I will start this off saying that I am a huge fan of Ed Norton, I think he is one of the finest actors working today and find that he almost always gives an outstanding performance. I feel similarly about his costar Paul Giamatti as well, he is always good (but he will always be pig vomit to me). When I first started seeing previews for the Illusionist is was intrigued, I have always had a bit of a soft spot for magicians and the mysterious so it looked right up my alley.

The movie is good, not great but a good solid movie. To overly discuss it would spoil it so I wont. I would just like to add that the acting is good, it’s not Ed Nortons best work but he still puts in a solid performance. Mr. Giamatti on the other hand is at the top of his game and is a pleasure to watch. I was kind of ho-hum on Ms. Biels performance, I am not a huge fan of hers but she was good enough, definitely wasn’t bad. Rufus Sewell, who I feel looks uncannily like Vincent Gallo, makes for a good villain.

This is a movie that could easily be put off until you see it on DVD but if it looks like something that you would like I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend going and checking it out.

Well, I was bored this afternoon so I decided I was either going to go buy a cigar and smoke it or I was going to go to the movies. I figured I would check the movie schedule first and if there was something playing soon I would go to the movies otherwise I would go buy myself a cigar. It was 3:50 when I check and there was a showing of Snakes On A Plane at 4:15 so off to the movies I went.

It was bad, really bad. It was so bad at points that it was funny but for the most part it was just bad. The FX were second rate, the story was ludicrous as you can imagine, the acting, with the exception of Samuel Jackson, was subpar and it only got one good scare out of me.

After writing that maybe I am being a bit hard on it. It kept me entertained for a couple hours and I wasn’t really wishing it was over at any point during its 105 minute running length. It also had some boobies in it which is always a plus in my book. If you do go see it, turning off your brain before going into the theater wont quite be enough, you have to remove it completely from your head and leave it in your car.

One last thing, make sure you watch the absolutely hilariously bad music video that plays during the end credits, it really has to be seen to be believed.

On Saturday I went to go see Scoop. I happen to be a fan of Woody Allen’s comedy and this movie was a good bit of fun. It’s definitely not one of the best movies of the year or anything like that but I found myself giggling through a good portion of it. Scoop stars Scarlett Johansson, Hugh Jackman, Woody Allen and Ian McShane. Once I heard that Ian McShane was in the movie I was excited to see it. Ian is absolutely the best thing about HBO’s excellent Deadwood series, this man just has such a presence it’s hard to take your eyes off him when he is on the screen. Unfortunately he is vastly under used in the movie, his screen time is probably under 10 minutes total, probably closer to 5 actually. Scarlett is quite good in her role and her and Woody make a good comedy pair. Hugh Jackman is fine in his role, nothing real special or bad about his performance. Woody is hilarious playing the role that he always does, the insufferable neurotic.

If you want to go see something lighthearted and funny I would recommend Scoop, but only after you see one of the best pictures of the year: Little Miss Sunshine.

P.S. Scarlett Johansson in bathing suit, yummy.

On Sunday I went to go see Little Miss Sunshine which just happens to be one of the funniest and quite possibly the best movie I have seen this year. Little Miss Sunshine tells the story of a dysfunctional family on a road trip to attend a beauty pageant that the little girl is competing in. Little Miss Sunshine stars Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell and Alan Arkin. I don’t really want to tell you much about this movie because you should just go see it for yourself and bask in its awesomeness. I laughed so hard at points that my side was hurting and at one point came close to crying because it was so touching (if you see it, I bet you can pick out which seen I am referring to). Do yourself a favor, just go see it.

Music plays a very important part in my life and has for a very long time. I have many memories associated with specific songs and albums and there are certain albums that are very important to me in a variety of ways. This post will be the first of many where I will share with you some of my favorite music and tell you why the album is significant to me.

On to the first album…

Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes

Besides Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” I have probably been listening to this album longer than any other album that I still listen to today on a regular basis. The album was released in 1983 when I was the ripe old age of nine. My older brother played water polo in high school and the Violent Femmes debut album was adopted as the water polo teams album, I guess they would listen to it on the bus on the way to games and in the locker room. I can still remember the first time I heard the album. I was hanging out in my brothers room with my brother, which wasn’t exactly a common occurrence, and he played it for me. I will admit that part of the appeal to my nine year old self was that they swore and the guy had a sorta funny voice but I genuinely did like it. The fact that my brother was sharing it with me I am sure upped the appeal of the album as well.

I have quite a few fond memories of this album. I have a very vivid memory of driving home from college and getting stuck in traffic in LA and having “Kiss Off” come on the radio. For those three minutes I really didn’t care that I was sitting in smog infested LA with a good six hours more driving I had to do to get me home. Another good memory happened shortly after moving into the dorms. I was sitting in my room doing something boring but I had the door to my room open and threw this album on, shortly after it was on two of the cutest girls in my dorm came hurrying into my room saying how much they loved this song and danced for a bit. Me being the total wimp that I am of course didn’t try to capitalize on the situation but I remember it like it was yesterday. In the summer I will often just take my car out for a drive with no particular destination in mine, this album has accompanied on many of those journeys, it makes great driving music. It also always makes me think of Northbrook, Illinois which is where I lived at the time I first heard this album. It makes me think of the old neighborhood, Brendan and Bridgette who lived across the street, playing german spy, riding my BMX bike, and hanging out in the giant forest that surrounded our neighborhood.

I also got to grow up with this album. Songs took on a whole new meanings once I got a bit older and had the whole teen angst thing going on. Songs that I had known all the lyrics to for years I was suddenly seeing an all new way. Lyrics like

Y’know that I want your loving
but my logic tells me that it aint never gonna happen
and then my defense’d say I did’t want it anyway
but you know sometimes I’m a lier

just don’t have the same kind of impact on a nine year old as they do on a hormonal 16 year old boy with a crush on a girl.

The Violent Femmes really crafted a special album with this debut. To me, every song on this album is excellent, there is no filler. This is one of those albums where I will never complain when someone puts it on and if I am ever flipping through the radio station and come across one of these tracks I will turn it up and get a big smile on my face.

I got the Lost season one box set for my birthday last weekend and over the course of the week I devoured it. I watched all the episodes, all the bonus material on the 7th disc and even listened to all the commentaries (wish they had more commentaries). As you can probably guess, I really liked it.

I am torn now on season two. I was just going to wait for them to appear on DVD but my brother informs me that he can easily get HDTV rips off torrent sites and I could quickly catch up.

I think I am going to wait. I got seasons three and four of 24 for my birthday as well so I have stuff to keep me busy for a bit. Season two of Deadwood hopefully won’t be too far away and there is always the Sopranos which I have never watched.

And the Shield is on tonight, woohoo.

Any other Shield fans out there? Is it just me or does this show just keep getting better and better. I got hooked during season one and have watched religiously ever season since. On New Years eve I introduced my buddy to the show by showing him the first few episodes from season one. I got hooked again and ended up watching all four season again, figured I would catch myself up for the new season which just started a few weeks ago.

For those of you unfamiliar with the show it stars Michael Chiklis as Vic Mackey, a corrupt cop with good intentions. Vic runs a special forces unit called the strike team. Vic and his guys are constantly getting themselves in sticky situations but always find a way to land on their feet. The show is broadcast on FX which allows them some more freedom than they would have on regular network TV. They swear, there is light nudity and a fair amount of violence on the show. I highly suggest checking the show out, if the first episode of the first season doesn’t grip you I will be very surprised.

This season is especially good so far, Forrest Whitaker has joined the cast as an IAD detective who is trying to take down Mackey and his guys. Whitaker has made a great addition to the cast, I have always liked his acting and he is proving to be worthy foe to Vic and his guys (although he got totally owned last night). Last nights episodes could be one of my all time favorites, it was a real nail biter and the ending was super satisfying.

The Shield is on FX at 10pm on Tuesdays, check it out.

So I went and saw Terrence Malick’s (”Days of Heaven” “The Thin Red Line” “Badlands”) latest film The New World over the weekend. If you aren’t familiar with the movie it tells the story of Pocahontas. When I first started seeing previews for this movie a few weeks ago I wasn’t at all excited, it just didn’t make a good impression on me. The more I saw the preview the more I felt this way. Then the professional reviews started coming out and quite a few people were raving about it. I happen to be a big Roger Ebert fan, I find I agree with his taste in films more often than not, and he gave this film 4 stars, his highest rating. If you are curious you can read his review here

Since it was getting good press and Ebert liked it I figured I would give it a fair shot. The movie is stunningly beautiful to look at. It is up for the best cinematography Oscar and deserves to be. The acting is quite good too. I was especially impressed with newcomer Q’Orianka Kilcher who plays Pocahontas (her character’s name is never mentioned in the movie). Q’Orianka was only 14 when the movie was shot (further proof that I am going to hell for being a dirty old man) and I found her completely believable in the role with a very natural grace. The other actors; Colin Farrell, Christian Bale, Christopher Plummer and a bunch of other people I didn’t recognize or don’t remember do a fine job as well.

With that out of the way; I absolutely hated this film. I should have followed my gut and not bothered with it. While I agree with many of the things that Ebert says in his review such as the awe that the Indians must have felt as they saw the English boats and the awe the English must have felt seeing their first natives or how much of the film is implied rather than spelled out. It just didn’t work for me. The movie is very light on dialog, not always a bad thing but here it just adds to the snooze fest. Another aspect of this movie that I loathed was the music. Imagine a donkey yelling in your backyard as you try to fall asleep, that’s about how enjoyable the music in this movie was. The music was done by James Horner who I usually don’t have any problem with.

Avoid this one folks or just watch it on mute and enjoy the scenery.