The Road

Still formulating coherent thoughts ...

The Lovely Bones and The Killer Inside Me

Caught up on a lot of tivo viewing over the turkey day break. I've been watching Real Housewives of BEVER-freaking-LY HILLS ... wow, what a trainwreck that show is and it's because of one person ... Camille soon to be ex wife of Kelsey Grammer ... that woman, seriously, is the most unintelligent person on the entire series. She makes KellyHIEEEE on NYC look like a rocket scientist. Methinks she wanted to do the show to puff herself up and then garner sympathy in the wake of Kelsey dumping her stupid keester and it's backfiring! She gets no sympathy from anyone ... she's an insult to the female species.

Celebrity Ghost Stories ... watched it on a fluke and it's awesome! Who knew I'd get caught up in these celebrities talking about their experience with the other side? Who knows if it's even real, they are actors afterall, but it's still so stinking interesting! My favorites so far are Diane Ladd, Daryl Hannah and Connie Stevens. Marilyn Manson and Michael Rappaport's are also very cool. Great show.

And on my Michael Winterbottom fix .. sigh ... blech ... The Killer Inside Me. Can't decide if it's the subject matter or the inherent creepiness of Casey Affleck. Thought he was great in Jesse James, stole the show in fact, but in this one, yuck ... just too creepy. Wish they could have cast someone else in his role. I guess the one thing I couldn't get was the dialogue ... oh the mumbling! God, it's annoying! I couldn't keep anyone straight because whenever someone was explaining why someone was doing what to whom,I missed it. In any event ... Winterbottom, this movie SUCKED. You're lucky I saw The Shock Doctrine a week earlier because I still have faith in you.

The Lovely Bones. Still marinating ... it was good, great? I'm glad that Peter Jackson lightened up on how Susie died and didn't really show it. The scenery was magnificent. Stanley Tucci really took a risk with his character and he really pulled it off. It made me hopeful that there's more to life after we leave earth. It liked it a lot better than that Robin Williams movie about death and dying ... What Dreams May Come? Yea, that one ... definitely better than that. The girl who played Susie was magnificent. Hope to see her more! She has the most piercing blue eyes I've ever seen.

Undeclared

Since I've now watched the entirety of Freaks and Geeks, I'm now watching Undeclared ... the next Apatow television effort. It's nowhere near as good as freaks and geeks. The casting sucks!!!!! Ugh, the main guy is awful, the main girl is equally awful ... the only decent casting call was Seth Rogen's character and this show is beneath him. Glad it only lasted 17 episodes.

Raising Hope is still the best comedy on tv this year. I'm growing bored with Modern Family and I can't place my finger on why I feel that way. It's still funny ... but it's so contrived I guess. The newness is gone and it's just a routine show now. Snoozer.

Watched a Michael Winterbottom documentary called The Shock Doctrine. For the first time in my life, I'm not very happy with the University of Chicago ... wow ... Milton Friedman is evil incarnate. And he's so damn smug about it. Oh well, I guess I'd be smug too if I could go around screwing up latin america and then deny deny deny and get the freaking Nobel Prize for the screwy ideas that are in your head. Now I understand why Henry Kissinger can't travel to many countries in Latin America ... with good reason!!!! Thank you Michael Winterbottom!

In Treatment ... The Walking Dead ... Boardwalk Empire ... all plugging along. I wish that Boardwalk Empire would just end already! The Walking Dead is decent ... getting boring .. can only watch so much of the same old same old .. oh yea, more close up shots of zombies eating guts ... uh oh .. there's another one getting it's head blown off ... sad when we get desensitized. In Treatment is kind of boring this year. I'm on week 4 and I'm still waiting for something meaty. This may be it for this series.

The Big C was fabulous! The season finale was surprising and I'm glad they have re-uped for another season!

Bored To Death ended and the finale seemed to be a series ender, which made me sad because this season was hilarious. It really found it's groove. I read that there will be a third season .. yea!

Eastbound and Down wasn't long enough. The story concluded and I got a really cool song to download to my ipod called "He's Alright" by Kurt Vile.

Cadillac Records

Watched this film and 2 days later decided it sucked. Well it didn't totally suck. Any scene with Adrien Brody sucked because his character, Leonard Chess, founder of the great Chess Records in Chicago, was totally fabricated.

I will say, Jeffrey Wright is one of the most underappreciated actors in our time. The guy played Muddy Waters so amazingly well. Heck even Beyonce was passable as Etta James. Take Brody's character out, and you have one of the finest movies about the foundation of the Chicago Blues scene ever made.

Been watched Celebrity Ghost Stories and I'm hooked. The whole concept is corny .... celebrities from A-listers (Chazz Palminterri) to no-listers (Don Most)talk about their paranormal experiences and they are fascinating. Vince Neil's visitation by his 4 year old daughter was particularly heartbreaking, yet heartwarming.

Oh ... my ... gosh ... Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Doh! Camille Donatacci ... soon to be Kelsey Grammer's ex wife is one of the dumbest people breathing air right now. Seriously ... wow ... can't even begin to express what a vapid famewhore she is. And I come to find out that Kelsey didn't have a prenup with her ... dude! The other wives are cake compared that this pelletheaded simpleton. It's not even worth going into the rest of them ... well, there's a Maloof woman ... owns crap all over the place. Then there's this carp mouthed wannabe... Taylor ... yuck ... and then former child stars, Kim and Kyle Richards who are the Hilton sister's aunts ... woooooooo!!!! Kyle's pretty cool, she's probably the best looking of every housewife in the entire franchise. But this is DingDongatacci's show .. wow ..

Cloverfield

Watched it a couple days ago, thinking it was going to be some cheesy Blair Witch ripoff ... I didn't think it was. In fact, I dowright liked it ... A LOT! That monster was an effer! Wow. And when Lizzy Caplan blew up ... yow! That was really gross. I guess you could say this film is begging for a sequel and I hope they don't do it. The other thing that bothered me was the location. I wonder how people in NYC received it, given this was a post 9-11 movie. Did they really need to see their city under attack again? But, since I'm not in NYC ... I liked it.

Raising Hope is the funniest new tv show. Hands down. It's more realistic to The Middle than The Middle. The only reason I watch that show anymore is because of Atticus Shaeffer. He's great. They are making Patricia Heaton's character more dull and desperate. And again ... they don't sound like Southern Indiana people at all!

The Big C was a real bummer this week. I can't believe Marlene killed herself :( That was so very sad. I loved her character. The show won't be the same without her.

And anytime they want to kill off Running Wilde ... please do it quickly. Ugh ... so bad, so bad.

In Treatment started up again. As usual, it sucks until week 3. This is week 3. He has a new therapist and I'm as frustrated with her as Paul is. I have to wonder why he keeps going back. She's not babying him like Gina did.

Starting to watch Infernal Affairs. It's the movie that Scorcese remade into The Departed. So far, the original is terrific. It's really too bad that reading puts me to sleep so quickly. It will take me month to get through it.

Once Brothers ...

Yesterday morning, I watched a documentary called "Once Brothers". It's the story of the friendship between Vlade Divac and Drazen Petrovic. One of the most fascinating periods in history, for me, is that dealing with Yugoslavia and it's implosion. Divac is Serbian and Petrovic, Croatian. They essentially grew up together as national team basketball players. Toni Kucoc as also featured. He, like Petrovic, is Croatian. Vlade and Drazen were drafted into the NBA at the same time and were close friends as strangers living in America. Divac made a huge splash in the NBA with much success. Petrovic, not so much. He hated playing for Portland .. it was only when he was traded to New Jersey did he start reaching his potential, only to have his life cut short in a car accident in 1993. During the beginning of the NBA tenures, the civil war broke out when Croatia declared it's independence from Yugoslavia. Divac insulted the Croatian players when he grabbed a Croatian flag from someone at the end of a championship game ... That ended his friendship with Petrovic and Kukoc ... the entire thing is just so damn sad. Politics and sports should never interfere with each other. The final scene is Divac travelling alone to Zagreb to visit Drazen's mother and have peace with her and to Drazen's grave ... I was in tears by then. Powerful, moving ... amazingly well done and lovely documentary.

Watched Ira and Abby .. ummmmm. Ok? It was funny? I think so. Jennifer Westfeldt plays this overwhelmingly cute and innocent girl named Abby who meets and marries this neurotic guy named Ira within a week. Get married, get annuled, get married again, gets divorced ... still in love ... makes no sense.

Can't remember if I mentioned that I watched Up in the Air .. I liked it a lot better than Ira and Abby ...

Watching:
Raising Hope ... hilarious. The main character is so likeable and sweet. his mom and dad, played by Martha Plimpton and .. Dilahut?? great stuff. Love it!

The Middle: funny, but annoying because they get southern indiana so incredibly wrong.

Modern Family: on auto pilot, good auto pilot

The Good Guys: Getting funnier as we go along. More Bradley Whitford!!! Even Colin Hanks is getting funnier. Lose the t&a prosecutor though, boring!!!!

THEY WON!!! THEY WON!!!

I don't know if any of you took my urgings to heart, but if you did, thank you! WHUM won the best FM radio station in the Indianapolis area! They tallied almost 110,000 votes! Thank you! It truly is the best radio station on the planet.

Watched 2 Women. It's a De Sica film starring Sophia Loren and Jean Paul Belmondo (yum!). Very powerful, again, using the formula where you have to sit there and watch for an hour only to have the entire film come crashing in on you in the last 20 minutes, thereby making the entire film worthwhile. Sophia Loren won the Oscar for best actress for good reason, wow. Thought it was nice that she presented Roberto Begnini with his best actor Oscar for Life is Beautiful.

New tv shows have started. Watched Running Wilde ... hilarious! It's Arrested Development part II. Excellent first episode. Will Arnett is a great comedian. Wish I could say the same for his wife.

Watching Freaks and Geeks on IFC. Great show. Going to start watching some new show on IFC called Todd Margaret starring David Cross ... he was on the pilot episode of Running Wilde too. Watched the Kids in the Hall thing ... miniseries? called Death Comes to Town. Weird is not the word for that show. It was just plain bizarre. Stuck it out because I like the troupe, but man, it was just strange.

Watched the first episode of Boardwalk Empire ... yawn. Nah, not so much. Steve Buscemi is one of my favorite actors too, which bums me out, but he is not a leading man in any way, shape or form. Nope, doesn't work at all. Will watch again just because I know I should like it.

Mad Men, awesome.
Eastbound and Down, starts up again tonight
Bored To Death, starts up again tonight

I'm in the middle of Letters from Iwo Jima and this is a wow wow wow movie. Didn't know what to expect, but so far, it's incredible! I read that the companion film, Flags of our Fathers, stunk, so I'm glad I'm watching this one first. Iwo Jima tells the story of the invasion of Iwo Jima from the Japanese perspective, hence the film is in Japanese. Flags tells the same story from the American perspective. I find it rather funny that Flags was panned, but Iwo Jima was universally praised. Wonder if Clint intended for it to be that way????