Category Archives: Flicks

Big Screen: Redbelt

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A David Mamet script PLUS Jujitsu? Come on now, people, you can’t go wrong with that one. Really compelling interesting story. Really cool fights (woot).

A lot of good performances here (Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tim Allen (unexpected), Alicia Braga), including one from Emily Mortimer (whose character undergoes one of the biggest transitions), and a really great one from Max Martini (yum), whom you may recognize from The Unit.

I’ll tell you what. He, Dean Winters and Tahmoh Penikett need to do some kind of brothers/mafia/cops movie together. Ah, that would be wonderful.

Big Screen: Iron Man

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A full Family Reaction even featuring the extremely rare MomReaction!! (No, we did not see it together.)

DadReaction: Eye popping effects, but with a lot of character. And not so effect heavy that you lose the humor as in some action movies. Downey is really great here. He’s a stronger character as an actor and so much more entertaining than, say, Spiderman. Christian Bale brought a lot of grimness to Batman but Downey is very funny, lively and self deprecating. Really uses his wise ass attitude so well here, and it makes the idea of a superhero movie so much cooler. His and Paltrow’s characters attraction feels very real, even though it’s an under the table sort and they dance around it. Jeff Bridges was good too.

MomReaction: There’s a really topical social edge to this movie about collateral damage and what you do to the world, what weapons do to the world. They don’t hide behind the story: War is bad. Guns are bad.

GirlReaction: Fanfuckingtastic. Everything you could want in an action movie AND MORE. Lovedlovedloved it.

Big Screen: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

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So one day someone said to themselves, “Hey! I think I’ll take this little, charming, fun, engaging book (that in many ways is about female friendship)…and I’ll throw in a little World War II (and transfer the American depression onto London) and turn it into a moody, dramatic, cat-fight-full film! It’s just not good enough the way it is!” Seriously bad idea.

Some good acting but in a convoluted messed up plot created solely because… because the book was too lighthearted? Because movie producers are idiots?

Read the book, skip the movie.

Cover of the Day…and Some Other Recommendations

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“I Should Have Known Better” – She & Him (Zoey Deschanel & M. Ward)
Beatles done alt-country style. Sweet. Zoey D = the next June Carter Cash?
Other singles (but not covers) I’m diggin’:

  • “She Loves Everybody” Chester French
  • “Tick of Time” The Kooks
  • “Roadway Hymn” La Rocca
  • “Heart of Mine” Peter Salett*

*So I’ve been rewatching Keeping the Faith lately. So what. You SHOULD be too.

Still in preparation for nuclear war.

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You know, when I am stuck in my apartment, which was magically protected from the fallout, and have nothing to do but watch DVDs? (Otherwise known as continuing to pad the catalog with backlog as I have been doing.)

Today’s Amazon delivery features:

  • Aliens Quadrilogy (Alien, Aliens, Alien3, Alien Resurrection)
  • American History X (had Ed Norton on the mind)
  • The Fifth Element (as I’ve been telling people, I like watching this as a double feature with 12 Monkeys)
  • Memento
  • Primary Fear
  • Seven (apparently I am feeling the need to be creeped out)
  • 25th Hour (see, there he [EN] is again)

Too bad I’m out of town this weekend…

Today’s Amazon Delivery.

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DVDs of old (in some cases OLD!) favorites ordered to replace battered, beat-down, taped off HBO (or some such) VHS tapes. In alpha order…

  • Addicted to Love
  • Dangerous Beauty
  • The Fabulous Baker Boys
  • Good Will Hunting
  • Married to the Mob
  • Pretty in Pink
  • Say Anything
  • Singles
  • Sixteen Candles
  • Something Wild (ooooo, Dad and I love this movie! I haven’t seen it in years!)
  • Working Girl

Movies you’ve seen a thousand times = good background for knittin’. If I were doin’ any.

Best of March

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Ah, March, I barely remember you… Ha! Kidding!

The best movie I saw in March was also the only movie I saw (Be Kind, Rewind), so good thing I enjoyed it.

The best book I read in March was definitely The Complete Stories by David Malouf. Really wonderful stories.

The best gig I went to in March is harder to pin down. I was excited to finally see Matt Nathanson and (separately) Dan le Sac. I thought the Raveonettes sounded great. I probably enjoyed Griffin House the most as he was all sassy and laidback and it was a really fun night.

My favorite tunes in March were lots of stuff I was already listening to from February, like new albums from Missy Higgins, Nada Surf, Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, Bon Iver, Mike Doughty and the Raveonettes; but also stuff I bought in March like new albums from Jesse Malin “Glitter in the Gutter” (which I lovelovelove), Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks and Gnarls Barkley (DangerMouse can do no wrong)!!

Random personal highlights: Hmmm, let’s see, nine-day trip to Japan, I guess that was kind-of a highlight (I guess! Ha!); my newest/youngest cousin was born!: Clark and I had a joint party; and I had a great long Saturday with Carlos and Shei getting back into shooting film (vs. digital).

Lowlights? Long, long, long airplane rides.

Plane: Elizabeth (The Golden Age)

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I really did want to see this one in the theater. But it just could NOT hold my attention on the plane. Too slow moving? Or too much variation in loud & soft, had to keep changing the volume on the headphones? I don’t know what the problem was but I kept tuning out.

After that travesty, on the way home I just watched Juno over and over. Sometimes with the sound, sometimes while I listened to other things. It just gets better and better. If you’re on my Christmas list, you can expect to get it in your package.