Michel Gondry's stingless Green Hornet

This past weekend I caught Michel Gondry & Seth Rogen's The Green Hornet. I am going to initially start off with an overall rating of this movie, which will encompass all of it's pieces as a whole. And seeing as I am not sure which direction I want to go in with this blog, in as much as my own rating system is structured, I will place a 6.5 out of 10 upon this film. Overall this is a fun, exciting, popcorn mashing flash bang of a movie.

Yet, and now the fun part, I go into the reasons why The Green Hornet didn't quite do it for me. Firstly I had exponentially higher hopes for this movie considering the director, Michel Gondry, is a visionary and mesmerizing artist. Take a peek at The Science of Sleep, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Be Kind Rewind for a taste of the feats of cinematography and smart storytelling Gondry is capable of. Aside from a few fun and stylized fight scenes, there was little in this movie that could be at all any different from a campy 90's Bruckheimer hero flick.

Seth Rogen did a great job playing, himself. In every scene he was jolly, laughing, dim witted and childish. That must have been the character they were aiming for because there are absolutely no other attempts to play a deep conflicted hero. Now, perhaps that wasn't the direction for the Green Hornet, I will consider it. But, why then be so fulfilled with such a bland and borderline annoying hero? The entire time I was watching Rogen I wanted him merely to act mildly different then every other film I've ever seen him in. I don't want to start a new paragraph for this next individual, for it would warrant far to much effort and her presence was even more annoying than that previously mentioned. I am referring now to Cameron Diaz. She was so entirely forgettable and replaceable that it must have been that she didn't cost much, and she might have had a friend previously signed onto this project. If I ever hear that she won this role over anyone else I would be truly amazed. She was as vapid and again, bland, as our hero Mr. Rogen.

Now for the thrilling emergence of Jay Chou, or Kato the sidekick. I've heard comparisons of Mr. Chou's presence abroad as that of the "Justin Timberlake" of China. He is absolutely the best part of this movie. His comedic timing and all around entertaining value highlights the joke of a role Seth Rogen wrote for himself. Kato is supposed to be awesome, but the ridiculousness of everyone around him frustrated me to no end. He plays the cool and mysterious Kato fantastically. Christoph Waltz, also known as the breakout star of Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards, way to not work too hard! Waltz plays the, not too scary, villain. And in there is a very annoying joke that plagues the entire film as well. The ease with which this script makes caricatures of it's personalities is just about stifling by the time the credits roll. I really wanted to have at least a couple better words about this movie.

It is easy to follow, exciting when it should be and an all around successful action comedy. I had wanted more and was sure the forces that wound up controlling this would produce a better film. Alas, I walked from my seat with a "Meh, can't make amazing cinema out of it all."

Not a good week for watching . . .

I have little to describe at the end of this workweek. I found myself cheering on UNR in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, my sister and a best friend currently attend that fine institution. They indeed won against Boston College, I truly wish I could say the game was fun to watch, but after halftime both teams were celebrating amateur hour and I found them to be without. The UNR I’d seen all year should have easily ran away with this game. Alas, that was Sunday.

Monday Night brought on the BCS Championship and quickly became the HIGHEST RATED CABLE SHOW EVER! According to The Hollywood Reporter, more than twenty-seven million people watched that broadcast live. For all of the hype that encompassed the likes of ESPN for the past two weeks, every bit of it paid off. Viewers showed up, 2010 Heisman trophy winner Cam Newton and the Auburn University Tigers stormed out of Phoenix with their heads held high and a massive W.

I have a hard time admitting this, but I found myself held hostage by a movie this week. Dinner for Schmucks held me ransom. Talk about an all out mockery of storytelling. Our only comments after the confirmation of a soulless Hollywood, were that of disbelief that a movie could yet again, be pushed on to the set with a clearly horrid script and allowed to run rampant with it’s own idiocracy. I blame you America. You showed up and gave this movie nearly 73 million dollars! Why? This was easily the most atrocious phlegm of an excuse for a storyline I’d ever heard of. I am livid at the thought of the millions of writers and directors and actors that could have had a chance to produce actual art, or even possibly actual comedy with the money that was thrown away with regards to this film. All while utter and complete trash is thrown upon American audiences, which are more than happy to gobble it up. I then caught an episode of Hawaii Five-O, needless to say . . . 'lil Caan is entertaining, while he plays himself. At least those writers were smart enough to get themselves jobs playing in Hawaii for the time being. That's about all I have to say about that.

Have a fantastic weekend!

David O. Russell's "The Fighter"

Boxing movies certainly seem to be of the more formulaic and repetitive storylines produced for audiences. Yet, upon watching David O. Russell's "The Fighter" I find myself entirely transfixed by an engaging family centered drama that happens to feature a bit of boxing. Christian Bale redeems himself for a few less than amazing performances this past year with his no less than extraordinary take on town-hero, crack-addict, trainer and ex-boxer Dickie Ecklund. Mark Wahlberg plays "Irish" Mickey Wade, whom has had a less than stellar career helmed by his overbearing managing mother and over shadowing brother. Melissa Leo, as the boys’ mother Alice Wade, plays her heart out and constructs a character that commandeers the tone of every scene she is in. The combination of Christian Bale and Melissa Leo’s performances on screen gives light to an honest and hard knock family dynamic, rarely captured in a film oozing with this much authenticity. The gorgeous Amy Adams continues to expand her palette of characters with a very strong-willed and unassailable presence as Mickie's new found love interest. One last shout out has to go to my own personal favorite the ill-fated Chief Jerry Reilly, from the stellar Rescue Me series. Jack McGee stands just as strong as the rest of this cast as a sidelined patriarch George Ward.

This movie is about the glue and the love within a family driving them to stay together and conquer the world’s, as well as their own self imposed, hurdles. It is after the last ounces of willpower and intuition are spent up and any normal individual might abandon their blatantly crack addicted brethren to their fate, that this family continues to pull together and offer those last chances which populate so many sports films. There in the family storylines do we see the real redemptive aspects of this boxing film. Wahlberg’s Mickey Ward fights his own obvious battles within the ring, but those confrontations are most poignant when paralleled to the scalding nature of this down to earth and gritty Ward family.

Favorite moment: As Mickey has yet to turn the final fight to his favor, and he is really looking to lose, Dickie focuses his battered little brother and reminds him to take everything from outside the ring, all the heartache, the feelings of betrayal, all the hurt and manifest it all into this last round. It is one of the only moments Dickie is clear enough to notice that this is his brother’s chance. This scene is the culmination of some not very impressive fight scenes, though charismatically shot with a “real-life” HBO themed video style that does lend the fights a bit of help, but they are not “WOW” material.


This is a fantastic guy’s night out, date movie, and all around pre-Oscar contender to certainly go out of your way to see!

What Happened to Josh: Fall 2010 Edition

Well hello! There was a glimpse of what could have been a blog forming here in early June of 2010. That much is true. It was a dream of a blog, that I am ashamed to have begun and so quickly abandoned. Either way, if you should still be interested in the many trivialities of my ramblings than stay tuned right here. I, Josh, will provide you with a comprehensive guide to all things being viewed and broadcast in front of this guy. You can count on my opinions to be mildly biased, constructed for further critical deconstruction, as well as peppered with an unyielding dry humor which comes through in everything I undertake.

I had been residing in the Hipster-mecca of Williamsburg/Greenpoint. Jameson, the wonder beagle, and I had a fantastic group of months there from February to around June/July. In that span, I had found myself as a personal assistant to a "wanna be" web start-up, a gym membership salesman, and eventually the front desk/admin teammate of a prolific PR company. None of these were sadly my calling, or even managed to end on possibly a clean note. I lack the ability to blindly take orders from spiteful higher ups, whose soul purpose for demanding such orders is to do in fact their own job for them. That and . . . seeing that I'm a burgeoning writer, I was far to pent up in those professions.

So, yes. I said farewell to the heaven and headache that is the NYC area and found myself relocating back to my roots in the, currently, snow-filled mountains of Northern California. The old guys are in town, or in the surrounding area, and we have new businesses to infiltrate as well as a new fervor for brewing our own beers(the 1st annual DHP Beerfest is set for June 2011). My own personal undertaking is also saddled with my desire to create my own pickling label. (More details soon!) As you can see, there are many moves circling the air around these Sierra Nevadan based mountains. I do hope you are ready for the show!