Tiffany's Birthday LOL!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIFFANY!!!

last eleven of 2007

It starts with a trio, all from the same mother, all of them ugly and beautiful in different ways. Well, mostly ugly actually.

The Last Man on Earth (1964) - OK, the mother referenced above is no mother, it's Richard Matheson, who wrote the original novel I Am Legend, which was first adapted in Italy with Vincent Price as the title character. Not really scary, but serious-minded and pretty true to the original. Much is told in flashback, the lack of other American actors really makes this Price's show, and he's fairly toned down all things considered. Grade: a gentleman's C, though Matheson was so dissatisfied with the end result (it was originally planned to be a Hammer production) that he's billed as Logan Swanson.

So with the original fresh in mind, we were better prepared for the BIG Will Smith version. It took the original's title back, but it deviates widely from the original, with an ending that's just kinda stupid. Smith is very good, him alone in a seemingly deserted NYC are well done, but the "living dead" are turned into CGI monsters, losing much of the suspense generated earlier. Ugh.
I Am Legend (2007) - Grade: C-

So dissatisfied was I with the Fresh Prince's version that we went straight to Virgin and picked up The Omega Man (1971) because I remembered that version as effective B-horror fun. Wow was I wrong. It still opens perfectly, and Will Smith's version owes most of its general take to this version. But it's directed like a TV-movie, with awful-looking action sequences. Charlton Heston, however, takes it to the next level with his campy portrayal of a man driven mad by solitude. When he breaks out the Austin Powers ruffled shirt to have dinner with his statue of Caesar, you're watching some prime cheese. Anthony Zerbe is the leader of the "living dead" - here, they're very articulate, looking like refugees from Star Trek. Grade: C-

No Country for Old Men (2007) - The ultimate honor for the Coen Brothers, as they finally clean up at Oscar's party. They did it with a well-respected novel that shared their deadpan view of humanity in all its strangeness and cruelty. Great cast delivers, and the boys still show they can turn the screws on a suspense scene. Many complained when the film denies you a typical ending, but I'm glad the test audiences in Van Nuys didn't get to call this one for us. Grade: A

The Driver (1978) - Classic LA cool, lean and mean neo-noir, 70s style, courtesy of Walter Hill. Ryan O'Neal is the title badass, the best getaway man around. Bruce Dern is the cop determined to nab him. Great stuff, with some of the best car work ever done. Grade: A

Sweeney Todd (2007) - Coming down to the end of the year and it's time to hit the Oscar movies. Johnny Depp and Tim Burton tackle Sondheim this time, and the Demon Barber of Fleet Street looks and sounds good enough to my undiscerning eyes and ears. Helena Bonham-Carter, married again to her director, doesn't quite measure up, but Depp and especially Alan Rickman make up for it. Grade: B+

Chosen Survivors (1974) - The end of the world arrives and the smartest folks in the world are secured in an underground center so they can rebuild civilization. Unfortunately, a bunch of killer bats are also down there - terror ensues. Weird cast and talky treatment can't get to the bat action soon enough. Feels like a TV movie but wasn't. Jackie Cooper, Alex Cord, Bradford Dillman, Diana Muldaur and Richard Jaeckel try their best (and seriously, with that cast, how can it not be a TV-movie?). Grade: C-

The Kingdom (2007) - Disappointing action thriller has a good premise: a murder in a war zone (contemporary Saudi Arabia here) leads to a U.S. having a limited amount of time to solve the case. The CSI-Army storyline is dull and forgettable, with a straight-faced Jamie Foxx in charge of a miscast Jennifer Garner and a welcome Jason Bateman. Neither relevant nor exciting, mostly boring. Grade: C-

The Orphanage (2007) - Top-notch ghost story, set in modern times, that proves again that the Europeans can really scare the shit out of you (see also: the recent Let the Right One In). The title place is the center of this one, and I won't give anything away. Grade: A-

The Last Legion (2006) - Silly costume epic with lead Colin Firth mildly miscast and showing it - still, this is a solid B-effort about the forging of Excalibur, pre-Arthur times. Not bad action stretches the budget nicely. Grade: C+

There Will Be Blood (2007) - One of the best of the year I thought, a powerful epic that proves Paul Thomas Anderson can rise above his influences and make something original and moving. (Quentin Tarantino, we're still waiting on you...) Here, PYA shows his great skill with actors again, with Daniel Day-Lewis making his roles count as Daniel Plainview, an oil man ought to own it all. Surprising, dark, with some sequences that play as purely as silent film, compliemtned b y Jonny Greenwood's haunting score. Grade: A+

And DAMN - that's all from 2007!

Welcome to the present, Cisco Pike

TIFFANY - can u find the hidden Emma?

I thought she ran away somehow when I vacuumed the place. She didn't move for fish flakes or anything...finally tricked me into pulling out the big guns, the wet food.

That cat's crafty, she gets around...


Love you - almost 4 p.m.!

JP

She knows

CP

Yahtzee Cup #32 - Part #2

SPOILER ALERT!!












After a brief delay, the Cup continued and it took three more games for Roman Castevet to take his 12th Yahtzee Cup, after hitting two Yahtzees in the final three games, including a walk-off winner in Game #7. He now leads the Cup standings - 12-11 (KP)-9 (T).

Game #7 started well for Triumph of the Yahtzee - playing on this side of the card as The Terror of the Yahtzee. She led all the way, until RC rolled 3 twos on his last roll for a walk-off Yahtzee win.

RC 246/TOTY 242/KP 174
Yahtzee (1): RC

Game #8 was another close one, with the Pimp playing spectator. Triumph/Terror was taking it to the wire.

TOTY 247/RC 234/KP 186

Game #9 wrapped it up early with a Yahtzee that left the Terror playing catch up before falling short.

RC 278/TOTY 210/KP 189
Yahtzee (1): RC

All hail Roman Castevet until tonight, when the Cup is in play again...and everything changes.




"You finally spelled my name right!"
















CPike

A close Yahtzee Cup #32 - Part #1

10/10/08 was the date and the event was Yahtzee Cup #32, with Tiffany holding the Cup in her grasp - the first six games were the most competitive Yahtzee Cup in quite a while.

Game #1 was low scoring and the narrowest of squeakers, with Roman Castevet winning by a point. Tiffany, playing as Triumph of the Yahtzee (TOTY), almost got her bid off to a winning start. Killer Pimp J. John Johnny John was a distant third.

RC 230/TOTY 229/KP 162

Game #2 saw the Pimp getting back into the Yahtzee conversation. Still no Yahtzees but his 264 was enough for a win.

KP 264/ TOTY 251/RC 229

Game #3 and things got interesting...as the Triumph got in gear...with the FIRST YAHTZEE of the night.

TOTY 290/KP 249/RC 201
Yahtzee (1): TOTY

Game #4 saw the Pimp take a brief lead 2-1-1, despite TOTY's continued Yahtzee rolling.

KP 224/TOTY 177/RC 169
Yahtzee (1): TOTY

Game #5 was another low scoring affair, with Roman Castavet tying things up at 2 with KP.

RC 249/TOTY 196/KP 194
Yahtzee (1): RC

A long tough battle, but it wasn't over yet. Part #1 of this contest was Game #6.

Game #6 was decided by not one, but TWO Yahtzees by the Triumph. The first score to break 300, plus a pair asskickings (one a double!)...

TOTY 376/KP 184/RC 164
Yahtzee(s): TOTY (2)

All tied up 2-2-2...Yahtzee hasn't been this exciting in months! How will it end? Only Part #2 will tell...

CP

CHANGE

Yes he did.

Sweating out the returns...Election Day '08.

White Russian at the Magic Castle

CP

Day After Halloween - 2008

The above picture is from the Absinthe event at Hollywood Forever last Friday, but it really captures the spirit of the holiday I think.

Now, the jump to 2008, all in the interest of horror you know...(imagine that said in a creepy Peter Cushing, or Boris Karloff voice):

It all started with Marky Mark...and the PPV of The Happening (2008), M. Night Shyamalan's latest disappointment. A decent first two minutes are as good as it gets when the wind of change bring human killing themselves in impractical and bloody fashion. Thank you God for the fast forward feature, because it was used plenty. No M. Night acting this time (yeah) but he still writes and directs (boo).
Grade: D

Then came director John Brahm, and the cool Fox boxed set Victoria gave me last year. First came The Undying Monster (1942) a fun bit of horror with great visuals, a Victorian CSI team, and dodgy pacing. The Lodger (1944) is much more assured, with Laird Cregar in the title role. It has a great take on the Jack the Ripper legend, from the point of view of his landlords. Cregar is great, but man is Merle Oberon miscast as the dance hall star who makes Cregar go mad. George Sanders is on hand too. TUM: B-, Lodger: B

CP

11/2/08

Sneaking in at the bottom of this post to finish up the 2007 movies...and maybe a few more from this year's Halloween bashery.




















This is early December 2007, on the phone back to Tiffany in Kansas City, working on the road while being put up in a pretty sweet suite. I did have to pay for 3:10 to Yuma (2007), the overblown, semi-ludicrous remake of the tense Delmar Daves classic, featuring Glenn Ford in one of his best roles. Some basic points of Elmore Leonard's original remain, the rest is awful backstory and crazy high concept plot twists that grow more exhausting than exhilarating. "Good" cast are very good here. Russell Crowe is flat, Christian Bale seems constipated trying to project simple decency like Van Heflin did - comparisons aside, the new stuff includes Ben Foster's tres gay interpretation as Crowe's right hand man with deep feelings for the boss and Peter Fonda as a badass bounty hunter. Long and loud, directed by impersonal hack James Mangold. Grade: PPV C-

Kansas City, however, gets a B, B+ - but man, it was cold.














See? Very cold!

Undisputed (2002) - Walter Hill continues turning out great B-movies and this prison boxing yarn is tough and smart, getting committed performances from Wesley Snipes and Ving Rhames. Peter Falk, Michael Rooker also star. Grade: B+
Up in Smoke (1978) - Cheech and Chong never appealed to me much, though I watched their awful Corsican Bros. just because it was on all the time after school. This is their first and maybe best, sketchy and funny comedy with the pair hooking up and getting into trouble in and around L.A. Grade: B+
Black Sheep (2006) - Funny and bloody disgusting New Zealand horror comedy brings up early Peter Jackson and your lunch if you watch with a full stomach. Good stuff if you're so inclined. Grade: B+ (3 in a row!)
Oh, here's another F, with Lindsay Lohan sinking to incomprehensible lows in the erotic fuckup I Know Who Killed Me (2007), which makes no sense and has some scenes so cheesy they require repeated viewing (I'm thinking the car washing/hunk scene near the opening, so soft core bad it's mesmerizing). How do you go from Altman and Jane Fonda to this? Julia Ormand costars, looking dazed and maybe wondering how she ended up here. Lohan, to her credit, strides through the nonsense with conviction and head held high.
Juno (2007) - I'm guessing Diablo Cody might only have this one flick in her, but it's a good one. Sweet tale of a preggers teen might not be reality but the characters are vivid people all the way through. Ellen Page helps put this over, the only awful scene is near the start, with Rainn Wilson and Cody both sounding like quirk machines. Grade: B+

The next three were recent rentals, a trio of summer releases, one flop and two hits.

Hot Rod (2007) - Andy Samberg's shot at stardom fell short, but it's pretty funny, especially when Bill Hader and/or Ian McShane are around. Grade: B
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) - I just don't care much for this "franchise" - the first was the best but then they killed off Run Lola Run and I lost interest. Decent action, but still the signature look - the jumpy cam all over the place - still gives me a headache. Simplistic plot, overqualified supporting cast - Grade: C+
Harry Potter: The Order of the Phoenix (2007) - The next Potter flick got overwhelmed over the summer by the final book, which was excellent. This is first we saw only on DVD, not ideal but not too great a loss. Things are getting darker for the kids at Hogworts and man, Ralph Fiennes is perfect as He Who Must Not Be Named. Not exactly a self-contained film, but the latest chapter in a great tale. The books are better, but these films are worthy adaptations. Grade: B

Bullitt (1968)Steve McQueen became a huge star in '68, with this and The Thomas Crown Affair both dropping that year. I hate to say it, but I wasn't too crazy about this famous cop flick. The chase is still great - but the title character is too obstinate and I found myself railing against this cop who breaks all the rules. He's not very good at his job, essentially, and the plot plods along when you really should be on his side more. Robert Vaughn and Steve reteam from the Magnificent Seven days (though did they even have any scenes together back then?) - the former a perfect smooth baddie, the latter a little too cool for school. Overall, a disappointment.. Grade: C+

Balls of Fury (2007) - Fitful laughs here in this sports spoof, mainly coming from Thomas Lennon's shorty-shorts. He and Robert Ben Garant scripted too, but this seems like it was done over a lunch break. Christopher Walken just cashes those checks, man. Grade: C

CP