Thursday, January 10, 2008
I'm a worthless bum, says I...
I've been on an archaeological survey for a few days. I'm pretty tired right now, but I have a few pictures of the area I'm working in. The work is pretty interesting, but the going can get pretty slow sometimes. It's a lot of walking. I'll make a more in depth post in a day or two.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Searching for signs of life, but there's nobody home...
It's a day into the new year and the only thing I could think to think back on were the movies I saw this year. Whether I liked it or hated it, if I can remember it I'll write something about it. Krrp in mind, I don't actually claim to know anything serious about the art of cinema. I just like watching movies. I've seen some pretty laughable movies this year, mainly because my roommate and long time friend works at a video rental store. He has pretty bad taste in movies in my opinion. I'm sure that in the next couple of days, I'll make a much more personal post about all of the growing and crap I've been doing this year. I'll also include the story of the hellish trip back to California and my half boring as hell, half action packed New Year's Eve. I think this will do for now though.
I did not enjoy this film. It seemed to have a pretty twisted take on the actual events that occured. Also, it starred Justin Timberlake. Fuck that. The whole movie seemed miscast. Nothing seemd to fit. High points: Bruce Willis was kind of in it. Ben Foster did karate.
I honestly do not remember much about this movie at all. I remember that I saw it. I remember that I did not hate it. I remember that a fat, French butcher got his head cut off. I would watch it, without complaint, if my roommate brought it home from work.
What did anyone expect from this movie? Apparently the rest of the world expected far too much, based on how badly this thing got bashed. I expected a newer Eddie murphy movie, which entails plenty of cheap fat jokes, racist humor, and Eddie playing every character of interest. I didn't pay for it. I got my money's worth.
Nicholas Cage. What the fuck. Get a hold of your carreer.
I was really interested in this movie. The whole idea of it really seemed pretty fascinating. Unfortunately, the story was full of crappy twists that weren't really all that twisty. Jim Carrey did pretty well with what he was given. I would watch it again if I had to, but I wouldn't go out of my way.
It's a typical television series movie. A longer episode of the show, on a bigger screen. If you're a fan of the series, I'd think you'd be a fan of the movie. I am a fan of both. Interesting side note: It was the first time in ten or fifteen years that the entire cast of The State shared the screen. It also had a bunch of cameos from some of my favorite comedians.
Although it got a bit slow at some points, I really enjoyed Zodiac a lot. Plus, we saw it with hiphop superstar, The Game! It had an excellent cast and some pretty impressive visuals. I like Mark Ruffalo a lot. It's pretty frustrating that the killer isn't found, but that is the way it happened. Way to dodge them cops Zodiac Killer!
Samuel L. Jackson hanging out with a half naked, sex crazed Christina Ricci. Sounds like an amazing story right? Not really. Nothing really happened, as I remember it, not to mention Justin Timberlake showed his stupid fucking face again.
I made up my mind about fifteen minutes into 300, that I would not and could not ever like this movie. This was about the time that the shitty computer animated wolf appeared on the screen. The film displayed some pretty impressive visual effects, I'll admit, but that is not enough for me. It takes more than scene after scene of computer generated characters fight ing slow motion to hold my attention for two hours. I found the movie's lack of story mind numbing which was compacted by the repetitive nature of the fight sequences. I will not watch this movie again. I am sorry. They could have built a compelling storyline, if they had taken a more realsitic approach to the actual events. I know it was based on a graphic novel, and the visual aspects were put above everything else. I don't care.
A Korean monster movie. What's not to love? It was more than a monster movie. It had a lot of family comedy aspects as well. The thoughtful and interesting storyline was able to compensate for some of the patchy graphics on the monster. I would definitely watch this again, and I am in actually puzzled as to why I do not own this yet.
Fucking shit. Puppets that kill you or something. Do not watch this. Ever.
Sandra Bullock lives some days out of order or something. Her husband is dead or something. I think it entertained me. I walked out of my second attempt at watching 300 and wandered into Premonition. It was better than seeing 300 a second time.
I enjoy Adam Sandler more and more in serious roles as he gets older. Don Cheadle rarely lets me down. I liked Reign Over Me a lot. One of the few movies that I'm glad Jared brought home from work.
A typical Will Ferrell movie. Maybe too typical. I didn't expect much from this but a few "Will Ferrell laughs" and I got a little bit more than I expected. Will Arnett and Amy Poehler were pretty funny villains.
I saw this three times in the theatre and I enjoyed it every time. The Robert Rodriguez/ Quentin Tarantino double feature was really entertaining. The fake previews for cheesey griindhouse movies between features was a really fun and entertaining idea. Planet Terror (Rodriguez's movie) was a an over the top, gorey, funny zombie movie. Death Proof was a typically dialogue heavy Tarantino movie about a homicidal ex-stuntman. While I preferred Tarantino's film, I can appreciate what both directors were going for. Bummer that they chose the the money grubbing route for releasing them on DVD.
Again, a typical television series movie. I love show. I loved the movie even if it was just a longer version of an episode of the show. PLus, it had an amazing introduction by Mastodon.
It was a mediocre version of Hitchcock's Rear Window. It wasn't terrible. It wasn't very good. It was just entertaining. I don't like Shia Lebouf, but he isn't as bad of an actor as I thought he was.
Hilarious. Another dark comedy/genre spoof from Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg. This time around it's an action cop spoof. While it had more laughs than Shaun of The Dead, I'm not sure that I liked it better.
I didn't like the first two movies, so I didn't see why I should take the third one seriuosly. Everyone hated it. I loved it. I thought the ridiculous dance scene, and the "emo" Peter Parker scenes were hilarious, as I think they were intended to be. My only quam with this movie was quickly the character of Venom was born and disposed of. I know it will return in the next sequel, but I really think it should have been a more integral part of the story.
Shitty, difficult to watch movie about schizophrenics. No thanks.
Judd Apatowhad a good year, as did Seth Rogen. I'm a sucker for romantic comedies, especailly when they are actually funny. I had a hard time finding anything wrong with this movie. I am also a sucker for Paul Rudd.
Why anyone would make a sequel to one of the worst comic book movies ever made, I do not know. Why I watched this sequel is an even bigger mystery to me. Their most formidible opponent was a ferris wheel.
A dark comedy about domesticated zombies. I liked it. It was kind of a lost pet adventure movie meets kind of scary zombie movie. I like both. Watch this movie.
Another dark comedy zombie movie. Kind of. It's about genetically altered sheep zombie things. Very cool. Very funny.
Pixar doesn't let me down very often and this was no exception. Patton Oswald is one of my favorite comedians, so I was really excited to see house this turned out. See this movie.
While it didn't really feel like a "Diehard movie", it was still an entertaining action movie. Nothing compared to the first or third movies of the series, but certainly better than that second one. Bruce Willis crashes a car into a helicopter. Shit.
From the trailers and all the hype and rumors surrounding the movie, I expected to hate Transformers. I didn't. They stayed surprisingly true to the look of the machines, which was nice, however the storyline was a little weird compared to the series. While I didn't hate the movie, the action scenes were a little hard for me to watch. Everything felt too tightly framed and hard to follow. Iy felt like my eyes were being hit with robots. Michael Bay still sucks.
It was an hour and a half episode of The Simpsons, which isn't a bad thing in my opinion. Marge says "God damnit", Homer flips the bird, and you see Bart's dick. Thats about the only difference from television.
I've read that Lohan's performance in this movie has been held up as one of the worst from an actress this year. The movie is a god awfulthriller/horror movie about twins or some shit. What's weird is that my friend Nick and I wanted to be extras in this movie. Lohan strips in this movie and has amputee sex. Those are the only entertaining parts.
Hot Rod could not decide whether it was a funny movie or not. There were a lot of parts during this movie that made me laugh very hard, but most of it was just mediocre. Danny McBride had the funniest role in the movie, as Rico.
Superbad was the funniest movie of the year. Excellently written, perfectly casted. I don't think there's enough good things that I can say about this movie. The toilet humor worked because the movie is about seventeen year old kids. These are the things that seventeen year old boys talk about, and the performances are amazingly believable. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg really nailed it with the script and I can't wait to see how their next project, titled Pineapple Express, turns out.
The Invasion was boring. Not much in the way of suspense or tension at all, and nothing really happened. I never read "Invasion of The Bodysnatchers," but hope it is better than that.
The name says it all. Over the top action and violence can be fun. Throwing babies around is funny. It was a fun movie to laugh through, which is how I'm sure it is intended to be viewed.
The Brother's Solomon was a lot better than I expected. Will Armett is a funny guy, but it seemed like he'd have a hard time standing on his own. I wasn't a big fan of Will Forte at all, but they both came through. This movie went completely under my radar until my roommate brought it home earlier this week. I have a feeling that will be underappreciated.
One of my favorite movies of the year. It was so impressive visually, as well as in every other aspect of the film. Casey Afleck and Brad Pitt were amazing. This movie not only had my attention for over two hours (which is hard to do in the ADD age), it had me intensely immersed in the story the entire duration of the film. So good.
Into The Wild was another one of my favorites this year. Emil Hirsch carried the role well, and again I was sucked into the story. As a fan of the book, I am glad that Sean Penn finally got his hands on this story. It would have been a shame for this very real, intense story to be "Hollywoodized."
I am a really big Wes Anderson fan and I was surprised to find that many of his other fans were disappointed by The Darjeeling Limited. I enjoyed it, and was just happy to see more more of his work. The movie was great and I loved the short that accompanied the feature.
A crappy romantic comedy starring Ben Stiller. He get married too quickly, blah, blah, blah he falls in love with someone else on his honeymoon. I don't remember how it ended. At least Jerry Stiller is still funny. And alive.
American Gangster was a cool take on a gangster movie. I liek it a lot, plus there were a lot of rappers in it! But seriously, I like most everything that Denzel Washington touches. He is always so intense and I love it. Russell Crowe makes a good good guy in this one.
Yet another of my top films of the year. Amazing. The Coen brothers never let me down. They created one of the coldest, most frightening villains ever in this movie. I don't even relly know what to say. Holy cow.
Good movie. Good movie. Well written, well cast, well acted, well shot. the music was perfect. I loved it. I can't wait to see what director, Jason Reitman, has to offer next. I'm also excited to see where writer, Diablo Cody, goes from here, as Juno was here first script.
I liked it better than the first movie of the Narnia series. It was an alright movie, nothing to get overly excited about. A polar bear loses a jaw. Sam Elliot is in it.
I Am Legend was pretty good. I really cared about the characters and felt real concern for their safety, which is a weird feeling to have. It was intense and actually scary.
I liked Sweeney Todd. There. I said it. Gorey, funny musical, with a surprise appearance (at least to me) by one of my favorite comedians, Sacha Baron Cohen. Johnny Depp was great all around. Helena Bonham Carter seemed like a good fit for the role, but she couldn't sing for her life.
I got exactly what I expected, and maybe even a little less! I got monsters from outerspace killing each other and everything else. I also got a bunch of build up scenes that went nowhere, extremely jarring cuts away from the action, and editing that made my brain want to explode. Luckily my friends and I know how to make a crappy movie fun. We ruin it for everyone else!
There Will Be Blood is another of my top movies of the year. The cinematography was amazing. So many beautiful shots. Don't even get me started on Daniel Day-Lewis. The man is phenomenal. P.T. Anderson brought us another hit.
That is everything I can remember film-wise this year. While I saw a lot of movies this year, I can't help feeling guilty for sleeping on so many good films. There are so many movies I just completely forgot about or was not able to make it to. Here is a list of things I should have seen, and still plan on seeing.
Peaceful Warrior
Year of the Dog
You Kill Me
Sicko
Sunshine
This is England
The Ten
Hatchet
3:10 to Yuma
Eastern Promises
Lust, Caution
Lars and The Real Girl
Gone Baby Gone
Dan In Real Life
Margot At The Wedding
The Savages
Atonement
The Kite Runner
I did not enjoy this film. It seemed to have a pretty twisted take on the actual events that occured. Also, it starred Justin Timberlake. Fuck that. The whole movie seemed miscast. Nothing seemd to fit. High points: Bruce Willis was kind of in it. Ben Foster did karate.
I honestly do not remember much about this movie at all. I remember that I saw it. I remember that I did not hate it. I remember that a fat, French butcher got his head cut off. I would watch it, without complaint, if my roommate brought it home from work.
What did anyone expect from this movie? Apparently the rest of the world expected far too much, based on how badly this thing got bashed. I expected a newer Eddie murphy movie, which entails plenty of cheap fat jokes, racist humor, and Eddie playing every character of interest. I didn't pay for it. I got my money's worth.
Nicholas Cage. What the fuck. Get a hold of your carreer.
I was really interested in this movie. The whole idea of it really seemed pretty fascinating. Unfortunately, the story was full of crappy twists that weren't really all that twisty. Jim Carrey did pretty well with what he was given. I would watch it again if I had to, but I wouldn't go out of my way.
It's a typical television series movie. A longer episode of the show, on a bigger screen. If you're a fan of the series, I'd think you'd be a fan of the movie. I am a fan of both. Interesting side note: It was the first time in ten or fifteen years that the entire cast of The State shared the screen. It also had a bunch of cameos from some of my favorite comedians.
Although it got a bit slow at some points, I really enjoyed Zodiac a lot. Plus, we saw it with hiphop superstar, The Game! It had an excellent cast and some pretty impressive visuals. I like Mark Ruffalo a lot. It's pretty frustrating that the killer isn't found, but that is the way it happened. Way to dodge them cops Zodiac Killer!
Samuel L. Jackson hanging out with a half naked, sex crazed Christina Ricci. Sounds like an amazing story right? Not really. Nothing really happened, as I remember it, not to mention Justin Timberlake showed his stupid fucking face again.
I made up my mind about fifteen minutes into 300, that I would not and could not ever like this movie. This was about the time that the shitty computer animated wolf appeared on the screen. The film displayed some pretty impressive visual effects, I'll admit, but that is not enough for me. It takes more than scene after scene of computer generated characters fight ing slow motion to hold my attention for two hours. I found the movie's lack of story mind numbing which was compacted by the repetitive nature of the fight sequences. I will not watch this movie again. I am sorry. They could have built a compelling storyline, if they had taken a more realsitic approach to the actual events. I know it was based on a graphic novel, and the visual aspects were put above everything else. I don't care.
A Korean monster movie. What's not to love? It was more than a monster movie. It had a lot of family comedy aspects as well. The thoughtful and interesting storyline was able to compensate for some of the patchy graphics on the monster. I would definitely watch this again, and I am in actually puzzled as to why I do not own this yet.
Fucking shit. Puppets that kill you or something. Do not watch this. Ever.
Sandra Bullock lives some days out of order or something. Her husband is dead or something. I think it entertained me. I walked out of my second attempt at watching 300 and wandered into Premonition. It was better than seeing 300 a second time.
I enjoy Adam Sandler more and more in serious roles as he gets older. Don Cheadle rarely lets me down. I liked Reign Over Me a lot. One of the few movies that I'm glad Jared brought home from work.
A typical Will Ferrell movie. Maybe too typical. I didn't expect much from this but a few "Will Ferrell laughs" and I got a little bit more than I expected. Will Arnett and Amy Poehler were pretty funny villains.
I saw this three times in the theatre and I enjoyed it every time. The Robert Rodriguez/ Quentin Tarantino double feature was really entertaining. The fake previews for cheesey griindhouse movies between features was a really fun and entertaining idea. Planet Terror (Rodriguez's movie) was a an over the top, gorey, funny zombie movie. Death Proof was a typically dialogue heavy Tarantino movie about a homicidal ex-stuntman. While I preferred Tarantino's film, I can appreciate what both directors were going for. Bummer that they chose the the money grubbing route for releasing them on DVD.
Again, a typical television series movie. I love show. I loved the movie even if it was just a longer version of an episode of the show. PLus, it had an amazing introduction by Mastodon.
It was a mediocre version of Hitchcock's Rear Window. It wasn't terrible. It wasn't very good. It was just entertaining. I don't like Shia Lebouf, but he isn't as bad of an actor as I thought he was.
Hilarious. Another dark comedy/genre spoof from Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg. This time around it's an action cop spoof. While it had more laughs than Shaun of The Dead, I'm not sure that I liked it better.
I didn't like the first two movies, so I didn't see why I should take the third one seriuosly. Everyone hated it. I loved it. I thought the ridiculous dance scene, and the "emo" Peter Parker scenes were hilarious, as I think they were intended to be. My only quam with this movie was quickly the character of Venom was born and disposed of. I know it will return in the next sequel, but I really think it should have been a more integral part of the story.
Shitty, difficult to watch movie about schizophrenics. No thanks.
Judd Apatowhad a good year, as did Seth Rogen. I'm a sucker for romantic comedies, especailly when they are actually funny. I had a hard time finding anything wrong with this movie. I am also a sucker for Paul Rudd.
Why anyone would make a sequel to one of the worst comic book movies ever made, I do not know. Why I watched this sequel is an even bigger mystery to me. Their most formidible opponent was a ferris wheel.
A dark comedy about domesticated zombies. I liked it. It was kind of a lost pet adventure movie meets kind of scary zombie movie. I like both. Watch this movie.
Another dark comedy zombie movie. Kind of. It's about genetically altered sheep zombie things. Very cool. Very funny.
Pixar doesn't let me down very often and this was no exception. Patton Oswald is one of my favorite comedians, so I was really excited to see house this turned out. See this movie.
While it didn't really feel like a "Diehard movie", it was still an entertaining action movie. Nothing compared to the first or third movies of the series, but certainly better than that second one. Bruce Willis crashes a car into a helicopter. Shit.
From the trailers and all the hype and rumors surrounding the movie, I expected to hate Transformers. I didn't. They stayed surprisingly true to the look of the machines, which was nice, however the storyline was a little weird compared to the series. While I didn't hate the movie, the action scenes were a little hard for me to watch. Everything felt too tightly framed and hard to follow. Iy felt like my eyes were being hit with robots. Michael Bay still sucks.
It was an hour and a half episode of The Simpsons, which isn't a bad thing in my opinion. Marge says "God damnit", Homer flips the bird, and you see Bart's dick. Thats about the only difference from television.
I've read that Lohan's performance in this movie has been held up as one of the worst from an actress this year. The movie is a god awfulthriller/horror movie about twins or some shit. What's weird is that my friend Nick and I wanted to be extras in this movie. Lohan strips in this movie and has amputee sex. Those are the only entertaining parts.
Hot Rod could not decide whether it was a funny movie or not. There were a lot of parts during this movie that made me laugh very hard, but most of it was just mediocre. Danny McBride had the funniest role in the movie, as Rico.
Superbad was the funniest movie of the year. Excellently written, perfectly casted. I don't think there's enough good things that I can say about this movie. The toilet humor worked because the movie is about seventeen year old kids. These are the things that seventeen year old boys talk about, and the performances are amazingly believable. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg really nailed it with the script and I can't wait to see how their next project, titled Pineapple Express, turns out.
The Invasion was boring. Not much in the way of suspense or tension at all, and nothing really happened. I never read "Invasion of The Bodysnatchers," but hope it is better than that.
The name says it all. Over the top action and violence can be fun. Throwing babies around is funny. It was a fun movie to laugh through, which is how I'm sure it is intended to be viewed.
The Brother's Solomon was a lot better than I expected. Will Armett is a funny guy, but it seemed like he'd have a hard time standing on his own. I wasn't a big fan of Will Forte at all, but they both came through. This movie went completely under my radar until my roommate brought it home earlier this week. I have a feeling that will be underappreciated.
One of my favorite movies of the year. It was so impressive visually, as well as in every other aspect of the film. Casey Afleck and Brad Pitt were amazing. This movie not only had my attention for over two hours (which is hard to do in the ADD age), it had me intensely immersed in the story the entire duration of the film. So good.
Into The Wild was another one of my favorites this year. Emil Hirsch carried the role well, and again I was sucked into the story. As a fan of the book, I am glad that Sean Penn finally got his hands on this story. It would have been a shame for this very real, intense story to be "Hollywoodized."
I am a really big Wes Anderson fan and I was surprised to find that many of his other fans were disappointed by The Darjeeling Limited. I enjoyed it, and was just happy to see more more of his work. The movie was great and I loved the short that accompanied the feature.
A crappy romantic comedy starring Ben Stiller. He get married too quickly, blah, blah, blah he falls in love with someone else on his honeymoon. I don't remember how it ended. At least Jerry Stiller is still funny. And alive.
American Gangster was a cool take on a gangster movie. I liek it a lot, plus there were a lot of rappers in it! But seriously, I like most everything that Denzel Washington touches. He is always so intense and I love it. Russell Crowe makes a good good guy in this one.
Yet another of my top films of the year. Amazing. The Coen brothers never let me down. They created one of the coldest, most frightening villains ever in this movie. I don't even relly know what to say. Holy cow.
Good movie. Good movie. Well written, well cast, well acted, well shot. the music was perfect. I loved it. I can't wait to see what director, Jason Reitman, has to offer next. I'm also excited to see where writer, Diablo Cody, goes from here, as Juno was here first script.
I liked it better than the first movie of the Narnia series. It was an alright movie, nothing to get overly excited about. A polar bear loses a jaw. Sam Elliot is in it.
I Am Legend was pretty good. I really cared about the characters and felt real concern for their safety, which is a weird feeling to have. It was intense and actually scary.
I liked Sweeney Todd. There. I said it. Gorey, funny musical, with a surprise appearance (at least to me) by one of my favorite comedians, Sacha Baron Cohen. Johnny Depp was great all around. Helena Bonham Carter seemed like a good fit for the role, but she couldn't sing for her life.
I got exactly what I expected, and maybe even a little less! I got monsters from outerspace killing each other and everything else. I also got a bunch of build up scenes that went nowhere, extremely jarring cuts away from the action, and editing that made my brain want to explode. Luckily my friends and I know how to make a crappy movie fun. We ruin it for everyone else!
There Will Be Blood is another of my top movies of the year. The cinematography was amazing. So many beautiful shots. Don't even get me started on Daniel Day-Lewis. The man is phenomenal. P.T. Anderson brought us another hit.
That is everything I can remember film-wise this year. While I saw a lot of movies this year, I can't help feeling guilty for sleeping on so many good films. There are so many movies I just completely forgot about or was not able to make it to. Here is a list of things I should have seen, and still plan on seeing.
Peaceful Warrior
Year of the Dog
You Kill Me
Sicko
Sunshine
This is England
The Ten
Hatchet
3:10 to Yuma
Eastern Promises
Lust, Caution
Lars and The Real Girl
Gone Baby Gone
Dan In Real Life
Margot At The Wedding
The Savages
Atonement
The Kite Runner
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