I'm not really a Broadway guy. Musicals typically make me cringe. I liked the Lion King, but other than that I've always left the theatre pretty underwhelmed.
Tonight I saw American Idiot from the 2nd row at the Toronto Centre for the Arts. It was pretty damn good. Of course, it helps if you like Green Day's music, which I do, but even if you don't I think you'd enjoy this show. It looks and sounds great.
American Idiot runs through January 15, 2012. Back in December 2005, I dissected Jesus of Suburbia. It's a rather interesting entry in retrospect.
Update: There's a performer in this musical who loses his leg in war. I was ten feet from the guy and I couldn't tell how he was hiding his leg. There's one scene where he has a stump for a leg Lieutenant Dan style and another where he has a fake leg... I'm still scratching my head as to how they did it. If you know, please let me know in the comments.
Yesterday at about this time, Humble took us all out to Tim Hortons for lunch. Imagine Humble, Fred, Scary Pete and me walking into your local Tims and that was the scene. There was a new item on the menu, so we decided to try it.
The plan was for us to review the Tim Hortons' lasagna on today's podcast but we forget to get to it. So... here's my review of the lasagna.
It's good. Not Palma Pasta good, but still good. It came with two slices of garlic bread and filled me up. Yummy.
I actually wrote this entry on Google+ first... then realized nobody will read it there. So here's a modified version for the 12 of you checking in on a Saturday morning.
I saw Moneyball last night, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's great fun for those of us who like inside baseball, but it also works for the non-baseball enthusiast. Brad Pitt as Billy Beane was a great idea.
Because this is the not-so-distant past, and based on real events in a sport I follow closely, I kept comparing the data in my memory bank with what I saw on the screen. It was close, but Moneyball seemed to suffer from selective memory syndrome and cherry picked the data to fit the mold.
I remember that 2002 Athletics team. Primarily, I remember their first three starters and an MVP shortstop. The movie barely mentions those four:
Barry Zito
Tim Hudson
Mark Mulder
Miguel Tejada
Those were the big 4, am I right? Instead the movie primarily focuses on:
Scott Hatteberg
David Justice
Chad Bradford
Still a great movie, but very misleading. No mention of Hatteberg playing DH in the beginning, there's a scene where they decide to get Jeremy Giambi after the 2001 season, Hollywood stuff like that.
Don't believe the hype. True Grit is a very good movie, that's well acted and easy viewing, but it's not the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world you've been hearing about.
I saw it yesterday and I was disappointed. Hopes were sky high for this one, as I've been hearing how amazing it is and I'm already a big Coen Brothers fan. But really, it's just good... it's not great. And if you're looking for something as good as Fargo or No Country For Old Men or even The Big Lebowski, you'll be disappointed.
There's a flurry of convenient wrap-up elements at the end of this flick that made me cringe, and then a lazy out. Of course, all this criticism is directed at a very good movie with tremendous acting from Hailee Steinfeld and another strong performance by Jeff Bridges, but that's just because I expected better.
Am I the only one who was a little disappointed? It seems that way...
Matt Damon is very good in this flick about Mark Whitacre, the highest-ranking executive in U.S. history to blow the whistle in a case of corporate fraud.
It's a very funny flick, primarily because of Mark Whitacre's asides. Here are a few:
When polar bears hunt, they crouch down by a hole in the ice and wait for a seal to pop up. They keep one paw over their nose so that they blend in, because they've got those black noses. They'd blend in perfectly if not for the nose. So the question is, how do they know their noses are black? From looking at other polar bears? Do they see their reflections in the water and think, "I'd be invisible if not for that." That seems like a lot of thinking for a bear.
I don't like wool on skin. Not even that merino wool they have at Marshall Field in Chicago. Ginger likes it because it's formfitting, but she likes avocados. And who wants that texture in their mouth?
We took the kids one year to the Renaissance Festival in Indiana. You get to be the White Knight. The kids get to ride a horse and joust against the forces of darkness with a helmet on. And the White Knight always wins - the forces of darkness fall onto an old mattress. Someone plays a Lute and plays a song from Medieval Times. The day we went it was maybe 90 degrees out and the heat and humidity index I can't even remember what the radio said. We were next in line and the mare collapsed. Went down in a heap. Ginger was eating Ye Olde Drumstick and she dropped it in the dirt. The kids were crying. I remember this farmer saying he had a gun in his truck. Just like that. From the White Knight to a gun in the truck. They had everyone turn their backs before they put the animal down, but even if you couldn't see you could still hear. How do you get that back? How does that get to be fair?
I've been to Tokyo. They sell little-girl underwear in the vending machines right on the main drag, the Ginza, or whatever. Guys in suits buying used girl panties. How is that okay? That's not okay.
There should be a tv show about a guy who calls home one day and he's there, he answers, he's talking to himself, only he's someone else. He's somehow divided into two, and the second one of him drives away and the rest of the show is about him trying to find the guy.
There are these butterflies in Central America. They're blue and orange and yellow and have poison in their wings,just enough to stop a bird heart. But the birds know this somehow, so they don't eat them. But there are other ones, butterflies, they're orange, blue and yellow too but no poison wings. They're just flying around, looking dangerous, getting by on their looks.
What's more amazing is that Inglourious Basterds is Quentin Tarantino's film with the most Academy Award nominations. That's right, it was nominated more times than Pulp Fiction. Make no mistake about it, Inglourious Basterds isn't as good as Pulp Fiction, but it's pretty damn amazing.
In the Tarantino universe, I'd put it behind Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and the Kill Bills, but ahead of Jackie Brown and Grindhouse: Death Proof, both of which are fantastic, by the way. This guy can make a movie.
I didn't like I Love You, Man as much as you did. Sure, it was cute... and parts of it were actually funny, but as a whole it missed the mark.
Firstly, I don't believe Paul Rudd can carry a film like this. Calm down... I like Paul Rudd, too... but as a supporting player. He can't be the guy.
And what's with the iPhone and iTunes infomercials? I guess that's part of movies now, but even the Rush stuff seemed rather forced, and I like Rush. This movie could have been called I Love You, Rush.
And finally, was Lou Ferrigno this movie's response to The Hangover's Mike Tyson? Just wondering.
I could tell that was Mariah Carey, but damn, I totally didn't realize that was Lenny Kravitz until just now.
Oh yeah, the movie... I heard so much about this film, I felt like I had seen it before I saw it last night. Talk about spoilers, I already knew *** *** ******* *** ** and *** ***'* * ***** ** ****. Maybe that's why I didn't dig it the way I expected to.
Sure, she had a shitty hand dealt to her, but ya gotta play. Good on her, just don't tell me this is the best film of the year. And Lenny, good on you!
If you haven't seen Inception yet, and you're in the mood for a good old fashioned mind fuck, this is your movie.
I totally bugged it, even when it was hurting my brain. And the best part is after the movie when you replay it in your head and try and solve the puzzle. I have my theories, but they're full of spoilers so you won't read them here.
I'm not really a Broadway guy. Musicals typically make me cringe. I liked the Lion King, but other than that I've always left the theatre pretty underwhelmed.
Entry Permalink
12 comments
Yesterday at about this time, Humble took us all out to Tim Hortons for lunch. Imagine Humble, Fred, Scary Pete and me walking into your local Tims and that was the scene. There was a new item on the menu, so we decided to try it.
I actually wrote this entry 
