Departed Reviews

Unfortunately, metacritic doesn't have reviews posted yet, but OscarWatch has many summaries and is monitoring the buzz of this and all Oscar bait movies.

I think this, the Prestige, Flag of Our Fathers, and Stranger Than Fiction are the season's must-see movies for me at this point.

Pete Travers Raves The Departed

Travers on the the Scorsese flick - note his words on Nicholson - here is the lead performance to beat, folks"

10 contenders for the best-picture Oscar

USA Today has a list of Oscar bait. Check it out.

USATODAY.com - 10 contenders for the best-picture Oscar:

"Flags of Our Fathers
Why it may be Oscar worthy: Clint Eastwood is directing. After Mystic River, which claimed top acting prizes, and Million Dollar Baby, which did that and won best picture, the academy takes Eastwood's work very seriously. This WWII drama about the Iwo Jima flag-raising soldiers doesn't have stars, but the one behind the camera makes this one to beat.
Early word: Highly anticipated, but little seen. No one saw Million Dollar Baby coming at this point, but they're on the watch for this one."

Wal-Mart Effect

This pissed me off. I guess it's technically completely in Wal-mart's rights to do this...but the press should be making a loud stink about it. Wal-mart will do anything to ensure they won't get undersold, won't they?
Movie & TV News @ IMDb.com - Studio Briefing:

"Wal-Mart may be single-handedly blocking the major studios from selling their movies on Apple's iTunes online store, the New York Post indicated today (Friday). 'We all want to be in the Apple business,' an unnamed executive at a major studio told the Post, noting that Apple's pricing -- $9.99 to $12.99 -- is lower than Wal-Mart's. According to the newspaper which cited other studio executives, Wal-Mart has sent 'cases and cases' of DVDs back to Disney, the only studio selling movies on the iTunes site, and has threatened to retaliate if other studios do business with Apple. 'They threatened to hurt us in terms of buying less [sic] products,' a source told the Post."

Key to American Idol's Success

Hey, I realized the other day that a big reason for American Idol's popularity probably has to do because it is a hip show...not just style and marketing-wize, but it's on the cutting edge of postmodern philosophy.

Postmoderns like information overload...an American Idol has tons of fastpaced cuts, edits, and segments.

Postmoderns like narratives...and Idol gives us personal profiles give you narratives for each contestant. Plus, the audience gets to play an important role in the developing narrative, "if your favorite was in the bottom three, you need to remember that you have to vote!"

Postmoderns claim to like objectivity, but are comfortable with subjectivity...and Idols is supposedly a talent contest, but style, story, and talent are all major factors. Judges' differing opinions prove how subjective everything is.

Finally, in today's world it's all about being true to yourself...and Taylor Hicks won because he was most clearly always true to himself.

Departed mini-review

Poland posted a few comments about the Departed. The most surprising is that he calls it the "funniest cop movie ever." I don't know if he's discounting comedic cop movies like Beverly Hills Cop and Lethal Weapons or not.

He also says it's very good. Tim, we're still on for this one, right! Erin, wanna come?

Will social justice become trendy?

This morning I read this on one of my favorite blogs. I certainly find it exciting and hope that it is a sign of a trend that will define 21st century Christianity and not just be something that is fad-ish like the social peach and justice movement the Christians of the 60s started that resulted in very little long-term change.

Vintage Faith: Will all the interest in social justice become trendy?: "[A southern California pastor] then went on to say how he now knows so many churches and ministries are awakened to the need of being aware and involved in what is happening with the poor, diseased and needy locally and globally. He said he nows feels awkward sharing about his ventures in this, as he now hears about them all the time from so many people. Saddleback and Willow Creek have both jumped in very strongly in being a global voice for AIDS and for the injustice that occurs in certain countries. I rarely ever go to a Christian concert - but the last two I went to both showed videos during their concert of one of the band members in Africa talking about helping with Compassion International and the Invisible Children. It seems every conference or event you go to the leaders now bring attention to some international compassion or social justice project they are supporting. This is all so wonderful and must please Jesus so incredibly much.

But...what an odd and interesting question to be thinking about - to actually be wondering if being involved in social justice and compassion projects sounds 'trendy' ?

What was haunting to me and what I have thought about since the conversation I had with my friend, is what if it is true?

Bono certainly caused us all to really evaluate the 'sleeping giant' (what he called the church several years ago) and how the church was ignoring the poverty, injustice and AIDS crisis. He recently said the church woke up and has now taken notice. But, will it last or will it be trendy?"

Edward Norton

I just saw Down In The Valley (came out in theaters a couple months ago) w/ Edward Norton and I couldn't believe that I forgot about this guy. No one's seen him since the 25th Hour in 2002. Sure he had a small part in the Italian Job and very small part (where you don't even see his face) in Kingdom Of Heaven but I don't think those films really even count. Down in the Valley is one of the best movies I've seen this year. It's about an urban cowboy named Harlan (Norton) who falls in love with a teenage girl (Evan Rachael Wood). Her dad doesn't like Harlan (too nice and too old) and so fight ensues between the two men with Evam Rachael Wood and her little brother caught in the middle. What makes the movie so good is the way that Norton plays this character. You never know if Harlan is really a good person of just a someone with delusions that he's a cowboy. Excellent film the whole way though.
The reason I'm bringing this up is because Edward Norton has such a good track record. I've seen all of his movies (except for Illusionist which I hope to see this weekend) and here is my list of favorites.

Fight Club
Red Dragon
25th Hours
Down In The Valley
American History X
Rounders
The Score
Primal Fear
The People Vs. Larry Flint
Death To Smootchy
Frida
The Italian Job
Kingdom Of Heaven
Keep The Faith

Just War and the Holy Spirit

Sorry to have all these postings on war...don't mean to be so somber, but wow, this is just crazy stuff that really just draws out the difficulty we face as people trying to do right in this world. This is from that military chaplain who I quote in the previous post.

SOF: The Soul of War: "Let's talk about love your enemies. That's sorely tested in combat. I think, in a very chilling way, I came to the abyss of hate in Fallujah. The body parts of four Americans, charred and hanging off a bridge over the Euphrates, brought me to a point where I could truly sense myself going down a vortex of hate, that in a city people were harbored who were that debased. So at that point I felt that I was crossing a line to say, 'Yes, these people's time on the planet is over, they need to leave. There's no second chance, there's no other form of justice. They have forfeited all rights to humanness.' That was a chilling, chilling moment for me, because I knew I was entering a new territory. And once you cross this line, there's no coming back. When do I become like them? I found myself fueled with a sense of hatred that I could easily have said, you know, 'Hey, I'm God's wrath. We are God's wrath. This needs to be taken care of.' The only thing that pulled me back from that was the power of the Holy Spirit, all the Christian disciplines, and my sense of understanding that, wait a minute, as much as I abhor everything that's done, and as much as I believe what was done was evil and that, if these people don't come out and surrender, there's only one alternative, that is to go in and kill them or apprehend them, I knew I could not cross that line and say, "OK, God's on my side, and here we go."

No, this is chaos, this is human fallenness to the max, and we're using the most brutal tool of human society, the military, to solve a very, very terrible problem. And this isn't God here, this is fallen human beings. So God help me and have mercy on me. I'm a part of something like this, and I prayed that it wouldn't be, but here we are. Save me from becoming a debased, immoral human being. And save my soldiers as well."

Green CEOs Bad for Business?

I really hope this guy is wrong. I so desparately want businesses, like GE, to be able to find a way to be economically successful and to be economically sucessful while pointedly being environmentally friendly. If big businesses like Ford, BP, and GE say that their green policies of recent years were a mistake, we're really heading for some dark times.

Green CEOs Bad for Business : "BP CEO Lord John Browne also wants to be hailed as an “enlightened” CEO-environmentalist. Under Browne, BP spends more than $100 million annually on its “Beyond Petroleum” campaign – an effort to convince the public that BP is no more an oil company than Greenpeace.

BP not only advocates for global warming regulation – including announcing this week that it will help Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger implement California’s new global warming law – but the company also calls its primary profit-producing product (gasoline) a “necessary evil” in television commercials."

Is Victimization the new Heroism?

Fight Club was probably one of the most influential movies I've ever seen. Unlike superiorly crafted films like the Lord of the Rings or Shawshank, Fight Club completely changed the way I see society...particularly men and their new role as consumers instead of as protectors and providers.

I ran across this quote from Chaplain Major John Morris, who has been an Army Chaplain since 1984.

We're in the "Dr. Phil" culture. Here's an ironic observation on this war in Afghanistan, Iraq…it's our culture today. We like to delve into people's personal lives and pain. That has a peculiar spiritual effect on combat veterans as well, because heroism doesn't seem to be as valued in our culture, but having personal pain and trauma gets you notoriety. That's a real twist that's hard for people to come to grips with.

And the military, you know, heroism's a sacrament. It's a virtue. It's something unbelievable to see somebody exhibit, and we honor it highly, and so what it tends to do is it alienates us even further. We're part of a subculture in America that values things the general culture doesn't seem to be as interested in. And that puzzles us, and so it creates again that sense of alienation, that "Hey, where I was really most vital and alive was when I was with my combat buddies, and we were executing our mission. When I come back here, people want to treat me like a victim." "There must be something wrong with you, because you went to combat."

A New Approach

So, I've been using Google Notebook a lot the past couple months. I have over 30 notebooks, on topics ranging from culture, photography, politics, education, and world religions. Most of these notebooks have several subtopics and I have probably hundreds of notes I've clipped from websites I've visited as well some short musing and reflections I've written on these topics.

Essentially, in the matter of months, I've completely changed the way I collect and process information. If I hear something interesting on the radio, I write it down and when I get home or to work I type up the quote, reference it, and post it in my notebook.

This has allowed me to keep ideas from slipping away and being forgotten in my world of information overload. And consequently, I've been able to process my thoughts much more effectively than I had been able to in the past.

I've been doing this at the same time the blog has been limping along. Consequently, I think I'm going to start using our blog as a means to get your thoughts and ideas on the stuff I'm thinking about. Hope you don't mind, but some of the stuff I'm posting on my notebook, I'm going to post on the blog as well, and hopefully, you'll find some of it interesting and we can start a dialog in the comments.

This will certainly help me since I'd prefer not to think of these things in a vacuum...but hopefully you'll find the stuff I post on interesting as well.

Like I said, I have a huge backlog of notebook entries that are suitable for blogging, so I should be able to quickly get a couple new posts a day. Plus I'm always adding new stuff. Hopefully, you'll post your thoughts and ideas too.

I still want to have a lot of movie stuff on the Apocalypse...but perhaps making the blog more eclectic will also make it more interesting and when you launch your Internet browser each day, the Lemming Apocalypse will become one of the first three links you click each time you on.

My Red-neck Week

Well, in the past week I've seen two NASCAR movies (Cars and Talledega Nights), went to the John Deere World Headquarters, and tonight I'm going to a county fair for a county I don't even live in. Man, I almost wore a pair of overalls to work today. ;-)

 

I wanted to see Talledega for two reasons. First, it looked like it had potential. But second, and possibly even more importantly, I wanted to know if Ann and I made the right decision last month when we went to see Pirates 2 instead of Talledega.

 

With all due respect :-D , Pirates 2 really bit. It had amazing production values, sure, but it didn't have the magic of the first movie. Francis Ford Coppola said that a sequel is always just a re-telling of the story the filmmaker told in the first movie, and that certainly was the case with Pirates 2. I didn't really learn anything about any of the characters (other than that the Kraken thinks Sparrow is tasty). Depp's performance was the same, which is good...but not fun when you've already seen him do his shtick before in that same setting.

 

I'm obviously not a big fan of the first Pirates, which Ann and I saw opening night and I haven't seen since. When I saw that one, however, I enjoyed it...much like I enjoyed National Treasure...which is to say I enjoyed it as much as I can possibly enjoy a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. It was well-made, had fun characters, and shallow plot that moved along quick enough to keep the audience engaged and entertained. Pirates 2 certainly didn't move along. It felt as long as it was.

Pirates 2 (4/10)

 

All that said, however, after seeing Talledega I have to say we made the right decision. There were many LOL moments in that movie...as many as there are in good comedies. However, there were other moments, generally when a scene dragged on two or three minutes after I stopped laughing (like the prayer scene). Then there were other bits, like Ricky's kids, that didn't do it for me at all and I wish they would have cut completely.

Talledega (6/10)

 

I gave Talledega a higher rating than Pirates 2, but in order for a comedy to be worth full price it's gotta be a very solid eight, otherwise I might as well have Netflix'd it. Pirates 2, however, was a spectacle and it was cool seeing all those set pieces on the big screen, so I'm glad we did that.

 

I'll leave my review of Cars at this: Pixar has yet to fail to deliver anything less than a perfect movie-going experience. Their movies are exceedingly re-watchable, which I think is a sign of their quality. Every one of their releases is on my top ten list for that year, and I'd have to check, but I think they all may be in the top five for that year as well...if not all, most of them are...Cars certainly will be.

Cars (9/10)

 

Well, there you have it: two NASCAR reviews. I think I'm going to look for a #3 to put in the back window of my car before I head out to the Walworth County fair tonight.

 

Yee Haa!

Dad's Netflix Queue

The movies that should be on top of Dad's queue right now

1. Jerry Maguire
2. Harry Potters
3. Bourne Identity
4. America's Heart and Soul
5. National Treasure
6. Simon Birch
7. Bloodwork