Belching wreckage of sound

[Bizarro]

Morning!

[Bizarro]

Did Steven Soderbergh make Contagion just to get us to wash our hands? I cannot think of any other reason that film would have been made.

The virologist who consulted on that film was on NPR. She said Soderbergh was appalled by how ridiculously inaccurate previous Hollywood depictions of outbreaks were. He finds the subject very interesting personally and wanted to dramatize such an outbreak plausibly. Taken this way, as a skilled director dramatizing an oft-butchered topic, I thought it wasn't bad. It was sort of like a New Yorker article in film form.

And it starts with Gwyneth Paltrow dying a horrible death. How can you not support that?

[Bizarro]

We saw In Time last night... It wasn't awful. Cool premise: in the future, disease and aging have been beaten. Everyone looks 25 until the day they die. But if you want to live past that, you have to pay. Time is the chosen currency. The setup lays out a net parallel to how wealth is concentrated and classes are segmented in our society. And I still think Justin Timberlake is a winning movie star.

Anyway, the problem is, the writer/director, Andrew Niccol, doesn't really have a great plan for developing this world. The movie degenerates into another movie about a misunderstood dude on the run from the law with a spoiled rich girl in tow. At first, she's a hostage, but he helps her see the world differently, and then they go all Bonnie and Clyde. Yawn.

Not a total waste of time or anything, but loses the thread badly enough that I can only recommend it for half watching while folding your laundry or what have you. The setup Is good until a laugh out loud corny death. After that, you could essentially skip the rest or watch it on fast forward.

[Tripp]

We watched DRIVE last night.. I liked it..  the 80's aspect was mostly fun but occasionally I found the soundtrack distractingly ridiculous .  I thought a LOT of the dialogue was sub-par.. Maybe that's why there are so many quiet passages in the movie..

[Tripp]

We had a lot of severe weather last night. I'd have to say that it is unusual this time of year..
When it really started coming down I was watching from the front door.. There may have been straight-line winds.
All I know is suddenly it looked like outside was underwater then the power blew..  So it was a romantic night of candlelight and storm sirens..

[Poop Fresh-Herbed Pickles]

Be a human being...and a real hero.

[Tripp]

yeah, that one.!

[Tripp]

ugh.. really irritable this morning...  didn't sleep very well last night....  just drove down to the grocery store and found there were some pretty big trees down all over our street... guess we were lucky..

[Berunda]

We watched Drive this weekend too. The music just perplexed the shit out of me, but I liked it other than that.

[Tripp]

Love letter to the 80's... 

[Tripp]

I see that Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is tanking....  GOOD.. It really pisses me off that god-damn tom hanks and sandra fucking bullock made a feel-good 9-11 movie.   FUUUUUUCK YOU.

[Bizarro]

Drive actually seems like a rare bird: a good movie that was made from a shaky screenplay. All of that dialogue they cut worked well.

[Berunda]

I didn't read the screenplay, but the lack of dialogue went a long way toward establishing the weird mood it had.

[Berunda]

Our trip to Jersey got cancelled because Ei had to work unexpectedly on Saturday. But we got a bit of snow, and C and I made a snowman, so we had some fun. C and I are both total homebodies, so we had a very relaxing weekend.

[Bizarro]

Simon and I went sledding on the big village-maintained hill yesterday. A few tips for dads I learned:

1. Find out if the sled you bought is stupidly fast before letting it rip with a toddler on board.
2. Let your kid start off partway up the hill to start him off gently.
3. Make sure you keep the sled moving at a pace you can stay ahead of, so that you can steer your child safely.

If you were, by chance, to start off at the top of the hill on your untested sled, barrel down the hill at terrifying speed, then lose control of the sled, causing it to wreck and send your child tumbling face first into the snow, I have found that your performance as a sled dad will be held in low regard.