The Indians are coming back to Milwaukee. Michelle, Jen, Christy and I are planning to take in a game on Wednesday evening. It’s an interesting story, and I’ll plan to put up some pictures.
It was a nice Easter, by the way. How did yours work out?
All right, well, I’m trying to watch this movie before I need to go to sleep.
Dear Mr. Cube,
You may consider turning the title question of your latest film (Are We Done Yet?) in on the “editorial we” of yourself, and possibly your agent, in relation to some of your recent choices for work.
We would all like to see you cease and desist as soon as possible.
We (i.e., the Western World) just want what’s best for you, Mr. Cube.
Thanks.
A couple weeks ago when the nominations came out, I offered up my list of flicks that I intended to see before the beeg pahtee on 2/25.
Well, of course I won’t have a chance to see ALL of those, but let’s have a look through the nominees that I have seen, and the categories that I have some license to talk about…
BEST PICTURE
You may have seen my initial review of The Departed earlier in the year, I might have talked about a couple others, and I’m not feeling like re-hashing thoughts on the individual films. So with that said, here is a one-sentence review of each:
The Departed— Scorsese’s best flick since Goodfellas hits on all cylinders, and the end is a surprise.
Babel— Crash-like in plot, but no racist aftertaste; more of a comment on a shrinking global community.
Letters from Iwo Jima— Strong performances against a gritty Eastwoodian backdrop, with a (relatively) uplifting finale.
Little Miss Sunshine— Superb screenplay made better by a terrific ensemble.
The Queen— The movie with this year’s Best Actress winner is an interesting flick regardless of historical accuracy.
My pick is The Departed. Best chance for an upset will come from Letters from Iwo Jima, since it is well-known that everything Clint Eastwood touches turns to gold,* unless nominated in the same year as a movie with hobbits.**
BEST DIRECTOR
Nominees here are the same as best pic, with the exception of Paul Greengrass and United 93 subbing in for Little Miss Sunshine. Greengrass did a phenomenal job, and that movie actually made me want to not watch any other 9/11 movies for a while. I guess for me, though, the proof of that film’s quality will come with time, when the people who were NOT around to witness 9/11 firsthand look at it. Other people might think about it differently…
But in any case, I’ll pick Martin again. Of course, there’s always the chance that the Academy will kick him in the balls one more time and hand this statue to Josey Wales.
That might be a much more interesting way to settle the Best Director award, no? Eastwood gets dressed up like he’s back in Fistful of Dollars and he and the little Italian wiseguy count off 10 paces in front of Mann’s Chinese Theater, turn and fire. Done and done. Once and for all. Christ, man, it would be like Blazing Saddles.
That covers both categories where I’ve seen all the nominees, but I could make a couple other random picks, I suppose…
– Would like to see Alan Arkin win for supporting actor in Little Miss Sunshine. Thought he really gave that character an edge.
– How did Dreamgirls get all these nominations?
– How bout an award for Click, just for the sake of putting the words “ACADEMY AWARD WINNER” on the DVD box (it’s up for an award for makeup)?
– I would have to see Pan’s Labyrinth to make a call in the Original Screenplay category, but out of the other four (Babel, Iwo Jima, Miss Sunshine, and The Queen), I will be pulling for Little Miss Sunshine.
* - see the 77th Academy Awards
** - see the 76th Academy Awards
Realized that I had a variety of “briefs” after making my initial post…
1. This Anna Nicole Smith thing is going to be an interesting movie on HBO or something in a few years. Who do you think they’ll cast for the title role?
2. I didn’t even think about how I didn’t think about missing ’24’ this week until I scanned through the titles of my last few posts. Yeah, not gonna miss that show at all.
3. I got an LCD monitor for my desktop that might just make the desktop PC my favorite computer again…
4. Four Best Picture nominees down, 1 to go. I still think The Departed is your front-runner.
5. Shoveling blows.
6. Pitchers and catchers report to camp in 3 days.
7. Still haven’t started that “get up early more often” thing yet.
I watched this week’s 24 a day late. Hard to say whether or not my opinion was swayed by a coversation with Kevin earlier in the evening, but here’s my current assessment of the season, after 7 MIND-BLOWING-NUMBING HOURS!!!
– Jack Bauer is immortal
– In the fictional world of 24, presidential terms only last a year or two; whatever’s convenient…
– intensely dramatic events ALWAYS occur at 60-minute intervals
– CTU headquarters is actually a mobile facility that follows no further than 10 minutes behind Jack
– If they dropped a nuke on CTU headquarters, there would not be one dead character I give a crap about
With these things in mind, I feel it prudent to retire from viewing this show. On top of everything else, I’ve noticed that this year’s script clumsily whacks the viewer on the melon over and over with a “this-is-the-worst-case-scenario-of-an-evolving-War-On-Terror-with-a-hawktastic-administration-in-power” stick.
It’s been fun, Jack, but it’s time to move on.
Seems like even good TV can last about 4 (*maybe* 5) years tops before they run out of ideas.
When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts, I couldn’t imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter.
1. Got busted at work this morning for running BitTorrent. This woman from Networking who was no younger than 55 went into a detailed explanation of how much bandwidth I was using and what the repercussions are for the network at-large. All she really needed to say was, “Hey– stop using BitTorrent. Now.” In any case, my thought was, “if they don’t want us using this, why don’t they just block the ports..?”
2. Oscar Noms are out. I’ve made it a ritual in recent years to at least see all the candidates for Best Pic, so when I bitch about who won, I feel like I have a good reason. I’ve also expanded that to trying to see as many of the director and screenplay nominees as I can, too. Here, in no particular order, are a list of flicks I’ll have to catch in the next few weeks with that in mind:
– Babel
– Blood Diamond
– The Pursuit of Happyness
– The Last King of Scotland
– Half Nelson
– Dreamgirls
– Letters from Iwo Jima
– The Prestige
– The Illusionist
– The Queen
– Pan’s Labyrinth
– Little Children
That is all…
No, that is not a blatent misspelling of Schrubbe.
Scrubs is now in its 6th season, and I can’t recall if I’ve mentioned it previously in this space, but if they’ve not jumped the shark, they’ve definitely worn a turkey on their head.
The season has had its occasional funny moments, though: I did laugh my ass off at “Guy Love”.
I dunno, though– the more I watch TV shows “by-the-season,” the less fulfilling the weekly grind becomes. Next week, I’m gonna be getting on the ‘Heroes’ train, which I did not ride in the first part of the TV year. I think what happens in watching a lot of ep’s in a row is that you become more forgiving of a ‘miss’ here or there: “Ah, that episode suct, let’s watch the next one…”
But man, when you specifically set aside an hour of your week to watch a shitty episode of a show you like, then wait another week to see something new, that blows.
All the more reason to chuck cable, if you ask me…
Ok, so I thought I’d pop in to say that the first paper and subsequent presentation was just swell. I don’t have to turn that mother in until I leave on Monday, so still ample time to revise and whatnot. The second paper has actually note begun to be written yet, but a list of “things I’m going to say” has been formed and is currently being ruminated upon. Its rough-drafting will occur this afternoon/evening/tomorrow, with its less-substantial-than-the-other-paper-just-by-its-nature revisions to occur in the ensuing three days.
So I was “browsing” a bit this morning, and I happened to visit a very nice site that I used to visit more often, but now I only stop by with the randomness of a pair of axe-wielding breasts in a comic strip. I was looking for the copy from a sketch Steve Martin did on Saturday Night Live once, and foolish me, I shoulda known Colin would have it. Mucho gracias.
If I had one wish that I could wish this holiday season, it would be that all the children to join hands and sing together in the spirit of harmony and peace. If I had two wishes I could make this holiday season, the first would be for all the children of the world to join hands and sing in the spirit of harmony and peace. And the second would be for 30 million dollars a month to be given to me, tax-free in a Swiss bank account. You know, if I had three wishes I could make this holiday season, the first, of course, would be for all the children of the world to get together and sing, the second would be for the 30 million dollars every month to me, and the third would be for encompassing power over every living being in the entire universe. And if I had four wishes that I could make this holiday season, the first would be the crap about the kids definitely, the second would be for the 30 million, the third would be for all the power, and the fourth would be to set aside one month each year to have an extended 31-day orgasm, to be brought out slowly by Rosanna Arquette and that model Paulina-somebody, I can’t think of her name. Of course my lovely wife can come too and she’s behind me one hundred percent here, I guarantee it. Wait a minute, maybe the sex thing should be the first wish, so if I made that the first wish, because it could all go boom tomorrow, then what do you got, y’know? No, no, the kids, the kids singing would be great, that would be nice. But wait a minute, who am I kidding? They’re not going to be able to get all those kids together. I mean, the logistics of the thing is impossible, more trouble than it’s worth! So — we reorganize! Here we go. First, the sex thing. We go with that. Second, the money. No, we got with the power second, then the money. And then the kids. Oh wait, oh jeez, I forgot about revenge against my enemies! Okay, I need revenge against all my enemies, they should die like pigs in hell! That would be my fourth wish. And, of course, my fifth wish would be for all the children of the world to join hands and sing together in the spirit of harmony and peace. Thank you everybody and Merry Christmas.