Let’s do this.
At The Movies
Warning: Spoilers
I rarely throw out movie recommendations to my audience, because most movies these days are stupid and not worth referring. I will make a slight exception for King Kong, however, with a few caveats.
Peter Jackson has managed to create a movie with memorable action sequences and a few scenes and characters that jar the emotions. This is probably what George Lucas was shooting for over his last three Star Wars pictures, but by and large failed to accomplish. When taken in concert with his Lord of the Rings trilogy, it can be argued that he has surpassed George Lucas as the preeminent action/adventure filmmaker of our time.
Naomi Watts is stunning as you’ve probably heard in many reviews. Tom Pandich thinks that Jack Black is a poor choice for the role of the movie producer Carl Denham and I think he has a valid point. In his defense, the movie was written for Black to provide moments of levity and sometimes it’s very hard not to see the guy and take him seriously as anything other than a comedian. I believe, however, that some critics like Tom wanted the Denham character to be more of a prick and less of a jokester. There are plenty of instances in the movie where his greed and willingness to put others in jeopardy to get what he wants in particular are demonstrated, but I think some abrasiveness or a tempter tantrum might have helped out a lot.
He also thinks Adrian Brody is a poor choice for the character of Jack Driscoll and I agree with this one 100 percent, but for different reasons. Tom believes the Driscoll character needed to be more dashing, maybe even a foil to the false bravado of Kyle Chandler’s Bruce Baxter (who later redeems himself, but whatever). Instead, I wanted a Driscoll who was weaker, but still valiant. The reason being is that this script is different from the original version of the movie. In the original, Ann Darrow never befriends Kong and is in constant terror of the beast’s pursuit. Man is the hero here, trying to save the damsel in distress from the uncontrollable wild beast. The audience never feels any pity for Kong until the very end when Kong becomes a victim of his own devotion and even then it’s very subtle. For this movie, a dashing Driscoll makes a lot of sense as a foil to the fury of Kong.
Jackson’s script though is the reverse. Kong is a defender of the damsel and even exhibits a sensitive side that certainly catches her attention. I mean, c’mon, sunsets and ice skating? He has more game than most humans. She tries in vain to stop man from taming and exploiting the ape and man actually is portrayed as the uncontrollable, savage element. This is very clear in several slow motion scenes in Jackson’s movie. As such, I wanted to see a weaker, more human Driscoll to better show the redeemable qualities of man. I guess I’ve been trained by movies and other media to think that suffering or undertaking an impossible quest is the best way to do this. Peter Jackson himself is guilty of this.
Besides, the guy is a playwright, not Arnold.
The only other problem I had was with some of the action sequences being extremely unrealistic and a few gaps in the story. Those natives kinda popped in and out and were forgotten in a few scenes. It’s never explained where they run off to when the crew scares them away with their guns and why they don’t come back to finish their attacks. The dinosaur stampede scene was exciting, but I lost my suspension of disbelief completely.
Minor grievances, though. The film offers something for everyone – humor, action, emotion and even a little creepiness for the horror fans like myself. I’m talking about the scenes with the natives, specifically.
Thumbs up. For more information:
R0BTRAIN looks at old school King Kong
David Whitcomb discusses the appeal of the film across generations.
And the entire movie zone discusses the movie in a roundtable extravaganza.
Hip-Hop Essentials: Haley Bonus Edition
McCullar has his list.
Gregory Wind has his.
Mike Eagle has his.
And Cam reminds us that there is another coast besides the one on the East.
I’ll throw my quick list out simply to provide a different perspective. A lot of these guys are longtime fans of the genre and I’m more of a new entrant. Here are five albums that have resonated with me:
Genius/GZA, Liquid Swords
All I can remember is my brother motioning me over to my player at a house party of mine several years ago. He popped in this disc and played “4th Chamber” for me and I was completely blown away. The thudding beat and scratchy fuzz looping over hot pieces by Ghostface, Killah Priest, RZA and the Genius himself took to me instantly.
Scanning the cd, I quickly figured out that there is no filler on this disc. Shadowboxin’ features a hot guest shot from Meth and I’m still not sure I can find a better track as far as pure flow goes than the title track. Widely considered one of the best Wu-Tang solo efforts.
Gang Starr, Moment of Truth
I don’t think any essentials list is worth its salt without something produced by Premier. Once again, no filler from the start to finish. It opens with a sample from Meth on the Shadowboxin’ track from the album up above on “You Know My Steez” and continues with the solid “Work”, “Royalty” featuring Jodeci, and “Above the Clouds” featuring Deck. “What I’m Here 4”, “My Advice 2 You”, and The Militia are among many others worth mentioning.
Pete Rock, Soul Survivor
I also don’t think a collection is complete without a tip of the hat to Pete Rock, who has produced for a who’s who of hip hop’s best. The album itself is full of collaborations. In particular, the guest spot from Meth on “Half Man/Half Amazin'” and “The Game” with Prodigy, Raekwon, and Ghostface are classics. It’s not a song about HHH, either.
Roots, Illadelph/Halflife
Philadelphia hip-hop at its finest. When I heard “Concerto of the Desperado” I knew I was listening to a group with a chip on its shoulder, which are the exact kind of acts I like to have in my player. The group has changed a lot since this album, but I prefer this one for tracks like “Section” and “Respond/React” that lashed out against commercial hip-hop.
NaS, Illmatic
I know, kinda obvious. I remember hearing about the disc and going to some record store to check it out. I listened to just the intro track, put the headphones down and bought it. Nuff said. It’s my favorite hip-hop album of all time, I could not leave it out.
Flair For The Dramatic
A lot has been written recently about Flair’s recent personal problems. GRUT took the same approach with Ric’s problems as he did Matt Hardy’s and encouraged him to enjoy bottoming out. That may be great for his psyche, but it doesn’t say a lot as far as how he is going to handle his finances, family relations and, of course, his career.
FLEA thinks he is a fraud, more or less, and worth of our pity.
I’m kinda in the middle of the views of my Monday Mystery brethern. To be honest, I have a very strict rule about separating personal life from professional life when it comes to making assessments about people. I call it the Clinton Rule. I don’t really care what is going on in someone’s personal life so long as it doesn’t affect their performance on the job.
In the case of Clinton, the country was worked up into a tizzy over marital infidelity. Yeah, as if the citizenry of this country can claim innocence on that subject. If everyone were subjected to the kind of scrutiny that Clinton had to endure over problems of that nature, I don’t think anyone would hold a job in this country. Simply put, most people get their jobs done despite who they are banging. I have a much bigger problem with incompetence on the job, but judging by the 2004 election returns, this puts me in the minority.
Obviously, some personal problems are greater than others. It’s all relative. Drug problems, psychological impairments, death of loved ones can all have detrimental effects on one’s performance on the job and should be addressed appropriately. However, I don’t remember Clinton doing a bad job as president and I certainly don’t remember Ric Flair doing a bad job…ever, really.
The steroid accusations give me some pause, but I have trouble assigning much credibility to them. Ric hasn’t bulked up over his career like Eddy did, so the only real steroids I could see him using are the ones that relieve pain better, like the ones Rafael Palmeiro used. If these steroids were used and might cause him to drop dead one day, only then could it be argued that these personal problems are worth any attention whatsoever. I call it like I see it though and assume they are just some ammunition for the wife to extort some more money out of the Nature Boy.
Happens to the best of us, I suppose.
The Little Things
These will be scattered all over the board. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!
1. Throw In The Towel
I’ve had a chance to see Samoa Joe wrestle on free television and admittedly there is a lot to like. He has a certain scowl to him and that bloody towel he carries around certainly adds to his dangerous persona. It is probably worth a 5 yard penalty flag for encroachment thrown from a referee who looks a lot like Tazz, but I can forgive if it achieves its desired effect well. And it does.
2. Boston Market
I had a lot of fun on Monday with all of the Boston-themed jokes, which is something WWE has apparently gone away from over the years. Vince volunteering Theo Epstein for the GM job was a sweet jab as was Daivari vandalizing the statues of Larry Bird and Bobby Orr. Perhaps the best stuff though was the Boston Crab from Carlito…what can I say, I didn’t see it coming.
3. Sting Of Excitement
So the bat, cloak and boots are back along with all of the other little things from the Sting/Crow character. Some think this is a great idea, others think it’s a bad idea.
Personally, I think it’s ok depending on how much money they had to burn to get him back into wrestling. If he came on the cheap, it certainly is going to create some buzz among the fanbase and maybe even reach out to a few casual viewers who remember him through the years.
There are risks as Eric and GRUT have explained. You may alienate your existing roster, especially guys like Monty Brown who are being sacrificed again and again in favor of newcomers. He also may have cost a lot of money and that can alienate a roster as well.
I’m torn though on how this promotion gets elevated to the next level. They have gone this far on Double J as the title holder, the X division and some WWE castaways. Who is to say that they can’t keep it up?
The thing about Sting, though, and a lot of people seem to forget this, is that he was a major part of that n.W.o. storyline that carried WCW to a sustained period of dominance over WWE. A lot of it was a rare case of great storytelling, but his character was a part of that. Sting has never been short on significance and charisma and he is one of those guys who can carry a promotion if given the ball.
It’s a tough call and I’m very in the middle on it.
Lots of TNA discussion abound recently though, so you can’t say it’s not working to some degree.
4. Yes, You Guessed It
I really like the Boogeyman. Even despite the fact that his name reminds me of Jimmy Valliant. The worms, weird make-up on his head, the fact that he is announced as fighting out of the Bottomless Pit.
Sorry, I can’t help it.
5. Shrink Wrap
I really loved the skit with Randy Orton talking to his therapist about Hell in the Cell. Not only was it a good promo, but the over-the-top idea of a wrestler discussing his matches with a psychologist made me laugh my ass off when I saw it.
That’s it for me.
Haley
