Still more movie watching

Okay....so I went and checked out like 10 movies at the library...what in God's name was I thinking? But, I have managed to watch a few of them......here's my thoughts:

1) Mamma Mia--actually this was one that the kids bought Kim for Christmas. We saw this on Broadway a couple of years ago, and all I can say is.....wow, it was WAY, WAY better on the Great White Way. First of all, Meryl Streep is probably the greatest actress of her generation and might have been terrific in this role except for two small things. Uh, first of all she can't sing and secondly, its not 1991. Meryl is just a wee bit long in the tooth for the role. Which isn't too obvious because quite frankly, so is Pierce Brosnan....who, uh...can't sing either. But other than that....the movie is tons of fun! Let's just say there are a couple of times in the movie where the timeline becomes completely screwed up.....so badly that as a viewer, you begin to notice.
That's not good. **
2) Ride the High Country--classic western with oldtime stars Randolph Scott & Joel McCrea as a couple of oldtimers doing the proverbial "one last job", which in this case is the transporting of some gold for a bank. You have some absolutely stunning visuals here as they make their way through the mountains, but to me the best part of the movie is the amazing supporting cast.
I mean, literally you have a who's who of character actors from the 60's & 70's. Warren Oates, R.G. Armstrong, L.Q. Jones, James Drury, Edgar Buchannon.....folks....its incredible. Really good film. ****1/2
3) Bad Lieutenant--I have to tell you, I'm a pretty open-minded guy. It really takes a lot to offend me, truth be told. But here....you have some pretty offensive material. I read a review where they mentioned that a lot of the offensive imagery was a result of "Catholic guilt". Uh, somehow...I don't think so. Harvey Keitel is an amazing actor who does a really great job in the title role, as a cop who's addicted to not only drugs, violence, sex and gambling....but he's kind of confused on his role as a Catholic apparently also. Pretty much something here to offend everyone. Keitel's performance give the film its * (that's one star).
4) Planet Terror---Part 2 of the Quentin Tarantino-Robert Rodriguez double feature that is an homage to the crappy and cheesy drive-in films of the late 60's & early to mid 70's. This one is the better of the two films. Our plot here, such as it is, has the military (its always the military!) "accidently" releasing some poisonious gas into the air around a small Texas town, which results in the citizens turning into the inevitable zombies. (Its a drive-in movie, remember?) Our cast is actually a pretty good one, with supporting roles by Bruce Willis, Michael Biehn, Michael Parks, Jeff Fahey, & Josh Brolin. The real star of the film though is Rose McGowan, who began dating director Rodriguez during the filming of the movie and who, quite honestly, looks just smoking hot. Good zombie fun with lots of fake blood and a really high body count. ***1/2

Later,
Jeff

Watching a bunch of movies over the holidays

This weekend I've seen three movies...

1) Stepbrothers w/Will Ferrell. Absolutely filthy, but in a hilarious way. Not as good as Talladegha Nights, but still very funny.

2) Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Its from the same group of people who did Superbad & Knocked Up.No where near as funny as those two movies.More of a romantic comedy. I actually thought the real revelation in the film was Mila Kunis (who most know from That 70's Show and as the voice of Meg Griffin on Family Guy). I thought she was really, really good.

3) The Ox-Bow Incident. Absolutely fantastic.***** A terrific character study and look at the effects of mob violence and rush-to-judgement.

4) Run, Fatboy Run--very cute British romantic comedy featuring Simon Pegg, who was so good in Shaun of the Dead & Hot Fuzz. Here he plays a guy who has run (literally) from responsibility his entire life but decides to enter a marathon as a way of proving himself to his family and friends. Not everyone believes he can do it. Also starring Thandie Newton & Hank Azaria, who is very good as his ex-girlfriend's smarmy new fiancee. ***

5) A Christmas Story--well of course I watched it again. Its Christmas!! How can you NOT watch the classic film set in the late 40's in Indiana about little Ralphie and his desperate attempts to get Santa to bring him a b.b. gun? CLASSIC *****

6) Love Actually--one of my new holiday favorites, this British film stars the likes of Hugh Grant, Keira Knightley (luminous), Alan Rickman, Colin Firth & Emma Thompson. Its about the lives of a group of seemingly unrelated people in London in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
Very funny & romantic and a terrific soundtrack to boot. ****1/2

7) Dark Command--so how does this classic John Wayne western manage to find its way onto the list? I'll tell ya how. It starts with a little post-Christmas treat for my dogs and then a 3:30am wakeup call when nature calls---one of the dogs that is. So then I sit up for 2 hours waiting for (no pun intended) all things to pass and I check out TCM to see what's on. Lucky for me, it was a very solid John Wayne effort co-starring Claire Trevor & Walter Pidgeon. Good action, including a spectacular dive off of a cliff that resulted in an industry-wide change in policy, and a very good group of co-stars. Very good.

That's it....so far. I still have a bunch I rented.

Later,
Jeff

Merry Christmas to all!

And after watching Notre Dame's game last night....it is indeed a Happy Holiday!!

Jeff

My man A.P.B.

So yesterday....Andy Poe-Bowdren was SUPPOSED to be flying home---heavy emphasis on "supposed to" there---to spend winter break with us. Well you might have read about the recent weather they've been having in the midwest and yesterday in the New York City area. They got hit with something like 12 inches of snow right in the middle of the afternoon. And, you guess it....when do you suppose that Andy was due to fly out?Those of you who guessed middle of the afternoon can put your hands down and receive full credit. Now, mind you....we had heard ahead of time that the system was bearing down on the northeast, and Andy's mom attempted to change his flight to earlier in the day and called Andy to tell him that. Andy was....ahem.....sleeping and missed the call. So his mom could not change the flight. So he goes to the airport, and finds out that his flight has been delayed. Now, just to make things really, really interesting....his school has reportedly CLOSED FOR THE WINTER BREAK. Luckily, Andy had a friend from school who had mentioned to him that if there was any sort of problem with the weather that Andy could stay with him and his family.

On Staten Island.

So Andy hangs out in the airport for a couple of hours more....the snow is just coming down in incredible amounts until finally, the flight is cancelled. His mom is driving home and attempting to contact the airlines to get Andy on a later flight at the same time. She gets through and is arranging for him to leave on Saturday (today) in the middle of the afternoon. She has almost completed the arrangements when....She loses her signal on her cellphone and the call is disconnected.By the time she gets back with the airline, the flight in mid-afternoon is now booked solid--and she can only get Andy on a flight that will get into Ft Lauderdale (allegedly) around 1 am on Sunday morning. So she gets back in touch with Andy, who is waiting in line at the Newark Airport trying to arrange his own reschedule, and tells him to get out of line and call his friend to let him know that he is going to need that place to stay for the evening. So now Andy takes the train from the airport where he connects with the Staten Island Ferry which takes him to the subway that takes him to Staten Island where his friend is waiting with HIS family and then......well by this time, Kim is pretty much freaking out wondering if our son is wandering aimlessly around greater New York City.But ya know what? He made it. On his own.

Pretty much without anyone else's help but his own.It kind of reminded me when I took a flight from Miami to Tokyo and pretty much had to find my way from the airport to the hotel and there was absolutely no one that spoke English.Except I was 26 at the time...and my son is 19.

And when he does make it home....I'm gonna look at him with just a little more respect that I did yesterday.

Later,Jeff

12/17/08--Updates....I got yer updates right here

So in the last entry I mentioned to you that Kellie's band had been selected to perform at the inaugaration in Washington, D.C. next month. Well last night Kim got the good news that she's been selected as a chaperone! So the Bowdren family is going to be very well represented at this historic event. I told Kim that the most important thing to remember was----don't drink a lot of water..since there are probably NOT going to be a lot of bathrooms there. Ya gotta keep things in perspective folks.

They've also been mentioned pretty prominently in the local newspapers. Today they made the front page of the Miami Herald!!! Check it out here:


Taravella marching band lands coveted spot in i - Flash Player Installation



Last night, I took Beezer to the vet. He has a lot of the "fatty tumors"--which are essentially these sort of nasty looking bumps all over his body that aside from looking nasty, are pretty much harmless. Well, one of them appeared to be growing, so we took him in for a checkup while holding our breath and crossing our fingers. Besides the fact that its Christmas time and we can't really afford some dog surgery of any kind....Midnight had surgery on a similar problem over the Christmas vacation about 5 years ago....and the stress alone aged me a couple of years.
Thankfully he hasn't had any reoccurence but it was on my mind when we took Beezer in.
The doc gave him a thorough check up and then did a needle biopsy on the tumor.
The news came out a few minutes later---

Its just a fatty tumor. The doctor told me that they can get pretty big, but there was nothing else to worry about. Beezer got a ride in the car and a lot of extra attention for his trouble---and I got a big load off of my mind. He is my "sweet prince" ya know.


Later,
Jeff

An eventful last 24 hours

Yesterday, I met Kim for lunch, as my "vacation" at work continued. We decided to go to a Chinese place that we've never been to before. And one of the things I like to do is to people watch. And there was plenty of that to be found. I'm watching one of the waitresses as she goes to hand a customer at another table a stack of paper napkins. Except, as she's doing this, the stack falls to the floor. She begins to apologize all over herself to the customer and picks up the "dirty stack" and hands them a new stack. The customer looks away and she's walking back to her station--at which point I see her brush off the napkins and put them back in the stack to go onto the next table. I suppose the next table would get the napkins that had graced the floor.
It reminded me of something I saw when I had one of my first jobs--in a Chinese restaurant.
I was working in the kitchen washing dishes and one of the waiters brought in a bunch of dishes to be washed. The owner's wife came in right after him and looked at one of the plates--which had a scoop of white rice on it. It appeared that the customer had taken maybe one forkful out of the rice...but otherwise the scoop was in sort of pristine condition. Which wasn't the point of course, but I digress. The owner's wife then walks over to the cooking pot and scrapes the rest of the "pristine" scoop of rice back into the pot.

I never had anything with white rice from that restaurant again. Anyway....


So last night, Kim and I went to the east part of town to watch the city of Pompano Beach's annual Christmas parade--not that I'm not a huge fan of Pompano, but mainly because Kellie and the rest of the Taravella H.S. marching band were participating. There were a lot of other parents and folks from around town to see the parade, and so Kim struck up a conversation with a couple of them, telling them that we were there to see our daughter and the marching band that she was in--ya know, that sort of a thing. And so the lady standing next to us....her husband comes walking back with dinner for his wife and their two kids. So we figure it something quick, especially because the kids are maybe 3 or 4 years old. So the wife is passing out the food to the kids and then asks her husband what he got himself for dinner (obviously I'm an eavesdropper also--I realize its not my best quality).

"What did you get yourself?" the lady asks.
"Ravioli." he answers.
"Ravioli? You bought ravioli?"
"Yeah...why?"
"Who buys ravioli while their standing around waiting for a parade?"
"What's wrong with that?"
"There's nothing wrong with that....but who buys ravioli? What's the matter with you?"

So the parade begins, and we pretend to be overly enthusiastic, as the quasi-local celebrity's drive by and wave to the crowd. So the woman and Kim strike up a conversation about where their kids were in the parade. And I hear:

"Oh, my daughter is a flutist in the high school band." Kim says to the lady.
"Oh, really? My oldest son did that last year."
"My son just left for college a couple of months ago."
"Oh really? My son hasn't left yet. He has a girlfriend. And so he hasn't gone yet....and I just don't think its the right girl....I mean, for him. She's just not good for him."
"Oh...." Kim says.

And I'm sitting there and I'm thinking.....Kim didn't even know this woman 30 minutes before, and now she feels compelled to tell Kim that her son is dating someone she doesn't approve of and.....well....what in the hell was this woman thinking?


Anyway, so today....Kellie got some very good news. She made All-County band!! The entire county consists of 12 flute players and Kellie made 8th chair--which means out of the 200 people that tried out for All-County, Kellie was 8th best--in the whole county!!! She has really wanted this for a long time so I was very happy for her. And the most amazing thing is, she did it on a borrowed flute. Right before she was do for her tryout, her own flute broke and she had to borrow one from a friend--which made it even more amazing.

And then...to really top off the day, late in the day she and the rest of the band from her high school found out that they had been chosen---as the only band from the state of Florida---to perform in the inaugaration parade for the new president!! That means her band will travel up to Washington, D.C. in January--along with about 5 million other people.

There will be 5 million people there....but only one Kellie Poe-Bowdren.

Later,
Jeff

My vacation continues.....so, let's look at some movies

Well, the venerable Broward County Courthouse continues to be watersoaked, so I've been sitting at home watching movies and spending more time than I probably should on my computer. On the plus side, I did go with the wife last night when Kellie had her all county auditon.
What a dad i am!! WOOHOO

Anyway, I saw two really good movies the other day and wanted to give them some props.
1) Flags of Our Fathers--I remember an old friend of mine from work tell me about this book when the book came out many years ago, and what an impact it had on him. So I finally got to see the movie, which details the story of the men who put the flag up on Iwo Jima in the iconic photo. And truthfully, while its a compelling story, it really to me was more a case of how horrible it was seeing what those poor men had to go through--not just on Iwo Jima, but when they were brought home by a nearly broke U.S. government, determined to exploit them and the photo for all it was worth in order to raise badly needed funds for the war effort.
A great film, but sad in its own way. ****
2) Letter from Iwo Jima--This is director Clint Eastwood's companion piece to the afore mentioned Flags of Our Fathers, which is essentially the same story told from the point of view of the Japanese soldiers that fought on Iwo Jima. Now, you might ask yourself why you would want to hear the viewpoint of our enemy. But this is not just a great movie, its an import piece of filmmaking and should be required viewing in any history class. Every story of battle has two sides, and here we see the Japanese soldiers as what they no doubt were....guys who thought they were doing their duty. A baker from a small village, an equestrian with Olympic abilities, and a career soldier who had no desire to do battle with the United States, having spent part of his life living there. Brutal in its depiction of war, yet utterly gripping. ***** a must see.

Later,
Jeff

My Thanksgiving weekend

So last night we drove Andy to the airport---5 hours later than expected---thank you JetBlue and south Florida weather. Which of course meant that he wasn't getting into New Jersey until like 1 a.m. or so. Naturally his mother wanted the obligatory phone call announcing that he had gotten in safely, and then another one that announced that he had actually made it back to his dorm room, which mean naturally that...we had some pretty staggered sleeping last evening. Which was even further interrupted by a phone call at 5:40am announcing that my beloved Broward County Courthouse was....uh...under water yet again.

Nope, we don't need a new building out there....all you registered voters.

Yes apparently ANOTHER water main broke and completely flooded the building. Cue the appearance from the local television stations. They say we'll be out today, but I'll be surprised if we show up the entire week.
More on that as details become available.

My Thanksgiving weekend was spent watching some movies, so let me give you a quick rundown....the less said about the Notre Dame game against USC, the better....although I will say that the Charlie Weis situation has been hilarious to keep a watch on. Everyone short of the ghost of Vince Lombardi has been rumored coming to South Bend over the course of the last 48 hours or so. Again, stay tuned.

1) Point Blank---you might remember a Mel Gibson movie from a couple of years ago called "Payback", where he played a guy who had been cheated and robbed by the mob (go figure), and was looking for some revenge.
Here was the 1967 original with Lee Marvin, which was sort of a psychedelic noir--I think I just made up that term. Anyway, here Marvin, one of the alltime great tough guys in movie history, is out to get the syndicate that done him wrong. He's helped along the way by Angie Dickinson--and may I just say that she was one smoking hot woman in her day---and a stellar cast that includes Carroll O'Connor & John Vernon. A solid crime drama, but might not be for everyone's taste. ***1/2
2) Badlands---a young Martin Sheen & Sissy Spacek are young serial killers (before there was such a thing) on the run in Montana & South Dakota in the 50's. They're so non-plussed about shooting and killing people, you'd think it was happening right now. Both are really terrific in their performances. Chilling. ****
3) Big Fish--a horrible title for one terrific movie. Albert Finney & Ewan McGregor play the same character at different times in his life as a young man learns to come to grips with his father's pending death and the legacy that he has left behind. What were thought of as fanciful stories may have been real life. A really spellbinding fantasy by director Tim Burton. One of the best films I've seen in a long time. *****
4) Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull--okay, here's the deal. If this was NOT an Indiana Jones movie, but just an action movie of its own---I might have really liked it. But Indy has set the action bar so high, I found myself somewhat disappointed---for an Indiana Jones movie mind you. Indy seems a little old and worn out, and I didn't particularly like the Shia LeBouf character at all. Russians, not as good as Nazi's in the bad guy department either. ***

Later,
Jeff