Coffee and Cinema

Nachoooooooooo

2006-06-18T10:12:00.000-06:00

Some friends and I were discussing Nacho Libre, and one friend said this:

"I really, truly despise Jack Black, and I've never seen _Napoleon Dynamite_, although the excessive quoting of it (none of which sounds funny to me, but that could be the quoters) has put it in the "annoying" category for me. That said, the trailer for _Nacho Libre_ looked pretty funny."

To which I replied:

"I wouldn't suggest seeing it then. Or if you do see it, wait until it's at the discount theater. Basically what I would describe the movie as would be a blend of Jared Hess's Napoleon Dynamite type humor and Jack Black doing his Jack Black thing. Overall Black is pretty understated, which I liked. But every once in a while they give him a chance to do his Jack Black thing, which seemed to take him out of the character. Also, there were random fart jokes that didn't seem to fit in with anything in the movie except to try to go for the cheap laugh.

I might suggest seeing Napoleon Dynamite at some point, if just to see what all the hype is about and if you happen to like it. I enjoyed it, but I didn't love it to the point of quoting the entire movie whenever I got a chance. I'd say the same about Nacho Libre. So chances are if you see Napoleon Dynamite and don't hate it, then you probably won't hate Nacho Libre."

That's my basic review right there. I smiled and chuckled quite a bit during the movie, and even laughed a few times, but I wouldn't go so far as to say "Oh, you have to see that movie! It's the funniest movie ever!" (Some people told me that about Napoleon Dynamite, which left me disappointed.) I liked it quite a bit, I enjoyed myself, but I didn't absolutely love it.

MI3

2006-05-10T18:59:00.000-06:00

A co-worker and I were talking the other day about how an action movie, in order to be a truly great action movie, needs a truly great bad guy. Mission Impossible 3 fits the bill better than the trailers indicate. Philip Seymour Hoffman is, I believe, one of the greatest working actors in Hollywood today and seems to absolutely throw himself wholly into every role he plays. MI3 is no exception to that. If Owen Davien says, "Tell me what I want to know by the time I count to 10 or I will shoot (insert person you care deeply about) in the head" you'd better believe he's going to do it. He's that kind of evil, and a truly great action movie bad guy.

That said, you should realize by now that you can't judge MI3 by the first two. It's a completely different beast. J.J. Abrams makes his film directorial debut, and it's a great one. I think having directed tv shows such as "Alias" and "Lost" made the transition to film rather smooth. And I'm sure it doesn't hurt when you're working with such talent as Lawrence Fishburn, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead), Billy Crudup, and the list goes on.

Tom Cruise does his own stunts, and I think it makes a difference when you actually see the guy's face who is jumping off the roof of a building, or out a window, or being thrown into the side of a car by an explosion.

I'm having two online conversations and trying to write this review, so I'm not concentrating much. I guess I really can't think of anything else to say except that it's a really good movie and go see it for yourself. If nothing else, go see it for the Superman Returns, X-Men 3, Pirates of the Carribean 2, and Nacho Libre trailers before the movie. If only there were a Snakes on a Plane trailer... ;-)

Day off? What day off?

2006-03-30T17:33:00.000-07:00

I think in my last post I said something about writing about Syriana and Wimbledon on my day off, which would have been today. Unfortunately, the pregnant massage therapist at work who wasn't due until mid-May went to the hospital today, so I got called to take her shift. And then I'm taking her shift tomorrow morning and Saturday morning as well as my Friday and Saturday afternoon/evening shifts. I'm going to be one busy little massage therapist the next few weeks.

As far as Syriana and Wimbledon go... The basic message of Syriana is that America is evil and corrupt, which is what I expected of the movie. Also, I didn't like it because they killed off the only character I actually cared something about. Wimbledon isn't the greatest romantic comedy out there, but I think it's worth watching, especially for the director's commentary on all the different camera tricks they used, or if you like tennis and/or seeing Paul Bettany's rear end multiple times. Of course, you could just watch A Knight's Tale for that.

If there's any pet peeve that I have about romantic comedies it's that couples tend to fall madly in love in an unrealistically short period of time. I realize there are some people who do. I used to work at a summer camp with a guy who met his wife on a Monday, and that Friday he told her that the next week he was going to take her out on a date and ask her a question and he wanted her to be thinking about what her answer would be. But for a majority of us that isn't enough time to meet someone and get to know them well enough to know that you could live happily with them for the rest of your life. I told Brian after we watched Wimbledon, "If you ever make movies, and if you make a romantic comedy, can you make sure that it takes the couple longer than two weeks to fall in love?"

Chicken Little Walks The Line

2006-03-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

It's been over two weeks since I went to the discount theater for a double-feature of Chicken Little and Walk The Line. However, last week I worked all 7 days, and the week before that I worked all 7 days. I didn't actually have massages all 7 days. I went to the mall location to hang out and see if we got any walk-ins, and there were a couple of days where we didn't, so my "work day" consisted of hanging out with the receptionist to keep her from getting bored.

Anyway, back to the movies. I thought Chicken Little was enjoyable, though Brian would probably tell you otherwise. Ah well, that's why we only spent a dollar per ticket to see it. Although I thought it was enjoyable, it was definitely a kids movie. See, there's a difference between kids movies and family movies. Family movies are most of the movies that Pixar puts out - maybe aimed at children, but that everyone can enjoy. Kids movies on the other hand are movies that kids will enjoy but the parents might not. The most enjoyable things about Chicken Little for me were the soundtrack (especially the BNL song at the beginning, and the characters performance of "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart" at the end) and the voices. It's definitely an all-star cast with a lot of great cameos. I might be willing to see it again, but if I do see it again without all the energy of the kids in the audience I'm afraid I might be disappointed.

And for a complete change of pace, we went to see Walk The Line next. In the words of Christopher Walken... "Wow. Wowie, wow, wow, wow." Amazing movie. For a basic synopsis, see John Stewart's joke at the Oscars. "It's like Ray, but with white people." I thought that was one of the highlights of John Stewart's Oscar jokes. But my mind is all over the place. Back to Johnny Cash. My only beef with this movie is that they didn't go past 1969. I would have liked to see them go a bit farther into his life, if only just to show what a turn-around he had after the drugs. (Or, if only just to include "Man In Black" or "Boy Named Sue.") I'm a big fan of Johnny Cash, though admittedly I'm a fairly new fan. I didn't pay much attention until American IV: The Man Comes Around and that gorgeous music video for "Hurt." But now I can't get enough.

One more thing I'l say about the movie is that Reese and Joaxin acted their butts off. They definitely deserved those Oscar nominations (and win for Reese.) They did all their own singing, which I thought was great. If you're a fan of Cash, you can tell that Joaxin Pheonix's voice is not quite the same, but I think it's about as close as you can get without actually using Cash's voice. And considering that Cash's initial thought on who would play him was Johnny Depp...well, let's just say I love Cash's music, voice, and style, but I never thought he was all that pretty.

Alright, time for me to get ready for work. Maybe on Thursday (my day off) I'll write about Syriana and Wimbledon.

The Entrance to Narnia?

2006-03-01T23:17:00.000-07:00

No...just the entrance to our apartment complex. Really, I just wanted a chance to show off the Colorado sunset.

The Second Chance

2006-02-24T16:16:00.000-07:00

Last week I got an e-mail from a friend of mine. She got it from a from of hers, who got it from Steve Taylor.

"Those of you who know me, which should be everyone on this list, know that a deficit of talent, aptitude and funding has never stopped me from pursuing a new career.

The latest result opens this Friday, February 17th at a theater quite possibly near you. It's called THE SECOND CHANCE, it's been picked up by Sony Pictures Distribution, and despite my inexperience as a writer/director, it turned out reasonably well due to a number of factors beyond my control.

It's not like you owe me anything just because we're "email pals," but if you go to www.thesecondchancemovie.com you can find out if and where the movie's playing in your area. And I don't expect anyone to drive more than, say, six hours to buy a ticket (even though I'd gladly make the trek for your major motion picture debut).

Feel free to forward this to all your "email pals." I'm told that if enough of you pay to see THE SECOND CHANCE on its opening weekend, you'll send a "message to Hollywood." And if you should neglect to delete my email address when circulating this, you'll send a "message to Steve" to never again mark mass emails as urgent."

Anyway, on Tuesday after church Brian and I, along with a couple of friends, went to see it. It stars Michael W. Smith as the associate pastor of a suburban mega-church which has a sister church in the inner city that they raise money to support. The church board is not happy with Smith, so they send him off to work in the inner city church as punishment. From there, you can probably guess what happens. He deals with the things that he is not normally exposed to in his 'safe' suburb and ends up learning some life lessons and eventually feels God calling him to stay in the inner city.

Despite the predictable ending, the movie is actually pretty decent. I haven't generally been a fan of many Christian films, mostly because the quality just isn't up to par. I believe that God is a creative God. I also believe that God has called us to give Him our best. Between these two statements, I have never understood why our "best" as Christians can't be just as good as everything else around us. The Left Behind movies, and others in that vein, have not lived up in my opinion. The Second Chance is, I think, a step in the right direction. It certainly has it's flaws, but it's just about as good as you can expect a movie starring Michael W. Smith to be. The characters and plot, though somewhat predictable, come across as genuine. One of the ways I judge whether or not I like a movie is if I had an emotional connection with the characters and if the story draws me in. That was the case with The Second Chance. I think tears even came to my eyes at one point.

As I stated before, the movie has it's flaws. I wouldn't put it in my "top 100 movies of all time," but for what it is, it's pretty good. I would even go so far as to say it's the best Christian movie I've seen. I guess my thought process is that if we support The Second Chance, then maybe there will be another step towards bridging the quality gap between Christian and mainstream cinema. It probably won't last that long in theaters, so if you'd like to see it you might want to go this week. If not, I'm sure it will be out on dvd soon. I hate to be so negative about it's box office prospects, but when Brian, myself, and our friends went to see it, we were the only ones in the theater. In any case, it's worth seeing, if only to support Steve Taylor in his pursuing a career in film.

The Basics of Brokeback

2006-01-23T19:16:00.000-07:00

As promised, here's the rundown on Brokeback Mountain, or "the gay cowboy movie" as some people are refering to it. The basic plot is this: It starts in 1963. Enis, played by Heath Ledger, gets a job herding sheep on Brokeback Mountain for a summer, hoping to save up money for his wedding that November. The other man working with him is Jack Twist, played by Jake Gyllenhall. One night up on the mountain they get drunk...and then you can probably figure out what happens. They spend the summer on the mountain together with just them and the sheep, and they develop a very close relationship over the months - physically and otherwise. They go down from the mountain and part ways. Enis gets married and has a couple of kids. Four years later he gets a postcard from Jack saying he's coming through town. Enis' wife sees them kissing, though they don't know she sees them. From that point on, once or twice a year they go on "fishing trips" to Brokeback. But it was from that point that the damage was done. Enis eventually gets a divorce and can never live a fully normal life.

This paragraph reveals the end of the movie. If you don't want to know the end, skip to the next paragraph. Finally, years later on one of their "fishing trips" he confronts Jack about it, and they end up parting ways for good. After this Enis finds out that Jack has died in a car accident or something of that nature (he was filling a flat tire, he over-filled it and the hubcap flew off and hit him in the head or something like that.) Enis goes to visit Jack's parents and offers to take his ashes to Brokeback Mountain, where Jack had wanted his ashes spread. They say no, they have a family plot where he will be buried. But Jack's mother offers to Enis to go up to Jack's old room. There he finds one of his own old shirts from their first summer at Brokeback that Jack has kept all these years. He takes it home with him, and the movie ends with him just saying, "Jack, I swear..." and looking at his old shirt.

Now, I didn't really care for the ending. I thought it ended rather abruptly and didn't bring any sort of closure to anything at all. That said, it was a decently good movie. It was however far from being a great movie. In fact, I believe the only reason it's getting all the awards and attention that it's getting is because of it's homosexual themes. My problem with the movie was not that it was gay, but that it was being hailed as this wonderful movie that holds this epic love story. But gay or not, I don't consider an epic love story to be one person ruining another person's life. In fact, neither character showed any inclination of actually being in love. The movie, as I saw it, only showed that they both had this physical need for homosexual interaction. If it had been more of a Romeo and Juliet "star-crossed lovers" thing, then I might have liked it more.

It's my belief that the people who are protesting this movie probably wouldn't protest it if they actually saw it. Or rather, if they actually saw the whole thing and didn't walk out during the first intimate scene between the two characters. Now, I realize that everyone views things differently, and some people might really love this movie. But the movie I saw was not a gay cowboy movie, but a movie about a man whose life is ruined when he acts on a physical desire which is not healthy considering he is about to be married when he first acts on it. It causes a sort of addiction which leads him to live a half-life, not willing to fully give himself over to his wife or to his lover. The fact that his lover is a man holds no precedence in this case. You could replace Jake Gyllenhall with a woman, and change his wife (a great performance by Anne Hathaway and a wonderful departure from her usual "Princess Diaries" type role) to her husband, and it wouldn't change my opinion of the film one iota.

In conclusion, I would say it's worth seeing, if only to see what all the hype is about. But I would also add that it's worth seeing for the "bargain matinee price" that I paid for it, or at the discount theater. I think if I had paid regular movie price for it I would have been more disappointed that it was only "good" and not "great."

A newfound love of Jane Austen

2006-01-22T21:58:00.000-07:00

I recently finished reading Pride & Prejudice and am currently in the middle of reading Sense & Sensibility. I should have read them long ago. Back in jr. high and high school I didn't really read much except for the required school reading. I'm a slow reader and have a tendancy to switch words around sometimes and/or not comprehend something right away so I have to read it again. I wish I were a better reader though, because I love language. In high school I enjoyed a lot of the required reading because I had my choice of English classes, like Shakespeare studies.

I credit my 9th grade English Literature teacher for my love of Shakespeare, and of scripted works in general. My English Literature teacher loved reading plays that were currently playing at the local theater and then taking us to go see them. I had the pleasure of seeing a wonderful production of A Midsummer Night's Dream complete with fairies flying into the stage area from ziplines in the back of the theater, and even a production of A Doll's House starring Megan Follows (Anne of Green Gables) as Nora Torvald. Even though I struggled through the math and science classes, these experiences in high school really awakened my love of Shakespeare and of the English language. To this day my favorite movies are ones like State and Main which are written well with a lot of wit and wordplay.

...which brings us back to Jane Austen. Pride & Prejudice, starring Kierra Knightly, is playing at our local discount theater, so Brian and I went and saw it. I absolutely fell in love with it. I *had* to read the book. I loved the book even more. I had to read with a dictionary near by because I don't make a habit of using the elegnat and fanciful language of the Jane Austen novels, but even so I read it in less than a week. Considering what I said earlier about my being a slow reader, that is really saying something. After finishing Pride & Prejudice I started in on Sense & Sensibility. I'm not far into it yet, but so far I'm enjoying it almost as much.

I have yet to see the BBC miniseries with Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy, but I would certainly like to. I watched Bridget Jones' Diary the other day, in which Colin Firth plays another Mr. Darcy, and yet the same Mr. Darcy. The basic premise of Bridget Jones' Diary was taken from Pride & Prejudice. Mr. Darcy is a somewhat stoic character who does not posess the ease of conversing with people easily who he doesn't know. He takes a liking to the main female of the story, either Elizabeth or Bridget depending on which version you're reading or watching, but not before saying some negative remarks about her to someone else which she overhears. This makes the main female character despise Mr. Darcy. She meets another man who shows interest in her. As with Bridget this is her boss, played by Hugh Grant. In the case of Elizabeth Bennett, this is a Mr. Wickham. This new man is formerly aquainted with Mr. Darcy and tells our lead female a story of him that makes her despise him even more. Eventually the truth is revealed which proclaims Mr. Darcy to be innocent of what has been told of him and exposes the other man for what he really is. In the end Mr. Darcy wins the love of the lead female.

After re-watching Bridget Jones' Diary I was feeling in very much of a Colin Firth mood, and inspired by the recent indulgences in language, wit, and wordplay, I decided to follow it up with The Importance of Being Earnest. In high school when I was in the school play we did something called A Classic Festival. With narration between the scenes we went chronologically through scenes of classic plays throughout time. Mine was the last scene, and it was the scene between Gwendolyn Fairfax and Cecily Cardew in The Importance of Being Earnest, so that play holds a place in my heart. Oscar Wilde certainly did make use of that wit and wordplay which I've been talking about throughout this entire post. I enjoy Importance of Being Earnest immensely, and even more so on my re-viewing it the other night.

And that brings us full circle, back to Pride & Prejudice, via the exceptional Dame Judy Dench, who is in both films and turns in a phenomenal performance in each.

And now, to read another chapter or two of Sense & Sensibility before it's time to sleep. Maybe I'll write about my experience going with a gay friend of mine to see Brokeback Mountain later.

Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive!

2006-01-14T09:01:00.000-07:00

I don't think I can fully express my excitment for this film. I have been going to bluetights.net and following the production of this film since the beginning. I am going to see it opening day. I love this photo of Brandon Routh in the Superman outfit, but still with his Clark Kent glasses on.

www.calendarlive.com has more photos. Go take a look!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you....Kong!

2006-01-05T15:00:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know I haven't written much lately. If you've read Brian's blog or know us personally you probably know that I got a new job last month, which has been the source of much business.

When Brian and I were in Minnesota over Christmas we went to see Peter Jackson's King Kong. Turns out the show time we chose to attend was on the "Ultrascreen" at the movie theater. (Most likely known at other theaters as "Giant Screen" or "Megascreen" it is a screen that fills up almost the entire front wall of the theater.) It made for a Kong-sized viewing experience, that's for sure. Towards the end there's a shot where you watch Kong falling off the Empire State Building and the camera rotates as Kong falls which gave me motion sickness.

All in all, I liked it, but I thought it could have been a lot shorter. I would have cut out a lot leading up to their getting to the island, and maybe cut out a little bit at the island itself. However, there were three major things that stood out about Kong the most.

One thing was that I really enjoyed seeing Jack Black in a more serious role. I didn't quite take to the way Carl Denham was painted as more of a bad guy than in the original, but least they kept his original closing line the same. It's such a classic line, I think I would have been upset if they hadn't kept it.

The second thing was Adrien Brody and Naomi Watts. I found the on-screen chemistry between their charachters pretty convincing. Though, I think Adrien Brody is probably more talented than half the actors in hollywood so of course he was great in this role. Being significantly more bulked up than he was in say, The Pianist, I definitely bought him in the hero role as Jack Driscoll.

The third thing that stood out to me the most also involved Naomi Watts. Given how much technology has progressed since 1933 I would have been disappointed had they not deepened the relationship between Anne Darrow and Kong. They did a lot with his facial expressions to where he almost seemed more human that ape at times. Through their adventure on the island Anne comes to rely on Kong as a protector, and we even see some glimpses of friendship between them. Peter Jackson suceeded, I think, in causing us to feel for Kong. When it got to the end, even putting the motion sickness rotating shot aside, I really hated seeing him fall to the ground from the top of the Empire State Building. Oh no, it wasn't the planes. It was beauty killed the beast.

The Half-Blood Prince

2005-12-13T23:58:00.000-07:00

I apologize for not having written a more in depth review of Narnia yet. I've been a bit busy lately. I just started a new job as a massage therapist at a spa and have been in training all last week. I had my first client on Sunday, so hopefully things are settling in a bit.

In my review of The Goblet of Fire I mentioned the fact that I hadn't read the Half-Blood Prince yet. Well I finally got around to checking it out from the library and finished reading it tonight. I have to say, I think Order of the Phoenix will translate better into a movie than Half-Blood Prince. There's more action there. Half-Blood Prince is more about questions. It raises all sorts of questions and then answers them all in the last few chapters. I'd expect that when it's the Half-Blood Prince's turn to be made into a movie that quite a bit will be cut out from the beginning and the middle, and then the last few chapters of the book, starting from when Harry and Dumbledore leave the school, will make up a good portion of the movie. I have to say though, I don't think I'm looking forward to it. I love Alan Rickman, and I really wanted to like Snape. I felt sorry for him and understood his psychology a bit more in Order of the Phoenix. I really wanted him to be a good guy who was spying on the bad guys, not the other way around. I'm holding out hope that he still is - the seventh and final book isn't out yet. But now there are arguments to go both ways, so I have no idea.

It's after midnight here, I should get to sleep. In the meantime, go find the Mission Impossible 3 trailer online and watch it. I can't remember off the top of my head where it's at...Yahoo movies, aol moviefone, something like that. The link is over at aintitcool.com at any rate. I'm hoping that the HD version will pop up at apple.com/trailers soon though.

I enjoy watching my favorite actors play bad guys for some reason. Maybe that's why I like Snape so much. But I think M:I:3 will be no exception. Philip Seymour Hoffman's Mission Impossible bad guy, calm and controlled, telling Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) very matter-of-factly that he is going to hunt down and hurt Hunt's girlfriend then kill him in front of her. Creepiness at it's best, and I think it will really show Hoffman's acting range. I'm not much of a Tom Cruise fan, and honestly I could very easily skip this movie if it weren't for two things: Philip Seymour Hoffman, as previously stated is the first. In the trailer you also see a glimpse of Lawrence Fishburn, another great actor in my opinion. Mission Impossible 2 wasn't very good. But now I feel almost obligated to see the third merely because of those two actors. My prediction is that it will end up to be not a great movie *except* for the fact that Hoffman will steal the show. Go watch the trailer and judge for yourself.

Currently...

2005-12-03T12:23:00.000-07:00

Currently I am inside the Apple store at the Cherry Creek Mall in Denver. Why am I here? I just got out of a preview screening of The Chronicles of Narnia. First off I'll say that I went in with little expectations, which it easily surpassed. Seeing as I'm in the Apple store I won't take the time to write a full review just yet. Besides, I think I have to process it a bit and figure out what I'm going to write. One thing I will say, though...I absolutely loved Mr. Tumnus. James McAvoy. I personally haven't seen him in a whole lot except Band of Brothers. Even then I had to look it up on imdb.com because there's no way I would have recognized him otherwise, the two are so drastically different. But the moment Mr. Tumnus entered the scene I absolutely fell in love with the character. Two more things I loved about the movie were Liam Neeson and Tilda Swinton. Neeson was positively the right choice for the voice of Aslan. I don't think I could have imagined it any better. And as for Swinton, over the past few years she's been climbing up the list of my favorite actresses. After this movie she climbed up a few more notches. I think Brian is about done typing at the computer next to me so I'll wrap it up for now and write a full review later, once I've had time to think on it a bit more.

Another discount theater movie marathon

2005-11-28T11:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Brian and I took in three movies at our local discount theater. The Corpse Bride, Sky High, and Just Like Heaven. They were all pretty decent movies, but they were all very different.

The Corpse Bride I wouldn't exactly call suitable for young children unless your young child is already capable of coping with the idea of death. The basic plot is that Victor is extremely nervous to get married. He goes off for a walk in the woods to practice his vows. He puts the ring on what he thinks is a branch sticking out of the ground as he practices, and it turns out to be the corpse bride's hand. Confusion ensues with this groom-to-be suddenly finding himself married to a dead woman. He finds out that a few years ago she had been murdered on her wedding day and since then had been "waiting for her one true love to come and marry her." I thought the musical numbers were really good. Generally I'm a fan of Tim Burton's directing though I think he can go over the top with the whole "I'm a goth and I direct gothic movies" thing sometimes. I really do like the animation style. I've never seen Nightmare Before Christmas, but I think I might have to now. I'm sure we own it. (Head over to my husband's blog. I think he's got a link to a fairly good but not quite up to date list of all the movies we own.) With all three movies I saw yesterday I'd classify them as worth seeing, but definitely not among the best movies I've ever seen.

Sky High was the most fun movie we saw yesterday. It sort of takes the whole high school experience of trying to fit in and figure out who you are and translates that into superhero powers. Will Stronghold is a third-generation superhero and the product of two superhero parents. Not only that, but his parents are the greatest super heros in the world, so he's got a lot to live up to. Everyone expects him to have his father's super strength or his mother's ability to fly. As we find out, the people who fall into a vat of toxic waste or are bitten by a radioactive bug usually have their powers show up the next day, but kids who are born with either one or both parents with superhero powers sometimes don't develop their powers for several years. From the way it sounds in the movie superhero powers usually happen in puberty and Will is a "late bloomer."

The freshman are separated into the categories of "hero" and "sidekick" (or as they refer to theselves, "hero support.") Seeing as Will doesn't have his powers he is put in to the "hero support" classes. It's kind of like when teachers remember going to school with your parents or teaching your older siblings and remember how smart they were. There's a lot of pressure to live up to the standard that they set, even if you're not in the honors classes and you know you're not as good at math or science as they were. And to make matters worse Will's hero support teacher was once his father's sidekick.

There's an upper classman in the class named Warren Peace whose mother is a superhero and his father is a super villain. Will's father put Warren's father in jail, so Will finds that even though he has no powers yet he already has an arch enemy. During a confrontation in the cafeteria one day between Will and Warren, Will discovers that he has his father's super strength. He is then transferred up to "hero" class and as with all high school movies when the main character becomes popular they alienate their less popular (or in this case "hero support") friends. It all comes to climax at the homecoming dance where the villain attacks, Will admits he was a jerk, and his sidekick friends become heros themselves by saving the school from destruction while Will battles it out with the villain. (I hope that was vague enough that it didn't give away the details of the ending, like who the villain is and what exactly happens.) As I said, it was the most fun movie we saw yesterday. It was also the most cliched, but I think adding the element of super hero powers to the basic high school movie was enough to make it more watchable, and more fun.

I wouldn't suggest watching Just Like Heaven unless you love your chick flicks. It's a romantic comedy to it's core. Imagine Bill Cosby's Ghost Dad, but about a romantic relationship instead of a family relationship. There's a woman named Elizabeth, played by Reese Witherspoon, who is a doctor and spends so much time immersed in her job that she has no time to date. She gets set up on a blind date and is on her way there when she gets into an accident and falls into a coma. The family decides to sublet her apartment until she wakes up. Enter David, played by Mark Ruffalo, who sublets the apartment because he likes the couch. Elizabeth appears, doesn't realize at first that she's a spirit and tries to kick David out of her apartment. One she realizes what she is the two go on a journey for the rest of the movie trying to figure out who she is and how to get her back to her body. Over the course of the movie, being a romantic comedy, the two fall in love.

One thing I appreciated about this movie is that because she's not a physical being for a majority of the movie and thus can't solidly touch anything, there's no sex. I don't mind sex in a movie as long serves a purpose in the story and is either tastefully done or is done within the paramaters of the characters involved. Sex for no other reason than to show an actress' breasts on screen in a movie that could have stood on it's own very well without it really bothers me. It's very easy to imply sex or to not show anything and still have it serve the same purpose. Anyway, that's my tangent for the day.

After watching Just Like Heaven I was actually up for a fourth movie. But of course that fouth movie would have been Doom. I've heard it's great as a mindless action flick but don't expect anything more out of it. Maybe that will be one that we watch on "50 cent Tuesday." If it's really not good, at least I only spent 50 cents on it. :-)

Zathura!

2005-11-24T17:02:00.000-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving! We did our annual church Thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday night. Brian's co-workers all went to see their kids in other states for the holiday, so Brian and I had a pretty laid back Thanksgiving day. I woke up and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I love parades, and I love seeing all the floats and balloons in the Macy's parade. We made pancakes and sausage for brunch, then we went to see a movie. Brian and I have a friend that works at the theater so we got to get in for free. As the title of my blog suggests we watched Zathura.

Zathura has the same basic premise as Jumanji. The books were written by the same author, in fact. But Zathura is in space, which in my opinion makes it that much cooler. I don't know that it's something I'd pay full movie theater price for, but it's definitely worth matinee or discount theater price. Jon Favreau directed it, and I'm a pretty big fan of his work. I don't really know what else to say about it right now, especially since I'm getting hungry and we have some food in the oven that smells pretty good. Mmmm....food....

The midnight show

2005-11-18T16:06:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire comes out today. Last night I attended the midnight show. I love the midnight shows when movies come out because it's almost a garuntee that everyone there is *really* excited about the movie. There were lots of people dressed in the maroon and gold of the Gryffendor house. There was even a group of people dressed as just about every minor character there is in the books - there was a Lucius Malfoy, Victor Krum, Parvati Patel, Seamus Finnegan, and Luna Lovegood (complete with lion on her head.)

As for the movie, first I'll start out with my complaints. For those who haven't read the book but plan on seeing the movie, there are lots of spoilers ahead so don't read this if you don't want to know what happens. There's also a lot of book to movie comparison, so even if you've read the book but haven't seen the movie and don't want to know what's different then I wouldn't suggest reading it. Basically, this review is for people who have seen the movie.

The most major complaint I have about the movie is that the movie completely gives away the twist ending of the book. When I read the book there were hints throughout that Mad-eye Moody was actually Barty Crouch Jr, but they were only hints and didn't outright give it away. In the movie there's multiple mentions of polyjuice potion combined with the obviousness of Moody drinking out of his flask, then there's a time when Moody does this rather obvious tongue-flicking thing followed shortly by Harry's trip into the pensieve where he sees Barty Crouch Jr who does the exact same tongue-flicking thing. The whole thing about Moody drinking out of his flask is in the book, so I don't mind that. It's just that with everything combined it's more than just hints - it practically hands it to the viewer on a silver platter. "Hey, look! Moody isn't actually Moody, but he's really a bad guy!" If I were making the movie I would have left in some of the hints, but taken out the obvious tongue-flicking thing and Moaning Myrtle's mention of polyjuice potion.

My next complaint is that there is no mention of Veelas anywhere in the movie. I think the fact that Fleur is part veela adds a lot to her character in the book. In the movie, without her being a veela she's just some blond french girl that Ron has a crush on. She doesn't "shimmer" and she doesn't have that aspect of her character.

I really had hope for Hermione to not be so annoying from her performance in the last movie. In this one her eyebrows move up and down dramatically every time she talks. It's very distracting. But on the other hand, I was watching an "Inside Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" special on A&E last night, and in the interviews with Emma Watson she also moves her eyebrows up and down dramatically. So maybe it's not really Emma trying to act but one of her actual mannerisms.

I loved the dragons. Don't get me wrong, the dragons were cool. But in the book they make a big deal about how fast Harry was able to get the golden egg from the dragon. In the movie it's a very exciting chase scene that takes them all over the school. Although I enjoyed the chase scene I would have preferred that they show all four competitors' fights with the dragons and keep it true to the book.

Other things that I missed in the movie: The mention of Hagrid and the Beauxbatton's headmistress being half-giants. That become important in the next book, so I wish they would have set the stage for that in this movie. Then there's the fact that Rita Skeeter is an animangus and transforms into a beetle to listen in on conversations and get stories. Hermione uses this against her later, and also in the fifth book. I suppose they could leave that out of the fifth movie, but they'd either have to leave Rita Skeeter out or have her involved some other way. I also would have liked to see the scene where Mad-eye can see Harry through the invisibility cloak and rescues him from a situation with Snape. I think that would have contributed to Moody being a hero to Harry thus the ending being more of a surprise.

Now after all those complaints I don't know if you'll believe me that I really did like the movie. Ralph Fiennes pulled off Voldemort very differently than I imagined, but I think it works. Often times he is very proper and polite, but then you see the evilness of him showing through. Outside of Hermione's eyebrow thing, I think the kids have grown to be excellent young actors. Brendon Gleeson is absolutely genius as Mad-eye Moody. And I think the one thing I appreciated above everything else in this movie is that they eliminated the sub-plot about the house elves. I had enough of house elves in The Chamber of Secrets, and I couldn't be happier that they aren't in the Goblet of Fire.

I am definitely looking forward to The Order of the Phoenix. I know some people don't agree, but it's been my favorite book so far. (No, I haven't had the chance to read Half Blood Prince yet.) All my favorite characters that either weren't in Goblet of Fire or didn't have much to do all have bigger parts in Order of the Phoenix.

I love Alan Rickman as Snape. Well okay, I just love Alan Rickman. He's only got a couple of scenes in Goblet of Fire. There's the one with the mention of polyjuice potion, and then there's one really great one where he doesn't speak at all but he makes his point known. I loved that scene. In Order of the Phoenix he's got some scenes that really reveal his character a bit more, and I'd love to see those realized on the big screen. But until then, I'll just have to wait.

The Brothers Grimm and In Her Shoes

2005-11-15T15:30:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday Brian and I caught a couple of movies at the dollar theater. The first was The Brothers Grimm directed by Terry Gilliam, starring Heath Ledger and Matt Damon. In short, it was a popcorn movie. It's one of those movies that I'd suggest catching at the discount theater, buying a tub of popcorn and just sitting back and enjoying a bit of a mindless flick. Don't expect to get anything out of it, just go into it lightly and have a good time zoning out for a couple hours. The basic premise is that the brothers are self-made heros. They research tall tales passed down by generations, then they send their friends into the town of a story's origin to perform some special effects and make the stories seem real. When the townsfolk are convinced the threat is real, the Brothers Grimm come in and "save the day." But then they are directed by the French authorities to go to a town where it turns out there is a real threat. This is what Jacob Grimm has been hoping for - a chance to prove that these stories are real and to become a real hero. The brothers fight over a girl, they fight a werewolf, they fight the magic spell, and they win. (As far as fighting over a girl, the love the brothers have for each other wins out.) As I said, it's a popcorn flick. Worth seeing in the discount theater, but I don't think I'd have paid $7.50 for it.

In Her Shoes was a little better. It's a chick flick. See it with your sister or your girlfriends. It's the story of two sisters. The older one, Rose, is a lawyer - very organized and put together, and has always had to look after and protect her younger sister. The younger one, Maggie, has never had a stable job in anything other than waitressing or retail. She's ten years out of high school and still has no idea what she wants to do with her life. Their mother was mentally unstable and committed suicide when they were young. After their mother died, their father was afraid that their grandmother would blame him for their mother's death so he shut her out of their lives. The grandmother sends birthday cards to her granddaughters every years, which the father stashes away. One day, after a major fight with her sister, Maggie heads over to her father's house. Digging through her father's things in search of cash, she discovers the birthday cards. So she heads off to the retirement community in Florida to meet the grandmother she never knew about.

It's really about the turning point in these sister's lives. Maggie grows up tries to make something of herself. Rose learns that she can't and shouldn't always protect her sister. For me sometimes what makes a good movie is if I can feel like I emotionally connect with the characters and understand what they're going through. Maggie has a learning disability and is a very slow reader. I never had difficulty reading to the extent that Maggie does, but I was always a bit slower than the others in my class. My sister was always the more put together of the two of us.

There was one scene which was particularily poigniant for me in which Rose and Maggie are talking to their grandmother about their childhood memories. The differences in what they remember are very revealing about each of their personalities and coping mechanisms, and how much Rose really did try to protect Maggie from. I don't think either of my parents was mentally unstable, but they did have their share of fights when I was young (once my sister and I were both married and out of the house they got divorced.) My sister was like Rose, the peacemaker between her parents. I was in my room listening to music, like Maggie. With such similarities I have to wonder about the psychology behind it. Are the peacemaker and the protected one typical roles for children whose parents are fighting?

Even though the story was a little more extreme than my own, because of the similarities that existed I couldn't help but enjoy this movie because I felt a connection to it. The ending was a little cheesy, but overall I thought it was a good story that was executed fairly well and was a little more realistic than some other movies out there.

Tristram Shandy

2005-11-14T09:24:00.000-07:00

On Saturday Brian and I drove up to Denver to take a film at the Denver International Film Festival. I wish I could have seen more than one. The local radio movie critic had been attending the festival and had seen 27 movies in the course of 5 or 6 days. I don't know that I'd go that far, but I would have loved to see some scandanavian cinema and maybe one that was a Portugese take on 50's noir.

The film we chose was a British film called "Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story." There is a really good review of the film over at aintitcool.com right now which is probably much more eloquent than I could ever be, but I'll give it a try. Tristram Shandy is about the making of an unfilmable film. A handful of the cast actually plays themselves playing the parts in the film that we are watching being filmed. Most notably Steve Coogan and Rob Bryndor, who play themselves playing the parts of Tristram Shandy and Captain Toby Shandy. Have I confused you enough yet?

All in all I would classify it as a comedy, but it doesn't quite fit the mold. As we watch the movie being filmed we are also watching some of the off-camera lives of the actors. Coogan seems to never have time for his girlfriend Jenny, played by Kelly MacDonald, and their new baby. That relationship is never treated with comedic effect. In fact, there's a very touching scene in which Coogan sings his son to sleep. I really liked the way director Michael Winterbottom handled the relationship. But on the flip side of that there's a running bit with Rob Brydon's teeth and one about Steve Coogan's shoes. There's also a scene with a hot chestnut that made me laugh quite a bit.

I'll have to see it again when it comes out in theaters to really dig into it a bit more. For now, if you want to know more I'd suggest going over to aintitcool.com and reading the review there.

It's movies...with orchestra music!

2005-10-26T15:15:00.000-06:00

The title of this post is a phrase I heard from my husband quite a bit a couple of weeks ago. I should have posted about it when it was fresh in my mind, but I don't get around to posting here as much as I probably should.

On October 15th Brian and I attended "A Symphonic Night At The Movies" performed by the Colorado Springs Philharmonic Orchestra. It was a lot of fun. There was a movie screen that played scenes from classic movies while the orchestra played the score. There were four clips, then an intermission, then three more clips. The first half contained the Empire State Building scene from the 1932 King Kong, two clips from The Yearling (the boy finding the fawn and the running of the deer), and the Mount Rushmore scene from North by Northwest. The second half started off with the classic Robin Hood. Errol Flynn, not Kevin Kostner. Following that was Phantom of the Opera, and then the big finale. The finale was the 17 minute ballet starring Gene Kelly at the end of An American In Paris.

It was a lot of fun for me. I love classic cinema, so this was a real treat. If your local Philharmonic orchestra does a Symphonic Night At The Movies, I'd highly suggest going.

To Austin and back

2005-10-11T14:58:00.000-06:00

Last Wednesday Brian and I headed for Austin, Texas and we arrived back home last night. Some friends of ours were getting married and Brian was a groomsman in the wedding. He put a couple pictures up on his blog, if y'all would like to see them.

I love Austin. The weather was a bit cold the first day or two, but after that it was just perfect. It was really great to be at Becky and Matt's wedding, to see our other friends, and to just hang out in Austin for a few days. But the real star of our trip was the food.

We left Wednesday night and took turns driving through the night to arrive Thursday morning at our friends Lisa and Robert's house. We went to Freebird's for lunch, and I had a quesadilla. (www.freebirds.com) That night was the wedding rehearsal, and of course the rehearsal dinner. We ate at Buca de Beppo. All the food was pre-ordered, so we just sat down and they brought it to us. Matt (the groom) didn't think two entrees was enough, so he ordered five. So...much...food... I don't even remember what all I ate. I just remember that after serving us bread, salad, and a whole lot of entrees we got huge pieces of cheesecake. It was one piece per two people, but I still don't think anyone finished it. After being so stuffed, I was ready to get some sleep.

Friday morning Lisa (a bridesmaid) and I headed out to pick up Jo (the other bridesmaid) and go help set up the reception area and get everything and everyone ready for the wedding. We stopped on the way at a place called Taco Shack which has the best darn breakfast tacos I've ever had. We dropped our stuff off at the Bride's cottage and went to the reception hall to see what needed to be done. After a little while, Lisa, Jo, and Becky (the bride) went to get their hair done. I spent the day doing odd tasks and just helping out wherever I could. Lunch was just sandwiches and goldfish crackers for the most part. Besides, we didn't want to eat a whole lot because we were having barbeque for dinner. Before Becky got into her dress, I got to give her a half an hour massage. After the massage I gave her a couple of books to read on her honeymoon. Well, not that they'd want to be doing a whole lot of reading in Tahiti. But I got her "The Good Girl's Guide to Bad Girl Sex" which is actually a lot more about self-confidence, and then I gave her a book called "Sheet Music" which is a marriage/sex book written by a Christian psychologist and marriage counselor. They are both really good reads and really helpful for newlyweds.

The wedding itself was fairly short - only just over half an hour. But it was lighthearted overall and very fun. At the reception there was lots of chatting and dancing, and a whole lot of food. Rudy's BBQ catered the reception. (www.rudys.com) and it's probably my second favorite barbeque place to go to when I visit Austin. They had three different kinds of meat, of which I had some of each, and then they had beans and some really good creamed corn and potato salad. For meat there was brisket, sausage, and turkey. I think one of the signs of good barbeque is if the meat is so tender and flavorful that it doesn't need sauce. But of course, if you've got a good "sause" like Rudy's does, then you want to bathe the meat in it anyway. The reception wound down and we bade farewell to the newlyweds, who were off to a hotel for the night then to Tahiti for their honeymoon. Again, it's time for sleep. On the way home Lisa was so tired she was debating taking small naps at the stop lights.

Saturday morning we slept in. After a big wedding day yesterday, we just spent the morning sitting around the house doing not much of anything. We called up Jerry and Julie (other friends in town for the wedding) and met them for lunch at Chuy's. (www.chuys.com) The one thing I love almost as much as good barbeque is good Tex-Mex. Jerry ordered the Elvis Prestley Memorial Platter, which comes to you on two plates, and almost finished the whole thing. I have to say, the creamy jalapeno dip is wonderful. I could have filled up on chips dipped in creamy jalapeno if I hadn't stopped myself to save room for my lunch. I had the number five combo - Chicken Chalupa and Chicken Enchilada.

After Chuy's we walked around and saw the sights for a while. We went to Mount Bennell, which isn't really a mountain but it's the highest point in Austin and you can get a great view. After that we went to a park and walked along the river for a little while. Even with all the walking we did, I still wasn't hungry for supper. We went back to Lisa and Robert's house to watch tv and/or sit at the computers. Somewhere around midnight I think Lisa, Brian, and I went to pick up Lisa's son Bradley at school (he had an all-day band competition) and stopped off at Taco Bell. Not nearly as good as the Tex-Mex we had for lunch, but Brad was hungry and there's not much open after midnight.

Sunday we got up and went to Lisa and Robert's church, Gateway. After church we met Jerry and Julie yet again for lunch. This time at the best barbeque place I've ever been to. The Salt Lick. (http://www.saltlickbbq.com) It's served Family-style, like Buca. But they just keep bringing you more and more food. Your table will get just over halfway done with the plate of meat, and the waitress will come by and offer to "top it off" for you. And then she'll take your plate and bring it back with a new large pile of meat on it. And after you've had your fill of bread, cole-slaw, beans, brisket, pork ribs, beef ribs, and sausage you can box up whatever's left on your table and take it home.

After Salt Lick, we decided to bum around Austin for a while and went to a used CD store called Cheapo, which is also in St Paul. It's weird - there are only three cities that Cheapo is in - St Paul, Denver, and Austin. After that we went to the uber-huge Whole Foods. We spent most of our time at the chocolate section. They've got a chocolate fountain behind the counter, where you can purchase fruit like strawberries and pineapple and they'll dip them in chocolate for you right there. They've also got about 10 different kinds of fudge, also about 10 different kinds of chocolate bark, chocolate covered smores, various different kinds of chocolate treats, and more kinds of truffles than I've ever seen in my life. Brian got a chocolate covered smore and a small piece of rocky road chocolate bark. I got a chocolate fruit cluster (a cluster of berries that had chocolate drizzled over it so they all stick together), a cinnimon coffee chocolate candy, and a chai truffle. It was all very good, but that chai truffle was my favorite. It was absolutely delicious.

We said goodbye to Jerry and Julie after that so they could leave for the airport. Then Brian and I introduced Lisa to the joys of the no art dvds at Movie Trading Company, which are currently on sale 5 for $20. After that we went to the building site for Gateway church's new building to see the progress. It's really coming together, but there's still a lot to be done. They're hoping to be in it by January. Then we headed home and like Chuy's the day before, we weren't hungry for supper. We sat around and just hung out, watched tv, played on the computers, and went to bed. Then we got up the next day, put everything in the care, said goodbye to Lisa and Robert, and got on the road around 8:30am. We stopped at Rudy's, the place that catered the wedding, for some breakfast burritos and sausage wraps. The breakfast burritos are build-your-own there. You choose from a whole list of things what you'd like on your burrito, and they make it to order. It's very good. From then on it was fast food for lunch and supper on the way home. When you're on the road for 14 or 15 hours and you're anxious to get home, that's what's available to you. We stopped at a McDonalds for lunch and used the bathroom there. The sinks in the bathrooms were shaped like the state of Texas. Texans really have a lot of pride in their state, I guess. We pulled into our apartment complex, unloaded the car, and went straight to bed. After this trip, I don't think I'm going to be eating out for at least a week.

The blending of coffee and cinema

2005-09-26T18:20:00.000-06:00

Today I went in to work and found a list that the night crew from last night had made. They made a list of drinks they'd made up that we could rotate through as a "drink of the day." My favorite ones, of course, were the ones that had to do with movies.

The Black Pearl (or the Captain Jack)
A mocha with Butter Rum flavored syrup.

The Magnum (or the Zoolander)
"Orange Mocha Frappuccino!"

and my personal favorite...

The Forrest Gump
A mocha with a random flavor added

Because after all: "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."

My review of Cat Ballou

2005-09-10T14:13:00.000-06:00

Harry Knowles, of aintitcool.com, put his review up here. http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=21211

I figured I'd expand on what he wrote a little bit and write some of my own experiences. We arrived there pretty early, The Alamo Drafthouse crew were still setting up. We talked to a few of them, hearing stories of the Rolling Roadshow tour so far. It was a pleasure meeting Tim and Karrie and the rest of the crew, and I thank them for bringing the Roadshow to Colorado.

Though all the buildings were closed down for the day, we were still able to wander through the town. I didn't get a chance to walk through the haunted mine, but we did wander down the main road and took a few pictures of signs and cutouts Buckskin Joe's had set up.

The movie itself was great, but what pulled it all together was the experience of watching it in this little western town where it was filmed, buying our popcorn and soda from a cowboy in the saloon, being able to pet the horses and goats, and watching the Alamo crew feed doritos to the donkey. If you look close in the picture, you can see the remnants of dorito cheese on the donkey's lips. He really loved those doritos!

Before the movie started, there was a beautiful sunset which just added to the natural beauty all around us.

The kid in the picture, by the way, is Harry's nephew. I thought he was very well behaved that evening considering the stories I'd heard about him from the Alamo crew.

Though the movie starred Jane Fonda, I agree with Harry Knowles that Lee Marvin really stole the show. He played two characters, though he essentially played three. He plays Strawn, the gunman that the town hired to kill Cat's father. Then he plays Kid Shelleen, the gunman Cat hires in response to the town's hiring a gunman. Kid Shelleen shows up at the Ballou ranch a drunk and washed-up gunfighter. Later in the movie he undergoes quite the transformation back into the Kid Shelleen he used to be - the proud gunfighter who wasn't afraid to defend his honor and the honor of his friends. To be honest, once he cleaned up I was actually rooting for Kid to win over Cat's heart rather than Clay Boone.

This picture is obviously a very drunk Kid Shelleen.

And of course, there were the musicians. Nat King Cole...well, if you followed the link at the beginning of this blog you'd know about Nat King Cole.

I felt bad that there weren't more people there. I guess they tried to get some publicity in Denver and Colorado Springs, but the response was something like "Oh, that's out of town...we don't really deal with that." It's too bad, really. I would have loved to have seen the place packed out. But at the same time, it was so much more intimate having only a few people there.

They had Cat Ballou posters for sale, as well as posters from some of their other screenings. We ended up buying two posters. Cat Ballou of course, and we also bought Once Upon A Time In the West. If we'd had more cash on us, and if they hadn't been out of Close Encounters posters, we probably would have bought more.

Well, here's to The Alamo Drafthouse - without a doubt the coolest movie theater in the world.

It's All Gone Pete Tong

2005-09-06T17:49:00.000-06:00

The other day I watched a british movie called "It's All Gone Pete Tong." I have to say, I fell in love with this movie. I'm sure it won't reach everyone the way it reached me, but I loved it nonetheless. The movie is about a DJ named Frankie Wilde who ends up going deaf. As a DJ, someone who makes his living with music, going deaf was a tragedy. He watches his life crash all around him. He loses his job, his wife leaves him and takes their child. Then after several months of solitude and beating a drug problem, he re-emerges into society. He ends up meeting a deaf woman who teaches him how to read lips, so he can re-learn to communicate with those around him. Then, in what I thought was a wonderful scene, he realizes that he can still be a DJ even though he can't actually hear what he's playing. When it comes out on dvd it's definitely worth watching.

Another movie I watched yesterday was a movie called Cat Ballou. Harry Knowles, who runs aintitcool.com - a movie news website, was there and will be posting his own review soon. Once he posts it, I'll post a link and maybe write some of my own experiences. He's been touring with The Rolling Roadshow screenings and his reviews of all these unique cinematic experiences are much more eloquent than anything I could come up with. I highly suggest heading over to aintitcool.com and reading up on them.

25th Anniversary

2005-09-02T16:10:00.000-06:00

As you walk in the door to my apartment, in the entry way you see a large poster with a picture and some writing.

"It's 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it."

The picture above this text is of two men dressed in suits posed on the hood of a 1974 Dodge Monaco with an Illinois license plate. Their names are tatooed across their hands, one letter on each finger. The taller, skinnier one's hand reads "Elwood" and the shorter one's hand, which is holding a cigarette, reads "Jake." Obviously it's dark...and they're wearing sunglasses.

Why do I mention the oversized poster in the entryway of my apartment? Because this year marks the 25th anniversary of the classic comedy film that this poster depicts - The Blues Brothers.

After the release of Jake Blues from prison, he and his brother Elwood visit the orphanage where they were raised by nuns. There they learn that the church has stopped it's support and will sell the place in 11 days unless the tax on the property is paid. The brothers decide to raise the money themselves by getting their blues band back together and playing a big gig. But on the way they're making enemies everywhere they go.

But as the tagline says, "They'll never get caught. They're on a mission from God."

The Rolling Roadshow

2005-09-01T22:25:00.000-06:00

One of the coolest movie theaters I've ever been to is in Austin, Texas. The Alamo Drafthouse. Two years ago my husband and I attended a 24 hour film festival there called Butt-Numb-A-Thon (hosted by aintitcool.com's Harry Knowles.) Brian and I have some friends in Austin, and are usually down there at least once a year. Every time we're in Austin, we try to make it a point to go see a movie at the Alamo. But now, the Alamo comes to us....sort of.
Alamo Drafthouse is doing a sort of movie tour called The Rolling Roadshow. They're going all over, showing all sorts of movies. I really wanted to get some friends together and make a trek to Wyoming for the weekend, so we could catch Saturday's showing of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" at Devil's Tower. Unfortunately, several other people at Peaberry need the weekend off (one of whom is getting married), which means I have to stay and work. It's too bad, I was really looking forward to that mashed potato carving contest. :-)
Ah well, at least the next stop on the Rolling Roadshow tour is here in Colorado, only about a 45 minute drive away! Monday - Labor Day, Brian and I will meet some friends in downtown Colorado Springs and carpool to a place called Buckskin Joe's near Canon City (there's a tilde over the first n, so it's pronounced Canyon) and watch a western movie called Cat Ballou. I haven't heard a whole lot about the movie, except that it was nominated for five Academy Awards back in 1966 and won one of them.

http://www.originalalamo.com/online_tix/show_details.asp?show_id=2661

That's the website with the details on the showing. If you're in Colorado, I'd highly suggest heading out to it. I'll be there!

Eating the beans

2005-08-25T16:13:00.000-06:00

A woman came into Peaberry today and bought a pound of Sumatra Mandhelding beans. We have two versions of the Sumatra - "Rich and Creamy" and "Dark and Intense." A darker roast can create different undertones in the flavor and also bring out the boldness a little more. And for those who are not aware, the darker you roast the bean the less caffeine it has.
Anyway, she bought the Rich & Creamy Sumatra and left the store. A few minutes later she came back in and bought a pound of Dark French Sumatra. ("Dark French" being the roasting style.) She told me, "I have a bean eater in the car. He eats the bean straight up to see if it's something he'll like brewed. He said he liked it, but he'd like to try some of the dark roast as well."
I can eat chocolate covered espresso beans, but I don't know if I could eat a coffee bean straight up like that. Maybe a flavored bean, but certainly not an unflavored one. But then again, I've never tried. It's interesting tasting the differences, sometimes subtle and sometimes not so subtle, in brewed coffees from various regions. Can you tell those differences in eating the beans? Maybe I'll have to give it a try sometime.

My new coffee shop

2005-08-22T11:47:00.000-06:00

I'm not at Gloria Jean's Coffee any more. I'm now working at a coffee shop that was started in Denver and just expanded to Colorado Springs. Peaberry Coffee. I had a half hour plus commute to Gloria Jean's, and am now only 6 1/2-7 miles away from where I work. And with gas prices being what they are, I've begun biking to work. It takes me about half an hour to bike there (mostly downhill) and 40 minutes to bike back (mostly uphill.) Biking there in the mornings is really relaxing and wakes me up. I love it when my shift allows me to bike to work just as the sun is rising. I should bring my camera with and take some pictures someday.
The other day I had to be at Peaberry at 7, which meant leaving at 6:25 (to get there at 6:55 and have time to change into my work clothes.) The sun was still rising. It was high enough to where all the beautiful colors had gone away, but there was still this soft white glow illuminating the city. I found myself wondering how many people were up at that time, and how many of them were high enough to be able to look down at the city and see that. It looked so beautiful and innocent, like one of those little miniature towns that you see set up at Christmas time - but without the snow.
I think I'm going to enjoy my morning rides.

More on religion in cinema

2005-07-27T21:23:00.000-06:00

A friend shared this article with me recently.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/07/19/business/christians.php

It's an article entitled "Hollywood's newfound passion for Christ." I think it does a decent job of showing both sides of things - both sides being Hollywood and Christians. I'm a film geek, and in being so am something of a film snob. Most Christian movies I've seen have been sub-par. As Christians aren't we called to offer God our best? If the answer is yes, then in my mind there are two possible explanations for the sub-par cinema. A) Christian film-makers are not making the best movies they can make, thus not offering God our best. B) If that's the best we have to offer right now, we have a lot of growing to do. Here is my breakdown and comments on the article.

"Mainstream Hollywood, after decades of ignoring the pious - or occasionally defying them with the likes of Martin Scorsese's revisionist "Last Temptation of Christ" and Kevin Smith's profane parody "Dogma" - is adjusting to what it perceives to be a rising religiosity in American culture."

I can't comment on "Last Tempation of Christ" - I haven't seen it yet, but it's on my long list of movies to watch. "Dogma" however is a movie that I really like. I don't think Kevin Smith was trying to "defy the pious" with Dogma, as he himself claims Catholicism. Yes he's profane, but I think the movie brings up some interesting questions and ideas, and also addresses some issues and assumptions Christians have made regarding theology. For instance, our treating theology as solid fact, which is the origin of several splits in denominations. But as a former pastor of mine once said, "There are some basic truths at the heart of Christianity. The rest is just theology, and theology can be changed." As for the rising religiosity in American culture...I think I see that, but it could just be due to the fact that two years ago I moved to Colorado Springs, which is like an Evangelical Mecca.

"Mel Gibson did us a service," said Bob Waliszewski, a media specialist with Focus on the Family...
"The Hollywood elites' eyes widened big time," Waliszewski said. "They said, 'I thought the church was dead. I didn't think people cared. Is it possible that we don't know what's happening in state after state?' And the answer is a resounding yes."

I'm not sure Mr. Waliszewski is entirely correct in this statement, and I think quotes from people in the movie industry later on in the same article are pretty clear how the "Hollywood elite" views Christianity. But I do think that Hollywood has lost touch with reality and doesn't know what is happening in state after state. Whether they realize that they've lost touch is another issue. Did Mel Gibson really do us a service? Right now, I'd have to say yes and no - but only time will tell. Yes, because it bodes well for Christians trying to make it in the movie industry. And no, because there seems to be an influx of the sub-par Christian movies that I made mention of earlier and of Hollywood movies that are poorly crafted specifically to attract a Christian audience (which it may or may not do.)

"There's definitely more of an awareness, but it's just another group to be marketed to, albeit a very strong one, with incredible grass-roots tentacles," said Russell Schwartz, president of theatrical marketing at New Line Cinema, a Time-Warner company.
The vice chairman of Universal Pictures, Marc Shmuger, said, "It's a well-formed community, it's identifiable, it has very specific tastes and preferences and is therefore a group that can be located and can be directly marketed to."

These quotes are the reason I mentioned that Mr. Waliszewski may not have been entirely correct. Yes, the Hollywood elites' eyes may have opened...but it seems they have opened to "another group to be marketed to." You could even say that their eyes widened to another way to make more money. I have to say, I can't help but feel somewhat offended by that. My faith has helped to get me through some really hard times and God means more to me than anything...and yet, that places me in "a group that can be located and directly marketed to." I am far from the conservative right-wing Republican Christian who lives in a self-made Christian bubble, and I feel as if that's who is being marketed to. Maybe that's why movies like Left Behind, Carman's 'The Champion', and Extreme Days don't make my top 100 movies of all time. But does that go back to the conservative Christians being satisfied with sub-par cinema?

"Paul Lauer, who on his Web site calls himself an expert in the "faith and family" market, has been hired to work on "The Chronicles of Narnia," based on the C.S. Lewis literary fantasies, which Christian groups regard as an explicit allegory of Christ's Resurrection."

It bugs me a little bit that there is such a push to promote Chronicles of Narnia to the church. Yes, the books were written by CS Lewis, whose other books are widely read and accepted in the Christian theological realm. There may be references to Christ, especially in the character of Aslan. But my fear is that promoting it to churches might turn some people off from seeing it who would have otherwise. I've heard really good things about the movie and would hate for that to happen. The visual effects, done by WETA, should be amazing. There are so many reasons to see Chronicles of Narnia other than the religous tie-in.

Just out of curiosity, let's compare what this paragraph is saying...

"The meaning of the term "Christian moviegoer" may vary from one movie professional to another. But overall, specialists talk repeatedly about affirming Christian values and biblical truths. They speak about removing all profanity and explicitly evoking Jesus and prayer and church attendance. Marketing specialists and Christian producers are urging the studios not only to expunge objectionable language, but also to include more openly Christian symbols and characters in scripts."

to what these paragraphs are saying.

"According to Bock, the consultant, many in Hollywood make the mistake of assuming Christian moviegoers are vastly different from the average audience. "The truth is, followers of Christ are everywhere and every-day folks," he wrote in an e-mail message. And just to complicate matters, a new study by a leading Hollywood marketing firm, MarketCast, suggested that not only do American Christians watch mainstream entertainment, but the most conservative among them are also drawn to violent fare."
"The researchers found that "when it comes to popular movies and popular shows, tastes don't differ at all" between religious and nonreligious, said Joseph Helfgot, president of MarketCast. "What you find is that people with conservative religious doctrine are the most likely to see movies rated R for violence. If you compared it to liberals, it's a third more."

Okay, so now I'm a bit confused. We want to see less language and more Christian stuff, and yet we're more likely to go see movies rated R for violence. Maybe I'm just an odd duck. I'm into a wide range of movies, but give me Casablanca over Con Air any day. Yeah, sometimes I'm in the mood for a good kung-fu flick or a mindless action movie. But even among those, more often than not there's a point to the violence or it's a movie with psychological undertones. Fight Club for example. It's an extremely violent movie, but psychology is a bit of a hobby of mine so I enjoyed the twist ending immensely. And it could be argued that the violence had a point.
It's said that the movie industry is suffering. A movie that bombs these days might be something that costs $30 million to produce, and it only makes $70 million in theaters. I'm not an expert in the inner financial workings of Hollywood, but that sounds like pretty good math to me. Yet independant movies that don't cost much to produce are making more money than Hollywood's blockbusters. Movies like Napolean Dynomite and March of the Penguins have been huge hits. Why is that? Are people looking for quality rather than how much money was spent and what big-name actors are in it?

And thus I close this blog with the final sentances of the article:

"Helfgot concluded that catering to the religious audience was trickier than it might at first appear and that Hollywood would do well to explore those complications.
"When it comes to movies, people distinguish between moral issues and entertainment issues. And most people, even the very religious, are very happy with their movies."

I'm an auntie!

2005-06-16T18:26:00.000-06:00

So I haven't really posted anything in the past week or two, and my post today has nothing to do with either Coffee or Cinema. But this afternoon my sister gave birth to a son, Isaac Benjamin. I'm Auntie Angie now! :-D

A week later...

2005-06-01T07:17:00.000-06:00

A week later and I still haven't watched the Cinderella Man DVD like I said I would. I have watched 13 Going On 30, Contact, and Out Of Time. All pretty decent movies. Brian wanted to expose me to Contact because it's one of his top five favorite movies. It's a great movie, and it has a great way of addressing the issue of faith. Faith and religion in cinema is a subject I find very interesting. There are a few movies I've seen which do a very good job at addressing faith, and there are a few movies I've seen which don't do a good job at all.

I've got to be off to school now, but I think I'll write more on this later. (No promises when though, considering it's been a week since I last wrote.)

Coffee is a popular thing

2005-05-24T17:32:00.000-06:00

I just got back last night from a visit to my home state, Minnesota. I went there for a friend's wedding, my mom's wedding, and my sister's baby shower. I brought a bunch of quarter pounds of coffee to my sister's baby shower to use as prizes for the games. I brought some candles and soaps and stuff, just in case there were people who didn't like coffee. Turns out I didn't need to bring them, the coffee was such a huge hit! I brought some of the flavored coffees we sell at work, including Butter Toffee, Chocolate Raspberry Truffle, Vanilla Creme de Caramel, and Coconut Creme. After the three games were over, I said "Well, there are plenty of prizes left if anyone wants any..." and there was a mad dash for the coffee that was left. I'm always glad to make people happy with my coffee. :-)

Still haven't had a chance to see the new Star Wars yet, though. Seeing as I was busy all weekend, I'm not surprised. My husband and I will probably find time to see it at some point in the near future. From what I've heard though, there are lots of things that contradict things in the earlier movies. Oh well, it should at least provide a few hours of entertainment at any rate.

My husband is signed up to review some stuff on his blog for Grace Hill Media. So every once in a while he'll get something in the mail, or free tickets to an advance screening of a movie, or something like that. Today in the mail we got a DVD with a little sneak peek inside a new movie called The Cinderella Man, starring Russell Crowe and Renee Zellweiger. I'll probably end up watching tomorrow afternoon. Maybe I'll write a bit about it then.

Comfort film

2005-05-18T10:55:00.000-06:00

Today I pose this question: What are your comfort films? The ones you watch when you've had a bad day and all you want to do when you come home is cuddle up in a blanket and turn on a movie to unwind. This happened yesterday to me. I'd had a really bad evening. So I came home, and turned on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. For some reason when I'm stressed out I'm drawn to movies aimed at a younger audience. The Harry Potter movies, for instance, or anything with The Muppets. I'm sure there's some psychological defense system buried in there somewhere. Something that, when I'm stressed out, brings me back to childhood when life was just less stressful. There's something comforting to me about those movies. I can lose myself in the story and just relax, because I know everything will turn out okay. There are a lot of movies out there that I can't do that with. Don't get me wrong, I love movies with sad or bittersweet endings. There's something beautiful about movies like that. When I'm feeling like I need a good cry (like when I'm PMSing), I go to those movies. But there's just something indescribable about watching a movie and just knowing that no matter what happens, everything has got to turn out alright in the end. It lifts my spirits, even if just for a few hours.

Welcome!

2005-05-17T17:09:00.000-06:00

Welcome to my blog! I'm Angela. Nice to meet you. This blog will most likely be about what I'm into most - coffee and cinema. It will also be about my life. About two years ago I made one of the biggest changes of my life. I got married and moved 1,000 miles away from the place where I was born and raised. These last two years have been a growing experience for me. I've made some friends, worked in a couple of coffee shops (currently working at Gloria Jean's), been part of re-starting the Colorado Springs Film Society, and been a part of planting a church. (All appropriate links will be posted.)

My most recent endeavor has been riding my bicycle. My husband is an avid biker, and has been trying to get my into it for a while now. I've ridden short distances of 3-5 miles at a time, but last night I went out on the dinner ride with the Colorado Springs Cycling Club. Ride 10 miles to a restaurant, eat dinner, then ride 10 miles back. I suppose it's a guilt-free dinner, since you burn the calries riding. Still, for someone who has only ridden 5 miles at a time, 20 miles in an evening is a huge feat.

On the subject of cinema, has anyone been watching the latest Project Greenlight? The series just ended, I believe. I'm normally not much into horror films, but I might actually check this one out when it's released. That's about all for now. I've got to get ready for The Refuse.