This is for Pigern and anyone else interested. There's an article in the NY Times today about Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah Click Here

Merry Christmas everyone :) Hope everyone is having a great holiday season. Anyway... here is my list of Top 5 Movies that I watched this year:

1. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
2. Mr. and Mrs. Smith
3. Sahara
4. The 40-Year Old Virgin
5. Employee of the Month (2004)

Hi from Thailand. Pigern and I are partying it up here and tomorrow we fly off to Hong Kong to ring in 2006. It is actually pretty warm here considering it is December. I can't imagine how hot it would be in June. Okay well just wanted to drop in and say what's up. Have a happy new year everyone and drink up!!!!!

(B) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Grade: D
About 2 years ago I read the Magician's Nephew and was unimpressed so I didn't bother with any of the other Narnia books. I read this one because of the movie.
I found this book boring, I hated when he'd stop the story and talk to the reader (totally distracting and removes you from the flow of the book). It builds up to the end where the lion battles the witch and I swear the battle is like two sentences then the chapter ends and the battle is over. WHAT!? Seriously?! LAME!
I will go see the movie though because I hear it's good, and it better be damn better than the book because... boooooooooooooooooooooring!!!!!!

Top 2005 List (a dismal year for entertainment).
[lists are in no particular order]

Movies:
Born Into Brothels
March Of The Penguins
Mad Hot Ballroom
40 Year Old Virgin

Music:
The Doves - Some Cities
Garbage - Bleed Like Me
Rosebuds - Birds Make Good Neighbors
Magic Numbers - Magic Numbers
Shout Out Louds - Howl Howl Gaff Gaff
Arcade Fire - Funeral

Best suprise opening act at a concert:
The Rosebuds

Accomplishment:
Finally getting my A.A. degree, hopefully the B.A. won't take as long.

Highlight:
Road trip up California's coast and visits to Portland and Seattle.

Worst Moment:
Las Vegas (soooooo sick and I never want to go back, I hate that place).

Books:
Wish I could do this list.

Television:
The Office
(return of) Family Guy
Curb Your Enthusiasm
[R.I.P. Arrested Development]

(M) Ballad Of Jack And Rose (2005, Rebecca Miller)
Grade: Rental or Cable worthy
Jack lives alone with his daughter in a commune designed for an environmental friendly lifestyle. The movie takes place in the 80's. During the 70's a group of people got together to try and live different than the tract home lifestyle in America. Jack was the only person who remained and raised his daughter Rose in isolation.
Jack has been secretly seeing a woman from the main land and brings her and her two sons to the commune to live with him and Rose. Jack is dying and Rose is planning on killing herself when Jack dies. Rose becomes incredibly jealous of Jack's girlfriend. Jack loves his daughter very much but I guess since Jack is all Rose has ever known, she has more than a typical daughter love for her father. Nothing happens between daughter and father but her jealousy creates havoc and problems for those who entered their private world.
The movie was alright, I wanted to see it in the theater but was glad I saved my money and got it as a rental.

Merry Christmas!

On this day I have a review. I had the simple joy of trying a new beer. Budweiser Select. This beer is in an aluminum bottle and tries to look very nice and classy. So Johnney and I decided what the hey, let's try it. The verdict. Crap. It tastes like a nastier version of Budweiser with the sweet after taste of regular Budweiser. I don't even like Budweiser, but it's worse that that. How can that be you ask? I don't know. Anyways I hope you like your taste buds more than I do. After this Johnney and I sang some Yellowcard, My Chemical Romance, Boxcar Racer and Blink 182. It was the best Christmas Eve ever.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Top 5 Canadian Albums of 2005:

Apologies to the Queen Mary: Wolf Parade
War of the Wakening Phantoms: The High Dials
Twin Cinema: New Pornographers
Underwater Cinematographer: The Most Serene Republic
Set Yourself On Fire: Stars
Honorable Mention: Broken Social Scene: s/t

My Top Albums of 2005:


1. The Emancipation of Mimi: Ultra Platinum Deluxe Edition, Mariah Carey
2. Bleed Like Me, Garbage
3. Love. Angel. Music. Baby., Gwen Stefani (late 2004 release)
4. Playing The Angel, Depeche Mode
5. Fijación Oral, vol. 1, Shakira
6. Demon Days, Gorillaz

My list for the Best of the Worst Movies I watched this year.**

5) RENT - Rosario Dawson = Bueno. No Jon Bon Jovi = No love from me. Still the best of the bunch.

4) A Day Without A Mexican - Fell asleep in the first 15 minutes, so boring, and when I woke up I think it was in the same spot as when I dozed off. Sooooooo boring.

3) Memoirs of a Geisha - Read my review below. As Ken Watanabe would say "It was bad conversation." I think it was the longest 2 1/2 hours of my life.

2) The War of the Worlds - The biggest piece of crap ever made by Steven Spielbergo. OOOOH look at the birds. When the best part of the movie is when Morgan Freeman is doing the prologue and epilogue, you're in for a really bad time. This is only rated slightly higher than Sideways because it had action sequences to keep me slightly entertained. It still sucked.

1) Sideways - It's about a guy and his friend going to wine country, c'mon now! That one guy should go back to doing Ned & Stacy with Debra Messing. That might be more entertaining.

**My girlfriend picked all of the above movies and other than RENT, she did not find them appealing as well. So next year I get to pick 5 bad ones to watch. It's only fair right?

Alright people time for those best of 2005 list. If anyone is bored you can make a best of list to add to our page or read what other sites have been saying:

- Pitchfork
- Metacritic
- Fimoculous.com - has a huge resource list.
- and pretty much if you type in "best of 2005" in Google you will get a ton more.

STUDYING FOR FINALS: F

BOOOO this sucks. Anyways I hope the F I feel for studying is not the grade I receive on my final.

Did anyone catch this on Leno? People are stupid.This is hilarious.

(M) Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion , the Witch, and the Wardrobe. (Andrew Adamson, 2005). Grade: A-

Pretty much what New Wave said. I just really enjoyed the movie. A few notes:
-Lucy was quite adorable and perfect for the part.
-I could have sworn Peter and Susan were related in real life.
-Turkish Delight wasn't what I thought it was. (I thought it was like English toffee).
-And yes, some scenes look too CGI, but overall, I thought it was well done.

Also, every now and then, something in the movie reminded me of LOTR. So now I feel like re-watching the trilogy.

(O) 2006 Honda Civic LX (Penske Honda, 2005) Grade:AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Yay! I got my new car! 2006, Black Honda Civic LX. I blogged about it on my site so you can check out my thoughts there if you would like. :)

Your Opinion Please:

You know how some customer service people expect gifts during the holiday season? Like, here's an example. Let's say you have a hair stylist and during the holidays you go to get your haircut and those people are expecting a larger than normal tip from you as a Christmas Gift. Should it be the other way around? If you go to a hair stylist every month or every other month and you pay $40-$60 (or more) for a hair cut and then on top of that you pay, let's say 20% more for a tip... after all that money, should they be giving you a free haircut during the holidays instead of you giving them a larger tip?

I'm saying ONLY if you are a frequent LOYAL customer. Should it be their way of saying Thank You for your loyalty to me and as a holiday gift I won't charge you for this haircut. What do you think? They were talking about this on the radio tonight and it was an interesting perspective.


Side Note:
I leave on my Road Trip Friday... hopefully traveling up the Coast, San Fransisco, Portland, Seattle. Have a Merry Christmas everyone.

Currently, I am listening to the theme song from the Mighty Ducks. Just thinking about Gordon Bombay and the Ducks has me pumped up, so I will review two movies that have come to pass for me. I was forced to watch them by Pauline. My scale does not come with +'s or -'s.

RENT: Grade C
I went into this flick not knowing much about it other than it was about AIDS, drugs, homosexuality etc., as I had not watched the stage production. The closest thing I had ever seen to RENT was LEASE. So here are the positives: Some of the music is very good, although I really do wish that they had cast Jon Bon Jovi as Roger, I mean the guy that played Roger had a very similar look to JBJ anyways. Imagine him screaming "blaze of glory" during One Song Glory! That would have probably boosted my grade to a A. Also as a guy I must say that Rosario Dawson was bueno to watch. The negatives: The story was not hard to follow, yet I cannot really describe why I did not like it. I just feel that the stage show would be a lot better, and that even though I hear that it is a good adaptation of it, it just did not work for me. For the DVD release, they should somehow put in JBJ to do all the Roger scenes, i'm just saying.

Memoirs of a Geisha: Grade D
"A story like mine should never be told." Damn right Zhang Ziyi! "For pity's sake," this movie was 146 minutes long, but felt even longer than that.* If any of you have boyfriends, please do not take them to watch it, unless you want them to not let you pick what movies to watch for the next three months. They can also pay for my beer if I spared them. I had heard that this story was compelling and that the book was very good from many people that I know so I went in open minded. "That was a mistake."** From the opening sequence to the end I was bored out of my mind. It felt like an ear wig was burrowing through my eyes. Crazy right? A ear wig through my eyes, but that's what it felt like. The only reason this movie is not receiving an F from me is I like everybody in my class to pass. Actually the film is aesthetically pleasing, and Ken Watanabe is cool, ergo the boost in the grade. On a side note, why does Zhang Ziyi have to be a whore in every film she has been in other than Rush Hour 2? I think she does "it"*** in every film she has ever been in. They could just take any of the scenes from either Crouching Tiger, Hero, Memoirs and cut and paste it in to any of the other films and I would not know the difference. Well actually, (Spoiler Alert), you would know the difference in Memoirs, as she actually consumates with none other than Ted Levine. Who is Ted Levine**** you ask? The picture below will explain all. Hahahaha..OOOH WEEEEE. Sorry girls and boys, don't hate me.

*Quote from Boromir in LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring
**Quote from Jet Li, in I forget which movie. How come he and Jackie Chan were not cast in "Memoirs?"
***"It" does not mean Pennywise the clown, but rather sexual relations.
****Ted Levine = Buffalo Bill.

Last night I watched 3 hours of Project Runway. The first ep was how they got the cast for Season 2 and the next were regular eps. Overall the show is entertaining and it is amazing to see what these people can design and make. I'm not sure if I will watch the eps all the time. I think I'll catch it when I can. My favorite desginers are Diana Ng (she is Asian,meek, quiet and a super nerd), Chloe (she is Asian and her designs are clean), Santino (he is cocky and conceited and his designs are awesome) and Nick (he is cool and his last design for the Barbie was so dead on). We'll see how fast they will get kicked off. Oh and I enjoyed Andrae's breakdown. What a nut. I like his t-shirt though.

If you want to watch a Sigur Ros 2 hour concert, or just open it and have the music playing in the background, click here

I wonder if Michelle Rodriguez is having a hard time coping with the fact that her character(Ana Lucia) is such a bitch on LOST.

An AIM convo my friend and I had about the article above;

UCLASteph: this is another reason not to like this ana lucia chick
rent79br8t: haha
UCLASteph: thats so horrible
UCLASteph: hit and run
UCLASteph: drunk driving...no good
rent79br8t: haha u understand that michelle rodriguez is NOT ana lucia
UCLASteph: haha true but still
UCLASteph: ok i dont like either of them now
rent79br8t: haha
rent79br8t: yeah!

How crappy is it that we have to wait until January for the next new episode of LOST? RIGHT when I start up another rotation. Don't they understand they need to work it around MY schedule??

I had my first celebrity sighting today. After I had lunch at the NBC Universal Studio Commissary, I headed back to the office. As I approched my building, I look up and guess who was walking towards me on the same sidewalk???? Vince Vaughn!!! If i hadn't looked up, I probably would've walked into him....sigh..that wouldn't been cool. Anyway, he wore a navy blue tracksuit and was on his cell phone. He sounded like he was making a movie deal. And the weirdest part is that I watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith the night before and Vince was in that movie. Life is odd.

(B) The Magician's Nephew (Lewis, 1955); Grade: B-/C+

The only reason why I read this was because I was prereading for The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe(TLTWATW), which I'm halfway through. I haven't read the series in over 10 years I think. It's not the BEST book of the series, but it is the first book so it's good, but not necessary, to read if you want some insight on what happened before TLTWATW.

The book follows the adventures of Digory and Polly, long before the Pevensies existed. Digory appears in TLTWATW as "the Professor". Essentially, this book is all about how Narnia came to be, which is actually only towards the end of the book. Digory lives with his uncle who is a "Magician" because he made these rings that take people to other worlds. Digory's uncle, Andrew, is too scared to try the rings out for himself so he tricks Digory into using the rings to save his friend Polly who "accidentally" ended up in another world. We also meet the White Witch in this book and it's basically Digory's fault that she was awakened from her slumber and why she ended up in Narnia.

I never realized how this book, especially the end, is so blatantly Christian-themed. I guess when I was a child I thought I was just reading a story about fantasy and adventure. Those sneaky Christians hehe. Overall, I think the book is interesting in that you learn about where the Wardrobe came from(it came from a tree that came from an apple Digory brough back from Narnia that healed his dying mother), why there's a lampost in the middle of the wood(the witch brought it from her visit to London), and where Narnia came from(darkness...and in the beginning there was light...sound familiar?). I gave the book a B-/C+ because some parts dragged and Uncle Andrew and the White Witch were kind of annoying haha.

Commentary aka on my Harry Potter soapbox: I'm not knocking that these books are Christian. It's TOTALLY fine. What bugs the hell out of me is that some Christians think Harry Potter books are sending subliminal messages about being witches/wizards because there's a rumor going around that JK Rowling is/was a witch and put "real spells" in the book. Um...if you look at the primary themes in the Harry Potter series, it's basically GOOD VS. EVIL. Sound like a familiar theme? Why is the Chronicles of Narnia ok and not Harry Potter? I wonder if athiests/pagans/witches are revolting about Narnia....hehe.

(M) Brokeback Mountain. (Ang Lee, 2005) Grade: A-

Thoughts: I've been waiting to watch this movie for a number of weeks now. First you have an amazing and remarkable director - Ang Lee, second a good short story written by Pulitzer Prize (for The Shipping News) writer E. Anne Proulx and third an uncommon subject matter. Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) are two cowboys stuck herding sheep across Brokeback Mountain, Wyoming for the summer to earn some extra cash. Over the span of the months, the two men share a deep fondness and love for each other, more powerful then either one expected. At the end of the summer they split their own seperate ways - Ennis to his future wife Alma (Michelle Williams) and Jack to Texas to be a rodeo cowboy where he meets and marries Lureen (Anne Hathaway). Their tore love for each other continues for over 20 years but the realization of no future starts to settle in with both men as they get older. The ending of the movie is very heart wrenching and touching. I enjoyed the film but in all honestly I'm not sure how well the film will be received by the main stream public. It is disappointing the movie is getting labeled the "gay cowboy movie" because there is so much more to it than that title. Ang Lee does such a great job with shots of nature and directing both actors but I think Heath really shone here.

(M) Rent. (Chris Columbus, 2005) Grade: B

Thoughts: I decided to watch this film since I saw the Broadway production and enjoyed it. Plus my college freshman year Hedwig played the musical in our dormroom over and over and over and over again :). I went with a friend who has never seen the Broadway version and she gave me a different perspective after the movie ended. Although I did like the movie, I did not realize how thin the story plot was. My friend liked it but thought it was a bit on the cheesy side and I had to admit it was at time. However, you don't notice that aspect when watching it on stage due to the singing and dancing and magic going on. I think Hedwig's review covers most of my thoughts so go give that a good read.

(M) Ba Wang Bie Ji (Farewell My Concubine). (Kaige Chen, 1993) Grade: A-

Thoughts: I'm not sure why it has taken me so long to watch this wonderful film. Based upon a novel by Lillian Lee, Farewell tells the story of two men who are friends over a span of 50 years. Cheng Dieyi (Leslie Cheung) and Duan Xiaolou (Fengyi Zhang) meet as apprentices in the Peking Opera and go on to become the most famous opera singers in China especially when they perform Farewell My Concubine - the tale of a general about to lose a war and his loyal concubine who kills herself to stay by his side. Leslie is profound in his role as Cheng and his confusion over his sexuality since he plays the concubine in the opera. Gong Li is also amazing in this movie and very attractive. Since the movie spans over 50 years it is interesting watching the change over China.

Since most of you aren't too interested in my Chinese movies I won't be blogging much on them anymore. Just a sentence or two.

(M) Bin-jip (3-Iron). (Ki-duk Kim, 2004) Grade: B

Thoughts: Quiet yet effective film about life and just living. Funny thing is this is the same director who made Bad Guys and other messed up Korean films.

(M) Sun Gaing Hup Nui (Crazy N' The City). (James Yuen, Lanbo Cheuk, 2005) Grade: C+

Thoughts: A decent cop movie but nothing amazing. Francis Ng was great in the movie though as always.

It's been a long time since the Stanley Tookie Williams 1970's murders when innocent people were brutally murdered. Here's a reminder of what happened to the asian victims (click here WARNING - GRAPHIC Images). Who knows... maybe writing a childrens book makes up for that, at least that's what they're telling us.

(M) Irreversible [French film] (2002, Gaspar Noe)
Grade: B-/C+
If you're a woman, this may be a hard film to watch. Known for containing one of the most violent murder scenes as well as most violent and longest rape scene. This film plays backwards (ala Memento). The movie goes from chaotic disordered camera work to more peaceful drawn out shots. The camera work reflects the emotions in the film.
Basically this is the story... a woman and her boyfriend are going to go to a party. The woman tells her boyfriend she may be pregnant, and takes a pregnancy test and she is. Her ex-boyfriend shows up and they all go to a party. The womans new boyfriend is acting like a teenager and she gets irritated and leaves the party. She goes to take a subway home and is brutally raped and beaten in the subway (I hear the rape scene is around 10 minutes long). The guys come out of the party to find her being put in an ambulance and they are going crazy in their heads (as anyone would I'm sure).
Two guys (probably local pimps) come up and offer to help them find the person who did this to the woman because the justice system won't exact the punishment due. They agree and they go off and search for the assailant. They find him (sorta) and murder him by bashing his head in with a fire extinguisher (and it looks VERY real) and then they're arrested for their crime. (Twist is they murder the wrong guy, though they did have contact with the right guy).

Keep in mind all this is in reverse so it's them murdering the guy, then finding out she's been raped, then the rape, then the party, then the ride to the party, etc. etc.

Crazy ass movie.

Last night, I had my annual X-Mas dinner with Dorkus and New Wave and I received my 2 kick ass movies...American Psycho and Mr. and Mrs. Smith! So awsome!

(M) American Psycho
Grade (A)- This movie was based on a novel by Bret Easton Ellis. It's a bit dark and bloody, but really good. It's about a Wall Street yuppie, played by Christian Bale, who is a psychotic killer who rapes, murders , and dismember stangers and acquaintances. Christian Bale is really believeable as a killer and pulls off the American accent as well.

(M) Anatomie de l'enfer (Anatomy of Hell) [2004, Catherine Breillat]
Grade: B-/C+
I'll try to sum this up here and go into detail in the comment section so I don't take up too much space on the main board. Basically a woman pays a gay man to watch her in her most intimate moments. She chooses a gay man so he will not be aroused by her nakedness and their communication can be honest.

Over four nights this man and woman communicate orally and physically. The conversation is the discussion of man's internal disgust and hatred of woman. Why men treat and them as they do and how men view women. It's not a pretty story. There are VERY graphic images in here and nudity and sexual situations, not for the purpose or erotic pleasure.

If you want to read more you can see the comment I leave for this post.

How long has this song been out... Paris Hilton - Screwed. It's SO Debbie Gibson or something. So lame. I'll be singing it for WEEKS!

(O) "What's It Gonna Be?!" Janet. grade: A+

Watch Videos:

WHAT'S IT GONNA BE?! - FEATURING JANET JACKSON (Busta Rhymes) Video Codes by VideoCodeZone.Com

I am glad Project Runway is back on! I'm voting for Santino Rice at the moment, he reminds me of General Zod from Superman 2!

Does anyone still watch Everwood? I forget who it was. ANYWAY i still love the show. And not because it super realistic, but because it's so completely idealistic, romantic, tragic, UNrealistic and filled with angst of all kinds. I like rooting for all the characters and all the crap that goes wrong in their lives. Gives me a warm fuzzy feeling which I'm in dire need of these days. Just thought I'd share.

Other thoughts:
1. I want to watch Memoirs of a Geisha
2. Anyone hear about "Brokeback Mountain" with Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal? Read an article on it written by a gay film critic I think, it was "the straight man's guide to brokeback mountain." I can't find the article again, but it was funny
3. I hate that LOST is on hiatus for 6 weeks!

Oh dang who just got 8 Grammy nominations including Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year? I think one Ms. Mariah Carey. Here she is telling eveyone to kiss her butt. (Granted a Grammy is worth jack crap but hey.)

Per Bleed Like Me's request:

(O) Being able to say "For The Cheese"! grade: A+

Is this a game? posting about nothing?
work it out

Any of the women on this blog read this book 'Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture' or hear about it? I'm interested in reading it.

(M) King Kong. (Peter Jackson, 2005) Grade: B

Thoughts: I just got back from a screening of King Kong thanks to Pigern. Overall it was a great movie but a bit long. I've never seen the original 1933 one except for that classic scene where King Kong is up on the Empire State Building. Carl Denham (Jack Black, who was casted perfectly for this part) is a shady movie producer/director out to make the best movie picture yet. Unfortunately, he needs a new leading lady and comes across Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts), a down and out vaudeville actor. He picks her to be his new actress and along with his screenwriter Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) they set off to Skull Island. There they encounter King Kong who has taken Ann because she was offered to him by the natives. After Carl figures out King Kong is in love with Ann he uses her as bait to bring him to NYC. I was not thrilled with the ending of the film but I knew it had to be done. In addition, I was disppointed with how little screen time Adrien Brody got, maybe less than 40 minutes and how CGI some scenes appeared. However, the fight scenes with King Kong and the dinosaurs were engaging and violent - typical Peter Jackson style. I want my King Kong stuff animal now.

The X3 trailer is up. Looks great, featuring appearances by Angel and Beast. Go check it out.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/x3/

Rant: I went to see The 88 with a friend at the Troub. this past Friday and left feeling ripped off. The most I know about The 88 is they play a few songs on KCRW and apparantly they have made it big being played on every indie kid's wet dream show The O.C. and the always intelligent Laguna Beach. Look we get it ... wearing suits is cool because you guys are matching and niffy looking and wow neat-o your music is poppy and catchy with a throw back to the Wonders from That Thing We Do movie. Super clever but a bit tiring isn't it. Then I go and read on Pitchfork a review for Music from The O.C. Mix 5 and all the bands listed there and start thinking. Why are there so few good/great bands who focus more on their music and less on their stupid shlick? I'm just getting really tired of these hack bands. Enough already. I'm no music expert so if you disagree with me or find my rant not researched enough that's fine.

(M) La Pianiste (The Piano Teacher) [2001, Michael Haneke]
Grade: B-/C+
Film based on a novel by I believe to be Elfriede Jelinek. I hear the novel is far more twisted than the film which makes me want to read the novel. I don't really know how to sum this up so I don't take up 5 pages here because this movie is one of those "talk about when it's over" films. To sum up as quickly as I can, middle age piano teacher (Erika) lives with her mom who is utterly restricting and repressive. Erika is played by Isabelle Huppert (I heart Huckabees, the woman who Jason Schwartzman nails in the mud). Erika hates what she does and hates all her young students who she trains (and she does something rather f'd up to one of them, but in her mind it's to free her I think). You see the pressure the parents put on their children to be GREAT as a pianist and you can tell Erika went through the same thing. One student who she eventually takes on is older than the rest and he is attarcted to Erika.

Erika is alone, single (and probably has been forever) and spends her free time watching porn in adult shops and cutting herself to punish herself from experiencing emotion and she tries to destory her ability to feel anything at all. She decides to become involved with her older student. What she does to him in the bathroom is rather interesting and hints at her twisted thoughts of pleasure. She brings him home and reveals to him what she wants him to do to her (punish her, tie her up, punch her, make her do things I won't type about), she completely opens herself up to him releasing all her deepest desires and passions and he is repulsed and rejects her and leaves. She then goes from a power position to a weak position and pursues him giving him the power role in which he uses. He gives her a brief taste of what she asked for and I think she probably realizes it's not as great in reality as in fantasy. Then when the movie ends something happens and you kind of go 'WHAT THE F' and then the movie is over, leaving you to decide what happens afterwards.

Very intersting, rather twisted in a way. I haven't been able to stop thinking about this movie for a few days now and may watch it again before I send it back, which is rare. In fact this may be a first for that. Anyway. Crazy movie, and I am very interested in reading the more indepth and twisted novel. I wasn't sure how to grade this one.

(M) RENT (Columbus, 2005)
Grade: B

Upon watching the movie I realized something that I might have already known but had never hit me: the plot is not the strongest aspect in this musical. I am a HUGE fan of this musical because of the characters, the music and its' central theme of family, friendship and love. That being said, I can see why movie-goers may be put off by this film especially if you are not familiar with the musical.

Here are my thoughts as a RENT fan:

The Story: I thought this film was a good interpretation of the musical, which I've seen 5, count 'em, 5 times. The scenes that were added or reworked with dialogue made the plot a little easier to understand, which unfortunately revealed that there wasn't really much plot to begin with. Watching the live musical, everything is happening so fast that you just focus on the music and performances, you let the plot slide and enjoy the entertainment. Listening to the soundtrack on CD you just flip to your favorite song and get lost in it. At the movies, you expect a "good story" and some may be disappointed with RENT's story.

The Music: Two songs were cut out from this film, and for good reason. "Christamas Bells" was in itself a very confusing song to begin with because it had overlapping lyrics, different things happening "on stage" and it was easier to add in story to replace the song. I love this song because of all the craziness within it, but I understand why they removed it. "Contact" is basically a song about sex and is more of a performance piece better appreciated on stage.

Overall the music was almost as great as the original renditions. My only complaint is that the power of some songs were lacking because it was a film. Songs like "Will I" and "Without you", which are powerful moving songs when performed live fell short for me in the film, so I was disappointed. The montages during the songs were a treat because they added another perspective on the interpretation of the songs.

The Cast: Rosario Dawson(Mimi) and Jesse L. Martin(Tom Collins) shine in this movie. I was initially worried that Rosario Dawson, who is not an original cast member, would not be able to pull off the songs, but her acting more than made up for her less powerful voice. Tracie Thoms(another newcomer) was also surprisingly good as Joanne.

I REALLY wish Adam Pascal(Roger) would have worn his hair short because he looks like Jon Bon Jovi with that haircut. The rest of the cast played all their parts well.

Cheese Factor: The random tango dream sequence during "Tango Maureen" was bizarre and the "I'll Cover You" scene is much less cheesy onstage.

Other thoughts: I spoke to two people who had never seen the play. One friend (for those of you that know her), Shareesh, had NO idea what the movie was going to be about when she saw it. She just knew that I loved the musical. And she did not like it because of the plot and all the singing.....hello? it's a musical. My other friend said she liked it, the songs were catchy and it was entertaining. But even so, she also complained of the constant singing. So those two probably wouldn't like musicals in general. My cousin who has seen the musical said, "It sucked." I still don't understand how anyone could be a fan of the musical and say that this movie sucked. I'm not saying it was an awesome, spectacular movie, but I wouldn't go straight to "suck."

Finally, my friend said that 5 or 6 people walked out of the theater when she watched the movie. I personally think that people may have been mislead by the previews and they didn't know it was a "musical" or that it was about drugs, sex, AIDS, and "gasp!" gay people.

Sorry this was so long. I had a lot to say and I'm making up for not blogging as often as you all do. :)

On msn.com, there's a short video clip about how some French surgeons conducted the first ever face transplant. Uhh, weird and creeeeepy. Imagine waking up with someone else's face.

(B) Candide (Voltaire, 1759) Grade: A

The recently released Chris Ware edition of the classic satire prompted me to reread Candide, and I am glad I did. Although somewhat basic in plot--Candide journeys to find his beloved Cunegonde--the overarching themes touch upon suffering and whether such misery and misfortune occur for the greater good. If so, does this merit unquestionable optimism that all works out in the end? How can everything be for the greater good without the existence of evil? Voltaire was a vocal critic of philosophical optimism, and satires such as this have rarely been written so well. Ware provides some added humor with his illustrated cover, which features a quote from the 18th century writer: They must have lost their mind if they think that I wrote this trash. Ha.

(G) British Sea Power (Cornwall Caverns, England, Nov. 27) Grade: A-

An opportunity to see BSP in Cornwall? Fantastic. In a cave? Even better. The venue itself is tucked away up a mountain and kept at 10 degrees Celsius, but it wasn’t as cold as I feared. (I even took my coat off.) Strangely enough, BSP opened the night with a 30-minute set of their B-sides. The actual opening band performed next, but most of their songs sounded like covers of other vaguely familiar songs. Pretty unremarkable. BSP ended the night with a majority of A-sides from Decline of--a strong album all the way through. Noble and Yan both engaged in some stage diving action as well as sitting on each others’ heads. Ace. The band also recognized a girl who has been to 100 BSP gigs. That’s pretty remarkable considering BSP hasn’t existed for very long. Lots of energy and enthusiasm made for a sweaty crowd so being greeted by snow outside was a welcome relief.