Men are from Mars

The Mars Volta - Bedlam in Goliath

So it looks like those Mars Volta fellas got a new album out. With it now being a few weeks after the release your possibly curious as to my opinion maybe? Well let's take a look, The Mars Volta's new album "Bedlam in Goliath" is another heavy entry from these hard rockers that unfortunately, doesn't really break any new ground for them. It's the same old shtick with their heavy experimentation and overly complicated arrangements. I like a lot of the musicianship and their use of certain instruments in interesting ways (check out that saxophone on "Wax Simulacra") But I'd really like to see "The Mars Volta" try and simplify things. Try and focus more on the songs then on the production or sound. I think they have a genuinely unique style but would really like to see them take that in a different direction.

The Chicago Valentine's Day Chainsaw Massacre

Well as you many not know, today is the 79th anniversary of the "Saint Valentine's Day Massacre" Which surely means enough time has passed to joke about it. "I guess Al Capone didn't get any Valentines that day Ha Ha." stuff like that. It was certainly some event. Capone and Moran gunning it out. They should make a "good movie" about it someday, cause Roger Corman's version just ain't gonna cut it. Who do cast as Al Capone.. James Gandolfini? Jack Black? what about Bugs Moran.. Robert De Niro? Jack Black? Sounds like a winner to me.

R.I.P. Roy Scheider

Roy Scheider
November 10th, 1932 - February. 10, 2008
Well I was saddened to hear today that two time oscar nominee Roy Scheider has passed away. Most famously as the star of Jaws Roy Scheider has lent himself to handful of notable films (The French Connection, All That Jazz, Marathon Man) and will be greatly missed.

On a lighter note it would appear that Barack Obama has cleaned up quite nicely here in Washington with some news outlets naming the The Great Northwest "Obama Country" It's quite exciting to see a fresh new candidate gaining momentum in one of the most exciting elections in years. I guess my dad was chosen as an Obama delegate after his heartwarming speech at the Junior High so good for him.

I Love the 90s

Watching this brings me back to a simpler time. A time of; Tamagotchis, Surge, and Chumbawumba.



If anyone saw this earlier and is now confused by the absence of David Duchovny, it's because that version got taken off of Youtube. Everything I put up is taken down pretty fast... I might just have to put up something else really 90s soon... Like a Game Gear commercial or something.

Twists of Fury

So I was looking around online today for any info regarding the new M. Night movie The Happening and was surprised to see all the negativity directed towards it on Imdb. I just can't believe all the people that just liter imdb's forums with comments such as "Worst director ever?" or "Most overrated director of all time?" It's almost like it's become hip to trash M. Night. so I thought I lend my insight to the situation. Now those 2 comments I used as examples are as a matter of fact the most frequent ones I have seen, and I understand if people want to complain about a filmmaker on the forum to that page, (where else would they do it) but I just can't believe the kind of flack he gets, which is even more than some far worse directors.

Now obviously M Night is not the worst director of all time so I wont even address that but overrated? Is he really rated that high? I'd understand this if he was really popular, but it's not like he gets a bunch of glowing reviews or a bunch of oscars. He's just another filmmaker going out there, making movies with his own style and I personally appreciate his attempts at being different.

Probably another one of the most common complaints is "He always has to end with a twist." First of all I don't really think Signs ended with a twist. It just kind of tied together a string of unclear elements. Not to mention Lady in the Water certainly didn't end with a twist. Leaving us with The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and The Village. (Not including M. Night's early light drama films). The first being an oscar nominated classic that really wouldn't of been the same without a twist. The twist in Unbreakable is also I think what made the film. Now I can understand why people didn't like the ending to The Village, it's twist certainly changes the tone of the film and almost eliminates the suspense, but personally I found it to be a good move. What we got was a much different film then we expected and I'd much prefer that direction to there actually being monsters.

But when it all comes down to it, what's really wrong with having a twist ending? In the case of The Sixth Sense it had one of the most surprising endings of all time and people loved that. Perhaps you can say that it made M. Night predictable because after that you were expecting twist endings, but it's not like anyone ever really figured the endings out beforehand. I know they still always got me, so I don't understand what's wrong with occasionally using twists? Look at The Twilight Zone arguably one of the greatest sci-fi television shows of all time, it always had twist endings and hey it's memorable show. I think it's basically because people don't like being tricked. They go in expecting a certain kind of movie and then get something different. So perhaps most people prefer stuff that's predictable? I don't know but I'll always be excited when new M. Night movies come out. (except if he does "Avatar: The Last Airbender")

I was gonna post a trailer to "The Happening" for this blog but can't seem to find it anymore. I here it's attached to "Jumper" so I guess we'll have to wait and see that. I'm of course just kidding.

At the Movies 07 - Continued

So I saw "Into The WIld" online and was pretty impressed. It's a great story that's well acted, visually beautiful and even good enough for me to decide to edit my 07' movies list and put in "Into The Wild" at an impressive 6th place. Good jorb "Into the Wild"

Sunday, Bloody, Sunday

Well it was some Super Bowl Sunday as the Giants took down those pesky Patriots. Naturally, I rooted against the Pats for the fact that not only did they win all their games this season, but already have 3 superbowl wins in this decade. Plus I mean the Red Sox had already won the World Series, "The Departed" won best picture last year... I think the people of Massachusetts needed to be stopped at some point in time. It was a pretty close game too. Personally I found it hard to be interested in watching other teams play, but being the cultural event that the Super Bowl is, figured I was obligated to at least watch some of it.

As for the always hyped Super Bowl commercials, I must say that I was no more impressed than that of the everyday commercials I see. Kevin seemed to really enjoy this one Justin Timberlake commercial where he gets hit in the nuts. (Or as Kevin refers to Justin Timberlake as "That fat black guy that ripped apart that woman's breast.") I have no idea how he got that in his mind. Also artwork for the new Defenestrators album started. (I'm not sure how that'll turn out but I'm optimistic.) So much going on, but so little time.