Featured Posts

Sep 3, 2010

Thank God It's the State of the Comment of the Week (or, TGITSOTCOTW)

THE STATE OF THE CABINS

Things to Click On

* I've been busy as hell at and away from work, and as you might have noticed, I've been pretty terrible lately at reading blogs. My Google Reader number of posts to be read is depressingly high, and on top of that, my usual blog readin' time (weekends) will be gone this weekend as I travel to Vegas in a mere two hours from now. I'm sorry, not only for being a bad reader, but for not really having anything here.

Movies watched for the first time (non-theatrically) since last week:
* Bigger, Stronger, Faster* - Probably the best doc I've seen since Man on Wire. This was supposed to be good, but it was pretty great - director Chris Bell is like Michael Moore, minus all of the things people hate about Moore. He's engaging and tells a story that's simultaneously terribly personal to him and interesting to the masses. Steroids have been THE topic in sports for much of the past decade, and BSF* manages to encapsulate just about all of it, all the while telling the tale of Bell's own struggles - not with "performance enhancers" themselves, but with the yin and yang in his family and his inability to decide whether or not he should use them.

Not only funny but educational, BSF* just might make you question why it is that 'roids are deemed so bad these days. Much like marijuana, facts and reality have become awfully blurred, and you have to wonder who is more at risk in these life or death games: potential users or the drug companies that might lose business if their just-as-dangerous prescription drugs were made as illegal as some of their less-reputable counterparts.

Fletch's Film Rating:
Expectation:
"Darn tootin."
Reality:
"It's in the hole!."
LAMBScore:
Large Association of Movie Blogs

Music I'm currently obsessed with:
* In honor of the Vegas trip - my favorite tune to turn on just as I'm nearing the Strip:



Book I'm currently reading:
* About halfway through Battle Royale now. Really liking it, and now I'm a bit more optimistic about the movie version: book recommended Nick told me it wasn't so great, but another source has told me he was wrong. I'm not sure who to trust; probably Nick, but at least getting a vote in the other direction is better than hearing it's bad from everyone.

It's a much more casual read than I would have expected; I don't know how else to put that, but it seems as if it were written by an American. Perhaps some credit is due the translator. Anyway, it's easy to read (despite the grim subject matter), and I can't wait to see how it plays out, though I'm a bit disappointed that author Koushon Takami more or less played his hand and gave away the ending with an opening memo that makes no sense at first, only to show its importance 200 pages in (out of 600+). Of course, I could be wrong...

TGITDNMAR

It's that time again for TGITDNMAR, which (obviously) stands for Thank God It's The Day New Movies Are Released.

Machete
God yes. I was one of the people dying for this when I saw Grindhouse (in theaters, mind you - I was one of the 12). Bring this Mexploitation flick on.
Fletch's Chance of Viewing (in the theater): 100%

Going the Distance
"he's going the distance.
he's going for speed.
she's all alone
all alone in her time of need.
because he's racing and pacing and plotting the course,
he's fighting and biting and riding on his horse,
he's going the distance."

In other words, a giant "no thanks" to this one. But the Cake song is good, no?
Fletch's Chance of Viewing (in the theater): 10%

The American
Saw this last night. Review to come...who the hell knows.

I liked it, but most people probably won't. If you like frenetic tension and fast cuts and lots of action and shit blowing up and lots of gunplay...this is NOT the movie for you. It's slow as molasses and character-driven. I kinda dug it, though it seemed like they went out of their way a bit too much to make Clooney seem sullen. I paid special attention: he doesn't crack a smile until about an hour into this flick, and that's about the only time he does. He's almost purposefully looking serious the whole time.

But if you're into introspective assassin flicks set in Italy (hey, whaddaya know, Clooney's got a villa in Italy), then this might be up your alley
Fletch's Chance of Viewing (in the theater): 100%

The Tillman Story
I'd almost definitely be interested in a doc about football, the military and government lies anyway, but having living in Arizona for 21 years (the place where Pat Tillman player college and pro ball), this one's got special meaning. The cherry on top? It's supposed to be pretty damn good. Deal me in.
Fletch's Chance of Viewing (in the theater): 98%

COMMENT OF THE WEEK (8/29 - 9/2)

The winner of the Chong Li Memorial Comment of the Week is...


I'm still not 100% sure if this was a serious question of made in jest (leaning towards the latter), but either way, this comment from David of Hoping for Something to Hope For gave me a chuckle, in reference to the latest SGC:
"Does anybody know a place where I can go to get good at this? Like some sort of Movie poster archive that I can absorb to the best of my abilities so that I can come back here and dominate?"


7 people have chosen wisely: on "Thank God It's the State of the Comment of the Week (or, TGITSOTCOTW)"

Nic Cage said...

I had no Idea that Pat Tillmans documentary was called The Last Exorcism! I would have seen it already if I had known that. Horrible marketing in my opinion.

Nick said...

For Battle Royale, I've typically found that those who love the movie have never read the book. It's not *bad*, per se. It's alright. But it loses a lot of points when you've read the book and know how it could have been. And then as an adaptation, it fails even more. However, that being said, I recommend the Director's Cut if possible. It shows more stuff, particularly with Mitsuko Souma, that the original doesn't.

You may very well like the movie, but there's no way you'll say it's as good as the book. But I'll go into more detail once you've finished the book and nothing I say will spoil you.

David Bishop said...

Re: Comment

The wanting to know a good movie poster archive bit was serious. The part about me absorbing it, coming back, and dominating was an attempt at humor.

Nic Cage said...

Also, thanks for referring Bigger, Stronger, Faster. I just watched it tonight on Netflix, pretty good.

Anonymous said...

I loved Battle Royale, both book and movie. Obviously the you can’t fit all the ideas and nuances from 600+ pages into a movie but as an adaptation goes they get it right, also some of the things that are changed for the film are actually better than the book.

Nick said...

I'm gonna have to disagree with you, Andy. I think it fails pretty epically as an adaptation. I can forgive changes/cuts in adaptations if they keep the heart and overall point of a work. The movie seemed to miss the whole point of the book, which is where I draw my issues with it. They take the idea that a bunch of kids have to kill each other and run with it... but that's very surface-level, and the book is about *so* much more than just that. It's the difference between subject and theme. They got the subject, but lost the theme.

I do, however, agree that there are a couple things in the movie that are better than the book (the teacher, for instance).

Nick said...

Oh, and the movie gets the characters all wrong, too. It turns Shuya into a whiny dipshit, and (even worse) removes all of the coolness factor from Shogo. I mean, it totally rapes that character.