Memorial Day is rapidly approaching and I have two big events coming up. First up is a trip somewhere with Granny and Jerri. Originally we were going to go to Solvang, but the people at the gym convinced her that it will probably be crowded. I reminded them that most everywhere will be crowded this weekend. So we might end up in Palm Springs or Laguna.
The other big event needs no mention. Just a link.
It may seem that the only thing I have been doing lately is watching DVDs and posting movie reviews, but um, actually that is pretty much what I have been doing.
If you missed any over the weekend here are some links: (Dark Water, A Day Without a Mexican, Battle Royale)
I managed to also pick up Season One of Survivor on DVD and have been watching some of it with Daniel. It is great re-visiting the original crew. It has been almost four years, so it was nice to refresh my mind about the one that started it all. You can tell the production values were way more primitive than in the recently finished All Stars installment. You can also tell just how superior the casting was in this version than say Africa, Thailand, or any of the other ones. To be fair though, I did think Pearl Islands was one of the better ones and hopefully Vanuatu will prove to be another winner when it premieres in September.
Now its just a few short weeks until the July 6 premiere of the Amazing Race 5. I can't wait!! Other than that, I took Daniel out for his birthday on Friday. The rest of the gang will get together on Wednesday to take him out to Red Lobster. Sunday, Tiffany and Alex came with me to Jason's BBQ in Long Beach. We had a great time - despite the fact we showed up just before everyone started to head out. Luckily there was some of Jason's handiwork left over in the form of Korean BBQ Ribs and Corn. I was assured that no Koreans were harmed in the making of the ribs.
We also managed to watch the first half of Mean Girls on DVD. But Josh you say, "Isn't that still out in the theaters?". Yes it is. It appeared to be a bootleg from a French speaking country. The odd thing was that there were no subtitles, and the credits were in French. It was kind of jittery, but no worse than some old VHS tapes I have. The story goes that you can find all the latest releases on the streets of LA for $5. No wonder the MPAA is scared.
I'm too much of a film snob to get a movie in this condition though. I totally am willing to wait and spend around $20 for a good studio endorsed version. That being said, I think that charging over $60 for a whole season of a show is robbery. Why are things like West Wing and 24 only $50 a season, but Star Trek is $100 a season and Battlestar Galactica $80? Makes no sense. I think they are just trying to milk the faithful. I guarantee that if the Trek seasons were $60 a pop, they would be sold out. I know I would have bought them all.
*** / ****
Dir: Kinji Fukasaku
2000 Color Japanese
Not Available in the US - Rated 18 in the UK
IMDB Site
This is the story of a high school class that wakes up to find themselves not on a school field trip, but rather on a deserted island where they are to compete in the ultimate competition. They must kill each other to stay alive and only the one person left standing will be able to leave the island.
I was a little apprehensive about watching this movie. I had heard how bloody and violent it was, but actually it could have been a lot, lot worse. I actually found myself engrossed in the character development as well as the fate of certain characters. If you don't like the prospect of seeing friends suddenly turning on each other with guns and grenades and other weapons, then this is not the movie for you. Buried behind the gore was some good messages about the results of our actions - why did you exclude this one girl from everything? or if only you would have told this girl you liked her, she wouldn't have shot you.
I thought that the performances of the students and the teacher were excellent, save for a few of the poor actors who don't have much more than a stereotype to work with. Clearly, this movie is not for everyone, but if you can get past the violence, you will find a well done movie that is way better than your average Hollywood picture. I just know that I will never look at the groups of Japanese students wandering Disneyland the same way.
** 1/2 / ****
Dir: Sergio Arau
2004 Color English/Spanish
Rated R for language and brief sexuality.
IMDB Site | Official Site
One day Californians wake up to find that all the Latinos are gone. Just up and vanished. Worse yet, there is a thick fog around the state that prevents people from contacting the rest of the world. Mixed reactions abound. Family members are mourning the loss of their kin and close friends. Stereotypical bigots are happy, and lawmakers are just trying to make themselves look better in the process. At the hear is Lila, a reporter for a local news station who appears to be the only Latino left. Can she save California and bring back the 14 million missing people?
I heard this movie was a biting satire about the way Latinos are perceived and taken for granted in California. Some people call this movie racist because it employees stereotypes to get its point across. I found it to be a mixed bag. I liked most of the humor and over-the-topness of the situation, but at the same time thought the moviemaking quality of the movie was just bad. Now granted, it is an independent film, but there really was no performance that I could relate to and get drawn into the picture. As a result, the movie seemed more like a string of sequences thrown together than a coherent story.
I can't really recommend this movie, but I do know that the majority of the audience was Latino, and they were also laughing a bits here and there and looking at their watches a lot.
*** / ****
Dir: Hideo Nakata
2002 Color Japanese with English Subtitles
Rater R for violence, sexuality, and language
IMDB site
Yoshimi Matsubara is going through a tough period. She's in the middle of getting a divorce and has to go out and find a place for her and her 6 year old daughter Ikuko to live. They seem to find a nice, but worn place for a good price. Also, they discover the kindergarten is close and Yoshimi finds a job quickly. Things seem to be turning the corner and then Yoshimi starts to notice the water dripping from the ceiling. Turns out that there is more to the complex than it seems. From the spooky elevator right down to the mysterious red bag that keeps re-appearing.
Fans of the original Japanese version of The Ring (Ringu) will want to check this movie out. It is a bit difficult to find a copy in the US, I myself had to resort to some creative computer work to get a version I could watch. It was well worth the wait. It was not quite as creepy as the Ring or The Suicide Club (2002's Jisatsu circle by Japanese director Shion Sono about a string of suicides in Tokyo - made especially creepy by the realism of Tokyo's subway songs that Daniel and I remember from the trip), but still there was a lot of wierd-out-look-at-the-tv-through-the-fingers action.
Some might find this movie a bit slow paced (I have found almost all of the Japanese movies watched recently have some slow pacing) but it is not nearly the ground-to-a-halt pacing of Troy. I just hope they don't mess this one up in the forthcoming US remake like they did to the Ring.
So our team competed in the annual Minnie's Moonlight Madness through Disneyland. We stumbled out of the gate due to some really poor acoustics in the Fantasyland Theater. I can't imagine that the Snow White musical sounds very good at all. A good time was had by all - especially once we broke down and got Alex his cupcakes. we ended up 163 - a steep drop from last year, but we chalk it up to our more relaxed attitude this year. We got whipped by Daniel's brother who finished 43rd, but I bet we had more fun.
A couple of weeks ago, I ordered Dark Water - the Japanese film by the director of Ringu - Hideo Nakata. The eBay auction said that the DVD was Region Free and from Hong Kong. Well two weeks later, I am the proud owner of a Region 3 (Japan and Asia) version of the film. It was only $10, but not being one to waste money, I scoured the internet for some file utilities to help me out. Sure enough, I found some programs that can make backup copies of your DVDs (something I am concerned about with esp. some of my out of print and hard to find movies). Add to that the Nero program to burn DVDs, I now have a Region Free backup of my DVD.
Daniel and I have been itching to watch it ever since we sat through the first Ring movie and the sequel last year. We popped the movie in to the player and it seems to be work. We didn't watch the whole thing yet, we are gonna wait for the pizza and the darkness of night in order to get real scared. I'll post a review later.
Sunday I managed to pick up some extra OT on the Pooh ride. I started out at 10:30 am (after closing till 1am the night before) and ended up staying until 12 midnight. I didn't mind, but it really zapped me. Today I was a walking zombie and when I got home crashed. I am fortifying myself with Emergen-C and Echinacea to ward off any evil spirits that might have caught up with me.
Tuesday is a big day - Minnie's Moonlight Madness around Disneyland after dark. Our team is back from last year - Daniel, Tiffany, Alex, and me. We are hoping to have fun and finish higher than 54th. We are also looking to beat David's team and a few others - just for bragging rights. Hopefully we won't crash and burn too badly.
On the Club Josh front, I have almost decided to get a virtual dedicated server. It will cost 20 bucks more a month, but will allow me more flexibility with my domains as well as more than doubling the HD server space. Drawback? I will have to set up all the galleries and MT again. I think I am going to mull it over a bit longer before I make my mind up. I might just redo the entire site and one day switch it over. I just have to be careful and not pull an Edmunds and try and do it all at once.
** / ****
Dir: Wolfgang Petersen
2004 Color English
Rated R for graphic violence and some sexuality/nudity.
IMDB Site | Official Site
This was like sitting through the entire 10 year siege of Troy. I haven't suffered this much in a theater seat since that infamous 1997 Brad Pitt movie 'Seven Years in Tibet' which felt like I spent seven years in the movie theater. It just felt s-l-o-w. Sure there were some great battle sequences (not nearly as good as the Lord of The Rings ones - not because they weren't using cool weapons or weird gross warriors, but just the composition and direction of the battle scenes was blah), and some good scenery chewing acting (really there should be an Oscar for this category) by the supporting cast.
Brad Pitt? Well, he is much, much better in contemporary fare like Thelma and Louise, 12 Monkeys, Se7en, and Ocean's Eleven. He is really ill-suited for epics. Sean Bean was much better as Odysseus than as Boromir, but Orlando Bloom's Paris is no match for Legolas.
As for the script, I thought it did a nice job of condensing the whole story from Homer's epic. I just think someone in the studio said "Hey, Lord of the Rings has these big battle sequences that everyone likes - let's add a whole slew of them". So we the viewing audience are treated to some poorly-directed battle sequences interrupted by some cheesy dialog.
In the end, Troy could have been so much more. I am sure lots of people will like it. Personally, I wish they would have gotten some better acting from the leads (really only Eric Bana as Hector was good), some better scripted battles, and a few less shots of Peter O'Toole looking shocked and horrified.
Rated R for a few shots of Brad Pitt in the buff and some graphic violence (mainly sword slicing, some shish-kabob-ing, and one nasty throat slice)
163 Minutes - Color- released by Warner Brothers - 2004
It has been crazy-busy the last week with people coming into town and with my work schedule so I'll do some quick mini-updates:
A Wrinkle in Time was really good on ABC last Monday. It was true to the book and was great to see on the screen. The special effects were pretty weak, but if you were able to get past those and some weak acting on the behalf of Charles Wallace, you can see how strong the original material is.
Cooper and Company were in town this week, and I spent some guest time in the park. I also took some photos of DCA and I will try and post them on the site soon. When people tell me that they spend a week at Disneyland, I wonder what they do with all that time. Spending time with the Cooper clan, I now know when you have little kids, you are on a whole different time table.
I did get to do a walk-through of the Indiana Jones Adventure on Monday night. It was super cool, but when I went on the ride on Wednesday, I have to admit the magic was gone on one of the last rides at the park that still mystified me. Thankfully, the second time I was on the ride I was more enthralled and enjoyed it again. I miss the snake tho - I can't wait until it starts moving again this fall. When I was in Tokyo, I thought our ride was better, but now I am not so sure.
Late Thursday night, I caught part of Beverly Hills Cop 2 on T.V. and discovered the first time I had seen the vaunted "super-glue brings out the fingerprints" trick way back in 1987 when I first saw the movie. It is hard to believe that the technique (introduced by Axel Foley to Taggert and Rosewood as something that hadn't trickled down to them yet) is still widely used on CSI.
Another CSI/Beverly Hills Cop connection? Paul Guilfoyle who portrays Captain Brass on CSI has a bit part as Nikos Thomopolis, the owner of the 365 Club in BHC 2.
Today Mom and Gary popped in for a quick stop. It was good to see them and gave me the opportunity to give them their souvenirs from Japan as well as Mom here Mom's Day gift.
Finally making some headway on the redesign of the Trip Diaries section. I did hit a roadblock when I decided to add the names and links to hotels that I have stayed at on the many trips. I have Mom and Gary on the hunt for the name of the hotels in Brugge and in Venice to make sure I have the right ones. It appears my notes in the early years are not that complete.
While I am still searching for my Europe 2002 notebook (yeah the lost Trip Diary), I did rediscover my notes from my Dome to Dome trips in 1993 and 1994. If I feel motivated I will type those up along with my Japan 2004 Diary (the photos are ready to go, just waiting the words - and the drive space). Stay tuned - hopefully I will stay focused and finish them soon.
Honestly, I didn't think it could get much worse, but part two was not nearly as fun as Part 1. To start with, it was almost an hour into the second part before there was more ground shaking. Not only that, but apparently they have super-sonic ways of traveling in this show because one moment they are in LA at the Disaster Center (which by the way doesn't make any sense since they KNOW the earthquakes are heading towards Southern California, why not relocate it to a place like Sacramento which seems to have escaped most of the damage, but I digress) and the next moment they are surveying damage in Redding, then a moment later they are back in LA.
Another problem? Lack of consistent damage. There were precious few scenes of the damage caused by the quakes, especially the 10.5 one. Heck, 1974's Earthquake showed more damage and it was most certainly a smaller quake. Instead, they decided to spend the money on the island-making crack - and even that was only a couple of glances here and there with some water effects from Pinnacle Studio thrown in for good measure. When LA gets slammed, all we see are A) Buildings in LA crumbling for a few brief shots, B) the Hollywood sign start tumbling down, and C) a hillside house crumble and burst into flames. The rest of the 10.5 is spent on watching the people at the refugee camps in Barstow roll around, get swallowed up by the earth, oh and yes let's not forget the slow-mo-opera-music-when-the-producers-think-we-are-tired-after-5-minutes-of-screaming-and-earthquake-noises sequence. Personally, after seeing the Golden Gate Bridge and the Space Needle collapse in part 1, I at least expected to see some freeway overpasses collapse. After all the stock footage of the '89 Loma Preita quake, I thought they would at least throw in a couple of Northridge. Maybe that's too close to home for the producers.
Oh and before I forget, I was glad to see Fred Ward as the FEMA director get taken out by a nuclear warhead. That was certainly one of the better Character Who Meets Untimely Death (tm). I was disappointed he got to talk to his son before it blew up. Most characters in this role aren't that lucky and it is always more emotionally powerful when they don't get that last phone call (just look at poor Rachel who had the argument with her hubby before taking a header at the SF City Hall). And what is up with the lack of a token exchange of sentimental item?
At any rate, Part two was a let down - even for the cheese fest that it was. I think Susie and I need to sit down and write our own disaster movie.
If you haven't had a chance to watch this epic train wreck of a mini-series, tonight is the last chance you get. Part 2 of the disaster event airs tonight on NBC. I watched part 1 on TiVo last night and I couldn't stop laughing at not only the bad acting, but also the bad NBC Science. I can only imagine the hordes of people out there who think that it could actually happen - so much so that the USGS put out a web site debunking the myths of the show.
Despite it all, I still enjoyed watching things come crashing down. I was a bit disappointed at the Hot Wheels coming off of the Golden Gate Bridge as it collapsed into the bay and maybe the HO scale train getting swallowed up. Tonight they promise lots of flooding and L.A. finally getting hit with the title earthquake. I am still waiting for the "Token Exchange of Sentimental Item" as well as the untimely demise of a character (I had high hopes that Bo Duke was gonna get it in Part 1, but I was foiled by an easily broken sunroof). You know your disaster movie is in trouble when the audience starts rooting for the earthquakes to get everyone! What this movie really needs is George Kennedy. I wonder what he is doing these days?
Tim Goodman of the SF Chronicle has a great review of the whole thing and points out that the mini series is best viewed with others while conducting a drinking game. I couldn't agree more.
Hopefully, next week's "A Wrinkle in Time" adaptation on ABC will be better (at least better than Dinotopia!).
It seems like I am in a rut of being busy busy (as Jason likes to say). I had another one of the HP Core/Disney Work days on Friday and it always wipes me out. I'm the type of person who has a hard time concealing my feelings so when I was wiped out at work everyone was asking me if I was OK. Thankfully the scheduling gods have been nice-ish and the next few weeks I have Fridays off so I can just work at my Dads work. Grad nights start next week and I am sure I will be working the Wednesday ones in June and probably one or two Thursday night ones here and there.
The heat has returned but not before I was finally able to put up one of the map shower curtains that Mom and Gary got me for my birthday. Of course within 5 minutes of putting the map up I found a typo. On the map they have Santa Ana listed as 'Santa San'. It reminded me of the days with Reed back at UC Davis when we would be printing maps that we worked all day on and have to wait forever for them to start printing. As we would watch the map come off the printer, we would find something wrong.
For those of you who like bike riding may I suggest: Down Low Glow
One final note: Vinod Menon of Mumbai India wrote me with the following:
"I just bought a Josh Machine, the Ikon NXT 1.6 Petrol. I wish to thank the entire team of Ford's Indian Operations in bringing in such a wondeful car to the Indian customer. Its really a wonderful experience to hit the road with the "Josh Power". Hope the back up service will also be as wondefull as the car. Becuase that is how a customer feels empowered. And as Peter Drucker Said "there is one valid definition of business purpose: to create CUSTOMER.""
I'm thinking he read one of my archive posts. It always cheers me up when I think of the Josh Experience. Maybe I should title my site "Club Josh: The Other Josh Experience".
