tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67137799170936340472024-02-19T23:36:54.681-08:00Blackplushrave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.comBlogger145125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-56718494225064901612014-05-29T20:13:00.000-07:002014-05-29T20:34:16.571-07:00From Not Hot to Hot<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV_prIW-dG4PpVztqr_Cemw57jRvgH3fnI6YBChsKgHLlm4qNXzYpFxtrx6zNxRCFsLHTlYIvn1uPr0-t1P651kDcFWiuRf-5OTe9vQWgd8o1TNAWKQww430xbNQMb1F9iW2W3PoWuFW4E/s1600/article-2448732-18953AE500000578-511_634x533.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV_prIW-dG4PpVztqr_Cemw57jRvgH3fnI6YBChsKgHLlm4qNXzYpFxtrx6zNxRCFsLHTlYIvn1uPr0-t1P651kDcFWiuRf-5OTe9vQWgd8o1TNAWKQww430xbNQMb1F9iW2W3PoWuFW4E/s1600/article-2448732-18953AE500000578-511_634x533.jpg" height="269" width="320" /></a></div>
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After a year of lunacy, the Scar-Jo Hotness Meter, also known as the Maxim Hot 100, has returned to normalcy. The 2013 list was a month late April's Fool joke that attempted to pass off sock puppet Miley Cyrus as the hottest woman in the world. That offense was so egregious, this blog did not post a Hotness Meter in 2013. Inexplicably, Miley Cyrus is still number 25 on the 2014 Hot 100 but integrity has been restored as <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2012/08/is-this-end.html">Scarlett Johansson</a> has risen from number 15 to number 2. <br />
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So, with Ms. Johansson being par for the course, Candace Swanepoel is -1, <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2012/08/is-this-end.html">Rihanna</a> is a +10, <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2009/03/scarjo-hotness-meter.html">Beyonce</a> is a +20, <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2012/08/is-this-end.html">Zoe Saldana</a> is a +28, Paula Patton is a +47, <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2013/01/spurs-that-jingle-django-jingle.html">Kerry Washington</a> is a +64 and <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2012/08/is-this-end.html">Gabriel Union</a> is a +80.<br />
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As usual, <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2012/08/is-this-end.html">Rosario Dawson</a> and <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2012/10/lost-in-cloud-atlas.html">Halle Berry</a> remain too hot for the Scar-Jo Hotness meter.<br />
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~rave!</div>rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-66549571261962328172013-12-08T11:53:00.000-08:002013-12-09T10:04:41.297-08:00Too Cool for School<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmsBweaSHk1jPot89GTAgAHHCO4X4sngk96dUTQ-ZE3R5YocrVDdT5Dm15Pg1N3o3qRs28o4VkSupaJY99h7F5VnUTc9VSfzun34ibwqT2DmVm6pasOcud03mRFTbjf3Lu77k9IF2-Lmz2/s1600/mob-city-729-620x349.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmsBweaSHk1jPot89GTAgAHHCO4X4sngk96dUTQ-ZE3R5YocrVDdT5Dm15Pg1N3o3qRs28o4VkSupaJY99h7F5VnUTc9VSfzun34ibwqT2DmVm6pasOcud03mRFTbjf3Lu77k9IF2-Lmz2/s320/mob-city-729-620x349.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am a Frank Darabont fan. But watching "Mob City" I suspect he might be better at adapting material than creating it (although <span id="yui_3_10_3_7_1386528913669_45" style="line-height: 17px;">"L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City," a non-fiction book by John Buntin</span><span style="line-height: 17px;">, is allegedly the inspiration for "Mob City")</span><span id="yui_3_10_3_7_1386528913669_48" style="line-height: 1.22;">. Darabont wants to capture the flavor of post War War II LA but it is all seasoning and little meat. And the voice-over, rather than adding another layer to the narrative, is used for unnecessary info dumping. We see the guy with the garish tie so we don't need the narrator to comment on it. The whole early business with the liquor heist is too busy, too "look ma, no hands!" and way too cute - without the requisite pay-off. The show needs to be more measured and less self conscious. The one bit I liked was the smoky Jungle Club banter between detective Joe Teague and Anya, the drop-dead gorgeous head bartender played by Mekia Cox. Mob City needs less cool and more of this hea</span><span style="line-height: 1.22;">t.</span></span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_10_3_7_1386528913669_54" style="line-height: 1.22;"><span style="font-size: large;">~(no)rave!</span></span></div>
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rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-42924376673574422902013-08-06T18:50:00.004-07:002013-08-13T18:26:06.360-07:00Running Wild and Free<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">I just saw "Beasts of the Southern Wild." What a beautiful, trans-formative movie! And that little girl - what a strong, fearless little pistol! I adore her.</span></div>
rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-8570758700560417672013-07-19T19:12:00.000-07:002013-07-20T18:58:42.159-07:00Beast of Burden<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I recently came across this oddity called <i>White Man's Burden</i>. It is a 1995 movie written and directed by Desmond Nakano and starring John Travolta and Harry Belafonte. The movie's simple and bizarre premise is that America is still America but black people are the ruling class and white people are the underclass. Travolta plays Louis Pinnock, a simple but hardworking member of the oppressed white people. He works in a candy factory run by a tidy and efficient black man named Lionel (Tom Wright) and is struggling to maintain his tenuous grip on the American Dream. He has a blonde wife (Kelly Lynch) and two children, a six year-old boy and an infant daughter, but he just can't seem to grab hold of that next rung on the economic ladder. Pinnock has his ear constantly cocked for opportunity to knock so he volunteers when a man is needed to deliver a package to the luxury estate of the factory owner.<br />
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From the moment he passes through the ornate gates of the Thomas estate what little luck Pinnock had dissipates like so much smoke up the alimentary canal. On the palatial grounds, eager and immediately confused as to where to go, Pinnock peers into a window and accidentally sees the fetching Megan Thomas (Margaret Avery) coming out of the shower. Mr. Thaddeus Thomas (as played by the then still robust septuagenarian Harry Belafonte) is not amused Pinnock has seen his much younger wife in a state of undress and orders Lionel to never send Pinnock to his house again. Lionel, unaware of Pinnock's offense but charged by the heat of Thomas' request, makes sure Thomas will never see Pinnock again - by firing him.<br />
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Thus begins a rapid downward spiral for Pinnock. After being rebuffed at the gate of the Thomas estate in a desperate attempt to straighten out whatever caused him to lose his job, Pinnock suffers one indignity after another. He is beaten by the police in a case of mistaken identity when his truck, his only means of transportation, breaks down on the night on his firing. He is already behind in his mortgage payments and is powerless to stop his family's humiliating eviction from their home. <br />
<br />
Out of money, out of luck, and out of options, Pinnock undertakes one last desperate act. He decides he is going to force Thomas to give him "what he is owed," at the barrel of a gun, if necessary. Confronted at the gate of his estate, Thomas does not have enough cash on him to satisfy his "debt," so Pinnock forces Thomas drive his luxury sedan to the drive-through window at his bank. The supercilious teller, a white man, refuses to service them because the bank is closing. When Thomas, obviously a man of wealth and means, demands to see the teller's supervisor, the teller responds that <i>he</i> is in charge of his window and <i>he</i> will decide when it opens and closes. The teller suggests they visit the ATM at the back of the bank. When Thomas protests that he needs more money than that, the teller tells him to come back on Monday and closes his window.<br />
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At this point, Pinnock has a crisis and a dilemma. He has kidnapped a prominent member of society and, if he wants to get what is "owed" him, he will have to keep him captive over the weekend. Rather than aborting his mission and letting Thomas go, unharmed, Pinnock decides to double down on his stupidity.<br />
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<i>White Man's Burden</i> goes off the rails at many junctures, starting with the title. In Rudyard Kipling's poem, the white man's burden is the supposed or presumed responsibility of white people to govern and impart their culture to nonwhite people - at the point of a gun or bayonet, if necessary. It is never clear what the white man's burden is in this movie. His black oppressors? There is no hint of brutal oppression by the black ruling class and race plays no role in Pinnock's firing. A black delivery man caught in the same circumstances would have suffered the same fate. Further, Pinnock is revealed as a totally unexceptional man, a man who because of his limited skill set and repeated poor choices would have lived a life of disquieting desperation even if he had been blessed with a darker hue.<br />
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Nakano, a writer-director of Japanese heritage who was born and raised in this country, seems to have a tin ear when it comes to American race relations. In a movie made on the cheap, he fails to fill in necessary detail. There are no billboards, advertising or commercials extolling the prevailing black hegemony. We don't see black newscasters, actors, politicians or judges. White people aren't cornrowing their hair or getting tans to fit in. Pinnock is married to a pale, blond woman, which would put him on the lowest rung of this society but, as played by Kelly Lynch, his wife, Marsha, retains all the snap and vinegar of someone who has been raised with a sense of white privilege. She is not downtrodden; she is defiant and full of the notion of who she is - despite her circumstances. While her family is being evicted, she flouts the orders of armed men and boldly dictates the terms of her surrender. <br />
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There is also some ridiculousness of Thomas' son (Bumper Robinson) bringing a white date to a family function. This is so howlingly out of left field and there is no context or justification for this interaction in <i>this</i> movie. To hammer home the point, his date should have been the darkest woman the filmmakers could have found. Also, there is some business with white skinheads being the equivalent of black street gangs. Without the notion of white supremacy, white skinheads do not exist. <br />
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The one tonally correct moment in the movie is when Pinnock sends his son into a toy store to buy whatever toy he wants. When the black action figure he chooses costs more money than Pinnock has, Pinnock tries to persuade the boy to buy the cheaper white action figure. As his son has a minor tantrum, Thomas tells Pinnock to get the kid the toy he wants and to take the extra money out of his wallet. Pinnock makes a show of surreptitiously taking the money out of Thomas' shirt pocket and slipping the bills into his pant pocket before handing them to his son. The little white boy is ecstatic with his dark-skinned, nappy-headed "Puma-Man" doll that looks nothing like him. For the most part, Nakano is totally clueless about the world he has created but in this one instance he gets it right.</div>
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<i><span style="font-size: large;">~(no)rave!</span></i></div>
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rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-71163477653621829862013-06-22T18:54:00.002-07:002013-06-22T21:14:42.199-07:00"Man" Steals<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbsydhbVQIpz21gFUuhmetlPSBv0iwhzYf9WnEWQ3Q9jp0pn3vtiuRgWtNVRzVmOl_NqCrdWQzCXaIKxxdr2sJ-TXBL7Nh5ZvOm31Xizb5auduSa_xBIqIvQPvWMuPnilTVSp2VAQNqWxF/s1600/2013_man_of_steel_movie-wide.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbsydhbVQIpz21gFUuhmetlPSBv0iwhzYf9WnEWQ3Q9jp0pn3vtiuRgWtNVRzVmOl_NqCrdWQzCXaIKxxdr2sJ-TXBL7Nh5ZvOm31Xizb5auduSa_xBIqIvQPvWMuPnilTVSp2VAQNqWxF/s320/2013_man_of_steel_movie-wide.jpg" /></a></div>
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I saw <em>Man of Steel</em> in a bistro theater full of gray-hiared people like myself - all the others couples - literally out for a dinner and a movie. I was the only person of color in the theater - but this may have had more to do with the location of the theater (far suburbs) than anything else.
Anyhoo, I was moved by <em>Man of Steel</em> - surprisingly so as I have always been a Marvel Man and have gone on record as to how corny and ridiculous I consider most DC Characters (his power is that he talks to fish - really?). <br />
<br />
Over the last five decades the most popular DC character has clearly been the one without any super powers. In fact, the problem with Superman, DC's first and most durable superhero is that, over time, he became <em>too</em> super - and writers had to go to ridiculous lengths to cut him back down to size.
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One of best things about "Man of Steel" is how it discards two of the hoariest tropes associated with Kal-El: his acute susceptibility to kyptonite and the nonsense about no one being able to figure out that Clark Kent is Superman. Done and done. This opens up the "Man of Steel" to a more "realistic" telling of his story. As realistic as a story about a man catupulted from his dying planet in rocket ship who crash lands on another habitable planet can be.
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There is real pain in Kal-El's hero journey. The death of his surrogate father, Jonathan Kent, is as tragic a circumstance as you can imagine. It is many times worse than Spiderman being unable to save Captain Stacy or Uncle Ben - because there was really <em>nothing</em> he could do. Kal-El is able to save Jonathan Kent's life and it takes every fiber of his being not to - he is forever his father's son (both of them) - and then he must bear the burden of knowing he could have saved his father's life and he is forever conflicted by the fact that he not only did not but by the <em>should not</em> his earthly father imposed on him.
This is powerful stuff. And, it is powerful stuff delivered by great actors. <br />
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The entire enterprise is imbued with a certain gravitas by employing actors such as Oscar winners Russell Crowe and Kevin Costner as Kal-El's fathers, the reliable Diane Lane, drabbed down and vertially make-up free and, just barely, old enough to be the 30 year-old Henry Cavill's mother.
These actors are complimented by the venerable Laurence Fishburne giving Perry White a presence not approached by Jackie Cooper (does anyone remember the estimable Frank Langella in the lamentable <em>Superman Returns</em>?) and Henry Lennix and Christopher Meloni as General Swanwick and Colonel Nathan Hardy, respectively.
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<br />
Of course we must mention intrepid girl reporter Lois Lane who finds perfect incarnation in Amy Adams, apparently in direct lineage from "Girl Friday" Rosilind Russell to her inimitable predecessor, Margot Kidder.
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The fact that "Man of Steel" is marred by obligatory fight scenes (with brooding Michael Shannon) - that make the movie overlong - does little to dilute it as a great telling of this original hero's journey.
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<span style="font-size: large;">~<em>rave!</em></span></div>
rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-61662340349336788882013-05-06T20:11:00.002-07:002013-06-22T21:24:06.653-07:00Tin Can Alley<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The third sequel in a movie franchise is seldom the charm. They <br />
are either big and ponderous (<em>Matrix Revolutions</em>), descend into <br />
parady or camp (<em>Superman III</em>) or devolve into pure schlock <br />
(<em>Jaws 3D</em>). <em>Iron Man 3</em> is none of these while possibly being all <br />
of them. In fact, <em>IM3</em> plays like a third <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2010/05/iron-marvel.html">Robert Downey, Jr.</a> <br />
franchise, a third rail to his <em>Iron Man</em> and <em>Sherlock Holmes</em><br />
annunities - call this one <em>Tin Can</em>.<br />
<br />
Jim Favreau, director of the first two Iron Man movies, looks like he <br />
may have eaten his way out of that job as he reprises his role as a <br />
corpulent Happy Hogan. He is replaced by Shane Black, author of<br />
the original <em>Lethal Weapon</em> movie. In fact, <em>IM3 </em>plays more like the <br />
fifth installment of <em>Lethal Weapon </em>than a sequel to <em>IM2. </em>The villian<br />
is a Euro-Trash industrialist (Guy Pearce) and the final <br />
confrontation takes place on a dirty oil tanker with Downey <br />
and <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2010/05/iron-marvel.html">Don Cheadle</a> firing bullets instead of repulsor rays.<br /><br />
As I noted in my review of <em><a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2010/05/iron-marvel.html">Iron Man 2</a>, </em>seldom has there been a <br />
better match of actor and role than Downey and Tony Stark/Iron <br />
Man. The age old question: does the man make the suit or does the <br />
suit make the man, applies to <em>IM3</em> as Downey spends way too much <br />
time out of his full metal jacket.<br />
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<em><span style="font-size: large;">~(no)rave!</span></em></div>
rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-10929269787518725952013-04-22T02:33:00.001-07:002013-06-22T21:25:18.521-07:00Rogue Behavior<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
I recently watched the first two episodes of Thandie Newton's
<br />
action-adventure series <em>Rogue</em> on DirecTV's Audience Network. <br />
It is gritty,
fast-paced entertainment that feels oddly British (I kept <br />
expecting to see
the iconic "Egg" Building in the background) even <br />
though the story is
supposed to be taking place in Oakland, <br />California.<br />
<br />
It is probably not
surprising that the show appears wrapped in the <br />
Union Jack when the chief
writer, Matthew Parkhill, and most of <br />
the prime participants are either
British, Australian, New Zealand<br />
or Canadian actors and the show is filmed in the city of
Vancouver <br />
in the Province of British Columbia. I don't understand why
the <br />
show wasn't based in London - except for the desire to sell the <br />
concept
to an American network and audience. Suffice it to say <br />
you never believe you are in
Oakland, California, despite the signs <br />
on various buildings designating<em> this</em>
as an Oakland Police Station <br />
or <em>that</em> as an Oakland
courthouse.<br />
<br />
Something decidedly "British" pervades the whole enterprise.
<br />
British and Australian actors are apparently the new vogue in all <br />
realms of
entertainment. They play <em><a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2012/03/bite-me.html">True Blood</a></em> vampires and <br />
upright police officers and
rogueish Governors dealing with <em>the <br />Walking Dead</em>, but in all of those
instances if you didn't know, <br />
you wouldn't know. In this particular instance,
you are constantly <br />
aware of something being not quite kosher with these
allegedly <br />
"American" characters. <br />
<br />
Ian Hart, who plays an artful dodger cop, is such a archtypical <br />
British character with his cockney attitude and
porkpie hat that <br />
his character could have been played by Bob Hoskins. The most
<br />
believable of these "American" characters is Kavan Smith, as <br />
Thandie's
husband, and he was born in Edmonton, Alberta.<br />
<br />
All of which is to say
what? "Rogue" feels ersatz? Yes. Do I <br />
ever feel like I am in America, let
alone in Oakland, California? <br />
No, not ever. Even the stakes, the Chinese
mafia trying to bully <br />
in on the action on the docks, seems British. Even
Newton's <br />
mixed race kids are too British in looks and demeanor to be
<br />
believable as Oakland born and bred. It is annoying. Why are <br />
they trying
to sell me that this story is taking place <br />
in America, let alone in
Oakland, California?<br />
<br />
But, if you can swallow all the textural tea and
crumpets, <br />
Rogue is gripping and compelling. Newton is whippet lean <br />
and junk
yard tough as Grace, the conflicted cop working <br />
undercover to expose the
smooth but lethal boss of the docks <br />
(New Zealand born Morton Csokas). The
sexual attraction <br />
between these two is palpable but Grace is the wife of Tom
<br />
Travis and the mother of feisty teen-ager, Evie Travis (Sarah <br />
Jeffrey). <br />
<br />
Grace's dual life takes a terrible toll on her family: her young-<br />
est
son wets the bed, has nightmares and draws horrific pictures <br />
of sharp-toothed
predators chasing him. A good cop, she is a <br />
horrible wife and mother - constantly making promises she can't <br />
keep. Grace wants to quit her increasingly dangerous life and <br />
devote more time to her family,
but she keeps getting sucked <br />
back in - with ever escalating
consequences.<br />
<br />
I'm all in for the ten-episode run.<br />
<br />
<em><span style="font-size: large;">~rave!</span></em></div>
rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-52284595721534859012013-01-01T10:13:00.000-08:002014-05-29T20:20:27.874-07:00Spurs that jingle, Django, jingle<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDNk68hu6AFSvUddUXfy6D5y3zpB081hXZz9gf_10rBPDdxNov4v-3cE2Ks_GuqQEy1d89wNboS2AEf1vmZHh9moXYH2gnyl5TmxpOilylIdy6JtTlLEj57Q7dVYZ0hwAfVWAAb27hF9iK/s1600/django-unchained-movie-image-jamie-foxx-396x600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDNk68hu6AFSvUddUXfy6D5y3zpB081hXZz9gf_10rBPDdxNov4v-3cE2Ks_GuqQEy1d89wNboS2AEf1vmZHh9moXYH2gnyl5TmxpOilylIdy6JtTlLEj57Q7dVYZ0hwAfVWAAb27hF9iK/s320/django-unchained-movie-image-jamie-foxx-396x600.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2011/01/grindhouse-is-ode-to-70s-era.html">Quentin Tarantino</a>'s <i>Django Unchained </i>is a remarkable achievement. Remarkable for reasons that have everything to do with its subject manner - the antebellum south and its cruel and peculiar institution of slavery - and nothing to do with it. It is remarkable primarily because it is a compilation of improbable things: a nearly three hour long spaghetti western; a $100 million blaxploitation movie (in fact, perhaps, the "granddaddy" of <i>all </i>blaxploitation movies); and, most improbable of all, a nearly three hour blaxploitation spaghetti western that is smart, funny, savage, knowing, telling, entertaining, and, often, bloody, engrossing, and full of surprises. </div>
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A gritty parable of love, lost, sacrifice and revenge, <i>Django </i>follows the prototypical arc of the spaghetti western's man with no or one name - with a notable twist. When we meet Django ("the 'D' is silent") he is chained to a quartet of black men who have been bought at a slave auction. They are being transported through the woods, chained neck to wrist to ankle, barefoot and bare-chested on a cold and chilly night, when they encounter a man driving a quaint wagon with the giant white tooth bobbing on its top. Fortunately for Django, the loquacious and courtly Dr. King Schutz (Christoph Waltz) has given up dentistry for the more lucrative profession of bounty hunting and he needs Django to identify a trio of ne'er do wells for him. </div>
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It so happens that the three men Dr. Schutz is tracking are the same three men who whipped and branded Django (Jamie Foxx) and Broomhilda (<a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2014/05/from-not-hot-to-hot.html">Kerry Washington</a>) before selling them further down the river. Not knowing where the brutal Brittle Brothers have gone, Dr. Schutz's plan is to go from plantation to plantation with Django masquerading as his velvet-suited valet until Django can spot and identify the culprits. Mission accomplished, Dr. Schutz takes Django on as a junior partner while promising him both his freedom and the good doctor's help in finding his wife.</div>
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One night after a cowboy meal of beans and strong coffee, Dr. Schutz tells Django the German legend of Brunhilde: Brunhilde, a half-divine shield maiden, has been condemned to live her life as a mortal woman imprisoned in a remote castle protected by a dragon and surrounded by a wall of fire where she will remain until a man can slay the dragon and penetrate the wall of fire to save her. Django's half-goddess/whole woman - his wife - is named Broomhilda von Shaft (which, ostensibly makes her and Django the great grandparents of that bad mutha "shut your mouth" private dick whose movie of the same name greenlit the blaxploitation explosion of the late sevenites). And the dragon who guards her citadel is the suave and savage Calvin Candie (<a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2010/07/dream-weaver.html">Leonardo Dicaprio</a>). Django resolves to walk through the fires of hell, in this instance, the laws and mores of pre-Civil War Mississippi, to reclaim his wife.</div>
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The lead actors in <i>Django </i>are excellent. Waltz exudes the innate charm he oozed as the silky but vicious Nazi Colonel Hans Landa in Tarantino's last revisionist epic, <i><a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2009/12/inglouriously-yours.html">Inglourious Basterds</a>, </i>only this time he uses his considerable powers for good. Waltz's Dr. Schutz is the glue that anchors <i>Django</i>'s tale and he steals almost every scene he is in, even those with the equally impressive Dicaprio, who has slyly grown into the best actor of his generation.</div>
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Samuel L. Jackson is a hoot as the house nigger, Stephen, who has fashioned himself a cushy sinecure as the lead slave at Candieland, the plantation owned by DiCaprio. It is Jackson's most cunning and diabolical turn since Ordell Robie, the devil in man-clothes he played in Tarantino's<i> Jackie Brown</i>.</div>
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Foxx's role is a thankless one that requires him mostly to be noble and stoic. He complies admirably, giving it his best "Clint Eastwood."</div>
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About the <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2008/09/suffix-please.html">"N" word</a>: suffice to say it is probably said enough to make your teeth white.</div>
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In this new millennium, four years into post-racial Obamarama, it is possibly disheartening that the red meat of a black actor dispatching scores of white men (and one white woman) with accuracy and aplomb is still thrilling. As thrilling as it was when Jim Brown<i>, </i>Fred Williamson and the rest of them bloodied the screen forty years ago. </div>
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What is heartening is that the hero of Django never once lusts for a white woman. There are no heaving bosoms, ala Raquel Welch or Stella Stevens, for him to lust after. The primary white woman of note is Laura Cayouette as Candie's spinsterish widowed sister, Lara Lee Candie-Fitzwilly, and she is mostly a comic foil. </div>
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Our hero only has eyes for his purloined wife of whom he has frequent visions as he endures both his quest and their separation. While "When a man loves a woman" is not on the soundtrack, it could be.</div>
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~<i><span style="font-size: large;">rave!</span></i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
</div>rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-15592522382091325562012-10-28T15:34:00.000-07:002012-10-28T15:56:12.176-07:00Lost in the Cloud Atlas<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyVuclGemkxSZpD34kE2Z1VArHj_H3RBtmti4oi_JV9nWfxOX46Ngy8WZo2jilbX5Dr1NmbmoTsLRGEAv9ps6kiDmcS3Mhy1kFiGgx6yKRzPoY-WhVAEHzNcAtg5n9lZD01hzhNBk6lnja/s1600/cloud+atlas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyVuclGemkxSZpD34kE2Z1VArHj_H3RBtmti4oi_JV9nWfxOX46Ngy8WZo2jilbX5Dr1NmbmoTsLRGEAv9ps6kiDmcS3Mhy1kFiGgx6yKRzPoY-WhVAEHzNcAtg5n9lZD01hzhNBk6lnja/s1600/cloud+atlas.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">I don't smoke or drink but after watching the Wachowski's </span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">"Cloud Atlas" I felt </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">like I was sharing the doobie Tom Hanks </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">and Halle Berry passed back and forth </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">during the Luisa Rey </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">movement of this filmic symphony.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">"Cloud Atlas" is the kind of movie you feel you should dress </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">up for - like going </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">to the theater or going to the symphony. And, </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">unfortunately, that is the kind </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">of audience it will ultimately draw. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">Atlas requires the type of sophistication </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">and patience a night at </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">the opera might require. A film patron will need the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">forbearance </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">and the fortitude to abide as unfamiliar characters and stories</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">slowly take stage and unfold with no particular urgency.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">The viewer is adrift for long passages of this movie, the primary </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">flaw being the l</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">ack of a notable thru-character to latch on to and </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">care about. There are a few </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">linchpins – Doona Bae and Jim Broad-</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">bent </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">being particularly striking as the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">genetically engineered </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">fabricant, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">Sonmi-451, and the vanity publisher and late </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">in life </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">swashbuckler, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">Timothy Cavendish, respectively. Elsewhere </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">formidable </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">star </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">power is muted as big name actors such as Tom </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">Hanks, Halle </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">Berry, Hugh </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">Grant and Wachowski repertory player, </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">Hugo Weaving, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">frequently disappear under </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">mounds of makeup. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">In fact, one of the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">delights of the movie is sitting through </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">the end </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">credits and being </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">wonderfully surprised by who was playing who.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">You have to respect the high ground the Wachowskis are playing </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">on and it is </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">doubly nice to see that, as in the Matrix Trilogy, there </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">are black people in the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">future and they fare pretty well.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">In the end I must agree with book critic Robert K. J. Kiheffer </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">who </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">wrote, "for </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">its pleasures, Cloud Atlas falls short of </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">revolutionary." It </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">may not be a </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">masterpiece, but it is a stunning </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">canvas.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><i>~rave!</i></span></span></div>
rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-1215264108105086362012-10-27T07:05:00.001-07:002012-10-27T07:06:08.801-07:00American Gothic Horror Show<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbitH0wnLBuvk20zLasBqVFvIQB1_KjYqIzQjPpW-SovWZeIcYUPCDkjpg_Edb4P3r4DipUMQZZ8KmH9qTJZ_uPFgfQtFfQ8abH3oNGN0mchAUHpAN8Rsh8h7cEYmveh2-J5QNHy5HkPOY/s1600/American-Horror-Story-Asylum-Blue-Coat-Teaser.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbitH0wnLBuvk20zLasBqVFvIQB1_KjYqIzQjPpW-SovWZeIcYUPCDkjpg_Edb4P3r4DipUMQZZ8KmH9qTJZ_uPFgfQtFfQ8abH3oNGN0mchAUHpAN8Rsh8h7cEYmveh2-J5QNHy5HkPOY/s320/American-Horror-Story-Asylum-Blue-Coat-Teaser.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Anyone watching the year two reboot of American Horror Story? I was highly disaffected by the ending of the first cycle which, IMHO, seemed like a cheat - especially after how invested we, the viewers, had become. We cared. Cared enough to be disappointed when all the primary characters ended up in kind of a Beetlejuice-esque limbo - without the calypso. Anywho, last night in the wee hours of the morning, I watched the first two episodes of "Asylum" and, just like Michael Corleone in the Godfather saga, I'm pulled back in again.<br />
<br />
Asylum is full of all of the religious and sexual kinks one comes to associate with a Ryan Murphy project - including his PG rated "Glee." And, of course, there's the monster mash: slasher movies and alien abductions and mad scientist dismemberments and lobotomies all diced up in some cosmic blender.<br />
<br />
As in season one Jessica Lang is revelation. Still exuding a smoldering (if brittle) sexuality at 63, she continues to amaze with her steely precision as an actress. As Mother Superior, she is one twisted sister.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">~<i>rave!</i></span></div>
rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-50285137389950950312012-09-15T10:03:00.001-07:002012-09-15T10:23:30.613-07:00The Faces of Te-Boe<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia;">The NFL Network is running a documentary on the phenomenon <br />of Tim Tebow called "The Faces of Tebow." As a die-hard pro-</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">fessional football fan and a card-carrying Dr. Who devotee (since <br />Tom Baker), I am fascinated by the nexus where </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">two lumps of</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">granite: Tim Tebow </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">and the Face of Boe can come together in a <br />populist punchline. I love the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">linguistic gymnastics involved in <br />"The Faces of Tebow"; I wonder at the mind of </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">the football loving <br />sci-fi geek whose brain connected the disparate dots to make</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">such a psychic connection; and I wonder how many die-hard <br />Tebow fans could (or </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">would) make the extrapolation to the <br />iconic "wanderer without a home"...and vice </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">versa.</span></span><br />
<i style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><br style="font-family: Georgia;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia;">~rave!</span></span></i></div>
rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-14738345576522818852012-08-18T12:41:00.001-07:002012-08-26T18:15:47.639-07:00Mocking Time<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I just finished reading Harper Lee's <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2010/08/right-mistake.html"><i>To Kill A Mocking Bird</i></a>. I had always assumed the "mockingbird" too precious to kill was Tom Robinson, the black man falsely accused of raping the white trash daughter of the town's drunken lout. Imagine my surprise when i discovered the "mockingbird" is, in fact, Boo Radley, the white town idiot and recluse, who has actually committed a crime - murder - but is not arrested or prosecuted - while innocent Tom is not only arrested, threatened with lynching, wrongfully convicted, and eventually shot dead while trying to escape from a prison farm to which he never should have sent in the first place.<br />
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No wonder they want their country back.<br />
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rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-87946546903161451022012-08-06T17:33:00.000-07:002012-10-30T15:00:58.216-07:00Is this the End?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This may be the demise of the Scarjo Hotness Meter. Not because Scarjo (the redoubtable Miss <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2010/05/scarjo-redux-2010.html">Scarlett Johansson</a>) is not on the 2012 Maxim Hot 100 List - she is, at number 17 - it is because the list is such a joke that ranking women on the list relative to Scarjo's current position is not only ridiculous but irrelevant. <br />
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If the editors of Maxim no longer care, why should I? Who <i>cares </i>that cartoon mom Lois Griffin, number 85, is a +68 on the Hotness Meter? LOIS GRIFFIN? I mean, <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2012/04/ballin-too-hard.html">Rihanna</a> is the first black woman on the list and she is number 32 (+15). <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2010/05/scarjo-redux-2010.html">Zoe Saldana</a> is 45 (+28) and LaLa Anthony is 93 (+76). </div>
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<a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2012/04/ballin-too-hard.html">Meagan Good</a> and <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2012/04/ballin-too-hard.html">Gabrielle Union</a> didn't even make the list and, as always, <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2010/05/scarjo-redux-2010.html">Halle Berry</a> and <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2010/05/scarjo-redux-2010.html">Rosario Dawson</a> remain TOO HOT for the Scarjo Hotness Meter.<br />
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~(no)rave!
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rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-71121228002589166922012-07-15T12:45:00.001-07:002012-07-15T12:50:19.364-07:00Westward Ho!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I am officially old. Girlfriend out of town and I spent a good chunk of my leisure time, yesterday, watching westerns on Encore's western channel. Watched episodes of <i>Wagon Train</i> with a young and virile Clint Eastwood; watched John Wayne and William Holden in <i>The Horse Soldiers</i>; set my DVR to capture<i> The Ballad of Cable Hogue</i> (in my opinion, one of Sam Peckinpah's best movies - not to mention Stella Stevens' and Jason Robards' - although I like him better in <i>How the West Was Won</i>)and the Sabata trilogy (starring Lee Van Cleef and Yul Brenner).<br />
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But i had the most fun watching something called <i>4 for Texas</i> starring Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.
This movie has many charms, prominent among them the decolletage of Anita Ekberg and the legs and everything else of Ursula Andress, but the thing that resonated with me was the performance of Edric Conner, a black man, co-starring as "Prince George," Dean Martin's coach driver and enforcer. The strapping Conner embodies his Prince with a screen dignity that is as rare as it is compelling. Prince George owns his coach and refuses to sell it to Martin - he is agreeable to renting it and his services, however, as he retains ownership of his rig and himself. It is forebear of the innate, self-contained nobility and virility <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2010/03/guess-whos-coming-to-dinner-now.html">Sidney Poitier</a> will bring to the screen five years hence in movies like <i>Guess Who's Coming to Dinner</i> and <i>In the Heat of the Night</i> - except there is mischievous glint in Conner's eye that we will not witness on screen again until the heyday of Eddie Murphy.
I am not a fan of what Sinatra became, but in the early to middle sixties he was on the side of the angels when it came to showcasing black actors on screen.<br />
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~rave!</div>rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-36737564726403870352012-05-17T21:00:00.001-07:002012-05-17T21:04:23.995-07:00Cross My Heart<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I am in full NBA playoff mode (two games EVERY night!) but after the games on TNT I have had the pleasure of catching reruns of some of TNTs welcome characters (the night before I saw my first ever episode of <i>Franklin and Bash</i> and I gotta know, is there some new trend where every television law firm is run by an Afro-American MILF - Garcelle Beauvais on <i>Bash</i> and Gina Torres on <i>Suits</i>?). <br />
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Late last night I saw the best episode of <i><a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2009/02/leverage-and-paradigm-of-black.html">Leverage</a></i> I have ever seen. I am up and down with this series. Some episodes wow me while others leave me indifferent but last night's "Cross My Heart" episode from season four was great. Everything from the cold start during a layover at the Cincinnati Airport to the two lives hanging in the balance drama - with several <i>Sting</i>-like twists in between - left me unable to go to bed (although it was already one am and I had to go to work in the morning)and showed <i>Leverage'</i>s tight ensemble group at their best.<br />
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~rave!</div>rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-22498154132816463192012-05-14T17:17:00.000-07:002012-05-14T17:22:34.901-07:00Crowne Me<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Has anybody seen <i>Larry Crowne</i> with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts? Like most of the movie going public I avoided it like the plague when it was in the theaters. Caught it on DirecTV and I found it quite engaging (and not just for the awesomely fetching <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2010/09/bloom-day.html">Gugu Mbatha-Raw</a>). The movie prominently features Pam Grier (still fetching), Cedric the Entertainer, <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2011/09/program-of-interest.html">Taraji P. Henson</a> and a slyly wicked turn by George Takei as Dr. Matsutani. In addition to Mr. Takei, there is a nice bit where one of Hank's speech classmates gives a two-minute dissertation on why <i>Deep Space Nine</i> is the best of the Star Trek series while dressed in full star fleet uniform. This movie even makes me like Wilmer Valderrama and I HATE Wilmer Valderrama.<br />
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~rave!</div>rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-22406855979810094312012-05-13T07:17:00.001-07:002012-05-13T08:05:56.620-07:00Hulk Like Me<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It turns out the problem with the two Hulk movies wasn't the CGI Hulks - because the one in the new <i>Avengers</i> movie is not significantly better than the one in the second <i>Hulk</i> movie - but the actors playing Dr. Bruce Banner. Mark Ruffalo wears the tortured soul of the good doctor as he brings a vulnerability, a fragile, bruised humanity to the character that has been missing since Bill Bixby played David Bruce Banner. He so inhabits the character that when Banner and Stark are going I.Q. to I.Q. on the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, you believe in his prodigious intellect and his overweening humanity, in way you wouldn't if the character had been played by one Eric Bana or one Edward Norton.</div>rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-12751031418083359692012-05-09T18:02:00.000-07:002012-05-09T18:04:14.450-07:00Wild Things‎<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Where the Wild Things Are</i> author Maurice Sendak dead at 83.
I used to read <i>Where the Wild Things Are</i> to my daughter (who is now 20) every night. She'd giggle every time I told her in my monster voice, "I could eat you up I love you so!" and every night we would conclude the book with me asking softly, "and who loved him most of all?" "His mommy," she would say before kissing me on my forehead and falling off to sleep.
~rave!rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-44261564357923269342012-04-22T14:15:00.006-07:002012-08-06T17:38:33.588-07:00Ballin' too hard<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs_xSWfoe3MAH_X3juISDAff6rvNJEejYWRY_CxYbnrakwa1SXNNySM4XDqAJ406DU6Q0RtRl0U6GP1rz_38v5umQhjW1duNItHtoap5MPKY6ZglbPZrttLZBKtb61KljFt2ALDX2DZRtS/s1600/0421-kim-kanye-west-splash-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs_xSWfoe3MAH_X3juISDAff6rvNJEejYWRY_CxYbnrakwa1SXNNySM4XDqAJ406DU6Q0RtRl0U6GP1rz_38v5umQhjW1duNItHtoap5MPKY6ZglbPZrttLZBKtb61KljFt2ALDX2DZRtS/s320/0421-kim-kanye-west-splash-2.jpg" width="284" /></a></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: center;"></div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><i>So I ball so hard muhfuckas wanna fine me </i></span><br />
<i>But first niggas gotta find me</i></div><span class="line"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="line"><i>What's 50 grand to a muhfuka like me</i></span></div><span class="line"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="line"><i>Can you please remind me?</i></span></div><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><span id="line_7" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><i>Ball so hard </i></span><span id="line_8" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><i>This shit crazy</i><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;">~Kanye West, "Niggas in Paris"</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;">Okay, <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2009/09/moon-man-madness.html">Kanye</a>, you win. I recant everything I have ever suggested </span></span><br />
<span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;">about your being gay ("not that there's anything wrong with that"). </span></span><br />
<span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;">Just please, please, PLEASE!!!! stop this Kim Kardashian nonsense.</span></span><br />
<span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;">I don't believe this relationship is any more real than your "relationship" with Shay the UK Bombshell</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCKCOXlCGPnIVQRl6NHCVoTJ-MwQc8g4evbGbajGDWr4gRx1FaRWLBnBjGD3X1kN5nlPNw_3nzgXPdh0f9sfFQN-PDUNZM3Ncfqsz1pKMp6nWZqas04Z_LzSS92v57TrYgHfo5VQ1xD5ek/s1600/kanye_wests_girlfriend.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCKCOXlCGPnIVQRl6NHCVoTJ-MwQc8g4evbGbajGDWr4gRx1FaRWLBnBjGD3X1kN5nlPNw_3nzgXPdh0f9sfFQN-PDUNZM3Ncfqsz1pKMp6nWZqas04Z_LzSS92v57TrYgHfo5VQ1xD5ek/s1600/kanye_wests_girlfriend.jpg" /></a></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;">Or your "relationship" with Amber Rose</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA-VFQrUhA9ALn_MKqOa5sbSNEcKdapDVP3kS01zHwDTDtsXhF9EItAYdVjnyTksVONkjHaoHAGkWAOyBZ9BKhQ5MXFoHqQzlBDrS89bAA1Kqj3EHiBclNknflUD8LZAU9DlHQuFgUA-dJ/s1600/6a00d834fd7f7353ef01156f346392970c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA-VFQrUhA9ALn_MKqOa5sbSNEcKdapDVP3kS01zHwDTDtsXhF9EItAYdVjnyTksVONkjHaoHAGkWAOyBZ9BKhQ5MXFoHqQzlBDrS89bAA1Kqj3EHiBclNknflUD8LZAU9DlHQuFgUA-dJ/s320/6a00d834fd7f7353ef01156f346392970c.jpg" width="242" /></a></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;">(<i>why does Kanye always look like he was photo-shopped into these pictures</i>)</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;">But those publicity stunts were relatively harmless. Ms. Rose went on to play wifey with Wiz Khalifa and the Bombshell carried on being ridiculously endowed. </span></span><br />
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</span></span><br />
<span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;">This Kardashian business, however, is toxic (holler at your boy, Lamar; give Kris Humphries a jingle). Nothing good will come out of it. Nothing good CAN come out of it. I mean, have you SEEN her sex video (with Ray J)? I have. So believe me when I tell you that even if I am willing to concede your non-gayness (and I AM, truly I am) not even the sex will be good.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;">Nothing good has ever come from putting three Ks together. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;">If, like noted cockhound Tom Cruise, you must persist in trawling for talent, trawl for TALENT. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;">I hear <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2009/03/scarjo-hotness-meter.html">Rihanna</a> likes to play.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzEAooSEDmQZ7wLH91SEz7ZtCktwen73MSUdate4O-kA0Hng1sO6Qllf62zKWuafPsdg4fPq_fom9SatIFquNcUxrBdZd7lwemhtT65-O8P7VLsiWVXiHn72ugdvKWq889gF8yP_gFydEg/s1600/ffp_8649980.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzEAooSEDmQZ7wLH91SEz7ZtCktwen73MSUdate4O-kA0Hng1sO6Qllf62zKWuafPsdg4fPq_fom9SatIFquNcUxrBdZd7lwemhtT65-O8P7VLsiWVXiHn72ugdvKWq889gF8yP_gFydEg/s320/ffp_8649980.jpg" width="241" /></a></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;">Or how about actress Lauren London </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuOonHq4KJedyi3maSpMwx_fTMwRbhHXChMDqZrgW6Ve7f8ACSIXlR483d7bq-9SBvd4ZYd0ZUTzQJ7HGI_HGwu6TPF3alGoRs4OVaaMvFRZAZGbtSSJSwGhh-TNxv6tjTmrBpA7cIFDbI/s1600/lauren-london-with-baby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuOonHq4KJedyi3maSpMwx_fTMwRbhHXChMDqZrgW6Ve7f8ACSIXlR483d7bq-9SBvd4ZYd0ZUTzQJ7HGI_HGwu6TPF3alGoRs4OVaaMvFRZAZGbtSSJSwGhh-TNxv6tjTmrBpA7cIFDbI/s320/lauren-london-with-baby.jpg" width="256" /></a></span></span></div><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;">(oh, no, wait...Weezy has already been there - done that)</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;">Duane Wade has locked up <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2009/03/scarjo-hotness-meter.html">Gabrielle Union</a>...</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOCw-VqnbS_pv1goi6eT4-SkA_LAo2lVZHzIKsxSgwHGHPrUmsCQJGyfdLxyxw6nUBFwsd0oHv7CDphweL8kdNF0QZUVGghtB2n0AOv3dLudynrI5e2hg7IEGjGSQfR1EUJ9kbmWgTI2eb/s1600/gabrielle2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOCw-VqnbS_pv1goi6eT4-SkA_LAo2lVZHzIKsxSgwHGHPrUmsCQJGyfdLxyxw6nUBFwsd0oHv7CDphweL8kdNF0QZUVGghtB2n0AOv3dLudynrI5e2hg7IEGjGSQfR1EUJ9kbmWgTI2eb/s320/gabrielle2.jpg" width="242" /></a></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"> but it is my understanding that <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2012/08/is-this-end.html">Meagan Good</a> is still available.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid9GQK0NWaUJwPQIv1k2adci_mCvX_AGbJFn0JrJpCPAGlO3p4wjs5OsJtK7enoSXSY5_a_DnCLmGDK4lXZw6jcjrpZHG4CWzA3Q39ntzy0hVfvXXrBWT6JOuTGqbhgObGvmWWKCtlIc9j/s1600/Meagan-Good-ICEDOTCOM1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid9GQK0NWaUJwPQIv1k2adci_mCvX_AGbJFn0JrJpCPAGlO3p4wjs5OsJtK7enoSXSY5_a_DnCLmGDK4lXZw6jcjrpZHG4CWzA3Q39ntzy0hVfvXXrBWT6JOuTGqbhgObGvmWWKCtlIc9j/s320/Meagan-Good-ICEDOTCOM1.jpg" width="213" /></a></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;">And Tyra Banks is still Tyra Banks (fool!). </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ85Tlpc-o17BuZB7dlcuC1hScq2rb7MQas9cerWp7qopURV9gM9juPaKC0v-59vxe_Iae2ilWbQYcmShJcb2iPVSJAvn5K5Ym9lE9s4cstuvFlu2ehAdUuWjHxmnEE7eDg7q7SX0RCcuC/s1600/tyra.webber+-+Copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ85Tlpc-o17BuZB7dlcuC1hScq2rb7MQas9cerWp7qopURV9gM9juPaKC0v-59vxe_Iae2ilWbQYcmShJcb2iPVSJAvn5K5Ym9lE9s4cstuvFlu2ehAdUuWjHxmnEE7eDg7q7SX0RCcuC/s320/tyra.webber+-+Copy.jpg" width="196" /></a></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;">'cept publicly dating Tyra Banks is damn near like ADMITTING YOU ARE GAY ("not that anything is wrong with that").</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="line"><span id="line_6" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;">This shit crazy.</span></span></div></div></div></div>rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-22235215521367151652012-04-01T08:56:00.003-07:002012-04-22T14:38:46.515-07:00Black like Me<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq_Qt4pBNbmAEv3vwjz7Y-eXJ3M5uus5Msr5NCFdgdZlDgnZ14jdB31DwlNovL-spDKTS4UkKCYaZk1GmbP8-ZjEteqqB7y53WiMbuZE3GIWrdvpVuH_YKPC-vzO-L1gL8DRb6LL7EMgWe/s1600/sofia-vergara-mobile-wallpaper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq_Qt4pBNbmAEv3vwjz7Y-eXJ3M5uus5Msr5NCFdgdZlDgnZ14jdB31DwlNovL-spDKTS4UkKCYaZk1GmbP8-ZjEteqqB7y53WiMbuZE3GIWrdvpVuH_YKPC-vzO-L1gL8DRb6LL7EMgWe/s320/sofia-vergara-mobile-wallpaper.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>I am often amused by the comedy stylings of conservative apologist Jonah Goldberg (<a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar/27/opinion/la-oe-goldberg-trayvon-martin-race-20120327">http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar/27/opinion/la-oe-goldberg-trayvon-martin-race-20120327</a>),<br />
but his ham-fisted attack on the phrase "white hispanic" borders on willful cluelessness.<br />
<br />
Back in the last millennium a white supervisor asked me what was the difference between a white Hispanic and a black Hispanic and I replied: What is the difference between a white American and a black American? <br />
<br />
It is that simple and nobody needs a score card to figure it out. Anybody that has seen a telenovela on Univision or Sophia Vergara on "Modern Family" knows what a white Hispanic looks like. Anybody who has watched Major League baseball and has rooted for Mariano Rivera or Alfonso Soriano knows what a black Hispanic looks like.<br />
<br />
If you can move into a predominantly white neighborhood and nobody moves out, you are a white Hispanic. If baseball has been "berry, berry good to you" you are a black Hispanic.<br />
<br />
First of all, Mr. Goldberg, it has nothing to do with whether or not one of your parents is white. So, no, <a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2010/02/little-black-girl.html">President Obama</a> is NOT a white African-American. If Mr. Obama was, in fact, a white African-American and looked like your brother-from-another-mother instead of "the other," he would be currently hailed as the new Ronald Reagan for his moderate Republican policies and not vilified as a wild-eyed radical.<br />
<br />
~rave!</div>rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-58672196525780361102012-03-27T19:28:00.020-07:002013-04-22T02:57:46.854-07:00Bite Me<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6VR5Xs9TbII06gcFMx_xDhOmTm-tWcsC5mz2cmfRexUr9x-l7msBK7XIHWIeCb-QM0Wx23vahnqKepWkN-U7lNTe_eQ_PxvFIorbdUn6WCi4HYV3rySmFk5ItPi753hYgAoko_fnnfkLP/s1600/being+human.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6VR5Xs9TbII06gcFMx_xDhOmTm-tWcsC5mz2cmfRexUr9x-l7msBK7XIHWIeCb-QM0Wx23vahnqKepWkN-U7lNTe_eQ_PxvFIorbdUn6WCi4HYV3rySmFk5ItPi753hYgAoko_fnnfkLP/s1600/being+human.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Has Toby Whithouse, head writer and chief cook and<br />
bottle washer of <i>Being Human</i>, added to werewolf/<br />
vampire lore? I was struck by two seemingly new twists:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">1) werewolf blood is like a stake through the heart for </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">vampires </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">(geez louise, wouldn't this knowledge have been </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">valuable to poor, sad-sack </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">George - Russell Tovey - two, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">three seasons ago? I mean, vampires were </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">practically taping </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">"kick me" signs to his back when they weren't kicking </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">sand in his face) and (2) vampirism is like drug or sex </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">addiction - you can </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">beat it if you have enough will power </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">and try really, really hard.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><br />
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">New vampire-in-residence, Hal (Damien Molony), isn't </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">feeding on </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">humans but unlike, say Edward, from </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Twilight, </i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">who feeds on small, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">furry forest creatures or Vampire Bill, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">from </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2008/11/blood-and-chocolate.html">True Blood</a>, </i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">who quenches </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">his thirst with synthetic </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">human brew, Hal doesn't seem to need to ingest any </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">bodily </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">fluids.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><br />
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Now the werewolf blood thing - well, I guess it would be </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">awful hard </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">to extract blood from a werewolf (for the express </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">purpose of killing </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">vampires). For one thing, you can only </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">harvest once every full moon </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">and werewolves are just plain </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">frickin' mean and onery until they </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">transition back to human. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">If you kill 'em they would probably transition back to human, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">and, if you </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">knocked 'em down </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">with a tranquilizer gun they<br />
would probably transition before you could "milk" </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><br />
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Still, werewolf blood kills vampires. Who knew? (Or did </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">werewolves </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">overcome and nobody told me?)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">~rave!</span></span></div>
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rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-79990072496768753832011-10-11T17:59:00.000-07:002011-10-11T18:22:44.616-07:00THX and Don Pedro Colley Superstar<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGxtDk-oYP5vDo3vuY34Mx87iKOs01jBAzFhpyzWCAbUSqTgvjogKRWj4J7_vd19IczITXfp1XluMYWZHXYI8LkCwar6IfITY_vL8_wIHmWZ1JGboPCNXOcR6YWhyERrAdJZ4EnTvjba6q/s1600/THX+1138.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 171px; height: 253px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGxtDk-oYP5vDo3vuY34Mx87iKOs01jBAzFhpyzWCAbUSqTgvjogKRWj4J7_vd19IczITXfp1XluMYWZHXYI8LkCwar6IfITY_vL8_wIHmWZ1JGboPCNXOcR6YWhyERrAdJZ4EnTvjba6q/s320/THX+1138.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5662405094640340786" /></a>I purchased a copy of George Lucas' redigitized "directors' cut"<br />of THX-1138 for Christmas.<br /><br />It is a fascinating time capsule but way more work than I am<br />inclined to invest in most cinematic offerings. Frankly, I fell<br />asleep during the first viewing which was akin to watching<br />Shakespeare performed by mimes. I employed the directors'<br />commentary option for my second viewing, which was like<br />watching a foreign movie with subtitles. Lucas admits that he<br />wanted THX-1138 to look and feel like a movie not only from the<br />future but from another country using another film language. On<br />this point he succeeds masterfully.<br /><br />Watching THX-1138 is initially a disconcerting experience as<br />pictures and the audio often do not match. Sometimes you hear<br />a sound for which there is no visual cue and vice versa.<br />Apparently, Lucas edited the film and his collaborator Walter<br />Murch edited the "sound montage" in the same room at the<br />same time but working separately, then Lucas would re-edit his<br />film to capture the sound and Murch would remaster his sound<br />to "match" Lucas' visuals. It takes a bit of getting used to. I can't<br />even imagine how disconcerting it would have been in 1971<br />without the subtext of the internet and one hundred and fifty cable<br />channels to orient you. The remastering with THX Dolby sound<br />is sumptuous.<br /><br />THX-1138 originally cost one million dollars. By comparison<br />"Beneath the Planet of the Apes," made at approximately the<br />same time, cost six million. Lucas managed to get all of his<br />money on the screen by use of some fortuitous circumstances.<br />Filming in the San Francisco area turned out to be among the<br />most fortunate. Lucas was able to use the finished by not yet in<br />commission tunnels of the BART subway system and a regional<br />AT&T switching station that was still functional but about to be<br />decommissioned, as AT&T prepared to switch from rotary dial<br />service to touch tone service, as sets. Also, Lucas was able to<br />satisfy his need for hundreds of bald-headed extras by using<br />members of San Francisco based Synanon, a AA type self-help<br />organization for drug addicts that morphed into a religious cult.<br />Synanon required all of its members to shave their heads.<br /><br />For all of the refurbishing and remixing, THX-1138 never quite<br />sheds its origin as a student film. The humor that Lucas and<br />Murch speak of in their commentary is so "dry" and film student<br />insular that you would not know anything funny was going on if<br />they didn't point it out to you. Also there is a mishmash of "big"<br />ideas that must have seemed bigger while on campus at USC.<br />It must have been hilarious in late 1960s and early 1970s to<br />create a society where the government would jail you for NOT<br />using drugs.<br /><br />Still, many aspects of the THX-1138 paradigm are startlingly<br />prescient. THX-1138 (Robert Duvall) works at an extremely<br />dangerous robotics factory (one of golden robot torsos looks<br />startlingly like a precursor of C-3PO) where the workers are<br />routinely drugged to steel their nerves and to steady their hands.<br />Still there are tragic accidents - Duvall's unit is commended for<br />only having a 158 casualties. A cog in a consumerist society,<br />Duvall stops on his way home to make an obligatory purchase<br />and to stop at a prayer kiosk.<br /><br />THX-1138 lives with his roommate LUH-3417 (Maggie McOmie).<br />On first viewing it appeared he was trying to hide his purchase (a<br />red diamond-shaped carton) from his roomie when, in fact, he<br />was doing an obligatory discard so he could purchase the same<br />thing again the next day. Murch explains that THX and LUH are<br />pronounced phonetically as "sex" and "love," and that is the<br />crime these two state-sanctioned platonic roommates are guilty<br />of -- being in love and having unsanctioned sex (not to mention<br />not taking their drugs which allows them to break the laws<br />against having sex and making love).<br /><br />After work and his obligatory consumer and spiritual<br />consumption, Duvall vegetates in front of the holograph<br />projector, channel-surfing through the offerings that consist of<br />soft porn, sadistic violence and insipid sitcoms. The soft porn<br />channel features fetishistic naked nubians while the comedy<br />channel looks like "Amos and Andy in the 21st Centry." The<br />channel Lucas dubs "the Rodney King Channel" features a<br />robotic policeman repeatedly beating a defenseless citizen with<br />his nightstick. This is the channel the anethesized Duvall<br />returns to repeatedly before settling in to watch it.<br /><br />SEN 5241 (Donald Pleasance) is the serpent in the garden<br />(SEN=Sin) except he doesn't tempt the couple until after he<br />witnesses them having sex. Pleasance develops a lust for<br />McOmie and plots to get her as his roommate. His actions and<br />Duvall's undrugged reactions lead to all three of them going on<br />trial. Duvall and Pleasance end up in state prison, a white-<br />washed void with no walls, ceilings, windows or doors. Duvall<br />eventually discovers that if you "free your mind, your ass will<br />follow."<br /><br />Enter the "Magical Negro."<br /><br />Like Punjab the genie from "Little Orphan Annie," SRT, the<br />hologram appears. SRT (Don Pedro Colley) is like something<br />out of Stephen King. He is out-sized, bald-headed, "magical"<br />and loves him some white folks. He shows Duvall and<br />Pleasance the way out of the void and back into the "free" world.<br />For some reason Colley is a surprisingly clunky "hologram." He<br />can be seen; he can't walk through walls; he can't drive a<br />souped up rocket car (but, not so surprisingly, Duvall can). Still,<br />Colley is an arresting presence. Such an arresting presence<br />that it is surprising his acting credits are as scant as they are (he<br />played "Negro" in "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" and Sheriff<br />Ed Little from Chickasaw County on "The Dukes of Hazzard").<br />With his height, stature and baritone voice, it is surprising Lucas<br />didn't think of him when casting Darth Vader.<br /><br />THX-1130 lives in an orderly society and when the cost of<br />pursuing him exceeds by 20% the amount the state allows for<br />recapturing escapees the search is called off. And that is the<br />way the movie THX-1130 is - ending, perhaps, when the money<br />ran out. The actual ending is one that may have been shocking<br />when the movie was made but has become almost cliche thirty<br />odd years later.<br /><br />Some interesting themes in the movie that hold resonance<br />today: in THX-1138 there is no evil empire or cabal. The Society<br />is the villian, but it is a suprisingly benign one (As Walt Kelly in<br />the guise of Pogo says, "I have seen the enemy, and he is us").<br />The police-robots are unfailingly polite and the state prison can<br />be walked away from if only one has the imagination and the will<br />to do so.<br /><br />~rave!rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-65739358676996853192011-09-28T19:14:00.001-07:002011-09-28T19:40:26.527-07:00Program of Interest<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGKt9NGu5QO2y8U16e0CcNqOXdoiP6NQHLvD4bv3ndO9XX56QoMfhfACYjOD3X0mxrZNWET-lPqxbsygAcpAgj4M3RdSxWfoiKfkIjw7h1s65QIsBRA2VNixWfkUSRODT1iHys0iB2hoJ3/s1600/person-of-interest-9.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGKt9NGu5QO2y8U16e0CcNqOXdoiP6NQHLvD4bv3ndO9XX56QoMfhfACYjOD3X0mxrZNWET-lPqxbsygAcpAgj4M3RdSxWfoiKfkIjw7h1s65QIsBRA2VNixWfkUSRODT1iHys0iB2hoJ3/s320/person-of-interest-9.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657602004665819314" /></a><i>Person of Interest</i> is a mashup of <i>The Bourne Identity</i> and <i>Minority Report</i> brought to you by the co-writer of <i>The Dark Knight</i>. I am not a Jim Caviezel fan but it appears he was born to play two roles: "The Christ" in <i>The Passion of... </i>and ex-CIA hitman, John Reese. Whereas the erstwhile Jason Bourne can't remember anything, poor John Reese knows what he was; what he did; and only wants to forget about it.<br /><br />When we are introduced to Mr. Reese, he is a bearded bum about to be accosted by a gang of obnoxious prep school boys (is that an oxymoron?). Tit leads to tat and Mr. Reese is taken into custody after dispatching the Breakfast Club with extreme prejudice.<br /><br />Watching the surveillance video from the subway car, Detective Carter (<a href="http://blackplush.blogspot.com/2009/02/mama-madea.html">Taraji P. Henson</a>) suspects there is more to the bearded bum than meets the eye. Using the old fingerprints on the glass trick, she runs his prints but before she can get a hit, Reese has been sprung by the enigmatic Fitch (Michael Emerson).<br /><br />Mr. Fitch is a billionaire inventor who has created the perfect all-invasive, all-knowing, all-seeing, post 9-11, super-surveillance network - except, after selling it to the government, he only has "backdoor" access to it, and to conceal his backdoor access, he can only extract social security numbers - or something. Anyhoo, he is able to determine that a crime is about to occur only not when or (apparently) to whom. All Fitch is able to do is determine a "person of interest." He needs someone to connect the dots and slowly convinces Mr. Reese to become his highly skilled blunt instrument.<br /><br />The set-up set, <i>Person of Interest</i> moves jauntily along with periodic bursts of brutal, well choreographed action, competently sold by the loose-limbed Caviezel, mixed with a healthy dose of social paranoia.<br /><br />If the notion of Big Brother constantly watching everything you do doesn't chill you to your bones, <i>Person of Interest</i> may be the show for you.<br /><br />~<span class="Apple-style-span"><i>rave! </i></span>rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-88169205146432939832011-08-21T11:38:00.000-07:002011-08-21T11:51:27.733-07:00Out-Source(d) Code<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP-ZFMo4S1oUs2x-GvaZ0BNpH-fndp_u6Zk63hvQBjIpEK4CJjOfjeSDSG56LsbqbYviLj33itPpqIwjsl9cryUGNG206rNxJHH0FnS2lAmewY7k39rd7PzDivYHzUyEPJoN5RuH9yWItm/s1600/Source-Code-Still.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP-ZFMo4S1oUs2x-GvaZ0BNpH-fndp_u6Zk63hvQBjIpEK4CJjOfjeSDSG56LsbqbYviLj33itPpqIwjsl9cryUGNG206rNxJHH0FnS2lAmewY7k39rd7PzDivYHzUyEPJoN5RuH9yWItm/s320/Source-Code-Still.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5643382614304871506" /></a><div>I have had a DVD copy of <i>Source Code</i> on hand for some time now but I decided to pop it in the VCR today. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>Verdict: I have decided this could have been a really good movie but, alas, it is just okay. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>About two decades ago, I was a huge <i>Doom</i> addict and a major part of the appeal of that game was getting killed over and over again but each time learning enough to eventually complete a level. And I thought it would be really cool if you could actually send a soldier into a dangerous situation, have him do recon, and then, when he inevitably gets killed, reboot him and have him do it again. It is a peculiar but beguiling brand of invulnerability. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>And I thought the movie could have done with a lot more of that. For instance, I wish Captain Colter Stevens (as played by Jake Gyllenhaal)'s deaths and reboots had been more visceral. Further, I could have done without the exposition - where Stevens asks and is told stuff. In fact, I could have done without all of Stevens' back story because it is irrelevant to moving the story forward. Ditto for the "boy-meets-girl" subplot involving Michelle Monaghan. The whole enterprise could have been moved forward strictly by what Stevens learns during his eight minute source code sorties. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>What should be the focus of the movie - finding a mad bomber - is actually a "McGuffin" - as the filmmakers appear more interested in questions of dying, existence, unfinished business and "what is fate?" - big questions all - but questions that have no business in this movie. I wish the filmmakers had trusted the audience more. Or, perhaps, I wish they had trusted us less. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>Some of the problem, I suspect, is the casting of Gyllenhaal. As blasphemous as this sounds, this would have been a much better movie if Keanu Reeves had been cast as Captain Stevens. This movie requires Reeves' blank, zen-like athleticism. There is almost too much going on in Gyllenhaal's eyes; in his face.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>The same can be said of Vera Farmiga's casting as Air Force Captain Goodwin. As an actress, she is so intelligent and sensual, her face is so full of "stuff," that like Captain Stevens, you just want to know more about her and it is distracting.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>Michelle Monaghan, however, is perfectly cast as Christina Warren, the girl Stevens meets on the train. She is so centered and present that you will believe a man would die for her - and do it again, over and over, until he finds a way to save her.</div><div>
<br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><i>~(no)rave! </i></span></div>rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6713779917093634047.post-28536685306405190812011-08-16T16:37:00.000-07:002011-08-18T16:08:39.113-07:00Hail Caesar!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjININ6EE7wNkuC6uOTxMNMKIY5JBKl7gFCC_FOXyTmp25oP9IJ-qcTKymtol5wX83TiyEvXBmNtRe_DPbusaKAqos8EilbMdEJgmFpK9JdoNN43CxKdl6-_YgLwc2riLXG5MDjfNIBCGNt/s1600/Caesar-Rise-of-the-Planet-of-the-Apes.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 182px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjININ6EE7wNkuC6uOTxMNMKIY5JBKl7gFCC_FOXyTmp25oP9IJ-qcTKymtol5wX83TiyEvXBmNtRe_DPbusaKAqos8EilbMdEJgmFpK9JdoNN43CxKdl6-_YgLwc2riLXG5MDjfNIBCGNt/s320/Caesar-Rise-of-the-Planet-of-the-Apes.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5641603647234052802" /></a>Rarely has a hero's journey been as finely delineated as it is in <i>Rise of the Planet of the Apes</i>. Caesar, as essayed by Andy Serkis, is a great cinematic creation. From his birth as the only spawn of a genetically re-engineered mother to his grabbing the mantle of a full-scale primate rebellion, the digitally rendered chimpanzee is as full blooded as Kenneth Branaugh's <i>Hamlet</i> and as fully realized as Paul Robeson's <i>Emperor Jones - </i>yet there is nothing tragic about this hero.
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<br /><i><span class="Apple-style-span">~rave!</span></i>rave!http://www.blogger.com/profile/05007083750299080438noreply@blogger.com0