Those big apple whores with the hearts of gold

So Sex and the City was pretty darn great. Let me set up this review with some background on the show in reguards to myself. I never watched it on HBO. I've only seen probably 5 full episodes front to back, and none were in any sort of chronological order. I have no predisposition to which lady should or shouldn't be with any certain guy. I don't have all the knowledge of the ladies pasts, breakups and back stories and such and so forth. And still, i loved sex and the city.
The evening started with Alex, Aless and a couple other fine ladies meeting up at bubba gump shrimp, lol, for some food and conversation. We started with talking about the most akward "sex" moments and someone who shall remain nameless for protection (it's not me) was once dropped on her head!!! AAHHH! I couldn't stop laughing at all the stories.
That was the perfect precurser to the film itself, which is all about the drama, the laughes, the city, and yes the sex. Actually, this film was very tame in the reguards to the latter, more so than the show itself even. No matter, the film is too busy setting up several plotlines insuring each lady thier own time to shine. The acting was all top notch, and everyone is faced with questions that had even the audience we were with polarized. How far does forgiveness go? what DO you forgive? How much of a relationship is "you" and how much of it is the time and effort you spend on the other person? All these questions and more are dealt with in the 2 hour and 47 minute movie which breezes by like an hour and a half. It covers a years time, and probably a seasons worth of material.
It's the kind of movie you watch when your sick in bed all day, and need a cheer me up. It's in the same category as "Love Actually" or "Mean Girls" or "sleepless in seattle." But not "The Notebook" because that movie sucked so hard i can't fathom why anyone likes it. But i digress, Sex and the City is comfort food made to perfection for what it is. I liked it. It made me think, and it got Aless to cry. Well, not cry, but she most def. got a little faclempt at several points (the brooklyn Bridge meeting for example) of course she'll never admit any of that. But if it can get aless to do that, then it's a keeper.

Go Speed Racer GO!!!!!!!

Speed Racer is 99 flavors of crack cocaine and I loved every second of it. I can most definitely see why this movie bombed hard core. I can see why some people with HATE the nonsense out of it. But I LOVED it, and I can’t get enough of it. The music. The cheesy schmaltzy father son talks. The inspirational mom speeches. The Obligatory smooch at the end. The little brother and monkey sidekick. It’s all been done before, but before it was done out of laziness. Here, it’s done earnestly and lovingly, and it works. I bought it. Not everyone will. If you buy into it, you’ll feel like a kid again, like I did. I remember putting together that micro machines speedway all day long, and turning out the lights and watching the glow in the dark cars wiz and shoot past. My brain amplified that to a thousand, and even then, my brain couldn’t fathom the sights you will see in speed racer. The car chases are astounding. Are they realistic, hell no! Who cares!?!?! Who goes to speed racer for clinical car chases? The car chases in this movie are like the musical numbers in Disney cartoons, like the opening action scenes in the original bond films, they are a character all their own, and a wonder to behold. Remember that rush you got when Sloth screamed “Hey you guys!” or the lump in your throat you got when Simba’s dad died? These were schmaltzy scenes, and viewed as an adult, you wouldn’t by it, you wouldn’t like it, and you’d probably laugh it off like the cynical mess that you are. But as a kid, you ate it up. You couldn’t get enough of it. This film is for the young at hart. It’s for those of us that can still remember the sheer joy of exploring the uncharted pirate infested tunnels in your own back yard or cheering on your glow in the dark micro machine. If not, then this movie is not for you. This movie is for me.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls a.k.a. Fracking ALIENS!?!?!?!

Indiana Jones was awesome, until the ending. This review is going to be short and sweet because that’s all it deserves really. The movie is a very well made adventure romp that sits very comfortably next to the previous Indiana Jones pictures. Karen Allen is back as everyone’s favorite Indy love interest. Shia LaBeouf continues to take over the world one summer blockbuster at a time, and does an annoyingly good gob at it. (Also, check out the trailer for his new movie, Eagle Eye, it looks all kinds of AWSOME!!!)
In fact that was my favorite part of the movie; the relationships. The action is all well choreographed, and THANKFULLY it’s all very smoothly shot and edited and there is NONE of that annoying “shaky-cam” nonsense the Bourne films started (just to make it clear, I liked it in the Bourne films cause it fit the tone of what they were, much like I also love it in the series 24, however, not EVERYONE needs to shake the camera and think that immediately means “intense!”) but the action was a known, a given. The acting and relationships and dialogue was all much better than you’d expect and a true joy. Harrison Ford’s reaction to seeing Marion Crane after all these years is priceless, just sheer cinematic joy.
That brings me to the two things I didn’t like about the film. The first one is john Williams. That’s right I said it, the man is lazy. I know he’s old, but that’s no excuse. Remember all those countless memorably tunes he made in the 80’s and 90’s? REMEMBER them all? I don’t, I can’t, there are too many. Well, other than the Harry Potter theme, all he does now days is play tracks from his greatest hits album over everything he does. I LOVE the Indy theme, but I literally heard it 36 times During Crystal skulls. Indy gets a drink from the water fountain = dun dun dun Da dun dad um…Shame on you Williams, try being creative and not cribbing from your own past library!
Secondly, the ending. The last 20 minutes or so is so outlandish (even by Jones standards) I couldn’t take it. ALIENS!?!?! REALLY!?!?!?! It was lame and that’s all there is to it. Them talking about the aliens and their relationship to the ancient civilizations was fascinating, the idea of the crystal skull itself was great and cool, but the actual execution of it, well, the mummy was more believable, and the mummy is a rip off of Indiana Jones. Therefore, concordantly, ergo, visa VI, the ending sucked worse than a knock off…and that sucks. Got me? Good
The end

Iron Man

Iron Man was just ok. It was very by the numbers, plug in the romantic interest, insert morally guided best friend, top it off with a super villain, add it to a superhero with a cool gimmick and that equals a very good, if standard summer action movie.
Robert Downy J. is awesome. Always has been, and probably always will be. I LOVED him in this, however I LOVED him in everything he's ever done (and REALLY look forward to him playing an Australian who has an operation to make himself black in TROPIC THUNDER later this year) and the fact that someone has FINALLY given him an entire movie to himself is just cool. Unfortunately, whereas he usually creates interesting characters with very unique material, here he's given something so...generic, I can't help but this what this could have been like if Tim Burton directed it.
As it is, Jon Favreau does decent work. He's one of those actor turned directors that seem to be popping up left and right now-a-days. Favreau hasn't done anything near this scale before, but he handles it ok. I put him in the same category as Brett Ratner and Chris Columbus. Those two directed such films as rush hour and home alone and RENT and red dragon. What do all of those films have in common (and unfortunately this one as well)? BLAND! Everything is very competently done, but with no flavor or artistic value. Their camera set up's are basic, but get the job done, and none of the actors stand in front of each other. That seems to be about the only compliment I can give it.
Also, I may be the only one out there who feels like this, but I’m sick of all of these super hero movies that are all pretty much the same. That’s why I LOVE comic book films like Batman Begins and Hellboy and 300, they go about their story in such a unique and interesting way, and present such fascinating heroes and set up such hard obstacles to overcome, that when something as "competent" as Iron man comes along, I can't help but think that at this point in the game, we as an audience deserve better.
Still, the special effects are cool. Gwyneth Paltrow turns in a thankless yet charming performance, and Robert Downy Jr. is in it, so it's not all bad. Will I watch it again? No, probably not, but I’m not sad I spent the money on the ticket.

best ALIAS fight scene EVER!

So this scene was from the finally of ALIAS season 2. I'd like to point out that this was WAY before KILL BILL had even been made. I say this because of a VERY similar sequence in K.B. Vol.2 with uma and hannah in the trailer. Now, Quintin Tarantino is a HUGE alias fan, having been in several episodes, as well as directing a fiew also. Hmm, i wonder...