Versus Boredom

Film Review: Black Dynamite

Tara — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Today’s post was written by my good friend Dave Chevalier. Dave is a former advertising executive who put down the pen and picked up a tourniquet, choosing instead to patch people up as a Registered Nurse in a very busy Emergency room while maintaining his off-colour alter ego in the real world.

I’ve heard it said before that what makes a cult movie so damned good is that almost nobody knows about it. But it must be worth watching – if not, why did someone tell you about it?

Far too often, movies in the last 20 years have been made and re-made from previous stories; in many cases, only minor details are changed for the remake. For example, James Cameron’s multi-billion dollar movie Avatar…this is not new material. It’s Dances with Wolves in space, with blue Indians. Give me a break; at least TRY to be original, Jim.

Some movies, though, thrive on the fact that they’re re-treading the tire…the classic spoof film. Some names are spoken with reverence (Spaceballs) while others go a bit too far (Don’t Be a Menace II South Central While Drinking Juice in the Hood). In fact, one immortal line from spoof film “This is Spinal Tap” states that “there’s a fine line between stupid and clever”, and one film that sits squarely on this line is the soon-to-be-legendary Black Dynamite.

Barely a year old, this blaxploitation spoof manages to hit all the right notes as it satirizes the genre from which it was spawned, while brazenly stealing all the little bits that made blaxploitation films so fun to watch. Michael Jai White (Spawn, The Dark Knight) co-wrote and starred as the titular character, who manages to take on The Man and save the day for just about everyone in just under 90 minutes. The clothes, the music, the out-of-focus camera work is utterly pitch perfect, but it’s the dialogue that truly sets this film off. Any film that can work in the line “your knowledge of scientific biological transmogrification is only outmatched by your zest for kung-fu treachery!” without skipping a beat is a force to be reckoned with.

All the hallmarks of the low-budget poorly-produced blaxploitation films are present here. Characters have names like Cream Corn and Chocolate Giddy-Up, there’s kung fu elements sprinkled liberally throughout, flashback scenes are rampant – there’s even a scene with a visible boom microphone that actually hits the actor with an audible ‘boomp’ off his Afro. The ending of the film, however, arrives far too rapidly after a long build-up, and it becomes so over-the-top that it almost breaks the magic…almost.

I’ve watched Black Dynamite three times in one week with different groups of people, and every single person enjoyed at least parts of the film, which is more than can be said for the latest Hollywood special effects blockbuster. Black Dynamite plants a tongue firmly in cheek at the very start of the film and keeps it buried there throughout. The film never takes itself seriously, and Michael Jai White is both unabashedly badass and effortlessly droll. He’s back and he’s bad, he’s black and he’s mad [note: thank you, Lethal Weapon] and he’s worth the time you spend watching him kick ass and take names. Dyno-mite!

Film Review: Some Like It Hot

Tara — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:08:58 +0000

A little while ago I was looking for some new comedies to watch that I’d never seen before so I googled “Top 10 Greatest Comedies” or something to that effect and one movie that was mentioned over and over was the 1959 classic Some Like It Hot. I went into the movie knowing nothing except that its stars were Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.

Of course, because of Grumpy Old Men I knew and loved Jack Lemmon and I recognized Tony Curtis, but I had never actually watched anything with Marilyn Monroe–which is crazy, right? Well, there are things you know and things you understand. I have always known that Marilyn Monroe was a beautiful celebrity and huge cultural icon, but I never understood why. I mean, she’s beautiful, but there are a lot of beautiful people. Beauty doesn’t mean you should be a celebrity.

I generally don’t watch old movies (old meaning anything before the 70s usually) because they depress me. I sit there and obsess over the fact that everyone in the film, while looking so young and vibrant, is probably dead or really, really close to death. In this case, all three of the leads are dead. Usually I start spiraling in to a full blown existential crisis (that can last for days), but I’m glad to report that this did not happen with Some Like It Hot–because I was instantly infatuated with Marilyn Monroe.

Well, perhaps not instantly, but that’s only because Marilyn doesn’t enter the film for the first (I can’t entirely recall) 20 minutes or so. I kept watching all the women because I wasn’t sure if I’d notice Marilyn or not. And now you see the level at which I truly did not understand. And then she arrived–on screen and directly into my heart. It’s not just her beauty, but her charisma. She’s intoxicating. She plays a “dumb blonde” but at the same time you know she’s so much more. I’ve never had a crush on someone postmortem. I briefly considered building a time machine. I mean, wow. The only person who might’ve even come close to Marilyn’s charisma (though in a different way) is Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.

And so, as you’ve probably begun to imagine, Marilyn was the revelation for me in Some Like It Hot. Jack and Tony were fine. I could see how the movie and comedy might’ve been somewhat scandalous in the 50s, but it was pretty tame by today’s standards. Overall, I enjoyed the movie. It didn’t make me pee my pants with laughter, but it was a lot of fun to watch and to be taken back 50 years and see what made my dad’s generation laugh. And also I couldn’t stop trying to imagine what Marilyn Monroe looked like naked, so that was fun too.

Today’s post was written by Rhett Soveran. Rhett is a writer and the Web Editor of WestJet’s up! magazine. Check out his blog (and upcoming podcast): Bailing Bucket.

Book Review: The Walking Dead Vol 3: Safety Behind Bars (95 Books #1)

Tara — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 14:01:57 +0000

So here I am in the middle of February and I’m only just now posting about the first book I’ve finished in 2011. Clearly I’m not going to reach 95 books, but I’m still confident that I’ll finish more than I did last year, especially now that I have my Kindle.

The first book that I’ve both started and finished this year is the third in Robert Kirkman’s series The Walking Dead. I’m sure a lot of you have heard about it since some of it was turned into a show on AMC that is, by all accounts, great if gory.

It’s kind of weird to talk about a book that’s partway through a series I haven’t reviewed before, but here’s the deal: The Walking Dead is about a group of people who are trying to survive a zombie apocalypse. But unlike most zombie fiction, there’s no end in sight to the zombies; this is life for them. The cast numbers are constantly fluctuating as survivors join the group or are killed by zombies or the various pitfalls of life in a post-apocalyptic setting.

In this particular book, the group has come across a prison. There are benefits to living there once the zombies are cleared out, namely that it has a good sturdy perimeter and space to grow food. However, there’s a catch: how will they live with the four prisoners who were already there, holed up in the cafeteria?

I really liked this one. It’s brutal and dark and excellent. If you liked the first two, you’ll like this one. But do I feel bad that my first book of the year is a graphic novel? No, because I have plans to read some tomes this year (Atlas Shrugged and Ulysses, I’m looking at you).

The Walking Dead Vol 3: Safety Behind Bars
Book dimensions: 10.3 x 6.5 x 0.4 inches
Page count: 136
Total pages read in 2011: 136

Film review: Going the Distance

Sona — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 14:01:17 +0000

In the spirit of Away We Go and 500 Days of Summer, Going the Distance starring Drew Barrymore and Justin Long (the “Mac” guy) is more than just a cute chick flick. It’s girl-and-guy-friendly rom-com made for the thirty-somethings about a couple who hooks up one drunken evening then struggles with their long-distance relationship.

In this movie, you get two lead actors who look like they are just being themselves, a few eighties inside jokes, a couple of randomly hilarious scenes and it all just feels really authentic. While Drew Barrymore and Justin Long have great on-screen chemistry (comedic and romantic, likely because of their on-again-off-again relationship which was on during filming), it’s the supporting cast that makes the movie. Christina Applegate as Barrymore’s older, wiser and creepily over-protective sister is brilliant. And Charlie Day plays Long’s quirky, dirty roommate. His monologue about self-pleasure with a grandma while crossing a busy NYC street is hands-down the funniest and most memorable scene in the movie.

Going the Distance is directed by Nanette Burstein who is better known for her documentary titled American Teen. This might explain why the movie feels like you’ve just been dropped into a friends’ apartment and are hanging out in their reality for a little while. It has that raw, imperfect, life-like quality about it that makes it all the more charming.

While this film is less powerful than Away We Go and less honest than 500 Days of Summer, it is probably funnier than both of them. Laugh out loud funny. So if you’re looking for something light and entertaining on the weekend (or on a plane ride), or if you are craving some eighties nostalgia (like references to Top Gun), check it out. At the very least you’ll get to hear Berlin and have a few good laughs.

Today’s post was written by Sona Khosla. While Sona cares about a lot of things like brand integrity, George Michael and a good BBC costume drama, it’s her desire to find meaning and live intentionally that inspires me. You can catch her blogging regularly at www.sonakhosla.com.

My outrageous commitment

Tara — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 20:08:24 +0000

Shortly before the turn of the new year, Sona put an excellent post on her blog about making outrageous commitments. You can read the post for the full explanation, but the high points are that an outrageous commitment:

Isn’t bound to any time frame.
Comes from deep within.
Is surprising, even to those who know you best.
Is a commitment you only make for yourself.

And while I applauded the idea and Sona’s own outrageous commitment to become a yoga instructor, I didn’t feel like it was something for me.

You can make an outrageous commitment when you least expect it

Those of you who are keeping up with this blog already know that I’ve been working with a fantastic nutritionist since last July. Working with Leanne has been instrumental in helping me change my relationship with food so that I can be passionate about creating delicious, yet healthful, meals.

What I didn’t anticipate was how much a single cookbook would also change my views of food. After receiving a Chapters giftcard for Christmas, I picked up Mark Bittman’s The Food Matters Cookbook. Apart from providing 500 phenomenal, yet simple recipes made with whole food, it also opened my eyes to some of the problems associated with eating a largely meat-based diet (and if you’ve read Sona’s review of Food, Inc., you’ll know this is on the minds of a lot of people these days). I didn’t know that it costs two calories of energy to produce one calorie of plant-based food, versus forty calories of energy to produce one calorie of meat-based food. I also didn’t know that the majority of grain raised in the US goes toward feeding the meat that we consume at our dinner table every day, and that if we took some of that meat off the table we could help eradicate some of the world’s hunger issues just by giving that grain to people.

That said, I know that I need to eat some meat to feel healthy, so my outrageous commitment is this: I am going to consume meat in much smaller quantities, using it as a garnish as Mark Bittman suggests, and trying to only have it once a day. Also, not only am I reducing the amount of meat I’m cooking with, but I also want to ensure that the meat I’m eating is both raised and killed ethically. To that end, I’m going stop buying factory farmed meat and buy it from a local butcher.

I understand that this may not seem outrageous to some people, but for me it’s huge. I’ve always been a big-time meat-eater, and this represents a major shift in the way I will be purchasing, cooking and consuming food going forward. It won’t happen overnight and I don’t think it will be easy, but do I think it will be rewarding, since I know it will help me to improve my health and will be more sustainable for the environment.

And why am I putting it out here? I want to be accountable. So go ahead and ask me how I’m doing from time to time. I hope I surprise both of us.

Film review: Food, Inc.

Sona — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 14:00:11 +0000

Viewer discretion is advised. Contains disturbing scenes of what’s really on your dinner plate. Do not watch this movie if you are not prepared to be changed. Don’t be frightened. Watching this film will not make you vegetarian.

Food, Inc. is the Academy Award® nominated documentary that deconstructs the business of food, starting with the meat industry then turning to the GMO controversy, starring Monsanto. It exposes the backwards practices and motives that have led to chickens that have such big breasts they can’t stand up, an upsurge in E.coli because we are feeding our cattle corn that they were never meant to eat, the loss of small farms across America to monstrous businesses who have been sanctioned by the government to own patents on food, and the exponential rise in obesity and food-borne illness in our society. This movie exposes the devolution of our food—our source of life—into just another profitable business.

Food Inc. is not a feel-good movie because, well, that just wouldn’t rouse the type of change we need. Instead it’s an eye-opening film that exposes the disturbing facts about the food that’s on your plate. But it’s not all Debbie-downer-doomsday either. It also serves up a lot of fascinating insights and practical alternatives to the mainstream food choices we make; they even have a great website that offers tips and petitions you can sign. For those of you who have a passion about marketing and branding like I do, you’ll love the segments on how big brands are buying up small brands that stand for something natural and communal. They know sustainable products are profitable products. For example, Kellogg’s owns Kashi and Colgate owns Tom’s of Maine. For those of you who are animal lovers, there are some scenes that will certainly be difficult to watch, but trust me, watch them. The one in particular that has stayed with me was the look in a cow’s eyes as she was hauled off to slaughter. The look of fear and anxiety in her eyes was familiar to me; I’ve seen it in my dog’s eyes before. Just that connection made me feel for the animals that are so unnecessarily treated as beef when they are still cows. It actually opened my heart to all animals who are a critical part of our eco-system and a sustainable future on this planet. Strangely, I even love my dog more.

After watching the film, I was certain that it would only be a matter of weeks before I fell back into my old habits and beliefs. I was wrong. So wrong. If anything, it has had the opposite effect. I am increasingly motivated to live a changed life. It’s been a little over six months since my husband, Bruce, and I watched this film together. Since then we have only purchased meat for our household twice (it was organic and locally raised), started grocery shopping at a small local grocer (Sunnyside Market in Kensington) and started seriously lamenting the lost connection between humans and the natural world.*

If you truly absorb everything this movie has to offer, you will be changed and changed for the better. If not, it will at the very least give you some food for thought. Just don’t be a jack-ass and not watch it because you are afraid of change.

*Not to freak anyone out, but watching this movie has prompted some very serious discussions between Bruce and I about our future and where we want to live. We’ve come to the still unbelievable decision that we want to live closer to the land, so have decided to minimize the scale of some much-needed renovations to our inner city home so we can save to buy some property outside of the city in the next ten years or so.

Film Review: The Comedians of Comedy

Tara — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:00:17 +0000

I’m not really a stand-up aficionado, but there are some comedians I love so much that I try to watch and listen to any of their work I can get my hands on. Louis CK is at the top of that list, and right next to him is Patton Oswalt.

One night a few weeks ago, Neil suggested we watch The Comedians of Comedy: The Movie on Netflix. All we knew was that Patton Oswalt would be in it with some other comedians, but that was enough for me. What I didn’t know until we started watching it is that it’s a documentary, not a comedy show. Sure, there are sections of comedy shown within it, but that’s not the bulk of it. This is a look behind the scenes of Oswalt’s tour with Brian Posehn, Maria Bamford and Zach Galifianakis.

The excerpts of their stand-up are great and most moments where they’re interacting are also well worth watching. Unfortunately the documentary is cut weirdly, with in-between montages and moments that are overly long and seem to serve little purpose. That isn’t enough to make this movie fail for me, but it brought the experience down from where it could have been.

Is it worth watching? I guess that depends on how interested you are in seeing behind the scenes of a comedy tour. If that’s your thing, then by all means check it out because there is plenty of that in there. But if you’re really just looking to see stand-up by any of those four comedians, then I would recommend passing on this and just looking for one of their specials or, even better, try to see them live.

Book Review: The Cosmic Puppets (Philip K. Dick)

Tara — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 14:00:17 +0000

After reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, I knew I’d found an author I wanted to read more from. And luckily for me, Philip K. Dick wrote a LOT of books. Unfortunately, one of them was The Cosmic Puppets.

Like the famous inspiration for Blade Runner, The Cosmic Puppets drops readers directly into the universe without explanations, leaving us to figure out the world for ourselves. Unfortunately, it’s too short to be a novel and the story that’s there isn’t satisfying.

While driving through Virginia with his wife, Ted Barton feels an uncontrollable urge to stop in his childhood hometown. Except… it isn’t really his hometown. Everywhere that he looks, things are completely different, and he finds out that Ted Barton didn’t leave town when he was nine years old, he died of scarlet fever. No one remembers him, and when he tries to leave town, he can’t. And it all comes down to the classic struggle of good vs evil, where children control everything.

Unfortunately, unless you have a goal to read every book by Dick, I can’t recommend this one. It’s not worth the time it takes to read it, even if it doesn’t take a lot of time. There are other books, films or TV shows (like Lost) that cover similar themes and do it so much better. Take a pass on this one and reread Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? instead.

Film review: The King’s Speech

Tara — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 14:00:12 +0000

I didn’t know King George VI had a stammer until I heard about The King’s Speech, but it wasn’t until I saw the film that I learned just how crippling the defect was. The film opens with the then Prince Albert (Colin Firth), about to deliver his first speech in 1925 at Wembley Stadium. His father has sent him to do it, he doesn’t want to, and his panic is clearly showing. He was right to be afraid: it’s a disaster, and heartbreaking to watch.

This experience is followed by scenes of him visiting speech therapists, including one who makes him try to speak with a mouth full of marbles because it helped Demosthenes many hundreds of years prior. The Prince refuses to see any more therapists, but his wife (Helena Bonham Carter) wants to check out one more, Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), an Australian failed actor turned therapist who comes highly recommended despite his unorthodox methods.

When meeting privately with Logue, Elizabeth lays out the rules even before revealing her husband’s identity. Lionel has a couple of his own: her husband must come to him and they must be on a first-name basis because their equality is crucial to the process. Even when he finds out who his new client will be, he won’t bend the rules, calling the Prince by the family nickname “Bertie” when he does finally start treating him.

The movie spans almost 15 years, moving past the Wembley incident quickly into the 1930s. His father, King George V (Michael Gambon), dies and his brother King Edward VIII (Guy Pearce) takes the throne and abdicates within the year so he can marry the twice-divorced Wallis Simpson. This leaves Bertie exactly where he doesn’t want to be, having to take the throne and become King George VI. Kings have to give speeches, but he can’t speak. The film ends brilliantly with his speech at the outbreak of WWII.

Alongside Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right, The King’s Speech is the best film I saw in 2010. The performances from all three principle actors are fantastic, but Colin Firth really stands out with his sensitive portrayal of the king and his struggles to share his voice and make himself heard. And more than being a movie about overcoming adversity, it’s also a powerful story of friendship.

Thankfully Canada smartly rated this PG. In the United States it was given an R rating for language because there are a couple of scenes, one in particular, with a few strings of cursing (and to say that The King’s Speech deserves the same rating as the Saw franchise is ridiculous). I think this is a film that would be great for anyone to see over the age of 12 or so and I can’t recommend it enough.

95 Books: The 95 Bookening (aka Let’s Try This Again)

Tara — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 14:00:08 +0000

In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal in 2008, Karl Rove wrote about how he and George W. Bush used to compete to see who could read the most books, claiming that in 2006, Bush read 95 books despite being President of the United States. Fast forward a little to the beginning of 2010 when I agreed to join a group of intrepid readers on the quest to read 95 books by the end of the year. Surely if George Bush could do it, so could we, right?

Well, I couldn’t. Like I said in this post back from May of this year, it didn’t work out for me. I felt the pressure of reading two books a week like a huge rock on my chest, especially since I felt the only way to keep up was to read small books, mostly poetry or painful weird short ones like Bear. It wasn’t fun, so I stopped doing it and went back to reading occasionally.

I want to try again in 2011, and this time I have a couple of plans around it:

I want to mainly read sci-fi and fantasy. I haven’t read much of it, and I’m finding that I’m really enjoying them when I do. That doesn’t mean I won’t read anything else, but really, I’m choosing books I want to read, not just books that will help me get to a magic number.
I’m considering 95 to be my stretch goal. My more realistic goal is to read anywhere from 25-50 books this year. That would put me firmly ahead of what I’ve read in 2010, and it’s really just about reading more than I do now anyway.

That’s basically it. I still have a few books left to review from this year, and I’m not counting those toward the 95. I’ll be sure to note things properly for anyone keeping count at home.

So who’s with me?