The A-Team

I'm sure you all know the story by now:  In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum-security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem...if no one else can help...and if you can find them...maybe you can hire...The A-Team.

Well, that was then,

and this is now.

The story has been nicely updated to the present day with the crack commando unit operating in the Gulf War instead of the Vietnam War.  The other great change from the original is that bullets hit people now.  In 5 seasons of the television show I think one guy got shot.  But not all changes were welcome.  In the original, Colonel Hannibal Smith is in disguise in every episode.  Not one disguise in the movie.  Boo.  Also, I only remember one car flipping over in the movie.  That happened all the time in the show. 

Ok, ok, I know - you want to know if the movie was watchable, not how similar it is to the original.  The verdict is that it's decent.  It's certainly not going to win any Oscars, but if you're in the mood for a fun action movie with a lot of explosions, then this fits the bill.  I was pleasantly surprised by the acting job turned in by Rampage Jackson, but you'd think that with a former UFC champion in the cast that they could manage to choreograph a decent fight, but every one of them is filmed at close range with a shaky hand held camera so you can't see what's going on.  What a waste. 

The plot was a little thin, but what can you expect from an action movie?  It was adequate and told the back story that was summarized in the opening credits of the TV show.  It also left the door open for a sequel, but I don't know if the film was successful enough to warrant a sequel. 

The biggest problem I had with The A-Team, however, was with the special effects.  For a big budget film, this was simply unforgivable.  A couple of times, most notably the container ship scene toward the end, look unrealistic and really pull you out of the moment.  When you don't really immerse yourself in the nuances of an action film anyway, you can't skimp on your bread and butter.

As long as you don't expect more from this movie than a lot of action, gun fire, and explosions, then you won't be too disappointed.  So grab a bucket of popcorn and enjoy.

Freakonomics: The Movie

I just finished watching Freakonomics the movie and the verdict is that it was ok.  Would I have liked it more had I not read the book first?  It's hard to say.  What I will tell you though is that the movie felt like a Cliff Notes version of the book.  While the movie was interesting, it simply didn't go into adequate depth on most of the topics discussed.  I continually found myself wanting more data after they had moved on to something else.  I suppose that this is a problem endemic to the movie format, making it not the best medium for the topic at hand.  That being said, if you prefer the quick and dirty version, then this is the film for you.  Completely standing on it's own merits, the film is adequate.  Each segment is directed by a renown documentary film maker, however due to my limited knowledge of documentary film makers, the only one I've heard of is Morgan Spurlock (of Supersize Me fame).

For those of you unfamiliar with Freakonomics, it is a "rogue economist exploring the hidden side of everything."  And by that it means that Steven Levitt applies economic principles to tease out the contributing factors to things that are not normally paid much attention.  For example, does giving your child a particularly ethnic sounding name like Deshawn have a negative impact on his or her future?  Does giving your child an unusual name have an impact, for example: did Robert Lane's sons Winner Lane and Loser Lane live up to their names?  Is the sport of sumo wrestling rife with cheating and fixed matches?  Can children be bribed to perform better in school?  The answers lie in the data and it's a pretty interesting ride getting there but ultimately lacks the depth I would prefer.

In other brief movie reviews, I recently watched Kick Ass which exceeded my expectations.  Perhaps it was the low expectation I had going in that made it easy to exceed, however I will admit to enjoying the movie.  It had a few twists and turns that I didn't see coming.  If you're bothered by the concept of an 11 year old girl who has the foul mouth of a sailor and kills people, then you're better off skipping this one. 

Also recently watched was Live!, the fictional tale of a sleazy network executive who tries to boost the flagging ratings by televising 6 people playing Russian roulette.  A lot of the characters were stereotypes and cliches, but I still enjoyed it.  I may have been influenced by the fact that I was dangerously low on sleep at the time I watched it (in the middle of the night while I couldn't sleep), and the fact that it starred Eva Mendes who in my humble opinion is one of the most attractive women in the world. 

The Midnight Meat Train

I just found out that there's a movie titled The Midnight Meat Train and oddly enough it's not an adult film. Apparently it's a horror movie of some kind and actually got good reviews, but I still have no plans to see it. The title is just a little to risque for me.

But that's just the intro story. What I really want to talk about is A Haunting In Connecticut. It arrived courtesy of Netflix a couple days ago and I just started watching it and have been treated to a cruel surprise. Apparently one small word makes a huge difference because I thought I was getting the 2009 film THE Haunting In Connecticut. It turns out this is a 2002 Discovery Channel docudrama - like an episode of Unsolved Mysteries - replete with terrible acting, narration, and voice overs from the "real" people involved in the events. I'm only half an hour into it but I'm already disappointed. I feel like one of those tools who rents the special features disc instead of the actual movie and then writes a review crying about the injustice. I'm not going to write one of those reviews. I will man up and admit that I'm the idiot who didn't make sure I knew what I was getting before putting it in my queue.

Anyway, I think I'm going to start working on a script for my own ghost story. Instead of the typical scary happenings though, the twist will be that the ghost are very happy and well adjusted. They make dinner for the people who live in the haunted house and put on little skits, complete with period costumes. They also do all the housekeeping and landscaping. The residents of the house will eventually escape and write a book about it but nobody will believe them.

Since this "movie" is failing to keep me entertained, I'll throw out several brief movie reviews of films I've seen recently.

Sugar: Miguel "Sugar" Santos is a young pitcher in the Dominican Republic who has dreamed of playing baseball in the United States for most of his life. He finally signs a minor league contract with the A affiliate of the fictional Kansas City Knights in Iowa. Experiencing culture shock and feeling very isolated, he begins struggling. Without giving away too much of this movie, let me just say that the last third of the movie was inexplicable and hard to believe. I thought the ending was all wrong and was pretty disappointed. The one thing I found interesting, that I don't think was intended, was seeing Sugar struggle with isolation, I couldn't help thinking that with electronics being ubiquitous in this country, the movie was almost making the point that the youth of America are all isolated to some extent - that there is no more sense of community or family in this country anymore.

The Quiet Duel is a Kurosawa film about a surgeon who contracts syphilis from one of his patients during World War II and struggles - mostly alone - with this disease that apparently was incurable at the time. He breaks off his engagement from the woman he loves and has been waiting for him for several years. It's a good look into the Japanese ideal of stoicism. Not one of Kurosawa's best films, but still good.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Not nearly as bad as I'd expected based on the reviews I'd seen, but it still felt empty. Having never read any of the comic books, I felt lost a lot of the time, not knowing who most of the characters were. For a film that is supposed to tell the back story of Wolverine, I had more questions about his origins after watching than I did before. If you're in the mood for a big budget special effects spectacular though, it fits the bill nicely.

Swing Vote is one of the worst movies I've seen in quite a while. Not a single character is believable - they are all caricatures. Even if you buy into the concept of the presidential election being decided by one person's damaged ballot needing to be recast, it's hard to sit through a movie whose protagonist is a drunken, stupid man who neglects his daughter. Plus it employs one of my personal pet peeves that seem to be coming more common of late: a child who is way more intelligent and socially conscious than is believable. I don't call this the Lisa Simpson effect, but I think I might start. I don't find a little know it all to be cute, I find it pretty annoying. The one thing it had going for it was Paula Patton. She looked positively breath taking.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: I'm not even sure where to begin with this one. Neil Patrick Harris (of Doogie Howser fame) plays Dr. Horrible - a hapless supervillain trying to gain entrance into the Evil League of Evil, led by Bad Horse - the thoroughbred of sin. In this musical, Dr. Horrible has a video blog on which he discusses his innermost thoughts and fears as well as recounting his exploits. Nathan Fillion steals the show though as the Dr. Horrible's nemesis: Captain Hammer. He is absolutely hilarious. While this was easily one of the strangest movies I've ever seen, it was really pretty entertaining. I've never been a fan of musicals, but the songs weren't too bad for the most part. At 43 minutes, it moves along at a brisk pace and never gets dull. The dialogue is clever, and it is just a funny movie. The best part is that you can watch it in it's entirety online here.

Henry Poole Is Here

Going back to back on the movie reviews, I had high hopes for Henry Poole Is Here. I'm a fan of Luke Wilson and had this pegged as a heartwarming movie about hope. Instead I found a slow moving, highly predictable movie which left me feeling more bitter than hopeful.

Luke Wilson plays the titular Henry Poole, a depressed man who buys a house in a bad neighborhood, planning on drinking away the last days of his miserable life in solitude. When a stereotypical Catholic neighbor sees the face of Jesus in a stain on the side of his house from a bad stucco job, she sees a miracle and he finds his solitude continually interrupted by holy rollers. You can easily guess where it goes from there.

This is supposed to be a movie about faith and hope, but is really a contrived perpetuation of stereotypes. The stereotypical religious nuts who want to see a miracle. The stereotypical atheist who is angry at God because of some bad events in his life and thinks of the religious people as fools. The stereotypical single mom next door who just needs some attention and to feel loved. There is really nothing of substance in this film.

The deal breaker for me, however, is centered around the image of Jesus mysteriously appearing on a wall. I certainly believe in God and miracles, but the notion of Him or anyone else appearing on a wall, a tortilla, a cheese sandwich, or anywhere else is preposterous and I found it very difficult to sit through. It's idolatry, plain and simple. What is more absurd and pathetic than a group of people gathering around and worshipping an inanimate object, hoping it will solve all of their problems? And this film just propagates that fabrication. It really made the movie almost unwatchable for me. Stay away from this one.

Black Sheep

I don't know if you'd call it a request, a challenge, or even a dare. What I do know is that recently the Chuckman informed me that he'd seen a preview for a movie titled Black Sheep (not the one starring Chris Farley) and that he couldn't tell if it was so bad that it's good or so bad that it's just bad. The mighty reviewing skills of Craw Fu were called upon to make a judgment for the good of all. My initial reaction after seen the cover art was that the Chuckman was no friend of mine by making such a request. But since it scored a respectable 71% on Rotten Tomatoes, I thought I might as well give it a shot.

Black Sheep at it's heart is a treatise on the dangers of genetic engineering. For you see, the movie revolves around Henry Oldfield - a young man who has an irrational fear of sheep after some childhood trauma growing up on his family's New Zealand ranch. He returns home after several years to sign over his half of the estate to his brother, who unbeknownst to Henry has created a new breed of sheep with the help of a few top geneticists. As you may have guessed, carnage ensues.

As it turns out, this movie was awful. And not even better than awesome awful, the bad awful. The story was poorly written with bad lines liberally spread throughout the script. There was plenty of low brow humor of both the flatulence and the having sex with sheep (the WSU special as it's usually referred to) genre. Knowing it is a low budget film, I wasn't expecting great special effects, and I wasn't disappointed. In fact, several of the scenes are so poorly lit that you can't really see what's going on. And while I was by no means expecting Shakespearean actors, a few of the guys playing substantial roles were abysmal. Worst of all, the plot was very contrived and full of holes.

In my opinion, this movie was just about as bad as they come, however, it is not without it's audience. Throughout I couldn't help but be reminded of some cult classics I've seen like Re-Animator and the Peter Jackson opus Dead Alive. Fans of low budget horror films full of blood and guts and bad jokes should like this one as well. I find them quite tedious.

Tell No One

*Subtitle alert*

Tell No One is a cerebral mystery for those looking for something a little different. Following a romantic evening at a lake, Alex Beck's wife is murdered and he is beaten unconscious with a bat and left in a coma. Flash forward 8 years, and police begin questioning Alex about the circumstances of his wife's death and he also receives some mysterious emails causing him to wonder what really happened that night and if his wife really is dead.

The script is compelling and every time I thought I knew what was going on, another piece of information is revealed, changing everything. And yet the plot twists never get overbearing or bog down the plot. It is captivating from beginning to end. It is a little confusing early on but the story unfolds as Alex unravels the mysterious circumstances while running from police who now consider him a suspect. It is never boring and if you stick with it you will be rewarded.

Weekend Movie Roundup

Over the weekend I watched two movies, so today movie reviews are on special, buy one, get one free. I'll start with:

The Wrestler
Mickey Rourke does a very convincing job of playing over the hill professional wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson. Physically broken down and barely making rent at his trailer park, he now wrestles at small local events, trying in vain to relive his former glory. After a heart attack forces him into retirement, he struggles to adjust to a "normal" life, working in a grocery store deli, trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter, and trying to build a relationship with an aging yet still smoking hot stripper (Marisa Tomei).

This is a very character driven drama, which normally appeals to me, however for me the subject matter was not all that interesting. I'm not a fan of wrestling, and I found the miserable, beaten down by life Ram to make for a pretty depressing story. It had some interesting moments, of note the relationship with Cassidy (Tomei) and the parallels drawn between the two careers, both using their bodies to perform for an audience and struggling with aging. All in all it just didn't captivate me, although I can see the appeal to others. Ultimately I found it to be a depressing, mediocre story.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
This concept seemed pretty interesting in theory, however since the director turned an 11 page short story, which you can read in it's entirety here, into a 2:45 minute film, it goes without saying that it was plodding. It also turns out that living life in reverse is not all that interesting. The only additional challenge being the isolation of being unique, and inherently alone for most of your life. Other than that, life is still life and you still face the same struggles being born old and aging in reverse that everyone faces, you simply face them at a different part of your life.

A substantial portion of the movie consisted of a woman reading Benjamin Button's diary to her elderly mother as she wheezed nearly inaudibly while laying in her death bed. I personally feel that all of those scenes could have been cut and it would have resulted in a better film. They didn't add anything to the story and as a matter of fact I felt they detracted.

All of this considered, however, the film was not without it's charm. Brad Pitt turned in a solid performance and there were moments of interest. Ultimately it just felt insubstantial and slow moving. Not all bad if you've got plenty of time to kill, but there are better options out there.

The Orphanage

This weekend I watched El Orfanato, or The Orphanage if you prefer. The well reviewed Spanish ghost story was sounded like just my kind of movie. More of a psychological thriller than a blood & guts Friday the 13th style slash fest. The movie revolves around a woman who returns to the now abandoned orphanage she grew up with with her husband and adopted son in the hopes of eventually running an orphanage herself. Her son begins communicating with imaginary friends and not much is thought of this until he mysteriously disappears at his birthday party.

I was lucky enough to watch this on blu ray and the visuals were absolutely captivating. The audio was also quite well done with various creaks and bumps in the night to build the suspense. My big problem came from the movie degrading from a ghost story into a less interesting story about a hysterical mother who will go to any length, no matter how illogical or ill advised, to try to get her son back. Truth be told, after all was said and done I wasn't sure whether there were any ghosts at all or if they were all imagined. Perhaps it wasn't a ghost story at all.

Did this make it a bad movie? No, it was still an above average and watchable movie. I just felt that the ending was dissatisfying after the quality set up. I don't exactly know what it was that other reviewers raved so much about, but I would have to give this movie a respectable but not spectacular 6 fists out of 10 on the Craw Fu scale. Way better than Twilight though. Yes, that was for your benefit Lyndsay.

Oh, and one last note I should mention. Be prepared to read subtitles. I saw a few idiots on Netflix who left bad reviews basically saying, "boo hoo, they didn't tell me this was in Spanish. I'm too dumb to be able to read." Don't be one of those people.

Twilight

A while ago, I heard that the largest demographic for motion pictures is teenage girls. After seeing the much hyped Twilight, I'm beginning to believe it. I have difficulty imagining that it holds a lot of interest for other audiences. Most simply put, I spent most of the film thinking, "this is pretty stupid."

It wasn't all bad though. The director did an admirable job of portraying the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. It was almost a character in itself. The teenage characters were also portrayed accurately - they were very awkward and phony, constantly seeking the approval of their peers.

On to the stupid. I'm not going to spend a great deal of time on this, I'll just hit a few things. For starters, the vampire main character is over 100 years old, despite having the body of a 17 year old and yet we're expected to believe that he has anything other than a physical interest in a 17 year old girl? I don't think that anyone other than a teen girl would believe that.

Next, adding the twist to the vampire lore that they can't go into the sunshine because their skin gets all shiny and sparkly and blows their cover is stupid enough that it makes me angry. Maintaining their anonymity is the vampires biggest concern? Really?

The last point I'll mention is that there seemed to be several loose ends that were never tied up. One example would be that one of the female vampires whose name I can't recall (the hot blond one) expresses her disdain for the main character whose name I also forgot (played by the cute Kristen Stewart (I just checked and she turns 19 in a couple days so she's legal - whew)). This is brought up a couple times but nothing ever comes of it and no explanation is given as to why. It is simply dropped. And there are a few other plot elements which are also brought up and inexplicably dropped. It's as if there were a lot more in the book that was cut from the film, but the editing and screenplay was sloppy enough that these stray plot elements weren't completely removed.

Ultimately this movie is about what I expected of it - a crappy romance aimed aimed at a different audience. If you're out of high school or male, chances are this isn't the movie for you. If your love of Forks is strong enough though you might enjoy it. Although if your knowledge of Western Washington geography is good enough a few of the minor lines might cause a little irritation. At one point the sheriff, who is tracking the bad vampires, says, "they are headed east, it looks like they are Kitsap County's problem now." It is a loooong way from Forks to Kitsap County. And the Hood Canal is in the way.

In other news, I can't believe they keep making more Fast & Furious movies. Who in the world watches these? And how does Vin Diesel continue to get jobs? I really don't understand.

King Corn

I enjoy a good documentary as much as the next guy and so decided that today King Corn was the film for me. Two recent college grads decide to move to Iowa for a year, rent an acre of land, and become corn farmers. In the process of growing corn, they examine what corn means to this country.

The evils of high fructose corn syrup are well known, but the extent to which corn has pervaded our diet is pretty amazing. It's almost impossible to get beef that isn't corn fed in this country, and the sad truth is that to fatten up cattle, they are placed in feed lots where their movement is severely restricted and they are fed corn which fattens them up before the slaughter. As a result, corn fed beef is higher in fat and saturated fat than grass fed beef. And when you consider that corn syrup is in everything from bread to soft drinks, and that fried foods are often times fried in corn oil, a large percentage of America's diet is comprised of corn, particularly fast food.

It also turns out that over the years, corn has been cultivated to get higher yield strains, sacrificing nutritional value in the process. So the more corn we grow, the worse it is for us, and since it is in almost everything, it is contributing to obesity and all the illnesses that go along with it, particularly diabetes.

The interesting thing about this is that to a large extent, this can be traced to government subsidies originally created by Agricultural Secretary Earl Butz in 1973. He implemented a plan to pay farmers to produce as much as possible. This drove down prices to the point that farmers can no longer make money without subsidies. As a result unhealthy food containing corn and corn syrup are cheaper so people buy and eat more of these unhealthy foods. In a round about way, we are subsidising the poor health and obesity of America. We're subsidising low cost foods with taxes and medical bills.

So maybe it's time to end farm subsidies. At the very least I've been convinced to eat healthier. I gave up soft drinks several years ago, but if I could find grass fed beef I'd be willing to pay more for it. And if I cold find more foods that didn't contain corn syrup I'd pay more for those too.

Memento

I haven't seen Memento in several years, but since it is free on demand right now, I recently watched it again and may have enjoyed it even more than the first time. It is an absolutely brilliant script about Leonard Shelby, played by Guy Pearce, who suffered a brain injury preventing him from making new memories when he catches a man raping his wife - this is the last memory he has. Every morning he wakes up, his only thought is of catching the man responsible.

Since Leonard can't make any new memories, he has to meticulously keep track of everything he learns and everyone he knows with notes and photographs, and the clues to finding the man that raped and murdered his wife he tattoos on his body.

This is the film that initially introduced me to Christopher Nolan who went on to direct Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Prestige. Memento is every bit as good as any of these and the story is told in reverse, starting with Leonard killing the man who raped and murdered his wife. The film then slowly backtracks, occasionally throwing in some flashbacks, creating a sense of confusion similar to what Leonard feels. As you realize that a lot of the people he associates with are pretty sketchy, you can't help wonder if he's being used.

Guy Pearce does an amazing job and Carrie Ann Moss and Joe Pants are wonderful in supporting roles. Movies don't get much better than this. I command you to watch it as soon as possible.

Street Fighter

It should come as no surprise that the new Street Fighter movie currently has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Not only has there never been a good, or even a mediocre movie based on a video game, a movie based on a fighting game seems particularly dumb. This only enforces my belief that this movie was just made as publicity for the highly anticipated Street Fighter IV video game. Avoid the movie at all costs.

The Fall

Friday night, being too exhausted to do much else, I popped in The Fall. This has to rank as one of the best films I've seen in a while. Probably the best since The Dark Knight. I really didn't know much about the movie going in so I'll try not to give away too much.

The Fall takes place primarily in a hospital where Roy, a silent film stunt man, has broken his back and is paralyzed from the waist down. He befriends a young girl, Alexandria, with a broken arm who likes to wander around the hospital to relieve her boredom. Roy begins telling Alexandria a story and we view the story through her imagination. It isn't too long before we find out that Roy is suicidal and is only telling the story in the hopes of persuading Alexandria to steal some morphine for him to over dose.

It may sound a little bleak, but ultimately it is a story about hope. I'm a sucker for a fairy tale, and the story told by Roy comes across as very fairy tale-esque. It is a visually stunning - I watched it on blu ray, and if you have high definition available you should take advantage. There is more too it than amazing imagery though. The pacing is a little slower than your typical Hollywood fare and in my opinion is perfect. A lot of movies seem too rushed for me, but The Fall takes it's time and allows you to absorb the story and develop an attachment to the characters without being boring.

Some reviewers have called it self indulgent and shallow, but those reviewers are wrong. The story is captivating and unravels like a tapestry. The young girl who played Alexandria did a wonderful job and the rest of the cast was terrific as well. I'm starting to lose my concentration and before I get any more nonsensical I'll just say go watch The Fall. You'll thank me later.

Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3D

After renting and watching Journey to the Center of the Earth in regular old 2D, I saw the 3D version at Costco and decided that it was good enough to pick up and watch it again. I've seen 3D movies before, and the old ones weren't all that good, but the 3D in the Imax version of Superman was pretty good, even if the movie wasn't. Anyhow, instead of using polarized lenses like the Imax, Journey uses the traditional red and blue colored glasses. And maybe it's because I'm partially color blind, but the 3D really doesn't work very well. Particularly when objects got close to the camera, they blurred pretty badly our just out and out looked like 2 separate images. In addition to that, the color was off, I think because of the glasses. So all in all it was a little disappointing. Not bad enough that I'm experiencing buyers remorse, but I think I'm going to stay away from the colored glasses.

The Great Debaters

The Great Debaters, starring Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker, is the story of the Wiley College debate team. Based on a true story, the small college in 1930's Texas must overcome discrimination in addition to larger schools to prove that words can make a difference. Typical of Denzel Washington movies, it is a little preachy and over dramatic, but not to the point of making it unwatchable. It is still an inspiring movie even if a little cliche'. It's kind of your typical underdog story, but rather than sports, it focuses on debate. It's a feel good movie though and worth checking out.

Grindhouse

Since it is free on demand right now, I decided against my better judgement to watch Grindhouse, and it was every bit as bad as I had expected. An homage to bad, low budget 70's movies, it is a bad movie (two bad movies to be exact) made to look like a low budget movie. The only redeeming quality was the previews for movies that don't exist, my favorite being Werwolf Women of the SS. It's just a shame that the most entertaining premises were 2 minutes long while the dumb plots were an hour and a half. Caution, preview is not safe for work.

Mongol

Mongol *Subtitle Alert* is the story of the early life of Temudgen, who I'm sure most of you already know ends up being known by history as Gengis Khan. The movie starts with him as a nine year old, heading off to another village with his father to choose the woman who is to be his bride. From that point on, he is repeatedly beset with tragedy and surrounded by enemies who want to kill him. As the movie goes along, his focus changes from merely surviving to attempting to bring law and order to the Mongol empire.

I really don't know how historically accurate it is, but it is an interesting, well made move. It is beautifully filmed, and stylishly it reminded me of Japanese films. It is more deliberately paced than Hollywood films, allowing the viewer to absorb and digest the story.

This is part 1 of a planned trilogy, focusing on his early years. It is more of a love story about him and his wife Borte than you would expect. I guess the intense action films are going to be the sequels. Mongol is emotional and psychological, giving you the back story and motivations behind one of the great military leaders in history.

Movie Reviews

I'm fortunate enough to have seen a couple good movies recently. It had been quite a drought there, but along came Bigger, Stronger, Faster*, a documentary about steroids. Curiously, this goes against the grain and takes up the pro-steroids argument. Even more surprising is the fact that at the conclusion I found myself questioning why steroids are illegal. I'm still not convinced that they shouldn't be banned in sporting events and competitions, but for the gym rats out there, why not? It hurts no one but themselves, and even at that, the side effects that all of us have heard about are exaggerated or out and out fabricated. And when you consider all the other performance enhancing drugs that are legal - beta blockers, sleeping pills, energy drinks, male enhancement pills, etc. - why should steroids be singled out? It's really more of an indictment of American ideals of 'win at any cost' than an endorsement of steroid use. But even if you disagree with the arguments presented in the film, it's still well done and worth the time to watch.



Next up was The Counterfeiters. It's a German film **subtitles alert** set in WWII. Based on a true story, the Nazis arrested a world class counterfeiter. Being a Jew, the sent him to a concentration camp. While there, he is moved into a secret barracks within the camp and put to work attempting to counterfeit the British pound and the US dollar. The Nazis plan is two fold - use the counterfeit money to finance the war, and cripple both the US and British economies by flooding the market with worthless currency. It's really a devious plan, and a very well made movie. Very good acting and some heart wrenching drama.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Over the weekend I watched The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - the true-ish story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, the editor of Elle magazine who had a massive stroke that left him paralyzed except for his left eye. The film is an adaptation of his memoirs which he dictated after the stroke. Unable to speak, he communicates by having someone recite the alphabet to him, blinking when they've reached the letter he wants. It is incredibly slow and tedious, but the only means of communication.

I've read a little more about him on the internet and found that the film adaptation is rife with inaccuracies. For some, that may destroy the film, particularly since some of the changes don't really aid the dramatic interpretation (for example, he has 3 children in the film, but had 2 in real life), but I think the essence of the story remained intact. It's an incredible struggle of a man who has lost virtually everything. I don't know how I could go on in those circumstances, but Bauby is able to adapt by relying on his imagination. He can simply close his eyes and let his mind take him anywhere in the world.

There were some great performances all around, but due to the subject matter, you have to be in the right mood to sit through it. I found it to be pretty depressing although I don't think the director intended it that way. A large portion of the movie is also shown from Bauby's perspective which ends up being a little unpleasant. The camera is shaky and goes in and out of focus. Also it should be noted that the film is in French so be prepared to read some subtitles. If you can tolerate these things, then you are in for a good story.



It has a similar plot to Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun. You may have seen a clip of it in the Metallica video for their song One. I've never seen or been able to find a copy of this movie anywhere, but have been interested in seeing it for a long time. Since I can't find the original, I'm going to have to settle for the remake that is due out soon I guess.

The Horror

It's now October, and all I can think is where are all my horror movies? It's been quite some time since a good one has been released, and there appears to be nothing on the horizon. Sure, Rachel Getting Married comes out this month, but I'm far too terrified to watch that. I've seen previews for Quarantine and it quite frankly looks terrible. Ditto The Haunting of Molly Hartley. What happened to the quality horror movies of the past? Or even the mediocre ones? Is the genre just tapped out? It seems like all that comes out anymore are formulaic teen slasher movies, or mindless gore fests like Saw 2-5? Yes, there is a fifth one of those steaming piles due out.

Whatever happened to Dark Castle Entertainment? They never put out a great movie, but at least they could be counted on to put out a watchable movie like Thirteen Ghosts or the House on Haunted Hill. I guess I spoke too soon. Upon further review, Dark Castle Entertainment is still putting out films, but their recent offerings have been awful. And what has Tim Burton been doing lately? Sure a lot of his movies are a little on the goofy side, but most are watchable.

I guess there are no scary stories left to tell. At this point I'd even take a well done remake or an old timey monster movie. The only Halloween-ish movie I'm at all interested in seeing is the Ricky Gervais/Greg Kinnear opus Ghost Town and that's really a comedy. But it reminds me of the Frighteners a bit and I really enjoyed that. It's tough times for horror fans.