A Day of Moviegoing at AMC Theatres...

Gettin' ready to watch Next Goal Wins and Steven Spielberg's classic 1998 war epic Saving Private Ryan today!

The Martian...

So I saw the new sci-flick today, and must say, it was the second best Ridley Scott film I've seen behind his 2000 Oscar-winning epic Gladiator. It's even a much cooler movie if you're a die-hard NASA geek, but The Martian is worth watching if you want to see Matt Damon do a great job playing stranded astronaut Mark Watney. Speaking of Damon, just thought I'd share this funny meme that I found online. It's so true— For someone who played a genius janitor in 1997's Good Will Hunting, Damon sure likes playing other characters who constantly find themselves getting lost in another country or on another planet. But at least Matt gets to kick ass again in another Bourne film...due out in theaters next year.

Edge of Tomorrow...

Yesterday, I watched the new Tom Cruise flick at my local theater...and suffice it to say, the movie was pretty darn entertaining. Edge of Tomorrow was a cross between Groundhog Day, Saving Private Ryan and Halo (plus Gears of War and essentially any other sci-fi video game you'll play on Xbox and Playstation). Clearly, the filmmaker was inspired by the D-Day landings of World War II (Edge of Tomorrow officially opened at theaters domestically on June 6, which marked the 70th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy)...with the central plot revolving around how Cage (Cruise) and Rita (Emily Blunt) had to figure out a way to get their fellow soldiers off a French beach. This locale was a meat grinder as alien creatures known as Mimics (who came to Earth via asteroid and decimated much of Europe) mowed down the human invaders the same way the Germans mercilessly gunned down Allied troops trying to wade their way across the shores of Normandy in 1944. Of course, unlike the ultra-realistic but grim portrayal of D-Day in Private Ryan, there was a nice touch of humor as Cage desperately tried to survive the onslaught of Mimics charging at him on the battlefront—only to die and relive that moment over and over (which is where the Groundhog Day reference comes along) until he emerged victorious.



While Tom Cruise played the reluctant hero (unlike his fearless characters in other movies like say, Mission: Impossible and Jack Reacher) in Edge of Tomorrow, Emily Blunt showed just how comfortable she was in playing a bad-ass action hero who will do whatever she could to accomplish her objective. Also amusing in this film was Bill Paxton...who played a tough-as-nails master sergeant bent on making Cage pay for his initial attempt at deserting his army unit and avoiding the invasion of France. (Like in WWII, the Americans and British were amassing their forces in England and were going to strike at the extraterrestrials using the English Channel.) The Mimics looked pretty cool...with their designs reminiscent of the Sentinels from The Matrix trilogy, the Kaiju of Pacific Rim and the creatures known as Locusts from Gears of War. The special effects in Edge of Tomorrow were top-notch, and could've possibly earned this movie a Best Visual Effects Oscar nomination in 2015 if Godzilla, Transformers: Age of Extinction and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies weren't released this year.



All-in-all, Edge of Tomorrow was a fun and inventive sci-fi film. The story didn't lend itself to having a sequel, but Tomorrow was as entertaining (but not campy) a flick as 1997's Starship Troopers. Edge of Tomorrow was also similar to Battle: Los Angeles, but the humor that Cruise got to employ and the toughness of Blunt's character set their movie apart from 2011's action-disaster film. Here's hoping Tomorrow will find box office success during its theatrical run...it deserves it.

Olympus Has Fallen: Movie Review... I saw the White House-invasion action flick today, and the first thing that I want to say is, Gerard Butler did to the terrorists what Jack Bauer would've done if the now-defunct FOX TV show 24 was on HBO, Starz or Showtime instead. In other words, more gory scenes where bad guys nonchalantly get shot in the head and even knives jammed into their jugulars and/or craniums by the guy who played a Spartan in 2007's 300. Not that this is a bad thing (assuming you're not a pacifist who deplores ultra-violent movies, or just aren't a fan of Gerard Butler)... The way that the intruders make their way into the House On 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is so merciless and brutal that you want an ex-Special Forces-turned-Secret Service agent showing up on scene to put a dent in the insurgents' plans. That's where Butler comes along.



Nitpicking-wise, there are many things to critique about in Olympus Has Fallen. First and foremost, this film isn't even close to being original. The movie opens and concludes with a saturated look at the American flag (a la Saving Private Ryan); and not only did he see 24, but the screenwriter must have also watched 1997's Air Force One while writing Olympus' script. Instead of Russian terrorists led by none other than Gary Oldman, you have rogue Korean commandos who fall under the command of Rick Yune [of 2001's The Fast and the Furious, 2002's Die Another Day (in which Yune played a North Korean-born Bond villain), last year's The Man with the Iron Fists and 2009's Ninja Assassin] wreaking havoc on the U.S. government. And instead of Air Force One, we, of course, have the White House being the iconic locale that's (somewhat plausibly) invaded by foreign attackers. Plus, there's a mole in the Secret Service that allows the terrorists to gain access to the President (this time played by Aaron Eckhart and not Harrison Ford). And lastly, instead of the late Jerry Goldsmith—who composed the memorable score for Air Force One, you have Trevor Morris...whose bombastic but patriotic music for Olympus Has Fallen was obviously inspired by Air Force One and maybe even Hans Zimmer's tune for 2001's Pearl Harbor. In regards to the movie's visual effects, which looked really fake in the trailer, the computer-generated shots appeared a lot better in the actual movie. There were still some scenes with shoddy FX work (namely, the F-22 Raptors chasing after the AC-130 gunship that strafes Washington, D.C., and the shots of CG Black Hawk helicopters superimposed with grainy stock footage of Capitol Hill and other D.C. landmarks), but other than those, I was hardly taken out of the film with these post-production imperfections, hah. Imagine if the venerable FX house Industrial Light & Magic worked on Olympus Has Fallen... Wow. That would've been cool.



In regards to what I enjoyed about Olympus Has Fallen, it's the fact that this is a feel-good action flick if you're a Yank. Sure, pretty much all of the Secret Service agents and D.C. police (and even Navy SEALs) who show up to defend the White House were wiped out by Yune and company, but the way that Butler dispatches these antagonists with ferocity deservedly elicited cheers from the audience. (Despite being gagged and bound, one Korean commando was foolish enough to laugh at Butler's character as he interrogated the terrorist in one scene; the commando stopped laughing, permanently, after getting the previously-mentioned knife to the throat.) And being a military buff, I like how the filmmakers accurately portrayed the way flares are dispensed from the AC-130 gunship when threatened by missiles fired by the F-22s. Though if only the F-22 saw real combat instead of having to continuously engage in fictional big-screen dogfights as seen in this film, 2008's Iron Man and the Transformers trilogy. Oh well. So would I recommend Olympus Has Fallen for viewing, you ask? Sure. Just make sure you watch it with another flick like this Friday's G.I. Joe: Retaliation to get your 6 bucks worth...if you're going to a matinee at AMC or Regal Cinemas or something. Oh, and here's hoping that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un doesn't obtain any copy of this movie. He might get ideas.

Lincoln... Happy New Year, everyone! I'm more than a month late, but just thought I'd start off 2013 by posting my review of Steven Spielberg's critically-acclaimed biopic about this nation's 16th president. Not only is Lincoln well-acted and well-scripted, but it is also totally relevant to today's political climate in the U.S. For those of you who have already seen the film, you'd know that the Congress depicted in the movie was just as divisive as the legislature that works on Capitol Hill today. In Spielberg's flick, you have the Republicans and (then-newly-created) Democratic Party sparring over the passage of the 13th Amendment (which abolished slavery in America) and trying to end the war with the Confederacy. In the Congress of today, you had the Republicans and Democrats sparring over the recently-passed bill that prevented the so-called fiscal cliff from taking place (at least for the next two months); the continued debate over legalizing same-sex marriage (the scenes in the movie where 19th century politicians consider interracial marriages to be unfathomable makes one think about how national leaders, and the public in general, will view gay and lesbian rights two hundred years from now)...as well as how to deal with post-war Afghanistan once the U.S. completely withdraws its troops from there next year. Clearly, the story of Honest Abe was compelling enough for Spielberg to bring to the big screen once more...and make it relatable to events of the 21st century.



In terms of the acting in Lincoln, what's there to say except that you can expect an Oscar nomination or two for the talented cast that worked on the movie? Daniel Day-Lewis was totally convincing as Abraham Lincoln (even though Day-Lewis didn't convey Lincoln's deep, gruff voice that the president is famous for), with Tommy Lee Jones giving both a fiery and amusing performance as Republican leader Thaddeus Stevens (I wonder if Stevens was actually as bad-ass as Jones made him out to be in the film). Sally Field was terrific as the president's oft-unhinged wife Mary Todd Lincoln, while Joseph Gordon-Levitt was commendable as their strong-headed son, Robert. Rounding out the stellar cast is David Strathairn as William Seward (a.k.a. the guy who bought Alaska in 1867's then-called Seward's Folly), James Spader (who was in the previous season of NBC's The Office) as Tennessee lawyer W.N. Bilbo, Hal Bolbook (of TV's Sons of Anarchy and the upcoming Gus Van Sant film, Promised Land) as Francis Preston Blair, Jackie Earle Haley (of the 2009 flick Watchmen and the now-defunct FOX TV show Human Target) as Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens, Bruce McGill (who lent his voice to FOX's The Cleveland Show and Family Guy, and appears on the TNT TV show, Rizzoli & Isles) as U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, and Jared Harris (of TV's Mad Men and Fringe, as well as 2011's Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) as U.S. General Ulysses S. Grant. There are a lot of other phenomenal actors in Lincoln, but this paragraph would go on forever if I listed them all.



One gripe that has been made about Lincoln is its ending...which doesn't come as a surprise. Ever since 1998's Saving Private Ryan and (especially) 2001's A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, Spielberg has been known for protracting dark and intense films with sugarcoated happy endings. This is especially true with A.I. and the 2002 Tom Cruise flick, Minority Report. In Lincoln however, some moviegoers remarked that the film should've ended with Lincoln triumphantly walking down a hallway as his African-American butler looked on following the ratification of the 13th Amendment. Instead of this (appropriately) happy ending though, Spielberg decided to conclude the flick with Lincoln's assassination at Ford's Theatre (though we never see John Wilkes Booth fire his pistol). However, one can understand why Spielberg would end the film when Lincoln unfortunately lost his life; right after the President took his last breath at Petersen House (where he was taken to following the shooting), Secretary of War Stanton actually commented that the President now "belongs to the ages." Considering how the movie depicted Lincoln's struggle and ultimate success in ending the Civil War...and slavery along with it, this was a fitting line to include at the finale of the film.



Less than two weeks from now, expect to see Lincoln nab several Academy Award nominations...especially in the upper categories. Best Picture, Best Director, possibly Best Actor, Actress and Supporting Actor (for Tommy Lee Jones) and Best Adapted Screenplay (since Lincoln is based on the book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin)— Steven Spielberg is a pro when it comes to conveying well-made historical dramas on the big screen. Whether it's Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan or his latest opus, Spielberg continues to show us why he's one of the greatest directors to ever work in Hollywood...with his newest film expressing how Abraham Lincoln was one of the greatest American leaders to ever reside in the White House. Some people and their feats do indeed belong to the ages.

Zero Dark Thirty: Movie Review... First of all, Merry Christmas everyone! Just thought I'd finally post my review of Kathryn Bigelow's latest action thriller...which I watched at ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood last Friday. Just as a recap that I'm sure 99% of you don't need (otherwise you wouldn't have visited my webpage in the first place), Zero Dark Thirty revolves around the decade-long manhunt for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden that culminated in his death at the hands of U.S. Navy SEALs more than a year ago. Controversy has recently arisen around the torture scenes that are prominently featured in Bigelow's new flick, voiced primarily by folks in Washington and those who actually work in Langley, Virginia (at CIA Headquarters). Hubbub aside, Zero Dark Thirty is an intense film—showing the frustration and ultimately vindication that folks looking for bin Laden felt when the code word for his death was finally radioed from bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan on the night of May 1, 2011: "Geronimo."



Zero Dark Thirty revolves around a real-life CIA operative who in this film goes by the name of Maya. Determinedly portrayed by Jessica Chastain (who I last saw in this September's gangster drama, Lawless), Maya originally begins this flick standing on the sideline as Dan, another operative played by Jason Clarke, is the one responsible for "questioning" detainees held at a CIA black site in Pakistan. Maya apparently has no qualms about the use of waterboarding, dog leashes and other methods that Dan utilizes to get information about bin Laden from this detainee...whose name in this movie is Ammar (played by Reda Kateb). Despite all the brutal and degrading situations that Dan puts him through, Ammar is resilient in not divulging any crucial info about bin Laden or even the next terrorist attack being planned. In fact, the attack goes as expected; with dozens of people killed in a housing complex in Khobar, Saudi Arabia in May of 2004. It is after this massacre that Maya devises a scheme: to lie to Ammar and let him know that the names that he revealed (which he didn't actually do) during his interrogation resulted in numerous lives being saved at Khobar. Ammar had been sleep-deprived for 96 hours, and adding in the fact that he had no contact with the outside world whatsoever allowed Maya and Dan to fool Ammar into thinking that he began to cooperate with them over the course of his captivity. It was through Maya's tactic that the name of the courier, Abu Ahmed—who would ultimately lead to bin Laden's location—was revealed.



The remainder of the film before SEAL Team 6's raid in Abbottabad is about Maya and her CIA team pursuing every lead for the courier's whereabouts in Pakistan. Their investigation takes Maya to a CIA black site in Poland, with Dan visiting a contact (and even buying a Lamborghini for the guy to get his cooperation) in Kuwait who knows Abu Ahmed's mother. (The courier was Kuwaiti.) The search for Ahmed is not without its casualties though, with Maya's close friend Jessica (Jennifer Ehle) being one of the victims of a suicide bombing at Camp Chapman in Afghanistan on December 30, 2009. With other CIA colleagues having to withdraw from Pakistan due to outrage over civilian deaths caused by unmanned drone strikes (one colleague who was expelled being Joseph Bradley, played by Kyle Chandler), Maya slowly realizes that she is the only one left to continue the search for the courier and ultimately, his boss who was the mastermind for the largest terrorist attack on U.S. soil.



Zero Dark Thirty starts to get really intense once Maya and her colleagues finally locate the courier and his/bin Laden's home in Pakistan. The set crew who built a replica of bin Laden's compound (in the country of Jordan, where much of the flick was shot) for the film did a tremendous job making the fortress-like lair look exactly like the one that was featured on almost every newspaper and news website in the days following May 1, 2011. What makes Zero Dark Thirty really interesting is how Kathryn Bigelow and her crew visualize how the lair would look on the inside, and ultimately, how SEAL Team 6 would penetrate the fortress to get to the room bin Laden was hiding in. In terms of SEAL Team 6, I find it interesting that Zero Dark Thirty purports that the stealth helicopters the DEVGRU (United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group...another name for SEAL Team 6) operators flew to Abbottabad in were secretly stored at Area 51 in Nevada. Hey, Bigelow had to find some kind of explanation about where these choppers were before coming into use for the bin Laden raid. Speaking of the bin Laden raid...



For me, the highlight of Zero Dark Thirty is when Maya finally meets the Navy SEALs who would complete the job that Maya had feverishly been working on since 2003. We get to know two of the DEVGRU operators (even though everything about them in this film is fictional), Patrick (Joel Edgerton) and Justin (Chris Pratt). Since we know that SEAL Team 6 didn't incur any casualties during the raid on bin Laden's compound, we shouldn't be surprised that Bigelow portrayed these soldiers as extremely confident and efficient (which I'm sure they are in real-life) on the big screen. When these SEALs finally don their armor and strap on their weapons, and lift off in the two stealth choppers with Maya watching from the ground, that's when we finally prepare to see bin Laden's fate conveyed on screen.



I don't know about the rest of the audience whom I saw the movie with last Friday, but I felt chills as the two choppers carrying SEAL Team 6 quietly made their way through mountainous terrain as they headed to bin Laden's compound. To watch as the choppers arrive at the lair, with the DEVGRU operators lowering their night vision goggles before extracting from the helicopters, was awesome. For folks who enjoy war movies, it is never too tiring to see soldiers head off into combat...whether it is in Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down, Bigelow's previous film The Hurt Locker, or this one. Knowing what transpired in the bin Laden raid from reading dozens of articles in newspapers and online, I couldn't help but be transfixed by how Bigelow dramatized the major events of 5/1/11 on the big screen...from one of the stealth choppers making a hard landing near the compound (due to rotor wash caused by flying too close to a wall), to how the DEVGRU operators eliminate the courier and then locating a vast cache of computer hard drives, CDs and other valuable sources of intel inside the main home. But ultimately, the biggest moment that brought chills down my spine (I'm exaggerating—kinda) is when SEAL Team 6 finally confronts "the third floor guy" and finishes him off.



A very nice touch in Zero Dark Thirty is the fact that we never fully see bin Laden's face before or after he meets his fate at the hands of U.S. special ops soldiers. Bin Laden was a phantom when Dan and Maya interrogated Ammar for his whereabouts at the beginning of the film, and bin Laden is still a phantom even as Maya stares down at his lifeless body when SEAL Team 6 returned to Afghanistan with it. In the final shot of Zero Dark Thirty, Maya expresses an emotion that she had no doubt been suppressing since 2003...and most likely before that. Two years before that, to be exact. Even if the majority of scenes in Zero Dark Thirty—especially the ones featuring so-called enhanced interrogation techniques—are exaggerated or flat-out fictional, the movie is still true in that the search for the man who caused the deaths of almost 3,000 Americans more than eleven years ago was a long and painful one. And seeing it come to an end finally allowed the people responsible for conducting this dogged but ultimately fruitful investigation to release their emotions. One word for why Kathryn Bigelow and other storytellers continue to deal with the topic of 9/11: catharsis. That is all.

BATTLE: LOS ANGELES... I finally saw the alien-invasion film today, and needless to say, it was the sci-fi version of Black Hawk Down. Which means...I thought it was pretty cool! Non-stop action was waged throughout B:LA, much like in Ridley Scott’s 2002 war flick about the 1993 conflict in Somalia. Aaron Eckhart was awesome as Staff Sergeant Nantz; while compared to her gung-ho attitude in Avatar, Machete and the Fast and the Furious films, Michelle Rodriguez was somewhat tame as Tech Sgt. Elena Santos in B:LA. As Santos, Rodriguez didn't have the usual sarcastic quips that she had playing previous movie characters. Not that that's a bad thing. Nothing exceptionally noteworthy about the civilians played by Bridget Moynahan and Michael Peña, but I’ll give them props since my review about this flick is supposed to be a positive one. I just found out through IMDb.com that 2nd Lt. William Martinez, who was in charge of the Marine platoon before handing command over to Eckhart's Nantz and then sacrificing himself later in the film, was played by Ramon Rodriguez. In case you’re wondering who this is, Rodriguez played the wacky college roommate of Shia LaBeouf in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. But back to B:LA.



Battle: Los Angeles didn’t exactly have a deep message like 2009’s District 9 (which B:LA also borrowed elements from...namely weapons that cause explosions surrounded by bolts of lightning) did, but it was still a lot better than last year’s Skyline. B:LA didn’t have a "WTF??" moment at the very end of the movie like Skyline did...though as I said at the beginning of this journal entry, B:LA was obviously inspired by Black Hawk Down in that Eckhart and Co. go back into the battlefield at the film's conclusion to take care of unfinished business. Also, the battle in Los Angeles lasted for one day...while the 1993 battle in Mogadishu, Somalia lasted a day as well. Nothing wrong with that. My personal gripe about B:LA is that, like the Bourne movies (as in The Bourne Identity, Supremacy and Ultimatum), it overdid it with the shaky cam. By now using this camera technique in war films has become a cliché, and unfortunately B:LA suffers from this tired method. It was cool in Saving Private Ryan, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down...but try spending more time setting the camera up on a tripod or at least a Steadicam, folks—if there’s a sequel (Battle: San Diego, anyone?). Thanks. Another gripe is that the trippy song used in B:LA's theatrical trailers, "The Sun’s Gone Dim and the Sky Turned Black" by Icelandic musician Johann Johannsson, wasn't featured in the movie. Oh well.



Special effects-wise, the aliens in B:LA looked interesting...though were they using projectile weapons (RE: bullets) just like the humans were? I guess having the invaders shoot laser beams at the Marines would’ve ruined the gritty, realistic tone of the film. After all, this ain’t Star Wars. Or Star Trek. Or Independence Day. Or Transformers. Or Terminator. The same people who did the visual FX on Skyline also did the FX work on B:LA. The FX work was what saved Skyline since its CW Network-quality cast of actors wasn’t exactly the saving grace of that movie. That is all.

HEATH LEDGER WINS SAG AWARD for Best Supporting Actor... I’m gonna give the Screen Actors Guild a partially-raised middle finger for the lingering threat of a labor strike (yes, this will affect my current job if it took place), but I’ll give them props for giving kudos to Ledger for his work playing the Clown Prince of Crime. The Dark Knight itself won a SAG award for Best Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture...which means absolutely nothing when discussing the Academy Awards. But it’s still cool. Speaking of the Oscars, you would think that Ledger winning yet another award for portraying Batman’s longtime arch-nemesis would essentially guarantee a lock for him to win the Academy Award. But think again. As with the case of The Dark Knight getting robbed of that fifth Best Picture slot to a film (The Reader) that got mediocre reviews [but hey(!), it focused on the Holocaust...so it must be meaningful!], you know the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is gonna throw a curveball and hand the Best Supporting Actor to someone else. I guarantee it.



The Academy thinks it’s being unique and prestigious by trying to throw an upset by handing an Oscar to the least-likeliest nominee (you can obviously argue that they're simply handing a trophy to the better film or actor, but in many cases, that's a bunch of BS), but this only makes the organization look ridiculous and elitist (sorry for stating something that was mentioned by others countless of times already) in the eyes of the mainstream public. Shakespeare in Love over Saving Private Ryan, anyone? No wait— I said mainstream. That says it all, right there. Expect me to type a couple more diatribes like this in the weeks leading up to February 22.

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN... Ten years ago today, Steven Spielberg’s critically-acclaimed World War II epic about a group of soldiers who venture across battle-torn Europe to look for a lone paratrooper following the D-Day landings came out in theaters nationwide. Saving Private Ryan would revolutionize war movies...as well as change the way battles were filmed (the hand-held camera shots and fast-shutter technique that Spielberg used during the opening D-Day sequence as well as the climactic battle in that French village would be employed by Ridley Scott in such movies as Gladiator and Black Hawk Down). Saving Private Ryan would go on to earn a Best Picture Oscar nomination the following year—only to be upset by the romantic comedy Shakespeare in Love.



On a personal note, Saving Private Ryan was released in the summer that followed my graduation from high school and preceded me starting college at Cal State Long Beach. Even without the nostalgia, Private Ryan is an intense movie (though one wonders if Spielberg could’ve done without the fluffy modern-day scenes at the Normandy American Cemetery that open and close the flick)...with John Williams poignant music score adding to the power of this remarkable film.

FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS: Blog #2... I saw the World War II epic today, and while it was not as intense as 1998's Saving Private Ryan, it was more moving and emotional. Like Private Ryan, Flags opens up with a modern-day sequence featuring a WWII veteran...who in the Clint Eastwood film recounts the significance of the flag raising photo shot in Iwo Jima. The battle scenes in Flags are just as realistic and gut-wrenching as those in the Steven Spielberg epic. But unlike Private Ryan, the modern-day scenes also take place during the movie...and they are actually pivotal to the story in Flags. The modern-day scenes at the beginning and end of Private Ryan, on the other hand, could've been deleted from that film...which would've probably made the '99 Best Picture nominee a much better movie. It's still a great film, though.



Proof that Flags of Our Fathers was emotional and moving was evident at the finale, when most of the theater audience remained still and silent during the end credits sequence. As the credits rolled, actual photos taken during the Battle of Iwo Jima came up on screen...and it was interesting to see how close Clint Eastwood came to re-creating certain events that took place in the 1945 Pacific conflict.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!! Hope you and yours are having a safe and tubular holiday... Tubular, haha... Yes, this is the same thing I typed for my Xmas entry last year...except for the ‘tubular’ part. Anyways, to bring up news that I was too lazy to type more than a week earlier, on December 14, I worked the very last taping of the TV sitcom, Yes, Dear (in case you don’t know yet, this is the CBS show’s final season). This was the first and last time I ever worked on that show. Oh well. The next day, I attended the annual Christmas party at Paramount Studios (where Yes, Dear was filmed). Par bought off Dreamworks just a few weeks ago...which obviously gives Par employees something to cheer about for the holidays, and hopefully next year’s holidays...when the studio store on the Par lot will presumably be able to sell Dreamworks DVD titles like Gladiator and Saving Private Ryan. Once again, I reiterate the word presumably. Oh, and Par is what Variety magazine calls Paramount in its articles (Variety calls TV shows "skeins", or something like that...the ABC channel the "Alphabet", NBC the "Peacock", filming a movie is "lensing" a movie, and film directors are called “helmers”...as in James Cameron was Titanic's helmer. Or I may be wrong. That's showbiz jargon for ya, haha).



This week, I watched Munich, King Kong and Fun With Dick and Jane—all in that particular order. I’m too lazy to write full reviews on them, so I’ll just say Munich was serious, King Kong was less serious, and Fun wasn't serious at all (well obviously). Going back to King Kong, the special effects were a lot better than I thought (I still say WETA isn’t up there with ILM yet). In fact, I think King Kong might take next spring’s Best Visual FX Oscar...even though I’m rooting for Revenge of the Sith to do that. Kong should also be nominated for Best Make-up, since the face prosthetics on those Skull Island natives looked pretty freaky. Naomi Watts, unsurprisingly, looked hot in this pic, though I think, um, helmer Peter Jackson could’ve deleted some of her close-ups at the end. It was a tad bit too many. Her character has feelings for Kong, we get the picture!! Though Watts is pretty darn talented— She juggles, and she does somersaults! Haha. Up next, I want to see Syriana and Memoirs of a Geisha. C’mon now, gotta show that Asian pride!! Oh, and the cinematography on Geisha looks great...from what I saw in the trailers.

Fullscreen is for monkeys. I don’t even know why people continue to buy this butchered version of a film on VHS and DVDs. What— Is it because in widescreen versions you obviously have the two matte lines at the top and bottom of the movie frame? Well BOOHOO, you’re breaking my heart. "Hey, I don’t want the widescreen version of The Passion of the Christ... Those two black bars are on the screen!" Loser. People who prefer the fullscreen version of a film (A.K.A. the film with a 1.33:1 aspect ratio format...A.K.A. "pan-and-scan") over widescreen are just as lame as people who don’t like black & white films ‘cause they’re “old” (more on this diatribe tomorrow). Think about it… What would you rather have...the two matte lines on the TV screen or an image that is only half the size of what is on the original theatrical version? I prefer the two matte lines on the screen anyday. Now, if the reason why you’re holding off on buying widescreen-formatted films is because you want to buy that nice-ass, WAY-expensive High Definition 16:9 Widecreen TV from Best Buy first, then that’s different! As long as you let the fullscreen version go the way of...um, I dunno, all those species of insects in the burning Brazilian rain forest (8-track tapes and the Dodo bird are clichés), then it’s all good. If you wanna see a pan-and-scan film, watch a broadcast of it on network television!


(Images courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox)

Now, what got me to dislike the 1.33:1 aspect ratio in the first place was me buying the fullscreen VHS version of the film Independence Day (above) in November of 1996. I showed my dad the movie when he got back home from work, and while watching it, I noticed that he wasn’t as into the film as I thought he would be. Of course, it may have obviously been that ID4 is a big pile of sci-fi crap (though I still enjoy the film), but I also attributed it to the fact the full splendor of the images (especially during the action sequences) wasn’t showing on the TV screen. From there on out, I vowed that every film I bought would be in widescreen. Of course (I like saying that), I didn’t really practice this till I began buying DVDs. I bought Gladiator and Saving Private Ryan in their fullscreen incarnation on VHS…and I, um, cough-cough (how ‘bout them USC Trojans?), bought Titanic in fullscreen VHS as well. Of course, James Cameron is a genius in the sole fact that the way he framed the images during filming actually allowed everything that you see in the widescreen version of the movie to be visible in the fullscreen version AS WELL. If you’re watching the fullscreen version of Titanic, you’ll notice that there’s considerable empty space at the top and bottom of the images, and that’s because those spaces were matted off (a.k.a. covered by the two black bars) for the theatrical release! Pure genius, Cameron!!


(Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox and Paramount)

Anyways, where was I? Oh yes… Fullscreen SUCKS. I urge my readers out there (ALL 10 of you. Just kidding… Look at the hit counter at the bottom of this page, haha) to forsake the ghetto “This film has been formatted to fit your TV screen” version and go with the “So what do you prefer? The 1.85:1 or the 2.35:1 aspect ratio?” version. Me? I prefer 2.35:1. But I shot my short films The Broken Table and Envious in 1.85:1, haha. Oh, and using the Final Cut Pro editing software program, I matted my first student film, a BLACK & WHITE cinematography project (creatively titled Cinematography Project), with BOTH 1.85:1 AND 2.35:1 matte bars. It’s SO COOL that that film, which was shot in fullscreen, was framed well enough for the other two aspect ratios to be compatible! Parno rules!! Just kidding. That is all.


Dumb & Dumber: One of only a few films enjoyable in both the fullscreen and widescreen formats!

(Images courtesy of New Line Cinema)

BATMAN BEGINS. That's the official title for the fifth Batman movie...minus the period at the end. That's a pretty original title...as opposed to films whose titles start with "Chasing" or "Saving"...like Saving Silverman or Chasing Papi (Saving Private Ryan and Chasing Amy still rule, though). For more info, go to cinescape.com, batman-on-film.com or...

A little less than 15 minutes ago I came back from watching the film Black Hawk Down. Did I like it? Needless to say, if you like Saving Private Ryan, you'll like this film.

People getting their limbs blown off and stuff...that's so cool. JUST KIDDING!!

No seriously, Black Hawk Down was pretty intense—and had some humorous parts here and there.

An EXAMPLE: When Tom Sizemore's character casually walks around in the middle of a fierce gun battle (after he arrives with reinforcements) shaking the hands of Delta Force members and Army Rangers trying to blast away Somali militiamen who are shooting back at them. This guy gots balls, that's for sure.

And the fact only 19 U.S. soldiers died as opposed to 1,000 Somali rebels after the battle was over? That's craaaazzzy.

Of course, after watching this film, a person (an American, in particular) gets convinced that Somalia should be the next country to attack after the war in Afghanistan comes to an end. Ain't gonna happen, warmongers!

That is all.

Yesterday, I went to the Laker's victory parade in Los Angeles. I also went last year after they vanquished the Indiana Pacers...but this time I left early because the friends who I went with were getting tired standing up and grew a little impatient after the parade was delayed 30 minutes. So which player did I see as the buses passed by the street we were standing on? Only Shaq, Magic Johnson and Devean George. I could've taken good pictures when they passed by hadn't the bystanders in front of me predictably raise their arms up in (mindless) excitement after the entourage reached our part of the parade route. Oh well. There's always next year's parade to make up for not being able to catch a glimpse of most of the Back 2 Back champions.


After we left downtown L.A., we went back home to watch Swordfish and Tomb Raider. We saw these films for free 'cause one of my friends works at the local AMC theater and hooked us up with free guest passes. Swordfish was good (especially the money shot featuring Halle Berry ) but Tomb Raider BLEW...with the exception of Angelina Jolie's showering scene. I fell asleep during that film...which may be the result of me being exhausted from the parade or from the plain fact that film was uninteresting. The last time I almost fell asleep in a film was in 1998 when I watched The Thin Red Line. Saving Private Ryan was way better than that flick.

The Spring 2001 semester is finally over! I only had one final yesterday (my Philosophy class)...even though it was at 8 in the morning. Ugh. Actually, it wasn't really a final...I had a take-home assignment in which I had to write two essays about what I learned over the course of the semester in this class. Once again, I B.S.ed...but at least I'm finally done!! Unfortunately, I thought we just had to go to the classroom to turn our essays in. Turns out we had to be in class from 8 to 10 A.M. Two hours of more philosophical nonsense. Ugh once again!!


After I left school, I went to the AMC theater near my house to watch the WWII epic Pearl Harbor. So what did I think of it? Much like the 1997 film its formula is based on--Titanic--Pearl Harbor didn't really get that exciting until the historical events began to kick in. Not only that, but the love story kinda hurt the film because it felt contrived. Director Michael Bay said the WWII flick was mold in the same fashion as James Cameron's Oscar-winning film: a love story based against a historical backdrop. As I said before, this was not a good thing because the audience (at least those who go on movie websites and read movie magazines) knows that Bay is trying to create a romance epic. Some things about the love story seemed artificial, as a result (even though it obviously was, but you know what I mean)...

Pearl Harbor should've been more like a 'brotherhood' flick (like Stand By Me or maybe Saving Private Ryan)...since Ben Affleck and Josh Harnett's characters seemed like actual genuine friends as opposed to the forced romantic relationship with Kate Beckinsale's character. A'ight, I'm done ranting about the film. Other than the remarks made above, Pearl Harbor was pretty good.


Later in the evening (also yesterday), I went to one of my friends' house to watch the Lakers rout the San Antonio Spurs, 111-72, in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals. Just one more win at STAPLES Center on Sunday, and this series is HISTORY. NBA FINALS, here we come!! Or at least, here the Lakers come... Haha.

Me and my friends went to a billiards place to shoot some pool after the game. I won most of the games (mostly on my friends' mistakes, but also cuz I'm dope like that)