Archive for December, 2005

Did you know that that Switchfoot did its first ever online chat on CrimsonLight.com? It sure did. It was a huge success, and Switchfoot went on to become an even larger band reaching to more people due to the interview.
A sad soul is comforted by gazing at “Stars.” It’s one of several vaguely spiritual lyrics. Others include the lines “This fallen world … it doesn’t hold your soul” (“Daisy”), “I’m looking for a kingdom coming down” (“Happy Is a Yuppie Word”) and “I belong somewhere past the setting sun” (“Setting Sun”). The band opposes the pervasiveness of sex in society on “Easier Than Love.” The world is an empty, dark, cynical system, according to “Golden,” “We Are One Tonight” “Lonely Nation” and “The Shadow Proves the Sunshine” (which notes there must be a source of light to counter society’s darkness).

Switchfoot in trying to reach a larger audience and be a mainstream band has not gone far from their roots, but yet somehow forgets to mention with that source of light really is. Hopefully Switchfoot really hits on it in their live concerts, but on this recording they are vauge.

Message to Switchfoot, stay True!, Don’t miss your chance to make a true impact on this world. – Your friends at CrimsonLight

Munich is based on the 1984 book Vengeance, which according to Reuters, “purport[s] to chronicle the confessions of an assassin who broke ranks in protest at Israel’s two-fisted tactics.” Much is being made of that book’s alleged inaccuracies and subsequently the film’s. “I think it is a tragedy that a person of the stature of Steven Spielberg, who has made such fantastic films, should have based this film on a book that is a falsehood,” David Kimche, a former senior Mossad official, told Reuters. For his part, Spielberg isn’t claiming to have made a documentary-minded drama. And he’s assigned it an “inspired by” actual events disclaimer.

As Spielberg uses that artistic license to explore what he would consider to be a fine line separating assassins from soldiers, over and over again he drives home the point that if you sink to the depraved and despicable level of your enemies, you gradually become them. And he points out that violence can prompt further violence. “It did not begin in Munich,” says the wife of one target, “and where will it ever end?” Deep, heady, infinitely contentious stuff, that. But things quickly go “off the monorail” as Scott Holleran writes for Box Office Mojo. “Once again, Steven Spielberg transforms a serious subject—an historic act of Arab terrorism—into a skillfully arranged horror show, trivializing another example of 20th century barbarism. … It’s hard to tell what if anything Mr. Spielberg’s picture stands for, other than loud explosions, grotesque close-ups and throwing every excuse for terrorism up on the screen. Certainly not justice.” (more…)

BOOK SALES RACE:
[CURRENTLY ON LIST, TOTAL SCANNED FOR YEAR]

DAVID MCCULLOUGH 1,217,079
TOM FRIEDMAN 1,044,725
FRANK MCCOURT 393,371
DORIS GOODWIN 391,363
JIMMY CARTER 387,612
JON STEWART 368,233
JOHN GROGAN 285,569
JOAN DIDION 265,350
AL FRANKEN 229,843
JAMES CRAMER 173,744
BILLY CRYSTAL 151,509
DR. PHIL 123,905
ALAN ALDA 107,036
MARTHA STEWART 95,881
JOHN MCCAIN 94,204
MAUREEN DOWD 92,836
JIM HENSON 67,239

Steve Martin and his clan of twelve raucous nippers headed by teen queen Hilary Duff return for another serving of family mayhem. This time the brood are on holiday when they meet up with Eugene Levy’s troupe of tearaways – and battle commences between the two competitive dads. The pairing of Levy and Martin is an inspired one and fans of the original will consider it cheap at twice the price.

He’s Hollywood’s equivalent of the cure for the common cold. A celluloid quick-fix that can switch a movie from the worthless to the worthwhile.

If your comedy outing isn’t tickling ribs then he’s the guy to call. When it looks like the box office isn’t beckoning your baby then he’s the funnyman to phone.

He is, of course, Eugene Levy, the fella whose Bloomingdale’s salesman made Serendipity bearable and lent American Pie some comic gravitas as Jim’s dad.

He’s also had a hand in writing two of the funniest films in many a year – folk-singing spoof A Mighty Wind and the Crufts mickey-take Best In Show.

After providing the comedy remedy for The Man, he’s now been roped into this sequel of the Steve Martin outing Cheaper By The Dozen…and he’s just the tonic.

Football coach Tom Baker (Martin) and his author wife Kate (Hunt) have taken their jumbo-sized clan on a summer holiday to a Lake Winnetka retreat.

Based on the overwhelmingly negative reviews it is receiving, you’d think Cheaper by the Dozen 2 was a shoo-in for “Worst Movie of the Year.” Critics are lambasting its formulaic script and its predictable slapstick humor. They’re even taking pot shots at Steve Martin for “selling his soul” by unnecessarily cashing in on the first film’s success with a largely uninspired performance.
Plugged In OnlineMovie Review
Here is the entire review.

When a comedy is working on all levels, it’s not only diverting, it’s as relevant and intelligent as any serious film around. That’s the big surprise of “Fun With Dick and Jane.” The movie starts off silly, soon becomes funny and then skyrockets into irrepressible hilarity. And at the same time, it smuggles some clever and relevant ideas into the theater. The film is set in the quaint, bygone days of 2000, when our culture, and this story’s comic heroes, were both endearingly naïve and exceedingly ambitious. Dick and Jane Harper are living well in their upscale Southern California housing development, and deserve everything they’ve attained.

They both work hard, he as a public relations executive for Globodyne, a huge computer company, she as a travel agent dealing with impossible clients all day long. They’re acquisitive, sure, enjoying the plasma TV, the BMW, the nice clothes and their little boy’s Mexican nanny, Blanca. But they’re not ostentatious or smug or workaholic. When Dick gets a big promotion, Jane leaves her job to spend more quality time with junior. You look at their success and think, “Couldn’t happen to a nicer couple.”

When Globodyne collapses overnight in a Worldcom-like scandal, the Harpers take a crash course in downward mobility. Dick’s job is gone, their stock is worthless, and their savings evaporate as Dick discovers that unemployed midlevel executives are a dime a dozen. (The top Globodyne execs, in contrast, literally made out like bandits.) The bills keep coming, however — gardeners roll up the couple’s lawn when they can’t pay — and in desperation Dick grabs his son’s water pistol and launches a life of crime with Jane as his getaway driver.
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Alright. I saw the movie. Chronicles of Narnia was very well done. I recommend it to anyone. Great job. I did fall asleep in the middle, but my excuse was 2 hours of sleep the night before. So, go see it. It rocks!

I am pretty busy right now and will write more on Narnia at a later time.

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