The Best Years of Our Lives
I'm down to the last handful of AFI films and I have to say that The Best Years of Our Lives was a film I was saving out of a lack of interest. That was until I began watching it and found another favorite film. This movie was made in a time when films were censored from the kind of "vulgar honesty" we've become accustomed to, yet it packed the punch of modern film making, with its well told stories and well timed action. I strongly recommend this film to anyone who misses a time in film when cleverly hidden metaphor packed more wallop than a naked prostitute shooting someone in the head while snorting a line of cocaine off the barrel of her smokin' Beretta.

Iron Man
Iron Man was the perfect primer for the summer movie season. A smart, well acted, action bonanza that leapt off the screen. Unfortunately I saw it after Batman and while thoroughly enjoying it, felt as though it paled in comparison to its larger more intense counterpart.

The Dark Knight
The most fully realized comic book movie incarnation I have ever witnessed, and as dense a film as I have seen in quite a while.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

This article was taken as is from IMDB.com

Heigl Withdraws From Emmy Race Over Poor Material

11 June 2008 7:01 AM, PDT

Grey's Anatomy star Katherine Heigl pulled herself out of the list of Emmy Award contenders as part of a protest about her character's development on the medical drama.

The actress, who won the Best Supporting Actress prize at the Emmys last year insisted she be left off the official ballot because she felt her character was awful during the most recent season of the show.

Heigl tells website GoldDerby.com, "I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination and (so), in an effort to maintain the integrity of the academy organisation, I withdrew my name from contention.

"I did not want to potentially take away an opportunity from an actress who was given such materials."


That's what I would say too if I had no chance of winning an award that some people might hold me accountable for winning. Example: I took myself out of the running for employee of the month at work, due to the fact that I sucked hard and haven't really cared lately.

Sharon Stone is an Idiot: Redux
From my trusted news source; E-Entertainment televison's The Soup, I saw a clip of Sharon Stone at an AIDS benefit auction that she hosted, asking P-Diddy to bid on an auction item that he clearly didn't want. She walks into the crowd and asks him if he would like to raise the bid to which he replys that he doesn't have that much money. She then goes on to ask him why he doesn't have that kind of money. "Did you spend it all on crack or something". Genius. How would you like to be her publicist?

I have defeated Harry Potter: by finishing The Deathly Hollows...Finally
After much procrastination I finally made it to that place in a Harry Potter novel where you just can't put it down for very long. I have now read every book in the series and I was very pleased. I felt a similar sense of completion after Amber & I finished a back to back Lord of the Rings: Extended Version marathon back in '06. It took me about a year longer than most, but I had a hard time excepting that it would be over once I finished, and wanted to hold on to that feeling for as long as I could. As a mostly grown man I should probably not be so attached to these characters that it's hard to finish a book, but alas I could not help it.

One of the bigger surprises for me on the AFI list. I had low expectations, due to Lucas' mostly unfriendly review, but I found this film engaging and worthy of consideration for "classic cinema" status. I am not sure I was ready for such a heavy story and nicely twisted plot lines, but I was drawn in and entertained from very early on. A must for cinema lovers and a very high recommendation for the casual movie watcher.

Semi-Pro:Fully Sucks
Will Ferrell is downward spiraling toward the film career no one wanted Adam Sandler to end up with. Too bad.

AFI Update
Bringing Up Baby- Very sharp film. I very much enjoy the razor tongued slapstick romances of the thirties and forties much more than the schlock they pass off as romcom nowadays. Music and Lyrics by... Anyone... anyone.... didn't think so.
Rebel Without a Cause-I went into this film with a feeling that it would be overacted and the story would bludgeon me in the face like that Kimbo guy. I was very pleasantly surprised to really enjoy this film that felt fresh and pertinent. James Dean, for all his rebellious iconography is the level headed center of this film.
Amadeus- I enjoyed this film, I always wonder when they take a past cultural icon and play him as a buffoon, is it all that fair, but then I think, they wouldn't have put it in the movie if it weren't true. Then I am content. Ahhhh.
The Gold Rush- From the first time I saw him, I have been a fan of Chaplin, having finished the last of the three films he has on the list I realize that I should not need a purpose to sit down and watch his stuff other than the need for a good time.

Do the NBA finals start before Independence Day?

I'm training to be a cage fighter
After the Portland Starlight Parade, Saturday night we realized driving out of a garage and out of downtown would prove slow. So we entered some buffalo something or another for a quick bite while traffic dissipated. Turns out that said restaurant was one of these new fangled family eateries on steroids with like fifty televisions completely surrounding every spare inch of wall space. Which on this fine evening meant watching some one named Kimbo punch another guy in the face until blood ran from his cauliflower ear. I have been quick to mock in the past these cage fighting beasts, but I have to say actually watching it made my stomach turn. At the end when I almost couldn't take much more, I wondered if the human carnage was what was so upsetting or the fact that people were cheering it on like some show at the Roman Coliseum.

Amber and I are at the coast for a couple of days. We are staying at a dive with an ocean view of rain. It's perfect.

Sharon Stone: Class Act
Sharon Stone said in an interview with Chinese reporters at the Cannes Film Festival that the recent earthquake in China could be blamed on Karma. So now we place bets on how long before Stone is struck by lightening. Over/Under is the start of the Beijing Summer Games. Man this should be fun.

AFI Update
Because I choose to have no life here are the films I have watched over the last two days.
Manchurian Candidate- Excellent
American Graffiti- Jumped into my favs of all time list
The Third Man- Liked it, want to watch it again because I didn't love it.
Frankenstein- Entertaining, but dated on many levels.

I am also about to finish the last book in the Harry Potter series, so here's to free time.

Overnight
A documentary from 2004 about the amazing story of Troy Duffy and the film Boondock Saints. A cautionary tale for young filmmakers, and Irish alcoholics everywhere. This is the yardstick to measure out of control ego by which all should be afraid to be compared. Fantastic.

I just watched Intolerance, the D.W. Griffith silent film, which is on the AFI 100 ten year anniversary list. Let me just say that the one thing this film required from its viewer, is tolerance. It was very well done, especially for its time, but three hours of silent film is one tough task to sit through. My recommendation, only for the hard core, my friends.

Congratulations David Cook for winning American Idol. I don't really care anymore, but I still watch, so congratulations.

Why do people yell when talking on cell phones. I live in an apartment building where trashy fat women walk around yelling and cursing into there phones. I wonder if they realize that everyone with in a quarter mile radius can hear the intimate details of all this angst.

I just saw a bumper sticker that read "Gas was $1.46 a gallon when George Bush took office" I just thought it funny that someone shared my curiosity enough to produce a bumper sticker.