Yeah, he chews with existential angst... but he's on about five minutes total.

I've heard both good and bad things about Tree of Life. I will probably end up seeing it.

I saw Captain America. It was good.

sold.

Having said in previous post, I didn't hate him in The Thin Red Line (also Malick)

Ditto to both. Probably my favorite comic book movie yet.

i'd rank it somewhere in the middle of the pack, just below iron man. i'm trying to decide if i liked it more than thor though.

i thought there was a solid emphasis on story (origin, backstory, etc.) and while there was clearly some CGI, it seemed much less excessive than such CGI jerk-off sessions as green lantern, etc.

that's probably why i liked it. plus the british chick was hot, especially in that bar scene with the red dress.

I was kinda like Shiv on Capt. America.

It was good, but I felt the middle was kinda meh. One of the biggest detractors to this film is that they had to tie it into every other Marvel film having to do with the Avengers, and also since it was the last film before the big crossover film, it had a lot of ground to cover. That's in addition to the already big origin story it had to get across.

That said, I think the screenwriters did an adequate job of fitting all of it within a 2 hour constraint, even if it did gloss over some details that only a comic fan would get crotchety about.

i also wish they'd sorta wrapped up whatever happened to the chick. i'm assuming she's old/dead.

The thing is, you have to leave some morsels for the inevitable sequel. There's enough wiggle room in the movie that you can either go back or stay present. The other thing that I wish that was explained a big more was the cube.

*spoilers below*



Also, I thought how they dealt with Bucky Barnes' character was abysmal. His best friend dies, and they kinda touch on it, and then *boom* its done. Same with the squad. Seems like they went to the trouble (like Bucky) to fit them into the movie, only to let them kinda fall away. Leads me to believe they want to flesh it out in a sequel.

i'm wondering if he'll be the winter soldier?

Oh man, that would be amazing and I just read that Joe Johnston would be "very interested" in doing a Winter Soldier film.

Finally got to see this thanks to Netflix instant. Being a SY fan, its been a long-forgotten foray into scoring a film. Unfortunately, the film died on impact and the score wasn't released until a bunch of years later when DGC deemed it fit to be pressed onto cd. It was always an anomaly of a record--mostly taking bits and pieces from EVOL and Bad Moon Rising. I always wondered how the music would play transposed against a 1987 road film with Chris Penn. Its not a great film, and probably 20% of the actual score is in the film--but its not horrible. Maybe I'm just a sucker for road movies.

Yeah he's totally gonna be the WInter Soldier. The actor said he's signed on for "5 or 6 pictures." Same as Chris Evans/Cap. I always thought the chick (Peggy Carter) is some kind of nod/relation to Sharon Carter, who becomes an agent of SHIELD.

Peggy is Sharon's aunt, who is supposedly that female SHIELD agent near the end of the movie.

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes was ok. Really bad fx, the opening shot looked like it was from a Final Fantasy game. I didn't like that it just ended either without explanation as to what happened after but I guess they're just gearing up for some sequels.

Fellini's style is rather unique, but I really find it engaging. Not much in the way of story here, just a sequence of segments linked by the town and it's characters.

Always have been fascinated by bees, and of course the recent downturn in populations and the implications on agriculture is interesting to me. This is really well done, focusing on a few beekeepers of various size as they try to stay afloat as both the mystery of deaths in the bee colonies happen, and then also in the economic landscape. I used to work with the Bee Queen they interviewed. Well, she was a part-time PA. I remember one time I inquired about beekeeping and where to start and she was really stand-offish. I thought that interesting for someone who was supposed to represent such a niche in an agricultural sense. But anyway, its well done. Music is great by Clogs.

I liked this quite a bit...not as much as Moon, but Duncan Jones has sold me...I'll be seeing anything he puts out. 4 stars



Pretty good Documentary about a family that is basically home schooled on surfing and living like hippies. Spoiler alert...the kids don't turn out to be very well adjusted. 3.5 stars

Surfwise was good, but really made me feel bad for the kids.

In The Loop. i finally got around to this on a flight earlier this week. really dry, but quite good. there were some great one-liners. i was a little suspect of steve coogan seemingly dropping in about midway through, but that whole wall subplot ended up being pretty funny.

Will check this out. I saw this one about couple of weeks ago: http://www.vanishingbees.com/




Saw Tree of Life Thursday night. RIYL: 2001: A Space Odyssey + Brad Pitt as a 50s father with one *mute son, a people pleasing son, a rebellious son and subservient wife with a dash of Lovely Bones existential whispering. Can't say I'd recommend it to anyone, because while it kept me thinking, it didn't grab me emotionally. I will say that it's both impressive and thought provoking.

*youngest son says nothing the entire movie

Penn was in the movie more like 20 - 30 min throughout, but didn't speak much. Lots of searching and pensive looks.

Rum Diaries trailer.

http://vimeo.com/20902369

Cry Baby: The Pedal That Rocks The World

The above link is the entire 1 hr. doc on the effects pedal.

I really enjoyed Midnight In Paris last night. Charming and fun. Owen Wilson was pretty damn good. A few giggles here and there, Dali and his rhinos. B+

Rum Diaries looks pretty good. If they play it straight like they appear to, and let you infer comedy from the characters' reactions to situations, it should be an enjoyable Z-grade Gatsby knockoff starring Depp as Thompson and early 60s Puerto Rico - and don't underestimate the media's decree that you will be enamored of all things fashionably early 60s!

Which brings me to The Help - The wife and I actually listened to the book on tape during an epic drive to Kansas City and back. While it was obviously written from a female perspective, and spent so much time in expository thoughts in the characters' heads, I thought it did an ok job of expressing those thoughts in a time period appropriate manner. While it is semi-cliched, the reactions to me are humorous: people I know either want to let you know how benevolent their family was towards their own "Help," long for a time when they could have"Help" and be benevolent to them, or have no perspective on the whole thing, yet decree that a white woman in the 90s can't write from the perspective of a black character in the 1960s.

The movie, naturally, glosses over most of the truly horrible aspects of life in MS in favor of showing that while some white people were awful, it was mostly because of peer pressure or fear, not an ingrained racism. It also goes the other way in terms of exposition of characters' internal machinations about the way things are, and you're left with what seemed to me some incongruous scenes that don't necessarily have the meaning they should. They also, in an attempt to bring levity to a terrible situation for mass audience consumption give in to baser slapstick readings of certain scenes.

I will freely admit that 24 year old Gar would mercilessly savage this movie, and mock those Oprah certified readers of the book. But dealing with a similar town, and a similar perspective, and knowing the nefarious peer pressure of the Junior League, I was bake to get some enjoyment out of this as a cultural phenomenon, if not necessarily as literature or film.