TV And Films

The shows and movies I like (or don’t).

Renee…yum…

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Not much big going on today — other than that I was the only person in my close circle of friends who went to work today. Loren just got back from his job working on an oil rig for one of the slope companies, and Rick, Erika, and Miranda were all here at home sick. Bleah. I dunno who got the better end of the deal…probably me, though.

It was, however, something of a Renee Zellweger day for me — picked up two movies with her in it. Not really setting out to do that, just that they both got released today.

First off is Empire Records, a wonderfully silly little story of a bunch of kids working in a record store. Mark and Lucas are hilarious, the eye candy is nice, the script is fun, and a lot of the music is great. Unfortunately, the soundtrack for the film only featured music by today’s “hot” bands, so all the really good music is only in the movie…but at least it’s there.

The other I picked up is one that I consider to be one of the best, if not the single best movie to come out in 2000 — Nurse Betty. While it’s definitely a (very) black comedy, it’s one of the few I’ve found that manages to be a black comedy while still retaining a real heart of gold at the center and doesn’t just descend into full-out nihilistic cynicism — which a lot of black comedies do, much as I enjoy them. When I saw this film in the theater, I literally walked out of the film with a huge grin on my face — not because of the dark humor in the film (though I did enjoy that), but by the wonderful (and, dare I say it, sweet) ending that wrapped it all up. I really think it’s an absolute treasure of a film, and am all sorts of happy to have it.

In case you haven’t seen it, Nurse Betty is the story of Betty, a sweet and incredibly naive housewife (Renee Zellweger) who quite literally mentally breaks down when she witnesses the murder of her husband by a couple of con men (Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock). She retreats into a world where she is in love with the character of a doctor on “A Reason to Love,” the soap opera she watches daily, and sets off to drive to Hollywood to meet her long-lost lover. Now, read that last sentence carefully — she’s not in love with the actor who plays the doctor (Greg Kinnear) — she’s in love with the doctor himself. Meanwhile, chasing her on her road trip are the two con men, who want something her husband had put in the trunk of the car she’s driving. There’s a lot more to the film than that simple summary can do justice to, and the cast plays it to perfection — there is a scene where Betty comes back to her senses and realizes what has been happenig which is just heartrending, to the point where it’s almost painful to watch as the real world comes crashing back in to her. However, with all that, as I said, I walked out of the theater with a huge grin on my face, marvelling at the work I’d just watched. Well worth finding, in my opinion.

So, that’s it for today….

Neil Gaiman’s ‘Goliath’

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I just wanted to throw this link up really quickly before I crash for the night.

If you enjoyed the movie The Matrix at all, you really should check out the official website. Rather than just using it to promote the movie and its upcoming sequels, they’ve got a whole section of the site devoted to exploring the universe of the Matrix, primarily through online comics, with a few short stories.

There’s a lot of really neat stories in there — while not dealing directly with Neo or the other characters from the movie, all the authors have been given free reign to explore the possible storylines of this fictional universe.

The one I’d like to point out, however, is ‘Goliath’, by Neil Gaiman. Neil Gaiman has in recent years become one of my favorite modern authors — as well as the Sandman comic books (which are just incredible, by the way), he’s written some fiction, both on his own and with other authors (the book Good Omens was written with Terry Pratchett, and is just hilarious). With ‘Goliath’, he contributes his own take on the Matrix with a short story that I find to be one of the best contributions on the Matrix site.

In any case, if you’re at all into The Matrix, Neil Gaiman, or just really well-written short fiction, I highly suggest you take a few minutes and give it a read.

Okay, so I’m a junkie

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Hi. My name is Woody, and I’m a DVD-aholic.

Hi, Woody!

Yeah, so…I went through and compared my actual DVD collection with the database program that keeps track of them all and provides the DVD listing that I have here on my website. Turns out I had a few of my roomie’s listed in there that I needed to delete…but I also had a few of my own that I hadn’t put in there. End result?

I passed the 300 mark a week or two ago, it seems….I now have a total of 308 DVD’s.

Boy, am I glad I’ve got a decent paying job!

Bueller’s giant rabbit gladiator

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Three additions to the collection today, as it was a pretty decent paycheck from Suncoast this week. Here’s what we’ve got….

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: probably the quintessential skipping school film. There really is no excuse for not having seen this one — so if you haven’t go find it. So there. Bleah. Bueller? Bueller? Bueller…?

Harvey: I’d actually never seen this one until last year when my friend Marc introduced it to me. Probably one of the single sweetest films I’ve ever seen, this story of a good-natured man and his best friend — a six-foot tall invisible rabbit — is a true classic, and one of Jimmy Stewart’s best performances. Wonderful, wonderful stuff.

And finally, the last for the day, one I actually haven’t seen yet, but am looking forward to finally watching: Ben-Hur. One of the most famous and truly epic films ever made, and a cornerstone of Charleton Heston’s career, this film actually had the all time record for Academy Awards (11) up until some little film about a sinking boat came along a couple years ago. The only trick with this one is going to be finding some time when I can set aside three hours to watch the full thing in one sitting…when in my life do I have that much uninterrupted time? Ah, well, I’ll find it.

It is way too early

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On the one hand, I really hate the fact that my alarm is going off at 6 am every day so I can get myself moving in time to be at work at 8 am this week for training on the new job. On the other hand…hey, I’m doing it! Making it to work on time every day, and putting in a full 8 hours each day…would probably blow the doors off some of the people back at TimeFrame, where I was so burnt out on the place that I was averaging closer to 30 hours a week rather than the 40 I should have been.

Amazing the differences that can appear when you’ve got a job that you actually enjoy, huh?

And, as a major benefit — between the pay raise and getting my full 40 hours a week, I figure I should start taking home about an extra $600 a month or so!

Picked up what looks to be a fascinating little book yesterday — The Celluloid Closet, by Vito Russo. It’s an examination of the portrayal of homosexuality in movies throughout the history of Hollywood — looks to be fascinating stuff. I had seen the documentary that had been based on this work (the movie is also called The Celluloid Closet), and thought it was a hilarious and fascinating film, so finding the original literary work — on sale for a whopping $2.99, no less — was a nice little treat yesterday. Should be quite the interesting read.

In any case, it’s about time for me to be heading off into the wide wierd world….

Gimme some sugar, baby!

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My single DVD purchase for the day — The Evil Dead II! I was all sorts of happy to find this one, as 1) it completes my Evil Dead trilogy (consisting of The Evil Dead, The Evil Dead II, and Army of Darkness) and 2) this collectors-edition disc is out of print. We had run out at Suncoast where I work, so I had to get it from our competitors in the 5th Avenue Mall…but hey, at least I got it!

Free DVDs

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Well, free if you don’t factor in the months I’ve put in working at Suncoast. ;) Every year during the holiday season the Suncoast company has a sales competition for its member stores, and this year our store won — from what I’m told, not a rare thing. Each store employee got a prize from this, and mine was a $50 gift certificate. Rock on…here’s what that got me….

Bring It On: I’m taking a chance here, as I’ve not yet seen this one. However, I’ve heard a lot of good things about it from just about everyone I know who’s seen it, including my dad, so considering it was free, I don’t think I can go too far wrong. Besides, it’s got Kirsten Dunst, who is one of my favorite young actresses out there right now, so at least the eye candy will be good, right?

El Mariachi/Desperado: Though many people don’t know it, the Antonio Banderas action flick Desperado was actually a sequel to Robert Rodriguez‘ debut film El Mariachi, and this DVD has both films together, one on each side of the disc. Good action, fun storylines, and eye candy for both the men and women…hey, why not?

So that’s it for now. This being rent week at my apartment and a slow week for movie releases, I should actually make it through this Tuesday without adding to the collection. Wow…miracles never cease, huh?

Snoogans

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My single DVD purchase for the day — Clerks: Uncensored!

Back a while ago, Kevin Smith and company were creating an animated show based on the characters from his film Clerks. Six episodes were made, but only two were ever broadcast (neither of which I ever saw). This 2-disc edition contains all 6 episodes, uncut (some footage would never have seen the light of day due to network concerns), complete with commentary and animatics for every episode! I’m really looking forward to finally being able to watch these shows.

Completing the set

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Got a good-sized paycheck at Suncoast today, so decided to finally finish my James Bond collection by adding The James Bond 007 Collection, Vol. III to my movies. I’d held off on buying this one for a while, as there had been a lot of reported problems with some of the movies in the set, but as I’d just read word on the ‘net that the movies are going on moratorium (not being sold) as of early March, I figured I’d better finish the series while I could. So, I’ve now got a collection of all 19 official Bond movies to feed my testosterone fix when I need it…woohoo!

But will I remember it?

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Just found out about a movie that I’m now really looking forward to seeing when it comes out — March 16th is the release date for the U.S., but who knows when it will actually show up here in Alaska. Anyway, it’s a flick called Memento, and sounds just fascinating. Rather than butcher the description by doing it myself, I’ll just give you the brief summary from Coming Attractions‘ page about the movie:

After suffering trauma, a man named Leonard now has a rare form of amnesia, preventing him from remembering anything in his short term memory. He forgets the start of the conversation he’ll have with you, or where he was going, or whom he’s spoken with. To jolt his memory, Leonard writes down fragments of his life on scraps of paper, so when he reads them again he’ll remember. He even goes as far as to write the important things he needs to remember on his body. When Leonard awoke this morning he read his chest: John G Raped And Murdered My Wife. Now Leonard knows what he was doing yesterday. But when your mind forgets who you can trust and who is your enemy, how can you ever hope to solve a mystery?

For more information, and an absolute slew of not just good, but outstanding reviews, check out this page, or if you’ve got the bandwidth to handle it, check out the trailer.