Like that Infamous Beatles Song?
- Whatever happened to Little Man Tate? - I'm watching Jumanji right now - don't ask - and in it, Little Man Tate plays a young Robin Williams. Whatever happened to him? Maybe he, Jonathan Lipnicki (the Kid with the ginormous head from Jerry Maguire), and that chick from My Girl formed a band where they play a cover of "Runaway Train" for hours on end. That would be sweet.
- When is Ugly Kid Joe Gonna Record Again? - Speaking of Soul Asylum - and I guess I was - that blast from the past will be releasing a brand new album in March. Who was clamoring for this piece of nostalgia? Who made these people come out of hiding after 7 years? Although I will give frontman Dave Pirner credit (or "dap" - i'm down with the kids) and say that his music for Chasing Amy (specifically - "Little Tube of Wonderful" - the opening credits piece) was pretty cool. Goodbye, Street Cred! Hello, VH1!
- Meanwhile, In the Halls of Justice - So I quit smoking. And now it's been two weeks. And...I gotta say - it still sucks. Oh well. It was made easier this week, though, when my desire for anything except oblivion was removed due to an incredibly high fever that stayed with me for three days. It wasn't pleasant - but it did culminate in a fever dream/hallucination where I was arguing with the Justice League and a Tree over how to deal with giant Japanese man terrorizing a city. I still say it's not my jurisdiction nor place to intervene in such matters, but then again - i don't have a utility belt.
- Now When Can I Eat My Meals in One Pill? - FINALLY, some honest to good uplifiting news. Really these stories fill my heart with glee and make me grin like Leo in What's Eating Gilbert Grape?. Soon my precious, soon. Alack alas, that's probably just an internet prank to get my hopes up. But this ain't no prank! I really do think that the advent of the flying car will immediately usher in an era where people will try for greatness again. My reasoning? People will look at this confirmation that childhood dreams and fantasies can actually come true. Suddenly, people will be experimenting with formulas that make them shrink or grow in size, and time travel, and of course - animal-human hybrids.
- He Only Did It Cuz He Loves me So Much - Oh, and if someone shoots you in the face and you turn around and apologize to the shooter? You're a bitch. In every sense of the word. It's one thing to forgive, it's another to feel badly. I mean, that would probably be my reaction - but that's cuz i'm an awkward spaz. "Oh, i'm sorry - I do believe i got my face in there. Were you aiming at those birds? Oh, dammit. Sorry, again - didn't mean to ruin the fun. Is that my eye over there? No? Well, I'll keep looking. Sorry to interrupt."
- Sympathy for the Devil - Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a pretty entertaining movie - but it fills me with so much anger. So pretty boy gets to bang hottie psycho Angelina Jolie and also gets to be an assassin? while sharing jokes with Vince Vaughn? And he gets to bunch that kid from The OC? And you're telling me he's unsatisfied with life?
...
That's fair. I could see how all of that would be tiring after a while.
...
Jackass. - Titular Line! - So here's where the title of my lil post comes from. This is the most recent trailer for Linklater's A Scanner Darkly. Just click here and download it or view it as you see fit. I think it'll be pretty great. It doesn't look like Linklater was able to get Radiohead to do the score, but that would've been pretty friggin sweet. And while most people - re: Panthro - don't know about Keanu Reeves as Arctor, I'm game for it. Yes, I'm kind of a Keanu apologist (the guy doesn't seem that bad, so I don't mind him), but no where near as much as I am a Ben Affleck apologist (don't ask). But I really do think Keanu fits the role well since he does have the appearance of this scruffy stoner loser, but we're also used to him having these very powerful heroic roles in the past 6 years or so. And it's that dynamic - Ted Logan vs. Neo - that kind of comes into play in this story. Also, the guy is pretty much a blank slate - doesn't bring much in the way of a personality. Whatever people want to think of him, he can become in their eyes; also perfect for Arctor.
- Is this Movie Also About Abortion - like that Ben Folds Five song? - Here's another trailer for y'all. This one is for the movie Brick, which caused a lil hubbub at Sundance. I've heard good and bad things about it, but it looks like an entertaining little film noir. Like a high school version of The Salton Sea. Probably about as good as that flick was, too. Thoughts?
- This Used To Be My Island... - So, as I stated above, I was feeling pretty shitty in the city this past week. So much so that I, gasp!, missed Lost. I know. I know. I haven't watched it yet, and dunno whether or not I'm gonna get caught up. But here's the interesting thing. TVGasm.com said it was a return to form for the series, while my friend immediately texted me after saying "Booo. Fuck Lost, man." So clearly something went down. Although I'm guessing the following happened: Locke spoke cryptically, Sawyer exuded southern charm, Ana Lucia glowered, Kate looked perturbed by something, and Saayid appeared to either torture somebody or fix something electronic. This season, with its hiatuses and poorly produced and written episodes, has really let me down thus far. Was this episode a return to grace? So i turn to you - fellow readers and contributors: please help me. Can you please write in with a recap of the episode and a review of what you thought of it - along with the entire season? Let's get a rap session goin, people! Gracias.
- What Am I Listening To: The Streets, A Grand Don't Come for Free; Wolf Parade, Apologies to the Queen Mary; Jem, Finally Woken; The Flaming Lips, At War with the Mystics (leaked - Gracias to DJ Browneye!); Loverboy, "Turn me Loose"; Cat Stevens, Tea for the Tillerman; The Boy Least Likely To, Best Party Ever; The National, Alligator; The Jam, "A Town Called Malice"; Iron and Wine, Our Endless Numbered Days.
- What Am I Watching: Mr & Mrs Smith, The Long Kiss Goodnight, The Smartest Guys in the Room, The Aristocrats, Veronica Mars, Drawn Together, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Freedomland, Real Time with Bill Maher, The Squid & The Whale.
- Reading is Fundamental - Ex Machina (vol. 1 & 2) by Brian K. Vaughan & Tony Harris; ****Y the Last Man (vol 1-6) by Brian K. Vaughan & Pia Guerra (cannot recommend this enough! check out this series!)****; Tokyo Suckerpunch by Isaac Adamson; Smoke & Mirrors by Neil Gaiman; Lenny Bruce is Dead by Jonathan Goldstein.
- Is That All there is? - Has anyone else noticed that things have been fairly lackluster in the past 3-4 months or so? The Gauntlet II is horrible - and Zira lookalike Kina is still in charge of the rookies (that's right - a Planet of the Apes reference, bitches!). Lost, as I said, is slipping pretty quickly. I actually haven't been watching Veronica Mars this season, but I just devoured all of season 1, so maybe that's good. And most movies have been looking pretty...well just lame and half assed (lookin at you, Final Destination 3). And Flaming Lips's new album, while a leaked copy so it's possible that it's unmastered, is OK. Certainly not bad, and really entertaining, but still not their best. So what's on the horizon? There's enough Nerd heartrbeak in the future with Clerks 2, X-Men 3, Superman Returns. What are people looking forward to? For me, a short list includes - A Scanner Darkly, V for Vendetta, the new season of The Sopranos & Real Time with Bill Maher, the Ghostface/MF Doom album. Any other new albums comin soon to look forward to? Anyone have some bright points of light for me to moor my tiny hopes upon?
posted by The Neurotic Monkey @ 4:48 PM
2 Comments:
So about LOST. Don't read on if you don't want to know about the last episode~ I thought it was a great episode! This one was a Saayid flash back episode that takes place during the first Gulf War. The effects were pretty cool even though you could tell it was all filmed on a green/blue screen, but it definitely depicted Saayid as a young and impressionable kid in the Iraqi army to becoming master torturer at the end. What made this episode so fun was that they brought back the mystery and adventure that the show has been missing recently. It starts out with Saayid running through the forest tracking down Danielle (aka French Woman) and ends up following her to a captured person who Danielle believes to be an "Other" (aka "Udder"). Saayid cuts him down and Danielle shoots him with an arrow. The guy says he was in a hot air balloon that crashed 3 or 4 months back and that he was living with his wife in a cave by the beach. He goes on to tell them that she died and that he doesn't know who these "Others" are that Saayid and Danielle keep talking about. While this transpires Hurley and Sawyer have their own story/adventure, trying to track down an elusive tree frog that is interrupting Sawyer's sleep. Sawyer tries to enlist other people to help him hunt the frog but while searching for it he stumbles upon Hurley eating ranch dip and hording leftover Dharma food. So with a little blackmail and some badly executed put downs (Bahbah/Babar) Sawyer gets Hurley to help him look for the freakin frog. OK so back to the interesting story line, where Saayid is bringing the injured "Other" guy back to the Hatch were Jack can make sure he doesn’t die from the arrow that Danielle shot through his right shoulder. While Jack is operating Saayid talks Locke into changing the combination to the armory, so that he can do some interrogation and keep Jack from interfering in the interrogation. Saayid proceeds to have his flash back where he has to interrogate his commanding officer who is hiding the location of an American Helicopter pilot. Saayid learns that his former commanding officer had gassed a village with Serine gas and eventually realizes that the Iraqi gov't is evil etc etc. So in the flash back he tortures the crap outta this guy and finds out that the pilot was killed before the Americans captured the commanding officer that Saayid had just tortured. Flash back to the present where no one is sure if this guy with an arrow through his shoulder is an "Other" or just another poor bastard trapped on the island. So in classic Saayid style the answer is - you guessed it- TORTURE! Saayid (with Locke's help) proceeds to torture the guy all the while asking him simple questions about where he came from how he got there what the hot air balloon looked like etc. Jack doesn’t know about the torture plan this whole time, but he eventually catches on and throws a Jack-is-more-moral-than-you-hissy-fit. During his panic stricken holier than thou moment he pins Locke up against a wall and tells him to open the armory which is now locked! At this point Locke won't tell Jack the combo, so they continue to argue about who’s right and what is the moral/correct thing to do. As they are arguing in classic LOST style the count down on the clock goes off. It starts beeping and after much delay Jack and Locke come to an agreement, Jack won't let Locke enter the numbers until Locke opens the armory. So with precious seconds remaining Locke opens the armory and rushes to the computer to enter in the numbers. Now here's where it gets good...Locke is in such a hurry and has such little time left that he enters in the wrong numbers at first and by the time its down to Zero he hasn’t entered the numbers in yet! YIKES! So the numbers all go away and new numbers start to show up. By this point Locke has entered in the correct numbers and is about to press enter when we see red and black number pop up and a wood pecker (or some kind of bird) as well as a picture of a rocket, all very strange and cryptic. But before the new numbers reshuffle themselves Locke hits the return key and resets the clock back to normal! Wow! Jack gets Saayid to stop the torturing bit and says that the guy is innocent. Meanwhile Saayid doesn’t agree with Jack's view (as usual) and goes back to the Beach. While all this is happening Sawyer and Hurley find the frog, but against Hugo's request Sawyer kills the frog by crushing it in his hand. Before this however Hurley comes to the realization that everyone hates Sawyer and likes him, and so what if people find out "the fat guy likes food". So in the end, Saayid is sitting on the beach with Charlie and Saayid says he did not feel guilty that he tortured the guy because he has not forgotten that the "Others" are tricky and tried to kill Charlie, take Claire's baby and could take anyone of them whenever they please. "So," Saayid asks Charlie. "Have YOU forgotten what they did?" Fade to black and queue creepy music. So awesome episode, which should bring about some more cool stuff, like more of the Others, who is this new guy? Is he an Other? What's up with the clock in the Hatch? And next episode we get to see Claire's flash back when the others took her somewhere, which we get to see as well. Sounds like a better second half of the season! Let me know what ya'll think?!
Well, I really liked the first few episodes this season, with Desmond, the Dharma shark, actually seeing some of the Others, Echo's story/black cloud o' smoke, but there has been too much focus on people's back stories and relationships on the island. Too much drama instead of action. Plus I have to agree with the Monkey's problem with all these freakin hiatuses. I mean come on, every once or twice a season is nice but not 4 or 5 times! Jeeze! I have to say that this season has been a lot less interesting and has gotten a less suspenseful than when it started. I mean I was excited when I saw some new numbers pop up on the clock for Christ’s sake! But over all I have been bored and unimpressed with a lot of episodes this season. I want more action, more strange stuff to happen and better back stories (like Echo). Gimme lizard men and robots and then come see me.
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