Pecker

One of the most underrated movies of all time!

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Sweeney Todd - Amazing. Johnny Depp, amazing. Some of the shots/scenes....were more than amazing. The musical numbers....amazing. Could very well be the movie of the year for me. (well, movies that were released this year at least!).

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I am Legend - Visually amazing. Visually amazing. (yes, I said it twice) The "monsters" were way too GCI looking. A few unrealistic (even more so than the plot as a whole) key parts to the movie that I can't give away without spoilers. The ending was very weak. The acting, well, it was Will Smith so its either going to be good or horrible depending on which bandwagon you are riding on this week.

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The Tunnel - Great based on a true story Cold War movie. Long, but great. If you can't read subtitles for 2 hours, don't bother. Acting was great. Lead actor reminded me of Jason Statham for some reason. Actually, all the actors I could have linked to Hollywood Actors. For the second time I noticed a foreign film did some things that Hollywood flick wouldn't regularly do and went places that Hollywood would have never went. The plot, and all the subplots were all interesting. Like any good movie, you'll hate certain characters and you'll love some. If you have any interest in the Cold War, this is a must-see. Not sure sure how anyone who lived in Germany slept at night for all that time...

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Forward: This past week or so has been littered with countless hours on the couch watching snowfall with my love, eyes glued to mind-numbing horrible movies. (in front of a beautiful Christmas tree)

A Christmas Story - Classic feel good Christmas flick with WAY too many funny quotes. If you don't know this one by now...

About a Boy - Hugh Grant. As much as I can't think of anything that I actually LIKE Hugh Grant in, this flick, I actually liked him in it, although Mr. Affleck could have made this movie a little more than "just watchable". The little kid was a bit annoying, as was the nut-case "granola"mom. The kid desperately needed a haircut. Kind of a silly plot, with an OK ending and Hugh Grant was actually a little more than bearable in it. I rate is a little above "just watchable"

Garden State - So I kept hearing, even though it was from typical chick flick fans, that this movie was pretty good. Being a loyal because I live here resident, I figured I'd give it a shot. I like Natalie Portman and I think thats the dude from Scrubs which I watch from time to time. I liked everything about the movie but the actual love plot. It was just stupid. Beyond cliche' ending, etc. etc. The rest of the flick, if they were aiming for what I thought they were aiming for, which was to make this depressed actor feel a little better about himself compared to the people who are still stuck in NJ digging graves with fantasy ambition, was pretty good. I must also note that the part where the knight walks by when he wakes up, is hysterical. So in conclusion, I really dug on the story of him "finding" himself, using a field of typical false-ambitious New Jerseyites, however the love story, which I guess was the main plot, was horrible. P.S. Whomever on IMDB gave a review that was titled "A Film that Defines a Generation" needs to clubbed about the face with an old sneaker.

Children of Men - GREAT premise. Kinda....VERY poor execution and an even horrible ending. I don't know why I thought this was going to be good, but it DID have a lot of potential. This plotline would have played out much better in a series of books, so that rather than spend 20 minutes of gunfire battles running through a refugee camp, they could have just said it in one sentence and been done with it. So, because my reviews this week have been kind of negative, I'll still leave this movie as rated horrible, but I will list my likes about it. The sets. They must have spent the entire movie budget on sets (because the acting was horrible). Damn, thats it...I just liked the premise and the sets. Oh yeah, how could I forget, I absolutely hated the character of Sid. If that son of a bitch referred to himself in 3rd person one more time I was going to throw my DVD on the railroad tracks behind my house. For the love of god...

I should concentrate on analyzing plots and acting more, and I will, but this week was not the week to start...

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The Lives of Others - Great flick. A love plot you don't expect to see much in US films. I even loved the chubby hooker. One thing I just love about foreign flicks is simply the different way they 'take' a plot rather than the typical happy ending/sad ending. In this flick, they made it more complex than that. The actors were "OK" but the plot had me loving it.

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Very Bad Things - FUN movie, dark humor that kind of lost me at the very end. Cameron Diaz is pretty good in this...Christian Slater, I didn't think acted very good. But, it is a cheezy comedy about a bachelor party gone wrong. The minivan scene had me dying!

Born Into Brothels - Documentary about kids who's mothers are prostitutes in Calcutta's red light district. Did not focus on prostitution, but an American photographer who is trying to help the children get an education. Dark reality, and I almost felt it was borderline exploitative. Very good if you are into documentaries that aren't all shot through rose colored cameras.

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Friday: Interview in the City again. Same company, another offer, another offer I might not take.

Saturday: Wake up at the ass-crack of 5am to go riding in Bald Eagle, PA with Rob. Load the bike on the trailer and we are off by 5:30am. Loooong ride out there but worth it. It was ~35 degrees out. First, my bike gives a little trouble starting in the cold. After starting it...I gear up and hop on the bike to get going. I almost bounced right off the seat felt like a pogo-stick! DAMN, I blew out the rear shock. So, I had to ride the whole day without any suspension. Thank god we mostly road just regular dirt roads. The one single track trail we took was a series of long rocky hillclimbs. Putting along best I could, trying to get traction, I look up and Paul was stopped on the hill, having trouble getting going again. I knew if I stopped I wasn't making it up. Sure enough, I stopped, went to start and ooofph right over. Rob ended up embarrassingly riding my bike up after rolling it all the way down. We had some lunch and ended the day at 3:30ish with 100 miles of riding. Looong ride home, pizza for dinner, and I immediately passed out on the couch watching American Splendor.

I forgot to mention. On the way up, we stopped at a gas station so I can get some grub before we went out riding. I walk into this Pennsyltuky station and I immediately see the "hot dog roller" machine with those 8 day old greasy rolling hot dogs. Well, to my surprise, I was taken back by what they had to offer other than hot dogs. Cheeseburger-Hotdogs...yes....a cheeseburger in sausage formation. An inbred of American comfort food gone a rye. You know how bigmacs from MickyDees look good in the picture but horrible in real life? Take that to the n'th level on this picture.

1 review that I found on the web.

Now, last but not least, the “cheeseburger bite” $1.79. The folks at 7-11 decided to try and make a cheeseburger in the shape of a hot dog, roll it around on the rollers and tell people it was good. It was not, not in the least, it was gross, which is an understatement. My “cheeseburger bite” felt and tasted like a rubber doggie chew toy. What were you people at 7-11 thinking when you came up with this? I have this final thing to say about it, you know what the cheeseburger bite looks like when its sitting on the rollers; well it tastes like it too!

Amazing. Here is what 7-11 says.

Cheeseburger Big Bite™ Hot Dog
Easy to eat perfection! It looks like a hot dog, but it tastes like a cheeseburger! Fresh from the 7-Eleven grill, beef and cheese combine to create the easy-to-eat one-third-pound Cheeseburger Big Bite Hot Dog. Add your favorite condiments or toppings! Yummy!

Ugh. I can't pull up the nutrition facts for it but this thing can't be near good. I asked Rob what he would give me to eat one before we went riding, and he said he doesn't nearly have enough money to make it worth my while but almost offered his first born in trade.

Sunday: Slept late and cuddled with my love. Showered and went to Target, then Chili's for lunch. Laurie got Patron margarita drunk at lunch and we proceeded to head home to watch movies as it was quite the shitty day. Head home, get in the PJ's and watch American Splendor.

American Splendor: Great indy flick. Funny, Witty, and the way they did it, documentary style was great. The 2d animation was also great. Paul Giamattis performance was great too! I usually don't dig on comedies, but this flick was pretty damn good!

We then proceeded to plan our Washington DC trip that we are taking over the Thanksgiving weekend. We decide on the Sofitel hotel (why not...), The SPY Museum, The Smithsonian, and the National Air and Space museum if we have time. Closing the laptop's it was time for another movie.

I Netflicked The Covenant, why I'm not sure. The reviews were bad, everything I read about it was bad, the trailer LOOKED bad, but for some reason, I felt compelled to see it. No justification. It was bad. Not even your typical teen movie. Sure there were good looking teens in some rich private school driving expensive cars, and even a shower scene or 4. I waited what felt like FOREVER for act II to begin about 45 minutes in!!! By that time I was pre-occupied with something else and ignored the movie until the very predictable end. I would not recommend this flick.

Next up, a run to Borders for some reading/books and coffee...then home for a shower, shit and bed. I started watching the TiVoed The Great Escape while waiting for Dexter to come on (and is getting damn good BTW!) .

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Jacob's Ladder - In a word (or 2) Manchurian Candidate was better. If if wasn't for Tim Robbins, this intentionally confusing flick would be just that, confusing. I say intentionally because the plot just isn't that thick. Also, it wasn't THAT confusing, but you can sure tell it tried to be! Personally, I liked Manchurian Candidate (both versions of it) much better. I did however like Matt Craven in the film and some of the gratuitous nudity was good. This film just tried to hard to be a "dark" film and the only thing they got right was casting. Rated slightly more than watchable.

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One Last Thing... - Caught this on Showtime last night pretty late. Story about a kid who is dying, brain tumors I believe...and is granted a "wish" by the movie-equivalent-without-copyright-infringement "make a wish" foundation. His initial wish is to go fishing with his favorite football player, but on national TV he says screw it and says he wants a weekend with a supermodel. While I thought it was going to be much more teen-campy then it was, it wasn't. It was still a teen movie and still campy, but definitely watchable. The supermodel's sub-plot sucked...and the whole plot was this kid trying to get his wish...not because she was just a hot supermodel, but based on something his dad said to him (dad is dead, left him a video). Very predictable, even at 1am and tired, but it wasn't bad at all. Definitely watchable.

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Gangs of New York - The story was good, and the portrayal of the time period "appeared" to be spot on. I would not know as I'm not an expert, however I guess that is the point. Leo was good, and while I'm not a big fan of Diaz, she did a good job. The Butchers character could be one of my top 10 favorite characters (this week anyway)....loved him. It was a little bit of a long movie and certainly the first half was great (although not amazing). The latter half was "eh" and the end was that as well...and a little confusing. I wish I could review this movie in two parts, the first and the second. I'd give the first part 4 out of 5 stars and the second, maybe a 2.5.

Addendum: I'm completely looking forward to Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street as it is...after watching Gangs of New York, I only wish that they cast the actor that played Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day-Lewis). I think Depp will do a good job...just maybe not AS good and certainly not bring in those Depp Dollars.

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In the order in which I saw them this weekend.

Hostel: Part II - First, I liked the first Hostel. I thought it was right on par with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Evil Dead, etc. This movie was basically the first Hostel, although with even LESS of a plot and a few other things that bothered me. For one, the apparent non-subplot of the survivor of the first Hostel. A little spoiler, but, why bother even putting writing him in in the way they did? Which, was just that...he was just "in" it for a little while with no relevance to the main or any plot. I think (I know) it was written in for one reason only. To have a reason for another gore scene (which wasn't even good). Bottom line: watchable movie, lots of gore, less nudity even though the leading roles were female. I wouldn't recommend it. The only thing it has going for it is the "concept" of Hostel being something somewhat realistically demented. They portrayed that even better in Part II by going into some character development of two of the "bad guys".

Gone Baby Gone - I'd be lying if I didn't disclose beforehand that I am a mark for Affleck. This was his directorial debut and he knocked it out of the proverbial park. Halfway through I thought the plot had run out and they were going to wrap it up....so I'm thinking, "eh it was ok", however, another 35-45 minutes left in the movie made it what it was. This movie put you in the shoes of almost every role, and made you, at some point, have strong feelings, be them negative or positive, for almost everyone in the cast. Those two points a lone made for a good movie. Coupled with a good story, and a good cast (Ed Harris was great) I highly recommend this movie. Casey Affleck, while you can still tell he is a little "green" plays a role that any guy would admire. Even though he is not the biggest, meanest guy, he portrays a complete smart/bad-ass very well. I guarantee you'll end up detesting some characters.

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An Evening With Kevin Smith - The title pretty much says it all. If you are a fan of Kevin Smith, and have seen all of his movies, this is a cool 4 hours of very funny Q&A with Kevin taken from a bunch of different sessions at various colleges. Lot's of funny stories, however, many of them pertain to his movies or life so if you don't really know who Kevin Smith is, don't bother. While I'm not a huge fan of his movies (although a fan of most of them), I think he is a brilliantly funny, down to earth guy. I'm a big fan of his podcasts and blog.

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Long Way Down: - Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman travel the world on motorcycles from Scotland to Capetown South Africa. A third in a series of Long Way Round, and Race to Dakar, I downloaded and watched the first episode last night. Since it aired on BBC2, I had to download it. It was well worth it although it moved a little slow in the prep phase, similiar to Long Way Round. I guess if you have seen both of them, this first epi was similiar. Looks very promising though. Very.

Long Way Down Torrent: http://www.torrentportal.com/details/1478837/Long.Way.Down.EP.1.XviD.avi.html

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It was serial killer weekend this weekend at my residence.

Friday night I hit the early-before-the-teenagers showing of Saw IV - I figured, why not, the other ones were watchable and it IS Halloween. It wasn't horrible...it was watchable if you don't really care about the plot and them actually following through with a "real" plot in the end. The writers must have pulled a muscle with that stretch. However, still not bad. Goes into the "watchable" category.

Next up was Seven or (Se7en?) - It was on the bottom of my netflix queue and Saturday morning was crappy out (raining, cold) so Laurie and I figured we'd "On Demand" a movie and alas, the only movie worth watching @ 2.99 was Seven. I think I saw it before, maybe not the whole thing but definitely most of it. I loved Brad Pitts role as the "new kid not so tough guy"....where someone was whipping him around. Something about Morgan Freeman telling Brad Pitt what the deal is was amusing. I never really got why everyone liked Kevin Spacey so much, now I am beginning to realize why. He is a great damn actor! The plot of this movie was ok, moved a little slow. A faster plot and a better ending would have made this movie a 5 star instead of a 3.5-4 star Netflix rating for me.

Lastly the good-old-fasion Halloween - What can I say other than it stood the test of time and Michael Meyers is just...plain scary. I love the plot/background as far fetched as it may be.

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Primer: I spent as much time figuring out the plot as I did watching the movie...and it is STILL a good film. It is in short, an indy, low budget time travel film that hurts your brain, in a good way. Don't try to understand it the first time you watch it...I definitely have to watch it again. Usually good plots and scientifically complex stories like these are poorly executed, or big name directors and writers just throw a ton of money at the film hiring big name actors and CGI to better explain. With Primer, they produced it for 7,000 and did a pretty good job of getting the plot across albeit understandably, and intentionally confusing.

Spoilers and explanation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_(film)
http://www.timetravelreviews.com/movies/primer.html

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Malice: Alec Baldwin, Nicole Kidman, and Bill Pullman. Twisted story and you are not sure what the "actual" plot is until about almost halfway through the movie. It is like you have 2 ways to go in a maze and only figuring it that one way is the wrong way half way through by smacking your face into the wall! The plot ended up being great and not sure about the "sub-plot" being necessary, but whatever, Saw fans will like it. Alec Baldwins "God" rant was pretty good, definitely Glengary Glen Ross style. Bill Pullman was OK. Nicole Kidman, for some reason I only stand when she is naked wearing only a shirt...and this movie reinforced that for me. She certainly has legs. Overall, it was a great film, demented and somewhat thrilling with a interesting plot and OK actors.

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Rear Window - Alfred Hitchcock - By far my favorite Hitchcock movie. Jimmy Stewart, and Grace Kelly...no matter how many times I have watched it...no one will ever compare to how well they work together.

Grace Kelly in that black/white dress with the pearls...goes on my top 10 list.






Why in the hell do people try to "remake" movies like this...and completely ruin them. Or worse yet, just steal plots and film sub-par actors reciting shitty dialog. (but hey, they have a "plot" that works..) I went to the movie store to pick up a "horror" movie with my little cousin last night and he picked up "Disturbia" (I won't even link you to it). Now, I saw a few minutes of this movie on a flight from Singapore and remembered how appalled I was and how much I wanted to rant about it. "Disturbia" is basically Hitchcock's "Rear Window:...made horrible.

Because of this movie...which people actually think is good...generation X will settle for watching horrible movies without appreciating movies made 50+ yrs ago. I'm not saying there are no good new movies, but it kills me to have someone say "Disturbia" is good, especially without knowing anything about "Rear Window".

BTW - We settled on The Evil Dead

Also BTW - Rear Window is on AMC as I type...

Mmmmmm Ms. Torso.....

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The Rocketeer: What a hidden-forgotten-gem of a not-so-classic. Paul Sorvino, Jennifer Connelly, and jesus...Terry O'Quinn, John Lock himself as Howard Hughes! The time period, the plot, the vintage and just the overall "style" of everything in the movie was great. From the planes, to his helmet, etc. This movie was a "comic book movie" before comic book movies became popular (X-Men, Sin City). Sure they arrive at the plot in a little bit of a hokey manner, but definitely a more than watchable flick. I have to say that out of all "comic book movies"...The Rocketeer himself is one of my favorite "characters".

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28 Weeks Later - Great zombie flick. Ending stinks just like the first one, however, it was expected. People still running upstairs away from zombies. Plot was OK but never really resolved. I understand they have to make a sequel, but tie up a loose end or two. 2 out of 4 stars for the way the zombies looked and the whole "idea" of the movie....vacant London, etc. etc. Thank god they didn't do a sequel based in the US. My sequel title prediction "28 Le'Months Le'ater".

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