New Link: What Would Toto Watch

I usually surf to Christian Toto’s site from Big Hollywood, but after leaving a comment that didn’t come out as I’d intended and having Mr Toto defend me from his usual commenters, as well as posting a comment on the post below without any recrimination about it, I decided a class act deserves a direct link.

To be sure, a link from me isn’t worth a great deal, but I highly recommend any of my visitors to check him out for well-written, balanced movie reviews and great interviews with independent film makers.

Night of Laughter

A coworker gave me tickets to see the Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall and Larry the Cable Guy show in Indianapolis last night.  My wife and daughters weren’t very enthusiastic, but went along anyway.

I laughed so hard that I cried several times … and I wasn’t the only one.

There were poop jokes, colonoscopy jokes (redundant?), growing old jokes and sex jokes.  On the drive home after the show, the four of us repeated pretty much every joke from the show we could remember.

Last night was the first time that I’d seen a comic perform in an arena (Conseco Fieldhouse:  where the Indiana Pacers play).  We were far enough from the stage that we basically watched the whole show on the jumbotron, so it wasn’t much different from watching it on the Comedy Channel.  On the whole, we enjoyed it a great deal but I would never pay those ticket prices to see it out of my own pocket.

Thanks, John.

Back from the Dead

Sorry I haven’t posted for awhile.  Work’s been hectic since my main coworker has been on medical leave for a couple of months and I’ve been struggling to keep up with both of our work loads.  Then a couple of weeks ago, my dad ended up in the hospital and we weren’t sure he was going to make it.  Needless to say, 2010 hasn’t gotten off to a great start.

So I plan to start posting regularly again and thank those of you that keep coming back to see if I’ve written anything.

By the way…

Haven’t worked this out into a complete post yet, but in Avatar, the natives are described as warriors and are intrigued when Jake describes himself as a warrior.  Since the natives are all blue hippy smurfs with an ethernet connection to the great hive mind, WHY are they warriors?  With who do they war?

Movie Review: Avatar

Took the family to see Avatar (2D version).  The 2:40 run time went by fairly quickly though our youngest family member had to excuse herself twice to visit the facilities.  This film has been called “Dances with Smurfs” and “Pocahontas 2009″ and perhaps other deragatory names that I haven’t run across.  The technical aspect of the film does live up to the hype.  Is it a game-changer on the same level as “The Jazz Singer”?  No.  But the influence of Avatar will be at least as great as “The Matrix” and the plethora of bullet-time shots used in films and commercials which followed.

However, I do prefer the original classic tale of the search for that scarce mineral “unobtainium”, or rather “upsidaisium” as it was originally known back in the day of The Bullwinkle and Rocky show.

Saturday Night was date night

Took the wife to a new restaurant and a movie last night.  The restaurant was Wild Ginger at 116th street in Fishers.  We split the combo dinner #1 (terriyaki chicken, breaded port cutlet, steak & scallion rolls and a veggie patty), a california roll (made with crab instead of tuna) and a “mistake” roll (house specialty).  All were delicious and eminently satisfying.  The place opened around Christmas and I hope they remain with us for a long time.

The movie was NOT Avatar (eldest daughter wants to see that one with us).  We saw the new Iron Sherlock Holmes movie.  Verdict:  We liked it.  In fact, I may try to catch it again for a matinee if I get the chance.

No, it is not faithful to the books.

Yes, it was updated for “modern” tastes.

However…

The nonlinear style did much to capture Holmes’ mighty intelligence in an interesting and dynamic manner.  Downey played Holmes as a highly-functional schizophrenic – lost without a challenge suitable to his dizzying intellect and utterly dependent on the understanding support of his friend Watson, played superbly by Jude Law.  In fact, I have no complaint with any of the casting and was particularly impressed with the character of Mary – Watson’s fiance.

Sadly, Sherlock Holmes is being overshadowed by the above mentioned CGI extravaganza.   Take my advice – Don’t miss it.

Happy New Year ! ! !

Goodbye to 2009.  It was a rough year.

May 2010 be a great year for you and yours.

Good Intentions

I had planned on posting every day during the Christmas break, but I hadn’t counted on getting a PS3 for Christmas (yes, I’m a nerd).  I’ve been playing Call of Duty:  Modern Warfare 2, Portal and Half-Life 2: Episode 2.  I know that the last 2 are fairly old, but my 6 year old pc hadn’t been up to playing them.

I got Modern Warfare 2 for Christmas with a couple of Blu-Ray movies.  I picked up the Orange Box and Bioshock for $20 each.  I also picked up several BR movies at Sam’s Club: Die Hard, Taken, Robocop and Terminator ($10 each).

Adding to all that, we got my daughter Super Mario Brothers and Family Game Night for the Wii.

Man!   I have got to get up off of this couch!

Sleeping in Late

Ahhhhh.

Got to sleep in late this morning.

Now to recover from the holiday meals.

2009: Merry Christmas

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

John 3:16 (KJV)

Merry Christmas and may God bless you and your families.

Movie Review: Into The Wild (4 of 5)

Shortly before deer season, Brigid loaned me the audio book, “Into The Wild” based on the true story of a modern (1990’s era) vagabond named Chris McCandless.  The book tells the captivating story based on journals left by McCandless and interviews with people he encountered during the two and a half years of his wandering adventure.  The picture described is a young, self-centered man from an upper middle-class family with an overinflated self-importance that was never-the-less charming and very personable.  A fairly typical twenty-two year old male with the belief that he alone truly gets it and that everyone else in the world is living a lie.

The 2007 movie of the same name is produced and directed by Sean Penn (yes, one and the same).  The movie is pretty faithful to the book, leaving out the stories of McCandless’ fellow wanderers, and adding a few touches that were not in the book including a few which contradict it.  For example, the movie ends with McCandless writing a letter with his final understanding of the truly important things in life and signing his name.  But the book details the difficulty in identifying his remains since he hadn’t left any signature other than Alexander Supertramp.  The movie also explains that he ate poison sweet pea plants where the book dismisses this theory and states that he ate the seed pods of the wild potato plant which were not recognized as poisonous by the reference book McCandless depended upon.

Still, the movie was pretty faithful to the book and enjoyable.  It had several art-house style touches without overdoing it to distraction.  While Emile Hirsch does a fine job and Vince Vaughn is surprisingly good, Hal Holbrook delivers a stand-out performance that makes the others pale in comparison.

Warning: there is quite a bit of profanity, some nudity (though not of a sexual nature) and a scene of McCandless butchering a moose that may affect those that get queasy over such things.