"So Let it Be Written... So Let it Be Done"

Aphelion

2011-07-04T00:15:00.001-04:00

This year, aphelion is January 3rd (today), when the earth is as far away from the sun as it will ever be. That would be 94,512,005 miles. Perihelion was be on January 3, 2011.

SNMR 9.8: "Couples Retreat"

2011-02-19T19:39:00.124-05:00

GREEN'S PEEING IN THE DEMO TOILET IS BAAAAD REVIEW:

Jason and Cynthia (Jason Bateman, Kristen Bell) are thinking about getting a divorce. In an effort to salvage their marriage they want to go to an exclusive couples resort for the counseling. But they can't afford it on their own and need to convince their friends to go with them so they all can get the group rate. After much hesitation, Dave & Ronnie (Vince Vaughn, Malin Ackerman), Joey and Lucy (Jon Favreau, Kristin Davis), and recently divorced Shane and his twenty year old girlfriend (Faizon Love, Kali Hawk) agree to go - but for the fun only.

When they get to the resort they are stunned by the beauty (filmed on location at a resort in Bora Bora) of the place and the amazing food but are shocked to learn that the group therapy and couples counseling is not optional and starts promptly at six in the morning.

Through the counseling Dave & Ronnie discover issues in their marriage that they didn't know existed, Joey and Lucy's bickering gets worse and overweight Shane just doesn't have the energy to keep up with a twenty year old.

What follows are some moderately funny situations that couples could find themselves in. After a blowup between one of the couples and a wild night at the singles club on the other side of the island, they all realize that all married couples have issues and that their marital problems aren't as bad as they thought they were.

The starring cast is excellent and there are wonderful performances from the supporting cast, including Jean Reno, Peter Serafinowicz and especially Carlos Ponce.

Former child star Peter Billingsley makes his feature length directorial debut and does a decent job managing this star heavy cast, getting everyone as much screen time as possible within the confines of the story. The script was written by Vaughn & Favreau with Dana Fox is witty and the story moves along fairly well.

The DVD features some nice extras including filming in Bora Bora and on the yoga scenes as well as deleted & extended scenes and a short gag reel.

This is a decent film and well worth a rental on Netflix or better, as a freebie from your library.

*** out of *****

Couples Retreat (2009, PG-13, 114 minutes) starring Vince Vaughn, Malin Ackerman, Jon Favreau, Jason Bateman, Kristin Davis, Kristen Bell, Faizon Love and Jean Reno. Written by Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau and Dana Fox. Directed by Petere Billingsley.

SNMR 9.7: "Valentine's Day"

2011-02-12T18:59:00.005-05:00

GREEN'S YOUNG LOVE, FULL OF PROMISE AND HOPE BUT IGNORANT OF REALITY REVIEW:

One year ago today, this aptly titled film was released, ostensibly in celebration of some upcoming couples holiday involving hearts, candy, dating, love and sex. Initially the concept seemed good: demonstrate how different people celebrate this Hallmark holiday by showing multiple couples during the entire day and how they interact with each other. This concept seems like a winner, especially with the recent trend of films that deal with non-linear and multiple story lines all jumbled and going on at the same time. One difference is, in those other films, all the storylines get tied up in the end so it makes sense. Like life and real relationships, not all of the story lines end happily-ever after. That is one thing this film has going for it, anyway.

I like romantic comedies. I really do. I really wanted to like this film more than I did. See, there are two major and one minorproblems with this film. The minor problem involves a continuity gaffe involving Jennifer Garner's character. The major problems are that the film does not have nearly enough comedy or romance in it and a simple case of overkill. Too many stars, too many stories and not enough screen time in a two hour and five minute film to do them all justice. What it all means that we don't have the opportunity to get invested in any of the characters or given enough grounds to care about any of them. This film would have been much more effective if there were half as many characters and storylines.

I have no problem with Garry Marshall as a director. He assembled a fine, all-star caliber cast of excellent and popular actors, who are each talented in their own right. With the amount of screen time anyone gets, I'd imagine the actors had a nice easy one or two days of filming and a decent paycheck to boot.

There were some touching story lines that I'd have liked see developed more, to the exclusion of others, but I won't tell you what they are.

**½ out of *****

Valentine's Day (2010, PG-13, 125 minutes) starring Jessica Alba, Kathy Bates, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Hector Elizondo, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Ashton Kutcher, Queen Latifah, Taylor Lautner, George Lopez, Shirley MacLaine, Emma Roberts, Julia Roberts and Taylor Swift. Screenplay by Katherine Fugate. Story by Katherine Fugate, Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein. Directed by Garry Marshall.

SNMR 9.6: "Love Happens"

2011-02-05T19:08:00.091-05:00

GREEN'S "DAY BY DAY EXPERIMENT IN REALLY BAD DECISIONS" REVIEW:

Burke Ryan (Aaron Eckhart) has written a self help book on dealing with grief and moving on with it. He never expected anyone would want to read it when he wrote it. Now he's traveling city to city leading self-help workshops based on the popularity of his book. Lane (Dan Fogler), Burke's promoter, brings his tour to Seattle, unchecked emotions begin to surface about Burke's secret that he didn't expect. During the week long seminar, he bumps into Eloise (Jennifer Aniston), owner of a small flower shop. After a rough beginning, they become friends and she helps him deal with his pain without even knowing what it's all about.

This film, I think, was inappropriately named and is therefore misleading. Based on that, you'd think this movie was just some sappy romantic comedy but it is actually more than that. It's actually another study on how an individual deals with grief, specifically the loss of a loved one.

Aaron Eckhart is a very underrated and versatile actor. He does a convincing job in his lead role. Jennifer Aniston is my favorite Hollywood actress and she also gives a good performance, even though her character is not as fully developed as I'd like. There's one scene of her character's ex and then he's out of the film - his other scenes are found in the deleted scenes on the DVDs extras - which makes that one scene seem out of place. Excellent supporting roles from Martin Sheen and John Carroll Lynch help the film have more emotional depth.

This is Brandon Camp's feature directorial debut and he does a decent job - meaning he doesn't call attention to himself for crappy directing but neither is his debut outstanding. He co-wrote the script and I always say it helps when the screenwriter is also the director because he, better than anyone, knows his story and what he wants it to say. So I'll give him the benefit of the doubt here, until he has more credits on his resume.

The DVD extras include a feature length commentary, deleted scenes and a short bit on how green screen was used to insert the background shots for some of the key scenes.

This is the second time I've watched this movie. The first was in the theater, as I always go and see all of Aniston's movies, no matter what, on opening day. I waited for a while to buy the DVD until the price came down under $10. This movie is a worthwhile rental from your video supplier or your local library.

*** out of *****

Love Happens (2009, PG-13, 109 minutes) starring Aaron Eckhart, Jennifer Aniston, Dan Fogler, John Carroll Lynch, Martin Sheen and Judy Greer. Written by Brandon Camp and Mike Thompson. Directed by Brandon Camp.

2010 NFL Playoffs Divisional Round 1/16/2011

2011-01-16T11:45:00.002-05:00

#4 Seattle Seahawks (8-9) at #2 Chicago Bears (11-5) (-10, o/u 41.5); 13:00 FOX. Let's face it: No one outside of Seattle gave the Seahawks a flaming chance to beat the defending Super Bowl Champions last week. But they did, thanks to a great game from QB Matt Hasselbeck and a brilliant late run by RB Marshawn Lynch. Even though the Seahawks won in Chicago in Week Six by a field goal means only the Seahawks aren't intimidated by playing here and have nothing to lose. As much as I despise the Bears, they present the Seahawks with little chance of winning today. The only chance the Seahawks have is if Bears QB Jay Cutler throws INT's all over the place (which could very well happen), but I don't think he will throw more than one. The Bears defense is simply better than the Seahawks offense and the Bears offense has more talent than the Seahawks defense. That being said, I do think the Seahawks will make a game of it and at least cover the spread. The winner will host the Green Bay Packers for the NFC Championship next weekend.
MY PREDICTION: @ Chicago Bears 34, Seattle Seahawks 28
ACTUAL RESULT:

#6 New York Jets (12-5) at #1 New England Patriots (14-2) (-9, o/u 44); 16:30 CBS. What better matchups can you get this weekend in the AFC, part two. The Jets and Patriots each won, in the regular season, as the home team. The Jets won 28-14 in Week 2 and the Patriots won 45-3 in Week 13. That last game will be hard for the Jets to get over, especially in Foxboro. Pats QB Tom Brady has lost his last two postseason games (SB XLII to the NY Giants (still painful) and last years wild card game to the Ravens.) and I doubt he'll make it three in a row. Jets coach Rex Ryan just can't seem to shut up and neither can his team. Do your talking on the field, boys. I do expect the Patriots to win, but the game will be much closer than 45-3. If the Patriots win, they will host Pittsburgh next weekend for the AFC Championship. If the Jets win they will play in Pittsburgh.
MY PREDICTION: @ New England Patriots 40, New York Jets 20
ACTUAL RESULT:

2010 NFL Playoffs Divisional Round 1/15/2011

2011-01-15T13:00:00.006-05:00

#5 Baltimore Ravens (13-4) at #2 Pittsburgh Steelers (12-4) (-3, o/u 37); 16:30 CBS. What better matchups can you get this weekend in the AFC, part one The Ravens and Steelers each won, in the regular season, as the road team. Each game was decided by three points and each came down to a decisive key play that turned the game. I expect this game to be no different. The one element of this game that will benefit the Steelers is that, in the Week Four matchup, QB Ben Roethlisberger was serving the last game of his four game suspension. Another key is the health of Steelers S Troy Polamalu who has battled injuries late in the season and is huge for the Steelers defense. Looking at the headlines this morning is the health of Ravens RB Ray Rice, who is reportedly ill. If he can't go or is less than fulll strength, it could be detrimental to the Ravens running game and their chances of winning. The winner of this game will either host the New York Jets or play at New England next Sunday for the AFC Championship, depending on the results of tomorrow's game. I believe this game will be another low scoring nailbiter, with the Steelers winning.
MY PREDICTION: @ Pittsburgh Steelers 17, Baltimore Ravens 14
ACTUAL RESULT: @ Pittsburgh Steelers 31, Baltimore Ravens 24

#6 Green Bay Packers (11-6) at #1 Atlanta Falcons (13-3) (-2, o/u 43.5); 20:00 FOX. The Packers lost in Atlanta 20-17 in Week 12 primarily because of some late mistakes and a last seconds field goal by Atlanta, otherwise this game would have gone into overtime. The Packers come in confident, knowing they match up with Atlanta. Aaron Rodgers is playing as well as any QB and is dangerous. Fir the Falcons, this is probably the worst matchup. However, they are at home where they have only lost once this season. QB Matty "Ice" Ryan has a superlative home winning record since he became the starter three seasons ago. The Falcons have one advantage I believe Green Bay can't handle, and that is future Hall of Famer TE Tony Gonzalez, one of Ryan's favorite targets. If Atlanta wins, they will host either Seattle or Chicago next Sunday. If Green Bay wins, they will play at either Seattle or Chicago. The Packers won't go down easily but I think the Falcons pull out a tough one.
MY PREDICTION: @ Atlanta Falcons 23, Green Bay Packers 21
ACTUAL RESULT: Green Bay Packers 48, @ Atlanta Falcons 21

2010 NFL Playoffs Wild Card Games 1/9/2011

2011-01-09T12:32:00.003-05:00

#5 Baltimore Ravens (12-4) (-3, o/u 40.5) at #4 Kansas City Chiefs (10-6); 13:00 CBS. Everyone knows about Ravens LB Ray Lewis and their excellent defense. Not many people question their intensity. Nationally, no one really knows about the Chiefs. They went 4-12 in 2009 and were last in the AFC West. Chiefs QB Matt Cassel had a breakthrough year with New England in 2008 and was below agerage in 2009, his first in KC. This season Cassel again was good, finding a receiver in Dwayne Bowe and a league leading running game (164 ypg avg.) with Jamall Charles and Jets castoff Thomas Jones. The Ravens are 5^th in total run defense, allowing a bit over 93 yards per game. If this game were being played in Baltimore, I'd pick the Ravens but it is not. Arrowhead Stadium is a hugely difficult place to play and the Chiefs were 7-1 at home this season, the Ravens were 5-3 on the road. I'm taking the home team in a tight game. The winner of this game will play in Pittsburgh next Saturday thanks to the Jets beating the Colts yesterday.
MY PREDICTION: @ Kansas City Chiefs 28, Baltimore Ravens 24
ACTUAL RESULT: Baltimore Ravens 30, @ Kansas City Chiefs 7

#6 Green Bay Packers (10-6) at #3 Philadelphia Eagles (10-6) (-2.5 o/u 46.5); 16:30 FOX. The Packers beat the Eagles in Philadelphia in Week 1 when Michael Vick played the second half, turning a potential Packers blowout into a close loss. THe Eagles offensively are scary. Vick can run and pass, have excellent WRs and RB's and are playing at home. The Packers also have an excellent offense and have potential defensive player of the year in LB Clay Matthews. This game is going to be a dogfight. However, the knowledge that the Packers won here earlier plus the Eagles lackluster finish to the season and uninspiring home record (4-4) say Packers will win. If the Packers win, they will play in Atlanta next week. If the Eagles win they will play in Chicago next week, sending Seattle to play Atlanta.
MY PREDICTION: Green Bay Packers 24, @ Philadelphia Eagles 23
ACTUAL RESULT: Green Bay Packers 21, @ Philadelphia Eagles 16

2010 NFL Playoffs Wild Card Games 1/8/2011

2011-01-08T13:20:00.006-05:00

#5 New Orleans Saints (11-5) (-10, o/u 45.5) at #4 Seattle Seahawks (7-9); 16:30 NBC. New Orleans is the defending Super Bowl champion while the Seattle became the first division winner with a losing record. Because of the NFL's playoff format, division winnners get home field advantage over wild card teams, which is why this game is being played in Seattle rather than in New Orleans. The Saints are obviously the better team, and have beaten the Seahawks already this season in Week 11 34-19. That game was played in New Orleans. Playing outdoors for a dome team is tough and Q-West Field is one of the loudest outdoor venues in the league. The Saints are hurting at RB but QB Drew Brees and the Saints have superior WRs. Seattle has QB Matt Hasselbeck back after missing the Week 17 playoff clinching victory over the St. Louis Rams. Hasselbeck has great career numbers vs. New Orleans. The winner of this game will play either at Atlanta or at Chicago, depending on the result of the Packers @ Eagles game tomorrow. Seattle, playing at home, will make it a close game for three quarters but the Saints will pull away in the 4th Quarter.
MY PREDICTION: New Orleans Saints 30, @ Seattle Seahawks 17
ACTUAL RESULT: @ Seattle Seahawks 41, New Orleans Saints 36

#6 New York Jets (11-5) at #3 Indianapolis Colts (10-6) (-2.5 o/u 44.5); 20:00 NBC. These two teams did not play each other in the regular season. The Colts defeated the Jets in last season's AFC Championship game. Jets coach Rex Ryan is 1-5 vs. Peyton Manning's teams and has said that this week is personal. The one win Ryan has came late last season, when the Colts were resting most of their starters. That won't be the case tonight. Ryan is bold and outspoken and, while the media loves him for his mouth, he needs to shut-up. Jets QB Mark Sanchez played sparingly in the Week 17 win over Buffalo, not throwing a pass and resting his sore shoulder. The defending AFC Champion Colts have been decimated by injuries to key players on offense and defense and needed a four game winning streak at the end of the season to qualify for the playoffs for an NFL record tying ninth straight season. The Colts have been running the ball better of late and the Jets running game has struggled late in the season. If the Jets win, they play at New England next Sunday. If the Colts win, they will play at Pittsburgh next Saturday. I'd be crazy not to pick Peyton Manning at home in the playoffs.
MY PREDICTION: @ Indianapolis 24, New York Jets 16
ACTUAL RESULT: New York Jets 17, @ Indianapolis Colts 16

Resolve isn't just a stain remover

2011-01-06T23:13:00.001-05:00

I recently said to myself that I was going to blog more often in 2011. I've been slacking in the blogging department for quite some time now. Yet I haven't done anything about it and realize that if I don't do it, no one will do it for me. Not that I'd want anyone to. What good would it do me if someone were to write my blog for me.

So here's to blogging more this year!

Perihelion

2011-01-03T00:04:00.000-05:00

This year, perihelion is January 3rd (today), when the earth is as close to the sun as it will ever be. That would be 91,407,361 miles. Aphelion will be on July 4, 2011.

MMXI

2011-01-01T00:00:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2011 is a better year for you than last year was. I'm certainly hoping so. A lot of changes in 2010, some good some bad. Hopefully more of the good and not so much of the bad. But someone once said if life were easy it woldn't be as worthwhile. Sometimes I want to punch that person in the chops, y'know?

SNMR on hiatus until further notice.

2010-11-01T11:08:00.001-04:00

but probably only for a week or two. We'll see how it goes.

the bestest 11 year-old I know...

2010-10-24T20:29:00.002-04:00

... my son, M.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

I love you buddy.

A

2010-10-07T14:09:00.001-04:00

Happy Birthday to my brother A.

16=9½+6½

2010-10-01T22:01:00.000-04:00

*sigh*

Yes I'm over it but I still (and probably a part of me always will) wonder what might have been if different choices & decisions were made.

I need to get back in the game. Maybe that would help. Does any one know if the rules have changed? I suspect that they have but would like to know by how much and which of them are different.

SNMR 8.25: "Crocodile Dundee"

2010-09-25T20:11:00.003-04:00

GREEN'S "THAT'S NOT A KNIFE..." REVIEW:

New York City newspaper reporter Sue Charlton (Linda Kozlowski) is in Australia covering a story for the newspaper but right before she is supposed to leave for home asks her editor (Mark Blum) if she can stay a bit longer and do a story on a local guy who was attacked by a crocodile.
Charlton then meets Walt (John Meillon) tour guide partner of the locally infamous Michael J. "Crocodile" Dundee (Paul Hogan) and is introduced to life down under in the outback town called Walkabout Creek. After a few days Charlton asks Dundee if he'd like to experience New York City at her paper's expense so she can continue writing her stories. Reluctantly he agrees and the hilarity begins as small town Dundee visits his first city of any size. Is New York big enough to handle him?

Twenty-four years ago tomorrow, "Crocodile" Dundee was introduced to American film audiences. This was also the introduction of Paul Hogan to Hollywood, instead of just being the charming pitchman for Australian tourism. This movie is also the film debut of Linda Kozlowski but you'd never know it by her performance. Not unusually, a real life romance between co-stars followed. What is unusual is that Hogan and Kozlowski celebrated 20 years of marriage in 2010.

Director Peter Faiman does a remarkably good job with this film, one of his few feature directorial credits. The story was developed by Hogan and he co-wrote the screenplay with two others. It's a good story with plenty of laugh lines especially as Hogan's character slowly gets used to city life. However, what makes the story work better is the obvious on-screen chemistry between Hogan & Kozlowski.

This was one of those movies that came out in theaters when I worked at the cinema in the town I grew up in. Because of this, there are scenes in the film that I've seen hundreds of times. My favorites are near the beginning, the scene with the bull in the road and at the very end in the crowded subway station. Both still crack me up.

The DVD release has zero special features. For the twenty fifth anniversary edition, I would like to see a re-release of the DVD with the cast and crew looking back on the experience of making the film.

**** out of *****

Crocodile Dundee (1986, PG-13, 97 minutes), starring Paul Hogan, Linda Kozlowski, Mark Blum, Michael Lombard, David Gulpilil and John Meillon. Story by Paul Hogan. Screenplay by Paul Hogan, John Cornell and Ken Shadie. Directed by Peter Faiman.

Autumnal Equinox & full Harvest Moon

2010-09-22T12:53:00.003-04:00

Today, officially, autumn begins at 11:09 PM EDT (23:09). Not that I'll be able to tell from where I am living at the moment.

According to the online version of the Old Farmers' Almanac, "the autumnal equinox is defined as the point at which the Sun appears to cross the celestial equator from north to south. The celestial equator is the circle in the celestial sphere halfway between the celestial poles. It can be thought of as the plane of Earth's equator projected out onto the sphere. Another definition of fall is nights of below-freezing temperatures combined with days of temperatures below 70 degrees Fahrenheit. The word equinox means "equal night"; night and day are the same length of time. The spring equinox is in late March. In addition to the equal hours of daylight and darkness, the equinoxes are times when the Sun's apparent motion undergoes the most rapid change. Around the time of the equinoxes, variations in the position on the horizon where the Sun rises and sets can be noticed from one day to the next by alert observers."

Tomorrow is the full moon known as the Harvest Moon. Hopefully I'll be able to see it without any cloud cover.

SNMR 8.24: "Better Off Dead"

2010-09-19T19:02:00.008-04:00

GREEN'S "HAVE YOU ANY IDEA WHAT THE STREET VALUE OF THIS MOUNTAIN IS?" REVIEW:

High school senior Lane Meyer (John Cusack) is contemplating suicide because his girlfriend Beth (Amanda Wyss) has just dumped him in favor of the snobby ski team captain Roy Stalin (Aaron Dozier in his only screen appearance). Lane's next door neighbor Ricky (Dan Schneider) and his obnoxious mother (Laura Waterbury) have taken in Monique (Diane Franklin), a beautiful French foreign exchange student who claims not to speak any English and whose lifelong dream is to see Dodger Stadium. Lane is also taunted by a goofy family, a neurotic paperboy and a pair of drag race loving Japanese brothers...

I'm still cracking up just thinking about scenes from this movie - and I've seen in about a gazillion times.

Writer/director "Savage" Steve Holland's screenwriting and directorial debut no doubt was a box office failure, grossing just over $10 million in its short lived US theatrical release, according to boxofficemojo.com. Over the years this film has become a cult classic and leaves a far greater legacy than box office dollars ~ especially for those of us who were high school age at the time of the film's release almost twenty-five years ago.

Holland's incredibly witty script has a host of quotable lines, memorable scenes and just as many wonderfully quirky and lovable characters, played beautifully by a mostly unknown character actor cast, except for David Ogden Stiers (M*A*S*H's incorrigible Major Charles Winchester.) Looking back, except for Stiers, star in the making John Cusack is really the only actor who has had a notable film career since.

The screenplay takes a page from John Hughes many high school age teen angst movies also made in the 1980's. He hits all the big teen issues: relationship problems and triumphs, a weird and wacky family, goofy best friends and hated rivals, your first car, and your first (unwanted) job.

I clearly remember pitching this movie to a friend of mine in college who had never heard of it. After seeing it told me that he was in hysterics while watching and couldn't believe he missed this.

What is sorely needed to do this film justice is a nice two disc DVD release with some retrospective interviews from cast and crew. The current DVD release has no special features at all, unless you count English subtitles as such.

If you haven't watched this movie in a while or happen to be among those who aren't familiar with it, you're seriously missing out on the fun.

***** out of *****

Better Off Dead (1985, PG, 97 minutes), starring John Cusack, David Ogden Stiers, Diane Franklin, Curtis Armstrong, Amanda Wyss, Kim Darby, Dan Schneider and Aaron Dozier. Written and Directed by "Savage" Steve Holland.

SNMR 8.23: "The Gift"

2010-09-11T21:11:00.006-04:00

GREEN'S "MESSING WITH THE DEVIL IS GONNA GET YOU BURNED" REVIEW:

In a small southern town, Annie Wilson, a widow (Cate Blanchett) struggles to raise her three small sons, using her psychic abilities and a poor man's deck of tarot cards to help her friends and people who come to her. Some of those clients are everyday townsfolk, like Buddy (Giovanni Ribisi) the mechanic and Valerie Barksdale (Hilary Swank), the abused wife of Donnie (Keanu Reeves), the town bully. When a young socialite woman (Katie Holmes), the fiancee of the school principal (Greg Kinnear), turns up missing, the police chief (JK Simmons) reluctantly asks Annie for help. But how much does she see and know?

I bought this DVD a while ago because of the merits of the starring cast, not really knowing what to expect or what the movie was about, except that films Cate Blanchett are in are usually pretty darn good. Surprisingly, I liked this film better than I thought I would.

Simply, Cate Blanchett is amazing, with her southern accent and the way she looks so...plain and ordinary. She is clearly one of the top five actresses Hollywood has seen in the last fifty years. The supporting cast is also excellent. Keanu Reeves who I usually recall playing likable characters in his films is surprisingly good being bad. Giovanni Ribisi continues to prove versatile in the roles he plays and he does do a good job playing one who is a little loose upstairs. Greg Kinnear has never been one of my favorite actors but always seems to turn in a solid performance. I'm not sold as much on Katie Holmes and think you could have cast a number of other actresses in her part and wouldn't have missed a beat. And you can't even blame her casting on the fame of being Mrs. Tom Cruise because this film was five years in the can before that happened.

I was surprised to find out that Billy Bob Thornton was co-writer (along with Tom Epperson) of the screenplay. His writing skills, in my opinion, are questionable at best. That being said, the screenplay is decently workable. There was only one scene near the end that was missing that I thought would have closed the film nicely. If you've seen this movie you might understand what I'm thinking of but I'm not going to say in case you haven't watched this movie.

This is the project that director Sam Raimi worked on before turning his attention to the excellently done Peter Parker trilogy known as the Spiderman franchise. So you could legitimately say that Raimi, despite several credits on his resume, was still a relatively unheralded director at this time. What he was able to do here is take a decent script and guide it along to a better than average end result.

The main DVD extra is a short interview session with the actors and director which was good but could have been longer.

I don't put any stock into the whole psychic, tarot card reading thing, so it is a credit to this film that someone like me would enjoy it as much as I did.

***½ out of *****

The Gift (2000, R, 111 minutes), starring Cate Blanchett, Giovani Ribisi, Keanu Reeves, Katie Holmes, Hilary Swank, Greg Kinnear and JK Simmons. Written by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson. Directed by Sam Raimi.

SNMR 8.22: "The Other Boleyn Girl"

2010-09-04T22:54:00.008-04:00

GREEN'S BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR REVIEW:

This movie is a period piece taking place in 16^th century England that tells the story of the two Boleyn sisters, Anne (Natalie Portman) and Mary (Scarlett Johansson) and their dalliances with a certain King of England, Henry VIII (Eric Bana) and all of the familial and court intrigue that surrounds the British nobility.

Holy Cow!! What a dysfunctional family the 16^th century English royal family was! Even the nobility was screwed up! Dysfunctional, screwy or both but still sickeningly and extremely fascinating.

I first borrowed this DVD from the library earlier this year and meant to review it then. But then something weird happened. When I returned some other DVD's, the library accidentally noted that I had returned this one as well when I had not. So it sat on my shelf for months while I signed out & returned other DVD's. Then at the end of May, I had to return it - still unwatched - to the library. Then I saw it at the store where I buy the majority of my DVD's and broke down and bought it, primarily because a) I hadn't watched it even after holding on to it for so long, and b) because of the two phenomenal female lead actresses. It didn't hurt that I have some interest in that period of English history.

As far as historical dramas go, you can't get much better than this. As I watched the film, I wondered how far from the actual written history the novel/screenplay went for dramatic effect. Apparently not far, as the novel's author, Philippa Gregory, admits to doing extensive research on the period and characters in one of the DVD extras. I also thought that at one time or another during the film either Anne or Mary could be considered 'the other Boleyn girl' and in fact are as confirmed by the screenwriter, Peter Morgan, also in a DVD extra. I think it would be fascinating to read the 600+ page novel and compare it to the movie, a roughly 120 page screenplay. I felt better about the movie after hearing Gregory praise the work that Morgan did in capturing the essence of the novel for the screen.

I had never heard of Justin Chadwick or what other films he may have directed and, as it turns out, rightly so. This appears to be his first big screen directorial effort amongst a resume of television show directing gigs. In other words, Chadwick did a good job with such a lavish production as this and has potential for other directing gigs.

The DVD extras include a short court biography of the historical figures portrayed in the film along with what it must have been like to be a lady in 16^th century England and a short bit on bringing history to the screen.

This is an all around good movie and is worth your while to rent or own.

**** out of *****

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008, PG-13, 115 minutes), starring Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Eric Bana, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jim Sturgess, Mark Rylance and David Morrissey. Based on the novel by Philippa Gregory. Screenplay by Peter Morgan. Directed by Justin Chadwick.

This Date in History

2010-09-01T10:54:00.001-04:00

One notable event caught my eye.

Twenty-five years ago today, Dr. Robert Ballard of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Woods Hole, Massachusetts - and his joint U.S. & French crew discovered the wreckage site of the RMS Titanic, 73+ years after it sank in the north Atlantic Ocean, on April 12, 1912.

SNMR 8.21: "Reality Bites"

2010-08-28T19:50:00.004-04:00

GREEN'S "FONDLING THE REMOTE" REVIEW:

Lelaina (Winona Ryder) and her friends Vickie (Janeane Garofalo), Troy (Ethan Hawke) and Sammy (Steve Zahn) have just graduated from college and now are experiencing the ups and downs of trying to find their way in the real world, as it is down in Houston, Texas.

Lelaine is a television production assistant for a morning talk show with an ass (John Mahoney) for a host. Vickie works at the Gap, Troy (Ethan Hawke) has just been fired from his twelfth job and moves in with the girls for a place to stay. Accidentally, Lelaine and Vickie meet Michael (Ben Stiller), an up and coming video executive. Michael falls for Lelaine who is secretly in love with someone else but doesn't know it or want to admit it.

This is another one of my finds in the $5 DVD bin at Wal-Mart, which I had never heard of but purchased on the merits of the cast pictured on the cover. What I didn't realize at the time was that this movie is Ben Stiller's big screen directorial debut. I don't really think of Stiller as a director first but since this movie, he has directed a handful of other movies with varying degrees of box-office success. For a first timer, Stiller does a pretty good job, especially since he's also part of the cast.

The screenplay, written when she was a 19 year old college student at USC, remains the only writing credit Helen Childress has to date. First credit or not, the screenplay accurately captures the uncertainty that goes along with becoming a part of society and finding your place within it. I sometimes feel like I'm still having that problem.

The story strikes home for me because the characters in the film are all at or around my age now and were also when this movie was released in 1994. Even Lisa Loeb, the musician for "Stay," which runs over part of the end credits, is my age.

According to the excellent DVD extras, the lead role was written with Winona Ryder in mind. Coincidentally, when Ryder read the script, she was able to relate to the character and wanted to play the part. The rest of the cast is very good and each brings something extra to their performance. You can tell that the main cast got along well and had fun making this movie.

This film I keep thinking of in comparison to this movie is "St. Elmo's Fire" which is the 1980's coming of age story of recent college graduates trying to fit in.

I happened to watch the 10^th anniversary DVD edition of the movie. The aforementioned extras, done for this release, include deleted scenes, feature commentary with writer and director narration, the retrospective featuring interviews from cast, writer and producer as well as an interview with Lisa Loeb and her music video "Stay," directed by Ethan Hawke in one take.

I don't think this would have been a movie I would have wanted to see in the theater, not because it's a bad film but because its just not one of those films where the viewing experience is enhanced by watching it on a large screen.

*** 1/2 out of *****

Reality Bites (1994, PG-13, 99 minutes), starring Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Janeane Garofalo, Steve Zahn, Ben Stiller, John Mahoney and Joe Don Baker. Written by Helen Childress. Directed by Ben Stiller.

Remember these quiz thingees??

2010-08-26T11:09:00.003-04:00

What Animal Were You In a Past Life?

You Were a Peacock

You carry yourself with beauty, dignity, and confidence.

You are able to see the past, present, and future with clarity.

Blogthings: Discover the Parts of Your Personality that Have Been Hiding

SNMR 8.20: "Paycheck"

2010-08-21T21:08:00.002-04:00

GREEN'S "YOU KNOW YOU LOVE ME" REVIEW:

When a company wants to develop new technology, they don't invent it themselves. They hire engineer Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck) to take an existing product and make it better. With the completion of each job, Jennings' memory is erased back to a certain point, so he can't be linked back to any one company's technology.

Most of these jobs don't last more than eight weeks, because that's the maximum time frame deemed necessary to keep the engineer's mind safe for the next job and the time passed feels instantaneous.

Then, at a party, Jennings meets Rachel (Uma Thurman) a beautiful bio-chemist who works for Jennings' friend Rethrick. At this party, Rethrick offers Jennings a job with an eight figure paycheck - that will last for three years - enabling Jennings an early retirement, if he so chooses. But when Jennings realizes that he's been betrayed, he must discover who is responsible and why using an envelope full of ordinary items...

Allcom, Rethrick's company, has Jennings developing a future reading device, similar to that technology seen in BIG SCREEN #50 review Krrish, and is predecessor, Koi Mil Gaya, if my memory serves me correctly.

What I can't figure out is how I missed watching this movie for so long. It only took me accidentally finding in in the $5 DVD bin at Wal-Mart several months ago to realize its existence.

John Woo is an excellent director and is no stranger to action movies and how they should work. Ben Affleck, with hard work, has become a competent and versatile actor with that debonair Cary Grant look. Uma Thurman is a proven action movie heroine (having done this film sandwiched around Tarantino's Kill Bill films). She plays well paired with Affleck. Aaron Eckhart is an excellent and very versatile actor in his own right and proves it with each role. Though I admit it has taken me a while to see this.

I have not read the source material but many of Philip K. Dick's short stories have been adapted successfully to the screen. Count this among them.

The Special Collector's Edition DVD that I watched contained two very well done featurettes regarding the design of the film and the sets, extended/deleted scenes and an alternate ending. Both Woo and Affleck admit in the extras that they were going for a Hitchcockian North By Northwest-ish feel to this film, and it does.

Maybe it took me so long to find and watch this movie because I wasn't a big Ben Affleck fan (aside from Good Will Hunting), and hardly knew who Aaron Eckhart was.

For those of you who like action and suspense, along with a well written and conceived story - this movie has all that. I was pleasantly surprised by this movie and, if you haven't seen it, you will be too.

***** out of *****

Paycheck (2003, PG-13, 118 minutes), starring Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman, Aaron Eckhart, Paul Giamatti, Colm Feore, Joe Morton and Michael C. Hall. Based on a short story by Philip K. Dick. Screenplay by Dean Georgaris. Directed by John Woo.

SNMR 8.19: "Trading Places"

2010-08-14T18:26:00.001-04:00

GREEN'S "GET OFF YOUR KNEES, LOUIE" REVIEW:

Would you be able to dramatically alter two people's lives over a bet of $1? That's the wager Mortimer and Randolph Duke (Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy) make. They secretly wager that they can better the life of a 'hoodlum' like Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) by giving him a decent job and place to live and ruin the life of an upstanding young socialite ass like Lewis Winthorp III (Dan Aykroyd) by taking away his livelihood. Now homeless and destitute, Lewis gets help from beautiful, smart Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtis), who is also a hooker.

When Valentine accidentally learns of the Duke brothers' wager, he and Winthorp decide to turn the tables on the Dukes.

Like it or not, this is one of the essential movies that helped define the decade of the 1980's. Controversial director John Landis takes a witty script and a mix of veteran and young actors and turns it into a solid rags to riches to rags story. This was the second film that writers Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod co-wrote and have teamed up on several other films since.

For whatever reason, I don't think I actually saw this movie for the first time until the mid 1990's. For me the novelty of this film, now, is to see the young cast and where their careers have gone since this film was released twenty seven years ago. This was only Eddie Murphy's second film, having come through the ranks of SNL and his stand-up comedy. Even Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis were not household names, though they each had memorable roles prior to this film. It is also interesting to note some of the cameo actors you see in this film, whose careers have taken interesting paths since, like Jim Belushi and Al Franken.

It's interesting to me that three of the main actors here have long since passed away, and how this movie fits into the panorama of their careers.

I watched the "Looking Good, Feeling Good" Edition of this DVD which has several worthwhile extras, including a making of feature, costumes, some unseen interviews, and an industry promo piece, done for a convention in Las Vegas, when the movie was in production.

If you haven't watched this movie in a while, you should. If you can find it for under $5, like I did, it is worthwhile to own.

***¾ out of *****

Trading Places (1983, R, 116 minutes), starring Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Ameche, Ralph Bellamy and Denholm Elliott. Written by Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod. Directed by John Landis.

SNMR 8.18: "Julie & Julia"

2010-08-07T20:28:00.002-04:00

GREEN'S "524 RECIPES IN 365 DAYS" REVIEW:

Julia Child and her diplomat husband Paul are living in Paris in the early 1950's. Julia doesn't know what to do with her life, so she puts herself through the Cordon Bleu cooking school and finds her passion. In 2002, thirty year old Julie Powell is going through a life crisis of her own, so she decides to learn to cook by making all of the recipes from Child's book "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in one year and blogging about her experience.

This biopic is based on two true stories, which screenwriter/director Nora Ephron blends seamlessly into a film that is better than good, but not quite great. Ephron's skill as a screenwriter is not in doubt. What makes this film worthwhile is the performance by Meryl Streep, who despite being eight inches shorter than the real life character she portrays, beautifully captures the essence of who Julia Child was and her passion for food. She rightly deserved an Oscar nomination for her role.

Amy Adams, whose films I generally like, does a good job portraying Julie Powell.

The supporting cast, Stanley Tucci and Chris Messina, are perfect complimentary characters, supporting their spouses in what they want to do with their lives.

It is evident throughout the movie that Julie Powell holds Julia Child in the highest regard. I was surprised to learn from the film that toward the end of her life, Child (who died in 2004) heard of what Powell was doing and was not happy about it.

I remember as a kid seeing some of Julia Child's cooking show on PBS but was too young to appreciate it.

The film has a good pace to it but for me was a bit too long. As a tribute to Julia Child, for whose legacy we have to thank for the myriad cooking shows, Rachel Rays and Emeril LaGasses, and probably FoodTV as well, this film is an excellent tribute.

***½ out of *****

Julie & Julia (2009, PG-13, 123 minutes), starring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci and Chris Messina. Based on the book by Julia Child & Alex Prud'homme and the book by Julie Powell. Screenplay and Direction by Nora Ephron.

Red Sox @ Yankees for four big games

2010-08-06T16:44:00.008-04:00

The third place Red Sox travel to Yankee Stadium for a huge four game series this weekend, starting tonight through Monday.

The Red Sox are an uninspiring 3-5 vs. the Yankees this season. This is the second of three consecutive series between the teams to be played in the Bronx. These teams last met when they split a brief two game series back in mid-May.

This is a critical series for the Red Sox, who are six games out of first place in the AL East and 5.5 games behind Tampa Bay in the wild card standings. On paper, the pitching matchups favor the Red Sox, who send their top four pitchers out to the mound for this series.

Here are the pitching match-ups for this weekend (updates to follow after each game):

Friday, Aug 6^th: Boston 6, @ New York 3
WP: Buchholz (12-5), LP: Vasquez (9-8), SV: Papelbon (27)
A good start to the weekend for the Sox. Let's hope it continues.

Saturday, Aug 7^th: Boston @ New York
Lackey (10-6) v. Sabathia (13-5)

Sunday, Aug 8^th: Boston @ New York
Beckett (3-1) v. Burnett (9-9)

Monday, Aug 9^th: Boston @ New York
Lester (11-6) v. Moseley (1-1)

The two teams will close out their season series at the end of September and at the beginning of October.

BB12 Kristen will go bye-bye :>(

2010-08-04T21:11:00.003-04:00

I wanted to post a picture of BB12 Kristen in the hippie-tard that she "won" in the PoV competition this week but couldn't find one online. Yet. Let me just say she wears it well! In lieu of that, let me leave you with this pic, obviously taken before this season of Big Brother. Damn, she looks good. Real good.

Either she or Hayden will be evicted tomorrow and will be the first person to form this season's jury that will decide the winner.

Brendon should vote for Hayden to stay because that's what Rachel wants.
Enzo will vote for Hayden to stay
Lane will vote for Hayden to Stay.
Matt will vote for Hayden to stay.
Britney will vote for Kristen to stay.
Kathy will vote for Kristen to stay.
Ragan will vote for Kristen to stay.

Unless what I read is true and Ragan inadvertently reveals "The Brigade" to the rest of the house and then Brendon's vote could change.

But as I see it now, Kristen, unfortunately, will be evicted by a 4-3 vote.

The Reluctant I (assignment posted on facebook 7/20/10)

2010-08-01T23:40:00.007-04:00

I have a few books on writing prompts and I'd like to share some of them with you as I'm trying to work through them to see how creative I can be. Try them along with me and see what you come up with and then share them here or on your page.

Write a first person story in which you use the first person pronoun (I or me or my) only two times -- but keep the I somehow important to the narrative you're constructing. The point of this excercise is to imagine a narrator who is less interested in himself than what he is observing. You can make your narrator someone who sees an interesting event in which he is not necessarily a participant, or you can make himself-effacing, yet a major participant in the events related. It is very important in this excecise to make sure your reader is not surprised, forty or fifty words into the piece, to realize that this is a first-person narration. Show us quickly who is observing the scene.

source: The 3 A.M. Epiphany: uncommon writing excercises that transform your fiction by Brian Kiteley, Writers Digest Books, Cincinnati, OH, 2005, p. 20

No one should have to go twenty-five years without knowing what happened to a loved one. No one. Now, one local family will finally have some peace, thanks to the grisly discovery I accidentally made three weeks ago.

Within minutes of calling 9-1-1, what seemed like an army of police officers rushed to the scene, followed by a steady stream of fire fighters, FBI agents, crime scene investigators, an ambulance and its crew. Then came the brigade of television, radio and print journalists and other news media folks cramming for the next big story for tomorrow's news, swarming like a hive of angry bees taking pictures and interviewing every Tom, Dick and Harry who might know something. Finally the inevitable crowd of curious spectators, bystanders and rubber-neckers came, once that telltale yellow ribbon went up, warning folks not to cross the police line.

Someone in the mass of spectators asked who discovered the body and in the blink of an eye there were fifteen different versions of who, what and how floating through the crowd. No one knew the real story except for those who needed to know right then.

This kind of news, in this little town, swept through like wildfire and got everyone talking. Over the next few weeks, the media coverage was spectacular. No one could recall its like in recent memory. The stories on television and in the newspaper kept repeating the basic facts of the story, as they were known, slanting them this way and that. The only thing missing, for now, was the identity of the victim and the cause of death.

In the stories, the media called her Jane Doe, but according to DNA tests and matching dental records, her name was Jennifer Alison Ray. Jennifer had been abducted in 1985 when she was sixteen. She had been missing for three days before her disappearance was reported. The police worked the case hard for a long time, but they had no solid leads, though many people, including family and friends, were questioned. No one came forward with information and no suspects were arrested. After about two years, the case went cold and was closed. Everything the authorities knew sat in a file down in the basement of the local police station.

Now that the body has been recovered, the family notified and the name released, the media reported that the girl had been beaten and raped before being strangled with a garrote and from blunt force trauma to the head. They disposed of her body in a shallow grave in the woods near a lake that was three towns away from where she had lived with her parents, two older brothers, a younger sister and a Bassett hound named Rex.

Ironically, the lake near where I found her remains is a very popular place for walkers, photographers and nature lovers in the summer. In the winter when the lake freezes enough there are ice skaters and snowmobilers aplenty. With all of the people and activity in the area, it’s unbelievable that someone else hadn’t found her body sooner.

Jennifer would have been forty-one this autumn. Who knows what kind of life she would have lived had this not happened? Would she have been married, or had children of her own? What would she have done for a career? Would she have lived in the town she grew up in or moved on? Sadly, these questions remain forever unanswered. It is evident that her family is relieved to know what happened; comforting that some of their questions are answered and their grief somewhat lifted.

SNMR 8.17: "A League of Their Own"

2010-07-31T18:52:00.003-04:00

GREEN'S "USE YOUR HEAD... THAT'S THE LUMP THREE FEET ABOVE YOUR ASS" REVIEW:

It is 1943 and World War II is taking it's toll in the United States. With many of baseball's best players enlisting in the armed forces, the war is threatening to shut down the game for the duration of the war. Unless women could play baseball... Hmmmm, hey that's a great idea!!

Enter sisters Dottie Hindson (Geena Davis) and Kit Keller (Lori Petty), two Oregon farm girls recruited by scout Ernie Capadino (Jon Lovitz) to play in a six team all girls league based near Chicago. Joining them are "All the Way" May Mordabito (Madonna) and Doris Murphy (Rosie O'Donnell in her movie debut). These four girls join the Rockford Peaches, managed by ex-alcoholic major leaguer Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks).

To me, this movie is a classic, one that can be watched over many times. It is a tribute to the AAGPBL (All American Girls Professional Baseball League) which operated from 1943-1954. There are many great liners in this movie, a witty script despite a very predictable story, adapted excellently by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. Director Penny Marshall, of Laverne & Shirley fame, reunites with Tom Hanks and the guy who played Squiggy (David L. Lander) as the (uncredited) radio announcer guy. Marshall does a good job keeping the story interesting, despite the story limitations.

The cast is fantastic. Tom Hanks is good in virtually every role he plays. I can't think of a better actress to have played Dottie Hinson than Geena Davis, even though she was not the first choice for the role. This was the signature role of Lori Petty's career. According to IMDb, Madonna, who was being a primadonna, didn't have fun filming this movie, having to learn to play baseball and filming in Chicago. Bill Pullman and David Straithairn are also good in their small roles. Even those actresses whom you may not have heard of are great in their complimentary ballplayer roles.

This is a feel good movie that even the non-sports fan should like.

The version I watched was the basic DVD, containing no extras whatsoever. I'll be looking to upgrade my copy when the budget allows.

****½ out of *****

A League of Their Own (1992, PG, 128 minutes), starring Geena Davis, Tom Hanks, Lori Petty, Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell and David Strathairn. Written by Kim wilson and Kelly Candaele. Screenplay by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. Directed by Penny Marshall.

Big Brother 12 tonight.

2010-07-25T21:05:00.003-04:00

So far Annie and Monet have been evicted this season.

Matt is the HOH this week and has nominated Kathy and Andrew for eviction. I don't know what he's thinking this week. These two haven't done anything to him that I can see, so why put anyone up who is no threat? Even though he said that he wouldn't, I'd have put up Brendon and Rachel.

I will not be swayed. Kristen is definitely the hottest chick on the show this season. I'm a little repulsed that she has developed a romantic interest in Hayden, who I think is a punk but looks like the all-American boy.

I'm trying so hard to stay away from the spoiler web sites because I really don't need to spend more time on BB than the three weekly shows. I had the feeds for a bit at the end of last season and they were interesting but have the potential for way too much time consumption.

Oh, well. Let's see what happens on Wednesday night with the PoV competition.

SNMR 8.16: "Wedding Crashers"

2010-07-24T20:15:00.011-04:00

GREEN'S "I JUST WANT A BICYCLE!" REVIEW:

Longtime friends John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy Grey (Vince Vaughn) have regular jobs as mediators in disputes such as divorce cases. In their spare time, these two seemingly normal guys love to crash weddings and wedding parties to meet girls & have sex. Not only are they good at it but have developed a list of "rules" that they use. The real challenge comes when they crash the wedding of the daughter of the US Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Cleary (Christopher Walken) and his wife (Jane Seymour). Unexpectedly, John & Jeremy each fall for another of the Secretary's daughters, Claire (Rachel McAdams) and Gloria (Isla Fisher).

Believe it or not, I had never seen this movie before I watched it for this review. I had bought the DVD a while ago at a store I shop at frequently. I had heard about it before and bought it because I think Vince Vaughn is a funny guy and have enjoyed his other movies.

What I didn't realize then was that this movie has such a great supporting cast behind VV and Owen Wilson. I'm not a huge Owen Wilson fan but he definitely fits in playing a great straight man to VV's over the top acting. Rachel McAdams is a fantastic actress with great range. Isla Fisher has been adorable in every movie I've seen of hers. I was surprised to see Bradley Cooper in this movie. He was good as the "I'm better than you" boyfriend. Christopher Walken and Jane Seymour are just great.

I haven't seen either of the other big screen movies that David Dobkin has directed but he does a good job here of managing talent and keeping the story crisp. The screenplay by Steve Faber and Bob Fisher, two writers who I'd never heard of before, is excellent, though does get a bit predictable at times.

I watched the "uncorked" version of the movie, which adds 8½ minutes of footage to the theatrical release version. I like the fact that the theatrical version and the "uncorked" version were included on the DVD. The extra behind-the-scenes features and deleted scenes were good. Just the stuff I like. I also enjoyed reading the twenty-four still screens of the wedding crasher "rules."

Hysterical film. There were times that I was laughing so hard that I couldn't breathe and got all watery-eyed. It's well worth the $5 I paid..

***½ out of *****

Wedding Crashers (2005, R, 120 minutes), starring Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Rachel McAdams, Isla Fisher, Christopher Walken, Bradley Cooper and Jane Seymour. Written by Steve Faber and Bob Fisher. Directed by David Dobkin.

SNMR 8.15: "The Invention of Lying"

2010-07-17T19:35:00.001-04:00

GREEN'S CHUBBY, SNUB-NOSED REVIEW:

What would the world be like if no one knew how to tell a lie or even what a lie was? That's the world that Mark Bellison (Ricky Gervais) lives in. It's also a world where people are brutally honest about everything and where the world of movies and television show nothing but documentaries and bland commercials.

What do you do when you're also an unsuccessful, dumpy looking documentary screenwriter about to get fired, evicted and go on a date with Anna (Jennifer Garner)a woman on whom you've had a crush since before you can remember but who is totally out of your league - how do you change your life? What would you change if you could?

In a desperate situation, Mark comes up with the world's first lie and uses it to change the course of his life, but will he change it for the better?

There are many reasons why I liked this movie. First of all, the concept for the film is absolutely brilliant and as far as I can tell, totally original. Writers Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson have come up with a script that is nearly perfect.

Second, I've been a fan of Jennifer Garner for nearly ten years, as those of you who are regular readers here know.

Third, the movie is filmed in Massachusetts, mainly Lowell and Sudbury (near the end), in areas that I grew up near and have a level of familiarity with. And finally, the last part of the movie was filmed in the chapel where I got married once upon a lifetime ago (and is Jennifer Garner's second movie using that location.)

If those aren't enough reasons, the casting is excellent, from the main actors down through the cast. Each actor does a great job of deadpanning their individual performances.

Gervais and Robinson have no previous feature film directing credit. This is the first credit of any kind for Robinson, Gervais does have some experience directing television shows, which to an extent serves him well here. Because the writer/director tandem are the same, they know their material well and know what they are looking for and get the most out of their actors. I thought the cameos by Tina Fey, Jason Bateman and Philip Seymour Hoffman were excellent.

The DVD extras were good, overall. The 'making of' featurette was well done as were the included outtakes & additional scenes. I thought the Prequel featurette was dumb and overdone and the bit about Karl Pilkington was a waste of disc space.

This was a movie that I wanted to see in its theatrical run but never got around to. I think this movie was a worthwhile addition to my DVD library and is definitely worth your time as a rental.

**** out of *****

The Invention of Lying (2009, PG-13, 99 minutes), starring Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Louis C.K., Jonah Hill and Rob Lowe. Written and Directed by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson.

SNMR 8.14: "The Lost World" (1960)

2010-07-10T19:54:00.002-04:00

GREEN'S SUPER-SIZE MY IGUANAS REVIEW:

Professor George Edward Challenger (Claude Rains), an eccentric scientist, returns from the Amazon claiming the existence of an Amazonian plateau where dinosaurs still roam the earth. To prove that he's not lying, an expedition is organized to assess the validity of Challenger's claim. Consisting of a fellow scientist, a playboy-adventurer (Michael Rennie), a journalist (David Hedison), a beautiful socialite (Jill St. John) and a pilot (Fernando Lamas). Oh, can't forget the whiney yet ultimately sacrificial Mexican servant! An unexpected attack on their camp (by the dinosaurs we assume...) destroys their helicopter, leaving the group stranded in the prehistoric jungle where humans can be had for dinner.

This film was released 50 years ago this week (July 13, 1960). I had never seen it before but borrowed it from the library because of the interesting DVD cover art and becasue of the great Claude Rains, who starred in some of my favorite classic films.

I really am not familiar with any of the other actors in the cast. Michael Rennie nine years earlier starred in The Day the Earth Stood Still and Jill St. John, who serves no purpose in the film except to add a female presence to the cast, would gain fame eleven years after this film as the Bond girl in Diamonds Are Forever. St. John and Vitina Marcus, the relatively silent 'native girl' provide good 1960's era eye candy.

However, this movie is cheese pure and simple. In this case that's not necessarily a good thing. The acting, like many movies of the 1960s, is flat and uninspiring. This may be Claude Rains' worst film in a long and excellent career.

I was also expecting to see some really cool 1960s era special effects dinosaurs, but instead got modern, prosthetically enhanced, super-sized, probably non-meat eating, lizards posing as the ferocious dinos. The ending is dumb. It's as if the writers forgot one major plot point and decided to go have a beer at the pub instead.

The screnplay is based on the novel by the great Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and a remake of the 1925, pre King Kong, silent film. Because of the reputation of the source material's author, I had high hopes for this movie. Oh well, you can't win 'em all.

The two disc DVD set comes with the 1960 color version and the 1925 silent film. Unfortunately I did not get a chance to watch the earlier version, so I may have to borrow this DVD again in order to remedy that.

*¾ out of *****

The Lost World (1960, NR, 97 minutes), starring Michael Rennie, Jill St. John, David Hedison, Claude Rains, Fernando Lamas, Richard Haydn and Vitina Marcus. Based on the novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Screenplay by Irwin Allen and Charles Bennett. Directed by Irwin Allen.

A new season of Big Brother starts tonight

2010-07-08T15:49:00.013-04:00

A new season of Big Brother begins tonight on CBS, bringing thirteen strangers under one roof for three months, competing for $500,000. The show will once again be hosted by Julie Chen and will run three times a week, on Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday at 20:00 EDT.

Occasionally I will provide my thoughts on the show, who I like, who I don't and who I think will be evicted from week to week. There are many Big Brother spoiler web sites online, if you want to know what is going on inside the house on a daily basis.

21:15 ~ Tonight's first episode was interesting, with the revelation that there is a saboteur in the house. A house guest who will disrupt everything and everyone. Who, if he/she lasts five weeks will win $50,000. The home crowd will find out who it is next Thursday, on the night of the first eviction.

As far as my favorite house guests so far, I like Kristen because she's the hottest woman this season and Annie, because she's from Tampa. I'm not sold on Rachel, because she's got an annoying laugh. Of the guys, I have no preference yet. Enzo is reminding me of my first impression of Russell last year.

SNMR 8.13: "Back to the Future"

2010-07-03T18:39:00.008-04:00

GREEN'S "ONE POINT TWENTY ONE GIGAWATTS" REVIEW:

Yes, that's right. This movie was released twenty-five years ago today. Hard to believe for some of us. That's why I've decided to review this movie today of all days.

The film is about Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and his accidental adventure back to 1955, after his friend, Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) gets shot by Libyan terrorists. Marty is chased by the terrorists and escapes in the time machine that the Doc made out of a DeLorean, which was programmed during the demonstration to go back to November 5, 1955, the day the doc discovers time travel.

When Marty finally realizes what has happened, he goes looking for the only person in 1955 who can help him - and coincidentally runs into both of his future parents (Lea Thompson and Crispin Glover) - interfering with their first meeting and subsequent relationship. While Marty has to fix this problem, it's up to the Doc to figure out how to get Marty back to 1985.

I still love movies that have to do with time travel and this is one of those benchmark movies that explores the possibility of time travel to some degree. At the same time, the movie only uses time travel as a device to get the main character back to when his parents were his age. I had just turned sixteen when this movie was released and I found it interesting that I was around the same age as the characters in the film.

Michael J. Fox may have established himself as a bonafide television star as Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties, which was on-air in the mid 1980's, but this movie made him a star on the big screen as well. It is interesting to note, from the extras on the DVD, that for a time Fox was filming his television series and this movie simultaneously, getting one or two hours of sleep a night. This lack of sleep, oddly enough I think, enhanced Fox's performance in the movie.

The script is superbly written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. Act One of the story introduces us to elements in the story and effectively foreshadows events that will become important later in the story, based on these seemingly trivial opening scenes. Zemeckis does a wonderful job directing, getting strong performances from his young and relatively unknown cast.

Both the sets and the score are also brilliantly done. The sets provide, what seems to me as a realistic look back at small town American life in the mid 1950's contrasted with the same setting thirty years later. The score carries you emotionally through the film right from the get-go and is exciting and upbeat throughout. Huey Lewis and the News, one of my favorite 1980's bands, add to the film's soundtrack with two songs that still get radio airplay today. Look for Huey Lewis in a cameo role near the beginnig of the movie.

The extras on the DVD I watched were very well done, blending interviews done in 2002 with archival interviews and footage shot during filming in 1984.

You can tell a classic film that, even after multiple repeated viewings, remains fresh and doesn't get old and tired. Take a look back and revisit one of the defining and most endearing movies of the 1980's. Rent it if you haven't watched it in a while but own it if you can.

***** out of *****

Back to the Future (1985, PG, 116 minutes), starring Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, Thomas F. Wilson, Marc McClure and Wendy Jo Sperber. Written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. Directed by Robert Zemeckis.

SNMR 8.12: "Up In The Air"

2010-06-26T20:02:00.006-04:00

GREEN'S "DO YOU WANT THE CANCER?" REVIEW:

Only six other people in the world have done it. To be the seventh has been Ryan Bingham's (George Clooney) goal for the longest time. But it's a goal he's kept to himself: accumulating a total of ten million air miles. He's even pictured in his mind the conversation he'd have with the airline pilot when he passed the milestone. He's got a great, albeit stressful job flying around the country firing people from their jobs. His company is hired to perform this task when the employer doesn't have the guts to do it themselves. Ryan is perfect for the job because he's single with no kids and unattached, even to his sisters.

On one particular trip, Ryan meets the sexy Alex (Vera Farmiga), a savvy business traveler who is his match in air travel. They start a conversation and become friends. More than friends when their schedules connect.

Then there's Natalie (Anna Kendrick), the bright, sexy, young newcomer to Ryan's company that has a program to bring all of the company's meetings into the virtual world, which will save the company millions per year on air travel and hotel expenses. The boss, Craig (Jason Bateman), loves the idea, but Ryan doesn't. Feeling threatened by this new way of doing business, and therefore losing his freedom, Ryan and Natalie hit the road so she can see what the job is like sitting across from the people whose lives they are ruining in the guise of 'new opportunities.'

Jason Reitman continues to prove that he is one of the best young directors Hollywood has today, following up his previous box office successes Thank You For Smoking and Juno with this film, which was nominated for six Academy Awards at the 2010 Oscars.

The cast is superb. George Clooney continues to show why he's an Oscar winning actor with another smooth, believable, Oscar nominated performance. Less well known are co-stars Vera Farmiga and youngster Anna Kendrick, who each deservedly garnered their own Oscar nominations for their work in this movie. What's up with Jason Bateman? He seems to be in everything that I've seen recently. Bateman and many of the other supporting cast have appeared in multiple films directed by Reitman and they don't disappoint.

Reitman again does a fine job converting previously published material into a fine script and because of this movie, I'm eventually going to read the novel on which it is based.

I found it surprising that this film was shown at twelve different film festivals between September 2009 and its wide US release just before Christmas last year.

This movie would have earned five out of five stars if not for one of the last scenes, which I thought was a bit harsh and caught me off guard.

There wasn't much in the way of extras on the DVD, aside from the director's feature commentary and requisite deleted scenes, which was disappointing.

Even so, this was an excellent movie which deserved all of the hype it received and is worthwhile to own if you're of a mind to do so.

****½ out of *****

Up In The Air (2009, R, 109 minutes), starring George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick and Jason Bateman. Based on the novel by Walter Kirn. Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner. Directed by Jason Reitman.

Happy Birthday to me

2010-06-25T03:15:00.000-04:00

41. XLI. A prime number. Cool.

SNMR 8.11: "Ghost World"

2010-06-19T20:44:00.002-04:00

GREEN'S "I TOTALLY, TOTALLY HATE YOU" REVIEW:

Best friends and social misfits Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) have just graduated from high school and have no idea what they want to do next. Especially Enid, who has to take an art appreciation summer school class for failing art. They both decide that they do not want to go to college. One day they read a really pathetic sounding ad in the personals section of the paper and jokingly decide to answer it as a prank. When they see Seymour (Steve Buscemi), the dweeb who wrote it, they don't let him know who they are, letting him think he's been stood up. Some time after Enid and Seymour meet again and become friends. Then the one time prank turns in a way that no one expected.

I must confess that I was not aware that this movie originated from a graphic novel, nor had I ever heard of this movie before. The only reason I borrowed it from the library is because it has Scarlett Johansson in it and I've become a huge fan of hers lately. That Steve Buscemi was in it too was a bonus. He's not your prototypical Hollywood actor but still very good here. The only other movie I can recall seeing Thora Birch in is American Beauty. Birch and Johansson have a good on screen chemistry and are convincing as best friends. The supporting cast, specifically Douglas and Balaban, is good.

Terry Zwigoff doesn't have much directing experience but overall he does a good job with this movie. It has reasonably good pacing and doesn't sag for long too often. I like the fact that author Daniel Clowes co-wrote the screenplay with Zwigoff, which makes it a stronger movie.

I liked how this movie ends, even though it didn't really end like I thought it might.

The DVD extras include some short deleted scenes, a short "making of" feature and the full 1965 music video featured at the beginning of the film that Enid is dancing to.

This is not a movie that I can see owning but was worthwhile to watch as a freebie from the library.

*** out of *****

Ghost World (2001, R, 111 minutes), starring Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Bucemi, Brad Renfro, Illeana Douglas and Bob Balaban. Based on the graphic novel by Daniel Clowes. Screenplay by Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff. Directed by Terry Zwigoff.

Another summer of Big Brother fun

2010-06-13T10:06:00.000-04:00

SNMR 8.10: "Bringing Up Baby"

2010-06-12T16:54:00.002-04:00

GREEN'S "I'VE GOT MY HEAD, I'VE LOST MY LEOPARD" REVIEW:

The two things straight laced paleontologist Dr. David Huxley (Cary Grant) wants most is a philanthropic grant of a million dollars for his museum and an intercostal clavicle bone to complete his prized brontosaurus skeleton. What he doesn't want is to be around the eccentric Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn) yet he keeps running into her and getting mixed up in her scatterbrained schemes. Much to his chagrin he learns that she is the key to getting the money that his museum needs. Throw in a superior supporting cast, a dog named George with a penchant for burying anything and everything, a tame 300 pound leopard named Baby, and a not-so tame leopard from the local zoo. Then mix those in with a boatload of improbable situations and voila!

This is a terrific, old fashioned, madcap, screwball comedy written by Hagar Wilde and Dudley Nichols and deftly directed by the great film maker Howard Hawks. The pace is frenetic from the get-go and never lets up - a pace only topped by Hawks own His Girl Friday which would be released two years after this. Who knew Katharine Hepburn could do comedy as good as she does? This film is simply about as good as comedy gets.

I watched the two disc DVD edition and was quite pleased with the excellent full length documentaries on Cary Grant and Howard Hawks included on disc two. If you are a fan of classic American cinema, and of the great actors of the early to mid 20th century, this is a movie you must see.

***** out of *****

Bringing Up Baby (1938, NR, 102 minutes, B&W) starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charlie Ruggles, Barry Fitzgerald, May Robson, Walter Catlett and Fritz Feld. Story by Hagar Wilde. Screenplay by Hagar Wilde and Dudley Nichols. Directed by Howard Hawks.

SNMR 8.9: "Just Married"

2010-06-05T19:13:00.007-04:00

GREEN’S “GONNA CALL THE S.W.A.T. TEAM ON YOUR ASS” REVIEW:

Imagine that you’ve found the woman or man of your dreams and after a month you move in together. After nine months together you decide to get married, surprising her family because you‘re less than they expected for their youngest daughter. If you’re the woman, you’ve likely taken the lead in planning your wedding. If you’re the guy, you’ve got two responsibilities: don’t screw it up and plan the honeymoon.

Now the wedding goes off without a hitch and you’re off to Europe for the best honeymoon ever. Except that everything that can go wrong does go wrong. You’re late for your flight and in your rush to get up you and your spouse head butt each other. You get your foot caught in the airplane toilet while trying to join the mile high club and it only gets worse from there, as you proceed to have the honeymoon from hell and are ready to rip out each other’s throats soon after.

Such is the case with Tom (Ashton Kutcher), a graveyard shift radio traffic reporter and Sarah (Brittany Murphy), the daughter of a wealthy sports team owner. They meet on the beach when Tom throws a football that Sarah attempts to catch with her face.

Like many DVD’s I’d seen this one in the library and kept passing it by. Finally I decided to give it a shot, partly because of Brittany Murphy’s untimely death late last year and partly because I was in the mood to watch a funny romantic comedy.

Ashton Kutcher probably will never win an Oscar for Best Actor but every romantic comedy I’ve seen him in has been very funny. This is only the third movie I’ve seen that Brittany Murphy was in and one of them she was part of a large ensemble cast, so her role was limited. It’s a shame and a tragedy that such a young talent like Murphy died so young. It took me a while but I finally figured out what other film I saw David Moscow in. He plays Ashton Kutchers' best buddy Kyle.

This is one of the films that director Shaun Levy cut his teeth on and he shows a good feel for directing a comedy. This was the first screenwriting credit for Sam Harper.

The main DVD extra is a newlywed game show type interview with Kutcher and Murphy which is kind of corny but still good.

*** out of *****

Just Married (2003, PG-13, 95 minutes), starring Ashton Kutcher, Brittany Murphy, Christian Kane, Valeria Andrews and David Moscow. Written by Sam Harper. Directed by Shawn Levy.

SNMR 8.8: "8MM"

2010-05-29T19:42:00.016-04:00

GREEN'S "NOBODY KNOWS WHAT NOBODY KNOWS" REVIEW:

Private investigator Tom Welles (Nicholas Cage) has just gotten home from an assignment when he receives a phone call from Mrs. Christian, a wealthy elderly woman whose husband recently passed away. Among his personal effects found in a safe in his office was a disturbing, short 8MM snuff film. Mrs. Christian hires Welles to find out who made the film and if the events of the film are real or not. In his search Welles meets young Max California (Joaquin Phoenix), a clerk at an X rated movie store who guides him into the world of underground film making, Eddie Poole (James Gandolfini), a seedy Hollywood film director and Dino Velvet (Peter Stormare), maker of 'fine' snuff films. What will Welles find? Will he get in too deep?

Quite frankly, this film is disturbing on many levels and is not for the faint at heart.

I'm always in the middle of the road when it comes to Nicholas Cage. Some movies he's really good and I like him a lot - others his acting seems flat and uninspired.. This, I think, was one of Cage's stronger performances. Joaquin Phoenix delivers yet another intense performance. James Gandolfini plays to type as the muscled hoodlum, sleazy guy and does it well. Peter Stormare, whom I had never heard of before, was truly creepy. Catherine Keener gives a balanced performance as Cage's wife, contrasting his unusual work life with the peacefulness of domestic life.

Andrew Kevin Walker continues to excel writing creepy thriller type dramas with this screenplay as an encore to the equally creepy Se7en. I thought the ending was a bit cliche' with Cage doing the vigilante justice thing.

With this film, Joel Schumacher continues to prove why he's one of the best directors Hollywood has these days. He always seems to get good performances from his actors.

The DVD extras include a "making of" featurette which was too short and hardly worth watching. However, this is a film that, despite the seedy subject matter, is filled with excellent performances and enough action/suspense to keep you paying attention. If not for the ending, this movie would have garnered a five star rating.

****½ out of *****

8MM (1999, R, 123 minutes), starring Nicholas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, James Gandolfini, Peter Stormare, Anthony Heald, Catherine Keener and Chris Bauer. Screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker. Directed by Joel Schumacher.

Pain in the a**

2010-05-27T11:04:00.003-04:00

Many things in life fall into the category of being a pain in the a**, but none more than passing the papers on real estate. Especially when you have nothing to do with the actual transaction and are caught in the web of "what happens if..." or "what do we do when...." with no way to affect the situation one way or another.

Let's get on with it, people.

SNMR 8.7: "Ponyo"

2010-05-22T18:53:00.003-04:00

GREEN'S "THE BALANCE OF NATURE IS RESTORED" REVIEW:

A boy, Sosuke, lives with his mother Lisa (Tina Fey) in a house on the Japanese coast and his father, a fisherman (Matt Damon), is rarely home. Sosuke rescues a fish trapped in a trashed glass bottle against the will of the ocean and brings it to her mother's work at a nursing home, which is right next door to Sosuke's school. Of course that fish, whom Sosuke names Ponyo, is akin to aquatic royalty. So what happens when Ponyo declares her love for Sosuke and wants to become a human? How will her parents, the magical Queen of the Ocean (Cate Blanchett) and fish-man Fujimoto (Liam Neeson) react?

Because today is my daughter's birthday, I told her she could choose the movie that I would review for today's column. Since she's such a fan of Miyazaki movies, it came as no surprise when she chose this film, the latest Studio Ghibli/Walt Disney release to hit the DVD racks.

The story is based on Hans Christian Anderson's Little Mermaid. The problem with this story compared to Mermaid is that Sosuke is only five years old and Ponyo can't be much older. How many five year old kids really know what that kind of love is or means?

As with all Miyazaki films, the quality of animation is at the level of artwork. The partnership between Studio Ghibli and Disney hasn't missed a beat. Disney again has assembled a superb English voice cast for the Americanized version, highlighted by Tina Fey, Cate Blanchett and Liam Neeson. Accomplished screenwriter Melissa Matheson is given credit on the DVD box for being the writer of the English language screenplay but IMDb only gives her credit as a storyline consultant.

The second disc has some excellent extras, including some storyboard animation, which are informative and fun.

This is a testament to the quality of this movie ~ it's not my favorite Miyazaki film ~ but it is still excellent and worth your time to watch.

**** out of *****

Ponyo (2008, PG , 100 minutes), starring the voice talents of Noah Lindsey Cyrus, Tina Fey, Liam Neeson, Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Lily Tomlin, Cloris Leachman and Betty White. Based on "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Anderson. Written and Directed by Hayao Miyazaki.

My daughter the teenager

2010-05-22T03:10:00.001-04:00

Happy 13^th birthday, V! I love you sweetheart!

SNMR 8.6: "Fierce People"

2010-05-15T20:02:00.009-04:00

GREEN'S SOMETIMES FRIENDS AREN'T SO FRIENDLY REVIEW:

Finn Earl (Anton Yelchin) is excited about going to spend the summer with his anthropologist father in South America, studying a native tribe. But when he gets arrested trying to buy drugs for his strung out mother Liz (Diane Lane) his summer plans change. Instead the Finns go for the summer to live at the Osborne estate, where patriarch Ogden (Donalt Sutherland) is one of Liz's former massage clients. It is here that Finn gets seduced by the sexy maid Jilly (Paz De La Huerta) but falls in love with Maya (Kristen Stewart), Ogden's granddaughter and befriends Bryce (Chris Evans), Ogden's grandson. Things seem to be going well until Finn learns that friendship between the rich and the not-so-rich can happen, as long as the status quo is maintained.

This is a film that kicked around the minor film festivals for two years before gaining wide release in the US in 2007, so it wouldn't surprise me if you've never heard of it. Neither had I. I borrowed it from the library solely based on the fact that Diane Lane is in this movie. I've been a fan of hers for a long time and still think she's an underrated actress. Having old timer Donald Sutherland as your co-star doesn't hurt either. They've got a pretty nifty supporting cast including rising stars Anton Yelchin and Kristen Stewart, who were probably around 13 or 14 when this movie was filmed in 2004.

I like the fact that the screenplay was adapted by the author of the novel, which as I always say makes for a stronger movie. I've not read the novel that the film is based on but one of the DVD extras indicates that the screenplay doesn't stray very far from the novel. Veteran character actor turned director Griffin Dunne does a good job keeping the story moving along. There are only a few spots where the film sags but they don't last long. The only really unnecessary scenes are where visions of the South American native tribe that Finn's father is studying appear on the Osborne estate, as if we can't draw the parallel connections from the film itself.

The "Breaking Down the Tribe" featurette has some informative cast interviews.

Fierce People is worth your time to watch. I enjoyed this movie.

***½ out of *****

Fierce People (2005, R, 112 minutes), starring Donald Sutherland, Diane Lane, Anton Yelchin, Kristen Stewart, Elizabeth Perkins, Paz De La Huerta and Chris Evans. Based on the novel by Dirk Wittenborn. Screenplay by Dirk Wittenborn. Directed by Griffin Dunne.

Lena Horne (1917-2010)

2010-05-10T16:23:00.008-04:00

Lena Horne, one of the great pioneer actresses of the early 20^th century has died at the age of 92. She helped pave the way for the modern generation of talented African-American actors & actresses, with her talent, grace and good looks.

It's too bad, as Horne herself put it that, "Hollywood didn't know what to do with me."

Indeed, that is a shame.

The only movie I can recall that I saw Ms. Horne act in was Cabin in the Sky, where she played the sultry temptress, Georgia Brown, opposite Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. There is even a song titled Sweet Georgia Brown.

This is a film that I was exposed to in a college film critique/appreciation class in the late 1980's. If you haven't seen this movie, I suggest you do. It is one of my favorites. I reviewed it here.

SNMR 8.5: "Revolutionary Road"

2010-05-08T19:22:00.012-04:00

GREEN'S "CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF BULLSHIT GOING ON HERE" REVIEW:

Frank and April Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet) seem to have the perfect marriage with two kids and a quaint starter home in a small Connecticut town close to New York City. April wanted to be an actress but wasn't well received while Frank has a good job at the same company his father labored at anonymously for thirty years. But Frank hates his job and April feels confined as a housewife. To break away, they decide to move to Paris in the fall where April will work to support Frank, so he can pursue his dreams, whatever they may be. Then, when word gets out that Frank wants to leave, he gets a big promotion at work and decides maybe Paris wasn't so realistic after all, shattering April's dreams of a better life.

I saw this movie during its theatrical release because of the hype surrounding Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet's first on-screen appearance together since Titanic in 1997. Plus, the film was directed by Winslet's husband at the time, Sam Mendes. The hype was worth it as the two actors displayed the same chemistry as they did a decade ago.

I was very disappointed that this movie didn't get more Oscar consideration than it did in 2009. The Art Direction and Costume Design deserved the nominations they received, as the look of 1955 seemed to me to be spot on. I'm not so sure Michael Shannon was a worthy nom for Best Supporting Actor. He was good but really didn't have enough dialogue, in my mind, to warrant the nomination.

I believe Kate Winslet's performance here was better than her win a year later for The Reader. Leonardo DiCaprio has made himself into one of the best actors working in the biz today and I predict he will win a Best Actor Oscar in the next several years. Kathy Bates delivers another solid performance as the neighborly busybody/real estate agent. My favorite scene comes at the very end of the movie, just before the credits roll.

I bought the novel last year after seeing the movie but haven't read it yet. From what I understand, Justin Haythe did a great job adapting Richard Yates 1961 novel into the screenplay.

This was only the sixth film Mendes has directed, but he's already won a Best Director Oscar and does a fine job at the helm here. The run time of 118 minutes is a perfect length and the story doesn't sag at all.

The DVD includes an informative 'making of' featurette, deleted scenes and audio commentary for both feature film and deleted scenes. This was one of the better movies to come out in 2009 and I suggest you watch.

***** out of *****

Revolutionary Road (2009, R, 118 minutes), starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, Katherine Hahn, Michael Shannon and David Harbour. Based on the novel by Richard Yates. Screenplay by Justin Haythe. Directed by Sam Mendes.

Yankees in town for three over the weekend

2010-05-07T11:02:00.004-04:00

The Yankees are back at Fenway for three key games this weekend vs. the Red Sox. New York won the season opening series at Fenway, 2-1.

Currently in the AL East, the Yankees are in second place with a 19-8 record, 1½ games behind first place Tampa Bay. The Red Sox are in fourth place with a 15-14 record, 6½ games out.

As always when these two teams meet, I expect a great series with long, grinding games.

Pitching match ups and summaries for the series:

Friday, May 7^th: New York @ Boston
Hughes (3-0) v. Beckett (1-0)

Saturday, May 8^th: New York @ Boston
Sabathia (4-1) v. Buchholz (3-2)

Sunday, May 9^th: New York @ Boston
Burnett (4-0) v. Lester (2-2)

After this series, the Red Sox will play the next nine games in the season series at Yankee Stadium, starting with a two game set on May 17-18.

The Yankees final visit to Fenway will be to close out the 2010 regular season on October 1-3.

Good night for Boston sports teams

2010-05-03T23:00:00.000-04:00

Red Sox win 17-8 vs. Los Angeles Angels at Fenway Park.

Bruins win 3-2 vs. Philadelphia Flyers at TD Garden in Boston to take 2-0 series lead heading to Philly for games 3 and 4.

Celtics win 104-86 at Cleveland Cavaliers to tie series at 1-1 heading to Boston for games 3 and 4.

I was flippin' back and forth between the three games all night.

SNMR 8.4: "That Thing You Do!"

2010-05-01T19:28:00.005-04:00

GREEN'S "I'M EITHER GONNA CRY OR WET MY PANTS" REVIEW:

The year is 1964 and Guy Patterson (Tom Everett Scott) is stuck in a rut working for the family business, a downtown appliance store in Erie, Pennsylvania. He loves to play the drums, but only for himself. His friend Lenny (Steve Zahn) approaches him to fill in for his band's drummer, who fell and broke his arm. Along with lead singer Jimmy (Johnathon Schaech), his girlfriend and first groupie Faye (Liv Tyler), and the bass player (Ethan Embry), they sign up to compete in a local college talent show, which they win.

Which leads them to a local promoter who has them cut their first record and gets their song on the radio, and eventually to Mr. White (Tom Hanks) who signs the band to the Play Tone label, changing their name from the "One-ders" to "The Wonders." Predictably the band's notoriety and fame rises quickly - from local gigs to county fairs to television specials and a national tour, leaving the band in sunny Los Angeles.

For whatever reason, it took me 13+ years to finally get around to watching this movie. Yeah, tell me about it.

This is a film that has a pleasant mix of comedy, drama and romantic tension; just the right amount of each, with excellent character development for each primary character. Excellent acting performances all around, from the main cast to the bit parts. Look for Giovanni Ribisi, Charlize Theron, Kevin Pollack, Peter Scolari (Hanks' Bosom Buddies co-star) and Rita Wilson (Hanks real life wife) certainly help.

I often wonder, when a major movie star like Tom Hanks sets his mind to writing and directing a feature film, what the results will be. Not surprisingly, Hanks' efforts were not wasted. The story is not unique, but the screenplay is well paced and quirky enough to be fun. As always, that the writer and director are the same person is a plus. It's too bad that Hanks has given up the director's chair for now. Hopefully he will return to it once his days in front of the camera aren't as many.

The only Oscar nomination this film received was for Best Original Song, which surprised me. After watching I would have thought this movie deserved a nomination for Best Original Screenplay, especially over less worthy candidates As Good as it Gets and The Full Monty, which lost out to Good Will Hunting.

The title song was very popular on the radio in the fall of 1996 and got much better reviews than did the actual movie, which only made $25 million domestically. Still, this is a mid-90's classic.

I didn't mind the ending, which some say was cut too short (maybe because the production ran out of money?), in which we only see one character arc end and are left to read about the rest.

The DVD I got from the library had both the theatrical release and the 39 minute longer extended version, which is the one I watched. The bummer for me was that the feature film DVD and the extras DVD were scratched beyond what a cleaning would fix. On the feature film DVD that's not as bad because at least you have a chapter search and can go back to about the place you were and resume watching but on the second DVD each extra was only one chapter, so when the disc froze I couldn't work around it. What I saw of the extras were well done.

Eventually I'll buy the two disc DVD collection.

That Thing You Do! is a movie that I'd watch again and recommend to you, especially if (like me) you've never watched it before or if it's been a while since you've seen it.

****½ out of *****

That Thing You Do! (1996, PG, 108 minutes [Theatrical version] 147 minutes [Extended Cut version]), starring Tom Everett Scott, Liv Tyler, Johnathon Schaech, Steve Zahn, Ethan Embry, Tom Hanks and Charlize Theron. Written and Directed by Tom Hanks.

136th Kentucky Derby

2010-05-01T11:00:00.004-04:00

Can't believe it's that time of year again. Time to see which horse will try to breal the 31 year old Triple Crown drought. The favorites may have a tough time due to the rain and sloppy track. Post time is 6:24 PM EDT.

Here's the story from the AP as I read it on espn.com.

All male horses carry 126 pounds. All female horses (11 Devil May Care) carry 121 pounds.
Betting Odds as of Wednesday:

136^thKentucky Derby

Post Horse Odds
1 Lookin At Lucky 3-1
2 Ice Box 10-1
3 Noble's Promise 12-1
4 Super Saver 15-1
5 Line of David 30-1
6 Stately Victor 30-1
7 American Lion 30-1
8 Dean's Kitten 50-1
9 Make Music For Me 50-1
10 Paddy O'Prado 20-1
11 Devil May Care 10-1
12 Conveyance 12-1
13 Jackson Bend 15-1
14 Mission Impazible 20-1
15 Discreetly Mine 30-1
16 Awesome Act 10-1
17 Dublin 12-1
18 Backtalk 50-1
19 Homeboykris 50-1
20 Sidney's Candy 5-1

Here is a look at the 20 horses that will run today.

Here are the latest odds, as of 6:09 PM EDT (dramatic changes due to the weather):

Post Horse Odds
1 Lookin At Lucky 7-1
2 Ice Box 10-1
3 Noble's Promise 24-1
4 Super Saver 8-1
5 Line of David 18-1
6 Stately Victor 19-1
7 American Lion 21-1
8 Dean's Kitten 23-1
9 Make Music For Me 28-1
10 Paddy O'Prado 11-1
11 Devil May Care 10-1
12 Conveyance 27-1
13 Jackson Bend 21-1
14 Mission Impazible 18-1
15 Discreetly Mine 34-1
16 Awesome Act 12-1
17 Dublin 19-1
18 Backtalk 21-1
19 Homeboykris 25-1
20 Sidney's Candy 9-1

-----

WIN: 4 Super Saver $18 $8.80 $6
PLACE: 2 Ice Box $11.20 $8
SHOW: 10 Paddy O'Prado $7.40

Exacta: $152.40
Trifecta: $2,377.40
Super: $$202,569.20

-----

Now that Super Saver is this year's Triple Crown hopeful, here's a story about the winning horse and his dominant jockey.

It's good to know that Super Saver will run in the Preakness in two weeks.

SNMR 7.1-7.30 Index Page

2010-04-27T10:02:00.006-04:00

Here's the official summary of the movies I reviewed for series seven of "Saturday Night Movie Review" (SNMR) and the ratings (out of five stars) that I gave them:

7.30 The Hangover 3½ stars

7.29 Surrogates 1½ stars

7.28 Crossing Over 3½ stars

7.27 Yes Man 2 stars

7.26 The International 4 stars

7.25 I Love You, Man 3 stars

7.24 Just Friends 3½ stars

7.23 How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days 4 stars

7.22 He's Just Not That Into You 4 stars

7.21 Adventures in Babysitting 3½ stars

7.20 In the Name of the King 2 stars

7.19 Inkheart 2½ stars

7.18 Don't Say A Word 3 stars

7.17 The Island 5 stars

7.16 Management 3½ stars

7.15 The Reader 4 stars

7.14 About Schmidt 3 stars

7.13 The Lake House 3 stars

7.12 Halloween 3 stars

7.11 Transformers 4 stars

7.10 Confessions of a Shopaholic 3½ stars

7.9 True Lies 5 stars

7.8 Sunshine Cleaning 2½ stars

7.7 Seven 4½ stars

7.6 We Are Marshall 4 stars

7.5 Grace is Gone 2 stars

7.4 The Prestige 1½ stars

7.3 Definitely, Maybe 4½ stars

7.2 Leaving Las Vegas 3 stars

7.1 The Life of David Gale 5 stars

See you sometime after Halloween with the index list for SNMR series 8!

SNMR 8.3: "I Love You, Beth Cooper"

2010-04-24T19:54:00.006-04:00

GREEN'S BLOODY TAMPON REVIEW:

Geeky Buffalo Glen High School senior class valedictorian Denis Cooverman (Paul Rust) doesn't want to regret anything from high school before he graduates. So what does he do? He centers his graduation speech around those words, pronouncing that "I love you, Beth Cooper" much to the embarrassment of Beth Cooper (Hayden Panettiere) the most popular girl in school, who also happens to be the head cheerleader. His speech also namelessly calls out several other classmates, and they are not happy about it, especially Beth's boyfriend Kevin (Shawn Roberts).

When Beth and her two best friends, Cammy (Lauren London) and Treece (Lauren Storm), decide it would be funny to attend Denis' and his best friend Rich (Jack T. Carpenter) graduation party, the fun begins.

I borrowed this movie from the library so I could watch it and I ended up letting my kids watch it on a recent weekend and I watched it with them. I liked it better than I thought I would, now having seen it a total of three times.

The cast is a good and diverse group of characters, a la The Breakfast Club and share a good camaraderie. You can tell that they had a fun time making the movie not only from the actors performances but also from the clips of interviews provided in the extras.

As one who liked to quote movies in my younger years (I still do), I got a kick out of Rich, Carpenter's movie quoting character, but I never added year and director to them as he did. I wasn't that neurotic about it.

The DVD includes an alternate ending which isn't really alternate, but a ten minute scene that was edited out of the theatrical release. Without this "alternate ending" some of the story of the movie would have been incomplete. If I had watched this movie in the theater I would have told you that something was missing at the end.

This movie will probably never reach the level of the iconic teen films of the late John Hughes, but it gives a valiant effort. Chris Columbus seems to have taken over - willingly or not - the mantle left by Hughes and does it quite well. The movie is based on the novel of the same name by Larry Doyle, who also wrote the screenplay, which I always maintain helps to yield a better end product. At the time I watched this movie I hadn't read the novel but since then I happened to see it on the discount rack for under $5 at Barnes & Noble, and bought it. As I was reading I was picturing the scenes from the movie and imagining how scenes from the book that aren't in the movie might have been filmed.

Yes, the story is full of cliches and typical teen movie antics and stuff but that's what it's all about. Far from being the most popular kid in high school, but also being far from the Valedictorian, I can appreciate the idea of the unpopular kid attracting the interest of the most popular girl in school.

***½ out of *****

I Love You, Beth Cooper (2009, PG-13, 102 minutes), starring Hayden Panettiere, Paul Rust, Jack T. Carpenter, Lauren London, Lauren Storm, Shawn Roberts, Alan Ruck and Cynthia Stevenson. Based on the novel by Larry Doyle. Screenplay by Larry Doyle. Directed by Chris Columbus.

2010 NFL Draft - First Round

2010-04-22T14:46:00.001-04:00

As I normally do, I entered the Patriots Football Weekly mock draft contest, which I actually won ten years ago but haven't come close to winning since.

The rules are simple:

All guesses had to be submitted by 5 PM EDT yesterday.

For each correct selection, the number of points awarded is equal to the number of the pick in the first round. For example, if I guess the fourth pick correctly, I get four points. If I guess the twenty-fifth pick correctly, I get 25 points. The highest number of points is the winner.

It doesn't matter what team selects the player with a certain pick, so draft day trades are not a factor in the selections.

Here then are my guesses:

1) Sam Bradford, QB, Oklahoma
2) Ndamukong Suh, DT, Nebraska
3) Gerald McCoy, DT, Oklahoma
4) Russell Okung, OT, Oklahoma State
5) Brian Bulaga, OT, Iowa
6) Eric Berry, S, Tennessee
7) Joe Haden, CB, Florida
8) Trent Williams, OT, Oklahoma
9) Jimmy Clausen, QB, Notre Dame
10) Jason Pierre-Paul, DE, South Florida
11) Dez Bryant, WR, Oklahoma State
12) Rolando McClain, ILB, Alabama
13) Anthony Davis, OT, Rutgers
14) Bruce Campbell, OT, Maryland
15) Brandon Spikes, ILB, Florida
16) Sergio Kindle, OLB, Texas
17) Earl Thomas, S, Texas
18) Demaryius Thomas, WR, Georgia Tech
19) Patrick Robinson, CB, Florida State
20) Perrish Cox, CB, Oklahoma State
21) Golden Tate, WR, Notre Dame
22) Derrick Morgan, DE, Georgia Tech
23) CJ Spiller, RB, Clemson
24) Jonathan Crompton, QB, Tennessee
25) Jermaine Gresham, TE, Oklahoma
26) Brandon Graham, DE, Michigan
27) Mike Iupati, G, Idaho
28) Jonathan Dwyer, RB, Georgia Tech
29) Corey Wootton, DE, Northwestern
30) Taylor Mays, S, USC
31) Brian Price, DT, UCLA
32) D'Anthony Smith, DT, Louisiana Tech

Later, I'll highlight the selections I picked correctly, based on how things really go tonight. Also, I'll eventually record the actual first round picks and what team selected them as the night moves along.

2010 New England Patriots regular season schedule

2010-04-20T19:30:00.000-04:00

Its times like these when I wish blogger would accept spreadsheet formatting...

regular season opponents
date time opponent network all-time series
9/12/2010 13:00 CINCINNATI BENGALS CBS NE 13-8-0
9/19/2010 16:15 at New York Jets CBS tied 50-50-1
9/26/2010 13:00 BUFFALO BILLS CBS NE 59-40-1
10/4/2010 20:30 at Miami Dolphins ESPN Mia 50-39-0
10/10/2010 bye
10/17/2010 13:00 BALTIMORE RAVENS CBS NE 5-1-0
10/24/2010 16:15 at San Diego Chargers CBS NE 20-15-2
10/31/2010 16:15 MINNESOTA VIKINGS CBS NE 6-4-0
11/7/2010 13:00 at Cleveland Browns CBS Cle 12-9-0
11/14/2010 20:20 at Pittsburgh Steelers NBC Pit 14-10-0
11/21/2010 16:15 INDIANAPOLIS COLTS CBS NE 44-29-0
11/25/2010 12:30 at Detroit Lions CBS NE 5-4-0
12/6/2010 20:30 NEW YORK JETS ESPN tied 50-50-1
12/12/2010 13:00 at Chicago Bears CBS NE 7-4-0
12/19/2010 20:20 GREEN BAY PACKERS NBC GB 5-4-0
12/26/2010 13:00 at Buffalo Bills CBS NE 59-40-1
1/2/2011 13:00 MIAMI DOLPHINS CBS Mia 50-39-0

HOME GAMES in CAPS

SNMR 8.2: "Get Smart"

2010-04-17T19:14:00.010-04:00

GREEN'S TRUE GUARDIANS OF FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY REVIEW:

Passed over for a field agent again, Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) is an analyst at CONTROL. Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) and Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson) are veteran field agents who always get the tough assignments. KAOS is moving large quantities of nuclear material. After an attack on CONTROL headquarters, identities of CONTROL agents are compromised and Max is promoted to field agent by the chief (Alan Arkin) and paired with agent 99, who must save the day.

This is a movie that I really didn't want to see if only because I'm a fan of the 1960's television show and was afraid that this movie wouldn't do justice to the original. Many television show to big screen transformations are not worth the celluloid they're shot on. Part of me did want to see this movie because I'm a fan of both Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway. I was able to resist until now.

I must say that this movie was much better than I expected. Not many actors can channel the comic brilliance of Don Adams as well as Carell and Hathaway as the stoic Barbara Felton character was a better than expected choice. Supporting cast members Alan Arkin as the Chief and Dwayne Johnson as Agent 23 were good choices. Johnson has an unexpected comedic presence. I'm not so sure Terrence Stamp was the best choice for the villian, even though I respect him as an actor. He'll always be General Zod to me.

Peter Segal does a fine job directing this movie and keeps the action light and funny. Screen writers Tom Astle and Matt Ember stay true to the original Mel Brooks and Buck Henry characters and the film's plot could have easily worked into an episode or two of the old show.

Unfortunately for me, the library only had the single disc version which only had comedy optimization mode as an extra and I would have liked to see more. It would have been interesting to hear what some of the original cast had to say about this film, though only Barbara Felton is still living. I do recall hearing Anne Hathaway say in an interview after the film's release that filming her scenes with Carell were difficult because he kept cracking jokes and making faces which made her laugh when her character is supposed to be the serious, straight-faced one.

Now I'm actually looking forward to the sequel, tentatively to be released sometime in 2011.

***½ out of *****

Get Smart (2008, PG-13, 110 minutes), starring Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Arkin, Terrence Stamp, Tery Crews and David Koechner. Characters by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. Screenplay by Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember. Directed by Peter Segal.

Lt. Col. William Arthur Bamford II (1934-2010)

2010-04-12T10:47:00.003-04:00

For the last year or so, my Uncle Bill has been battling Cancer. At the end of February he learned that the disease had traveled to his brain. At that time we weren't sure if he would want treatment. He did and made it through the month of March and into April.

However, he knew that he wasn't going to get any better and only worse, so late last week he and his wife made the decision that he would no longer receive medication and would no longer eat, so that he could go home and be with Jesus.

We learned that he died just before 7:00 AM EDT this morning. From what we understand, he went peacefully into the next life.

My Uncle was a Godly man, serving as an officer in The Salvation Army. For those of you who don't know: The Salvation Army is a branch of the Wesleyan line of Protestant churches, using a para-military organizational scale and terminology. In effect, a Salvation Army Officer would be known as a Pastor in other Protestant churches.

He was well loved and respected by all those who knew him and always had a kind word for everyone he came in to contact with. This has been evident to me as I read short tributes left to him from friends and those whose lives he touched on my cousin Bill's Facebook page.

For a few years, in my younger days (when I spent my summers at Camp Wonderland), my Uncle and his wife were stationed in Massachusetts. Their cabin was right down the road from ours. I can remember watching many Red Sox games on television at his cabin, and especially the All-Star Game every year, where he would root for the National League team but be happy for me when the American League won. My Uncle learned to love the Red Sox, but at heart was always a Phillies fan, having grown up in the Philadelphia area.

In retirement, down in Florida, he would occasionally go see the Red Sox in Spring Training and would go to Tropicana Field when the Red Sox were playing the Rays.

My dad, who is ten years younger, wanted to retire in Florida in part to spend time with his oldest brother. My dad is still going to retire in Florida but couldn't get there in time.

The last time I saw my Uncle was in 2006, at my Grandfather's funeral in New Jersey. Who would have thought back then, that he would only outlive his father by less than four years.

Yes, it's sad that he's gone but we don't mourn. Instead, we rejoice at a life well lived in service to God and man. We rejoice because death is a part of life in this day and age and that even though his physical body has died, his soul now resides in heaven. Further, we rejoice because one day we shall see him again in glory.

Sadly, I don't have any pictures to post along with this, which is unfortunate.

SNMR 8.1: "Next Stop Wonderland"

2010-04-10T18:26:00.008-04:00

What a great way to begin the eighth series (and 211^th review) of my Saturday Night Movie Reviews column than this little unknown gem of a romantic comedy…

GREEN’S “ALL ALONE ON A CROWDED TRAIN” REVIEW:

Erin (Hope Davis), a young nurse adrift in her life is stunned when her activist boyfriend Sean (Philip Seymour Hoffman) decides to leave her. Which leaves Erin struggling to find serenity on her own, while her meddling (but with good intentions) mother Piper (Holland Taylor) decides to place a personals ad in the newspaper on behalf of her daughter. Which leads to sixty four voice messages and a string of bad dates with the most pathetic bunch of guys. Then there’s Alan (Alan Gelfant), an introspective, quiet plumber who is studying to become a marine biologist. He is being pursued by Frank (Victor Argo) a rough, smarmy, debt collector and fellow biology student Julie (Cara Buono), who wants more than just Alan’s class notes. Is Alan one of the sixty four messages?

Have you ever heard of this movie before? I certainly hadn’t and it was nothing like I expected. What did I expect? Well I certainly didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. What I didn’t expect was that this movie was released in 1998 and escaped my notice for all that time. Probably still would have had I not, on the spur of the moment, decided to borrow it from the library. Even then it took me the full two weeks to get around to watch it. After some internal debate I finally decided to add the DVD to my movie collection.

If there is more of an underrated actress working in Hollywood today than Hope Davis, I don’t know who it would be. Her performance in this movie was fantastic as the introspective loner looking and secretly longing for that one special man (but not looking or secretly longing for him). Philip Seymour Hoffman, arguably one of the most versatile actors of this generation - even though his role is little more than a cameo, is excellent as Sean, Erin’s activist boyfriend who leaves her once and for all and vows to never return again. Aside from those two actors and perhaps Robert Klein, I’d be surprised if you’ve heard of any of the other cast members.

This is one of those movies (and I love this) that was filmed entirely in my home state of Massachusetts: (Boston, Revere, Chelsea and Somerville) before filming in Massachusetts became the fad it currently is. Writer (along with co-writer Lyn Vaus), Director and Editor Brad Anderson lived and worked in Boston while teaching film making classes at the Boston Film and Video Foundation. He knows the city and surrounds and it shows in the movie, officially making the locations an unofficial character in the movie. The screenplay is well written and doesn’t drag in an efficient run time of 96 minutes.

The film derives it’s title from part of Boston’s subway system, as 'Wonderland' is the last stop on one end of the Blue Line, where the Wonderland greyhound dog racing track is located.

The DVD contains no extras, which for a film without a big budget, doesn’t surprise me at all.

****½ out of *****

Next Stop Wonderland (1998, R, 96 minutes), staring Hope Davis, Alan Gelfant, Victor Argo, Jon Benjamin, Cara Buono, Larry Gilliard Jr., Philip Seymour Hoffman and Holland Taylor. Screenplay by Brad Anderson and Lyn Vaus. Edited and Directed by Brad Anderson.

The Great Escape

2010-04-09T14:45:00.004-04:00

This morning I saw something very unusual.

I was sitting in my car at a gas station on one of the busiest streets in town after dropping off a tire and rim that I needed to get fixed. Seemingly out of nowhere I saw a wild male turkey walking down the intersecting street towards the busy street. Head bobbing back and forth, the bird was looking to get across the street to the woody area on the other side. Without stopping the turkey began to walk across the street, heedless of the traffic on the road. He made it halfway before five cars had to stop and let the bird pass.

But that's not all. A few moments later the female comes out of the same nowhere running after her mate into the street... right into an oncoming car!

Well almost. The bird took a hard left - fiercely flapping its wings to (barely) avoid being made into turkey salad.

Fortunately after that the female was able to make it safely to the woods.

Then I drove home.

-----

I can never understand why anyone would want to stand on a curb holding a sign with some political candidate's name on it for hours on end. Even if you're getting paid to do it, which is probably rare.

Even in the best of conditions, this is something I'll never, ever do. What made these yokels even more ridiculous looking was that today it was raining for the better part of the day.

What a way to open the season!

2010-04-04T17:01:00.005-04:00

What a way to start off the 2010 baseball season. ESPN wanted to move the first game from Monday afternoon to Sunday night so they could televise it nationally. Since money rules the switch was granted. No consideration was given to the fact that Sunday is Easter and during Passover.

Last season the two teams split the 18 game season series 9-9. The Red Sox went 8-0 against the Yankees to start the season, then went 1-9 the rest of the way. Naturally the Yankees went on to win their 27^th World Series while the Sox were swept out of the Wild Card round by the Los Angeles Angels, 3 games to none.

But it's a new season and any time the Yankees and Red Sox play you're going to have long, grinding games. As always, this post will be updated after each game.

Pitching match ups and summaries for the series:

Sunday, Apr 4^th: @ Boston 9, New York 7
Sabathia (0-0) v. Beckett (0-0)
WP=Okajima (1-0), LP=Park (0-1), SV=Papelbon (1)
Youkilis: 1^st Sox hitter with 3 Opening Day extra base hits since Fisk in '73.

Tuesday, Apr 6^th: New York 6, @ Boston 4
Burnett (0-0) v. Lester (0-0)
WP=Aceves (1-0), LP=Okajima (1-1), SV=Rivera (1)
Scutaro error, Okajima ineffectiveness open the door for New York.

Wednesday, Apr 7^th: New York 3, @ Boston 1 (10)
Pettite (0-0) v. Lackey (0-0)
WP=Park (1-1), LP=Papelbon (0-1), SV=Rivera (2)
Granderson HR in 10^th hands pitching duel to Yanks.

The Yankees will return to Fenway for three, May 7-9.

SNMR 7.30: "The Hangover"

2010-04-03T20:27:00.001-04:00

GREEN'S "...AT THE CORNER OF GET A MAP AND..." REVIEW:

What would happen if your best friend was getting married and for his bachelor party you decide to spend a few days in Las Vegas, living the nightlife? What would happen if you woke up the next morning on the floor in your $4200.00 per night hotel suite and couldn't remember a damn thing? What if the groom to be was missing when you woke up?

Meet Doug, the soon to be groom (Justin Bartha), Al (Zach Galifianakis), the not all with it but soon to be brother in law, Phil (Bradley Cooper), the normal looking school teacher, and Stu (Ed Helms), the man with the bitch for a girlfriend. These four friends plan such a trip and have to piece together the events from the night before to get home before the wedding. But not before...

I remember seeing the trailers for this film last summer in the theater and it looked like a really funny movie. But as usual I never got around to seeing it until a few days ago.

What a long way the career of Bradley Cooper (who really got his start in the television show ALIAS, Ed Helms (from The Office) and Zach Galifianakis, who I'd never heard of before are also very funny. Quirky Heather Graham was a perfect casting choice for Jade but the writers could have given her character more to do.

The screenplay did have it's funny moments but it seemed like we saw them all, or most of them, in the theater trailers. Now, after seeing the movie they all make sense.

The problem with this film its that it ends just a little too conveniently as if the writers suddenly ran out of material. What baffled the cast for the majority of the movie was solved too easily. Now we know that acting stupid and causing so much damage has no negative consequences! Sign me up for a trip to Las Vegas, right. now.

I'm not really familiar with director Todd Phillps previous credits but he seems to have done a good job with this movie, as the story doesn't really have time to sag anywhere. Could have easily extended the run time of the film another 10-15 minutes and you wouldn't think it were too much.

I watched the single disc edition which had no extras but it was what the library had. I'd like to have seen what weirdness was included and maybe I will some day.

***½ out of *****

The Hangover (2009, R, 100 minutes), starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham, Justin Bartha and Jeffrey Tambor. Written by Jon Lucas & Scott Moore. Directed by Todd Phillips.

2010 New England Patriots preseason schedule

2010-04-01T10:51:00.004-04:00

2010 New England Patriots preseason schedule released yesterday.

DATE TIME OPPONENT NETWORK PRESEASON SERIES RESULTS (last time played in preseason)

8/12-16/10 NEW ORLEANS SAINTS WBZ tied 4-4-0 (2005)
8/19/10 20:00 at Atlanta Falcons FOX Atl 6-5-0 (2006)
8/26-29/10 ST. LOUIS RAMS WBZ tied 4-4-0 (1994)
9/2-3/2010 at New York Giants WBZ NYG 11-8-0 (2009)

specific dates and times released soon for other three games. HOME GAMES in BOLD CAPS

Which means that the regular season NFL schedule willl be released in the next few weeks. Hello April!

Good Wednesday NOT Good Friday

2010-03-31T14:51:00.000-04:00

I've posted this essay before but I think it's important to post it again because it shows that church tradition is not always correct when it does not jibe with Biblical teaching.

Was Jesus Really Three Days and Three Nights in the Heart of the Earth?

By R.A. Torrey (1856-1928)

In the twelfth chapter of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is reported as saying, “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12:40). According to the commonly accepted tradition of the church, Jesus was crucified on Friday, dying at 3 PM, or somewhere between 3 PM and sundown, and was raised from the dead very early in the morning of the following Sunday. Many readers of the Bible are puzzled to know how the interval between late Friday afternoon and early Sunday morning can be figured out to be three days and three nights. It seems rather to be two nights, one day, and a very small portion of another day.
The solution proposed by many commentators to this apparent difficulty, is that “a day and a night” is simply another way of saying, “a day,” and the ancient Jews reckoned a fraction of a day as a whole day. So they say there was a part (a very small part) of Friday (or a day and a night), all of Saturday, another day (or a day and a night); and part of Sunday (a very small part), another day (or a day and a night). There are many persons whom this solution does not altogether satisfy, and I confess it does not satisfy me at all. It seems to me to be a makeshift, and a very weak makeshift. Is there any solution that is altogether satisfactory? There is.
The first fact to be noticed in the proper solution is that the Bible nowhere says or implies that Jesus was crucified and died on Friday. It is said that Jesus was crucified on “the day before the Sabbath” (Mark 15:42). As the Jewish weekly Sabbath came on Saturday (beginning at sunset the day before), the conclusion is naturally drawn that, since Jesus was crucified the day before the Sabbath, He must have been crucified on Friday.
However, it is a well-known fact, to which the Bible bears abundant testimony, that the Jews had other Sabbaths besides the weekly Sabbath that fell on Saturday. The first day of the Passover week, no matter upon what day of the week it came, was always a Sabbath (Exodus 12:16; Leviticus 23:7; Numbers 28:16-18). The question therefore arises whether the Sabbath that followed Christ’s crucifixion was the weekly Sabbath (Saturday) or the Passover Sabbath, falling on the fifteenth day of Nisan, which came that year on Thursday.
Now, the Bible does not leave us to speculate which Sabbath is meant in this instance; for John tells us in so many words, in John 19:14, the day on which Jesus was tried and crucified was “the preparation of the Passover” (italics added). In other words, it was not the day before the weekly Sabbath (that is, Saturday), but it was the day before the Passover Sabbath, which came that year on Thursday- that is to say, the day on which Jesus Christ was crucified was a Wednesday. John makes this as clear as day.
The gospel of John was written later than the other Gospels, and scholars have for a long time noticed that in various places there was an evident intention to correct false impressions that one might get from reading the other Gospels. One of these false impressions was that Jesus ate the Passover with His disciples at the regular time of the Passover. To correct this false impression, John clearly states that He ate it the evening before, and that He Himself died on the cross at the very moment the Passover lambs were being slain “between the two evenings” on the fourteenth day of Nisan. (See Exodus 12:6 in the Hebrew, and the Revised Version margin.)
God’s real Paschal Lamb, Jesus, of whom all other paschal lambs offered through the centuries were only types, was therefore slain at the very time appointed by God. Everything about the Passover Lamb was fulfilled in Jesus. First, He was a Lamb without blemish and without spot (Exodus 12:5). Second, He was chosen on the tenth day of Nisan (Exodus 12:3); for it was on the tenth day of the month, the preceding Saturday, that the triumphal entry into Jerusalem was made.
We know this because He came from Jericho to Bethany six days before the Passover (John 12:1). That would be six days before Thursday, which would be Friday. Furthermore, it was on the next day that the entry into Jerusalem was made (John 12:12 and following), that is, on Saturday., the tenth day of Nisan. It was also on this same day that Judas went to the chief priests and offered to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver (Matthew 26:6-16 and Mark 14:3-11). As it was after the supper in the house of Simon the leper, and as the supper occurred late on Friday or early on Saturday, after sunset, after the supper would necessarily be on the tenth of Nisan. This being the price set on Him by the chief priests, it was, of course, the buying or taking to them of a lamb, which according to law must occur on the tenth day of Nisan. Furthermore, they put the exact value on the Lamb that Old Testament prophecy predicted (Zechariah 11:12 and Matthew 26:15).
Third, not a bone of Him was broken when he was killed (John 19:36; Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12; Psalm 34:20). And fourth, He was killed on the fourteenth of Nisan, between the evenings, just before the beginning of the fifteenth day, at sundown (Exodus 12:6). If we take just exactly what the Bible says, that Jesus was slain before the Passover Sabbath, the type is marvelously fulfilled in every detail; but if we accept the traditional theory that Jesus was crucified on Friday, the type fails at many points.
Furthermore, if we accept the traditional view that Jesus was crucified on Friday and ate the Passover on the regular day of Passover, then the journey from Jericho to Bethany, which occurred six days before the Passover (John 12:1), would fall on a Saturday- that is the Jewish Sabbath. Such a journey on the Jewish Sabbath would be contrary to Jewish law.
Of course, it was impossible for Jesus to take such a journey on the Jewish Sabbath, because His triumphal entry into Jerusalem was on the Jewish Sabbath, Saturday. This was altogether possible, for the Bible elsewhere tells us that Bethany was a Sabbath’s day journey from Jerusalem (Acts 1:12 and Luke 24:50).
It has also been figured out by the astronomers that in the year A.D. 30, which is the commonly accepted year for the crucifixion of our Lord, the Passover was observed on Thursday, April 6, the moon being full that day.

SNMR 7.29: "Surrogates"

2010-03-27T18:27:00.003-04:00

GREEN'S NOW YOU CAN GET THE BODY YOU ALWAYS WANTED REVIEW:

The crime rate is down, murders are a thing of the past and people are living longer and looking better. Has humanity reached its long desired Utopian society? Nah. Life is this way because no one leaves their house any more; everyone has a surrogate to do their living for them. The surrogates are controlled by their users' mind, while they are sitting in a special chair.

When the son of the inventor of surrogacy is murdered, it's up to Detective Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) and his partner Peters (Radha Mitchell) to solve the case. Greer winds up getting his surrogate destroyed and has to venture into the outside world to search for clues.

I'll admit that when this movie was playing in the theater last year I had wanted to go see it. I'm glad I didn't. I really wanted to like this movie a whole lot more. I really did.

Surrogates is a film (much like Jumper) that had so much potential but failed to meet it even half way. Sure, Bruce Willis is a fine actor and can carry a film with the best of them - most of the time. For the most part, the acting in this film was flat and uninspiring, even by Willis himself.

The action sequences are workman-like, such as they are. Director Johnathan Mostow, as good as he was at the helm of Terminator 3, just doesn't have a good enough story to work with here. The script is bland and full of holes, as there are several areas where we are left wanting more. We're left virtually no information on the inventor of the surrogates (James Cromwell) or any background on the rebel leader (Ving Rhames) or why there are groups of people who are against the surrogates or any use of machines or technology. This movie is a poor man's I, Robot with all of the missing filler plot details and a lot less action. Makes me wonder what was left on the cutting room floor.

*½ out of *****

Surrogates (2009, PG-13, 89 minutes), starring Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell, Rosamund Pike, James Cromwell, Ving Rhames and Boris Kodjoe. Graphic Novel written by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele. Screenplay by Michael Ferris and John Brancato. Directed by Jonathan Mostow.

Three strikes and yer out!!

2010-03-25T11:52:00.005-04:00

It is becoming known as the curse of the Best Actress Oscar winner. Soon, no married woman will want to win this award. It may be just a coincidence but then again, maybe not.

Now, a third woman has come forward who claims she had sexual relations with Sandra Bullock's husband, Jesse James, according to this article.

Even James' ex-wife is calling him a 'chronic cheater'.

C'mon, Jesse - Sandra may not be the best looking woman out there, but she's no dog!! And she had your back while you apparently were sleeping with three someones behind hers.

Loser. x3.

Robert Culp (1930-2010)

2010-03-24T20:35:00.004-04:00

Long time television actor Robert Culp died today near his home in Los Angeles. He was 79.

Culp is best remembered for his role as Kelly Robinson on the groundbreaking television series I Spy which ran for three seasons, from 1965-1968. I Spy co-starred Bill Cosby, who considered Culp a lifelong friend.

Coincidentally, just last weekend I purchased the three seasons of I Spy at BJ's for a cool $30. Now I'm looking forward to watching it even more.

Personally, I best remember Culp as FBI Agent Bill Maxwell on the television series The Greatest American Hero, which ran from 1981-1986 and later as the President in the movie The Pelican Brief.

Here's the obituary I found on AP & Yahoo News and another from comicmix.com.

SNMR 7.28: "Crossing Over"

2010-03-20T21:11:00.012-04:00

GREEN'S ILLEGAL ID'S FOR EVERYONE!! REVIEW:

Crossing Over is a multi-character canvas about immigrants of different nationalities struggling to achieve legal status in Los Angeles. The film deals with the border, document fraud, the asylum and green card process, work-site enforcement, naturalization, the office of counter terrorism and the clash of cultures.

This film takes a hard look at the US Immigration and Naturalization Service and the various law enforcement officers who have these interesting but trying jobs. At the same time, the film takes a look at immigrants of various nationalities and the problems they face struggling to achieve legal status in Los Angeles and what they face if caught and the consequences.

Like so many films these days there are many characters and many different story arcs, all of which are connected in some way, even if loosely. This is a film that does not have an even ending. Some of the arcs end negatively, others positively.

I would like to think that the US Government isn't as harsh as portrayed in the movie, splitting up families and all, as we are supposed to be a compassionate country, but after 9/11 I suppose you do what need requires you to do. The most moving scene to me was toward the end when many immigrants are sworn in as brand spanking new American citizens - with the promise that this country doesn't guarantee you success but will provide every opportunity to be successful, as long as laws are obeyed, etc.

Crossing Over is an expansion of a short film writer director Wayne Kramer did in 1996. In that short film, Jaqueline Obradors played Mireya. In this movie she plays Special Agent Phadkar. Kramer, as is usually the case when the writer and director are the same person, knows his material and what he wants to accomplish with it.

The ensemble cast is headlined by Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta and Ashley Judd. It's a diverse group but all of the performances are excellent.

I believe that this is a brief but realistic portrayal of the way the system works and I can tell that this is a job I'd have a hard time doing. This is the kind of film that I'd have trouble watching multiple times but will eventually own it because I have most of Harrison Ford's other movies on DVD.

For some reason I found this review hard to write, but you do what you must. So I did. The library DVD I watched didn't skip but did freeze in a few places due to scratches on the disc which is always annoying. The DVD also was without any extras, which I was disappointed not to see. Despite those minor issues, this is a very thought provoking film and well worth a rental.

***½ out of *****

Crossing Over (2009, R, 113 minutes), starring Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd, Jim Sturgess, Cliff Curtis, Alice Braga, Alice Eve and Jacqueline Obradors. Written and Directed by Wayne Kramer.

Spring's the Thing!!

2010-03-20T13:32:00.000-04:00

Winter's do-one... winter's do-one!! La-la-la-la-a-a-a!!

That's right people, today is the first official day of Spring!! Woo-hoo. It officially started at 13:32 EDT today!! Today the thermometer hit 70 F and it was a simply gorgeous day. Of course, this is New England in March, so naturally the television weather folks are predicting snow on Tuesday. How much or where will get the most I don't know as I haven't actually listened to the forecast.

Spring!!!

Gotta love it!

I hate hearing about stuff like this

2010-03-15T16:16:00.002-04:00

Marriage is hard enough as it is. Magnify it by 1,000 and you have the pressures that come with a "Hollywood marriage."

When a seemingly happy and stable Hollywood marriage falls apart - one you don't read about in the tabloid magazines - it's especially sad. Seven years is a lifetime in Hollywood.

So when I read this about one of my favorite actresses and her director husband, I was saddened.

I have no idea what the issues are in their relationship, but I sincerely hope that they can work it out, not only for themselves but for their son and her daughter.

Peter Graves (1926-2010)

2010-03-15T10:33:00.002-04:00

Four days shy of his 84^th birthday, Peter Graves died yesterday of apparently natural causes. He leaves behind a wife of 59 years and three daughters.

The original Mission Impossible was a great television series and I can remember watching some of the episodes in syndication when I was a kid. I remember that he was a guest star in an episode of the television show "Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century." Of course, he played the pilot in the Airplane movies. Most of all I remember his narration of the A&E show (59 episodes) "Biography" which he did from 1994-2006.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Phelps.

Daylight Savings Time again!

2010-03-14T06:00:00.000-04:00

Did you forget to change your clocks last night before you went to sleep? If you did then you are an hour late for whatever it is you wanted to do today.

Daylight Savings time officially began at 02:00 this morning.

I love it when we change the clocks one hour ahead every spring and wouldn't mind seeing it become a year round thing.

Arizona is currently the only state that remains on Standard time year round. Those bums aren't gonna mess it up for the rest of us!

Next week: Spring begins!

SNMR 7.27: "Yes Man"

2010-03-13T19:40:00.000-05:00

GREEN'S MAKE... ME... BELIEVE... IT! REVIEW:

Carl Allen (Jim Carrey) is the true definition of a loner. Living his life but not living his life to the fullest. That is until his friend Nick (John Michael Higgins) tells him about Terrence (Terrence Stamp), a self help guru whose theme is Yes, Yes, YES!! When Carl makes a covenant to say yes instead of no, good things begin to happen - he meets a girl, gets a promotion at work and really starts to enjoy life.

This film could otherwise be called Liar Liar 2 because it's the same basic premise as the superior 1997 Carrey movie Liar, Liar. This, to me, is clearly not Carrey's best movie. True, there are some funny sequences in the movie but not enough to make up for the rest of it. There are some good performances. Bradley Cooper, whose career took off after his role on Alias. Zooey Deschanel is charming as usual. John Michael Higgins brings his usual energy to his limited role. However the best performance comes from newcomer Rhys Darby as Carl's bank boss Norman.

I've not read Danny Wallace's book, so can't say how closely the movie follows, but it seems to me like a weak script and that's never good. Peyton Reed's direction is fine, given the material. I enjoyed his previous two feature films as Director in Down With Love and The Break Up.

The DVD has both the full screen and wide screen versions on either side of the disc, which I can't stand, and no extras.

If you passed on seeing this movie, you wouldn’t miss much.

** out of *****

Yes Man (2008, PG-13, 104 minutes), starring Jim Carrey, Zooey Deschanel, Bradley Cooper, Rhys Darby and Terrence Stamp. Based on the novel by Danny Wallace. Screenplay by Andrew Mogel, Jarrad Paul and Nicholas Stoller. Directed by Peyton Reed.

Corey Haim (1971-2010)

2010-03-10T09:25:00.009-05:00

From KABC in Los Angeles:

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- Actor Corey Haim died at the age of 38 early Wednesday morning.

According to the LAPD, Haim had been staying with his mother in North Hollywood, and the death appears to have been accidental. Haim was taken to St. Joseph's hospital in Burbank, and the hospital called LAPD at 3:40 a.m. to notify them that Haim had died of an apparent overdose.

Haim broke into the film industry in 1984 as a child actor. He starred in movies such as "Lucas" with Charlie Sheen, but his breakthrough role came with his 1987 film "Lost Boys."

------

Here's the story from the Associated Press and from omg! yahoo.
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I never like to hear of someone younger than myself die. That's just weird to me.

If Corey Haim did indeed die of a drug overdose, I would not be surprised, since he is/was an admitted drug user. As I read elsewhere, an autopsy will be performed to determine the actual cause of death. We'll see in a few weeks what the official word is.

I will say that I absolutely loved The Lost Boys which came out in 1987. It is a vampire movie that came out in the era before vampire movies were in vogue.

I was surprised to see on his IMDb page that he had been working regularly, where I had thought his career flamed out in the 1990's as many child stars careers seem to do.

SNMR 7.26: "The International"

2010-03-06T20:32:00.007-05:00

GREEN'S MEETING YOUR DESTINY ON THE ROAD YOU TOOK TO AVOID IT REVIEW:

Interpol agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) and Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) are determined to bring down the IBBC - the International Bank of Business and Commerce, a global financial institution that is hip deep in illegal activities like money laundering, arms trading, financing terror organizations and the destabilization of governments leading to greed, corruption and murder. But if they take down the people responsible, will others rise to take their place?

This is a film that was suggested to me that I watch while it had its theatrical run in 2009. But I never got around to it and knew that I'd want to watch it once it came out on DVD.

The story takes place in Berlin, Milan, New York and Istanbul, showing clearly the global community that our world has become in the last twenty-five years and what a monumental and seemingly overwhelming task it is for one or two individuals to take on world based corporate corruption.

Clive Owen is superb as the intense but out of shape detective. I had heard or read somewhere that Naomi Watts, as an equally intense New York DA, was the weak link in the cast but I did not find that to be the case. I thought her performance was excellent, keeping up with the boys. The supporting cast is also excellent, especially Armin Mueller- Stahl as the dignified link to the older generation of corruption.

I don't recall seeing any of German director Tom Tykwer's previous work, but judging from this movie, he's got a good sense of what the action/thriller genre is all about. Tykwer works well with writer Eric Singer, whose screenplay is taut and has a good pace to it, especially for his first feature length film writing credit.

There are several extras included on the DVD which were impressive and worth watching.

The movie has a run time of just under two hours, a perfect length. I found it to be an above average action/thriller, filled with intense action and edge of your seat suspense. Rent this DVD or buy it because it's definitely worth your while.

**** out of *****

The International (2009, R, 118 minutes), starring Clive Owen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueler-Stahl, Ulrich Thomsen and Brian F. O'Byrne. Screenplay by Eric Singer. Directed by Tom Tykwer.

SNMR 7.25: "I Love You, Man"

2010-02-27T19:13:00.001-05:00

GREEN'S JAM SESSION IN THE MAN CAVE REVIEW:

Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) is a Los Angeles real estate agent who has just proposed to his girlfriend Zooey (Rashida Jones). She's got tons of female friends for her bridal party. When asked who his best man will be, Peter realizes that all of his friends are women - he has no close male friends. So the quest begins, as he's set up on man dates by his gay brother and his mother. All end disastrously. Then Peter meets Sydney (Jason Segel) at an open house for Lou Ferrigno, his biggest client - and the bromance is on.

Paul Rudd is an excellent comic actor in his own right but he seems a little awkward playing the shy straight man to Segel's obnoxious character. But Rudd and Segel do display some chemistry and do manage to play off of each other pretty well. Rashida Jones, due to the nature of the movie and given her small part, does a good job holding her own with the boys. She's got large, beautiful eyes and a winning smile. The supporting cast is good, especially interplay between Jaime Pressly and Jon Favreau.

John Hamburg is a bright young director with a good eye for comedy. I liked his previous feature film, 2004's Along Came Polly. He does a fine job managing the talented cast and keeping the story from getting too silly. My two favorite scenes were Peter, Sidney and Zooey at the Rush concert (I loved her WTF look during the whole thing) and Lou Ferrigno giving Sidney the sleeper hold.

The extras on the DVD were good, especially the 'making of' featurette and the extended scenes.

A friend of mine saw this movie in the theater and thought it was funny and that I should have seen it in the theater myself. But I didn't and I'm glad. Yes, this was a funny movie - in places, but I'm glad I got to watch it for free.

*** out of *****

I Love You, Man (2009, R, 104 minutes), starring Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg, Jaime Pressly, Jon Favreau, Sarah Burns, Jane Curtin and JK Simmons. Screenplay by Larry Levin and John Hamburg. Directed by John Hamburg.

SNMR 7.24: "Just Friends"

2010-02-20T19:41:00.009-05:00

GREEN'S "YOU DON'T SEE THAT EVERY DAY" REVIEW:

Chubby and awkward as a teenager, Chris Brander (Ryan Reynolds) has been best friends with Jamie Palomino (Amy Smart) for a long time. Jamie just happens to be the most beautiful girl in school who everyone wanted to date. Chris' dream was to take his friendship with Jamie to the next level but all she wanted was to remain friends.

Flash forward ten years. Chris is now thin and fit and a hot Hollywood music executive, trying to sign the next "big" talent, shallow, airhead blond Samantha James (Anna Faris), who has a crush on Chris. On their way to Paris for Christmas, their plane makes an unscheduled stop in New Jersey, close to where Chris grew up.

Now with a girl in tow whom he cant stand, Chris accidentally runs into Jamie at the bar where she works, and the sparks fly as Chris tries to woo his high school best friend and lifelong romantic fantasy. But can he escape the "friend zone?"

This is one of those movies that I kept seeing in the library and ignoring because there was always something better. Finally I decided to give it a shot, since I thought Ryan Reynolds did a good job in a couple of other movies I've seen him in.

I haven't laughed so hard watching a movie in a long time.

Yes, it's a movie with many silly moments but rings true for any of us who have been in the dreaded "friend zone" with a girl we had a hopeless crush on. You know what I'm talking about, fellas.

Ryan Reynolds and Amy Smart are excellent and do display a good on-screen chemistry. The supporting cast is very good, with Anna Faris, Chris Klein and Chris Marquette.

This is writer Adam "Tex" Davis' first feature length screenplay which has its moments and for a first timer is pretty good. Roger Kumble hasn't directed too many films, but he has worked on some good ones, such as Cruel Intentions (which he also wrote) and The Sweetest Thing, so has experience with drama and romantic comedy.

The movie has a run time of 94 minutes, which is just about right, though could have been six or seven minutes longer.

The DVD extras are excellent and include nine behind the scenes featurettes, deleted scenes and a feature length commentary.

If you're in the mood for a fluffy, funny romantic comedy, this is as good as any.

***½ out of *****

Just Friends (2005, PG-13, 94 minutes), starring Ryan Reynolds, Amy Smart, Chris Klein, Anna Faris, Chris Marquette and Fred Ewanuick. Writen by Adam 'Tex' Davis, Directed by Roger

traveling down Route 66 for the next 12 months

2010-02-18T18:34:00.001-05:00

no, not me.

Happy Birthday, Mom.

Valentine's Day 2010 or still single...grrrrr...

2010-02-14T16:20:00.003-05:00

What more can be said about love? Not much, I'll wager. Happy Valentine's Day everyone! (BTW, in the King James Version, the word love is translated as charity)

1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

1 Corinthians 13 KJV

SNMR 7.23: "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days"

2010-02-13T20:21:00.012-05:00

GREEN'S "I'M GONNA MAKE YOU WISH YOU WERE DEAD" REVIEW:

Andie Anderson (Kate Hudson) is fashion magazine Composure's 'How to' girl, writing columns on such things as how to get a better bod in 5 days, how to talk your way out of a speeding ticket and how to feng shui your apartment, among other things. Her latest assignment, based on her best friend's dating failures, is to write a column on how to lose a guy in 10 days, using the common dating faux pas that many women commit which drive guys away.

Benjamin Barry (Matthew McConaughey) is Warren Advertising's star for selling alcohol and athletic equipment - beer and sneakers. But now he wants to break into diamonds and be the agency's pitch man for the company that controls 70% of the world's diamond market. But first he must convince Phillip Warren that he's the man for the job, much to the chagrin of the Judys, Ben's co-workers and friendly adversaries. In order to win the bet and the account, he must get a woman to fall in love with him in ten days.

Aside from being one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood these days, Kate Hudson (a raw 22 years old during filming) has her game on, more than a match for the boyish charm of Matthew McConaughey. That Hudson looks almost like a younger version of her mother, Goldie Hawn, is almost scary. McConaughey seems to play different versions of the same character in many of his movies, but he does it so well and brings a likable charm to each role. The supporting cast is excellent and play off of the lead actors brilliantly. Notable is the performance of Bebe Neuwirth, who is absolutely wonderful as the hard nosed magazine editor.

The script is well written and once cast, tailored to the personalities of Hudson and McConaughey, who have a natural on-screen chemistry. Some of the exchanges are hilarious and I couldn't help laughing at the silliness of the situations. It is evident that the actors had a good time filming this movie and it shines through in the performances. Donald Petrie does a good job directing and keeps the pace moving. The music soundtrack is upbeat and adds to the emotional core of the story.

The extras included on the DVD are very good. They include featurettes on choosing the various locations as well as cast and crew interviews. There are also some deleted scenes and a music video by Keith Urban.

This is one of the better romantic comedies to come out in the last ten years and I think you'll enjoy it. I bought my copy for under $10 and have watched it many times.

**** out of *****

How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days (2003, PG-13, 115 minutes), starring Matthew McConaughey, Kate Hudson, Adam Goldberg, Michael Michele, Shalom Harlow, Kathryn Hahn, Annie Parisse, Thomas Lennon, Robert Kline, and Bebe Neuwirth. Based on the book by Michele Alexander and Jeannie Long. Screenplay by Kristen Buckley, Brian Regan and Burr Steers. Directed by Donald Petrie.

Lincoln and Darwin: 201st edition

2010-02-12T15:25:00.000-05:00

Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin. Two brilliant men, unrelated in every way but linked for all time because they happen to share a birthday.

My favorite US President from American history and the man whose theory has poisoned the minds of brilliant men and women in the last 150+ years.

Oh, well. Nothing to be done about it now.

Happy Birthday, boys.

Winner - Best looking single 41 year old woman in Hollywood

2010-02-11T12:06:00.011-05:00

Happy Birthday to my favorite Hollywood crush, who turns 41 today.

So what are we to believe?

This week, as reported in the Hollywood dish magazines, Jennifer Aniston and some close friends, Courteney Cox-Arquette and Sheryl Crow and also her "The Bounty Hunter" co-star Gerard Butler (whom the tabloids report that she is now dating), have spent the last week or so vacationing in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Last week, all the gossip magazines were focusing on the supposed Brangelina "split" and how Jen would take Brad back instantly, as if both were already a done deal.

Fisrt of all, Jen would be crazy to take Brad back after he dumped her for an even younger woman. Whose to say he wouldn't dump her again? Also, I believe Angelina hates Jennifer with a passion (for no reason really that makes sense, since she stole Brad away in the first place) and would never willingly allow Brad to go back to her and would make his life miserable if he tried, let alone allowing Jen to have contact with or become friendly with Brad and Angelina's brood.

Secondly, I don't believe Gerard is a good match for Jennifer, considering he has said that they are just friends and that he has too much fun being a flirtatious ladies man to settle down with anyone.

It seems that the vast majority of Hollywood relationships, marriages, etc, fail because both people work in the same stress filled, high profile industry and live primarily in the heart of it all - Los Angeles. I mean if Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins split, then which couple in Hollywood is safe?

I'm led to believe that the Hollywood relationships or marriages that survive are those that involve couples who live elsewhere and stay out of the spotlight - like Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart, or Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis. Even better is where one of the two people is not Hollywood famous, like Julia Roberts and Danny Moder or even Geena Davis and Dr. Reza Jarrahy.

Anyway, that's my take on the whole thing, like it or not.

Super Bowl XLIV @ Miami, FL

2010-02-07T22:15:00.002-05:00

My Prediction: Colts 40, Saints 35

Colts 10, Saints 0 END 1^st Quarter
Colts 10, Saints 6 HALFTIME

Ballsy decision by the Saints to call an onside kick to open the second half. Good thing they recovered the ball...

Colts 17, Saints 16 END 3^rd Quarter
Saints 31, Colts 17 FINAL

Recap & Box Score

QB Drew Brees, MVP (32/39, 288 YDS, 2 TD, 0 INT)
[32 completions ties Super Bowl Record - Tom Brady, Super Bowl XXXVIII]

Congrats to the New Orleans Saints, Super Bowl XLIV Champions.

SNMR 7.22: "He's Just Not That Into You"

2010-02-06T19:58:00.007-05:00

February is supposedly the month of love: where red, pink and white are the colors du jour for the month. That being the case, this month's SNMR reviews will showcase films that have love and relationships as the theme. However, they are not all rosy and fluffy because I am still depressingly single.

GREEN'S "YOU MAY BE THE BEST FRIEND I'VE EVER HAD" REVIEW:

This is the story of the relationship successes and failures of five women and four men who are all tied together in some fashion.

First we have the story's anchor and sometimes narrator, Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin) who is a hopeful romantic, always falling for the wrong guy thinking he may be the one. Then there's Ben (Bradley Cooper), who is married to Janine (Jennifer Connelly) who works with Gigi and Beth (Jennifer Aniston).

Beth and Neil (Ben Affleck) have been living together for 7 years, yet Neil refuses to get married, which Beth not so secretly wants. Then there's Anna (Scarlett Johansson), a free spirited yoga instructor and struggling singer, who falls for Ben but is being pursued by Conor (Kevin Connolly), a real estate agent who is attracted to Anna, and friend of Alex (Justin Long) the bar owner/manager who gives sage advice about men to Gigi.

Finally, there's Mary (Drew Barrymore), who sells advertising for a small newspaper and a friend of Anna's, who keeps getting rejected in her pursuit of an online relationship that she hopes will become something more.

Confused? Good, you're supposed to be. Because relationships, interpreting signs and body language from the opposite sex is confusing and frustrating but can be oh, so rewarding if you get it right.

The screenplay is based on the book of the same name, by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tucillo, which was inspired by a 2003 episode of Sex and the City and was adapted well. I saw this movie in the theater when it came out a year ago today.

I also bought and read the book, an easy read which I found interesting because I wanted to see what crap men pull that women fall for to see how much of it can be reversed, since reading signs and body language is equally confusing for men trying to understand women. As I suspected, most of the stuff men do can be easily be done to a man. It's a two way street wide enough for an ox cart to turn around in.

This ensemble cast of stars is excellent and blend well together. No one seems to mind not having center stage. For example, Jennifer Connelly's combined screen time is 25 minutes and Jennifer Aniston's is only 20 minutes in a film that is over two hours long (thanks IMDb for that info.)

Ken Kwapis has only directed a handful of feature films; most of his directing experience comes from various television shows. With good material and a talented cast, Kwapis has no difficulty keeping all of the stories relevant.

What I liked about the film is the ode to the king of modern romantic comedies, When Harry Met Sally and the scene from Some Kind of Wonderful, a quirky but charming r/c in its own right. But what I liked best is that not every character arc ends positively, much like real life romantic relationships, but leaves you satisfied none the less.

I would have liked to see a separate widescreen/full screen release of the DVD, but is not the case here, as both formats are included, one on each side of the disc. Aside from some additional scenes with optional director comentary, there are no special features, which is rather disappointing, not even a movie trailer.

Despite that, this is an excellent film which any r/c fan should enjoy.

**** out of *****

he's just not that into you" (2009, PG-13, 129 minutes), starring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Kevin Connolly, Bradley Cooper, Ginnifer Goodwin, Scarlett Johansson, Kris Kristoferson and Justin Long. Based on the book by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tucillo. Screenplay by Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein. Directed by Ken Kwapis.

Dreams - The Cranberries (c) 1993 Island Music

2010-02-02T14:20:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I was trying to find out the name of the song and artiste who sings it that I keep hearing on the radio and in various movies like "You've Got Mail" and others.

Finally I remembered that the radio station I listen to most of the time has a list of the title and artist (they call it T & A on air...) of every song they play. So I went back over the play list of the last 24 hours and specifically when I was driving in the car last and heard it.

I posted the link over on my facebook page and a friend of mine copied the link herself, having never heard the song before my posting it.

I'm going to buy the CD that has this song on it to see what other songs this band sings that I might know but not know they sing, if you follow me.

Below is a link to the video which has the best sound. Click on it to hear the song...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjRM7zzRg5s

SNMR 7.21: "Adventures in Babysitting"

2010-01-30T20:14:00.011-05:00

GREEN'S "I'M A FUGITIVE NOW" REVIEW:

Chris Parker (Elisabeth Shue) is going on a big date with her "boyfriend" - until he cancels at the last minute. Which leaves Chris open to babysit for the Andersons, Brad (Keith Coogan)and Sara (Maia Brewton), a totally depressing come down. All plans for a quiet evening dissolve when Chris' best friend Brenda (Penelope Ann Miller) needs rescuing from a downtown Chicago bus station, forcing Chris to take the kids into the city where the fun and adventure begins...

This is one of those rare movies that came out in 1987, when I worked at the local movie theater, that I had no interest in seeing because the title alone made the movie seem a waste of time. I don't remember the circumstances in which I saw this film for the first time but it was years later. When I saw it in the $5 DVD bin about a year ago I couldn't help buying it just for kicks. I recently suggested my daughter watch it and she enjoyed it immensely.

What I found from the start was a movie that had a good music soundtrack and was actually quite funny. Yes, the situations in the film are quite comical and unrealistic, but that's okay. You need to watch this film with the mindset that it's a good bit of fluff.

The main cast give excellent performances for such young actors, especially annoying best friend Daryl (Anthony Rapp). The supporting cast is also good - like John Ford Noonan, who plays Handsome John Pruitt.

This film is the debut of Chris Columbus as a director, after some earlier success as a writer (Gremlins, The Goonies). While Columbus will never be accused of being an Academy Award winning director, his films usually do pretty well at the box office. This film provided the base for a successful directorial career. I'm actually looking forward to watching the first Percy Jackson film this year, which Columbus directed.

This remains writer David Simkins only foray into feature film writing as most of his career has been writing for various television series. It's a decent script, continuing in a genre that had really only begun to be explored by the late John Hughes, who made a career of films about teens.

One of the neat things about a film like this is that, in a cast of virtually unknowns, we get to see early versions of those actors who have actually put together decent careers in the 22+ years since this film was first released in July of 1987, such as Elisabeth Shue, Vincent D'Onofrio, Bradley Whitford and Penelope Ann Miller.

If you haven't watched this movie lately, may I suggest revisiting it? I think you'll enjoy it.

***½ out of *****

Adventures in Babysitting (1987, PG-13, 102 minutes), starring Elisabeth Shue, Keith Coogan, Anthony Rapp, Maia Brewton and Penelope Ann Miller. Written by David Simkins. Directed by Chris Columbus.

Baby Talk

2010-01-28T08:04:00.001-05:00

My 12 year old daughter emailed this to me yesterday and I thought I'd share.

Baby Talk

What your baby would tell you if he could talk:

1. I have my blankie, you have your caffeine. Enough said.

2. Don't be jealous, but I think I'm in love with the ceiling fan.

3. I know where the remote control is, but it'll cost you.

4. To you, it's just an empty egg carton; to me it's PlayStation 2.

5. Actually, I don't mind sitting in a bathtub that I've peed in.

6. Bang a screwdriver slowly and steadily into your gums. That's what teething feels like.

7. Two words I'd rather not hear from you: rectal thermometer.

8. There's no point in teaching me to say "mama" or "dada." My first word is going to be "hat."

9. I've told you five times what cow says. If you can't remember, I'm not telling you again.

10. There is no question that I can cry longer than you can listen.

11. I'm not just wildly throwing my food. I'm exploring the laws of gravity, estimating mass, and testing wind velocity.

12. If you wanted a good sleeper, you should have gotten a cat.

13. Who dat baby in the mirror you keep asking me about?

14. If my bottom is so darn cute, why is someone always trying to cover it up?

15. Who are you two to tell me how important it is to sleep alone?

16. What you secretly believe is true: I am much smarter than other babies.

Nothing much going on

2010-01-27T17:29:00.001-05:00

There's not much going on this week that is worth blogging about. Monday was unusually warm and rainy, which allowed much of the snow on the ground to melt. I'm always all for that.

The days seem to go by quickly. Seems like I just got out of bed and now it's getting dark already.

I had a nice exchange with some of my Facebook friends today, even though they live in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Both cities are in the United Arab Emirates for those of you geographically challenged. This is one of the benefits I find useful with Facebook, though one of them I 'met' by reading her blog a few years ago (and hopefully she will start blogging again). Technology truly is wonderful, allowing virtually instant conversation almost half way around the world with wonderful people I otherwise would not even be aware of.

I got a book in the mail today that I ordered from amazon.com marketplace, though I thought I was buying the hardcover book and instead was sent the softcover version. I've put an email in to the seller to hopefully be able to make an exchange. For books that I want to keep as part of my personal library I prefer in hardcover because they last longer than the paperback editions, if properly taken care of.

I always tell my kids that you can never have enough books, and I am living proof of that mantra. This also applies to movies and television shows on DVD.

I'm going to try and have a new profile picture taken tonight - one that I can upload to Blogger and Facebook. The picture I currently have was taken in July 2008 and I discovered recently, has been in use as my profile picture for exactly one year today.

I need to try and write at least one movie review tonight, maybe two.

SNMR 7.20: "In the Name of the King"

2010-01-23T21:57:00.000-05:00

GREEN'S "I'M GONNA KICK YOUR BUTT WITHOUT WEARING ANY ARMOR" REVIEW:

Farmer (Jason Statham) is a man who wants no part of fame or fortune. He just wants to protect and provide for his family. When his farm and village is ransacked by evil beasts called Krugs, Farmer is forced into action to rescue his wife from the clutches of the evil sorcerer (Ray Liotta) and avenge the murder of his son. Why does Farmer haunt the dreams of the evil sorcerer? Hmmmm....

I borrowed this movie from the library for two reasons: the first being I liked Jason Statham in the remake of "The Italian Job" and I have a soft spot for movies set in the medieval period of history. I'm glad I didn't pay to see this movie.

Films set in medieval times are either really good or really bad. I don't know of any that fall somewhere in the middle. While this movie is typical medieval themed fare it falls short due to a mediocre script and some odd casting choices. Statham is believable as Farmer, but the fact that he fights using martial arts moves and wears no armor is a bit curious. It's nice to see Ron Perlman au-natural, instead of all made up, as in the Hellboy films (remember the 1980's TV series "Beauty and the Beast"?) John Rhys-Davies gets a pass based on reputation.

Here's where the casting gets weird: Ray Liotta is a decent enough actor but is out of place as the evil sorcerer seeking world domination. Burt Reynolds makes for an odd choice of king, nowhere near as credible as Bernard Hill's Theoden in "LOTR" or Sir Sean Connery in his "Robin Hood" cameo.

The female cast is fine, including Leelee Sobieski, Kristianna Loken and Claire Forlani. The actor who steals this movie is quite unexpected. Matthew Lillard - the dude who played Shaggy in those abhorrent Scooby-Doo live action monstrosities - absolutely takes his character to the next level, sort of like a Mordred in the King Arthur legend but with an evil-jovial slant.

German director Uwe Boll does a fine enough job keeping everything together, given the material. The film's run time of 127 minutes seems a bit long.

The behind the scenes featurette included on the DVD is worthwhile to watch. If you're not expecting too much then this is a decent enough movie, I suppose.

** out of *****

In the Name of the King (2008, PG-13, 127 ninutes), starring Jason Statham, Ray Liotta, Leelee Sobieski, John Rhys Davies, Claire Forlani, Kristianna Loken, Burt Reynolds, Matthew Lillard and Ron Perlman. Based on the video game "Dungeon Siege" by Chris Taylor. Story by Jason Rappaport, Dan Stronack and Doug Taylor. Screenplay by Doug Taylor. Directed by Uwe Boll.

Barack Obama: Let Year 2 Begin!

2010-01-21T15:23:00.001-05:00

It is incredibly unrealistic and just a wee-bit unfair to think that one year of the Obama Administration can fix all of the stuff gone bad (understatement o' the century) in eight years of George W. Bush as prez.

I do believe, given the full scope of Obama's term(s) as President, that history - 40 or 50 years from now - will show him to have been one of our country's better Presidents. The problem now is that yokels want to judge the whole of Obama's Presidency based on the first year.

Can't do that.

Robert B. Parker (1932-2010)

2010-01-19T18:09:00.001-05:00

Springfield, Massachusetts native Robert B. Parker,77, died suddenly yesterday of an apparent heart attack, while sitting at his writing desk inside his Cambridge home. Tests are pending to determine the official cause of death. Parker was best known for his Spenser novels which accounted for 37 of the 65 books he had published during his career. His writing idols included Raymond Chandler, whose tough hard boiled style Parker emulated. For three seasons Spenser: For Hire (1985-1988) was a popular television show, starring Robert Urich and Avery Brooks, which I watched regularly as a kid.

I had an English teacher once (can't remember which grade I was in) who knew and was a classmate of Mr. Parker. She mentioned his work many times during class.

Here are the links to both the Boston Globe and Boston Herald stories, reporting on his death:

Boston Globe

Boston Herald

SNMR 7.19: "Inkheart"

2010-01-16T20:29:00.001-05:00

GREEN'S "DUCT TAPE... I LOVE DUCT TAPE" REVIEW:

A couple of months ago I watched this movie with my kids. I recently watched it again in order to write this review.

Mortimer Folchart is a rare person sometimes referred to as a Silvertongue. They are people with the gift (or curse) that when they read out loud, the characters from the stories come to life and out of their world into ours. The problem is someone from our world is sucked into the story world. Mo is an old book doctor who restores old books, in part so he can look for a certain book and find his wife who disappeared nine years ago. Now Mo must get help from other characters in the story in order to defeat Capricorn and his gang, as well as the author himself.

Andy Serkis is wonderfully wicked as the evil Capricorn. Young Eliza Bennett shows excellent promise for the future as daughter Meggie Folchart. The rest of the cast, including Brendan Frasier as Silvertongue, Paul Bettany as Dustfinger and Helen Mirren as are good but not great. Director Iain Softley is adequate as director here, a bit of a letdown from his previous directorial effort.

Apparently the children's book of the same name, by Cornelia Funke, is immeasurably better. I have it but have not read it yet. The film seems to be missing something that I can't readily identify that would have made this a much better movie. Maybe if they made movies out of the other two books in the trilogy they would be collectively better as a whole.

It's not the best movie you'll ever see, but it's not the worst either.

**½ out of *****

Inkheart (2008, PG, 106 minutes), starring Brendan Frasier, Eliza Bennett, Andy Serkis, Paul Bettany, Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent and Rafi Gavron. Screenplay by David Lindsay-Abaire and based on the novel by Cornelia Funke. Directed by Iain Softley.

NFL playoffs

2010-01-15T22:21:00.000-05:00

I think the Saints will win 31-27.

I think the Colts will win 28-20.

I think Dallas will win 35-28.

I think San Diego will win 42-21.

First time for everything

2010-01-14T11:24:00.003-05:00

They've visited me before. I've even been known to invite them in to talk on occasion. But in all my life, never have two Mormon women come a knocking at my door. It's always been two men (or boys), church "elders" who most often have not even started shaving yet. Even though its a robust 25 degrees outside, I still went out and talked to them for a good five minutes. I probably would have talked to them longer had I warmer clothing on or maybe even invited them in out of the cold.

If you know me, you know that I don't generally shy away from a good religious conversation.

Imagine that. Mormon women going door to door. How progressive.

Car maintenance sucks.

2010-01-13T20:58:00.002-05:00

Last night I finally had the means to buy a new battery for my car. Today my brother helped me install it (I'm mot very mechanically inclined when it comes to cars.) and it worked. Sucker started up on the first try!! WOOT!!

Then I went to an auto parts store that advertises free starter and alternator checks, except for the kid couldn't get a good connection to the battery and told me I needed to replace it. "Yeah right, kid." I told him that the battery was brand new and was definitely not the problem.

Next I tried the repair shop that has worked on my car before. This time the guy told me that the alternator and starter units were working fine but that I needed a new battery. To which I repeated the same new battery story. Why in the heck do they need to make car batteries with the terminal connections on the side? And then jam all kinds of crap real close so the terminals are not easily accessible or downright hidden from view? Topping it off, my car's engine has the washer fluid reservoir right above the battery and an engine support bar on top of that. What a dumb ass engine design that is. No wonder why GM vehicles generally suck.

But I digress.

The bad news is what the auto repair garage guy tells me next: that the AC Compressor is making noise and is on the way out AND that it could eat away at the belts in the engine sooner rather than later. And if the belts go, I lose all engine control and power steering. Niiice! Just what I don't need.
New AC Compressor installed... $765.00. {ack!}

OR... they can install a bypass pulley and avoid the AC compressor all together for $275.00 including a new belt.

With over 134K miles on my eleven year old car, can you guess which way I'm going?

Seriously, I never use the AC even on the hottest of days. I'd rather roll down the window in the warm weather anyway. This repair will have to wait until next week. Appointment already made for next Wednesday.

Just so happens that this garage is within 100 yards of Five Guys in Nashua, and it was lunchtime, so off I went while my car was being analyzed and diagnosed. Good eating.

Also went to get my $9 core charge back for returning the old battery and stopped to get a much needed haircut. Finally a car wash for the salty vehicle before....

I got home and was reminded that I was on dinner duty tonight. {sigh}

But I tell you, it's nice to have my car back in a reasonably working condition.

What a day...

Early day tomorrow, too...

J-j-j-job F-f-f-fair

2010-01-12T14:47:00.003-05:00

It stinks not having a working vehicle. That fact made yesterday a more tiring day than it needed to be. But that's a story for another post.

The job fair I went to yesterday was at the Colonnade Hotel in downtown Boston, from 11:00-14:00. I hadn't had a reason to go to Boson in quite some time. Always interesting when you visit a big city.

I packed my book bag with my resumes, job fair info, bus schedules and some reading material for the trip the night before so I'd be all ready to go in the morning.

When I walked out of the house yesterday morning at about 08:15, the first thing I saw was six or seven squirrels on or around the bird feeder. They pretty much scattered to the surrounding trees when they saw and heard me coming.

It was very cold and windy yesterday morning, 19°F, and a great day for a walk (NOT!). I didn't want to wear a hat and mess up my carefully combed hair (yes, I need a haircut in the worst way), but I brought one with me. I certainly didn't want to give myself hat head before the fair, so my head and ears froze quite quickly during the mile walk to the bus stop. About halfway there I realized I forgot to bring a small packet of tissues. Cold induced runny noses suck.

The bus came after about ten minutes. I pumped my quarters into the fare counter and found a seat at the back of the bus. The bus driver must have driven like a madman because we arrived at the bus terminal/subway station about nine minutes ahead of schedule. After I bought a fare card for the subway, I had no problem changing lines and getting to my destination by 10:15. Good thing for me the entrance to the hotel was right in front of me as I exited the subway station. Man, when that wintery wind starts whippin' through those city streets, surrounded by all those tall buildings.... brrrrrr.
After about twenty minutes of waiting, we were told that a line was forming for entrance into the ball room where the exhibitors tables were set up. The line started in the cocktail room right outside the ball room, wrapped itself around the walls and out the door into the corridor. Good thing for me I got there early.

Waiting in line there was an above average looking woman standing in front of me, with her hair combed back into one large unbraided ponytail, who apparently was married and didn't speak English as her primary language. I believe it was French she was speaking but not quite sure. The woman behind me was even better looking, with just below shoulder length straight brown hair and large, penetrating blue eyes. I never spoke to her but made excuses to look behind me several times so I could check her out. She would have been about my height, if not for the black heels she wore. She seemed intent on texting someone from her cell phone keyboard. She looked to be 10 or more years younger than me, maybe more. Hard to tell sometimes.

When the doors finally opened and we were let in, the room filled up fast. I made two circuits around the room in about 45 minutes, talked to about ten people - some longer than others, gave out four or five copies of my resume, got some nice free pens, a mouse pad, water bottle and other free stuff exhibitors always bring to these events.

Most of the companies represented were looking for the dreaded sales people. Commission-only based sales, which I simply have not the personality or skill set for. One guy was even looking for cold-call telemarketers. Now that's a rough gig. Been there done that - briefly.

I would say that it was worthwhile to go to this job fair, even if the most promising conversation I had was with another staffing agency, one of whose areas of expertise is the career field I can't seem to get away from. Another company was a radio broadcasting group, whose two current stations play hip hop and dance music. I heard the guy I ended up speaking to tell another guy that they were going to convert another station they owned into a news/talk format. That interested me because back in the day I was the afternoon news guy for a small AM station.

I was out of there by 11:45, happily donning my warm, head and ear covering bunny fuzz hat, since now I didn't care if I messed up my hair or not. If I had looked at my outbound bus schedule I would have left about 10 minutes earlier. By the time I got through the subway and back to the bus terminal it was 12:25. The bus I needed left at 12:20 with the next bus not scheduled until 13:20.

Here I was thinking how nice it would be to have my car working, so I wouldn't have had to spend time waiting for the bus. I could have just gone up to where my car was parked and would have gotten home by 13:30 at the latest.

There was no wind in the semi protected bus terminal, but it was still cold sitting there on the bench. I'd have waited down below, back where it was a little warmer (closer to the subway train) if there had been any place to sit.

Good thing I had something to read while waiting. I had also brought some Powerade and granola bars and spent some time amusing myself by throwing some crumbs at the two dirty, fat pigeons walking the floor near where I was sitting. Why do pigeons have to move their heads back and forth every time they take a step? All that head bobbing was near to giving me a head ache.

The final bus ride was uneventful. I read for most of it but then found myself dozing off, enough for a 15 minute snooze. By the time I completed the mile walk home it was about 14:45.

Long day for all of 45 minutes. Longer than it should have been. Lousy car.

Not sure I like this

2010-01-11T21:27:00.004-05:00

The first three films were excellent. With the main cast and director returning for the fourth installment, what could go wrong?

Apparently everything.

Now I'm totally questioning the wisdom of the proposed franchise reboot, set for the summer of 2012, with a new cast and new director.

Maybe Sony Pictures ought to be satisfied with three successful movies and concentrate on something else.

Until I read otherwise, I'm definitely skeptical. Maybe I'll be proved wrong - maybe not. Lots of variables, too many questions.

Only time will tell....

SNMR 7.18: "Don't Say A Word"

2010-01-09T22:36:00.002-05:00

GREEN'S "YOU'RE BETTER AT THIS STUFF THAN I AM" REVIEW:

Dr. Nathan Conrad (Douglas) is a brilliant psychologist who is asked by a colleague (Platt) to take a case pro-bono. That case is Elisabeth Burrows (Murphy), a young girl stuck in a psycho hospital since witnessing the murder of her father ten years prior by the bad guys. Conrad's daughter is kidnapped by the baddies, who stole a little red diamond/ruby ten years earlier and was stolen from them by Elisabeth's father, which now they want back. In order to retrieve the jewel they need a seven digit number which only Elisabeth knows and knows what it is for and refuses to tell.

The main reason I chose this movie to review now is directly related to the death of 32 year old actress Brittany Murphy a little less than a month ago.

I remember renting this movie shortly after it came out on VHS, probably on the strength of Michael Douglas being on my top ten list of favorite actors. I bought it on DVD a few years ago when I saw it in the irresistible $5 bin at the store.
This is not one of Douglas' career best performances but he's a good enough actor that he can still be believable. Famke Janssen and Jennifer Esposito are good in their roles as the immobile wife and brave polive homicide detective trying to solve a seemingly unrelated murder case. Sean Bean has made a career out of playing the misunderstood bad guy and does it quite well. Of course, this movie was another breakout role for Brittany Murphy, who is very convincing as the psych patient.

Director Gary Fleder seems to be a competent director, having helmed films such as Kiss the Girls before and Runaway Jury after making this movie, both of which I liked.

The DVD version I watched had a plethora of short but well-made extras, including cast and director interviews and a neat storyboard vs. live action sequence of two scenes.

I've not read the book but apparently it and the movie have major differences, or so I read somewhere, which is not unusual in book to film adaptations. It is a decent enough movie, despite the many plot holes ably pointed out by a viewer who commented on IMDb in 2007. The run time is a tidy 113 minutes; not too short and not too long. It is definitely worth borrowing from the library if you haven't seen it in a while.

*** out of *****

Don't Say A Word (2001, R, 113 minutes), starring Michael Douglas, Brittany Murphy, Sean Bean, Famke Janssen, Jennifer Esposito, Oliver Platt and Skye McCole Bartusiak. Based on the novel by Andrew Klavan. Screenplay by Anthony Peckham and Patrick Smith Kelly. Directed by Gary Fleder.

2009 NFL Playoffs - Wild Card Weekend

2010-01-08T20:05:00.010-05:00

#5 New York Jets (9-7) at #4 Cincinnati Bengals (10-6) {-2½; O/U 34}:

This game is one of three rematches from last week's regular season finale. This time the game is being played in Cincinnati, rather than in the swamps of New Jersey. With virtually nothing to play for the Bengals got a whuppin handed to them, losing 37-0.

"I'm excited about the playoffs," says Cincinnati quarterback Carson Palmer. "We've got a very resilient team. We're ready to make a playoff run. There's no better way to rectify a loss than to beat that same team the next week."

I think Cincinnati has the advantage this week simply because home field advantage in the NFL is huge. The Jets had over 250 rushing yards last week which will not happen this week. Cincinnati will put 8 or 9 in the box and force Jets rookie QB Mark Sanchez to beat them by throwing the ball. The Bengals are counting on rookie mistakes leading to turnovers.

Defensively the Jets will be tough to run on but Bengals RB Cedric Benson didn't play last week. Benson has solidified the Begals rushing attack all year. The main weapon for the Bengals in the passing attack is #85, Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson. He needs to have a big day against Jets All Pro CB Darrelle Revis.

The winner of this game will likely play at Indianapolis next Saturday night.
MY PREDICTION: @ Cincinnati Bengals 24, New York Jets 20; ACTUAL RESULT: NY Jets 24, @ Bengals 14

#6 Philadelphia Eagles (11-5) @ #3 Dallas Cowboys (11-5) {-4; O/U 45}:

This game is the second of three rematches from last week's regular season finale. This game is once again being played in Dallas.

How hard is it to beat a team three times in one season? Very hard. Dallas won in Week 9 at Philly 20-16 and last week 24-0. I believe Dallas will win this game. Philadelphia, if it had won, would have been the NFC East champs, the NFC's #2 seed and on a bye this week. Instead they are back in Dallas playing their hated rivals again.

"There’s a positive amongst the negative," says Eagles head coach Andy Reid, who is 4-0 in the Wild Card round. "The positive is that you’re in the playoffs and very seldom do you have an opportunity to play a team that just beat you. We have that opportunity to correct ourselves. I expect everyone, coaches and players, to figure out the problem, get back out and execute. That’s what we have to do."

If you are Philadelphia, how can you get motivated for a game like this? For one, not wanting to lose a third game to your arch rival in the same season, especially after playing so poorly the week before.

QB Tony Romo has to continue to play well if the Cowboys are to win their first playoff game since 1996. The Eagles need to get DeSean Jackson back on track. He's the best receiver they have.

MY PREDICTION: @ Dallas Cowboys 27, Philadelphia Eagles 21; ACTUAL RESULT:

#6 Baltimore Ravens (9-7) @ #3 New England Patriots (10-6) {-3 1/2; O/U 43}:

This game is a rematch, not from Week 17 but from Week 4. The Patriots won 27-21, also at Gillette Stadium, holding on to thwart a late Ravens drive. This is the first playoff meeting between these teams. The Ravens are 0-5 lifetime vs. New England.

The Patriots are without Wes Welker due to a torn ACL/MCL knee injury suffered last week. There is no doubt his absence will hurt this week. The Patriots still have offensive weapons which they must utilize because it's a given that the Ravens will double cover WR Randy Moss. That means that screen passes to RB Kevin Faulk and the other running backs and more use of TE's Ben Watson and Chris Baker.

"We’re in the same position as last year where we had to win to get in," says Ravens RB Willis McGahee, "Once we get in, we know we can do damage. And now we’re in the playoffs."

Defensively for the Patriots the key is stopping RB Ray Rice who is speedy and elusive running and catching the ball. The Ravens also have RB Willis McGahee and a good bunch of receivers that will challenge the Patriots secondary.

One benefit for the Patriots, I believe, will be the cold game time temperatures, though no snow is in the forecast for Sunday.

The Patriots are a perfect example of a team that benefits from the home stadium, being one of two teams to have a perfect home record this season. Never bet against a Tom Brady led offense and a Bill Belichick coached team. They rarely lose home playoff games, though it won't be easy.

MY PREDICTION: @ New England Patriots 31, Baltimore Ravens 27; ACTUAL RESULT:

#5 Green Bay Packers (11-5) @ #4 Arizona Cardinals (10-6) {E; O/U 47 1/2}:

This is the third rematch from Week 17 where Green Bay won 33-7 at Arizona. I wouldn't put much stock in that result because the Cardinals rested may of their front line players, knowing they could not get anything higher than the #4 seed.

Arizona QB Kurt Warner has won a Super Bowl and would have won another last year if not for a miraculous last second catch by Steelers WR Santonio Holmes. The Cardinals have a potent offense and will benefit from playing at home.

"To me, everything starts now," says Arizona QB Kurt Warner. "It’s time to go play football. It’s one and done. You don’t show up and play, you go home."

However, Packers QB Aaron Rodgers is playing as well as anyone in the league. The Packers flew under the radar this season with all of the attention focused on the Vikings early success and near end of the season collapse. Green Bay also has an excellent offense.

I expect a much closer game with the Packers winning.

MY PREDICTION: Green Bay 28, @ Arizona Cardinals 17; ACTUAL RESULT: