Cracker: Men Should Weep

I had seen the Cracker series at the library before. And no, it isn't an expose of the white man. It is a British crime drama staring Hagrid himself, Robbie Coultrain. Joe B. has watched a bunch of these and recommended them to me. A series about an overweight psychologist who likes to gamble and drink to much? Sound like anyone?

The British seem to produce good crime dramas. They are subtle and nuanced without lots of all out gore. While the evil men that inhabit their stories are terrible criminals who do vile things to their victims, the details of the crimes are either told to the viewer through dialog or quick snipits of the deeds. I find this type of storytelling refreshing. While I enjoy a good gore fest or scary monster movie, most of the BBC produced stuff is well done and compelling.

This particular story focused on a rapist who is escalating to murder. While this may not be the type of fair for everyone, the story has plenty of social commentary on women's rights, race, discrimination, and social class.

Also, in the end, this criminal confirms my statement that all criminals are stupid. To properly pull off a crime, it takes tons of forethought and planning. Flying by the seat of your pants may seem like a good idea at the time young criminal, it will always get you caught.

3000 Miles

3000 Miles is a movie that was recommended to me by netflix. While a majority of the time their recommendations are pretty good, this one missed the mark. This documentary follows Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn, Tony Hawk, and a few others during the Gumball Rally. A 3000 mile road race spanning 8 days, the gumball is an annual test of endurance, stupidity, and recklessnesses.

My guess is that it was recommended to me because I rated Jackass and Jackass 2 so highly. While I did enjoy those films, this one was far from those. Mostly it was just boring road shots of nice cars speeding along. Occasionally the guys would stop and get some food or gas. I guess because a few of the people in this film are recognizable I should be intrigued with what they do. But overall it's pretty boring. Skip it.

Eastern Promises

I missed this one when it was in the theaters somehow. I had seen the trailers and was interested in seeing it, but I never made it. After seeing it, I feel that while it wouldn't have been enhanced on the big screen, it was still a great movie.

Viggo Mortenson has really found a good director in David Cronenburg. A History of Violence really showcased the subtle evil that Viggo can play. It is defiantly continued in this film. Set in London, but focusing on the Russian Mob somehow Cronenburg has put together a cast of mishmashed European actors who can all somehow pull off being Russian. Of the three main guys, one is French, one is German, and then wherever the hell Viggo is from.

I find the tradition in the Russian mob of documenting your life story through tattoo's fascinating. Having different tats to depict your time in prison, where you served, how long, your crimes, etc... is just cool as shit.

If I take nothing else away from this movie, I never want to get involved with the Mafia, let alone the Russians.

Villains are everywhere. They live by their own code. You can violate this code without even knowing about it.

Watch your back people Live a good life and be kind to strangers. Lest you get your throat slit by some baddie with awesome tattoo's.

Week 2 in the books

Well, week two of the step challenge has been completed.

Day 1 - 5270 steps
Day 2 -8400 steps
Day 3 - 5140 steps

Day two was an over achiever day of sorts. I went to the YMCA to track how many steps I take to walk a mile. I reset it when I got on the treadmill and went a strolling until I was finished. 2100 steps is what it seems it takes me to walk a mile. While I am sure that the pedometer is 100% accurate, I'm sure it's pretty close. I also continued to wear the pedometer until I went to bed that night, so my step count was more accurate of what I did all day.

The other days when I keep track I only put it on when I actually change out of my pajamas. Which of course could be at any time. It is currently 4:3opm today and I still have my pajamas on.

While these first three months will be a good warm up, once I have to hit 10k steps for the last six months of the year it will take a little more dedication. I don't mind the walking part, and I have plenty of podcasts downloaded to listen to. It's just the time commitment. The lazy part of me is always thinking of what video game or movie I would rather be watching. Perhaps I need to look further into downloading video content to my Ipod. Maybe that would keep me more focused.

The wedding plans are still in the beginning stages, but Adie continues to be very diligent and is finding some interesting sounding places to hold the reception. We are trying to arrange tours through most of them on the same day so we can knock them all out in one shot and finally nail down the reception details. After that it's honeymoon arrangements. The rest of the plans are either set, or can wait a while longer before being finalized.

Joan was over last night, along with H-man and Joe. At some point during the conversation Joan said that she was more of a Socialist than a Communist. I said "My mommy the Pinko." Not even five seconds later Hartman trumped me with the now classic in my eyes "Commie Mommy" There may be an exploitation project in the works. I mean, if you got the perfect title, what more do you need. Mirimax here I come. Write me a check goddammit.

Cloverfield

While I was always planning on seeing Cloverfield, I didn't really anticipate going on opening night. But when Ian called and said he wanted to go, the plans were made. I had purposely avoided any kind of spoilers or articles about this movie because I didn't want to ruin it for myself.

One of the only articles I read about it wasn't about the movies content, but more about the danger that is viral marketing for movies. The authors one main point was Snakes on a Plane. While SOAP had a huge Internet buzz before coming out, once released it underperformed in the box office. This lead many people to believe that no major studio would fund another movie that would rely so heavily on the Internet and buzz to market it.

Upon pulling up to the theater last night for the 10:30pm show, the last of the night, the entire parking lot was packed. I instantly realized that even though we were about half an hour early for the show, that it may have not been enough. Adie and Lauren went in and they said they still had 60 seats available, so we went on in. Of course they didn't really mention that of those 60 seats, 50 or so were singles spread out around the theater.

Needless to say that Cloverfield is fucking amazing. Shot entirely on digital video and made to look like it was shot on a hand held camcorder, the story unfolds as a goodbye tape being shot for a man who is leaving for Japan for a new job. While I already knew that this was a monster movie, the first 20 or so minutes is just footage introducing the characters and their world. I never felt in those opening scenes that they were unnecessary. I wasn't even that anxious to finally see the monster. But once that first explosion hits, it's all monster movie madness.

Every shot you get of the monster comes from different angles. It's hard to explain what exactly what it was because it's not like anything ever done before. But by shooting it always on the move and through the New York streets your imagination can take over and you start formulating what the hell it is on your own.

Be warned though dear reader, this movie gives Blair Witch a run for it's money in terms of shaky camera work. Adie got so motion sick only 20 minutes into the movie she had to leave the theater for a while, and still missed more while in the theater because she had to keep her eyes closed. While it was jarring at times, it didn't bother me.

This movie rocked. From the conception to the viral marketing it was a well thought out experiment in making a new kind of monster movie. It tells a compelling story with great characters. It preys on the mind to form it's own conclusions about what is going on. The movie gives you just enough information to leave you with even more questions.

Go see it if you enjoy monsters. Go see it if you enjoy suspense. Go see it if you saw the advertisements and wondered just what the fuck a Cloverfield is. Just go see it. But yo may want to bring a barf bag.

Terrorism in a Nutshell

Playing Rainbow Six with Jon tonight. In the midst of a shitstorm of hellfire one of the computer terrorists says "shit, look out."

"Do they not know they are in the middle of a gunfight?" - Jon

Quote of the Year

January So Far.....

New Years Eve was quite the occasion here at Casa De Ben'n'Adie. Ian brought over a KILO of Kava to supply all of us with a taste of his Peace Corps Experience. And boy were we lucky that he imported this exotic treat. To begin the process we dumped the entire kilo into a huge bowl and added water until it was properly soaked. Once Ian was satisfied that everything had been brewed thoroughly he and Adie began the time consuming process of pouring all the mushy pulp into a brand new pair of ladies panty hose. Yes dear readers, you read that right. We were all about to drink some dirty ass water that had been strained through some knickers.

As per the traditions of the native people of Vanuatu, the person of the highest esteem in the community drinks the first shell of kava. Did I forget to mention that Ian brought his own set up of hollowed out coconut shells with their own bases to drink from. Well he did. As the male head of the house I was the lucky SOB that got to chug down the kava first. All along Ian made no attempt to lie to us and say that the taste was pleasant one. He did maintain that while the flavor was bad, the effects were well worth it. As I brought the first shell to my lips with everyone else standing around me all I could think was that I had to get it down no matter what. All was going well until the last chug, where all the soot that had collected at the bottom of the shell hit the back of my throat and I briefly gagged before completing my beverage. It seems that the panty hose had not caught all the kava flakes.

While I can confirm that this basically tasted like muddy ass water, the effects were interesting. Almost immediately your mouth starts to go numb. I could see if you drank maybe 4 or 5 shells you could get a very interesting numbness through your whole head and chest. While Ian and Joe had the most shells, most of us could only stomach one shell. But that one shell brought us all closer together.

The rest of the night was filled with regular booze and fucking around. Lots of Guitar Hero, a Godzilla Movie, and the shock and awe of the fact that Dick Clark was still doing his thing in Times Square.

Since the New Years Bash I have been doing my best to not do a whole lot. By not working I am living on a limited income. I have been stockpiling lots of movies and video games so that once it gets cold and I have no money I have things to do around the house. I have been playing a lot of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. It's like World of Warcraft for the Xbox 360. I can see how people get addicted to these types of massive worlds with non linear gameplay. But I am also quite content to play by myself without logging online and playing with other geeks.

I have managed to watch 7 movies since the first of the year. My goal for the year is to see 125 before the year is up.

For those that don't know of this years New Years bet, all that are involved drew lots and got to pick a challenge for the person they drew. Adie drew me and gave me the challenge of wearing a pedometer 3 times a week and recording my steps. For the first three months I have to average 5000 steps. The second three months it will be 7500. The last six months will be 10k steps.

I joined the Y this week and plan on going there at least three times a week to get my steps in and work out.

Last week was the first week of wearing the pedometer and keeping track. My recorded steps were 5500, 6060, and 4175. I achieved my average, but I would like to keep every day above my minimum. It was nice earlier in the week so I went walking outside. But now that I can go to the Y and walk in there it should be no problem through the cold months.

Oceans 11

Seen this one a bunch of times, but popped it in the other night when Adie and Katie and I were hanging out. I really started to notice some of the smaller details that you may miss the first time you see this. I especially liked when Danny Ocean meets his Ex's new boyfriend. He keeps rubbing his ring finger where his wedding band used to be.

And upon further review, I can't stand Julia Roberts. She looks like a horse who's lips got stung by some bees. A completely unsexy horse. I think I enjoyed Ocean's 13 a whole lot more because she wasn't in it.

Katt Williams Live

One of the newer features of Netflix is the ability to watch movies from your computer without having them sent to you. While the selection is smaller than what you can have sent to you, it's still pretty respectable. This affords me the option of watching documentaries or comedy shows that I normally wouldn't have shipped to me. Enter Katt Williams Live.

Overall this was a pretty decent comedy show. Running about 1:15 he covers many topics and is pretty entertaining thoughough. He curses more than not, and drops the N bomb just about every other word. While this got old quickly, he still is pretty funny.

He claims he is a pimp. Not because he puts ladies out on the streets, but because he makes pimp decisions. If you can wrap your mind around that, I think it's pretty solid life advice.

One of my favorite stories he told was when he smoked weed with Snoop Dogg. He reminds the audience that he is familiar with the rules of smoking weed with ones homies and was fully prepared to puff, puff, and then pass. So as he sat down with Snoop and about 5 of snoops entourage he began the traditional rotation process of smoking weed. Shortly thereafter he was higher than he had ever been before because he failed to notice that he was the only one in the circle that hadn't started their own blunt and added it to the rotation.

Down By Law

Watching any Jim Jarmusch movie is an experience in itself. He definatly doesn't subscribe to the Hollywood movie archetype. This film is no different. Featuring Tom Waits and Roberto Benigni in two of the lead roles, it's hard to imagine two vasltly different actors taking up the majority of the screen time.

Shot entirely in black and white and set in New Orleans, the story follows 3 men who are imprisoned for various crimes. It took some time to get into the swing of things with this movie, but once I got into it there was no looking back. Most of the time when I watch movies anymoreI watch them on my laptop, which then affords me the the option of doing many things at once. I generally will play poker or check email while the movie plays in the background and pay attention when it sounds interesting. By half an hour into this movie I shut everything else down and just sat back and enjoyed this movie.

The dialog of Benigni is hilarious, mostly because this was filmed in the mid 80's and he barely spoke English. Tom Waits provides alot of the music, but also turns in a brilliant performance as a man who is set up and sent to prison.

So far this is the second best film I've seen of the year.

The Proposition

The Proposition is a simple one. Go and kill your older brother, or your younger brother will hang. In 9 days.

Written by Nick Cave (yes, of Red Right Hand fame) and staring Guy Pierce, this is a violent and thought provoking western set in the Australian Outback. It’s hard to root for or against any of the characters in this movie, but I think that it’s done on purpose. I never felt like there was a clear answer and who I should be rooting for.

Some may be turned off by the excessive and graphic violence. I think it added to the realism and starkness of the landscape and time that the movie was set in.

The Proposition has also recently been compared to No Country For Old Men. This is probably in part due to the fact that the director of The Proposition will also be directing The Road, another Cormac McCarthy novel. They do share common elements, and treat the stark landscapes they both capture beautifully, it’s hard to compare the two films. While The Proposition was a good film, I doubt I will watch it more than once. I can’t say the same for No Country.

3 Movies so far...

The first movie I saw this year was Sweeney Todd on January 1st. While I am not much for musicals, I have found a few that I liked. I tolerated Chicago, mostly for John C. Reilly. I do like one song from Mulan Rouge. So when Adie wanted to go see Sweeney, I didn't balk. You can't go to wrong with Johnny Depp and Tim Burton teaming up.

Overall I really enjoyed this movie. I knew very little of the story going in but it unfolded quickly and believably. And I was really glad that the musical numbers were just interspersed with the dialog, and not huge productions with dancing and costumes. And there was plenty of blood and cannibalism.

Next I saw Shrek 3 with Joe when he was sick. I don't know if Joe stayed awake the whole time, but he didn't miss a whole lot. While I understand the market this movie is made for, they really strayed from what I felt made the first one good. While it was always geared for children, they included enough jokes and sight gags that would keep the adults in the crowd engaged in the story. I feel that the third installment really missed this point and in the end wasn't my cup of tea. Of course this won't stop me from seeing all of these as they inevitably will come out. Maybe if they just came out and made Shrek and Donkey to be gay, then at least I would be intrigued.

No Country for Old Men. Even though the trailer almost made me cream the jeans right there, I somehow managed to NOT see this movie until yesterday. I guess some of it is that I like only having to pay $5 for movies, and that means that I have to wait a few weeks till they get cheap. This is one movie that I wouldn't have minded paying full price for (see AVP:R)

The Coen Brothers are genius. They continue to push the envelope and make stories that won't appeal to middle of America. While they seemed to struggle a bit with Intolerable Cruelty and Ladykillers, this was a return to their roots. Take all the awesome elements of Fargo and Blood Simple and pour them into the desert wasteland of South Texas. I wouldn't be shocked if everyone involved in this project gets tons of nominations and ends up winning most of them.

That's it for now. I got 3 movies from the library to watch and 2 from netflix. My goal is to get all of them in by the end of this week before school starts again on the 14th.

Best and Worst of 2007

I decided that for 2008 I would blog about the movies I see and the books I read. Not only can I share my thoughts with the few that will actually read this nonsense, but it will give me a way to look back at the end of the year and remember all that I have done this year. I will also blog about whatever comes to mind and my daily ins and outs.

For my first post I am going to list the top and bottom movies I saw in 2007. I kept a private list for last year. I watched 84 movies in the calendar year of 2007, including 22 in the theater. So without further ado, my top 10 movies of 2007 are :

10. Knocked Up
- First of 3 Judd Apatow entries on my list. What can I say, he has nailed my sense of humor and continuously puts out funny shit.
9. Shoot Em' Up
- Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti shooting anything that moves in a stylized action movie that never lets up. The scene in the gun warehouse alone was worth the price of admission.
8. 300
- Lots of shit getting killed CHECK. Naked ladies every once in a while CHECK. Some cool camera work CHECK. The fact that this movie will get a lot of my favorite graphic novels made into cool movies also added to it's cool factor.
7. American Gangster
- I would eat Denzel Washington's leftovers. Nuff' Said.
6. Into the Wild
- I hated this movie so much. It never strayed from the true story that it was based on and never made an excuse for why this kid went off to Alaska to his death. Sean Penn directed a brilliant movie, even though I wanted to kill the kid before he eventually starved to death.
5. Ocean's 13
- Good god did Ocean's 12 suck. I can't even remember all that went on in that train wreck. Thankfully for the third instalment they go back to Vegas and try to fuck with Al Pacino. Couldn't have been better.
4. Grindhouse
- Loved the concept. I love most everything Rodriguez and Tarintino put out. Would have been higher on my list, but I didn't love Death Proof as much as everyone else. It needs a second viewing.
3. Hot Fuzz
- A brilliant film that solidified Simon Pegg as a comic genius. A great follow up to Shaun of the Dead. It was the perfect send up of all the 80's action cop movies as well as standing alone as a good movie on it's own.
2. Walk Hard
- John C. Rielly carries this movie from the first moment he steps on the screen. Funny as hell, full of geeky details from music history. The second Apatow company movie on my list. Those motherfuckers are making fat bank.
1. Superbad
- Funniest movie I have seen in a long time. Michael Sera is the funniest actor alive at this moment. I will see anything with him in it. And it featured my favorite SNL actor Bill Hader.

The Worst 5 movies I saw in 2007
(not all were in the theater)

5. Running with Scissors
- Loved the book. Was really looking forward to this, but I think they missed the spirit and the tone of the book. They went way to dark and cut out a lot of the humor.
4.Pathfinder
- Saw this in the theater. While I am all for violence and stylish shots, this story of a transplanted viking who adopts the native American way of life and then defends his adopted family against his viking family who want to kill everyone was just a little to heavy handed. And not fucking bloody enough.
3. Tenacious D in the pick of Destiny
- Man did this one just suck. As much as I loved the Tenacious D tv show, I equally hated the movie. Lame jokes, recycled material, and performances from JB and KG that you can just tell they were mailing in.
2. Employee of the Month
- Saw this one early in the year. Could have been fun. Wasn't.
1. Alien vs. Predator: Requiem
- I was dragged to this abomination on my friends birthday. I also got the pleasure of paying $9 for the privilege of seeing a movie that was shot almost entirely in the dark. The less said about this fucking abortion the better.