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Archive for January, 2006
If you didn’t know, murderball was the original name for a variation of rugby created in Canada. The game is actually pretty close to the original. The main difference is the players are all quadriplegic. As stated by one of the players, this isn’t the Special Olympics. These players are not mentally challenged at all, they just have impaired limbs.
If you’re into documentaries, I’d say this one is a must see. We follow the US team and some of its players through the world games and the Olympics. This game looks so fun I almost wish I was in a wheelchair myself. In order to play they use modified “Mad Max-style” chairs with reinforced steel and solid wheels. Other than that, it’s just like a game of rugby. As we all know that means lots of hard hits and occasionally some people in the air.
I found a lot of the extras on the DVD as cool as the documentary itself. If you go out and rent this make sure to watch the Jackass Presents: Murderball. It’s the guys from the aforementioned show hanging out/interviewing some of the players.
Saw this one last night. It was a bit weird, but really good. I think this is one of those movies that will get even better the next time I see it. Chumscrubber is sort of a made-up pop-culture thing in this movie. There are kids playing a video game and a cartoon/movie on TV in several scenes. It basically represents a teenager who has literally and symbolically lost his head.
In my best description this movie is a lot of American Beauty, some The United States of Leland and a dash of Crash. American Beauty because this film takes place in perfect suburbia where nothing wrong is supposed to happen. The only problem is that a lot is going wrong. To top it all off the kids are continually telling the adults everything that’s going on, only nobody ever listens to them. It’s really quite sad. The only parent in here that seems to actually be “parenting” his child beats his son when he finds out he threw a knife into the wall. For most of the movie a child has been kidnapped for several days but his mother is so preoccupied with a wedding she doesn’t even realize he’s gone.
The United States of Leland because there is a father figure in here who is a book-writing-psychologist/therapist who only cares about his next book. At one point he sits down for a man-to-man talk with his son because his son’s best friend had recently committed suicide. This doesn’t sound to bad - until he pulls out a notebook and starts making notes. His son says, “Dad, if you write about me in another one of those stupid books of yours, I’m going to kill you.” This is pretty direct and out there, only the dad responds by telling his son there are several book distributors who would disagree that his books are ’stupid’. Sounds like he really cares about his family, eh?
Finally, Crash because of all the interactions people have with each other and how interconnected everyone is.
This film is full of recognizable faces. Glenn Close, William Fichtner (Crash, Equilibrium, Blackhawk Down), Ralph Fiennes(The Constant Gardener, Red Dragon), John Heard (Home Alone), Lauren Holly (Dumb and Dumber), Jason Isaacs(Blackhawk Down, The Patriot), Allison Janney(American Beauty), Carrie-Anne Moss(The Matrix, Chocolat, Memento) Rita Wilson, Jamie Bell(King Kong, Billy Elliot), Camilla Belle(The Ballad of Jack and Rose), Justin Chatwin (War of the Worlds) and Rory Culkin(Mean Creek) to name a few.
I’m pretty sure a lot of people won’t like this movie. I think it’s great. I don’t know if I’d buy it, but I definitely need to see it again sometime.
I really liked this movie too. In fact, I was just realizing the other day that I usually don’t write about things on here if I really hated them. There were a lot of good Chinese actors in this film. Ziyi Zhang and Michelle Yeoh, from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and Ken Watanabe, from The Last Samurai and Batman Begins, are the only three whose names I recognize. I saw other faces that seemed familiar, but I have no idea what their names are.
This story starts out in pre-WWII Japan. Two little girls are sold by their father and taken into the city. Chiyo is trained to be a geisha and her sister presumably escapes. From here on we follow Chiyo as she trains and eventually becomes one of the ‘most celebrated geisha of Japan’. I don’t mean to sound cheesy here. It really was a very interesting story. I bet the book would be a good read.
When watching this I kept thinking back to other movies like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or House of Flying Daggers or Hero. I’m not really sure why - maybe because of some of the actors involved. This movie didn’t have some of the amazing color-scenes, but the acting was phenomenal in my opinion. I think Ken Watanabe is great and am really looking forward to seeing him in more movies. Ziyi Zhang and Michelle Yeoh also performed well…again. I have yet to be disappointed.
Before even seeing this I heard a lot of criticisms. After seeing it, I had to agree that this film does lend itself a bit towards the film fanatic. Mostly because of it’s length. I will say though that I think cutting the film would have taken away from some of the story. It’s not like everything you saw was just fluff.
I’ve always heard that Peter Jackson’s favorite movie was King Kong and his dream was to do a remake. I wasn’t ever very interested because I had seen bits and pieces of several versions on TV and was never really impressed. Then I finally saw a trailer and I immediately wanted to see this.
I think Adrien Brody, Naomi Watts, Thomas Kretschmann, Colin Hanks, and Andy Serkis were cast very well for this. You might have noticed I left out one important person and that would be Jack Black. If you know me very well you’ll know that I love Jack Black - not in the Neil Diamond obsession sort of way from Saving Silverman, but in a ‘Jack Black rocks’ sort of way. I have a lot of respect for this man and the comedy he creates that leaves me laughing night and day. This role was very similar to many of Jack’s other roles. He did the eye thing, the crazy faces, the hands, the voice intonations…..the only thing I don’t remember seeing were his happy feet. You know, when he does that little dance thing. I thought Jack did a great job, however, I think somebody else would have been better suited for his role.
The animation was great in this movie. I mean really great. But this is Peter Jackson we’re talking about. The man that pulled off the beloved Lord of the Rings. King Kong looks amazing, the T-Rexes looked sweet, and even the insects. Cause who could forget those scenes? Poor Lumpy.
I also really loved the indigenous people that had on the island. They looked so amazing. Everything from their skin color, their hair, their jewelry, their movements - even the crazy ones with their eyes rolled back in their heads. You kind of get the feeling that Kong is their protector because there’s a lot of crazy stuff on that island.
I really enjoyed how Kong was personalized in this movie. He wasn’t just a crazed ape. He had feelings, hopes and dreams. You realized he had a home and used to have a family. He was the last of his kind. A very lonely creature; living out his days. I can’t say I’ve ever thought of a personified Kong before. I think Jackson did a good job here.
I think the only other thing I would maybe point out here is the seemingly growing/shrinking size of Kong. If you take him in relation to Naomi Watts throughout the movie, sometimes she’s just this tiny little thing in his hand and other times she’s about the size of his whole arm. I suggested maybe he has a little Hulk-syndrome. You know, get angry and become this huge, hulking behemoth that nobody wants to mess with.
Overall I think this movie was very well made and really enjoyed watching it. If you’re not into those long movies, like special editions of LOTR, then maybe you should think twice before trying to sit down and watch this all at once.
I was so excited for this movie to come out and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed. The only way it could have been better, in my opinion, was to have a more adult-themed movie with more intense scenes. By this I mean the battle scenes could have been sweeter and the witch scenes could have been scarier. However, this doesn’t really matter to me because we’re talking about a children’s book here.
I was such a huge fan of the BBC production for the first four books in C.S. Lewis’ epic children’s series: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, Voyage of the Dawn Treader(Reepicheep was played by that little dude from Willow!) and The Silver Chair. These were so awesome back in the day. This latest version is top notch.
I think they did a great job with the casting on this one. Liz pointed out to me that all of the British children had full lips and that seems to be the “thing” these days. I also think that Jim Broadbent was a great choice for the professor and Elizabeth Hawthorne as Mrs. MacReady. Oh and who can forget the White Witch? Tilda Swinton pulled off another good performance here. If you don’t recognize her right away you might have seen her in Constantine or Thumbsucker or Adaptation. And Aslan. I think the digital Aslan was so much better here than the BBC’s large stuffed animal. It’s pretty sweet what they can do these days with computers.
I’m not going to talk much about the story here because you really should go out and read the book. It shouldn’t even take you a day to finish it. I would also like to point out that Weta Workshop had a large hand in a lot of the weapon, armor, and costume making for this film. So keep that in mind. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, that’s the company Peter Jackson created while filming the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Ok, so I think I’ve crooned enough about this film. I liked it a lot. This is definitely a family friendly film, but may not be suitable for the little tikes. This is one movie that could lend itself to lots of constructive conversation afterwards.
I sometimes realize that I’ve been talking a lot about movies with my friends, but have neglected to talk to the internet about them too. I’ve been a Johnny Cash fan for a while - even when I didn’t know it was Johnny Cash I was listening too. I also remember watching re-runs of Little House on the Prairie where he played a preacher that dressed in all black. The guy is The Man - in the freaking awesome sense.
I had the pleasure of seeing this film back around Thanksgiving with the family in Iowa. It was quite a good experience. Joaquin Phoenix does an amazing job at playing Johnny from the look in his eye, to the gait in his step, even down to the warbling in his singing voice as his character “aged”. He sounded so much like Cash I could close my eyes in the theater and imagine I was listening to the real thing.
Reese Witherspoon also pulled off a great performance. I can’t say I’ve been a big fan of her in roles like Legally Blonde, Cruel Intentions, etc. However, she has very much redeemed herself in my eyes. Besides pulling off a very good June Carter, she also learned how to play some instruments just for the movie. That always impresses me when actors try to do things like that.
As I’ve said before, I’m a big sucker for movies that give us a peek into people’s lives. I think Walk the Line is a much better movie than Ray for these types of reasons. Jamie Foxx had a great performance, but I didn’t think the movie overall was that great. Walk the Line will suck you in to the life known as Johnny Cash from his childhood, to when his brother dies in a tragic accident, to his heading off to war, to his marriages, his children, through his career, his ongoing substance addictions and his redemption as a person.
I’m going to tout this one up as a must see for the year. So get out and see it sometime if you haven’t already. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
I first thought this movie was just going to be a lot of fluff about skateboarding. It turned out to be a pseudo-documentary and all-around sweet movie about some of the original badboys of skateboarding. It turns out there’s three main kids that were part of a skating “team”, who eventually went their separate ways, that pioneered what we now know as the extreme sport of skateboarding. Tony Hawk learned from these guys.
The extra stuff was very interesting to watch as I kept learning more and more about the people this movie was about. Another very cool feature was a lot of the original kids, now adults, were in this movie. Some were security guards, judges…pretty much random people throughout. Stacy Peralta, one of “the three” wrote the film and even had a cameo where he was directing himself in a commercial shoot.
This movie was more than just a lot of cool stunts, crazy parties, and drugged up/drunk wild children of the 60’s and 70’s. This movie showed a peek into the lives of the children and what made them them. I think it’s the humanity and realness in movies that really suckers me in to watching them. It makes you feel connected, it’s like you know these people even though you’ve never actually seen or talked to them.
This is definitely worth a watch if you have the time.
Here’s one sci-fi movie I really didn’t know what to think of before watching it. I heard raving good reviews about from friends of mine that would love it no matter what, and remember hearing nothing but complaints from the media when it came out. Well, I watched it for myself and have to say I enjoyed it, a lot. I haven’t even read the book(s).
One cool thing was spotting Kelly Macdonald, who played a reporter, after just watching Trainspotting with TLoft where she played Diane. There’s tons and tons of recognizable people in this film. That is always cool. A couple people from Love Actually, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, Warwick Davis (from Willow and many other films), etc, etc.
If you’re not really into British humor there’s a good chance you might find this one very boring. There’s a lot of randomness and geekiness that most people probably aren’t going to appreciate.
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