Eastern Promises

In the eighties David Cronenberg directed some of the most bizarre movies ever (Videodrome, The Fly, Scanners and Dead Ringers) and then int he nineties he kind of went off the grid making movies that couldn't seem to find an audience. In 2005 he found his spark again and created a masterpiece of social commentary with A History of Violence. Rich with imagery and brutal, and raw violence the movie marked a distinct change in style and story telling methods for Cronenberg. When I found out he was reteaming with Viggo Mortensen to tell a movie about a Russian mobster, well I was unbelievably excited. After a weeks worth of anticipation because I couldn't get to it opening weekend, I finally saw it and was it worth the anticipation?


Anna(Naomi Watts) is a midwife at a local hospital and she helps deliver a baby to a 14 year old Russian girl who dies while giving birth. The young girl had a diary, written in Russian and Anna is trying to find any family of this girl. In the diary was a business card for a restaurant and Anna goes off to investigate. At the restaurant she meets a trio of Russian mobsters- Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), Kirill(Vincent Cassel) and Nikolai(Viggo Mortensen). Anna understands that something is wrong but she is a persistent woman and wants to get to the bottom of the mystery. Her uncle can read Russian and he agrees to translate it for her if she will turn it all over the police and let them deal with it. The girl was raped, drugged and beaten by someone in this Russian Mafia and as the story progresses we learn a lot of nasty secrets. The movie switches focus though to the character of Nikolai. He is a loyal servant to the cause of the mafia, but he is drowned in mystery. We don't know anything about his past at first, just that he is a seriously bad dude. Eventually the movie becomes about the two character of Anna and Nikolai and it uses the plot to delve into the inner thoughts and emotions of these two seemingly unconnected people.


I have to admit I came out of this movie incredibly disappointed. It is a slow plodding movie that never feels like it is finished. The script is nowhere near as good as I had hoped and the story unfolds in too basic a fashion. I understand that this movie is not about progressing a story, but even at the heart of the film the story still has to matter in order for me to care about the world set up. The movie opens with the promise of more brutal uncompromising violence but then it is taken away until the one fight towards the end. The twist that comes in the movie didn't confuse me or make any real awesome revelation about any character either. Maybe the point is that not everything has a real motive and not everyone progresses from experiences, but to me I was just left with this feeling that this was not a finished work.


Performance wise though it is a very good movie. Never before have I ever seen an actor command such strong presence with such a soft spoken voice like Mortensen. He is such a bad ass that he never needs to raise his voice to make you pay attention. He is a stone cold mofo and really keeps this movie from totally spinning out of control. Watts is brilliant as always, although I wish she had more to do. She does a good job of looking frightened but the character just seems to be lacking something for me. Mueller-Stahl is excellent as the mob boos. He oozes a creepy command and we know he really is willing to do anything to maintain his own freedom. Cassel is the downside here though. Perhaps it is the whiny character of Kirill that bothered me, or how cliche it was that the big bad mob boss' son isn't all that tough and over compensates by being loud and obnoxious, but Cassel didn't do anything to lessen the annoyance.


This is a step back for Cronenberg in my mind. The movie doesn't hold together well and the pacing is off. I was bored for the first time ever in a Cronenberg film, but he does get one thing right in a major way. There is a scene being talked about in the magazines and movie websites and that scene involves Viggo fighting two guys. It doesn't sound that bad, but Viggo is completely naked, minus the body of story telling tattoos. Cronenberg takes away the Howard Shore score here and we here every brutal punch and every time a knife slices through the naked skin of Viggo. Viggo made a bold choice by doing the scene himself and it really raises the intensity of it, knowing it was him. This is not a fun movie violence scene and it it isn't titillating as the camera never focuses on his penis. It is just a nice metaphor for how defenseless Nikolai is in the situation or how naked he is as a character. It is the one truly chilling moment in the movie and shows the brilliance of Cronenberg, I just wish the rest of the movie were up to par!

The Kingdom

Typically speaking, when movies have their release dates constantly pushed back, it means the movie is an absolute dud. That is what happened with The Kingdom. Originally slated for April of this year, they pushed it back to July, then August and finally September. The trailer had been out for what seemed like a year and although it started as something I wanted to see a lot the pushing back each time made it less and less appealing. Yet, I braved the bad omen based on the mostly positive reviews I had seen and went to see it anyway.


A bomb goes off in an American community inside in Saudi Arabia and in it the blast was a good friend of Ronald Fleury(Jamie Foxx). Fleury works for the F.B.I and wants desperately to get over there and investigate the thing for real. Of course, the Saudi royalty cannot allow such things to happen as it would make them look weak. However using his powers of persuasion(blackmail) Fleury is allowed to take 3 others with him to go over and inspect what is going on. His team- Computer specialist Adam Leavitt(one line cracking Jason Bateman), Medical specialist Janet Mayes(Jennifer Garner) and bomb expert Grant Sykes(Chris Cooper). When they arrive in Saudi they are met with resistance from the cop,Faris Al Ghazi(Ashraf Barhom) assigned to them as a "baby-sitter". Fluery can tell that the cop does not like restricting their work as he also wants to find this killer, so Fluery uses his powers of persuasion again and finally they are able to really search for clues into the madness.


"The Kingdom" is a reference to the Saudi royalty and all of their oil and while it is not technically a war movie it has war movie tendencies, as in a lot of heavy handed preaching about good and evil. But, one thing I liked about the movie is the symmetry of the good and the evil, brought to a stark revelation in the closing moments of the movie. In the end this movie can be broken up into 3 distinct parts. The first section is the back story and the resistance. The second section focuses on the clue searching and puzzle solving and the third section is a bomb ass climatic action sequence. Each section has a very specific moment when they end, making it an nice fluid transition for the audience. The war movie tendencies also include the kinds of camera work. Often times they resort to the hand held shaky camera where it seems like the cameraman was falling all over the place in order to catch the chaos of fighting, or war in general.


To me the heart of this movie belongs in the forged friendship between Fluery and Ghazi. Each man is a strong willed, smart and determined man and watching them start as nearly adversaries and end as friends was a nice thing to watch. I am sure part of the reason so much focus was put on that relationship was to show us that everyone is really equal and that good people are good people no matter what they look like. Foxx does very well with the cool Alpha male type of character and Barhom really makes Ghazi a wonderful character. He shows his humanity but at the same time she shows the darker side we all have- revenge oriented violence. Jennifer Garner does fine with what she given but she is really window dressing to show the differences between American women and Saudi women. Jason Bateman has the best lines, although at times they feel out of place, as does he. However, he does have a nice moment towards the end that shows he can do more than be smarmy. Chris Cooper seems tailor made for roles like this. He comes off as a seasoned war veteran, a man who is not afraid of getting dirty.


The overall feel of this movie is good. As the man next to me said as he was coming out "That was a good ass movie." Granted I believe most of that came from the doozy of an action sequence that takes up the final half hour. It is an all out gun fight chalk full of cars getting blowed up and a lot of loud bullet sounds. It is tense but huge, intimate but massive and it is a hell of a lot of fun. That is not to say that is without fault because one thing that bothered me during the movie was the director's constant need to point out how we should be feeling at each moment. Instead of trusting his audience or trusting his actors/writers and even himself, he felt the need to give us an extreme amount of images to evoke the specific emotion he felt we needed to have. It gets old after awhile and the slow motion towards the end kind of got out of hand but it didn't take away from the good time I had while watching the movie, so it wasn't all bad.


I want to end by talking about some of the negative reviews of this film that are out there. So many of them talk about how violent it is and how macho it all is and that the entire movie is one big action sequence. I am not sure these people even saw this movie because other than the big bomb at the beginning and the climax there is no other action in the movie. It is a thriller of espionage and strategy. It is like your typical cop drama as they spent a majority of the movie looking for the truth and only at the end do they really give us a gun fight.

In the Valley of Elah

After his Oscar win for Crash, writer/director Paul Haggis was branded a hack. So many people thought Crash was manipulating, heavy handed, and cheesy. Of course, many of these same people liked the movie up until everyone liked it, but nonetheless people hate Haggis. He is an arrogant outspoken liberal, not unlike Michael Moore. However, Crash taught a good message that sadly still needed to be told and now Haggis is back with a movie based on true events and taking on the War in Iraq. Would his heavy handed, self promoting writing have great results or would it fall on its face?


Hank Deerfield(Tommy Lee Jones) is a war veteran with a son in Iraq. He gets a call one morning that his son as gone A.W.O.L and Hank packs a suitcase, fixes his truck and heads out to the base to find out for himself. He is met with open arms, sort of. He is kind of an Army legend and so all of the soldiers are nice and no one seems to know where his son went off to. Emily Sanders(Charlize Theron)is a detective searching for respect in her station because all of the other detective believe she slept her way into a detective badge. Hank comes to her in hopes of finding the missing person, but because his son is Army, Sanders tells him there is nothing she or anyone else can do. The military polices its own, after all. A body is found cut up and burned and it is determined it is Hank's son. The military takes over because it happens on military property, an abandoned field, but Hank convinces Emily that it actually took place on the side of the road and then the body was dragged. So, Emily takes over and she and Hank try and find out what happened. Inter cut in this movie are videos Hank's son took from his cellphone while in Iraq. The videos are very low quality and often cut out, but it gives Hank an idea of who is son is and what he was doing while in Iraq. It is not pretty.


The Valley of Elah is a reference to the story in The Bible of David and Goliath. It is the valley between the two warring armies. The valley is where David slew Goliath, proving that it is often the smarter man not the bigger who wins, or it is just about facing fears, standing in the face of danger are doing something about it. Either way, the analogy of David and Goliath does not work in this movie for me. Hank tells Emily's son the story one night and then at the end of the movie Emily tells it to her son again, but I believe it meant to be a much more powerful metaphor for the overall movie, but I never saw it. I am not sure who or what was supposed to be David and who or what was supposed to be Goliath. Maybe I just didn't catch it, but it seemed like kind of a stretch to me. That being said, the movie is quite good, if not a bit heavy handed. Yet, I knew going in what to expect from Paul Haggis. The movie is excruciatingly slow paced and at times there are long segments of no dialogue, but it always manages to stay gripping. The anti climatic resolution leaves one a bit annoyed, but if you think about for a few seconds you realize that is the point of the message. That message being "War turns young men out and leaves them unable to function in regular life." Not a new message by any stretch of the imagination, but it is effectively done here. The screenplay is far from Crash because the dialogue is sparse and only once or twice does someone actually go on a heavy handed diatribe.


Tommy Lee Jones has the face of a man who has lived. each line seems to represent a decade or an era. His expressions minimal, but effective and his body language is perfect here. The character of Hank is an interesting one, as he starts the movie as a hard core Army guy, full of restraint and rules and ending someone completely different. It is a nice transition made and Haggis accomplishes it slyly. Jones helps by slowly tearing the layers away from Hank's core, but if you see the movie pay attention to Hank's hotel room, it will tell you everything you need to know. As for Theron, she takes a part that could easily have been a one note role and she runs with it. I like that Haggis focused moments on just her character and her life because it lets us care more about her and help us understand why she wants this case so badly. The friendship forged by the two main characters is heavy and intense but it is also warm.


It is a very straight forward movie lacking the overlapping non linear motion of Haggis' other screenplays but we get everything we need from the war in those home videos. The message is brought home a little more hard than it needed to be, I think, but it still works and doesn't take away from a very solid film. Jones seems to be doing his best work as of late and this movie fails without him. Also, you kind of have to forgive the final moment for being way too obvious and borderline corny and look at it not how we would but what it says about the transition of Hank Deerfield. If you look at the real crime it is based on you find obvious differences and Haggis did manipulate the story to fit the message he wanted to get across, but again, the movie works so that doesn't much matter.

The Hunting Party

Movies about war are taking over. This time of year studios start to release the more serious and less marketable movies. These movie usually feature something darker or deeper and so war fits perfectly in that scenario. From now until January there are roughly half a dozen hard hitting war type movies on the release books. Often times they don't find a huge audience but often they are thought provoking, interestingly made movies. Many will be slowly paced dramas but this movie, about bits and pieces of many wars, is kind of the antithesis of those kinds of movies.


Duck (Terrance Howard) is a cameraman for Simon (Richard Gere) and together they cover big time wars from the trenches. They are thrill seekers and damn good journalists. Duck is the narrator of the movie and it is told from his perspective and the first 5-10 minutes is chalk full of exposition to get us to the main plot of the movie. Simon loses it on air one day while covering a grisly war scene and it promptly fired and becomes a punchline in the world of journalism. Duck is rewarded for putting up with the man for the decade they worked together. Duck is plucked from the gun shots and bombs and is now the premier camera man for the studios number one T.V man, Franklin Harris(James Brolin. The story picks up as Duck laments how he pretends to enjoy the new life, but how he misses the thrills. Duck, Harris and brand new producer Benjamin(Jesse Eisenberg) are now in Bosnia to commemorate the end of the war and while there Duck is surprised by Simon who thinks he has the story of the century sitting in his lap. Playing to Duck's hidden desire to live the exciting life, Simon is able to convince Duck to give it a shot. Benjamin wants in because he is trying to prove he can cut it as a journalist. The story, finding and interviewing "The Fox." The Fox is the most wanted war criminal on the planet and he is right outside of Bosnia. He has a ton of supporters but he committed genocide on the Jews of the area. The trio run into a ton of problems during their quest and learn a lot about life, death, truth and justice along the way.


First off, this movie was originally titled "Spring Break in Bosnia" and the very first thing on the screen is this sentence "All of the most ridiculous parts of this story are fact." So right off the bat you know you are in for something a little different. The movie is a satirical look at how wars are brokered and started. It looks at how the United Nations will make deals with war criminals to save face and so on. There are a lot of chuckles to be had at the expense of various governments and a few of the supporting characters are played over the top to make a point, most specifically the U.N troop leader Boris. That is not to say it is without drama or tension because the final third of the movie is genuinely thrilling as the cat and mouse game gets more intense and we wonder if they will find and catch the fox or if he will catch them. There is one scene in particular that is chalk full of tension but it doesn't take away from the comedy. Or rather, it doesn't come from out of left field. The pacing is very strong and rarely do the moments of exposition feel contrived.


Terrance Howard, a huge rising star, is the heart of this movie. Sure, the focus is on the recovery to glory of the Richard Gere character, but we are seeing this world through the expressive eyes of Terrance Howard. Howard is doing excellent work as of late and keeps it up here as he tries to remain a moral center of this movie. he has a wonderful monologue revisiting the day Simon lost in on air. The monologue is accompanied by a brilliant flashback that combines the horror of war but also the joys of love, all within a 4 minute span. For his part, Gere is about as good as he has been in quite some time. He is charming, funny and desperate without over reaching. His moments of quiet desperation masked by an air of arrogance are great moments in a very strong film. Eisenberg also holds his own well against these two screen vets. His character looks as if he will merely be comic relief, and maybe that was the intention, but Eisenberg adds something more there. He becomes someone we grow to care about and has a very cool moment that marks a total transition for the character and for the whole movie, really.


The movie is being overlooked because marketing a satirical drama about the Bosnian war is not an easy task. However, it really is worth seeing and with the flood of Oscar movies about to hit us, it is nice to see a movie that can be serious without taking itself too terribly seriously. Before the end credits we are treated to some funny bits about what in the movie is true and what is false as the movie is based on an Esquire article and who knows how much of that was true to begin with. Overall I am not sure it is top 10 fare but it was really worth the time I spent watching it and it is something I think will be worth revisiting on DVD to pick up anything I missed.

My ten favorite current movie actresses

Here is the companion piece to my ten favorite actors list.



10. Maria Bello- Being blonde and beautiful makes her a dime a dozen, but being blonde, beautiful, talented and amazingly vulnerable puts in a very small class of women. Maria opens up on screen in a way that makes me nervous because I really feel for her every time she does it. She has a way of crying that makes an audience feel her tears with her. She is not afraid to be raw and real in any aspect of film, as evidenced by the brutally raw sex in A History of Violence, but she also has a softness to her. When she smiles you smile and when she cries, you cry. What more could one ask for from an actress. The two films that best show why she is on this list- The Cooler and A History of Violence.



9. Kirsten Dunst- For a while she was much higher on this list because I have seen her do comedy, romance and drama, but as of late she has not done anything noteworthy. In Bring it on she was spunky and fun, but if you watch The Virgin suicides you would see a totally different version of who she is and that is the Kirsten Dunst I loved. Of course she is also Mary Jane Watson and she does it very well, giving M.J. that tragic warmth from the M.J. of my childhood. As a young actress she held her own in Interview with a vampire and she is still a good actress, she just can't find good material. The two films that best show why she is on this list- The Virgin Suicides and Crazy/Beautiful.



8. Jennifer Connelly- With that stunning face and those sadly expressive eyes, Connelly has been a favorite sad girl of mine for a long time. She gets more out of an emotional breakdown than most people do and it works, especially in movies like The House of Sand and Fog. She has been a round for a long time and has always done good work, but as of late she seems to be picking only the right roles. It started with the hard to watch Requiem for a dream and continues into this year with Reservation Road. Often playing the wife of some big name actor, she can steal movies right from them, just ask Russell Crowe about A Beautiful Mind. Her earnest warmth held that movie together. The two movies that best show why she is on this list- Requiem for a dream and Blood Diamond.



7. Naomi Watts- From the moment I saw her in Mulholland Dr. I knew I was going to love her. Her smile radiates, her body language always in sync with her character and she was not afraid of doing very tough moments on screen, while making them seem easy. Mulholland Dr. was full of uncomfortable moments but she didn't make them seem like they were uncomfortable. She is a gorgeous woman, but she is not afraid to get dirty either and just live inside each character she is playing. She can do physical comedy pretty well as evidenced by King Kong, but she is in her wheel house doing something deep and dark and emotional. It is in those movies where she can reach her full potential and continue to do amazing work. The two movies that best show why she is on this list- Mulholland Dr. and 21 grams.



6. Scarlett Johansen- The sexy sultry voice. The gorgeous curves and those pouty lips. This girl basically has it all going for her. Oh and she is very talented as well. For all intents and purposes she burst onto the scene in Lost in Translation, holding her own with Bill Murray as the two actors and characters spent the entire movie just learning about each other and themselves. I love her line reading and in movies like Ghost World she has the perfect sarcasm that makes her even more appealing. Her movies have not always been huge hits, but her work in those movies is always worth watching. She plays morose about as well as it can be played and has become quite the muse for Woody Allen in his elder age. She has played with the big boys in many movies and done very well for herself and with 8 projects int he next few years, we will have no shortage of that raspy sexiness that is Scarlett Johannson. the two movies that best show why she is on this list- Love song for Bobby Long and Lost in Translation.



5. Julianne Moore- It is hard to pick only two movies to showcase this talented woman because she has an incredible knack for picking amazing projects. Granted she doesn't get it right every time, but more often than not, she only does great work. From the single mother porn star in Boogie Nights to an unhappy housewife in Far From Heaven, this woman can do it all. Check out her comedy in The Big Lebowski and of course her supporting turn in Children of Men(SEE THIS DAMN MOVIE!) proves she can do a lot with a smaller role. Her ever expressive eyes provide for some great quiet melt downs and she takes roles that could be boring and makes them interesting with just a look or a slight gesture. The two movies that best show why she is on this list- Far From Heaven and Magnolia



4. Angelina Jolie- Considering she rarely makes movies worth watching these days, it may be odd for her to be this high on the list, but even in fluff, I find her a joy to watch. Yes, some of it is due to those lips, oh those sweet plump lips, but there is something more. If you look at the Tomb Raider movies or Mr. and Mrs. Smith, you can tell she is having fun and her snarls better than most. However, she is also incredibly talented when she gets the chance to find the meat in a story. Check out her introduction to the world as a self destructive model in Gia, or more recently her quiet resolve in A Mighty Heart. A girl with a wild streak, she is not afraid of examining that to find a role as evidenced in Girl, Interrupted. Granted she is now more famous for being a tabloid headline, but this woman can straight up act and that is what matters to me. The two movies that best show why she is on this list- A Mighty Heart and Girl, Interrupted.



3. Natalie Portman- Beyond adorable, Natalie Portman has been doing great work since she was 12. Don't believe me check out Leon (The professional) and tell me she doesn't show depth in that character, even so young. Portman has always been willing to take risks in acting, from shaving her head or going somewhere dark in movies, just because she believes in the projects. That is not to say she is always aligned with the dark forces because she makes the absolute perfect muse in Garden State, exuding a joyful ball of cuteness without making it seems cheesy or manufactured. I have always enjoyed her but watching her in Closer, I gained a whole new level of respect for her. In a movie focused on the star power, her young presence stole the movie with an absolute stunning performance. Her subtle unhappiness that closes the movie was powerful and moving. The two movies that best show why she is on this list- Closer and Garden State.



2. Cate Blanchett- Strikingly beautiful this wonderful talent burst onto the scene with an Oscar winning performance in Elizabeth. Since then she is continues to rack up amazing performances in every kind of genre. I wouldn't think she could do comedy, but in an otherwise bad movie, Bandits, Blanchett shows impeccable comic timing and provides some very good physical comedy. However, she is in her wheelhouse when getting something deep to chew on. Last year's Notes on a Scandal gave her a chance to do all kinds of acting and she was mesmerizing all the way through. Watching do things she wanted to do, but knew she shouldn't do turned into a heart breaking thing to watch. Her Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator was about the only true entertaining thing about that movie and proved she can be boisterous on screen as well as quiet, without reaching overboard. The two movies that best show why she is on this list- Elizabeth and Note son a Scandal.



Kate Winslet- It is no coincidence that she is the youngest person to get to 5 Oscar nominations. The girl can just flat out act. She can do overt comedy(The Holiday), subtle comedy(Eternal Sunshine of the spotless Mind) romance(Titanic) and of course drama. She has been doing amazing work since before Titanic but really got the notice first with that movie. It seems like she only does 1 or 2 movies every year so she is not spreading herself thin and is saving herself for those great roles. She has acted amongst the biggest names in Hollywood, both male and female and she always comes out on top. No female does it like she does these days. Watching her be an unhappy and horny housewife in Little Children was beyond mesmerizing. I seriously do not have enough superlatives to describe how much I enjoy her on screen. She is a beautiful woman who is not afraid of getting a little dirty if she needs to and she doesn't shy away from those intimate moments on film. Hell she found a way to bring tears out of me in a romantic comedy for gods sake. The two movies that best show why she is on this list- Heavenly Creatures and Little Children


I am not going to lie, this was a tougher list to finish than the male list, which is not a knock on the female talent, it is merely a statement that women still do not get enough chances to really strut their stuff. I know these best actress lists usually contain Laura Linney, but I for one am not at all a fan of hers and think she can ruin movies(Mystic River).

Good Luck Chuck

Anytime a movie stars Jessica Alba you can expect me to watch it. I may not enjoy the movie, but I will be there to cheer on the beauty that is Jessica Alba. I am also a fan of Dane Cook in the world of stand up comedy, but his first starring role in a comedy, Employee of the Month, was just an awful movie. However, the R rated comedy is very in right now and it was nice to see someone like Dane in one of them. The movie is probably the most promoted September movie I can remember with the two stars showing up everywhere, commercials everywhere and of course Myspace promoting the hell out of it since Dane Cook helped put Myspace on the map. But, September is usually full of big studio dump offs, meaning this where big studios unload their crappy movies. So how would this one fare?


In 1985 a young Charlie Logan (Dane Cook) is sent to spend "7 minutes in heaven" with a goth girl who is obsessed with him. He denies her advances and she puts a hex on him that he will never find true love because he won't be able to say "I love you" and each girl he breaks up with will fall in love with the next guy they date. The movie then turns to the present and we see this thing actually happening. Chuck is at a wedding of an ex-g/f when he starts to think people are going crazy with this whole good luck charm business and he also meets Cam Wexler (Jessica Alba) at the wedding. Cam is a gorgeous but clumsy girl who lives for penguins. After the wedding someone on Perfectmatch.com posts a little blurb about "Good luck Chuck" and soon his dentist office is bombarded by beautiful women looking to have sex with him. His best friend Stu (Dan Fogler) convinces him to have all kinds of sex with all kinds of girls, which he does, until he gets disillusioned by sexing up these girls who aren't even thinking of him. He is still thinking about Cam, they go on a date or two and start to make that connection, but the "charm" comes into play as Chuck thinks he cannot sleep with her or she will move on. The rest of the movie is a kind of tug-of-war with Chuck and his charm/curse and how it effects a relationship.


I have to admit that this movie is totally okay. It has some really great laughs but it has as many jokes miss as hit. Cook is a charming guy on camera and here he gets to do his Dane Cook stuff a bit as his flirting with Cam often sounds like it could be injected in his stand up. He also has two great side gags, one dressed as a penguin and one during the closing credits that you have to see for yourself. Alba proves herself to be better at pratfalls than actual acting and every guy loves to see a hot girl who is not afraid of looking foolish and Alba spends an awful lot of this movie looking foolish. From hitting her head, chipping her tooth, awkward phone sex voice and a few other embarrassing things, she comes off still lovely as ever and continues to tease the world with almost nudity. The four minute montage of Cook sexing various girls is often times humorous and at times kind of hard to watch. The love story unfolds in the same fashion as every romantic comedy with the big conflict coming right after they finally have sex, so from that point on it does take a very conventional approach to romantic comedies. The side plots don't really work as we don't care much about Chucks friend, Stu or his masturbatory ways and most of the minor characters are painfully pointless and unfunny.


This movie earns it's R rating as well. Be warned that there is an awful lot of breasts on display and a lot of Dane Cook ass as well. Also, the language is incredibly filthy, but not in a fun way like Superbad or Knocked up. It comes across as crass just to be crass and the character portrayed by Dan Fogler is about the most god awful one dimensional piece of crap character ever. Fogler is obnoxious, unfunny and painful. They should have just got Will Ferrell to play it. I am not sure why movies feel the need to include a foul mouthed, clueless fat guy who thinks he knows everything about sex all of the time, but again proving the writing matters it does not work here, like it did in Superbad. I got enough laughs out of the thing to warrant me spending my 90 minutes on the movie, but I didn't pay to see it so maybe I liked it more than I normally would have. Who knows.

Resident Evil: Extinction (major spoilers)

I believe this movie concludes the year of the trilogy. I cannot remember a year that had this many third installments. Some were amazing (Spiderman 3 and Bourne) one was very good (Oceans 13) and a few were just awful (Rush Hour 3 and Pirates). I was basically a fan of the first two Resident Evil movies. I didn't love them but I liked them. They both suffered from terrible climaxes but I could forgive those because there was something about them that entertained me. I thought the trailer for the new one made it look fun, fast and entertaining and I get to see some movies for free, so what the hell right?


I am not going to rehash what has happened previously in the series, but Alice (The sexy Milla Jovovich) is still living in a world populated by the undead and she is still on the run from the Umbrella Corporation, the company that released the virus on the world. We also re-meet Carlos(Oded Fehr of the Mummy Returns) and L.J (comedian Mike Epps) as they survived the second movie and show up with a group of human survivors, led by Claire (Ali Larter, Heroes). Doctor crazy man Isaccs is working on a cure, or so we think. He is actually finding a way to make the zombies more aggressive because he needs super zombies to catch Alice. Alice has the possible cure in her blood because she has been infected with the virus but instead of it taking her over, it fused with her, or something. Oh and Alice has now received super powers, somehow and she has turned into Jean Grae. Alice and the rest of the gang meet up at some point and Alice thinks they should head out to Alaska because she found a random diary of a dead guy who claimed Alaska was free from zombies. On their trail they run into more zombies, crows who are all amped up on the flesh of the undead and of course, the super zombies. After most of the crew of humans die, Alice finds the head quarters of Dr. Crazy man and wants to end it once and for all. I guess I should mention that the umbrella corporation has been cloning Alice in hopes to find a cure and each one gets put through a test and when they fail and die, they toss them in a ditch. Alice finds the ditch, freaks out but keeps her cool. She runs into the child brain program, kind of like in the first one. She is told Dr. Crazy man has been bit by a zombie but shot himself up full of the anti-virus thingy and is now some kind of super human/zombie/octopus/unkillable nonsense thingy. They fight, the end, sort of.


I wish I could say this was a good movie, but it really is not, at all. Well that maybe a bit harsh because there are some fairly good moments, especially during the first 35 minutes or so. The first action sequence involving Milla and those pesky undead dogs is cool as she uses electrical cords as weapons and the scene with the killer crows works until Milla does her Jean Grae thing. It leads to a cool looking shot, although it was given away in the trailer. Also the big battle with all the amped up undead has some cool stunts and a lot of gunfire, which is usually pretty cool. As always, Milla Jovovich looks incredibly sexy holding two guns or two giant blades, so that does not disappoint either. However, the story makes no sense, as things like Alice's super powers basically go unexplained and everything unfolds in to predictable a fashion. Things like that don't matter when the movie is so much fun that you can forget logic, but this movie doesn't do enough to warrant putting logic aside. The non ending annoyed the crap out of me as it means that we will most likely have to have another one of these movies and I will watch it because I want to know if it will ever actually end. We never find out what happens to Ali Larter and the rest of the surviving humans. The effects of Dr. Isaacs do not look all that good and his tentacle things are laughable. There is a side plot involving the bigger Umbrella corporation and every time we see that it is funny because the lead guy is wearing sunglasses for no apparent reason. It is the little things like that that add up and make this movie, well suck.

My ten favorite current movie actors

I think the name of this list basically explains it all, but I wanted to emphasize the movie part of this. There are some tremendous actors inhabiting television these days and some of those guys still do the occasional movie, but this list focuses on those who are predominantly movie actors. My list is ever changing but usually the only thing that changes is the placement of the actors. The names are almost always the same. So here goes


10. Matt Damon- After bursting onto the scene in Good Will Hunting, Damon continued to do great work, expanding his talents to comedy (he owns those Oceans movies) and turning out to be quite an awesome action star in the Bourne series. He takes a minimal approach to acting and his always stoic, intense face has really brought a lot to each role. He helped reinvent the action genre and has always held his own against Hollywood heavy weights. Most likely putting the Bourne series to rest we can look forward to Damon really settling into a nice career although I imagine as he gets older he will move more towards character work in the vain of Ed Harris. The two movie that best show why he is on this list- The Bourne Ultimatum and The Talented Mr. Ripley.


9. Mark Wahlberg- In the early 90's I would have never guessed this, ever. Sure in the mid 90's he turned in a nice supporting turn in The Basketball Diaries and made a nice creep in Fear, but to make a list of my favorite actors, surely you jest? Well, a star was born in Boogie Nights, a big bright shining star to quote his enhanced character from that movie. Wahlberg is one of those actors who is just bursting at the seems with energy and intensity. He throws himself totally into roles whether it is a big action movie like Shooter or a dark drama like The Yards. A man with a dark past (including jail time for attempted murder at 17 yrs old) he in not afraid of drawing on that past to find the right amount of torment for a character's soul. He deserved an Oscar for the Departed and look for him to be amazing later this year in We own the night. The two movies that best show why he is on this list- The Departed and Boogie Nights.


8. Ryan Gosling- He is actually new to this list because I have just been mesmerized by this young man over the last few years. Most people know him from the Notebook, but he is so much more than that. He gives each character a very specific nuanced gesture that makes them seem like real people. He is not afraid to tackle tough subject matter as shown by The Believer and he can go up against a brilliant actor like Anthony Hopkins (Fracture) and end up no looking foolish. He is definitely on the way up in the world of acting and expect to see him attached to a few more Oscar nominations in his life. I have seen him only in 5 movies but I have been impressed with each performance as they have all been vastly different and it is obvious he spends time getting to know his characters. The two movies that best show why he is on this list- The Believer and Half Nelson.


7. Edward Norton- For a long time he was much higher on this list, but in the last few years he hasn't really done enough to warrant keeping him higher. He is still phenomenally talented but the work one does matters. Norton always adds something dark to a movie, to his character. It works because he has an innocence about his face, but as soon as he gets into a movie it morphs and we are treated to something awesome. One needs to look no further than his debut performance in Primal Fear to see what I am talking about. His take on the upcoming Hulk movie should be something fun to watch and hopefully he will get back on track finding the right kind of scripts because movies need him. Even in a cameo type role (The Italian Job) he makes things worth watching. The two movie that best show why he is on this list- Fight Club and American History X.


6. Clive Owen- This is another fairly recent addition to this list and I have a feeling that very soon he will make it to the top of the list. Forgetting King Arthur and Derailed, I have enjoyed everything I have seen him in. That is not to say that he is not great in them, but the movies suck. However, with movies like Sin City, Closer, shoot em up and Children of men, well the dude is amazing. Along with Natalie Portman he stole Closer away from bigger stars, Julia Roberts and Jude Law and in Sin City he stood out in a whole gaggle of great actors. He is also a bad ass on screen. No one looks cooler shooting a gun or spouting a corny but funny one-liner. His face is crazy expressive but it is all subtle, like he wants you to really pay attention to what he is doing. He carried the mesmerizing Children of Men last year and helped it become one of my all time favorite movies. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for him. The two movies that best show why he is on this list- Closer and Children of men(SEE THIS DAMN MOVIE!!)


5. Denzel Washington- For countless years I have watched this man continue to be amazing at his craft. He can be a hero or a villain and make each look just so easy and no one gives a speech quite like him. He does not always pick the best scripts but he always helps make those scripts look better than they really are just by being in the movie. He has an effortless approach to acting that says "Anyone can do this" but few can do it the way he does it. In Glory he found a way to stand out in a movie chalk full of incredible black actors and he helped prove that black actors are not just black actors. The amount of brilliant performances he has racked up are nearly impossible to recount and look for him to add another one this year when An American Gangster comes out in November. The movies that best show why he is on this list- Malcolm X and Hurricane.



4. Brad Pitt- For a time Brad Pitt was merely pretty and he played the pretty roles and posed all pretty for the camera and it was obnoxious, then something happened and he did a string of amazingly dark movies- 12 monkeys, Seven and Fight Club- proving he could actually act. he still knows how to ooze charm as proven by the Oceans movies, but he can also dig deeper and find something raw and interesting. In Babel, which is over-rated, there is a scene where he just has a breakdown over the phone and it is a brilliant moment in the movie. It allowed him to do all kinds of acting without really speaking at all. Yes it is a shame that his current tabloid status is overshadowing his great abilities, but I guess that is what happens when you are as pretty as he is. The two movies that best show why he is on this list- Fight Club and Twelve Monkeys.


3. Christian Bale- He was a child star then he went away, or so it seemed. I am sure he stayed doing work, but he really re-emerged with American Psycho, a hilarious, frightening, shocking and mostly over-rated movie. However, his performance was not over-rated and people took notice. Ever since then he has been consistantly doing great film work. Referred to as a method actor, he spends months training for each role, learning the occupation of his character and changing his body for each part. The most extreme case was in a little seen movie called The Machinist where Bale lost over 75lbs to play an insomniac who never ate. Then right after that he bulked back up to step into the iconic batsuit. He is by far the best Batman and he manages to do great work outside of the suit, which is usually a problem. (What has Tobey MaGuire really done?)Even if the movie is not stellar his performance always is and I will pay to basically watch him act in anything. The two movies that best show why he is on this list- American Psycho and The Prestige.


2. Don Cheadle- He may seem like an odd choice to be so high up on this list, but everything this guy does- comedy, drama, biopic- amazes me. I remembered him from an episode of the Fresh Prince, but his role in Boogie Nights was his breakout role. He was funny as hell in an awkward and uncomfortable way in that movie and has now turned into a star in his own right. He has not done a ton of work but if you look at his resume it is very impressive because he picks the right things. He is not so concerned with getting his name out, he just wants to do good work. His comic timing in Oceans is impeccable but his dramatic acting is where he makes his money. Actually in his 3 movies released this yr- Reign over me, Oceans 13 and Talk to me- he made three totally different choices and he deserves an Oscar nomination for his work in Talk to me. The two movies that best show why he is on this list- Hotel Rwanda and Talk to me.


1. Kevin Spacey- Again another odd choice considering that in this decade he hasn't done a whole lot, but the fact remains that he is one of the best living actors we have. It is almost sad that he is spending so much time on the stage because we don't get to see him on screen. I could recount his awesomeness in American Beauty but everyone has seen that movie, so how about making K-Pax almost believable, or turning in one hell of a memorable performance in The Usual Suspects. Check him being funny in The Ref and Swimming with Sharks. Watch him in message films like The life of David and the Shipping News. He also was terrific in the role of Lex Luthor. But the one movie everyone overlooks is the Negotiator. In this movie he and Sam Jackson face off in a battle wits and it is beyond superlatives what Kevin Spacey does in that movie. He can be intense or exude an off-putting charm. He finds small humor in things that may not actually have humor in them. We need more Kevin Spacey on the big screen. The two movie that best show why he is on this list- The Usual Suspects and The Negotiator.


There are a lot of names left off- Will Smith, Sam Jackson, Morgan Freeman and Tom Hanks- to name a few, but that goes to show just how high regard I old these particular 10. Jim Carrey is another name who just missed the cut. Someone had to be removed when Ryan Gosling started blowing me away. Feel free to give me some of your favorites or say why you agree or disagree with my choices. Expect a "My ten favorite current actresses" list in the coming days.

Graduation- Kanye West album

Kanye West is a very polarizing figure in today's pop culture landscape. He is arrogant and whiny, but his music is commercially and critically successful. His first album was hailed as a break through debut hip-hop album and his second album was considered to be a land mark in pushing the envelope musically about what is hip-hop. Some people found the second album to be a bit too self indulgent and if anything,, Kanye listens to the critics and tries to correct his mistakes. So now we have his third album and gone are the obnoxious skits and gone is the over the top elaborate production. Instead we get a 13 track, tight album that finds great producer/average rapper finding his real groove.


Good Morning- The album opens with a pretty somber cut, which struck me as odd, but it also symbolized to me that Kanye wants people to pay attention to the lyrics this time around. In that regard Kanye has already stepped it up as he rips the track with more energy than he usually has when rapping. He is still on his anti-college trip in the second and third verses, but I can over look it with funny, if not corny punchlines like "A fly Malcolm X, by any jeans necessary." He will always be an emcee stuck between the material and conscious rap worlds. The song ends with a Jay-Z sample that fit perfectly with the mood and tempo of the track. 4.5/5


Champion- Kanye will always have this chip on his shoulder and that chip gives him his arrogance. He believes no one expects him to succeed and every time he does he gets a bigger chip and a bigger head and this song kind of explains where it comes from. It comes from his father and his father's abilities to find a way to succeed in life no matter what happened. It is nice to see a rapper big up his father since so often rappers don't have both parents. West also gets a few dope lines in like "Lauren Hill says her heart is in Zion but I wish her heart was still in rhymin." The sample in the hook fits perfectly with the song and this sounds like your typical dope Kanye produced track. His repetition at the start of each verse is an effective method he has used in the past and why fix what is not broken. 4.5/5


Stronger- A Daft Punk sample with drum patterns programmed by Timbaland make all the difference in this futuristic, cocky, dope track. This is the one get-amped-up track on the album and serves as the perfect single to re-introduce the man to radio. Everything about this song is crazy amazing. Every time I hear I just get hyped to go out and make my dreams happen. Kanye keeps the rhymes fairly simple because he knows his production with Timbaland drums and a sick sample are the stars of this bad boy and sometimes there is nothing wrong with taking the back seat for a song. The bridge is funny as he name drops Prince and O.J Simpson in true Kanye fashion. 5/5


I wonder- This beat makes me think Kanye spent some time on the west coast because this thing hits like a Tupac song circa 1996. It is a hard beat with some crazy Casio keyboard sounds and Kanye switches his flow ridiculously here. Instead of going line by line non stop, the first two verses are short and feature only about 4 bars of actual rapping as he emphasizes each line with his cocky, defiant swagger about chasing dreams. Then after he makes his point he goes back into his usual flow and it is a very effective change half way through the track. The hook is a simple sample, but because it sounds out of place in such a ahrd sounding beat, it works perfectly. The third verse is rapped over a bit of an over the top lack-of-bass beat, but then it settles back into the dopeness and Kanye spits beautifully here and he really seems to believe people should follow their dreams. 5/5


Good Life- I hate T-Pain. I think he may be the most obnoxious figure in music today and the fact that every rapper is using him on hooks makes me ill and when I saw him featured on this song I was outraged. It is probably the weakest track on the cd, but it is not totally bad. T-Pain is barely noticeable as the sample through the song kind of covers T-Pain's brand of sucky singing. The sample, P.Y.T by Michael Jackson, is flipped so sick I didn't even notice what song it was until about my 7th listen. The song is about living lovely from acquiring his dreams and it feels pretty simple but at point he does use a dope AAB/AAB/AAB rhyme scheme that is different for him. 3.5/5


Can't tell me nothing- When he was preparing to gauge what people would think of the album this was the song he leaked because he felt it was his strongest cut and the one most indicative of his album and boy was he right. Everything in this song is seriously dope. The beat is hard and menacing in an abstract way and his sing-songy hook blends into a defiant call at the end of the hook. The song is about how he can't seem to get his head right. He is one of the few rappers to really understand that he should stop being so arrogant but he can't seem to help himself. He is almost like an abuse victim who knows he/she should leave but just can't. His voice blends perfectly with the beat and is not overshadowed by the voice sample that works as the melody of the beat. 5/5


Barry Bonds- This is one of the few tracks to not feature a sample as part of the hook and since the song is more of a mixtape, pure lyrical track, it works. Kanye features Lil Wayne on the track, but it seems like he did it just to prove that he could out rap the kid all the critics are saying is the best young rapper out, because Kanye just murders him on this track. While Kanye claims to be top 5 here and he is obviously not, I like the confidence he is getting in his own skills as a rapper. This is the only song featuring a guest rapper and Kanye is proving he doesn't actually need it. Kanye's flow is still pretty simple but this song really plays into that because the beat is pretty simple, for a Kanye beat. 4/5


Drunk and hot girls- This is the song people are either loving or hating. I love it because it is hilarious and intentionally so. Kanye adopts a singing style of rap so popular these days and recounts how much he hates but loves really drunk and hot girls. The beat is awesome (as all of them are) but the way Kanye spits it, it sounds like he is actually at a bar a bit tipsy and actually talking to a drunk and hot girl. Mos Def does some random singing when the beat breaks down before Kanye really lets loose on the hilarity in the third verse. It is probably not the best song ever, but it has serious comedic effect and for that I love it. Everyone thinks Kanye takes himself so seriously but this proves he has a sense of humor. 4.5/5


Flashing Lights- The topic of a girl obsessed with material things is nothing new in hip-hop and neither is the second verse's topic of a failed relationship due to stardom, but Kanye finds a way to make it seem fresh with a nice Neptunes sounding beat, a nice hook by Dwele and some slick rhymes like this: In my past, you on the other side of the glass/Of my memory's museum/I'm just sayin, hey Mona Lisa come home
/You know you can't +Rome+ without +Caesar. The song is relatively short which is unusual for Kanye but it does everything it needs to do in a compact amount of time. If it had been longer it would run the risk of being boring. 4/5


Everything I am- Kanye produces this incredibly heartfelt beat laced with sick pianos but he lets D.J Premier get on and rip some serious scratches with a Public Enemy. The scratches really add some serious dopeness to a track already brimming with the sickness. Kanye gets real on this track about life in general and how not being perfect has helped mold him into the star we see today. Each verse seems to have a very distinct point, like each verse is a little story but the third verse seems the most ambitious as he takes on murder and it seems like it is a failure when he proclaims in corny fashion "Killing is some wack shit" but he follows it by "Oh except when n*ggas is rapping." Of course it is a simple statement but speaks volumes on the current rap landscape. 5/5


The Glory- Here we have another song celebrating where he is in life. It seems a bit repetitive and perhaps it is, but never before has someone who started specifically as a producer done this much in front of the mic, so he has a reason to be so celebratory. He also is not afraid to let us know that he does it for the glory, for the fame. It may ring a bit shallow, but the honesty is refreshing. He is also at his funniest here again when he talks about the powder blue tuxedo he wore at the Grammy’s saying "With my ego I could be on stage in a Speedo and still be looked at like a hero." With how big he is in the game, it is hard to disagree with him. He also mentions how even when he was poor he cared about clothes and how foolish it is but he just can't help himself. 4/5


Homecoming- Kanye went and got himself Coldplay's Chris Martin to sing the hook and play piano on this highly metaphorical track. Hip-hop, drugs, cars and other things have often been expressed in raps with the metaphor of a female but here Kanye calls his city Wendy (windy, Chicago)and while the metaphorical use of a female has been used often, Kanye puts his own fresh spin on it, as he is known to do. Where you come from has always been a huge deal in rap music and since he helped really bring Chicago to the forefront of rap music, it is nice to hear him really big up his city and express his love for the place that brought him up. Martin adds a nice touch on the vocals as he sounds more soulful than a typical Coldplay track and his piano is always welcome on a track. 4.5/5


Big Brother- Kanye saved the best for last. In fact, this may be his best track ever. It is brutally honest, stripped of his ego and the beat is magnificent. The hook gets you right off the bat and will leave you singing it over and over. The song is about Jay-Z and the affect he has had on Kanye. We get a fly-on-the-wall look at the inner workings of this friendship as Kanye puts his insecurities in his lyrics and also explains the ups and downs the two friends have had. It is an interesting honesty to listen to and it makes the song rise above and beyond what it could have been if it had stayed superficial. Kanye talks about feeling slighted by Jay because he didn't get to come on stage during Jay's farewell tour and then feels even more burned when Jay stole his idea to put Chris Martin on a track, However, there is an absolute sweetness to the song because Kanye knows that Jay was always trying to push him to make him better. Rarely do rappers admit another rapper bested them on a track but Kanye does it here but the entire song can be summed up in the final measures of the song:
If you admire somebody you should go on 'head tell 'em
People never get the flowers while they can still smell 'em
A idol in my eyes, god of the game
Heart of the city, Rocafella chain
Never be the same, never be another
Number one, Young Hov, also my big brother. 5/5


Kanye manages to drop his most conventional album but manages to stay fresh while doing it. He has really come into his own as a rapper and I hope that this signals great things for the next chapter of his career. I can listen to this thing from beginning to end and be entertained at the very least and at the very best it allows me to think about life, about hip-hop and about hoping that some day I can feel the joy he feels by accomplishing dreams. He is still not a top 5 rapper, but very few rappers have put together 3 albums on this level right out of the box. Dude is doing something right!

Eardrum- Talib Kweli cd

Talib Kweli has been in limbo between underground success and mainstream disappointment for the last few years. He is universally praised for his lyrical abilities but criticized for his attempts to cross over. In order to get his head right he took a few years off and now comes back with a new label imprint, an impressive roster of artists and a brand new album for our listening pleasure. How did the break affect him? Is he still concerned with trying to cross over and have that success? Does he answer any of the criticism? Let us find out.


Everything Man- The disc opens with a woman giving a spoken word piece on Talib Kweli. It is a gorgeous piece and sets up the disc pretty well. Underneath her vocals the beat slowly and quietly starts and builds until the beat takes over for her, sounding like a heart beat and the first thing we hear from Kweli is "They say you can't please everybody" and that seems to be the mantra of this whole album. He references Langston Hughes in his first actual rhyme and the laid back quiet beat really allows us to focus what he is saying and it worth listening. The song ends with people giving testimonials on when they first heard Talib. It is a great opening to an album. 4/5


NY Weather Report- This is a song about how tough New York is and using the weather as a metaphor. It is a pretty simple concept but it really works with Kweli. It helps knowing what he has gone through in the industry, as he assumes you do know, but since I do know, I didn't have any trouble. I enjoy the hook as it is not a sing-songy hook that infests so much of the music these days and the little scratches over the hook are very effective. He uses a lot of metaphors and punchlines in this song to get his point across and it seems as if the break was good to Kweli. He does use the word "Cracker" to describe the white man and that is a problem for me. Not that I am overly sensitive but for an emcee who preaches togetherness and whatnot it seems like a bad play to refer to the powerful white man as a "cracker." nonetheless it is a great song. 4/5


Hostile Gospel(part1)- Just Blaze kills this beat right here. He gives Kweli one dope gospel sounding beat. Right off the bat we know the mood of this song when Kweli starts his first verse off with "I call rappers baby seals cuz they clubbin to death." Kweli is obviously upset with the current state of ringtone hip-hop. He goes on to back up his point with a fiery verse with his signature multi-syllabic measure rap. No one crams more words into a bar of music quite like Kweli and while some times it does not work, here is it exactly what the song calls for. The hook is perfect for the song as a children's gospel choir seems to just be singing "Deliver us" as a plea to Kweli to take us away from the stupid rap songs infecting the radio. 5/5


Say Something- Kweli dares haters to talk about him because he ready with an all out verbal ass kicking here. Kweli has always been able to get down and dirty but usually he stays above it but here he gets down in the mud and is drilling bloggers, haters and bad rappers. The defiant hook could not be better and the beat is on fire. Will.I.Am, while being an awful rapper is really burning it up with production these days. Jean Grae(the first rapper on Kweli's label) comes by to show why the underground knows she is the hardest spitting female emcee alive. I just play this song over and over because I really like a more aggressive Kweli. 5/5


Country Cousins- I am not feeling the hook on this song and the beat was not something I enjoyed at first but grew on me, but I like the message of the song and Kweli's flow is ridiculous here as he kind of adopts a sped up version of that southern flow. Instead of focusing on the differences of regions in hip-hop this song celebrates the things in common and examines the differences as good things and how we need it all to function. U.G.K show up for a guest spot and like they usually do on guest appearances they come off pretty well. I am not sure I am ready to sit through an entire U.G.K album because Pimp C is one obnoxious dude and I am not fond of their typical stuff, but here it works very well. 4/5


Holy Moly- Pete Rock is back behind the boards on this one and he flips an Elton John song to make an ill sample and Kweli is again a beast here and even gets a bit political humor in as he says "I turn pages like Mark Foley." The song has no hook and is just 2 minutes of a verbal assault on wannabe Jay-z'Talib Kweli has been in limbo between underground success and mainstream disappointment for the last few years. He is universally praised for his lyrical abbilities but criticisized for his attempts to cross over. In order to get his head right he took a few years off and now comes back with a new label imprint, an impressive roster of artists and a brand new album for our listening pleasure. How did the break affect him? Is he still concerned with trying to cross over and have that success? Does he answer any of the criticism? Let us find out.


Everything Man- The disc opens with a woman giving a spoken word piece on Talib Kweli. It is a gorgeous piece and sets up the disc pretty well. Underneath her vocals the beat slowly and quietly starts and builds until the beat takes over for her, sounding like a heart beat and the first thing we hear from Kweli is "They say you can't please everybody" and that seems to be the mantra of this whole album. He references Langston Hughes in his first actual rhyme and the laid back quiet beat really allows us to focus what he is saying and it worth listening. The song ends with people giving testemonials on when they first heard Talib. It is a great opening to an album. 4/5


NY Weather Report- A song about how tough New York is and using the weather as a metaphor. It is a pretty simple concept but it really works with Kweli. It helps knowing what he has gone through in the industry, as he assumes you do know, but since I do know, I didn't have any trouble. I enjoy the hook as it is not a sing-songy hook that infests so much of the music these days and the little scratches over the hook are very effective. He uses a lot of metaphors and punchlines in this song to get his point across and it seems as if the break was good to Kweli. He does use the word "Cracker" to describe the white man and that is a problem for me. Not that I am overly sensitive but for an emcee who preaches togetherness and whatnot it seems like a bad play to refer to the powerful white man as a "cracker." nonetheless it is a great song. 4/5


Hostile Gospel(part1)- Just BLaze kills this beat right here. He gives Kweli one dope gospel sounding beat. Right off the bat we know the mood of this song when Kweli starts his first verse off with "I call rappers baby seals cuz they clubbin to death." Kweli is obviously upset with the current state of ringtone hip-hop. He goes on to back up his point with a firey verse with his signature multi-sylabbic measure rap. No one crams more words into a bar of music quite like Kweli and while some times it does not work, here is it exactly what the song calls for. The hook is perfect for the song as a children's gospel chior seems to just be singing "Deliver us" as a plea to Kweli to take us away from the stupid rap songs infecting the radio. 5/5


Say Something- Kweli dares haters to talk about him because he ready with an all out verbal ass kicking here. Kweli has always been able to get down and dirty but usually he stays above it but here he gets down in the mud and is drilling bloggers, haters and bad rappers. The defiant hook could not be better and the beat is on fire. Will.I.Am, while being an awful rapper is really burning it up with production these days. Jean Grae(the first rapper on Kweli's label) comes by to show why the underground knows she is the heardest spitting female emcee alive. I just play this song over and over because I really like a more aggresive Kweli. 5/5


Country Cousins- I am not feeling the hook on this song and the beat was not something I enjoyed at first but grew on me, but I like the message of the song and Kweli's flow is ridiculous here as he kind of adopts a sped up version of that southern flow. Instead of focusing on the differences of regions in hip-hop this song celebrates the things in common and examines the differences as good things and how we need it all to function. U.G.K show up for a guest spot and like they usually do on guest appearances they come off pretty well. I am not sure I am ready to sit through an entire U.G.K album because Pimp C is one obnoxious dude and I am not fond of their typical stuff, but here it works very well. 4/5


Holy Moly- Pete Rock is back behind the boards on this one and he flips an Elton John song to make an ill sample and Keli is again a beast here and even gets a bit political muhor in as he says "I turn pages like Mark Foley." The song has no hook and is just 2 minutes of a verbal assault on wannabe Jay-z's with fake Scott Storch beats and representing those hip-hop lost last year by saying "you still living through me." It is short and to the point and is a killer track. 5/5


Eat to live- This is the first song with a subject matter Talib is known for- The Struggle. The song is a story of a kid who doesn't have the money to buy food and eat. It also works as a metaphor for feeding the minds of the youth to keep a child learning and growing up. The song works on every level and Madlib gives Kweli the perfect somber beat on which to tell his story. The hook is depressing and educational, which it should be and the song shows why he usually raps about the struggle- he is so good at it. 5/5


In the Mood- Kanye West shows up as a rapper and producer here, but Kweli was not about to get upstaged because Kweli really makes this beat his as he rips the first verse hard. Kanye does hold his own pretty well with his verse, as he rides his own beat perfectly and he ends his verse with a repeated rhyme pattern elongating the rhyme for a few seconds which sounds kind of corny, but it works. The third verse is again about how rap is supposed to be and while it can come across heavy handed at times, Kweli's passion overshadows any heavy handed preaching when he proclaims that he "Plays like Iverson, hurt on both ankles." 4/5


Soon the new Day- This is the first song I don't love on the album. I am not sure Kweli and Norah Jones are a real good match. Jones sings a nice hook, but something just doesn't totally click for me. Talib's lyrics are nice here and the beat is ok, but it just sounds kind of lazy or forced maybe. I seriously cannot put my finger on it exactly but something here just doesn't work, like the pieces are all nice but they don't come together well. 2.5/5


Give 'em Hell- Religion raps can be a tricky thing. Some come off too preachy and then on the opposite end people can blindly talk bad about religion without really knowing anything. Kweli manages to walk that thin line very well. He has always been a pretty spiritual person and here we learn he spent a lot of time in different churches trying to find out where he belonged and how he can't find a lot of differences between the churches. It is almost a positive song about religion but in a kind of sarcastic way as he points out that these different religions all roughly believe the same thing, yet they all claim to be the only true church. 4/5


More or Less- Talib and Hi-Tek together again! It is a beautiful thing when these two guys make music together. The hook is a gorgeous male voice going a step up with each word as he goes from octave to octave and the beat is probably the best beat on the album. Kweli spends the song telling us what we need more of and what we need less of. Not all of them ring true and some are kind of silly, but overall it works as a song concept. Things like "less talk and more change" work where things like "More Beyonce and less Britney" are kind of silly and unnecessary. Kweli kind of goes away form his typical flow here changing his breath control to slow down each line just a little bit so we can actually hear and understand what he is saying here. 4.5/5


Stay Around- Pete Rock comes back for seconds and thank God for that because this beat is really nice. Kweli spends the first verse going back to the mantra of the album "You can't be everything to everyone." The song is a dialogue between Talib and his fans as people tell him what he should sound like, whose beats he should rap to and what kinds of songs he should make and then when he goes out of dialogue mode he rips it hard about how no one should be limited by what they used to do and people should be allowed to try new things and see if they work. He admits they don't always work, but seems glad to have been able to do such a thing. 4.5/5


Hot Thing- This is the first official single and has a dope video accompanying it. This song keeps with his want to branch out and do other kinds of hip-hop. I am not huge on the song because it sounds a lot like so much of the stuff on the radio these days and I think he is better than this kind of song because his true heart felt love songs come across so much better. In the song he is talking to some nameless woman about what he likes about her- her ass, sass, freckles and so on. Will.I.Am does give his second dope beat to the album but this time he is on the hook as well which does not work as well, if you ask me. 2/5


Space Fruit interlude- This is as pointless as most interludes. I hate these things even if they only are a minute long.


The Perfect Beat- Talib and KRS-! Together on the same track? Hmmmm. With a Bob Marley sample? hmmm again. The beat is hard. I mean hard in a good every-rapper-will-want-to-spit-over-it beat. The two Emcees trade couplets with each other and KRS proves he still has it when he focuses and gets back to real hip-hop and not talking about hip-hop as a religion. By the title you know the song is about finding the perfect beat and trying to figure out what makes a beat perfect. The second half of the song is flawless as the two guys exchange perfectly crafted verses with each of ripping the beat incredibly! 5/5


Oh My Stars- The song starts with a kid ripping the mic, but when Kweli comes in the song doesn't have the energy of the kid so it seems odd. I am not a big fan of this kind of earth like song. The beat is just too soft for me and Kweli backs off the mic to create a very soft flow and it just doesn't work for me. He is getting preachy again, which can be fine and he has crafted dope soft love songs before but it is just all wrong here. Some of it might be that I don't like Musiq who is singing the hook, but it is more than that. The song gets a bit better during the second verse, but it just doesn't work overall for me. 3/5


Listen!- This song was leaked-released about a year ago and it was what made me really desire this album because it is a hot song. The beat is crafted perfectly and the placement of the word "Listen" as part of the beat and hook works very well. Kweli murders the song with lines like "Bangin on the system, fightin my kind of war/Loud as a whisper, quiet as a lion's roar" and "They like "What nigga? Wait right there/ I got reservoir dogs, you be missin a right ear." From beginning to end this is Kweli at his best. The hook is dope, the verses are dope, the song is dope. 5/5


Go With us- Kweli uses this song to introduce us the Strong Arm Steady Crew. A crew of west coast emcees Kweli stole from Los Angeles and gave a deal to. The song is just an all out verbal assault letting people know what to expect from this trio- Phil Da Agony, Crondon and Mitchy Slick. I have been a fan of Phil Da Agony for a while and it is nice to heard him over something that doesn't sound just like it belongs on the west coast. I would have rather heard a song without a hook, since it comes off as a mixtape song anyway, but it works for the most part. I would like to hear how Strong Arm Steady sounds trading couplets instead of each taking 16 bars but I am sure that is to come. 4/5


Hostile Gospel(part 2)- Kweli is talking directly to God here at first. He is praying about being delivered from sin and temptation. I am not huge on the song as the beat is boring and Kweli sounds like he is tired of his own album here, which he may be because 20 tracks is a long album! Reggae artists Sizzla comes in for some nonsense and I can't understand a word he says, which is fine. 2/5


The Nature- Justin Timberlake and Kweli together has been a hot topic amongst the internet knuckleheads. People seem to forget the two guys went to Africa together and came to form a bond over it. They even rapped on TV together, well Kweli rapped and Justin beat boxed, but here Justin actually produced the song and he does a pretty damn good job with the beat. It is soft and mellow, but intricate with the strings in the background and the song is a bit preachy but it feels honest and never sounds forced. J.T sounds good on the hook as he backs off his usual pop sounding voice to mimic a more R&B falsetto. The song is about getting back to what matters in life and getting away from going just for money and Kweli's second verse is one of the more perfect verses I have heard from him. It is deep and meaningful but still lyrically dope, with a nice metaphor and some dope imagery it is a great way to end the album. 5/5


If Kweli had eliminated the few really bad songs this could have been a tighter, no filler having album but as it stands it is still a very good album worth having and it has some very good replay value. The break seemed to be good for Talib as he seems to have centered himself and created an album for himself. He was less concerned with label problems and what people expected him to do and just did what he wanted to do and it would be great if he can do that every time out for now because all sides of Kweli- the lover, the soul searcher, the healer and the brutal emcee- are all worth hearing.

3:10 to Yuma

I am the last person in the world to willingly watch a western, usually. I have never found the appeal of them honestly. However, Christian Bale makes interesting acting choices that make any movie he does worth watching, so I was interested in this movie. I have always maintained the opinion that Russell Crowe was mostly overrated, but there was something about him in the trailer to this movie that made me think this would be a good thing for him. I also happen to know that both Bale and Crowe are serious horse riders so I knew it would look real when they were on the horses. With the hopes of studio westerns riding squarely on the back of this movie, would it be worth it? Could this be the movie that brings back the western?


Dan Evans(Bale)is a father of three living a very poor life. His ranch hasn't had water for the crops or for the cows and he owes money to the wrong people and at the beginning of the movie these men burn down his barn and let his cows out. Evans and his two sons, William(Logan Lerman) and Mark(Benjamin Petry) set off to find the cows. It is obvious William looks down on his down trodden broken father and it is obvious Dan Evans knows that his son feels this way. Dan also only has one leg as he lost one in the civil war. While searching for their cows they come across a robbery, a brutal great gun fight having robbery. The band of thieves is led by Ben Wade(Crowe) and his right hand man Charlie Prince (Ben Foster). Wade and Evans have a brief exchange as Evans asks for his cattle back and Wade telling him he can have them. Evans finds a bounty hunter still alive after the robbery and as his kids take the cattle back, he takes the bounty hunter into a town to get him looked after. In town Evans and wade have another brief exchange before the cops catch Wade. It seems Wade has robbed 22 carriages full of money and also killed various people along the way. The train men have a lot of interest in Wade because he is mostly robbing carriages carrying money from the train men. Grayson Butterfield (Dallas Roberts) offers money to anyone who will help take Wade in and get him on the 3:10 to Yuma train. Evans is in desperate need of the money so he goes along with it. On their journey, Evans and co. deal with Wade killing two of the members, Apache Indians, people who want Wade dead without a trial and of course Wade's own gang. In the end it is just Evans versus Wade's whole gang as Wade feels the sense of duty to do this. He also wants to show his son (who showed up later trying to help his dad) that he isn't worthless.


This movie is a character study drama wrapped under the guise of action film. Don't worry there are a few truly great old west shoot outs, especially the beginning and the climax, but this is a drama about good and evil and the human condition. Watching Bale as a man at the very end of sanity, depressed and injured, is something wonderful to behold. Never do we stop feeling bad for him but there is one moment in particular as he is whispering to Crowe that gave me goosebumps. His dedication, intensity and honesty come through the whole time and help us really want him to succeed in his mission. By contrast, Crowe plays his villain with a sense of ease and charm. However, he also plays him with levels and gives a very human side to this notorious killer. it would have been so easy to chew scenery and be big and bold here, but he went the complete opposite direction. Half way through the movie it starts to play with our senses of right and wrong and it only works because of how good Crowe is here. The chemistry between Bale and Crowe really push the movie forward as we watch them go through different phases of life together, eventually forming somewhat of a friendship. The acting all the way around help make this movie one of the best movies I have seen this year. Ben Foster (resident crazy person) is totally compelling as the Wade right hand man. We believe whole-heartedly that he is willing to kill anyone and do whatever it takes to get Wade back. He is also the reason we start to believe that maybe Wade is not really so bad and that he is just unsure of himself and is being lead by Prince's crazy demeanor.


This movie is constantly bursting with intensity and urgency, even in the slower moments which is a testament to director, James Mangold. He finds a way to keep things moving even in moments where people are just talking. Things are never calm through this whole movie and it really is what makes this movie so very good. It may not bring the western back but it deserves to. This movie is absolutely fantastic in every way and the final 20 minutes are thrilling, heart breaking and interesting in a way few movies are these days. Christian Bale and Russell Crowe are both in top notch here and one can only hope that they will find a way to work together again because they really fit well on screen together.

Shoot 'em up

Clive Owen may be the biggest bad ass on screen these days. He also happens to be a tremendous actor. Watch him in Sin City and you know he can be an incredibly effective stoic ass kicker and then watch him in Children of Men and you can see just how good of an actor he is as well. This guy is the real deal. Throw in the great Character actor Paul Giamatti, International beauty Monica Bellucci and a title like Shoot em Up and I knew, I just knew I was in for one fun movie, right?


The film begins with a man sitting on a bus bench eating a carrot. A pregnant woman runs by him screaming and a man with a gun is chasing after her. The man on the bench curses and then gets up to go help the woman. And there the movie begins, a full minute goes by before the first incredible death sequence. The man, Mr Smith (Owen), helps this woman give birth while emptying bullets into quite the big amount of henchmen. Eventually Hertz (Giamatti) enters the picture and we begin the real cat and mouse action movie. The mother of the newly birthed baby is killed in the gun fire and Owen feels like he must find a way to get this baby a better life. We meet a sexy yet disgustingly naughty hooker, Donna Quintana (Bellucci)and Smith wants to leave the baby with her because the bad guys are still after the baby. More action and a little bit of exposition follow and we are able to piece together that a senator running for president has been harvesting babies because he is dying and needs a bone marrow transplant. The bad guys work for a gun dealer because the senator plans to be tough on gun control but if he dies due to no bone marrow he can't be president. That is the plot of this movie, but honestly who cares?


Allow me to begin my actual review of this movie with warning people that if you can't stop yourself from saying things like "That could never happen" just avoid this movie all together. I am not saying check your brain at the door because I think you need your brain to fully understand just how self aware everyone in this movie is to how ridiculous it all is. This is a balls to the wall, over the top, crazy, hilarious non stop action ride. Every scene involving action is incredibly creative, daring, hilarious and absolutely implausible, but it is one awesome ride. Watching Paul Giamatti really let loose for the first time is a riot to watch and of course Owen is his stoic and snarling best. Bellucci is unbelievably sexy in moments of this thing and when she and Owen finally get together it is some hot sex, punctuated by another awesome action sequence and one of the better action one-liners. The death toll in this thing is one of higher ones I have seen in recent memory and the director, Michael Davis, shows a very good eye for creating this over the top world of bullets flying in every direction. This movie almost takes place in an alternate reality where henchmen are limitless and vegetables can be used as weapons. A world where our hero can shoot a guy three times in different body parts to get the guy to aim his gun at someone else. A world where a guy can be falling out of the sky and still find a way to demolish about 10 guys.


Among the complaints I have heard about this movie is the script. Yes, a good portion of the jokes or one-liners are relatively lame, but in my opinion that was an intentional ploy by Davis to make this movie completely over the top. The comedy comes from just how far this movie is willing to go into a world of comic book like violence. I do not believe we are meant to believe 90% of this stuff could actually happen. Some people were also annoyed by the lack of character development but I would point to the title of the movie and tell them that the title says it all in this thing. I liked that we are never sure about Mr. Smith's past. Hertz thinks he has Smith's past correct but he never confirms that and I liked not knowing anything about this man who is the biggest bad-ass ever. He is what James Bond aims to be and can do what most action heroes wish they could do and if you are willing to go with this movie, I have no doubt that you will love it from beginning to end.

They are just movies after all

I remember a few years ago when I used to give Erik a real hard time about his stance on movies. I used to tell him there was nothing wrong with turning off your brain and just enjoying some movie fun. I complained about his love of documentaries and black and white movies and was constantly trying to change him. His nickname was "The Film Nazi." It was a good time for all and I do believe it got him to loosen up a bit and start seeing movies he would not have ordinarily seen, not that that was always a good thing- Garfield, The Pacifier and Barbershop 2, come to mind. Recently though, I have been on the receiving end of such teasing. I am not sure when it happened but somewhere in the last two years I stopped finding merit in movies that had no real redeeming qualities. People have told me they feel sorry for me because I take movies too seriously, They are just movies, after all, right? Sure, they are just movies. But, why shouldn't they just be movies with something deep or entertaining about them?


"When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, 'no, I went to films.'" - Quentin Tarantino

This all seems to have started with Evan Almighty. For those of you not in the know, I took a tremendous amount of glee in the ultimate failure of that movie. While it may creep into $100 million dollar status by the end of this year, it was considered a bomb at the Box Office and it made me a lot more happy than I should have been. I did not see this movie, so I cannot tell you that it sucked. I can tell you that it looked awful, unimaginative and so blandly unfunny, Napoleon dynamite had reason to think it would not be the worst comedy ever anymore. But why should any of that matter to me? Why should I care if a movie made money or not? Why should I care if people want to go watch a movie where every joke is borrowed from hundreds of other movies? Am I just a movie snob who only wants to see deep movies worthy of Oscars? Well, my love for Transformers would negate that point, or maybe I just don't like dumb comedies? Well, I count Tommy Boy as one of the funniest movies ever and that is not exactly a smart comedy, so it isn't that either. I can't really put my finger on why, I just know that there were better movies out and it disgusted me that a studio shelled out $150 million dollars to make something that looked so crappy. IS that so wrong?


If I have to see 3 Nobits get made in order for one Children of Men to get made, I can live with that.

Is it so wrong to want to persuade people away from Balls of Fury? Is it so wrong to get passionate when speaking about how awful that movie looks? For me an average trip to the movie costs about $18.00. $7.00 for a ticket and $11.00 in popcorn and soda and maybe a candy. $18.00 is roughly the cost of a community theater ticket or a new book or a c.d. If you bought a c.d for 18 bucks and only liked 5 songs on it would you consider it a good purchase, or would you be upset? Would you waste your money on that c.d if you had heard 2 songs on the radio from the c.d and hated them both? I highly doubt it, so why should pay money to see a movie that has a trailer that looks awful, especially a comedy? Comedies should look and sound like Superbad, Knocked up, Hot Fuzz or Thank you for smoking. Watching Will Ferrell play the same obnoxious clueless character in 10 different movies does nothing for me and if asked I will say that. Is that so wrong? People say I shove my opinions down people's throats and if you think that, that is fine, but I believe in honesty and if asked I will give my unfiltered my opinion, it is not my fault it offends you because you enjoy such god-awful movies!

The older I get, the more I look at movies as a moving miracle.- Steven Speilberg

I do not go into each and every movie expecting them to all be like Children of men, I don't, but when I go into a comedy I expect to laugh and when I go into an action movie I expect great action, nothing more nothing less. I believe movies can be more than just ways to pass time. When people think a movie is cute, I don't understand that concept, really. To me, finding a movie cute means it didn't do anything for you, but you can't bring yourself to say you hated it. People are so afraid of forming real concrete opinions and when they start talking to me and I am not afraid of such opinions that they think I am putting them down personally for thinking something different from me. I am not opposed to someone thinking something different than me, but I do ask why they feel this way. If they liked a movie I like to know why and if they can't come up with anything other than "well, it was cute" then I say, that is not an opinion, that is an absence of opinion. There is nothing wrong with loving whatever movie you love or hating any movie you hate, but is it too much to ask to have a reason for it. Look, if you find Will Ferrell funny, that is fine, really it is. But, I disagree with you and I have no problem telling you so and if you really love his movies, you should have no problem going back and forth with me as to why you do love him.

"Basically, you make another movie, and another, and hopefully you feel good about every picture you make. And you say: 'My name is on that. I did that. It's OK.' But don't get me wrong, I still get excited by it all. That, I hope, will never disappear." - Martin Scorsese

Should we have to turn off our brains to enjoy a movie? Should I feel bad for not liking everything I am force fed? I don't think so. I don't think every popular movie is bad but I don't' think I should like something just because everyone else does. If it were up to me, Children of Men would have been the highest seen movie of last year, but that is because I think it is such a brilliant and not much seen movie and I think that is a crime. If you read a book you love, do you not want other people to enjoy it as well? I used to call this whole idea of brainless entertainment, the Dan Brown disease. Everyone was enamored with the hype and the semi interesting story of The DaVinci Code that most people didn't even realize how poorly written it was. With movies it is similar. We are so busy being told that Will Ferrell is funny and that Johnny Depp is an awesome actor that so many people don't even think to wonder if it is true. I am not one of those anti-Hollywood people because I think big summer blockbusters are fabulous, I just wish that all of those people sitting and enjoying Transformers will find a way to enjoy something like No Country for Old Men later on this year.

"I like the movie to be about the movie and to allow people to think about the movie the way I always thought about movies I watched and admired"- Curtis Hanson

I know I care about movies more than the average person. I am perfectly ok with that and I understand I have a habit of being loud, argumentative and passionate about such things and I am ok with that as well, but to be told I take movies too seriously is not something I am ok with. That is like telling anyone their hobby, or their passion is silly. When I say I hate country music around people who love country music, I get an earful and I can respect that. When I say that soccer is not a sport and that rare soccer fan is around, I have to hear about it and I can respect that too (even if I do not respect soccer) so when movies are brought up I have a duty to depend my passion like everyone else. Usually people just keep quiet because no one wants to ruffle any feathers but I am not afraid to do so, so why should that be a bad thing? If everyone stood up for the things they loved it would be a much more fun place to be. You may think this whole essay is silly and that is perfectly fine with me, because it is my blog so I can say whatever the hell I want.

When people see some depth you never intended that's really cool, you just put on a face and say "Oh, yeah, that was deep". What are you going to say? I'm just a moron with luck?- Alfonso Cuaron (director of Children of Men)

In closing I just want to say with four months left in this year, we have plenty of awesome movies about to come out so do yourself a favor and keep an eye out for- Shoot em up, American Gangster, No Country for Old Men, 3:10 to Yuma, Eastern Promises, In the valley of Elah, Across the universe, Into the Wild, Lust Caution, The Darjelling Limited, We own the night, Michael Clayton, Sleuth, Lars and the Real Girl, 30 days of night, Gone baby gone, Lions for Lambs, Leatherheads, Sweeney Todd, The Savages and Charlie Wilson's War.