If you see one movie in 2008, and you don't mind a little cursing in your movies, I highly suggest giving In Bruges consideration.
I believe the 'F' word is dropped 126 times in the movie, averaging somewhere in the realm of 1.6 'F-bombs' per minute, but if that doesn't bother you, you are in for a treat.
The movie revolves around Ray (Colin Ferral) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson...you may remember him as the sheriff from Lake Placid), who are two Irish hitmen and are forced to get out of London and take a short break in Bruges (It's in Belgium).
The movie has a variety of levels, many of which you may only recognize on multiple viewings. On the surface, the movie is a bit of a comedy and a bit of a sad story. You see, Ray accidently killed a child on his first mission when he was sent to shoot a priest while Ken still carries a torch for his wife who died in the 1970s (I believe the movie is set in current time).
The movie follows both men trying to rebuild their lives, handle a vacation in extremely seperate ways, and eventually try to survive their boss - who decides Ray has brought too much attention to himself.
I don't know if I have been this excited about a Colin Ferral performance in a movie since Tigerland. In Bruges Ferral hit a surprisingly wide range of emotions, ranging from despair to a cocaine-fueled joy that was very realistic.
In all, five stars out of five is within reach for this movie, but as I've only watched it once and am waiting with anticipation until I can watch it again (I normally only give 5 stars to movies I can enjoy with repeated viewings) I give it a solid 4.5 stars out 5.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Movie Review - 12 Days of Terror
If you are a big Jaws fan like I am, you know that the book and the movie originated from an incident(s) in New Jersey round about 1916. There were a few shark attacks off the coast and at some point a shark swam up a stream and also killed a few people.
Scary stuff. But also just the kind of incident that would be the fuel for one tremendous book and one tremendous movie.
So imagine my surprise when I was running through my Blockbuster account and I stumbled across a little gem called 12 Days of Terror. Essentially this movie deals specifically with those incidents in New Jersey nearly 100 years ago, following the protagonist of a lifeguard at the small Jersey town of...while...somewhere.
I'm going to be honest. I wasn't expecting a whole lot with this movie. The title doesn't exactly inspire a whole lot of confience. Don't let it fool you.
With its 1916 setting, the movie benefits from not needing a whole lot of flash-bang special effects and instead benefits from some pretty solid acting performances, including John Rhys-Davies (of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Lord of the Rings triology fame) who is solid as always.
One interesting thing about this movie is how many elements of Jaws resurface. For instance, after the first shark attack, it is covered up so the beach dollars don't dry up.
But all in all, the movie is certainly better than you would think, the shark effects are limited, but stand up (more so than most shark movies) and the movie also raises an interesting question: why is it so hard to believe that two sharks were to blame?
Sure it could have been a great white shark that attacked people along the coast, but it is the calling card of the bull shark to be in freshwater. Bull sharks are certainly nothing to mess around with and have a real ugly attitude - yet it is the great whites that always get tagged as man-killers.
All in all, this movie made a bit of an impression on me. I would certainly suggest anyone who enjoys shark movies to give it a watch. 3.5 stars out of 5.
Scary stuff. But also just the kind of incident that would be the fuel for one tremendous book and one tremendous movie.
So imagine my surprise when I was running through my Blockbuster account and I stumbled across a little gem called 12 Days of Terror. Essentially this movie deals specifically with those incidents in New Jersey nearly 100 years ago, following the protagonist of a lifeguard at the small Jersey town of...while...somewhere.
I'm going to be honest. I wasn't expecting a whole lot with this movie. The title doesn't exactly inspire a whole lot of confience. Don't let it fool you.
With its 1916 setting, the movie benefits from not needing a whole lot of flash-bang special effects and instead benefits from some pretty solid acting performances, including John Rhys-Davies (of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Lord of the Rings triology fame) who is solid as always.
One interesting thing about this movie is how many elements of Jaws resurface. For instance, after the first shark attack, it is covered up so the beach dollars don't dry up.
But all in all, the movie is certainly better than you would think, the shark effects are limited, but stand up (more so than most shark movies) and the movie also raises an interesting question: why is it so hard to believe that two sharks were to blame?
Sure it could have been a great white shark that attacked people along the coast, but it is the calling card of the bull shark to be in freshwater. Bull sharks are certainly nothing to mess around with and have a real ugly attitude - yet it is the great whites that always get tagged as man-killers.
All in all, this movie made a bit of an impression on me. I would certainly suggest anyone who enjoys shark movies to give it a watch. 3.5 stars out of 5.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Mowing the Lawn
So what is it about mowing the lawn that attracts me?
Maybe it is caring for my own property. Maybe the appeal is getting outdoors during nice weather. Maybe the appeal is I am the proud owner of an electric mower. Maybe it is that said electric mower isn't self propelled and so mowing the lawn constitutes a bit of a workout. I dunno. But I sure do enjoy it.
Mowing my yard takes somewhere in the realm of 45 minutes to an hour. It is the smallest yard I have ever mowed. It is just enough of a commitment to where I have to decide that I'm going to do it and it is going to take a little while. But it isn't like it is going to take up an evening or an afternoon or whatever.
I am in no way endorsing that you go out and get an electric mower. Seriously, for some people/yards, they just might not work out. But for mine, it is perfect. I mow, the battery doesn't ever run out and when I'm all said and done, I go plug it in and charge the bad boy up for another round.
With $4 gas, I can now afford to mow my lawn every day if I was so inclined. And while I'm not THAT GUY (you know the one), I'm that GUY (about halfway there I suppose where I'm probably not THE first, but I'm one of the first guys to mow on the block). And I laugh when I think of the money my electric mower is saving. And I laugh (muahahahahaha).
But when I'm mowing, like today for example, I can't help but wonder why it is I'm enjoying what I'm doing.
Maybe it is caring for my own property. Maybe the appeal is getting outdoors during nice weather. Maybe the appeal is I am the proud owner of an electric mower. Maybe it is that said electric mower isn't self propelled and so mowing the lawn constitutes a bit of a workout. I dunno. But I sure do enjoy it.
Mowing my yard takes somewhere in the realm of 45 minutes to an hour. It is the smallest yard I have ever mowed. It is just enough of a commitment to where I have to decide that I'm going to do it and it is going to take a little while. But it isn't like it is going to take up an evening or an afternoon or whatever.
I am in no way endorsing that you go out and get an electric mower. Seriously, for some people/yards, they just might not work out. But for mine, it is perfect. I mow, the battery doesn't ever run out and when I'm all said and done, I go plug it in and charge the bad boy up for another round.
With $4 gas, I can now afford to mow my lawn every day if I was so inclined. And while I'm not THAT GUY (you know the one), I'm that GUY (about halfway there I suppose where I'm probably not THE first, but I'm one of the first guys to mow on the block). And I laugh when I think of the money my electric mower is saving. And I laugh (muahahahahaha).
But when I'm mowing, like today for example, I can't help but wonder why it is I'm enjoying what I'm doing.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
When You Need Time Off
I've been thinking about something lately - isn't it kind of crazy how we've evolved from a society that can't wait until the weekend to a society that takes work home?
Maybe that isn't the norm, but it is how I have evolved anyway. For some reason I went from 'my job is 40 hours out of my week and that is it' to 'work comes before life and wife'. I don't really know when it happened, or how it happened.
Maybe it is technology. The ability to 'easily' do work is just too tantilizing - you get random project x finished, or can put more time into it and make it better. Maybe working at home is just more comfortable than working in the office.
The end result of this, though, certainly isn't good. Maybe you get tired, maybe you get burnt out and sloppy, maybe feel like your job owes you something for the time you put in.
I'm sure there was probably a host of studies done and going on right now that figure a healthy amount of someone's work week. I'd be curious to know what the studies say about what working 50 or 60 or 70 hours a week does to your body compared to when you work 40 hours a week.
At some point, I figured I was doing the right thing...being a model employee. But, I would have to believe that companies want you to stay in your job for an extended time, so they can see the pay off of the time and resources they have put into you.
So maybe being the best employee you can be is to work your 40 hours and then just walk away.
Maybe. Maybe not.
Thoughts?
Maybe that isn't the norm, but it is how I have evolved anyway. For some reason I went from 'my job is 40 hours out of my week and that is it' to 'work comes before life and wife'. I don't really know when it happened, or how it happened.
Maybe it is technology. The ability to 'easily' do work is just too tantilizing - you get random project x finished, or can put more time into it and make it better. Maybe working at home is just more comfortable than working in the office.
The end result of this, though, certainly isn't good. Maybe you get tired, maybe you get burnt out and sloppy, maybe feel like your job owes you something for the time you put in.
I'm sure there was probably a host of studies done and going on right now that figure a healthy amount of someone's work week. I'd be curious to know what the studies say about what working 50 or 60 or 70 hours a week does to your body compared to when you work 40 hours a week.
At some point, I figured I was doing the right thing...being a model employee. But, I would have to believe that companies want you to stay in your job for an extended time, so they can see the pay off of the time and resources they have put into you.
So maybe being the best employee you can be is to work your 40 hours and then just walk away.
Maybe. Maybe not.
Thoughts?
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Adoption
The crazy thing about adoption is the waiting. I would have never guessed there would be so much waiting. And while normally I can just kind of roll with it, it is days like today, that would be Father's Day, when the wait becomes quite a bit harder.
See, the mind has this quirky ability of going all merc on you. You can't exactly control where it is going and what it is going to come up with.
Take today for example.
Eh...maybe I should back up a bit.
A little history on this whole situation is as follows: My wife and I decided we were going to adopt a couple of years ago. We first started in an international program, but basically there was a bit of difference in opinion between myself and Russia on the stabilizing effects of anti-depressants. So, my wife and I decided to point ourselves toward in-state adoption. It has been somewhere in the realm of two years since we first started this whole crazy thing. And as of a couple of weeks ago, my wife and I finished off putting together our 'Dear Birthmother' packate. So we are now officially waiting. Anyway, back to today.
Today for example, I started kind of wondering if my kid had been born yet. I'm guessing that he or she hasn't. But you never really know. Maybe tomorrow I'll get a phone call saying my son or daughter is waiting at a hospital to come home. That is the part that is pretty much unreal about the whole thing. You just never know.
Talking with my dad this year about Father's Day, he told me about the day I was born. It was a perfect day he said. And he talked about how I was born and just how his life pretty much changed from that day on.
And it got me kind of thinking about my own situation. The whole parenting thing is kind of a trip...I was an only child basically and so the only kind of experience I had with babies or young kids are with nieces and nephews. And while I'm excited about being a parent, there is all the underlying fears about having a kid and all of these brand new things that you can never really be prepared for becoming a part of your life.
So, it kind of got me wondering if little Ost Jr had burst onto the scene.
If you have shown up kiddo, welcome. Don't really know what to tell you yet. It is kind of hard having never seen you. I've heard that about males that are adopting...they aren't usually able to claim ownership of a kid until they have seen him or her. At least I know I'm normal, I guess.
If you haven't shown up just yet, don't worry. There are plenty of perfect days left in the bag.
See, the mind has this quirky ability of going all merc on you. You can't exactly control where it is going and what it is going to come up with.
Take today for example.
Eh...maybe I should back up a bit.
A little history on this whole situation is as follows: My wife and I decided we were going to adopt a couple of years ago. We first started in an international program, but basically there was a bit of difference in opinion between myself and Russia on the stabilizing effects of anti-depressants. So, my wife and I decided to point ourselves toward in-state adoption. It has been somewhere in the realm of two years since we first started this whole crazy thing. And as of a couple of weeks ago, my wife and I finished off putting together our 'Dear Birthmother' packate. So we are now officially waiting. Anyway, back to today.
Today for example, I started kind of wondering if my kid had been born yet. I'm guessing that he or she hasn't. But you never really know. Maybe tomorrow I'll get a phone call saying my son or daughter is waiting at a hospital to come home. That is the part that is pretty much unreal about the whole thing. You just never know.
Talking with my dad this year about Father's Day, he told me about the day I was born. It was a perfect day he said. And he talked about how I was born and just how his life pretty much changed from that day on.
And it got me kind of thinking about my own situation. The whole parenting thing is kind of a trip...I was an only child basically and so the only kind of experience I had with babies or young kids are with nieces and nephews. And while I'm excited about being a parent, there is all the underlying fears about having a kid and all of these brand new things that you can never really be prepared for becoming a part of your life.
So, it kind of got me wondering if little Ost Jr had burst onto the scene.
If you have shown up kiddo, welcome. Don't really know what to tell you yet. It is kind of hard having never seen you. I've heard that about males that are adopting...they aren't usually able to claim ownership of a kid until they have seen him or her. At least I know I'm normal, I guess.
If you haven't shown up just yet, don't worry. There are plenty of perfect days left in the bag.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Is There Anything Better...
...than a DVR?
I hesitate to name anything better in recent technology advances than this little box of joy.
Why you ask?
I am learning the joy of a DVR this weekend, which is a free preview weekend of basically every movie channel availalble through DirecTV. That turns out to be somewhere in the realm of 50-some-odd movie channels, each showing new flics every couple of hours.
And so it is like free movies for me this weekend, all recorded and archived and viewable on my TV. So far this weekend I have recorded Alpha Dog, Black Snake Moan, Disturbia, Premonition, Next, Major Payne, The Negoitator, Rocky Balboa, The Guardian, Conan The Barbarian, They Live, Trainspotting, Spider-Man 3, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and The Evil Dead.
As luck would have it, the free preview runs through Sunday and I have a few more movies on tap. And still 75 percent or so of the DVR's memory (I think 100 hours or so of programming...yipee) available to use.
Now, if I had a way to make my DVR portable so I could take it out of my den, I would be set.
I hesitate to name anything better in recent technology advances than this little box of joy.
Why you ask?
I am learning the joy of a DVR this weekend, which is a free preview weekend of basically every movie channel availalble through DirecTV. That turns out to be somewhere in the realm of 50-some-odd movie channels, each showing new flics every couple of hours.
And so it is like free movies for me this weekend, all recorded and archived and viewable on my TV. So far this weekend I have recorded Alpha Dog, Black Snake Moan, Disturbia, Premonition, Next, Major Payne, The Negoitator, Rocky Balboa, The Guardian, Conan The Barbarian, They Live, Trainspotting, Spider-Man 3, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and The Evil Dead.
As luck would have it, the free preview runs through Sunday and I have a few more movies on tap. And still 75 percent or so of the DVR's memory (I think 100 hours or so of programming...yipee) available to use.
Now, if I had a way to make my DVR portable so I could take it out of my den, I would be set.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Happy Birthday To Me
So yeah, I'm officially done with this whole being 27 stuff...it got old so I decided to get older.
I can't help but think about the past year every time early June rolls around...think about all the screwups and successes I've had, all the changes and all the things that haven't changed that much.
For me this year, the last couple weeks have been full of change. Between taking a different job, to my wife and I finishing off our packate for our adoption and as of last Friday now "officially waiting for a call" and us moving into a new house at the beginning of the year...and and and.
As far as the actual day went, it was pretty low-key...just the way I like it. My wife and I went out to the kite festival later in the morning. My dad and his fiance and her granddaughter came up for a bit and so we got to teach her how to fly a kite. She's coming up on her third birthday, so basically she was a riot. I'd get the kite up in the air, hand her the spool and we'd just go running across the open park. Pretty good times.
Then we grabbed some lunch at Sergios (chips are free and so is your meal if it is your b-day) and the folks headed back home as dad was going to help work some cows for another guy. Both he and I were talking about the very real possibility of snagging a nap at some point today and when I got home, I folded out the trusty click-clack (a couch that is a futon, but not really a futon, but kind of) and the wife and I promptly took a nap to Alien Nation (the movie, not the TV show).
After a couple-hour snooze, we worked on the basement a bit, I set up my Soloflex that I have meant to get working on again, set up my Slam Man and got my weight bench back in order. We also put a lot of stuff away that had kind of overflowed onto the floor and made everything accessible.
Tired of moving stuff around, I got my DVR issues figured out on the DirecTV, and now I can pause and rewind live TV and stuff. I can't wait to record a baseball game on Monday or Tuesday. As I write this, I've got about 45 minutes until I call it a night.
And that would be how I rang in my first day of 28-ness. Probably not the over-the-top nature way I've celebrated some birthdays in the past, but at the end of the day, it was a good day and I enjoyed it. Only 360-some days to go and then the countdown is on to the big 3-0. I'm suppose I'm dreading it already.
I can't help but think about the past year every time early June rolls around...think about all the screwups and successes I've had, all the changes and all the things that haven't changed that much.
For me this year, the last couple weeks have been full of change. Between taking a different job, to my wife and I finishing off our packate for our adoption and as of last Friday now "officially waiting for a call" and us moving into a new house at the beginning of the year...and and and.
As far as the actual day went, it was pretty low-key...just the way I like it. My wife and I went out to the kite festival later in the morning. My dad and his fiance and her granddaughter came up for a bit and so we got to teach her how to fly a kite. She's coming up on her third birthday, so basically she was a riot. I'd get the kite up in the air, hand her the spool and we'd just go running across the open park. Pretty good times.
Then we grabbed some lunch at Sergios (chips are free and so is your meal if it is your b-day) and the folks headed back home as dad was going to help work some cows for another guy. Both he and I were talking about the very real possibility of snagging a nap at some point today and when I got home, I folded out the trusty click-clack (a couch that is a futon, but not really a futon, but kind of) and the wife and I promptly took a nap to Alien Nation (the movie, not the TV show).
After a couple-hour snooze, we worked on the basement a bit, I set up my Soloflex that I have meant to get working on again, set up my Slam Man and got my weight bench back in order. We also put a lot of stuff away that had kind of overflowed onto the floor and made everything accessible.
Tired of moving stuff around, I got my DVR issues figured out on the DirecTV, and now I can pause and rewind live TV and stuff. I can't wait to record a baseball game on Monday or Tuesday. As I write this, I've got about 45 minutes until I call it a night.
And that would be how I rang in my first day of 28-ness. Probably not the over-the-top nature way I've celebrated some birthdays in the past, but at the end of the day, it was a good day and I enjoyed it. Only 360-some days to go and then the countdown is on to the big 3-0. I'm suppose I'm dreading it already.
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