Born Yesterday is a gem of an old movie
From 1950, starring William Holden and Judy Holliday, this movie is surprisingly funny. It’s a twist on the Pygmalion story. If Henry Higgins were too busy to actually educate Eliza and instead hired Freddie to do it, you might get something like this movie. But it’s not as simple as that. Judy Holliday’s character changes, but it’s not that William Holden swooped in and saved her. Rather, her change comes from the books she’s read. It’s hard to think of a movie that can convincingly portray a character’s life being affected by a quote from Thomas Jefferson, but this one Read more…
Watching Speed on the Mason Lake Outdoor Screen …
IMG_1229.MOV Watch on Posterous AKA the backyard of the lake. Juryrigged screen on a ladder. Boardroom projector. Pretty dang awesome.
They’re serving butterbeer in Hogsmeade (AKA Orlando Florida)
via wired.com Butterscotch, shortbread, and a creamy head added on top. Looks great! Also when did Ollivander’s wand shop relocate to Hogsmeade? Were the rents too high in Diagon Alley? Was this after he fled from Voldemort during his search for the Elder Wand? So many questions … 😉
The A-Team
My dad and I saw the A-Team this week and I was generally happy with it as an action comedy. Totally absurd, of course, but pretty good fun as to that. If an action movie's going to go full-absurd, it may as well do it with a gleam in it's eye and tongue in it's cheek.
Get Him to the Greek
Get Him to the Greek was a largely funny comedy, but much more uneven than it should have been. It's predecessors of the Judd Apatow-genre had slow parts sometimes, but they were careful to not betray their characters. This one seemed much more willing to do so in order to make a joke. Russell Brand is pretty much always funny when he's on screen, but for the rest, it was hit and miss. When it was funny, it was funny, but when it wasn't … well, it wasn't.
I love this trailer
via youtube.com This trailer works almost better than the movie does. Actually, I think the 2nd half of the movie is great. But this trailer is great the whole way through. Makes me want to pull out the soundtrack again.
The NCAA, Film Festivals, and Economics
Imagine that you could run a business that relied on volunteer labor, was so popular it was worth many millions of dollars, and was largely tax free. Sounds illegal, but it's not. It's an accurate description of college football and college basketball programs. I have a bit of a hard time with the NCAA rules, and today's sanctions against USC are a good  enough reason as any to post on this topic. With colleges serving as the de-facto farm teams for pro-basketball and pro-football, anyone who wants to play in the pros pretty much has to go through them to make Read more…
Pippi Longstocking
After learning that Steig Larsson's character Lisabeth Salander (from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) was inspired by Pippi Longstocking, I was interested in seeing the similarities. Mary and I both read Pippi Longstocking recently, which was a nice children's story. Pippi's similarity to Lisabeth is more in the reaction from other characters than from any character similarity. They both have their own way of doing things, and a tendency to drive adults crazy who don't know how to deal with them. Pippi's superstrong: she can lift a horse or show up the strongman at the circus. And Lisabeth knows Read more…
Dirty Harry
Mary and I watched Dirty Harry this weekend and had a great time. It’s still a good action movie and Clint Eastwood is always fun to watch. Good times. It also reminded me of this comic from xckd.com which I’m attaching here for your enjoyment.
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