Sunshine

When I was in college, I worked for about a year and a half at a laserdisc rental store. The job was great, more or less so because rarely ever did anyone ever come in. The more I reflect on it the more I come to think that it was some sort of front for laundering money to South America. There is no way the owner of the store could have been making any money yet it was open day after day... I would work 5-6 hours, take my pay in cash, and usually go home with 3-4 movies to watch that night. Since I was studying film at UM at the time, it was the perfect job for me.

One of the movies I fell in love with was a small British thriller called Shallow Grave. I must have taken the movie home 20 times and soaked up every Hitchkockian element in the film. It was the first of a few movies a trio of very talented Brits would make - Danny Boyle (Director), Alex Garland (writer) and Andrew MacDonald (producer) would go on to make the astounding Trainspotting - of which I have only one major complaint, the London tourist bureau's seemingly out of left field montage sequence that was just so out of place in this wild ride of a movie. In 2002 the trio would reinvent the tired Zombie genre in a huge way with 28 Days Later, which after a rousing first hour, unfortunately fell apart at the end, but still kept me on the edge of my seat and has become a favorite of mine.

So it was with anticipation that I learned of the trio's newest film, Sunshine, a sci-fi epic about humanity's last ditch effort to save our dying sun. I went to see a sneak preview of the film on Monday night, and leaving the theater, I felt like I had just seen two movies, one a stylish foray into the sci-fi genre that could have been great, the other a very standard Nightmare on Elm Street slasher yarn that had me shaking my head and asking why?

Basically the story goes, 8 astronauts are on a 16 month mission to launch a bomb into the heart of our dying sun, which will hopefully give it the kick start it needs. After a series of "really bad decisions" are made by the crew - not a knock, as that's how some of the best sci-fi films get started (Alien being the one that best comes to mind) - the crew finds themselves in a spot of the worst kind - not enough oxygen to get home, let alone make it to the point where they can fulsill their duty and possibly save the human race.

Somewhere along the way though, this film decends into the aforementioned slasher film, with really no rhyme or reason other than to throw the viewer for some kind of loop... Wholly unnecessary, as the film has enough legs to stand on its own as a solid sci-fi film that could have come to a solid resolution.

Regardless, I enjoyed Sunshine... the effects were pretty intense, the music was quite appropriate (one thing Boyle and Co. know how to do is tie in the music to their films... I was reminded of the incredible soundtrack to 28 Days Later quite often during the movie) and the performances were alright. I've been a fan of Cillian Murphy since 28 Days and hope he continues to work with Boyle. I'm still hoping Boyle, MacDonald and Garland hit the mark with their next film - I have no doubts they can work in any genre and look forward to seeing their next effort.

My Pitchfork review - 6.3 / 10

Shitformers

Here is my 7-second Haiku review of Transformers...

An Hour Too Long

Same Shit Over and Over

Megan Fox's Tits.

"You're gonna need a bigger boat..."

I've gone on record quite a few times as saying that Jaws is my all time favorite movie. It's nothing I'm embarrased about, nor should I be. Honestly I couldn't remember the 1st time I've seen it, but since that time the number has reached into the 100's.

I just saw the trailer for a new documentary called The Shark is Still Working and it looks awesome. I used to own the special edition laserdisc of Jaws, and there was some good stuff in there, but until now it seems like no one really took the time and effort to really get the story straight. I'm sure most of you know the story of the shark not working correctly and how Spielbergo had to reimagine this movie about this 25 foot shark, without really showing the shark, and for that he created what to me is the most suspenseful movie of all time. I still get the creeps when Chief Brodie is chumming and Bruce(the shark's aptly titled nickname... named after the lawyer for the film) pops his snout up - Roy Sheider's slow walk into the cabin of the boat and those 6 words... "You're gonna need a bigger boat." Just absolute perfection.

My favorite scene in the movie is when Matt Hooper, Quint and Brodie are exchanging scar stories, and Quint, brilliantly played by Robert Shaw (for another great performance I recommend The Taking of Pelham One Two Three) tells the story of the USS Indianapolis, and how it was sank by a Japanese torpedo after it delivered the bomb, "the Hiroshima bomb." It's 5 minutes of acting 101. Recently I went up to Tampa to audition for Who Wants to be a Millionaire - they gave us two tests, one for general knowledge and one for the Netflix shows... There was a Jaws question and it was "What boat did Mr Quint serve aboard..." Well I passed the Netflix test and am hoping to make it onto the show, and that was a pretty good omen for me.

I'll watch a lot of movies when they come on, but I'll always watch Jaws. It was recently on Universal HD and I recorded it and watched different parts of it 6-8 times over the coarse of two weeks... Kelli would laugh everytime she walked into the living room and it was on. "Have I ever told you Jaws is my favorite movie?" is a running joke in our house.

So check out the trailer, and hopefully when it gets a release date it will have a South Florida showing. This is one I will definately check out.

And I think I want to name my next cat Quint come to think about it.

The Simpsons Movie

So, of course I am going to see the Simpsons movie. At one point I could have been a contender for #1 fan, but over the past 8 or so years, the show has suffered such a drsatic falloff from what it once was, that at this point I don't even watch the new episodes. But I will stand by the statement that seasons 3-9 were quite possibly the best episodic comedy ever created for TV. There are plenty of super hilarious shows out there, then and now, but I challenge you to find a show that consistently hit the mark, every.single.time out during those 6 seasons.

Every joke was spot on, and wuold usually have a 2nd punchlin 15 minutes down the road. the character development during these 6 season allowed for cartoon characters that were in most instances, more realistic than any 3 dimensional characters on other live action sitcoms.

So that's why I am such a bitter fan. Because in these last 8 or so seasons(at this point I don't even remember when I stopped watching) the show has fell into a formulaic rut - Where instead of having one coherent storyline throughout the 3 acts structure, it would become three separate storylines that were barely held together by the thinnest plot point. Resorting to Homer screaming incoherently or stale visual gags, or even worse, overkill of celebrity cameos, the show became a parody of its former self.

Now from what I've heard, the movie brings back writers from the golden years, which bodes well. I've really refrained from reading anything into the movie as I'd rather go in blind and hope for the best. Hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised and once again my love for those yellow skinned inhabitants of Springfield USA will be reignited...

If not, then I always have those 6 magical seasons of bliss... where every joke meant something special and would eventually be repeated ad naeseum by me...

Eggs act lee... d'oh!

Chili Cookoff

I have to say, the Chili Cookoff was an outstanding success. I am still and will be for a while, jokingly, a little bitter that I didn't even place... That's some bullshit right there... But I digress, I lost, but everyone had a swell time.

I suppose I should offer Kristen congratulations here, so good job, but like I said, if you think you are going to threepeat you are in for a fight to the end. I will spend the the next year studying up on my peppers and perfecting my recipe. I believe that was my downfall last weekend. In my mind I had the best tasting chili, but it was lacking a little something on the end... Need more heat, but subtle heat... let it creep up on you.

So thanks to everyone who participated and everyone who got Shelly stoned. The clouds stayed away and although it was a bit hot, it was a fun time, with plenty fo lousy beer and some subpar chili's as well, but it's a party I don't mind hosting and spending a little bit of money on. I hope everyone had as good a time as I did and hopefully we can make it even bigger next year. A band perhaps?

First Post

Figured I'd start rambling my incoherent thoughts again.

These is my book queue:

Glue - Irvine Welsh
Party Monster - James St. James
God is not Great - Christopher Hitchens
A People's History of the United States - Howard Zinn
Tesla - Margaret Cheney

My Netflix queue is at about 125 but 25 of those are the Sopranos DVD's which I would like to watch again. The next movie I am going to watch is Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I haven't seen it in a dozen years and now with my 50" plasma I can enjoy it again and watch it loud when the wife goes out for drinks... Probably Thursday night.

Hopefully I can convince myself to write a little bit each night and eventually more each day like I would like to.

Ah well... Now it's setup, may as well go for it.

Have a good night!