Ananas

Name those flaws. ←

What the hell is Alfie doing on that list? I've never seen the original, but I can think of plenty of remakes worse. Alfie is a funny reinterpretation of the original.

Shannen Doherty did some skin flick with Judd Nelson called Blindfold: Acts of Obsession.

Birth - ** From director Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast) comes Birth, the latest attempt by Nicole Kidman to take two steps off the beat and path of her typical role and try something entirely new. This is still a love story of course, but this one differs majorly from the norm; the romantic lead is an eleven year old boy. Putting aside the controversy this has caused (a particular scene in the middle of the movie drew boos from a Venice audience); the film is a mish mashed drag that moves glacially yet still manages to throw its viewers. Some of the film is intriguing, and Cameron Bright is very good in this role. I liked the camera work, and the dull colours set the mood for the dark theme the film would quickly inherit. Nicole Kidman is of course, sufficient in her role. In fact, I can't remember the last time she's been unable to at least slightly prop up any film she appears in. However, this is her second consecutive misstep of the year; first the painfully generic Stepford Wives, now this. Unfortunately despite it's sloth like pace, the movie still manages to be nonsensical, especially when it attempts to be non-verbal and convey everything with an emotion. A massively disappointing, if well directed and acted drama. Thumbs down.

From Justin 2 Kelly. So much campy goodness, and the worst movie I've ever seen.

Garden State - ****1/2 3rd time, and it's still amazing. SPIN magazine called this movie "this generation's The Graduate", and I can see what they're getting at. This is the kind of inventive, smart and quirky dramedy that only comes around once or twice in a decade. Thumbs way up, and check the DVD (complete with a nauseating cover) out on December 28th.

Ben Affleck - Underrated actor, but has hit an unfortunate spot in his career. Hopefully he recovers with the right script. Jackie Chan - Dimestore Bruce Lee. Sean Connery - Has become a shell of his former self. Russell Crowe - One of the best actors in Hollywood today, and remarkably consistent. Tom Cruise - Overrated hack. Leonardo DiCaprio - See Tom Cruise. Will Smith - One of the more versatile actors in the business. He can do any genre. Johnny Depp - He's got the most unique style anywhere. Harrison Ford - Hoping Indiana Jones IV is a proper send off. Mel Gibson - They say he's got tons of power in Hollywood, but that doesn't explain Complete Savages and Paparazzi. Brad Pitt - Spotty, but good more often than not. Al Pacino - Doesn't know how to give an acceptance speech. Matt Damon - The better half of the Affleck-Damon connection. George Clooney - Has been fortunate enough to choose some great scripts, but not that talented. Val Kilmer - Dave's not here man. Richard Gere - Never liked him in anything, but I've only seen him in 1 or 2 movies. Quentin Tarantino - Like Howard Stern, is exceded only in talent by ego.

Being Julia - ***1/2 It is a great challenge to make a period piece that remains entertaining throughout, especially when that movie doesn't happen to involve a war. Being Julia instead focuses on an early 20th century English actress having a nervous breakdown. Annette Benning stars as Julia Lambert, the ultra talented English actress in a businesslike marriage with Michael Gosselyn, played by Jeremy Irons. Instead of a breakdown of the plot, I think there's too much to be said for Benning's performance in the film. She is truly brilliant in this role, and if her spot on performance doesn't earn her an Oscar nomination, there's something wrong with the voting Academy. The rest of the film is perfectly enjoyable, and the musical numbers are just as good as one could expect to see in the seemingly endless number of musicals from the past few years, but it's clear that Benning's performance is what elevates it. On screen Annette Benning plays an actress with a phenomenal gift. After watching the movie, it's clearly a case of art imitating life. Thumbs up.

I Heart Huckabees - *** When movies involve wide sweeping satire, they walk a fine line between wit and sacrilege. In my opinion, Saved! overstepped that line, and managed to alienate America's largest religion. With I Heart Huckabees, David O Russell takes a satirical look at the world of existentialism, and creates a wide variety of the archetypical characters used in movies that revolve around this often overlooked school of thought. To portray these characters, an exceptional cast including Dustin Hoffman, Lily Tomlin, Jason Schwartzman, Mark Wahlberg, Jude Law and Naomi Watts. These actors elevate the film greatly, even in moments that are thin on actual content. The screenplay is often brilliant, yet dull at other points, and the film runs 5-10 minutes too long. I also felt as if there were a few moments in which the existentialist was mocked more than likely deserved, although their is an applaudable amount of discussion regarding the topic within the film. All in all, while a few moments were less than flawless, I Heart Huckabees is a rewarding drama/comedy that warrants a viewing for anyone who wants to be entertained without having their intelligence insulted. Thumbs up.

Taxi - ** From the director who brought you Barbershop, Taxi is an action comedy starring SNL alum Jimmy Fallon and renaissance woman Queen Latifah. What this film really is, however, is another one of those movies that manage to go 90 minutes without one original moment. Almost devoid of completely devoid of real "action", the movie relies on its comedy, and even that isn't very good. At some points I got the Bad Boys II vibe, at others Fast in the Furious, but mainly I got the sense that my intelligence was being insulted. Jennifer Esposito hasn't stopped being hot though. So I guess that's one bright side. Thumbs down.

Alfie - *** From director Charles Shyer comes Alfie, a modern reinterpretation of the classic Michael Caine film that was nominated for 5 Academy Awards in 1967. This time around, Jude Law plays the role of Alfie Elkins, and this must be his third movie in less than three months to see release. This is a truly multidimensional character, and Law plays it soundly. Susan Sarandon also gives a noticeably good, if less crucial performance as the man eating Liz. The acting is solid, and the writing is tolerable; the only problem with this movie is its pacing. It feels as if they tried to accomplish too much in the first half, and the second seems rather short winded. There is a period of about 20 minutes that drags, and this is mainly because of the dramatic shift in tone halfway through the movie. However, this wickedly funny romantic comedy is sure to entrance the fairer sex on its romantic end, and captivate the male audience with the bevy of beautiful women. A flawed comedy that succeeds enough to warrant recommendation. Thumbs up.

In the past couple days: The Day After Tomorrow - *** This is a movie that rides almost entirely on its hefty special effects budget, but somehow the end result is entirely enjoyable. The combination of Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Sela Ward, Ian Holm and Emmy Rossum ensure that the acting is more than up to scratch; especially the underused yet strong performance of Holm, who plays Terry Rapson, the scientist who along with Quaid's Jack Hall is responsible for discovering the storm in it's early stages. Now, a lot of the discussion regarding this movie is in criticism of its unlikely premise, and perhaps the detractors are correct in this right. However, since seeing a movie always requires a suspension of disbelief, the average moviegoer is bound to be enthralled with this action packed and amazing looking thriller. Thumbs up. Shark Tale - *** After watching this movie last night I was unable to understand the negative reaction to it. This comedy is one that I enjoyed thoroughly, even if it wasn't brain surgery. Then it finally occurred to me while looking through the critics reviews; people had misappropriated expectations. Critics were expecting another Finding Nemo; what they got was not even for the same audience. Shark Tale may be billed under the premise of a children's movie, but the content really doesn't back up the reputation. There's a ton of pop culture references that wouldn't resonate with children in the least, but I think this makes it a perfect movie for parents with children. While there's plenty of the classic children's lore, there's also that intelligence factor, which hits adults with a funny line whenever the plot starts to slide a bit. Flawed, but good comedy. Thumbs up. Paparazzi - ** This film is the ultimate conundrum. While it's obvious that fans enjoy their sadistic violence and revenge movies, who other than a celebrity really identifies with the almost sadomasochistic revenge on a group of stalkarazzi? The second film of the year from Mel Gibson's Icon Productions fails to live up to either the hype or the quality of its first. While both "The Passion of the Christ" and "Paparazzi" are both liberal in their use of violence ("Passion" even more so), this movie has neither an audience nor a clear sense of good and bad. I'm not sure, but I believe this movie sends the message that stalking and causing a celebrity to get in a near fatal crash is bad, and yet the vengeful murder of 3 people as a result is somehow good. Putting the moral and marketability issues aside, there's something to be said for writing that doesn't lose all of its creativity slightly beyond the halfway point. There were elements of this film that were very creative, but beyond the 45 minute mark it gets as blunt as the object the main character uses for his final murder victim. Now it's not to say there weren't good elements to the movie. Dennis Farina, Cole Hauser and Robin Tunney are all solid in their roles, and some of the action sequences are a guilty pleasure. However on an overall level, this movie has too many negatives and too few positives. Thumbs down.

1) Innervision 2) Nuguns 3) Peephole 4) Forest 5) Needles SOAD are one of my favorites, and hopefully the new album rocks as hard as the 3 previous.

No guarantees on Barton yet. I hope it isn't Mischa. She was great in Lost and Delirious, and she's done her best with a poorly written character on The O.C., but this is certainly a character beyond her. I'd like to see Evangeline Lilly get a shot, although she does star on a show running directly against Smallville.

Team America: World Police - *** It is a rare occasion that a film so low brow could also be so politically relevant, but Trey Parker's Team America is one of those rare occasions. According to writers Parker and Matt Stone (That's My Bush, South Park), their research for this film consisted of watching CNN, and mocking whichever celebrity that presented his or herself to be an "expert" on the political climate of America. As per usual, Alec Baldwin was one of the perennial favorites, but the inclusion of Sean Penn angered the "hollywood bad boy", who accused the boys of encouraging people to be "irresponsible". Whether presenting a even handed hatchet job on people in general or using ones celebrity to advance political beliefs despite a lack of qualification (Sean Penn, for instance, has a degree in Speech and Auto Mechanics) is more "irresponsible" is one argument, but you can see that the intention of this film is not to influence the vote, but to entertain an politically ambiguous audience. The humour is (as I said) ridiculously low brow, and a lot of the humour is more based on effective vulgarity, but it's very entertaining on a purely salacious level. Not near the best movie made this year, but one of the most enjoyable. Thumbs up.

So... if it's been leaked, then wouldn't this be illegal? Or is this the "leaked" variety of leaked?

I asked this before but no one answered; how is Kanye West a hero? Did people just vote him because they saw a familiar face? Beastie Boys got a little too much respect for releasing their worst album yet. Green Day's album was good, but it wasn't even top 5 this year. Oh well. I voted for two of the winners, RIAA and Ray Charles.

I think it depends at what genre you look at. It's been an extremely shitty year in hip-hop if you consider only the American scene. The only album I can remember enjoying that much is the Kanye West album, and to a lesser extent Talib Kweli (which was extremely disappointing). However, if you include European stuff, The Streets, Goldie Lookin Chain and Dizzee Rascal all released bad ass albums this year. There have been plenty of good albums this year: Bjork's "Medulla", Tom Waits "Real Gone", The Winks "Slippers and Parasol", Green Day's "American Idiot", The Killers "Hot Fuss" etc... And that's not even including the stuff that came out of the Brit Rock scene this year. I mean, it's had no definitive album like The Shins last year or Coldplay before it, but there have been plenty of rock solid CD's this year. The breakout band this year has got to be The Killers, in Canada at least. My favorite album would still be Bjork's "Medulla".

Napoleon Dynamite - ***1/2 Unlike many comedies that satisfy and then dissipitate from memory within hours, there are several bits in this movie that continue to stick with me. Among them some of the dialogue between Napoleon and Pedro, as well as an interesting training session featuring Diedrich Backer, and a Jamiroquai fueled dance sequence. The Napoleon Dynamite character is a one note joke played very well by Jon Heder, but the fresh view of high school suburban life is enough to make this very enjoyable. Interesting comparison; Haylie Duff appears in this film, while her sister Hilary appeared in Cinderella Story. Suddenly Haylie's decidedly less public career doesn't seem so disappointing in comparison. Anyway, thumbs up to a film that's entertaining if a bit flawed.

MetaCritic It's kind of like the RottenTomatoes of music, only far too few reviews.

http://www.allhiphop.com/hiphopnews/?ID=3617 Good the "real street media" is there to get its facts straight.

So... I suppose I'm fan number 3? 1) Chocolate Jesus 2) 16 Shots from a Thirty Ought Six 3) Big In Japan 4) Telephone Call from Istanbul 5) Metropolitan Glide 6) The Piano Has Been Drinking 7) Sins of My Father 8) Goin Out West 9) The Black Rider 10) Foreign Affair Honorable Mention: Hoist that Rag.