Sometimes people tell me that I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know what they like and so I shouldn't be writing, or that I am just stupid. While some of this might be true there is one thing I know... I know what movie everyone is talking about... Daremo shiranai (Nobody Knows). From acliamed director, Hirokazu Koreeda, and featuring Yuya Yagira, Ayu Kitaura, Hiei Kimura, Momoko Shimizu, and Hanae Kan this will no doubt be the one of the greatest films of all time.
This is the timeless story of four Japanese children who overcome all odds to survive the dangers of suburban Utopia (Tokyo). Their survival is dependent on two factors, their ability to giggle and their willingness to eat nothing but noodles. I would predict a plot twist at the end of the film, perhaps credits or a sneak-preview at Hirokazu Koreeda next film.
My Rating: 2.5/10 - This film will only be good if the guy who does the voiceover in the trailer also does the over-dub for all the children.
Nobody Knows
Lord of the Rings
"They made those movies in to books?"
Yes, believe it or not it seems that commercialism knows no bounds. Our favorite movies of the past few years; The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King have finaly made their way to our local libraries – next thing you know they’ll be turning Harry Potter into books too!
If anyone reading this is at this point thinking “dang communists!” – you, my friend, are a retard (no offense). The Lord of the Rings has been a favorite work of literature for the past 50 years and has been voted “Greatest book of the 20th Centuray” (BBC) and “Greatest Book of the Millennium” (Amazon.com). I have little to say about the whole saga however since I am trying to stick strictly to movies and, though the movies were a cinematic success, they had no where near the power inherent in the original text. For more on this, see my fiancé’s blog here
My Rating: 8/10 – Overall rating for the Film Trilogy (though perhaps it should be lower due to the butchering of Boromir’s brother, Faramir, and the lack of proportion in the overall geography of middle-earth)
My Rating: 8/10 – Overall rating for the Film’s Soundtrack (the soundtrack to The Fellowship of the Ring was awesome [great job Enya], but the other two were not-so-hot)
My Rating: 11/10 – The Book(s) – and the Silmarillion just makes them that much better.
War of the Worlds - I'm in...
Hey check this out, it's an email I got from the program webmaster for War of the Worlds, the new film from Steven Spielburg and Tom Cruise. This means that as soon as I get hot information, I'll be passing it on to you (meaning anyone who may chance to read this blog).
Thanks for your interest in the WAR OF THE WORLDS Webmaster Program. Your application has been accepted!
As a member of the official webmaster program, you will have the inside track on the latest
and greatest WAR OF THE WORLDS content and information.
You will be receiving periodic emails notifying you when new assets are available.
Coming in Late January/Early February 2005 we will launch a webmaster content depot where you can login to get all of the assets you will need for War Of The Worlds as well as see answers to frequently asked webmaster questions.Once the webmaster depot launches, a username and password will be automatically generated and sent to you.
In the meantime, please feel free to email any questions or concerns about the webmaster program to us at this address. We will be your official program contact for the program.
Thank you again for your interest.
Paramount Pictures
Interactive Marketing
This movie is gonna be great. Even the fact that the trailer gives us no idea what the actual film will be like makes me excited. I'll keep you all posted.
Indiana Jones 4
The more time I spend looking into movie reviews and sneek-peeks on the web, the more I realize that I know nothing. Sure, I like movies, I like to watch them and even write about them, but I have no clue as to what movies are coming out and what they are about. As I dig deeper into the online treasure-trove of information I have been able to find some really great stuff, though the validity of it is questionable.
Indiana Jones IV is one of the films that I am most looking forward to, and, of course, is one of the films that it is hardest to find any information about. A site I came upon recently, indyfan.com, has a great deal of speculation to siphon through. There are so many different script possibilities and cast variations that it is hard to know with any degree of certainty what this film will be like. All we know is that Lucas and Spielburg have been talking about it (we don’t even know if there is really a script yet) and we know that Harrison Ford would be cast as Jones Jr. and Conary as Jones Sr.
I found a rumor somewhere that Kevin Costner would be cast as Indi’s brother, but I don’t know if that’ll fly. I also read that Tom Hank’s son, Colin, may be Jones III. Regardless, I don’t think that the rumor saying the film will be released this summer is accurate. Both George Lucas and Steven Spielburg seem to have full schedules with Star Wars – The Phantom Jar-Jar and War of the Worlds coming out too. Each year I have been hoping that “this would be the year” that they make Indiana Jones 4, but it looks like it might not be for another year… we’ll just have to wait and see.
My Rating: Well, we will see… I don’t think I can dish out ratings without, at least, reading something official.
Corpse Bride
From the director of some of the spookiest movies ever made (Edward Scissor Hands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Sleepy Hollow), Tim Burton, comes an all new full length claymation classic… The Corpse Bride. Yikes, I almost didn’t even open this one up, it sounded like a normal, run-of-the-mill psycho thriller, but it won’t be. As I watched the special features for Burton’s Sleepy Hollow one quote stuck out to me and Jim, “he [Burton] has a great sense of humor.” More like a “disturbing” sense of humor. The first Burton film I ever saw was Batman in 1989 and it WOWed me (actually I saw a clip from Beetlejuice while on the USS Carl Vinson in 1988). It wasn’t just a great story, but the sets, the camera angles, the music, and the “humor” all made for a wonderfully spooky experience. As I think back on Burton’s filmography every single title conjures the same spooky feel. Even his “feel good” film of 2003 Big Fish had a spook factor. His “kids movies” too seem to be out to scare the kids as much as make them laugh. I can remember sitting in the theater watching James and the Giant Peach and freaking out when the huge mechanical shark jumps out of the water to devour the flying peach. Needless to say, this new film, The Corpse Bride, will carry with it the same spook factor combined with Burton’s favorite selling point, Jonny Depp, and introducing a favorite spooky actress of mine, Hellan Ebonum Carter.
This brings up an interesting question concerning movies, should movies be made to scare us, and if so, how? This movie will certainly be creepy, but how and why? Based on the preview we see that there are skeleton dogs and brides walking around, talking to people and reaching out from the ground and grabbing passers-by. Obviously for any adult who has been desensitized by “real” scary movies this will seem like child’s play, but that right there is the problem. This is not a kid’s movie. James and the Giant Peach may have been for kids, but how would we convince ourselves that undead brides are a subject for kids (or adults). Is this really entertainment? As you can tell I am excited about this film, but simply for the combination of director, actors, and medium (clay), not for it’s content. I like to be frightened while watching a movie, what I don’t like is that movie targeted to children who will be frightened beyond their ability to cope with and who may be left having nightmares. While I was down in Florida over Christmas break my family sat around watching movies (as we always do) and one of the movies we watched was Jurassic Park. I know that the first time I watched this movie I was petrified, so to allow my little 5 year old brother to watch it just seems a little twisted. I think in general we need to be more careful what we allow our children to become numb to. I want my kids to be afraid that Bambi’s mom is gonna die, not that the man-eating, genetically engineered, computer generated werewolf is gonna eat the children running through the woods. That we don’t need. 
My Rating: 8/10 - The film will be well made, the story will be intriguing, but are films like this worth watching?
ourTunes and rTunes
There are two music options I have found that seem to continue to grow the beast of the copyright wars. One is called ourTunes and the other is a new trend of pay-for-play Russian bootleg sites.
ourTunes
The ourTunes program is actually simple in concept and very simple in design. It is a Java based program (you actually run the .jar file) and it syncs with iTunes. The way it works is this: when I am on a network and open iTunes I can see other people's shared music. I can listen to this music via iTunes in the form of streaming audio. If I want, I can download wire-tap and record that streaming audio in real time, or I can get ourTunes. ourTunes taps directly into iTunes and allows the user to download tracks from another's computer rather than streaming them. This means you get those mp3s fast and without using a peer-to-peer software. The freaky thing is that the other person thinks he's being legal in simply streaming his library to you... you on the other hand are taking advantage of this guy by downloading his hard earned music.
mp3search.ru
Russian bootleg sites have been around for a long time. Normally marked as "warez" sites these offshore blackmarkets offer the savvy surfer a plethera of illegal software, music, movies, games and all things digital (even term-papers). The site mp3search.ru has exteneded this idea to make it profitable for the bootlegger (bootlegger n. boot-leg-er german: one who bootlegs). This site works off of the same idea that the iTunes music store had; the consumer is actually willing to pay a little for something that he can find for free (if free is illigal and paying is not). The only difference between iTunes and mp3search is that iTunes is legal and the Russian site is not! For some reason buying a song from a Russian for 10cents is more appealing than buying the same song from iTunes for 99c. Next thing you know the Chineese will be selling Greatest Hits CDs by U2 with the song Take My Breath Away on them (oh wait, I actually saw that once)
Alone in the Dark
I'm gonna try my hand at telling you the entire premise of a film by simply watching the Trailer (and this only once because I cannot bear to watch this trailer more than one time). Alone in the dark, first of all, will be rated R (for graphic violence, language, and lack of appeal to anyone who was born after Aliens was released). Christian Slater plays an angsty loser who is bitter over his father’s affection for his older brother (Robin Hood – am I correct in thinking that Robin Hood was the last film that Slater was in?) and not only that but he is also joined Lara Croft and is now a raider of tombs. The beast from Hellboy is unleashed and his buddies (the old cast from Aliens) start to terrorize the world. Robin Hood comes to the rescue and this time he is played by Richard Gere (if he is still alive). The end.
My Rating: 2/10 – This movie will not be good.
Who Listens to This?
As I was browsing music at Barnes and Noble the other day I ran across some weird stuff. The one artist, in particular, that struck me was Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. This singer from Hawaii who died a few years ago (from obesity related health problems) has one of the most beautiful voices of any guy I have ever heard (I have told Michal that she cannot use the word “beautiful” to describe a male characteristic, but a man’s voice can be beautiful only if he weighs over 300 pounds). This guy got me thinking though, how incredible it is that one person can have such diversity in his enjoyment of musical styles. I am looking at the music that I have added to my library in the past 30 days (and you’ll have to forgive me for some of these), but I have Santana, Indigo Girls, Spandau Ballet, Weird Al, Green Day, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, The Strangers, Karl Jenkins and many more (this is actually those I have added in the past two days). 
Last night I got into a discussion of why christian music isn’t appealing to me. There are some groups like Jars of Clay and old Newsboys and Third Day that I will listen to, but for the most part I can’t bear to listen to contemporary christian music. I think one of the factors is the production quality. It seems as if these christian labels only get the worst record producers, or, as Michal suggested, they may be trying to hit too many genres with the same producer and so he ends up making everything sound the same. That’s really the beef that I have with christian music, it all sounds the same…and I didn’t like it the first time. What I want is variety, that’s why my library has Nick Drake and Bach, Green Day and Norah Jones, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole and JET. I want to hear the variety. Someone once said “variety is the spice of life” (actually when I googled it I found that many people have once said that). It’s true though. I know there are people who can put a CD into there car stereo and simply have it on repeat for weeks (or if the CD gets stuck they may have it on repeat indefinitely). I just can’t do that… I need my mix (so should I get an iPod shuffle?)
My Rating: Israel Kamakawiwo'ole – 6.5/10 – Get’s a little repetitive, but Somewhere Over the Rainbow is amazing.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
There is a lot of buzz (can you hear it?) going around about this one... It seems as if all we are supposed to get from the trailer is that, believe it or not, .... hold on to your seats.... it's the news of the decade (or year or something)... ready?.... Jonny Depp plays Wonka! What?, oh, you already knew that? well then I guess we didn't get anything from the trailer. Okay, so we can find a few little things. For example, we do catch a glimpse of Wonka on safari (to rescue the Oompa Loompas one assumes) and we also get a sneak-peek into the mind of Tim Burton with his nightmarish style (humor as some call it).
This movie may actually turn out to be pretty good. I must admit, as much as I hate the original, I still watch it whenever it's on. This one promises to be nothing like that one (Burton either hasn't seen the original, or hated it so much that he is not "remaking" a movie, but rather taking another hack at making the book into a movie). The Burton/Depp formula has worked in the past (Eddy Scissor Fingers and Sleepin' Holler) so I am looking forward to this one... it'll be so funny.
My Rating: 7.5/10 - Any film whose premise revolves around candy cannot hope to get better than an 8!
John Hiatt - Walk On
John Hiatt seems to be one of those guys who is just awesome to listen to. I really have only heard one of his albums, Walk On, his 1995 release, but it is one of the best albums that I have ever heard. I was talking to my brother Jon the other day about what makes a great album. We were talking about Abbey Road by from the Beatles and Dark Side of the Moon from Pink Floyd...even A Rush of Blood to the Head from Coldplay. These albums are all what I would call great, but they are great for different reasons. We concluded that Dark Side of the Moon is the best album of all time (unless another is discovered)... but it's the best because all the songs flow so smoothly into one another... it is truly an album. John Hiatt's Walk On is more along the lines of A Rush of Blood... in that it is a collection of great songs all on the same album. It all works, it's great to listen to, and the nice thing (as apposed to Dark Side...) is that you can listen to one song and you don't feel like you have to listen to the entire album from start to finish. So, for some great listnin' check out Walk On.
My Rating: 9/10 - Great Album
iTunes top 10
With the release of the new iPod Shuffle I think it is high time that we all realize the importance of veriety in our listening habits. I saw a book at B&N Bookstore the other day that was simply a collection of play-lists for iTunes. You simply look up "ska" and it lists off the top 25 songs or so that you need to download to start off your ska collection... needless to say, it was one of the dumbest ideas for a book that I have ever seen. Seriously, who needs to buy a book that has the same lists that they can find anywhere on the web and even within iTunes itself.
So here now is what has made it to my top 25 most played list on iTunes (this is only the top 10 off of that list):
1] Hey Julie - Fountains of Wayne
2] Cry Love - John Hiatt
3] Diane - Guster
4] The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - Roberta Flack
5] Amsterdam - Guster
6] The Scarlet Tide - Alison Krauss
7] Careful - Guster
8] Ramona - Guster
9] Everything is Everything - Phoenix
10] The Swimming Song - Loudon Wainwright III
Okay, I know what you're thinking... who the heck is Loudon Wainwright the 3rd?...and also, "I thought you said veriety...you have four out of ten songs on that list by Guster?!" Well, when I got that Guster CD I think I must have gone a little overboard with how many times I played it in the first week or two. I believe the entire CD is on my top 100 list.
Other stuff worth checking out is Radiohead's "Hail to the Theif", Snow Patrol "Final Straw", the Kill Bill Vol. 1 Soundtrack, and anything by Nick Drake. Let me know what you think about this one... give me some sugestions of what to listen to... broaden my scope. I'm all ears.
Napoleon (Part One)
Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769 in Ajaccio on the Mediterranean island of Corsica. Through his military exploits and his ruthless efficiency, Napoleon rose from obscurity to become Napoleon I, Empereur des Francais (Emperor of the French). He is both a historical figure and a legend—and it is sometimes difficult to separate the two. The events of his life fired the imaginations of great writers, film makers, and playwrights whose works have done much to create the Napoleonic legend. [view source]
Napoleon Dynamite on the other hand is nowhere near that interesting. He is a curly-haired loser from Idaho who gets picked on, beat up, and taken advantage of by nearly everyone else in the film. Don't worry though, this is no Columbine tale, this kid simply roles with the punches, making friends where he can, finding solace in his "skills" and causing more uproarous laughter than any other film in recorded history. What makes this film conenct with so many people is that everyone is someone in this film. You may be the 32 year old brother, Kip, who still lives at home and spends all his time "online chatting with babes", or Rex, sensi at Rex-kwan-do, or the mullet-dawning grandmother, or uncle Rico, or Padro, or any of the other charactors. The point is that you are someone. Everyone who I have talked to who doesn't like the film is too much like one of the charactors to find it funny, everyone else who is just kind of like someone loves the movie.
If you haven't seen it, watch it with someone who knows all the lines... it will make it so much better.
My Rating: 10/10 - This is quickly becoming my most watched DVD (the soundtrack sucks!)
Kingdom of Heaven
"From the Director of Gladiator" reads the trailer page on Apple's web site for the Kingdom of Heaven. I immedietly start racking by brain trying to remember who directed gladiator, then something hits me... this doesn't say directed by the director of gladiator...does that mean it is like Hero being "from Quintin Tino" where he had nothing to do with the making of the movie, he simply slapped his name on it? I sure hope not. No... this thing is legit! Who is that guy, that guy is Ridley Scott. This guy has a cult following thanks to movies like Blade Runner and Legend and he is known as the king of the modern movie epic (sorry guy who directed Troy, your film sucked).
The trailer for KoH looks really cool, but it also looks like a remake of Gladiator (but now I find that unlikely because the remake of Gladiator is coming out sometime next year [click here]...great! we'll talk about that one later). This looks like it might be a well executed film combining what we all loved about Gladiator with what we all thought Troy was going to be (I really hope no one got what they were expecting out of Troy). Even the whole, blue-tinted winter scenes look like out-takes from Gladiator 1. So my big question about this one is: why is the princess lying with an ashen white face next to an ax head? Is she dead...is this Braveheart or something? Or, I guess more likely, is this Romeo and Juliet?
My Rating: 9/10 - Unless this ends up like Troy (which I doubt) then it would get the boot rating of -10!
Ice Princess
There should be a rule about casting one person in the same roll more than a-finnity times... however what's-her-face keeps getting cast as a retarded klutz. I was actually forced (at gunpoint) to watch the Princess Diaries (yes the whole thing!!) and have still not compleetly recovered my manly-ness. This one will surely be a hit with the pre-teen, klutz, wanna-be ice skaters middle-class suburbian crowd (though, how that demographic keeps getting movies made for it leads one to wonder, "are these kids loaded or what?")
My Rating: 2/10 - I know, you're thinking "how can this not get a 1/10?" Truth be told, I am just waiting for a worse movie to roll around...and trust me, it will come, and I predict that it will have a couple of kids rescuing their secret-agent parents from Pee-wee herman's henchmen .... in 3D!!!
Cinderella Man
Okay, so I'll admit, when I first read the title for this film I was like "what the..." thinking it was another Cinder-fella movie. It's not, and it looks okay, but I already know the whole story. James Braddock (Russle Crowe, I never know if there is an "e" at the end of crow) is a star boxer who gets old, and loses to many fights... everyone deserts him except his loving wife, the chick from Chicago. Soon he finds him self struggling to survive, life on the docks is hard, so he returns to boxing, this time with a mission.... to WIN. And so he does, unless it's like rocky in which case this film will suck. I think this film is meant to be though of as a Raging Bull or The Hurricane, not some Chuck Norris flick.
My Rating: 7/10 - I almost gave it a six, but has Crow(e) ever let us down in the past? ...not that I know of... and this one has some big names backing it. Let's get ready to rumble.
Sin City
What's this one about... I'm guessing it's about 2 and a half hours of weird fun. Its the combo movie everyone has been looking for... a mix of Dick Tracy, Hell Boy and that Bruce Willis space movie that everyone for some reason has seen (the 5th Elem.) I'm not saying this will be a bad movie, though it may get anoying to be watching a black-and-white film with such harsh contrast... the look is cool, but I just hope they don't over-do it. I'm most excited about Dwight (played by Clive Owen from the BMW short films)... oh yeah, and Frodo Wood also makes an appearance as the mysterious halfling.
I'll give it 6/10 with possibly a cult status.
Movie Pre-Reviews
I have been online looking for all the information that I can get about upcoming movies like King Kong, Indiana Jones 4, and the Hobbit, but there is really very little information, and what I do find I have no way of knowing if it's legit or not. So from now on I have a new order of business for this blog. I am going to seek out all the newest previews of upcoming films and write some short blurb (simmilar to a blog) about them... I also hope to get my movie-loving brothers to help me out a bit. Stay tuned.