Saturday, October 15, 2005

10-15-2005

781) Joe Kidd. The only Eastwood western I hadn't seen which is surprising, given the presence of Robert Duvall. Decent enough, but not either one's best.

782) Night of the Creeps. Before today, if you had said that Jason Lively would ever top his role as Rusty from European Vacation, I would have called you a liar and slapped you right across your dirty, whorish mouth. But today, I stand corrected. Oink oink, my good man.

783) Diggstown. Con movie. Which usually means that there is one too many double crosses and you can tell what's coming at the end. Still, James Woods and Gossett Jr. are both always worth watching and it was entertaining.

783 down, 217 to go.

There's just one kind favor I'll ask of you...

...won't you see that my grave is kept clean?

Because Bama football is going to be the death of me. Second scare of the season survived.

Update: Now that I've had some time to settle down, I have a few thoughts.

- This game was uglier than the Arkansas win. It was also a trap game coming off the bye after a huge win, but while there was only a slim chance Arkansas could pull the upset, Ole Miss was in it 'til the final 3 seconds. Having the game decided by a Christensen field goal attempt is one of my worst nightmares, second only to the one where Brodie Croyle is actually torn to pieces on the field like the kid in Not Another Teen Movie.

- Hopefully Randy Sanders will still have his head up his ass and Fulmer's mind will be occupied with exactly how he's going to get his hand unstuck from that can of Pringles he had before the game next weekend and they'll try to win through the air instead of cutting Riggs loose since our linebackers seem to have forgotten how to stop the run.

- Can we win without Prothro? Beats me. It's looking like we are going to play down to the level of competition so that's still a big question mark on our offense. All I know is we looked awful.

- Seeing DJ Hall back during the second half was about the second biggest bright spot behind managing to walk out of Oxford at 6-0. Maybe the injury bug has passed us by.

- What happened to the running game? Is our O line exposed, or is it just that opposing DCs from now on will make us win through the air knowing that Prothro is out?

- We didn't look like a contender this afternoon, but we also didn't look like a team that would wind up prison shower raping Miami in '92. We won, so that's enough for now.

Friday, October 14, 2005

10-14-2005

780) Office Killer. For 90 terrible minutes I found Molly Ringwald attractive. So. Dirty. Anyway, when I found out that Cindy Sherman had directed a movie I knew I had to see it. Turns out she should really stick to photography, or at least find a story that isn't completely and totally lame to tackle. I should mention Carol Kane's completely bitchcake crazy performance though. It was the only redeeming part of the movie.

780 down, 220 to go.

- Completely exhausted. I started Joe Kidd after Office Killer but that was 2 hours ago and I've been asleep pretty much ever since so I'm just going back to bed so I'll be fresh for the Bama/Ole Miss game in the morning.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

10-13-2005

779) A History of Violence. Just got home and decided to update and get it out of the way before going to bed. I think Cronenberg is trying to get his Peckinpah on here and make a movie about the capability of men to do violence and what it's use says about a specific man. It's a tired theme and this didn't add much to it. He also throws in some garbage about the nature of identity but it's given short thrift and doesn't really pan out. Further, dude is supposed to be a former mob guy, not a Navy SEAL. How are we supposed to buy all his super secret unstoppable ninja assassin killing skills? Did he do a couple of tours in 'Nam with the green berets or something? Did I miss that part of the exposition? Skip it and watch Straw Dogs instead. At least then you can laugh at the poor bastards who are forever immortalized on film as the losers who got their asses kicked by Dustin Hoffman.

779 down, 221 to go.

- Check it out. Lohan looking healthy, and totally bitchy! Are we working towards reconciliation? Maybe...

This job would be great if it weren't for the customers...

It's been an incredibly long week and I am worn completely out. I went to Best Buy earlier to get a gift for a friend and then spent the better part of the evening sitting on 65 North because "construction" had 2 lanes blocked off and in 20 minutes I moved about a quarter of a mile. No watching movies there. I'm headed to the theater to see History of Violence shortly, otherwise I'd go right to sleep in front of the TV and not get anything done. I'll update tomorrow about the movie and until then, COURAGE. Here are a few anecdotes to tide you over:

- I took a call from a woman who wanted to know what color ink she should mix with white to get grey. I told her black ink. She didn't believe me. She thought mixing black with white would only make dark grey, and mixing dark grey with white was what made light grey. Seriously. I finally had to tell her "well, here's what you do. Mix some black and white in one bucket until you get dark grey. Then take that dark grey and mix it with white in another bucket until you get light grey." That made her happy.

- I took a call this morning from someone wanting to speak to one of the artists. I told her that they don't come in until 9 o'clock and I could have him call her, to which she responded "it's after 9." I looked at my watch. It was 8:19. I asked her where she was located. "New York" was her reply. As delicately as possible I told her "well, this is Alabama and it's only 8:20 here." She asked if we weren't on daylight savings time. I said, "yes, we do observe daylight savings time here, but we are in different time zones." She didn't understand. Again, delicately, I explained that New York is in the EASTERN time zone while Alabama is in the CENTRAL time zone, and thus our time is an hour behind hers. She still didn't get it. Finally, I asked her if she watched TV. She said she does. I then asked if she knew how some TV shows will say "8 Eastern, 7 Central" on the commercials and she said yes, and I said "well we're the ones watching the 7 o'clock show." She got it then.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

10-12-2005

778) The King of Comedy. I've seen all of the other Scorsese/De Niro pictures about a million times each, but right now I think this is De Niro's best work. Seriously. He has created the single most pitiable character I believe I have ever seen and the whole time I was completely fascinated by his performance. Superb.

778 down, 222 to go.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

10-11-2005

776) The Valley of Decision. Old costume romance with Greer Garson. I saw her in Random Harvest this year but before that I'd only seen her when we watched Julius Caesar in 10th grade English. For some reason she struck me in that movie and I always remembered her name. Anywho, not as good as Random Harvest, but it was still well done and acted in that way that only old Hollywood costume dramas can be.

777) The Skulls. If it's reasonable to assume that Craig T. Nelson the actor has better things to do than hang around in a basement at Yale then it should also be reasonable to assume Craig T. Nelson the federal judge does, too. For all those wondering, this type of deep, logical analysis is what makes a philosophy degree useful.

777 down, 223 to go.

Radio...someone still loves you...

99.5 just played Tie Your Mother Down. We will, we will rock you indeed.

Monday, October 10, 2005

10-10-2005

775) I, Robot. I haven't read any Asimov so I can't get into a nerd rage over any changes in the movie, but I can say that it was surprisingly boring for a summer action blockbuster and that Bridget Moynahan is totally the poor man's Sandra Bullock.

775 down, 225 to go.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

10-09-2005

772) The Honeymoon Killers. If you ever read a movie review that refers to the picture as "stark," what they really mean to say is it was shot in black and white. Low budget, indie production from the 70s so it was campy as hell, poorly acted, and, worst of all, boring. Which is a shame because it would make a fascinating "true crime" sort of picture and I'm sure Scorsese would have done a much better job with it.

773) How to Murder Your Wife. I doubt I'll ever marry. Not from some sort of fear or hatred towards marriage but because, to paraphrase Marx, I wouldn't want to marry any kind of woman that would have me. But I'll tell you this much, if I ever get smashed at a bachelor party and then wake up married to the unbelievably sexy Italian woman that had jumped out of the cake in a whipped cream bikini who didn't speak a lick of English or own any other clothing than a swimsuit, high heels, and her Ms. Galaxy sash, and who's only two pleasures in life seem to be cooking and sex then you can be damn sure I'd try and make a go of it.

774) Johnny Guitar. I'm now officially down with Nicholas Ray. Of the three of his I've seen this year, this and In a Lonely Place were about as good as you can get, Rebel Without a Cause, while extremely melodramatic, was also an excellent film, and They Live By Night was the picture of beginning talent turning a B movie into something better than it should be.

774 down, 226 to go.

- When was the last time Alabama, Penn State, and Notre Dame were all in the Top Ten at the same time? This is the most exciting season of college football (at least for me) in years.

- I am NOT happy about this whole Bree/Pharmacist thing. That's my Kool Aid, MFer!