Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Movie Spotlight: From Here to Eternity


From Here to Eternity is probably best remembered (if remembered at all) for the iconic scene between Burke Lancaster and Deborah Kerr embracing on the beach in the surf. However the most memorable thing about this movie to me was the performance by Montgomery Clift as Private Prewitt. Really every performance in this picture is above average, but Clift's really sticks out. The man is intense, that's just the best way to describe it, and there is something disturbing about his character's path from remorseful fighter to vengeful killer. Of course I chose to watch this film because Frank Sinatra co-stars in it as Private Angelo Maggio and Frankie's acting in this picture is arguably the best of his career. The scene where he drunkenly rolls olives as dice (coincidentally that scene was his screen test and the dice roll was an ad-lib) is pure gold. Montgomery and Frank both won themselves Oscars for their portrayals, and the movie itself won eight overall, tying Gone With the Wind for the most wins at the time. I enjoyed the movie a good deal more than I expected I would going in and I definitely give it two thumbs up. SPOILER ALERT The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor.

"Put your pants on you'll catch cold"

I didn't make that up, that's the actual line being delivered. Mid-battle too. Classic.

Monday, February 23, 2009

The Oscars

Yay the oscars were last night and boy were they an exciting event. Slumdog Millionaire took every other movie at the place, swept them under the rug, and then stomped them into submission winning eight out of the ten awards it was up for. Eight is a pretty hefty number, and while I havent actually seen the picture (its on my to-see list) Im gonna go ahead and assume it wasnt entirely deserving of them all. As for the show itself I think it was a bit more entertaining than previous years, and Jackman did a fine job as master of ceremonies. Waltz with Bashir walked away empty handed despite all the critical acclaim its received (it also is on the to-see list.) Lets see what else..., hmm...., oh yeah MICKEY ROURKE DAMN YOU ACADEMY. I havent seen Milk and I hear from credible sources the Sean Penn is amazing in it, but still the Rourke was amazing in The Wrestler. This weeks SpotCast is going to be an Oscars special so be sure and check that out (we are totally on iTunes.) For this post I decided to exclude apostophres. Why you ask? Because my last drink wasnt stiff enough.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Movie Spotlight: Ocean's Eleven (1960)


I finally sat down and watched the original Ocean's Eleven a week or so ago as part of my quest to see all of Frank Sinatra's movies. However even with my extreme Rat Pack bias I still did not think very highly of this movie. The Rat Pack themselves all do a fine job acting here, Dean and Frank especially, but the film is held back by it's plot and poor pacing. The movie is bookended by absurdly long sequences first introducing all the characters and then focused on Cesar Romero's character (yeah the Joker from the Adam West Batman show) hunting down the Ocean's gang. Maybe my opinion was soured having seen the modern remake first, and admittedly I have a hard time enjoying older films, but I expected more than the mess that I saw. Now I still got a kick out of the scenes featuring Frank and Dean, and Dean offers up a few songs throughout the pic that make it worth watching. If you are as a big fan of the Rat Pack as I am than I suggest watching this at some point, but don't expect it to be anything but a showcase for Frank, Dean, Sammy, and Peter hamming it up together. On a side note it's really interesting to see what the Las Vegas strip looked like back in the 60's compared to now. In the movie the strip is just a basic piece of highway, and the Sands casino is the size of an average Wal-mart. Fast forward to today and the strip is one giant acid trip and the Sands has been demolished, but not before being featured in another american movie classic: Con Air.

Also Frank what's up here?
"Holy s@#t that's a fuzzy sweater!"

Friday, February 13, 2009

Random Updates

Chris Brown is now a complete bastard

The Grammy performances felt a little pedestrian this year

The awards were okay, Raising Sand is a good album but it puts me to sleep whenever i try to listen to it

Even at this point in my life i still enjoy watching Naruto

I bought Persona 4 in December, I've sunk 57 hours of my life into it, and I still haven't beat it

Penny Arcade continues to be the funniest damn thing on the interweb

I have a bigger post brewing in my head about the Amare Stoudemire situation, I'll probably wait for the trade deadline to pass, see what happens, and then explode in tears when Steve Nash's championship window officially closes

No matter how hard i try, and even with the help of fellow SpotCaster Tom Collins, I can't beat even one level in the Resident Evil 5 demo

I saw Taken and I liked it

Don't listen to Usher's Here I Stand unless you're a hardcore Usher fan

The SpotCast is available on iTunes, so go get it, or wait until later today when this week's episode will be up

Monday, February 9, 2009

Once More With Feeling Kobe


MO LOOK OUT!!!

Man I really hate to see the Lakers win, especially at the expense of Lebron and the Kingdom of James. I still want to see these two teams in the NBA finals this year, although I think the Lakers have the mental edge now after taking out the Cavs on their home floor without Andrew Bynum. On a similar note the Magic losing Jameer Nelson for the season is gonna impact what would've been a really exciting Eastern conference playoff set, now it's just about Cleveland and Boston.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Give the Guy a Break


OH MY GOD WHAT IS HE DOING WHAT AN IDIOT MICHAEL PHELPS HAS BROUGHT THE DEVIL INTO OLYMPIC SWIMMING POOLS!!

I don't understand the media's need to demonize Phelps because of this photograph of him smoking marijuana. The guy has probably spent the majority of his life in a pool, training like a maniac so that he can continue to dominate the sport of swimming the way no one ever has before. He's young and he was cutting loose, it happens, it's not like he was holding a sign up to the camera (by the way who's the dick that took the picture and posted it on the net) that read "Hey kids it's Michael Phelps, smoke pot and you can be as badass as me." Look I get that as an athlete, and one with such massive national attention, he has a responsibility as a role model for kids, but this offense was not egregious enough to warrant the lambasting he has received at the hands of news outlets. Did he really need to be suspended? I've never been one of those people fervently arguing for the legalization of marijuana, but the fact that police in my town spend more time chasing around the guys with weed than hunting down the dozen or so meth labs in basements around here has always bothered me. Now the fact that Phelps has been branded a f***-up for one mistake will alwasy bother me.


Shameless Plug Time

Episode 2 of the SpotCast should be up later tonight so be sure to check that out as Tom Collins and I will definitely be discussing this story.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Tapping the Tween Crowd

The teeny-bopper crowd has struck yet again turning the film Twilight into a money-making powerhouse. I haven't seen the film so I can't judge it, for all I know it could be a masterful piece of cinema that would take my three sizes too small heart and enlarge it to the point of causing a massive coronary attack. Until I see it I'll continue to assume it's as horrible as I imagine. However bad it may be it is box office gold and movie studios will no doubt capitalize on it and pop out a few clones. I took three minutes earlier today to shamelessly toss my hat into the Twilight-clone ring by writing a 100-page treatment for "Rory O'Connor and Juliet," a Romeo and Juliet story of a forbidden love between a leprechaun and a human girl.

"Totally"

Of course I've taken steps to ensure the script is full of nods to today's teenagers so they feel like they can relate. There's the League of Leprechauns (the LOL,) their battle-trained pack of attack tigers (the LOLCatZ,) and Rory's sidekick is a CGI leprechaun Red Skelton (I think I may have missed the mark on that one.) Yes I'm sure the studios will be tripping over themselves to option this baby.

"I dinnae care about gold anymore Juliet, at the end of me rainbow is you"