The World Is Not Enough

The World Is Not Enough - 2.0 Our movie options at this B&B in the Australian rain forest weren't exactly comprehensive so we ended up choosing The World Is Not Enough over Titanic, the other Brosnan Bond movies, and some movie called I'll See You in My Dreams. I was actually relatively excited by the choice since this is the only recent Bond movie I hadn't seen. Well, pretty quickly that excitement turned to disappointment because this movie sucked. I admit I wasn't giving it my full attention so I really didn't follow the plot much; from what I gathered it was something about some evil Eastern Europeans, presumably Russians, acquiring a nuclear sub and proceeding to wreak havoc - pretty standard Bond stuff. However, the plot never grabbed my attention whatsoever. I did start paying a little more attention when Denise Richards (as a rocket scientist named Christmas!!) came into the movie, and then it became even more abundantly clear that this movie sucked. I know Bond girls aren't supposed to act a whole lot but just the way Richards delivered her dialogue made me cringe. What a godawful actress she is. Anyways, my hopes were lifted for a minute when Judi Dench was imprisoned by said evil Eastern Europeans and there seemed to be a chance to see Dame Judi become the badass we all know she can and should be, but unfortunately, nothing ever materialized on this front. Oh well, why should it? This movie sucked.

Australia

So I've now been in Australia for about a week - though the weather hasn't been great (in the 50s and rainy for most of the time) I've been having a good time. Sydney is a beautiful city, especially around the harbor areas. The Sydney harbor with the opera house and the harbor bridge is truly spectacular. Overall, the people are friendly, the city is clean, and there's a decent amount of stuff to do. My only real complaint is that it is one of the more expensive places I've been. Not as bad as London but worse than just about everywhere else. Now we are up at a really nice bed and breakfast in the rain forest outside of Cairns. Haven't done anything here yet but should be going for a hike today and probably doing some other rain forest-y stuff. In a couple days we're going to the Barrier Reef to snorkel and I think we're also hitting up Ayer's Rock sometime next week before some of us head off to New Zealand and Fiji. Anyways, I brought a bunch of movies and TV shows (including Deadwood and Heroes, both of which I really want to watch) but haven't had a chance to watch any yet. I've actually been able to sleep through most of the flights, so I suppose that's a good thing. The one review that should be upcoming is of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I have about 100 pages left and will hopefully finish it tonight. So far I really like it, though I'm not sure I "get" everything that's going on.

Los Angeles

So my Australia/New Zealand/Fiji trip is officially underway. I am now in LA for the night before leaving for Sydney late tomorrow night. No real impression of LA yet but hopefully will get to see some of it tomorrow. I do plan to keep posting occasionally while I'm gone...

Punch-Drunk Love

Punch-Drunk Love - 7.0 This is a pretty good light, quirky romantic dramedy. I've watched this and Boogie Nights recently and I'm quickly becoming a big Paul Thomas Anderson fan. I also have Magnolia but haven't watched it yet since its over 3 hours long, but may give it a try tomorrow. Back to the movie - I was very impressed by Adam Sandler's performance. I think the key to the movie was the viewer feeling pity for Sandler's character and hoping something good would happen to him. Sandler brought vulnerability to the character but never made him too pathetic, so I ended up feeling sorry for him but not thinking he was a complete loser. It was a relatively fine line and Sandler walked it successfully. With this and Spanglish (which I actually thought was really good), Sandler has certainly shown some dramatic acting chops. He's not Sean Penn or Daniel Day-Lewis or anything but I'd like to see him in some more semi-dramatic roles, especially since he hasn't made a good comedy in years (though the Chuck and Larry not really gay firemen getting married movie with Kevin James could be ok I guess).

Caddyshack

Caddyshack - 3.0 I generally don't like older comedies very much and Caddyshack was no exception. Rodney Dangerfield had a few funny rants and Bill Murray was amusing but I don't think I laughed more than 2 or 3 times the entire movie. Pretty big let down considering how much this movie gets hyped up by some people.

300

300 - 8.0 So I finally saw 300 tonight at the $1.50 theatre. Overall, it really works as relatively mindless entertainment - I really got into it as I watched. The style is similar to Sin City, in that what the filmmakers are trying to do is essentially bring a comic book to life. There were also aspects that reminded me of Gladiator (the lead at times bared a striking resemblance to Russell Crowe as Maximus), The Matrix, and Braveheart. There was nothing deep or thought-provoking about it, though at times it did annoy me by trying to push the freedom vs. tyranny angle a bit too much. All in all, it was fast-paced, had good action sequences, some humor, some good pump you up music, a few hot women (and hot men too I suppose), and overall was just a fun movie. The bottom line is if I was channel surfing tomorrow and saw that it was on HBO, I would definitely stop and watch at least a few minutes, and who knows maybe I'd get drawn in and watch the whole thing (which happened to me with Gladiator a few weeks ago).

The Fountain

The Fountain - 7.5 Aronofsky's newest effort may not reach the (lofty) heights of Requiem or Pi but it's still pretty damn good. For one thing, it is shot beautifully - this is especially evident watching on my bluray and nice TV. Rachel Weisz was good as always and Hugh Jackman was really impressive. With this and The Prestige I am quickly becoming a fan. I also liked the intersecting story/time lines. It was a cool way to set the movie up and get across the main idea. Ah the main idea, my main (minor) problem with this film...I hesitate to place too much criticism here in case I missed something Aronofsky was trying to get across, but I think at times this movie was perhaps not quite as profound as it thought it was. This isn't to say that the overall point the movie was trying to get across wasn't interesting or correct, I just could've done without some of the heavy handedness. With that said, The Fountain was extremely well-done and overall pretty interesting. If you can deal with a movie jumping around through stories and time that is open to multiple interpretations, it's certainly worth seeing.

Crazy Hand

So I'm listening online to the $3000 NLHE final table at the World Series of Poker, mostly because Phil Hellmuth is going for his 12th bracelet (he already set the new record with #11 earlier this year, 1 more than Doyle and Chan). So anyways, it ends up all in three ways before the flop with 8 people left, including Hellmuth. Hellmuth has AA, so he's in good shape right? Well another player has AA and the last player has KK. The AAs hold up and KK guy is busted in 8th. Craziness... (still 7 left right now)

Bad Boys

Bad Boys - 5.0 I watched this today while playing poker - it was a good movie for this purpose because it was easy to follow without paying close attention the entire time. I was moderately entertained which is what I judge a movie like this on. Overall, the plot was mediocre and the action scenes standard, but what did work was the back and forth between Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Funny stuff. Overall, a pretty average action flick, one that would've been much worse if Will Smith and his charisma weren't involved. One note, I did watch a DVRed version that came on TBS so I saw the censored cut. Not sure how much this took away from the movie...though really I always enjoy when something stupid is dubbed over cuss words on cable (like "strike this guyyyy out" replacing "strike this mother fucker out" when Dorn is talking to the Wild Thing at the end of Major League) so I really don't know if this took away or added to the movie...

Entourage Season 4 Premier

In the last post, the link I posted to the Superbad trailer wasn't the good one. Here's the link to the red band one: http://media.movies.ign.com/media/877/877305/vids_1.html Entourage Season 4 Premier - 8.0 I thought the last half of Season 3 was ok but significantly worse than seasons 1 and 2. All the drama surrounding Ari was retarded and a waste of time, in my opinion. Anyways, I thoroughly enjoyed last night's episode. I was especially pleasantly surprised that they jammed the filming of the entire movie into one episode and it didn't seem rushed. They need to get back to LA where the show belongs, but this one episode in Colombia worked for me.

Trailers

So Jeremy over at http://www.wildfiring.com/ thinks he will post more often than me...possible, especially if I get tired of doing this, which is a distinct possibility - however, he will have to pick it up greatly. I think the tipping point for me was when I checked his blog hoping to find out if he'd seen any good movies lately or had any interesting links and I saw this stupid headline:

Supercalafr --- Ah, fuck it.

for the 100th time. The first 99 times it was ok, but #100 did it for me... Anyways, I was looking at some movie trailers earlier, so I figured I'd share them.

Superbad:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/superbad/

Watch the red band trailer (you have to put in your bday to verify your age). This movie looks fucking hilarious, and not so shockingly, Judd Apatow is a producer.

American Gangster:

http://www.americangangster.net/ Ridley Scott directing, starring Denzel and Russell Crowe - looks pretty awesome 3:10 to Yuma http://www.joblo.com/movietrailers_archive.php?mode=trailer&title=3%3A10+to+Yuma James Mangold (Walk the Line) is directing and Russell Crowe and Christian Bale are starring in what looks like could be a badass western. I have high hopes, even if the last good western was over 15 years ago (Unforgiven). There Will Be Blood http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYW2ltW5SPo Paul Thomas Anderson directing, Daniel Day-Lewis starring, oh my...

I Am Legend

http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/iamlegend/large.html

This looks pretty intriguing, it's guaranteed to make a ton of money since Will Smith is involved and he's really the biggest movie star in the world right now. Don't believe me? His last 6 movies have all grossed over $130 million. What's even more impressive is the different genres he covered. Men in Black II - sci fi/comedy, Bad Boys II - action comedy, I, Robot - sci-fi, Shark Tale - kiddie comedy, Hitch - romantic comedy, The Pursuit of Happyness - drama.

The Kingdom

http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/thekingdom/large.html

Jeremy will approve of this one since the director is Peter Berg, the man behind his new obsession, Friday Night Lights. I'm excited because Michael Mann is involved (producer) and the cast includes Jamie Foxx and a bunch of people from TV shows I like - Jennifer Garner, Jeremy Piven, Jason Bateman, and even the dad from Six Feet Under shows up in the trailer.

Poker

I figure I might use this blog to keep track of my progress in poker as well. I'll title all the poker posts "poker" (creative right?) so if you're not interested, you can skip over them. Anyways, I had a pretty crappy night tonight. I was running horribly so I was proud of myself for cutting my losses after only 1 multi-table tourney and 2 heads up and stopping for the night instead of the usual routine of playing higher stakes when I lose to try to win the money back more quickly. The night was highlighted by the following hands in my multi table tourney - KK vs. 67 suited all in preflop. He hits a pair and straight draw on the flop, turns the straight. AA vs. AJ off all in preflop. Flop was A 10 4, two diamonds, pretty good right? Well not when the turn and river are both diamonds and he has the J of diamonds. Those two were both against shorter stacks than me (and my stack never got above the starting stack to begin with) so I was still alive until the following hand: Blinds 25/50, I have QQ in the small blind. Under the gun limps, one more limp, late position raises to 250, I only have 750 so I push in. I have actually been smooth calling preflop with hands like QQ, JJ, and AK more recently (and almost never reraise w/AQ or worse preflop unless I'm shortstacked and pushing in). I haven't decided if this is a good strategy or not yet, though it isn't really relevant to this hand. I guess mixing it up is the way to go. Anyways, back to the hand, under the gun comes over the top all in for like 4000, late position raiser calls (uh oh). Under the gun has 2 2 (fucking retard, though I would've been thanking him if he could've pushed the original raiser out with AK) and other guy has KK. Whatever, it wasn't a big tournament or anything, I just couldn't get anything going. It continued with my heads up games - I flop two pair, they turn a flush, etc, etc. Hopefully it'll get better tomorrow...

First post - some reviews

So I decided to create a blog, mainly because I was looking at this new facebook movie application thing and I started rating and reviewing movies, and I thought this would be an easier/better way to do movie reviews. I've also been reading a decent amount of poker blogs, so there's another reason. Anyways, I've been watching a lot of movies this summer, and since I don't feel like going through all of them, I'll just throw out the best ones I've seen this summer with some short comments. The Devil's Backbone - 9.0 This is a ghost story set in a boy's boarding school at the end of the Spanish Civil War directed by Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labryinth). I've been having a debate with myself if this was better than Pan's Labryinth or not. They are very similar in tone and theme. Both have compelling stories and likable protagonists. I think Pan's Labryinth had a better villain, but The Devil's Backbone was scarier (scientifically measured by how many times the movie made me jump). Anyways, I have been leaning towards The Devil's Backbone's side of the debate but I think it is only because I have seen it more recently. Someone else needs to watch this, debating myself is getting old. Charade - 9.0 This is a Hitchcock-esque thriller starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. It works for a number of reasons: -clever, entertaining dialogue -well set-up suspenseful "action" sequences (not action like modern action, but action like Hitchcock action) -good twists and turns in the plot And most of all: -charismatic lead performances from Grant and Hepburn who are two of my all-time favorite movie stars. Downfall - 8.5 This is a German film about Hitler's last days in power. It's really interesting as it humanizes Hitler to a certain extent, showing he is kind to his secretaries, loves his dog, etc. But it still emphasizes how deranged and demented he was at the same time. This is a much more nuanced and realistic way of presenting Hitler, in my opinion, than just saying he was a crazed mad man. Here's another one that someone else should see so we can have a nice discussion about it. Oldboy - 8.5 This is a twisted and gripping Korean action movie about a man's quest for revenge following his release from 15 years of imprisonment after he was kidnapped. It's ultra-violent and pretty disturbing on several different levels, but if you can separate movies from reality, it can definitely be enjoyed. Anyways, after watching this, my first thought was "damn that movie was sweet, I really liked it." So, I went to check what people said about it on the imdb message boards and you know who else really liked this movie? Cho Seung-Hui - the VT gunman. Apparently, it was his favorite movie and there were some allusions to it in the videos he sent to NBC. So there's one thing I have in common with a mass murderer... Knocked Up - 8.0 Very funny movie, I laughed a lot almost the entire way through. It did slow down as it got more "serious" towards the end, but it didn't take away too much from the rest of the movie. I normally don't like comedies much at all, so now that he has made two straight excellent ones (this and The 40 Year Old Virgin), Judd Apatow is quickly rising up my list of favorite current filmmakers. Off the top of my head, he's definitely behind Michael Mann, the Mexican trifecta (Innaritu, del Toro, Cuaron), Scorsese and Spielberg (duh), Tarantino, Fincher, and a few others I'm sure. See this is why I made my own blog, so I can write (and think) about stuff like this that no one else would ever care about. Back on topic, Knocked Up is the only really good movie I've seen in theatres so far this summer. Ocean's Thirteen was breezy and pretty entertaining but not great, Pirates 3 was significantly better than #2 but still overdone and too long, Spiderman 3 was moderately entertaining but not nearly as good as #2 (and I'm not a huge Spiderman 2 fan), and Shrek 3 was complete crap (and I was a fan of the first 2). While there are several other movies that have yet to come out this summer that I'll probably end up seeing, the new Bourne movie and especially Harry Potter are the only ones I'm really looking forward to. Pretty crappy summer for movies (stupid threequels). So those are my 5 favorites so far from this summer. Some others one I may write up later that I liked were Boogie Nights, Zodiac, Love Actually (yes Love Actually), and The Italian Job.