Category: Movies

Happy Valentimes!!

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

If you watched 30 Rock last week you’d find that title funnier.

.:.

Uh oh…is 300 gonna suck??!?!

.:.

A few nights ago on The Daily Show Jon Stewart made fun of last week’s non-stop “news” coverage (which has let up only slightly this week) of the Anna Nicole Smith story.

“She might’ve been our Lady Di?” Come…the fuck…on. Not that I have any great respect for anything to do with the British royals, but Anna Nicole Smith was famous for a) having giant fake tits, b) marrying a decrepit old man for his money and c) being retarded. Those three things, nothing else.

Come to think of it, that may be the most accurate analogy for American celebrity worship that I’ve ever heard.

[tags]valentimes, 30 rock, 300, daily show, anna nicole smith[/tags]

In so deep as in, "Which way is up?"

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I’ve done something to my back. It’s tweaking like a bastard just under my right shoulder blade. I think it started with the benches at Eggstasy and my chair at work just made it worse.

.:.

We watched Miami Vice (imdb | rotten tomatoes) last night. I liked it, but I seem to be in the minority on that. I confess to being a full-on Michael Mann junkie; the way he shoots his films is enough to make good movies great (Ali, Collateral) and make great movies classics (Heat, Last Of The Mohicans). In this case it made a mediocre film good.

.:.

It’s (apparently) confirmed now: we take possession of our condo April 9th. That would be…less than 2 months. Our inspection’s only a month from now.

You know, this condo thing has been going on so long it’s felt theoretical. It’s almost hard to believe it’ll actually happen soon.

[tags]back pain, miami vice, michael mann, condo inspection[/tags]

Argh

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Apparently my last post got sucked into the wrong series of Internet tubes, so here’s the point-form version:

Dang.

[tags]eggstasy, moosewood, rebar, the queen, wordpress[/tags]

I'm cryin', cryin', cryin' over you…

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You may have heard in the last few weeks that Telus is now selling porn via their mobile phones. Now an archbishop in Vancouver is protesting:

Archbishop Raymond Roussin is upset, saying the move takes the “accessibility of pornographic material further into the public realm.”

Roussin told The B.C. Catholic newspaper that the move is especially ill-considered because of the problems pornography is causing in society.

“Given the increasing awareness about the problem of sexual addiction to pornography through Internet access, and the abuse that this perpetuates of vulnerable persons, Telus’s decision is disappointing and disturbing.”

…

He is also considering directing Catholic institutions to terminate their contracts with Telus Mobility.

He might as well leave the contract where it is. The other carriers will be on board with this as soon as humanly possible.

.:.

The Onion AV Club lists their 15 pop movies owned by movie scenes. While some are no-brainers — “Stuck In The Middle With You” in Reservoir Dogs, “Lust For Life” in Trainspotting, “The End” in Apocalypse Now, “Tiny Dancer” in Almost Famous — they missed one which seems obvious to me: “Goodbye Horses” in Silence Of The Lambs. Nobody who has ever seen that film will think of anything but the sight of Ted Levine tucking away his bait & tackle as the song ends. In fact, one of the few funny scenes in Clerks II was predicated on everyone knowing the relationship between that song and that scene.

That’s not to mention “Mad World” from Donnie Darko or “Bohemian Rhapsody” from Wayne’s World, both of which I think are mentioned in The Onion’s comments.

.:.

After our big blowout dinner Friday night we stayed low-key yesterday, watching two movies: Ask The Dust (imdb | rotten tomatoes) and The Wages Of Fear (imdb | rotten tomatoes). The former was a 1930s period piece, unremarkable that it featured a great deal of Salma Hayek nakedness. Even with that, I fell asleep once or twice. The latter was a French movie from 1952 about four men who drive trucks loaded with nitroglycerin through the South American wilderness. The first hour seemed slow and a little silly, but it was really just all scene-setting for the final 90 minutes, which was pretty much non-stop tension. Considering the film’s 55 years old I think it’s held up pretty well.

[tags]telus, cell phone porn, onion av club, ask the dust, wages of fear[/tags]

Vodka + ice wine = Nellie's new best friend

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Watched Show Me (imdb | rotten tomatoes) yesterday, a low-budget Canadian film. It was interesting if not plausible, and well-acted if not well-written.

.:.

We also went out for our last Winterlicious dinner last night, to Jump with our friend CH, and were happy with the way the event ended. We had a great time: the service was great, our drinks were very tasty, and the food was quite good, especially my celery & parsnip bisque and my chocolate/espresso cheesecake.

And so it’s over for another season. The final tally: 1055 was poor, Savoy and Jump were very good, and Canoe was excellent. I think that next time we’ll keep it to one or two restaurants; the value for money doesn’t always seem as great now that we’re more or less limited to vegetarian options.

.:.

Today is sports marathon day. Right now I’m watching the end of the Raptors/Clippers game; after that I’ll slip over into the recording of the Canadiens/Penguins game, and then at some point tonight tune in to the Superbowl (hopefully I can avoid Billy Joel singing the anthem and Prince performing at halftime). Nellie’s been forced to set up temporary residence in the bedroom.
[tags]show me, winterlicious, jump cafe, raptors, clippers, canadiens, penguins, superbowl[/tags]

A gurgling stomach is "one of the signs" of My Lunch's imminent return

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First of all, some big news: my oldest brother is now engaged!!! Everybody pop over to his blog and say congratulations to TimmyD and She Who Must Not Be Named.

Needless to say we’re extremely happy for both of them. We adore SWMNBN, and love how happy she makes my big brother, so we couldn’t be more pleased. Huzzah!

.:.

We tried a new place for Winterlicious last night: The Savoy. T-Bone joined us once again, along with her friend AS. We had a MUCH better experience this time than we had at 1055. My wine (can’t remember what it was…something Tuscan) was really good, my starter salad was excellent, my mushroom risotto wasn’t bad (I don’t like mushrooms, but even then…pretty decent) and my creme brulee was just right. The service was also very good, and best of all our table was in an enclosed booth, so the four of us felt very private and cozy during our meal. To top it off, it was actually cheaper than the typical ‘licious meal — $25 instead of $35 — so we definitely felt like we got our money’s worth.

The Savoy could very well become a neighbourhood joint once we move into our new place.

.:.

I seem to have buggered up my knee somehow. Tried to run on it Sunday afternoon and had to hobble to a stop after 45 seconds. This happens occasionally; hopefully a day with the knee brace should fix it up. But of all the weeks not to be able to exercise: Winterlicious week. Deadly.

.:.

This post on the Showcase Sideshow blog makes an interesting observation: the quality of Mexican directors right now is pretty impressive. It’d be pretty tough to find a better trio of films than Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo Del Toro), Children Of Men (Alfonso Cuaron) and Babel (Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu) in theatres right now.

.:.

Holy blessed mother of hotpants, this Washington Post story takes climate change denial to a whole new level of silliness:

Hardison, a parent of seven here in the southern suburbs of Seattle, has himself roiled the global-warming waters. It happened early this month when he learned that one of his daughters would be watching “An Inconvenient Truth” in her seventh-grade science class.

“No you will not teach or show that propagandist Al Gore video to my child, blaming our nation — the greatest nation ever to exist on this planet — for global warming,” Hardison wrote in an e-mail to the Federal Way School Board. The 43-year-old computer consultant is an evangelical Christian who says he believes that a warming planet is “one of the signs” of Jesus Christ’s imminent return for Judgment Day.

His angry e-mail (along with complaints from a few other parents) stopped the film from being shown to Hardison’s daughter.

The teacher in that science class, Kay Walls, says that after Hardison’s e-mail she was told by her principal that she would receive a disciplinary letter for not following school board rules that require her to seek written permission to present “controversial” materials in class.

Seriously…if you’re the school how can you discipline a teacher for that? You’ve opened the door for teachers to be disciplined for discussing anything, since there’s always some nutbag parent who’ll get their knickers in a twist. Teaching evolution? Sex ed? Geology? Astronomy? Prepare to be disciplined. Hell, if a kid’s parent works for Verizon they’re even likely to complain about the math.

[via Cinematical]

[tags]engagement, savoy restaurant, winterlicious, climate change, inconvenient truth, frosty hardison[/tags]

"To marriage…the reason we have bars."

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

That toast comes courtesy of Battlestar Galactica, to which I am now firmly addicted.

.:.

Poor Nellie’s sick, so we didn’t go to a movie today, just emptied one of the Zip envelopes. it was November (imdb | rotten tomatoes), a low-budget indie starring Courteney Cox. It was weird and a little confusing at times, but reasonably impressive considering it was shot in 15 days.

[tags]battlestar galactica, november[/tags]

The Devil is {yawn} boring

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The Devil Wears Prada (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was…meh. Not terrible, but entirely unremarkable. A few little laughs early on, but only a few. Predictable & formulaic if well-executed. Just…vanilla.

I don’t get all the fuss about Meryl Streep’s performance; I mean, the woman has produced so much brilliant work over her career that this seems throwaway by comparison. Stanley Tucci was great, but he — like Streep — was a brilliant actor dragged down by the material.

Next.

[tags]the devil wears prada, meryl streep, stanley tucci[/tags]

The summer of Dan

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I’m a very happy MBA student right now. Not only did I just finished stats/quants (which is generally thought to be one of the least pleasant courses), and not only am I now more than 60% of the way through, but I have a very favourable series of courses coming up:

  • Information Systems (IT is kind of my specialty, so this will be like a 3-month vacation for me)
  • Strategic Thinking (I took this course before I even started the MBA; that doesn’t mean I can skip it, but I’m already more than familiar with the subject matter)
  • Financial Risk (as I understand it, this is running computer simulations to determine financial risk of various investment & spending strategies…again, computers + numbers = my wheelhouse)

That puts me into September. I’ve been joking with classmates that this is the summer of Dan (a term I adapted from Seinfeld), and offered my assistance since this is probably one of the few times I’ll be of any help to anyone.

George: This is gonna be my time. Time to taste the fruits and let the juices drip down my chin. I proclaim this: The Summer of George!

[A bee comes and George has to run inside]

[via]

I also have a large comprehensive term paper to write up by the end of October, but I’m not worried about that. A classmate and I already have a topic in mind, with a ton of supporting material already lined up, and neither of us struggle to fill pages.

.:.

Since it’s cold out and neither of us are feeling that well, Nellie and I are undertaking the very winter-y exercise of watching the Leafs play the Canadiens, and then watching a movie: The Devil Wears Prada. Now that is the definition of marital compromise.
[tags]the summer of dan, mba courses, leafs, canadiens, the devil wears prada[/tags]

"Then I took a crane kick to the face"

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

S’cold outside. We had planned to shop around for a new TV (small one for the bedroom) at the electronics stores on Yonge Street but the wind chill changed our plans. A 20″ Sharp Aquos EDTV was fine for our purposes, and Bay Bloor Radio had one on hand. Done and done. A few more errands to prepare for my week away and we were snug at home in our nice warm apartment.

.:.

If you were awake during the 80s you’ll remember The Karate Kid. If you do, check this out. However, if you haven’t seen the movie, the video’s not gonna make much sense. The meaning of “Get him a bodybag! Yeeaahhhh!!” will be lost on you.
[tags]sharp LC-20S5U, karate kid[/tags]