Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Quick movie reviews

Tenacious D - The Pick of Destiny
I got this film from Netflix because I felt like something goofy and remembered the video for their song "Tribute" being pretty funny. As for the film, it had a few funny moments as JB (Jack Black) reveals his obsession with overly dramatic, hedonistic themed, '70s and '80s rock. They really play up the silly devil imagery that was popular with many bands at the time. A young JB praying to a poster of a demonically attired Dio (of Black Sabbath fame) is an amusing touch. But was the movie worth my 90 minutes as a whole? Not so much. Mostly it was just stupid. It's probably better if one is very drunk, very stoned, on an acid trip, or some combination of all three.

The Devil Wears Prada
In this modern day fairy tale we meet Anne Hathaway's frumpily clothed character, Andy Sachs, who gets a job at a high fashion magazine in NYC populated by a cast of the most snooty, shallow, annoying people on the planet. They make stereotypes of the French look humble and down-to-earth. Meryl Streep is quite good as the repulsive ice queen of fashion, Miranda Priestly. Andy Sachs predictably goes from girl next door to fashion obsessed bitch and back again. She means well throughout the film, but it's made very obvious to us how screwed up her priorities are once she goes over to the dark side of ridiculous high fashion. I fail to see how anyone could stand to be around any of the principle characters in this film for more than thirty seconds. I see an IMDB reviewer commented that at last, fashion conscious people are not being portrayed as brainless bimbos. You're quite right, reviewer. They are portrayed as selfish, psychotic bitches. Is that better somehow? The film has it's funny moments, but overall I don't see the point of exposing oneself to ninety minutes of really irritating people.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Invest in cacti

It's never going to rain. I found a nifty little graph that shows precipation compared to the average for my area. My little slice of the county is at maybe half an inch in the last 30 days when the norm is 3-4 inches. Everything's turning a lovely shade of brown. Since I need more plants around the house, I think cacti are the only reasonable option. That's all for now from sub-Saharan, Indiana.