There is a high school across the street from my building, so during the afternoons I am often serenaded by the sounds of their marching band. I hadn't expected a marching band in the heart of the city to sound particularly awesome (I, a marching band geek in my youth, associate marching with wide open fields and big ol' football jocks--neither of which are particularly dominant in the grander DC culture, and I suppose ultimately less than important to music-making), but I have to say I am more in awe day by day. The band is out on their one field--impressive, given my memories of being booted to the auxiliary soccer fields more than once by the many teams fighting for practice space--almost every weekday afternoon, and then every Friday night for football games. I'm pretty sure they were at the junior varsity game the other day, as well. That's commitment.
The halftime show is an interesting mix of Rhianna and Justin Timberlake songs ("Four Minutes to Save the World", "Disturbia", "LoveStoned", and "Take a Bow" at my last count). Most schools outsource their halftime music for one-of-a-kind shows, but the content leads me to believe that the students had significant input, at least on content if not arrangement itself. There are a lot of musical prodigies out there, waiting to be unleashed on the world, and the exercise of teens deconstructing pop music is especially awesome if that's what is going on across the street. It would mean that DC is putting some of that money for the public schools to good use--DC is notorious for spending absurd amounts of money on schools and having it benefit everyone but the kids.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Alcoholic-Pirate-Robot John McCain...in Space
So, any self-respecting member of the nerd community is already aware that Colonel Tigh from Battlestar Galactica strongly resembles John McCain. In fact, they have a great deal in common: both have MILF-ish blonde wives with substance abuse issues, both were POWs, both have Tina Fey-bespectacled associates, both have anger management problems, etc. If it ever comes out that McCain is a cylon, I'm going to pick up a rosary and start praying to Edward James Olmos.
Anyway, my question is this: what happened to John McCain? The word from some of my fellow liberals is that McCain has always been as two-faced and drunk on fierce competition as he's been these past few months, but I'm not so sure. Perhaps this is just the kind of naivete that McCain kept referencing during last week's debate, but I recall a completely different man going on the Daily Show a dozen times and charming the college set. I remember buying one of his books for my conservative mother a few years ago and thinking "you know, this guy's had a pretty crazy life, and yet he's still down to earth". The word "maverick" wasn't a part of the conversation back then; John McCain was a decent senator who, while I didn't always agree with him, could present a pattern of logic that I could respect. He didn't need gimmicks or smears to get his point across (though I understand that most of these gimmicks and smears come from the fact that he appears to be losing the race, it also seems like they're only hurting his polling, especially among independents--Check 538 if you don't believe me).
The Keating Five thing has been mentioned to me several times as proof of McCain's past shadiness, going back almost twenty years. I was pretty young for the whole Keating incident, and I honestly don't have a great enough grasp of economics to get into the nitty-gritty of it, but from what Wikipedia tells me, I get the impression that McCain screwed up pretty royally the last time we had a nationwide financial/loan crisis. The more I read about it, the more it reflects McCain's inability to be president, not so much his character (which is my primary concern here). Yes, it appears he accepted gifts and whatnot from shifty people, but that point seems so petty in terms of the greater scandal. I'm not excusing that behavior entirely, but he wasn't taking money from the National Rapist Lobby, you know? I'd be willing to hear from someone who can speak more eloquently than I on the Keating scandal, though.
Whatever happens in November, there will someone new living in that big white mansion down the street. I want to know more about my potential future neighbors.
Anyway, my question is this: what happened to John McCain? The word from some of my fellow liberals is that McCain has always been as two-faced and drunk on fierce competition as he's been these past few months, but I'm not so sure. Perhaps this is just the kind of naivete that McCain kept referencing during last week's debate, but I recall a completely different man going on the Daily Show a dozen times and charming the college set. I remember buying one of his books for my conservative mother a few years ago and thinking "you know, this guy's had a pretty crazy life, and yet he's still down to earth". The word "maverick" wasn't a part of the conversation back then; John McCain was a decent senator who, while I didn't always agree with him, could present a pattern of logic that I could respect. He didn't need gimmicks or smears to get his point across (though I understand that most of these gimmicks and smears come from the fact that he appears to be losing the race, it also seems like they're only hurting his polling, especially among independents--Check 538 if you don't believe me).
The Keating Five thing has been mentioned to me several times as proof of McCain's past shadiness, going back almost twenty years. I was pretty young for the whole Keating incident, and I honestly don't have a great enough grasp of economics to get into the nitty-gritty of it, but from what Wikipedia tells me, I get the impression that McCain screwed up pretty royally the last time we had a nationwide financial/loan crisis. The more I read about it, the more it reflects McCain's inability to be president, not so much his character (which is my primary concern here). Yes, it appears he accepted gifts and whatnot from shifty people, but that point seems so petty in terms of the greater scandal. I'm not excusing that behavior entirely, but he wasn't taking money from the National Rapist Lobby, you know? I'd be willing to hear from someone who can speak more eloquently than I on the Keating scandal, though.
Whatever happens in November, there will someone new living in that big white mansion down the street. I want to know more about my potential future neighbors.
Fringe was terrible.
...I watched the first episode on Hulu, and it was just dreadful. I was liveblogging as I watched, but lost steam even on that about halfway through, so I never posted it. Unfortunate. I could have used a new show.
But, at least we can all--finally--take comfort in the fact that a new season of American television has arrived (none of my British shows, save for The Sarah Jane Smith Adventures, will be back for a few more months). Sunny has kicked of their season with several double-episode blocks, for which I am very thankful. House is back, too, and more Hugh Laurie in this world is always a good thing. The Office premiere--though the writers continued their distressing trend of abusing the hour-long format to spread an episode far too thin--delivered consistent laughs. Also, Jim and Pam were so adorable that I hardly noticed the episode length. The presidential debates have forced me to the liquor store far too often this month, but being a little buzzed and extra-happy for the Daily Show and Colbert afterword makes it all worth it.
I am counting down the days untill 30 Rock returns, though. What the fuck, NBC? Why hold it back? Throw a bunch of Emmys at a show and that's how the network repays us. Blergh.
Has anyone seen a show from the new Fall lineup that merits a review here? Let me know.
But, at least we can all--finally--take comfort in the fact that a new season of American television has arrived (none of my British shows, save for The Sarah Jane Smith Adventures, will be back for a few more months). Sunny has kicked of their season with several double-episode blocks, for which I am very thankful. House is back, too, and more Hugh Laurie in this world is always a good thing. The Office premiere--though the writers continued their distressing trend of abusing the hour-long format to spread an episode far too thin--delivered consistent laughs. Also, Jim and Pam were so adorable that I hardly noticed the episode length. The presidential debates have forced me to the liquor store far too often this month, but being a little buzzed and extra-happy for the Daily Show and Colbert afterword makes it all worth it.
I am counting down the days untill 30 Rock returns, though. What the fuck, NBC? Why hold it back? Throw a bunch of Emmys at a show and that's how the network repays us. Blergh.
Has anyone seen a show from the new Fall lineup that merits a review here? Let me know.
Monday, September 8, 2008
I hope there will be polar bears.
J.J. Abrams has a new show premiering this week, Fringe. Some first impressions, from the commercial:
- Fringe appears to be a cross between The X-Files (FBI agents dealing with unexplained phenomena...Fox is really going back to their roots with this show), Torchwood (seriously, their "way to get information from the dead" has to be inspired--at least in part--by the resurrection glove), and The Twilight Zone. This is a pro, provided they can find their own voice that also works in today's world--the goal should be to distract from the fact that unlike in the 90s, when X-Files was in its heyday, the American public are not so easily convinced that their government is capable of large-scale, myth-arc conspiracies.
- Typical Fox production values and set design. Meh. Fringe could make it work, but only in spite of Fox's involvement, not because of it. Con.
- That guy from Dawson's Creek is on the show. Con. But, he was one of the less annoying cast members from Dawson's Creek and delivers good snark, so...pro?
- Hey! It's Daniels! From The Wire! Pro. Pro. Pro.
- Are airplane crashes J.J. Abrams' signature "thing" now, or what? Con.
- Wait. There appear to be zombies on that plane. Pro.
- Lots of walk-and-talks. I'm thrilled The West Wing made these popular. Pro.
So, it looks like the pros outweigh the cons...for now. We'll see after the pilot airs.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
I just watched an old episode of Torchwood that should have been called "Ianto Tazers Everyone", but was in fact called something less awesome.
Hulu: it's good stuff.
Hulu has opened up for me a world of television I never had time for before, even when I had Tivo. With Tivo, I was constantly monitoring its hard drive to make sure I didn't hit capacity (80 hour drive, my ass--that would be 80 hours at the lowest possible quality level, people, which produced video so fuzzy I may have had better luck with a bloody antenna, and during a blizzard), so more often than not I declined to put shows on season pass unless I really, truly enjoyed them. I missed out on several programs of decent quality merely because they were on at the same time as something else the Tivo was already recording. There was also the issue of what would be least embarrassing to display on the Tivo queue, since at the time I had three roommates to pass judgement over what I watched. To top it all off, the whole reason I had Tivo in the first place was because I was in college; in between classes, work, pep band, and social obligations, there was no time to watch television except at three in the morning.
Fast forward to today: no Tivo. (It seemed silly to pay for the service now that I no longer have cable, either.) I first heard of Hulu's existence a few months ago, but at its launch there wasn't much of interest to watch on it. The full episode libraries were spotty at best, and more importantly, the shows I hadn't seen before were fairly consistently missing the early episodes I needed to watch. (It is a huge pet peeve of mine to not watch shows from the very first episode. If I can pick up a show at any point, then it likely does not have the kind of character development and plot sophistication required to maintain my affections. Snobbish? Perhaps. I really don't care.)
Well, after a few short months, Hulu has transformed itself into a site actually worthy of visiting on a daily basis. Slowly but surely, earlier seasons of shows have started popping up, and I've gotten into some great new-to-me shows. The commercials are sparse and far shorter in duration than those on regular television. Pulling up a program in full screen on the teleputer--the subterranean enclave's television is wired to a souped-up Mac Mini, which is in turn networked to our other computers--is just like watching the real deal. What's not to love?
Oh, and this ol' blogger isn't the only one taking notice: tonight, the interwebs are abuzz with the news that NBC will be premiering several shows from its Fall lineup a week early on Hulu, which provides even more incentive to stay cable-free. Perhaps the broadcast network executives finally figured out how to account for that mysterious internet money we heard so much about during the WGA strike last year? It's possible that this Fall lineup shift was the plan all along, given that Hulu was created by the minds over at NBC Universal; all the same, Hulu's success represents a huge step forward in realizing the internet's potential to provide a cultural experience to be shared and enjoyed by all. That's pretty damn cool.
Hulu has opened up for me a world of television I never had time for before, even when I had Tivo. With Tivo, I was constantly monitoring its hard drive to make sure I didn't hit capacity (80 hour drive, my ass--that would be 80 hours at the lowest possible quality level, people, which produced video so fuzzy I may have had better luck with a bloody antenna, and during a blizzard), so more often than not I declined to put shows on season pass unless I really, truly enjoyed them. I missed out on several programs of decent quality merely because they were on at the same time as something else the Tivo was already recording. There was also the issue of what would be least embarrassing to display on the Tivo queue, since at the time I had three roommates to pass judgement over what I watched. To top it all off, the whole reason I had Tivo in the first place was because I was in college; in between classes, work, pep band, and social obligations, there was no time to watch television except at three in the morning.
Fast forward to today: no Tivo. (It seemed silly to pay for the service now that I no longer have cable, either.) I first heard of Hulu's existence a few months ago, but at its launch there wasn't much of interest to watch on it. The full episode libraries were spotty at best, and more importantly, the shows I hadn't seen before were fairly consistently missing the early episodes I needed to watch. (It is a huge pet peeve of mine to not watch shows from the very first episode. If I can pick up a show at any point, then it likely does not have the kind of character development and plot sophistication required to maintain my affections. Snobbish? Perhaps. I really don't care.)
Well, after a few short months, Hulu has transformed itself into a site actually worthy of visiting on a daily basis. Slowly but surely, earlier seasons of shows have started popping up, and I've gotten into some great new-to-me shows. The commercials are sparse and far shorter in duration than those on regular television. Pulling up a program in full screen on the teleputer--the subterranean enclave's television is wired to a souped-up Mac Mini, which is in turn networked to our other computers--is just like watching the real deal. What's not to love?
Oh, and this ol' blogger isn't the only one taking notice: tonight, the interwebs are abuzz with the news that NBC will be premiering several shows from its Fall lineup a week early on Hulu, which provides even more incentive to stay cable-free. Perhaps the broadcast network executives finally figured out how to account for that mysterious internet money we heard so much about during the WGA strike last year? It's possible that this Fall lineup shift was the plan all along, given that Hulu was created by the minds over at NBC Universal; all the same, Hulu's success represents a huge step forward in realizing the internet's potential to provide a cultural experience to be shared and enjoyed by all. That's pretty damn cool.
Monday, August 25, 2008
I'm going to start my own scholarship foundation.
When I have the extra cash laying around (you know, in the incredibly distant future) I want to create the "Captain Jack Scholarship for Pansexual Youth". This, of course, is a reference to Captain Jack Harkness from Doctor Who and Torchwood, a character who is arguably the most visible role model in television for anyone who doesn't want to get tangled up in the hetero-queer dichotomy. I wanted to call this a scholarship for bisexual youth--since the whole idea originated from the the fact that bisexual students' applications for queer scholarship programs are generally ignored, as if their struggles with minority status were somehow lesser than their "queer-only, all-the-time" counterparts--but my roommate reminded me that Captain Jack cares just as little about species as about genitalia, so I figured the pansexual label was more accurate.
The general dismissal of bisexuals (or anyone who doesn't fall neatly into the hetero or homo column) by the gay community really does bother me, though. The straights, okay, a little discomfort and weirded-outness is not unexpected. But, the gays? Seriously, in this age of acceptance and post-modernist tree-huggery, why are bisexuals treated like promiscuous, cheating-prone, confused sex-nymphs? Is it really that difficult to imagine a world where bisexuals aren't just slutty club girls making out for the Girls Gone Wild cameras? Totally understanding, or "getting it", is not necessary. A little dignity, though. It would be nice.
The general dismissal of bisexuals (or anyone who doesn't fall neatly into the hetero or homo column) by the gay community really does bother me, though. The straights, okay, a little discomfort and weirded-outness is not unexpected. But, the gays? Seriously, in this age of acceptance and post-modernist tree-huggery, why are bisexuals treated like promiscuous, cheating-prone, confused sex-nymphs? Is it really that difficult to imagine a world where bisexuals aren't just slutty club girls making out for the Girls Gone Wild cameras? Totally understanding, or "getting it", is not necessary. A little dignity, though. It would be nice.
I've seen a few movies since my last post.
In this summer of very few options entertainment-wise (this is partly due to my own agoraphobia, but more to blame is the current state of the economy), I've been seeing a lot of movies in the theaters.
"Kjsilopanna, that's crazy," some might say. "You go to movies at least twice a month anyway, don't blame the Fed for your addictions!" Well, that's partly true. I do love movies, and I was thisclose to choosing creative writing as my major in college--it's just that something about the medium has always appealed to me. Give me a good movie with an amazing soundtrack? I'm in heaven. (Side note: my only qualms with the first two seasons of Battlestar Galactica were with the terribly inconsistent, trying-way-too-hard-to-sound-like-a-bunch-of-cultures-at-once music selections. Also, Starbuck's theme. It was one 8-bar repeating loop, replayed ad nauseam during that one scene in her Caprica apartment. Not cute, SciFi. Way to take your single best show and annoy me with it. But, I digress, and in a very hardcore nerdy way. Sorry.)
Anyway, what I meant to say before was that all through college--that is, up until this summer--I've been religious about finding whatever material I wanted to watch online in the form of streaming video. My philosophy was that I could watch what I wanted, when I wanted, all for free (hello, 2AM Internet viewings of Kenny Vs. Spenny with a pint of Ben and Jerry's in hand--I have indulged in some ridiculously guilty pleasures, I don't deny that). All was well in the world. Generally, whatever movies I couldn't find online were readily accessible via friends' DVD collections or rented from the Hippovideo machine in my building's basement. Tivo covered my television needs. That was then.
Well, now I'm all graduated with the working-all-the-time and, suffice to say, I don't get out nearly as much. I'm not big on bars--when I went in college, it was usually because I was lovingly guided there by well-meaning friends--and I can hardly afford to go out club-hopping every weekend on an intern's salary. No need for Tivo without cable, either. I can't find the cash to visit my out-of-town friends at the moment, so what's a girl to do? I can only hit the museums so many times, even in this delightful land of marble and brass plaques. Going to the movies (and more importantly, spending money on movies) is my own little way of reminding myself that I'm not slipping away into social oblivion. It doesn't completely break the bank, and I usually leave the theater satisfied, if not outright pleased with my day's choices.
This summer's movies: Wall-E, Pineapple Express, Tropic Thunder, Hamlet 2...I'm leaving The Dark Knight out since I can't really say anything about it that hasn't already been said--it was that brilliant--and X-Files: I Want to Believe since I already reviewed it here.
*Wall-E: Just a few weeks after having seen it, there's a lot about Wall-E that I don't remember, which is slightly annoying. Because it's almost an entirely speech-free film, many scenes blend together in my memory. I can't segment them apart with the recall of scene-specific witty dialogue or some other cue to let myself know what happened when (a very notable exception being the spoon-fork existential freakout when Wall-E encounters a spork for the first time--so hilarious). That said, Wall-E was a beautiful movie, very visually appealing with interesting little quirks that kept me interested the whole time. My heart just broke watching Wall-E protect Eve against the elements while she was in stasis, waiting for the ship to return. It's not something I would own on DVD for party viewings, but a very thoughtful movie, nonetheless, and certainly different from anything else I saw this summer.
*Pineapple Express: I walked into this one not knowing what to expect. I loved Harold and Kumar Go to Whitecastle and Half Baked, but there are plenty of other stoner movies that I've seen and absolutely hated. I shouldn't have been worried, though. Pineapple Express is one of the most intelligent movies I've seen in a long time, and it was smart without banging you over the head with a "message" in any direction. It wasn't afraid to jump into the territory of the ridiculous (including an epic John Woo-style shootout, followed by a bloodied-up post-battle breakfast at Denny's), but did so in a way that didn't make you think the writers were trying too hard to be ridiculous. No, that problem came up in the next movie I saw...
*Tropic Thunder: Let me tell you, this one had some amazingly hilarious moments. Basically everything Robert Downey, Jr. did was gold. Like, Michael Phelps gold, eight times over. The Tom Cruise bits were occasionally amusing, and his random dance number at the end of the movie was worth every penny paid for the ticket. Actually, the funniest part of the whole movie wasn't in the movie proper at all--I laughed my ass off through every one of the fake previews before the movie started. The Robert Downey Jr./Tobey Maguire trailer had me in tears, I was laughing so hard. Those ice-blue contacts just threw me over the edge with giggles. No, the big problem with Tropic Thunder was, unfortunately, Ben Stiller's character. I just didn't find him that funny or compelling, and every time the story tried to drag the viewer into caring about him, I got bored. The other characters could have left him in the jungle at the mercy of those heroin-producing Laotian villagers, and I would have been okay with it. Not a great result when you're writing, directing, and starring, Mr. Stiller. If he'd picked one role for himself, maybe the movie would have been stronger for it overall.
*Hamlet 2: I was incredibly disappointed with this, but almost exclusively for reasons related directly to the marketing. The trailer was hilarious to no end--I wanted to know all the words to "Rock Me, Sexy Jesus" and man, did I want to know how Jesus ended up driving Hamlet through time and space in what appeared to be a S&M-inspired hamster ball. The trailer was so over-the-top and fantastic that I figured there were very few ways the movie could let me down. Well, the movie itself was nothing like the Hamlet 2 the trailer had me expecting. It was cute, but only for what it was. The play itself was so hyped up in the trailer, I wanted that. In the movie, the play Steve Coogan's character writes is almost a complete afterthought, and the movie plays out as a half-assed statement about free speech and a bunch of loosely thought out jokes strung together in a nearly incoherent fashion. The outrageous moments from the trailer that made me laugh turned out to be some of the only funny moments in the whole movie. Sad. My roommate (who saw the movie with me and was equally disappointed) said it best: Hamlet 2 had such a great premise, but ultimately fell victim to exactly what it was trying to lampoon--bad writing.
To prove I don't spend my entire life going to and thinking about movies, I should mention that I went to the zoo this weekend with my brother and some friends. So, I'm not a total weirdo who sits in darkened rooms all the time. Yeah.
"Kjsilopanna, that's crazy," some might say. "You go to movies at least twice a month anyway, don't blame the Fed for your addictions!" Well, that's partly true. I do love movies, and I was thisclose to choosing creative writing as my major in college--it's just that something about the medium has always appealed to me. Give me a good movie with an amazing soundtrack? I'm in heaven. (Side note: my only qualms with the first two seasons of Battlestar Galactica were with the terribly inconsistent, trying-way-too-hard-to-sound-like-a-bunch-of-cultures-at-once music selections. Also, Starbuck's theme. It was one 8-bar repeating loop, replayed ad nauseam during that one scene in her Caprica apartment. Not cute, SciFi. Way to take your single best show and annoy me with it. But, I digress, and in a very hardcore nerdy way. Sorry.)
Anyway, what I meant to say before was that all through college--that is, up until this summer--I've been religious about finding whatever material I wanted to watch online in the form of streaming video. My philosophy was that I could watch what I wanted, when I wanted, all for free (hello, 2AM Internet viewings of Kenny Vs. Spenny with a pint of Ben and Jerry's in hand--I have indulged in some ridiculously guilty pleasures, I don't deny that). All was well in the world. Generally, whatever movies I couldn't find online were readily accessible via friends' DVD collections or rented from the Hippovideo machine in my building's basement. Tivo covered my television needs. That was then.
Well, now I'm all graduated with the working-all-the-time and, suffice to say, I don't get out nearly as much. I'm not big on bars--when I went in college, it was usually because I was lovingly guided there by well-meaning friends--and I can hardly afford to go out club-hopping every weekend on an intern's salary. No need for Tivo without cable, either. I can't find the cash to visit my out-of-town friends at the moment, so what's a girl to do? I can only hit the museums so many times, even in this delightful land of marble and brass plaques. Going to the movies (and more importantly, spending money on movies) is my own little way of reminding myself that I'm not slipping away into social oblivion. It doesn't completely break the bank, and I usually leave the theater satisfied, if not outright pleased with my day's choices.
This summer's movies: Wall-E, Pineapple Express, Tropic Thunder, Hamlet 2...I'm leaving The Dark Knight out since I can't really say anything about it that hasn't already been said--it was that brilliant--and X-Files: I Want to Believe since I already reviewed it here.
*Wall-E: Just a few weeks after having seen it, there's a lot about Wall-E that I don't remember, which is slightly annoying. Because it's almost an entirely speech-free film, many scenes blend together in my memory. I can't segment them apart with the recall of scene-specific witty dialogue or some other cue to let myself know what happened when (a very notable exception being the spoon-fork existential freakout when Wall-E encounters a spork for the first time--so hilarious). That said, Wall-E was a beautiful movie, very visually appealing with interesting little quirks that kept me interested the whole time. My heart just broke watching Wall-E protect Eve against the elements while she was in stasis, waiting for the ship to return. It's not something I would own on DVD for party viewings, but a very thoughtful movie, nonetheless, and certainly different from anything else I saw this summer.
*Pineapple Express: I walked into this one not knowing what to expect. I loved Harold and Kumar Go to Whitecastle and Half Baked, but there are plenty of other stoner movies that I've seen and absolutely hated. I shouldn't have been worried, though. Pineapple Express is one of the most intelligent movies I've seen in a long time, and it was smart without banging you over the head with a "message" in any direction. It wasn't afraid to jump into the territory of the ridiculous (including an epic John Woo-style shootout, followed by a bloodied-up post-battle breakfast at Denny's), but did so in a way that didn't make you think the writers were trying too hard to be ridiculous. No, that problem came up in the next movie I saw...
*Tropic Thunder: Let me tell you, this one had some amazingly hilarious moments. Basically everything Robert Downey, Jr. did was gold. Like, Michael Phelps gold, eight times over. The Tom Cruise bits were occasionally amusing, and his random dance number at the end of the movie was worth every penny paid for the ticket. Actually, the funniest part of the whole movie wasn't in the movie proper at all--I laughed my ass off through every one of the fake previews before the movie started. The Robert Downey Jr./Tobey Maguire trailer had me in tears, I was laughing so hard. Those ice-blue contacts just threw me over the edge with giggles. No, the big problem with Tropic Thunder was, unfortunately, Ben Stiller's character. I just didn't find him that funny or compelling, and every time the story tried to drag the viewer into caring about him, I got bored. The other characters could have left him in the jungle at the mercy of those heroin-producing Laotian villagers, and I would have been okay with it. Not a great result when you're writing, directing, and starring, Mr. Stiller. If he'd picked one role for himself, maybe the movie would have been stronger for it overall.
*Hamlet 2: I was incredibly disappointed with this, but almost exclusively for reasons related directly to the marketing. The trailer was hilarious to no end--I wanted to know all the words to "Rock Me, Sexy Jesus" and man, did I want to know how Jesus ended up driving Hamlet through time and space in what appeared to be a S&M-inspired hamster ball. The trailer was so over-the-top and fantastic that I figured there were very few ways the movie could let me down. Well, the movie itself was nothing like the Hamlet 2 the trailer had me expecting. It was cute, but only for what it was. The play itself was so hyped up in the trailer, I wanted that. In the movie, the play Steve Coogan's character writes is almost a complete afterthought, and the movie plays out as a half-assed statement about free speech and a bunch of loosely thought out jokes strung together in a nearly incoherent fashion. The outrageous moments from the trailer that made me laugh turned out to be some of the only funny moments in the whole movie. Sad. My roommate (who saw the movie with me and was equally disappointed) said it best: Hamlet 2 had such a great premise, but ultimately fell victim to exactly what it was trying to lampoon--bad writing.
To prove I don't spend my entire life going to and thinking about movies, I should mention that I went to the zoo this weekend with my brother and some friends. So, I'm not a total weirdo who sits in darkened rooms all the time. Yeah.
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