Very Funny?

A few minutes ago I was NOT at all interested in watching the upcoming movie “Couple’s Retreat”. Sure it stars Vince Vaughn, and I like the guy. But I have never seen a movie trailer that looked more like a “made for TV” movie in my life. I could’ve sworn this was a TBS movie when I first saw the trailer. Can you figure out why?

Goodbye Bernie Mac

I must not know nearly as much as I thought I did about pneumonia. Not that I thought I knew a whole lot. But I certainly did not understand just how dangerous it really was. I thought it killed only babies and senior citizens. At 50 Bernie Mac was not exactly young, however to hear that he died of complications from pneumonia is pretty shocking. I wasn’t a big Bernie Mac fan in the sense that I didn’t seek out his work specifically or watch his movies just to see Bernie Mac. However, in every movie I did see him he made me laugh and he did without offending me which is a nice bonus. Granted I’m pretty hard to offend. So it’s quite sad to see him go. To some 50 may not sound that young. I kinda feel like he died young though.I feel like he had a lot more work to do and material to put out so it is sad that we will not have the opportunity to see him again.
Rest in peace Bernie Mac.

Something About Brett

If you haven’t noticed, Brett Favre is reprising his role in Something About Mary.

Think about it. In the 1998 film, Favre was the ideal. He represented the perfect man—all that is good and decent. In the end, when he makes his move on Mary though, he is rejected.

Now, 10 years later. Favre retires a hero in Green Bay. Once again, he was the ideal. And once again, he attempted to return. And the Packers are doing their damned best to reject him.

Delicious irony.

Nolan’s Batman: Revisionist history?

Now I’m sure Batman fans everywhere are loving the turn the franchise has made, especially its latest rendition, “The Dark Knight.” But deep down, they’re utterly troubled.

“This flies in the face of the first the five Batman movies since 1989!” they think to themselves. “This is revisionist history!”

*Disclaimer* That’s completely untrue. No one is troubled in the least; they’re all glad to see those movies relegated to irrelevance.*

But to those confused, disheartened fans, I say: Take heart.

This is not revisionist history at all. I’m here to offer you a way to view the old movies that allows you to still appreciate their place in the Batman legend without worrying about a conflict between the new movies and the old.

A lesson from The Kingdom

I watched (half paid attention to) The Kingdom last night. As with any action movie, the narrative culminated in lots of explosions, automatic rifle fire and death. But none of the good guys died, and the hostage was saved. Time to leave the building.

As soon as I saw Jennifer Garner’s character take note of a child’s crying behind a door, I knew that they were about to take a detour, and the destination would be death.

Sure enough, the American’s sympathetic stalling led to the death of one of their number and two others besides.

But as I watched, I noted the cross-cutting between the three dying individuals. Mechanically, the incident provided the cursory death of a good guy, but thanks to the editing, it became something more.
It was a reminder that Over There, “good guys” and “bad guys” alike are dying for what they believe in. Maybe everyone is misguided; it doesn’t matter who is right or wrong.

Death is the common denominator.

Soderbergh a baseball phenom?

Next time you’re drafting your celebrity baseball team, look no further than Stephen Soderbergh if you need a power-hitting, writer/director type. He’s out in Hawaii, where a blogging buddy of mine came across him.

One of the concierges here had to be with him while inside the batting cages, probably because the last thing her boss wanted was to read about a big-screen director getting hurt at his resort. Soderbergh apparently wasn’t impressed with this special treatment and told the
woman that he would be fine because he’d been playing this game his whole life.