Oct 29 2006

Amazing Race: Bye Peter!

Category: Amazing Race,Recaps,TV — velveetahead @ 5:43 pm

Maybe Steven Segal Will See Me and Want Me to Be in One of His Movies!
October 22, 2006

Kuwait City, Kuwait

I was thrilled to see Peter go! I was glad they were eternally lost in Kuwait City and when they thought they had finally found the detour, they had actually found the fast forward. Ha! Peter’s face was priceless when Sarah was saying everything that bugged her about him during the race. He tried to play it all off as they just aren’t a good match, which I agree, but didn’t say anything specifically about himself or Sarah. He just blamed everything on both of them. Sarah just blamed Peter. I found that funny. It did seem that Sarah couldn’t read the map. Why it took them so long to figure that out, I don’t know.

I was very worried for the Cho brothers when they gave the fast forward away to David and Mary. I thought the fast forward could have been a little tougher. That seemed fairly easy. If they are only going to have two a season (I still liked it when it was on every leg), then they should be pretty tough so it isn’t just an easy way to get to the front. You have to actually earn it. It was good to see David and Mary make it to the pit stop first, and the Cho brothers to not get eliminated due to their good deed.

I was also worried that the single mothers would be eliminated. I have grown to like them, even though I think they try to blame others for their bad luck or things that aren’t really the other group’s fault. I thought they went too far when they tried to get the local to not talk to the beauty queens. Don’t waste so much time making sure they don’t talk to them, just go! They were funny with the camels. I was hoping more teams did the camel detour, since the camels cracked me up. They are so ornery.

I really thought the models were going to be last since they seemed so lost too. They did have the good luck of Sarah and Peter being worse at directions. They were also funny with the camels.

I am ready for Rob & Kimberly and the beauty queens to go. As much as it would be awesome for an all-female team to finally win the Amazing Race, I don’t like those girls. I don’t like the way they play. It isn’t cheating, but it seems dirty. I would much rather have the single mothers win.

Right now though, I have changed my mind to the Cho brothers being my favorite team.

Oct 28 2006

Movies Opening Oct 27

Category: 2006,Movies,Opening — velveetahead @ 3:11 pm

Nationwide Releases

Catch a Fire
Directed: Phillip Noyce

Derek Luke plays the real-life Patrick Chamusso, who was a normal South African man with no political motives, until he was accused of terrorist activities by Tim Robbins. Once he is freed, be believes in fighting against the apartheid in his country.

RT Score: 79%
RT Consensus: No stranger to the political thriller, director Phillip Noyce tackles apartheid and terrorism with experienced gusto, while Derek Luke and Tim Robbins hand in nuanced performances.

Phillip Noyce embraces the tale with gusto, lighting up a picture that is as much a taut action saga as it is a cautionary history lesson.
– Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

When someone makes a movie, a quarter of a century from now, about the American occupation of Iraq, it’s going to look like Catch a Fire, and it’s going to be enraging.
– MaryAnn Johanson
Flick Filosopher

Right off the bat, Catch a Fire distinguishes itself from other recent international productions about Africa in that it is actually told from an African perspective.
– Ethan Alter
Premiere Magazine

Catch a Fire loses some heat whenever Noyce abides too closely to thriller conventions but it s empowered and elevated by Luke s terrific performance.
– Jason Anderson
eye WEEKLY

Preachy to a fault and culminating in a treacly message.
– Jeanne Aufmuth
Palo Alto Weekly

Catch a Fire could spark a few with this incendiary notion: Torture breeds terrorists.
– Amy Biancolli
Houston Chronicle

 

Saw III
Directed: Darren Lynn Bousman

Jigsaw and his new apprentice kidnap some more people for deadly puzzle games.

RT Score: 35%

Saw III was not prescreened for critics. It doesn t need to be. The midnight preview I attended last night was packed with folks who don t mind seeing Hollywood beat a dead horse.
– John Monaghan
Detroit Free Press

Saw III isn t just by far the best film of the series, it s one of the better horror movies of the year.
– Steve Tilley
Jam! Movies

Is it an enjoyable feel-bad film? I guess. Is ‘enjoyable’ even the right word?
– Eric D. Snider
EricDSnider.com

If it’s Halloween, it must be Saw. And if it’s Saw, it must be God awful.
– Brian Orndorf
DVDTalk.com

May the Saw mini-franchise, dulled into a bloody gore-fest bore after only three installments, rest in piece. A piece of hack-sawed-off foot here, a piece of a bludgeoned limb there.
– Larry Ratliff
San Antonio Express-News

 

Limited Releases

Cocaine Cowboys
Directed: Billy Corben

Documentary about Miami in its cocaine heyday of the 70s and 80s and how it inspired Scarface and Miami Vice.

RT Score: 82%

Set during the cocaine wars of the late ’70s and early ’80s, this documentary is out to reveal how Miami vice really worked.
– Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

What was needed was the Frontline approach; what is provided, sadly, is Brian de Palma Lite.
– Chris Barsanti
filmcritic.com

Cocaine cash financed Miami’s renaissance, but the film never downplays the human cost at which that urban renewal was purchased.
– Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

If The Godfather movies were based on real gangsters and some of them were still around to talk about the good old days, they might be as fascinating as the characters in Billy Corben’s documentary about the cocaine import business in 1970s Miami.
– Jack Mathews
New York Daily News

Parts of Cocaine Cowboys manage the impossible — making cocaine boring. But the film doesn’t shy away from presenting horrific images: We see blood-streaked walls, bullet-perforated bodies and Katie Couric’s haircut circa 1981.
– Kyle Smith
New York Post


Babel
Directed: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett are vacationing in Morocco when she is shot accidentally by two boys. Their Mexican nanny back home is trying to get to her son’s wedding when this happens so she tries to take their two kids across the border illegally. And somehow a Japanese teen dealing with her father being wanted by the Tokyo police is related to these stories.

 

RT Score: 74%
RT Consensus: In Babel, there are no villains, only victims of fate and circumstance. Director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu weaves four of their woeful stories into this mature and multidimensional film.

The year’s richest, most complex and ultimately most heartbreaking film.
– Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

Unflappable desert village life, pulsing Tokyo teen culture, and a vibrant Mexican wedding are treated with reverence and delight, in unsubtle contrast to depictions of people lost in cultural wildernesses.
– Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

[Many] will probably find something profound in this beautiful-looking mishmash, but the profundity exists only in the intent, and not in the execution.
– Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

The ending is cowardly, mawkishly idealistic and, worst of all, panders to the upbeat-ending demands of Hollywood (Babel is the largest financed Iñárritu film).
– Kevin Biggers
FilmStew.com

The connections between the stories develop an underlying sense of irony that works like a last act twist in a crime novel and provides a satisfying feeling of discovery.
– Jules Brenner
Cinema Signals

Shut Up and Sing
Directed: Cecilia Peck

Follows the aftermath that the Dixie Chicks dealt with after saying they were ashamed President Bush was from Texas.

RT Score: 93%
RT Consensus: Though ostensibly an intimate look at the Dixie Chicks after their 2003 anti-Bush remark, the film achieves broader relevance by exploring how media, politics, and celebrities intertwine.

A lively, roving, surprisingly intimate backstage documentary that follows the Chicks as they deal with the lingeringly bitter fallout from that incident.
– Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

Life in Bush America gets a blunt, honest telling in this documentary that makes you want to stand up and cheer without ever begging for tears or glib sympathy.
– Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

Going in with just a rudimentary knowledge of their music, by the time Natalie Maines utters one of the best closing lines of the year, I had never been so proud to be an American.
– Erik Childress
eFilmCritic.com

Part vanity project, part image rehabilitation.
– Nick Schager
Slant Magazine

Documentarians Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck are skillful enough to tell this story from multiple angles, making Shut Up & Sing as insightful as it is entertaining.
– Elizabeth Weitzman
New York Daily News

 

Death of a President
Directed: Gabriel Range

A what-if story involving the fictional assassination of President Bush.

RT Score: 33%
RT Consensus: In this unconvincing fictional documentary, the tense 30 minutes that lead into the title event is outweighed by the boring, melodramatic hour preceding it.

Theater bans give “Death of a President” the appeal of forbidden fruit, which is just enough to make watching the slipshod film a giddy experience.
– Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

The fact of the Bush years far outdoes Range’s dull fiction. The only thing that shook me was the idea of Cheney as president. Now that is the stuff of nightmares.
– Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

Death of a President begins as a disturbingly clever stunt but concludes as a contradiction, a political nightmare of haunting banality.
– Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

It’s a stunt more than a movie, and if this is what’s passing for intelligent liberal thought in this (or any other) country, we’re really in trouble.
– Stephanie Zacharek
Salon.com

Range’s movie is notable more for its superficial gimmick — and the publicity campaign trying to cash in on the ‘controversy’ surrounding it — than it is for its ideas, which are few and familiar.
– Glenn Whipp
Los Angeles Daily News

 

The Wild Blue Younder: A Science Fiction Fantasy
Directed: Werner Herzog

A group of astronauts become stuck in space when Earth becomes inhabitable while they are off of the planet. They go in search of somewhere else to live and find that aliens have been trying to do the same with Earth for years.

RT Score: 57%

A meandering, amusing trifle, Werner Herzog’s latest film is as cheekily flaky as his recent Grizzly Man was sharply down-to-earth.
– Elizabeth Weitzman
New York Daily News

Not a major Herzog work or one that will draw a large audience, but a must-see for those who suspect (as I do) that he’s one of the greatest talents now working in this medium.
– Andrew O’Hehir
Salon.com

… as gorgeous and conceptually curious a misfire as you’ll ever see.
– Sean Axmaker
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The Wild Blue Yonder wavers between (sometimes) brilliant and (mostly) boring.
– V.A. Musetto
New York Post

The director calls the film a ‘science-fiction fantasy,’ but it’s really a languid meditation on human impermanence.
– Ty Burr
Boston Globe

 

20 Centimeters
Directed: Ramon Salazar

A Mexican musical starring a pre-op transsexual with narcolepsy.

RT Score: 43%

20 Centimeters is a flaccid bore.
– Drew Tillman
Village Voice

Director (Ramon) Salazar is no Pedro Almodóvar, try as he might.
– Lou Lumenick
New York Post

The film’s story may be slight but Salazar’s sparkling tribute to an alternative lifestyle and unconventional female beauty is liberating.
– Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine

Unfortunately, Salazar’s cinematic skills do not extend to the musical realm, for the song and dance numbers in 20 Centimeters are charm-deprived, uninspired, and ineptly directed and choreographed.
– Timothy Knight
Reel.com

Whether she’s acting like Marilyn Manson or Marilyn Monroe, Monica Cervera delivers an audaciously over the top and delectably rich comic performance.
– Beth Accomando
KPBS.org

 

Absolute Wilson
Directed: Katharina Otto-Bernstein

Documentary about avant-garde artist Robert Wilson.

RT Score: 89%

A rather conventional, Biography Channel-style portrait of a man who helped change the face of theater in the last quarter of the 20th century.
– Ken Fox
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

For the Wilson newbie, this puff piece will suffice as an introduction.
– Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine

The film includes generous amounts of archival footage of his work, but the film’s genius is to get us inside those works. Wilson’s own recollection of his work is the biggest key to understanding what make him and it tick.
– Kirk Honeycutt
Hollywood Reporter

Absolute Wilson doesn’t depend on believing in Wilson’s greatness, just on his immense cultural potency and the extraordinary nature of his personal odyssey.
– Andrew O’Hehir
Salon.com

 

Climates
Directed: Nuri Bilge Ceylan

A bored professor decides to leave the city to the wintery climates in search of his long-lost love.

RT Score: 45%

I can only speak for myself, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from this Euro-art train wreck.
– Keith Uhlich
Slant Magazine

[An] exquisitely structured, pitiless study of a middle-aged man trapped in a stagnant emotional weather pattern.
– Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

A missed-love story with people you don’t care about.
– Duane Byrge
Hollywood Reporter

Technically, it rewards with nothing less than painterly cinematography and a seamless surge of organic soundscapes, but the story is entirely predicated on a weather metaphor so obvious that even an unplugged Doppler radar could detect it.
– Aaron Hillis
Premiere Magazine

 

Don
Directed: Farhan Akhtar

A man goes undercover in a gang to make some extra money from a cop, but then the cop dies and the man is alone in his undercover life.

Working to keep the home audience interested in a story it knows by heart, Akhtar adds so many additional betrayals and secret identities to an already far-fetched plot that the real world becomes a distant memory, and happily so.
– David Chute
L.A. WEEKLY

Cruel World
Directed: Kelsey T. Howard

Edward Furlong runs a new reality show where the contestants that are voted out of a house get killed.

Skip this reality-TV slasher.
– Fredrik Nordstrom
SLASHERPOOL

Watchable, but not quite a cult classic.
– Luke Y. Thompson
L.A. WEEKLY

 

Conversations with God
Directed: Stephen Simon

A man’s life is turned upside down after a car accident. He starts hearing voices in his head that he believes are God, and starts to write them down into a series of books.

RT Score: 11%
RT Consensus: At some point in the conversation, God must have asked for a subtler, deeper film.

Me: I’m a little embarrassed to say this, God, since you’re featured prominently … I don’t really recommend this film. God: (Sigh) Just between you and me, if I were in line at the multiplex I’d buy a ticket for Scorsese’s The Departed myself.
– Laura Kelly
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Guess it’s comforting to believe that God might make contact in even the blandest of conditions. But I can’t see this movie meaning much to any but the already converted.
– Bob Strauss
Los Angeles Daily News

One of Walsch’s precepts is that you should never make a living doing something you hate. If I’d known that, I might not have felt obliged to sit through every excruciating minute of this sanctimonious infomercial.
– Elizabeth Weitzman
New York Daily News

The ‘God’ in Conversations with God acts like a psychotherapist and talks in the buzz-phrases of self-help speak.
– Roger Moore
Orlando Sentinel

It may appeal to those who get teary eyed over Hallmark cards, but will bore anyone who views religion with passion and maturity.
– Phil Hall
EDGE Boston

It’s an agreeable enough tale right up until God butts in and starts talking; even if you can swallow the premise, it isn’t particularly cinematic to watch a guy endlessly scribbling on legal pads.
– Luke Y. Thompson
Village Voice

 

Color of the Cross
Directed: Jean Claude Lamarre

Covers the last 48 hours of Jesus Christ’s life and portrays him as a black man with hints that his crucifixion was racially motivated.

RT Score: 25%

Many are calling Color of the Cross controversial, but it’s really not. It simply states a possibility — that Christ was a man of color — which it dramatizes earnestly within the narrow confines of its $2.5 million budget.
– Stephen Hunter
Washington Post

Lacking the drama of Jesus’ trial and the passion, as well as the substance of his teachings, (actor Jean Claude) LaMarre’s turgid take has very little to offer dramatically or inspirationally.
– Todd McCarthy
Variety

…The first film to depict a black African Jesus is hindered by shoddy production values and so-so storytelling.
– John Monaghan
Detroit Free Press

But we’ve seen no convincing evidence that the historical Jesus was black, and “Color of the Cross” is too sketchy to give the notion any anthropological or religious validity.
– Joe Williams
St. Lois Post-Dispatch

 

Oct 23 2006

Lost: Hunter Locke

Category: Lost,Recaps,TV — velveetahead @ 8:38 pm

Further Instructions
October 18, 2006

It was a Locke-centric episode with an interesting flashback sequence. We get to see Locke in some hippie commune, which I knew wouldn’t end well. When all the fertilizer was going into the greenhouse, I was with the undercover cop. I thought it was for making a bomb. When Locke laughed, I thought, maybe it is pot. I guess I was right on the second guess. :)

I did enjoy this episode a lot. I liked the weird surreal nature of it with Locke losing his voice briefly, Desmond losing his clothes, the sweat lodge and the return of the polar bear. I also was glad there was humor in this episode. I really like the humor to break up all the seriousness or craziness that happens on the island.

I loved how Desmond just came up on Hurley and how Hurley changed his mind after seeing Desmond in the buff, “I’m not alone. I’m not alone!” Haha! I also liked how Hurley’s shirt covered almost all of Desmond. Charlie was pretty funny too. I now can’t remember what he said, but I remembered laughing when he was following Locke to the polar bear cave. Maybe he didn’t say something funny, but just gave a funny look when Locke commented about how he shouldn’t be following him.

Oh, what was that thing that launched out at Locke at the end of the sweat lodge vision? Was it the island monster? It was freaky for the split second it was on screen.

I’m not convinced that Desmond can predict the future or time travel or anything like that. I was wondering if he had a dream about Locke giving a speech. I was actually expecting him to say something like that when he just blew it off when Hurley didn’t know what he was talking about. Maybe how he knew is what led to his clothes disappear. It’s the cost of knowing the future!

Oct 23 2006

Jericho: Drinking All Day

Category: Recaps,TV — velveetahead @ 8:25 pm

Federal Response
October 18, 2006

Lack of zombies this week! There wasn’t even radiation present. I actually forgot about my crazy zombie idea for this entire episode. So sad. ;)

The people in this town really like handling a huge emergency with a lot of alcohol. There are some people that have been sitting in that bar for days just drinking all day long. I would think they would be a lot drunker, like the IRS lady. She sure is a peach though. She’s super rude to the grocery lady when the ATM machine ate her card. Of course, why was it so hard to tape a piece of paper over it saying “Out of Order”? Maybe she just noticed IRS lady’s lack of commitment to Sparkle Motion.

Amy has mentioned before and I agree, is it such a good idea to pick a natural disaster to tell your wife that you want to leave her for your mistress? Then Eric seems surprised that his wife was ready to file for divorce before the whole disaster happened. Sucks to be him!

I am still not sure what to think of Hawkins. It seems like he’s up to no good with his mini satellite dish, and he really didn’t like it when Jake saw it. Then he shows up and actually helps Jake with the fire. I thought he had run away when they were trying to hook up the hose. I loved both of their comments about being pool men. Good stuff.

I like mysteries in shows and things to be drawn out slowly with character back stories, but I find Jake’s mysterious past annoying. It isn’t that he has one that is annoying is that everyone tries so hard not to mention it, being his mother, dad or Jake himself. It was only saved when we saw that his passport was flagged. Why? That was enough to let me not be overly annoyed for not knowing. I guess I’ll be patient a while longer.

The missiles being shot off were a good ending to a not-overly-exciting lack-of-zombies show. I wonder that now they have seen the missiles, if there will be even more of an increase in drinking all day at the local bar rather than dealing with what’s going on.

Oct 23 2006

Gilmore Girls: Actually Like Chris

Category: Recaps,TV — velveetahead @ 7:36 pm

‘S Wonderful, ‘S Marvelous
October 17, 2006

I have stated before that I don’t really care who Lorelai and Rory end up with romantically as long as they aren’t annoying when they are with whomever they are with at the time. I liked watching Lorelai and Luke be friends for years and then realizing they liked each other more as friends. I was excited when they were engaged. I thought their fights were stupid and how they broke up was still stupid. Now that they are apart, I am wondering how they were ever together.

I think most of that has to do with her dating Chris. From what I can remember (I have been watching since the beginning but rarely watch reruns so this is from memory), Lorelai is the one that freaked out and left when she became pregnant in high school. Or did Chris freak out? Or did they both freak out? Anyway, they were both kids when it all happened. Even when Chris showed up in the picture again a few years ago, he still had a lot of maturing to do. He flirted with Lorelai, but then married/dated (I can’t remember now) that Noxema girl that gave him Gia. Then she ditched him with Gia. Having a kid seems to have grounded him a lot. He also seems to have an actual father/daughter relationship with Rory for the first time ever instead of just showing up and acting like her older brother, like he has done in the past.

I did not like when Chris came around last season since it did not make Luke happen, for good reason. This season though, once Lorelai and Luke broke up, I have actually liked Chris. He seems to actually know what Lorelai wants. I am thinking about when Luke showed up to prove to Lorelai he is ready to get married and has camping equipment in the back of the truck. This is a Luke thing to do. Lorelai doesn’t want to go camping. She wants to be pampered. Chris takes her out to watch her favorite movie on the side of a barn and provides tons of candy and popcorn. I don’t think Luke would even know what Lorelai’s favorite movie was, even if she had told him before since it isn’t important to him. He’s simple. He doesn’t remember that stuff, even if he has good intentions. If it isn’t in his immediate world, he just deems it as fluff. Now, I still like Luke and I might change my mind on all of this later, but for now, I’m liking the Chris and Lorelai thing. I am still waiting for some immaturity thing from him to pop up at any minute, even though it would be nice to see that he did actually grow up after all this time.

As for the rest of the episode, I have finally made up my mind about April. She bugs! I was wondering last season if she was annoying me or just being a spazzy pre-teen. Now I know that she bugs me. I don’t like the actress. I wish she would go away. Someone send her to boarding school.

I am so glad that Rory made some new friends at the art show. I hope they stay around. They seem fun and I think Rory needs some fun. Paris is not fun, so she needs some other friends. When Logan called, she told him that she loved him. Was that the first time she ever said it? I keep expecting her to say it when they talk, but I didn’t think I had heard it yet.

Of course, the best part was Emily Gilmore getting arrested for talking on her cell phone while driving and arguing with the officer. I loved Lorelai taking pictures with all the cops and they were enjoying it since they had just spent all that time with Emily. I could just imagine Luke being there, and trying to avoid eye contact, and being disappointed that Lorelai would be taking pictures and that he had to be around her mother. Chris handled it in style.

Oct 22 2006

Veronica Mars: Logan Slightly Off

Category: Recaps,TV — velveetahead @ 2:55 pm

Wichita Linebacker
October 17, 2006

I am loving Veronica Mars like I have since I first saw it from the very first episode, but there is something slightly off about it. I like the transition into college. I like that Wallace and Weevil are still around. I love that Mac is a regular series member. I like that Veronica lives with her dad so they can enjoy some father/daughter bonding. I even enjoy seeing Dick wandering around being his usual charming self.

I don’t know about Logan. Something is off with him. Now, in the first season, I hated Logan. He was so mean to Veronica. Then I grew to like him the same time that Veronica started falling for him. I loved their little secret romance, even when it became common knowledge to everyone. I always thought Duncan was so incredibly boring. He was only exciting when there was the possibility that he was Veronica’s half-brother. That would have been too icky if it was true, but still, it at least made him interesting.

Then the second season started and we get told in summary that Logan and Veronica broke up. WAT! That threw me a bit. Then he was back to being super mean, but I spent most of the season hoping Logan would get over it and they would get back together. I loved it when they argued with the underlying sexual tension. The last episode of the season was so over the top with the murder mystery Scooby Doo ending and Veronica jumping into Logan’s arms. It felt forced, but I went with it since it wasn’t clear if the show as going to be renewed.

I thought this season, we would get to see them slowly getting back together since she was very unsure if she did want to get back together with him at the end of last season. So far this season, they are acting all weird. It is like they are together, but they don’t seem to really like each other. The only thing I have found cute about them so far was when Logan was in the prison experiment and Veronica visited him at the food court where he talked about her picture up on the wall. Other than that, they don’t seem to actually hang out, he isn’t interested in anything she is interested in, he goes off gambling, she bugs his cell phone, and there is just a big mess of a relationship.

I did like the end of the episode where he showed up at the library, but right now I am not so sure I want Veronica and Logan together. He doesn’t seem overly torn up over his dad dying, but he seems different.

I do like Piz. He was a good addition. He is so dorky and cute. He cracks me up. I love that Weevil finally showed up again, except that he has gained weight every season. What’s up with that? He was super skinny in the first season, a little bulkier last season and he’s pretty much round this season. Someone get Weevil a job where he moves a lot. I felt bad that he messed up the job with Mars Investigations, but glad he’ll be around the college in some capacity.

I also like Wallace and Logan hanging out together. I would like to see them become friends rather than friendly via proxy to Veronica.

Oct 22 2006

Heroes: Samurai Hiro

Category: Recaps,TV — velveetahead @ 1:07 pm

Chapter Four: Collision
Monday, October 16

Claire starts off the episode putting herself back together. That was a pretty amusing scene with her putting her skin back where it should be and sneaking out of the autopsy room. It’s a good thing she doesn’t feel any pain. She could repair herself, but still feel everything that’s happening to her. I think that much pain would make her pass out constantly though. The look on the rapist boy’s face was awesome when he saw her at school. I liked the pay back with him in the car. I hope she doesn’t leave any traces of herself in that accident.

It looks like Matt was having his mind erased by Claire’s dad and that one guy that made him pass out in the bar last week. I wonder how much he’ll remember or if he’ll be surprised with hearing thoughts all over again.

Seeing Isaac actually paint the pictures with his eyes all crazy was cool. Other than that, he still bores me. Maybe it is the actor. I love the pictures and the idea that he can paint the future, but him and Simone arguing is boring to me. I like Simone with Peter. Having Simone in the apartment when Nathan came over was amusing. I guess he didn’t think his brother ever had any fun.

I was hoping that Hiro would have run into Niki when he was in Las Vegas, but maybe that will happen very soon. Hiro needs to be careful with the scamming of gambling. It was one thing to have the ball at roulette go right where he wanted it, but video cameras can easily see that cards suddenly change at a poker game. I see why Hiro and his buddy got kicked out. Getting too cocky with their winnings.The scene with them riding down the escalator was very Rainman though.

I was waiting for Niki’s alter ego to come out when she met up with Nathan at the hotel. Her altar ego is super duper strong! Also, those shoes were way pointy. Reminded me of Single White Female for a moment with that guy in the elevator. Now, we just have to see what will be done with the video of what she did with the Nathan. Will it be used to blackmail her or Nathan? Or both?

Mohinder is having some issues. He wants to work on his father’s research and then he becomes frustrated and doesn’t believe any of it anymore. I still don’t trust big headed girl. Her head is just way too big for her tiny frame. I just think she’s up to something.

I loved the ending when Peter was on the subway and everything stopped except for him. I was confused for a moment since I figured he was feeding off of Hiro’s powers, but there wouldn’t be a reason for Hiro to jump from Las Vegas to that subway train in New York. Then when we saw Samurai Hiro from the future, it was awesome! What message will he give Peter? Will it be that his floppy hairstyle went out in the mid-90s? I bet that’s it.

Oct 21 2006

Movies Opening Oct 20

Category: 2006,Movies,Opening — velveetahead @ 12:12 pm

Nationwide Releases


The Prestige
Directed: Christopher Nolan

Two magicians’ friendship turns into a rivalry as one suspects the other of practicing actual magic instead of just the art of illusion.

RT Score: 74%
RT Consensus: Full of twists and turns, The Prestige is a dazzling period piece that never stops challenging the audience.

It’s a battle that’s played out every day at recess in kids’ imaginations: Who would win in a fight between Batman and Wolverine?
– Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

There are nifty tricks galore up the sumptuous sleeve of this offbeat and wildly entertaining thriller.
– Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

The Prestige isn’t art, but it reaps a lot of fun out of the question, How did they do that?
– Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

The  reveal was a surprise and quite deliciously executed.
– Victoria Alexander
FilmsInReview.com

Take the movie’s first words to heart: watch closely. You’ll be well rewarded.
– David Ansen
Newsweek

 

Marie Antoinette
Directed: Sofia Coppola

Kirsten Dunst is the much adored and hated queen of France with a punk-rock style and New Wave soundtrack.

RT Score: 53%
RT Consensus: Lavish imagery and a daring soundtrack set this film apart from most period dramas; in fact, style complete takes precedence over plot and character development in Coppola’s vision of the doomed queen.

Off with its head.
– Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

With lyrical intelligence and scrappy wit, Coppola creates a luscious world to get lost in. It’s a pleasure.
– Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

The work of a mature filmmaker who has identified and developed a new cinematic vocabulary to describe a new breed of post-postpostfeminist woman.
– Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

Coppola may have failed here, but her aesthetic instincts remain strong.
– Glenn Whipp
Los Angeles Daily News

By ending Marie Antoinette in 1790, three years before the queen would be sentenced to death, the film deflates the reason why she is a compelling figure, if at all.
– Kent Turner
Film-Forward.com


Flags of Our Fathers
Directed: Clint Eastwood

The story behind the one of the most-famous war pictures ever taken, the flag planted in the battle of Iwo Jima.

RT Score: 75%
RT Consensus: Flags of Our Fathers is both a fascinating look at heroism, both earned and manufactured, and a well-filmed salute to the men who fought at the battle of Iwo Jima.

Marks Eastwood’s continuing march to prove he’s a modern John Ford.
– Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

In Flags of Our Fathers, Eastwood is here to tell us that the reality of World War II was scarier and darker than any inspirational photograph.
– Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

As both war epic and historical character piece, it feels weirdly insubstantial.
– Andrew Wright
The Stranger (Seattle, WA)

Clearly Eastwood wants the story of what happened to these men to resonate as much for our own era as for theirs. It’s a movie about the toll that heroism extracts in a wartime culture ready-made for heroes.
– Peter Rainer
Christian Science Monitor

The flaws in Flags of Our Fathers are at least partly attributable to Eastwood’s attempts to do too much. Still, even when he overreaches, he somehow hits the mark.
– Stephanie Zacharek
Salon.com

Flicka
Directed: Michael Mayer

A girl tries to train a wild mustang against her father’s wishes and horrible country music plays everywhere.

RT Score: 55%
RT Consensus: The rebellious protagonist will rally girls and children, but adults may find Flicka saddled with thin characters, over-the-top dialogue, and a plot that wanders into the countryside and never comes back.

A new yet insistently old-fashioned spin on the kid-lit classic My Friend Flicka.
– Scott Brown
Entertainment Weekly

The movie is inoffensive and forgettable, which is probably what they were going for.
– Eric D. Snider
EricDSnider.com

Flicka does not seem to be pandering to the dictates of Hollywood formula filmmaking, and everything about it seems structured to evoke that special love which young girls seem to universally feel for the equine species.
– William Arnold
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

There’s plenty of singing and haircutting and pretty landscape and annoying crap to fill in the blanks between confrontations.
– Liz Braun
Jam! Movies

It must have annoyed the people making Flicka when Dreamer came out last year. They’re similar films, and Dreamer is better.
– Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

Limited Releases


The Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D
Directed: Henry Selick

Re-release of the Tim Burton classic, now in 3-D.

RT Score: 97%

Feels like it should have always been in 3-D.
– Willie Waffle
WaffleMovies.com

As original a vision as anything Tim Burton ever came up with, The Nightmare Before Christmas holds up amazingly well 12 years after its initial release.
– Jim Slotek
Jam! Movies

In many ways it is a very clever film, but it never lives up to the promise of its visual brilliance.
– Robert Roten
Laramie Movie Scope

If the 3-D fails to grab you as much as you might hope, it never takes you out of the movie, which is a remarkable feat.
– Daniel Gray Longino
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Thirteen years after its debut, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas has gone 3D, which makes a good thing even better.
– Nancy Churnin
Dallas Morning News

Running With Scissors
Directed: Ryan Murphy

Based on the memoir of Augusten Burroughs about how his bipolar mother gave him up for adoption to his shrink, and how he spent his teen years with a weird-ass shrink family.

RT Score: 23%
RT Consensus: Despite a few great performances, the film lacks the sincerity and emotional edge of Burroughs’ well-loved memoir.

Despite actors who give their all, it lies there waiting for an animating force that never comes.
– Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

The experience is unusual  zany, even  but not nearly as dangerous or exhilarating as one would hope from the recklessness the title implies.
– Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

The characters are caricatures, and the cast responds with mostly cartoonish performances, with [Brian] Cox and Gwyneth Paltrow, as the shrink’s spooky older daughter, delivering particularly awful performances.
– Pam Grady
Reel.com

goes for the easy punchline, making the film too often a shallow exercise in retro camp
– Chris Barsanti
filmcritic.com

Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy s new movie is a horror show, a snarky satire, a lacerating statement about the dreams of the everyday housewife  and the rest of us.
– Telly Davidson
FilmStew.com

51 Birch Street
Directed: Doug Block

After his mother suddenly dies, documentarian Doug Block’s father marries his secretary from 40 years ago. Doug starts to realize his parent’s loving marriage wasn’t what it seemed like, especially after he finds his mom’s diaries from the past 35 years.

RT Score: 100%

What’s best about [director] Block’s documentary is how well he captures his own shifting perceptions.
– Ken Fox
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

In some ways, an antidote to the sugarcoated myths and lies the movies have taught us about love and marriage.
– Jim Emerson
RogerEbert.com

Doug Block’s 51 Birch Street proves that the simplest, most ordinary stories can also be the most spellbinding.
– Rene Rodriguez
Miami Herald

What makes 51 Birch Street a moving revelation rather than a therapeutic exercise is Block’s commitment to understanding his parents, Mike and Mina, on their own terms, regardless of what it does to his image of them.
– Sam Adams
Los Angeles Times

Doug Block’s very moving, honest and even suspenseful autopsy of his parents’ marriage is the kind of film audiences leave the theater talking about, and which keeps them talking days later.
– John Anderson
Newsday

It’s a loving, painful map of the gulf between thought and word, between word and deed, that props up good marriages, and sends bad ones to hell.
– Ella Taylor
L.A. Weekly

Sleeping Dogs Lie
Directed: Bobcat Goldthwait

A young engaged couple are all about being completely honest with each other, until Amy shares a secret with just her fiance that shocks him, and when her brother overhears, he shares it with the family.

RT Score: 54%
RT Consensus: Though Sleeping Dogs Lie treats its subject and characters humanely, it’s unable to overcome the low-budget production and Bobcat Goldthwait’s pedestrian directing.

Possesses a quick wit and an endearing tenderness toward Amy as honesty wrecks her life. It’s sweet, doggone it.
– Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

A scrappily funny and observant takeoff on the secrets that complete even the ‘normal’ among us.
– Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

There really isn’t much of a premise in this flat romantic sex comedy which tends to lose its way as it goes along.
– Edward Douglas
ComingSoon.net

Goldthwait — his motives always suspect — has made a very watchable movie out of a very strange subject.
– John Anderson
Newsday

There are no laughs to be had here, unless you count nervous titters and frat-boy sniggers at the very thought of, you know.
– Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

Requiem
Directed: Hans-Christian Schmid

Based on a true story of a young religious, epileptic girl in Germany in the 1970s, who finds freedom at college after living a sheltered life, but then starts to have visions. She seeks help from a priest who thinks she is possessed when her new friends tell her to seek the help of a psychiatrist. The same story was made into The Exorcism of Emily Rose.

RT Score: 88%

Requiem shows us with a sense of palpable reality (and without any special effects) what being — or feeling — possessed must be like for Michaela herself and her family.
– Boyd van Hoeij
europeanfilms.net

Requiem isn’t a horror movie so much as a thwarted coming-of-age story, like Carrie without the bloody reckoning.
– Scott Tobias
Onion AV Club

This quietly unnerving psychological study from German director Hans-Christian Schmid wields its ambiguity about religion and science like a double-edged blade.
– Jim Ridley
Village Voice

Bogumil Godfrejow’s raw cinematography and (Sandra) Huller’s poignant, close-to-the-bone performance transform what might have been a morbid curiosity into an entirely enthralling, quietly terrifying experience.
– Ken Fox
TV Guide’s Movie Guide

Takes the flashback sequences from Exorcism of Emily Rose, removes all the supernatural scares, and tries to keep you interested.
– Edward Douglas
ComingSoon.net

Sweet Land
Directed: Ali Selim

In 1920, Inge arrives in Minnesota from Germany as a mail-order to marry Olaf, a Norwegian farmer. The priest and the community refuse to marry them since she is an outsider. She stays around and learns English, while her and Olaf fall in love.

RT Score: 95%
RT Consensus: Finding the right balance between subtle and sentimental, Sweet Land moves beyond other similarly-themed dramas with evocative cinematography that plays an equal role to the talented cast.

If Terrence Malick could ever banish the wispy art clouds from his brain and give in to the storyteller inside, perhaps he might make a movie as stirring as Sweet Land.
– Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

A tender and touching film about the blooming of love, the poignant tug of place, and the challenges of openness in a rural Midwest community in the 1920s.
– Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

Selim’s script doesn’t hit new territory, but beautiful cinematography takes it just far enough.
– Elizabeth Weitzman
New York Daily News

It’s a nice film, but not a great film, and the double/flashback prologue is why.
– Eric Lurio
Greenwich Village Gazette

Selim, cinematographer David Tumbelty and a superb cast work together to create a believable, poignant and haunting evocation of a long-lost way of life.
– Gene Seymour
Newsday

Conventioneers
Directed: Mora Stephens

A Republican man and a Democratic woman who knew each other from college meet at their various political party conventions in New York and hit it off romatically.

RT Score: 71%

They may stand in for two halves of a country split by irreconcilable political differences. But as a couple they make not one lick of sense, regardless of how desperate each is.
– John Anderson
Newsday

A successful mix of scripted drama with on-location improv, and a rare instance of U.S. narrative cinema that engages the politics of the moment, Mora Stephens’ Conventioneers refreshes on several levels.
– Dennis Harvey
Variety

One for the time capsule — not just as an irrefutable visual record of the size, diversity, and vitriolic fervor of the anti-Bush protest movement, but also as a demonstration of how unbridgeable the red-blue divide seemed in those dark autumn months.
– Jim Ridley
Village Voice

The homemade-looking Conventioneers can’t decide whether it’s a documentary about the 2004 Republican convention at Madison Square Garden or a love story about two activists from opposite sides of the aisle.
– Kyle Smith
New York Post

Oct 18 2006

Kinky: Three Cowbells of Coolness

Category: Concerts,Music — velveetahead @ 1:30 am

Kinky
Berbati’s Pan
Monday, October 2

Opening Act: Gram Rabbit

Kinky is from a small town outside of Mexico City. I discovered them from one of my CMJ CDs (the magazine comes with a CD full of very diverse indie music). I have never heard them on the radio. I have heard their music in commercials and used for various tv shows. Mas was used as the every commercial for Nip/Tuck during the first season. It still reminds me of it whenever I hear it. The band was featured in a CSI:Miami episode last season where someone was shot at an outdoor lunch time concert. That was the band!

I had no idea how many people would be at the show since I don’t know how other people would know about them. I arrived right before the opening band started and there were only a few people inside, less than twenty. The opening band was still setting up and I saw what I thought might be the band members of Kinky walk out to check out the stage set up. I was correct when a few people ran over, squealed at them, and then posed with the band for pictures. They seemed very nice and cool with hanging out and talking to people before the show started. They went backstage a few times, but ended back out with the crowd for most of the opening band.

As for the opening band, I liked the music, but the lead singer seemed like a mega bitch. While the rest of the band was setting up, she comes waltzing into the club and straight to the bathroom. One of the guy’s actually had to go bang on the door to tell her it was time to come up on stage. She yelled at him when she walked out and didn’t get on stage right away. She went up to check something out at the merchandising booth. Then she finally got on stage. She was wearing an awesome orange jumpsuit with bell bottoms and parts of it cut away around her waist like Diana Riggs in the Avengers. She started out playing with some crazy half mask on (like the one shown above) and so did the guitar player. She kept the mask on for the second song, but put on a super fuzzy gun belt with some toy guns in it. The third song, she took off the mask and put on an Indian head dress. She took that off for a few songs, and then put on the bunny ears. The guitar player took the mask off after the first song and later on put on a gorilla head.

The band was trying to get the crowd into it, and the few people that were there seemed to be enjoying it, but not many were up and dancing. About half were sitting down around the edge of the bar. This seemed to infuriate mega bitch. Part of it could be that she didn’t say thank you between songs or have any sort of interaction with the crowd for most of the show. She finally started talking to people and tried to get people up and dancing, and they went into a strict dance song that was short and sweet. She seemed to actually loosen up a bit during the dance song and the guitar player was wearing the gorilla mask at this point. He tried to sing with the mask on, which was funny. A few more people got up to dance, but that wasn’t enough for mega bitch. She said that they were just going to stop so Kinky would come on and that was it. Bye bye!

While waiting for Kinky to come on, I talked to this lady who had come there by herself. She said that she had just moved to Portland from Omaha, Nebraska and she was told by friends on MySpace to check out the band. I wonder if that’s how other people knew about them? Either way, I didn’t get to talk long because the band came on. Yeah!

They are very dance-oriented. I took some craptastic pictures from my cell phone that are showcased above. I tried to get pictures of the drumset, but you couldn’t tell what it was from the picture. The drummer stood up. He had a normal drumset to the right-side of him. On his left, he had bongo drums. In the middle he had drum pads for a drum machine and three sizes of cowbell. You know I love cow bells so this was the best! The bass player played his normal bass half the time, but he did get out his electric stand-up bass once, which was awesome. The keyboardist had three keyboards surrounding him. He also came out from behind the keyboard to play his accordion. The singer had weird sound effects on his voice half the time. It is all highly entertaining to watch and enormous fun to dance to.

They played only one of their songs that is sung in English. I prefer their songs sung in Spanish since they sound better to me. I don’t know if they just don’t write very exciting lyrics or if the translation just doesn’t work, but I prefer not knowing what they are saying. They started out with the English song so it got much better after that. They played some newer songs, like Una Linea de Luz. I’m sure they played some songs off of their second album Atlas, but I get the first and second albums confused. I don’t know what song is on which one. I do know they played Mas and the song I really wanted to hear Cornman, which is what made me get the first album. That was the very last song they played and it was awesome.

Everyone in the crowd was really into the band, even though the crowd was small. It grew to about 30-40 people by the time that Kinky came on stage, but all of them were dancing. The band even made a comment that they were happy to play for all of us, and since the crowd was so small, the would dedicate one song to each of us. They started out dedicating the next song to a girl wearing bunny ears that she had purchased from Gram Rabbit. Nice!

Oct 17 2006

Amazing Race: Peter Poophead

Category: Amazing Race,Recaps,TV — velveetahead @ 7:25 pm

Episode 5 – I Covered His Mouth, Oh My Gosh!
Chennai, India
Sunday, October 15

Peter is horrible! While Rob was relatively calm this episode, Peter is getting worse. He yells at Sarah to hurry up when her hydraulic leg is broken. When she calls him on it, he denies it, but in a calm, condensing way. He doesn’t help her over the wall, but yells at her when she doesn’t get over it fast enough to his liking. He doesn’t come right out and say it is her fault they missed the bus, but he does it in that passive-agressive way by saying it about five times that they just missed the bus. Then he acts so disappointed that they have to sit. Oh dear lord, why doesn’t Sarah shove her leg up his….

I mention Rob being calm this episode, which was a nice turn around, we still had to hear Kimberly talk. She wondered about the “homeless cows” and then couldn’t get away from all the poor people. She wanted to go to Europe to be around the rich folks. I hope they get booted off before the teams go anywhere near Europe. :) She very much reminds me of Kendra and her horrible remarks in TAR 6. I really hate that Freddy and Kendra ever won.

The beauty queens were sneaky, but I didn’t mind it because they were screwing over Peter. Too bad Sarah was in the equation too. I didn’t feel sorry for Sarah when she was sitting around with the beauty queens and Peter all laughing at David and Mary with Peter’s impression. ugg!

I’m not sure why the Cho brothers got out a fake cell phone. As soon as they did, I thought they might convince the other teams that they had to get a cell phone too. It back fired when Peter found one. Of course, it didn’t really benefit anyone since it was the models and Rob & Kimberly ended up with the best flight by chance. Then there was all the crazy changing of flights that ended up stranding David and Mary in last place.

I loved the new twists this season! I think David and Mary will be eliminated next round unless someone makes a major mistake. They are slow and steady which works in most cases, but I think they need to be much quicker to not be gone. Let’s hope that Peter makes a mistake and then Sarah kicks him to the curb.

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