Goodbye, Old Friend

I got word on Friday that this week will be the last week of operation for the Varsity II Theater in Ames. The Cinemark Corporation had been wanting to close the theater down for quite some time, but they were stuck in a lease. Unfortunately for fans of thoughtful, intelligent films, Cinemark was able to negotiate an early termination of their lease and will be closing down the Varsity forever on Thursday night.

This is a sad day. I know that frequently when I have attended movies at this theater there was little more than me and my companions there, but I think this theater could have made it. The Fleur Cinema in Des Moines seems to flourish showing similar movies to the Varsity and it doesn't have the built in audience of Art, Independent, Foreign and Documentary Film fans that the Varsity's close proximity to a major college campus gives them.

It never seemed like Cinemark was interested in making the Varsity work. I know from firsthand experience what it is like to run a business for a person that is doing everything they can possibly do to make that business fail. When it happened to me, it ended with a meeting where my staff and I were served burnt pretzels and burnt hot chocolate.

I hope, if nothing else, that the staff of the Varsity was given properly prepared food when their theater was lead to the chopping block.

I will remember fondly that I saw some of my all-time favorite films at the Varsity. It is the theater where I saw Once, Hustle and Flow, Born into Bro,thels, Young at Heart, Son of Rambow, Napoleon Dynamite, Fight Club, Insomnia, Akeelah and the Bee and The Queen.

Not everything I ever saw at the Varsity was great. Some movies were quite dreadful, but it was always interesting.

It might seem like losing two movie screens in Ames isn't going to reduce the amount of movie options in Ames, by much. But when you look at the type of movies that will be lost, the amount of movie options in Ames just hit an all-time low.

I will be going to the Varsity for one last time on Monday night to say goodbye to an old friend.

Aesthetically Qualified

Because I know interesting people sometimes the beget me more interesting people.

Such as Lowell begot Bill who then begot Willy who then begot Faust.

Frank from work met a guy while working at Best Buy that is a movie producer. Well, he is sort of a movie producer. He moved out to Iowa from some place out East and is trying to raise enough money to make a movie.

He hasn't made the movie, but he has made a movie that is over 90 minutes long about the movie he wants to make. It includes lots of his theories on movie making. Lots of the sets he wants to use. Pictures of the women that are going to be in the movie in bikinis. Pictures of horses that will be in the movie. Pictures of dogs that will be in the movie.

However, nowhere in the sale pitch does he indicate what the movie is actually about. The closest you get to know what the movie is about is the discussion of the characters that will be in the movie and you can combine that with the sets that will be used for the movie and maybe get an idea of what is going to happen in this movie.

There is one exception. One little sliver of information that comes through. The producer does include 5 rehearsals of one scene from the movie. Here is the dialogue from that one scene, starring the producer as the lead character from the movie, talking to somebody that isn't there:
(Try to imagine this being said with a Jersey accent, by a guy wearing a leather jacket and gloves.)

Johnathan Sinclair
What does that mean? What you just did? I saw that.
I see women doing that? What does that mean?
You pulled your shirt down over your butt. What does that mean?
Does that mean that you think your butt's too big?
Or perhaps I'm not aesthetically qualified to give you the once over?
Or maybe I'm not financially qualified to give you the once over?
Babe, you're like a fantasy world?
Like a dream world. Like a dream world.

I don't think it is too big of a stretch to call it poetry.

Back in the Saddle

On Thursday night I returned to the movie theater for the first time since I can remember. It has been at least a month, maybe two. Nader and I went to see Burn After Reading. It was the first movie the Coen brothers have made since their Academy Award winner for Best Picture: No Country for Old Men.

I would have to say that it was an extremely large disappointment. The Coen brothers have a history of being kind of hit and miss, but this was quite the miss. I can't remember this large of a dropoff after a Best Picture win since Clint Eastwood went from Unforgiven (one of the greatest Westerns ever) to A Perfect World (flat out one of the worst movies ever made).

Even though Burn After Reading wasn't particularly funny or interesting and it was rather depressing that Frances McDormand's character never got her comeuppance for her shallow behavior, the previews before the movie reminded me of why I love this time of year.

Gone from the movie theaters are the loud, obnoxious, boring and mildly retarded Summer blockbusters. Finally the theaters will start to get interesting and provocative movies. It is the best time of the year to drag yourself off your couch or wherever else you plop yourself when you get home, and plop yourself into a theater seat. It is a season to remind you that people are still trying to infuse art into movies. That there are people out there that are trying to express themselves through movies. That there are people out there still taking risks with movies. That there are still people out there trying to say things with movies. That there are people out there still making movies that matter. Sometimes this is easy to forget when every weekend during the summer is a new comic book movie that complete with a collector's cup from Burger King.

AKA Movies that aren't filled with shiny things to entertain the stupid people.

The movie that I'm excited to see this week is The Lucky Ones. It is playing at the Varsity, so I will be making a trip there this week to check out this movie.

Check out the trailer:





I do have to enjoy The Varsity while it is still around. Rumor has it that they are going to try and close it down by the end of the year.

AFI's 10 Top 10

The American Film Institute recently released their yearly list. They released the Top Ten movies in ten different genres.

Animation

1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
2. Pinocchio
3. Bambi
4. The Lion King
5. Fantasia
6. Toy Story
7. Beauty and the Beast
8. Shrek
9. Cinderella
10. Finding Nemo

My observation: Beauty and the Beast needs to be higher. After how dreadful Shrek 2 and Shrek 3 were, it is hard for me to remember how brilliant the original Shrek was.

Romantic Comedy

1. City Lights
2. Annie Hall
3. It Happened One Night
4. Roman Holiday
5. The Philadelphia Story
6. When Harry Met Sally...
7. Adam's Rib
8. Moonstruck
9. Harold and Maude
10. Sleepless in Seattle

My Observations: The Philadelphia Story should be number one. Annie Hall and Moonstruck do not belong on the list.

Western

1. The Searchers
2. High Noon
3. Shane
4. Unforgiven
5. Red River
6. The Wild Bunch
7. Buch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
8. McCabe & Mrs. Miller
9. Stagecoach
10. Cat Ballou

My Observations: The Searchers (despite having Natalie Wood) and The Wild Bunch are quite overrated. Where is The Ox-Bow Incident and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance? I would also had Once Upon a Time in the West, but it is not an American Movie.

Sports

1. Raging Bull
2. Rocky
3. The Pride of the Yankees
4. Hoosiers
5. Bull Durham
6. The Hustler
7. Caddyshack
8. Breaking Away
9. National Velvet
10. Jerry Maguire

My Observations: The Hustler should be higher. Bull Durham is too high. I don't see how Jerry Maguire qualifies as a sports movie.

Mystery

1. Vertigo
2. Chinatown
3. Rear Window
4. Laura
5. The Third Man
6. The Maltese Falcon
7. North by Northwest
8. Blue Velvet
9. Dial M for Murder
10. The Usual Suspects.

My Observations: The best list. The Usual Suspects could stand to be higher.

Sci-Fi

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
2. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
3. E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial
4. A Clockwork Orange
5. The Day the Earth Stood Still
6. Blade Runner
7. Alien
8. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
9. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
10. Back to the Future

My Observations: A Clockwork Orange needs to be number 1. Star Wars doesn't need to be on this list. Either does Terminator 2. Where is Forbidden Planet? Where is The Planet of the Apes?

Gangster

1. The Godfather
2. Goodfellas
3. The Godfather Part II
4. White Heat
5. Bonnie and Clyde
6. Scarface: The Shame of a Nation
7. Pulp Fiction
8. The Public Enemy
9. Little Caesar
10. Scarface

My Observations: This seems like an unnecessary genre. What about musicals? Of course Scarface is horribly overrated. They could have made room for Reservoir Dogs or Angels with Dirty Faces.

Courtroom Drama

1. To Kill A Mockingbird
2. 12 Angry Men
3. Kramer vs. Kramer
4. The Verdict
5. A Few Good Men
6. Witness for the Prosecution
7. Anatomy of a Murder
8. In Cold Blood
9. A Cry in the Dark
10. Judgment at Nuremberg

My Observations: No real complaint. 12 Angry Men should be number 1 and To Kill A Mockingbird should be number 2. I'd like to see Inherit the Wind on the list.

Epic

1. Lawrence of Arabia
2. Ben-Hur
3. Schindler's List
4. Gone with the Wind
5. Spartacus
6. Titanic
7. All Quiet on the Western Front
8. Saving Private Ryan
9. Reds
10. The Ten Commandments

My Observations: Schindler's List should be number 1. Gone with the Wind number 2. But no other real complaints.

Something Special

I had a free night foisted upon me. So now I can get caught up with entries. So some of this might seem dated.

On Tuesday, September 16, the movie Young @ Heart came out on DVD. This would easily be my favorite move I've seen this year. The only movies that come close are WALL-E and Son of Rambow.





Back in 1993 Jim Valvano gave a moving speech while he was dying from cancer. He said something that I've always found profound:

To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special.

I also consider these to be pretty good criteria for evaluating movies. Young @ Heart certainly does all three. Next time you are in your video store pick it up and give it a spin. You will not regret it.

Even if you hate old people (like Jay) you will love this movie.

That Potter Kid

Today is the birthday of J.K. Rowling, therefore it seemed like a good time to post some Harry Potter stuff.

From today's Writer's Almanac:

It's the birthday of children's fantasy writer J.K. Rowling, (books by this author) born Joanne Rowling in Yate, England, in 1965. She has written seven novels in the Harry Potter series, a series that has sold nearly 400 million copies.

Rowling grew up in rural England. She says that the character of Hermione in her series is "a caricature of me when I was eleven, which I'm not particularly proud of." She studied French and Classics and went on to be a secretary for Amnesty International, but she didn't like secretarial work. One day on a cross-country train trip, the idea of Harry Potter "came fully formed" into her mind. "It started with Harry," she said, "then all these characters and situations came flooding into my head." She was frustrated because she didn't have a pen to write things down, so she just sat for four hours thinking and hoped she would remember, then started writing as soon as she got home.

In the next few years, she went to Portugal, got married, and then divorced. She moved to Scotland with her young daughter, where she started writing in cafés because taking her daughter for a walk was the best way to make her fall asleep and give her a few hours to write.

It took J.K. Rowling a while to find a publisher for her novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (published in the U.S. as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone). In 1997, Bloomsbury published the first Harry Potter book with a print run of 1,000 copies, 500 of which went to libraries. It has now sold about 120 million copies. Her publisher thought young boys were her target audience and was worried that they wouldn't buy a novel by a woman, so they encouraged her to use initials instead. Joanne didn't have a middle name, so she took her grandmother's name, Kathleen, and made herself J.K. Rowling.

J.K. Rowling is now the highest-earning novelist in history.

J.K. Rowling has launched a new generation of readers (and some adult readers) into the world of fantasy, but it's a genre that she doesn't actually like much herself. She didn't even realize that she was writing fantasy until after her first book was published. She says, "You know, the unicorns were in there. There was the castle, God knows. But I really had not thought that that's what I was doing. And I think maybe the reason that it didn't occur to me is that I'm not a huge fan of fantasy." She has never managed to finish the Lord of the Rings series or the Narnia series, and her favorite authors are realists: Jane Austen, whom she calls "the pinnacle to which all other authors aspire," and contemporary Irish novelist Roddy Doyle.

She planned out the entire Harry Potter series before she wrote the first book, and she says: "I wrote the story I meant to write. If I lost readers along the way, so be it, but I still told my story. The one I wanted. Without permitting it to sound too corny, that's what I owe to my characters. That we won't be deflected, either by adoration or by criticism."

And she says, "You have to resign yourself to wasting lots of trees before you write anything really good."

And, "What we forget is that kids lead this whole hidden life, however close they are to their parents. I'm aware of this with my seven-year-old daughter. I don't find it constantly, but I know it's the reality. It's the slow process of separation—and slightly underground. I have to be aware that my daughter is leading this kid life I cannot share. And that's part of the books."

J.K. Rowling, who wrote, "If you're holding out for universal popularity, I'm afraid you will be in this cabin for a very long time."

And, "To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."

And, "Hearing voices no one else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the wizarding world."

Recently the trailer for the new Harry Potter movie was released. Have a look. Of course you will actually have to go to the website to view this video if you subscribe via RSS or email.





The last movie was kind of a disappointment, but this movie looks to be fantastic. I can hardly wait until November 21.

Finally

It took until June 26, but finally I saw a movie that I loved this year. I finally saw my Once of 2008. I finally saw a movie I'm willing to call great. Up until now the best movie I've seen all year is Son of Rambow, but even that movie was only very good and not great. The first movie that I love from 2008 is Young @ Heart.

If this movie is playing near you, I urge you to run out and see it. The only thing I can say is "wow". After this movie was over, not a single person left the theater until the credits were over. I haven't seen that happen at a movie I've attended since Once. I haven't even seen this happen for movies that try to blackmail you into staying until the end of the credits to see one last extra scene.

Below I've posted some videos from the movie. If you subscribe to this journal through e-mail or RSS feed, you will have to go to the website to see the videos. I think it is worth the trip.



Trailer



Schizophrenia



Fix You


If you think that this performance of Fix You is powerful (and it is) you should see it when it is put in the context of the movie. It will blow you away.


I repeat, if you have a chance, go see this movie.

3 Things

Relay for Life

So Relay for Life is coming up pretty darn quick. As it turns out I forgot to start raising money. I have raised some money, but that money consisted of me sitting on my rump when somebody came up to me and threw some cash into my hand and said, "That's for Relay for Life."

I don't want to give you a long winded sales pitch about why you should donate money for Relay for Life and tell you about how cancer has effected my life or the people in my life. I think I can distill the entire thing down to its essence.

"It is cancer, stupid!"

So if you have a couple extra bucks stuck in your couch cushions or have a bag full of beer bottles in your basement that need to be taken back and you don't really have much use for that money and you aren't mad that I just called you stupid, I would be in your debt if you would throw it my way for Relay for Life.

There are a couple of ways to do such a thing. First you can go to my Relay for Life page and donate there:


Relay for Life Donation


You can also just give me money when you see me.


Flood Pictures

From time to time I get asked if I have any flood pictures. But I will post the one flood picture I do have.






Son of Rambow

I'm pretty jacked up right now. One of two must see movies of 2008 has finally came to Ames.

Take a look at the trailer. (If you received this through a RSS Feed or e-mail, you will actually have to go to the website to view the video.)





I'm hoping to put together a small platoon of people to go see this masterpiece next week.

Memorial Day and the Crystal Skull

Memorial Day wasn't really meant to be a good-time-feel-good holiday. It was established to honor Union Soldiers that died in the Civil War and was first known as Decoration Day.

Regardless of its original intentions, this solemn holiday has become a chance for most Americans to barbecue and enjoy a 3 Day weekend. I'm not different than most Americans. I just wanted to have a good time on Memorial Day.

My day started out good enough. I watched 4 straight hours of Animal Planet with Alexis in the morning. Jay came over and we had tacos and nachos for lunch. Then we headed over to the Cinemark to catch a matinée of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull with Derrick.

+++SPOILERS+++

Usually I'm not the type of person that gives away spoilers about movies. I want people to see movies on their own, but this is one movie that I don't feel the need to protect any of its secrets. This movies is a piece of garbage.

I've alway been a big fan of the Indiana Jones movies. Sure Temple of Doom blows a little bit, but the other 2 are excellent. Crystal Skull is an insult to all 3 of those movies.

I didn't understand why so many Star Wars fans were upset with the prequels that came out a few years back. True, they weren't very good, but the first 3 Star Wars movies stunk as well. What was the big deal? Instead of 3 movies with terrible acting and writing now you had 6 of them. Star Wars fans should have been elated.

I still don't understand Star Wars fans, (there are certainly much, much better science fiction movies out there, I refer you to the two that Stanley Kubrick made 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange just for starters) but now I can relate to them a bit. I've seen a movie franchise that I love torn to shreds before my very eyes.

On Sunday when we were driving down to The House of Bricks Willy told me that Crystal Skull was not very good. I told him that I could handle it if it wasn't very good, but I would not be able to handle one thing. If they tried to set up a series of sequels starring Even Stevens, I would be angry. I would leave the theater in a rage.

I should have seen the warning signs. Even Willy would be the first to admit that I have much higher standards for movies than he does. The dude loves Van Damme movies!

Despite my bold proclamations, I left the theater angry. In fact, I haven't been this angry leaving the theater since I sat through the misogynistic propaganda piece masquerading as entertainment known as Sin City. I was madder than when I left the theater after Transformers. Another example of taking something I loved from my childhood and making it suck. Incidentally also starring Even Stevens.

The one good thing I can say about Crystal Skull is that they didn't end the movie by setting up sequels for Even Stevens. They came close. They made you think that is what they were going to do. At the end of the movie Indy's hat blows off a hat rack and rolls to a stop at Even Stevens' feet. As he bends over to pick up the hat, Indy picks it up before him and puts it on his head. Me physically vomiting in the aisles was averted.

I suppose that I don't have time to write on all the things I hated about this movie, because there are so many of them. I'll try to keep it to just two.

ALIENS!!!!

Are you kidding me? Could Lucas and Spielberg not turn the last Indiana Jones movie into a science fiction movie? I now fully expect that the next Spielberg WWII movie to involve aliens in some way, shape or form.

CGI!!!

CGI has already, for the most part, ruined most summer movies. It was as if they had missed the point of the first three movies. They were an homage to old time serial movies and they were done with trick photography and stuntmen. Crystal Skull is an homage to the other 3 movies basically, only with way too much CGI. I should have known it was coming when the first shot of the movie features a CGI prairie dog.

My day was ruined from that point on and I don't think that there was much that could have happened to turn my day around.

+++SPOILERS OVER+++

My day did turn around though. I headed out to Roland for Monica's barbecue. The only low point of the barbecue was having Happy Birthday sang to me for the third time in 8 days. I'm glad I won't have to hear that again for some time. Although Monica did make me a sweet Jello birthday cake.















































I don't really like getting presents all that much. Unless it is something the person has made, like a sweet painting or piece of stained glass or cake or rhubarb pie or a card.

Teresa sent me this birthday card.



Front



Inside



Back


There is the occasional exception. Sara got me this sweet gift:





The camera is 30 years old and still is in its original box. This will look great on my shelf of old cameras.

Looking for a Scab

The Baiers and I took Nader out for supper tonight. He leaves for London to be reunited with his family on Saturday. He will be there for six weeks.

That is excellent news for him, but that leaves me without a movie buddy. So I might put out a Help Wanted Ad for a Temp.

Help Wanted

Scab Nader - Temporary position that could last up to six weeks. Job responsibilities involve going to movies with me. Must love art house movies, independent films, foreign films and documentaries. It would be considered a bonus if any applicant can change the name of movies they don't like with the use of mild profanity. Example: Lord of the Crap. Applicants should forward their resume and list of favorite movies to bennett@photography139.com. Applicants that include Sin City or Transformers will have their resumes shredded and then burned. I don't care what the Equal Opportunity Laws say.

I wonder if I will get any applicants.

Son of Rambow

This is the new must see movie of the year for me. It appeals to everything I love about movies.





I might try to re-assemble the old Rambo platoon for a viewing. I might need Baier to guilt trip Russell to get him there though.

Chicago 10

Last night I went to the Varsity with Nader to see Chicago 10. This is a fascinating documentary about the trial of the Chicago 7, 8 or 10 depending on what name you want to use. The film mixes animation with archival footage. I'm not fan of hippies, yippies, Democrats, police, Chicago, numbers, or 1968, but this film is fascinating.





If you are wondering why there the movie is called Chicago 10 when the group was originally known as the Chicago 8 and then the Chicago 7, well there is an interesting story.

When the trial began there were 8 defendants. Bobby Seale (the leader of the Black Panthers that was only in Chicago for a couple hours during the Democratic National Convention) was denied his right of defending himself. Actually he was originally denied his right of having his own attorney. He wanted his trial delayed while his attorney recovered from surgery. When this was denied he requested to defend himself and that request was denied.

In the end, Bobby Seale was severed from the trial and sentenced to 4 years in jail for Contempt. Thus the Chicago 8 became the Chicago 7. However, Jerry Rubin insists that they should be referred to as the Chicago 10 because the two lawyers that defended them also spent time in prison as a result of the trial.

That is the hardest part to soak in for me. How often do lawyers end up in jail because of the people that they are defending? Or because of how crooked the judicial system was at that time?

Jerry Rubin is quoted as saying:

"Anyone who calls us the Chicago Seven is a racist. Because you're discrediting Bobby Seale. You can call us the Chicago Eight, but really we're the Chicago Ten, because our two lawyers went down with us."

The film is definitely heavily slanted towards the side of the protesters, but I don't really know how it couldn't be.

Random Romantic Thoughts

During the week I engage in random intellectual discussions with Andree, Russell, and Jason Baier. The topics covered range from music to movies to politics to sports to religion to fine dining.

Yesterday Russell wanted to know what we considered to be the best romantic movies ever made. I thought I would post my response. Even though it is fairly random and just what I thought about off the top of my head.

In no particular order:

Casablanca- One of the greatest movies of all-time, period.

West Side Story- Greatest musical ever made, period.

Roman Holiday- Audrey Hepburn, what can I say Russell, when you are right, you are right.

My Fair Lady-My 2nd favorite musical. Very sexist ending though.

Singin’ in the Rain- 3rd favorite musical. Makes me wish I could dance in the way that West Side Story makes me wish I was in a gang.

King Kong (1933)- One of my favorite movies of all-time, but most chicks don’t dig it.

Beauty and the Beast- French version or Disney version.

Titanic- Badmouth the movie all you want. It won 10 Academy Awards and is the highest grossing movie of all-time, yet it isn’t cool to admit you like it. I love it.

It Happened One Night- One of the greatest romantic comedies of all time. Clark Gable at his best.

The Philadelphia Story-My favorite romantic comedy of all time. Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. What more do you need to say.

Shakespeare in Love-Funny and sad and beautifully written.

The Graduate-Kind of creepy, but still a great love story with a great ending.

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner- Another movie that trendy people don’t like, but you give me a movie with Poitier, Hepburn and Tracy and I’ll take it every time. There are at least 3 great scenes in this movie.

Sabrina (1954)- Audrey Hepburn, does it every time, except Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I really don’t like Breakfast at Tiffany’. Perhaps it is because of the overt racism.

The Apartment- Perhaps my all-time favorite Jack Lemmon movie. I think he plays a character that a lot of guys can relate to.

Marty- A chick flick from a guy’s perspective. The lesson of this movie is a great one and I wish more guys could learn it.

The Princess Bride-Still the best fantasy movie ever made. “As You Wish”

Lady and the Tramp- The spaghetti scene, come on!

Dirty Dancing- I hated this movie so much growing up, but it has grown on me over the years.

Grease-What happened to you John Travolta? Unfortunately spawned the worst sequel of all-time.

Jerry Maguire- “You complete me”.

Funny Face- Audrey Hepburn, say no more. Say no more.

Once- I repeat, if you haven’t seen this movie yet, do what it takes to see this movie.

Good Will Hunting-“Sonofabitch, he stole my line.”

Ever After-Not quite as clever as it wants to be, but still pretty good.

It’s a Wonderful Life-Best Christmas movie ever made.

On the Waterfront- Reveals how the love of a woman can push a man to new heights.

Forrest Gump- Glad they didn’t make the book straight up.

10 Things I Hate About You- Cute high school movie with an extremely talented cast.

A Beautiful Mind-Not a great movie, but I do like it. "I need to believe, that something extraordinary is possible."

This is all I got for now. I’m sure when I get home and look through my DVD catalog something else will strike me.

I don’t care for Sleepless in Seattle or the remake, You’ve Got Mail.

I would point out that I do love Gone with the Wind, but I do not consider it to be a great love story. Unless you consider the love story between Scarlett O’Hara and herself. She is an evil person and the movie is about Rhett finally figuring it out. There is a reason why one of the greatest lines in movie history is at the end of this movie. No, Scarlett would have never gotten Rhett to take her back. Margaret Mitchell is on record as saying that and that is why she never wrote a sequel.

I'm curious if anybody else has any thoughts?

Oscar Party Pictures

I got some pictures e-mailed to me from Brenda of the 2008 Oscar Party. These are a little bit small, but I think you will get an idea of the glamor of the event. This event is also doubles as a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society.



Brenda



Jen & Derrick



Brenda with her Beau



Jen in her Fur Coat



With Jen and Derrick


I'm still waiting to get some more pictures from Jen, so there may be more pictures posted in the future.

Oscars

I hope to have pictures up from the formal Oscar party at some point in the future, but until then, the thing that made me the happiest about the Oscars was a win for Falling Slowly for Best Original Song. I can't put into words how much I love the movie Once. I love this movie.

Below are clips of their acceptance speech and the performance of the song by The Swell Season.

Rambo Platoon

Tonight was the big Rambo night. Below is a picture of the gentlemen that made their way to our local multiplex to view Rambo with me.




Pictured left to right: Jeff, Yours Truly, Scottie D., Jesse, Derrick, Jason Baier, Jay, Andree and Greg.

Not pictured is Russell. He finally relented to viewing Rambo despite contending that his "self respect was not expendable". However, Russell took off immediately after the film and is not in the photo.

Preceding the movie was a dinner and Rambo discussion. Almost everybody shared a favorite Rambo moment from the past. I will publish those in due course, after I compile my own personal list of my ten favorite Rambo moments.

Best Picture Nominations

They announced the Academy Award Nominations this morning. These are the 5 Best Picture Nominees. I still need to see There Will Be Blood, but at that point I will have seen all the nominees.

Michael Clayton

There Will Be Blood

Juno

No Country for Old Men

Atonement

At this point in the game, I think my favorite would be Juno. My least favorite would definitely be Michael Clayton. Atonement has a great beginning, but I have no love for the way this movie ends. I would consider No Country for Old Men to be almost a perfect movie up until the last 15 minutes. Most people I know hate the ending. I didn't love the ending, but I do love the movie.

New Top Ten of 2007

I saw two new movies this weekend. These movies do make it necessary for me to reorder my Top Ten of 2007.

1. Once
2. Juno
3. Into the Wild
4. No Country for Old Men
5. Ratatouille
6. Hairspray
7. The Kite Runner
8. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
9. You Kill Me
10. The Bucket List

There are still a couple of decent movies from 2007 that I need to witness. I am planning on seeing There Will Be Blood on Sunday. I would like to go see Enchanted if I get a chance. The Oscar nominations are announced tomorrow. I am excited to see what makes the cut.

Young at Heart

I went to see The Kite Runner on Saturday night. It was an excellent movie, but what I'm posting here is a preview for a movie I saw before The Kite Runner. It is a documentary called Young at Heart and it is certainly on my list of must see movies now.





This is an awesome clip of the Coldplay song Fix You performed by Young at Heart. This is already a hauntingly beautiful song, but this performance really takes the song up a notch for me. Similar to the way Johnny Cash changed the NIN song Hurt for me forever.

Top Ten Movies of 2007

Now seems like a good time to release a preliminary list of what I consider to be the ten best movies I saw from 2007. This is a preliminary list because I hope to see a few other movies in the next couple of weeks that might make a change in the list. I still need to see Bucket List, There Will Be Blood and The Kite Runner.

Top 10 Movies of 2007

10. Atonement
9. The Bourne Ultimatum
8. You Kill Me
7. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
6. Hairspray
5. Ratatouille
4. No Country for Old Men
3. Into the Wild
2. Juno
1. Once

I would consider making a list of the 10 worst movies of 2007, but I think that list would hardly be comprehensive. You see I don't rent or go to the theater to see things that are obviously garbage. I'm certain that Bratz, I Know Who Killed Me, Hostel Part 2, Norbit, Good Luck Chuck or the Halloween remake are some of the worst movies ever made. I don't know for sure because I haven't seen them. The worst movies from last year I've seen are Transformers and Beowulf. I highly doubt they are worse than anything starring Dane Cook or was directed by Uwe Boll.

I'll change the list if any of the movies I still need to see warrant a changing of the list.

Atonement & Persuasion

Masterpiece Theater is running a series of movies based on Jane Austen novels. In fact they are doing all 6 Jane Austen novels and a dramatization of her life. I'm kind of excited about this and it started tonight. The first movie they showed was Persuasion. This movie is about a 27 year old spinster who had to turn down her one chance at marriage when she was 19. By a strange twist of fate, the man that she had to turn down and the man she still loves comes back into her life. I found it interesting that 27 was considered too old for marriage and the large amount of cousins marrying each other. One suave guy asked the main character (and his cousin) to marry her by saying: "Anne Elliot. I think you should keep that name." You see because they were cousins and they shared last names, so hers wouldn't change. Yeah, gross. She didn't end up with her cousin.

It was pretty good, but the highlight for the movie was the best description of being in love I have ever heard. "I am half agony and half hope."

Today I also went to see Atonement. I have little doubt that Atonement will be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, but the movie didn't do that much for me. It did for awhile. The beginning was great and then it slowed down and got less interesting. However, it was the surprise ending that completely ruined it for me. I can't give away the ending because I don't want to ruin the ending for anybody out there, but I take great umbrage with the belief that sacrificing truth was the proper way to end this story. I am a great believer in truth and believe that it is the most important thing in the world, so I don't believe in the good intentioned lie that this movie endorses. That is also why I hate the movie Amelie and believe that the main problem with it is that the main character is evil and never gets a just punishment for the lies and deceit she spreads.

It is my belief that Film School has more or less been canceled. Jay has yet to confirm this fact, but I think it is safe to presume that it is so. So I'll go back to writing brief movie reviews this way. However, they will be very brief. Thursday I'm going to see The Kite Runner with Teresa. 14 days from today it will be time for Rambo. I believe that already 6 people have signed up for this viewing. That number just might grow.

Film School: Beowulf

I heard something yesterday that incredibly angers me, but that might be for a later time. Here is a new episode of film school about the movie Beowulf. Jay is getting pretty good at the editing. Now if only I were to improve we might have something here.

Film School: Calm Down

This episode is devoted to a movie made by a co-worker's cousin. There is a prize for any person can figure out what word has been censored.

American Gangster

This blog is 89 views away from 10,000! That might not be many views for you, but it is a lot for me so bugger off. No, I don't mean that. Keep coming back.

What a great weekend to be a Cyclone! In reality it is always a great Cyclone to be a Cyclone, but this was a particularly great weekend to be a Cyclone. What did we accomplish:

On Friday, the volleyball team upset No. 16 San Diego 3-2 in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
The men's basketball team beat the Oregon State Beavers 71-64.

On Saturday, the swimming & diving team went up to Cedar Falls and whipped the Panthers 180-57.
The women's basketball team beat up on Montana State 76-50.
The volleyball team beat No. 8 Wisconsin 3-0 in the NCAA tournament to advance to play No. 7 California on Friday in the regionals.

Then today, (in a sport I actually loathe) the No. 2 wrestling team went to Minnesota and defeated the No. 1 ranked Gophers 18-13.

Another review is ready for public consumption. Below you will find my review of both American Gangster and eating at King Buffet.

Wristcutters: A Love Story

Just to explain what is going on in this video, somehow the original recording was lost. Jay recapped what I said with my good buddy Emperor Solar System.

Michael Clayton

Here is another episode of film school. Ummmm . . . I sure like to ramble and I think I actually discuss this movie for about 10 seconds of the 2 minutes of actual screen time. I need to start preparing for this stuff. Apparently I can't just sit down and play. Jay still does a solid job of editing though. He could make me look much worse.

In a strange twist of events I was told that I look like James Bond at work yesterday. I'm told that this was not a sarcastic comment despite the fact that I haven't shaved in about 3 weeks.

Calm Down

I work with this guy that has a cousin that makes movies. He recently loaned me a copy of his cousin's most recent epic. It is about vampire and a gang of high school kids killing the vampires. No matter what prism you look through, it just isn't very good. I have in turn loaned out the movie to a few people here and there with the caveat that if they watch this movie they can then read this thing I wrote about the movie. The thing that I wrote about this movie is a list of my 10 favorite things about this movie. I didn't go into much depth and I wrote the thing in about 45 minutes. It definitely isn't a masterpiece, but it is certainly mean spirited.

The guy I work with was asking me today what I thought about the movie. I told him that I find that the movie was an allegory. It wasn't really about vampires, but about how people choose to percieve the world and how if you see things from somebody's perspective you may start to have empathy for them, even if they are evil. I wrote this theory up.

He insisted that I e-mail my poorly written theory over to him so he could e-mail it to his cousin. I thought that this was a poor idea because even though his cousin hadn't succeeded at any level in making a coherent film, he was trying and didn't really deserve to have somebody he didn't know just bash on him. I sent it over to him any way. When the filmmaker read my piece he thought it was awesome. He considered it to be a great compliment. He was particularly thrilled about being compared to Uwe Boll. Being compared to Uwe Boll is not a compliment. However, I'll leave it for you to decide if my piece was compimentary or mean spirited.

Also if by reading this it somehow piques your interest, I'll loan you a copy of this bad boy.

My Favorite Things

"Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad"

My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music

I just feel that it is necessary to reference a decent movie before delving into Calm Down. However, I should throw out one disclaimer. I am not going to touch story structure in my list of my favorite things from this movie. I am a firm believer that the most important thing in a movie is story. You can get away with bad acting, poor production quality and the occasional poor line of dialogue if you have a great story.

A friend who knows that there are times when I fancy myself a writer once asked me the following question: Do I consider prewriting an important part of the writing process?

This was a loaded question. The person really wanted me to backup their supposition that real "artists" just did. They just sat down to their parchment or canvas or word processor or block of marble and created.

I told her, "There is an old adage that rewriting is writing. It is my belief that prewriting is writing. When I am done writing something I usually hate it so much that it takes me a little while before I can even go back and begin the process of rewriting. Therefore if I relied heavily on rewriting I would never accomplish anything. I need the prewriting process. Otherwise I have no clue where I'm going."

She didn't like this answer, but it is the honest truth. Without a basic structure to tell you where you are going, you aren't going to get anywhere. Therefore I can't in good conscience spend much time railing on the story structure of Calm Down when it is painfully evident that they didn't do any prewriting. They didn't do any rewriting. It is a debatable point to claim that they did any writing at all.

So rather than going down the paths of completely unnecessary scenes (almost all of them, but in particular the "car borrowing scene" and the "lost my pants" scene), completely unexplained motivations (such as are the cops working for the vampires?), or what the point of any of this was supposed to be; I'll limit myself to my ten favorite aspects of this movie that aren't related to story structure. I will include my favorite moments of dialogue.

--> -->1. The "sexy" blonde vampire that shows up in the background of two scenes with the leader of the vampires. I don't know if she was in reality good looking, but it seemed important to them to include her with her funbags hanging out in the background of the first two scenes with the vampire leader. It makes me wonder if they hired a stripper for the night.

--> -->2. The vampire leader was wearing light colored shoes. I don't know why that cracks me up, other than the entire vampire wardrobe consisted of wearing black. Maybe when you are the leader you get a pair of white Keds. It might even be the symbol of the transfer of power.

3. The scene where the main character gives his speech about "walking away". He calls the vampires "jerks". Whoa tiger, just because they killed your brother doesn't mean you have to start name calling. That whole speech is priceless. Including the fact that the "track girl" (that they don't use for bait even though one character points out that she is the fastest in the group during the scene where they discuss who should be bait) points out that they have gotten this far with him. Is he the leader of the group? He wasn't even in it at the beginning of the movie and now he is the leader. I also think they missed a golden marketing opportunity by not giving this group a name.

4. There is vignetting in almost every single wide angle shot. This is caused by putting the wrong filter or hood on a camera lens and is something that easily could have been edited out or fixed after they watched the dailies after the first day of shooting.

--> -->5. They used that hatchback car to shoot the scenes of people walking down the street. The scene with the brothers at night and later with the main character's emotional breakdown sequence. I know they did this because the shadow of the hatchback is clearly visible during these sequences.

--> --> ---6. How the hell did they get so many people to make this movie? There are at least 15 vampires in one scene. I like to consider myself a good organizer of people, but I could never get 15 people to do something like that. In fact I would be too embarrassed to ask. "I'm making this vampire movie, but it isn't really a horror movie, it is more of an action movie with lots of gore. Kind of a tribute to Uwe Boll if you will. Would you be interested in being an extra? The vampire costume consists of any black clothing that you have. No don't worry about teeth. They aren't part of the new vampire mythology I'm inventing."

7. This movie really makes me think about other movies in a strange way. The first 15 minutes of the movie really made me think of Brokeback Mountain. Only there is lots of foreplay. I'm not quite so certain that there wouldn't have been a little man on man action if the vampires wouldn't have broken it up. Perhaps that is in the subtext of the movie, perhaps the vampires are homophobic. Not that being homophobic makes you a good person by any stretch of the imagination, but it might explain why they attacked and killed the "cool" brother. It might also be because of his horrible impersonations. I know what you are thinking. They are brothers, not lovers. To that I say there is a kind of incest subtext to another scene in the movie. Although I am not a user of pornography, I know that a movie exists called Taboo. The scene where the mom sits on the edge of the main character's bed reminds me of this movie. I get the sense that while she is playing with the drawstring on her pants she is trying to work up the courage to ask him if he wants to have a "go" at her. In the end she decides to return to her husband's bed and see if he can finally quench the burning sexual desire that he hasn't been able to extinguish since he only began caring about "getting his". I'm telling you it is all in the way that she is playing with those drawstrings.

8. The scene where the characters get their weapons. The fact that they don't use guns could have easily been covered with a line like "Guns only piss them off." or "Guns only slow them down." or "Guns don't kill them." Instead of a line about having used guns in the past, but two of the characters aren't responsible enough to be trusted with guns. My real favorite part of this scene is that the characters have never tried holy water, garlic, or crucifixes. They haven't tried anything that would be consistent with vampire mythology. This is covered up (by the guy with the grappling hook I believe) with the line that when you are in battle with a vampire, you want something that will do some damage, "not a glass of water". Yeah, you wouldn't want something that would actually be able to terminate the existence of the undead. At least two of these characters have ridiculous weapons. A grappling hook? A tent pole (I think) with a knife pushed through a hole? Then one guy goes off and gets two camp axes. Wouldn't want to use an ax as long as you have that grappling hook. Although I will give credit to the filmmakers. This is undoubtedly a clever tip of their hat to the scene in Friday the 13^th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan<