Knight and Day (2010)

There's a lot of anti-Tom Cruise sentiment out there. I don't get it. Sure he's a bit of a wacko off-screen but on-screen he's awesome. Think of how many great movies he's been in and how appealing he is as an action hero. Knight and Day may be seen as his "return" but has Cruise really left? The over promoting of this movie probably sickened people but I for one was excited to see Knight and Day. Did it disappoint? Not really. I expected...

The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film earlier this year. Secret is an Argentinian crime thriller that is low on the action but high on the dialogue. I don't know if an actor/actress speaking a foreign language just makes them seem fantastic -- it's hard to gauge how well they're doing with lines when you can't understand them -- but Ricardo Darin and Soledad Villamil, as well as the rest of the cast, are all superb.I had a laptop...

Air Doll (2010)

There can't be that many movies about blow up sex dolls can there? How about one that comes to life? In that field, this is the first one I've seen and it's in limited release. Obviously the thing that having a blow up sex doll is that you wonder who the hell gets these things. Are they sickos? Are they desperate? Are they anti-social misanthropes? Or are they just lonely? In both Lars and the Real Girl and Air Doll, the focus is squarely...

Recos recos

Since all I know how to do is tell you how great other things are, I'm here to share with you some exciting recommendations, and must adds for your blogroll. Just like last time, a semi-curated blogroll included these new additions can be found bundled here.[Tweetage Wasteland]Dave Pell is an Internet Superhero and his blog talks about how technology affects his life. I need to know how to become an internet superhero myself actually. And so I...

Toy Story 3 (2010)

I heard yesterday that Cars 2 and Monsters Inc 2 are both coming out in short order from Pixar. When I saw the first preview for Toy Story 3 a few months back, I had much the same reaction: Why? Monsters Inc was arguably the best Pixar movie, Cars was inarguably the worst, and Toy Story had pretty much run its course right? The second Toy Story came out in 1999! Well Pixar should rarely be doubted -- although I've stopped loving their movies...

I misplaced my transmogrifier

Listening to: Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, "Moon Hits the Mirrorball." I'll be honest, I'm not sure I love this music -- it's way too techno-y for me -- but I absolutely love the band name and so must soldier on, looking for a track I can push just to be able to say "totally enormous extinct dinosaurs" out loud. I mean, look at this awesome logo on his MySpace! Totally enormous extinct dinosaurs sums up a lot about my life...One of the things...

Refreshing Spritzer

Listening to: Late Night Alumni, "What's in a Name."For the past week I've been playing this iPhone trivia game called QRANK because you know I love me some trivia. Once a day you get twenty questions and you answer fifteen of them as quick as possible. What's cool is that many of the questions are very of the moment, as in literally yesterday's news. QRANK describes itself as a social quiz addiction and I can confirm that it is addicting. My new...

To the Pain

Listening to: Voxtrot, "The Start of Something." The lead singer Ramesh Srivastava, is Indian American and when you Google him you get essays on "Wit and Humour in Indian English Literature" by a Dr. Ramesh K. Srivastgava, who is obviously not the same person but interesting nonetheless. Voxtrot are currently on their farewell tour, which is a shame because they do nice retro pop.This past weekend, I attended Literary Death Match, for the express...

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

A bland title like "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" had me avoiding anything about the book for quite awhile. I just assumed it was some schlocky airport book that everyone was reading, something self help or Tuesdays with Morrie plus edge. How wrong I was. After digging just a little, I found out that Girl the Tattoo was the new Da Vinci Code, fitting neatly into the fast paced, clunkily written, poorly characterized, page turning thriller book...

Street Dance (2010)

Hey kids, I'm back with a special foreign edition of my dance movie review series. I know I was slated to do Step Up 2 but while walking around London, I kept getting blasted with ads about a dance movie in 3D. Everywhere we went, on street signs, in the Tube, I saw these things. I naturally assumed it was just Step Up 3D but after taking a closer look, I realized that this was a whole different dance movie being presented to us in three dimensions....

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Listening to: Ra Ra Riot, "Can You Tell."It's ridiculous how terrible San Francisco's public transportation system is. Yes, there are a lot of options. You can take the Bay Area Rapid Transit, there exists a mythical underground metro, there are cable car trolleys for certain areas, and of course there are the buses. The lurching beasts that stop at every corner, reek of people and trash, and are packed with crazies, wild kids, or a Chinatown...