28 Days Later @ MindSay

(For those who haven't picked up the subtle movie references, it's "28 Days Later". But that's only for the subject line. For those who know me well, I love messages-within-messages. So a slight twist to the name of a movie, to reference the situation, and voila! Subject line. Actually, if you've seen the movie, it may make some sort of twisted sense if you try and tie it into this series of posts. Now on to the show..)

 

.....

When your love is on the run
Don't fall apart at what's begun
It's just the healing process
Of your heart

When your dream has lost it's cause
Don't waste your time in closing doors
You'll be the last to know
When love has gone

Love is on the run
Love is on the run
Love is on the run
Love is on the run from me

....

 

excerpt from "Love Is On The Run", The Moody Blues

 

....

They dedicate their lives
To running all of his
He tries to please them all
This bitter man he is

Throughout his life the same
He's battled constantly
This fight he cannot win
A tired man they see no longer cares

The old man then prepares
To die regretfully
That old man here is me

 

What I've felt
What I've known
Never shined through in what I've shown
Never be
Never see
Won't see what might have been

What I've felt
What I've known
Never shined through in what I've shown
Never free
Never me
So I dub thee unforgiven
....

 

excerpt from "Unforgiven", Metallica

 

....

Whatever happens, I'll leave it all to chance
Another heartache, another failed romance
On and on, does anybody know what we are living for?
I guess I'm learning, I must be warmer now
I'll soon be turning, 'round the corner now
Outside the dawn is breaking
But inside in the dark I'm aching to be free

The show must go on
The show must go on

....

 

excerpt from "The Show Must Go On", Queen

 

Happy Independence Day! As I have done many years in the past, I officially can say this:

 

T-minus 5 days and counting...

In the end, I do believe Sideways was overhyped. That said, maybe I thought Sideways was overhyped because it appeals alot more to a higher age demographic then my own, but like I said i'm a movie nerd. THAT said, I thought Sideways wasnt all that bad. I could definately see shades of myself in the two lead characters, Miles and Jack (played greatley by Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church, which ill get into in a bit). Miles is very pulled back,a bit depressed and trying his damndest (and failing) to make something of himself. I too am generally pulled back and occasionally down on myself, and i've also been trying (not really what'd call my damndest, but hey), to make something of myself, and with meh results. Jack is a bit of a dick on the occasion, but he's got a sense of humor. (Jack's alot more then just those things, but those are the traits that I have alike with the character) I'm a dick some of the time (heh, some of the time? MOST of the time) and i've got a super-skewed, but wicked sense of humor. Paul Giamatti plays Miles, and he's surprisingly good for the same reasons Thomas Haden Church is, and thats the background of these two guys. Paul was in stuff like Big Fat Liar, Big Momma's House, and (his voice was in) the recent "pretty decent" Robots, lots of comedies (he's done more serious stuff like American Splendor, I'll give him that, but the roles IVE primarily seen him in are comedies). But he throws down some of the dramatics for certain scenes in the film, and he does quite well, well enough were I can say that the Academy fucked him over recentley when they didnt even throw a nomination his way (his performance was VASTLY better then what i've seen of Jamie Foxx in Ray....i'll have to rent Ray and see it the full way through to make a fair comparison....i'll have to go do that REAL soon). Thomas Haden Chruch you all probably know as Lowell from the great old tv show Wings, and he also had a role on a tv show called Ned & Stacey...which i've never seen. But my point is (same with Paul) Wings (what Thomas is best known for) is a hysterical COMEDY, and (like Paul) he goes for drama during some scenes (he goes for asshole in some other scenes too), and nails it. Not sure if he got a best supporting nomiation or not, but if he didnt, he should've. (Special side note, Thomas is, from what I hear, attached to the currentley in pre-production Spider-man 3, and, from what I hear, he's attached to play VENOM.....from what I hear. Look for that sometime next year) The comedy often doesnt reach past small chuckle, but three scenes had me rolling: The whole golf course scene with the other players playing in on them, Jack trying to make the car look like it was in an accident, and Miles going back into the waitress's house to get back Jacks wallet....all of them are hysterical. But, i'm not at all interested in anything to do with wine, and the parts of the film where the focus drifts almost entirerly to wine (and by that I mean the intense discriptions of the wine, pinot is hard to grow because the grapes are thin skinned BLAHBLAHBLAH, not the plot aspect of the guys touring the vinyards, that I was cool with.) and goes off into a three/four minute tangent about it sort of bored me, and one of thoses tangents seemed to show up every 20 minutes,so I wasnt diggin that aspect of the picture. SO, some touted Sideways as "ten out of ten, spectacular amazing stuff", and it doesnt quite fit that bill for me, but it was still a pretty well done dramadey==

a low A -


Man, now that i've gotten my thoughts on Sideways out of my system, let us move on to Hotel Rwanda. My original plan was to watch a film called Soho Square today (i'll be catching that tomorrow for sure....unless me going up to the theater to see another little british film (that looks great, by the way) called Millions pans out....), but, I walk into school today and find out that we are going to watch Hotel Rwanda in it's entirety as sort of a social studies one off (the whole ninth grade watched it). I suspect that because of all the flim flam and brew ha ha that went down in the class I watched it (by that I mean, FUCKERS WOULDNT QUIT TALKING),the impact of the film was somewhat diminshed on me, i'll definately have to rent this at a later date to fully enjoy it, because Hotel Rwanda definately seemed like the kind of movie that should be expirenced in the privacy, and SILENCE of your own home.To think that some of the events mentioned and depicted in the film actually took place in real life is sad, because the film is essentally about the attempt (and somewhat succesion) to kill off an entire group of people, basically, genocide. The film captured the general dissary of the time after the hutu army went nuts quite well. It also nailed the mass death that took place (the scene of the road lined with hundreds of dead bodies comes to mind here) as well. Don Cheadle(who also has a role in the upcoming, great looking film Crash) is fucking ace as always (enough so that the academy thought he deserved a nom, which I agree with, because Don is fantastic). He's joined by a bunch of random no namers essentially (or at least people IVE never heard of), but 3 folks you'll probably reconize appear in small roles. Nick Notle plays a general, and I had no problems with the performance, just nothing at all notable to say about it (he did do fantastic in the otherwise bad film Northfork, which I reviewed a while back). Cool duder Joaquin Phoenix ( you know him from things like Signs and Buffalo Soldiers, or maybe even Quills) plays an american photographer who becomes quite ashamed of his country's actions during the events, and sports an odd looking, kickass beard whilst doing it.And the Professional, Jean Reno, has a super small, uncredited role as a goverment offical friend of Cheadle's character. Like I said though, the film's impact was most likely diminshed by the setting in which I viewed the film, and because of that a second viewing is definately in order ==

B+


Tommorow, (like I said) i'm either seeing a British film by the name of Soho Square, or a british film written by Danny Boyle (writer of 28 Days Later) by the name of Millions. I will be seeing both eventually, but follow ups for one expected either Wensday afternoon or Friday afternoon.

So, who's seen 28 Days Later? What do you think of it? I wouldn't say it's a favourite, and I'm not rushing out to get the DVD anytime soon, but that film had power to the point where I was getting so frustrated and stressed out.  I've always liked stories like this where the world comes to an end and there are only a few survivors.  Think Dawn of the Dead and the Stephen King classic The Stand.  I've even had nightmares about the same thing and am working on a story with the same fascinating idea.  Imagine waking up and everybody had become a zombie? Or everyone had disappeared? How shit scared would you be?