Fight the power...

One of the first movies fighting "The Man" (who actually has a name, Jim Taylor) was directed by Frank Capra. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a wonderful movie with a great story. Starring the young James Stewart as a newly appointed senator who is expected to smile and nod during his time in office. He ends up uncovering a scandal and feels the wrath of corrupt politicians and those that control them. It's a real feel-good, "yay America!" movie and deserves some 4.5/5 pledge allegiances y'all!

So many to talk about

It's the 1st of December, brrrr! I'm anxiously awaiting a gargantuan snowfall predicted for today, there seems to be no doubt among all the weather sources that a large dumping is going to take place. BRING IT ON!

Some time has passed since I last posted and I have seen a few movies. I'll do a brief recap of what I watched and what I thought. Let's begin.

Ben-Hur, an epic classic. I attempted watching this in college and only go through the first half of the movie and I've always been meaning to finish it. Well it took me three viewings to make it through this 3 hour 40 minute film. All in all, it was very entertaining. I watched the first half on my 7inch portable DVD player, not the proper medium for watching this movie which was filmed in a very wide aspect ratio, one of the widest ever used according to Wikipedia.

The movie really paced well, which was surprising for it's length, and kept me quite enthralled. I enjoyed Charlton Heston's character and he fit the role well. It featured one of the coolest action sequences I've ever seen (the chariot race) which was a nail-biting sequence. This movie deserves 4.5/5 thong sandals.

I saw Enchanted in the theaters last weekend down in Iowa. Unfortunately I had to miss the first half-hour of the movie because I had to change a flat tire on my car. It was a cute girly movie and I enjoyed it. Big fan of Amy Adams, it could be because she bears a striking resemblance to my wife, but she pulled off the innocent, clueless princess very well. It was fun and deserves 3.5/5 glass slippers, I'm sure 10-year old girls enjoyed it a lot more than I did!

Rescue Dawn, a very good movie. I have never been disappointed by any of the movies I've seen with Christian Bale. It was also very interesting to see Steve Zahn in a serious role. It's a great story of survival and it provides a touching look into the true story of Dieter Dengler (Bale's character) and it includes some gripping profiles of life in a POW camp during the Vietnam War. It deserves 4/5 spanish olives.

Finally, I'll briefly talk about the movie my wife and I watched last night. Marie Antoinette. Pretty good. I was very pleased with Kirsten Dunst's portrayal of Antoinette and it had a very youthy feel to the movie. It was fun and an interesting look into the life of a teenage queen of France. A side note, I have been to the Palace of Versailles, it's one sweet pad. OK, 3/5 pieces of cake. Did y'all know that she never actually said "Let them eat cake". Au-revoir my friends.

License to Ugh...

Well, I recently sat through License to Wed starring Robin Williams, Mandy Moore & John Krasinski. Not much to it at all. At the end of the movie I was left with an overwhelming sense of dissappointment, and I had the strong taste of cheddar (no, was it swiss) in my mouth. (The movie was cheesy... ha ha ha...)

I am a big fan of The Office and Krasinski's character is perfection on that show. He essentially channels the same sarcasm with a lot less wit for his character in this movie and it doesn't work. His acting was a lot worse on the big screen. Also, Robin Williams, one who rarely dissappoints (both on the dramatic and comedic fronts) played a creepy, stalker reverend who enjoys teaching the joys and hardships of marriage through sadistic and psychotic means. Mandy did nothing for me either.

I did enjoy the small cameos played by Brian Baumgartner (Kevin in The Office) and Angela Kinsey (she plays Angela... funny). They added some nice comedic relief offsetting the boring chemistry between Williams and Krasinski. Well, to sum it all up, I'll give it 1.5/5 cans of spam and never watch it again.

Peace and love.

Health food

I just lost a head's up match against my wife in poker. Not too thrilled. But, I've come to terms with it. The first time I ever taught her Texas Hold 'Em, she got pocket Kings on her first hand, and on the second hand, pocket Aces!
She's something all right. Another funny story has to do with a random trip to the casino on a long car trip. We decided to stop at the Ho-Chunk Casino in Wisconsin and see where $20 would take us. We ended up walking out with $300 thanks to her fabulous luck at a slot machine and her watchful eye when I played video poker! Great memory.
Anyway, the reason for the title is that we made a "salad" tonight I've never heard about or tasted before in my life. Snickers Bar Salad, if you follow the link it takes you to the very difficult and strenuous recipe. We skipped the marshmallows, but just three ingredients makes some good eats...

• Snickers Bars
• Apples (we used Braeburn)
• Whipped Cream

I just love the fact that it's called a salad! Well, we're going to let it chill in the fridge overnight and try it tomorrow, can't wait to try it... We ended up not going with Cool Whip (we whipped cream, baby!), but if you'd like to check out this video I found a few weeks ago, it is an interesting find.

OK, I'm done, this wasn't about a movie, sorry to all of you who read this blog every day looking for high quality reviews. You just didn't get one today. :-(

"I'm sorry Shaun..."

Just watched Shaun of the Dead the other night for the 2nd time. LOVE IT!

Hilarious, slightly scary, and downright clever. Can't wait to see Hot Fuzz, I need to rent it soon.

Anyway, this movie gets 5/5 cricket bats. Pure genious.

Killer mutant fish terrorizing South Korea

Hello again, my wife and I just watched a great movie that I feel I need to post about.

The Host was an excellent movie, one that really brings home the Halloween spirit. It certainly was not your typical monster movie, this one had style, a great story, good acting and some really heartfelt moments. It also had a balanced amount of suspence and a few jumpers.

This movie is South Korean (we watched it in Korean w/ subtitles) and it featured some really talented actors. The girl who gets kidnapped by the monster was amazing and the main characters really seemed to play up their roles to the fullest, there were many comical moments that worked well. I was also very impressed with the effects (the monster was all CGI, but it was very believeable).

OK, I don't have much more to say, but I recommend this movie to all who enjoy suspenseful thrillers, this has it all and don't let the fact that it resides in "Foreign" section deter you from renting/buying it!

The Host gets 4.5/5 chicken nuggets (delicious).

"Shane! Shane! Come back, Shane!"

This is sad. It's 10:30AM and I've finished my 2nd movie of the day. To be honest, I started my first movie (Shooter, see my last post) yesterday, but none the less, I woke up early to drive my wife to the airport, and then ended up finishing 2 movies before noon! Sad.

Since I just started this blog, I'm kind of pumped about posting, so anyway, here is my short review of the movie I just finished, and old western called Shane.

It was pretty darn good. Made in the early 50's, Shane is a nice movie set in Alabama after the Civil War took place and farmers are laying claim to their land. The story focuses on a family and a mysterious man named Shane who band together along with their neighbors to fight a man who has taken the liberty of oppressing the settlers. Anyway, enough of a plot synopsis, you can read it on your own at imdb or Wikipedia. I'm a sucker for old movies, they really seem to captivate me (as long as they were done well). The lead actors really were very believeable, the only person that was a little annoying was the young boy Joey. None the less, the story was classic, the movie was inspiring and the execution of the film was very good. It seemed to have been nominated for 6 Academy Awards, only winning best Cinematography for color films. Also, I only recognized on of the actors (I'm working on broadening my knowledge of pre 1970's actors) and that was Jack Palance. He played "Curly" in the City Slickers movies! The film's score was very good, turns out the composer (Victor Young) was nominated for 22 Oscars and he only won one posthumously.

Any who, I found out about this film through the AFI Top 100 Movies list and it rightly deserves to be there.
I give Shane 4.5/5 cowboy hats and think anyone who's interested in classic Westerns should check it out, it's a very believeable and touching story.

Let's start with a short review

Well, I'm joining the ranks of millions who've started posting life snippets online. Well, all I can offer to this infinite wealth of knowledge, gossip and b.s. is some thoughts on one of the things that I do a lot. Watch movies. I've seen plenty in my lifetime (albeit I've only been around only 23 years but I've seen plenty to kick some serious tush in "Scene It"!)
I'll get right to it. The last movie I just finished watching on DVD about 1/2 hour ago was Shooter.

A decent flick starring Mark Wahlberg, Danny Glover, Michael Peña, and Kate Mara to name a few. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, the same guy who directed Training Day (pretty good), King Arthur (good action/storyline) & Tears of the Sun (not so much).

Completely fashioned out of the action movie template (with little to add) it flowed well. The camera work was fine and the suspense was good. The action sequences and fighting were well executed, and the technical details were believable to a certain degree. There was little to be amazed at throughout the story, a few predictable twists and some slightly unexpected plot direction. It was based on the book Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter and I'm sure the book (as always) had more to offer. All this aside it was an enjoyable movie. There was good chemistry between Mark Wahlberg and Michael Peña and some humorous sequences between them. Also, I enjoyed Danny Glover's role, I've always been a fan of his work (can't go wrong with Angels in the Outfield!) Anyway, in summary, I'd give this a (drum roll please...)

3/5 gold coins (stars are so overused, and I think I'll pick a new object for every review, we'll see how that goes).

Hope you enjoyed, I'll probably rant about other things throughout the life of this blog, but it'll mostly be about movies.