Netflix Update

Been a while since I pimped some rentals, so as I sit here, day after Thanksgiving, a bit hungover with nothing better to do, I figured I'd do just that.




Masked & Anonymous -- So this one has been on my mind a lot lately as I've been listening to his autobiography. Most critics have been pretty cruel to this one but I really got into it. Co-written by Dylan himself (though you get the feeling that a good majority may have been improvised), it really is like taking one of his songs and stretching it out into a 90 minute movie. It's a dis-jointed almost sci-fi plot, rambles a bit at times, jumps around with free-association, is filled with other-worldly characters, and well--like I said, just like one of his songs. I loved it's disregard for standard movie conventions (like another movie below). This movie has it's own agenda and couldn't be bothered concerning itself whether or not you're up for following along. Let the movie wash over you, enjoy the excellent live songs Dylan plays that are scattered throughout and the 5 star cast that you can tell is having a good time just letting loose. There's a lot going on and trying to be said in this movie. Though critics disregarded it, NYU and probably some other schools immediately started featuring this in their film classes--and for good reason. They just don't make movies like Masked & Anonymous at major studios with a cast like this. It is an oddity to be sure, but a rather enjoyable one.

Ali G Indahouse -- It's Friday night, you have your beverage of choice within reach, you've smoked a bowl or two, now press play. That's the ideal way to enjoy this movie anyway. Now of course it isn't as brilliant as the show is, but did you really expect it to be? It starts off amazing and slowly goes downhill from there--but there are moments of hilarity sprinkled from beginning to end. If it was as smart as Anchorman it would have thrown the plot out the window and just come up with random excuses to deliver the jokes, as the whole Ali G becomes member of parliament thing seems forced and lame from the moment you see it coming. But no matter, there's a lot of bug laughs in there to make this worth checking out.

Also, if you haven't seen it--check out Ali G's speech to this years graduating class at Harvard. Laughter will ensue.

Blueberry (Renegade) -- This one's the weaker of the bunch but I still recommend giving it a shot. I'm into Vincent Cassel's work lately. Birthday Girl, Irreversable, Read My Lips, all top notch stuff that I recommend checking out. Anyway, this is, to my knowledge, the first psychedelic western. Very strange existential revenge movie based on some obscure comic book with lots of peyote consumption going on and even a five minute freak-out at the end. There's some good performances by the eccentric cast, but what really hooked me was the photography. I'm not familiar with the French director who made this but some of the cinematography going on here is amazing. The ending is a bit of a let-down though. The big pay-off seems to be Juliette Lewis' bush. But as I said, this is an existential revenge movie--if you can deal with that concept then you may have a good time with this one. And I refuse to call this by it's US DVD title of Renegade. There's no Lorenxo Lamas involved and Blueberry is a very apt title to this bizare movie--as well as the name of the main character and the comic book. Who do they think they're fooling with Renegade? Ick.

Bubba Ho-Tep -- A classic in my book. I love The Chin, and he was born to play geriatric Elvis and I pray to whatever god decides which movies are green-lit that there is indeed a sequel to this movie as the end credits suggest. A lot of you are probably already hip to this one, it's been out for a while now--but if you're not, it's Elvis and JFK in a nursing home fighting off an evil soul-sucking Mummy. From this plot they manage to make a movie that is both flat out hilarious and oddly touching. Bruce Campbell proves he's got plenty of acting chops as he gives us an elderly Elvis who's pretty much lost his will to live until Ossie Davis' black JFK gives him purpose in saving their home. And Ossie, lordy... by the end of this he actually has you believing that JFK could be alive, black, and living in Texas. Highest honors go to this one.

Well, that's it for now. These aren't the best of movies ('cept Bubba), but they've stuck with me for some reason or another so I figured I'd give them the shout out. Feel free to bitch me out if you disagree.

Bob Dylan via Sean Penn

So Bob Dylan's autobiography came out. Well, the first volume anyway. Chronicles, it’s called… And as I was wasting time in Borders standing at the big cardboard display flipping through the book (no pictures!?) the guy at the counter felt the need to comment to me how good the book is. I was really in the middle of trying to do the math—figuring out which was cheaper—the book with the on-sale discount or the audio-book?… I asked him if he’d heard Sean Penn’s rendition. He said, no, I kind of like hearing Bob’s voice in my head while reading it. Ok, maybe there’s a point to be had there. I’m assuming he meant Bob’s voice 40 years ago. But I chose Sean Penn’s voice instead. And therefore also choosing to be read to rather than actually reading it.

The first audio book, and the only other audio book I’ve purchased was Robert Evans’ The Kid Stays in the Picture. And I’ll go out on a limb here and say that those 6 cds are probably going to be the best rendering of a book put to cd ever. The guy’s voice is like the purr of chain-smoking gin soaked panther on ludes. I loved every minute of it. I know, there have been many jokes on the subject on Patton Oswalt’s cd and Mr. Show, all very funny jokes – but these jokes all stem from the fact that the audio book is priceless.

Well, the Chronicles audiobook is of course a different beast. And I just wanted to chime in and say Sean Penn does a kick-ass job. Loses himself in the part as he always does. Kind of kidding there, but really—by the second disc you pretty much start to think that Bob is telling you his story of getting by in the East Village visiting Woody Guthrie in the hospital and eating free french fries backstage at the Gaslight with Tiny Tim. Yes, it is a good listen – and while it doesn’t serve as quite the reference material a Bob Dylan autobiography on page does, it’s a really enjoyable way to go. There are a lot of references to the people who inspired him in those first few years in New York that you’ll sometimes want to go back to, but what’s good about this one, which wasn’t present on the Bob Evans audio book, is that there are track breaks on each cd, so it’s easier to go back and revisit bits.

I’m sure it’s an even better read – but I’ve got three other books that I haven’t even touched yet, so I choose Sean Penn to serenade me for 6 hours. Either way, you won’t loose.

Sundance Channel's Midnight Snack

If you don't get the Sundance Channel you should. I've been torn between the Independant Film Channel and Sundance Channel for a good while. And I have to say, today, I prefer the Sundance Channel. IFC gets some great movies, and some good original series -- Dinner for Five is hands down my favorite interview show on TV. Well, "celebrity" interview show. Charlie Rose still holds strong with his thang. But IFC also gets bogged down with having to rotate the same handful of movies every month which can get pretty boring. Now all this depends on which service you have, but it seems that now IFC is getting tossed in with a lot of packages and Sundance is costing extra. Consider it. I'm not completely sure about the packaging details but what I am sure of is Sundance has been kicking some programing ass recently.

I started noticing this in October when I became a big fan of The Al Franken Show in the morning repeats before work. Well, that show is no longer with us, but what we still have is Midnight Snack. This is a prime slice of, for a lack of a better word, "cult" movie greatness. Every Friday night at midnight, the great Bob Odenkirk hosts a showing of new, old, classic, soon-to-be-classic, midnighty type movies -- in his bath robe.

They also have cool Monday documentary specials, and Saturday night music related features (where they recently featured the mesmerizing behind the music style movie DIG! -- that They Might Be Giants doc is up next). I'm writing this now because I just realized Bob is hosting the final in Takeshi Miike's what the hell oh my god are you kidding me this is fucking kick ass trilogy -- Dead or Alive: Final this Friday. Look here for my slobbery kisses to Mr. Miike. And be sure to check the link on the Midnight Snack page for a cool Miike interview. This trilogy is huge fun and the Final(e) is Miike at his most famboyant what-the-fuck best. And to me the combination of Bob Odenkirk and Takeshi Miike, well, a channel can't program a block of tv any more Sean-specific than this. Watch it, you won't be bored.

Speak to the Blender (cuz common sense ain't listening) / Sin City

[So check out the updated linkange for some new ways to browse away your day.] This is one of the stranger inventions I've heard of lately. It's called Blendie. And it's a voice activated blender. You want a high speed mix, well then make a high speed mixing blender noise. Want a gentle mixing action, make a low gentle grumble. But really, no matter the effectivness, or need for this device -- the video is pretty fucking awesome. Click the pic to watch the hot girl-on-blender action.



Also, this is a movie that I'd somehow forgotten about until the other day when I saw this poster.



I like it, as far as posters go. But what really gets my geek blood a-pumpin' is the video that they showed at the Sand Diego Comic Convention a while back where he took some of the footage he'd shot and inserted stills from the books for everyone to see the attention to detail that's going on here. It used to be over at themoviebox.net but it seems some people got upset about everyone and their little brother downloading the thing or something so now if you haven't seen this already get it HERE. Seriously, this is some pretty cool shit -- albeit unfinished and incomplete and all that (and even though I still think Josh Hartnett's about as interesting to watch as a ham sandwich) -- but it's taking comic book translation into a whole new realm. And the fact that Frank Miller, the guy who created the books, is co-directing along with Rodriguez and Tarantino [who directed one scene for the price of one dollar] is a welcome sign. Rodriguez gave up his guild card to be able to make this movie with the way he saw fit and it looks to me like the result is going to be worth these unusual efforts.

The Curse of the Jaded Scorpio

So in one week I turned 28, the Red Sox won the World Series, came down with a bitch-ass cold from hell that lasted 9 days, got an ipod, and watched a bunch of bible-thumping rednecks fuck up our country for at least another 4 years. See, it's the karmic teeter-totter, with every good stroke comes the backhanded bitch slap. C'est la vie. And I really think that I've become so used to the daily slog through the river of shit that is the daily news I automatically put on the knee-high rubbers every morning. So when I woke up to get the confirmation that GW was indeed elected (this time for reals), it was like, bummer dude, oh well, it figures, don't it...

Sure I was upset, disappointed, or whatever you call it. But I swear I couldn't even work up a real simmer of a rage like I did 4 years ago. Nope, it felt like I was like I was out of stock on frustration. The lady I work with who's kid is over in Iraq, fuck, she was [is] super-pissed, but I just nodded in agreement and went back to reading about the R Kelly / Jay-Z feud. Other friends seemed like they were sincerely hurt and depressed by the turnout, but myself--I get angrier from 30 seconds of watching Fox News than the actual fact that Bush is going to be around 4 more years. I think I've become far too jaded. [I couldn't even get that excited about the Red Sox win -- I was happy, some clapping was involved, but I know that last year or the year before I would have been running full-speed in circles crapping my pants and screaming halle-fucking-lujah -- all at the same time.]

There are a couple of other theories I have about this. Maybe I'm happy that there'll be four more years of good comedy material. Or, maybe we'll be able to watch him dig himself into a situation where he'll be publicly humiliated, impeached, indicted, and/or forced to resign. I mean, with all that's happen in the past 4 years, it really isn't much of a stretch. Both those ideas are pretty sad also. I mean, let's watch him drive the country into the ground like a cigarette butt under his cowboy boot--but hey, at least we'll have a good laugh at our own expense! Or, maybe this will all hit me later on down the line. Either way, right now Nov 2nd and 3rd just seem like two more normal bad days. Sad...?

Lisa Simpson: We're the Mtv generation, we feel neither highs nor lows.
Homer: Really, what's it like?
Lisa: (shrugs) Meh...