Thursday, January 24, 2008

Juno

Well it is awards season again and it looks like Juno has picked up 4 big ones for the upcoming Oscars in February. Ellen Paige for actress, Reitman for Director, Ms. Diablo Cody for screenplay and the big one Best Picture. Personally I think that Hollywood is more intrigued by writer Diablo Cody's background as a former stripper than the script that she actually wrote, but that's just me. Now I actually saw Juno about three weeks ago but I have been so damn busy with work and then coming home to take care of a child--well writing on the Blog has become very difficult. This is now my fourth attempt at writing the review and I think I may actually be able to finish it this time.So I really did enjoy this film it was funny and well written poignant at times but overall a feel good kind of movie. Now everyone and their brother are calling this film this year's Little Miss Sunshine and as much as I enjoyed this film I think these people are out of their freaking minds. Last year Little Miss Sunshine stunned everyone as we followed the hapless Hoover family cross country to enroll little Olive Hoover into the Little Miss Sunshine Pageant. It seemed like a simple enough story but as the film rolled on we got to see many different layers to this screwed up family and by the end of the film they were the well adjusted ones. So Juno is also a very witty and simple plot about a young teen who discovers she's pregnant and decides to give the child to the family of her choice. Ellen Paige is clever and funny as she attempts to understand what is happening to her and how to deal with it. I wouldn't call it overly sentimental or forced it's just a nice little film that is well written and performed and accomplishes exactly what it is supposed to. Call me crazy but it just didn't hit me the same way as Little Miss Sunshine. I guess the expectation was too large going in If I had seen it before the hype maybe I would have been more enthusiastic afterwards. Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman were great as the family desperately seeking spawn. I also really loved J.K. Simmons as Mac Macgruff, Juno's father and Michael Cera as the odd Paulie Bleeker and dumbstruck dad-to-be.If you haven't seen Juno it's really a great film and you would be crazy not to enjoy it. But if you haven't seen There Will Be Blood or No Country for Old Men I would really try to see them even sooner.








Grade: 4 Buckets

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

DAILY CELEBRITY ADVICE (1/16/07):


Billy Baldwin says:

"The only thing dirtier and sexier than money is me."

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

DAILY CELEBRITY ADVICE (1/9/08):

Larry King says:

"When ranking life's little annoyances, for my money, not being able to wash the smell of raw onions off your fingertips after eating a hamburger ranks right up there at the top."

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Comics: Spider-Man: The Last Chapter to One More Day

I just finished reading JMS' final chapter of the One More Day storyline and of course as I predicted I am extremely disappointed. Let me give you a little re-cap in case you had no idea what was going on with Spidey. Excuse me a sec----(breathe in) So Civil War happens and Spidey is forced to choose a side he first joins in with Iron Man and reveals to the world that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. After a while he realizes that that was a mistake and switches sides to join Captain America. Unfortunately for him, his old enemy the Kingpin, decides to take Peter out and with the help of a sniper takes a pot shot at him. It misses him and his wife Mary Jane but hits poor old Aunt May. Now Peter is pissed he wears the black outfit for a while to go hunt down the Kingpin. After that he tries to find a cure for his dying Aunt. Everyone gives him great advice, especially Doctor Strange. He says, in a nutshell, "people get old and they die sometimes Peter, it may just be her time. You should spend her remaining days with her and stop with the guilt." Of course he can't take this advice and that is when another alternative is offered by everyone's favorite loveable and evil, Mephisto. (Whew!)

As I was driving home from work I was thinking about what I disliked the most about it and then I heard Guns and Roses version of Knockin' On Heaven's Door and it became clear to me. Now I'm not here to knock Guns and Roses but even with Slash's excellent guitar work, Axl's vocal renderings of this excellent Bob Dylan song, is painful to listen to. He maims it with his obnoxious hey, hey, hey, hey hey before the main chorus. It was a great idea take a great old song, retrofit it a bit, and come up with this new sound to an old tune. Some people think this knock off is good, and that is their opinion, but I do have to ask if they truly enjoy, with all honesty, Axl's death of a cat impression? It's terrible, really, it's bad music. Now to my point, in One More Day, Editor in Chief of Marvel, Joe Quesada and JMS (J. Michael Straczynski) decided to tackle and end the marriage of Peter/Spider-Man and Mary Jane. Like Guns and Roses they were inspired to re-live an older time, the Silver Age of comics where Peter was a hapless single young man trying to make it in this world with only Spidey and his beloved Aunt as his only constants. The only problem--they wrote this one as bad as Axl sings Knockin' on Heaven's Door--in fact they wrote it so bad it would be as if that William Hung character had actually sung it. Quesada's pencils weren't bad and, at least at the beginning of the arc, JMS' writing was good. I really hated where they were going with it but it looked like it was building to something at least mildly interesting. Then they brought Mephisto into it and he gave them a choice, either you let Aunt May die or I take your marriage away. And when I say that he took the marriage away I mean he made it so it never happened. He did what I think is the laziest form of storytelling, he just made it all disappear like it was magic. I am so disappointed with JMS he is one of my favorite writers, mostly because of what he started on Amazing Spider-Man and for him to end his tour this way just makes me extremely sad. On top of that with this ending he kind of erases a large portion of his great contribution to this character and this book. He has made Peter do something not very heroic, by making a deal with a known villain and trickster, and most importantly of all it just appears as if Peter gives up. What kind of hero does that? This story is by far, worse than the Clone Saga as instead of just tweaking the continuity by having a Clone living in Peter's shoes all of this time, he has completely erased it. All of those storylines, The Other, Most if not all of the Morlun stuff, Kraven's Last Hunt, the Wedding Issue, Peter and M.J.'s entire courtship leading up to the Wedding issue which goes back to pretty much when Gwen Stacy died. In essence they are trying to say My entire collection after all of these years never happened--pretty bold, crazy, stupid but most of all just---disappointing.
I have heard the writers who dislike the marriage complaining in one form or another for years about how difficult it was to write stories with Peter and Mary Jane together and it just makes me sad to be a writer. Writing is supposed to be challenging otherwise it wouldn't be very interesting or very good. It just proves to me that while Joe Quesada may be a very good artist he is most obviously a terrible writer. I know that JMS' name is on the book as the writer but Quesada, through some of his public comments, has made it very clear that he has forced his ideas, regarding Spidey, into the story. In December JMS' wrote an open letter to the critical fan response regarding One More Day. Click here to read the letter. Now after reading the letter I'm not saying that JMS' hands are completely clean now, but it does start to shift some of the focus back onto Quesada.

So I just want to say thanks to the two Joes who have single handedly written the worst comic I have ever read, at least so far. It won't make much difference, I'm sure sales are still booming and the two Joe's, especially Quesada, must be quite proud of their so-called controversial storyline to alter Spider-Man's life. The funny thing is they didn't shake things up as much as you might think they only erased decades of stories from different writers and artists who were just trying to give the Web-head some interesting challenges. Well all of that is over, Spidey is a simple swinging single so all the stories should be downhill and smooth sailing from here, thanks Joe for making everything so effortless, thanks for letting us down easy.P.S. It also just occurred to me--So One More Days ends with Peter and M.J. not knowing anything about their marriage. Harry Osborn is back, Peter looks surprisingly younger, he is now creepily at age 30 plus living with Aunt May in her house. That's just sad and pathetic. Also how does all of this retro-fitting fit into the current Marvel continuity? In the story Mephisto takes care of that identity problem right away, good thing for magical creatures, they take away your problems quick. With Civil War, World War Hulk and the upcoming Secret Invasion where does Spidey and his old school character fit into this world? I'm officially confused.