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March 29, 2005
Les Triplettes de Belleville
Or 'The Triplets of Belleville' for those of us who don't parles vouz el french.
Directed by
Sylvain Chomet
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At first I wasn't sure what to think about this movie because it was weird. Very very weird. But weird is good and so is this movie.
A depressed boy gets gifted a trycicle as a present from his grandma after a series of unsuccessful gifts (including one of the main characters-train hating dog sidekick Bruno) thus spuring him on to dedicate his life training for the Tour De France.
When the time comes to compete, trouble erupts along the race and the boy (Champion) gets kidnapped by the French Mafia (oh no!).
What happens next you'll have to find out for yourselves because it's a very simple delight of a movie with colourful characters and great animation. Who the heck are the Triplets of Belleville and how the heck does Champion get rescued?
Posted by prism at 11:56 PM
March 11, 2005
Love.Music.Angel.Baby by Gwen Stefani
Anytime I've ever bought a CD because I've liked one song, it's usually come back to bite me on the ass (Blind Melon, Deep Blue Something, and Marcy's Playground, I'm looking at y'all!).
I wasn't totally in love with What You Waiting For?. It's catchy and dance-poppy, but it's hard to understand what she's saying (she's worried about her solo career) and the lyrics seem repetitive.
So I waited to hear the next single before I decided whether or not to buy the album. The next song released was Rich Girl (with Stefani's female rap singer of choice, Eve) and I found it to be much more catchy and kitschy than the first song, but just as repetitive.
That didn't stop me from buying the album though and I have to say that I am enjoying it. Not every song, hence the 2 pitchforks, but the majority of them.
The first 3 songs on the album (What You Waiting For, Rich Girl, and Hollaback Girl) are the first 3 songs released onto the airwaves. Hollaback Girl sounds very much like a song you'd see at a Step Show. The lyrics are all about how she's heard you talking shit about her and she's not down with that so she's gonna take care of you behind the bleachers.
If you've ever seen the Behind the Music on No Doubt, then you know that Gwen likes to put her feelings about stuff that's going on in her life into her songs. That hasn't changed. Cool talks about her relationship with her former boyfriend and band mate, Tony Kanal. Danger Zone, while it doesn't come right out and say, is about her marriage to Gavin Rossdale of Bush and the secrets he had before they were a couple (like the fact that he had a daughter with another woman, which to be fair, he didn't know either, so it's not as if he deliberately kept the secret from Gwen).
Luxurious and Harajuku Girls represent the slow side of Stefani. Luxurious is very R&B sounding with a bit of electronica thrown in. Harajuku Girls is her ode to the Tokyo subculture that inspired her new clothing line, L.A.M.B.
I usually skip over The Real Thing because it just doesn't grab me.
Serious is more dance, less pop, and very Kylie Minogue sounding. In fact, when I first was listening to the CD, I almost thought I had my Kylie CD in and had to double check to make sure I didn't.
Crash and Bubble Pop Electric are songs about having sex in cars. Or cars as metaphors for sex. Or something like that.
Long Way to Go is Gwen's collaboration with Andre 3000. It's a Song With A Serious Message ™ set to a dance beat.
Overall, an enjoyable album and a good job for her first solo effort.
Posted by xinh at 01:52 AM | Comments (0)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Amazon.com synopsis:
Mark Haddon's bitterly funny debut novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, is a murder mystery of sorts--one told by an autistic version of Adrian Mole. Fifteen-year-old Christopher John Francis Boone is mathematically gifted and socially hopeless, raised in a working-class home by parents who can barely cope with their child's quirks. He takes everything that he sees (or is told) at face value, and is unable to sort out the strange behavior of his elders and peers.
Late one night, Christopher comes across his neighbor's poodle, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork. Wellington's owner finds him cradling her dead dog in his arms, and has him arrested. After spending a night in jail, Christopher resolves--against the objection of his father and neighbors--to discover just who has murdered Wellington. He is encouraged by Siobhan, a social worker at his school, to write a book about his investigations, and the result--quirkily illustrated, with each chapter given its own prime number--is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
This is a book that seems very simplistic at first read, but then you start to realize that there's something deeper.
Because the narrator is a person who doesn't lie and expresses little to no emotion, the tone and prose seem almost a little too mechanical and very straightforward. But as the character's journey starts to take him away from his comfort zone, the tone changes as well and becomes a bit more confusing and chaotic. By the end, you're not sure who you like and don't like and, while you can see all points of view, you find yourself siding more with one character over others.
This is a very fast read; faster if you did what I did and skimmed past all the math (or maths, as it's referred to in the book) because math confuses me and reading about math confuses me even more. But don't go too fast or you'll miss all the nuances that make this a great book.
Posted by xinh at 01:09 AM | Comments (0)
March 06, 2005
The Pacifier
Vin Diesel .... Shane Wolfe
Tate Donovan .... Howard Plummer
Faith Ford .... Julie Plummer
Brittany Snow .... Zoe Plummer (aka Red 1)
Max Thieriot .... Seth Plummer (aka Red 2)
Morgan York .... Lulu Plummer (aka Red 3)
Kegan and Logan Hoover .... Peter Plummer (aka Red 4)
Bo and Luke Vink .... Tyler (aka Red Baby)
Carol Kane .... Helga (aka Red Leader)
Lauren Graham .... Principal Claire Fletcher
Brad Garrett .... Vice Principal Murney
Chris Potter .... Capt. Bill Fawcett
Cute family film that's equal parts action and comedy.
Vin Diesel, going the way of Arnold, flexes his muscles in this family comedy as Shane Wolf, a Navy Seal ordered to protect the kids of a murdered scientisit while the Mother goes to Switzerland to get the contents of a safety deposit box which might contain information about whatever it is her husband was working.
The only thing that bugged me about this movie was that some of the stuff shown in the trailers isn't shown in the movie or is modified in some way.
Other than that, Vin's acting was pretty decent. He's not the greatest emoter but he's 5 steps above Keanu so that's something.
The kids are a pretty funny bunch, especially the youngest daughter. The scenes with her and her "Firefly" troop are especially hilarious.
Go see it at a matinee with your family. You'll enjoy it.
(if you want to leave a comment, you have to click on the "continue reading" link and leave it that way)
And the reason this movie is getting 4 halos, rather than 3, is because of the spoiler below, which you can read at your own risk.
SPOILER BELOW!!! Don't read on if you don't want to know what happens in this movie or a couple others!!
You know how my biggest movie pet peeve is the throw away line that's only in the movie to help out later on down the line? In The Grudge, they show SMG's boyfriend light up one cigarette so that you get that he smokes and then she's able to use his lighter in the end. Yet in any other scene he's in, he never smokes. In Thunderbirds the dad asks his son why he's not wearing his retainer, and the retainer becomes a soldering instrument later on. But you never se the kid wear the retainer before the dad asked about it and you never see the kid put it on at any other point.
Well, The Pacifier shows how you can have a plot point without having a throw away line.
The Scientist Father made up a song supposedly to help the middle son (Red 4) get to sleep. In the beginning of the movie, you see the Nanny singing it. Then you get to see Vin Diesel sing it twice. And then, it turns out to be a code to get into a vault the dad built!! How brilliant is that! The song wasn't used once and then all of sudden, it's back again. It was a constant in the movie, used not only by the main character, but also by a secondary character. And it wasn't just used to help out the main character later, it was also a device to show how the character was changing into someone who would do a song and dance for a little kid (and to make the audience laugh because it was a dumb little song).
Posted by xinh at 10:44 PM | Comments (1)
March 02, 2005
Run Ronnie Run
Director: Troy Miller
Writer(s): David Cross & Bob Odenkirk
Cast: The writers, Nikki Cox, E.J. De La Pena ,R. Lee Ermey,M.C. Gainey, Tom Kenny, David Koechner, Suli McCullough ,Jill Talley, Becky Thyre+ a whole buttload of cameo's including: Matt Stone and Trey Parker, Jeff Goldblum, Rebecca Ramijn-stamos, John Stamos, Ian Scott, Ben Stiller, et etc etc.
86 minutes long
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This is the story of a beer-drinking trailer park redneck's climb to fame and fortune by being taken under the wing of hollywood.
Insert: REALITY TV!
Imagine if you will a small southern town plagued by one sole trouble maker everyone knows by name. Ronnie Dobbs. When he's not peeing in the water resevoir he's stealing school busses and crashing them in football fields, drunk as a skunk and always denying he even did anything wrong. Most times running. Always coming up with backwards excuses that don't even make sense.
I originally rented this movie because of the cameo appearance made by Matt Stone and Trey Parker but I fastly fell in love with it the first 5 minutes and wish more people knew about it's most awesome hilarity.
Come ride with me on my reviewalicious party wagon.
((pan back to small southern town))
Ronnie Dobbs is doing what he does naturally (getting drunk and arrested by the cops) and gets caught and aired multiple times on the show COPS. In a way he becomes a regular of sorts and people enjoy watching his schenanigans and his uber stupidity. A failed infomercial man is in a crowd watching the show and overhears someone comment on how they'd watch Ronnie Dobbs get arrested by the cops everyday. He should have his own show!
Instant money. cha ching!
Infomercial man manages to get a slot on television, and secures Ronnie's place in stardom by striking a deal with the police chief of Ronnie's town. Ronnie Dobbs is not allowed anywhere in the state or he'll be permanently arrested.
Now, what's a movie without the love interest? We're all suckers for that kinda junk so lemme slap it to you.
Ronnie's soul mate and love of his life Tammy has refused his 4th marriage proposal. (they've been married and divorced 3 other times) . She says he aint gonna get anywhere in his life and aint ever going to make something of himself. Ronnie going to Hollywood secures himself money, a house, and luxury. Insert the beer poster gal and you gots yourself a regular ole love triangle.
How can Ronnie prove to Tammy he loves her and can provide for her and the little ronnies while he's banned from his homestate and currently dating the beer poster girl?
Guess you'll have to find out.
Oh yeah. And I loooove Ronnie's love song boyband pop music video.
My boyfriend would like to let everyone know that if you like Mr. Show, you'll love this movie.
Posted by prism at 09:21 PM