The Annekenstein Monster

Rob's Favourite Movies of 2009

2010-01-05T17:13:49-04:00

Without giving too much thought to picking and choosing, here's a quick rundown of movies I most enjoyed from 2009. Probably many of these would get replaced by other names if I gave it much more thought, or if I made the list on another day.

(edited to add:) Antichrist

I forgot about this one. How could I forget about this one? The first scene is, perhaps, the most poetically beautiful and heartbreaking thing I've ever seen. And it goes on from there. Wow, what a visual, shocking, tormenting, agitating movie. Be careful if you watch this one. It will affect you deeply. If ever "Yikes" could be used as a positive adjective to describe something, it would be used for this movie. Lars Von Trier, what have you done to me?

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

With so many awful and/or boring recent performances Nicolas Cage had lost me as an actor, after being one of my favourite actors during his early career. But in this movie, he resurrects the brashness and go-for-broke acting choices that I used to love him for. A pretty great movie from Wernor Herzog with some nice moodiness, a great look, and enough twists and turns to keep it all interesting.

District 9:

Simply, a good sci-fi. A strong, appealing lead performance, and special effects that (just barely) don’t get in the way of story-telling.

Drag Me To Hell

Director Sam Raimi returns to the genre that made him what he is. This is a fun, over-the-top horror thrill ride. Doesn’t take itself seriously, in the best way possible.

Funny People

Suffers from the Film-Making Disease of the last decade – that being: too freakin’ long! Otherwise, a pretty sincere look at the life and impending death of a famous comedian. Sandler shows himself to be a very competent actor (much like he did in Punch Drunk Love, and a couple others). Good movie, good supporting cast. Just too freakin’ long!

The Hangover

I hated the first 15 minutes or so (mysoginistic, homophobic comedy), until the boys got on the road to Las Vegas, and was bored by the last 20 minutes or so, but the stuff in the middle was very very funny.

The Hurt Locker

Maybe my favourite movie of the year. Tons of suspense, and a Iraq war story that doesn't preach to you. Had me from beginning to end.

Inglourious Basterds

Maybe my favourite movie of the year, for totally different reasons. So much fun. So many great scenes.

In The Loop

If you don’t know this movie, seek it out. A very sharp, very funny political satire. If the phrase “political satire” scares you, overcome your fear and treat yourself to this smart British comedy. I wasn't expecting much from this when I started watching it, but I laughed quite a bit. Well done.

O’Horten

Norwegian (I think) movie about a train conductor who retires because and doesn’t know what to do with himself. Might not sound very interesting, but you will enjoy it. Give it a try, if you ever come across it.

Star Trek

A terrific rebirth of the franchise. My only criticism of the movie was that it forego with some of the meat that made the previous Star Treks so popular: This movie was pretty much all action. What I enjoyed about previous Star Treks (and missed in this one) was that time spent between action scenes, when the crew was soaring towards whatever destination – those moments they’d devote to character and relationship building. A small criticism. I very much liked this, and look forward to where the series goes from here.

Thirst

Korean movie about a priest who becomes a vampire, and the woman who falls in love with him. A very good movie. From my favourite Korean director Chan-wook Park.

If you’ve seen it, you know why it’s on everyone’s list. If you haven’t seen it, you’re in for a treat.

Where The Wild Things Are

Fantastic interpretation of the Maurice Sendak children’s book. One of the things I loved about the movie was attention to little things about being a kid, like when the kid is under the desk watching his mother working on the computer, and we see him watching her from his weird angle. Or the sense of time-wasting when he's in his snow fort, or the importance of the snow fight. Little things like that totally took me back to when I was a kid. Other than that, it was simply a magical movie.

Patton Oswalt: Christmas Shoes

2009-12-23T16:17:39-04:00

Watch this. It's pretty freakin' funny.

And this routine from the very funny Patton Oswalt reminded me of this "Christmas Shoe Scam" post I wrote way back in 2004. Kinda funny, but looking back on it now, it needed a 2nd draft.

Beat The Monster

2009-11-28T17:44:14-04:00

Come play The Annekenstein Monster Daily Trivia!
10 new questions every day. Be right, be fast! Be right fast!
Can you beat The Monster?

Inmates and Deceased Get H1N1 Vaccine Shots Before PEI School Children

2009-11-09T11:59:19-04:00

CHARLOTTETOWN - The furor continues. Plans to vaccinate P.E.I children for the swine flu have been put on hold because of a national shortage of vaccine, but Island inmates will continue getting theirs. And now it's been reported that the recently deceased will also get swine flu shots before children receive theirs.
Parents and the living are livid. However, Dr. Heather Morrison, the province's chief health officer, said inmates are considered a priority group because they are in a closed facility. As for the recently deceased, Morrison said "they're also considered a priority group because you can't get a more closed facility than a coffin."
GREAT NEWS
But not everyone is outraged at inmates and the dead receiving shots before children.
"I thought it was great news", said Edgar McKenzie, who recently died after a long battle with cancer. "I was too sick to go stand in the lines to get my shot, but now that I'm dead, I get to go to the front of the line. Hopefully, someone'll carry me there. Yeah, it's too bad for the children, I suppose, but then again, I'm dead. I mean, that's pretty serious."
Another person who is perfectly fine with the way the vaccine is being priortized is Madeline Arsenault. Her son, Lonnie Arsenault, recently died in the Sleepy Hollow Provincial Correctional Facility. "He was in there for hitting his wife and what not, but she's an awful thing, her," says Arsenault. "Anyways, he died in there, and so now he gets two shots. One for being an inmate and one for being dead. He's not going to get the swine flu now. And we was worried he was right at risk, because Lonnie sure liked to fornicate with the pigs."
Officials are advising parents of school age children that if they are truly worried about their children contracting the swine flu, they do have options. "Get your kids to steal something. Or, killing them would be good too," advises Morrison.

Watch This Awesome Commercial. Or Don't. I Don't Care.

2009-11-06T11:23:38-04:00

This is fantastic.

Nicole Kidman: Does this doll make me look fat?

2009-11-05T12:42:05-04:00

Some person takes Barbie dolls and turns them into more realistic-looking versions of celebrities etc.
This is Nicole Kidman (but I think the doll's arm has too much meat on it):

and here's my favourite, Wonder Woman (Lynda Carter has the scariest eyes ever):

Forget the Phoenix Coyotes - Buy the Tamil Tigers.

2009-11-04T15:35:53-04:00

From the CBC website - Tamil Tigers Look To Regroup in Canada.
Didn't read it all, but I figure that Jim Balsillie is wanting to buy the Tamil Tigers and move them to Canada. But Gary Bettman is refusing to allow it to happen.

I've Always Been Afraid of Haiti - Here's Why:

2009-11-03T17:41:42-04:00

I know people don't like to read things that are more than 140 characters long, but follow this link to a fascinating story about real zombies in Haiti.
It's well worth the read.
Click here to take you to the story about Nadathe, who was turned into a zombie.

Alberton Mayor-Elect looks Awesome!!!

2009-11-03T12:29:51-04:00

From The Guardian (the paper that covers The Island like the dew, except it's a dew that puts black ink on your fingers) comes this photo of Michael Murphy, who won* the Alberton Mayoral race by two votes.
*pending a recount

This is, without question, the most awesome looking mayor I can imagine. I don't know what his politics are, or his mandate, but I totally want him to be my mayor*.
*But my want is not enough for me to actually move to Alberton, obviously.

Compare this guy with the little leprechaun popup that shows up when you visit the webpage for my city's mayor.

Congratulations Michael Murphy. I hope you win the recount.

This Soul-less Song Makes Me Miss Michael Jackson

2009-10-30T17:10:14-03:00

Here's the new single from Adam Lambert, he of American Idol 2nd place fame.
To be honest, I haven't listened to the whole thing. I got pretty bored early on, and then skipped ahead a couple of times to see if the song got any better.
It didn't really. It's not that it's a bad song. It's okay. It's too auto-tuned (but what isn't these days, other than Neko Case).
As I listened to its blandness, I thought "This sounds like it could have been a Michael Jackson song." Then I started imagining how much better it could have been if MJ had recorded it. He would've infused it with the energy that seems to be lacking.
And I'm talking about a Dead Michael Jackson. That's how bland this song is - even a dead MJ would give it more zest than it currently musters.

Anyway, here's the song:

The Vomiting Starts at 5:50

2009-10-16T12:47:45-03:00

So, yeah... The Balloon Boy.

What an odd little bit of Newstertainment. I got a bit caught up in it yesterday afternoon at work when a co-worker came and told me it was happening. I found a live local (local to the story) news feed on the internet and watched as the balloon sailed along high above Colorado. It was rather fascinating. Horrible, of course, to imagine a little 6 year old boy in that balloon, no doubt scared out of his mind.
It's always interesting when things like this get covered live, when there's so much air time to fill up while everyone waits for something else to happen. Often stupid things get said and ridiculous notions are brought up.
As I started watching, one of my first thoughts was "if it's a helium balloon, I wonder is the boy breathing helium or does he have access to oxygen?" Several minutes later, that thought occurred to someone being interviewed by the male and female local new anchors covering the story. "If there's no oxygen, and he only has helium to breathe, well, he'd already be dead" said a somber expert of something-or-other.
This possibility struck the female news anchor rather hard as she gasped and said "Oh my, the thought of that takes my breath away!" A bad choice of words there, perhaps, even if it was, literally, true.

So, yeah, they discover the boy wasn't in the balloon, and that's when I stopped watching. I assume (in order of assumption) a) he never was in the balloon and that the boy is missing somewhere. Maybe he went chasing after the balloon after it left the yard; b) he was in the balloon and fell out somewhere and is now dead; or c) it was a hoax.
Later I hear that the boy was found. At that point, my interest in the story is done, especially after I start hearing reports about the family and its eccentricities. It had turned from a legitimate news story to the usual voyeuristic nonsense that news channels love to investigate to death. Count me out.

I considered it Case Closed as far as I was concerned. But I couldn't help myself getting back into it after I read the headline on The Huffington Post: Falcon Heene Vomits: WATCH Balloon boy Throw Up On Today & Good Morning America.
That story is about how Falcon has the flu and threw up twice, once off camera and once on camera.

There is, of course, video. I refuse to watch it, though. However, for those of you who simply must watch, as the article informs you: The vomiting starts 5:50 into the clip.

And this is what we have become.