Hamlet 2

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HA!!!! Rock me, rock me, rock me sexy Jesus!!! Why do I feel like I’ve been raped in the face? The hilarious tale of a failed actor turned failed drama teacher who writes a sequel to “arguably the world\’s greatest piece of literature” because it had a downer ending. It’s got all the typical persecution of a traditional sports movie (albiet much more grandiose and hilarious), but the real highlight is the titular musical at the end of the movie. Through reviews I learned that the two white kids were the stars of the musical Spring Awakening (which I haven’t seen yet), which made a lot of sense and was awesome! Skylar Austin plays sexually confused teacher’s pet Rand and Phoene Strole plays racially frightened Epiphany. Steve Coogan is hysterical…much better than Around The World In 80 Days. ;). I’m also quite glad that the film is rated R. The … Continue reading →

Responses, Responses, Responses

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I did a lot of critical thinking today and wanted to share it! The Towers live on … in movies & television, that is Jim asks us what we think about the Towers popping up in media. I think it is garbage to digitally remove ANYTHING from a film, whether it be to replace guns with walkie-talkies or remove buildings that are no longer standing in order to be politically correct. A film, just like a picture or any other kind of archival media, is a slice of space and time that is a precious representation of history. To edit it is to attempt to rewrite history…and THAT is sacrilegious. And in Disney’s case, to keep something from publication for political reasons is even MORE sacrilegious….I wish Disney would release the ABC docudrama “The Path To 9/11”. It was a brilliant miniseries that evenhandedly dealt blame on both sides of … Continue reading →

The House Bunny

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Very funny film from Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison production company. Smart comedy of the same bizarre, exaggerated streak that was present in Zohan. An adult fairy tale about Shelly, who gets kicked out of the Playboy Mansion on her 27th birthday (that’s like 59 in bunny years), and becomes the house mom for a sorority house full of misfits. Anna Farris is wonderful in another blonde bimbo role (a role she cultivated in the Scary Movies), but this character was surprisingly smart at moments and that pleased me. Poor Anna Farris…she got a bad Botox job before filming…it slipped from my consciousness as the film went on, but it was very noticible at first.

The Copper Scroll by Joel Rosenberg

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Joel Rosenberg so perfectly combines the style of Tom Clancy, Dan Brown and La Haye/Jenkins that it is absolutely irresistible. The characters are so familiar and comfortable, the plot is terse and believable, and the book is great fun. He is one of the few authors (K. A. Applegate and Eoin Colfer being others) that I have trouble putting down at 2 am (no trouble at 3 am). The books are actually detrimental to my productivity! And it’s got a tie-in to church! The Sunday after finishing the book, my pastor mentioned a teaching style of Jesus and other rabbi’s of 30 A.D. called remez. The principle is to read passages of the Old Testament in parts without explaining what was missing. It assumes that the audience of the sermon/lecture knows the Old Testament well enough to know what was missing and THAT was the thrust of the lecture/sermon. While … Continue reading →

Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson

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Finished on September 4th, 2008 Who is the more admirable character, the actress Laura Keene or the assassin’s sister, Asia Booth Clarke? Before reading this book, I would have had no idea how to answer this question, but now I know all this and more and am very glad to have read this book. I first heard about the book as a potential film project that Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford were looking at, but didn’t pick up the book until a couple of months ago. It reads very easily and is the exciting and compelling true life mystery of the hunt for John Wilkes Booth after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Packed full of history and an incredibly petty and sordid supporting cast (especially on the Union side), this book was absolutely delightful. What was especially nice in my edition of the book was the interview with the author … Continue reading →

A Chorus Line – OCPAC

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Zach reminded me of Robin Williams and Alan Tudyk. It is also my opinion that he would look good with the thin beard. The humor of Val’s lines and physicality was somewhat hindered by her unnecessary Lina-Lamont-esque accent. This is yet another example of the unfortunate tendency to play the broad comedy instead of aiming for subtle humor (has intellectual comedy died?!?!?!?!?!?). Cassie performed extraordinarily well despite being ill and rather heroically managed to keep her coughing to a minimum. While forewarned that there was no real guitar and that necessary “licks” were synthesized, I found the absence less annoying than anticipated (beyond the opening number). The fact that the lack of a real guitar didn’t glare out of any other numbers (to me, a non-musicians) is a testament to the phenomenal orchestrations of Marvin Hamlisch. Not to say the show should always be done sans (or synthed) guitar – … Continue reading →

Blocking “The Path To 9/11”

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A genuine Hollywood premiere! My first chance to rub elbows with the muckety-mucks and I’m wearing jeans and a T-shirt! :D. This documentary is fantastic. Written and directed by former-KFI-late-night-libertarian-guru John Ziegler (check out www.therealkfi.com for the gory details), this documentary chronicles the censorship of ABC’s self-proclaimed docudrama, “The Pathe To 9/11” at the bequest of the Clinton political machine, which is probably why Hillary lost the nomination (which is ironic in and of itself). Geoffrey Rowland (Senior Editor of “The Path To 9/11”) had a fever of 103 degrees when they shot his bit of the documentary. When Zeiglar was wrapping up the 7 hour interview with Cyrus that is the core of the film (he knew Cyrus wanted to watch a big playoff game), he asked the typical documentary question of, “Is there anything else you want to talk about?” and Cyrus leaned in and said, “Ask me … Continue reading →

Swing Vote

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Texico, Curry County, New Mexico 5 electoral votes Incumbent Republican Kelsey Grammar has 266 Democratic Dennis Hopper has 267 270 wins The details of how one voter decides the next president instead of the electoral college is the really important part of the movie to me…especially since this is a Disney affiliated movie (Touchstone Pictures) and Disney made the musical …Family Band that revolves around one of the few presidential elections where the electoral college disagreed with the popular vote. Beyond that the movie is all heart-touching, patriotic sentiment and political salesmanship. But I did really enjoy it.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

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Whee! I love the Yeti designs. Scorpion King of the Far East, but still enjoyable…. I just can’t understand Rob Cohen…he doesn’t know when a franchise has stalled out (creatively) and keeps making movies with lots of explosions and violence regardless of which cast members want to come back, but then he writes the lyrics to the movie’s torch song which is beautiful and poignant. It really is a shame that Maria Bello had to step in for Rachel Weisz, but Bello does a very nice job. Weisz initially backed out due to scheduling conflicts (which the web is praying is due to her portraying Ava Lord in Sin City 2), but it could have been her pregnancy or dislike of the script…we’ll never know. It’s almost like Back to the Future where Elizabeth Shue replaced the original Jennifer, but she’s really a secondary character. Bello does an excellent job … Continue reading →