you can do that?

I checked on CNN's Website today and was stricken with laughter and then wonder when I read "Lebanon's government quits." They can do that? Can we petition for that? I guess they just couldn't take it anymore and so they all packed up and left. What happens to them now? Hm.....mass chaos? Pinky and the Brain taking over their government? Perhaps they'll change their minds and want their jobs back. Too funny. What will this world think of next?

Not so hot

OK, so last night I was purusing the channels on the huge tv and for some insane reason stopped to watch "The Simple Life" for a moment. I figured, hey, I've never seen it before. Maybe I should watch for a couple mintues so that I can try and see what all the hype is about. Let's just say that I now feel like I wasted ten minutes of my life. Can someone PLEASE explain to me the obsession with Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, because I don't get it. Aside from being completely annoyed every time Paris opened her mouth and said "that's hot" or "that's sexy" I wanted to crawl through the tv and force her to use a thesaurus...anything other than what she was saying. I guess I don't understand why the average American cares about 2 women who never really had to work for anything. It seems like all they do in the show is make fun of the average joe's job and life. Lame. That's what I say to counter Paris' "hot". LAME. Get a life girls - we know you don't have one, and that's why you come out and ride the bus and try to take ours, but let's face it...you are lame.

In Living Color

I'm one of those who REALLY likes surprises, but according to my huband, it's really hard to surprise me. I ask too many questions apparently. BUT last night I got home as I do every night. Went into the kitchen with my husband and started to eat dinner. He got this grin on his face - the one that means he knows something and wants to tell me, but it's a surprise - so I went searching through the apartment. I was thinking maybe he wrote me a note and hid it somewhere, or maybe he got me some nummy dessert....I walk into the bedroom and there it was - larger than life. A HUGE new television. OK, so it's not as big as the behemoth tv my mom has, but it's pretty freakin' huge. We settled in and watched a movie on it - felt like I was at the movie theatre. Man, I LOVE surprises. (well, good ones at least)

Interesting perspective

Saw movie last night called "Gunner's Palace." It's a documentary on how some army members live, breath and work in Iraq. The film itself, although slow in places, was a pretty good depiction of what your average soldier deals with everyday in Baghdad (or so says my husaband, and since he's been there, I believe him). The director lived with the soldiers when they first arrived in Baghdad and then lived with them again just before they came back a year later. The perspective changes in the men and their opinions alone are worth seeing the film. The director also shows different missions the soldiers carry out - everything from clearing a room by force to training Iraqi police. in a question and answer session after the film, the director talked about the lack of blood and gore in the film (there really isn't any - kind of refreshing actually). He mentioned that he wanted the film to stand apart from what people see on the news. He feels that most of America doesn't really care much or really remember that men and women are trying to stay alive in a warzone right now and that he wanted to show the human side of the soldiers.

I watched the film in a movie theatre full of war veterans (Iraqi war, Vietnam War, Bosnia, Afghanistan...) and their families. Some said the film wasn't an acurrate depiction of what all soldiers go through. And it's not. The Special Forces troops or Navy members have a very different experience. But it's a slice of the pie.

My question was how did he get access to the military personnel in the way he did. Apparently it wasn't hard for him to do. My second thought was - how much of what you shot was pre-censored by the military red-tapers. From what he said - the only things that he left out of the 400 hours of footage he had, were things he chose to leave out. Thinking back on it, it makes sense. The film doesn't really have a political agenda and it really is more about shooting an accurrate depiction of the men and women serving in this unit in Iraq. An intriguing film with some important perspectives. Doubt it'll change the world, but perhaps it will remind some people that there's a war on - even if only for a minute.

Shocking but great

I wasn't sure what to expect when walking in to see "Hotel Rwanda." I expected some gore, some guilt.....but I had no idea. The film was very powerful. I suppose with a subject matter such as the Rwandan genocide, you'd have to to try NOT to have it be powerful. I was happy that the film touched on issues such as the West abandoning the people in the country, the seemingly nominal difference between the opposing Rwandan classes and the extent to which the killing was carried. After the movie, I wondered if perhaps writer/director Terry George had gone over the top - tried to hit Western audiences over the head with a crisis that most chose to ignore. I don't think he did. From what I have read, he actually spared the audience from even more disturbing stories that he could have included.

Terry George's writing skills really shone through in this one. He would take the characters from horrific moments of terror to laughter within moments - those moments when perhaps all you can do to survive is find a way to laugh - to feel alive. Nick Nolte played a good ol' Notle role as the UN's Col. Oliver, and he did it better than any role I've seen him in a while. Don Cheadle became his character in more ways than one and truly brought a human face to what had merely been a news story.

useless facts for the day

-8 billion pastel, heart-shaped candies with the sayings on them (conversation hearts) will be made this Valentine's Day this year.

-The average Americans eats about 24 pounds of candy a year.

Upside-down

The film "Sideways" that everyone has been raving about finally came to my li'l town and so I figured I would go and see what all the hype was about. I was expecting something funny, something different....something. What I got was a whole lot of nada. There was nothing unique, interesting or even compelling about the film. I left the theater wondering if perhaps I missed a subplot, maybe a scene had been cut out or maybe I was suffering from some strange amnesia. But no. The film reminded me of an episode of 30-Something. Aside from the fact that the story was flat - I had no sympathy for the characters - if anything, I found them to be annoying. I've read reviews about the film and they say that the characters are "real" and "endearing." What? Just because a movie character reminds you of yourself or someone you know does not make them endearing. Familiar perhaps, but not endearing. Just because I may know a depressed, negative, underachiever, I am not going to exalt a film that exposes that person for all he or she may be. The film was nothing special. it was predictiable, full of over-emphasized metaphors and rarely as funny as I had hoped. And whoever it was that was lamenting the fact Paul Giamatti didn't get an Oscar nomination should have their head examined. His performance, though believable, was nothing unique or extraordinary.