Category: Puppy

The Three Stooges – Episode 21 (Dizzy Doctors)

Highs:
breakfast alarm
back-to-bed alarm
convenient umbrella
Salesmen!
Brighto Jingle
woof vs. hiss
banana peels
quick ride
Curly’s health
three more chances
Brighto!
one-way round trip
information
fight summary
six delicious flavors
busy line
long-term dandruff treatment
inability to find the clutch
Curly hurrying
ending

Lows:
persistent dog
persistent begging
most of the chase scene
sailing on the street

Grade: A

(Truly) Inspirational Quote

“I’m not an atheist. I don’t think I can call myself a pantheist. The
problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the
position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books
in many languages. The child knows someone must have written
those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the
languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a
mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know
what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God.” – Albert Einstein

The Three Stooges – Episode 3 (Men In Black)

Highs:
Ana Conda
Larry being ready
YNUNG!
ba-ba-ba-boo!
unfortunate recovery
not saying a word
dueling phones
incision/insertion/excursion
plucking for ripeness
anaconapooner

Lows:
giggling nurse
most of Larry’s acting
hiccuping nurse
everything post-jackhammer

Grade: B+

2/11/13: Overrated, I think…parts of it are dull.  But too many parts are brilliant not to make this a must-see.  Grade: A-

A simple quote for a simple Puppy!

“…I have found strength where one does not look for it:
in simple, mild, and pleasant people, without the least
desire to rule—and, conversely, the desire to rule has
often appeared to me a sign of inward weakness: they fear
their own slave soul and shroud it in a royal cloak…”
– Friedrich Nietzsche

“Let’s play…Master and Servant…” – Depeche Mode

“Whatever happened to Depeche Mode?” – Puppy

-Puppy >.< Yip!

Jenna Greene

Wild Earth Child (2011)

I’ve seen Jenna perform some of these songs live, and both her voice and her demeanor are real.  (She doesn’t need studio enhancements, and she means every positive, uplifting word).  She seems to revel in SHARING her music – hers is not the fake, staged act of a bored professional or a talented fraud tying to pretend they’re happy performing…she IS happy performing, whether it’s to adults listening attentively or little girls dancing about near her.  When she says “Thank You” after each song, it comes out as a welcome ray of truth, as if she almost can’t believe that people are clapping for HER, and she doesn’t quite know how to express her profound gratitude that her beautiful music and spirit inspire others as much as they obviously do herself.

Husband Doug plays the steady but subtle Mick Fleetwood to Jenna’s often-mystical Stevie Nicks, circa “Gold Dust Woman”, especially on “Samhain Night”.

My favorite songs are the first two, “Affirmation” and “Green Man (Wild Earth Child)”, but I don’t listen to them on repeat or in a mix, I listen to the whole album, because it is truly a REAL experience of carefully crafted, yet spare and simple, Love and Wonder.

This is not “Pagan” music any more than “It’s Love” by King’s X is “Christian” music.  They’re both UNIVERSAL music, celebrating the latent spirituality and wonder in ALL of us, no matter how, where, or under what name we choose to express it.

Sowing the seeds of Love, and nurturing them with Faith and Joy.  Amen, and Blessed Be.

Grade: B+

7/18/12: Everything above is accurate and true to the best of my knowledge.  However, critical integrity must not be tarnished by liner note subjectivity.  Hence… Grade: B-

10/27/12: True Believers are hard to find.  A pretty voice and lovely melodies don’t hurt, either.  Grade: B

An Interesting (Liber-AL) Thought

“…men that are free, well-born, well-bred, and conversant in honest companies, have naturally an instinct and spur that prompteth them unto virtuous actions, and withdraws them from vice, which is called honour. Those same men, when by base subjection and constraint they are brought under and kept down, turn aside from that noble disposition by which they formerly were inclined to virtue, to shake off and break that bond of servitude wherein they are so tyrannously enslaved; for it is agreeable with the nature of man to long after things forbidden and to desire what is denied us.”

– Francois Rabelais

I like this…

“At its core, meditation is about touching the spiritual essence that
exists within us all. Experiencing the joy of this essence has been
called enlightenment, nirvana, or even rebirth, and reflects a deep
understanding within us. The spiritual essence is not something that
we create through meditation. It is already there, deep within,
behind all the barriers, patiently waiting for us to recognize it.
One does not have to be religious or even interested in religion to
find value in it. Becoming more aware of your self and realizing your spiritual nature is something that transcends religion. Anyone who has explored meditation knows that it is simply a path that leads to a new, more expansive way of seeing the world around us.”
– Aaron Hoopes, ‘Zen Yoga’

Good News (For A Change!)

Every day, good things happen and horrific things happen.

Contrary to the propagandic vitriol of the Nihilist, focusing on the good is not being ignorant to reality. 

It is choosing Light over Dark.

If you want to cry and yell and scream over horrific things, there are plenty of places to do it, and plenty of people to help you along on your self-destructive journey.

If you prefer to focus on the good that does exist, check out the “Good News” site every day.

Ignore everything else?  No.  But the proponents of Logical Positivism (such as myself) have, for the most part, found that anger, bitterness, hate, and the fervent attempt to destroy anyone else’s happiness that some people thrive on leads only, eventually, to harm one’s self, one’s loved ones, and one’s life.  Therefore, as a logical being, I choose to (attempt to) rise above such things when possible, and TRY to be happy.

Be a good person, live a good life…try to be happy.

It’s a choice by a moral person, not a demand of a cowardly nature.

Emotional Cowards are those that seek solace in the ephemeral, fleeting, and meaningless because they’re afraid that those are the only things they can depend on.  And by the nature of most Nihilists, given how they treat other people, they’re probably right.  For them…not for me.

And now, smile!  Cute animules!!!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/16/cat-and-dog-hugging-kissi_n_1154015.html

-Puppy >.< Yip!

Kick-Ass (2010)

The best trailers for this movie make it appear hilarious, as perfectly-timed one liners and quick exchanges seem to flow effortlessly and endlessly between almost all the characters, not just potty-mouthed Hit Girl.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you’re an editor) this is a carefully crafted illusion, putting all the best moments, action and comedy, together in one rapid-fire stream of coolness that is mostly out of context and which doesn’t account for the REST of the movie…which is mostly ok-but-tedious-in-comparison.

The gross violence of the Big Bad Boss and his henchmen is understandably shown…we’re SUPPOSED to hate them.  But what’s the point of showing an 11-year-old girl’s masterful, often grotesque slayings of henchman after henchman?  I suppose, given Hit Girl’s costume as she enters the last soon-to-be Slaughterhouse, it could be seen as a stern warning to be afraid of little girls…perhaps an effective PSA for Pedophiles, but otherwise just plain gross.

I have no problem with “dark” humor, I have a problem with a movie that sells itself as a dark-humor cartoon and then contains about five minutes of that and two hours (or so it seemed as I waited for the inevitable ending for an interminable amount of time) of mediocre slop.

Watch the trailers, laugh your ass off, then skip the movie.

Grade: C-

2012: Grade: C

In Your Darkest Hour

From someone who’s been there, and back, more than once…

However bad you may feel, never give up hope.

You may be helpless to change your situation, now…

But nothing’s ever hopeless.

It’s hard to remember that when you’re curled up in a ball, wishing you could cry, but even that effort is beyond you.

But it is true.

– Puppy >.< Yip!

Further Thoughts on Atheism

The systematic attack of spirituality and belief by fervent Atheists seems to take place in much the same way that Albert Einstein noted when he said that most fervent Atheists are simply intellectuals and quasi-intellectuals rebelling against forced belief with active disbelief.  As if because one thing was wrong (as forced belief is) it somehow makes the equal and opposite reaction correct.  To force one to believe in any form of Spirituality is incorrect, but to force one to disbelieve in any idea of possible Spirituality is incorrect, arrogant, and just plain stupid.

“During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries…The term ‘atheist’ was an insult. Nobody would have dreamed of calling himself an atheist.” – Karen Armstrong

As to historical injustices performed in the name of Religion versus those performed in the name of Atheism, the fact that Atheism has only been widely ALLOWED to be an even POSSIBLE belief system explicitly disavowing the existence of anything at all “Divine” for less than 300 years makes the comparison irrelevant, although the Pol Pot’s and Stalin’s of the world have certainly done their best to make up for lost time.

– Puppy >.< Yip!

On Palahniuk

“traffic in the half-baked nihilism of a stoned high school student who has just discovered Nietzsche and Nine Inch Nails” – Laura Miller on Palahniuk

Puppy: I think that’s not accurate.  “Half-baked” and “stoned” imply use of drugs, ostensibly to amplify creativity, and I see none of that in Palahniuk’s ‘Fight Club’.  They also imply that the writer in question is not fully in control/command of their writings, which is doing a dis-service to every half-baked work ever made, by a high school student, college student, professional writer, or anyone with half a brain that is literate.  Invoking Nietzsche and NIN, besides bringing up two vastly different talent levels, degrades the at-least-well-meaning nature of those who are fascinated by them and write inferior works in an attempt to live up to them.  Palahniuk is different.  Here is a grown man, clean and sober, intentionally writing high-school level chaotically uneven I-guess-you-could-call-them-“philosophical” rants about vastly different subjects and somehow attempting to link them, and he is working at the HEIGHT of his talent level.  Sad, really.

“Until you can create something that captivates people, I’d invite you to just shut up.
It’s easy to attack and destroy an act of creation. It’s a lot more difficult to perform one.” – Chuck Palahniuk

Puppy: Let’s analyze this.

“Until you can create something that captivates people”.

Puppy: The use of the word “Until” states that IF the conditions FOLLOWING the word are reached, THEN the person quoted is in fact giving their approval for the action being criticized to be TAKEN, in fact with their blessing since no other caveats are made.

So, IF “you” = anyone that wants to blast Palahniuk’s “creations”, and I think it does, since he expands to a broad scope later in the quote…

It follows that if anyone in the world “can create something that captivates people”, they thereby have Chuck Palahniuk’s blessing to trash Chuck Palahniuk’s work, if they so choose.

Semantically speaking, anyone “can” create something that captivates people…just because they haven’t DONE it doesn’t mean they CAN’T…but let’s assume he made a semantic mistake intentionally or was just really peeved.

something = anything

people = more than 1 person

Therefore…

IF anyone creates anything that captivates more than one person, THEN they can trash his work, by his own admission.

So, Justin Bieber has every right to criticize ‘Fight Club’.

And everyone that put a video on YouTube that got 2 or more “Likes”.

MOVING ON…

“I’d invite you to just shut up” – Well isn’t that grown-up of him.  NYAH NYAH!

“It’s easy to attack and destroy an act of creation.  It’s a lot more difficult to perform one.”

So Chuck you’re saying her criticism has destroyed your works?

I think “act” is the definitive word here, as Chuck’s “performance” on ‘Fight Club’ is pandering to the mindset mentioned by the critic.  Nothing more.  That some other people buy into such transparent horsesh1t is a testimony to the fall of the novel as a means of great expression.

“It is easier to destroy than to create”.

Also, 1+1 = 2

Sad.

-Puppy >.< Yip!

‘Fight Club’ quotes – Analysis by Puppy

“On a large enough time line, the survival rate for everyone will drop to zero.” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 2″

Meaningless drivel. Nihilistic dogsh1t. Everything dies…so what?
What’s your point? We live, then we die. To believe this is the whole of life is to ignore all the stuff, you know, BETWEEN those two points. And since life is merely a succession of moment after moment, birth and death are two moments. There are billions of others. To focus ENTIRELY on these two is a bullsh1t escape from responsibility, morality, everything really.

“This was freedom. Losing all hope was freedom.” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 2

Actually, it’s called depression. Unless you’re HAPPY to lose all hope…then you’re a moron, since there’s always hope, and a logical analysis by a non-zombie will easily reveal this.

“This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time.” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 3″

Or perhaps this is the first chapter in a greater existence, and it’s beginning one minute at a time. How the hell do YOU know? And wouldn’t it be one second at a time, anyway?

“If I could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could I wake up as a different person?” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 3

Who cares? By your own previous BS philosophy, EVERYONE is just living to die. So why philosophize further? You’re done, man.

“One minute was enough, Tyler said, a person had to work hard for it,
but a minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the
most you could ever expect from perfection.” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 3

Since human beings are inherently all imperfect, how do you know exactly what perfection is? I mean, you took out a stopwatch and timed perfection? Are you high?

“And I wasn’t the only slave to my nesting instinct. The people I know
who used to sit in the bathroom with pornography, now they sit in
the bathroom with their IKEA furniture catalogue.” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 5

You need to get out more. And update your book to the age of technology…what’s a “catalogue”?

“You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will
ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you’re
satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you’ve got your
sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect
bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you’re trapped in your lovely nest,
and the things you used to own, now they own you.” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 5

Who cares? You live, you die, right? It’s a little late to turn Tibetan, and you don’t even do it very eloquently.

“If you don’t know what you want,” the doorman said, “you end up
with a lot you don’t.” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 5

If at first you don’t succeed, keep on suckin’ til you do succeed.

“After a night in fight club, everything in the real world gets the
volume turned down. Nothing can piss you off. Your word is law, and
if other people break that law or question you, even that doesn’t piss
you off.” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 6

If other people can break your law without causing any reaction or penalty, how is your word law? I mean, are you totally living inside
your head at this point?

“It used to be enough that when I came home angry and knowing that
my life wasn’t toeing my five-year plan, I could clean my condominium
or detail my car. Someday I’d be dead without a scar and there
would be a really nice condo and car.” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 6

Then do something meaningful and important instead of beating the
fck out of other guys.

“Maybe self-improvement isn’t the answer…. Maybe self-destruction
is the answer.” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 6

HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAHA…ummm…sure, go ahead. I mean,
WAIT! NO, don’t! PLEASE! Errrr…nah, go ahead.

“The gyms you go to are crowded with guys trying to look like men, as
if being a man means looking the way a sculptor or an art director says.”
– Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 6

YEAH! It means beating each other up and fcking women and treating them like sh1t while spouting nihilistic cliches.

4/13/16: “Are you kidding me? I mean I could do all that macho stuff
if I wanted to, but it wouldn’t make me any more of a man.
Do I detect a hint of raised consciousness?
Yeah. I mean, a real guy doesn’t have to jump on sharks and dodge
poison darts just to prove he’s a guy.
…I’m astonished.
A real guy just has to score heavy with the babes, that’s all.”

“‘It’s only after you’ve lost everything,’ Tyler says, ‘that you’re
free to do anything.'” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 8

Hey, didn’t you steal that from Janis Joplin?

“I wanted to burn the Louvre. I’d do the Elgin Marbles with a sledgehammer and wipe my @ss with the Mona Lisa. This is my world, now. This is my world, my world, and those ancient people are dead.” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 16

Yeah, but you’re a fcken moron.

“We wanted to blast the world free of history…. picture yourself
planting radishes and seed potatoes on the fifteenth green of a
forgotten golf course. You’ll hunt elk through the damp canyon
forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center, and dig clams next
to the skeleton of the Space Needle leaning at a forty-five degree
angle. We’ll paint the skyscrapers with huge totem faces and goblin tikis, and every evening what’s left of mankind will retreat to empty
zoos and lock itself in cages as protection against the bears and big
cats and wolves that pace and watch us from outside the cage bars at night.” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 16

Was this MEANT for consumption by quasi-intellectual teens?
Sort of a nihilistic, macho-poetry ‘Twilight’?

“‘Recycling and speed limits are bullsh1t’, Tyler said. ‘They’re
like someone who quits smoking on his deathbed.'” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 16

Is that a sh1tty metaphor or a sh1tty simile? I forget the “like”
or “as” rule.

“‘Imagine,’ Tyler said, ‘stalking elk past department store windows
and stinking racks of beautiful rotting dresses and tuxedos on
hangers; you’ll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest
of your life, and you’ll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap
the Sears Tower. Jack and the beanstalk, you’ll climb up through the dripping forest canopy and the air will be so clean you’ll see tiny figures pounding corn and laying strips of venison to dry in the empty
car pool lane of an abandoned superhighway stretching
eight-lanes-wide and August-hot for a thousand miles.'” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 16

John Lennon you ain’t.

“You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same
decaying organic matter as everyone else, and we are all part of
the same compost pile.” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 17

Well isn’t that special.

“…you’re not how much money you’ve got in the bank. You’re not
your job. You’re not your family, and you’re not who you tell yourself….
You’re not your name….
You’re not your problems….
You’re not your age….
You are not your hopes.” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 18

This is not your beautiful house…this is not…blah.

“I see the strongest and the smartest men who have ever
lived…and these men are pumping gas and waiting tables.” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 19

No, these men are refusing to talk to you.

“We don’t have a great war in our generation, or a great
depression, but we do, we have a great war of the spirit. We have
a great revolution against the culture. The great depression is
our lives. We have a spiritual depression.” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 19

OMG this approaches mild coherence and provokes a little bit of thought…and it only took 19 chapters.

“We have to show these men and women freedom by enslaving them,
and show them courage by frightening them.” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 19

BOO!

“I am the all-singing, all-dancing cr@p of this world…. I am
the toxic waste by-product of God’s creation.” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 23

Agreed.

“…when deep-space exploitation ramps up, it will probably be the
megatonic corporations that discover all the new planets and map them.
The IBM Stellar Sphere.
The Philip Morris Galaxy.
Planet Denny’s.
Every planet will take on the corporate identity of whoever rapes it first…” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 23

I think Roger Dean should have drawn a cool scene around this paragraph.

“I’ve met God across his long walnut desk with his diplomas hanging
on the wall behind him, and God asks me, “Why?” Why did I cause
so much pain? Didn’t I realize that each of us is a sacred, unique snowflake of special unique specialness? Can’t I see how we’re all manifestations of love? I look at God behind his desk, taking notes
on a pad, but God’s got this all wrong. We are not special. We are
not cr@p or trash, either. We just are. We just are, and what
happens just happens. And God says, “No, that’s not right.” Yeah.
Well. Whatever. You can’t teach God anything.” – Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Fight Club’, Chapter 30

Egomaniacal trash. Thank God for Ed Norton lowering his standards
enough to bring the book to averageness as a movie.

-Puppy >.< Yip!

The Duality of the original ‘Star Trek’

The worst dialogue ever in an episode of a legitimate TV series after also featuring some great dialogue shortly beforehand

OR

Why ‘Star Trek’ wasn’t picked up for a 4th Season

OR

Why Leonard Nimoy fought with Gene Roddenberry over his character …

First, here’s the great dialogue:

(Spock) “Computers, Captain…they fight their war with computers, totally.”
(Anon VII) “Yes, of course.”
(Kirk) “Computers don’t kill a half a million people…”
(Anon VII) “Deaths have been registered, of course, they have twenty-four hours to report.”
(Kirk) “To report…?”
(Anon VII) “To our disintegration machines.  You must understand, Captain…we have been at war for five hundred years.  Under ordinary conditions, no civilization could withstand that.  But we have reached a solution.”
(Spock) “Then the attack by Vendicar was theoretical?”
(Anon VII) “Oh no, quite real.  An attack is mathematically launched…I lost my wife in the last attack.  Our civilization lives…the people die…but our culture goes on.”
(Kirk) “Do you mean to tell me…your people just walk into a disintegration machine when they’re told to?”
(Anon VII) “We have a high consciousness of duty, Captain.”
(Spock) “There is a certain scientific logic about it.”
(Anon VII) “I’m glad you approve.”
(Spock) “I do NOT approve…I understand.”

And now, winner of the MST3K “How did they say that with a straight face???” award …

(Spock) “Yeoman Tamara…you stay here and prevent this young lady from immolating herself.  Knock her down and sit on her if necessary.  This is a killing situation.”

-Puppy >.< Yip!

Monty Python And The Holy Grail (1974)

The single best piece of sustained, intelligent, witty, and funny pure abject nonsense ever put to film.

OR

The film about nothing that’s really something.

Grade: A+

3/25/14: It’s hard to be perfect when you’re pure abject nonsense. Still great, though. Grade: A

7/30/16: Here we have the Pythons at the height of their collective powers. I could understand (even make) an argument that such a point occurred during ‘Flying Circus’, but for me this is their absolute (most triumphant) triumph both because of the quality of it (which is matched in certain ‘Flying Circus’ episodes) AND because the “newness” spark from ’69 had long since worn off here. There’s no “rush of ideas”, no headfirst dive into “let’s do whatever the fck we want!”…that’s long since over. The return of John Cleese (himself re-invigorated) re-invigorates the troupe, however, and blends inspiration with perspiration (and an actual budget) to present Python in its best light: the edits and re-takes and props, etc…are used to ENHANCE the comedy; not sanitize it, gloss it over, or cover it in layers of obfuscating BS. The same can never be said again. Grade: A+

Masters Of Horror: Jenifer (2005)

First Viewing Judgement: A worthless piece of pro-lustful-and-insane excess, a disgusting variety of fetish-porn for those who make Jeffrey Dahmer seem like he really WAS just the “typical guy next door”, a comedy for the sick-and-twisted that find extreme suffering, gore, and mutilation dismissively amusing.

Second Viewing Judgement: A lesson on the dangers of giving in to one’s dark side, a slap in the face critique of allowing meaningless lust to somehow justify abuse of the severely abused either by action or lack of action, destroy one’s real life job, family, love, relationships, morality, personality, self-control, and basically the entirety of everything a person is.

Recommendation: If you have a hearty stomach for gore and a strong mind for disturbing material, it’s worth watching if only to scare the fck out of you as to what would happen if everyone gave in and embraced excess as THE blueprint for life without any sort of restraint or restriction.

Grade: B

3/31/14: Looking back, I don’t think it was either.  I think it was someone trying to make as CREEPY a fcken movie as possible.  And they did a good job.  Although I’d like to think some of those “Second Viewing” things were at least somewhat intended.  Grade: B

Inspirational Review

MTV Unplugged in New York [DGC, 1994]

Not only did Kurt Cobain transcend alt-rock by rocking so hard, he transcended alt-rock by feeling so deep. On this accidental testament, intended merely to altify the MTV mindset by showcasing the Meat Puppets and covering the Vaselines, Cobain outsensitives Lou Barlow and Eddie Vedder in passing. His secret is sincerity, boring though that may be–he cares less than Barlow without boasting a bit about it, tries harder than Vedder without busting a gut about it. The vocal performance he evokes is John Lennon’s on Plastic Ono Band. And he did it in one take. A (Robert Christgau)

Extreme Measures (1996)

Starring Hugh Grant (When he was a star) and Gene Hackman (Who always is one), and with good, solid supporting performances, this is a feature-length Morality Play.  Where it goes is fine, but the ending seems to choose a side…perhaps the correct side, perhaps the side you agree with (perhaps not), but a side nonetheless.  It therefore loses its power as a work of art to be “puzzled over” and becomes a good movie with a nice message.  Needless to say, that’s a bit of a let-down.

Grant plays a doctor (Guy Luthan) who has to make a choice, in the beginning of the movie, between helping a cop whose wife is at the hospital crying and a psycho on drugs that shot said cop before being shot himself.  The decision seems obvious, as does Luthan’s father’s background, as foreshadowing the eventual conclusion.  Luthan is conflicted from the start, but you (at least, I) never really get the sense that the internal struggle will end up going anywhere but where it does go.

So what’s left?  I mean, if a thriller has a fairly predictable ending, how thrilling can it be?

Well, it’s not particularly thrilling.  But it is well-crafted, well-executed, well-acted, and so forth.

The questions raised in this movie could have been made more challenging by a more objective approach…most people will probably agree with the final “decision”, and it probably won’t take that much thought to reach that agreement.  The extra sugar-coating in the epilogue doesn’t help matters much, either.

All that aside, if you can suspend assumption for a while, this is a very enjoyable movie.  Nothing special, nothing revelatory…it will disturb you, yes, but it won’t particularly surprise you, I don’t think.  Sort of like an Agatha Christie novel in which the killer is given away on page 10.

Inspirational Quote: “Anything.”

Grade: B-

2012: Grade: B

Sad…

“And the crowd was subdued in a lackluster first half and behaved most of the time as if the Jets were just another opponent.” – AP Sports Reporter Howard Ulman

It’s really very hard to hate a team when you’re too busy feeling pity for them.

Yankees fans regarding pre-2004 Red Sox teams…you know what I’m saying.

-Puppy >.< Yip!

New York Vs. Boston – Sports, Updated Analysis – 10/09/11

Sporting Events: New York Vs. Boston, A Realistic Analysis

Championships in what most Americans consider the four “major” sports…Football (NFL), Baseball (MLB), Basketball (NBA), and Hockey (NHL).

Football:
New York Giants/New York Jets: 4
New England Patriots: 3

Since New York has two teams and Boston only one, this would
indicate a virtual tie. Although New York does win the “If you
predict a Super Bowl EVERY year eventually it’s bound to happen”
Rx Ryan positivism approach.

Baseball:
New York Yankees/New York Giants/New York Mets/Brooklyn Dodgers: 35
Boston Americans/Boston Braves/Boston Red Sox: 8

Utter domination by New York.

Basketball:
Rochester Royals/New York Knicks: 3
Boston Celtics: 17

Utter domination by Boston. In fact, the ratio against New York here is even more than the ratio for them in baseball.

Hockey:
New York Rangers/New York Islanders: 8
Boston Bruins: 6

Since New York has two teams and Boston only one, this would
indicate a virtual tie…actually, it would indicate Boston as
doing slightly better, but hey, who’s counting?

So basically, what we have is a draw. So all stupid, ignorant,
obnoxious (as opposed to real) New York sports fans should really
get their story straight…is it who’s better NOW, or in the past?
When the Yankees win, it’s who’s better now. When they lose, it’s
who WAS better. When the Knicks lose, it’s…ummm…wait til next
year. When the Jets lose, it’s…ummm…well…wait til next year.

In fact, statistically, Boston has won more championships per
team on the average than New York.

New York Total: 10 Teams, 50 Championships.  That’s 5 per team.

Boston Total: 6 Teams, 34 Championships.  That’s 5.66 per team.

Oh wait! Anticipating the “New England isn’t just Boston!” comments…

That means Boston has 5 teams, 31 Championships. That’s over 6 per team.

UPDATE: You can include Buffalo teams, too…if you want to see even more of an edge for Boston. I mean, it’s just sad that some people base their own lives and self-confidence on a false belief of sports “Supremacy”.

– Puppy >.< Yip!

10/16/16: Edited for consistency. (housekeeping)

Perhaps

“X is the image of the arrested adolescent.  Entirely self-oriented.  Still intimidated by the people around them and attempting to prove themself superior to them.  Through sexual conquest they can, for a time, quell their constant feelings of inferiority and failure.  Indeed the idea of a non-sexual relationship is completely foreign to them.  As the years pass, and their physical attractiveness diminishes, they’ll be doomed to a life of loneliness, and despair, unable to give or receive Love.”

– Adapted from D. Chambers.

12/21/11: Update:

“Am I insinuatin?”  “No, just dancin”

– Adapted from M. Howard and C. Howard

-Puppy >.< Yip!

Honest Statement

I appreciate people coming to my website.

But I wish I could get a comment now and again about any of my posts, or a suggestion (what to review, how to be less annoying, etc) on what to post, or just random feedback.

Thank you to the people that have commented already, but to everyone else – If you feel like saying something, say it.  I don’t care if you agree or not, as long as you don’t get nasty

-Puppy >.< Yip!

8MM (1999)

Yet another film almost destroyed by Nic Cage’s horrendous acting.  I mean…it just seems SO wooden, even when he displays emotion it seems as if he’s just reliving acting classes that describe how you SHOULD appear when angry/upset/etc…and he’s great at faking it, I suppose…but to me his appearances are more camp than anything else.  I mean, when someone gets more angry over the alphabet than a homicide, you know there’s something amiss.

So Cage is consistently cr@ppy with occasional moments of believable mediocrity.  FORTUNATELY, Joaquin Phoenix is consistently good, and the rest of the supporting cast makes the film enjoyable…although perhaps they’re just so good when compared to Cage?

Sort of a guilty pleasure, I suppose…partly because it tackles a subject that very few films would, and partly because the bad guys are so convincing in their nastiness.

The story concerns a supposed “snuff” film, but that’s really just an excuse to introduce some majorly fcked-up characters into Cage’s life, to show how Evil evil can be, to make money off of sensationalism, and so on.  The moral “questions” (I already knew the answers before I saw the film) are obvious, at least to me.

Very few films that are this disturbing conceptually are this marketable in reality…think of ‘Dead Alive’, which intentionally does everything possible to offend/disgust, but succeeds only in the second way…it’s hard to be offended by something so campy and predictable.

Inspirational Quote: “He’s SAYING…that *name removed for spoiler reasons* fcked us…which is so totally completely bi-zarre…”

Grade: C+

2012: Phoenix, Gandolfini, and especially Stormare save this from the plague that is Nic Cage.  Grade: B-

Seven (1995)

Yes, I know some people put the number seven in place of the v. I don’t. Who gives a sh1t?

Rather than bore you with a blow-by-blow recital of things you already know/can guess, here is a comment on each “Deadly Sin”, in alphabetical order.

Envy: Don’t know if I buy the explanation for this one, seems a bit too wrap-up-ish and less real…but deserved? Oh, absolutely. Merciful, even.

Gluttony: Ok now this one is just obviously plain wrong. I mean, if death awaits you for eating too much spaghetti, then perhaps the Crusading Atheists/Antitheists have a point. It doesn’t, of course…and neither do they.

Greed: Defense lawyers are not, by definition, scumbags. Plenty of members of each side lie, cheat, and steal. But this is a good way to make people uncomfortable.
“He didn’t deserve that! Well…he was sort of nasty…ummm…”

Lust: Just record it and give it to his wife, you sick b@stard. And why is it HER fault, too? You sexist pig, JD.

Pride: He almost descends to Jigsaw-level with this one…(that’s an insult). Although Morgan Freeman’s description of what happened is more interesting than anything after the original ‘Saw’.

Sloth: How can the laziest person he can find be a drug dealer? That takes some movement, I would think…and his other activities, while heinous, have nothing to do with Sloth.

Wrath: Now this is where there is a REAL choice…it’s a clear moral dilemma, accomplishing in one scene what ‘Saw’ 1 through 187 fail to in their entirety.

Oh…great movie, too. Just cut the boring easily-solved-in-Brady-Bunch-time diner scene.

Inspirational Quote: “Honestly…have you EVER seen anything like this?”

Grade: A

Fight Club (1999)

Guest Review:
“It’s macho porn — the sex movie Hollywood has been moving toward for years, in which eroticism between the sexes is replaced by all-guy locker-room fights. Women, who have had a lifetime of practice at dealing with little-boy posturing, will instinctively see through it; men may get off on the testosterone rush…
Is Tyler Durden in fact a leader of men with a useful philosophy? “It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything,” he says, sounding like a man who tripped over the Nietzsche display on his way to the coffee bar in Borders. In my opinion, he has no useful truths. He’s a bully–Werner Erhard plus S&M, a leather club operator without the decor.” – Roger Ebert

The most cheerfully vaguely pro-organized-Anarchy piece of ultra-soft-core homosexual porn ever filmed.

Grade: C