Let's start off with the bad and end with a positive flurry!

1 Bill-star Review
Movie: "Inglorious Basterds"
Review: 1 bill-star (out of 5)... blech.

"Pulp Fiction" was clever enough, but I am beyond bored with the Quentin Tarantino knock-offs that he himself produces. Everything is a cartoon: characters, plot, violence, music, etc.
The funniest part of "Inglorious Basterds" for me was near the end Brad Pitt is captured and sits down handcuffed in front of the main Nazi guy. I said to myself, "There's a long, tired 10 minutes of overworked dialogue coming here". I hit the fast forward and sure enough, I was right. The scene actually works at 8x with no sound.

Mozy told me this was nominated for an Oscar this year. Sure nuff: oscar.go.com/nominations/nominees and that the lead German guy won best supporting actor. Whatever.

5 Bill-star Review
Book: "The Reagan I Knew" by William F Buckley
Review: 5 bill-stars

This is a wonderful, intimate book. Half the book is Buckley's contemporary look-back at his relationship with Reagan, and half the book are personal letters written between Buckley, Reagan and Nancy Reagan. They are a delight. The book was warm. There are so many stories in there and such good stuff, I don't even have a QOTD for you. Shame on me.

Buckley chronicles the leftie media bias against Reagan in his book. These stories date back to Reagan's presidency and even the 70's. It serves as a reminder that, hey, the volume may be turned up a little higher these days, but the song remains the same. A left-tilting media and academia has been an American mainstay for longer than you or I've been around.

Prejudiced Reviews
Hey, I'll admit I my prejudice. I've seen enough bad Tarantino movies. I have enjoyed Buckley's works and agree with some of his conservative stances. So be it.

I sit down and watch "Basterds" and it's a flat, joyless, experience. And with the repetition between Tarantino's films, it's unwelcome deja vu.

I read Buckley's book late into the night smiling and straining to stay awake and read more.
Prejudice or not... that's the bottom line: 1-star film and 5-star book.
peace out... yow, bill

PS - Dang it, this is funny... 4 minute video: Everything is amazing, and nobody is happy

Labels: 1star, 5stars, books, movies, myphoto

1. Get off the phone
No, I didn't watch hours and hours of the NFL draft. Thank you.
Ty and I did watch a few picks in the first round.
This same scene was repeated for nearly every player; let's call him Joe Football:

• ESPN had cameras following Joe, wherever he was, home or whatever.
• Joe was watching the draft on TV (ESPN) and was surrounded by friends and family.
• Upon receiving notice that he had been drafted, soon to be anointed with millions of dollars, fame, success, etc... Joe's family would jump up and down and yell and scream and try to hug and kiss Joe.
• And Joe's reaction? Joe's on his dang cell phone. I presume Joe's talking to his agent.

The uniformity was eerie. It seemed a pretty joyless moment for each Joe. I can't understand it. After a couple of these, Ty joined me in yelling at the tube, “Get off the phone!” It got sadder and weirder as each Joe ignored the shiny reality of his situation to talk on his stupid phone.

2. The book
Book: “The Informers” by Bret Easton Ellis
Review: 2 bill-stars (out of 5)... not worth it.

I've read a couple Ellis books, most notably “American Psycho”. He's got a very readable style, very light. He's very into a surreal, ultra-violent, urban-apathetic setting for his books.

Well, this book was surreal, but not very interesting. Ellis tried something a little weird; each chapter has a different first-person narrative, and you're supposed to try and figure out who is “talking” at each point. It doesn't work well at all because all the characters are so similar. And there is this weird vampire plot pasted on the end. Vampires. Yawn.

3. The movie
Movie: “The Informers”
Review: 1 bill-star (out of 5)... gawd awful.

The highlight of this movie was my sighting of a 1978 (I think) Honda Accord in the first 10-15 minutes of the film. My second car was Mozy's 1978 Accord that he let me borrow for a year in North Carolina. What a great car!

Otherwise, the movie is pretty much without redemption, excepting all the hot chicks. Ellis did the screenplay adaptation of his own novel. So, it seems weird that he gutted most/all of the surreal stuff, and it's flat as a pancake. The book was kind of different, but didn't really work. The movie is neither different nor good... and boring and bad acting and direction and ending. Phew, what a stinker!

I really enjoy the book/movie double-shot... even with a buster like "Informers". It's fun.

4. An honest pol
Repub senator Arlen Specter switched over to the dem party. This wouldn't be notable other than the honesty of his reason for the switch.

QOTD

“[I] have found that the prospects for winning a Republican primary are bleak. I am not prepared to have my 29-year record in the United States Senate decided by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate.”
- A Specter, on why he's switch to the dem party

I think Specter is pushing 80 years-old and is a recent cancer survivor. He is hanging on to this senate gig as if it were life itself. That's the point... these senate jobs are so lucrative and intoxicating that it's worth anything to keep it. Power.
unlimited pow-ah... yow, bill

PS - 1978 Honda Accord... excellent!

Labels: 1star, 2stars, books, movies, politics, qotd, sports

3 fun topics today, a beautiful Sunday morning.

Fun Topic #1 OBAMA
Topps, home of the planet's best baseball cards, humbly presents... President Obama trading cards:




My favorite Obama card is #13 depicting Pres-Elect Obama getting a discount on his new mcMansion from Tony Rezko. He he!

Things are already better with Pres-Elect Obama, I must admit.
I'm watching less TV and channel-surfing less. I used to surf those talking-head channels in the 50's. Now, surfing the talking heads is like radioactive or something... the Obama-mania in the media seems pervasive as we reach a new level of ninnification.

I saw that ole beard-a-bees Bill Richardson dropped out as Commerce Secretary or something... click, click, click, there's Lynn Sweet from the Sun Times on CNN or something telling me that this is actually a good thing. Oh, my bad Lynn... how could I miss more Obama goodness! To paraphrase reporter Sweet, this gives Pres-Elect Obama a chance to really appease his more activist (re. wackos) supporters by naming someone loopier and farther left than Gov Richardson.

Well, that's certainly clever. It does somehow bypass any critique of how Pres-Elect Obama and his team of Super Friends managed to miss that Richardson was being investigated by the feds for some governor shenanigans. Dop. And it reinforces the notion of making cabinet choices just to appease constituency groups, rather than on merit.

Thanks Lynn... for the anti-analysis.

Fun Topic #2 MOVIE
Movie: "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (on Imax!)
Review: 1 bill-star

This movie was gawd-awful, even on the Imax.
If you get a chance to watch the original on cable or something... it's a keeper at 4 bill-stars.

I figgered this movie would be like the remake of "War of the Worlds" (3 bill-stars)... dumb, but lots of cool stuff blowing up.
Nope.
This movie was dumb with hardly any stuff blowing up.

Two redeeming features:

1. The robot was pretty cool for the first few minutes.
2. It was great to see Will Smith's uber-attractive 10 year-old kid be completely free of talent and stiff as a board in his part.

Fun topic #3 NINNIES
This is an instant classic: The environmental impact of Google searches

These geniuses advise we be more judicious in our usage of google and other internet facilities.
I (non-genius) advise... all these guys, I mean, scientists have web sites, books, lectures, appearances, tenure, grant money, etc... all fueled by publicity.

The irony is crystal clear. Even if there was global warming, the answer is not conservation, using less, taxing the bejesus out of people and going low-tech. The answer is growth and using technology to solve the problem. More ninnies... more!

I'm hoping to make this a 3-fer weekend with another movie today. We shall see.
More coffee!
peace... yow, bill

PS - BTW, more 2009 excellence to note... the Imax theater. I'll never forget seeing "Dark Knight" that first time on Imax... it's just a stupefying overload of the senses. Awesome! The preview of "The Watchmen" was better than the movie we saw. I'm not big on all the plot-less and character-free "graphic novels" turned into bad movies these days, but I might give "The Watchmen" on Imax a roll.

Labels: 1star, 3stars, 4stars, globalwarming, politics

Two books... both about Chicago around the turn of the 19th century.
Two very different results and reviews. Go!

Book: "Sin in the Second City"
Review: 1 bill-star
Web site: www.sininthesecondcity.com

First off, I didn't know this was nonfiction. Dop.
Second, this book is a great example of taking an exciting, titillating story and turning it into a bore. Yawn.
I read the book over my NYNY/DC vacation with Ty. I was a captive audience, so I finished it.

I only bought the thing because it looked like it had a tie in to the excellent "Devil in the White City". Speaking of...

Book: "Devil in the White City"
Review: 5 bill-stars
Web site: www.randomhouse.com/crown/devilinthewhitecity/home.html

This is one of the best books I've ever read. I don't usually go gaga for historical fiction, but this was great.

Both books are published by Random House.
I guess a .500 batting average ain't bad.
done... yow, bill

Labels: 1star, 5stars, books

Movie: "Charlie Bartlett"
Review: 1 bill-star

OK, roll the adjectives: gawd-awful, formulaic, boring, un-funny.
I credit the film-makers here with scrunching as many movie formulas into 90 minutes as they possibly could: smart teens and idiot adults, one charismatic teen (who happens to get the faux quirky girl, who is in actuality incredibly nubile), plenty of consequence-free teen drugs and sex... even the misunderstood bully, the misunderstood nerd, then misunderstood promiscuous cheerleader... all this wrapped in the inevitable happy ending. Sigh.

"Nubile"... he he.

Halfway through the movie, I realized I was watching a bad version of "Pump up the Volume" with Christian Slater. That movie waspretty much the same deal, but 1) it had Christian Slater, and 2) it had a nice little hook (the underground radio show thingie) and was at least entertaining.

Or, you could forget both these movies and watch "True Romance" again... which is now 15 years old. Gulp.

QOTD
"The world needs this renewal. In so many of our societies, side by side with material prosperity, a spiritual desert is spreading, an interior emptiness, an unnamed fear, a quiet sense of despair."
- The Pope, July 2008

Very nice quote there, Popey. It almost sounds like he's taking lessons from Al Gore.
I am going to go way out on a limb here and guess that the Pope's solution to renewal might, just might, involve people sending him gobs of cash. Again, just a crazy-ass guess on my part.

alabama... yow, bill

Labels: 1star, movies, qotd

First, the good part... the DVD cover has pictures (in order) of stars Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, and Tommy Lee Jones and the actor names right below don't match that order.

That's it.
That's the most entertaining part of "No Country for Old Men." And the Oscar goes to...

"No Country for Old Men"... 1 bill-star. BORING! Go: boring plot, no interesting characters, every character uses that stupid faux-witty dialog you see so much these days (for which the Coen borthers and Quentin are probably largely responsible), not even that much action really. There isn't a genuine moment in the movie. I'll throw a bill-star on the pile for how beautiful the desert was.

It's so funny to compare this movie to another Oscar nominee like Juno. Juno was so entertaining and different. I mean Juno was an artistic risk. Are the Coen brothers risking anything by making some violent, brooding movie? I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when one of them excitedly interjects that the "bad guy" can carry some weird compressed air thingie instead of a gun. "Wow, great hook!" Yawn.
yow, bill

PS - The Coen brothers' best effort, "Big Lebowsky"... "That's right. Nobody fucks with the Jesus"

Labels: 1star, movies