Date night with my wife, and we saw The Devil Wears Prada. This one really took me by surprise, since I didn't expect much from it and only thought it would be the same boring chick flick that is being produced over and over every few months by Hollywood, usually starring Kate Hudson. What was good about Devil was that it had Meryl Streep in it, and she gives an amazing performance. I completely forgot that she was Meryl Streep. This is rare for me, to see the actor as a character if they are a "big name". Anyway, this is a great date movie, so see it. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
If I want to see the latest popcorn or "summer" flick, I usually hit the multiplex with my brother in law. We recently checked out Superman Returns, during which I fell asleep, continuing a trend that began with my second viewing of Mission Impossible III. Although I hate Tom Cruise, MI: III was pretty great and Philip Seymore Hoffman is a villain for the ages in that movie. I fell asleep during Nacho Libre and X-Men: The Last Stand as well, so what does this say about all these movies? Does popcorn put anyone else to sleep?
Superman Returns - 3 out of 5. I was not that engaged by it. I found the early part of the film boring, the character of Lois as played by Kate "generic" Bosworth unbelievable, and Kevin Spacey too over the top as Lex Luthor. His giant crystal continent plan was a little too out there as well. I fell asleep during the most action-heavy part of the film, so what does that say about it? I did like the part where Superman saves the plane, and I thought Brandon Routh is a good heir to the legacy of Christopher Reeve. I was just expecting a lot more from Bryan Singer, given how much I enjoyed X-Men and X-Men 2.
Nacho Libre - 1 out of 5. It had a few mildly amusing moments, but was populated by a cast of the most disgusting people seen in a film since Napolean Dynamite, which I thought was great in the theater, on DVD, not so much. Director Jared Hess is obviously a one-trick pony. Jack Black gave it his best shot, but ultimately it is a bad movie. The only parts that made me laugh were the way Black said some things in his fake Mexican accent. I fell asleep during the middle section of the movie, when Nacho is doing God knows what, and woke up in time for the ending which I have already forgotten.
X-Men: The Last Stand - 3 out of 5 - don't be killing off X-Men, Ratner. Director Brett Ratner (Rush Hour, Rush Hour 2) has a rep as a Hollywood Hack, and it shows in this movie. It seemed phoned in, the performances were bad (Halle Berry, Kelsey Grammer), and several X-Men were killed off. The character of Angel is useless and the scenes that featured him were nonessential to the plot. Ian McKellen is good (as always) as Magneto. Famke Janssen as Dark Phoenix was a little bit cool, but kind of a missed opportunity. I have to unfortunately see this movie again since I didn't stick around for what happens after the credits, and apparently it's "pretty cool".
The next flick on the horizon is Miami Vice. I will see it, the brother in law is excited to see it, but I really can't stand Jamie Foxx, so we will see...
DJ
Friday, July 14, 2006
Mormons
So as mentioned before, I will briefly discuss Mormons. I just don't get it. They are basically a cult, with ridiculous beliefs, and a questionable history (the founder Joseph Smith was a convicted con-artist). Most of them live in one place, the state of Utah. Although officially condemned, some Mormons still practice polygamy, which as depicted in the great HBO show .Big Love, seems like a real pain in the ass.
Once upon a time, back in the days of when I worked for a DOTcom with HeavyD, we had to travel to Utah against our wills to work with some crazy-ass Mormons out there, a new acquisition of the DOTcom. At the time, our DOTcom stock was quickly becoming worthless and the DOTcom wanted us to hook up what we were producing with what the Mormons were producing, and our technology was as different from theirs as their "religion" is from the rest of the United States. We landed, were promptly issued a minivan as our rental vehicle, and could not find a bite to eat - much less a beer anywhere in town since it was after 9 pm. Everyone we saw had blond hair and blue eyes. One of the websites we had developed was a picture/people rating site and the Mormons had a real problem with this site despite its massive and brief popularity, due to the sometimes provocative pictures uploaded by people desperate for attention. The highlight of this first visit to Utah was that there was a brand spanking new Krispy Kreme right next to our hotel. HeavyD and I, having never experienced the joy that is Krispy Kreme each ate a dozen hot fresh donuts in a matter of minutes, plus dragged another dozen back home with us to our wives.
The Mormons came to a Christmas party in New York with the rest of the divisions of the DOTcom and looked like lost children. Unable to drink caffeine or liquor, clothed in secret underwear, they huddled together in a small group in the middle of the room, and made their exit fairly early in the evening. Our three person "division", meanwhile was enjoying White Russians with the CEO of the DOTcom, several months before he escaped a very rich man in his Golden Parachute.
The bottom line is that since that fateful trip to Utah, I have a fascination with Mormonism (and Krispy Kreme), that so many millions can be swayed by something so utterly strange (and delicious).
There's a great South Park episode that sums up, in song, the beliefs and history of the Mormons. I also recommend the book Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer. Krakauer, uses a true-story framing device of a mother and child murdered by fundamentalist Mormons in his discussion of the history of Mormonism, including Warren Jeffs, the polygamist wanted by the FBI.
Finally, back to Big Love on HBO, starring Bill Paxton as a polygamist trying to hide it and be a successful business owner in Utah. Season One is being rerun currently (it began on July 12th), so check it out. Particularly outstanding is the Warren-Jeffsish portrayal by Harry Dean Stanton of Roman Grant.
DJ
Once upon a time, back in the days of when I worked for a DOTcom with HeavyD, we had to travel to Utah against our wills to work with some crazy-ass Mormons out there, a new acquisition of the DOTcom. At the time, our DOTcom stock was quickly becoming worthless and the DOTcom wanted us to hook up what we were producing with what the Mormons were producing, and our technology was as different from theirs as their "religion" is from the rest of the United States. We landed, were promptly issued a minivan as our rental vehicle, and could not find a bite to eat - much less a beer anywhere in town since it was after 9 pm. Everyone we saw had blond hair and blue eyes. One of the websites we had developed was a picture/people rating site and the Mormons had a real problem with this site despite its massive and brief popularity, due to the sometimes provocative pictures uploaded by people desperate for attention. The highlight of this first visit to Utah was that there was a brand spanking new Krispy Kreme right next to our hotel. HeavyD and I, having never experienced the joy that is Krispy Kreme each ate a dozen hot fresh donuts in a matter of minutes, plus dragged another dozen back home with us to our wives.
The Mormons came to a Christmas party in New York with the rest of the divisions of the DOTcom and looked like lost children. Unable to drink caffeine or liquor, clothed in secret underwear, they huddled together in a small group in the middle of the room, and made their exit fairly early in the evening. Our three person "division", meanwhile was enjoying White Russians with the CEO of the DOTcom, several months before he escaped a very rich man in his Golden Parachute.
The bottom line is that since that fateful trip to Utah, I have a fascination with Mormonism (and Krispy Kreme), that so many millions can be swayed by something so utterly strange (and delicious).
There's a great South Park episode that sums up, in song, the beliefs and history of the Mormons. I also recommend the book Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer. Krakauer, uses a true-story framing device of a mother and child murdered by fundamentalist Mormons in his discussion of the history of Mormonism, including Warren Jeffs, the polygamist wanted by the FBI.
Finally, back to Big Love on HBO, starring Bill Paxton as a polygamist trying to hide it and be a successful business owner in Utah. Season One is being rerun currently (it began on July 12th), so check it out. Particularly outstanding is the Warren-Jeffsish portrayal by Harry Dean Stanton of Roman Grant.
DJ
Friday, July 07, 2006
Back
Well, I was able to stay in Deadwood, but was not really that impressed. My wife had been out of town for the last week and a half, visiting family. I flew out to Minneapolis and proceeded to drive with her and our kids to Watertown, SD. My mother in law is from a small town near Watertown and the town was having a centennial celebration. Once the festivities were over, we continued west until we hit Deadwood. Due to it being the Fourth of July Weekend, and given that we hadn't booked a hotel room, we had to go for the only one available at The First Gold Casino. It was a decent sized room, a bit expensive and we had two young children staying in the room with us who both were suffering from colds. The casino part was as depressing as most casinos not in Vegas are, filled with cigarette smoke and sad elderly people sitting in front of slot machines. We had to try and get a bite to eat before putting the kids to bed so we hit the only restaurant the casino offered. There wasn't much of a menu selection and a damn fly that kept trying to land on my son's food. The waitress was pretty slow and inattentive as well.
After the family went to bed, I ventured down to the casino again, part of my quest to have a shot of whiskey and gamble in the famous town of Deadwood. After 8 hours of driving, though, I wasn't really in the mood, so I sat down at a 5 cents slot machine. Slot machines are such a scam, poker is really my game, but all this casino offered was something called 3 card poker. Evidently 3 card poker is similar to a game my friends and I used to play called "Son of a Bitch", where you only have three cards but straights and flushes still count. I was playing a "Jacks or Better" poker slot machine, which at least gives you more of a chance than the standard slot machine. Somehow I ended up with 4 of a kind, but since I bet only the minimum in an attempt to make this "gambling" last as long as possible and to lose the lowest amount of money possible, I only won 80 nickels. My goal was to get a couple of free drinks while sitting at the machine, but I was only able to get one whiskey sour before the nickels ran out.
The next day we checked out a few of the sights in Deadwood from the driver and passenger seats of the van, since we didn't want to take the kids out and had a long drive ahead of us. The trek continued through Wyoming, where I wanted to maybe hit Devil's Tower (of Close Encounters of the Third Kind fame), but it would have added four hours onto an already long trip. Man, Wyoming is a desolate place. We drove for over 80 miles with nothing, no towns, no houses, until we hit Lusk. It was almost as bad as Utah, where we once had a stretch of 120 miles with nothing, no exits, but probably lots of Mormons lurking in the hills. More on Mormons next time...
The Fourth brought some fun in the form of a neighborhood barbeque, complete with a torrential downpour and talk of neighborhood husbands getting "fixed". Such a thought terrifies me since I have heard tales of things going bad during and after this procedure ...
After the family went to bed, I ventured down to the casino again, part of my quest to have a shot of whiskey and gamble in the famous town of Deadwood. After 8 hours of driving, though, I wasn't really in the mood, so I sat down at a 5 cents slot machine. Slot machines are such a scam, poker is really my game, but all this casino offered was something called 3 card poker. Evidently 3 card poker is similar to a game my friends and I used to play called "Son of a Bitch", where you only have three cards but straights and flushes still count. I was playing a "Jacks or Better" poker slot machine, which at least gives you more of a chance than the standard slot machine. Somehow I ended up with 4 of a kind, but since I bet only the minimum in an attempt to make this "gambling" last as long as possible and to lose the lowest amount of money possible, I only won 80 nickels. My goal was to get a couple of free drinks while sitting at the machine, but I was only able to get one whiskey sour before the nickels ran out.
The next day we checked out a few of the sights in Deadwood from the driver and passenger seats of the van, since we didn't want to take the kids out and had a long drive ahead of us. The trek continued through Wyoming, where I wanted to maybe hit Devil's Tower (of Close Encounters of the Third Kind fame), but it would have added four hours onto an already long trip. Man, Wyoming is a desolate place. We drove for over 80 miles with nothing, no towns, no houses, until we hit Lusk. It was almost as bad as Utah, where we once had a stretch of 120 miles with nothing, no exits, but probably lots of Mormons lurking in the hills. More on Mormons next time...
The Fourth brought some fun in the form of a neighborhood barbeque, complete with a torrential downpour and talk of neighborhood husbands getting "fixed". Such a thought terrifies me since I have heard tales of things going bad during and after this procedure ...
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