7-27-04

I've told that I "don't do death well".  That's what the 2nd former Mrs. Me used to tell me.  Whether it was a relative, a pet, someone I knew...I just didn't handle it that well.  Maybe she was right (first time for everything).  A friend of mine died early this morning.  I realized that last night I drove right past her hospital.  I didn't realize that she was even at that hospital, but I found myself wondering if I would've visited her if I had known about it.  I don't necessarily mean last night, because I had the wife and kids with me...I mean just generally speaking.  And I'm not sure.  Here I find myself wondering if anyone would visit me under similar circumstances and yet I admit that its hard for me to do.  Quite the dichotomy--don't ya think?  I mean, I felt for her and what she was going through (cancer), and yet, part of me just felt like I needed to stay away from such a depressing scene.  So I never went.  And now she's gone.  I hope she's in a better place.  R.I.P. Dollie.

Anniversary dinner last night.  We went to Benihana's.  I had the steak and more shrimp than you could shake a stick at.  Its a great place to go to once in awhile, but you get the check and realize....well....why you go there "once in awhile".  The kids were sorta cranky at the beginning, since naturally the restaurant didn't offer anything remotely related to pizza or chicken fingers...but they got over it.  We sat with a family from New York and they asked us to recommend someplace for them to see while they were here on vacation.  How sad is it that I've lived her for over 30 years and I couldn't think of any place for them to go?  The best I could do was to recommend the Sawgrass Mall!!  Pretty lame.  Kim sent me a basket of cookies at work, despite both of us insisting that the other shouldn't get any sort of gifts.  So while the ladies at work were all very impressed with the idea, I immediately was hit with the "so what did you get her?" questions.  I admit it, I totally gaved and went and got her a gift certificate.  Then, just to make the scenario totally perfect, I forgot to give it to her before we went to bed.  True love blossoms.

So my Minnesota Vikings signed Brock Lesnar today.  Hmm....should I be happy about this?  Well, Lesnar is an athletic freak, there's no question about that.  Howlong will it take him to turn into a football player?  Should be interesting to watch, which makes it one of the Vikes storylines for training camp this fall.  Meanwhile, Ricky Williams is out in search of some high grade asian hash by the looks of it.  Did this guy screw his team or the fans?  Well, he certainly left the team holding the bag.  I mean, talk about a bad time to walk out on your team.  Next to Barrett Robbins, the center for the Raiders who no showed the SUPER BOWL for God's sake, I can't think of a worse time to leave your team then 5 days before training camp with a team that has basically built itself around you.  I'm getting a whiff of something, and whether or not its coming from the back of the local head shop remains to be seen.

Since I wasn't doing this a month ago, I didn't get a chance to post my movie reviews from June.....here we go:

1) Earth Girls are Easy--yep, the old one from the late 80's with Geena Davis & Jeff Goldblum...you might remember that Jim Carrey had a supporting role....he was on screen during one scene and my daughter blurts out "hey, isn't that the guy from Bruce Almighty?"  I suddenly felt very old.  Of course, this is the same girl who last night interrupted a conversation I was having with my wife, during which I was telling my wife that I thought we had just run over a hubcap by saying "what a hubcap?"  **3/4

2) Saboteur--the old Hitchcock film with Robert Cummings & Priscilla Lane where he's being chased by the Nazi's...good fun as always with Hitch, and who makes better villians than Nazi's? ***1/2

3) Shrek 2--by God, I didn't think I'd ever say this, but...Antonio Banderas is the best thing in this movie.  I know, I know.  I couldn't believe it either.  But his voice-over on the character of Puss-N-Boots is flatout, fall off your chair hilarious.  Its one of those movies where you have to watch closely because their spoofing so many movies that you might miss something if you blink....****....very, very funny.

4) Something's Gotta Give...I'm so ashamed.  I actually liked this movie....that being said, it wasn't because of Diane Keaton or Keaunu Reeves.  Jack Nicholson is really the whole movie, and its great that he's willing to spoof his whole personna.  There's a great scene where he's medicated and he starts walking around with his ass hanging out in the air.  *** funny spoof of Nicholson---by Nicholson!

5) The Commitments--good movie with a great soundtrack...one of the best I've ever heard.  Movie is ***, but add the soundtrack and its a solid ****.

6) Van Helsing.... I took my son to see this at the theatre, and he was TOTALLY into it.  I took it for what it was worth, which is a basically stupid movie with some really good special effects.  I will say this though, Kate Beckingsdale can't act worth a lick...then again, who friggin cares when she's that hot?  **1/2

7) Cheaper by the Dozen--WOW!!  Was this ever a bad movie.  Actually sort of disappointing, in that I've always been a fan of Steve Martin & Bonnie Hunt.  It actually had a halfway decent supporting cast, with Tom Welling (from t.v.'s Tom Welling, Piper Perabo, Hilary Duff (who's some sort of huge deal to the pre-teen girls and actually does a pretty good job here) as well as Alan Ruck & Ashton Kutcher, who believe it or not may have been the best thing in the film.  The fact that Ashton Kutcher is the best thing in the movie probably tells you all you need to know.  But what really annoyed me was that, disguised as a 'family film', this is one mean spirited little movie.  None of the kids in the family are likeable, you wonder if the parents will love each other again, and you wonder if maybe they wouldn't be better off for all concerned just getting a divorce.  YUCK.

8) Children of War---this is one of those HBO documentaries, and holy shit is it powerful.  The filmmakes chose 4 hotspots around the world--Bosnia, Israel, Rwanda & Northern Ireland--and showed the effect of war on the children who grow up in that environment.  This wasn't a "fun" film by any stretch of the imagination, but WOW.  What a terrific piece of filmmaking.  ****1/2

9) Where Eagles Dare---one of my alltime favorite war movies.  Eastwood & Richard Burton ("broadsword calling Danny Boy...come in Danny Boy!") battle the Nazi's against the background of the Austrian Alps.  Terrific fun.  ***3/4

10) Miller's Crossing---OMAN!!  What a great friggin movie!!  I thought I had seen this one awhile back, but I'm not sure.  Great, great performances all around---and just really brutal stuff in a few scenes.  Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, Marcia Gay Harden---all could have been nominated for Academy Awards and no one would have blinked.  And watch for the one scene with the great Steve Buscemi, as he is terrific doing the sort of double-talk that he would make famous in "Fargo".  *****

11) Finding Nemo--Now this...THIS was a great kid's movie!  This was everything that Cheaper by the Dozen SHOULD have been, but wasn't.  Some very touching moments, along with some absolutely laugh out loud scenes (including a classic one showing a great white shark at an overeaters anonymous meeting).  Go get this movie, you won't regret it.  *****

Enjoy,

Jeff