I just wanted to post a quick thing instead of my usual WEEKEND GRAB-BAG, mostly because it's midnight and I have to be up in eight hours to go to school. . .
BUT. . .
My thoughts on the All-Star game from Sunday (one word: anti-climactic), the first half of the NBA season (Dallas is tough; the West as a whole is tougher), the upcoming OSCARS (please, please, please don't let BABEL win!), the girls basketball team (we're going to the Quarterfinals!!!), and my room (it's clean!!!) will be coming shortly. I promise.
Until then, I wanted to post two things.
One.
I went bowling tonight and boy did I bowl well!!! This had to have been one of the best nights that I've had and in ended with my new best game ever. My scores from tonight are as follows:
140 161 180 181 177 167 193 170 223!!!
That's a 177 average, which is between 10 and 15 above my usual average (I'm a solid 160 bowler as of now)!!! I am very excited and you should be too :D
Two.
Here is the entire movie review that I wrote for BABEL. It's negative, so don't be shocked :D
O and the definition of versimilitude is "the appearance of being true or real". You'll understand shortly. . .
BABEL’S MESSAGE MUDDLED AND MISCOMMUNICATED
BY JUSTIN GOTT - SENIOR WRITER
As I sat in the darkened theater watching the torturous, seemingly never-ending Babel¸ I wondered aloud why the talented cast (including the rugged, still handsome Brad Pitt and the pale, shower-deprived Cate Blanchett) and filmmakers carried such a disdain for moviegoers like me. The only answer I was provided with was the continuous nonsense that permeated the screen that made me wish I was in the next theater over!
The problem with Babel, director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s second feature-length American film (after 2003’s 21 Grams), is that it tries too hard to be too many things. The film is political (look, a Middle Eastern family was involved in the shooting of an American!), scandalous (the deaf-mute Japanese girl has image issues and can only think of sex!), and political again (illegal immigrants trying to cross the border!).
Babel is essentially a “wannabe Crash”.You might remember that brilliant film from a year ago that took everyone by surprise and took home the Oscar for Best Picture. The grandiose aspect of Babelis what separates it from the tightly-wound, personal film about the role of racism in a city like Los Angeles. Simply put, the worldwide stage is too large for this film.
The truth is that a fine film could have been made out of any one of these intertwining stories. For example, the heartbreaking (and Oscar nominated) performance by Adriana Barraza as the Mexican immigrant nanny could have been made into a sufficient and equally political film as Babel.
Instead, we are shown each of these many stories in five to ten minute blocks and then hurriedly transported across the globe to someone else’s story. The editing is choppy and the screenplay is weak, which is a shame considering all of the big names involved.
Consider this fact: the entire film revolves around a central event that is not believable. Moviegoers are supposed to believe that a wealthy, Southern California couple would allow their two children to be left in the care of an undocumented Mexican immigrant while they toured the African country of Morocco. I just cannot find the verisimilitude in this sequence of events!
Plus, is the film not entitled Babel after the biblical Tower of Babel, the place where all of the global languages were supposedly begun? The only part that involves miscommunication is the American tourists in – get this! – a foreign country! No one should expect to go to Morocco and have a multitude of English-speaking residents greet them with waving and flowers. How utterly ridiculous!
The critics seem to be quite torn, with a true “love it or hate it” atmosphere surrounding the film, now out on DVD (so now you at home can make up your own mind). Babelis a film that thinks it is important and thinks it is saying something worthwhile. In all irony, however, the film’s message and purpose seems to have been lost somewhere along the line in translation.
Grade: D
So, is it any good? Is it above average? Ha ha :D
Gotta be up soon, so I'm hitting the hay. Goodnight, and have a pleasant tomorrow!
Welcome everyone to the 200th post in the history of A RAMBLER'S RAMBLING! I really can't believe that I've made it this many posts! Thanks to everyone who has stuck with me all 200 times I've published my thoughts onto this website and to all those who this is their first experience with my writing. I hope I'm around for another 200!
On another note, I am not really sorry that it's been since the first of the year that I've posted. Not only have I worked every single day since 01/01, I have been to every practice and game that the girls basketball team has had. I have been a very busy bee to say the least.
So without further ado, allow me to get to my week in review, also known as the WEEK GRAB-BAG. Veterans of ARR, rest assured that the following will be in all ways non-chronological!
- I have been working my tiny white ass off at the FL. In fact, when I go into work in the morning, that will be my seventh straight day being at the FL. Three of those days I had off, but was either called in (and could not say no because I'm trying to make a good impression, which, lo and behold has worked - my GM moved my status from seasonal to permanent!) or were covered shifts for someone else. After further review of the job, I'm still happier than I ever was at JC. It is head and head and shoulders above that awful restaurant. And yes, as I mentioned before, the money is not nearly as good at the FL. But you know what? I don't care. Sure, it's going to be a little tougher on me financially (especially after I spent over $600 on Christmas and Heather's birthday - the 27th of December - combined) but I'll deal with that when I need to. Right now, I'm content, and you really can't ask for more than that!
- On Tuesday of this week, league play begins for the Desert Christian basketball teams. The girls come riding in with a record of 8-3 and winning for reasons that escape us coaches. We defeated Paraclete in the most hyped game of the year (we won by 3 in a tight game, so I guess it was worthy of all the hype) and that's an outstanding lead-in to league.
- My plan in the morning is to head to AVC and more specifically the transfer center to get them to send my nearly-final transcript to CSUN. With this submission, I will be admitted into CSUN for the fall semester of 2007. And so the fun begins. . .
- I have been bowling a little more recently and I'm continuing to proudce excellent scores. I recorded a brand new high score (219!) and my average is now usually over 160 (although my most recent night gave me a 155 average). The last time we went, Chris beat me for the first time (5 games to 4) and I did not take it very well. I bowled another game by myself, recording a 180, just to prove to myself that I could still do it. I'm such a bad loser. . .
- The amount of 2006-released films that I saw now sits at 50 and what follows is going to be a list of them with the letter grade that I gave it. Anything that received a (B-) or higher is a film that I would recommend. The others are not necessary to be seen, but have some merit (although the ones at the bottom have no recommendable factors at all). I divided them up into groups by the grade they got with no order necessarily in their groups. The films in italics are comedies are graded on a different scale so take that into consideration too. . . So here you go:
(A+) None
(A) Stranger than Fiction Little Miss Sunshine Thank You For Smoking Casino Royale
(A-) The Illusionist Mission:Impossible 3 Lucky Number Slevin V For Vendetta
(B+) The Descent The Departed The Prestige Clerks 2 Dave Chapelle's Block Party
(B) Jackass Number Two The Last Kiss Wordplay The Da Vinci Code Happy FeetOver the HedgeThe Break-Up Slither Snakes on a Plane
(B-) The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Cars Superman Returns Final Destination 3 The HolidayThe Devil Wears Prada A Scanner Darkly Saw III Night at the Museum Idlewild
(C+) Hollywoodland My Super Ex-GirlfriendAmerican Dreamz Inside Man Lady in the Water
(C) Ask the Dust Curious George
(C-) Brick Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby X-Men: The Last Stand The Omen Scary Movie 4
(D+) The Hills Have Eyes
(D) Miami Vice Strangers with Candy Hostel
(D-) Click
(F) Date Movie
There's my verdict. What's yours???
- Don't ask about the football pool. I'm still upset. . . (that means I didn't win a single week and I didn't place at the end. . . AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!)
- Ok, let's see. . . I have Thursday and Friday of this coming week off (at least at the moment). I'll do the FIRST THIRD MOVIE PREVIEW on one of those days. Don't worry. I've decided to do 15 films and one wild-card and only two have January release dates - - and they're late January at that. Just look for it soon!
- Had some fun with Chelsea's new computer (Christmas gift) and a program that manipulates pictures. Check it out:
It was fun. . .
- New Year's Eve was pretty fun. That's all you really need to know I guess. . .
- Heather is just about settled in her dorm at Cal Poly Pomona. She has made some friends (something that she really didn't have in the LB) which makes yours truly very happy. I love that she is being forced to be social. This is where she is going to make life-long friends (seeing that her high school girls are kinda loosey goosey and don't respond to Heather's efforts) and that makes me happy. She is also loving her classes (one is an Animal Handling class and her first class was spent entirely on learning how to examine rabbits - this is Heather's heaven!) and I'm so glad for her. I also learned this week that the Ontario Mills Mall (an awesome shopping center) is just 10 miles from Pomona, so we have a date central now! All in all, it's going to be awesome and I know it. I KNOW it!
- Random older movie recommendations:
NARC (A dark, gritty cop drama - not for the faint of heart. Excellent performances and just an all around great film. Also, as a caution: it's an open ending, so don't watch it unless you can handle a lack of closure.) LOVE ACTUALLY (A really good rom com. Heather loved it and I was not bored. That's a great film if you ask me!)
- And finally for tonight, a video of one of the greatest dunks in the history of the NBA (in my opinion) and the biggest reason that Kevin Johnson was, is, and always will be my favorite basketball player of all-time:
What you need to know about this:
- K.J. is 6'1''. Hakeem is 7'0'' - The Suns were down by almost ten in the waning minutes of this game, the clincher in the series for the Rockets. The game was over. K.J. was not giving up. - The passion after the dunk. Priceless. - O yeah, and EAT IT HAKEEM! Eat that elbow!
I hope you all continue to check in with me. I'm trying to do my best at blogging and I don't want to get away from it. I just like my posts to be meaningful and not just short blurbs.
Either way, I'm done for tonight. . .
Have a good week all and I'll see ya when I see ya - - -
