My Lazy New Years Day

My first day of the new year was a pretty relaxed one. I had myself a lazy Sunday on the couch.

I watched the Packers. Even with the meaningless win, 4-12 is miserable. Please don’t retire, Brett. In the words of Dennis DeYoung, “Don’t let it end this way”.

Connie bought me a copy of Three… Extremes for Christmas. I watched it after the game. It’s a collection of three short horror films by Fruit Chan, Takashi Miike and Chan-wook Park. Really good, really creepy.

I threw in Park’s Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance next. If you enjoy revenge films, give it a look. It’s just as good, if not better than Oldboy.

I received a text message from our good friend Jason at a little after 9:00 pm. It read, “Turn on VH1 immediately”. I was curious, so I clicked over. I wasn’t ready for what I was about to see. It was a program called The Flavor of Love. The show is pretty much The Bachelor starring Flavor Flav. You have to tune in to fully understand how ridiculous this is. To give you an idea, here’s the synopsis of the first show:

Flavor Flav welcomes 20 women to his macadocious mansion with the hope of finding the next great love of his life. To start things off he gives the girls nicknames (he’d never be able to remember their real ones) and then throws a get-to-know-ya mixer in the backyard by the pool. But this isn’t your ordinary bachelor! Catty posturing and half naked swimming lead up to the first elimination ceremony. As the ceremony commences, one of the girls is absent only to be found face down on the living room couch…vomiting. Five girls are going home, will the puker be eliminated?

Connie and I received a bunch of movie gift certificates this Christmas. Since neither of us work in the morning, we decided to use a couple of them for a late showing of Rumor Has It. It’s the Jennifer Aniston movie where her character learns that her family inspired the events in The Graduate (her deceased mother was Elaine). I love The Graduate. It sounded like an interesting premise. Wow! What a terrible movie. A comedy without laughs.

Posted by chuck at January 2, 2006 3:18 AM

Comments

Holy crap. I saw Rumor has it last night. I worked with Rob Reiner about a year ago, so I always throw him a bone and check out what he has going on. It actually looked interesting for that flavor of film. It’s not. I can’t believe how bad it is. No one has any pep or energy. Why is Jennifer Aniston in movies again? Someone please remind me. It was a terrible, she’s terrible, Mark Ruffalo is asleep in it. Shockingly bad. After walking out, I felt glad for Brad Pitt that he’s with Angelina and away from bland vanilla boring ass Aniston. Can you be any more dull?

Here’s one for you Chuck: Did you notice this? They keep hanging onto the continuity of the Graduate and that Anston’s Character was born in 1964 in the story. Either the movie was set in the 90’s or she was playing a 41 year old woman in the movie. I started to think it was set in the 90’s then because of Kevin Costner’s Gates/Paul Allen-like character and the web conference in San Francisco. The whole dot com boom era reference??They never tell you the year? I like to think she was playing a 41 year old woman.

Saw Syriana yesterday too. Pretty damn good, and scary. I hope a DVD makes its’ way to the White House.

Posted by: Andy at January 2, 2006 11:43 AM

In the first few minutes of the film (when they’re on the plane), Aniston’s voiceover says it’s 1997.

Speaking of Aniston, I saw Derailed last year. She’s awful in that too.

Posted by: chuck at January 2, 2006 12:59 PM

You know what else she was terrible in? Leprechaun. Want another hideous performance? Rock Star.

I’ll admit it - I watched Friends back in the day, but I won’t be watching anything with Aniston in it again until the FOX network airs its “Jen vs. Angelina” celebrity boxing special. That’s some hot action.

Posted by: Les at January 2, 2006 3:51 PM

Thanks for the clarification, I don’t think I caught that one when the glaze settled over my eyes heading into the movie. Why is she so bad? Why is she in 20 movies?

The absolute blandest, most boring actress on earth.

Lame as hell.

Posted by: Andy at January 2, 2006 4:36 PM

Andy, I was hoping you’d give your 2005 favorite movie list. Do you have one?

Posted by: chuck at January 2, 2006 4:52 PM

Good question Chuck……

Here goes it, for My Favorites and Duds at the Multiplex this past 2005, it was a big year of disinterest this year for me. Not really compelled by much story or concept-wise.

Favorites (In no particular order):

Batman Begins The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada Walk the Line King Kong Brokeback Mountain Casanova Syriana Kung Fu Hustle Sin City

Absolutely Hated:

Charlie & The Chocolate Factory Fantastic Four War of the Worlds Star Wars Darth Vader cries Lava Jamboree (*Hey it’s better than the other ones, my response to that: “Syphillis is better than AIDs, but you still have syphillis”)

Lateral shoulder shrugs, not dropped balls, but not homeruns:

40 year Old Virgin Wedding Crashers Jesus is magic

Embarassingly still have to see: Everything…….. Good Night and Good Luck, so many documentaries (Penguins, Murderball) Munich, Capote, Hustle & Flow, Match point, on and on and on. Like I said wasn’t that compelled to rush out on most things.

Best DVDs I enjoyed in 2005:

The Warriors Ultimate Directors cut Batman 1989 mega version supreme (Docs are good, movie is just so so ….) The Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior (WWE) *A must see for wrestling and non-wrestling fans alike. A completely engrossing documentary, hilarity upon hilarity. R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet Music Video compilation DVD Hell House (Christian scare tactics via Halloween Haunted Houses..amazing)

Movie I am upset I didn’t see and I actually love the idea of a killer plane with a mind of its’ own. Tech era meets drive-in cinema in great schlock piece:

Stealth

Well, that’s it. Pretty uneven and incomplete. I can’t remember a worse year at the movies for as many small triumphs there were, there was a lot of junk. Here’s to a better ‘06 and “V for Vendetta”

That looks amazing.

Posted by: Andy at January 3, 2006 2:22 PM

I’ve got to get my hands on R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet. I’ve heard it’s hilarious.

I read a review of the The Warriors Ultimate Directors Cut that said they messed up the movie’s feel by adding the animated “comic book” edits. I’d like to check it out.

This summer Connie and I were at a Drive-In halfway between Madison and Milwaukee for a Dusk-til-Dawn event. The first three movies were announced, Sky High, Herbie and something else I can’t remember. The two bonus movies were kept secret until they started to run. The first one was Alien and the second one was The Warriors. It was the first time I’d seen it in about a dozen years. The movie was as awesome as I remembered it being. It might be the perfect Drive-In movie.

Posted by: chuck at January 3, 2006 2:47 PM

Warriors is so good, I’m obsessed with it. I implore all the followers of the Life of Leisure to do a Tivo search or rental as soon as you can. Such a pure movie. Dialogue sample:

Gramercy Riff Gangmember:

“You’re Pretty good, Warriors.”

Swann (leader of the Warriors):

“The Best”

Then, Cue up Don Henley/Eagles Jam “In The City”

Amazing.

Posted by: Andy at January 3, 2006 3:04 PM