Quick Movie reviews

Home Movie - I love documentary films, which seems contradictory to my loathing hatred of reality television. There are three kinds of documentary films that I see: The historical documentary (like The Endurance), the true story documentary, where what happens to the characters is the driving factor (this is most of them, like Startup.Com, Hoop Dreams(which i haven't seem, but i know i'd like), etc.), and then there's my favorite category, the documentary about people. Where there is no "plot" of which to speak, just some discussions with people who aren't like you. Errol Morris is the undoubted master of this type of documentary, but Chris Smith (who directed American Movie in addition to this film) is making some progress, too. The film tells the story of five different people who live in very odd dwellings, from treehouses to houseboats to an old missle silo. The people who owned these houses were quite interesting and I loved hearing their stories. The film is only 65 minutes long, and I wish it were twice that. Joey Hemlock gives Home Movie 3.5 stars out of 4 and recommends it to anyone who likes documentary film. (Note: because the movie is so short, attached to it is a short film called Heavy Metal Parking Lot, a documentary filmed in the parking lot of a marylad concert venue before a 1986 Judas Preist concert. It's basically a bunch of long haired poorly-toothed drunkards screaming about how cool heavy metal is. As a hater of Priest, Metallica, Slayer, The Scorpions, and all others of that ilk, I'd just like to say, "I rest my case.")

Cinema Paradiso: Director's Cut - With about 80 minutes of additional footage added to the original edit. There's a whole new love story added. In my opinion, both the original cut and the director's cut are worthwhile films, but I liked the original and would recommend watching it first. I think the added footage detracted from the simple sweetness of the original. Joey Hemlock gives Cinema Paradiso: Director's Cut 3 stars out of 4 and generally recommends it, but recommends the original cut more.

Ten things

1. snugglebug made me smile this morning. I like smiling.


2. stacis is my favorite movie-going partner because she holds my hand and lets me rub her leg. I'm sure other out there would do the same if given the chance, though, right?


3. I need to clean my place up over the long weekend. Tonya tries to keep up with it, and does a good job, but there are still a lot of things that *I* need to clean, like cleaning out my disaster of a storage closet and doing all my back-laundry (a term stolen from magdalene1).


4. Shiva (the dawg) sure seems remorseful when she makes a mess out of something (usually knocking over the trash or pulling dishes off of the counter), but she doesn't ever stop doing it. She's a good girl, though, and I love her to pieces (just like her slightly-more-obedient mommy).


5. Speaking of dogs, my parent's bulldog Humphrey died. It's his picture that I'm using as a user-icon for this post. I loved humphrey very much, but wasn't around him enough to bond. So I feel sad, but not devistated or anything. Their other bulldog, Psycho, is getting old (she's 12) so she doesn't have much time left. Life expectancy for a bulldog is only 10-12 years. The odd thing is that Humphrey died over Easter, but my mom didn't want to tell me because she knew that it would make me sad. My sister told me when she was here over Friday. She also told me that the german shepherd that we had when I was 10 or so didn't really go to a farm to live.


6. So, yeah, my sister and her youngest daughter Emily (15 years, very much an alpha girl) visited me on Friday. We laughed and laughed like we always do. We to one of those knife-throwing-and-spatula-flipping Japanese steakhouses. The food was goooood. Then, on the way home, we stopped at FIVE McDonalds to get happy meals so we could get Lilo & Stitch toys. They were trying not to get repeats, but we didn't want to ask for the ones we didn't have. It was funny, though, with Emily pretending to have a sick sister that wanted the toys. I also did an interpretation of thier car scolding them for using the wrong gas and my sister was crying because she was laughing so hard. Had to be there, probably. Had to be there and have blunt head trauma. That's just how my family is.


7. My boss is gone this week, but he actually gave me some fricking work to do before he left. And I shall do it and do it well.


8. Happy Canada Day to my Canuckian friends. Thank you for the hockey and the good beer.


9. Hey gingy, did I miss the RSVP date for your wedding? I'm so bad about those things. I'm still going to TRY, but finances aren't cooperating fully. I'll know better on the 15th when I get paid again. I still want to attend very much!


10. I'm assembling songs for another mix CD. I think it will be a little mellower than the first. I'm pulling out some of my old CD's and ripping songs off of them. There are too many songs, so I might shunt some of them over into a mellow-mix CD, too.


11. I have other plans for July 20th, so no Ghettobillies show for Joey. The other plans will be fun, too, so it's not a total loss.


12. I'm locked in for Devil in a Woodpile tomorrow and Sonic Voodoo on Thursday, but no one has told me yet if they're interested in Wednesday's Ruben Waters Loves You or Friday's Brother Brother show.


13. I can't count.

Foreign Films

I got my dvd copy of The City of Lost Children today. Mad Propz to chococat66 for reminding me that I neeeeeeeeded this movie. Only two weeks from tomorrow and I get Amelie, too. I'm not a huge fan of most French films, but the Jean-Pierre Jeunet films work for me.

I should do a list of my top ten favorite foreign language films. I think Il Postino would win, although Seven Samurai would certainly be a consideration.

And in the news...

And now a District Court judge had declared the federal death penalty unconstitutional. Like the "under God" ruling, it's yet another thing that I agree with (I believe the death penalty should be abolished) that will certainly be overturned by a higher court.

Put the boogie in your butt.

I update too much. I should quit that. Or at least have something interesting to say before I do post. I think it all stems back to the time when clowns killed my father.

Making great movies bad...

Okay, the whole "quit posting so much" bullshit can wait a few more hours. Here's a poll:

[Poll #43995]

Not done posting yet (tattoos)

I'm kicking around the idea of getting a tattoo. i was thinking that I'd get the Chinese symbol for peace, since I like peace and I like Chinese Calligraphy. Now, however, I'm dicking around with the idea of getting a tattoo of Groo the Wanderer along with the Chinese symbols for cheese dip. It's not like I'm ever going to be normal, right?