Over the Edge, xXx, Ghost Town, Boycott, & Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks

Over the Edge is Matt Dillon's first film. It's a film about kids rebelling because there's nothing else to do in their planned community. It's not the best film, but it's quite enjoyable, and the soundtrack is great, with lots of Cheap Trick, The Cars, and even a Ramones track. As a portrait of misspent youth, I am very thankful I never spent time with delinquents like these. My delinquent friends were much more sarcastic and much less destructive.

xXx was really, really stupid. I normally would not have watched this film. Because it's a stupid film. But Meatball Surgery decided it would be funny to give me it on DVD. It's now sitting next to my Wong Kar-Wai and Wes Anderson DVDs, keeping them company and occasionally trying to read the backs and failing. I understand why Asia Argento is kinda famous, since her dad is Dario and she's willing to be naked. I wonder why the hell anyone would cast her in a PG-13 film that precludes nudity? She's a horrible actress. I really liked Pitch Black, his voice is great in The Iron Giant, and he was good in Saving Private Ryan, but I don't like Vin Diesel much at all. The Rock at least has a sense of humor. Vin just has a great voice, but can't act.

Ghost Town is another Ricky Gervais Hollywood romantic comedy. It's better than The Invention of Lying, but not by much. It's a little sad seeing Alan Ruck have such a small role.

Boycott is directed by Clark Johnson, aka Meldrick Lewis, aka Gus Haynes, aka director of many good TV shows.  He takes a decidedly post-modern approach to the story of the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, with shots in black and white, breaking the fourth wall, having it be a documentary in some shots of scenes and not in others, and just in general bringing a cinematic approach to the material.  Jeffrey Wrights is quite good as MLK, Jr, as is the rest of the cast in their roles, but I just can't see Terrence Howard without thinking about how he doesn't use toilet paper, but baby wipes, when he goes to the bathroom.  He probably has a silky smooth anus.  And that is an extremely weird thing to know about a person.

Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks is produced by Reggie Miller.  Of course, it's a huge lovefest for him, although with some humanism brought in by focusing a little on his history of being second fiddle in his family to his sister.  As someone who watched the NBA throughout the Jordan years (and with some love for the Kings that got screwed by the refs in the playoffs in the late 90s and early 2000s), I was pretty familiar with the Pacers-Knicks rivalry.  I think the city-hick aspects were played up a bit, but there was definitely genuine bad blood between the teams.  It's also surprisingly funny for a documentary on two basketball playoff series.  Spike Lee was great, and while some might fault him for framing the covers of the NY Post that lambasted him after Miller went off in the 1994 series, if I were on the front cover of a "major" newspaper, I would also frame them.  Unless it were because I was in jail.  Probably wouldn't do it then.  If you watched NBA basketball at the time, you'll love this.  If you like trash-talking, you'll love this.  An extremely enjoyable film.

American Swing, 1984, & Slap Shot

American Swing is 81 minutes of messed up. Far be it from me to start going all moral all over people, but having sex with lots of people without protection, on dingy mattresses, in swimming pools, and the like is just disgusting. And the guy at the center of this, Larry Levenson, is a creep and tax evader. With possible mob ties. I was surprised by just how much they showed in the movie, that unrated movie is NC-17, so be forewarned. You will see wangs and hoohas, from not particularly attractive people. The movie didn't take a side as to whether Plato's Retreat was evil or not, and Jon Hart and Matthew Kaufman got some great interviews. Sure, it's a deeply messed up story, but I look forward to seeing what they come up with next. Also, Ed Koch is very, very gay.

1984 is a movie I've been meaning to watch for years. Ever since I first found out that Susan Hamilton was naked in it. This was after I had read the book, and had little interest in actually watching it for class, and so the nudity was not nearly as high on my list of reasons to see it now as it was back in high school. I do want to say two more things about the nudity before getting to the film. One: there's a scene where Winston and Julia are standing at the window, and someone comes in the door, but Winston only turns the top of his body, so you don't see penis. This is both wrong and uncomfortable-looking. Two: Suzanna Hamilton has more hair in her armpits than John Hurt has on his entire body. Anyway, the film is pretty good, conveying the book's message well. That's pretty much all.

Slap Shot is a gloriously profane look at minor league hockey in the 70s. Really, it's a typically 70s sports movie, that many films have tried and failed to be (I'm looking at you Major League). The team is made up mostly of actual minor league hockey players, most of whom are based on the actors themselves, which lends an air of realism that make it work. Of course the stripping during the game wasn't real, but most of it actually happened. I can definitely see why this film has such a huge cult following. I've watched more hockey in the last week of the Olympics than I have in many, many years.

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean along with sports and TV notes

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean is a kind of mess of a film, filled with lots of tonal shifts, awkward humor, and... well, very 70s stuff. It's actually quite militant, with all the terribleness that a John Milius script brings with it. Now, the problem is that Newman does a great job, so it wasn't completely ridiculous, and John Huston and the rest of the cast make it almost a good film, but I just have to lay the failures of this film on the script. It's far too violent, unsurprisingly misogynistic, characters appear and then disappear very quickly, leaving little to build into a movie.

The Bengals really just know how to rip my heart out. Well, maybe if I had expected them to win the game. What I didn't expect was Landon Donovan having a good game against Arsenal and helping Everton tie after being crushed 6-1 in the first match of the year. Yay for Donovan not embarrassing himself or Everton.

Better off Ted is one of the funniest shows on TV. I just wish they could air this because that is some high quality cursing. You should watch it even if it isn't full of classy cussin'. Also good: Dollhouse. Really, when the show came back after being taken off for November sweeps, it went crazy and got very Whedontasticly terrific. If only people liked good TV. Speaking of which...

I wouldn't be a fan of Conan O'Brien if I went too long without noting just how crappily NBC has treated Conan for years. Their refusal to promote the show was a running joke, and for some reason Leno gets the benefit of not having Leno as a lead-in. I could go on and on about how Leno is an unfunny hack and is directly responsible for Conan's poor ratings. And Conan is a classy mofo, much, much more than Leno's hackery. As much as I have been a Conan fan since I started watching him back in 1998, Letterman was clearly the model of his humor, and Letterman was much funnier than Leno, as long as I could remember. After watching The Late Shift, there is no question in my mind that NBC made a horrible mistake. Conan's show last night was vicious about NBC. Deservedly. I am firmly on Team Conan, and refuse to say anything nice about Leno ever again if NBC screws over Conan.

Snow Angels, Taxi to the Dark Side, The Damned United, Sita Sings the Blues, & The Prisoner

Snow Angels is a depressing film by David Gordon Green, director of the excellent George Washington, the less excellent Undertow (the first time I think I'd ever seen Kristen Stewart), and Pineapple Express. This falls much more towards the first two, a look at a divorced couple and their daughter and the boy that the wife used to babysit. It's full of good performances: Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell, Nicky Katt, Amy Sedaris, Michael Angarano, and hipster-to-be Olivia Thirlby (seriously, just look at the glasses and the camera). I think I wouldn't have liked it as much had there not been as much growth from Michael as the boy, because otherwise it would've been a little too depressing.

Taxi to the Dark Side is another in a long line of documentaries about how messed up Iraq and Afghanistan are/were. Better than some, although not as masterfully frakked as Standard Operating Procedure. Maybe I should check to see if I have any more documentaries about the War on Philosophy and maybe move them much further down in my queue. Possibly even off it entirely. I'm not sure I need to keep watching them.

The Damned United is the story of probably the biggest flameout in sports history. Seriously, it's the stupidest job decision ever. What the hell was the board thinking when they offered Brian Clough the job at Leeds United? And what the hell was Brian thinking when he took it? It's really quite a good film, with strong performances from Michael Sheen and Timothy Spall. It's about a time in English soccer that I really didn't know that much about. Dirty soccer being played with lots of diving and cheap shots? Certainly wouldn't pass in current days, and I imagine the better sports coverage allows for more obvious penalties. Certainly that New Mexico player may have gotten away with it during the game, but the cameras caught everything.

Sita Sings the Blues is an animated film almost entirely done by Nina Paley. It combines the story of her husband leaving her, the story of Sita and Rama (told by people who can't quite agree on what was happening and when), and has musical interludes of Annette Hanshaw songs that comment on the links between the two stories. It's an interesting film, although I wouldn't say it was great. I object immensely to the rights issues that she had to go through to get this film released. Annette Hanshaw stopped recording in the 1930s. This was released last year. The rights holders were asking for $220,000 for a small film that few were going to see? That's utterly ridiculous. These were state laws rather than federal laws, but this is clearly stuff that should be in the public domain, because it's been almost 80 years since some of these recordings were made, and the performer is dead. There's no excuse for this. None.

The Prisoner ends with seriously one of the most messed up finales of all time. It's batguano insane, and although the episodes leading up to it were also pretty messed up (I watched it in the KTEH order, as opposed to the DVD order, which is really annoying, having to change DVDs almost every episode, or at least the order), it's really pretty hard to understand just how messed up it is. I know that Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have seen this show, and I have this fear that they're going to go this route with Season 6. But they're at least going to have a little more time to put this together, since there're some weird shifts. I don't want to be more specific, because you should really see this, in order (I almost totally agree with the KTEH order rather than the DVD order, which is what I saw it in college). Lost has been pretty trippy, but I expect an online revolt on the order of the ending of The Sopranos except nerdier (and far less stupid) if the ending is anything like this.

You Don't Mess with the Zohan, Mad Dog and Glory, Knocked Up, & The Rug Cop

You Don't Mess with the Zohan is occasionally very funny. And frequently very stupid. If only hummus could actually solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Maybe we need to send Michael Buffer there to unite them in anti-Bufferness. Did you know he's doing the intros for Duke players at Cameron this year? What the hell?

Mad Dog and Glory would have been better had it been cast the way it was planned with Robert DeNiro as the gangster-comic and Bill Murray as the cop-photographer. Uma Thurman can be the moll anytime. Richard Price scripted it for John McNaughton, two talented people, but it didn't work as a comedy or as a drama. I did like seeing Richard Belzer as the MC at the comedy club.

Knocked Up is a movie I'd seen over half of on E! in a censored version, which is probably not the best way to watch it for the first (or, really, any) time. Eh, I'm not really that sure that anything could have made this movie a comedy through and through. Maybe I just shouldn't expect that from a Judd Apatow film, but this bodes poorly for my appreciation of Funny People. I want them to be funnier than they are, and the overly treacly baby montage really just sucked the funny out of the end of the film. Because otherwise, it's a completely unrealistic relationship, but things were pretty funny otherwise. Actually, can anyone, anywhere, remember an actually funny music montage (besides meta-montages like in Team America)? I'm probably being far too hard on the film.

The Rug Cop is by the same guy who did Executive Koala. So it's weird. In this case, it's about a cop who gets dumped because he's bald, and then discovers he can use his toupee as a weapon. He joins a police station with a handsome cop (women commit crimes just to be interrogated by him), an old cop, a fat cop, a short cop, a young female police officer, and a cop nicknamed Big Dick, who uses his enormous penis as a weapon when he gets aroused. Normal cop film otherwise, really: cop discovers terrorist plot, and then through a series of investigations and random coincidences, solves everything, and ends up with a happy ending. The musical interlude was way too long, causing the film to feel much longer than the short 80 minute running time. The best scene in the movie, though, is the first one, where the Rug Cop foils a bank robbery using only his toupee. Oh, and the most important thing about the robbery is that the robber is the ventriloquist dummy. Not the ventriloquist. It's delightfully low budget. Not as good as Executive Koala. See that one first, and if you want more weirdness, see this.

More Gen-Y Cops

I'm not sure that I fully expressed the terribleness that is Gen-Y Cops in my review of it. As such, I think you need to go here and watch that video. Seriously. I'll wait.

Is that not amazing?

Link found due to the awesomeness that is Paul Rudd's obsession with Mac & Me, and the AV Club's obsession with covering everything that is awesomely terrible with this My Year of Flops entry. I remember watching and liking it when I was 9, but I don't remember the dance scene at the McDonald's or the Buccaneers participating in it (although their dancing explains why they suck). I do remember being insanely happy when Paul Rudd would do Conan and pull out that clip (which I did remember from the movie, because it's horrifying). My favorite part of the Rudd clip from MYOF entry? THE ENTIRE THING!

Caseus Archivelox: 24 Hour Party People & Romance

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The Last Hayride & random TV notes

The Last Hayride is a book about Edwin Edwards's 1983 campaign for governor in Louisiana. He had first been elected in 1971, re-elected in 75, and since he couldn't run in 79, he basically set everything up for his successor, a technocrat Republican named Dave Treen, to fail so he could win. Edwards was a liar, a womanizer (he is the origin of "The only way I can lose this election is if I'm caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy."), and it's not entirely clear that he was all that good of a governor. However, he made for a fascinating book. John Maginnis does a fairly good job being in the right place at the right time, although towards the end of the campaign, he starts to complain about being there. But his history of Louisiana and the politics explain a good deal that I didn't really know about why they have the strange electoral structure they do (Edwards put it in place to try to kill off the Republican Party there, but, in effect, revitalized it). Quite an interesting book.

The Middleman DVD is great. Epitaph One, the unaired Dollhouse episode, really makes me wonder where the hell the show is going. Seriously, that is a terrifying future. Torchwood: Children of Earth also kinda leaves me wondering where the hell the show is going to go after that. The Doctor Who specials (the Christmas one and the Easter one) were really good. Hung is kind of a mess, but I haven't yet gotten too pissed at it (and it's one of those shows that kinda can't show the penis and I can't complain about the inequality of the nudity since the penis is all things to all women). True Blood is either more enjoyable this season, or my expectations are so low, that I've been enjoying it. Hard Knocks: The Cincinnati Bengals is pretty good, although I hate Mike Brown even more after watching it, and I like Chad Ochocinco more. Shaq Vs. really is about 25 minutes of filler, 20 minutes of commercials, and 15 minutes of Shaq being extremely personable. Should be enjoyable for the next few episodes. Nova Science Now is the most enjoyable and fascinating science show ever made. Neil deGrasse Tyson really needs to be on TV more often.

The Campaign of the Century & The Blind Side

The Campaign of the Century is all about the 1934 California Governor's election, which is both a turning point for political campaigns (in that this was the first campaign run by full-time political consultants rather than the candidate and this was the first campaign to make large use of televisual advertising (in this case, short trailers before movies)) and for California. Before then, Hollywood wasn't all that involved in political campaigns, but after this campaign where liberal and progressive Hollywood stars were moved to actually be more vocal in the political views, and was the last big hurrah of the political views of the studios being dominated by the studio heads. They were actually garnishing wages and blacklisting people for not supporting Merriam against Sinclair. As enjoyable as the dirty tricks stuff was, I really loved the sections about what was going on during the same time, like the capture of Bruno Hauptmann, killing of Pretty Boy Floyd, William Randolph Hearst visiting Hitler, and many, many more. Really just a fascinating book.

The Blind Side is a fascinating look at the importance of the left tackle in professional (and increasingly college) football. And an interesting inside view of the recruiting and creation of one of the best left tackle prospects in the last decade, Michael Oher. I really enjoyed the book, as Michael Lewis is a great author, who knows just what to include and to exclude, never writing too much when he's putting his stories together. The NCAA regulator interviews were what really made me find this fascinating, though. To me, it seemed like a clear case of where the NCAA should have declared him ineligible to go to Ole Miss based on the rules, but it's also one of those cases that is so ridiculous that it could have ever possibly been a violation that it just pisses me off. Then again, I had just read about what they had done for the kid, and the NCAA didn't have the book. Also, Lawrence Taylor is a beast, I lost a lot of respect for Paul Brown not hiring Bill Walsh when he could have in 1976, and I kinda liked Jonathan Ogden a little more. And I'm terrified about how good of an LT Oher's going to be for the Ravens.

Asobi Seksu at Rock 'n' Roll Hotel 3/28

Honestly, I don't have a lot to say about this concert. Hush isn't nearly as good an album as Citrus, which I consider to be almost as good as My Bloody Valentine's albums, but I still like all three of their albums. But I just couldn't get into the show all that much. And a set list would be utterly worthless. This guy has a lot to say about the concert (I did not notice Yuki taking her jacket off, but I am pretty sure I would not have needed to "change my shorts", at least partially because I was wearing jeans), although I disagree on the merits of Tyvek.

To give you an idea of the Tyvek lead singer see this. Also, imagine a huge douchebag who talks loudly in the back of the crowd during the headliner. So loud that you can hear him even with the wall of noise that is Asobi Seksu. So loud that you can hear him and he bothers you when you are wearing ear plugs because Asobi Seksu is so loud. Seriously, Asobi Seksu was the loudest concert I have ever been at, and I specifically remembered to bring my ear plugs because I knew they would be loud.

I did end up eating at Granville Morris with Ms. Albright ahead of the concert, which was very good, if the curry mayo was disappointing, as was the two-hour wait. So long to wait for mussels and frites (although I did get to watch the first half of the Pitt-Nova game). Food was better than Bistro Du Coin though.

Jens Lekman at Black Cat 4/2

I unfortunately wasn't into Jens Lekman enough last October to go to the show. Somehow. Because it was back in February of 2006 that I first heard Jens (thanks iTunes!), the still my favorite Lekman song, I Saw Her in the Anti-War Demonstration. Somehow that didn't correlate into love for the Swede until November of last year. A few months after I first heard Night Falls over Kortedala. I have no clue why.

Anyway, when I had the chance this time, I said I was going and made it, going with MBG, Vermonstrous, Meatball Surgery, Banana Flux, and Tweaks. Gotta say I pretty much agree with her about the show. I missed the openers, and don't entirely mind. Jens himself was outstanding. I'm actually listening to a set from February in Copenhagen that has a pretty similar setlist, and it's reminding me of how fun it was. Plus, it's a hell of a lot better than listening to Billy Packer talk about how much smarter he is than Einstein and how that player just made the stupidest play ever and probably should not have been in the game at that time. Man, I hate him. Anyway, I really wish I wasn't tired as hell and I had waited around to see him play the third encore somewhere outside (probably, that's what I'm guessing from this interview). Because he was very enjoyable.

Pictures are available here at Brightest Young Things, the blog that makes me feel dirty every time I link to it, but they do seem to have someone at pretty much every show I go to. You can always check out Youtube as well, getting you things like A Little Lost from the show, with Jens on the Kalimba, and the second best thing at the show, A Postcard to Nina (not from the same show, but still the extended and hilarious expansion). But the best thing was The Opposite of Hallelujah. Just an outstanding song, fun and bouncy, and then when he breaks into Gimme Just a Little More Time, it was pretty much amazing. It happens at the 2:58 mark of this clip and gives the song a completely unneeded, but still awesome, kick.

And this begins the string of pretty much one show a week until the end of May. Or so, sometimes it's a couple in one weekend, or maybe a week and half between concerts.

The New Pornographers at 9:30 10/27

I have now crossed one of the things off my list of things to do: see the New Pornographers with Dan and Neko. I can die slightly less unfulfilled! Yay!

I had some Peruvian chicken for dinner before the show, and it was utterly delicious. Mmmm that white sauce. And then watched The Warriors again, which I hadn't seen in a few years or so, and it's just as utterly ridiculous as I remember, although I had forgotten that Lynn (The Chief!) Thigpen and Mercedes Ruehl were in it, not just Dexter's dad (James Remar).

We (my fairly normal concert going friends) made it in time to see Emma Pollock (lead singer from the Delgados, a band which I am unfamiliar with), who was good, but not enough for me to go try to listen to her (or the Delgados for that matter). Since we were standing so far down the left side of the balcony we could see the Pornos sitting around waiting, and Neko and John Collins enjoying Emma. And I also called the Kirsty MacColl track, "There's a Guy Works down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis" before they started to play it between sets. Sometimes I am awesome. And it's not just sometimes for Kirsty, who covered A New England. I also couldn't believe I couldn't remember that Let's Active played Every Word Means No, also played in between sets, and I'm thankful that I didn't know that Smashmouth covered it. Because that is a travesty. Eric Bachmann covering it is completely awesome.

The Pornos themselves started a little late after a bit of struggling with some technical difficulties by the adorable Kathryn Calder's keyboards. But they got it working, it went dark, the New Pornographer lite went on, and the opening of Classical Gas started to play. By the time the famous part started, the band was out (well, all the band I could see, as I didn't see Blaine until much later due to my location, and Dan only does his songs, the lazy drunk bastard (the completely awesome lazy drunk bastard though)), and ripped into their first song, All the Things That Go To Make Heaven & Earth. It was a little after 11. We got to the car after the show after 12:45. Yes, they played for a long time, and were never less than completely rocking. Unless it was intentional. As for the setlist, you can see, it covered most of Challengers except for my favorite track, Entering White Cecilia), and covered some of the better tracks from their previous three albums (except for Letter from an Occupant, which they have played at previous shows on the tour, just not this one, damnit).

Setlist: (from Katherine)
All the Things That Go To Make Heaven & Earth
Use It
Myriad Harbour
The Electric Version
All the Old Showstoppers
Jackie, Dressed in Cobras
Challengers
The Laws Have Changed
The Spirit of Giving
My Rights Versus Yours
Mass Romantic
Adventures in Solitude
Testament to Youth In Verse
Unguided
Twin Cinema
Go Places
Sing Me Spanish Techno
The Bleeding Heart Show
--------------------
The Bones of an Idol
[Attempt to play The New Face of Zero & One] (it was requested and Carl said it would be good if he could play it, but that they didn't know it anymore, but was able to get Kurt to play the Adam Ant opening beat and then they made it through maybe a minute without being particularly able to finish lines of the lyrics and it was just fun)
Jackie
From Blown Speakers
The Slow Descent into Alcoholism

I spent all the time singing along, but didn't lose my voice at all. Did I mention that I love smoke-free clubs? My feet did hurt like the dickens a few songs in, but I didn't stop bouncing.

At one point, Carl thanked the crowd for being the 9th member of the band, until it was pointed out that there were actually nine members of the band on stage, and then he said tenth, no, twelfth member. You're welcome Carl, Neko, Dan, Kurt, Kathryn, Todd, John, Blaine, and the other how ever many there were of you. And there was the mention of "bros" which will always make me think of idiots in college who will be saying Don't Taze Me, Bro far longer than it could be conceivably funny to someone who's lost his short term memory. But I will be BFF with Neko forever.

Also, there was a no pictures policy at the club, meaning BOOOO! to the 9:30. Or maybe just Neko based on the previous show. Maybe they just didn't want to show just how much alcohol was consumed during the show, which was a prodigious amount, especially Dan who was drinking backstage, onstage, and in between singing if he had a free hand. I can deal, though, because there are some pics from NPR and Katherine who again flouts the rules because she is far more awesome than me. Plus, she has a camera.

My every concert always has to have a douchebag douchebag of the concert: the guys behind us who not only said the score of the OSU-Penn State game which I was recording to watch later, but who also talked throughout the concert and then started to request Failsafe towards the end. I also like Failsafe, but do they actually think that it is possible for the band to play that live? Does it sound like anything else in their discography? Is tremolo really something they could do? Of course not. I mainly just am bitter about the talking during the concert (not just between songs, but during songs, louder than the quiet ones from Emma Pollock) and the ruining the football game for me. Of course OSU won, but I wanted to watch it without an idea of how it was going to turn out.

Brokeback Mountain, We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen, Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man, Uninvited, a crappy TV show, and the Bengals

Brokeback Mountain is the most homoerotic film I've ever seen about sheep. Sheep in the literal and metaphorical sense, as two clearly gay men are herded by society into a furtive relationship that ruins their lives and those who love them. And now that that's done, Princess Diaries breasts! And I wish I knew how to quit you! Sure, it's a touching film of forbidden love, with strong performances from Heath and Jake. Plus, there's quite a few other good performances from the women who aren't quite woman enough for the men. Certainly not the best film of the year, but dear god, is it better than Crash.

We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen begins my documentary on influential musicians released in 2005 minifest. You are not, by the way, allowed to badmouth Double Nickels on the Dime. Just take a look at the amount of far more famous people talking about how awesome they were. Sure, a lot of their songs aren't always the best, but when they do hit that, the lyrics alone are amazing. For added fun in the film, besides lots and lots of concert footage (including at the old home of the 9:30 club), you have Mike Watt, an interesting guy in his own right, talking about D. Boon, one of the most fascinating people in music. Of course, a lot of the stories weren't new, as I'd read the excellent Our Band Could Be Your Life, but it's quite enjoyable anyway. If you don't like the Minutemen, then don't watch this. I also didn't think I could handle the second disc full of live songs of various quality, so the first one was fine for me.

Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man just reminds me that I like Loudon Wainright's acting infinitely more than everything Rufus Wainright has ever done. I might even go so far as to say that he's terrible. Note that that's a might. And Rufus's version of Hallelujah can't hold a candle to Jeff Buckley's (the one in the movie is further marred by the female singers). And his version of Everybody Knows is a travesty (the original of which I love for its use in Pump up the Volume). Teddy Thompson's version of Tonight Will Be Fine was a highlight. As was Jarvis Cocker doing I Can't Forget. Admittedly, I am a fan of the song, ever since I first heard Pixies covering it. Also, you know, Pulp rocks.

Uninvited has quite likely the greatest special feature ever on a DVD. No, not a skip straight to the nudity (there's only a brief flash during a revival scene anyway). It's a 15 minute condensed version of the film. Had I just watched that, it would have been just fifteen minutes of confusion rather than two hours. Some interesting things in this cross between an ultra-religious My Own Private Idaho, Pillow Talk, and Ringu. Seriously, there's even a well. Interior Design is an important aspect of the film. Ghosts, narcolepsy, along with cannibalism (did you miss that deleted scene were Keanu Reeves eats River Phoenix in a seriously misguided attempt to gain his acting talent?) and dropping babies because they're evil. Well, that babies are like cats and that they'll eat their owners if needed. Just an utter mess of a film. Falling asleep in the middle of it after a busy Saturday didn't help.

And, for those of you who are my Netflix friends (if you aren't and want to be, let me know), you might notice I watched the first disc of The Newsroom, a Canadian TV news satire. And I didn't like it. Maybe if I had laughed once in the three episodes (I think it was three, I got bored), I might have actually watched more. But my life is far more important than watching mediocre Canadian TV. It's Degrassi or bust. Actually, there must be a good Canadian TV show besides Degrassi and You Can't Do That on Television. Taking recommendations isn't always 100%, even from people who are 85% similar on Netflix. Which should really be obvious. At least I didn't get the second disc as well.

Also, what the hell, Bengals? That defensive effort would have caused me pain had I been able to watch any of it. Well, I caught about two minutes near the end of the second half, but apparently, the Steelers-Bills blowout was more important in the District than a close exciting divisional rival.

Battlestar Galactica: The Miniseries, The Long, Hot Summer, Rhapsody in August, The Boys of Baraka, Notorious C.H.O., & The Science of Sleep

Stupid work has been keeping me from watching and keeping up on this nearly as much as I would like. I also have watched the second season of Veronica Mars and the third season of Arrested Development (both well-worth watching), along with worked insane hours of work, so that really explains why my movie watching was so low the past couple weeks. Probably won't increase much until after November 7th, either. Oh, and go Bengals and Buckeyes. So these are more half-assed than normal.

Battlestar Galactica: The Miniseries was better than I was expecting. I really felt like I needed another show to make sure I never cleared off my DVR, and this was it. Lots of recommendations from Sci-Fi nerds and the promise that it was much better than most TV Sci-Fi. Well, it's not as good as Firefly/Serenity, but very little is. Certainly a worthwhile add to my Series recording list. Now, I just have to finish the first and second seasons before the third premieres on October 6. Or else I will continue to be someone who is alone in watching it among friends, rather than joining people at a Frak Party, or some such. Maybe I'll just try to watch as much as I can and still go. The effects were actually pretty good, the acting was generally not bad, and the story was interesting. (plus Grace Park and Tricia Helfer are attractive...)

The Long Hot Summer was another of those movies in the late 50s that should have been made a few years later, because the restrictions from the production code were driving me crazy. Yeah, they did get to say that women think about sex, but you could tell that if this were a little later, the son would have been made impotent and the daughter's non-Paul Newman beau gay. Damn them for neutering films. Then again, All the King's Men was a pretty neutered version of the book, and the remake is supposed to keep all that in and still be boring as hell. Not that the original was boring, I happen to really like it. It was weird to see Orson Welles, because at first I thought, "Orson Welles", and then "It can't be him", and I went back and forth until I just checked the IMDB.

Rhapsody in August is Akira Kurosawa making everyone feel really depressed because it's all about how people were affected by the atomic bombs. A little later than Hiroshima Mon Amour, but I still got a little weepy-eyed when the kids were wandering around Nagasaki looking at the various monuments and the like. Maybe some Americans don't want to remember that we're the only country who've ever used nuclear weapons in war, but it's pretty hard to forget that. Using the children as a way to get people to connect to the story was pretty effective as well, since there were four of them and most people could identify with one of them at least. And, of course, it was strange to see Richard Gere speaking in Japanese. I couldn't tell if it was halting or if he was mispronouncing words, but he seemed fairly up on it, at least when he wasn't supposed to be muffing words.

The Boys of Baraka was an interesting look at the Baraka program, which takes high risk kids from Baltimore and sends them to Kenya to try to get them out of the areas where they're likely to go to into the drug trade or get into trouble with the law. It was interesting, especially comparing that to the somewhat bleak view that the Wire is seeming to get into this season. I'll have to think about them together at some point in the future (may not actually happen).

Notorious C.H.O. is Margaret Cho's second concert film, and this one was more about sex and, consequently, I didn't care for it nearly as much as her other films that I've seen. Just wasn't nearly as funny to me. Eh.

The Science of Sleep was strange, in the wonderful way that a Gondry film can be. It felt much less organized than had it been written by Charlie Kaufman, and it was much more visually impressive, like his videos. It reminded me of Eternal Sunshine, as they're both about relationships, although clearly opposite ends of them. I'd like to think that I don't go quite as bizarre when one of mine starts, but then again, my imagination does like to get way ahead of reality. Can't quite remember my dreams, though, so I can't tell whether I've ever gone so far as to have them end up becoming real. And that is, if there is even one, the problem with the film. If you're looking to find a movie with closure, or one that isn't going to confuse you at all, you're not going to like the film at all. In fact, you may even hate it. I can see someone hating it very easily. It takes both an ability to separate dreams from reality and an overactive imagination in the realms of love and relationships to get, and some people don't really want to work that hard while watching a film. It's not as immediately brilliant as Eternal Sunshine, but really, few films are. It's more of an earworm, slowly burrowing in, taking over your life, until you'd be happy to ride around on a mechanical horse below cotton ball clouds with the woman you love (and may or may not love you back). Then you wake up.

Bengals... & Million Dollar Baby

I really think God hates us. First off, there're 15 years between playoff games for the Bengals. And then, in his first playoff pass (a beautiful long bomb), he tears his ACL and might not be ready for training camp next year. And then Jon Kitna remembers that he's Jon Kitna in the second half and screws up everything. Damnit.

Million Dollar Baby was well-made, but it pretty much just reminded me of Mystic River, in that it was well-made, but there just seemed something off in it. I can't entirely put my finger on it, except that it seemed like a mixture of other movies. A little bit of Mystic River, a little Girlfight, and a whole big heaping of every single movie where Morgan Freeman is the old grizzled veteran being an influence (especially on a younger white person). It just made me think of The Shawshank Redemption a hell of a lot. Maybe its Oscar was something to make up for the lack of Oscars for that. Or maybe it was all about the big plot twist. That it was spoiled for me makes me not entirely the best person to judge whether it was earned. I think that it was clearly the right decision in this case, but I think that the movie made it feel a little too easy for her to get to the highest part of female boxing. I certainly think that you could have gotten rid of Jay Baruchel's character entirely and then make the movie more about how much Maggie loves her life. I don't think that was effective enough. A little too much depressing, not enough happy. Plus, we really don't have any idea of how much money she's making as a boxer, I mean, we have that shot of her checkbook, and then she somehow buys the house, and then boxes around Europe, and then boxes for 500k? These niggling problems just knock a little off my enjoyment of an otherwise good movie. The bits with the priest, however, were my favorite parts of the movie.