Archive for July, 2005
Pollock is, yet another, biopic about the 1950’s modern art painter, Jackson Pollock (Ed Harris), and how he came to fame through discovering the drip/splatter-paint method. The film also stars Marcia Gay Harden as Lee Krasner, Pollock’s wife.
A film about a painter didn’t really appeal to me, but I remember seeing Harris nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards, and it sparked my interest. Netflix told me I would like it and it got great reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, so I put it in my queue. When will I learn to trust my instincts? Don’t get me wrong, Harris and Harden were spectacular in this movie, but the movie itself was pretty boring to me. I didn’t feel anything but disgust for Pollock since he was portrayed as a selfish, egotistical drunk. An my feelings for his wife were no better because she chose to stay with him. Besides the good acting, I also thought the cinematography was wonderful. There were some great shots done with interesting color and some others of the New England countryside.
July 9th, 2005
Google has FINALLY gotten its act together and has released an official toolbar for Google. I’ve already installed it and it works wonderfully. Now I have form spell checking, form auto filling, autolink (street addresses to maps, and more), and all of the other usual features I’ve seen on the IE toolbar.
This was announced through the Google blog and you can go straight to the download here.
July 8th, 2005
Friday Night Lights is based on a book of the same name by H.G. Bissinger, which chronicles the 1988 football season of the Permian High Panthers of Odessa, Texas. Billy Bob Thornton plays the coach, and there aren’t any other big stars in the movie except for Tim McGraw, but he has a small part.
I really liked this movie, especially the way it ended, which I thought made it seem more realistic and emotional for the viewer. The “kids” in the movie do a very good job acting and playing football. I also liked the costume design, which was made up of a lot of 80’s clothes and hair styles. While the soundtrack did consist of some good 80’s music, I thought the music in the more serious scenes was also well done. If you are a fan of football, you’ll like this movie. If you live in Texas, I think you’ll like it even more.
July 6th, 2005
I finally made the painless upgrade of my blog from Wordpress 1.2 to 1.5. Obviously, the look to this site has hardly changed because the theme I was using before, Kubrick, was made the default theme for 1.5. I still want to change up the look a little, so I don’t it isn’t the same as everyone else, but it might be a while. I also still need to add my del.icio.us links and Netflix RSS feeds.
Kudos to the Wordpress team for making this so easy! 
July 4th, 2005
Meet the Fockers is the sequel to Meet the Parents, which was a very funny movie starring Robert DeNiro, Blythe Danner, and Ben Stiller, in which Greg (Stiller) has to meet his fiance’s (Teri Polo) parents, Jack and Dina (DeNiro and Danner) so he can ask Jack for her hand in marriage. Sadly enough, Meet the Fockers, even with the extra star power of Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand as Greg’s parents, fails to deliver the goods as well as it’s predecessor.
This movie follows shortly after the first one, and Greg has planned a trip for his fiance and her parents to meet his family before they get married. There is a major clashing of personalities between Jack, who is an uptight former CIA agent, and Greg’s father, a former stay-at-home dad, and mother, a geriatric sex therapist. Since this is a sequel, it has to be compared to the first movie. This one just wasn’t as funny, and the devices that were used to carry the jokes seemed desperate. Sure, there are some funny moments, but the humor is tired since we’ve seen it already.
July 4th, 2005
Can you say “Romantic Comedy”? If you look it up in the dictionary, surely this movie would be mentioned, and I can’t think of a romantic comedy that I’ve liked this much in while. Hitch is about Alex ‘Hitch’ Hitchens (Will Smith) and how he has a job as a dating consultant, but falls in love with a gossip columnist, Sara (Eva Mendes), that threatens his business. His main client at the time is Albert (Kevin James), an accountant, who wants to date one of his company’s highest profile clients, Allegra Cole (Amber Valetta). Sara tries to get the scoop on the story and that is where she crosses paths with Hitch. Hitch tries to woo Sara, but all of the smooth dating advice he gives to his clients doesn’t seem to help, and he has one dating disaster after another.
This movie was not overly sweet and cute, and I really liked the way we had to follow two plots to the film. There was the plot of the accountant trying to date his client, who seemed to be out of his league, and there was the story of Hitch and Sara. I never got bored with the movie, and most of the funny moments were actually funny.
July 3rd, 2005
Man, I really liked this movie!!! I know part of it might be from all the hype and some of the reviews I read at Ain’t It Cool News, but I’ve seen through the hype on most movies, so I think my opinion is real. My wife really liked it too, and she is very honest when it comes to movies, even if she knows I like them.
War of the Worlds is a screen adaptation of the novel written by H.G. Wells in which aliens from another planet come to destroy the inhabitants of earth. In the movie, we follow Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) and his son (Justin Chatwin) and daughter (Dakota Fanning) as they attempt to escape the terror and destruction of the aliens and go to Boston where Ray’s ex-wife (Miranda Otto) is supposed to be. Ray is a terrible father to his children, who seem to barely know him, but he seems to get a new lease on their relationship by surviving this ordeal.
The special effects in this movie are the BEST I’ve ever seen, and I am predicting an Oscar for best visual effects. The movie, on the other hand, won’t win an Oscar for much else, but I really enjoyed watching it for more than the special effects. This film is terrifying, real, grips you from the very first alien sequence and doesn’t let go until the end. You are on the edge of your seat the entire time, wondering what is going to happen next. And speaking of the first alien sequence - watching the way the aliens kill people has to be seen to be believed. It is spectacular and horrifying at the same time. The ending is okay, and stays true to the book from what I hear, but I was expecting something more spectacular.
Besides some of the plot holes, this movie is just awesome. The acting is great, and the effects and meant to only be seen in a theater. Please go out and see this movie before you rent it, and you won’t be sorry. I’m going to try and see it again soon!
July 2nd, 2005