Hello! It’s been forever since I posted, but here we are. If this were a regular blog, I’d attempt to ply you with stories and grievances that explain my absence. I would regale you with my adventures with frost giants, Wills-o’th’wisp, and other good people. What does it matter, though? Let’s get to the meat of it!

Let’s look at a movie I recently watched for the first time. It seems like everyone else I know has already seen Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon, but it was new to me. Here, you’ll get the pristine reactions of my first viewing, fresh as the plastic film in one of Garret’s unboxing videos. Read more…

Well, it’s been over a month.  I guess I should update.

Let’s talk about a wicked kung fu movie, shall we?  I’ve done a few reviews here that feature the legendary Wong Fei Hung, but it’s time for a slightly more recent bad ass to take the stage.  This post’s movie is Ip Man, a biopic about Yip Man (just an alternate Anglicization), the great 20th century Wing Chun master.  There is honor.  There is sadness.  It’s kung fu during World War II.  What more could you want? Read more…

Hey, all. I really need to update here more than once every five weeks. But enough chatter! It’s time for kung fu!

No list of great kung fu movies is complete without The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. Seriously, right on the front of the DVD box, you can see a quote from the New York Times referring to it as, “the greatest kung fu flick of all time.” If you haven’t seen it yet, please just go rent it or something. Hell, call me, and I’ll lend you my copy. If it helps, the star of this movie also played Pai Mei and the leader of the Crazy 88s in the Kill Bill movies. Read more…

Hey! I promised it a while back, and now I’m delivering. A kung fu movie!

The Chinese Connection was Bruce Lee’s second really big film. It took a story that has been told at least a couple of times in Chinese cinema and gave it a great 70s aesthetic. My favorite line of the movie is when a Japanese man wags his finger in Lee’s face and boasts, “So! You must be tired of living!” Read more…

Hello, reader.  I have a special message, but it’ll be at the end of this review because I don’t want to bury my lead too much.

War!  What’s it good for?  Makin’ money, y’all!  At least, that’s the moral of the 2008 film War, Inc, starring John Cusack, Marisa Tomei, Hillary Duff, and many other folks worth watching.  Set in the fictional (wink!) country of Turaqistan, War, Inc. follows the trials and tribulations of a US government hitman as he attempts to kill the new Turaqi president and pretends to rebuild the country even as American tanks cruise the streets. Read more…

I was going to write about a book for this update, but I just saw a movie I have to tell everyone about.

The first review on the back of the box says, “The perfect antidote to The Passion of the Christ.”  If that doesn’t get you interested, are you sure this is the site for you?

Forgiving the Franklins is an unapologetic look at darkest parts of small, Christian communities.  Read more…

Read more…

Alright, I missed last week, and this post is… late. I promise this one is good, though.

Every time I write this little column, I have to decide what I should focus on out of the multitude of great material out there. So far, I’ve consistently tended toward choosing books or movies I haven’t heard anyone talk about in a while, and this feels good to me. Frankly, no one really needs to know what I think of what I read and watch, but if I can turn you on to something you haven’t heard of before, I’ve performed a worthwhile service. For that reason, even though I’m about to start reading Watchmen, I don’t plan to review it. Everyone who would care about it knows about it. Now, on to today’s review.

Ghost Dog – The Way of the Samurai is one hell of a thing. Read more…

It’s been a long time since I last posted and I assure you I haven’t forgotten the promises I made to you, my fabulous readers. Last time I checked in with you, I was about a week away from getting married. Guess what? I got married! Now I have time to do everything I’ve ever wanted to do right? Wrong. I’ve been just as busy as I’ve ever been and I haven’t found time for relaxation other than playing video games before I go to bed at night. My wife left for job-related training about a week and a half after we got married and she won’t be back for another week. Talk about unusual. You’re a bachelor your whole life, you get married, and then you go back to the bachelor-type life while your wife’s away for a bettter part of two weeks right after you get hitched. Strange. It still hasn’t sunk in yet that I’m married. Oh well. The older married guys that I know just laugh and tell me that it will sink in soon. We’ll see. Anyway, back to what you came for. I told you all that I would write some reviews about two films in particular: Lions for Lambs and Lars and the Real Girl. A couple of weeks ago, Joe did a reveiw of Lars and I must say he did a fantastic job. I’ll add on to that review now. The film stars Ryan Gosling as an introverted adult (Lars Lindstrom) in his late-twenties whose lifestyle is underwhelming at best. His brother, Gus, and pregnant sister-in-law, Karin, are always trying their best to add more spice to his life, mostly by inviting him to dinner. Lars almost always refuses until Karin tackles him and tells him she won’t let him up until he agrees to come to dinner. After dinner, it is very evident to the audience that Lars really doesn’t want anything other than to be alone. One day at work, a co-worker of Lars is on the internet looking at a site for ordering anatomically-correct sex dolls. At the time, Lars doesn’t seem to show much interest but a later scene shows a big box has arrived for Lars. Karin sees the box delivered and asks Lars what the contents hold. Lars says that the box holds luggage for a girl he met on the internet. She is apparently coming to see him and needed to send some things ahead of time. Of course, this news delights Gus and Karin as they believe their brother is finally branching out. What follows though is the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey might say, and how Lars new emotional complex allows him to see the doll as a real woman. I highly recommend you watch this film. Seeing Lars and his family interact with an inanimant object is both fun and compelling. The family obviously has problems with this situation but both the family and the town help Lars through this time in this life where he is obviously reaching out for help. You may need tissues for the ending as it drew tears for both Joe and me. This film gets 4 out of 5 stars, driven mainly by it’s orginiality and outstanding acting.  

Next on the list is Lions for Lambs. This very intriguing film was directed as well as acted by Robert Redford. It is a story about two soldiers, Arian Finch and Ernest Rodriguez, whose life’s work is told by Redford’s character (Prof. Stephen Malley) to an underachieving student to inspire him to do better. The soldiers were actually former students of Malley’s and the dangerous mission they attempt is recounted by Republican Senator Jasper Irving (Tom Cruise) to a reporter (played by Meryl Streep.) If you have ever seen and enjoyed a film like Crash or Babel where people’s stories and lives intersect in interesting ways, then this is a movie for you. The film is set in the present and the stories surround the war in Afghanistan. The Republican senator is trying to rhetorize the situation and make it seem like the tide of the war is about to change in favor of the United States. The word games he plays with the reporter get you thinking about how we perceive war and the cost of it. Redford’s character likewise tries to explain to his student what the soldiers tried to do in school, and what they wanted to accomplish when they got back from war. Whether they actually do get back is revealed in the film, but I won’t spoil that for you here. It’s a political and intellectual film that may leave you angry and/or sad depending on what part of the political spectrum you may lie. Rent this on DVD if you can find it. I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars for it’s wonderful storytelling script and directing, and I must say that depsite how little I have come to respect Tom Cruise, he does a good job in this film as the up-and-coming senator-type.

Well that’s it for today. I’m not sure what I’ll have for you next time, but I have been watching a lot of movies lately so I’ll be sure to have something for you. Maybe it will be something you don’t want to watch. Like anything with Paul Reiser. He sucks!