Fall 2009 Movie Rankings

Best of the Bunch

Zombieland
Up In The Air
The Princess and the Fox
Blind Side
Pirate Radio
The Road
Whip It!

Not Fabulous, but worthwhile

Fantastic Mr. Fox
An Education
Avatar
Where the Wild Things Are
Sherlock Holmes
It's Complicated
Jennifer’s Body
9
Capitalism: A Love Story
Invictus
2012

I have to say that of the movies I saw, there were none that I just despised. Even Capitalism: A Love Story, which I think it totally bias, is still worth seeing.

A Movie Review: Sherlock Holmes

"Sherlock Holmes." This is a nice spin on Sherlock Holmes. I didn't think it was the best movie in the world, but worth a watch. A friend of mine mentioned that he likes Sherlock Holmes (in general), because of the logic used. The movie does put an emphasis on this. I don't really have much to say about this movie so I guess I just view this as a popcorn, fun, non-controversial movie.

Eastern Confernce Champions, Asa Ransom and Hockey at Spaceland

I headed off to Spaceland on Saturday night. My friend had an extra ticket so I took it.

First band of the night was Eastern Conference Champions. It was like a religious experience. Okay, that's probably going too far; however, from the very start I was blown away. I've always wanted to catch them and I'm so happy I finally got to see them.







Next band up was Asa Ransom. They're from New York. As can be seen in the below pictures, they have this 20's look. They're also just a fun band to watch.










The final band of the night was Hockey. This band was the main act and at this point the place was just packed. It was song after song of pure brilliance and their fans ate it up.












And so I was there all by myself. Yes, strange, my friend never showed up. Oh well, it was worth it.

A Movie Review: It's Complicated

"It's Complicated."

I was expecting more from a Meryl Streep movie.

Here's my major problem: I thought Jake (Alec Baldwin) was just a ham. I just didn't understand how someone would want to marry (or get back together with) a guy like that. Okay, the first five minutes portrayed him in a positive light, but after that I thought he was just a ham.

A lovely, attractive family.

This is a movie about the top 1 or 2 percent of the income bracket. The house was huge. They were in Santa Barbara. That house has to be in the multi-million range.

This movie isn't awful, it is just there. A movie likely to be considered one of the weaker Meryl Streep movies.

A Movie Review: Princess and the Frog

"The Princess and the Frog."

This is a lovely movie. Here's my quick basic outline: Time frame around War World I. A young lady (Tiana) is brought up dreaming of having a middle class life. She believes you get there by hard work. Via her hard work, she is very close to having enough money to start her dream restaurant. This is where life goes a bit topsy-turvy. A young prince (Prince Naveen) has been turned into a frog by an evil voodoo man (Dr. Facilier). Prince Naveen (as a frog) convinces Tiana to give him a kiss. Bad move, she also turns into a frog. Off they must go to find a good voodoo woman (Mama Odie). Along the way they run into an alligator (Louis) and a firefly (Ray) who decide to take up their cause. They are directed to head back to the city, because Prince Naveen needs to kiss a Princess (Charlotte, Tiana's friend who is New Orlean's princess for the night.)

Here's my thoughts:

I love how this movie deals with the color scheme for the daytime and the nighttime. Skin colors change. Clothing color change. Maybe I'm making a bigger deal out of this than I should.

I love how even the spoiled child (Charlotte) was treated in a good light. She definitely isn't the normal evil spoiled child. She is still a true friend to Tiana even though they're obviously in different social classes.

I thought the end game for Dr. Facilier was a bit scary -- not for me, but for kids under the age of 7. If I saw his death at that age, I'd have nightmares.

It sounded like most of the audience clapped at the end of the movie. Well deserved.

Dollyrots on "The Price is Right"

One of the bands I follow around in Los Angeles. Pretty cool.

A movie review: Blind Side

"Blind Side." Okay, this movie starts off with one of the most painful moments in NFL history: Joe Theismann's broken leg video. Oh mercy.

This is a true story about Michael Oher who currently plays for the Baltimore Ravens. It shows how sometimes a person's outcome is driven by chance encounters. Who knows how much of this story is true, but Michael Oher got into a solid Christian school because someone he was staying with cared enough to look after his well-being. Michael Oher is camped out on the family couch. The guy wants to get his son into the solid Christian school, but also cares enough to make sure that there is a packaged deal with Michael. Now the guy's wife eventually forces Michael out of the house. You can question whether or not the guy is stand up or not for caving into his wife, but this single move creates other opportunities for Michael. Now this is only perhaps five minutes of the movie, but I think it is an important part to remember. He soon is taken in by a white family. His teachers at the largely white school take him under their wings. Random events.

To me, this movie is similar to Precious in many ways. Blind Side has a more happy ending, but it still points out to one single fact: there are so many people who simply don't get the chance.

Queen Kwong, The Monthlies and Obi Best @ Spaceland

Off to Spaceland I went to see Queen Kwong. This is one of those bands that I keep tabs on. The last time I saw them was back in May 09 so it was definitely time to check them out again. The set started off with Carre (the ‘e’ has that backwards ` -- sorry, I don’t know the appropriate word description – but I don’t know how to type that letter on my keyboard) Callaway going solo and then her two bandmates going on stage moments later. A fabulous set, I loved every minute of it. I will have to check out this band more than once every six months.

Observations: At one point, I swear, Carre was emotionally tied to her guitar, tender touches. And the door guy and ticket lady came inside the venue at times to listen to her set.

Comment made: I’m either getting taller or this microphone stand is shrinking.

Apology: So I had a short conversation with the ex-roommate of Carre. Sorry, I’m not one who can carry on long conversations, didn’t mean to be rude.

Twitter: I catch Carre's tweets every so often via myspace. Fun to read.








Next up were The Monthlies, another band I head out to see. I noticed a violinist tuning on stage. Yes, I love strings in bands and so I couldn't wait for their set to start. Anyways, their set was great, as always. I invited a friend to come out. He didn’t make it in time to catch Queen Kwong, but he did arrive in time to see The Monthlies. He really liked them at all.

Observations: The violinist joined the band for their last song. They seemed to have some technical difficulties. One of their friends kept on going up to the stage, fiddling with Jana’s (guitar) sound equipment. It was also Jana’s birthday.

Comment made: We’ll play faster songs till the end.







The final band of the night was Obi Best. I’d call them an experimental band. At times, they were using three keyboards/synthesizers.

Observations: For one song, they had a Boy’s Choir. Okay, really just four guys. At one point, one of the band members noticed a spider. The lead singer went over and held the spider thread and moved the spider to the edge of the stage, doing this all calm – contrast this with the band member who didn’t want the spider anywhere near her. At the end of their set, the lead singer said, “Thank You and Good Night,” and then they all left the stage. I was thinking that this was rather sudden. An encore was demanded and so they came out to one last song.

Comment made: The economy stinks now. Don’t you wish instead of using currency, we could replace it with class?



If you keep up with my columns on intraffik, you may know that I wrote something up previously on Queen Kwong and The Monthlies over on that site. Check out those two columns if you haven’t already read them -- if you've already read them, feel free to re-read them.

A Movie Review: Avatar

"Avatar." Okay, so I'm going contrarian here. This movie is over-rated. I felt like I was watching a movie dedicated to the Ewoks. Now I'm not going to say that this is a movie not to see. It was quite the spectacle. And it kept my attention. But like the Ewoks in "Return of the Jedi," I always find it skeptical to see a technologically inferior culture being able to destroy a highly sophisticated one. I'm always thinking when watching these sort of scenes, doubtful that this could be accomplished.

A movie review: Precious

"Precious"

FYI: Spoilers

Precious (Gabourey Sidibe) is about a black teenager who lives in Harlem. At the beginning of the movie you learn that her mother is on welfare and doesn’t like Precious. There is a reason for this, which comes up later in the movie. You learn she also has a child, but the child isn’t seen. And you also learn that she is pregnant again with her second child. She is offered a chance to go to an alternative school. She decides to take it even though her mother would prefer (demands) that she gets on welfare.

You start to learn about Precious throughout the movie. Her father (her mother’s boyfriend) rapes Precious and this is why she is pregnant. You learn later in the movie that she was abused starting at a very early age. This is the twisted reason why her mother hates Precious. The mother (Mo’Nique) is angry that her lover has chosen Precious over her. Of course, the mother doesn’t realize that she’s dating a pedophile. But honestly, the scene where this is revealed is raw and amazing. Her first child has Down syndrome. The child stays with the grandmother and only comes to the house when the welfare lady comes to check up on the family. Precious’ life is a mess.

Even though her life is a mess and appears hopeless, she does have some luck come her way. She comes into contact with a sympathetic welfare worker, Ms. Weiss (Mariah Carey). She also finds a teacher, Ms. Rain, (Paula Patton) at the alternative school who believes in Precious.

And then you get punched in the gut when you learn that Precious is infected with the HIV virus – her father/abuser dies from HIV, which is how she learns about the possibility that she might have the virus.

My thoughts: there is some amazing acting in this movie. And the storyline is gut wrenching. You just hope throughout the movie that her lot in life improves. But then in the back of my mind I had this thought: let’s say there are kids out there in her situation, there is no way that there are enough Ms. Weisses and Ms. Rains out there to help all the kids in the same situation as Precious. And so thinking it in that way, perhaps this movie is extremely depressing and perhaps totally a one in a million sort of moment, which therefore makes this movie so unrealistic.

Anyways, there is an interesting article in the LA Times that shines a light on this movie from the angle of race. I can see the point, but don’t agree. See link for article.

A Movie Review: Up in the Air

"Up in the Air." This movie is technically about a guy who goes around and fires people because their bosses don't have the guts to do it themselves. I have to say I saw the movie in a different light. To me, this is a movie about relationships or lack of relationships. You have Ryan Bingham who lacks relationships. He is constantly traveling across the nation. His goal in life is to reach 10 million frequent flier miles. He has limited contact with his family. When he travels to Wisconsin for his sister's wedding, I got the distinct feeling that the family wasn't totally comfortable around him and perhaps even disdained him. On the other hand, his co-worker, Natalie Keener wants to have both a corporate career and still keep her relationships alive. Viewed from this angle, you even can say that the moments in the movie where they must fire people is about a relationship. The relationship between the corporation and the employees they are firing. The bosses are unable to face the people they must let go, some of whom have spent years with the company. The point of the movie, I believe, is that relationships are important. Even Ryan Bingham begins to understand this when he meets Alex Goran on one of his travels. They start to have a sexual relationship. Alex and Ryan have a connection, because both want to have a sexual relationship without the connections. Ryan begins to fall for her and decides to chase after her. But he finds out that she is married. Even Alex, the person who claims that she wants a disconnection relationship, actually feels the need for one.

A Movie Review: Fantastic Mr. Fox

"Fantastic Mr. Fox". An enjoyable film about a family of foxes and their other critter friends. The family decides to move into a more dangerous neighborhood -- actually, the father decides. He's having a mid-life crisis and therefore develops a rather selfish desire to prove himself again, leading his family into danger. His actions lead to not only life threatening issues for his family, but for his friends, as well. Somehow he's able to get everyone out of trouble, but the question is has he learned anything? Probably not, because he's a fox, a wild animal.

A Movie Review: 2012

"2012". I don't know about this film. I enjoyed the ride. But during the movie, I couldn't help but think that certain parts were just stupid. Prime example, end of the movie, they head to Africa. Why? Africa is the new Himalayas. Wouldn't you want to go somewhere other than an area that will soon be covered in snow and freezing weather? On the other hand, Africa wasn't destroyed by water, but it did have this massive land movement so wouldn't millions be dead and tens of millions dying. There isn't anything you can do to help them so why head in that direction. Why not just hang out on the arks until better land areas unflood. Then there was the whole Russian plane. They fly over Hawaii, but China is 1,000 miles off course? There was some interesting conflict, which I wish was played out better: pragmatism versus idealism. Both were right in many ways, but it just didn't get played out very well I thought.