Anyone who knows me, knows that I LOVE movies. However, I’ve delayed adding a section of movies for some unknown reason. I don’t know if it was because I knew that there would be a lot of work involved in creating the layout for me to use, or if I simply thought I didn’t have much to say. Granted I do talk a lot 🙂 but trying to put together a cohesive and interesting review of a movie is a little bit different.
Month / April 2003
Wedding Planner, The
Director: Adam Shankman
Writer(s): Pamela Falk and Michael Ellis
Category: Romantic Comedy
MPAA: PG-13
Runtime: 103 min
Country: USA
Language: English
Year: 2001
Tagline: A romantic comedy about love, destiny and other events you just can’t plan for.
Plot: Mary Fiore (Jennifer Lopez) is a very successful wedding planner. She is very organized and wants to control everything. During a chance encounter she meets the man of her dreams Steven James ‘Steve/Eddie’ Edison, M.D. (Matthew McConaughey). It’s only later when she realizes that she Steve is the groom in the biggest wedding of her career. Will she let him walk down the isle with his tycoon fiancee, or will she break the cardinal rule of wedding planning by falling in love with the groom?
Review: This is one of those movies that you rent/watch for your significant other. I rented it for Holly since most of my movies as of recent have been mostly for me. However, I tried to keep an open mind and give it a fair shake. Unfortunately, this movie just sucked. First time director and first time screenwriters, what can you expect?
Two New Galleries Posted
I’ve posted two new galleries in the Photos section. One is on some woodworking projects that I did recently, but the more important one is on Holly’s Easter Egg.
One Hour Photo
Director: Mark Romanek
Writer(s): Mark Romanek
Category: Thriller
MPAA: R
Runtime: 96 min
Country: USA
Language: English
Year: 2002
Tagline: There’s nothing more dangerous than a familiar face.
Plot: Seymour ‘SY’ Parrish (Robin Williams) is a one hour photo lab technician at a SavMart discount pharmacy. His entire world is based around this job and he takes it very seriously. His perspective on the rest of the world is based on the snapshots that he views through his customers photographs. Of course, these photos only show the good times, because no one takes photos of things that they would like to forget. He has taken a keen interest in the Yorkin family and has followed their life through their snapshots. He envisions himself in many of their photos, because their life looks so idyllic. However, the Yorkin’s life isn’t as perfect as it appears in their snapshots and Sy’s world comes crashing down as he uncovers their imperfections.
Review: I’m a big fan of Mark Romanek’s work as a video director. I think he’s a lighting genius and his hyper reality style makes the artist look ultra-perfect. Mark bring this artistic style to his directorial debut. Although I’m a big fan of it, I did find it a bit distracting in a movie format. According to the director’s commentary on the DVD, his intention was to make the movie somewhat hyper realistic, but everything is just a bit too squeaky clean.
The Count Of Monte Cristo
Director: Kevin Reynolds
Writer(s): Alexandre Dumas Père (novel), Jay Wolpert (screenplay)
Category: Action / Adventure
MPAA: PG-13
Runtime: 131 min
Country: USA / UK
Language: English
Year: 2002
Tagline: Prepare for adventure. Count on revenge.
Plot: A beautifully photographed rekindling of the classic Alexandre Dumas story. Edmond Dantes’ (Jim Caviezel) life and plans to marry the beautiful Mercedes (Dagmara Dominczyk) are shattered when his best friend, Fernand (Guy Pearce), deceives him. After spending 13 miserable years in prison, Dantes escapes with the help of a fellow inmate (Richard Harris), cleverly insinuates himself into the French nobility and plots his revenge.
One Step Forward – Half A Step Back
Last week was an absolute bear and I wasn’t able to ride at all. Yesterday I had choir rehearsal, so I decided to ride to the rehearsal. I had no idea how far the ride would be, or how long it would take me. I just hopped on my bike and rode. Since it was […]
I Am Sam
Director: Jessie Nelson
Writer(s): Kristine Johnson, Jessie Nelson
Category: Drama
MPAA: PG-13
Runtime: 132 min
Country: USA
Language: English
Year: 2001
Tagline: love is all you need
Plot: Sam (Sean Penn) is a grown man with the mental capacity of a 7-year-old. After fathering a child with a homeless woman, Sam raises the baby himself until an incident at a birthday party finds the Child Protective Services deeming him an unfit guardian. With the help of yuppie lawyer Michelle Pfeiffer, Sam attempts to regain custody of his daughter and prove that, despite his handicap, he’s a truly loving father.
Review: Better have a box of Kleenex for this one. I saw this movie the same weekend that I saw John Q and I have to say that this was on the exact opposite end of the spectrum even though it’s in the same genre! How is it on the opposite? Simply put, the emotions that it illicit are genuine.
John Q
Director: Nick Cassavetes
Writer(s): James Kearns Category: Drama / Thriller
MPAA: PG-13
Runtime: 116 min
Country: USA
Language: English
Year: 2002
Tagline: Give a father no options and you leave him no choice.
Plot:Denzel Washington plays John Q, a luckless blue-collar workingman without the insurance needed to cover his son’s emergency heart transplant. Driven to desperation, he holds a hospital’s emergency room hostage until doctors agree to perform the operation. James Woods and Anne Heche are a couple of stubborn hospital staffers. Robert Duvall plays a no-nonesense hostage negotiator and Ray Liotta is a gung ho police chief in this gripping story about the possible consequences of real social ills.
Review: I delayed watching this movie from the simple fact that the previews gave me the impression that this was a “squashed squirrel.” There are two ways to elicit emotion: 1) provide a cliche device, such as a squashed squirrel (who won’t go “awwww” when seeing a small animal hurt?), or 2) earn your audience emotions by providing them with honest writing and believable situations. Unfortunately, John Q goes for the easy cliche almost every time.
Oh My Virgin Ears!
Last night I was watching TV and a commercial for Hechts department store came on and to my horror the song used for the ad was ‘Always Something There To Remind Me‘ by Naked Eyes. :O They had changed the lyrics of the hook to ‘Always something there to excite me,’ but there was no mistaking the original song.
This isn’t the first time that a company has bastardized a popular song to peddle their products. I remember back in 1987 when Nike used a single version of “Revolution” as part of a $7 million campaign to sell Nike shoes. I remember thinking at the time that it was no big deal. It was a good song, but it wasn’t part of my cultural history, so I didn’t see the harm in it.
Klip It Real Good
I have fallen completely head over heals for RSS and XML News feeds. In fact, I would say that it’s the primary method that I use to keep up with news and the web in general. What I like about it is that instead of having to remember to go check out your favorite web sites, the web sites come to you. Typically referred to as “push” technology, news feeds provide you with the latest headlines and allow you to keep up with a site without having to remember to visit it.
Now you may be wondering, why in the world would a web site give you their headlines instead of making you come to their web site and view the content? By pushing the headlines to you in a news feed, aren’t they in a sense cutting their own traffic? Quite the opposite. With a news feed, your readership can stay up-to-date with the your web site and have your news brought to their doorstep. Since all you’re providing is the headline, the user must come to your site to read the content. In other words, news feeds actually increase your overall traffic. 🙂