I know many of you may like the movie Juno. It wasn’t a horrible movie, but the dialogue was. The thing that saved the movie was excellent performances by JK Simmons, Michael Cera and Ellen Page, not the writing that threw in more clichéd phrases than a spoof of teen movies (“What’s your damage?” “Honest to blog” “This is one doodle that can’t be un-did, Homeskillet.”). The story wasn’t all that great but it was something that Hollywood hadn’t overproduced yet. Jennifer’s Body was even worse.

I finally got around to watching it over the weekend and I wasn’t expecting a masterpiece. I was expecting a B movie horror story. Instead what I got was horrible acting by Megan Fox (big surprise there) and laughable dialogue from Diablo Cody. I thought Juno was over the top with the slang, but JB blew Juno away. Cody cannot reasonably believe that normal teenagers talk like that, can she? Seriously, in what world do teenagers say jell-o for jealous or tell someone to move on dot org? When is the last time you heard a teenager say the phrase lesbi-gay? I really think Cody is a mixture of the old dad trying to stay cool using slang that no one uses and the mom who dresses like her daughter to seem young.

I know I shouldn’t come down too hard on her. I’m not a good writer either, but I also don’t get paid to do it. I’m pretty sure I could bang out a script using every slang phrase in the book and make a movie that is just as good, if not better, than Juno or Jennifer’s Body. The only difference between Cody and me is that I’m not a stripper-turned-screenwriter and I think that explains Hollywood’s fascination with her. Hollywood loves success stories and what’s better than a down-and-out stripper hitting it big with a screenplay? Remember, Ben Affleck has an Oscar for writing as well.

Lately I’ve become more interested in sci fi tv shows and movies. As I’ve said, I really enjoyed the new Star Trek remake. Also, after hearing many of the people I follow on Twitter rave about Dr. Who and Torchwood, I began watching those shows. Torchwood I like a little better than Dr. Who but they are shows that I probably would have never enjoyed before. The latest show that I’ve been enjoying is one that even the mainstream critics raved about: Battlestar Galactica. I just started watching it over the past couple days and it has been a fantastic show. I also really enjoyed the canceled ABC show Defying Gravity. I really wish that one was still on.

I find it odd how my taste can change. Maybe the stories and production value of sci fi themed entertainment has changed enough that is is now entertaining to me. I don’t know. I do know that I won’t dismiss something that is labeled as sci fi because I think I won’t like it anymore. Chances are I will like it.

I understand that a lot of people don’t feel that Avatar was not a good drama, that the story was bad and the movie was just a big budget CGI-fest. For one, that really puts down the good acting by Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana. Secondly, while the story is a familiar one, how often have we seen the same theme in movies win award shows year after year. There’s a reason certain themes are portrayed over and over in movies: they are themes we can easily related to. Last, which has lest to do with the drama aspect and moreso for Best Director, James Cameron spent years trying to perfect a brand new technology in order to push forward the field of cinema. He directed every scene of that movie, instead of relying on secondary directors, because he was the only one (at the time) that could see the shot he was looking for using this new technology.

A lot of people were also criticizing Avatar for having a big budget and winning. Since when did all winners have to be indie movies that no one has ever seen (note: I love the indie genre)? Just because a movie has a big budget doesn’t mean that they are not award worthy. James Cameron has done an amazing thing with technology. He is doing what for movies today what Star Wars did 30 years ago. Why would he not be recognized for it? I really don’t understand the movie snobbery that took place last night.

On a side note, I love Robert Downey, Jr. but come on? Joseph Gordan-Levitt totally deserved the award for Best Actor in a Comedy.

The computer generated scenery of the movie was beautiful. When in the forest surrounded by the natives, the CGI characters looked less like CGI (think the emotionless features of The Polar Express) and more like costumed people (think Lord of the Rings). One of the best things about the 3D in this movie that it wasn’t full of typical 3D gimmicks of things flying at you for the sake of flying at you. In fact, to me, the movie was less about things flying at you as it was about providing depth to the movie. James Cameron obviously wanted you to feel like you were part of the world in the movie, and he succeeded. I can only imagine what seeing this in 3D IMAX would have been like (the only IMAX theater in St. Louis was showing A Christmas Carol in 3D and not Avatar… Big mistake). The movie did drag on a bit, but I think it was necessary to draw the viewer into this alien world and really feel a part of it. Now that we’ve seen much of it, any possible sequel wouldn’t need to spend such lengths on pulling the viewer into the environment and detailing all the plants and animals.

The story was a decent story. Nothing groundbreaking. In fact, it draws parallels to the conquest of the Native Americans (and the story of Pocahontas), so the theme should feel very familiar. Also, if your ideology leans to the Glenn Beck side of crazy, you might even think that the movie is racist against white people because only white Earthlings were featured (which, of course, was not true at all, but who needs facts?). It also drives on themes of greedy corporations and environmentalism, but as I said, the story was decent. The imagery is the real draw to this film. If you haven’t seen Avatar in 3D at the theater, make sure you do. It is something that everyone needs to experience. This is my generation’s Star Wars leap forward in theater technology.

America loves Gottis, America loves bodies
Pacino counting C-Notes for shooting up club lobbies
While Eddie Nash controls bankrolls in Wonderland
Tony Soprano hits channels and holds down On-Demand
-CunninLynguists – America Loves Gangsters

I never watched The Sopranos when it originally aired on HBO, but I have always been a fan of mob-themed movies. I don’t know when this fascination started, but I can’t get enough of movies like The Godfather pts I and II, Goodfellas, A Bronx Tale, Donnie Brasco, etc. Well, recently I started watching The Sopranos and throughout the series Tony Soprano does some disgusting things that repulse you, but then there are other times where you realize you start admiring the man for the good things he does for his family, and his “family.” He’s a hypocrite, just like the rest of us, maybe that’s what makes his character so intriguing. One minute he’s friendly with the parents of the friends of his kids, the next he’s taking their business due to gambling debts, and enjoying it. It’s compelling television.

What is it with America’s fascination with gangsters? Do we like the violence and power or do we like the deep characters? Some of the most widely acclaimed movies involve some of the most violent characters. Think Scarface. I don’t think I’ve seen an episode of Cribs where either the movie isn’t playing in the background or there’s a giant poster on the wall. In Godfather, Michael Corleone rules in a more calm manner, but the amount of violence and destruction he can inflict with one command is amazing. So do we love the violence and power or do we love well-written characters that happen to be violent? I don’t know what the answer to that, but I do know there’s more to the characters than violence. You see Michael Coreleone’s frustrations when he wants to make the family business legitimate, but struggles along the way. “C” finally realizes how bad the gangster life is after his hero falls in A Bronx Tale, but you also feel sad because Sonny dies. And I can’t wait to see the cat and mouse game between Christian Bale and Johnny Depp in the Dillinger movie, Public Enemies. So why do we love them? I don’t know, but Hollywood knows we do and as long as there are gangsters, Hollywood will be making movies about them.

For a few days now only two DVDs will be out at a time, even though I have DVDs that are available to ship in my queue. I have the 3 at a time plan, so why aren’t 3 shipping?

I think it explains my problem well. I have DVDs available, they are not shipping. Here is the response I got:

I am sorry if we haven’t ship your DVD. I’ve reviewed your account and see that you are waiting for one DVD to be shipped. Here’s an explanation of why this happened. I noticed that your queue mostly contains box/series sets, which if added as a set (with the padlock), they are considered a as a group and treated as a single request when the system searches for available DVDs to ship.

In looking at your queue, this appears to be the case. “X-Files: The Complete First Season” is not shipping due to its availability of disc number disc one. Unfortunately, this prevented anything from being shipped. Based on the way our system searches for movies, we suggest keeping at least 15 “Available” titles in your queue at all times, keeping in mind that each set is considered as “one” during this process. I really hope this information helps, Mike. Please let me know if I can answer any further questions.

Ok, I would understand this answer if two things weren’t a factor:

• 1. I didn’t have movies that were available to ship that weren’t part of a boxed set at the top of my queue. I do. Why not ship them?
• 2. They already shipped 2 discs of The X-Files season 3 (the first season that is currently available). Since they’ve already started shipping those discs (last week) why not pick back up with shipping them since I have an empty slot? This makes no sense.

So basically I’m paying for a plan to ship 3 movies and Blockbuster only wants to ship 2. Great job Blockbuster. Maybe it’s time to go back to Netflix.

Update: I have canceled my Blockbuster account. Not just for this reason, but also other reasons (no streaming service, queue page problems, etc) and moved back to Netflix.

The second thing that bugs me is Blockbuster launched the download service. You can buy and download or rent and download movies now. They are late to the game with this. Netflix has allowed streaming for a year now. Blockbuster seems to have more new releases available to download than Netflix but you have to pay for them, even if you’re already an Online subscriber. With most plans on Netflix you get unlimited streaming as part of your plan. Like Netflix, Blockbuster’s download service only works with Internet Explorer on Windows. I’m tired of major companies not supporting other browsers and operating systems. I want to watch on my Mac and I want to watch using Firefox. With Apple systems gaining in popularity and Firefox having a 20% market share, it’s time to show some support. Netflix is rumored to support Macs by the end of 2008 so maybe I’ll switch back to them when that time comes. For $1 more a month than Blockbuster I’ll have unlimited streaming, which comes in handy at work.

I thought Batman Begins was great and I knew they had to make another. Every preview for TDK I’ve seen has blown me away. This does not look like a comic book movie. This looks like a crime thriller, such as Heat. It’s being compared to The Godfather II, meaning it’s a sequel that is so good it blows the first film out of the water. There are even whispers going around that if Heath Ledger doesn’t win an Oscar for this it will be a travesty. Christopher Nolan is a talented director and Christian Bale is one of the top actors in the business.

I’m counting down the days until its release. I’ve seen every Batman movie in the theater. I’ve seen every one, since the first back in 1989, when I was 6, with my dad. I’m looking forward to going with him. It’s one of our traditions. 19 years of Batman movies. Thankfully, Christopher Nolan was able to revive the franchise after the horrible Batman and Robin and hopefully he’ll come back for a third in the series reboot. Until then, I’ll continue to drool over more news and previews of TDK and wait impatiently for the day my dad and I can see it together.

Last night I watched the movie Be Kind Rewind starring Jack Black and Mos Def.  I’m not really a fan of Jack Black but I think Mos Def is a really fine actor with a lot of talent.  When I first saw previews of this Michael Gondry directed film I knew I had to see it.  Not only was it being directed by an amazing director and starring a really fine actor, but it also featured the actors remaking scenes from one of my all-time favorite movies, Ghostbusters.

In short, the movie is about a man whose brain becomes magnetized unintentionally destroys every tape in his friend’s video store. In order to satisfy the store’s most loyal renter, an aging woman with signs of dementia, the two men set out to remake the lost films.  It really is much more than that though.  The movie is about friendships, community, and making the most out of what is around you.  It really was a fantastic story that is fun and much more light-hearted than Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine.  Stellar performances from Mos Def, Danny Glover, Mia Farrow and Jack Black (yes, Jack Black was actually good) made this movie great.  If you haven’t seen it, I recommend you watch it.  You won’t be disappointed.

In this exploration of our violent society and how depictions of violence reflect and shape our culture, a middle-class housewife Anna tells the story of how she and her husband George and their 10-year-old son Georgie submitted both physically and mentally to the torture, violence, and death foisted upon them by two young, unexpected, white-gloved visitors at their weekend vacation retreat near a lake.

Violence has never really bothered me in movies. I’ve watched movies that have been considered incredibly violent. There has only been one movie where the violence actually bothered me. That was in the remake of The Hills Have Eyes. That movie was not a horror movie as much as it was violence-porn, meaning they tried to get away with as much as possible and still have it rated R. I started watching this movie tonight and I couldn’t. It was making me sick, and it wasn’t that violent when I turned it off. Maybe it was because the serial killers were incredibly nice but you could tell they had bad things in mind for the family. Something about it just disturbed me. When I started to think about it, the new Rambo film gave me this same feeling. I didn’t think much of it at the time because I was ill as I was watching it but now I wonder if the feeling was due to the violence in the movie. Strangely, movies like The Departed, The Boondock Saints, and Pulp Fiction don’t bother me. Maybe I’m getting too old for such violent movies. I typically am a lover of all movie genres, but this may be one I have to start straying away from.

Southland Tales: The only thing I can say about this movie is WTF? I shouldn’t be surprised at how weird and dumb this movie was. It was by the same guy that did Donnie Darko which has to be one of the most overrated pieces of crap to come out over the past several years. Even all the celebrities (Justin Timberlake, Sarah Michelle Gellar, The Rock, Sean William Scott, Kevin Smith) couldn’t save this movie.

Sweeney Todd: Pure crap. The play is much better. Depp was ok, Helena Bonham Carter was terrible. Boring movie.

No Country for Old Men: Another movie that was overrated. Yes, the acting was good, but the story I thought was stupid. Why did they have to kill Woody Harrelson so quick? Why introduce the character at all if five minutes later he’d be dead? Made no sense. I don’t see how people liked this as much as they did.

The Mist: This movie I was actually made me mad at myself for watching it. I thought, Steven King and the director of The Shawshank Redemption (also written by King), it should be halfway decent for a horror movie. No. Though it was funny to see the religious nut convert everyone and how stupid people get during a panic, the ending spoiled the entire movie. Complete crap. There’s been movies where the ending has totally saved an otherwise crappy movie (The Others), but this is a case where the ending made me so mad and was so terrible I can’t believe the studios even let it be shown in theaters that way.

I have watched a couple good movies recently. Dan in Real Life I thought was excellent. Steve Carrell did a great job and it was one of those movies that engulfed you and made you feel what was going on while watching it. The Darjeeling Limited was surprisingly awesome. The performances were great and the soundtrack was even better. It was much better than Wes Anderson’s previous film, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. For the most part though, everything has been pretty bad, and with the looks of what Hollywood is doing (remakes of TV shows, cartoons, and movies (a remake of Short Circuit… really?)) it doesn’t look to get any better any time soon.

Rumor has it another major actor is pushing Scientology now. None other than Will Smith has been linked to the religion lately. I’ve always thought Will Smith was fairly smart (besides in his decision to do Wild Wild West). He’s a great actor, in roles such as in The Legend of Bagger Vance and The Pursuit of Happyness and the action films that made him a bona fide star, like Bad Boys and Men in Black. Sadly, if this movie is true, I’ll never be able to see him or his movies the same way again. Anyone who believes in their beliefs must be completely insane. Of course, I also think that all organized religions dupe people. Scientology is just the craziest of them all.

EDIT: Oh, and if you want the beliefs in a nutshell, South Park actually did a great rundown of what they believe. They aren’t dramatizing the beliefs at all. It is what they actually believe.

Neanderthal by John Darnton- This is a great book about archaeologists who stumble upon a community of Neanderthals living in Tadjikistan, high in the mountains, cut off from the rest of the world. Think Indiana Jones type story, but without the Nazis. Rumor has it the rights to this book have been sold to Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks, but I doubt we’ll see this as a movie anytime soon.

Survivor-Chuck Palahniuk- Great book. Starting from chapter 47 and working it’s way backwards, it tells the story of Tender Branson. Branson aged 33, has commandeered a Boeing 747, emptied of passengers, in order to tell his story to the “black box” while flying randomly until the plane runs out of gas and crashes. Again, movie rights have been bought for this book, but it seems unlikely to be made since it is very dark and movies about plane crashes post-9/11 are not likely to garner much in the way of box office success.

Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey- Chuck Palahniuk- This would never make it as a movie, and probably shouldn’t, but it would be an interesting one to see. Think the book and movie Breakfast of Champions. Great book. Really messed up movie that was…. just weird. This book was told in a unique way. The entire story was told by people who knew Buster Casey. The entire book is in interview format and sometimes the stories even contradict each other. If this was made into a movie it would either be the best movie ever made or the worst. There is no in-between.

Velocity-Dean Koontz- None of Dean Koontz’s books have worked as movies. Anyone remember Phantoms? They just suck. Mostly because most of Koontz’s works deal with the supernatural or aliens. Lately his books have been more suspense thriller. Velocity is one of those. If you recieved a note saying you had to choose who would live and who would die, what would you do? Billy Wiles’s life spirals out of control after he finds a note on his windshield telling him that he has a choice: involve the police, and a lovely blonde schoolteacher dies. Do nothing, and an elderly woman active in charity work dies. The following events are a cat and mouse chase to stop the killer before he kills again. This could be an excellent movie that would keep you at the edge of your seat (much as the book did) the entire time.

I’m sure there are more books I’d like to see turned into movies, but so far that’s all I can think of. I think if these were made, and made with care, they could be really great and do quite well at the box office.