Preview of coming attractions

Later today: A discussion on digital projection in movie theaters. Am I for it? Am I against it? The answer may surprise you.

Later today, only on Joey Hemlock's LiveJournal

Steely Dan Ranking

Joey Hemlock's Ranking of the songs on Steely Dan's A Decade of Steely Dan CD:

1. Do It Again


2. Kid Charlemagne


3. Babylon Sisters


4. Hey Nineteen


5. Peg


6. Bodhisattva


7. East St. Louis Toodle-oo


8. Bad Sneakers


9. Deacon Blues


10. Black Friday


11. FM


12. My Old School


13. Rikki Don't Lose That Number


14. Reeling in the Years

(no subject)

[Poll #121480]

Movie Reviews: Irréversible, Spun, Assassination Tango

Irréversible - A revenge story in reverse, a la Memento, containing some graphic beating scenes and a rape scene of a woman that seems to go on forever. VERY hard to watch because of the graphicness (and to a lesser degree because of the endlessly swirling cameras and annoying "musical" noise. Oddly, it has a scene in it also where a man and woman have some morning cuddly time that made me whistfully wish for the same. Overall, it didn't do it for me. Joey gives Irréversible one and a half stars out of four and doesn't really recommend it to anyone.

Spun - A high-octane thrill-ride. Well, that's not entirely true, but it's good copy for the poster. This film is about a circle of people involved in methamphetamine in Oregon. It has a great cast: Jason Schwartzman, Mickey Rourke, John Leguizamo, Brittany Murphy (being her quirky persona that I fell in love with before she got so popular), Patrick Fugit, Mena Suvari... How 'bout cameos by Debby Harry and Rob Halford? Anyway, this is like the comedy version of Requiem for a Dream. Funny, fast paced, definately NOT glorifying drugs (much). Definately a high-style movie, but it worked for me in a big way. Joey gives Spun three-and-a-half stars out of four and recommends it to people who like that kind of shit.

Assassination Tango - Written by, directed by, and starring Robert Duvall, this is the story of a Brooklyn hit man who is sent to Argentina to do a job. The job gets delayed and he falls in love with the tango. I LOVED the tango scenes. I want to take tango lessons. It's such a sexy dance. The lead female dancer-star is Luciana Pedraza, who is beautiful and a great dancer and has a wonderful accent to her English. She could use a sammich, though. Anyway, this wasn't a horrible movie, but it wasn't The Apostle, either. It was slow, predictable, and didn't answer questions that it seemed to be building up to. Joey gives Assassination Tango two stars out of four and can no longer resist the power of the dance.

Movie Reviews: Laurel Canyon; Nowhere in Africa

Laurel Canyon - Frances McDormand flashed her boobies a couple of times, so it can't be all bad, huh? It was an okay movie, but nothing remarkable. Christian Bale plays a Harvard student who moves into his record-producer mom's house (McDormand (as the mom, not the house)) with his fiance (Kate Beckinsdale). Surprisingly, the son and his mom don't get along all that well as he has a stick up his ass and she has a bong in her lips. Plus Christain Bale wants to fuck one of his coworkers. Plus Kate Beckinsdale wants to fuck a rock star and McDormand. But it the end, it's Joe Moviegoer who gets fucked the most. That's not really true, but it makes for good copy. Joey gives Laurel Canyon two-and-a-half stars out of four and declares 45 year-old McDormand utterly fuckable (in the top three over over-40 fuckables with Catherine Keener (43) and Julianne Moore (42)).

Nowhere in Africa - The story of a German family that moves to Africa to escape the Nazis in WW2. The Nazis were apparently some faction of bad guys that didn't like Jews. Anyway, shock of shocks, adjusting to life in Africa was hard. This is the story of just how hard it was. I've kinda been a little light-hearted here, but actually it was a pretty decent flick. The acting was good, teh situations were real, and you could relate with the characters. It's in German and some African language with touches of English. This was the Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film this year (although Y Tu Mama Tambien should have been). Joey gives Nowhere in Africa three stars out of four and wants Ethiopian food.