The Assasination of Jessie James
MoviesHallo again, adoring public!
The Assasination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford i rate as Awesome! This is the first movie i have rated that gains this prestigious award.
If you enjoy westerns, history, or just plain ol good acting, well, this movie is a treat. It is a spectacular example of historical drama, and should be recognized as such. While in general, westerns are action films, this is more of a thinking man's drama, wherein the actors have a chance to shine.
Brad Pitt plays Jessie James, the infamous outlaw, who is a troubled man. Plagued with strange humors, doubts, and depressions, his reputation also follows him, not allowing him to have any friends and isolating him from the world. Casey Afflek plays Robert Ford, a dark and brooding young man, with a fragile mind and little self confidence to speak of. Robert Ford has, since an early age, identified with Jessie, idolizing him, trying to become him. Casey Afflek brings to mind the assassins who believed that they were the person that they had murdered. The movie is based of historical events and makes you believe you were a part of that time, as if this were a documentary.
The movie starts with the last train robbery of the James Gang and the introduction of Robert Ford. It chronicles the lives of Jessie and Robert, following their path's as they weave together and apart until their reintroduction and last ride. It keeps you enthralled throughout, due to the excellent characters and character development, and the extremely talented authors who play the characters. I have rarely seen such spectacular, realistic and human characters, nor as capturing a story.
All in all, a must see.
Last words:
Engage.
Tommy
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Vanilla Sky
MoviesWell now, work and play as it is, i've been too harried to put up a post, but here comes another!
Vanilla sky is a Tom Cruise movie of a genre near and dear to my heart: Weird thinky movie. I rate this movie Good/ Great.
In this movie, like with others of its kind, not is all as it seems. Tom Cruise is a millionare/ billionare playboy, running the magazine "Bikini" between hitting on women, sleeping til late in the day and doing whatever pops into his head to do that day.
Penelope Cruz, Jason Lee, and Cameron Diaz are main characters in this film, who are, as follows: Sofia, the love interest of Tom Cruise and Jason Lee; Brian Shelby, the best friend of Tom Cruise, and a long suffering friend he is, as David Aames (Tom Cruise) consistantly steals away any woman he is interested in; Julie Gianni, an extremely troubled girl who, to David, is a (in far cruder words) "bed friend", and in her mind, is a devout lover, and someone who should marry him.
Other famous actors play large and small parts in the film, populating the screen with well known faces, and lending their expertise and skill to the rendering of a spectacular film.
All is going well in David Aames' world, till Julie Gianni decides that if she cannot have him, nobody can, and coerces him into her car which she then proceeds to drive off a bridge into a stone retaining wall.
Julie is killed, and David is maimed, scarred, and disfigured, which causes him a great deal of pain due to his vanity. He is offered a "facial prosthetic" by his plastic surgeons, which is a plastic/elastic/rubber copy of his face before the "accident". David, furious, demands that they fix his face by inventing surgeries, but will keep the prosthetic for halloween.
The story is told to us by a Tom Cruise who is masked and in a prison jumpsuit, talking to a court appointed psychaitrist. David Aames is accused of murdering Sofia Serrano, but he denies it strenuously, claiming that she is still alive, and that the board of directors at his magazine have set him up. The story is the story of his memories, told almost episodically, as the psychaiatrist probes for information, trying to get all the facts, and to see what, if anything, David has blocked from his memory.
The story only gets weirder, more exciting, and just darn fun from here on, but as this is a "wierd thinky movie" any more explanation would be plain ol spoilers, so go watch it!
I leave you with a thought: Who was the true enemy, the MAIN enemy in Final Fantasy VII? Sephiroth, or Jenova?
For those of you unfamiliar with FFVII, a quote: "I killed a man with a TRIDENT!"
Tommy
Quantum Leap
T.V.Well, im back!
Took me awhile, you say? Well, you start watching Quantum Leap, see where your time goes!
This show, i rate as Great. It is a bit cheesy, but that is a large part of its appeal.
"Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the quantum leap accelerator, and vanished. He awoke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own, and dirven by an unknown force to change history for the better. his only guide on this journey is al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only sam can see and hear. and so dr beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home"
Puts it pretty succinctly eh? Not only is that an accurate discription, but i quoted that from memory! Hah! i Rule. Anyway, my awesomeness aside, this show was one of my family's favorites, one that we all sat down to watch. So, not only is this show interesting, it brings back good memories, memories of a type that im sure many other familes share, being that it is a family show. All of the "adult material" is glossed over by Sam (Scott Bakula), who is very puritanical. He is often tempted, but generally he resists, unlike his friend and partner, Al (Dean Stockwell), who is very... uninhibited. If rated in these days, it would probably be pg 13, due to sexual innuendo and violence.
Sam Beckett is a brilliant scientist who decided to create a time machine, and actually accomplished it, but as his funding was about to be cut, he entered his machine prematurely, and got trapped in a loop, stuck in the past, without a means to return home. He believes god is directing his leaps, and only to help individuals, never large scenarios like wars. A funny thing about every few episodes, is that he invents, or plants an idea, that is a current commonplace action, song, invention, etc. For example, Sam performed the Heimlich manuver upon Dr. Heimlich, who proceeded to give him an odd, thoughtful look. Another amusing facet of the show is that they touch on controversial issues, but are unoffensive about it. If an issue is hot, current, controversial, political, what have you, they present both sides and leave it unresolved.
To sum it up, this is a show for the ages, it captures the feelings and essence of the 50s through the 90s, and its a hopeful show, a gentle show, a show of possibility, and it wouldnt hurt anyone if they started playing re-runs on tv so younger generations could watch it as well. *HINT HINT*
well, thats all for tonight, and i leave you with my customary random quote that if you guess you win 50 dollars*
hiyo silver, away!
Tommy
*disclaimer: you win 50 monopoly dollars*
*disclaimer disclaimer: just kidding, i lied, you dont win anything, except for peace of mind, but not a piece of MY mind, but of your own
Lets go Indie!
MoviesSo, Indie movies.
Dont know what it means? Independant movies, books, music, culture, etc is classified "Indie". What we are talking about here is the movie portion.
The film is "The Signal". Now, as it is late, and sleep is more of a random act for me, i am going to be brief...ish.
The Signal is a spectacular movie, rated at great. This movie is more of a trilogy of short films that just so happen to be incredibly cohesive then it is one film, but in no way does it detract from it. In fact, if this is the result, every movie should have three directors with differing viewpoints.
"Movie one" is a horror film, akin to the movie pulse, or the book cell, or any other supernatural/technophobe medium. Wherin a "signal" -hey, i just got the name! jk- is sent out over technological lines, in this case, telephones, tvs, and radios, the trifecta. This signal creates in the mind of the...user?...imbiber?...viewer? a sort of very very bad acid trip mixed with a stimulation of baser impulses, in this case, murder. The murderers arent zombies, they arent under the control of a demon force/computer/nebulous aliens from planet kjarkifel, they believe that what they are doing is right, justified, or they are performing acts that they have no knowledge of due to their existence in a mental fairy tale.
"Movie two" is a dark, dry comedic horror. To put it simply, its funny. If you enjoy monty python, you'd probably enjoy this.
"Movie three" is (as the directors put it) the soul of the film. Its where you go for the moral, for the triumph, for the defeat, for the connecting of like souls, the comraderie of battle, pick or choose, i wont tell which it is, because my last words on this film is...
Go out and rent it. It may be Indie, and indie is a stigma for some people, but i tell you that it is nothing but a predjudice, aka a blind aversion. Dont believe "the man", watch an indie movie today, odds are, it'll be worth it. I am not sure of the number of indie movies i have seen, though i know mass media far outweighs it, but of the movies i am sure are indies that i have seen, i can say this: they are better then mass media, and often contain the same actors.
Last words from Spike Speigel:
Bang, Bang
Tommy
TEEVEE!
T.V.The first "review" I would like to make involves Cowboy Beebop.
I give Cowboy Beebop, an anime that occasionally plays on Adult Swim, twelve thumbs up. Lol, but honestly, it is a spectacular show. It chronicles a relatively short time in the lives of 4 bounty hunters, or "cowboys" as they're called in the show, and one super-smart welsh corgi. The show starts off with only Jet, the owner of the starship "Beebop" and official, unofficial, leader of the group, and Spike, who owns a ship as well, which docks in the Beebop, named the Swordfish II.
Later on, the two semi-successful bounty hunters pick up a welsh corgi named Ein, who is called a "data-dog" and is intelligent, and often the source of a quick chuckle, as nobody on the Beebop ever quite seem to notice the almost human aspects of the dog. He plays almost a similar role as the famous, infamous, "black cat" in the anime Trigun (and no, this isnt a blog about anime, it just so happens, that i find several to be quite worth my time).
The two males of the group also pick up Faye Valentine, a compulsive gambler and occasional bounty hunter, who has a case of amnesia, seemingly from her cryogenic freezing, and "Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV", the adopted name of a young girl who happens to be one of the best hackers on planet earth. Edward's hacking alias is "Radical Edward" but her real name is Françoise Appledelhi. Ed is the main source of information the the quazy quartet, due to her hacking skills, though focus is not her strong point. Ein is her best friend on the Beebop, and the feeling is returned by the little dog.
Cowboy Beebop is based in our solar system in the year 2071 AD, though if we are to have all those planets and moons terraformed and occupied by then, we had better get a move on ^_^. Most travel between celestial bodies is done by travelling through hyperspace via the Astral Gates.
The Astral Gates are inherently flawed, and were the cause of the cracking of the moon, a tragedy that led most people to flee earth, and the rest to burrow underground. They're also tollways, to add insult to injury, lol.
The episodes are called "sessions" in reference to the jazz theme that weaves its way through the series. I personally feel that the score for the series, in the form of jazz sessions, makes the series feel more connected, more real, because although I'm not a rabid jazz fan, there is a great deal of feeling set deep into jazz, as well as into the show.
Hmm, looking up at what i've written so far, it seems that i could go on and on and on and (someone stop me here!) on, so i think i'll cut this review short and just say, emphatically: "WATCH IT!"
I can guarantee a good time and a quality show, though i wont stake my reputation (what reputation you ask? :-P) on ALL of the episodes, every show has at least one or two eppys that dont blow your mind, though none come to mind when thinking of this show.
Tommy Lightyear to the rescue!
p.s. moved from "howdy"
Just Talkin
Rambles of a WyrdoWell, I seem to have neglected the blog for a little while, mostly because i havent seen any new movies lately. I decided that instead, i'd just ramble a little.
About me, my favorite movies tend towards action, dystopian, comedy, and artsy. My fav books range from non-fiction history, to classics (very few of those under my belt), dystopian (who'd have guessed), and most of all, Sci-Fi/ Fantasy.
The... i dont know what to call it, say, "slashination" of sci-fi and fantasy sorta irks me, because they are both well defined (unless they're not) genres that have their own celebrity authors and themes. I believe the reason for the "slashination" was because fantasy was a big genre back in the day, while sci-fi was the pursuit of scientists and psudo-scientists alone, just people who wanted to dream of what was to come, and therefore, wasnt easily comprehended by the general masses. Heck, i've read a couple tomes of short sci-fi stories, and they do get a little dense from time to time, so i can understand the lack of interest initially. I may be wrong about this story as well, but its late and i dont feel like fact-checking.
When it comes to video games (which i plan to review, but havent gotten around to it yet) my tastes are more eclectic. I like action, shooter, RPG, MMORPG, puzzle, dungeon crawlers, any combination of the above, and more. I used to be a hard-core everquestian, in the way that i played it for years straight, not in the fact that i was an endgamer, i never got above lvl 35. When playing a video game, i play it on easy, and i have the guide with me, because i play for fun and for storyline. I care nothing for the "challange", as well as caring nothing for online play with anything other than MMO. If i wanted to be beaten up and humiliated by a complete stranger, i'd pick a fight in a bar, because at least i have the chance to do some damage back, if even minimal. Even playing MMO's, i play solo most of the time, because its storyline, escapism, and requires minimal involvement from me. Odd, isnt it? Playing a "Massively Multiplayer" game, and wanting to be alone? Ah, but it gives me an option to collaberate whenever i feel, without being oppressive, required, or without making my brother come over to co-op something with me.
When it comes to the "non-fiction" part of my life, im an odd duck in that area as well. Approximately 95% of my shirts come from hot topic, because if a shirt makes me laugh, i have to have it. Otherwise my attire consists of blue jeans, in various stages of decay, from new all the way down to "dang, a rip in the seat? maybe i can sew it" (and i never do). My shoes of choice are sandals, preferably with no heel strap, and never flip-flops, or (for work and rainy days only) tennis shoes. My footwear stays with me until the soles come off, the same way my belt (only one) stays till it snaps from old age.
All songs get a chance to impress me, though i wont buy a cd based on the enjoyment i recieve from one song, same goes for a band, and i've been this way since before napster was banned. I dont claim that i picked and chose songs since before napster, because i dont know when it started, and i only heard about it a few months before it was shut down. The only music that gets a cold shoulder is modern country music, though i will grant them a few good songs, i only hear them when accidentally hitting the seek button on the radio. Mostly my tastes revolve around bands like disturbed, system of a down, a perfect circle, blues traveller (threw ya a curve, didnt i?), dave matthew's band, red hot chili peppers, etc. I could go on forever if i could remember any more bands. I have a horrible memory for artist names, actor names, band names, song names, heck, the only reason i know my family's names is through repitition over time.
I am a pagan, Norse Religion, Asatru, Elder Troth, whatever you wanna call it, imagine vikings and you're mostly there. I was raised Methodist, but nothing ever seemed to fit until i discovered the Elder Troth (truth). Some of my beliefs dont quite fit into said religion, i think, though i havent had much interaction (read: none) with others of the faith, so i could be wrong. I believe in magic, aliens, ghosts, and truth behind vampires and werewolves. Basically, i have an open mind, and even if you can prove something wrong, i'll still wait and see, because modern science is the same as ancient science: good guesses based on perceived evidence.
Chat chat chat, i think this has gone on long enough, but tune in next time when i find out that i have amnesia, an evil twin, and a long lost father who....dun dun duhnnnn... has amnesia!
Is that you John Wayne, is it me?
Tommy
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