August | 2008 | Thomas Balkcom's Movies

Archive for August 2008

This is the first time I have ever used my blog as an actual “blog” so to speak, I just wish to talk about my trip to Pennsylvania a little bit, odd format but I hope it’ll be okay.

Wednesday August 6^th, 2008

3:10pm: Arrived at airport, Bill and I stopped and got a bite to eat due to the fact that we were extremely early for our flight.

5:07pm: Flight takes off, three minutes ahead of schedule, relatively smooth and quick flight filled with reading Watchmen and nodding off, then waking up to Bill making weird faces or doing strange things with his hands.

7:09pm: Flight arrives sixteen minutes early (!) and we hurry off and meet with our Aunt and Uncle, then we adventured through the city of Philadelphia and ended up at Nick’s, a delicious little sandwich place in Philly. We both had roast beef sandwiches overboard with two orders of gravy fries, both of which were absolutely delicious.

Thursday August 7^th, 2008

8:47am: Woke up, read some of the paper, showered, then got Bill up. We all headed out and took care of a couple things, nothing too exciting.

12:47pm: On the way to the Yuengling brewery we stopped at a local hot dog place, and we all had a cheese coney (dog with chili, cheese, onions, and mustard) which really hit the stop. We then continued on to the Yuengling brewery tour, which was fascinating. We got to see some interesting stuff, each got a shirt, and I had some outstanding Black & Tan for the first time since last Christmas.

6:06pm: Had a great dinner, and then proceeded to go out and buy clothes/shoes for my brothers’ upcoming school year. The place we went shopping at extremely cheap sports merchandise, especially the local teams. Anyone who knows me is aware of the fact that I am a pretty big Flyers fan, so luckily I found a five dollar hoodie up here that I am rather happy with. Finally, we came home and had some ice cream, then watched a bit of a God-awful movie, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 4, something I remember from my youth.

Friday August 8^th, 2008

7:45am: Woke up, had a cup of coffee, and read the paper. I am now struggling to get my brother up at a quarter till ten.

12:43pm: Made a trip out to Wheatland, the fifteenth President Buchanan’s home in Lancaster, and had a very fun time. We learned a good deal and saw an assortment of cool furniture, architecture, and various other things. We then headed out to Lititz for Wilber Buds, which was a lot of fun. After that, we headed back to have a relaxing evening.

6:14pm: We made two white pizzas, one with pesto and one without, and then we left to take a ride in my Uncle’s ’64 Cutlass, which is an incredible car and the ride was very nice as it was a calm and cool evening.

Saturday August 9^th, 2008

7:23am: Woke up, similar routine as the past two days, managed to get Bill up before nine this morning and not much has happened as of quarter past ten this morning.

12:15pm: Bill and I went and saw a one o’clock showing of Step Brothers (our second viewing), enjoyed it as we did the first time we saw it, and headed back to the house where our day started. In our absence my Uncle made me a bookshelf, which was something I had mentioned in conversation as being one of the few things missing from our place, and the one he built is exactly what I needed, I couldn’t be more content with it.

4:55pm: Headed out for the night’s activities, this included a stop at Kaufman’s, which turned out to be an outstanding chicken place that I found to be great. After this we went out to a casino type place where they had nightly horse races, which was an awesome experience. It was a beautiful night and we had a great time watching Bill make ridiculous trifecta and superfecta bets. Doing this is something I wish I could do more often as it was one of the most fun, interesting experiences I’ve had in a long time.

10:04pm: We got back to the house and after checking my emails and realizing how awake I was, I came to the conclusion that it’d be best to head out tonight opposed to in the morning and all I had to was to convince Bill to do it as he wants to do as much of the driving as possible. We loaded up and left around five till eleven, and I am now typing this as Bill drives (we’ve gone roughly a hundred miles or so) and we should be home around ten thirty or eleven tomorrow morning.

Bill and I got home around 11:00am the next day, and we had a great time.

Heist – 8.5/10 <- – I originally saw this when it came out but did not remember much of it, and I am trying to watch as many David Mamet-related things as possible and this happened to be the first to come via Blockbuster. Magnificently written and a great story overall, Sam Rockwell was fantastic as the young hotshot and Hackman did a great job as usual. Great lines throughout such as: “You shouldn’t point a gun at someone if you don’t intend to kill them, it’s insincere.”/ “Why’d the chicken cross the road motherfucker? Cause the road crossed him.” This is utterly amazing due to the fact that it still feels natural as they say it.

Spartan – 6.5/10 <- – Another Mamet related film, this one he both wrote and directed and it was pretty good. Val Kilmer seemed a bit lacking at time, but he did an okay job delivering lines from such a brilliant script. Same goes for this movie as Heist, some incredible dialogue and as I said Kilmer had some great responses to questions. I have to say this wasn’t as strong a story as Heist or most of Mamet’s other stories, but it was still very enjoyable.

(revisit) Brothers Solomon – 2.5/10 <- – This movie is a guilty pleasure of my brothers and myself, Will Arnett is hilarious with his facial expressions and outfits. Not much else to say about it, it’s one of those movies that not many other people would enjoy, yet we find it hilarious.

(revisit) Lord of War – 6/10 <- – Very cool movie, just a neat story that flows extremely well, I have to say that I am not a huge fan of narrated movies (except when it is necessary) but this one is pretty decent. The reason it gets a six is due to its lack of a lasting quality, but it’s still worth your time.

And now for some more additions to my nerddom, I posted a question in a forum for the band X/O and got a reply from a pretty interesting person.

That is the guitarist of X/O and Say Anything, and it’s probably not that big a deal but I am huge fan of Say Anything so I thought it was pretty cool.

Sorry for the lengthy post and thank you for reading as usual. Expect a few updates soon.

Currently lIstening to: Old mix CDs I made back in high school (roughly late sophomore year, early junior year)

Currently reading: Watchmen, starting Cloudsplitter soon

Written by thomasbalkcom

August 18, 2008 at 3:07 am

Posted in Uncategorized

#24

leave a comment »

Infernal Affairs – 7.5/10 <- – The Departed is an American remake of this film, and I thought I had already seen it, but after watching it this time, now I am not so sure, it was an extremely entertaining watch. It was very cool to see the comparisons between both films, and to be honest, while The Departed had far better performances, it is in my opinion that Infernal Affairs is a better film/story (given it’s almost the exact same story but there are minor crucial differences). Give this a shot if you don’t mind subtitles, I really enjoyed it.

The Ruins – 1.5/10 <- – TERRIBLE FILM, this is one of those movies that the only thing I gained from it is the typical what you learn from a bad movie nonsense. I had semi-high hopes due to the fact that is supposedly is an outstanding book by Scott Smith (the man who also penned A Simple Plan), but I was highly let down.

American Psycho – 8/10 <- – I saw this movie when I was younger but I am not counting it as a revisit due to the fact that when I originally saw it I was not able to fully appreciate it, I have since read the book, and now have finally re-watched the film, it was amazing. Christian Bale does a great job in this film; I love his narrative voice for some reason or another. Give the book and film a shot, the book is very quick read, and the film is very worth it.

(revisit) Life Aquatic – 6.5/10 <- – This movie gets a lot of hatred from most of the camps that I have come to respect, but I, in fact, love this movie. It is absolutely hysterical, and in my opinion, a great story. One of the best soundtracks I have heard to date (not saying much with my bias to Bowie) and Bill Murray plays such a great “jackass.” It is your typical Wes Anderson-formulaic film, but it is still enjoyable.

(revisit) Talladega Nights – 4/10 <- – Rating is of no importance to this film (as I have stated before) due to its content, but it is a hilarious film. This was actually only the second time I had seen the film, but it was still just as funny, John C. Reilly and Will Ferrell are great together, in my opinion. Pretty good movie, and I am certain most of y’all have already seen it.

Paranoid Park – 7.5/10 <- – To start this off, I will just go ahead and say I LOVE Gus van Sant, one of my new favorite directors, and this film was an outstanding look at teenage life and how they might handle extreme problems given their predicament. I was freaked out when I saw this available at Blockbuster but apparently Blockbuster is releasing certain IFC films in their stores almost three months before their actual DVD release, so if you get a chance, check this out at your local Blockbuster. It was a great story that was beautifully shown through some pretty decent performances (given their ages and subject matter).

(revisit) Scary Movie – 4/10 <- – Restating my previous point, rating is of no importance to this film. I will keep this short, I rented it due to the fact that I hadn’t seen it in forever and wanted to give it another shot. It was just as funny as I remember it.

(revisit) Superbad – 7/10 <- – Simply hilarious, I am fairly sure I have reviewed this before so I won’t say much. I catch myself watching this about once a month, and that says a lot.

Never Back Down – 2/10 <- – The only reason this film gets a two (instead of a one), is due to the fact that Djimon Hounsou is an underrated actor and it was fairly entertaining.

Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay – 4/10 <- – Not much to say about this movie, I actually really enjoyed it but I love the first one so that might be why. It’s a bit ridiculous and vulgar, but all in all, not that bad.

Step Brothers – 6.5/10 <- – One of the funniest movies I have EVER seen, simply fantastic, I was dying the entire time. SEE THIS MOVIE, as I will probably see it one more time in theaters.

Secretary – 8/10 <- – I have been meaning to watch this film for about four years, and I finally got around to it the other day, and I loved it. It was a beautiful movie with a wonderful story and great performances a la Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader. See this movie when you get a chance, it’s one of the best movies I have ever seen.

(revisit) The Darjeeling Limited – 7/10 <- – I have reviewed this before but I just wanted to say that I love it, and I love the soundtrack (typical of any W. Anderson film). One of my top ten from last year, definitely give it a shot.

Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore – 6/10 <- – Scorsese’s only female-centric film, and it was pretty good, nothing too special but I did enjoy it and it was extremely well written. It was bizarre to see such a young Kris Kristofferson, and the character Flo was absolutely hilarious/perfect for the film.

Pineapple Express – 6/10 <- – I wish I could give this a higher review, but I simply cannot. It was a beautiful friendship story and Franco (IMO) was much funnier then Rogen, which came as a huge surprise to me. I might need to see this again in order to fully appreciate it, but all in all, it was a pretty good flick with some hysterical parts. For a comedy, it had some great action as well. Expect a better review of this at a later date. Danny McBride is so damn funny in this movie.

That’ll be it till next week, as I am leaving for Pennsylvania tomorrow afternoon till Sunday night. Exciting week with leaked X-Men Origins: Wolverine trailers and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince trailers, in addition to The Dark Knight’s astonishing numbers. That’s about it believe, I will add a video and some pictures at the end.