Movie of the Week: Lars & The Real Girl

Great, great movie that completely falls apart with Ryan Gosling doesn't play Lars perfectly.

Gosling played Lars with the perfect amount of humor, sadness and creepiness. As hard as was to swallow an entire town rallying around a delusion (more likely a psychotic break), everyone played it straight.

It's a shame that Ryan Gosling won't get the attention come Oscar time but he really should because can only think of a handful of performance this year on par.

I Fought The Future And Won

Beginning in May, I began a Netflix project. Being an avid Lost disciple, I wanted to watch one of its forefathers, The X-Files. Despite seeing the movie in the theaters, I had only watched a handful of episodes over the course of its nine seasons. I hate jumping on a show like this from the middle.

I burned through the first three seasons pretty quickly but when summer movie season and then the new fall television rolled around, I found it harder & harder to find time to watch episodes especially when the quality started to lessen.

Luckily, the TV strike came around and I found tons of free time to watch the occasional episode.

Last week, I finally finished the entire thing.

Here are a couple of stray thoughts:

• The first six seasons were great. Period. But after that it got bad pretty quickly. Once they added Reyes and put the whole search for Mulder thing behind them, the show got okay again until the end.
• It was funny watching the evolution of Gillian Anderson. She was very "plane jane" for the first few season and then all of the sudden, she got a haircut, started wearing nice suits and she became hot. I'm in love with her now.
• The biggest problem with the post-Mulder seasons were the attempts to make Doggett the new Scully and have Scully be the old Mulder. They rectified this with Agent Reyes but then they made another mistake by making Reyes and Doggett the new "Will they/Won't they" agents.
  
• They mythology never made sense.
  

Next up, Twin Peaks (once season one becomes available on Netflix)

Movie of the Week: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Tim and Johnny, all is forgiven for Charlie & The Chocolate Factory.

This is the Tim Burton I race to the movies to see. I've never seen Sweeney Todd on Broadway so I have nothing to compare it to (and maybe that's for the best).

It's takes about half a song to get used to Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter singing but they both did great jobs.

I think I could watch Alan Rickman read the phone book and I'd be interested. I don't there has ever been an Alan Rickman performance I haven't enjoyed.

Warning: it's very bloody, comically so. Think Kill Bill - The Bride vs. The Crazy 88's

Dewey Cox & The Hard Walkers at The Knitting Factory

After the screening, we were bused over to the Knitting Factory to see the final performance of Dewey Cox & The Hard Walkers (until the Oscars with the strike doesn't destroy it).



The show was hilarious. The best parts were his covers of Rehab (Amy Winehouse),Cocaine (Eric Clapton) and Sabotage (Beastie Boys).

The world needs more Cox.

Movie of the Week: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

(I know...another 3 stars)

This movie was stupid and full of dick jokes (and actually some dicks) but you know what, it was fucking hilarious.

It helped that John C. Reilly can sing his ass off and that there were more cameos than a Robert Altman film.

The jokes were coming so fast that I'm going to need to see it again.

My favorite parts were Tim Meadows' anti-drug warnings to Dewey throughout the movie. "No Dewey, you don't want no part of this shit!)

There was a lot of stuff in the commercials and trailers that didn't makethe finalcut so expect a loaded DVD.

(Some Of) My Favorite Albums From 2007

While I'm sure better music came out this year and I haven't had a chance to really listen to a couple of albums I just downloaded acquired (Lupe Fiasco, LCD Soundsystem, Ghostface, Wu-Tang Clan) but here are my some* of favorite albums of 2007 (in no particular order) with my favorite song from each.

"No Cars Go" by Arcade Fire from Neon Bible



"Breakin' Up" by Rilo Kiley from Under The Blacklight



"Back To Black" by Amy Winehouse from Back to Black
(Yes, I know it really came out in 2006)



"I Feel It All" by Feist from The Reminder



"All I Need" by Radiohead from In Rainbows



"Say Hello" by Jay-Z from American Gangster



"When Your Mind's Made Up" by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová from Music From The Motion Picture Once



"The Heinrich Maneuver" by Interpol from Our Love To Admire



"Flashing Lights" by Kanye West (featuring Dwele) from Graduation



"Lucky Ones" by Kevin Drew from Spirit If...



"When Everything Is New" by Little Brother from GetBack



"Burn Your Life Down" by Tegan & Sara from The Con

* I say "some" because these albums are just the ones I thought of when I decided to make this post and not some well thought out list like I was working for Rolling Stone or Pitchfork Media.

New Lost Season Four Trailer

Click picture for all types of awesomeness

The Dark Knight International Posters & Trailer

Click either poster for the trailer

Movie of the Week: I Am Legend

This was probably my favorite Will Smith performance ever.

It's hard to carry a majority of a movie when you are the only person acting. A perfect example of the right way to do this is Tom Hanks in Castaway. I was a little worried for Mr. Smith who has only tried to flat out act a handful of time (Six Degrees of Separation, Where The Day Takes You, Ali).

Well, he did quite well. He didn't try to force the humor too much (an issue for him). He was the appropriate amount of stoicism, desperation and insanity. There's one scene during a "conversation" he has in a video store that shows you how much Will has stepped his game up.

The movie was a lot more suspenseful than I expected (one of my female companions who I went with spent various moments in the fetal position). There were a lot of elements that reminded me of 28 Days Later. Also, the creatures sort of moved like the robots in I,Robot when they were vaulting on top of poles and walls.

My problems with the movie: There is an evolution of the vampire-like creatures that goes acknowledged by Robert Neville (Smith) which bugged me. It went more in line with what happened in the book. Also, they completely changed the book. I didn't read the book but I looked it up after the movie and it was much cooler than what happened in the movie.

I saw this in IMAX, mainly for The Dark Knight prologue which was awesome. I'm a strong believer in seeing any movie shown in IMAX but that was an added incentive.

Movie of the Week: Enchanted

Ok, I'll admit it. It was really cute.

Amy Adams was amazing (as expected). I hope this leads to bigger and better things for her.

This was a great parody of old Disney flicks. There were a couple of surprisingly disgusting moments involving vermin which is why there will never be a Disney romance cartoon set in New York City. No one finds singing roaches cute.

One thing did kind of bother me. Given that this was a Disney film, the animated portion of the movie wasn't very good. I know it wasn't a large part of the movie but they really slacked here.

Lost Season Four Trailer

Too bad there are only eight episodes...

100 Things That Make Me Happy (If Only For a Second)

Another project from Sheila:

1. Will Ferrell's scenes in whatever movie he is in
   
2. New comics on Wednesday
3. Snickers bars
4. New episodes of my favorite shows
5. Hearing a song that is line with what I'm feeling at the moment (if that moment is a good moment, of course)
6. Receiving cards in the mail (not e-cards, USPS style)
7. Receiving hugs in proportion to the hugs I'm giving
8. Trying to have a intelligent conversation with someone under the age of 9
9. This song
10. First kisses
11. Inside jokes
12. False glimmers of hope from crushes
13. Receiving a complement about something I don't necessarily believe about myself
14. The ten seconds between just finishing cleaning your room and starting the process of messing it up again
15. Seeing something I want on sale
16. The moment you realize a movie is going to be one of your favorites
17. Learning something new about someone I care about
18. Not having to get out of bed when other people are at work
19. Sugar
20. Beating the hard part of a video game
21. Winning
22. Being right
23. Having a conversation with a friend who is just as drunk as you are about how drunk you both aren't
24. Holding hands when its cold (locking fingers, not grasping hands)
25. Noticing something cute about someone they may not notice about themselves
26. When one of your favorite movies are on cable and you turn to it and it's at your favorite part
27. When I realize the person I saw a movie with loved it just as much as I did and instead of defending it, we can exchange praise, favorite parts and quotes all the way home.
28. Being finished with a project
29. When an album I've been dying to hear leaks on the internet
30. Soft vanilla ice cream in a cone with rainbow sprinkles
31. Getting comments on my blog especially from friends I didn't know read it
32. Watching recaps of the Yankees or Giants winning on SportsCenter
33. Getting a phone call right after a new episode of 24 or Lost concludes
34. When someone loves a movie I recommended
35. Finding a present that is perfect for someone
36. The first sip of the first beer after a long shitty day
37. When a book turns into something you have to finish, instead of something you are just reading
38. Rilo Kiley songs
39. Telling people who make at least $20,000 more than me what to do
40. Giving somebody something they wanted, especially if they didn't ask for it
41. A good chicken cheesesteak
42. Someone liking something I wrote
43. Not having to do anything
44. Genuine surprises
45. Seeing someone smile at me
46. Being complimented on what I'm wearing
47. Receiving voicemails & text messages from drunk friends
48. Being missed
49. Reading my friends' blogs
50. Having a good week in fantasy football
51. Game winning home runs by the Yankees
52. White Chocolate Mocha Latte from Starbucks
53. Black noodles with chicken from Spice
54. Reading Ask Ausiello on Wednesday morning and talking my friends about it
    
55. Looking at my checking account online and realizing I'm not going to be broke before my next paycheck arrives
56. Kristin Chenowith on Pushing Daisies
57. When the Yankees beat the Mets or the Red Sox
58. When the Mets and the Red Sox lose
59. Seeing pictures of myself that I actually like
60. Getting a back massage of equal or better quality than one I would give myself
61. Finding money in a pair of jeans
62. Finishing all the shows stored on my DVR
63. Shelia's morning instant messenger hugs
64. Tara's "eeeee" when something is hilarious
65. Nikki's 3D dance
66. Andrea's "I wanna see that!" face after a good movie trailer
67. Getting sincerely thanked
68. Seeing my friends who are pregnant
69. Open bars
70. Spring
71. Waking up at my stop on the subway (on the first try)
72. Having a really good idea
73. Welch's grape soda
74. When there are Twizzlers in the vending machine at work
75. When Jack Bauer shoots someone
76. Being done with work for the day or the week
    
77. When a movie I've been dying to see again finally comes out on DVD
78. Getting answers on Lost
79. Tropicana Orange Juice (No pulp)
80. Egg and bacon on a roll in the morning
81. H&H plain bagel, lightly toasted, one butter
82. New Perry Bible Fellowship comic strips
83. Being needed but not manipulated or abused
84. Juvenile humor
85. Getting a new tattoo
86. Being comfortable with someone or something
87. Having all my shirts ironed and put away
88. Meeting someone new who loves things that I love
89. Finishing my bag of comics for the week
90. Seeing someone I miss
91. Soft white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies
92. New t-shirts on Threadless (even if I'm not allowing myself to buy anymore)
93. Getting White Castle after 2 AM after a night of drinking and hanging out
94. Laughing hysterically with friends
95. Epiphanies
96. Seeing someone on the street I don't feel like talking to first so I can avoid them
97. Making someone feel better
98. Getting a blog post out of my system
99. Hearing an amazing album for the first time.
    
100. Making someone else smile...if only for a second
     

Movie of the Week: I'm Not There

Well, that was weird.

I don't know how much I liked it. For the first 90 minutes or so, I was in love with it. Everyone playing different incarnations of Bob Dylan was great but none better than Cate Blanchett. I've made my feelings known for Ms. Blanchett but as Jude Quinn, she was amazing. She had Dylan's mannerisms and tics in the 60's down pat. Christian Bale was also great as the reclusive folk-hero Jack Rollins.

But when the Billy the Kid (Richard Gere) portion of the movie started up, I got lost. Maybe if I was more familiar with the history and iconography of Bob Dylan, I would have appreciated it more but I'm not so I didn't. Every time those scenes came up, I got pulled out of just enjoying the picture and trying to figure out what all this means.

Still, it was really beautifully shot and directed. I was just lost for thirty minutes.

Movie of the Week: Juno

This year's Little Miss Sunshine.

The movies started slow and sometimes the script tried to hard to be witty but it was still one of the better comedies of the year.

Ellen Page (Juno) was great (I've loved since Hard Candy) and will probably be nominated for an Oscar (or at least a Golden Globe). Actually everyone was really good - Michael Cera, J.K. Simmons (good to see him playing a nice guy), Alison Janney, Olivia Thirlby. I especially liked Jennifer Garner. Who knew she could pull off such a sad, controlled performance?

The soundtrack was also great.


The Moldy Peaches - Anyone Else But You

Sex and the City trailer

The apocalypse is nigh...

The Dark Knight poster

Movie of the Week: The Golden Compass

It had some good moments and Dakota Blue Richards was really good but for the most part, I hated it.