I won't post much about the new Adam Sandler movie (we saw it last night), other than to say I don't normally find his movies consistently good and this was no exception.

Punch Drunk Love was the exception. I know he has it in him. Too many penis jokes in this one...

I too thought The Happening was pretty bad. However, assuming that iSm begins counting with The Sixth Sense and not wide awake, that suggests that you thought The Village was good. I don't get that at all (though I'm ok with a divergent opinion, I loved Lady in the Water).

Zohan is stupid Sandler. But, I did find myself laughing a fair amount. The last half hour, however, is beyond bad and the introduction to Zohan on vacation was nearly as awful. Some funny stuff in the middle.

However, any movie that can put Mrs. Garrett (Charlotte Rae; yes, that one) in a sex scene with Adam Sandler gets some bonus points for trying hard.

Yeah, my count starts with The Sixth Sense. Shows what I know.


I can appreciate how some people really dig Lady in the Water. I just don't happen to be one of them, and I can also completely understand why it was a great big bomb.

And I surely understand why most people did not like The Village.

I just don't happen to be one of them.





I just watched Signs, to take the bad Happening taste out of my mouth. Similar premise of an end-of-the-world scenario Hitchcockianish / WarOftheWorldsely told via a micro story of a small and isolated group.

And while Signs is not my personal favorite of M. Night's work ... I think it is one of those rare, perfectly crafted and constructed films. And I can see why it was his biggest mainstream hit. And I love it.



I think I'm gonna watch some more of his movies, and then wonder what went wrong.


Damn talent arc.

I'm hoping he'll pull back and make someone else's script. He knows how to make a movie, but he can't live with the pressure of having a career's-worth of great original ideas.

As usual, I'm way behind the curve in catching up with acclaimed movies. Anyhow, last night I watched JUNO, and I was pretty charmed. Emily Watson's performance is practically the whole movie, though the supporting cast is well chosen. It's pretty slight, fluffy stuff but I enjoyed it.

However, I have a question for those of you who have seen this - What's the deal with the twee, folksy songs on the soundtrack!?! Is this an actual genre? What is it called? Why does it exist?! The movie was punctuated by a number of quirky tunes, accompanied by guitar, and though the songs themselves were sort of funny and cute, the style of singing has me completely baffled. I can only describe it as a kind of indifferent, sluggish and off-key chanting. The credits indicate that a number of artists contributed, which is why I wonder if this is a category unto itself - whispy little tunes performed by non-singers who sound like they are waking up from a long nap. The effect is precious to the point of being agonizing. It fit the mood of the film okay, but the main character, Juno, kept talking about how much she loved punk bands of the late seventies. Why didn't we get to hear them instead?

It's Anti-Folk, my friend.

Interesting. Most of the video examples I checked out on that site were more polished and accomplished than what I heard during Juno, but I could tell they were cut from similar cloth. I'm glad I have this board to keep me at least tenuously hooked into what's new.

EDITED TO ADD: Well, not so new. I've been listening to Ani DeFranco, Michelle Shocked and Nellie McKay for quiet a while without knowing that they were antifolk. Still, I wouldn't have thought of them in comparison with the odd singers heard in Juno. Guess it's best to ignore labels and just enjoy what I enjoy and disregard the rest.

Over the weekend we stayed in a Mammoth Lakes motel and one of the channels was Showtime Extreme. Showtime Extreme apparently is a channel devoted to showing incredibly bad action movies.

UKM: Ultimate Killing Machine was an incredibly bad action movie. I'm sure it was straight to video and the only recognizable actor was Michael Madsen. I'm sure that nobody will ever see this movie.

But in trying to track down its title for my movie watching log, I saw that, per IMDb, Michael Madsen is appearing in 18 movies this year. He's not a great actor, but he's not a horrible one either. So it is kind of sad to see him taking every straight-to-video dollar he can get.

Finally saw Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Great film that I found hard to watch. Two hapless brothers (Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke) hatch an ill-advised crime scheme that results in both their lives getting progressively and excruciately destroyed. Great performances and a good script, a lot of time shifting (which I love), and it was wonderfully directed by the not-dead-yet Sidney Lumet.

I didn't realize Elliott Smith was Anti-Folk. (I'm very fond of his music, I'm still mourning his untimely departure.)