Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

The funniest thing about this movie might be how the advertising campaign, which includes posters and billboards that read "You Suck, Sarah Marshall" and "My Mother Always Hated You, Sarah Marshall," has made life for the real Sarah Marshalls of the world difficult. Some of them have struck back with "You Suck, Judd Apatow" signs.While I'm no Sarah Marshall, I concur with them: most of the Judd Apatow movies do suck. Check out the films he's produced...

The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)

Jet Li and Jackie Chan together at last. It's the equivalent of an Arnold and Sly pairing in the 80s. Sadly, this film was more like Schwarzenegger and Stallone making a movie together now.Why watch a semi-drunken style Jackie Chan when you can go rent the real thing? Why bother watching Jet Li in this when he's superior in almost every other (Chinese) movie he's made? The title is misleading too. There's nothing forbidden about the kingdom...

OMG, LOL

In a recent article I was reading, Joan Rivers states that "Men find funny women threatening." That's horrible isn't it? If laughter is the best medicine, who wouldn't want a partner who makes you laugh all the time? Well, apparently there's guys out there who find a funny woman too much to handle. Is it mere male insecurity? Or is there something deeper?When the role of the funny guy is upsurped by a female, does it make guys uncomfortable?...

Bitchin'

I just finished reading Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, by Cory Doctorow, editor of BoingBoing and also a well known scifi writer (pioneering giving his work away for free in every format imaginable). There's lots of fun things going on in this book's near future but two of the main ones are the obsolescence of death and the replacement of money as the most important currency.People don't die anymore because they can, at any point, be restored...

My Blueberry Nights (2008)

Wong Kar Wai's films are moody, atmospheric, and romantic and I'll readily pay up to watch anything he does. Yes, the title for this particular movie is laughable but after you watch the movie, it seems less silly -- sort of.This is Wong's English-language debut and it boasts Norah Jones, Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, and Natalie Portman. All the performances are terrific and I really like Natalie's blonde-fro look. Norah Jones doesn't have too much...

Smart People (2008)

It looks so good doesn't it? A quirky sarcastic movie starring Dennis Quaid, Ellen Page, Thomas Hayden Church, and Sarah Jessica Parker? Well the important thing to take away from Smart People is that well... nothing actually. Along the same lines of the far superior The Squid and the Whale, Smart People is about self-absorbed academics and their dysfunctional families. That's where the similarities end though.There's just not enough memorable...

Settlers of Venus

"When we're holding out for deep romantic love, we have the fantasy that this level of passionate intensity will make us happier. But marrying Mr. Good Enough might be an equally viable option, especially if you're looking for a stable, reliable life companion. Madame Bovary might not see it that way, but if she'd remained single, I'll bet she would have been even more depressed than she was while living with her tedious but caring husband."-Lori...

Beautiful Island

Here's a semi-interesting story about the "Last Days of Taipei." Recently, Taiwan's been getting a lot of attention because of last month's presidential elections. Many Taiwanese citizens flew in from the U.S. to vote. The ultimate result was the reinsertion of the Kuomintang (KMT) into power a few weeks ago. For those not in the know, Taiwan and China are not the same thing. Alert, the people may look similar but are not the same! When the...

Stuff I've Been Reading 5

BOOKS READ:The A-List - Zoey DeanHollywood Car Wash - Lori CulwellThe Wal-Mart Effect - Charles FishmanConfessions of an Economic Hit Man - John PerkinsThe Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael ChabonBest American Non-Required Reading 2002 - ed. David EggersUpon finding out that I hadn't read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Lilly was kind enough to immediately purchase a copy for me because she thought it was just my type of thing. She's right, of course, it's exactly the type of book I like. I mean, it's about comic...

The Cool School (2008)

San Francisco is an excellent destination for watching films, I gotta say. How else would I have been able to catch a movie about the Los Angeles modern art scene from the late 1950s through the 1960s, embodied by the Ferus Gallery on La Cienega. While names like Walter Hopps, Ed Kienholz, and Irving Bloom didn't ring any bells -- thus the promotion of the film using more familiar names like Frank Gehry and Dennis Hopper (despite being mostly minor...

City Lights

I've been looking for the heart of San Francisco for a long time. I feel like every time we come up here, I'm trying to figure out what defines SF. I'll go to other cities craving certain foods, particular experiences, and looking forward to getting something unique to that area. With San Francisco, I can never seem to find it. I've done Fisherman's Wharf, the Mission, North Beach, Union Square, J-Town, Inner Richmond, Financial District, the...

Band-Aid

Lester: Aw, man. You made friends with them. See, friendship is the booze they feed you. They want you to get drunk on feeling like you belong.William: Well, it was fun.Lester: They make you feel cool. And hey. I met you. You are not cool.William: I know. Even when I thought I was, I knew I wasn't.Lester: That's because we're uncool. And while women will always be a problem for us, most of the great art in the world is about that very same problem....

More Than Meets the Eye

Every geek knows who that is in the picture right? It's Snake Eyes! The most popular mute ninja on Earth. There's a GI Joe movie being made right now, out in 2009, and it probably won't have much to do with the original cartoon -- or the classic animated movie -- but it should be amazingly cool nonetheless. The costumes will be sick at least (compare the movie version of Snake Eyes to this image).I remember the joy of owning my Snake Eyes toy,...

It's Like, Right Now

So a friend was contacted by a producer at Current TV to possibly have one of his projects showcased in the future. "Current TV? Never heard of it." Well, apparently it's like MTV plus YouTube and is definitely the most interesting thing happening on television. Strangely, it was started by Al Gore. Maybe he really did invent the intranets.Users create "pods" which are uploaded to the site and then fans can vote for these pods to receive their...