Sunday, March 12, 2006

Falling down on the job

Yeah, it's been a little slow here at Movievangelist. Not sure why ... maybe a few late nights at work, maybe some college basketball, maybe some TV shows running fresh episodes. Whatever the reason, I don't have much of a backlog of movies, and it's been a loooong time since I've been to ye olde cinema. But really, between "Ultraviolet" and "The Shaggy Dog," it's not like there's any big draw. Even possibly passable fare, i.e. "16 Blocks" and "Freedomland," really hasn't been more than a blip on my movie radar.

About the only thing I could offer to recap is "Gorky Park," which pretty much ensures a big collective, "Huh?" For the record, it's an early '80s murder mystery set in Moscow, when the Cold War was in full flower. William Hurt plays a police officer trying to figure out why three people were found dead sans faces in a park. Not bad, but since I fell asleep three or four times while trying to finish it, there's really no point trying to give a nuanced review. Sorry, Bill.

Instead, let's see what I've stumbled across in the wee hours in lieu of watching an actual movie from start to finish:

Napoleon Dynamite
You may have seen my post a while back on this one, and it's back in the HBO rotation. I own the DVD yet can't help flipping over just to see what scene is on, such as ....
"Tina, come get some ham!"
"Your mom goes to college."
"Is that a new kid or something?"
"You ever take it off any sweet jumps?"
"Stay home and eat all the freakin' chips, Kip!"
"We both know that I'm training to be a cage fighter."
"I see you're drinking 1 percent milk."
"The strength of a grizzly, the reflexes of a puma, and the wisdom of a man." (Gotta love Rex Kwon Do.)

And of course ...

"Do the chickens have large talons?"

Modern Problems
Caught just a bit of this the other day. It's very early Chevy Chase, and really not that funny. Basic story is air traffic controller Chase gets contaminated by nuclear waste or something and takes on weird powers. How clever! But hey, you get a little Nell Carter -- well, a lot of Nell Carter -- and I do enjoy Dabney Coleman as his usual jerkoff self. Funny ... "Deal of the Century" -- another humorless Chase vehicle -- also has gotten HBO play lately. What, is there some kind of ban on "Fletch," people?

The Chronicles of Riddick
This movie sucks pretty bad, but it looks good, and Vin Diesel is always good for a laugh. Besides, every time I watch a bit of this I imagine Judi Dench waking up screaming, thinking, "Dear God, what have I done?" Also, after "Lazy Saturday," I can't stop singing, "The Chronic-WHAT?-cles of Riddick-ah."

(It's all about the Hamiltons, bay-bee!)

2 Comments:

At 11:18 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

After stating that it is a Chevey Chase movie it is not necessary to then point out that Modern Problems is "really not that funny". That is a given.

 
At 11:35 PM, Blogger Jefferson said...

Ah, yes ... Uncle Paul's not a big fan of Chevy. And here I was about to get you the Director's Cut of "European Vacation."

 

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