Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Regarding that final shot: No, the damn thing didn’t tip over after the camera clicked off, it kept spinning forever. How could it not? Weren’t you paying a lick of attention?
I was not very excited about this thing at all. The Philip K. Dick “what is reality?” meme is overrated, unhealthy and obsessive-compulsive. And I grow weary of Mister Puppy Face trying to act all big-n-bad. I don’t think it’s a good fit.
But the story was great. No, better than great; it was completely awesome. Not entirely original, but it was an original take on something that’s been done before in all the simpler ways. The designated-nerdy-guy got to engage in fisticuffs with nameless-faceless-cannon-fodder bad guys, just like the sexy action hero guys get to do all the time, and he got to do some cool, inventive, resourceful stuff. Really, there was a demanding role for everybody to play. Puppy-Face actually solved barely more problems than the ones he created. Kind of the opposite of a Nicholas Cage National Treasure installment.
Really, the only wimp in the story was the rich-pretty-white-boy. But that’s a constant.
I would go so far as to say, this may be where Hollywood is forced to admit smart individuals do work far superior to the product of any committee. Which they aren’t gonna like, but there ya go. This was Bruce Nolan’s brainchild from stem to stern, so I’m told. It certainly does show someone cared. And in the end, isn’t that what it takes to make a good film? Just a reasonable quantity of give-a-damn. This show has lots of give-a-damn.
Three and a half stars out of four, I’d say. Once a film reaches four, I have to go to Amazon and order it. I’m a little on the fence with this one on that. Maybe I’ll wait until it gets to $9.99 or something.
One complaint, and it’s a complaint I have about lots of other movies lately. In recent years, on my way out of the theater I’m noticing my initial review — even with the movies I happen to like — distills down into three words:
Sad to say, it fits here. Five, or six, or seven cutie-pie guys who look better than I do. Who needs this? And then there’s a cutie pixie chick running around with all her clothes on…nice face, but useless. And then the wife-or-whatever, who is also aesthetically pleasing in the face, slightly closer to me in age, but is also keeping all her clothes on.
People in the movies, should be showing at least more skin than the people waiting in line with me. Isn’t that reasonable? Have you seen some of those body parts? Yeesh. Oh yeah, and just to clarify I’m referring to the chicks. We don’t need more shirtless guys in the movies. I have more than a passing thought that the awful New Moon saga is what’s caused the problem.
Total Recall had that mutant lady with the three boobies, remember that? Whatever happened to boobage?
We were choosing between this one, and something called “Takers“. I cast the final vote, because Takers seemed to have just more of what I was complaining about. I did some research and found out it was just Lieutenant Uhura surrounded by more cutie-pie guys who are better looking than I am. So we went to watch Puppy Face. The final situation was the same, Need More Boobage, but at least the story was good and strong, and we got some enjoyment out of that.
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I enjoyed “Inception.” I thought it was a great film – original, well-written and acted. A co-worker referred to it as a “mind fuck,” and I could not disagree. My favorite part was where they got to Level three and are shooting it out near the mountain fortress, against the winterized special-forces troops.
It’s funny that you mention “Total Recall,” Morgan, because that was another movie in which I had some trouble distinguishing what was “real” and what was not, within the context of the story, of course. Was Ah-nold’s character dreaming and sitting in a chair back in the lab, or was he really a secret agent on Mars? Was Leo’s character really able to drill down through all these levels of dreams, or was the “reality” itself a dream?
It’s funny that you refer to the female lead (not the wife, the petite chick). Another reviewer I read simply complained that the girl simply cannot act. Granted, that reviewer was female…
- cylarz | 09/13/2010 @ 00:12Well, that’s just nuts. As an actress, she was all right. At least as capable as the dudes.
I have noticed something about female characters though: There’s some bit of research out there that says audiences aren’t thrilled about watching a dude figure stuff out. In other words, if there’s some trail of clues that has to be followed so that it can finally be revealed why a videotape kills the people who watch it after seven days, you need to have a nice-looking lady following that trail of clues. It’s interesting because it doesn’t pertain to everything. Indiana Jones should figure out what the crystal skull is all about, and Nicholas Cage has to figure out you need to wear special-colored glasses to read the back of the Declaration of Independence…
It seems if the puzzle has something to do with somebody’s tortured emotions, the amateur psychologist needs to be a babe. And so it has become a rather pre-fabbed and tropish plotline that the pixie chick figures out someone is hurting because of some awful decision they made…don’t want to give away too much of the plot here. But there was something like that and the pixie chick got kinda shoe-horned into it in the space of twenty minutes, which felt rushed. Well, it felt that way because it was.
- mkfreeberg | 09/13/2010 @ 07:00