Picks of the Week: I’ve Made a Huge Mistake
Week of May 31st, 2008
I’m trying to make themes to these, but it’s hard to do within the five items. I’m pretty sure 3 of the 5 work with this theme though, so shut up. I’m also trying to pick things that not everyone in the world know about. Here we go!
Movie: Oldboy
A very dark, very disturbing Korean film that took me by surprise. I had never watched too many foreign language films (cause my language is the best obviously) and therefore was never expecting such a complex, intricately woven tale of revenge and betrayal. I wrote that last sentence hoping they’ll use it and quote me on the back of a DVD box one day. Anyway, There are some cool action scenes, like a long hallway battle that is done in one shot that is really epic and awesome, as well as some interesting plot devices which I appreciated quite a bit if I wasn’t a little disturbed by them. Shyamalan, take note. This is the proper use of a so called ‘twist’ in the story.
Children Don’t Like Being Crows
This was the awesome cake my mom made me for my birthday party a few weeks ago. It’s probably the greatest thing ever created. (It’s a dinosaur)
So yesterday was my first school booking for a day long workshop at the Empress. We had a class of 19 grade 5 kids come to the theater so we could teach them how to act crazy and create stories. I had a little bit of experience teaching children during my Theater for Young Audiences class, but I was still a little nervous. Kids are hard to predict, and sometimes there are perfectly happy and well behaved little angels and other times there are evil little miscreants who never listen and hate everything about you. So I went into it with a positive attitude, and while they weren’t nearly as bad as I thought there was still some little punks who we immediately recognized as ‘trouble makers.’ I’m just glad Jeremy was there to act as the ‘head honcho’ and wrangle the kids into shape when needed.
For the first part of the day we just did some drama games, and for the most part there wasn’t much worth noting. At one point however, Jeremy had to stop everyone and talk to them ’sternly’ because everyone was running into each other and there was a possibility of getting hurt. As he was giving a little talk to the kids, the teacher piped in and started talking about how ‘This is what I’ve been going through all year, I can’t believe this is still happening ahhhh’ and it was a little awkward. It seemed like the teacher was really stressed over her kids and was happy to get the year over with. When it came time for lunch she asked Jer to come with her and the kids to the park because she might not ‘be able to handle them’ alone. WHAT? You are their TEACHER lady. Maybe you chose the wrong profession?
After lunch was when we made a little mini play with the kids. We each had a third of the kids and made the beginning, middle, and end to a story (Hansel and Gretel) separately. So afterwards we all showed them in order and it was pretty interesting. But the worst part was trying to figure out how to cast the kids, I had three boys and three girls, all the boys wanted Hansel and two girls wanted Gretel (the third didn’t care and didn’t seem to want to do anything at all). So I had to make some executive decisions and choose everyone’s part. The one girl was happy with being a wolf, while the one boy was okay with being the evil witch. The third boy, however, HATED HATED HATED being a crow, and sat down on the edge of the stage and pouted. He said he didn’t want to do ANYTHING anymore, so I asked if he wanted to do Math homework instead, and he was like ‘YEAH’ which took me by surprise so I asked if he HAD any of it with him, and he said no. So I was able to make him happy with being a crow since he was allowed to run down the aisle flying up to the stage. Kids are strange.
The weirdest thing of the day, though, was after the kids left. Last week Gerard (Artistic Director of the Empress) invited all the summer staffers to watch the Rolling Stones concert dvd (Shine a Light) by Martin Scorcese and eat pizza. We had no idea why this was happening, but he made it sound like it was pretty much mandatory. So that was supposed to happen yesterday and we waited around. We were corralled into the theater’s balcony and he gave us all sheets of paper with ‘STAFF MEETING’ written on top which was strange enough because we weren’t told it was a meeting. Then he made a point to announce at the beginning that he wasn’t expecting the summer staff to be here…even though he INVITED US! Then we had the pizza (which was pretty bad actually) and they started the movie. It was ONLY the summer staff by about halfway through the film and I fell asleep watching it. Honestly there is only so much of Mick Jagger’s old wrinkly ass waving in front of my face that I can take. Wouldn’t it be embarrasing if he was your grandfather? I guess only slightly. And you’d be pretty rich, so…
The drummer was the coolest looking grandfather ever though. Anyway it was pretty strange that we were pretty much forced to sit through this movie when no one else was even watching it. Oh well, afterwards I got some fresh popcorn! (we get free pop and popcorn there)
Picks of the Week: Favorites
Week of May 24th, 2008
For this inaugural week, I’m going to go with my favorite (or at least current favorite) picks.
Movie: Magnolia
Still one of my favorite movies, this is such a beautiful film and I loved every minute of it. The actors were all phenomenal (including Tom Cruise whom I normally despise) and the story really moved me. The movie was written around an Aimee Mann lyric which is spoken by one of the characters as well, and the majority of the movie is done to Aimee Mann songs and it is really well done. I believe this movie is what initiated my secret man love for Paul Thomas Anderson and I am kicking myself for still not having seen There Will Be Blood.
Exodus
Best Propaganda poster ever
I have officially started my job at the Empress Theater in Fort Macleod, and I can tell it’s going to be a busy/rewarding summer. On top of the two plays we will be putting together and performing, we’ll also do guided tours of the theater itself (with spiffy blue polo golf shirts as uniforms!) and drama camps/workshops for kids later on in the summer! I am pretty excited for it actually, it feels a lot like my Theater for Young Audiences class I took last semester except this time, I get paid!
Since I’ll be working there pretty hardcore this summer, my job at HMV is going to take a backseat, and I’ll probably work one shift a week or so there. But Ryland, Jen and Dave have all submitted resignation letters, and James says he might be planning to as well, and Cam’s contract is up in the end of May, so that leaves myself, Kent, and Adam. Adam makes his own schedule and is really just a receiver and Kent is in summer school, so he’s only getting two shifts a week or so. So…I have no idea what’s going to happen with the store. Really they should have been hiring people way back in February because now they are scrambling. I guess we’ll have to see what happens here, but it is not looking good!
Nestea makes some specialty iced tea called Vitao and I had a Mandarin Orange one today and it’s delicious and (possibly) nutritious. I may be drinking much more of those. Also, the mall has a new little sandwich shop called Café Express which is a pretty good price and pretty tasty (sandwich + 2 kinds of salads + chocolate milk for 8 bucks!). Looks like I found a new place to eat for my lunch breaks!
Old People
I saw a really old man driving a motorized scooter today and it was really awesome. Not the sit down, wheelchair type things, but an actual scooter that is similar to a bicycle. I’ve never seen that before. I think that, in general, old people are either a) really hilarious/awesome or b) really cranky and mean. There really is no middle ground once you make it over 70 years old. I definitely hope to be of the former category when I’m that age!
In other news, I’ve tried to maintain my sanity this summer by delving deep into the world of video games. Granted I’ve been in this world for the majority of my life, but I’ve been so out of my mind bored with Carli gone that I’m playing much more than I should be. It also has to do with the new Grand Theft Auto game coming out and me being totally enjoying my experiences with said game. It’s one of the more ‘realistic’ games I’ve played before and it’s pretty entertaining to run around shoving people and making them drop their shopping bags (which they never retrieve for some reason, guess I’m just that intimidating). Anyway, my video gaming marathon will soon come to an end when I start my job at the Empress Theater in a few days, it’s going to be fun to get paid to do the things I love.
I’ve been trying to write more, and think up ideas for stories, plays, etc, but I’ve had little luck so far. I think if I just started writing instead of meticulously planning things out all the time I would probably get a lot more done. I hope to get some short stories posted here soon, even if they aren’t the greatest stories ever written, we all have to start somewhere.
Movie Review: Iron Man (2008)
Iron Man
Director: Jon Favreau
Writer: Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Terence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow
Rating: 18/20
Interestingly enough, this is probably the first movie I went to on opening night purely on impulse. Normally if I’m going to a film on opening night I’ve been anticipating it for years and bought my ticket long in advance of the actual night. This time however, I bought my ticket online after my brother told me he was going, and arrived at the theater less excited about the movie than I would have had I known what I was in for.
There was a few reasons I wasn’t super excited for this film. First the previews made the movie look laughably lame, and I honestly was not expecting much. The director, Jon Favreau, made the terrible Daredevil film some years back, and maybe if Ben Affleck was in the lead role again this would have been a train wreck. The other reason I was not particularly excited for this film was due to my own knowledge on the subject. Unlike other superhero movies, I never read any Iron Man comic books and never really delved deep into the character or the back story behind it, the extent of my knowledge was that Iron Man is Tony Stark, a drunk billionaire. He shoots people with his hands and flies around a lot. As it turns out, the story to this character is quite interesting and more complex than I realized. And while initial reviews on the film were surprisingly positive, I really was surprised and delighted that this movie was one of the best superhero movies I’ve ever seen.
Movie Review: Cloverfield (2008)
Cloverfield
Director: Matt Reeves
Writer: Drew Goddard
Starring: Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, Odette Yustman, Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller
Rating: 20/20
Disclaimer: In my review at no time will you see me write ‘9/11′ or ‘Twenty-somethings’ because GODDAMNIT.
I think I was one of the many people surprised at the clever then-untitled trailer of this movie when I first saw it, and at the time I was pretty excited to learn more. When you think about it, it was a pretty well done marketing campaign, and that was actually one of the biggest reasons I was nervous going into the theater to watch this film when it was finally released. There also seemed to be a lot less marketing happening from the first trailer until a few weeks before the release. Nevertheless, I was still really excited to see it and went into the theater with high hopes. Luckily, my hopes were not destroyed, in fact they were blown away.
Top 25 Comedy Films
25. I Heart Huckabees
While many people I’ve talked to have found this film to be either bizarre or just terrible, I found it to be both hilarious and charming. I’m sure there’s some message in the film that they were trying to get across to us all, but to be honest I didn’t catch it. I was enjoying the unique characters and interesting situations more than anything. Mark Wahlberg is actually bearable in this film and I found his character to be the most humorous.
Of course at times there seems to be scenes/ideas that push too hard and seem to be hitting you in the face with some kind of moral to the story, but I didn’t find it present enough to deter my enjoyment from the film. A pretty stellar cast too, with Jason Schwartzman, Dustin Hoffman, Lily Tomlin, Naomi Watts, Jude Law, and Wahlberg headlining.
Best Moment: During a dinner scene with devout Christians, Mark Wahlberg’s character berates them for using petroleum and ruining the world. The father angrily screams that ‘God gave us oil! He gave it to us! How can a gift from God be bad?’
Movie Review: Transformers (2007)
Transformers
Director: Michael Bay
Writers: Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Peter Cullen, Jon Voight, Josh Duhamel
Rating: 5/20
I was always a huge fan of the original Transformers cartoon, as well as the subsequent spin-offs like Beast Wars (read my top 25 TV Shows for proof!), so when I heard they were making a live action movie out of the franchise, I was pretty damn excited. When I heard Michael Bay had signed on as a director, I was notably less excited. I didn’t write it off completely, because while I find Bay a bit hack-ish and a director who panders to the audience, the blame of his work can’t be placed entirely upon his shoulders. I was hoping beyond hope that things would turn out great, after all, it’s giant robots fighting each other, how could you mess that up?
For starters, you could have the giant robots become mere side characters, and focus on the humans and their reactions to the giant robots. That is the center of this story. Steven Spielberg (exec. producer) pitched it as a story about ‘a boy and his car’ and I can’t stress enough how big of a mistake that was. The story takes much too long to get to the meat of the film, the Transformers. That’s what people have come to see. We don’t want to see Shia LaBeouf awkwardly trying to pick up generic film hottie #7. Especially when she is making a ‘durr’ face every two seconds (if you’ve seen the movie you should know what I’m talking about). I am also not interested in seeing how amazing the AMERICAN MILITARY can be, nor do I care what new cars are coming out next year and which Transformer I can one day own if I was a millionaire. I want to see ROBOTS KICKING THE CRAP OUT OF EACH OTHER. That’s what Transformers are about. Granted there are some cool moments with the robots, but ultimately the camera pans back to Sam running and screaming, while the stuff I really want to see happens off-camera.
Trip Report: Beautiful British Columbia – Part Two
The next day we successfully got breakfast at Ihop. It was pretty tasty but not as magical as I hoped it would be. The pancakes were fantastic but the eggs/hashbrowns/etc were pretty standard.
Then we made our way to the PNE Amusement Park, which is located in the heart of Vancouver. There were so many crazy asian ladies holding ‘parking’ signs around the regular parking lot, and we were told of this from Sean (Heather’s cop boyfriend) so when we were approached by one of them giving us 4 dollar parking instead of 6.50, we decided to take it! She took off down the alley and we followed her in the car and it was pretty funny how fast she ran to get to the parking spot (her driveway). Then we paid her and she took off again to go find more people to park, and I snagged a picture of her as she ran back:
