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.