The Bridge On the River Kwai [1957]

I liked THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI – but honestly I wished I liked more. The movie was 2 hours and 45 minutes – and it felt every bit of it. It was two different stories – and they weren’t blended together well – even though I understood why and liked each story it just felt like “we showed the British officer’s side of the story – let’s now show the American soldier’s side of the story”. There were some great performances – and I really liked the build up to the conclusion (even though it’s become one of those famous scenes that you can’t help but run into – so you kind of already know how it ends). I’m glad I finally watched it – but I’m also glad I didn’t purchase it like I intended to at the Half-Price Books Labor Day sale – it’s not a keeper to me at the moment.

The Thing [2011]

I will sit and bitch and complain with you in regards to how annoying all these unnecessary sequels, prequels and remakes are. Hollywood is addicted to proven commodities and not willing to take any risk in exploring new ideas - and potentially great films. There's just too much money involved these days.

That being said, I will happily hold my tongue about this prequel.

John Carpenter's interpretation of THE THING is amazing as a stand alone 80's horror film - but it also left a lot of backstory that could easily fill an interesting movie - and from the trailers - it looks like someone actually nailed it...

Win Win [2011]

I love how Thomas McCarthy captures what on the surface seems to be a bleak experience and makes it into heartwarming hopeful film. A down on his luck lawyer decides to take advantage (ever so gently) of one of his elderly clients in order to make ends meet – and when his client’s teenage grandson comes into the picture – he brings him under his wing. Just like with THE STATION AGENT and THE VISITOR he takes his lead character’s want for one thing and flips it on its ear in order to show that they actually need something completely different. I really love how the high school wrestling element of the story is just a glue for binding the characters together stronger – much like trains in THE STATION AGENT and music in THE VISITOR. Great performances by the entire cast and great story – make WIN WIN a wonderful movie.

Video Game Challenge - Progress of weekend Sept 24 & 25

As I predicted – LuLu politely listened then called me a nerd – and Toad is unresponsive (probably rolling his eyes) – so since it’s of interest to me I’ll blog about it.

My video game challenge is going like this after this past weekend.

Fallout: New Vegas: Apparently, I’m at the point of no return. If I go and talk to one character – the entire region erupts in war – and once I complete the war – the game is over. Not in a Fallout 3 – download the expansion and you get to keep playing after the credits roll sense of over – it’s over over. Even if I want to play Old World Blues or Dead Money expansions – I will have to start from an old save file.

This gives me pause.

Do I complete the game? Or do I continue to fuck around?

For example - I cleared the way to recruit all the possible followers (achievement points – yay!) – but declined each opportunity when originally presented and decided to keep Veronica because she was able to use this really great weapon I found (which she went and fucking lost between saves – stupid fucking glitches!). So, do I go with the points – and possible extra side quests? Or just wrap this fucker up? Which is the whole point of my challenge!

Argh...

Speaking of fucking around in this game - I do really want to walk into the Ultra Luxe casino and shoot the place up with a mini-gun - it's not a side quest or anything - it's just something that needs to be done (even if I don't save it)

The Saboteur: Still not sure how far I am – I could check that little percentage thingy in the game – but I was wrapping shit up in New Vegas. I checked fairly early on and it said 15% - and that was after not doing much – so I’m betting I’m around 40% or so by now.

Crysis 2: Still in the cellophane – but I think it shifted around in the drawer when I opened it – so it has at least moved since last update.


I’ve got 46 days until Skyrim is released – and my challenge should be completed! I may have to play a bit more than just weekend mornings - and with my lack of interest in any TV shows that aren't BREAKING BAD and COMMUNITY - I may take up doing some night-gaming...

Monday Muzak: Dead End Friends

Video Game Update - The challenge begins

I bought an XBOX 360 a couple years ago to play FALLOUT 3 – a game in which I refuse to play all the way to the conclusion of the game. I’ve been having too much fun playing the game for the open world environments – plus the main story kind of bores me. I’m still on the same character – hundreds of hours into the game – but I haven’t played it in months.

I have been playing FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS though – and despite how glitchy it is – I find it fun. The main story is kind of disjointed – but I decided recently that I will be playing that through to the conclusion soon – because I have pre-ordered SKYRIM.

I have not played an ELDER SCROLLS game but decided that with how intriguing the previews are for SKYRIM - I decided this will be the one I will start with. Looks epic and fun – the fact that it’s developed by the same team that did FALLOUT 3 – has me sold it will be solid.

The problem is now I have been also playing THE SABOTEUR and ordered CRYSIS 2 (when it was a PENNY when Amazon had a *glitch* sale) – and I feel the need to complete all three of these games prior to the release of SKYRIM on 11/11/11 – and who knows maybe I should plug in FALLOUT 3 and complete that one too. (This is not counting a few other games started but not completed in my game drawer – ARKAM ASYLUM – looking at you bud)

I am NOT a gamer – and I could imagine others thinking this is NOT challenge – but to me this will be epic. I typically only play a couple hours while drinking coffee in my underwear on weekend mornings - but I did beat BULLETSTORM, LA NOIRE and a couple of LEGO STAR WARS games during that time this year – which is odd enough – but also means I’ve got a bit of momentum on my side in beating video games.

I will try and give updates on how I’m doing on my blog because I want to talk about it and LuLu will only humor me and Toad (my little brother) will probably roll his eyes at me (as he is a big gamer).

FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS – have all the allegiances – just need to declare which side I’m going to play for.

THE SABOTEUR – I have a hard time understanding how far along I am in this game – but I’ve cleared out a lot of areas of Nazi’s.

CRYSIS 2 – still in the cellophane.

Honestly, as this is scheduled to post - I will be sitting on my couch - drinking some coffee and playing my XBOX

Drive [2011]

By night he’s a getaway driver – by day he’s a Hollywood stunt driver – when he gets mixed up with a girl and the mob - things get violent.

First of all, I have been anticipating this film for several months now. The talent in front of the camera (Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks & Bryan Cranston) as well as the talent behind the camera (Nicholas Winding Refn) got me pretty psyched up for what appeared to be a hard hitting fast paced action film.

I really did not expect the film that I watched though. My presumption disparity was blown out of the theater – and though I expected something with more pep – I got an intelligent, beautiful film that’s going to linger with more far longer than what I went in expecting. I should have expected this considering Winding Refn was at the helm – as this was an essentially an extension of VALHALLA RISING – slow build ups – questions everywhere – and graphic acts of terrifying violence.

The film was all about building tension – the slow thoughtful pacing of the film – the long pauses in conversation – the low key ethereal synth music soundtrack – the static camera – was all carefully crafted and used in order to really help build up the underbelly of the film. When an act of violence would happen – it was graphic and startling – just the way it should be – it was realistic and horrifying. I gasped – LuLu Danger jumped – it was satisfying.

The acting was top notch – Ryan Gosling at times has an approach of being blank and not showing anything and it bothers me (FRACTURE) but when given a different context that bored/blank look of his has underlying issues – there’s nobody better. His lack of emotion – his lack of dialogue – just made his character endear to me more. LuLu and I walked out asking each other back and forth questions about him – agreeing there’s ton more that we’ll never know about him – and we loved it.

Carey Mulligan was sweet and complex – there was a certain level of complete perfection about how she behaved – the elevator scene will go down as one of the greatest scenes of her still very early career – she showed a maturity unlike many actresses and hit every emotional queue in such a broad spectrum like a fucking pro.

Albert Brooks is one of my favorite comedic actors of all time – but in DRIVE he terrified me. As much as Gosling kept it internal – Brooks allowed it to flow through his pores a bit more – and I got the feeling he was a man willing to do anything (there’s early Oscar talk for Brooks in this role – and I agree – I was seriously terrified of him). Bryan Cranston has a knack for acting fatherly and believable in whatever role he tackles – which he mixed with a slimy fast talker into this role – and he did it with a certain expertise.

I don’t have any complaints about the film. There is no other director that could have pulled off a film like this – the tone – the artistic styling. The acting was all exactly pitch perfection for what this film became. Maybe it needed more driving considering it was called DRIVE – but that’s not the point.


The comparisons to exploitation films are fair – with a slow building sense of tension exploding into graphic and perverse violence. I can see how this film wouldn’t speak to everyone’s tastes – as I realized how the tone of the movie was being set very early on – I worried LuLu wouldn’t like it – but I think it’s the reality of the film’s story and the compelling performances - really proved me wrong and she loved it. I did too.

P.S. LuLu and I were enthralled by Gosling’s white satin jacket the entire film – there was a certain fucking badass look to that jacket – though it was a dated look. It really reminded me of how Christina Lindberg looked in THRILLER with the eye patch and trench coat and how there’s something simplistically amazing about it. If LuLu and I ever make it to a Comic Con – I think I know what I would like for us to dress up as.

P.P.S. I'll throw my hat in there and say even though I've been incredibly picky about what I've watched this year - this is my favorite of the lot thus far in 2011.