A TO Z CHALLENGE

Hello WORLD!!!

I'm baaaaaack. Maybe for a limited time (for now), maybe not. I have been meaning to work on this blog, well, any of my blogs but I haven't seemed to been able to do so. Its not that I haven't had anything to blog about or I'm tired of writing. I'll admit I haven't been doing too much of anything with this blog in particular lately partially due to a lack of movies even worth writing about (2014 was overpopulated with flat out horrible to sub-par movies) but also due to the fact that I've still been working on my first book, which admittedly is taking me way longer to finish than I thought it would.  I'm still churning away at it. I've invested a lot of time in my characters to not see their stories through to the end. (OAN: I'm anxious to know what happens to them myself. I never thought I, as a writer, would be to keep me, as a reader, in suspense when I typically invented them and their worlds. I find that to be a pleasant surprise, one I surely didn't think was possible.)

Before I go any further here, I need to tell you a few things. One is this won't be a movie review post. I know a few movies I'd love to write a review for but all of that is coming in due time. Secondly, let me tell you what drew me back to working on my blog at this time.

I logged onto Twitter this morning and the first trending topic that caught my eye was #AtoZChallenge. If you know me you know I'm like a moth to a light bulb when it comes to challenges so I had to look into it. Based on the info I found here, it's a challenge for all bloggers to right a blog post for every letter of the alphabet, one a day every day this month except Sunday. 26 days for 26 letters of the alphabet.

So with the basic description out of the way, I'll now try to fulfill my obligation for today. Just not on this blog. My A post will actually be posted on my personal blog Smokkee's WORLD Prime since I have the perfect topic for my A post already in mind. In fact, if you look here, you'll see I've already wrote it. What I want to do on here though is add a few reviews of my favorite movies (I affectionately call them Bizzee Picks) so a lot of posts in this challenge will be for movies. Some, like my H post for sure, will be about my favorite books. 

26 days, 26 posts. I'm ready if you're ready, WORLD.

Smokkee

 

Smokkee's 2015 Oscar Picks

HELLO WORLD!!!

It's been almost a year since I last posted. Took a break for damn near a year but I'm back right on time to give you my picks for 87th Annual Academy Awards ceremony. Last year, I got 9 outta 13 of the major awards right (I only failed to pick the right Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress). Anyway, on to this years picks:

BEST WRITING OSCAR: BIRDMAN

This award could easily go to GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL. Easily. There's nothing trite about a Wes Anderson's film whatsoever. Every movie he makes has his style stamped all over it but aside from that , they all feel fresh and unique. BOYHOOD and NIGHTCRAWLERS nominations are not as shocking as the nomination awarded to FOXCATCHER which is based on a true story (I'm still asking how is that original again?) but truly this award is GBH's to lose. And it will lose. From the opening shot to the ambiguous ending shot, BIRDMAN felt less scripted and more ad-libbed. Even though it had a meta-type feel to it, it truly was one of the most original movies I've seen in a while.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: AMERICAN SNIPER
I'm not picking these winners based on which movies I liked. WHIPLASH was fantastic and probably my favorite movie out of this group but I can't see how this all-too-familiar movie can be beat out the rest of the movies on this list. THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING worked well too, possibly well enough to win this award.  INHERENT VICE was OK, I guess, but it doesn't inspire me to read the source material. Ditto THE IMITATION GAME. That leaves AMERICAN SNIPER which wasn't one of my favorite flicks of the year but it did have everybody talking about.

VISUAL EFFECTS: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
I would give this award to X-MEN just for that Quicksilver scene alone. Not sure why the CAPTAIN AMERICA sequel was nominated but doesn't have a chance against it's MCU brethren GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES was astonishing to watch, and the apes seemed so very human. DAWN & INTERSTELLAR have the best shots at walking away with this award, but I'm almost willing to bet Marvel's heroes win again.



SOUND EFFECTS: INTERSTELLAR.
No other movie on this list begs to be seen at IMAX. The choice here is obvious.




SOUND EDITING: INTERSTELLAR. 
Unless THE HOBBIT win another award for Peter Jackson here, INTERSTELLAR wins here too.








BEST MUSIC - ORIGINAL SONG: Glory from SELMA
I LOVED 'Everything is Awesome' from THE LEGO MOVIE. It was as addictive as last year's winner 'Let It Go'. It should win for sure; in fact, it's my official pick to win but I wouldn't be surprised if SELMA is rewarded this award instead. The song is great as is but it's so perfect for the movie, I almost can see it happening.

BEST DIRECTOR: Wes Anderson for GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
Anderson is FINALLY getting his due this year.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: THE BOXTROLLS

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Emma Stone, BIRDMAN

Patricia Arquette's turn in BOYHOOD is the only other nomination I see with a remote chance at winning this award. Emma Stone is almost a lock for this order. BIRDMAN was a great all around movie but if there was anybody besides the star of the movie that stood out, it was Emma.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Mark Ruffalo FOXCATCHER
This year's toughest catogory. The only reason I won't mention how good Edward Norton was in BIRDMAN is he basically played Edward Norton. JK Simmons (WHIPLASH) and Robert Duvall (THE JUDGE) each upstaged the stars of their movie's (Miles Teller and Robert Downey Jr, respectively) but what Ethan Hawke did in BOYHOOD was phenomenal. The only reason I say But Mark Ruffalo's turn as Dave Shultz will beat out Hawke is I didn't even recognize him even though I knew he was in the movie!

BEST ACTRESS: Rosamund Pike GONE GIRL

Could anybody else possibly win this award?  Maybe Julianne Moore but c'mon. How many Oscars does she need? Pike wins this award easy.


BEST ACTOR: Micheal Keaton BIRDMAN

This was supposed to be Micheal Keaton's comeback vehicle. Did it work? Absolutely. He's baaackkk. His only serious competition here is the oft nominated Bradley Cooper for AMERICAN SNIPER and the sort of surprising nom for Steve Carrell's turn in FOXCATCHER. As good as they were, I still feel this is Keaton's award to lose.



and finally, BEST PICTURE: BIRDMAN

When I first seen it last year, I was positive that GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL would not only get nominated but it would win. Then I fell in love with BIRDMAN and I got a change of heart. BOYHOOD, SELMA, and WHIPLASH all deserved their noms. I'm not sold on the idea of THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING or THE IMITATION GAME winning this award but both films are definitely better than the overrated AMERICAN SNIPER (yes I said it!), even with Bradley Cooper proving he can handle meatier, serious roles like he handles his comedic opportunities. But BIRDMAN is one of those rare films that works on every level it wanted to and some they didn't even know they were on. Not to mention that everybody carried their own weight (in more ways than one). A true standout film in a year of not many stand outs.

Want Funny? THE OTHER WOMAN Should Be Your First Choice.

B-

Hello, WORLD!!!

Yep, Smokkee here, again, after what feels like forever, right? Every since I caught pneumonia in January, I've been waiting until the weather here in Chicago started to warm up before I started attending screenings again. Finally, it has and finally I'm back to doing what I love: watching movies on the big screen.

The first appearance of Amber (Kate Upton).

I thought I was gonna kick off my 2014 prescreening with a thud. Seriously. The plot of THE OTHER WOMAN screams made-for-TV/straight-to-DVD/standard TVsitcom plot. A man's loves (his wife, his mistress, and his OTHER mistress) find out about each other and plot revenge. Nothing new, right? While I can't think of what movie or when, I'm sure this has been done before. If I'm wrong, hit me up.

From left: Kate Upton, Cameron Diaz, and Leslie Mann

Nicki Minaj plays Carly's (Cameron Diaz) Assistant.

Anyway, this movie was refreshingly funny. Not because of the star Cameron Diaz. She's here mostly as the straight woman. (SN: It's hard to believe that this is the same woman we met 20 years ago in THE MASK but she's clearly still a master of the slapstick that made her starmaking role in THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY such a hit and still fresh faced to boot!) Here she plays Carly, a hot-shot lawyer who's falling for one of her clients, Mark (Game of Throne's Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) only to discover that he's already married in possible the most awkward way imaginable. Yep, she shows up at his home and meets his wife Kate (Leslie Mann). When Kate shows up at her job the next day, Carly lets the truth be known resulting in some of the most hilarious scenes in the movie. Through a series of misadventures the two women who should be enemies wind up being friends only to discover there is a third mistress Amber (Kate Upton) and maybe more mistresses they haven't discovered yet. After Carly's ego, in another funny scene, helps these three ladies connect, they decide to get revenge on Mark.

Taylor Kinney plays Kate's brother Phil.

As I said, the movie is funny. I laughed out loud, something I try my hardest not to do ever, and making me laugh does take a little work. It's not the funniest movie I've seen but it's adequate. The main reason you wanna watch this movie is Leslie Mann. The funniest character on the screen, she almost steals ever scene she's in from the straight-woman star of the show. And I was a little excited to see my hip-hop crush Nicki Minaj stretch her acting chops. She did her thing very well (and I'm not just saying that as one of her Stans) but wasn't in the movie nearly enough for my taste. Well OK, maybe that's just my personal opinion. The rest of the stars include Lady Gaga's boyfriend Taylor Kinney as Kate's down-to-earth brother Phil and Don Johnson makes an appearance as Carly's father Frank.     

Bottom line, director Nick Cassavetes does an admirable job with a cheesy premise. It didn't overstay it's welcome, it delivered laughs, but the cheesiness of the script and the aimlessness of the plotting (At times, this comedy thinks it's a drama. Go figure.) is reason enough for me not to give it a higher grade.

That's it for now, WORLD. Thanks for having me back and letting me back into your world so easy.

Smokkee's 2014 Oscar Picks

Hello, WORLD!! Smokkee here, thankfully. This is my first post of 2014 on any of my blogs. Had a little health scare in January and I'm just now starting to feel close to 100% again. I'm good though.

We're less than a week away from the 86th annual Academy Awards ceremony. This year's nominees are among one of the toughest batches I've seen in recent years. Besides the Best Supporting Actress award, which I think is essentially won already, most of these awards are fair game for all who were nominated. Lemme break down who I think has the best shots at each of the major awards.

BEST PICTURE: Spike Jonze's HER

Of the 9 films nominated, only four (AMERICAN HUSTLE, GRAVITY, 12 YEARS A SLAVE, THE WOLF OF WALL STREET) had any major exposure. It's a shame because three other nominees (HER, NEBRASKA, DALLAS BUYERS CLUB) were just terrific. That leaves two (CAPTAIN PHILLIPS, PHILOMENA) that I believe shouldn't have been nominated except they each both had incredible performances: Barkhad Abdi as the pirates 'Captain' in PHILLIPS (which I felt outdid the great Tom Hanks' own performance) and Judi Dench as the eponymous PHILOMENA. Sidenote: 2 outta every 3 movies nominated this year is based on a true story. I don't think I've seen that before but I'm getting older, forgetting alot.

Who wins?  12 YEARS and DBC are good enough to win but unfortunately due to the gravity of their subject matter, I doubt either has a serious shot. AMERICAN HUSTLE is clearly the people's champ right now but GRAVITY may just snatch the award from it. With that said, I feel the Oscar should go to HER. It's a timely movie that's just as funny as it is accurate. Also it's the one movie on this list that everybody can relate to easily without any hangups. Think about it.


BEST ACTRESS: Amy Adams - American Hustle
Considering that every nominee has won an Academy Award accept Amy Adams, that could make her turn as a beautiful con artist in AMERICAN HUSTLE an Oscar winning one. Could, not should. The only serious threat to Adams' win is Cate Blanchett, who almost single-handedly made BLUE JASMINE a must see film. Judi Dench was equally wonderful as PHILOMENA though I doubt she wins this award because of the lack of awareness about it, another reason why I think Adams may eek out this win. To be honest, although I did like Sandra Bullock in GRAVITY, I liked the two strong female leads from AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY so much I felt like Julia Roberts should have gotten this nomination instead of Bullock and of course she as another Oscar winner also could have canceled out her A:OC costar Meryl Steep's nomination. 


BEST ACTOR: Leonardo DiCaprio - THE WOLF OF WALL STREET

This year is the year Leo DiCaprio gets his Oscar. TWOWS was fantastic only because of Leo. His embodiment of 80s greed was the heartbeat of this whole movie. I really wasn't that impressed with the movie when I first seen it but I'll chalk that off to the pneumonia I was diagnosed with 2 days later. Even then I noticed that the movies energy flowed from not around,  DiCaprio. I just watched it again recently and now feel like it's the little sister to Scorese's GOODFELLAS; same underlying theme sans the violence. Now, Christian Bale was great in AH but he didn't carry his movie like Leo did. Chiwetel Ejiofor COULD win for 12 YEARS because it was one hell of a performance... but yeah right!! Hollywood don't have the guts to give it to him (I wouldn't be mad if they proved me wrong here though). Matthew McConaughey was great in a gutsy role but got outshined in DALLAS BUYERS CLUB. The only real serious threat to Leo is Bruce Dern in a career defining role in NEBRASKA. The Academy could reward Dern here for it. 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Jennifer Lawrence - AMERICAN HUSTLE
This is the easiest award winner to pick. Sally Hawkins was OK as BLUE JASMINE's sister but not award winning great. Ditto June Squibb as Dern's long suffering wife in NEBRASKA. Doesn't seem like they had to stretch any acting chops for those roles. And while Julia Roberts was Best Actress level terrific in A:OC and Lupita Nyong'o made everybody take notice of her as the lusted-after slave Patsey in 12 YEARS, neither will win. Nyong'o for the same reason Ejiofor won't win the Best Actor Oscar for the same movie. Robert's A:OC was great but it touches on some extremely taboo subjects. I doubt if the Academy will reward the terrific performances from it but who knows. That only leaves one real nominee and it just so happens that she's Hollywood's current 'IT' girl. My only knock against J Law winning this award is she really wasn't in the movie long enough, in my opinion, to have 'supported' this movie.




BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Jared Leto - DALLAS BUYERS CLUB
If you read my review for CAPTAIN PHILLIPS, you'll see I LOVED Barkhad Abdi's role as the leader of the pirates who hijack Phillips cargo ship. I was extreme happy to see he got nominated. He won't win though, unfortunately. Neither will Michael Fassbender (whom I have no doubt will win an Oscar within the next three years or so; he's that great) for 12 YEARS. Bradley Cooper and Jonah Hill's noms are mind boggling to say the least. Not because they are bad performances but I can certainly think of better last year. Somebody whom I feel should have been nominated was Will Forte for his role as the Dern's son in NEBRASKA. Another nominee, one that would have been even more shocking than both of Jonah Hill's nominations, is Andrew Dice Clay who played the husband to Hawkin's character in BLUE JASMINE. It wouldn't have mattered though. This year's best supporting actress was actually a man! Jared Leto as Rayon in DALLAS BUYERS CLUB was probably the gutsiest performance all year. And the Academy will reward it as such, I promise.


DIRECTOR: Alfonso Cuaron - GRAVITY

David O Russell may be the favorite here with his AMERICAN HUSTLE entry. Alexander Payne's NEBRASKA touched a lot of people. Martin Scorsese gave us his best film since THE DEPARTED (some would argue GOOFELLAS but I digress) in TWOWS. Steve McQueen COULD win with his 12 YEARS but (stop me if you've heard this) it won't win because of the subject matter. Besides all of that, I feel that Alfonso Cuaron's tale of a doomed space mission should win this Award. It was one of the cinematic marvels of 2013 and even though it was set in space, it essentially boils down to a human study; about how we can lose, and then find, our way again. That's what I got from it, at least. 


And now for some quick goes at some of the other awards:

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: FROZEN, which also wins the BEST MUSIC/ ORIGINAL SONG Oscar for 'Let It Go'. THE WIND RISES should win though. SN: Why wasn't EPIC nominated?

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: HER, easily. It was the most original film of the year, after all.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: 12 YEARS at least gets one award. This is it.

PRODUCTION DESIGN: GRAVITY. Space ain't never looked this good before.



BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: Denmark's THE HUNT. Very powerful film with a universal message.






BEST DOCUMENTARY: Here, I'm gonna go with my personal choice, the documentary about backup singers called 20 FEET FROM STARDOM. Besides the other choices were too similar to each other to really stand out (except for CUTIE AND THE BOXER, which essentially is about a long term marriage). If you're asking, DIRTY WARS is the best of the rest. OAN: I can't believe Lisa Fischer ('How Can I Ease The Pain?') still looks and sounds good after all these years! She's one of the backup singers featured in 20FFS.

Lisa Fischer not just backup singing w/Mick Jagger at a Rolling Stones concert in 2013.

There you have it, WORLD. I've made my choices and these are my final answers. Am I right? Of course I am!! But we'll just have to wait til this Sunday before it's official. Later, WORLD.

10 Directors Whose Movies Will Never Be Remade

Hello, WORLD!!

  Smokkee here. I been kinda quiet on the movie review side but I haven't stopped writing. I finally feel like I reached the halfway point to finishing my first book of short stories, 'Is There A Third Option?'. Anyway, lemme got to why I decided to write this non-review post. If you're familiar with any of my Smokkee's WORLD blogs, you know I start every post with that one lone sentence at the top, "Hello, WORLD!". I been saying it so long when I wake up in the morning, I can't remember how long ago I started saying it. So naturally, I felt it's the best way to introduce something that I've wrote. Well this is one post, given the topic, that I think I might have started just a little bit different. I might have started this one like "Well, I'm almost sure they'd never have to worry...."

The reason this post even came about is the fact that Spike Lee is remaking Park Chan-wook's unclassifiable movie OLDBOY. It is one of the most unique movies I've ever seen and I'm totally interested in seeing Spike's version...just to see how Spike makes it his own or even if it's remotely possible to do that. I doubt either is possible, really. I can't even figure out what genre to put it in. Is it gangster? Hell yeah! Horror? Well, even after the umpteenth viewing the ending still gives my chills. Romance? There's a love story in here that I don't see how I can explain without giving away the movie, ruining the end, or short circuiting my mind which is still trying to compute what the ending is telling me. I get it but I don't think I want to get it, feel me. 

With that said, and one of my choices for this post ( Park Chan-wook, obviously) disqualified from this discussion, here's the top 10 directors that never have to worry about any of their films being remade.

10) Spike Lee

Had to include him since he's the guy that kicked Chan-wook off the list. But think about it: can you really see SCHOOL DAZE remade? Right, me neither. Of course there may be another film based on Malcolm X but will it capture the essence of the former Malcolm Little like Spike's version? Hell no, it won't. Besides, I think if Spike hears that somebody is even thinking about remaking, say, DO THE RIGHT THING, he would blow gasket unlike any he already has. Speaking of which....

9) Quentin Tarantino

If Spike reads this list, coming behind this 'n' word loving director would have him blow another gasket. But thinking about it, I can see JUNGLE FEVER remade before anything Quentin has directed. PULP FICTION started a whole legion of filmmakers using the disjointed story telling style but none even come close to the greatness that is this movie. Not one. JACKIE BROWN, a film made to pay homage to blackpolition movies, turned those on it's ear with an involving style that I don't think any director alive today can mimic. I'm not gonna even mention DJANGO UNCHAINED or INGLORIOUS BASTERDS. These movies are boardline tactless to most people. Any director attempting to remake these movies is committing career suicide. Seriously. Only a man like Quentin can get away with it and I feel bad for any director that wanna prove me wrong... 


8) Martin Scorsese:

GOODFELLAS single handedly reinvented the gangster film genre, CASINO was a genre buster as well. What really made me consider Scorsese for this list is TAXI DRIVER, one of the most complicated movies I've ever watched and Travis Bickle maybe the most complicated movie 'hero' ever. So complicated, this movie deserves a blog post of it's own (coming soon, I guess). His SHUTTER ISLAND is one of the best mind fucks of recent history and it too is also worthy of it's own blog post to discuss the ending only. I'm not gonna even bring up his take on Jesus Christ but you see my point here. No director would put out such a film even though directors have way more artistic freedom and the studios are more open-minded than they were when THE LAST TEMPTATION was released in the 1980s. What's interesting here is Scorsese himself has a couple of remakes under his belt too, 1991's CAPE FEAR and 2006's Best Picture Oscar winning THE DEPARTED.


7) M Night Shyamalan / Christopher Nolan

The one director on this list that I am the least fond of, there's no arguing that his first movie, THE SIXTH SENSE, changed the thriller game much like 1995's THE USUAL SUSPECTS did. The famous plot twist
here has been duplicated so many times, a remake would be overkill. Shymalan's career takes a hit with each movie that came after that original movie, which surprisingly still holds up. I hated to include him but nobody will remake any of his movies so yeah he deserves a spot here. But it's a spot that he has to share with Nolan, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors working today. It's kinda fitting that he shares this spot with Shyamalan; with the exception of the first two films in the Dark Knight Trilogy, Nolan's movies
all have a perverse twist to them as well. The ending of MEMENTO is haunting if you truly think about it and given how many people don't quite get it, yes I think it will get a future blog post of it's own or it will share one with the not-quite-similar but not-too-different SHUTTER ISLAND. Can you imagine somebody tackling a remake of THE PRESTIGE? Or INCEPTION? No? Neither can I, thankfully.


6) Frances Ford Coppola: THE GODFATHER trilogy has defined mafia movies from the time the first one was released in the early 1970s to this very day. Every mafia movie that has came out since is indebted to one of, if not all three, of these masterpieces. Who's gonna attempt to remake any of these classics? Nobody. Ain't nobody that stupid. His THE CONVERSATION, released between GF 1 and 2, is another classic and way more harder to find a genre for. One thing it has in common with the GFs is it is as equally un-remakable. If you seen the film then you know star Gene Hackmans descent into madness is almost unparallelled, partly because we're not quite sure he is mad. Then you have the ultimate war movie APOCALYPSE NOW. Imitated often, never quite duplicated and almost impossible to remake.  



5) Stanley Kubrick: When you think of directors whose movies can never be remade, you MUST add Stan Kubrick to this list. His take on Stephen King's THE SHINING was remade but that was remade from the book, not Kubrick insane vision. His CLOCKWORK ORANGE could be remade, I suppose, but if it is you'll still have Kubrick's version playing in your head. Trust me. His remake of the taboo touching LOLITA is the definitive version. Jeremy Irons starred in a remake from the source material but Kubrick's vision danced in my head the whole time I watched it.


4) David Cronenberg: Cronenberg, like Kubrick, has his own defining touch of film making. You can almost tell you're looking at a Cronenberg movie just by looking at it. Almost every director on this list is like that really, which makes remakes almost impossible. Cronenberg's THE FLY, HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, DEAD RINGERS, VIDEODROME, and EASTERN PROMISES all have his signature creepiness coursing through their veins. I can't think of a director that can bring the same energy to any of these movies if a remake were in the works.


3) Lars Von Triers: One of the most interesting directing techniques of recent memory is the Dogme 95, which basically avoids using any real special effects and chooses to accentuate the acting chops of the actors involved as well as the script of the movie in question. Lars Von Triers is one of the directors that fhelped start this movement. Nevermind that MELANCHOLIA is the most beautiful end of the world movie I've ever seen. Nobody is gonna remake this movie as depressing/uplifting as this story is (it's one of my newest favorite movies, BTW). Nevermind that his THE IDIOTS is an insane (sorry) look at being insane on purpose or as politically incorrect as possible. Nevermind that his gangsta film DOGVILLE doesn't even resemble a gangsta movie, thanks to the Dogme 95 style it was shot in, even when it goes totally gangsta at the end. Take a look at a trailer for his upcoming movie NYMPHOMANIACS. Tell me you see this movie being remade. I'll tell you you're lying.



2) Wes Anderson: Think 'good clean quirkiness'. That's what Wes goes for and that's what he delivers. From RUSHMORE to MOONRISE KINGDOMS he has managed to make lighthearted rom-coms almost as sublime as they are touching. His FANTASTIC MR FOX is a kids movie that's NOT for kids & THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS boasts one of the weirdest families cinema has ever seen. Unremakable is one of the words that come to mind.



1) David Lynch: BLUE VELVET? Untouchable. INLAND EMPIRE? Indescribable. MULHOLLAND DRIVE, one of my favorite movies of all time? Undefinable. Hell, if I can find one person who's seen this movie to agree with me on what this movie is about, I'd be happy with that! Hands down, Lynch is the most untouchable director of my generation. His movies make sense only after multiple viewings. I can only imagine a director tasked with trying to remake one of these movies sitting in a screening room trying to figure out what the hell is going on first before he even attempts to rewrite the scripts.

Right On 'About Time '!!

Hello, WORLD! Smokkee here. I've been holding off this
review for a few days now but can't put it off any longer. Why? Not really a long story but...lemme just get this review started first.

Not that this unique British movie About Time isn't a great movie, it's fantastic really. It's also kind of hard to catorgoize. I guess it's a love story at it's core but then it kind of does this complete spin away from that initial story line to address other types of love. I know I might be a bit confusing here but bear with me.

Tim's face when he hears the family secret the first time.

About Time opens with slim, lanky, and awkward teenager Tim starting his narration duties introducing us to his family and their traditions, including a family gathering at the family's summer home, and the movie begins during the year his life changes for ever. Usually just hearing that line only induces a groan but in Tim's case, I think you gotta make an exception. By the way Tim is played by Domhnall Gleeson, whom I was unfamiliar with but would've been familiar with if I'd really paid attention to the Harry Potter series. Domhnall does bear a resemblance to Brendon Gleeson, whom I've learned is his father.  On Tim's 21st birthday, his father (Bill Nighy, lovable here even if his acting like an asshole) tells him the family secret: the men of the family can time travel. All they have to do, Mr Lake says, is find a dark place, think of a time that's like to go back to, close their hands and they're off. Some of the funniest little bits in this movie is watching him find a dark spot to use to correct his missteps. 

After the initial shock of hearing this, and the initial shock of finding out it's actually true by going back to a New Year's party where he's too shy to kiss the girl next to him (managing to kiss her this time), Tim is overjoyed. After the initial warnings of using his powers for monetary gain, Tim's first course of action is to find himself a girl, something that doesn't come too easy to overly awkward teens. He doesn't have to look very far since his sister Kit Kat's drop dead gorgeous friend is spending the summer with them. 

Tim's face when he uses the family secret the first time.

Tim doesn't make a move on her til the end of her stay and she rejects him, saying he should have asked her when she first got there. Tim naturally goes back to the past and tries to do just that. Here's where the first unexpected move comes in. He gets rejected again. Now if he knew anything about women, he would have known that all he had to do is go back and actually talk to her instead just expressing how much he adores her. The movie lets Tim take this initial reaction as she doesn't want him and he just moves on. 


Tim moves in with a playwright friend of his father in London named Harry (Tom Hollander) while he's practicing law. and it's here that he eventually meets Mary (Rachel McAdams, who has been more attractive to me here than anywhere else I've seen her and here she's almost seems middle-aged believe it or not) at a blind blind dating site. Yes, a blind blind dating site and if you think about it, the idea is genius. It's love at first site when they do finally see each other but thanks to a time travel to aid Harry's latest play avoid a disastrous opening night, he some how manages to unmeet Mary. 

I won't describe any more of this movie from this point on. I've only described to you maybe the first 20 or 30 minutes. Of course at this point I expected this movie to be about Tim's efforts to re-meet Mary but I was wrong there. This issue is resolved fairly quickly too. Any time a movie can throw you through a loop with something you're not expecting is cause for celebration, especially in a day and age where we've basically exhausted every genre available. See, this movie goes from telling one type of love story to several, including what I feel is the best love story of them all: the love of living a life worth living. The acting is great but as Bill Nighy really stands out; he owns every scene he's in. I also feel like I fell in love of McAdam's frumpy Mary right along with Tim. She just has this down to earth quality here that I find extremely attractive. Speaking of attractive, London looks absolutely gorgeous. 

Another thing this movie did for me was it made me really think about how precious time is. We really don't have a lot of it to start with and the simply fact is a lot of us waste it by doing absolutely nothing at times when some of everything can be done. I'm definitely guilty of this myself, especially since I saw this movie last Wednesday and I'm just getting around to actually writing this review.    

Avoid this movie if you don't like British accents. Everybody else is gonna love this movie, lol.
Seriously if you want to see a great love story see this movie.

A+

'Captain Phillips' Deserves a Promotion!

Hello, WORLD!! Smokkee here. I saw Tom Hanks latest movie, 'Captain Phillips', this past Wednesday. I wasn't totally shocked that it was great, but I can say I didn't expect it. It earns an 'A', easy, but it wasn't as thought provoking as the other movie I screened this week, 'About Time', so I'll keep this one brief so I can go focus on that one.


'Captain Phillips' tales the incredible story of Captain Richard Phillips, captain of the Maersk Alabama, a US container ship. It's set to deliver some goods in Somali, which is notorious for pirate activity. Of course you know that that's exactly what happens: the ship gets hijacked naturally. There wouldn't be a tale without that happening.

We're introduced to these 'pirates' early and they're nothing like Jack Sparrow. They're more like the grown up version of those kids we see on those "Just $1.00 a day can help feed.." commercials and they're looking like they haven't really changed much from those days. They're the native Somalians who work hard enough as fisherman and other odd jobs to still not have much to live off of who're presented with an opportunity of a lifetime for them: big bucks for finding a ship worth hijacking. All of these guys jump at the chance. It was interesting to see that these characters, for all of their impoverish looks, are actually tech savvy. Those selected to aid the would be pirates rush off to find the lone container ship that separates itself from the rest of the ships, which they scoped out their radars. One tells ultra slim Somalian Muse (Barkhad Abdi) that he better not get in his way. The surprise here Abdi, he who looks slow on the up-think at times but is no where near as naive or as fragile as he appears. From this point on, this movie gets intense.

I'm not gonna get into to much detail about what happens after the first attempted hijacking. It's one of the best scenes in the movie because you really get a sense of who Phillips, and Muse, are. It also sets the stage for a global version of chess that some of these players ain't ranked high enough to play.

As for the acting, Hanks here is flawless. I would say he carries this movie because he's the one lone American we see the most of, even though there's gotta be at least 30-40 crew members on deck. I should add that I should've known Hanks would be flawless here; he thrive's as the everyman against all kinds of insurmountable odds (Cast Away, Philadelphia, Saving Private Ryan, and of course Forrest Gump). An Oscar nod would not be undeserved so no shock if he gets one. But as I said earlier, Abdi is the real surprise, more than holding his own against Hanks' Phillips in a battle that won't turn out as either expects.

I'm sorry if I haven't gave you enough info to decide if you want to see this movie or not. I know I didn't want to see it at all. I didn't think I would be entertained. I was wrong. A tense movie with a great share of comedic moments you may or may not hate yourself for laughing at. I know I felt like I shoulda suppressed a few chuckles. But this is one of the most intense movies I've seen all year. Definitely worth a viewing.

A