Alice in Wonderland - #
Charley Varrick - *
Gotcha
Grace of My Heart
Havana
Kuffs
Life - #
Madigan
Once Around
Red Baron - #
The Stranger - #
U2 - 360 at the Rose Bowl - #
The Wolfman - #
Click below for this week's Blu-ray releases
About Last Night/St. Elmo's Fire
Absolute Power
Air Force One/In the Line of Fire
Bad Boys
Crossing Over
The Enforcer/Sudden Impact
Every Which Way But Loose
The Fifth Element/Gattaca
First Knight/A Knight's Tale
Gauntlet
Heartbreak Ridge - *
Kelly's Heroes/Where Eagles Dare - *
The Man with No Name Trilogy - *
Pale Rider
The Rookie
Space Cowboys
War of the Worlds - *
# - also on Blu-ray
* - Doctor approved
Monday, May 31, 2010
DVD and Blu-ray Releases 6/1/10
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Song of the Day - 1901, Phoenix
I'm about a year late with this one, but the great riff and so-so lyrics are worth a listen.
Continue reading this postWeekend Box Office: 5/28-5/30/10
2 of the seemingly worst Memorial Day releases ever were unleashed on an unsuspecting public. These are dark times for popular American cinema. And I've run out of Iron Man 2 Scar-Jo pictures.
Title/Gross/%Change/Total
1. Shrek 4: 43 mil / -39% / 133 mil
2. Sex & the City 2: 32 mil / NEW / 46 mil
3. Prince of Persia: 30 mil / NEW
4. Iron Man 2: 16 mil / -39% / 274 mil
5. Robin Hood: 10.3 mil / -45% / 83 mil
6. Letters to Juliet: 5.9 mil / -35% / 37 mil
7. Just Wright: 2.2 mil / -49% / 18 mil
8. Date Night: 1.8 mil / -40% / 93 mil
9. MacGruber: 1.5 mil / -64% / 7 mil
10. How to Train Dragon / 1.0 mil / -46% / 213 mil
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Dennis Hopper, RIP
A legend is gone. 
My favorite Hopper scene ever (from Hoosiers)here. Hopper discusses his performance here. The NY Times's AO Scott discusses the film here.
My favorite Hopper scene (other than "Pabst", of course) from Blue Velvet.
Both of those films came out in 1986. Not a bad year for DH.
Recent Viewings
Crazy Heart
Jeff Bridges's overdue Oscar was certainly deserved as he mumbled, sang, and scratched his way through Bad Blake's journey to sobriety, success, and adulthood. As his romantic interest, Maggie Gyllenhaal is perfectly fine as the starstruck lady with her priorities in line. Colin Farrell and Robert Duvall add a lot to the film as once and future acquaintances of Blake. The only misstep the film makes is Blake's ill-fated neglectful trip to a bar and the temporary loss of a child. It takes the easy way out instead of dealing with real problems and never really shows any balls (like The Wrestler or even Coal Miner's Daughter). But it's a minor complaint in this thoroughly likable film. Great music, great performances, and a pitch-perfect ending. A-
The Road
Unbelievably bleak and grim and depressing as hell. Viggo Mortensen couldn't be better as the father guiding his son through a post-apocalyptic grungy wasteland. While gangs of cannibals look for them, they struggle to find food and not have their stuff stolen. If you can get through the house where live people are stored for food, the second half becomes a highly intellectual treatise on humanity itself. And the emotional ending is an out-of -nowhere knockout that left me shattered. I'm not sure I'll ever watch this again, but I'm a better human being for having seen it. B+
The Messenger
Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson are terrific both separately and together as members of an Army casualty notification team. The interactions with grieving families are devastating - all the more so because writer-director Oren Moverman stages the scenes without cutting, allowing the actors to do their thing. But, after some great scenes with Steve Buscemi and Samantha Morton, later notifications feel sadistic and repetitive. Moverman tries to advance the story when Foster begins seeing Morton, but the screen chemistry just isn't there (like it is for Foster and Harrelson). Unlike The Road which starts slow and finishes strong, this one becomes less interesting as it goes along. B
Friday, May 28, 2010
It's Complicated - C+
On DVD and Blu-ray
A divorced couple of 10 years (played by Alec Baldwin and Meryl Streep) is at their son's graduation in New York when they just happen to meet at the hotel bar and hit it off, going all the way. Trouble is, back in LA, he's married and she just started a romance with her architect (Steve Martin). All of the complications and ramifications (especially on their kids) are barely evaluated in this well-acted adult comedy that ultimately takes itself too seriously . . .
The film holds together pretty well for awhile largely due to the impressive performances of Baldwin and Streep. I actually prefer her better here than in her recent Oscar-nominated caricature performance in Julie & Julia. They feel like real people who've experienced a lot and their relationship is well-explored. Martin plays it much more subdued and honest than usual, thereby turning in a good (if castrated) performance. As their future son-in-law, John Krasinski has some very good moments keeping the knowledge of their affair to himself.
But they're all undercut by writer-director Nancy Meyers (The Holiday, Something's Gotta Give) who delivers a lifeless, confusing, and humorless third act. The set-up is pretty good, but the ending makes enjoyable characters needy and pathetic (Baldwin) or shrill and selfish (Streep). Their children are woefully underwritten, making supposedly heartfelt scenes with them almost meaningless. And Streep's friends (including Rita Wilson and Mary Kay Place) - used well in 2 early scenes are completely forgotten by the end. OK for awhile, but you get the feeling Meyers didn't know where to go with it halfway through the writing process. C+
Josh Ritter on NPR
Interesting interview and song can be heard here along with a contextual article and a video for "Curse". Priest and Europpraiser are trying to drag me onto this bandwagon...
Continue reading this postThursday, May 27, 2010
New Arcade Fire!
Doc and I both love some Arcade Fire, so I was pretty pumped to see their first single "The Suburbs" off the album by the same name had dropped. You can hear it here or hear the b-side, "Month of May", here. Not sure I know what I think just yet, but "Month of May" is definitely the hardest rocking song they've had to date.
Continue reading this postWednesday, May 26, 2010
Song of the Day - Interstate Love Song
By Stone Temple Pilots
I haven't heard much worth posting on their newest album, but you can't take this mid 90s classic away from them. Great harmonies and a terrific lead guitar.
Monday, May 24, 2010
DVD and Blu-ray Releases 5/25/10
Dear John - #
The Road - #
True Blood: 2nd Season - #
Click below for this week's Blu-ray releases.
City of the Living Dead
Django
Seven Swords
Spartacus - *
Stagecoach (Criterion) - *
# - also on Blu-ray
* - Doctor approved
Song of the Day - Brassneck
By The Wedding Present
Audio isn't the greatest on this link. And the video is obviously dated. But this Brit-pop-rock music, with its strong driving rhythm and terrific chords is something I revisit every year. Sounds much better on I-Tunes and CD.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
World Cup Commercials
An odd source of entertainment, but great nonetheless:
1. Alejandro González Iñárritu's Write the Story for Nike
2. Fifa's commercial. Awesome marriage of soccer with U2 - Dentist may faint!
Weekend Box Office: 5/21-5/23/10
Shrek 4 won the weekend but it's sum was low due to the underwhelming third installment. Audiences must have felt the same as Lawyer about MacGruber whose take was surprisingly low. The top 10 is rounded out by a Bollywood release.
Title/Gross/%Change/Total
1. Shrek 4: 71 mil / NEW
2. Iron Man 2: 26.6 mil / -49% / 251 mil
3. Robin Hood: 18.7 mil / -48% / 66 mil
4. Letters to Juliet: 9.1 mil / -33% / 27 mil
5. Just Wright: 4.2 mil / -49% / 14.6 mil
6. MacGruber: 4.1 mil / NEW
7. Date Night: 2.8 mil / -26% / 91 mil
8. Nightmare on Elm St.: 2.3 mil / -51% / 60 mil
9. How to Train Dragon / 1.9 mil / -63% / 211 mil
10.: Kites: 1 mil / NEW
MacGruber - D+
In theaters. Rated R, 99 minutes. Trailer..jpg)
The latest Saturday Night Live sketch to be made into a movie is the recurring 1 minute MacGyver spoof, MacGruber. On SNL, the MacGruber sketches are almost always hilarious, with their laugh out loud scattalogical loopiness.Starring Will Forte and Kristen Wiig with Ryan Phillipe in support, the film delivers on its promise of no story or plot but is sorely lacking in the laughs that should make up for that. There are probably as many laughs in the film as there would be in 3 MacGruber sketches, and I've come to expect more from Forte, Wiig and their writing team. Click below for more on MG:
The film opens with MacGruber holed up in some sort of self-induced exile, after faking his own death following the murder of his wife at their wedding by Dieter von Cunth (Val Kilmer). Cunth has now obtained a nuclear bomb and the USA needs MacGruber to stop him. MacGruber reluctantly agrees and assembles a team to go after the bomb. After many trials, they succeed in stopping Cunth and Vicki and MacGruber get married.
I feel like this could've been funny if the writers had explored MacGruber's backstory or taken another angle that allowed the character to do more talking. The best parts of the film are his weird interactions with normal people, especially talking about his past. The writing is lazy and relies too much on f-bombs and unfunny sex jokes to make it work. I went in expecting a dumb comedy with lots of laughs - this is just dumb.
I will admit that the miata, the 80's soundtrack and the fact that he always removes his Blaupunkt car stereo every time he gets out of his car are all funny.
Song of the Day - She Wears a Smile - Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights
These guys are the new biggest deal in town in Dallas. I suggest listening to She Wears a Smile and Pardon Me.
Continue reading this postSaturday, May 22, 2010
Song of the Day - When You Were Young, The Killers
A modern classic from what's probably the best band of the 00's. Great video too.
Continue reading this postThursday, May 20, 2010
Summer Catch - F
On DVD (2001). Rated PG-13, 108 minutes. Trailer.
A bout of insomnia led me to a movie I hated, but couldn't turn away from. Summer Catch tells the story of a pitcher/lawnmower (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) as he tries to make it on his hometown minor league team (he does!). Along the way he falls for a rich girl (Jessica Biel) whose dad doesn't want her to date a gardener but (spoiler alert!!) love overcomes and they end up together. Throw in Matthew Lillard as a horrifying re-tread of Tim Robbins' Wild Thing, Beverly D'Angelo's sad re-tread of Susan Sarandon and Brian Dennehey as the salty manager with a heart, and you have a movie that earns every bit of the F I gave it. The climactic scene (after a no-hitter by Prinze) at the airport is one of the funniest things I've watched this year.
Song of the Day - Feelin' Satisfied
By Boston
Off their lesser known second album, this one has the great harmonies, the overproduced guitar, and the ridiculous lyrics that rival their best stuff.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Song of the Day - Peace Frog
By The Doors
I've listened to many of their songs many times, but this one is the only one I can never turn off. Especially love the band coming in together at around the 2 minute mark.
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