One of my favorite comedians, Eddie Izzard, has a great routine about how American filmmakers take great stories from British movies, rip off the general premise and add a heaping helping of explosions, aliens and other eye-candy. I’d try to explain the routine in more detail, but why not let a crude Lego animation of the routine explain it for me.
Just got finished watching the next DVD in the World at War documentary that The Wife gave me for Christmas. It was episode 20, “Genocide.” While many of the other episodes touch on the Holocaust, this is the only one that is completely centered on the topic. Read more…
If you’re like me, you’ve seen the trailer for Yes Man, the next in Jim Carrey’s long, slow decline from top-flight movie star to, well, Adam Sandler 2: Electric Boogaloo. The premise of Yes Man is that Jim Carrey has to say “Yes” to any proposal for an entire year. So, Jim’s playing a man who has to make a wholesale change to his personality/lifestyle/habits. Read more…
A few weeks back, I was talking to a friend about movies, and I mentioned even though I love Rudy and Hoosiers, I’ve never seen a couple of other sports movies. Like Remember the Titans. I’ve seen hella horrible football flicks like Wildcats, Little Giants and The Waterboy. Multiple times. For no good reason. But, I never saw this Denzel Washington movie (and I dig that guy’s work). Read more…
For a couple of years, my company shared a building with a shady auto credit company. And almost every day, I showed up at about the same time as a guy that worked for that loan company. We looked to be about the same age. Probably had about the same amount of experience and responsibilities. Biggest difference: he had to wear a tie every day, while I sported khakis and a polo shirt. He probably also spent the day explaining to people why he was repossessing their 1998 Ford Tempo. That’s a pretty big difference, too.
Last night, the Wife and I saw the Sex and the City movie, thanks to my son’s after-school care facility and their monthly “parents’ night out.” It’s not like it was the best movie ever, but I didn’t absolutely hate it. Which was an accomplishment in itself. Go ahead and stick that on the movie poster, HBO Films.
Other random notes about the trip to San Francisco:
Yesterday, the Triangle area of North Carolina was under a “winter storm warning.” For days, the local weather guys had painted a picture of an almost-certain “storm” of 2-4 inches of snow. For a region that averages about 8 inches every year – and hasn’t seen any measurable snow in about three years – this was big stuff.
Tonight, the college football award will try to anoint its national champion with all the precision and deft care of a drunk frat boy trying to piss on a lit cigarette… while riding in the back of an RV… being driven by an even drunker frat guy… down a gravel road… at night… without headlights…
About 20 years ago, a monumental event happened. I’m not talking about Black Monday and the stock market crash of 1987. Or Jim Bakker and the PTL affair letting the world know about the excesses of Tammy Faye’s false eyelashes. No, what happened sometime around 1987 is that someone, somewhere in Hollywood, decided to make the sequel to Caddyshack. The ill-fated, indescribably bad Caddyshack II. Read more…
