Thursday, November 29, 2007
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Mehdiocre Movies
I've watched my fair share of blase flicks recently. I can't wait for No Country at the end of the month to pull me back out of this shitty movie tarpit into which I've apparently wandered.
First was Wes Anderson's disappointing The Darjeeling Limited and the accompanying short film Hotel Chevalier. Usually I'm a huge fan of Anderson's work but this one just didn't keep me interested and dragged on a bit much. All his classic touches and affectations were there but they felt a little heavy for a travelling film; the characters were all carrying around literally too much baggage and they often bottomed out in not very interesting ways. Honestly the burnt out archetypes were served up better in Life Aquatic and Tenenbaums.
I rented The Battle for Algiers (La Battaglia di Algeri) but I couldn't get too deep into it and stopped watching early on. I'm going to try to rent it again; it may have just been a bad week for that kind of movie.
Saw III was atrocious, just like I figured it would be. Honestly I'm very much over the whole torture porn genre - this was the old lady's pick. Some of the gimmicks are pretty clever, but you can see everything coming a mile away, and it's basically 113 minutes of gratuitious suffering that just sucks the soul right out of you. Blegh.
We watched Death Proof over a couple of nights, as it too drags on with contrived dialogue and pointless time-suck scenes. I can kind of appreciate the whole homage to shitty 70's B-movies paradigm, but I thought his earlier movies did a much better job of this, not to mention they were actually interesting films in themselves. WTF happened to the cheerleader actress, the superfine Mary Liz Winstead, who looks just like the similarly superfine Jewel Staite? Maybe my issues with Death Proof mean I couldn't appreciate the whole ironic concept of the film, but I was just expecting more fun overall. Still, there were definitely highlights. #1 Bad Ass Kurt Russell and the everpresent smoking hot chicks swinging around help you survive the overlong hangout scenes and stilted dialogue. The ending is awesome yet completely unsatisfying. What?! I know. It just is. I heard this was the better of the two Grindhouse movies, but I can't see how much worse any Rodriguez movie could be, especially with the whole McGowan gun-leg thing going for it.
Last but not least we watched 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Oh, and that's Fantastic 4 by the way; I'm guessing the title is like a hip abbreviated KFC kinda thing? Anyways. Super cheesy, gag-worthy digital effects (especially Mr. Fantastic), and pretty much nothing going for it outside of the second movie to feature Dr. Doom, who will always be one of my favorite Marvel characters ever.
First was Wes Anderson's disappointing The Darjeeling Limited and the accompanying short film Hotel Chevalier. Usually I'm a huge fan of Anderson's work but this one just didn't keep me interested and dragged on a bit much. All his classic touches and affectations were there but they felt a little heavy for a travelling film; the characters were all carrying around literally too much baggage and they often bottomed out in not very interesting ways. Honestly the burnt out archetypes were served up better in Life Aquatic and Tenenbaums.
I rented The Battle for Algiers (La Battaglia di Algeri) but I couldn't get too deep into it and stopped watching early on. I'm going to try to rent it again; it may have just been a bad week for that kind of movie.
Saw III was atrocious, just like I figured it would be. Honestly I'm very much over the whole torture porn genre - this was the old lady's pick. Some of the gimmicks are pretty clever, but you can see everything coming a mile away, and it's basically 113 minutes of gratuitious suffering that just sucks the soul right out of you. Blegh.
We watched Death Proof over a couple of nights, as it too drags on with contrived dialogue and pointless time-suck scenes. I can kind of appreciate the whole homage to shitty 70's B-movies paradigm, but I thought his earlier movies did a much better job of this, not to mention they were actually interesting films in themselves. WTF happened to the cheerleader actress, the superfine Mary Liz Winstead, who looks just like the similarly superfine Jewel Staite? Maybe my issues with Death Proof mean I couldn't appreciate the whole ironic concept of the film, but I was just expecting more fun overall. Still, there were definitely highlights. #1 Bad Ass Kurt Russell and the everpresent smoking hot chicks swinging around help you survive the overlong hangout scenes and stilted dialogue. The ending is awesome yet completely unsatisfying. What?! I know. It just is. I heard this was the better of the two Grindhouse movies, but I can't see how much worse any Rodriguez movie could be, especially with the whole McGowan gun-leg thing going for it.
Last but not least we watched 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Oh, and that's Fantastic 4 by the way; I'm guessing the title is like a hip abbreviated KFC kinda thing? Anyways. Super cheesy, gag-worthy digital effects (especially Mr. Fantastic), and pretty much nothing going for it outside of the second movie to feature Dr. Doom, who will always be one of my favorite Marvel characters ever.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Beerce
I tried a couple new brews recently.
Cecil had bought some Lucifer Belgian Ale to try and he shared one with me while we were hanging out at his place a few days ago. Only after tasting it did we go back and notice it was 9% alcohol, or about double the strength of the German lagers I drink on a regular basis. Honestly these kind of long fermented ales are a little hard to enjoy when you're feeling like drinking more than one beer in a sitting. It goes down slow, getting more flavorable as it warms slightly, but by the time you feel that extra kick, the taste is a little much already. Comparable to Fat Tire's Trippel Ale but maybe not as delicate.
I grabbed a 6-pack of Independence Pale Ale, which I assume is the flagship of the Austin-based Independence Brewery. The label has a nice painting of Angelina Eberly, the inn-lady wot saved Austin in ye olden times with a single blast from her cannon. The first thing I noticed was the fairly substantial head it produces even when poured very slowly. It doubles as a timer that lets you know when this one is at about the right temperature. As it recedes, it leaves fluffy formations of foam that dance lightly on the drinker's moustache in an altogether pleasant manner. I definitely like it but the price was a little much ($7.99/6). The flavor reminds me of Sam Adams. There's a tour on the first of December with a complimentary tasting at the end, and I was thinking about checking it out. I'm interested in the Austin Amber and Freestyle Wheat brews and that sounds like a nice way to spend an afternoon.
Cecil had bought some Lucifer Belgian Ale to try and he shared one with me while we were hanging out at his place a few days ago. Only after tasting it did we go back and notice it was 9% alcohol, or about double the strength of the German lagers I drink on a regular basis. Honestly these kind of long fermented ales are a little hard to enjoy when you're feeling like drinking more than one beer in a sitting. It goes down slow, getting more flavorable as it warms slightly, but by the time you feel that extra kick, the taste is a little much already. Comparable to Fat Tire's Trippel Ale but maybe not as delicate.
I grabbed a 6-pack of Independence Pale Ale, which I assume is the flagship of the Austin-based Independence Brewery. The label has a nice painting of Angelina Eberly, the inn-lady wot saved Austin in ye olden times with a single blast from her cannon. The first thing I noticed was the fairly substantial head it produces even when poured very slowly. It doubles as a timer that lets you know when this one is at about the right temperature. As it recedes, it leaves fluffy formations of foam that dance lightly on the drinker's moustache in an altogether pleasant manner. I definitely like it but the price was a little much ($7.99/6). The flavor reminds me of Sam Adams. There's a tour on the first of December with a complimentary tasting at the end, and I was thinking about checking it out. I'm interested in the Austin Amber and Freestyle Wheat brews and that sounds like a nice way to spend an afternoon.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Thursday, November 8, 2007
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