Category: Movies

In this archdiocese, God don't run the bingo.

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We saw The Departed (imdb | rotten tomatoes) last night. I really, really liked it. I’ve never really understood the whole Scorsese love affair, but this one was primo shit. I didn’t feel ripped off at all that — once again — Casino Royale was sold out. Thoughts:

  • The cast was so talented — and so plentiful — that it bordered on unfair. When you have actors as good as Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Mark Wahlberg and Anthony Anderson in supporting bit parts, you’re set.
  • Based on what I’d heard about Jack Nicholson’s performance I was prepared for scenery-chewing on a cosmic scale, but it wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t even Pacino-in-Devil’s–Advocate bad.
  • DiCaprio’s finally growing on me again. At long last he might be shedding the Titanic/Beach odor. Anyway, a few more Scorsese movies should do it.
  • I believe Hollywood has finally perfected the head shot blood spatter effect. We got plenty of supporting evidence last night.

Highly recommended, unless you don’t like violence. CB, I’m looking at you; I’d tell you to watch it and just turn away when you think somebody might get shot, but really…you wouldn’t see much of the film.

.:.

I got home last night in time to see the third period of the Canadiens game. I saw Saku Koivu tie it up in the 3rd, and I saw Sheldon Souray score with 1 second left in OT to steal one from the Sabres.

As surprisingly well as the Leafs have been playing, Montreal’s one point behind them in the standings with three games in hand. Buffalo’s still dominating the division, and now that Ottawa seems to have turned it around, the Northeast division is suddenly a powerhouse. Even Boston, the worst team in the division, has a .500 record.

[tags]the departed, canadiens, sabres, northeast division[/tags]

The New World

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Forgot to mention that we watched The New World (imdb | rotten tomatoes) the day we got the new TV. It was a great way to stretch the new system’s legs, as both the picture and the sound were so rich. While I had trouble staying awake through it, that wasn’t the film’s fault; I enjoyed it quite a bit. Terrence Malick’s style turns some people off, and he played fast and loose with the Pocahontas story, but he painted this beautiful picture of evolution and growing older, of leaving behind — sometimes painfully — one phase of our life to move on with the next. I’ve grown to appreciate Malick’s style a little more (I like The Thin Red Line much more now than when I first saw it), and the craft with which he tells stories is undeniable.

.:.

I also finally watched the new(er) director’s cut of Donnie Darko. I’m not sure which version I like better; the director’s cut explains more about what’s going on, but I like that the original was difficult to follow and made you think. I’m even on the fence about the song they use to open the films; the original used Echo & The Bunnymen’s “The Killing Moon”, which seemed to fit perfectly, but the director’s cut used “Never Tear Us Apart” by INXS, which also worked surprisingly well.

I think I’ll have to keep both. I think that if someone ever asks to borrow it, I’d give them the original version first and let them see the director’s cut on the second or third watch. ‘Cause really, it demands multiple viewings.

[tags]the new world movie, donnie darko[/tags]

Foiled. By agents of SPECTRE, no doubt.

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We tried to go see Casino Royale today, but it was sold out. Drag.

The movie theatre was abnormally busy; at first we thought it was related to all the suburbanites who drove into the city to see the Santa Claus Parade [warning: WORST WEBSITE EVER], but that seemed unlikely as those folks were all pushing their strollers to wherever they’d parked their Caravans. It’s not that popular a movie (in North America, anyway); it didn’t even win the box office weekend, losing to a bunch of animated penguins.

.:.

The elephants are as mad as hell, and they’re not gonna take it anymore.

All across Africa, India and parts of Southeast Asia, from within and around whatever patches and corridors of their natural habitat remain, elephants have been striking out, destroying villages and crops, attacking and killing human beings. In fact, these attacks have become so commonplace that a new statistical category, known as human-elephant conflict, or HEC, was created by researchers in the mid-1990s to monitor the problem.

Call me insensitive, but I’m rooting for the elephants.

[tags]casino royale, santa claus parade, angry elephants[/tags]

Fun with Yam and Sharp

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A few things we found out last night while testing out the new TV and stereo:

  • Raptors games in hi-def look freakin’ amazing. The Lakers uniforms were so yellow it got hard to look at, and you could see every tragic after-effect of all that surgery on Dyan Cannon’s face.
  • The New World looks stunning on the new TV (and sounds equally stunning in surround sound) but not stunning enough to keep me from nodding off. Star Wars Episode III looks awesome too.
  • If I put the sub-woofer on anything higher than -5, the neighbours will likely kill me.
  • I can’t get the universal remote to control the amp — maybe the codes in the book aren’t made for this new model? — but I did accidentally stumble across the code to control my Soundbridge.
  • Speaking of the Soundbridge, even 128-bit MP3s streamed across a wireless connection sound brilliant on this stereo. The guy who came to set it up was surprised how good it sounded, considering what poor sound you get when you plug an iPod into a real stereo.

[tags]new tv, new stereo, sharp aquos, yamaha, definitive speakers, the new world movie, star wars episode iii, roku soundbridge, raptors, lakers, dyan cannon, hdtv[/tags]

Uhh…the bunny's not breathin'.

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The new James Bond movie is getting great reviews. The last time I was able to say that was the twelfth of never.

.:.

There’s a new Simpsons movie trailer. Well, not really…it’s just a teaser, but it’s still pretty funny.

.:.

We just watched the last two movies on the PVR:

  • Welcome To Sarajevo (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was about the Bosnian war, done with near-documentary feel as is often the case with Michael Winterbottom’s films. Winterbottom isn’t shy about mocking/scolding the bureaucratic indifference and laughable photo-ops disguised as concern, but focuses on the smaller and more personal story of the reporters.
  • Midnight Express (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was a good movie about a horrible chapter in some dumb drug-smuggling bastard’s life, but Nellie pointed out afterward that it was pretty much a fabrication. A lot of the key points in the film just didn’t happen in real life. Still, that scene in Cable Guy makes a lot more sense now…

Man…two straight movies about genocide and then a prison torture movie. Good thing we didn’t watch Dancer In The Dark; we might’ve jumped off the balcony.

[tags]james bond, casino royale, simpsons movie, welcome to sarajevo, michael winterbottom, midnight express[/tags]

Cleaning off the PVR

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We’re burning through the recording pretty quickly. Actually, both Dirty Pretty Things and Dancer In The Dark were recorded improperly, so we just threw them on the Zip list and moved on.

  • Network (imdb | rotten tomatoes) is a film I’ve seen several bits and pieces of, but not all together.  Though it drifts badly in the last half hour, it’s still a remarkable piece of satire in that it’s even more accurate than it was 30 years ago when it was made.  The idea of the evening news being run as typical entertainment might’ve been shocking or absurd in 1976, but it’s de rigeur today. Seeing it after watching the premiere of Studio 60 just made me realize what a massive reference Network was for that pilot, even more than the explicit references within the show. For example, the scene where the Studio 60 execs turn on every TV to hear “In a scene reminiscent of Paddy Chayefsky…” was taken directly from Network..so they used a scene from Network to point out the parallel to Network. Now that’s meta.
  • Cube (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was a Canadian film made 10 years ago that I hadn’t seen for some reason. Reasonably engaging and interesting, considering it was kind of sci-fi (which I normally don’t like) and Canadian (which usually doesn’t bode well in general). Plus it has Maurice Dean Wint, who’s just cool.
  • Ararat (imdb | rotten tomatoes), an Atom Egoyan film that opened the Toronto film festival a few years ago, was pretty good, if a little uneven. This film, too, was meta, as it shows the filming of a movie — called Ararat — about the Armenian genocide, with parallel storylines drawn from the effects of the genocide itself. A good movie, and enlightening if — like me — you don’t know much about such an ugly chapter in history.

[tags]network, studio 60, cube, ararat, armenian genocide[/tags]

Toys!!!!!!!!!

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Today, after years of suffering with substandard audio/visual equipment (having a Technics stereo that I bought nine years ago at Future Shop: not cool), we bit the bullet and bought some new stuff. We were going to wait until we moved into the new place, but Nellie suggested last weekend that we should just go ahead and get it. And when your wife suggests that you buy a new TV and stereo, you don’t ask twice.

We got a 37″ Sharp Aquos HDTV with 1080p resolution (which you can see on the left), a Yamaha receiver & DVD player and Definitive Technology surround sound speakers. Nellie was happy ’cause everything’s silver or titanium.

They also threw in a Rogers deal where they pay for the HDTV PVR/digital receiver rental for 10 months, which is great. The only downside is that we have to clear all the movies off the old PVR by Friday when the new system arrives and gets set up. We still have ten movies on there, so it could be tricky…good thing it’s a long weekend…

.:.

We watched a movie called Duane Hopwood (imdb | rotten tomatoes) last night. It was a low-budget indie film I only heard about because Ebert and/or Roeper mentioned it sometime last year, and it was good if unspectacular. David Schwimmer plays a reasonably nice guy from Jersey who doesn’t think he’s a drunk, even as his drinking slowly takes over his life and pulls him away from everything he loves, especially his wife (Janeane Garofalo) and kids. It’s not a terribly happy film, but it’s perhaps more affecting than you might think at first simply because it’s not fantastic or extraordinary. Everyone knows — or knew — a guy like Duane.

[tags]sharp aquos, duane hopwood[/tags]

Since when does "card" rhyme with "world"?

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More musical pain: corporate bonding a la David Brent. [via]

.:.

The 2007 rock n’ roll hall of fame nominees have been announced: R.E.M., Van Halen, The Stooges, Patti Smith, The Dave Clark Five, Chic, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Joe Tex and The Ronettes.

The first five I agree with. Grandmaster Flash and The Ronettes I could live with. I have no freaking idea who Joe Tex is, so I’d be surprised if he/she/they made it. If Chic gets elected, I will make it a goal in life to visit Cleveland and piss on the hall of fame, nay, on the very essence of rock n’ roll.

.:.

I watched Cinema Paradiso (imdb | rotten tomatoes) over the weekend. I liked it a lot; I’m really annoyed that I read an article several months ago giving away the last scene (the article was about films that make men cry, and this was a popular choice), but it was still very worthwhile. Highly recommended, unless you’re my mother or Stanzi, in which case you’ll cry for the last 20 minutes.

[tags]bank of america, rock n’ roll hall of fame, cinema paradiso[/tags]

What's the Deal With the Hulk's Pants?

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Via Cinematical we learn that Bill O’Reilly is very concerned about horror movies. What delicious irony; most of the world thinks that Bill O’Reilly is a horror movie.

.:.

Seen Reading is a very cool little blog written by Julie Wilson, set here in Toronto, where she spots what people are reading and writes about it online. I’ve found a new favourite morning read. [via Torontoist]

.:.

My brother points out why you should always read more than just one newspaper. Bonus: if you stick around for the comments, you can see him flick a narrow-minded Ontarian in the ear. Metaphorically, of course.

.:.

Right, off to dinner.

[tags]cinematical, bill o’reilly, seen reading, julie wilson[/tags]