Archive for January, 2008

Movie Reviews: “13 Tzameti” and “Mission: Impossible III”

Merde!
~ The 13 Tzameti

Oh no, it’s fine. I always spill red wine on my white custom made shirt.
~PSH – MI3

I saw 2 movies last night. Oh what a Friday night! One of them is part of a new project I have recently begun. More on that. But the other one was suggested to me by Paul F.

13 Tzameti
“13 Tzameti” is a black and white French movie with subtitles. Before you totally dismiss the film because of that, know this, it was a pretty kick ass movie. I won’t give away the plot, because it is too awesome for me to spoil it for you. If you can sit through 45 mins of black and white, French speaking, you will be rewarded on the other end with a truly kickass movie. Unfortunately, due to my promise to you of not spoiling it for you, I am not allowed to go into much more detail than that. Obtain this movie and enjoy! Also, if you get the DVD, check out the Extras and watch the short “Sunday’s Game”.

Mission: Impossible 3
The other movie I saw was not so much for the high quality of the movie, but it goes along with a project I had in mind. Through odd coincidence, I have now seen 1 movie every week for 5 weeks with Philip Seymour Hoffman ( PSH ) in it. In order those movies are, “The Big Lebowski”, “Capote”, “Charlie Wilson’s War”, “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” and “MI:3″. Realizing this 2 weeks ago, I decided that wouldn’t it be fun to watch as many movies as I can with PSH. His entire IMDB page lists only 46 roles, some minor, some major. So if I can manage 1 movie a week, that’s less than a year. And I have also already seen a few of them. So look for future entires to the PSH Project, which will include reviews of these movies. Starting with my most recent viewing, “Mission: Impossible III”.

I saw “Mission: Impossible” when it came out on VHS, yes, that long ago. I did not see the second one. And apparently, that had little baring on my ability to watch the 3rd installment. Tom Cruise commentary aside, this movie was not half bad for some mindless entertainment. With nominal departures from reality and leaps in faith, this movie was what I expected. PSH plays a powerful gun runner with international connections and one thorn in his side… Tom Cruise and his crack squad of commandos from the IMF. No, no, not accountants and actuaries from the International Monetary Fund, spies and soldiers from the Impossible Missions Force [ link ]. I could not make that up if I tried. Plot wise, PSH kills one of Tom Cruise’s first trainees ( from the 2nd movie I guess? ) and pisses Tom right the hell off. PSH is also working with a mole inside the IMF to complete his own little impossible mission of selling “the rabbit’s foot”, which is some kind of unknown super evil material, that is stored in the same containers they stored Mutagen in. Those plastic / metal drive up banker’s tube things, you know the ones. I don’t know much about acting, per se, but I think PSH was actually believable as a gun runner: quiet, cold, calculating, pudgy, probably unpopular as a teenager. And I genuinely think he wanted to kick Tom Cruise’s ass, maybe there wasnt much acting in that though. Am I praying for MI:4, not unless Christopher Walken plays a deranged lawyer bent on conquering Eastern Europe with an army of zombie koala bears, but MI:3 was a decent end to a semi-decent trilogy.

Thus ends my first entry into the PSH Project. I should soon post other entries for the other movies I have seen, look for those in the not-so-distant future.

Iowa vs. New Hampshire vs. Relavancy

Abraham Lincoln once said, “If you are a racist, I will attack you with the North,” and those are the principles I carry with me into the workplace.

I don’t get this. Why are Iowa and New Hampshire such benchmarks of political greatness? Why have we let them convince us that they are so relevant in the political process? I mean if we up and moved the nation’s first primaries to North Dakota and Wyoming, would anyone outside those states really think any differently. So the candidates would pay more attention to North Dakota and Wyoming instead of Iowa and New Hampshire? Besides the coffers of Iowa and New Hampshire, what real difference would it make?

Honestly, I just dont understand.

2007: The Year in Review

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.
~Benjamin Franklin

2007 is over, 2008 is upon us. And, depending on who you ask, The Future is either 2 or 7 years from now. I happen to think The Future starts in 2015, if you believe Doc Brown. Anyways, 2007 is still over and done with.

2007 was a pretty crazy year for me. 2 different jobs, 3 different places I’ve lived in, 12 states and 1 province visited. 2008 should be nearly as exciting, new job, a possible trip to China, life in Boston!

On a side note, I’d like to discuss something kinda sad I saw in the T Station today. The Girl Scouts hawking their cookies. Now the Scouts had one thing right, location, location, location. The T Station is the perfect place to catch people. They also had the correct time, late afternoon. People are coming home from work, tired, hungry and those cookies might be just what they’re looking for. However, I feel the Scouts’ timing was off. People are just coming off a possible 2 month gorge, Thanksgiving and Christmas, even 3 months if you gorge for Halloween too. Now might not be the best time to try to sell people cookies. Granted, they are some of the most delicious cookies one can buy from pre-teen girls in the subway, but still. Gorged people might not want to buy cookies. I feel if these girls were selling the cookies 2 weeks before Christmas, many more people would buy them FOR Christmas. And don’t even get me started on the true lack of showmanship in trying to sell the cookies. Unimpressive.

My goals for 2008 are few but meaningful. I want to study more Chinese, really work on my Italian, and invest some time in my family genealogy. I rediscovered GRAMPS and have been working on that in recent weeks.

At any rate, Happy New Year to all, and my best wishes to anyone who wants them.