With Christmas upon us and new TV episodes dwindling down, my wife and I have been catching up on more movies in our queue. Here are a few of them we recently saw, and my thoughts:

21 was a movie about how MIT students were able to "beat the system" in Vegas and count cards at Blackjack. It was somewhat interesting after hearing the book which it was based on, Bringing Down the House, mentioned multiple times from Jim Rome. A bit more Hollywood-ized, but still enjoyable, especially with Kevin Spacey playing a great role as usual. Just a rental unless you are a gambling fiend and/or big fan of Spacey.

 

 

 

 

The Astronaut farmer sounded interesting at first - a NASA astronaut is forced to retire to save his family's farm, and then still itching to return to space, creates a rocket in his barn. The movie is a bit far fetched, but isn't about NASA or space or rockets, but about people. Billy Bob Thornton is an underrated actor, perhaps due to the name Billy Bob, or his previous relationship with Angelina Jolie. He does well in this picture (which also features a nice cameo from Bruce Willis.) Very family friendly, unlike my previous review of Death Race :) and recommended for rental.

 

 

 

 

After all the hype surrounding this movie with the great ensemble and the Golden Globe nomination, along with the direction from the Coen brothers, I was very disappointed. There were a few funny moments throughout the film, but overall the purpose of the movie was non-existent. While most critics will look toward acting subtleties and how well something was directed, I look toward how much enjoyment I had from the movie. Perhaps there was too much emphasis on the cast - Clooney, Malkovich and Pitt did a great job - but there was too high of an expectation that it fell short. A rental, at most.

 

 

 

 

Vantage Point was one of the better movies I have seen in some time. A "thinking movie," it takes the perspective of eight different people to piece together the attempted assassination of the President while overseas. I'm a big fan of William Hurt, Matthew Fox and Dennis Quaid and they played great roles in this. The movie requires great attention to detail, as we found ourselves rewinding just a bit to replay a scene or see more detail. Each of the perspectives offers only a small amount of detail into the greater picture, which is finally revealed at the end with some nice plot twists. Highly recommended for rental, and perhaps purchase.

Despite the title and average rating on IMDB, this was the quintessential action movie. A remake of the 1975 film, Death Race 2000, which starred Sylvester Stallone and David Carradine, the new film isn't without it's fair share of star power.

Fittingly, as we are without any real top-notch action star since the glory days of Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Segal and Van Damme, Jason Statham delivers once again and in a remake of one of Stallone's first films.

More fanfare is given to Tyrese Gibson and Joan Allen, but I enjoyed seeing Deadwood's Al Swearengen himself, Ian McShane, and Brotherhood's Jason Clarke.

The plot of the movie is straightforward - After the US economy collapses in 2012, prisons are all privatized and the prisoners in the movie are involved in a Pay Per View event that is extremely popular, even more so by a disfigured driver, only known as Frankenstein (played by Statham.)

Understandably, with a name like Death Race, the movie is extremely violent and bloody. Watching the unrated version doesn't help much with that either...

That being said, the action was intense and very enjoyable. I understand that the theatrical version leaves out many plot elements key to the movie, as well as going as far to cut out dialog. As with most movies, the "unrated" or "director's cut" version in recommended to see the movie as intended.

Looking for an enjoyable time and not squeamish? Then check out Death Race when it hits DVD and Blu-Ray on December 21. Probably not worthy of a purchase unless you're a big fan of Statham or one of the other actors, or simply have money to burn, but is good for a quick rental.

 

I haven't read a book in quite some time. Frankly, I've been too busy to read much of anything other than the news. While listening to my normal radio routine over the last couple months, I've been bombarded with talk about Glenn Beck's new book - The Christmas Sweater.

My first reaction was along the lines of - The Christmas Sweater? It doesn't get any more lame than that. Not only do I not have time to read books, but if I am going to read one, it damn well isn't going to be about an article of clothing.

I have to applaud the marketing team Glenn has, however. The pseudo-commercials in the show for the book had other bestselling authors making fun of the book, along with Glenn's producer Stu. My favorite one was those making fun of the book by claiming that Glenn would write another book each year about other articles of Christmas clothing.

As I noticed it was a New York Times Bestseller, I kept an eye open for it in the stores. The local stores didn't seem to carry it, which irritated me a bit, if only because they had a "bestseller" section, yet didn't include the number 1 book. I didn't think it was a simple oversight either as the other bestsellers that came out that week were clearly on the shelf, with no ominous empty space left signifying that the book had indeed sold out.

In any event, I did see the book in the store eventually and decided to pick it up. The first thing I noticed was the production value of the book. It wasn't a simple hardcover book, but each page was artistically styled with a nice simple border that went above and beyond the standard text normally in books. In addition, a special paper was used which gave the book a unique feel. I'm not a paper expert so see for yourself if you want more detail than that.

As for the book itself, it started out somewhat slow,dealing with the life of a young boy named Eddie and how his perfect world was turned upside down. I'm not sure what Glenn's true intentions were for what the reader should get out of the book, but there were a couple strong messages throughout for me, namely The true meaning of Christmas / family and redemption. The story is loosely based on Glenn's childhood which explains quite a bit about the struggles he's gone through and how it has shaped the character of who he is today.

I was very happy to have read the book and recommend it to all. As long as he doesn't come out with The Christmas Boot next year, I've got no complaints. The book also has a stage show going from town to town, with a satellite broadcast in select theaters (similar to his previous stage show - Unelectable '08) which will be shown nationwide on this coming Thursday - December 18th. Hopefully I'll get a chance to see that and it will be as enjoyable as his last show.

I'm an avid TV watcher...perhaps a bit too much. Of all the shows I watch, I've somehow found more to add to the weekly lineup. The first two shows are on HBO on Sunday night.

True Blood is a show about vampires in Louisiana. The premise is that vampires have always been with us, and have finally stepped out of the shadows and integrated with society...to a point. The title comes from a synthetic drink the Japanese invented that supposedly gives the vampires the same benefits of human blood. I'm somewhat torn on the show. Some weeks it seems very interesting, and other weeks I'm just not feeling it. I probably wouldn't lose much sleep if the show was canceled however.

Little Britain USA is a comedy sketch show, but requires a taste for British humor. The show's two starts, Matt Lucas and David Walliams play various characters a la a two man Saturday Night Live. It all depends on the type of comedy preferred, but the show is quite amusing. Some of my favorite skits are the bodybuilders, the lady and the dog, and finally, the Prime Minister and President one.

Ah, the updated Knight Rider. Bad Acting? Check. A super badass car? Check. The show isn't going to win any awards for well...anything. The show is simply a fun escape from reality. They've upped the ante from the original version and added some sex appeal with Michael's love interest and Asian tech girl. A couple things make the show fail however - First, the main character's name is Mike Traceur. They came up with a bogus storyline in one of the first couple episodes to change it to Michael Knight. Next, they changed the car into a Mustang. Finally, the car goes a little overboard, not with the technology, but the morphing into "attack mode" and an F-150, which is simply stupid.

Life on Mars is an interesting show. I've only seen the first episode, but the premise of a cop in 2008 getting hit by a car and waking up in 1973, and then being a cop in that era, all while trying to determine which reality is real, or if the 1973 reality is a dream, coma, drug hallucination or something else. I'm hoping it doesn't go the way of Journeyman this season, but with Michael Imperioli and Harvey Keitel headlining the show, perhaps it won't.

Last, but not least, Crusoe is the final show I've added to my weekly lineup. As the name implies, it is based upon the Daniel Defoe novel, Robinson Crusoe. The main character is shipwrecked and stranded on an island. He has one companion, a "savage" named Friday who he saved. Crusoe is somewhat of a genius with the ability to invent things in a MacGyver like fashion. I'm likening it to an old fashioned lost, without all the conspiracy theory garbage. It also adds the only Friday show to my lineup, but Friday isn't generally a strong TV night, so I'm curious if the top brass will move it to a better spot.