I hope this blog introduces you to new songs, books and movies. If they aren't all already part of the popular culture, they should be. Or hopefully will be!
There will always be a new post of the day drawn from the new as well as old familiars that haven't been seen or heard in a while. The songs will always be personal favorites of mine so apologies in advance!
When I first saw the trailer for Gravity, I was not interested in watching the movie. After all, listening to Sandra Bullock screaming for two hours didn't seem like a sustainable plot device.
Quick movie summary as follows:
Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) visits the space station as a mission specialist to complete critical work on the Hubble Telescope.
Stone and another mission specialist conduct a spacewalk to perform maintenance/upgrades on the telescope while veteran astronaut and mission commander, Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) joyrides through nearby space with his new jetpack.
All three are advised that the Russians have destroyed a spy satellite via a missile strike and the resulting debris will impact them in short order. The debris kills all of the individuals within the space shuttle and the mission specialist that accompanied Ryan on the spacewalk.
Stone and Kowalski are stranded in space and need to determine how to get home (here's to hoping the International Space Station is still working).
I'm glad I saw the movie. Bullock gave an amazing performance and was not nearly as annoying as she could have been. The screaming was kept to a minimum and the time went by quickly since I was immersed in the story. An amazing work that is enhanced by IMAX and 3D. I normally am irritated by 3D but this movie did a good job of using it without overwhelming the viewer.
I had little to no expectations when I started watching this movie but I do like quirky movies - anything movie description that starts off with a pageant queen dropping dead on the stage after winning a title can definitely be labeled quirky.
Quick movie summary:
Poor Anabelle is driven to the pageant life by an overly obsessive mother who wants more for her daughter
Anabelle wins the very competitive Miss Texas Rose and immediately drops dead wearing the tiara on the runway
Elvis, an unlicensed mortician, who is struggling to maintain the family funeral home while caring for his ailing father, accepts Anabelle's mom's plea to ask his father to make her daughter beautiful one last time for the funeral.
Elvis prepares Anabelle for embalming and is overcome by her beauty. This leads to a kiss and she wakes from death, which starts all of the resulting drama.
I had little to no expectations regarding this movie. Nevertheless, it managed to entertain me, even through some of the more weepy and whiny (woe is me) parts. Joe Mantegna played the hunch-backed father of Elvis well - amazingly so that I wondered if he was really in the early stages of dementia. And Mary Steenburgen was excellent as well as Anabelle's mother. I think the two stole the movie from the actors playing the title parts, Max Minghella (Elvis) and Blake Lively (Anabelle).
Life lessons from this movie:
Driving around in a hearse doesn't have to be viewed as creepy.
Always wear makeup and appear your very best before you get to the mortician's table and maybe a magical kiss will revive you.
I give this movie three stars out of five.
More movie information can be found on IMDB and you can always buy the movie on Amazon!!!
Saw this movie recently and liked it. I will warn you that it is formulaic and will not surprise you. However, Simon Pegg is eminently watchable and Jeff Bridges has some incredibly funny moments. It won't make you a better person and it definitely will not teach you anything. But if you have some time to kill, this helps pass the time. Basic plot summary is as follows:
Sidney Young (Simon Pegg) chases celebrity but has gained notoriety through his snarky articles at a small London paper.
He is inexplicably hired away by Clayton Harding (Jeff Bridges) and Sidney heads to New York City.
Sidney's social gaffes seem destined to send him packing, all the while little glimpses of sound morals and good character shine through.
And the big question at the end is: Does he gets the girl or, better yet, which girl? Is it Kirsten Dunst or Megan Fox??
Simon Pegg has made several funny films, including Hot Fuzz and Run, Fat Boy, Run. Both have incredibly funny moments and he is central to the movies' success (at least in my opinion and with a very generous definition of success). On the other hand, Paul (2011) didn't make much sense to me. I guess they can't all be winners. Big plus on the movie is the sound track. With music from Robyn to Duffy to Motorhead to The Kinks, there is literally something for everyone.
I give the movie three stars out of five
More movie information can be found on IMDBand you can always buy the movie on Amazon!!!
One would think that the
remake of a popular old TV show like 21 Jump Street into a movie would just not
work. Surprisingly, it does work! It was an enjoyable time – don’t look for
deep meaning but there were definitely laugh out loud moments through the movie
with standout performances by Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum (For some reason, I
cannot write that name without thinking of Stockard Channing and Tatum O’Neal). The movie is about two rookie policemen, Morton Schmidt (Hill) and Greg Jenko (Tatum). Though they knew each other in high school, they belonged to separate cliques and were not friends. Both joined the police academy and realized that they needed each other to get through – Jenko needed Schmidt’s brains for the academics and Schmidt needed Jenko’s help in passing the physical portion of the curriculum, starting a symbiotic relationship and friendship. Basic plot summary is as follows:
After successfully graduating from the Academy, both friends patrol together. Unfortunately for them, it is the decidedly not glamorous bike patrol at the local park, not exactly their dream job.
They find a gang of drug dealers and make a big arrest, doing everything wrong in the process. Unfortunately, the arrest doesn’t stick and the drug dealer is released.
Schmidt and Jenko are reassigned to 21 Jump Street, an initiative that leverages new officers’ youthful looks to get into high schools, apparently to battle gang and drug related issues that run rampant there.
Captain Dickson (played brilliantly by Ice Cube) assigns them to infiltrate their old high school and find the source of a new designer drug that originated there. Schmidt will play a nerd, playing to his strengths while Jenko naturally plays the jock. At least that’s the plan…until the identities are accidentally reversed and each has to play the other.
Against all odds, Jonah Hill successfully plays the cool kid with Channing Tatum as the loser brother. Naturally, this leads to all sorts of fun!
This is was an excellent movie! Hill and Tatum have a natural chemistry and it worked on the screen to create a lot of funny moments. The movie does everything it can to keep the element of surprise going and always doing the unexpected. There are a lot of cameos by the stars of the original TV series, the most famous of whom is Johnny Depp. Just wait for Depp’s appearance – it is well worth it!
Life lesson learned from the movie: No one looks cool on bike patrol. They should pay cops extra for that duty.
I give the movie four stars out of five.
More movie information can be found on IMDBand you can always buy the movie on Amazon!!!
Hesher is a unique movie - definitely different from most others. It has an independent movie feel but features Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the title role and includes Natalie Portman and Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute in the US version of The Office). I've never seen Rainn Wilson in a serious movie role before but was pleasantly surprised by his very credible performance – I kept expecting Dwight to pop out!
The movie is about a teenage boy dealing with his mother's sudden death. His life, already in shambles, abruptly takes a turn for the worse when a head banging anarchist named Hesher explodes (literally) into his life. Basic plot summary is as follows:
Paul (Rainn Wilson) and his son, TJ, live with Paul's mother. They are struggling to recover from TJ's mom's death. Paul is sleepwalking through life and TJ is understandably angry with the world.
TJ goes to a new housing development that seems to be stalled mid-construction (there can be no shortage of these in the US at this point) and starts breaking windows to take out some frustration.
Hesher (Gordon-Levitt) is squatting in the house that is the target of TJ's ire.
Unfortunately for Hesher and TJ, the ruckus brings a security guard. His serenity broken, Hesher promises payback to TJ and throws some dynamite out of the broken window near the security guard's truck.
In the disarray that follows, TJ escapes and Hesher gets in his van and heads off into the sunset.
After school, TJ is beaten up in a parking lot by a bully. To be fair, the bully is somewhat upset by the artwork on his car - apparently he believes that TJ used his car as a canvas for his art. Grocery store clerk, Nicole (Natalie Portman), intervenes and saves TJ from serious injury, starting an unlikely relationship between the two.
When TJ gets home, Hesher is inexplicably waiting and makes himself at home. He feels TJ owes him lodging. TJ's father apparently hasn't the energy to toss Hesher out and Hesher becomes a permanent houseguest.
Thus begins the journey to healing, sort of...
This is not a traditional movie. If you wait for Hesher to evolve as a human being, you will be sorely disappointed. The sheer improbability of the story aside, it is an interesting dark comedy of sorts. The intertwining of odd characters allows for interesting conversations and situations. Another big plus is the accompanying soundtrack – lots of songs from Metallica to set the mood. I enjoyed it.
Life lesson learned from the movie: When you get a ride from an anarchist, always make alternate plans for the ride home. Anarchists are definitely not reliable.
I give the movie three stars out of five.
More movie information can be found on IMDB and you can always buy the movie on Amazon!!!
I've wanted to watch this movie for a while now. I'm always interested in period pieces that bring an era to life. While the movie explored the racial and political issues of the time, it was at a very superficial level. The movie could have spent more time delving into the lives of the maids since those stories really brought home the power that the employers had over them. My movie synopsis is as follows:
Young white southern girl, "Skeeter" Phelan (played by Emma Stone), is an aspiring writer. She doesn't fit the normal southern belle mold and is stifled by the restrictions placed on women during the 1960's.
Skeeter returns home after graduating college and settles for a job writing a housekeeping column for the local paper. This is hardly her ideal position. She's been rejected by all of the best publishing houses but she perseveres.
The housekeeping column turns out to be a stretch since, of course, Skeeter's never done any housework. She asks one of the local maids, Aibileen (played by Viola Davis in an exceptional performance) to help her with the weekly column.
As she spends time with Aibileen, Skeeter realizes there is an amazing story to be told. These African-American maids are for all intents and purposes acting as mothers to the white children left in their care. This is all the more bizarre since the maids'own children are being watched by others.
Skeeter gets the "go-ahead" from a publisher for the story but needs to convince maids to come forward and tell their stories.
Even with the promise of anonymity, the risk to the maids is severe. Repercussions are not just economic - the Ku Klux Klan is active, powerful and willing to make examples of anyone upsetting the separate but equal concept that is farcically in place to meet federal requirements. But Skeeter needs to find women willing to take the risk to meet the publisher's demands.
The story continues with the effort of finding and gaining the trust of these maids. And as they tell their stories, the viewer learns that a century after the Civil War, the south remains very much as it was in practice. As mentioned earlier, I think more time could have been spent on "the Help" rather than Skeeter and her travails, but it was still an excellent movie.
Life lesson learned from the movie - treat the people who handle your food with the utmost respect!
I gave this movie three stars out of five.
More movie information can be found on IMDB and you can always buy the movie on Amazon!!!
The Guard starts off slow but gets better as it goes - just give it a chance. I wasn't able to completely suspend my disbelief but I did like the characters a lot. It is a comedy although very sardonic in approach. Brendan Gleeson plays the main character, Sergeant Gerry Boyle. One can never be sure of what's going on underneath his small-town mannerisms, rough edges and blind eye towards the law. Don Cheadle who plays an FBI agent, Wendell Everett, pairs up with the Sergeant to find three of the most wanted and most well read international drug dealers. At one point, he tells the sergeant, "I can't tell if you're really motherf***in' dumb, or really motherf***in' smart." Either way, there are some brilliant lines and I would recommend this movie! It's a great ride that goes up and down as they look for Nietzsche-quoting drug dealers. I would give this movie three stars out of five. Stars are given as follows:
This was a good movie. That may be in part due to my lack of any expectations when I started watching it. The characters are not explored in real depth but the story feels real though simple, as seen below:
Man is in a downward spiral, wasting his life away
Man hits pregnant woman with his car and then drives off
Surprisingly, man's conscience bothers him and therein lies a story
There are few surprises and you'll be able to figure out most of what happens. The acting is capable - Zach Braff is always watchable. While there was little chemistry with his co-star, Isabelle Blais, it played well in the movie since the two were from separate worlds with little in common.
For me, the movie was an object lesson about the difference between redemption and forgiveness. And more importantly, demonstrating that no one is beyond redemption.
I would give this movie three stars out of five. Stars are given as follows:
.jpg)
