5 Razors

The Great Films – Lost in Translation

  • Title: Lost in Translation
  • IMDb: link

Lost in Translation

Anyone who has spent time alone in a hotel room isolated and far from home, dealt with the uncertainties of your early 20s or a emotional barrage of a mid-life crisis, or spent time with a stranger who has somehow changed your life, can appreciate at least some of the various themes writer/director Sofia Coppola explores by putting Bill Murray in Japan. Bill Murray in Japan, that’s the premise that Coppola started with. And to it she blended in the talents of a young up-and-coming actress named Scarlett Johansson. The rest, as they say, is history.

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The Great Films – Galaxy Quest

  • Title: Galaxy Quest
  • IMDb: link

Galaxy Quest

Far from a flop, but not the box office family comedy smash the fledging DreamWorks Pictures was hoping for, Galaxy Quest came and went in the winter of 1999 and early 2000 with marginal success. Those lucky enough to see the film in the theaters were in for a treat that stayed around the top 10 of the box office for several weeks earning positive reviews from critics and earning back double its production costs.  Without really knowing what they had on their hands, bungling the marketing of the film and hamstringing its release, DreamWorks had nevertheless produced the best Star Trek movie ever made.

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Past Lives

  • Title: Past Lives
  • IMDb: link

Past Lives

Writer/director Celine Song‘s Past Lives examines the haunting touch of love across time and distance. After introducing us to 12 year-old best friends Na Young (Moon Seung-ah) and Hae Sung (Leem Seung-min) on the verge of something more, Na Young’s family leaves South Korea for the United States, and we skip forward 12 years where Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) reconnects with Na Young now Nora (Greta Lee) over the Internet. Living on opposite sides of the globe, the two find their connection in place although the inability to physically connect becomes eventually too great and leads to another 12 year gap where the now married Nora is visited by Hae Sung in New York City.

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Wonder Woman #2

Wonder Woman #2

While I’m not overly interested in the Amazon’s Attack! event that this comic is helping to set up, and which the back-up story foreshadows, Wonder Woman #2 is easily one of the best comic books I’ve read this year providing action while at the same time exploring the character of Diana, who she is, why she fights, and why she must take a stand for what’s right.

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Bob’s Burgers – The Amazing Rudy

  • Title: Bob’s Burgers – The Amazing Rudy
  • wiki: link

Bob's Burgers - The Amazing Rudy

As the title suggests, “The Amazing Rudy” focuses not on the Belchers (the first show of the series not to do so) but instead on Rudy (Brian Huskey) and his growing dread for the awkward family dinner later the night involving his equal anxious father, his father’s new girlfriend, and Rudy’s mother and her boyfriend. Bob’s Burgers is a show that is often at its best when embracing awkward moments and there’s plenty of those throughout the episode between father and son, Rudy’s failed magic trick (and the heartbreaking montage of how his dinner magic once connected his now fragmented family), and the growing concern of the Belchers when Rudy admits he fled the restaurant after the trick bombed and showed up at their home for dinner.

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