"Walk the Line" // "Harry Potter 4"

I was exceedingly bored this weekend so I decided to blow a good deal of money on several trips to both Taco Bell (for a combined consumption of six cheesey gordita crunches and one chipolte grilled stuffed burrito, I decided to take a lil break from eating healthy, and what an unhealthy hiatus that was =D) and the cinemas. I made a point of seeing Walk the Line, the new Johnny Cash biopic starring that guy from Hotel Rwanda and The Village (Joaquin Phoenix) and Reese Witherspoon playing yet another blonde southern bitch (though shes pretty good in this actually >_>). Needless to say, this movie kicked ass. I thought anyways. I always really liked the idea of being into Johnny Cash but never really pursued his music until recently. I'm not a fan of country music because I see it as phoney and shallow, but Cash is from a time before all there was to sing about was the Rodeo and "goddamn"ing the Taliban...and of course Honkey Tonk Badonkadonk...that's an entirely different story. So yeah, I dig Cash a lot, and even more so after seeing this portrayal of his life (based off his autobiographical writings). The drama isn't cheesey, you really get a feel for the darker parts of his life of which most of the movie is based around (drug addiction, dur), but humor thrown in the mix lightens it up so its not too depressing. And I actually found myself happy for the guy when he bagged his girl in the end, though I found it kinda funny how the flik pretty much condones abandoning your loved ones if you have the hots for some someone else =P But whatever, Johnny Cash was a pimp. On an unrelated note, it was really amusing to see how many old folk turned out to see this movie, being long time fans I suppose, especially considering it was obvious 90% of them hadn't been out of a nursing home for ages. What topped it off was one disgruntled old man hollering out at a climactic scene "I can't see shit!!" shortly followed by "Oh shit I have to go up stairs now!", completely oblivious to the fact he was in public. Silly old people =) So anyhoo, I highly recommend this movie when it comes out on DVD if you are not a particular fan of J.R. Cash or country music in general (this movie is chock full of it), because it is a very good film with, I think, admirable performances by Phoenix and Witherspoon (whom both sung all of the songs in the film, very well I might add) and overall good direction. If you like Johnny Cash at all, or enjoy country music but are detached from its roots, see this damn movie as soon as you can because it rocks ass.

As for Harry Potter. Eh, anyone who knows me knows that I have a grudge against the whole series. I've read only two installments; detested the first and mildly enjoyed the third (Prisoner of Azkaban). I hadn't seen any of the movies until this point but I wasn't expecting anything too great. I admit it was amusing at times, though I say this with some bias because I'm a fan of several of the actors (Alan Rickman and Ralph Fiennes, Snape and Voldemort respectively). The art direction, CGI, costumes, blah blah all the cosmetic stuff: pretty stunning. The only acting that got on my nerves was that of Emma Watson, which I won't even start on. She just annoys the piss out of me ::cringes::. But yeah, it was a well made movie, but the story line had gaps, and you shouldn't make a movie that if you have not seen the previous installments or read the books you have absolutely no clue what is going on at times. And also I'm convinced the entire British nation has a speech impediment. In conclusion, yeah alright I sort of liked it, though heckling particularly corney scenes was half the fun. =) I might see it again just to see Rickman kill off Dumbledore >_> or is that in the one after that? Fuck I have no idea.

But yeah, $40+ well spent. Movies are expensive =D

House of Wax + Update

Starring: Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murry, Paris Hilton
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Tagline: "Prey. Slay. Display"

Ok so this flik came out quite a bit ago and I think it's been out on DVD for a time as well, but I finally got around to seeing it and to my upmost surprise, I enjoyed it a great deal. Despite many things that went wrong in the creation of this film (such as the hiring of the casting director: Paris Hilton and the guy from Cousing Skeeter ftw!), I think it did a lot of things right that are absent in the surge of horror films plaguing the box office recently.

It has a fairly creative story line. The main villain, albeit the archetype horror movie antagonist (torn past, deformed in some way, slight rip-offage of leather face), is one of the more refreshing of the pack of forgettable, faceless (har har, get it?) killers found in most horror fliks. But then again, I may have just enjoyed this movie because it had a lot of the appeal of old 70/80's horror fliks (particularly Texas Chainsaw Massacre). The enemy is not indestructable or supernatural in any way, the lame ass characters are so queer you enjoy seeing them die (in fact, yearn for it), and a plethora of unforgiving, grotesque imagery, unmatched in my opinion in comparison to other films. Many kudos to the prop/effect designers on this flik (my particular favorites being the all to random heaping pile of dead animal carcasses and Paris Hilton being javelined in her puckery, slut face). This movie, like almost every horror movie ever made, is plagued by pacing problems, boring, empty, and needless character development, and about 45 minutes of fluff and conventional "jumpy" scenes before anything interesting happens. No real twists here, just pretty straight forward teenage slaughter fest without trying too hard. This isn't exactly a hidden gem, but anyone who is a fan of horror movies and avoided this film thinking it was just another piece of crap in the larger pile of crap may want to check this one out.

7/10

On another note, I've been playing Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrows and will report my thoughts on that soon enough. I haven't touched it in a few weeks, with personal crap impeding my progress to...wait...you don't kill Dracula this time! Score! But anyways, been spending most of my spare time watching DVDs of Curb Your Enthusiasm, which is the greatest show ever concieved by man since Seinfeld (ironically). Check that show out, or I may be forced to rant about it at length, and you'll have to read it. Whoever "you" are >_>. BTW, if anyone really reads this and cares about my personal life, I'm now single, meaning I can devote more time to rotting my brain on video games...erm...and that school thing. I also have a job, i.e. an income to blow on media! Woot! I also am going to be purchasing a new music playing device (not an iPod most likely), so drop me any suggestions if you'd like. I'm leaning towards the Creative Labs products (Zen Micro, Neeon Micro, Nomad). Leave some comments if you actually are getting any of this =D Later.