Three O'Clock in the Morning

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Movie Mini Review: A History of Violence

Title: A History of Violence

Cast:
Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, William Hurt

Plot summary:
Tom Stall (Mortensen), the quiet down-to-earth owner of a small town diner, is thrust into the limelight when he foils a robbery/murder attempt in his diner with some quick thinking and even quicker pistol play. But the attention draws some not-so-savory characters to the diner who think they know Stall from a previous life.

My thoughts:
This is another one of those movies I wanted to see in the theater but was unable to because I'm an old geezer with job and family ties that keep me from doing anything fun (not really).

But unlike with The Life Aquatic, after seeing finally A History of Violence I'm not disappointed that I missed the "opportunity" so shell out $30 bucks to see it in the theater.

The premise is the film is great: Why would a mild-mannered small-town family man be so good at killing people. Did he just have one of those "heroic" moments when you just react without thinking and save the day? Or is there something sinister in his past, something that mob captain Carl Fogerty (Ed Harris) knows about and is keen to repay Stall for.

For about half the movie, the director keeps you guessing about who's telling the truth. Is it Fogerty, and Stall is really a reformed hit-man trying to get out of "the life"? Or is Stall telling the truth and it's all a case of mistaken identity.

The acting is solid (the main characters are played by journeymen actors) and the photography is pretty darn good. The violence in most cases is real enough to be shocking, but not so gratuitous as to be distracting. But I think the director missed opportunities in the that could have added layers of interest to the story.

For one thing, there was a superficial look at what happens to the erstwhile wimpy son who suddenly nuts up to the school bullies when his dad becomes a hero. I think a deeper examination of this character could have been satisfying.

And there are some scenes that just plain don't make sense, like the love/rape scene on the wooden stairs of the family home. Or the final scene when Stall returns home to the family dinner table after going on a killing spree and sits down without saying a word.

But the movie falls apart for me midway through, when it is blatantly revealed that Stall is in fact a hit man, brother of a Philadelphia mob boss who has put a price on his head. From there, the movie becomes the predictable "I gotta kill all my enemies or never live in peace" action flick.

I can't help but think that it would have been smarter to never clarify whether Stall was actually the mob guy, but have him kill the mobsters anyway.

So, I rank this movie "Good to watch on TV, but glad I didn't pay to see it."

Favorite quote:
"Any last words before I blow your brains out you miserable prick?"

tagged: movie, History of Violence, film, culture, Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris, Maria Bello, William Hurt

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

YouTube Tuesday: Everybody likes Night Court

It doesn't take much to figure out what these guys are smoking when they're producing Pothedz Couch.

This Muppet-Show-meets-Cheech-and-Chong home video series isn't something you'd want to show the kids, but for some reason it cracks me up. Especially this episode where the main character, Pothed, takes a peyote trip down memory lane to the first time he met his person (the guy controlling the puppet).

tagged: movie, YouTube, video, muppets, puppets, pop culture, pot, marijuana

Friday, February 02, 2007

It sounds to us like you aren't taking this seriously

I love seeing these two guys sticking it to the so-called news media.

After taking the fall and being arraigned for the Aqua Teen Hunger Force publicity-stunt-turned-terrorist-alert, Peter Berdovsky, 27, and Sean Stevens, 28, gave their official statement the other day.

I mean really, what do the reporters expect. Of course they expect the two dudes to play their game and give them a quote so that they can complete the story they wrote a couple of hours ago.

Ironically, most of the so-called reporters were missing the real story... that these guys were arrested for a PR disaster (or success?) and yet their talking gibberish outside the courthouse.

I say balls to them, way to make the media look like idiots (as if that's difficult).

tagged: Peter Berdovsky, Sean Stevens, Boston, Cartoon Network, mooninites, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, public relations

Friday Blogthing: That's my name, biotch!

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
The Right Reverend Emaw the Carnivorous of Lesser Cheese Winston
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

tagged: name, aristocratic, meme

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Blacklash

It's February. You may know it as Black History month, a time of great reflection and introspection for my people, the Black Irish.

But let's face it. The Irish have never been worth the potatoes we eat in terms of culture. Sure, there have been some notable authors, few flash-in-the-pan musical acts, and really creepy horror characters.

But really the story of the descendants of a small, cold, rocky island in the North Atlantic isn't worth and entire month. And besides, there's always St. Patrick's Day.

No, let's focus on largely ignored plight of the black Americans of African decent. Actually, I'm being a bit flippant, which isn't fair. I do want to take a look at black history from a semi-serious perspective. Specifically, I want to look at recent black history.

F-Bombs recently posted at The Philosopher King a righteously indignant rant against some university students who dressed up as hiphop-esque rappers/thugs at parties last month during MLK day.

F-Bombs drops a heavy dollop of "offendedness" on these stupid kids, and rightly so. But he misses the opportunity to be angry at both sides of the fence.

More importantly, if you're told to 'dress like Black people' and you show up with fake golds, doo rags, fried chicken, plastic guns, 40oz's, and flashing gang signs----obviously this is what you think about Black people in our entirety. That makes you a racist bigot, and I sincerely hope that your insensitivity and social retardation follow you for the remainder of your life.

One might ask why a bunch of half-wit white kids would consider bling and grillz and thug life to be representative of black culture.

In fact, more than one has asked that. I tend to think Penni Brown has a good point.

Remember when you first saw the movie Hollywood Shuffle and you laughed because the scenes were so ridiculous and far fetched. You could look at that movie and know that it was a satire...a stab at how main stream Hollywood stereotypes Black Americans.

Now, fast forward to movies and videos available today. Those once satirical images are no longer meant to be facetious. They're meant to show 'the real' life of people in 'the hood'. So, now, we're claiming these representations as valid and fair examples of how we live. So, can we really get angry when white people, who are trying to be like us, don the same gear and have a party...calling it a an MLK celebration?

In my opinion, you can get mad at the kids dressing like thugs/gangstas/pimps/whatever, but such misplaced anger doesn't accomplish anything. It's like getting pissed at the Wayans Brothers and calling them racists because of White Chicks.

As I mentioned in F-Bomb's comments, the anger would more productive were it directed at the hiphop role models who promote the thug culture. People like Ludacris or 50 Cent who refer to women as bitches and hos, boast of popping caps in asses and advocate promiscuous sex with no responsibility (okay, it's not all bad).

Get rich or die tryin', but don't waste your time on an education. Ironically, successful black people like Oprah and Bill Cosby -- the role models worthy of emulation -- are roundly criticized and ostracized if they speak out against such misplaced cultural priorities.

I don't know what the solution is. Obviously hiphop music and all its accouterments is fulfilling a demand in the cultural marketplace. Hopefully we'll see some strong leadership stand up and say "Come on. I mean COME ON!"

tagged: racism, race, black, culture, music, hiphop, Black History Month

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Mecca hiney ho

JD is still on a blog posting hiatus, but that doesn't mean he's not being vigilant in his quest to guard against global nattering nabobs of idiocracy.

So he sent me a link to this story (via Hotair), which outlines the "push" by a British prison to "move" the jail's toilets to ac-commode-ate Muslim prisoners who raised a stink because they didn't want to risk facing Mecca when they're doing their business.

In his email, JD pointed out that

When we realize that we can draw a great circle around the earth through our toilets and Mecca, we'll realize that in some geometric sense, all our toilets face Mecca, and then we'll all have to strap Semtex to ourselves and blow up a pizza shop. Or maybe an Einstein's bagel shop. Those guys looking through the bagels have awfully big noses.

Good point, JD. Science tends to get in the way or religious ritual sometimes.

Come to think of it (speaking of Einstein), since all matter/energy once occupied the same coordinates in space-time, and since all things are connected on a quantum level, when Ahmed is dropping a deuce, he's actually taking a dump on Mecca. And the very matter that is being "evacuated" is the very matter used to produce all of the Korans in existence (and even existence itself is an illusion, I mean c'mon, who are we kidding here).

tagged: Mecca, Islam, Muslim, jail, British, science, quantum theory