Beer Wars Movie

Check out the movie trailer for Beer Wars. Unfortunately it did not want to embed properly so you have to click the link instead.

I love the quote about how almost all of our beer knowledge comes from Budweiser, Miller, and Coors. And how that is like all of our food knowledge coming from McDonald's. Come on people--get out and drink some real beer!!!

Guy Movies...

I watched 13th Warrior again tonight. The wife gave me the choice of what to watch. Talk about pressure. Nothing on tv so it was down into the basement to peruse our dvd collection. What to pick? Something to appeal to both of us? Forget that! I had the choice so I was going with a guy movie. Lots of choices in our collection. Do you expect less? Big Trouble in Little China just missed the cut. Kurt Russell is a guy's actor. Going with that I almost picked Escape From New York too. The three Lord of the Rings films also were an option. Both the theatrical releases and the extended cuts. But I wanted a guys movie. Tombstone just missed the cut. Again Kurt Russell. I narrowed it down to two movies---13th Warrior and The Great Escape. Reality intruded and the idea of a three hour movie finalized the decision. So tonight it was the 13th Warrior. The Great Escape will happen soon on another night. Can you believe the wife has never seen it? If we had more time that would have been the choice. Especially if the wife was more awake. She has never seen it and I want her first time to be memorable! So 13th Warrior it was. Talk about a guy's movie. Epic story. Impossible odds. Sacrificing yourself for the cause. Everything a guy likes in a movie. Yes, there were chicks in the movie. No nudity though but there was an implied sex scene. No movie is perfect. What is it about fighting the good fight against all odds? That is a theme that resonates throughout a lot of great guy movies. Real life sucks most of the time. Is it the idea of going against reality and sacrificing everything for a good cause that makes a great guy movie? I don't know. It does seem to be a theme in a lot of movies. What guy doesn't like the idea of breaking out of life's routines and doing something great? That is one of the hallmarks of a guy's movie. Also the idea of sacrificing yourself for your fellow guys. Who doesn't want to be the hero? Let's be honest. Guy movies are not rated highly by film critics. Also not by women. But guys love them because they speak to what guys love. And isn't that what movies are supposed to do? Entertain you? Take you away from your reality for a short time and let you experience your dreams? That is what guys are looking for in film. Oops I let the cat out of the bag. Ignore everything I just wrote. We can't let women find out what guys want from a movie...

Best film...

The wife and I finally watched There will be Blood tonight. We had not seen any of the Oscar nominated films prior to the awards. Since then we have seen 4 out of the 5 now. The wife tried to watch Atonement which would be the fifth, but turned it off part way through because she did not like it. I read the book and had no desire to see the movie. So which one should have been the winner? No Country for Old Men won the oscar. I have to say I think Michael Clayton was the best movie by far of the nominees. And the biggest disappointment for me was There Will be Blood. I thought it would be so much better than it was. Daniel Day Lewis was great as usual, but the movie was far to slow to hold my interest. And what was up with that soundtrack? I have to say it was the worst soundtrack I have ever heard. It did not match the images at all and every time they would do a big scene with only music and no lyrics it was horrible. The movie really needed a better editor too.

As a side note what was up with the rating for the movie tonight. It was rated R for "some violence". I have seen a lot worse in a PG-13 movie and have no idea why this movie was rated R. There was zero nudity, no profane language and minimal violence. Yet it still got an R rating. WTF? This is further proof the ratings board has no clue in what it does...

30 Days of Night

The wife and I watched this tonight. I have to admit I never read the graphic novel even though it was recommended to me long before it was announced as a movie. I think I will have to track down a copy now to compare it to the movie. So how did I like it? It was ok. There were some good scenes and overall it did a decent job of entertaining me. There were plot points I did not get though. Or should I say plot holes? And some of the characters were highly annoying which is true of most movies. Overall I did enjoy it. Would I recommend it to others though? Sure, just don't expect too much and you will be fine.

Now that I got that out of the way a couple of more points about the movie. Don't keep reading though if you don't want spoilers. Ok, still here I see. The Stella character really annoyed me. She was the one who fell asleep and let the old man get downstairs. Because of her both him and his son ended up dead. Then later she is the one who comes out of hiding to try and save the little girl. Two more people end up dead. Of course she makes it until the end and we see her with estranged husband, who sacrifices himself to save her, die with the sunrise. Hokey? Yes. Other characters pissed me off too. The deputy Billy killing his wife and two girls so they would not have to wait around to be killed by the vampires was a bit much to take. Worse was he was able to stay alive as long as he did after killing them. Which brings me to my other problem with the movie. Did the vampires not know about the 30 days of night? They seemed to know about it by coming to this town. Then why did they wait so long to make sure they had killed everyone? Very lame on their part. Especially waiting to the last day to burn down the town to make sure they got the last survivors. You would have thought they would have done that with at least a couple of days to spare before the sunrise. Yes, it is a movie but come on already. At least be consistent with the logic. Again I would say it is worth watching. Just be warned that it has a number of flaws.

Elizabeth: the Golden Age

The wife and I watched this movie on Friday night. We both could not believe how bad it was. This is the sequel to Elizabeth which we both loved which makes it even more disappointing. It was like they could not decide what type of movie they wanted to make. There was no real plot to it and what there was of the storyline never grabbed your interest. Run far away and find something else to watch.

The Rise of Direct-to-DVD

So it is not just me. I was starting to think my memory was going when I kept seeing all the new dvd releases that I could not remember ever being at the movie theaters. Direct to DVD--before that direct to video--has been around for quite awhile so that is nothing new. What is new is major film studios increasingly using this outlet to maximize their cash flow. The market has grown 36% since 2005, with 675 films being released this way last year. The business totals about $1 billion dollars in annual sales now. That is amazing. Right now it seems to be geared more towards the sequel/prequel market. I wonder how long before more stand alone movies are released this way. Is it indicative of the decline of the theater going experience? I go to the movies less and less each year. It just is not worth it to me to see a lot of the crap being put out today on the big screen. Ticket prices continue to rise as well as the cost of drinks and food. Throw in the lack of courtesy on the part of theater goers and I just don't bother to go as much. People today in the theaters act like they are in their own living rooms and have no problem chatting away to each other and into their cellphones through the whole movie. And don't even get me started on how parents today let their kids act up without ever saying a word to them. So you can see why I watch most new movies today only on dvd. I eat and drink what I want, pause whenever I want, and don't have to worry about others ruining my movie going experience. Another point brought up in the article is that by going direct-to-dvd the film makers are bypassing the ratings board. They do not have to submit their film for review so they can feel free to include whatever they want in the movie and just release it on dvd as unrated. I see this as a win-win situation for them and the public who is tired of the nonsensical views the ratings board takes with increasing frequency.

Movie night...

The wife and I stayed in tonight and watched a movie on cable. We watched Stranger than Fiction. We were both pleasantly surprised by it. Will Ferrell showed he is a much better actor than I thought he was. I was expecting a comedy, but got a film with a lot more depth than I had planned on. The basic premise of the movie is what if a story is your life? Literally. What if an author typing out a story was your life? Whatever the author typed is what happened in your life. And what if you heard the narration in your head as the author typed? I found it to be a very interesting premise. I won't spoil the rest of the plot for those who have not seen the movie yet.

Who am I kidding. I already spoiled the plot. Stop now if you still have hopes of being surprised by the movie.

Still here I see. Ok, the main character whose life is being written finds out the author has finally come up with the ending to his story. She gives the handwritten pages to him to see what he thinks before she types them out which will make them happen to him in his real life. He has a choice to make. Does he accept her ending or try to change it? Does he feel that his own personal happiness outweighs the importance of a major literary work that could be the biggest story written in the last century? What would you choose? If you knew the time and place of your death would you accept it? If your sacrifice was for something bigger? We are all going to die some day. The only questions are when and how. One of the main themes throughout literature and movies is the protagonist knowingly choosing the time and place of his death. We call that heroic. The movie 300 is a prime example. These are the people history remembers. Is this a quality we should admire? Or should we admire the average person who goes about their life anonymously? I love it when a movie makes me think of things like this...

Transformers...

I finally was able to see the movie Transformers yesterday. I know it took me long enough. The wife and I go to the movies so infrequently now. There really are not that many movies today that we think are worth seeing on the big screen. That plus people who think it is ok to talk during the whole movie or kids who clearly are too young for certain movies, has caused us to be very selective in what we do see. Transformers is one such movie worth seeing on the big screen! Especially if you remember the transformer action toys from your childhood...

clipped from www.imdb.com