Sunday, January 28, 2007
A little tip from your ol' Uncle Tom...
...don't see the new movie Smokin' Aces. Why not? Oh, I have a list of reasons...
- As you can probably tell from the commercials blasted on NFL programming all last weekend, this is one of those highly stylized, hyper-macho, irritatingly loud rock soundtracked, way-way-way over-the-top, Quentin Taratino knockoffs that were prevlant a few years ago (see also: the work of Guy Ritchie, The Boondock Saints, etc.). Of course, since QT is a genius and, yes, the best filmmaker of his generation, he can do his thing and make great movies and his imitators make, well, The Boondock Saints. OK, the plots of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction are complicated, but they make sense...
- ...unlike the plot of Smokin' Aces. There are timeframe/continuity problems at the end of the film, several characters have no relation to the main plot. And the big twists just come out of nowhere and logically, don't relate to the rest of the movie.
- Way too many characters. There could have been, quite easily and with no loss the the plot, three "groups" of main characters could have been lost. And because there are too many characters, and since I'm sure the studio wanted this in a dumbass-friendly under-two-hours, each character doesn't get enough screen time to make me give a shit whether they live or die.
- Ben Affleck is the top-billed star of the movie. All he does -- all -- is deliver exposition and get killed, 20 minutes into the movie.
- Buy a fucking tripod, director! Even in the regular dialogue parts, the camera was shaking all over.
- The action scenes were ridiculous, overly complicated, and phonily coreographed.
- This director, Joe Carnahan, did Narc, which was good. There are several wonderful shots in the film. He clearly knows how to make a movie. So why is this so bad? It just felt like masturbation on film, like Carnahan just wanted to look cool as opposed to make a good film. How disappointing.
Labels: movies
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Screw the election, my mind's made up...
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Praise Allah for small victories...
...or at least more of good news/bad news situation(s):
- Good news: The Chicago Bears win, sparing me from hearing 8 trillion Katrina/New Orleans-related human interest stories delivered by token female reporters on sports news channels, with sad, plinkly music in the background. (One thing you didn't see much of in the crowd at the Superdome last weekend: black fans. I guess they're all still in Houston.)
- Bad news: The Chicago Bears win, sentencing me to innumberable human interest stories about Chicago's loyal, beaten-down fans. Expect plenty of "Da Bears" references.
- Good news: The Indianapolis Colts win, which hopefully gets the "can't win in January" monkey off Peyton's back.
- Bad news: The Indianapolis Colts win, which means that Peyton will do about twenty more commercials in the next two weeks.
Labels: football
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
P.J. O'Rourke interview...
When I can't fall asleep (which is at least once or twice a week) I late-night channel-surf for an hour or so until I get tired. Occaisonally I'll find something interesting which will counteract the TV's intended purpose, like the one time I got to the Weather Channel (my trusty falling-asleep stand-by) and it had a what-if type program on a tornado hitting downtown Dallas, which scared the shit out of me. Anyway, on Sunday night/Monday morning I flipped through to C-SPAN2 and found the tail end of a sit-down interview with one of my favorite authors, P.J. O'Rourke. Luckily for me (and you), C-SPAN streams everything they produce for free. The P.J. interview is here, and it's three hours long, and awesome.
Labels: books
Thursday, January 04, 2007
O.C. cancelled!
Finally FOX pulled the plug on The O.C., which has been on life support creatively for about three years, and now ratings-wise. The big problem with the show, at least the way I saw it, was they never gave the storylines time to breathe. The good storylines seemed rushed, and when they recognized this mistake, they strung out the bad ones (that whole Seth-comic book thing, the Volchok (who the fuck came up with *that* name, BTW?), Kirsten's drinking problem (can't a show ever have a character who just plain likes to drink, with no ill consequences?), etc.) for far too long. It did seem to pick up at the end of last year when Mischa Barton's (easily the worst actress I've ever seen on television, and not hot at all despite her reputation/fame level) character was finally, mercifully killed off. This season has been pretty good as well, but the inexplicably popular Grey's Anatomy (it's a good show, but come on) was moved to its time slot this year proved to be the final death blow. RIP, The O.C., you won't be missed.
Labels: TV
Shockingly good Simmons article...
Bill Simmons has a shockingly good, logical article about the whole McGwire-HOF thing.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Update!
So for whatever reason my internet connection couldn't read the new blogger site for a while, so that (as opposed to just my indifference, which believe me is still there) is why there haven't been many posts lately. Anyway, I hope to get back to my semi-regular posting schedule soon.
Labels: blog stuff
