The Consortium

300

This is one of the best movies to come out of that sh!tbox called Hollywood in a long, long time.  I freakin loved this movie and highly recommend it to anyone with a pulse.  Go see it.  It is visually stunning, emotionally stirring, and the 2 hours fly by.  I just got home from seeing it and I could go back and see it again right now. 

I cannot say enough about how much I loved this movie so just go see it!

BORU

Jarhead Doesn't Suck

I am not going to sit here and write a ten page review of the movie Jarhead which opened this past weekend.  I am going to recommend that all people over the age of 17 go to watch this movie.  Jarhead is an excellent film that refreshingly and honestly rejects Hollywood politics and, instead, presents what appears to be a almost-realistic view of the life of a United States Marine during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in Iraq.

By noting that the movie appears realistic, it certainly takes some dramatic license.  One of my favorite parts of the film is a scene in which we glimpse the pre-deployment Marines sitting in a darkened theater watching the "Ride of the Valkyries" scene from "Apocalypse Now".  As the music swells and the helicopters open fire on a Viet Cong village, the Marines are pictured in a state of almost sexual ecstasy.  The director clearly intended this scene to be over the top and the actors play along with Mr. Mendes' vision.  While my written description clearly does the scene no justice, it is clearly a comical highlight of a great film.

The best thing about this film is the fact that it is consciously apolitical, just like many of the military people I know.  They are in Iraq not as Republicans or Democrats, but, instead, they are there because it's their job.  Like Jamie Foxx's character, many of the Marines love what they do or at least respect themselves and the role they play.  While they are clearly frustrated by the boredom of living in the desert and the lack of combat, it is clear that a majority of these men are ready to do their jobs when asked. In one scene, one of the Marines starts droning on about how they were there just to enrich Bush 41 and his oil buddies.  After listening for a few minutes, Peter Saarsgard's character speaks for the other Marines in his unit telling the guy to shut up.  Appropriately, he remarks, "F_ck politics." 

What I view as the strength of Jarhead, its lack of liberal political advocacy, has driven liberal film critics crazy.  Thus, the following quotes from other reviews:

"Puzzlingly hollow .... Although its portrayal of war as tedious hell scores points for novelty, the lack of a discernable point of view considerably limits the film's impact."

"The film's lack of meaning seems all the more egregious, particularly since even wartime inaction contains large doses of political consequence."
-- Glenn Whipp, LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS

"Never comes close to expressing the insanity of war itself."
-- Nicholas Schager, NICK SCHAGER FILM PROJECT

Quotes from rottentomatoes.com. 

In my opinion, this film is a must see if for nothing else than the fact that it disappointed liberal film critics who were expecting the Fahrenheit 911 of 2005.

-tre

Apparently not everyone agrees with my ringing endorsement.

The Weatherman - Not too shabby

I saw The Weatherman this afternoon and it was not too bad. One of the best things about the movie, from a personal point of view, were the scenes from my adopted hometown Chicago.  The film contained numerous on-location shots throughout the Windy City from LaSalle Street to beneath the Lake Street el station to Lincoln Park to the Gold Coast area.  The only drawback was the film's all too realistic depiction of the coldest part of winter in Chicago with the driving snow and chilling ice; a time of year that I am not looking forward to.

Nicholas Cage actually pulled off a great performance.  Mr. Cage, as the title character, is at once sympathetic, frustrating, endearing and self-absorbed as a weatherman for a fictional television station that looks remarkably like WGN.  The film depicts a man who suffers through what can be described as a mid-life crisis as he realizes that he has done no more than sleepwalk through life, yet has nonetheless been materially successful.  In the end, the weatherman comes to accept his responsibilities to his children and to accept who he is (and who he is not).

I found the movie to be very satisfying and strangely uplifting.  While it is very slow-paced and doesn't reach a neat, bow-tied resolution, The Weathman is also very engaging.  It ends with the realization that life goes forward no matter what and that a successful life is one in which we accept the choices we've made and make the best of where those choices have led us. 

I recommend this movie.

-tre

Bad News Bears is Bad Entertainment

The wife and I went out to see The Bad News Bears remake a few nights ago and boy was I disappointed.  Don't get me wrong, there are a number of scenes that drew a hearty laugh from yours truly, but the movie was really poorly made.  There were several scenes in which the child actors looked as if they had received no direction and the movie failed to resolve several plotlines.  Further, there are several points in which you wonder why a character is acting in a certain way.  For example, toward the end, Billy Bob all of the sudden starts acting like a complete jackass toward the kids screaming at them as if he is one of those Little League dads who take the game too seriously.  The movie completely fails to explain why Buttermaker all of the sudden turns into a hardass rather than a guy who doesn't give a crap. 

The other thing that bugged me about this movie is that it tried too hard to be un-PC edgy without really following through.  Yeah, they called the kid in the wheelchair a "cripple" a few times and one of the players on the Yankees inexplicably called the African-American Bear an "oreo" at one point, but the attempts at being shocking rang hollow. What was the director/writer trying to accomplish?

Anyway, I would not recommend seeing this movie unless you want to rent it and watch it in the comfort of your own home, preferably while folding laundry or doing some other house chores.  Whatever you do, don't set aside other activities to make time for the Bad News Bears because, chances are, you will find yourself mildly disappointed.

-tre

Great Raid = Great Movie

Last night, I saw a sneak preview of The Great Raid.  I implore you to go see it when it opens nationwide this Friday, August 12th, 2005.  It is an amazing story.

Directed by John Dahl (Rounders, JoyRide) and starring mostly B-level stars (James Franco, Benjamin Bratt, the stunning Connie Nielsen) who do a more than credible job without distracting from the real stars of this movie:  the story itself and a moving, pitch-perfect score.  The movie tells the story of the largest rescue mission in the history of the US military.  It covers 5 days in January, 1945, when 120 of our guys liberated 511 American POWs from a camp in the Phillipines.  Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love, Luther) gives a particularly award-worthy performance as the leader of the captured American POWs.

The score - perfect throughout - along with the perfectly paced and well-shot finale will leave you with a lump in your throat.  This movie is a great example of how history should be brought to film - avoiding the Spielbergian/Stonian/Cameronian artificiality, plaigirism, and just plain kooky made up sh*t that muddied Schindler's List/everything Stone ever directed/Titanic.

Ya know that part of the Grinch Christmas special where his heart grows so many times larger.....that's the feeling you'll get after watching this movie and learning about this harrowing tale.  So take a couple hours out this coming weekend and see this movie.  And bring a friend.

I promise, you will not regret it.

BORU

Troubling News Indeed

Sign of the Impending End of Days.

USA Today confirms that these two are dating.  This breaks all the rules.  Hat tip: RAM.

-tre

Inspiration

This time of year is kind of depressing.  I guess the winter will end soon enough.  Until it does, we are left with internet pictures of starlets.  It must be Katie Holmes week:

(given the overwhelmingly positive response to the Katie Holmes Pictures (TM) postings, no other starlets will be posted for the next three days.  I am on starlet hiatus.)

Pictures from Katie Holmes Pictures (tm)

Creativity

Okay,  young Lindsay Lohan was not enough to shake me out of the terrible case of writer's block that I am currently experiencing.  Maybe it's time to turn to a somewhat more mature starlet to inspire the Consortium to bigger and better things. 

Katie Holmes:

(click on image for more inspiration)

Back to Life

It seems that the Consortium has been on a bit of a hiatus for the past week.  Whenever I am feeling a bit of a writers' block, all I have to do is turn to posting pictures of post-adolescent starlets to get going again.  So, ladies and gentlemen, I give you Lindsay Lohan:

tre

"Niedemeyer, Dead; Wormer, Dead (Literally)"

After a generation of tormenting the poor guys at the Delta house, a dark cloud has fallen over Faber College.  Dean Wormer is dead.  In the immortal words of the Dean, "Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life son."

(he's the man on the left) (from a Canadian TV show in the 60's)

Hat tip to Doc for the information

-tre

UPDATE:

A slightly better picture of Faber's beloved Dead Dean courtesy of Wizbang.