The Rocketdog Blog

Question

Snakes on a Plane: best movie title ever? Or just, say, among the top twenty? Thoughts?

Labels: movies

posted by nick @ 2:09 PM 1 comments

Crash sucks, and Photos from the WBC

All right, no more blog deadlines. You think I would have learned by now, but...no. I've got a two-page love fest for Capote that I'll finish up sooner or later, but blogging about the Oscars is like, so three weeks ago. Besides, I don't really have much else to add to the discussion. But I will say this: Crash? Ok, I didn't comment about this back on March 6th, because – confession time again – I never even got around to watching the movie until just last night. Now that I've seen it, though, for the record...you've got to be kidding me. Munich wasn't great either, but at least it had some decent action scenes. Crash?!? Nice cinematography, fine editing. Also, piece of crap. Possibly the worst screenplay of any movie I've watched in the last year. That's my review. Barf.

Anyway, I've just gotten back from a week in San Diego, where I caught the semifinals and final of the first-ever World Baseball Classic. These pictures are just over a week old, but since I forgot my SD card reader I had to wait until I got back to SF before I could post them on the blog. So here we go, fashionably late as usual:

The Cuban team visits the mound in their semifinal game against the Dominican Republic. In this photo, those little people-shaped-dots show Dominicans Miguel Tejada on second, Albert Pujols at first, and David Ortiz at the plate, wating to bat. For those of you who don't follow baseball, just trust me that you're looking at something very, very cool. From several hundred feet away. (Click the photo for a slightly larger rendition.)


Later that evening, at Korea's semifnal game with Japan. This photo features me doing my passable impersonation of a Korean baseball fan (you can't see it here, but I've got a beer in my left hand). I think I was the only white guy in the stadium rooting for Korea. I did notice, however, several dozen whiteboy anime fans, apparently all taking a break from hanging out in comic book stores to show up and cheer for the Japanese. Incidentally, none of them were with girls.


Boyne patriotically waves his Korean flag, even as a series of Japanese homeruns literally causes the PETCO Park scoreboard to burst into flames.


After Japan wins the final 10-6 over Cuba, the Japanese contingent takes the field. I don't have anything to say about this photo except...see those little pieces of confetti-looking stuff all over the diamond? That's what's left of the Cubans. Seriously. These Japanese guys were out to win. Also, that's a big flag.

Labels: baseball, movies, photoblogging

posted by nick @ 10:10 AM 0 comments

New Chop Suzy EP

I should have posted about this days ago, but I guess I was busy recovering from having my face rocked off: LA arena-rock legends Chop Suzy have a new EP out, and you can pick it up for $5 (as well as stickers, t-shirts, and free MP3s from both Suzy albums) from their newly-redesigned website. For those of you in the LA-area, "Going to the Mall" is also available at Amoeba Music in Hollywood.

Labels: music

posted by nick @ 11:23 AM 0 comments

Santino Was Robbed

BOOOOOO.

Labels: etc.

posted by nick @ 8:06 PM 0 comments

Pppppbbbbbt.

Ok, I give. It looks like I bit off more than I could chew with this Oscar blogging thing. I'll go ahead and post the write-ups on the next three movies as I get them finished; going by my current pace, that should take me about a week. In the meantime, if you're planning on watching the show tomorrow night, do me a favor and root for Capote.

Me? I'll be driving back from Tahoe. Impromptu ski trips are way more fun than the Oscars.

Labels: metablogging, movies

posted by nick @ 11:30 PM 2 comments

Brokeback Mountain

Right on time, two days late.

If all you’d ever heard of Brokeback Mountain was gleaned from listening to the opening monologues of late-night talk show hosts, you’d have to be forgiven for thinking it’s some kind of western-themed gay porn flick. Considering the context of the film’s release – a mainstream film about two homosexual cowboys, made by a high-profile heterosexual director with a likewise cast, crew, and screenwriting team – it’s really not surprising how quickly Brokeback Mountain became a shorthand reference for closeted guy-on-guy action.

It’s a caricature, of course, and one that gives a predictably misleading image of the film’s intentions; Brokeback isn’t really about “gay cowboys” at all, at least not in the sense you’d expect from listening to the pop culture fallout. Instead, Brokeback comes off as a fairly conventional Hollywood love story, albeit one set in a highly unconventional circumstance (i.e., between two guys in 1960s Wyoming).

In building their script around a type of unrequited love story that we’ve seen so many times (change a few names, places and genders and Brokeback Mountain easily changes back into its spiritual predecessor, Romeo and Juliet), screenwriters Annie Proulx and Larry McMurtry deftly take the focus off of the novelty of their two gay leads, instead allowing the powerful emotional relationship between Ennis and Jack to take its place at the center of the film. The result is a heartfelt and character-driven story, and one that communicates its social commentary in a vastly more effective way than a film with a more pointed, patronizing tone could ever achieve. Actually, this last bit is perhaps the most unexpected – and greatly appreciated – aspect of this very good film: it doesn’t follow the typical “message” movie formula, constantly beating you over the head with a moral issue about acceptance.

As a side note, straight guys who might be wary of watching two other men get it on for two hours can relax. I’m paraphrasing something I heard on a Mick LaSalle podcast, but the reason Brokeback Mountain is so unique lies not in its subject matter, but in its context: Yes, it’s a mainstream film about homosexuals, but it’s one made almost entirely by straight people and intended for a straight audience. To that end, there’s only one sex scene between Jack and Ennis, almost comically short at around 15 seconds and lacking any nudity. There are plenty of bare breasts, however (provided by Anne Hathaway and Michelle Wiliams). That’s right, Brokeback is a film about two gay cowboys with more shots of boobs than of naked men. If that’s not a clue that this film is intended for straight audiences, I don’t know what is.

Brokeback is a very solid film that gets everything just about right. That’s par for the course for Director Ang Lee, but he’s particularly on his game here. The performances are almost all excellent, but I have to admit that I’m not entirely sold on Heath Ledger’s much-lauded portrayal of Ennis. Ledger has been racking up accolades for his work in Brokeback, and while I think he’s fine for the most part, I’m not ready to jump on that bandwagon; there’s something inexplicable about his character that just didn’t ring true for me, and the problem’s not in the screenplay. On the other hand, Jake Gyllenhal has been receiving as much derision as Ledger has praise, but I think he plays Jack with a natural ease that is lacking in Ledger’s Ennis. Another minor issue for me is in the way the characters in Brokeback age – or rather, the way they don’t. The movie spans something like two decades, and with the exception of Jack’s grey hair and paunch, the characters just don’t show it. (Note to the makeup crew: slapping a blond wig on Anne Hathaway while she puffs on a cigarette isn't going to do a lot to give her an extra 20 years. Just saying.) In a film that gets so much else right, you have to wonder about a misstep this obvious, even such a minor one as it is.

Labels: movies

posted by nick @ 2:49 PM 0 comments

World Baseball Classic

Brokeback Mountain: it's not bad.

You like that? I'm clever. Seriously, that one will be up today. As in, Thursday, not Wednesday. Just like I said it would.

In the meantime...I doubt if anyone reading this thinks this is nearly as cool as I do, but the first World Baseball Classic starts today in Japan. If you're not familiar with it, the WBC is the first of what promoters are hoping will become a sort of baseball World Cup: 16 national teams playing a three-stage tournament for the title of "World Champion," the intention being to re-play the whole thing every four years from here on out. I've got special interest in the WBC because I'll be at the semifinal and final games in San Diego, March 18 and 20.

The first game will be broadcast on tape-delay from Tokyo, 1:30 AM tomorrow morning on ESPN 2 (10:30 PM tonight on the West Coast). Korea v. Tiawan. You know you want it.

TV schedules for the rest of the tournament can be found here.

Labels: baseball

posted by nick @ 12:37 PM 0 comments