6/28/08---I've had a movie intensive weekend

So it happens from time to time....I'll go movie intensive and try and catch up on some of the films that I've seen recently....the other night I hit Blockbuster and rented 7 movies.
Wanna guess how I spent my weekend??  Here we go:

1) Rambo:  This film series has always been a guilty pleasure for a lot of people, because, let's be honest, most of the movies that Sly Stallone make don't involve people having to do a great deal of thinking.  Pretty much its "let's watch Sly blow stuff up".
And don't get me wrong....there's a lot of that here also.  The 4th Rambo movie puts big Sly in Burma (??!!?), where apparently there's been a civil war for like 40 years and, oh yeah, they hate Americans and Christians to boot.  The bad guys are really evil, and you really want to see them get what's coming to them.  But I have to tell you something--the violence here is really, really graphic.  People don't just get shot--they get blown apart.
Limbs are sliced off, with lots of detail.  Children are gunned down in a village.  Its all pretty unpleasant...and I'm not sure if Stallone is doing it because he thinks that "war is hell", and we need to understand that....or if he thinks that today's jaded movie goer just expects their violence to be extremely graphic.  Another fun Rambo story almost ruined by some violence I really didn't need to see.  ***, but I'll drop it a full star for violence.  **
2) Untraceable:  I love me some Diane Lane.  Not only is she smoking hot, but she's a hell of an actress.  This movie though, is sort of a nasty little film about a FBI search for a serial killer.  Now, these films have been done before, and they've been good popcorn entertainment to boot (Silence of the Lambs anyone?).  This one made me want to take a shower afterwards--as if it left you with some sort of grime that needed to be washed.
Lane plays an agent working in the Portland cyber crimes unit, and this time they've got a doozy of a case to work on.  Someone is kidnapping locals and torturing them online for everyone to watch--sort of a Death by Youtube.  But here's the catch.  All the deaths are horrible and awful and elaborate...but the more people that log on to watch what's happening...the quicker the victims death will be.  Truly a serial killer with a heart.
Here again, we see some people die in a really horrible and graphic way.  Lane is hot on the person's trail via her laptop....and naturally she gets thrown in harm's way before the end of the film....if I didn't like Diane Lane so much, I probably wouldn't have thought it was that good.  Hmm...how about, Diane Lane is worth 2 stars, the rest of the film is worth one star....***....but have the water warming up after the movie is over.  And don't say I didn't warn ya.

3) Gone Baby Gone:  Now, here, in keeping with my happy film watching...is a movie about the search for a kidnapped little girl and the seedy underbelly of Boston's white trash neighborhoods.  Its got a terrific cast--Morgan Freeman, Amy Madigan, Ed Harris
among others--but the films star is Casey Affleck, younger brother of Ben (who directed the movie).  He's not bad, but he's not up to the level of some of the film's other heavy hitters.  Folks, these are not people you want to hang around with in your life.  The search for the little girl brings out some secrets that some people would just soon not have you know....and at the end of the film, leaves you with an interesting moral dilemma.  Amazingly....the best film I saw this weekend.  ****

4) Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins:  Martin Lawrence movies are a guilty pleasure of mine.  I go in, understanding that they will be over the top ridiculous, accept that, and sit back and laugh.  Here he shoots a little bit higher with his concept, and still manages to make a fun movie about family and the effect they have on our lives.  He plays "R.J. Stevens", a t.v. host who is a combination of Jerry Springer & Dr. Phil.  He's engaged to a woman who just won Survivor, and has become a genuine Hollywood celebrity.
And now he's heading home for his parents 50th wedding anniversary, where he's awaiting the chance to show everyone in Dry Springs, Georgia, that he's made it big.
His family features some of the usual stereotypes--the bully, the loudmouthed rival, the oft-married sister, the slick cousin who's never had a job but who always seems to have money, and the father who's respect he craves but can't seem to get.  Everything about this movie should make it a total failure at first glance.  But screw that.  Its hilarious.
Lawrence is ably assisted by James Earl Jones (Dad), Michael Clarke Duncan (bully brother), Mike Epps (sleazy cousin) and Cedric the Entertainer (loudmouthed rival).
But to me, the movie is flat out stolen by Mo'Nique as Lawrence's sister, who doesn't understand why anyone would allow a dog in the kitchen--and she says so, right in the middle of scraping the corns off of her feet at the dinner table.  I mean, dogs are not sanitary, right?   ****  go ahead, try not to laugh.

5) In Bruges:  Weirdest title of the year.  Colin Farrell & Brendan Gleeson, who by the way is one of those actors who's name you don't know but who is terrific in every performance he gives, are two hitmen from London who have recently finished a "job" and are told by their employer to stay "In Bruges" for the next two weeks.  Bruges is a small city in Belgium.  Farrell absolutely hates it---Gleeson loves it.  Let me admit, the film takes awhile to get a moving.  Its like a slow train moving up a hill....but finally it gets to the top and begins rolling and picking up speed.  Its a slightly twisted tale but the acting is really good (Ralph Fiennes shows up near the end and is very funny).
***1/4

Later,
Jeff

6/28/08---Movies, get your movies...right here

So I've been trying to catch up on my movie viewing lately....some good, some not so good...here's a few reviews and recommendations for ya.

1) Cloverfield:  I can't believe I'm saying this, but....I liked this movie.  Actually a lot.
Its sort of a modern day take on Godzilla (NYC attacked by a giant turtle--but wait, there's more too it than that) and part of the fun is that the story is told from the point of view of a guy with a camcorder who was videotaping his friend's going away party--uh, and then the giant monster attacked, and he gets everything that is happening on video.
What makes the movie fun is two things:  the giant monster has these little versions of itself (sort of a cross between a cockroach & a locust) that lives the giant host and comes down to the ground--and its looking to feed!  And the other thing is, and this is a key in any hokey monster movie--you never really get a good look at the monster itself.
Its always sort of in the shadows or fog or smoke...which is the way I like it.  If you get too good a look, then the whole "that's really fake looking" thing comes into play.
A good popcorn "Godzilla is attacking Tokyo" sort of a movie.  Fun.   ***1/2

2) National Treasure 2:  Book of Secrets.   Okay, I'll be honest with you.  I'm sort of a guilty pleasure Nicholas Cage fan.  The guy has made some really good movies---Valley Girl, Con Air, Face-Off....and he's made some horrible ones also.  But one of the best things about any Nicholas Cage movie lately is watching the absolute abomonation that is Nick Cage's hair.  I mean, the guy makes $10 million a movie and he can't afford to buy a better wig?  Geez Louise man...c'mon!  Here's the sequel to his recent adventure hit where he plays sort of a modern day Indiana Jones....this time searching for some documents from the Civil War that will prove his ancestor was not a conspirator in the Lincoln assassination.  Its all big fun--as long as you don't think TOO much.  Jon Voight & Helen Mirren are a stitch as Nick's bickering parents.   ***3/4

3) The Interpreter:  Remember when we used to think that Nicole Kidman was the weird one in the Tom Cruise//Nicole relationship?  Yeah, well....boy were we wrong!
Here, once again, she adapts a sort of British accent (supposedly south African I think)
as an interpreter at the U.N. who overhears what she thinks is a plot to assassinate a visiting diplomat.  Sean Penn, looking very old and tired in a not-really-good-Al-Pacino-kind-of-a-way, provides assistance.  A decent time killer if political intrigue is your thing, although it seems a tad full of itself.  ***

4) The Man Who Knew Too Much:   Alfred Hitchcock.  I mean seriously, does it get any better than that?  I've always believed that the zenith of his career were his pictures from the 40's & the 50's--but that's just me.  Here we have James Stewart & Doris Day as a couple (Stewart being 14 years old than Doris--cradle robber) who visit exotic and mysterious Marrakesh with their young son--apparently its the sort of thing that doctors do after they've "been to Paris for a medical conference".  What the hell is a doctor from Indianapolis (Stewart's character in the movie) doing going to France for a medical conference???  Don't they have those things in Chicago?  Anyway, intrigue soon develops as their young son is kidnapped and taken back to London and its all a plot involving--you guessed it, the killing of another diplomat.  What the hell are these diplomats doing that requires all these assassination attempts?  Anyone, its big fun with lots of terrific mood and camerawork....and Doris sings Que Sera, Sera....
Great way to spend an afternoon.  ****1/4


Later,
Jeff

6/28/08---Quote of the Day---courtesy of...Andy Poe-Bowdren

So I've also been taking on the task of teaching Andy to drive, which is not as easy as his sister by the way.  Today we dropped off mom & sis for their hair appointment, and Andy & I were heading to the local Barnes & Noble to kill a half an hour until the girls were ready.  So I'm giving Andy directions on where he needs to turn and we get this little gem from my son:

"Okay Andy, you're going to go just past the 2nd light and make a left up ahead."

We stop at one of the lights.

"Um Jeff, could you please repeat the directions?  I was paying attention to some of my driving things and didn't hear you."
"What were you doing instead of listening to me?"
"Uh...trying not to hit the car in front of me."

Which is...ya know....a good thing.


Later,
Jeff

6/26/08---My wife....sometimes she has trouble sleeping....

So this morning I wake up, and I'm rubbing my eyes and my wife says:

"Man, I did not sleep good last night."
"Oh yeah, how come?"
"Well, I wasn't asleep when you came to bed ya know."
"Yeah, I sort of noticed."
"Yeah, I had trouble getting to sleep...and well, ya know, with what happened in the middle of the night."
"What happened in the middle of the night?"
"You don't remember the smoke alarm going off at 3am?"
"Um....sort of...."
"You jumped out of bed and yelled...'what the hell is that!'."
"Oh...um...."
"And then I went to check on the alarm.....and Kellie and I managed to shut it off.  But when I came back to bed you had fallen back asleep."
"Oh....uh...sorry."

So about 10 minutes later we go out into the kitchen....and Andy is getting ready to leave with his mom for his summer job....and Kim asks him about the alarm.  Now, keep in mind that I sleep on the other side of the house from the alarm--Andy's room is right NEXT to the alarm.

"Andy," Kim asks, "did you hear the alarm go off last night?"
"Uh....no."

Kim looks at me and rolls her eyes.

"Hey," I told her, "maybe its a gender thing honey."

My family.  Safe and secure in their home with me, honed to a razor's edge.


Later,
Jeff

George Carlin---R.I.P.

I can remember that George Carlin was the very first host of the premier edition of NBC's Saturday Night Live....he came out and did a monologue and then participated in a grand total of ZERO sketches.  That was him--he wasn't a sketch guy, he was a guy who was best coming out in front of an audience or a camera and talking about the peculiarities of life.  He would point out words that made him laugh or the way that certain words had more than one meaning.  And when he was on, he was amazing in his observational abilities.  No, mind you....he wasn't my parents kind of a comedian.
George, much like his contemporary Richard Pryor, could curse up a blue streak---getting fouler and fouler by the minute.  My parents were not raised in an era where cursing was part of the everyday language.  Carlin & Pryor taught an entire generation how to curse--and I don't think that's an exaggeration.  Pryor did it from an anger that lived inside of him.  Carlin did it to point out that words can't offend...only their meaning did.  And to him, that seemed absurd.  So he used the words on a regular basis as his way of pointing out that absurdity. 

I can remember my mom taking me to Sears one weekend in my senior year of high school (far too long ago) and I picked up Toledo Window Box.


Here was the album in which George talked about how all the characters in various fairy tales were obviously on drugs, and gave examples.  It was hilarious, and quite obviously my mother had NO IDEA of what she had allowed her impressionable young son to purchase.  Call in the child welfare people!!!

I liked that album so much that I bought another one....this one was called Class Clown:


An amazingly, this one was about what it was like...to grow up in an Irish Catholic family.  Hello....I think we found a winner.  Well, that an the 7 words you weren't allowed to say on television.  When I played that one, I turned my stereo down so mom & dad couldn't hear.  And then I laughed my ass off.

But the guy was a big part of my youth.  I finally got to go see him live in concert about 8 years ago with Kim & my friends Pat & Nancy.  It was a great night out and we all enjoyed ourselves.  He wasn't as wild as he had been in my youth...he was like a lion that had been de-fanged.  Something was missing it seemed.  But then, when you thought he had become just another tamed comedian....he reminded you that his claws still were sharp.  He remained that way until this morning....when he passed away at age 71 from heart failure.

He'll be missed by a generation of fans.  I did the YouTube search for him, and naturally there are tons of clips that feature him.  But after a brief search, I was able to find one that was actually clean.  No cursing!  Because I wanted my parents to enjoy him also, to see him use words to show the absurdity of it all....not to offend....but as a way of observing.  So Mom & Dad, give this one a look see.  George Carlin looks at the differences between baseball & football--in case you didn't know already.

YouTube - Baseball and Football


Later,
Jeff

6/21/08--A night out at the Tijuna Taxi Company

So last night we decided, based on the flip of a coin, to dine at the Tijuana Taxi Company, a local Mexican restaurant--which may end up being our last time we dine at this joint.

First of all, we get there--courtesy of the driving of the ever improving Kellie Poe-Bowdren, who is proud to announce that she parked without incident BETWEEN two other cars for the first time, and got there right ahead of a rainstorm and were told that the wait would be approximately 15 minutes.

Which was apparently a guess.
Ya know, if you're going to guess....guess the other way and tell me its going to be an hour, then I'll be happy to only wait 35 minutes.
But let's be honest, the girls who play hostess at these places aren't hired because their really, really intelligent.

So we're cooling our heels for 35 minutes, watching people who came up after us get seated before us.  So after about 25 minutes I go up to the hostess to see where we are in the order to be seated.  My timing was pretty good because I got to hear this from one of the restaurant employees to the bubble headed blonde hostess:

"Hey, who's the bitch at table #56?"
"What?"
(See me standing there)
"Uh, who's the chick at table #56?"

Nice.  Makes a really good impression on your customers.

Amazingly, we are finally seated and the hostess actually says to us:
"Sorry about the misunderstanding."
Misunderstanding?  I didn't misunderstand anything.  You told me 15 minutes and sat me down 35 minutes later---after seating a bunch of people who arrived after I did.

So we order our meal, and the wife gets a fajita and when it arrives, she asks for a little bit more sour cream (don't ask me--I hate the stuff).  The waitress tells her, get this....that extra sour cream is "an additional charge".  I wanted a little more cheese with the tacos I order...I'm told there's an "additional charge".

My tacos arrive, and I had ordered from here before and been perfectly satisfied, but this time they were really greasy--as in dripping a puddle onto my plate.

The bill arrives and I check it.  Because my wife wanted additional sour cream?
50 cents.
My additional finger full of cheese?  75 cents.

Talk about nickel & dime.  That's the kind of things that motivate your customers to come back.

I called the waitress over after she had dropped the bill off and pointed out the charges.

"Do you know the worst thing about charging customers 50 & 75 cents for additional condiments?  Its the sort of thing that will only aggravate them and the person who is going to get hurt by that is the waitress.  Because they'll be mad and take it out on you by screwing you on your tip."

She looked at me and rolled her eyes.

"Tell me about it."

Something told me this was not news to her.

Later,
Jeff

PS...I gave her a decent tip anyway--not her fault the company has a horrible policy.

6/15/08--Long Father's Day weekend

So this weekend we ventured up to Deland, Florida, to pick up Kellie at her flute camp.
We spent Friday night at my parents house, and then Saturday afternoon we treked the approximately 20 miles to meet up and watch the concert that coincided with the last day of the camp.  My sister drove over from Jacksonville to meet up with us.

The concert was very nice, with Kellie doing her usual nice job along with the rest of her fellow students.  We're kind of hoping that Kellie enjoys Deland (and Stetson University) enough that she might get interested in it as a potential college choice.  After the concert we had a big lunch at the Brickhouse Grill in Deland.  Kellie said it was the first "real food" that she had in almost a week.

After returning to my parents we went out later that evening to Anthony's Pizza by Mom & Dad's house, and Kellie and I tried to tackle their Godfather Pizza.  Its a cheese and pepperoni pizza with a crust on TOP of the pizza also.  Mmm mmm good!

Kim & I shared the drive home today and we got home in time to celebrate Father's Day at home.  We had done the same for my Dad the day before at the restaurant, and naturally we didn't forget my Mom's birthday either!

Tonight the Kellie Poe-Bowdren driving experiment continues.  She went out originally with her Mom, who decided quickly that she didn't have the nerve to teach driving to her daughter.  So I got in the car and we drove up to the gas station--a first for Kellie, along with her first left at a traffic signal.  Hey, don't laugh--you were a young driver too, weren't you?


Earlier this week Kim had asked me what I wanted for Father's Day.  I literally racked my brain trying to come up with an answer--and nothing came to mind (status quo some might say).  Yesterday, on the way to Kellie's concert, we stopped by a used bookstore that my Mom & I like to go too---and the idea finally came to my mind.  There's a new book out about the life & death of the wrestler Chris Benoit--some may remember him as the guy who murdered his wife and young son about one year ago in Atlanta.  I've read some early reviews on it and the word is that its an excellent book, extremely well done.  This morning, I got up and mentioned it to Kim--along with my thought that maybe--just maybe, a book about a guy who murdered his family was not the best idea for a Father's Day gift.  Just a thought mind you.

Later,
Jeff