So bad I cannot even make it all the way through.
I KNOW, why would I even TRY to watch this? Because my secret super* buttloads of love for A Lot Like Love always makes me think Ashton Kutcher movies *might* be worth watching.
This is NOT.
*as opposed to super secret!
Solid, enjoyable, super violent (a + to me) good cop/bad cop flick. Great performances from both Keanu and Forest Whittaker, and lots of interesting bit players I wasn’t expecting, such as Adrian Corbett very effectively playing slime (would you have expected that of “Aidan”?) and Chris Evans also very impressive (first time I’ve ever thought he was actually ACTING in a movie and not just sort of playing himself or “any guy”). (And FYI “House” fans, Hugh Laurie is also present.)
I can only guess why this didn’t do well in theaters (was it even in Chicago for a whole week?): it’s one of those “been done” stories. Very reminiscent of Training Day, among (many) other movies.
Connected DadReaction: Similar to what Dad has reported back about the latest Ed Norton/ Colin Farrell flick “Pride and Glory”. Good flick, good performances…but may suffer from the fact that it’s not a “new” story.
So.Frakkin.Good.
Admittedly I only watched this so I could determine if the Hottie from Sons of Anarchy is actually a good actor or not. Fortunately the answer is YES.
Also? This movie is AWESOME.
Elijah Wood = also good. Bar conversation/friend scenes = great. Fight scenes = soooo well done. Revelation of “The Major” = super.
Totally compelling. Couldn’t take my eyes off the screen.
I didn’t buy much. But most of what I bought, I really really liked.
Absolutely Love & Adore:
Shwayze (self-titled) – Ridiculous lyrics. Total b-o-u-n-c-e BOUNCE. Super fun. Perfect end of summer music.
The Billionaires “Really Real for Forever” – Also bouncy! Yay! “Are you still sad? Let’s go out and get fucked up!!” Mixed male/female vocals (you know how I love that! Or you should). Really addictive.
The Wave Pictures “Instant Coffee Baby” – Wow, you get a serious Violent Femmes flashback as this album begins (“Add It Up”, “Blister in the Sun” era-Femmes…). That fades a little as it goes on but theirs is definitely a throwback sound. Great to listen to right after The Billionaires, I’ve had these two on back to back for weeks. Michelle talks more about them over here.
Mumford & Sons “Chess Club Release” – Not actually an album, per se, but you can download them all together. Part of the new English Folk thing going on now. Very distinctive lead voice. Very unusual instrumentation. Very awesome live. Great lyrics. I really can’t wait for them to release more stuff!
Everlast “Love, War, and the Ghost of Whitey Ford” – LOVE his deep deep voice. Love the “Folsom Prison Blues” cover. Love love love.
Favorite Singles (not on any of the above albums):
Other Albums I Liked:
Not really for me / but maybe for you!:
Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson “Rattlin’ Bones” – I really really dig both these singers on their solo “sorta country, but sorta more folky acoustic pop” albums. [And I really like their live shows as well.] But this combined album just slides too far into country for me and I kinda cringe when it comes up on shuffle. However, I do really like the song “Wildflower” and on those days when I’m in the mood for twang I may find myself listening to this more than I expect. But not right now.
Shamefully have either not listened to at all, or not all the way through, or so few times that I can’t legitimately offer an opinion:
Nada!
My favorite chart of the election results.
Eating: Food I cooked myself, can you believe it? It’s been many, many months since I last spent time in the kitchen. In other fun news, my carbon monoxide alarm now goes off every time I use the oven.
Making: Haven’t made a stitch of progress in anything. But I am going to KIP tonight so that should be good for a couple rounds on a sock.
Reading: Our November challenge book, “The Oxford Book of Short Stories” edited by V.S. Pritchett. I am only a few stories in so still in the “way back” part of the collection. I’ve read it (somewhere?) before and I really, really hate Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark.” HATE. But the other stories have been good.
Watching: Old, but from this season, episodes of House on Hulu and remembering exactly why I’m not watching this show at home either in real time or on TIVO anymore. It’s WAY beyond time for a new formula.
Listening to: Everlast. Joseph Arthur. Ray LaMontagne. The Avett Brothers. The Billionaires. The Wave Pictures. Mumford and Sons. Sam Phillips. Just kinda wandering around my iPod.
I’m reading your review of “Let the Right One In“, (published in Entertainment Weekly #1018) and wow, I can’t believe how WRONG you got this one. The dude who kills people and drains their blood? He’s neither an actual “serial killer” nor the vampire’s father*. He’s something like her butler, or her servant (or perhaps someone her vampire family entrusted to aid her). He goes out and kills people and drains their blood…TO FEED HER. So she doesn’t go out killing people vampire-style and get caught and say, perhaps, staked in the heart.
Seriously,
I know it was in Swedish, but it wasn’t that hard to understand,
CMS
*Certainly no one I saw it with thinks he’s her ‘father’ and most vampires would acknowledge their ‘father’ as being the one who turned them.
Bought:
Once a million years ago (late 80s/early 90s), I got this Rolling Stone mix tape, one selection of which was “Where the Colors Don’t Go” by Sam Phillips, a song I have listened to off and on ever since. Then Ladder 49 came out with both a great Joaquin performance AND “How to Dream” another great Sam Phillips song. And somewhere along the way I heard “I Need Love“, which is just a GREAT song.
You’re a secret I whisper to myself
That’s all I knew going in. She’s a real show”man”, so to speak. Very late-night bar/cabaret feel. Unusual instrumentation, very focused. Similar to going to a Joe Henry or Joan Baez concert. And speaking of Joe Henry, I am 99% sure that Jay Bellerose, who blew my mind at the Joe Henry concert, was also the drummer for Sam Phillips. Wow.
If you are buying me a birthday present next year: percussion lessons with Jay Bellerose please! Thanks! 🙂
Broken like a window, I see my blindness now
And I need love, not some sentimental prison
I need God, not the political church
I need fire to melt the frozen sea inside me
I need love
Why do I even do these if I do them three months later, you may ask yourself. Merely to cement things in my own (increasingly addled) mind would be my answer.
Absolutely Love & Adore:
The New Frontiers “Mending” – Pretty sure I bought this after hearing a single on Fuel/Friends. Wow, this album is oddly heartbreaking. “Mirrors” sends me pretty close to crying every time I hear it [hold up *ahem*, is this a God song? I am just listening a little more closely to the lyrics and getting that icky religion shiver up my spine]. “The Day You Fell Apart” has a total Travis feel. But my favorite song is “Strangers”.
Carla Bruni “Comme si de rien n’etait” – So lovely. I guess she’s gotten some flack in France for being a cheesy pop singer but this whole thing is pure sultriness to me. And my favorite song is definitely the (in)famous “Tu es me came” (“you are my drug”). I loved her previous album en francais as well, although not so much the one en anglais.
Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip “Angles” – Yay yay yay. YAY! The funnest rap out there. “Letter from God to Man”, “Beat that My Heart Skipped” and “Thou Shalt Always Kill” are all kinda obvious to have as favorites, but that’s the way it is sometimes.
Joseph Arthur “Foreign Girls” – His whateverth EP of the year (fourth?). I particularly love “Lovely Cost” which has a Bowiesqueness.
Paddy Casey “Addicted to Company (Part 1) – I can’t remember if it was MG or MF that sent me this but thank you to whichever because it’s kinda great. (Maybe too folk-y for some a yous though.) “City” is my fave, particularly for its great opening.
Favorite Singles (not on any of the above albums):
Other Albums I Liked:
Not really for me / but maybe for you!:
The Black Keys “Attack and Release” – I like these guys live a LOT. And the album’s fine…But I don’t find I listen to it much.
Shamefully have either not listened to at all, or not all the way through, or so few times that I can’t legitimately offer an opinion:
Nada!! [OK actually a couple mixes I was sent have only gotten a tiny bit o’ listenin’ time.]