stores. Great singers have tried to cross over into the MTV trash by converting to Divas or Michael Bolton, but with mixed results. Simon would smart to steer her away from MTV and more toward VH1. P.S. if you want to see something truly amazing check out her version of ‘Surrender’ 3 weeks ago. It’s available on the American Idol Website. She had strained her vocal chords for 3 months..but still powered through the song and made it even more special.
My favorite quote thus far:
-Whether Kelly has the savvy to support a career is open to question, but she has earned a chance to try. Like an athlete, she marshaled her talents and performed under incredible pressure. Compare that to the dullards on Big Brother, who hope to become TV stars by complaining about each other’s hygiene.–USA Today
Speaking of Big Brother, we are getting down to the nitty-gritty. The-Perfect Gay Man’ Marci has flipped some mental switch this last week to turn from Homo to Homicidal. Amy and Roddy have taken the brunt of his anger. HOH is power and you know what power does. The other thing Deb and I have noticed is that Roddy has kept all of his deals, and everyone has broken theirs. And they blame him. Nice Society kids. I still pick Josh or Dani (boy does Deb hate Dani)
Blue Crush (3.3 of 5)
Chicks Only version of NORTH SHORE. A few really good visuals, and some truly bad ones too. This is a chick flick, Not that-s it-s mushy and relies on emotions that men keep hidden, but the underlying story is about female empowerment without degrading men…and that-s a good thing. It-s about finding you place in life, and the friends that help you along the way. As-amateur entering a pro competition- movies go-it-s beats most of them (does anyone remember RAD or HOT DOG the movie) with the exception of North Shore, Aspen Extreme and maybe Tin Cup.
The new technology helped non-surfers compete at pipeline, with mixed results (facial roto-scoping is still difficult with hand held cameras). As far as the surfing footage went Endless Summer 1+2, North Shore and Big Wednesday still were more effective. Saw this in San Diego at the Rancho, A 2.35 movie shown on a 1.85 screen with shitty sound. But I have become used to it when I see a movie in SD.
Undisputed (2.8 of 5) Probably the weakest of the films I have seen in the theaters this year. Acting was top notch across the board, but the cinematography and action direction was horrendous. Grainy and obstructed by foreground objects for more than 80% of the action sequences. Walter Hill just can-t make cheap movies. He needs 60 Mil or the film just looks like crap. Interesting story idea, but that-s it, no body is flushed out, and nobody is likable. Ving is a bad MF and does a stand out job. Saw this in San Diego at the Rancho, with the worst sound yet (2 blown speakers). And to top it all the lamp was on it last legs, arcing at about 30%. It was almost like watching the movie with the lights on.