Slowly Learning...

So before I leave, here are my thoughts on the last three films that I've seen (in short format):

Short Bus:
Let's start with the obvious, it's no Hedwig. Not even close, but it's still got its moments. The film is definitely on the edge, and almost accurately realistic in it's in your face sexual nature. The main problem I found is that it almost felt like a musical (almost never a good thing in my book), but without the music. It had that stage-type, over the top style to it that comes from the stage, and never works on the big screen. Better luck next time.
RATING: Worth a mid-level Netflix (but only if you can stomache the graphic sexual nature of it all).

The Illusionist:
I originally got this movie confused with The Prestige (Hollywood has got to stop releasing so many obviously similar movies at the same time), but eventually I got all that sorted out. This is the one with Tyler Durden, not Batman starring in it... So now that that one is settled, what about the film? I'm a big Ed Norton fan, and somehow after everthing I see him in (even stuff like The Italian Job) I like him more. But you do have to take him with Jessica Biel in this one (pretty, but not much on the acting side). Thankfully (**Semi-Spoiler Alert**) she dies and isn't that big a part of the film. Another plus is the "classic"? style it's shot in. It gives it that very old-timey feel to it with the yellow hue to everything and the blurry/bunrt out edges of the film. It really does help to set the mood for the entire film. However, Paul Giamatti has given us better performances, and he just seems a little out of place for most of the film. **More Semi-Spoiler Alert** And the "twist" at the end isn't that much of a twist after all. Anyone who's seen any sort of thriller-style movie will have hashed it all out long before the end. But all in all it was a very entertaining film.
RATING: Worth the $5 double feature price I paid (and probably more), Worth a rather high Netflix rental.

The Science of Sleep:
I'm going to keep this one short and sweet for you all with just a short checklist of questions.
1 - Have you seen Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and did you like it?
2 - Do strange, twisting, nearly impossible to follow story lines entice you?
3 - Did you think that Eternal Sunshine was too easy to follow and understand?
4 - Does a movie in three different languages interest you?
5 - Especially when some of those languages are poorly spoken and literaly translated?
6 - Do you like to laugh?

If you answered "yes" to 1-3 of those questions you should probably see this movie. If you answered "yes" to 4-5 of those questions you should definitely see this movie. If you answered "yes" to all 6 of them, then you must see this movie.

However, on one negative note, there did seem like there were bits missing at times, like they were left on the cutting room floor, or just left out to the script for some odd reason (perhaps Gondry needed Kaufman, one of the other greatest imaginative minds in script writing, to help him work it all out better). So you do have to be prepared for what seem like gaps or leaps in the progression of the characters.
RATING: Worth almost any full priced admission ticket, Put it on the top of your Netflix list.

Posted by Thom at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, not exactly Spring Break, since it's winter, but I have decided to take a breif hiatus from posting until things settle down a little bit. I know I haven't been posting much to begin with, but I still feel the need for a break. I haven't had to actually deal with having school, work, and a social life all at the same time before, and it's starting to drain me a little (hell I've rarely had to deal with two of those things at the same time). So the solution, take a break until after the holiday season. I do however plan to keep notes about the happenings so I can easily update everyone once I start posting again come January (I've found that this is a very important thing to do since I rarely remember what happened yesterday, let alone two months ago. And I always know that something must have happened in the last week, but when asked without my notes I always draw a blank).

But all is not lost. I do plan on spending this time focusing on getting everything in order, watching plenty of movies (thinking of a month-long Bond marathon even), and hopefully getting back into taking some majorly amateurish photos to share with the web community. I also plan to be online even less (hard to imagine since I've been off so much as it is), so if you want to stay in touch with me you may have to use that old-timey contraption called the telephone (I do still use the old Ithaca cell phone number for anyone wondering), or I probably will still be checking my email account semi-regularly (as is required to stay in touch with what's happening at school), but very little AIM.

So enjoy the holidays, and see you all again in the new year.

Posted by Thom at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So Halloween was just the other day, and I got the pleasure of getting to work that morning. And the Wegmans at which I am employed is right next to a Sheer Ego training salon, which is full of women who always come in to get coffee and what not. Since it was Halloween, they were all dressed up as well. Now I'm well aware that Halloween has become National Dress Like a Slut Day for most women, and I have no problem with that. But I just figured that holiday didn't go into full effect until at least like noon or something. But no, at 9 am there were "sexy" versions of just about anything you could think of wandering around the coffee section at Wegmans. There was some respectable eye candy in the bunch (along with plenty of women who should have been wearing more, a lot more), but at 9 am on a Wednesday when I've just rolled out of bed not much more than two hours earlier I'm just not prepared or in the mood to see that.

And in other "dress like a slut" news I did manage to dress up and head out for Halloween this year. We did it on the Friday before though. I was dressed in some of Nikki's clothes (yes there will be some pictures of this later, and yes I too am surprised that I managed to fit into a 130 lb. 6' tall woman's clothes) and Nikki went as what can best be described as a "sexy nurse". It was a very good time, and worth the fact that I only 3 hours of sleep that night before having to get up for work the next morning (that was not a fun shift).

However those are my only two notes for the time being. I'm sure I'll come up with something more later.

P.S. - I finally got out to a movie the other night (Shortbus) and will be hopefully posting about that one soon. Oh, and I think I may have finally destoryed my iPod (yay and my curse on electronics and machinery!) as it keeps crashing and flaking out on me.

Posted by Thom at 8:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)