Oh thank heaven, it's the end of 2007

Sorry for the lack of posts this month. Here's hoping for more time to post stuff in 2008. Then again, with my dissertation looming, I'm not sure if that will happen. But that's why we celebrate the new year, to establish unrealistic goals for ourselves.

Anyway, here's hoping everyone has a great 2008! Happy New Year!!

Browns bummer

The magical year in Cleveland sports came to an unfortunate end yesterday as the Browns missed out on the playoffs thanks to the Titans defeating the Colts. Granted it's the Browns' fault for not winning last week, but it still hurts to have to watch another team determine your team's fate. This is pretty much the definition of a bittersweet season as the Browns far exceeded everyone's expectations and we should be happy with that, but you hate being the only double digit winning team not to make the playoffs.

Now as we head into the offseason, the team faces a lot of big questions; namely what to do at the quarterback position. If they can resign Derek Anderson, it seems like he should remain the starter. Then again, his performance in that important game against Cincinnati makes me wonder if he's got what it takes to win the big one.

Even though the Browns won't make the playoffs, I can take solace in the fact that spring training is only a month and half away. Seeing the Tribe in Florida will eliminate those winter blahs right away.

All That's Gold Isn't New Again

With a free afternoon, I went with my sister to see National Treasure: Book of Secrets. I saw the first film in theaters and enjoyed it, while my sister only saw it for the first time a few weeks ago on TV. Interestingly enough, we both left this movie with a similar opinion; the film is pretty comparable to the original, but that isn't necessarily a glowing review.

What worked in the first one, remains in Book of Secrets. Namely, the escapism the film provides in proposing wild ideas of treasure and conspiracies and then letting the heroes struggle with bad guys to prove it's true. Nicholas Cage, once again playing Ben Gates, works as the treasure hunter who always has the answer to the puzzles that have been unsolved for centuries. Justin Bartha, as Gates' sidekick, Riley, once again provides most of the decent one liners.

Since we're dealing with a sequel, that means the addition of new cast members. Dame Helen Mirren (who must have accidentally stumbled onto the set of this Bruckheimer film) is along this time as Gates' mother. Her scenes with Ben's dad (played by Jon Voigt) are a lot of fun and provide some freshness to the film.

I mention freshness because this film delivers a lot more of the same. In essence, the film is a simple "find clue, decipher clue, get chased, repeat" formula. Sadly, this time around there was more of a focus on the chase aspect, which left less time to decipher clues. While in the original, the main characters actually struggled at times to understand the clues, in this one the answers came a little too quickly. Considering that the treasure they were seeking was supposedly so grand (it ends up paling in comparison to the one they found in the first film), the clues used to conceal its location didn't seen that difficult.

The fact that this sequel breeds a strong sense of familiarity wouldn't be that bad if not for the few things that they opted to do differently. Given that the plot was the same basic idea, they tried to flesh out the main characters more. For instance, we learn at the beginning of the film that Ben and girlfriend Abigail (Diane Kruger) are having relationship issues. Their bickering and eventual reunion are an unnecessary diversion in the film. They also include a few scenes to imply that Riley is unhappy with his sidekick status. These add nothing to the film and only slow things down. People come to see these films because they like a good treasure hunt, not because they have any emotional investment into what happens to these particular characters. In fact, with all due respect to Diane Kruger, the National Treasure franchise may have been better off taking an approach like the Bond films or Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels where the focus is on the action and the hot girls are interchangeable.

Since they seemed concerned with developing characters, I would have liked for them to do more with Ed Harris', who plays the film's antagonist. The film never takes the time to have us understand his motivations. If it's to simply find the treasure, why does he involve the Gates family? If it's to ruin the Gates' family name, then why give Ben such a great opportunity to discover the truth? The underdevelopment of Harris' character is connected with the films flaw of properly explaining the connection between the Lincoln assaination and a hidden Native American city of gold.

The flaws of the film, great as they may be, as easily to overlook, however, because the film remains a fun ride. Seeing Ben and company globetrotting while trying to uncover secrets of our nation's past makes for an entertaining couple of hours. The film does not bring anything new to the table, but then again, not all movies should. This is an easy must-see for those who enjoyed the first film. And for those that haven't, this is still probably your best bet for decent popcorn fare at the cinema right now. Enjoy going on another treasure hunt, just don't be surprised if the map looks awfully familiar. Grade: B-

Merry Christmas

I probably won't be on my computer over the next few days, so I just wanted to send warm holiday wishes to all of my readers out there. I hope Santa is kind to all of you. If you in the Ohio area, I look forward to getting a chance to seeing you over this holiday break. And if I don't, I hope you get a chance to enjoy the time off.

As for me, I got my Christmas present early this year as I just receivied notice that one of my papers has been accepted at the Kern Conference on Visual Rhetoric. The conference will be in Rochester, NY next April. I submitted this paper individually instead of as a panel, so its acceptance is even a greater honor. You don't understand how pumped I am over that news.

Anyways, enjoy the holidays and be safe!!

This week in frivolous lawsuits...

Case #1: Woman sues The Price is Right - Apparently, the car this woman won on TPIR in 2004 turned out to be a lemon. Why she is suing the game show when it's the dealer's responsibiilty to give her a new car is beyond me.

Case #2: Couple claims Heroes ripped them off - Apparently, this husband and wife team claim that they came up with the whole 'artist who can paint the future' concept. Don't worry though, the judge has already thrown this case out.

Case #3: Bodybuilder slaps Conan O'Brien with lawsuit - Apparently, a former Mr. Olympia competitor is upset because of a joke Conan did where he used the bodybuilder's image in a a fake Christmas card depicting Clay Aiken saying "All I want this year is a White Christmas...and a black bodybuilder". If I was the bodybuilder, I would have been thrilled Conan didn't make any meathead or small testicle jokes.


So which is lawsuit is the most ridiculous???

A whole lotta noise

After a disasterous week, school-wise (which still isn't over unfortunately) I needed to take a break, so I caught a late show at the budget theater and saw Shoot 'Em Up. In one way, it was probably an excellent movie at this point, because the film was anything but cerebral.

I knew going in that the drawing point of this movie was the unapologetic shootout scenes. And for the most part, they delivered. This movie is chock full of ridiculous gunplay and violence. On top of that, they are all done in a highly stylized manner that is not seen in most films. As impressive as they are, they can only take the movie so far. Anybody can sit in their basement thinking up unique ways to shoot at people while defying the laws of physics. But if you have nothing to hold those scenes together with, then they are wasted. In the case of this movie, what connects those action scenes together is a bunch of eye-rolling coincidences that are supposed to be considered plot points.

If you don't know at this point, the "premise" of the film is that Clive Owen plays a mysterious man, named Mr. Smith, who happens to run into a pregnant woman who is being hunted by hitman. The woman is killed, but not before giving birth to a boy, who Clive Owen decides he must protect while taking out the mother's killers. The rest of the movie then is a bunch of *surprise* shoot em up scenes between Smith and the bad guys. Oh yeah, and he finds Monica Bellucci, playing a hooker, along the way and has her help him watch the baby.

The reason why the bad guys - led by Paul Giamatti, doing his best to ham it up - want the baby dead is utterly preposterous, but I suppose it doesn't matter in a movie like this. Although it really should considering that we're watching Smith go to these extreme lengths to save it.

I'm not surprised that this movie did poorly at the box office. I cannot imagine any woman who would want to see this movie. They would all be horrified at all of the scenes in which the baby is in harm's way while Smith and the bad guys shoot it out. You would think that you would get desensitized to it after a while, but with the way they continue to amp up the violence throughout the movie that each scene is just as jarring as the first.

This movie reminded me in a lot of ways to another violently graphic film this year, Smokin' Aces. Both films gave off the appearance that they had a unique story surrounded by even more unique violence. But in each case, they were more content with firing off their weapons then having anything to say. Unlike the wounds of the victims of this movies, the story remains skin deep.

If you're in the mood for blood lust, this movie will easily satisfy your appetite. For anyone looking for a more fulfilling experience, you're better off looking elsewhere. Shoot Em Up is nothing more than a showcase for boys and their toys. Consider this one a major disappointment. Grade: C-

Lost Season 4 trailer

If I didn't have these damn papers to write, I would spend time breaking down each scene frame by frame. But since I have to be a "good student", I'll leave that up to the rest of you.

Enjoy!

Will Ferrell is a basketball player

Here's the trailer for Will's latest comedy, Semi-Pro:



The trailer had its moments and I'm likely to go see it, but after watching it, I couldn't help but be reminded of this clip from South Park:

And we're off...

The Oscar race is officially underway, although some would argue it began the moment Ellen DeGeneres said good night at last year's show. Anyways, the reason why the most consider the race to have begun now is because the first credible year end awards were released. Just for comparison sake, four of last year's five Best Picture nominees were listed as one of the top films by this organization. Here are the individual awards they gave, along with their list of top films...

Best Film: No Country for Old Men

Best Actor: George Clooney (Michael Clayton)

Best Actress: Julie Christie (Away From Her)

Best Supporting Actor: Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)

Best Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone)

Best Director: Tim Burton (Sweeney Todd)

They also listed ten other top films from 2007. Here they are in alphabetical order:
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Atonement, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Bucket List, Into the Wild, Juno, The Kite Runner, Lars and the Real Girl, Michael Clayton, and Sweeney Todd.

First look: Pineapple Express

Here's a four-minute sneak peek at the new action comedy film, Pineapple Express, which is due out next August. I've never been big on films that deal heavily with drugs, but anytime you've got Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow involved in some capacity, I'm at least moderately interested.