Thursday, June 26, 2008

cool youtube video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWgCzVJXqvU

Enjoy!!!!



This will definitely clean you out. In the town of Zheleznovodsk in Russia, a spa resort paid homage to its most popular treatment: The enema. In this photo, the smartly dressed nurses stand next to the 800 pound monument. Three little angels support the bronze syringe bulb. Awwww, how cuuuuuuute.

movie minute

Bad Happens: M. Night Shyamalan used to be a pretty good suspense spinner. He knew how to make a movie that was enjoyable, riveting and made the viewer need to see it again to figure out exactly what was missed the first time. That was true of his first movie The Sixth Sense. Since then, it's all been downhill. Don't get me wrong, he's had some pretty good films since his first one and his new one, The Happening (R). The pretty good ones are Signs and The Village; the not so good ones are Unbreakable, Lady In The Water and the latest movie pretending to be scary but is really a hand-me-down dressed political statement.

In The Happening, something is causing people to act irrationally and take their own lives. Among the scenes of people doing themselves in is an eerie scene of construction workers jumping from a building to their deaths...in NYC no less. Yes, that Shyamalan knows how to play with our emotions but he doesn't know how to keep it up. The movie stars Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel as Elliot and Alma Moore. Elliot, a science teacher decides to pack up Alma and his best friend Julian, played by John Leguizamo, and head out of Philadelphia to a smaller town when it appears the big cities are being hit by the mysterious plague.

Of course, being a movie in which characters are on the run, there have to be children and Elliot and Alma get stuck with Julian's daughter when Julian decides to try and find his wife. The fim does feature some pretty graphic, if not silly, scenes of death. Ok, I'll admit some of them are just plain silly and it sometimes seems as if Shyamalan is trying to tap into his inner Stephen King. Keep tapping, M. Night, you're not even close.

There is something to the premise of what is causing the plague but it's not enough and it's way too obvious what M. Night is trying to say. All of the happenings occur in the Northeast and then soon just stop. As the film closes, things begin to happen again; this time someplace different and if at that point you haven't figured out what the statement is, maybe you should go work in a factory.

M. Night needs to go back to the drawing board, get back to his roots and make another movie that totally grabs us from the beginning and doesn't let go until the end when we realize...Ahha, of course, how clever. This one barely grabs one by the hand.

Bags of popcorn (out of 5): 1.5

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

movie minute

Sex It Up: The new movie with four of our favorite perpetually lovelorn New York women has finally come to a screen near you. Yes, Sex And The City (rated R), with the tales of Carrie and her friends wading their way through the treacherous waters of relationships is here and I have to say, it's a bit disappointing. Just a bit.

The film starts as Carrie and Big (aka John James Preston) are preparing for their blowout wedding. Everyone from the tv series is on hand: Samantha, Miranda, Charlotte, Steve, Harry, Stanford and Jerry. If you don't know who all of those people are, that's okay because you don't have to know. One doesn't need to have watched the show religiously (which I did) in order to know who these women are.

The film takes ample time with all four characters and even introduces a new assistant for Carrie, the fabulous Louise (played by the even more fabulous Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson). Sadly, Hudson is a bit underused. What's even sadder is that at 2hours and 15min, instead of being a burst of energy throughout, the film drags in a number of places. It does, however, try to compensate for that with plenty of laughs; plenty.

I won't tell you what happens but I will tell you this, the rumors of Mr. Big's demise are greatly overrated.

If you're in the mood for a little bit of fun and a lot of naughty with lots of laughs then this movie is for you. If you need something with a little more kick, I'd say skip it.

Bags of popcorn (out of 5) 3

peace,
paul

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Going green: Almost everywhere one goes these days, you hear about going green. I'm not talking about the color of our currency but the saving of the environment by recycling, being efficient in our resources and being smart about not being wasteful. There is one place where it's not good to be green and that is in the cast of Wicked.

Wicked, based on Gregory Maguire's novel of the same name, tells the story of Galinda (the future good witch) and Elphaba (the future wicked witch) and how they meet at Shiz University. The musical follows, with catchy and energetic music, the two as they end up having to share a room and realize that there's more underhandedness happening in their part of the world than they ever would have imagined.

As the play progresses, we get to see everything that happened leading up to when The Wizard Of Oz began and then we get to see the aftermath of the death of the witch. The way things are tied together is pure genius. We get to see all of the Oz characters at some point and how they fit into the story is so clever.

The play has all of the relevant (to today's time) themes such as standing up for what's right, being misunderstood/different and not fitting in, putting your faith in people just because they hold a certain title and risking it all to change the "world" for the better.

I admit I tried to read the novel before seeing the show but I only made it halfway through. It requires a lot of interest in fantasy; something I just don't have. Having said that, I enjoyed the soundtrack and thought the musical was just short of brilliant. In fact, having already seen Avenue Q and then seeing Wicked, I believe Wicked was robbed of the Tony Award in 2004-both shows were released on Broadway during the same season. What's funny about that is Wicked won almost all of the awards leading up to the Tonys.

I wish I could have seen the show on Broadway with Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel (who also won a Tony for the role of Elphaba) but the two leads were magnificent. Galinda was a hoot and while she drew much laughter in almost every scene she was in, I sometimes felt it was bordering on overacting. The woman in the role of Elphaba had an incredibly powerful voice and had her own share of roaring laughter. This play was alive from the moment the curtain rose to the moment the actors took their bows. I'd see it again in a heartbeat. And, what's more, there's a surprise (for me, anyway) ending that cinches the show's excellence.

If you haven't seen this musical, it is a must-see. I'm sure the movie version won't be long in waiting.

Score-A

peace,

paul