Posts Tagged ‘movies’
We Were Biting this Morning…
My favorite commercial from this past hockey season’s TV coverage…
Until next year… enjoy your Labatt Blue Light on YouTube !
On Term Limits and T.V.
It’s been a few days now and of course life goes on, but I really miss “West Wing.” Television is often the means by which we see images of our presidency which make us loose faith in the leadership of this country. The show The West Wing, fictional as it was gave us a presidency that we could find hope in.
President Bartlett (Martin Sheen) whatever his character(‘s) flaws was more Presidential than either George W. Bush or Bill Clinton. His staff, from C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney), to Leo McGarry (John Spencer) and every blessed character in between seemed more real and more genuine than any White House staffers that actually inhabited the West Wing in the “Real World” that we my have encountered in the news, CSPAN or Sunday Morning talk shows, or depending on our luck — in person.
Chalk it all up to good acting and even better writing, but these were the kind of characters I would rather see in the real White House than any of the bad actors and extras that inhabit the place now.
Too bad there is such a thing as term limits on television as well.
Good bye President Bartlett, sir.
Piracy isn’t to Blame – Quality Is
Ars Technica recently analyzed an Ipsos survey about music consumption and consumer attitudes. The conclusion? "Music sales are dropping because the quality is bad and the prices are too high, not because of piracy."
Every record company executive and the entire RIAA needs to understand that the reason they are loosing money is that the vast majority of material being sold by them today is crap!
I used to by 40-50 CDs a year and maybe half that many records back when they ruled in the day. Now I just can't justify buying more than 4 or 5, especially when chances are I'm only intersted in hearing 1 or 2 or at best 3 songs on an album.
Give me something worth spending my dollars on and I'll buy it I swear I will. In the mean time I'll just continue to swear.
King Kong Strikes it Big
'Peter Jackson's King Kong' is the best big budget movie I have seen in years. Most big budget special effects movies seem to fall short of expectations, this one met all of my own and more.
Prior to seeing the movie, the reported length of it concerned me. Would I be bored? Would I spend more time thinking about going to the bathroom than staying focused on the story? Not to worry… even some one as Attention Deficiency challenged as myself, could stay focused as this movie leaped from one monster-laden intense scene to another. The story, although a familiar one, didn’t loose me either. One could actually believe that King Kong (albeit a digitally produced one) could fall for Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow, femme fatal.
The dinosaurs, the island and the New York City scenery were to die for. Enjoyed myself thoroughly. Though I am glad I didn’t make my wife join me for this matinee. Peter Jackson's vision was far too intense for her romantic movie love’n tastes. Well worth it though for me and my 14 year old nephew. I hear the my 13 year old step son has seen it twice.
Bad Taste Hollywood Style
Sitting in the movie theater this afternoon watching previews before a matinee, my wife and I were struck by the same thought… “Hollywood has no taste.”
What prompted that rather obvious thought? You ask.
It was a scene appearing up on the big screen in the front of our theater. The screen pictured a large ship sitting in a dark peaceful sea being over taken by a 5 story wave. As the film rolled on the ship could be seen sinking and all aboard presumably in great peril.. The dramatic scene is the opening sequence of a new preview for the Hollywood epic “Poseidon.” “Poseidon” is an obvious remake of that “classic” disaster film the 70’s… the “Poseidon Adventure.”
What’s the big deal?
It’s not so much the premise of the movie, which by the way, doesn’t come out until December of 2006, it’s the fact that this preview, and particularly the scene of the wave overtaking the ship, that was being shown by the theater so proudly on this particular day… December 26th, 2005.
December 26th is the anniversary date of the massive Tsunami that hit the Southeast Asian Pacific one year ago. Upwards of 200,000 people perished on that fateful day and more than a million people were made homeless. This is not the stuff that Hollywood, in my opinion should be making lighthearted albeit dramatic fare out of so close to the tragic event.
