i think i should start doing more regular themed posts on top of the monthly movie review.  having a theme decided for me on a regular basis would help me post more consistently, rather than leave me sitting here wondering wtf i care about enough to write about and what might not be so boring to read.

it should probably be movie-based and should be in list format.  or not.  lists are fun.  easy to write and easy to read.  i dunno.  what would you like to hear bullshit, unprofessional, factually erroneous and offensive posts about?  with bad grammar. 

movies, food….  no politics.  (btw, Christians, lay off gay marriage.)

***

supanamja, i am looking for a decent <$60 scotch.  name something.  being a good cheap ass korean, i appreciate value.

in response to the responses to yesterday’s post about Johnny Depp and his acting ability (or lackthereof)

redhairedcelt:
“But I’m still going to disagree about the overrated bit. I don’t find the characters he’s played to be the slightest bit uni-dimensional. In fact, quite to the contrary, even when there’s not a lot of character development in the script, there is within him. Jack Sparrow was NOT the swaggering, misunderstood hero type that Disney originally wanted (Errol Flynn on steroids). Willy Wonka was not the Gene Wilder portrayed mystery man. All of his characters have been wildly different from each other, all idiosyncratic, and most definitely multi-dimensional. And not a spot of the true Johnny Depp in there anywhere.”

lady_songbird:
“A couple years later, I watched What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, mostly because someone said they thought Leo DiCaprio played a brilliant autistic role. Ok, Leo did good, I admit, but he wasn’t the focus of the movie. It was Gilbert, who could convey a mood with only his eyes, and I was very swept up by the grace in which he handled being trapped in the disaster that was his life. I saw two very completely different performances, and never realized they were the same actor until I read the credits.

jdrop:
“He’s perhaps one of the most fantastic character actors ever. He always twists them into these multi-dimensional, likable, realistic people, biopic or not. I love Jack Sparrow, so him notwithstanding, by the end of Blow I was rooting for George Jung, and Edward Scissorhands makes me cry every time. And yes, he is very pretty.”

Johnny Depp brings a different persona to every role he plays. There is no spill over from one to the other. There was no hint of Jack Sparrow in James Barry — or any other roll.”

***

lady songbird, actually i mentioned Gilbert Grape as one of two examples in his prolific career when he did in fact play a normal person, and he did it pretty well.  but that was a very long time ago and i’m not sure he can pull it off anymore.  judging relative to the rest of his career, it might not be inaccurate to call Gilbert Grape a fluke.

and i just don’t see any evidence of depth of feeling or nuance or anything REAL in any of the characters he’s played in the last decade or so.  it seems to me that his goal is to just be the most wild, wacky and creepy — all extremes — character he can be.  now, don’t get me wrong, he does that very well, but i like to say sometimes “anyone can yell at a camera for two hours”, meaning anyone can turn up the volume and hope that gets mistaken for real emotion.  and his brand of acting is a form of yelling even if he never raises his voice. 

redhairedcelt, i don’t equate depp changing his characters to him adding depth or dimension to them.  for all i know the original script may have had more depth and vulnerability but was washed out by him acting like he does, dumbed the character down. 

jdrop, his likeability is not in question here.  i love jack sparrow and edward scissorhands.  i even liked Ichabod Crane.  the question here is Can he play a real flesh and blood human being or not?  would he be able to play Jake Lamotta in Raging Bull or even a Randy The Ram in The Wrestler?  i am thinking “not a chance”. 

will he ever get an oscar?  probably one day, since, like i said, he does do his shtick, simple as it is, very well.  and i don’t mean simple as in easy i mean simple as in not complex.  as a friend of mine likes to say about some other (justifiably) well-known and well-liked actors, “he’s a scene-chewer.”  he can’t melt into a scene.  he has to be the jack in the box that jumps out and steals your attention. 

i’m coming to a slow realization here that might offend some of you.  i realize this is a sensitive topic, especially for the women here, and i’m most likely treading on sacred ground, but i’m going to say it anyway.  i think johnny depp is an overrated actor, especially lately.  there, i said it.

actually i always have, and still do, respect him, ever since 21 Jump Street.  (for all you infant fuckers that don’t know what 21 Jump Street is go get an education!)  this guy could have lit up and burned out completely while erasing every ounce of personal dignity in the process.  The Machine was oiled up and ready to consume him as a hearththrob product, and he dutifully rebeled (some might say raged) against it and came out with a pretty respectable career. 

but if you’re talking about acting ability…  you know, stuff like nuance, depth, feeling real.  i don’t see it anymore.  the roles he’s played over like the last 10-15 years have all been caricatures for the most part, all one-dimensional, all circus act, never real.  well you could say that those are the roles he plays: willy wonka, captain jack sparrow, sweeney todd, etc.  true.  but why does he almost exclusively pick those roles?  it can’t just be for the money.

also, i would argue that he has chosen roles in the past that did allow for, and maybe require, some depth of true humanness, like his role in Blow, the character that was supposed to be this drug dealer doing well in a violent subculture that usually thrives on violence.  that should have been a meaty role, but he turned it into a dopey smiley face role.  (then again Blow is a biopic and all biopics end up one-dimensional.)  what else is there…  Donnie Brasco.  he was actually not bad there.  there’s one.  what else…  Finding Neverland was a good movie, but i am kind of remembering his character being caricaturish there too. 

quite frankly, i’m not sure he’s played a real human being since What’s Eating Gilbert Grape in 1993, but he was overshadowed there by a young, up-and-coming Leo Dicaprio, in the performance of his career.  actually think about that for a second.  that one overlooked and nearly forgotten movie is possibly the talent peak of not one but two superstar acting careers, Depp’s and Leo’s.  interesting…  so Gilbert Grape and Donnie Brasco over a celebrated twenty year acting career.  that’s not much real acting.

anyway, of course this doesn’t mean that i think Depp is a bad actor.  sometimes balls to the wall, extreme acting works well like Heath Ledger as The Joker and Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood.  but to be considered a really good actor, an actor’s lifelong resume has to offer a little more than clown paint and distracting accents. 

pulled the trigger and got myself a new iphone.

right away i look back at my hesitation and have to laugh at one of the two points that held me back for so long: the call coverage.  i haven’t been on the phone that much so i can’t really tell how much worse AT&T is but however bad it is, it’s almost moot because, like some of you mentioned (rather painfully), i am never on the phone!  i got a call last night, day 5, and was like “what’s that sound?  it’s weird.  is someone in my apartment?”  of course, it was my new ring tone.  i’m sure i’ll get a better feel for the difference in coverage later on as i use the phone more, but right now…  what a silly thing to get hung up on.  especially because…

the iphone really does seem that fun/convenient/dazzling/______ so far.  as a bona fide internet junkie, having the web constantly at my fingertips is amazing.  i had to mail a package yesterday but forgot to write down the address.  normally i would be walking my ass back to my office to look it up, but not anymore!  just walked straight to the post office, whipped out the iphone, looked up the address and wrote it down on the package, all while standing in line.  i didn’t lose a step!   

and all these fun applications to download!  and the map thing?  you can push a button and instantly locate your exact position on a google map.  that’s pretty fucking cool, if you ask me.  what are the cool apps i should be downloading?  i think i have so far… facebook, Now Playing, wikipanion, shazam, urbanspoon, lux touch, tap defense.  what else should i get? 

if you have an iphone, what do you think of AT&T coverage?  do you always have bars?  are your calls ever dropped?  do you get voicemails and texts as soon as they are sent?  “can you hear me now?”

i am a verizon dude, and am VERY reluctant to switch out since, in my experience, VZ has been pretty reliable as a call carrier.  and to me, if the coverage isn’t solid, there’s just no point at all.  i used to have Sprint and AT&T and both carriers had spotty coverage, but then again that was like eons years ago and who knows what they might have improved on since then.  actually, as a company, i feel like Sprint is just crap and i have little faith in the prospect of them improving, but AT&T on the other hand might have come up with the resources and the motivation to improve themselves. 

this is all an issue now because of the stupid stupid shiny pretty iPhone.  all of a sudden i need an internet ready smartphone with a giant screen.  it’s like my soul needs fixing or something.  i need access to information.  i need to see it in big colors on a big screen.  i need it all in a package that i can easily fit in my jeans pocket. 

i’m really not hot on the idea of a touchsceen keypad, though.  i like to feel the nipple-like protrusions of buttons on a keypad.  (you’re welcome.)  there’s something to be said for the confidence and comfort a little tactile feedback can offer.  i hardly talk on the phone so the whole verizon in-network thing (calls between verizon customers don’t count against minutes) isn’t really an issue, but something as small as a qwerty keypad is.

the iphone has all these cool applications that come along with it, but people say the WebOS system that Palm runs on is much easier to develop for and should invite a flood of apps once the Palm Pre has been out for a short while.  the iphone is up to its third generation now.  the Palm Pre, if/when it debuts on VZ will be first generation, and buying the first generation is a big no-no for me.  the pride of owning the newest toy is worthless if it’s all buggy and rudimentary. 

should i just suck it up and switch to the iphone for two years until the Palm Pre matures or some other iphone killer appears for Verizon?  the palm pre maturation might take a long while, maybe two years?, and the prospect of a phone with the potential to compete against the iphone on verizon’s network is slim considering verizon’s history of having the crappiest, most dull phones on the planet.  i’d consider the switch if AT&T’s coverage is ok.  so, again, if you have an iphone, how is the coverage? 

(BBerry Storm is not an option after several friends had major problems and complaints with theirs.) 

The Bacone!!!

what you’re looking at is a cone of bacon filled with eggs, hash browns, cheese, country gravy and topped with a biscuit.  you can’t make me not want to die by eating too much of that. 

i am, like many of you, very conscious of the fact that xanga activity in my sphere of existence has dwindled down, and i’m pretty sure it has to do with this fundamental cause:  you suck. 

we suck, rather, since i’m no fountain of xangamania either.  i don’t know what your excuse is, but me, i made a conscious decision to try not to post anything politically partisan from work, which just happens to be where i xanga from 95% of the time.  i decided that for work reasons that i won’t get into, not really personal reasons.  it had to be done.  what i didn’t realize at the time was how much of my recent xanga activity has been centered around political issues. 

i don’t really have any drunk stories to tell you.  i haven’t really dated at all so i have no annoying girl stories.  work has gotten marginally better so i am less prone to whine about my shitty ass career or lack thereof.  all i have is shit that i’m fed by my addiction to news and media.  movies and politics.  cut out politics and that doesn’t leave very much else.  anything more and i would sound even more redundant than i already do considering how long i’ve had this xanga for.

everything is redundant and not worth writing about until i realized this:  people that walk with no apparent control of their wildly flapping arms freak me out.  seriously.  it’s such a bizarre sight.  i’m not talking about people that are stomping briskly while walking down a steep hill.  body control is all out of wack in that scenario.  i’m talking about the straight line, flat plane walker whose torso is perfectly straight but his elbows and wrists are flopping all over from his waist to his shoulders.  it’s weird and worth mentioning.

on another note, i saw the travelling cast of RENT recently for the first time.  i never saw it while it was playing off-Broadway.  i have to say.  it’s the only musical besides Les Mis that i actually enjoyed.  Beauty and the Beast, Miss Saigon and Chicago were all pretty damn boring to me, but Rent was at least entertaining at parts, though, i wouldn’t dare say that it’s “great” by any means.  it does have a few great moments though.  in any case, other thoughts…

*** spoilers below ***

is it me or do i detect some attempts to rip-off Les Miserables?  there’s a song in Rent called something like Life Without You which in essence is a very inferior rip of On My Own.  listen to the words.  the medley chorus in Another Day is reminiscent of One Day More.  the return of Angel is similar to the return of Fantine and Eponine.  coincidence or intentional?

too awesome not to post.  from Liquid Generation via Cinematical.

The 100 Greatest Movie Lines in 200 Seconds 

amid the North Korean nuclear test and missile launch hoopla over the weekend, let’s try not to forget that two american journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, are about to be tried in north korea on June 3 for espionage and whatever else with a potential for like ten-plus years in a north korean labor camp. 

it’s hard not to assume a caricaturish picture of north korea’s justice system, not when they’ve so proudly acted the part of the batshit crazy inmate, so let’s go ahead and make a generalization here: north korea couldn’t find a fair trial if it sat on their face and shat a turd in their mouth.  and while we’re at it let’s make another generalization and say that prison life for these Americans will probably be out of some holocaust nightmare. 

in addition to being fairly annoyed that north korea is acting up again, and also feeling pretty helpless because it seems that north korea does shit like this with impunity thanks to China, and also feeling scared for these civilians that, yes, knew the risks but still, like me, are probably not suited for this type of treatment, i’m also feeling a little burned by the disproportionate response the American journalist in Iran got when she was tried then released. 

why is everyone so fucking silent about these journalists in north korea? 

true, north korea and iran are two totally different beasts and need to be handled differently.  it can be hypothesized that the US government silence on this subject — thinking comparatively, Hillary made a direct statement calling for the release of the journalist in Iran — indicates some hush hush back-channel business going on that might be hurt by public exposure.  but that’s just a theory, and an imaginative one at that.  a theory conveniently supported by more silence.

it’s also making excuses for lack of action, lack of outrage.  this is going to sound like boorish American talk here, but, fuck it, here it comes anyway.  it should NOT be ok to snatch and punish Americans for the sake of political theater.  north korea should never feel it has balls enough to try and shame America by subjecting Americans to a sham trial and probable imprisonment.  it’s impossible to support every wronged American out there, but this one hits home a little harder since they are both Asian American journalists and north korea and its douchebagginess is a point of interest for me. 

***

and if you’re about to go off about america’s past sins and retribution, f**k you.  north korea isn’t owed shit by us. 

***

from angryasianman.

A message from the Ling and Lee Families:

Most appreciatively,
The Families of Laura Ling and Euna Lee
5/21/09

“Last week, there were public vigils held on their behalf all around the country, with more planned in the United States for June 3rd — the day their trial begins in North Korea. Details are still coming together. Keep checking this Facebook group for more details, and what else you can do to help.”

***

previous reviews here.

We Own The Night (2007) – Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlburg, Robert Duvall.  a rising club manager on the periphery of the criminal underground deals with the war his cop family is waging against his livelihood.  or something like that.  it has the makings for a classic inner turmoil type film, but craps the bed with the jittery unwinding of the story.  it gives up too much too early and in doing so completely forfeits the interest it built up.  eva mendez has a brief nude scene though, again very early on, so all was not lost.  what a waste of some fantastic acting talent…  2 stars. 

Street Kings (2008) – Keanu Reeves, Forrest Whitaker, Chris Evans.  moans and groans as the world must endure another Keanu Reeves film.  a “loose cannon” cop, protected by his ambitious boss, looks for the killers of a fellow police officer.  sounds pretty boiler plate except in this film this “loose cannon” isn’t just down with a little police brutality, but is completely off his rocker violent right down to plain old murder.  the growling nature of his character and the brutal violence potential alone could make this a great entertainer, but it is Keanu Reeves we’re talking about here, the movie killer.  he’s a fucked up cop, in a fucked up system, working for a fucked up boss.  this should have been awesome, but instead it’s just “not bad”, which given Reeve’s terrible performance again, is saying a lot.  here’s another potentially good movie that Reeves almost killed.  oh  yeah one more thing.  why isn’t Chris Evans a bigger star?  3 stars. 

Star Trek (2009) – let’s just get this out of the way first: i’m not a Trekkie.  that being said.  i totally enjoyed this.  it’s not a perfect film all around, but it is perfect for summer popcorn.  the film is basically all background story defining the setting we know as Star Trek: Kirk as the Captain of the USS Enterprise.  kirk’s dad was a hero of the Starfleet.  kirk became a rebellious kid with high aptitude.  spock is the half-breed son of a human mother and vulcan father, struggling with his identity being raised as a vulcan man.  uhura is some hot ass brainiac yada yada yada. 

plot-wise, pieces almost literally fell together a little too conveniently, and cheated more than once, imo.  this was the film’s weakest point, and next to the original series, is a glaring deficiency since the original was so smartly written.  it also brushed aside all social and philosophical commentary, another strength of the original.  but chris pine as Kirk does a good job toeing the line between brash, irreverent bravado and the potential of the creatively able Starfleet legend Kirk will become.  and never once do you get the impression that Pine is doing a Shatner impersonation, which is more than i can say for Karl Urban playing Bones McCoy, who tried to channel the old Bones to his annoying detriment.  Zachary Quinto also nailed the cold vulcan warring with his human side, Spock. 

the strengths of the film are heavily technical, imo.  the action was pretty plentiful and choreographed well, but most importantly everything looked and sounded outstanding.  i don’t notice this in many movies but the sound effects and overall sound engineering were so visceral here.  it’s almost like another character on the screen.  a quiet strength here was also the presence of Bruce Greenwood as Admiral Pike.  i don’t know why but whenever he’s on the screen, there’s always this sense of authority and calmness.  maybe it’s his baritone voice?  who knows.  anyway, the plot lacks (though nowhere near something completely brainless like Transformers) but the characters are interesting to watch and the action and technical achievements combined to make this a perfect example of a summer popcorn movie.  4 stars. 

JCVD (2008) – Jean Claude Van Damme starring as himself.  i was always fascinated with the idea of Being John Malkovich for many reasons, but one being the idea of making a fictional movie about a real, living person, and having that person playing himself.  JCVD is no Being John Malkovich but still sparks that initial curiosity: can this guy play himself without enjoying it too much?  this story is pretty brave for the real JCVD because it basically shows a very real, which is to say “washed up”, version of himself.  this washed up JCVD is having trouble beating out Steven Seagal for movie roles, has money trouble, and is suffering a child custody battle when he eventually gets tangled up in a robbery and becomes the prime suspect.  interesting because this might actually be a mirror for his real life, n’cest pas?  age lines on his face and all. 

Being John Malkovich put the real John Malkovich in absurd and ridiculous situations thereby creating a completely fictional and non-protagonist version of himself, but JCVD plays with the idea that we just might be witnessing the last desperate act of a long lost has-been and the possibilities attached with that are too good to pass up.  this film gets huge points for 1.  being written at all and 2.  selling the real JCVD on it.  it’s ballsy and it worked.  the actualy robbery that’s central to the film is almost inconsequential.  it’s a medium.  don’t lose sight of what’s real here, which isn’t the robbery, it’s what JCVD wants you to see about himself, which is himself as a human being.  3.5 stars.

Frozen River (2008) – a poor white mother living in a trailer with her two sons is abandoned by her husband the day they are to make a down payment on a bigger house.  he ran off with the money.  living near the Indian reservation that straddles the Canadian border, she gets involved in a smuggling operation to try to raise money for the new house.  hilarity ensues.  ha.  Melissa Leo got a lot of acting recognition playing the poor mother.  personally i thought she was a little flat at parts but overall it’s not a bad indie that touches on the lives of poor desperate people and what they’ll do to maintain.  3.25 stars. 

Pineapple Express (2008) – judd apatow produced starring James Franco and Seth Rogen.  pretty funny.  giggly funny, not guffaw funny.  the usual cast of characters.  seth rogen and james franco are on the run from a drug dealer while high on Pineapple Express weed.  it’s not so much a stoner movie as it is a blatant bro-mance movie straight up with in-your-face homoerotic humor that Apatow and his gang seem to be pushing hard.  i put it on the high end of 3 stars. 

Rachel Getting Married (2008) – Anne Hathaway plays a recovering drug addict home for her sister’s wedding.  refered to by most as a “train wreck on film”, this film does not disappoint, but it actually delivers more, imo.  yes, it is all about the awkward and uncomfortable in-fighting between Anne Hathaway and her family, but it takes it a step further and explores stuff like cause and reconciliation to give the whole experience more depth.  it’s not afraid to get in there and mush its hands in the yucky stuff then washes itself afterwards.  definitely better than i thought it was going to be.  4 stars.

Milk (2008) – sean penn, emile hirsch, james franco, Josh Brolin.  biopic = Zzzzzzzz.  as expected Sean Penn did a great job playing Harvey Milk, the gay rights activist and politician.  he’s a very convincing gay man.  he’s a very convincing one-note, uni-dimensional gay man.  can’t fault Penn though.  that’s just the way biopics go and why they are so fucking boring to me.  to me the only person of interest in this film was the bad guy.  what does that say about me?  3 stars.

The Reader (2008) – Kate Winslet won the oscar for this?  this is the most convincing evidence yet that the Oscars are, many times, career recognitions, as opposed to recognition for the actual film it’s awarded for.  post-nazi germany.  kate winslet is an older woman who gets sexually involved with a young boy who eventually grows up to find out she was a nazi prison camp guard.  i get the idea.  it’s a good one, and extremely radical for holocaust-friendly hollywood.  very ballsy.  but the acting by the not-so-young boy especially and winslet herself were lacking.  i didn’t feel any emotion except wanting to hit the boy once in a while.  3 stars.