Fast Food Nation

I viewed Fast Food Nation, the latest by Richard Linklater. I really like Richard Linklater, there has not yet been a movie by him I didn't like. He normally does dialogue heavy films that are very real and smart. He is also incredibly leftist, and it shows in most of his movies. I'm pretty lefty myself, so I dig that, though I find some of his views to be really out there. Fast Food Nation is much the same. You could probably tell from the beginning this was going to be a liberal movie, being that it's based a book that rips on the fast food industry and the cattle killing industry. But Linklater takes it a step farther, and rips on everything big business.

This movie had a big cast, with a number of small cameos from names like Bruce Willis and Ethan Hawke. The main stories were: Greg Kinnear, a marketing exec for Mickey's investigating reports that there are fecal coliforms (bacteria that is found in fecal matter) in the meat, the fictional fast food chain in the movie, Wilmer Valderrama and Catalina Sandeno Moreno, two illegal migrant workers just over from Mexico that work with UMP, a corporate meat packager and slaughter house, and Ashley Johnson who was the little girl on Growing Pains, a high school student that works at Mickey's that gets involved with a bunch of left-leaning college students.

To start, the movie was good. I really liked Kinnear's story arc as he learns that the execs of UMP are knowingly selling filthy meat, and that Bruce Willis' character, who is the head of UMP or something, I never really caught what, and his boss at Mickey's are at odds, and he could lose his job both if he tells of the filthy meat, or if he doesn't tell. Being the human sellout he is, he takes the easy way out, and just goes on marketing crap. It's the most interesting storyline, in my opinion. The storyline with the Mexicans was also good, but very sad, especially when it gets Marion Silver-esque (requiem for a dream).

Greg Kinnear's story only goes on for about half the movie. At the conclusion of his arc, Ashley Johnson's begins. This one was just cheesy, and it had Avril Lavigne. Who the hell casted that? Patricia Arquette played her mother, and Ethan Hawke was her uncle. And here's where I come to my biggest gripe. Ethan Hawke was basically a proxy for Linklater's leftist views. I could have handled it if he were the only one. However, these characters are scattered throughout the film, from the college students Ashley meets, to the rancher that Greg Kinnear talks to (played by Kris Kristofferson). It's just constant, all these different characters bitching about Corporate America, how money is all that matters, even going on about the timber and coal industries. I mean, I get it, yes, I hate how powerful those corporations are, and how like six corporations own everything. But I came here to watch a fictional interpretation of the book Fast Food Nation, not to hear MORE rants. It is like Linklater is just getting desperate at the lack of change in the world. I just hope this doesn't become a normal thing, using every opportunity to rant about the current state of things.

But yeah, I could go on more, it really disappointed me that he did that. It was purely a directorial decision I think to go that route. There is a lot about the terribleness of the fast food industry in there, but it really did not need anything more. Ethan Hawke's character just pushed it over the line, he was so ridiculous. Everything he said was some leftist proverb to live by. I'm guessing he was stoked to play that role, but it was so pointless.

I also really don't like Wilmer Valderrama, primarily because he hosts that insult show on MTV. I really don't like Fez either. And no, he doesn't really do anything in this movie either. CSM (Catalina, not cigarette smoking man) and Kinnear put on the best performances. Bobby Cannavale is a huge bastard, but pretty good to watch.

When Kinnear is talking to Kristofferson about UMP, Kristofferson mentions how bad the kill floor is. You really don't want to go to the kill floor. The movie still goes there at the end, and it is foul, and awful.

Ok, I think I got it all out. Drexel needs to stop showing previews of movies that are already out, i.e. Bobby and Shut Up and Sing. They also need to stop playing movies like Shut Up and Sing.

Stranger than Fiction

First, quick thing, Fountain Soundtrack is awesome, check out The Last Man or Stay with me for an idea of how great it is. Death is the Road to Awe also is striking, it's the song from the climax of the movie, it is so epic.

So, I saw Stranger than Fiction, starring Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, etc. Plot is Ferrell starts hearing someone narrating his life, the narrator being Emma Thompson who uses him as a character in his book, and she is going to kill him off. Ferrell lives his life to the fullest while also trying to find the author to stop her from killing him.

Now this whole plot device is never explained, so don't expect there to be any resolution in that regard. Just try to enjoy the movie, ignoring any reason.

Will Ferrell puts on a superb performance. Normally the comedy actor we all know and love, he plays an IRS auditor absolutely brilliantly. He is innocent, and this helps the romance plot with Maggie Gyllenhaal work so much better. Normally, I wouldn't believe an auditor and auditee could fall in love, considering the circumstances, but Ferrell plays such a genuinely nice guy, you believe it. The other performances are great, nothing bad at all. The mood was odd, not bad, and overall I think it worked. There were comedic parts, there were parts that were meant to be sad, but weren't because they weren't done very... sadly I guess? Yet, it was quirky in a way. Not indie film quirky, but rather it looked at the world in a sweeter, more skewed fashion.

Gripe Time... The movie slogged down into Clicheville in the middle portion. At this time, Hoffman tells Ferrell to live his life as he always wanted to if he knows he is going to die. So, Ferrell lives his life to the fullest. All the stuff about the narration is forgotten so Ferrell can live his life to the fullest. All nice, expect this story has been told countless times. This is used so Ferrell can woo Gyllenhaal, and there is some nice stuff, but I really don't like the "living life to the fullest" story and I thought it was a cheap way to fool me. Luckily, the narration plot was brought back and I was happy. In the long run, the plot for the whole movie was only average. The lack of any sound explanation did deter from full enjoyment, even if I did say to just ignore logic at the beginning of this review. I aslo felt they could have gone deeper into looking at books, how books are written, what makes up a good book etc... although I guess that would have been too smart for a Hollywood movie.

All in all, this was a good movie. Don't expect your world to be shaken to its' core. It was worth seeing for Ferrell's performance, but the plot demanded a lot of suspension of disbelief.

Coming This WEEK!- Fast Food Nation and For Your Consideration

My tentative Top Ten

I made this list last week after reading some other tentative top tens around the internet world. There's still about 36 or so days left in the year, which is going to be a lot more movies, since December is pretty packed, so there is still an opportunity for other movies to jump in this list.

Couple of other quick things... I don't remember for the life of me when I saw The Squid and the Whale, but I don't believe it was this year. I don't have my 2005 list with me, so it might be on there, I don't remember. Anyway, if it was this year, it would be around 5 or 6, but I don't think it was this year.

So here it my current top ten, subject to change by Dec 31st.

Honorable Mention- Little Miss Sunshine, Babel

10- Bubble- I loved how realistic this movie, for an experimental film, it was a success imo, and i swear, they could have been filming people i know in southern ohio, and i wouldn't have known the difference

9- The Proposition- a great modern western... well the movie is set in the 19th century, but it was made now... anyways, great acting, i love guy pearce and ray winstone, the violence reminded me of oldboy in how it's almost a vibrant character itself... great story about brotherhood too

8- Tsotsi- i loved the music in this movie, and it was just a feelgood movie

7- Match Point- when i first saw this in january, i seriously thought nothing was going to unseat it as the best movie of the year... it's really a 2005 movie, but i start my lists Jan 1st... this script is ridiculous, john rhys-meyers character is such a bastard, the way the plot twists around

6- The Prestige- christopher nolan can tell a story like nobody else... i will love nearly any movie if it is plotted and paced expertly, and with this, nolan once again shows brilliance... sure, i didn't like some of the twists, but bale and jackman's performances alongside a very smart story won me over

5- Lady Vengeance- had to rent this one, but i love the way chanwook park went with this movie... it was a bit lighter than oldboy, but his creation of these incredibly unique, funny and original characters and situations, while having a very dark storyline is great, i want more and more of him using this type of mood

4- Brick- most anticipated movie in a long time for me before i went and saw it, after hearing how it did on the festival circuit... this was a first movie for the director, and he created this beauty... if you can allow yourself to get taken up in the high school / private investigator amalgamation that is brick, you will see the most original hybrid film in a long long time

3- A Scanner Darkly- this movie was hated by a lot of critics, but i dug it hard, for personal reason, and because i love philip k dick and richard linklater... this movie was a super mix of comedy and social commentary, and i don't know why i have it so high, but i couldn't bear placing it any lower

2- The Fountain- even more anticipated than brick... most beautiful film i have seen in a long time... it says something about the strength of film this year, that this is only my number two film... i just saw it 2 days ago, and i am still shaken up by it, in a good way... again, hated by critics for being too different

1- The Departed- oh man, the best scorsese since goodfellas, the best crime movie since heat, the best acting by every single person involved, the funnest time you could have in a movie theater or at home, i know it's an HK film that was remade, but scorsese killed it, this movie was so well done, i did not expect this

still to come- Children of Men, Little Children, maybe Pan's Labyrinth, blood diamond, apocalypto, bobby, for your consideration, the good shepherd

Death as a form of creation

Happy Thanksgiving!

Now for my review on The Fountain.

As I sat waiting for this movie to begin, I was shaking. Well, maybe not totally shaking, but squirming in my seat, anxious for what was about to begin. I have been waiting months, maybe over a year for this movie. I can't remember when I first heard about it, but I have been dying. I saw Requiem for a Dream and Pi in high school and Darren Aronofsky instantly became one of my favorite directors. I have been following this project ceaselessly since day one, and now, finally, I was sitting in the theater, and the turn off your cell phones thing was playing.

The Fountain... woo wee. To sum it all up, it was everything I could have hoped for, and nothing I expected. That line has probably been used before. The Fountain was as innovative, original, and genius as anything I would expect from Aronofsky, and yet like nothing I had seen before. After leaving, I LIKED the movie, but was not head over heels for it. And then I started thinking.... ok, don't think of this movie as you think of most movies that are released. I started thinking of it as rather a dissertation on life and death, and a way to look at death, a happier way if you will, put to film. The movie is not THE STORY of Thomas through history trying to find a way to save his wife. It's the theory that death is a form of creation, and from everything that dies, that energy springs forth and can help or create something else. Of course this is an obvious natural law of the universe, but no one really thinks about it, much less makes movies about it.

I can totally understand why people might be turned off by the movie. (though the people at the showing I was at that were incredibly audible in their leaving of the movie was absolutely unnecessary, you can leave a movie, you don't need to act like a bull in a china parlor walking down the stairs) If you go into this movie expecting that story I was talking about before, you will be disappointed. If you let yourself be treated like a person with a brain, you will love this.

There is so much I loved. I loved how all the tenets of a great movie were there. There was conflict, there was character development, there was plot. But it was all done so differently. They are big ideas, but there isn't a twist in this movie or anything like that. But the way the end works, the ingenious way the Present Day and Future Thomas's come to learn that death is OK, make me think of those late 90's, early 00's movies. Like where it goes back to where Thomas has the choice to work with the monkey or go to spend time with his dying wife, and he chooses the latter. Ok, maybe it's not at all like Memento or any of those, but the story was expertly crafted as any of those.

The smaller things... the music was beautiful, especially the music set during the 26th century, with the electronic overtones. I do not know when I last heard music this good. Clint Mansell is brilliant.

The visuals, the art, the nebula. I cannot say enough about this without reusing expressive adjectives. It is simply the single most beautiful movie I have ever seen in terms of visuals.

That first scene in the Mayan Temple, the violence as Tomas moves forth. The four minutes that the Inquisitor was in the movie, and yet I want to see a film based around that whole character.

If I had any gripes, it might be that the movie drags in the middle, where the melodrama mounts. That's it.

I had some personal issues this past summer about death, dumb stuff like that. This movie struck a personal note with that, so again, another reason I am enamored with this movie.

I feel awful this movie is getting shellacked by critics. It shouldn't be. It is superb, and yet, in all likelihood, we will be lucky to ever have a movie with the artistic genius that this movie had to come out in a long long while. The local independent movie chain isn't even playing this movie. They have four theaters throughout town, and not one is playing this, not even the one that plays larger releases. I don't understand why AMC is playing it, and yet the indie chain that prides itself on not playing Hollywood schlock isn't playing one of the smartest things to come out of Hollywood in ages. It's almost enough to make it not like them anymore, but there's nowhere else to go for indies and fake indies.

It's really really sad after seeing this movie. I look at the list of movies I am going to see in the future, and there's some really really good ones, yes. But there is nothing like The Fountain, and I am truly afraid there never will be again. I will just hold out hope that young geniuses like Aronofsky, PT Anderson, and Christopher Nolan are allowed to continue crafting these ridiculously awesome movies, that crap like Hostel, Nameless Remake, Soulless Urban Dance Movie, and Vapid Animated Film don't ruin film for the rest of us.

Casino Royale

I saw Casino Royale!!!

This is I think, the 21st Bond movie. I've never been a massive fan of James Bond. I loved GoldenEye, but all the Brosnan ones following that were awful. They were boring and unrealistic. Occasionally, I'll catch one of the early Bonds on TV, they don't look bad, but not nearly good enough to keep me tuned in. I dig Daniel Craig, I liked him in Munich and Layer Cake and Road to Perdition. He's just a cool dude, and a major reason I wanted to see Casino Royale.

This is a prequel of sorts for Bond, detailing how he became a double 0, and his very first mission, which was to win a high stakes poker game with Mads Mikkelsen, a banker to the worlds' terrorist. Mads Mikkelsen looked really familiar, and it turned out he was Tonny in the Pusher trilogy.

I am going to be very disjointed in this review, because that is how I want to be.

There is a great scene in the beginning where Bond is chasing a guy who happens to be a master of Le Parkour, the stuff you see on District B13. I don't think a lot of people in the audience had seen this stuff before, so they were shocked by the moves and jumps the guy was making. It was also a funny contrast between the chased and Bond, whereas the chased would make this amazing jumps and moves, and Bond would just crash through walls.

This movie was an all around great action movies. I think there are three types of action movies. The Very Realistic (ala Michael Mann action movies) The Not So Realistic (Bond movies and a lot of the other mainstream action movies) and the Hyper Unrealistic (Running Scared, Crank). They all have their good and bad. This one is at the forefront of the Not So Realistic. I mean, of course you gotta suspend disbelief at parts, it's just an action movie. But there is still a glimmer of realism there, and the characters are so well fleshed out. The story, which sounds simple, is also great, and the poker game, I wish it had gone on twice as long. Unfortunately, it ends rather abruptly.

My gripes comes in with plot mainly. For one, as the card game plotline comes to an end, there is a very long denouement-like period. However, it is a false ending, because there is still another large action scene to come. This pacing just did not work. The denouement period is where Bond and Vesper Lynd, played by Eva Green, fall in love and run off to Italy together. It all comes together in the end however, I just think it would have been aided by better pacing.

Also, there were small nitpicks that threw me. Biggest example being, at the beginning of the movie, Bond and another guy are tailing Le Parkour Guy. Le Parkour receives a text that says Ellipsis. Eventually, Bond gets that cell phone and traces it to a guy named Dimitrios that texted him that message. Later, Dimitrios leaves a bag in Miami for a guy that dresses up like an airport security guard. The guy uses the Ellipsis code on a door at the Miami airport, in a plan to blow up a plane. Now, why did Le Parkour receive that text? I would be fine with it if he was the original plane-bomber, but he was COVERED in burns. Is he seriously going to pass for a guard? I don't know if he spoke English either.

Also, Vesper gets a text from a guy working for the good guys at the card game, and says "Mathis (the guy) needs me," and leaves. Suddenly, Bond says "Mathis!", realizing Mathis is double crossing them, and chases after Vesper (too late though, Vesper gets caught). Now, where did this moment of clairvoyance come from? How did he suddenly just know Mathis was setting Vesper up to get kidnapped?

So, Casino Royale was a very good action movie, with only a few problems with plot and pacing. It was also a great Bond movie, and I would definitely watch any Bond movie that had Daniel Craig in the lead role.

The Fountain tonight!!

Horrorfest at Lennox

This past weekend, a small distributor called After Dark released some low budget horror films to around 450 theaters to be shown in an event called Horrorfest. Only two of the movies interested me, and I couldn't see one because it was only being shown during the Michigan game. This idea was real cool though, so I needed to support it somehow. I was cognizant of the fact that the movies weren't going to be very amazing, but this idea of showing a number of lesser known movies at a larger movie chain for a weekend is great.

So I chose The Hamiltons. The premise is that these four kids' parents have died, and they are taking care of themselves. Now they're older, the oldest is maybe mid to late 20s, so they're not like 8 year olds, and this is a real sad movie. Well, the oldest three are all killers it turns out and cannibals at that. The youngest, our protagonist, hates this life, but loves his family too much to turn them in. The film goes much deeper than most horror films, especially incredibly low budget ones. It is also pretty funny and satirical.

Of course, the acting isn't that great, and you probably haven't heard of anyone in the movie. That's probably the greatest fault with the movie. It is never too distracting, but the acting just comes across as cheesy at points, though I wonder if it is trying to seem 1950's sitcomish on purpose. The oldest brother wants an ideal family, and he tends to act somewhat ridiculous. His inability to act doesn't help matters.

The movie ends on a couple of pretty good twists that I enjoyed. All in all, this was quite the good movie considering the low budget. If you can allow yourself to not be bothered by the lower than what you might be used to production values, than you will like an entirely different horror movie that is funny, and looks at family in a very interesting way.

Not a whole lot to say about the movie, as you can see.

On a side note, there were A LOT of people at the movie, which surprised me because there was not a lot of marketing for the event. There were also a LOT of little kids there (like around 10 yrs old), and considering this was a pretty hard R rated film, that surprised me.

I am seeing Casino Royale tonight and Fountain Tomorrow, good times.

The Blue Man Group

I saw the Blue Man Group last night, Dina had cheap tickets.

For those that are stupid and don't know who the Blue Man Group is (this is unnecessary, since my only reader went with me to the BMG show, so she knows who they are), they are a group of blue humans that are very good at playing drums and PVC pipes. For this show, the theme was how to be a rock megastar, so they were learning how to do that, and we as an audience got to watch.

It was fun, but man, some of those songs that were sung. What the hell? They were really weird, depressing, poorly written songs, I didn't understand. Well, to be honest, I don't really understand the whole Blue Man Group philosophy, don't care to either. They did cover Pink Floyd and The Who though, that was sweet. Though a woman sang Baba O'Riley, and nothing against women, but she did awful.

In 28 hours, The Game will be begin.

Nickelback sucks.

Nickelback tried getting special tickets to the OSU/Michigan game, but were turned down which is awesome. I hate Nickelback and I hate them more for thinking they're worthy of special treatment. On the same note, Rascal Flatts is getting special tickets and they suck, but not as much as Nickelback. I think Nickelback is the worst band of the decade, worse than Creed.

Anyway, 2 more days until The Game. OSU 27, UM 17 is my current prediction.

Babel

I finally saw Babel last night. I guess you could say I was disappointed. I had incredibly high hopes for this movie. I was anticipating it greatly. But I will explain.

Babel is a international tale, four stories, all connected in some way. There is Brad Pitt/Cate Blanchett, a married couple who just recently had a baby die of SIDS, and are trying to work through their problems by taking a trip to Morocco. There are Moroccan farmer boys that are given a rifle to use against jackals. There is the nanny of Pitt and Blanchett's kids, who is trying to get to her sons wedding in Mexico, but cannot find someone to watch over the kids. And there is a deaf Japanese teenager who is upset over her mothers suicide among other things. All of these tales are told deftly, though the chronology doesn't always match up. I liked that though.

I think my high expectations are what hurt my enjoyment of this film. I heard that it was an intense thriller from start to finish, which wasn't true. When I realized I wasn't feeling incredibly excited, I was wondering whether or not I was getting into the movie well enough. I did not get into the Pitt/Blanchett storyline until near the end of it, and I felt there were moments in all four storylines that were just pushed for dramatic effect instead of realism. I hope this movie doesn't Crash on me. Haha, pun. But seriously, I liked Crash after I saw it. And then I started to actually think about Crash, and I hated it and was shocked that it won Best Picture. Babel and Crash are very much along the same lines, following disparate storylines, and commentating on the state of affairs in the world today. I think the difference comes in that Crash was not acting like there was any hope, there is racism, everyone is inherently racist, Ryan Phillippe kills Larenz Tate even though he seemed like the least racist of the bunch. Whatever. Babel at least acts like there is hope. One of my largest complaints with the world today is addressed with Babel also, that being how people are so separated by culture/politics/language, it is so hard to find unity. Babel manages to be about that, but also find light at the end of the tunnel. If Babel were Crash, it would have ended on an incredibly down note, and there would only be the statement "the world is divided, there is no solution." But Alejandro Inarritu is not Paul Haggis, thank heavens.

The direction in this movie is superb, the acting is as well. Really, EVERYTHING in this movie but some of the plot is great. But the Moroccan plot was predictable from the get-go, and the only thing I was feeling was "oh gee, i hope no one in these threads die." Nothing against Babel, but there should be more to a movie than that. Of course you don't want non-villains to die in any movie. The Mexico plot was much less predictable, and I really liked this one until Amalia left the children in the desert to find help. It's not that I did not understand why she left them there, I just feel this one of those moments where the story was going to a place it didn't need to go, it was just being manipulative in order to create tension. And the Tokyo storyline, while this one was the best done cinematically, thematically it left me wanting. I have never seen a movie about a deaf girl being treated like a mutant, but again, I felt it could have gone deeper than deaf girl looking for love in all the wrong places because she is deaf.

Gael Garcia Bernal is awesome, he had a small role in this movie, but he is just so awesome.

In the end, it's partially my fault that I didn't enjoy Babel as much as I would have liked. I just can't set my expectations that high. But this was in my top 4 movies that I'm looking forward to from now until mid Jan. The Fountain, Pan's Labyrinth, and Children of Men round out that list. Hopefully I can level off my expectations for those films before the same thing happens.

I read some reviews about the movie saying that people that cannot deal with the coincidences and happenstances will not enjoy the movie and that is their loss. I am in the middle of the road on not being able to deal with those occurrences. It wasn't so much the coincidences, but the pushing of the envelope, taking the plot to unnecessary places in order to evoke emotion.

But still, Inarritu is amazing.

Game shows

There is a new game show on ABC called Show Me the Money, a stunningly original name for a show. The premise is that William Shatner, the host, asks you questions... the questions begin like The last..., and then there are three choices. You pick A, B, or C and all have different questions, all beginning with the two words The last... You can pass on the first two you choose if you don't know them, but then you have to answer the third.

This is ok, if somewhat unnecessary. I guess if you have two words and you SWEAR you know something about those words. Still...

so after you answer the question, right or wrong, you choose one of the girls that have a mystery dollar amount, and they show that amount, and you get it if you answered correct, lose it if you answered incorrect. This continues until you either get six wrong, six right, or get the Killer, which ends your game with no winnings. I think the dollar amounts are ridiculous. No question is worth 200,000 dollars, at least not in some trivia game.

The worst part is the dancing. i.e., contestant answers a question right, and Shatner suddenly says "It's time to celebrate! Ladies, salsa!" and all of the girls start to salsa, and everyone starts cheering. This also continues going into and coming out of commercial breaks. Shatner and the contestant dance obnoxiously too. And the camera is zooming in and out and cutting to different dancers like a music video. It's upsetting.

On Jeopardy, someone from the Broadway version of Mamma Mia! came out and started singing one of the sings, just a 20 second clip, but overexuberantly. She looked ridiculous.

Are game shows so idiotic now that they need this non game show shit? The Jeopardy one just shocked me. Those questions they ask On Location are fine. But the woman singing, and all this dancing. Whatever happened to good old 21, the game show on the movie Quiz Show. That was a hardcore gameshow, hard, no dancing, just sweat and concentration.

dane cook and movie stuff

It appears opinion on Dane Cook is souring, at least the opinion of anyone not in college. I just read three separate articles (Salon, Slate, Rolling Stone) that were rather anti Dane Cook. My own liking of Dane Cook has diminished greatly since I first discovered him sophomore year of college during my own stand up comedy phase. I think I really began to hate on DC with Employee of the Month. That movie had Harlan Williams, Jessica Simpson, Efren Ramirez, Dax Shepherd, and Andy Dick all in one movie. That is terrible. That is, I think, the worst cast ever produced, and I would be hard up to look through IMDB to find something even worse.

So I understand DC is really maybe trying to break out, so he signed on to Employee, get even bigger, etc etc. But come on... that is embarassing to be in that movie. That's almost sell out material right there.

I also hated his attitude on his tv show on HBO, Tourgasm. He was cocky, and whiny. Having heard Harmful if Swallowed, and then a special on TV, and then Vicious Circle, another HBO show, I think his material is getting less funny and derivative. Is there going to be an evolution? Is it going to constantly be "have you ever noticed..." or "what is with this?" I loved H if S, because it was somewhat geeky, and relevant for someone my age. Now though, mehhh.

What else... I saw a movie called Clean, Shaven. With the comma. It is about a schizophrenic that is looking for his daughter. The movie was made to make you see what it's like being a schizophrenic, what with the paranoid feel to the movie, the music, the eerieness. However, a schizophrenic is not someone I want to look through the eyes of. If there is one illness I woul like to never have anything to do with, it would be Ebola. Schizophrenia is right there though. So, I slept through about a third of this movie. It was just a tough movie to digest.

The OSU/Michigan game is in 5 days. I am going to vomit every hour in anticipation until then.

Harsh Times

I went and saw Harsh Times with Christian Bale and Freddy Rodriguez. I read that the movie was similar to Training Day, it had the same writer, and I really dug Training Day. I also really dig Christian Bale. So I figured, how can you lose?

Quick synopsis: Bale is an ex-Army Ranger trying to get a job in law enforcement, Rodriguez is his friend, married to Eva Longoria, trying to get a job, is on probation. Bale has a girl in Mexico that he is trying to bring to America. He says he loves her a lot.

TD and HT have a little in common; they are both set in L.A., they both have an unhinged character as the lead, etc. But Harsh Times is literally about two unemployed guys looking for jobs, and drinking/getting into trouble. There is some commentary here about the military being responsible for Bale's character going insane, but these serious moments are intertwined with rather tedious and annoying scenes of Bale and Rodriguez yelling and whooping and drinking and saying "Dude" in an incredibly annoying way, as well as Salut every time they drink.

Bales' character Jim pushed Rodriguez's character Mike into a lot of the bad things they do, but Mike was never a very moral or good character to begin with. He's a idiot from the beginning himself, just not insane because of his time in the Army Rangers. I had gone into the movie hoping for something more than the tale of two unemployed guys being idiots, but when I saw that that would not be the case, I then hoped that Mike would play a good foil to Jim's insanity. This would not happen either. To say Mike is the nice guy and Jim is the bad guy is incorrect I believe. Sure, when Eddie at the bar gets his throat slit in front of Mike and Jim, Mike is freaked out, while Jim doesn't care and is almost turned on by it. But until the end of the movie, when Mike is angry that Jim brought pot over the border of Mexico into the USA, Mike never truly acts like a good person. It's his idea to constantly lie to his wife.

Anyways, whatever. I'm gonna go into some more spoilers now.

At the end, Bale/Jim loses it, and kills some gangsters, and gets shot pretty brutally. Mike frigging mercy-kills him, and runs back home to Longoria. That's the end of the movie. I don't want to be the guy that explains THAT story to his wife. Mike has got to be screwed, his fingerprints were all over the place.

So in conclusion, Harsh Times blithered about too much. The scenes were Jim and Mike were basically frat boys looking for jobs totally lost me. I wouldn't have seen it if I had known that were so. The more serious scenes made the movie more watchable.

Oh, Christian Bale is again ridiculous. If it weren't for Reign of Fire, I don't think he would have had a bad role yet.

Babel is going to be seen later this week.

I saw Borat last night.

I went to see Borat last night. This is one of Sacha Baron Cohen's characters that he played on Da Ali G show. I liked Borat on that show, in small doses. He was hilarious, but after Tom Green and Jackass, there is only so much exploitation of the public I can take. That was the reason I did not plan on seeing Borat only a couple months ago. I figured 84 minutes of what I saw of Borat on the Da Ali G show would not be worth it. It was not until the explosion of good publicity for this movie did I decide that it would be worth seeing.

With that said, Borat is unbelievably hilarious, but not absolutely amazing. It is basically about Borat, who comes to America to film some stuff for the Kazakhs back home, when he discovers Pamela Anderson, who he falls in love with and sets forth to find in LA. Now someone I saw it with thought the movie dragged when it got into these storyline bits outside of the public embarassment parts. However, that is what made this film great in my eyes. I would not have enjoyed it if it were what Jackass and Tom Green were, just funny bits, nothing holding them together. Sure, Borats story is ridiculous and not very original, but it's funny and sincere. And the parts of the movie meant to progress this story are still in and of themselves hilarious.

It eventually got to the point in the movie where I could not take anymore bits involving unsuspecting Americans because that can get old after a while. Luckily by this point, the only bit left was involving Pamela Anderson, and that was amazing. Like I have mentioned a few times already, I am burned out for the rest of my life on what Tom Green and Jackass did, because I watched that shit so much, and I just can't take anymore of it. Borat is infinitely better in that Cohen is smarter, funnier, and there is a point to what he does. It's not pure "being funny". Very much of what he does in this movie shows how insane some Americans are. Still, after a while, I am just cringing at what he is doing because it is embarassing for me to be a part of the same country as the Chi Psi boys or the rodeo fans.

I think Borat set a record for me for most times convulsing uncontrollably with laughter. The Running of the Jew, the naked fight in the hotel, the Pamela Anderson part, the rodeo part... this interspliced with the storyline parts made a complete movie and not a lame attempt at making money off of a funny tv show. I would not have enjoyed it as much if it had just been those bits and nothing more.

So that is that.

I have been playing Final Fantasy 12 lately. I started the FF series on 7, when my friend Sean bought it. That changed my video gaming world, and for the better. It gave me the idea that games could have so much substance. Well I haven't really dug an FF since 7... except for 6, which I got in one of those Anthology packs released after 7. I liked 11, but it was Online. But 8-10 were all meh. 8 was worse than meh.

12 is so much fun thus far. It totally changed the battle system, taking out random battles, and it is more online RPG like now. The story is super so far, graphics are great, and I just dig it hardcore.

That's all for now.

I am going to do this again.

I had a movie review blog type of thing a while ago, but I stopped because it just became too difficult to review every movie that I saw. I would get frustrated because it would just be too hard to write about some of the movies. Moriarty of AICN, an online movie/tv/anime/comic news website, said something about how movie reviews generally write themselves, and some other stuff I can't remember. I find this to be true, if I hate or love a movie, I will be able to write a number of paragraphs about it. Otherwise, if the movie was just meh, ok, good, not that good, then I might not have such an easy time. So with this new incarnation of my movie blog, I will review movies only when it is easy to write about a movie. I won't review every single movie I see, because oftentimes, I don't feel strongly about the movie either way.

For example, I saw Catch a Fire yesterday, starring Derek Luke and Tim Robbins about apartheid/government sanctioned terror squads/freedom fighters etc. This movie fell under the ever growing "Movie that shocks about how terribly white people treat black people in Africa" genre. Other movies in this genre include the Constant Gardener, Last King of Scotland (somewhat), and the soon to be released Blood Diamond. Unlike my girlfriend, I don't mind this genre. Of the three that I have seen that have been released in the past year, I have dug all three, Constant Gardener the most, Scotland the least. Sometimes they can be manipulative, but for the most part, they're incredibly sad and eye opening.

Now I liked Catch a Fire. It had it's moments, a very strong ending, and some interesting subplots. However, it was neither so good or so bad that I could write a long review about it without pissing myself off and taking well over 3 hours getting one finished. So in the future, when I see a movie that leaves me feeling like Catch a Fire did, I will come back here and say "So I saw this movie, and it was good because of this: ......" and that will be all.

I am also going to write about non-movie stuff on occasion.

Next up on my list of movies to see is Borat, which I am probably going to see tonight. Babel is getting released soon, and I really want Little Children to come to Columbus ASAP.