Gran Torino

  • Title: Gran Torino
  • IMDB: link

gran-torino-posterGran Torino isn’t a bad way for Clint Eastwood the actor to go out (if this is indeed his last starring role), but Eastwood the director lets us down. Walt (Eastwood) is s a recently widowed grumpy old racist living in a neighborhood which has been taken over by the large immigrant population he refers to throughout the film as “gooks,” “chinks,” “zipperheads,” “barbarians,” and other terms of affection. Charming.

Walt is inconvenienced further when he becomes intertwined in the lives of his neighbors, a Hmong family, when the young boy (Bee Vang) is recruited by a local gang to steal Walt’s 1972 Gran Torino. Against his better judgement Walt takes the kid under his wing, finds him a job, and even helps out his sister Sue (Ahney Her) when she gets accosted on the street.

I could go into further detail about the other storylines involving a persistent priest (Christopher Carley) and Frank’s sons and grandchildren with whom he has nothing in common, but each are so predictable simply vaguely mentioning them is all that’s necessary.

Gran Torino Read More »

Psych all mashed up

  • Title: Psych
  • tv.com: link

Psych, the USA Network original about a psychic detective who’s not so much a psychic (or a detective), returns for a new season on Friday at 10/9C. I must admit I’m pretty psych-ed as I’ve been a fan of the zaniness (including many 80’s pop culture references) of the show since it first aired. The official site has tons of fun stuff fans of the show can enjoy including clips, games, quizes, and the ability to make your own Psych Mashup. Head on over to make your own! Here’s mine.

psych-mashups

Psych all mashed up Read More »

Top Movies of 2008

 

best-of-2008

 

Yeah, I know most people whittle their lists down to 10, but (as teh ‘monkey often observes) I’m not exactly what you’d call “normal.” And this way you get three more extra-good flicks at no extra charge.

2008 was the year of the cape. Super-heroes and comic book films hit theaters like Twilight tweens at a Robert Pattinson appearance, and most of them turned out to be pretty good (forgetting that second-half of Hancock and all of Punisher: War Zone). As a self-admitted and unabashed comic book nerd I couldn’t help but pepper my list with a few of these along with some heroes not in tights, a vampire, a pair of documentaries, and one kick ass panda.

Honorable mentions – Before we begin let me mention a couple films I missed including In Bruges, The Reader, and The Fall (the last of which made our pal Eric’s list), and offer some appreciation to the lovable also-rans who didn’t quite make the cut. These include Traitor, Tropic Thunder, The Visitor, Bolt, and Wall-E (the last film to miss the cut).

Top Movies of 2008 Read More »

Frost/Nixon

  • Title: Frost/Nixon
  • IMDB: link

“What made you exceptional, they said, was that you were a person who had achieved great fame without possessing any discernible quality.”

Sometimes it takes David to bring down Goliath.  David Frost (Michael Sheen) was a likable talk-show host who mortgaged his future and career with an interview with former President Richard Nixon (Frank Langella).  Nixon, in need of money and a change in his public perception, agreed to the interview with the man whom his aide (Kevin Bacon) stated simply “isn’t in your league.”

After an intial montage summing up the Watergate scandal, the film follows Frost on his journey to land, finance, and prepare for the interviews which would almost break him, all while the rest of the world looked on and laughed.

Sheen (The Queen, Music Within) once again gives a great performance on which the film rests.  Over the last two years he’s become one of my favorite actors working today.

Frost/Nixon Read More »

Spirited Silliness

  • Title: The Spirit
  • IMDb: link

There’s not much to the movie, and that’s just how it should be.  Basically, The Spirit (Gabriel Macht) is vigilante that never seems to die.  The same thing could be said of his arch-nemesis, The Octopus (played by none other than Samuel L. Jackson).  The two have locked heads with each other for the foreseeable past – the good guy fighting for the city, and the bad guy fighting to keep selling drugs.  More stuff happens, like the Spirit’s former flame coming back to town, and something to do with eternity is also mentioned; but there’s not much to figure out in this movie.

Spirited Silliness Read More »