Ultranormal

Category: entertainment

  • Another Commercial Song

    That song from the Levi’s commercial where the guy dives back in the harbor after his English/French dictionary is called Playground Love by Air. It’s available on the Virgin Suicides soundtrack.

    Oh, and what does the girl say to him in French after he gets out of the water? “What did you forget?” Am I good or what?

    And that song in the new Nissan commercials is either Fila Brazillia or from the new Chemical Brothers album. I haven’t figured it out yet, but it will come to me.

    And if anyone knows what song is in the new Adidas commercial with the slugs, please let me know. It’s very cool… maybe Thievery Corporation?

  • Signs, Signs, Everywhere the Signs… (yuck, what a crappy song… what’s wrong with me?)

    We went and saw Signs today (just Jen and I; Max was playing at Grandma’s). I really liked it. It could have been a side story in Independance Day. It was a global disaster and a huge panic; but, the story took place mostly in the farmhouse. It was beautiful in execution. The acting was spot-on. The direction was perfect more often than it was just good. Jen screamed half a dozen times, and I jumped almost that many. The horror was all psychological, and we got one clear shot of an alien, and it wasn’t the scariest shot in the movie. I’m not doing this well, but this is a really good movie (I’m working on a really bad headache, but I’m downstairs surfing because Jen is watching CSi).

    After that, I watched Lord of the Rings. This movie was made for fanboys (and girls… Heather). It was long. It was good, but I got a little bored with the “Short guys and bearded hunks running from munsters” that seemed to compose two thirds of the movie. The rest was elves, and Hobbitts and tedious exposition. If it weren’t for the fact that Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen were excellent, and Viggo Mortensen was impressive in an understated role, I would have been disappointed. The scene at the end with Sam and Frodo in the boat made it all worth it. It was touching, and perfectly played. It is a beautiful movie, but man it was long (I’m preempting retorts from my sister).

    And completely out of order chronologically, there was a preview for the new Red Dragon, a remake of the amazing Manhunter. If you haven’t seen the original, go rent it right now. They just released a special edition DVD. William Petersen was absolutely amazing, as was the guy who played Dr. Lecter, much more understated and reasoned than Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal. The only reason to see the new one is the cast. Not only do they have Anthony Hopkins with a dye job (because Red Dragon happened well before Silence of the Lambs), they have Edward Norton, Ralph Fienes and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The cast alone is enough to make me see it.

    And that’s all… sorry it was written like a 9th grade term paper, but it’s the best I can manage at the moment.

  • Is This Good or Bad?

    Watching the Pre-season game between the Texans and Giants, I’ve seen about 6 ads for ABC’s new gimmick series, Push, Nevada. It looks like a cheap Twin Peaks ripoff with a touch of U-Turn. The only rays of hope I can see for the series is the use of Social Distortion’s cover of Ring of Fire and the presence of the excellent Jon Polito (who I’ve loved since his turn on Homicide). Not worth changing my viewing habits for, but if there’s nothing else on Thursdays at 9, I may check it out.

  • The Royal Tenenbaums

    I can’t believe I didn’t blog about this right after we saw it. Jen and I watched The Royal Tenenbaums a couple weeks ago. If you haven’t seen it yet, drop what you’re doing, rush to your local video store (as long as it’s not Blockbuster) and rent it. Heck, go to your favorite purveyor of videos or DVD’s and buy it.

    Ok, wait, come back. I loved this movie. Better yet, it has the most joyful scene I’ve seen in a film in a very long time. Gene Hackman plays Royal Tenenbaum, a real bastard. He left his family 22 years ago, is out of money, and tries to ingratiate himself to his abandoned family by telling them he’s going to die. One of his ploys is to win the love of his two grandsons. I won’t tell you anymore about the storyline, except this scene. The two boys are extremely sheltered by their father (Ben Stiller). Royal thinks this is a tragedy, and takes the kids out to commit some mischief. There’s a three to four minute montage of them committing several misdemeanors around town, driving go-karts around (I think) a high school football stadium (it could be a track), hitching a ride on the back of a garbage truck and throwing water balloons at passing cars. Gene Hackman deserved the Oscar for that scene alone. He and the boys were full of uncontrollable joy and vitality.

    If you like True Stories, Bottle Rocket or Magnolia, you’ll love this movie.

  • More Love For HBO

    There’s more to love about The Wire. Last night’s episode was TiVo’ed, and I got around to watching it tonight. The opening scene with McNulty sending his kids off to follow Stringer Bell around using the old “front and follow” method was incredible. It was really funny, and just perfect.

    It’s such a great show, well done, well written… just about perfect. I’ve talked about it before, so I won’t keep going on about it, but you should definitely watch it.

    In other news, there is no other news.

    It seems that all the pain at work has been worth it. Things are fast, people are happy, and it’s just nice to know that something is working out of all this mess I’ve had to deal with for the past three months.

  • Ok, It’s Not Bad…

    Last night’s episode of Sex and the City completely made up for last week’s snoozer. It was funny, snarky and back to the quality I’ve come to expect from the show. I retract my previous comments about the show. I was worried, but I think the girls will be just fine.

  • I Didn’t Even Know You Could Pronounce Paella!

    So, I made something approacing paella tonight. Jen made this really simple sauce last night with fresh tomatoes, olive oil and onions. It was awesome on pasta, so I figured it might be good with some of the tilapia we had in the freezer. Jen didn’t want pasta again, so we agreed on rice.

    I defrosted the tilapia filets, cut up the last three large cherry tomatoes, the rest of the onion from last night, and grabbed a bunch of spices out of the cabinet. I put two splashes of olive oil in the big sauce pan along with a pat of butter, a bunch of garlic, a dash of cumin, two pinches of cilantro, a buttload of paprika, the chopped up tomatoes and onions, and about half a can of diced tomatoes. I started them on the oven over medium heat, while I put the rice on with some of the chopped up onion and a little butter and salt.

    After the concoction in the sauce pan was boiling pretty good, I put the tilapia filets in and covered the whole thing. I let it simmer on medium-low until the rice was done (it was instant so it was only five minutes). I then dumped the finished rice on top of the tilapia, stirred in some of the juice, and covered it again for about 10 minutes.

    It was really good when I got a bite of something other than rice. I think with twice as many fresh tomatoes, some other veggies like celery, and some more garlic, it would have been perfect. I think we’ll try it later in the week with some shredded chicken.

    This was pretty much a perfect weekend other than my misadventures in home improvement. Max and I played a lot, we had great family time and had a lot of fun. I think I just may be ready for this last week of work before my vacation.

  • We Have A Rebuttal!!

    Nicole from Not Content To Crawl has posted a rebuttal to my Goldmember review. Since seeing the movie, I’ve read some reviews, and maybe I was just in a bad mood. I had just made it through a harrowing day of launching my baby (twice as fast as it was last week, and I did it in two days), and a horrific two months of last-minute changes, humongous projects and well, other unpleasant stuff. So, I may not have been in a scatological humor mood. I’ll give it another shot on DVD.

  • Goldmaybe

    I got a free ticket to see a early screening of Austin Powers: Goldmember today. So, if you were planning on plunking down hard earned cash to see it this weekend, hold on a minute. It was hugely disappointing. This is coming from someone who loved the first two and has worked on his Fat Bastard impression since the second one came out.

    It has moments of brilliance, but they’re all rental moments. There’s nothing in it worth seeing in the theaters or that you’ll be talking about the next day at work.

    Goldmember is the worst character Mike Myers has ever attempted. The accent wasn’t done with any attempt at humor, or even accuracy at all. The Goldmember lines were lame at best. Mike Myers couldn’t hold the Dr. Evil voice at times. It varied from scene to scene wildly. Sometimes it was a parody of the original and sometimes he didn’t even try. The same with Austin. He kept dropping the acccent. Beyonce was annoying. She giggled like a 12 year-old through the whole thing and added nothing to the film. Now, if they had gotten Wanda Sykes, THAT would have been funny.

    I won’t spoil the opening sequence, but it was actually entertaining. I can’t believe I’m writing this much on this movie, but here are some things I actually did like in the film. Seth Green was good as Scott. Fat Bastard had a few good lines, and Michael Caine was awesome. He and Seth Green did the only real acting jobs in the whole movie. The rest was almost like everyone slept through making it.

    Go see it only if you’re a die-hard fan, can’t find anything better to do, and neeeeeed to eat popcorn in the dark.

  • Down To…

    The Wire is the second coming of Homicide: Life on the Street. The show is really coming along. The characters are great. I keep trying to compare them to the old crew of Homicide, but it’s hard. There are only a couple that really match up well. Bunk is Meldrick Lewis. The old guy who makes doll house furniture is kind of Pembleton, but only of Pembleton had hung around to retirement age. Avon Barksdale is Luthor Mahoney without the flair (the flair being in Omar, who I think is one of the best bad guys on TV). On the surface, the show seems almost cliche. Dig a little deeper, watch a little closer, and the nuances jump out and give the show a depth unlike any cop show I’ve seen in a long time. For instance, in last night’s episode, Bunk and Jimmy go out drinking. The next day in the office, they’re all bleary without actually mentioning a hangover.

    So, if you have HBO, and you’re not watching, shame on you. It’s a great show, and I hope it comes back for many seasons to come.

    In other TV news, last night’s Sex and the City was kind of disappointing. I hate to say it, but I think they’ve run out of steam. Didn’t it feel like a rerun?

    And to counter the point of the show, I don’t think you get a set number of great loves in your life. You get as many as you go out and find, and as many as you need to find the one that will last. It’s a struggle, and sometimes it’s not fun. But, if you stop looking, you’ve shut out the possibility that you’ll find your next great love.

    And still more… Trey was not Charlotte’s great love. He was the great placeholder for love. Aiden may have been a great love, but Big certainly wasn’t. He was a protracted fling.

    I’ll keep watching because there really isn’t anything else on. But, I’m almost hoping this is the last season. I’d hate to see the show limp into obscurity. Go out near the top.