The World of Joel

I am not a fan of Hillary Clinton, she rubs me the wrong way. I am not sure who I like out of any of the candidates, but something bothers me about her. Things got worse with that feeling when she recently compared herself to my favorite movie character of all time Rocky Balboa. To give you an idea, Rocky is the only movie franchise that I proudly own the box set of and with that “constantly” go back and watch. I own other Box Sets but none are watched as much as Rocky. Secondly when I heard about Rocky Balboa (the recent movie) I skipped work to see it on opening day. When I watched this clip of Hillary comparing herself to Rocky I wanted to cry.

Rocky has got enough on its own to make it a topic of jokes. We all have seen the many spoofs of the movies with old men in walkers boxing, and of course countless movies have used its theme song, but nothing has infuriated me more then Hillary Clinton comparing herself to Rocky. Here is the video of her comparison.

Does she bother you as much as she bothers me? I watch this video and I just don’t understand any appeal in her. I can’t stand the fact that she used Rocky to compare herself to. And even with all my love for Rocky, would a presidential candidate really want to compare herself to a character who got hit in the head a few to many times, and whose intelligence isn’t firing on all cylinders? Just a thought.

As much as I thought of this as being just a witty post, Obama I suppose wasn’t going to let this comparison go without a response. Obama was quoted as saying in response to Hillary comparing herself to Rocky:

“There’s been some talk about Rocky Balboa over the last couple days. And you know we all love Rocky,” Obama told the labor leaders.

“But we got to remember Rocky was a movie,” Obama continued. “And so is the idea that someone can fight for working people and at the same time, embrace the broken system Washington, where corporate lobbyists use their clout to shape laws to their liking.”

I am sure we will hear more from Rocky’s theme song during Hillary’s campaign in Pennsylvania, but I doubt we hear of any more comparisons. I hope Hillary remembers that Rocky looses in his first and last fight?

 

There have been very few movies I have looked forward to this year, 10,000 BC is the next movie I can’t wait to see, but there is one that stands out above all else and that is Get Smart. I am a huge Steve Carell fan, from The Office, Little Miss Sunshine, Dan in Real Life, he has been great, and I am so happy for his success. He is now in Get Smart a movie that looks fantastic, and is one that I will be seeing for sure. Here is a new trailer for the movie, enjoy!

So I have to say I am not one that has watched the Oscar’s since I was born, in fact it just became something I did in recent years, basically since I met Jenn. I just never have been a big fan of the scripted speeches, the somewhat staged jokes, and just the glitz and glamor of it all. But that cynical side of me has subsided a bit, and I have become a lot more into movies thanks to Netflix, and so I have followed the show a bit more in recent years. So going into this year’s Oscars I have to say I was pretty pumped up that Jon Stewart was back as host. As much as I would love to see Steven Colbert take over the lead, Jon Stewart did another great job as host, and is really making a name for himself. His opening monologue tonight was fantastic, nailed it.

Some of the highlights for me this evening was first off Juno winning best original screenplay. I loved the movie. I didn’t think it would win best picture, but I am glad it got an award. Secondly why did Transformers not win one of the animation/effects awards, they totally deserved it? I hadn’t seen any of the movies with Best Original Song, but I have to say I was rooting heavily against any of the music for Enchanted and hoping for Falling Slowly, because after watching the two preform tonight I became a big fan. And that was so great of Jon to put the girl from the duet back on stage to let her say what needed to be said, which frankly was one of the more memorable quotes of the night.

In closing I can’t say I was very surprised by any of the picks, the people who usually call the winners, called them. Daniel Day-Lewis got best Actor which we all expected, and No Country for Old Men Best Picture/Best Director. In all it was a good show, not great, but one worth the watch, and worth the three hours to just sit back and enjoy what Hollywood had to offer.

You know it was a sad day yesterday with the passing of Heath Ledger. I usually don’t caught up in celebrity news, but with Ledger being extremely young, and involved in a handful of movies I have enjoyed it comes as a shock to hear of his passing. I was talking with Jenn and you just hope that it was an accidental overdose and not a suicide. I know many including even myself at times are betting that it was an overdose, but the optimist side of me said just wait and see. I have to say after hearing of his passing I looked at a movie website that had a timeline of the movies he starred in and I found that I owned three of them one of which is Jenn’s and those are Ten Things I Hate about You (Jenn’s), A Knights Tale, and The Patriot. He was very talented, and I still look forward to what I hear is some of his best work in the latest Batman movie.

You know it are times like these that truly make me not envy anyone in Hollywood to the slightest extent. From what I can see it is not what its cracked up to be.

May our prayers be with his family, and lets just hope the autopsy comes back as an accidental sort of situation.

I love having time off of work/school. I have been off of school for three weeks and I had about five days vacation from my job at Bank of America. So you can say that I had some down time. Besides going to the cabin, Jenn and I have been seeing a lot of movies, something I love. So since I have gotten off work I have seen Dan in Real Life (late I know), National Treasure 2, The Great Debaters, Charlie Wilson’s War, The Kite Runner, and Juno. Not a huge list, but substantial enough to say that I have seen my fair share of movies. Let’s go through and grade each movie shall we?

Dan in Real Life: A-

Fun movie, I really enjoy Steve Carell, it was a bit slow, but at the same time the story really pulled me in, and I enjoyed it.

National Treasure 2: C

Didn’t we see this movie already? As my brother Jake said, “who should be left behind”, “I will stay”, ten minutes later “who will stay behind”, “I will stay”. It seemed like the same movie as the first, but a whole let less exciting.

The Great Debaters: B

I love Denzel, he has such a stage presence, I have enjoyed 99% of the movies I have seen him in. This movie seemed however a bit predictable. Enjoyed it, just you knew they were going to win. (Spoiler Alert)

Charlie Wilson’s War: B-

I own I believe at least five movies that star Tom Hanks, and a few that star Julia Roberts as well. When the two come together it should equal magic right? Eh, not so much. I enjoyed the second half of the movie, it seemed a bit off base, and I just never got into it.

The Kite Runner: A-

Read the book, one of my favorites of all time. The movie, like any book to movie transaltion misses a lot of key points in the novel. However the heart of the tale is still in the movie, and although it is about 50% subtitles it still drew me in from start to finish. “For you a thousand times over”.

Juno: A+

I very rarely come out of a movie excited to talk to Jenn about it, but with Juno I was beyond impressed. At its most basic form its a movie about a girl in high school who gets pregnant, but as Jenn stated it, the movie spoke to our generation. I don’t suspect many of the crowd in there 40’s to necessarily connect as much, but I have to say this was one of the most surprising movies I have seen. It was extremely funny and yet extremely intelligent. Great Movie.

It has been such a long time since I have seen a great western, heck I can remember the last good Western I have seen. The genre as a whole has been almost forgotten about with all of the Comic Book characters and fantasy thrill rides over the past five to ten years. However with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale I think any Western fan would be hard pressed to find a more enticing duo for a western as both men carry that sort of grunge around with them. I saw 3:10 to Yuma yesterday after my last final for the summer, it was a sense of celebration to be off of school, and Jenn was nice enough to accompany me to see it. I had heard good things going in, and the movie did not disappointed. I wouldn’t say that 3:10 to Yuma reinvents the western genre, heck it is a remake (never saw the original), but it does make for one engaging and entertaining ride from start to finish. Let’s just say I will be buying the movie on DVD whenever it releases! If you like westerns go see this movie, it is worth it!

I am not the biggest fan of “scary” or “horror” movies, in fact I try to stay away from them, there just not what I usually consider entertaining. But with the recent move out I decided what the heck I might as well dip into some more unknown territory and went and rented Disturbia from Netflix. Now obviously most of you are laughing yourself out of your seats with me considering this a scary movie but nonetheless, I will continue. I have to admit, I was on the edge of my seat from start to finish, from the beautiful opening sequence with the Father and Son Fishing to the end where … well I guess I won’t spoil it for you. But let’s just say its actually a pretty impressive movie. I rented it on Blu-Ray and was once again impressed by the clarity and the amazing sound that comes from a Hi-Def movie, and Disturbia was the kind of movie to watch in that format. Overall I have to say I doubt I will ever watch Disturbia again but for the time I watched it I really did find myself enjoying it, and would recommend it even to the squeamish at heart like myself.

Since I don’t have Movie-Stop.net up and running any more this is my only place to discuss some of the latest movies I have seen, and the latest would be Rush Hour 3. A little background, I am a big fan, I own both movies and have been hoping for a third one for a long time. Having known about all the problems they were having getting Chris Tucker signed to do the third it didn’t ever seem like the movie was going to become a reality. However it is here, it is now in theaters and here is my quick feelings.

Going in I can’t say I was expecting the best movie from the series, but I was surprised to see how little has changed from the first two, to Rush Hour 3. It could be said that the script was cut and pasted from the previous two movies and shot in France. Many of the Jokes we have heard before, many of the scenes were identical to previous movies, and yet it still was enjoyable. There were a few lines that were meant to make the true Rush Hour fans laugh, a few scenes that made zero sense, and an overall feeling of just a fun light hearted movie. In the end I was disappointed with how it ended but still enjoyed the movie quite a bit for its true sense of humor that has echoed through the whole franchise.

Often times when you read a critics review of a movie they seem ultra-biased or just overly critical, however many of the top critics panned the movie I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. Being a fellow critic I usually go into things with as free of a mind as humanly possible, and going into this movie I tried, but in general I was really looking forward to it. From the opening scene this movie threw out mixed signals on gay acceptance and gay stereotypes I have ever seen. The movie starts off with two Latino women fighting over Adam Sandler’s character Chuck who near a kiss. From that point on the movie goes on this homosexual roller coaster that not only has very little plot line, it is misguided from start to finish.

Getting my own personal views on Gay Marriage is easy, I didn’t support it a few years ago, now I am under the persuasion that if we live in the land of the free we should have the option to marry who we choose but that is something I am still processing and praying on and something that I work through quite a bit. With that being said this movie is not helping anyones case whether heterosexual or homosexual. My biggest problem with this movie was that its initial idea is to support gays on there quest for just simple acceptance, but along with this package comes one of the most stereotypical gay bashing I have ever seen. There is a scene where they are shopping in a grocery store finding all the “gay stuff” they can find. A little over the top don’t you think? There are so many “gay slams” throughout the movie that just go so far overboard there is no rescuing this movie.

The movie stars two of the funniest men in comedy, especially Kevin James who was brilliant in Hitch and if you haven’t seen it, Sweat the Small Stuff on Comedy Central is one of the best stand up routines of all time. However neither man could pull together this disjointed offensive movie. To top it off you have poster boy Lance Bass from N’Sync make a last minute showing which once again really feels like another gay joke slapped with the rest of the close to two hours of bad comedy. If you can’t tell already this movie went in every wrong direction possible and outside of a few mildly entertaining scenes this movie was a complete flop and for me an utter disappointment. When the best part of the movie experience was the previews, something is not right.

So Monday evening I went out to go see Michael Moore’s latest tirade on screen in his latest documentary “Sicko”, and here are some of my reactions to the movie

* First and foremost this is a Michael More film, thus it has a Michael Moore slant to it meaning that the clips throughout the movie are meant to hit your emotions and always go with Moore’s objective on the movie.
* The clips about European lifestyle seem true to form, from my experiences in Europe there culture is extremely laid back and it is not about every dollar that you earn, but instead on how you can enjoy life. The fact that they get five weeks vacation sounds pretty good to me.
* I liked how this movie seemed a lot less partisan then previous movies, he showed how both sides of the aisles were affected by medical lobbying, including Mrs. Clinton.
* There is a scene in the movie where they took 9/11 victims to Cuba to get medical care, and although I am sure they have universal health care it sure seemed they were overly helpful given the camera crew.
* What I thought was most interesting is how content the citizens of Canada, France, and England were with there Universal Health Care. I have talked to a few people from Canada and I know my boss at Kunzo is very content with his health care and laughed with what a pain is down here in the states
* What I thought was the most interesting or most real to life was a scene on a man who lost two fingers in an accident and had to choose which finger to keep. To me that doesn’t seem right, and seems ridiculous that we have to choose something like that.
* Although Moore definitely gives you the worst of the health insurance plans, we all know that we are paying a ton of money each year on health care, whether we are sick or not, and I truly believe the health insurance goal is not to help people but to make money which is an example of capitalism not working the way it should.
* I personally believe and have believed before this movie that a Universal Health Care system would be a huge step forward for this country. We are turning to many people away, and making to many people bankrupt because they are paying for there care.

My personal feelings on this movie was that it was extremely well made and that Michael Moore knows how to make an entertaining documentary. I always feel that he goes a bit extreme on some of his takes but the fact that he remained behind the camera for most of the movie was a big change for Moore. In general the movie was a great watch, it was eye opening to how our health care system feels like something in the stone age. I don’t necessarily agree with everything in this movie but given the fact that I am open to other ideas I would say that Moore does a great job of grabbing ones attention, even for a two hour documentary.