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August 18, 2006
My ride is sweeter than Haley Joel Osment's
It's bad enough that Haley Joel Osment got caught for a DUI (twice the legal blood alcohol limit... yikes), but the most embarrassing part of this story is saved for the very end:
Authorities said Osment was driving home alone about 1 a.m. when his 1995 Saturn hit a mailbox and flipped over.
This kid, who should be rich enough to commute to work in the Space Shuttle, has a car that's older than mine? I mean, a 1995 Ferrari you might overlook, but a 1995 Saturn? He better hope he never meets me at a red light, as I will smoke him in my 1999 SC2. His is probably too old to even have the uber-cool third door.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 1:09 AM | Comments (1)
Lots of movies
I've been working a lot lately, which means I've also been watching a lot of my often-neglected DVD library. I tend to watch a certain kind of movie when I'm working -- generally speaking, something I don't have to watch very closely. It's usually a good time to watch old favorites over again or, more often, to watch movies that I'd otherwise not be able to sit through at full attention.
In a nutshell, here's what I've seen lately:
Die Hard: An unbelievably entertaining movie. It baffles me that they don't, or can't, make action movies like this anymore. Characters you care about, funny dialogue, evil bad guys, great special effects, no CG. I saw this movie in the summer before tenth grade and almost twenty years later, it's still perfection. DVD master is pretty soft, though, even on the "5-Star Special Edition."
Titan A.E.: Boy, but this movie is lame. It had potential, but instead we get Jeanine Garofalo as a bowlegged kangaroo. This movie mines every cliche in the book, and sucks at all of them. The Joss Whedon writing credit fails to surprise me.
Arthur: Not a movie that's aged well, especially with the crapola 4:3 DVD that looks like a VHS master. Public drunkenness has lost a lot of its humor over the years, and it's hard to remember that Liza Minelli wasn't supposed to be kinda creepy.
Deep Blue Sea: This is far from a good movie, but it works on its own ludicrous terms. The fact that you can summarize this dumb movie in two dumb words -- "smart sharks" -- says everything about it. Absurdly cornball, but a good time.
Final Fantasy: Hmmm... this is a tough one. It's still, five years later, amazing to look at, but the plot makes zero sense. Still, no one's made a pure CG movie that looks as good to me.
Alien: Resurrection: Another Joss Whedon-penned stinkbomb. The "extended" (not a director's cut, says the director, because he loves the original) DVD edition doesn't help matters much, as the movie is unimpressive at any length. I'm not a big fan of when Fincher did with Alien3, but that movie at least had some vision. This one has a cockeyed Dan Hedaya and Whedon's usual "troupe of rag-tag, wiseacre troublemakers" that he seems to stock all of his creations with. Bleh.
Nacho Libre: I do get out once in a great while. Frankly, a disappointment, even as a Jack Black fan. Some funny moments, but in a reasonable world, this is a direct-to-video movie.
Miami Vice: Michael Mann stumbles big time. Dull, ugly, lifeless. No characters you can remember and everyone looks like they need a bath.
Requiem for a Dream: Happy little flick. There's something compellingly rewatchable about it, though. I've probably seen it four times now and it's really a movie with a sense of propulsion.
Fargo: One of my favorites. If ever there was a movie with characters you care about, it's this one. Frances McDormand and William H. Macy are both perfect. She gets most of the attention, but he's not to be missed.
A Mighty Wind: Everyone seems to talk about "Best in Show," but I prefer this Christopher Guest mockumentary about three groups of folk singers coming together to play a concert, and it's great. It's worth watching just to look at Parker Posey's goofy facial expressions when she sings. Best described as "Spinal Tap" meets "A Prairie Home Companion" (the show, not the movie).
Superman II: Has aged exceedingly poorly, especially compared with the original. Hopefully the Donner version coming out this winter will redeem it, because I'm a little embarrassed at how much I used to like this cheesy thing.
The Producers: "I feel on my keys" may not read funny, but Gene Wilder's delivery makes this perhaps my favorite line in all of American comedy. The remakes have kind of overblown the whole "Producers" thing, but the original movie is still a gem.
Magnolia: I've gone back and forth with this movie. When I first saw it, I thought it was brilliant. Later, I had trouble watching it through again, finding it ponderous and self-indulgent. Now, I think it's pretty brilliant again.
Sideways: When I first saw this one, I thought it was a little overrated. With a couple of years distance from the Oscar hype, I enjoyed it a lot more. Giamatti was robbed, as he's perfect. The scene where he's broken into the waitress' house and shifts his eyes back and forth between the wallet and, er, her and her husband should have won him a Best Actor Oscar all by itself.
Dogma: I hate to say it, but I'm just not a big fan of Kevin Smith movies. It's nothing personal, as he seems to be a really cool guy, but it's all a little too self-aware and self-reverential for me. I get tired of playing "spot the cameo" or "identify the hip reference" and just want to enjoy a movie. It's like hanging out with a group of people who have scads of private slang and in-jokes to which you're not really privvy, but they keep you in the dark so they can feel cooler than you.
Being John Malkovich: Another movie that I enjoyed more separated from the hype. Funny, interesting, more than a little weird. Some very good performances. It all starts to fall apart by the end, but it's worth the ride.
Adaptation: BJM's spiritual (and, I think, superior) sequel. I read on IMDB that Nicholas Cage ignored his usual acting style and did exactly what Spike Jonze told him to. That was good advice, as he really nailed the schlubby Kaufman brothers. Again, the end loses its center, but it's fun while it lasts. Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper are great.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: A classic "while I'm working" movie. There's some awful moments in this movie (all of the jokes fall flat) and some really solid set pieces (the rope bridge, the mine cart, the terrific opening sequence). It's the worst of a great trilogy, which, in this case, isn't such a bad thing. Kate Capsaw kinda Jar Jars up the movie, though.
Star Trek: First Contact: I was a little resistant to this movie when it first came out because of all the fanboy salivation, but it's actually quite good. Definitely among the best of the Trek movies (a low threshold) and definitely the best of the Next Generation movies (a very low threshold). This one works, though all the time travel stuff is a little too convenient for my taste.
Cliffhanger: Hmmm. I should, by all rights, hate this movie, but it's hard to turn off. It was free on Comcast HD, so I felt fairly compelled to watch it. It's way stupid, but has a certain idiotic charm. This was John Lithgow's "Raising Cain" over-the-top period before "3rd Rock from the Sun," so he camps it up something fierce. It does have the most absurd robbery sequence I think I've ever seen, so that's something.
Dog Day Afternoon: "Attica!" aside, this is actually a very reserved performance by Pacino. The movie captures the period of the mid-70s with great detail, and is such an efficient piece of storytelling that it's hard to turn away from. It kept me up past 2 a.m. one night, which says something.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 1:02 AM | Comments (0)
August 1, 2006
Cyber PR lives!
Back in a former life, I worked for an organization involved in "Cyber PR," an online promotion arm of a small New Jersey PR firm. There were three of us (me, my wife, Melissa, and this guy) and our job was to find ways to promote our clients' Web sites via various means and get other sites to link back to us.
Ten years later, I read this great post from John Scalzi and I see the Future that Could Have Been. Nadine, whoever you are, just walk away.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 9:53 AM | Comments (0)