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This is a book about MEN

Posted : 2 weeks ago on 27 April 2008 08:32 (A review of Dirty White Boys: A Novel)

A while back this guy Stephen Hunter comes to our school as part of this literary food thing or something of that nature. I myself was excited since I'd be getting out of class but I realized oh this guy is pretty chill after all. What brought my attention to this book was I believe he mentioned something about it coming out as his son was entering high school and how his son had gotten in some sort of trouble or another because of the first sentence of this book. Apparently said sentence was inappropriate for school so I had to go out and read the book myself to find out what was this sentence. And plus you really can't go wrong with a book titled Dirty White Boys.

First of all before reading this novel one has to first gain an appreciation of manly things. Like lions.

By staring at that image for several hours not only will one get a greater understanding of the novel but one will understand being a man.

Next to take into consideration is the first sentence of the novel:
"Three men at McAlester State Penitentiary had larger penises than Lamar Pye, but all were black and therefore, by Lamar's own figuring, hardly human at all."
The rest of the first paragraph is about how amazing and scary this guy's penis is. Already the book establishes itself as being a book for men, and only the most manly of men.

Lamar's penis continues to be a recurring theme popping out when you least expect it but the main theme is being a man. Lamar is the MAN, but he was so manly that he had to escape from prison with his very cousin Odell, who's missing ALOT of screws up there, and Richard Peed. A sad pathetic creature that was saved by Lamar only because of his drawings of lions. Oh and you got the badass cop man named Bud who is also having an affair with his partner's wife.

The novel alternates between telling the story between Lamar and crew's point of view and Bud's point of view. Personally the Lamar and crew point of view was much more enjoyable and I really didn't care much for Bud's crusade of being a man, but you gotta put the book down sometime and Bud kinda grew on me after a while. There's alot of gun jargon that just went over my head but otherwise provides a sense of realism in this story. Lots of comedic moments too. More of situational humor though than anything. I mean most of the escapades of Lamar and crew is Lamar being amazing, Odell being Odell, and Richard cowering in the corner in fear. And later Ruta Beth making cookies. Or something like that.

I enjoyed this book more than I ever thought I would and for such a manly book such as this. Highly recommend if you are into these high action thrillers with an otherwise unlikely protagonist. You gotta remember though, it's all about the lions and it's all about the attitude. Only then will one achieve true manhood. Not really but I like to think so anyway.

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Oscar Wilde = Space Alien

Posted : 2 weeks, 4 days ago on 23 April 2008 10:30 (A review of Velvet Goldmine)

I'll be quite honest. I didn't understand it, and I doubt I will ever able to from a single viewing. But perhaps in the future when I rewatch it, it might make more sense; all that I took away mostly was that clearly I was missing something in my life before I listened to this type of music. I'm quite shocked and surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did, it reminded me very much of Across the Universe, which personally I didn't really care much for but somehow this movie clicked with me. But I have sneaking suspicions that it's all to do with Oscar Wilde being a space alien. That enough is to make the movie an epic.

Apparently it's supposed to be slightly based of David Bowie or something but I really can't tell you since I'm not all that familiar in this genre of music. All I gathered is that Brian Slade, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, is this glam rock icon of sorts but he kinda has feelings for this other rock dude Curt Wild who so happens to be played by Ewan McGregor. He's kinda insane apparently since at the age of 13 he underwent electro shock therapy after "servicing" his brother in the loo. Obviously it didn't help much since he's insane. Christian Bale plays the awkward looking fanboy turned journalist named Arthur or something.

The story is told mainly in a flashback type of mode as Arthur, now a normal looking dude, is a journalist researching about Brian Slade and his subsequent disappearance after a "faked" murder stunt. It's funny I thought that he appeared much younger looking in the "present" scenes than in the "flashback" ones. He just looked like a kind of sad pathetic thing looking for his place in society. Maybe he too was a space alien. That'd make sense.

Throughout it all we gain insight on who this Brian Slade character really was through other people and from Arthur's own memories of the time back then (He was a pretty big fanboy). Lots of fops and dandies make appearances and glitter and feathers randomly fall from the sky. Oh and there's a fairy. Like seriously, this guy's last name is Fairy. He too might be part of the alien conspiracy.

It's just a really really long music video type thing. Some I suppose are covers of other songs and others are original to the movie performed by some musicians of noted merit and the main leads in the film. Lots of drugs, sex, and that sort of stuff. Maybe a bacchanal or two. The important thing I understood from a single viewing was that Oscar Wilde was a space alien, and suddenly everything makes sense.

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Interesting Choice of Music...

Posted : 1 month, 1 week ago on 1 April 2008 09:38 (A review of Dororo)

So I kinda forced this movie upon my friends, to much resistance might I add, and by the end they had such large groans. And it wasn't because the movie was so bad or anything but because they realized that they would have to wait for TWO more movies to finally reach the satisfaction of an ending.

I've been wanting to watch it for a while now and through magical means I was able to. The music choices were certainly interesting and while I might listen to them in my off time I just felt that the music was not quite right with the scene but you get kinda used to it. Plus I really dig the weird Mongolian guttural chanting thing... and at the end no better way to end the movie than with some Jrock!

What I thought was really annoying though was Dororo. I know it's based on a manga by Osamu Tezuka and if I know Tezuka like I thought I do there's normally some obligatory annoying character used for comedic relief of sorts. This is Dororo. And she's also kinda a main character. But I can overlook such things because it's slightly better than having a much younger person playing Dororo. That'd be even more frightening and annoying.

So apparently this failure of a father wants to be like the strongest so he exchanges 48 body parts of his then unborn son in exchange for like the power in war or something. And so this stump of a body is born and found in a river by this amazing doctor dude who gives him these amazing living prosthetic limbs. So the rest of this movie is essentially him finding the rest of his body parts. Spoiler, they don't find them all (Hence parts two and three in production). These demons are using Hyakkimaru's (that's the name of this kid with no body parts) body parts and wreaking havoc upon humans so he has to find all his body parts back and hopefully find his real family.

The demons and other uh.. spiritual things range from ridiculous to oh that's pretty neat looking. There's this good montage of him fighting a bunch of them in the middle of the film set to weird music that doesn't quite fit I suppose fits the nature of this weird film. Oh and Dororo's there for moral support and drum bashing. And yelling... alot... and beating on the drum. But mostly yelling.

A pretty enjoyable fantasy journey type film. Plus the actor for Hyakkimaru, Satoshi Tsumabaki is really cute. But then again I'm a female and many of my other female friends came to this same conclusion. But that's not surely the only reason why I wanted to watch this film. I haven't read the original manga this was based on but I have a renewed hope for other comic based movies. Probably not the greatest film of this type but I enjoyed it well enough and look forward to reading the original manga.

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How did I miss this?

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 28 March 2008 11:13 (A review of Stage Beauty)

I can't believe I never even heard of this movie until very recently when I, by chance, caught it on TV. It was so amasing that I had to rent it and show it to all my friends.

What really caught my eye when I saw the cover of the DVD was that the two main leads, Billy Crudup and Claire Danes, were also the leads in another favorite movie of mine, Princess Mononoke. And I quite enjoyed the English dub of that movie for the most part. So it was wonderful bonus surprise for me.

On to the movie itself, it's takes place around the time when women started acting in England, because prior to that it was all men actors doing the female parts. So you get to see the fall of Ned, Billy Crudup, and the rise of Maria, Claire Danes, as women actually get to play the role of women. And for a movie set in England with a mostly English cast I find it a bit funny that the two main leads are American. And it's quite funny to see Rupert Everett as the King of England with all the bows and hair. And Richard Griffiths, who I remember as being as Uncle Vernon in Harry Potter, is ah... yeah... not quite Mr. Dursley to be sure. Hold on while I suppress a great urge to burst into laughter.

The thing I love about period pieces of this nature are the amazing costumes. But I think the best part of it all was the cross-dressing. Ah yes. There is much of that in this film.
And nearly every line of this film is quotable for me. It's really just that epic. Then again most were quotes from plays and this film was based on a play so I suppose that's to be expected.
The whole death scene at the end was a very powerful moment I thought. Before much of the acting it seems back then was horribly fake looking with fanciful hand movements but then BAM! you get that punch at the end which I thought perfectly summed up the movie. Sure Ned's line at the very end might seem lame to many but if it sounded cool I think that might have defeated the purpose of the film.

All in all this soon became on of my favorite films ever but it's really all about whether you like this sort of stuff to begin with. It was just a very very fun film to watch and I actually gave a damn about what was happening to the main characters so that's a double plus. Recommended, although some people might actually dislike this film for all the reasons I love it for.

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Concrete Roads

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 27 March 2008 01:01 (A review of Whisper of the Heart)

I've been meaning to write a review on this movie for a while now since it's one of my favorite Ghibli movies and it's not a Miyazaki thing (kinda). It kinda holds a special place in my heart.

Remember when your library books still had their own card and you can actually see who borrowed the book before you? Kinda, maybe, sorta? Anyway that's the premise of this movie (at the start anyway). Shizuku is a giant bookworm and doesn't seem to notice much of anything else really, her whole world revolving on those novels she reads.
Things like boys and stuff aren't a real big issue. Until she notices that all the books she reads have also been read by some other guy, most probably her knight in shining armor. And throw some teen angst and whatnot for good measure.
Somehow later on, without spoiling anything, she feels that she needs to accomplish something epic and decides to write a novel about a cat baron dude, based on this cat figure she saw at a Antiques Shop. The scenes about the book she writes were actually directed by Miyazaki and later became "The Cat Returns."
Unfortunately, the director of the actual movie, Yoshifumi Kondo, died rather early. This kinda sucks since he was supposed to carry on the business at Ghibli after Miyazaki. This is why we still have Miyazaki directing all these Ghibli movies (not that it's a bad thing), but it'd be nice to have a bit more variety...

Anyway... it's based on a book so at times it does feel like they are trying to put too much information in and it really makes the movie drag a bit. And as a result the ending seemingly comes OUT OF NOWHERE. But the song Country Roads, for me, washes away all hostilities on how big a cop out the ending was. It's by no means the best Ghibli movie but it's the one that really hits me in the heart (and doesn't leave me all depressed like Grave of the Fireflies. Try giving the non-Miyazaki movies a go, you might end up finding a whole new realm of anime movies to watch.

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Beautiful

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 27 March 2008 12:49 (A review of Saawariya)

This was another of those in-flight movies that I watched so the ratings might be slighltly skewed in favor of the movie since I was really bored. Plus the subtitles were dreadfully difficult to read so I might be a bit inaccurate at some parts.

Now I haven't seen many Bollywood films (only three counting this one) but this by far is my favorite. Looking at other reviews people seem to rate this one harshly based on another work by the same director but for me it was simply fantastic.

This movie is just beautiful in the sense of the setting and imagery provided. You can just stare at the screen and let the sounds of Bollywood envelop you.

It's much your traditional love-at-first sight movie only from a different perspective (trying not to spoil too much here). The main character is this guy named Raj who I guess a traveling musician and he falls in love with a girl named Sakina. I think what really made the movie for me was his amazingly (almost) nude dancing sequence. I think somewhere filmmakers realized that women need fan service too.

(Almost) nude dancing aside did I mention this movie was beautiful? Sure it's not realistic looking but it invites you in this mystical fantasy world where you can just look at the pretty pictures. I suppose that's what really made the movie for me was the cinematography (and almost nude dance scene). And the music. You can't watch a Bollywood film and not appreciate all the dance numbers.

Highly recommended (especially if you are looking for a different sort of love story, or in a way not so different at all)

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More like a Kid City

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 27 March 2008 12:40 (A review of Big City)

So this is a French movie about the American West as seen through the perspective of a child. Okay I dig it.

This is one of the many in-flight movies I watched this past week and the ratings might be slighly skewed to the favor of the film in question since I was really really bored.

If you've ever been to Wannado City or something of that nature you'd probably really connect to this movie. Essentially all the adults, except for the village idiot and drunk, are out fighting Indians or something and it's up to the kids to keep the city running. At first they have this giant free-for-all party until the village drunk manages to make them take up the jobs their parents once did and carry on the city functions.

So now you have 11 yr old prostitutes that are selling kisses for a dollar and stupid boys running around in KKK costumes stealing people's cats. It rather (blunty) pokes fun of the period of that time (and to an extent present day). Kids are raised to be just like their parents. They don't exactly understand why they act that way but that they should based on what they've seen their own parents due. So that's why you have little kiddies in KKK garb running around like it's Halloween. I think.

The kids are cute and because they are so young you forget that the issues they face are issues many adults have to deal with and sometimes the kids just deal with those issues better and sometimes they don't do any better. And sometimes they have to question the decisions that adults have made. Anyway, it's a not so nice and cute film about society. There's more than meets the eye here.

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Enjoyable for what it is

Posted : 2 months ago on 11 March 2008 09:49 (A review of The Game Plan)

The last movie I saw in theaters was Across the Universe but I of course had no intentions of watching Across the Universe at the time and was lured to the theater under the false pretenses of watching The Game Plan. Why I wanted to watch this movie to begin with (in lieu of Across the Universe) is a good question which will not be discussed at length in this review.

I only got to watch this movie very recently and I enjoyed it immensely (heck it made a alot more sense that Across the Universe did). I had a great facisnation with the aspect of a football/ballet crossover at the time and this movie seemed to fit the bill. It wasn't overly pretentious and was a bit inaccurate and ridiculously over exaggerated at some parts but hey it made for great(?) dramatic effect. I mean when you go to a hospital they don't normally greet you at the door and whisk you away to the operating table, no there's a procedure to follow. But that of course would have ruined the dramatic build-up.

Jokes and plot for the most part are highly predictable but it was such and entertaining little film I found myself laughing. I'm not gonna kid myself and recommend this movie but I guess if you are really really bored and want a family friendly movie about football/ballet and father/daughter interactions then I suppose it's a good match. Plus The Rock doing ballet in tights is truly a sight to behold. It's always fun to see him in these not so great movies.

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Pink Triangles

Posted : 2 months ago on 7 March 2008 05:42 (A review of A Love to Hide)

For some apparent reason I thought this would be a happy movie. I mean it was gay and it had French people so I assumed it'd be happy. I kinda skipped the part where it mentioned it was during a Nazi-Germany occupied France.

It's kind of a foursome thing going on in this movie. You have Jean, then you have Jean's childhood friend, Sara, who's not only hopelessly in love with him but a Jew who just had her whole family murdered in front of her. Then you have Jean's lover Phillip, and of course Jean's jealous brother Jacques who is the black sheep of the family. Jacques makes a living stealing from the houses of arrested Jews but one thing leads to another and tensions build and before you know it, one bad thing happens after another, kinda like a dominoe effect. Every tragic event was a like a direct hit to the heart. POW! POW!
Every time I think it can't get worse, the movie surprises me. It was so heart-wrenchingly depressing that I yelled quite alot at inanimate objects.

All in all this was an amazing movie. Imagine my surprise to learn it was made for TV. A movie of this caliber could have convinced me it was made for a theatrical release. I can't even remember the last time I saw a made for TV movie this good, let alone a foreign made for TV movie.
Sure most people know about the "Jewish" holocaust, but hey, it wasn't just Jews.


Not recommend for the feeble-minded. But if you want to cry and feel depressed about the frailty and cruelty of human nature then go for it.

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Oh wow, it was actually not that bad

Posted : 2 months, 1 week ago on 5 March 2008 10:30 (A review of Pride & Prejudice)

I had my reservations when watching, I was not all too fond of Keira Knightley and I didn't see it possible for anyone other than Colin Firth to depict Mr.Darcy but I was pleasantly surprised.

Big disappointment aroused from lack of wet shirt Darcy and no bath scene but I suppose that's fine since it wasn't Colin Firth anyway.

At first I was really hating the movie and kept comparing it to the 1995 BBC mini-series but realizing the futility of that endeavor I gave up and started grooving on the movie for what it was. And once I did that I found myself enjoying it more than I thought I would. It wasn't accurate to the original novel in the sense that it was much more "romanticized" but for today's audience that's to be expected and it's I suppose it was alright for them to pander to our fangirlish wants for a bit.

There's alot of beautiful sweeping scenes of Keira Knightley and the scenery(?) which I pleasantly enjoyed, it was very soothing being accompanied by lovely piano music. I much liked this touch.

But, like I mentioned earlier it was highly romanticized and I'm aware that there were two different endings, and the one I watched, the American one that is, did not bode to well for me. It was too cheesy, even for me, and perhaps I felt it didn't really feel like it belonged.

Another gripe is the immense condensation of events, while I must admit that such is necessary for a film adaptation barely even two hours I was a bit annoyed that the whole Lady Catherine de Bourgh's objection to Elizabeth's marriage wasn't ever formally tied up. Sure she told that b***h off but it's just not possible to conceive a notion that a lady as powerful as that was just about to let her nephew marry Elizabeth just after being told off, I mean seriously, you thought she'd retaliate or something. But I suppose they were short on time, while I appreciate them trying to show Darcy's family's obvious reaction to his liking Elizabeth, their half-hearted way of doing so was not pleasing.

But other than that a splendid little adaptation that left me thoroughly, if not a bit too much, satisfied. Probably not my favorite adaptation of the novel but now I can't say I really hate it.

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