Film Now

Had a pretty quiet day, not doing much next couple of days either, handed in the final cut of a short film on poverty and money issues I was making for work and deserve a couple of days off at least.

Finished watching ER Season Six today, in which I've spread out watching over the past week, it's probably the last truly exceptional season of the series (even though many of the later seasons are well good), I call it an exceptional season because of many a thing such as Alan Alda's guest arc, Corday and the serial killer, Two of the Goonies appearing, the two parter Be Still My Heart and All in the Family which involve the staff having to treat two of their own, Carter's drug problem, Mark Greene and his dad, the farewells of...SPOILER ALERT Jeannie and Hathaway- which includes a cameo from George Clooney and much, much more, love this series, going to be staring on ER Season Seven ASAP.

Some of the film's I've watched the last week or so include But I'm a Cheerleader, starring Natasha Lyonne and Clea DuVall, which sees Lyonne as a cheerleader whose family and friends believe she is a lesbian and send her to a rehab camp for homosexuals, the film which could have been so much i.e a biting satire but just feels flat for some reason despite good performances by them both aswell as RuPaul and Melanie Lynskey. Clerks II is very funny in most places if sometimes not feeling like a proper sequel to the original, the original characters are still funny and there is welcome support from among others Trevor Fehrman and Rosario Dawson, recommended. Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny is another film funny in places, as not a particular fan of the Tenacious D "sound" I probably viewed this film differently to a lot of people (I do like the presence of Jack Black and Kyle Gass) and some of the musical numbers feel like I've already seen them in School of Rock for some reason, full marks for Tim Robbins cameo. Slither is a loving b-movie tribute starring Nathan Fillion (of Firefly fame) and Elizabeth Banks (the sex freak in 40 Year Old Virgin) which takes a little bit to get going but is super fun once it does, suprisingly dark in places. Romy and Michele's High School Reunion stars Mira Sorvino and Lisa Kudrow as two former high school losers going to their high school reunion (as the title does suggest!) is midly to averagely funny and the two leads are very likeable at times, not life changing but a good way to spend 90 minutes. Today I watched Brewster's Millions, the 1985 version starring Richard Pryor and John Candy, a film I watched fairly regularly as a kid, Pryor as to spend $30million in 30 days to inherit $300million from his kook of an uncle, likeable film thanks to the lead performers, I think it's a tad underappreciated. That's all thart comes to mind.

Current TV Shows in Rotation: M*A*S*H Season Ten, Amazing Stories Season One, ER Season Seven, Charmed Season One.

Planned Watching?: Streets of Fire (1984), War of the Worlds (2005), Stir Crazy, Throw Mama From the Train, The Way of the Gun, Batman Returns, Everyone Says I Love You, Time Bandits and The Elephant Man

Benoit

I've been a wrestling fan for 18+ years (for some reason I'm using Wrestlemania V as a reference point), I was a kid obviously as I'm 24 now and most people specially here in Hull, England they expect you to grow out of it by now...

I have many happy memories of watching wrestling, in the early 90s enjoying Bret Hart and The Hart Foundation, The Rockers, Ric Flair, Ted Diebse (booed like hell for him) and others.

I was a teenager during the Monday Night Wars period or the WWF Attitude period. It was a great time to be a wrestling fan we had WWF, WCW and ECW (Bravo would show ECW over here in the U.K.) which introduced me to a variety of different wrestlers, many I'd never heard of before and just completely blown away by, among them.

• Chris Jericho
• Eddie Guerrero
• Dean Malenko
• Chris Benoit

Loved um all and others (like Rey, Booker T and RVD), If anything they strengthed my love for wrestling those years (and it actually became cool again during this time period) and where all in WCW (minus RVD) when I was the beginning of my peak of being a wrestling fanatic- 1998. Jericho jumped ship to the WWF in the Summer of 99 with one of the greatest debuts in wrestling history and Guerrero, Malenko and Benoit (along with Perry Saturn) jumped ship in 2000, making me an incredibly happy bunny.

I was going to talk about my memories of some of these guys in the WWF (later WWE): Jericho becoming the first ever Undisputed World Champion, Benoit winning the Royal Rumble, Eddie winning the WWE Championship from Brock Lesnar and Benoit and Eddie at celebrating at Wrestlemania XX after Benoit had just won the Heavyweight Title.

The moment of Benoit and Eddie celebrating became more touching when Eddie Guerrero died in November 2005, I will not go into details here, but the death as a wrestling fan touched me and the image I'd keep in my mind forever...

Or so I thought. Last Monday. After Benoit cancelled his appearence at the Weekends House Shows and Vengeance PPV because of a family emergency, Benoit was found dead along with wife Nancy and his 7 year old son Daniel...Benoit had killed them both then killed himself, I don't want to go into the gory details, there's enough places on the internet that will tell you what probably happened step by step and I don't want to talk about if it was roid rage or too many concussions.

I wanted to talk about Chris Benoit: a wrestler I looked upto, he was arguably the most gifted technical wrestler wrestling today, a wrestler who I cheered for endlessly when I saw live, a wrestler I tuned into see regularly during the Monday Night Wars and beyond, a wrestler I shed a tear when he and Bret Hart fought in memory of Owen, a wrestler I so much wanted to be World Champion because he deserved it, a wrestler I choked up most when he spoke of his friendship with Eddie, that Wrestlemania XX ending, hell his matches against Jericho or Booker T which I loved so much.

But those memories are not gone, there tainted...tainted forever, Chris Benoit, a performer I looked up is a child killer, a murderer, plain and simple. It's knocked me for six honestly, it's hammered home the world is a bad place- stuff like this happens, stuff like this happens from people you'd never think. Benoit used to stand for what is right in wrestling now he stands for what's wrong in the world.

I'm not trying to write anything here that hasn't been said before I just wanted to get written down the events and how they effected me like many wrestling fans, and it's probably the most major wrestling incident ever...

A bit about me and film

I have exactly 1650 DVDs. That's a lot right? Yeah I know the answer, it was a rhetorical question. I started collecting them in September 2001 after having a long love affair with VHS, whilst VHS was in my childhood and teenage life, I had to rely on pocket money to feed my habbit and never reached the heights of 1650 that my adult life could afford me.

My favourite actors are Robert De Niro (I own 45 of his films, I'm getting there) and Jack Lemmon. My favourite actress is probably Audrey Hepburn, but have love in the modern world for Natalie Portman and Maggie Gyllenhaal. My favourite director is Billy Wilder with Scorsese a very close second. My favourite film, I often usually cite as Once Upon a Time in the West but it's very hard to choose and my favourite television show of all time is M*A*S*H.

I am a filmmaker with a couple of shorts under my belt, people consider me talented and I could go with that, I have also taught film theory and film history on occasion.

I am not here to personally argue if I am or you are a bigger film geek (or fan or whatever) and Harry Knowles or Q.T might be world famous film geeks and I'm not comparing myself to them. I am writing here cause I love film.

What's This? What's This?

Yes, unbelievably this is a new update, after regular bloggin' with MySpace and LiveJournal this is now back to being my regular (or semi-regular or occasionly as it seems to be) blog, now it's nigh on impossible to go on about all the films and other DVDs I've seen this year but I'll be writing reviews (or semi reviews or one line reviews: whatever takes my fancy) but now as this will be my main blog I'll probably feature crap that's going on in my real life, I'm sticking with the Film Geek moniker cause that's what I am and always will be but like I say other stuff will possibly be get mentioned.

Peace out.

Rob

Hopefulness for the future

Yeah, I'm still crap at updating here on blogger, but hey my mind goes other places. Yet another time to not promise regular updates and just see what happens.

Entertainment News

• George Clooney and Renée Zellweger are rumoured to be dating again, the pair dated briefly in 2001 and where seen recently cuddling and holding hands in a restaurant
• Naomi Campbell as been threatened with arrest after she failed to appearer at an hearing at a Manhattan Court, very naughty girl.
• First Chyna and Sean Waltman have a scary sex tape, now it's the turn of Screech himself Dustin Diamond, Diamond's manager actually hope the release of the tape to the public will help raise his profile, aren't you just a little bit curious?
• and that's it Dustin Diamond can't be topped.

Entertainment News

• Mel Gibson comes out of hiding to make his first public appearance to promoto "Apocalypto" since his drink driving arrest back in July.
• Shockingly, since you'd expect it to be drug related, Keith Richards was massively drunk on the set of the third Pirates of the Caribbean and had to be proped up when his scenes where getting filmed.
• David Beckham has found solace in Tom Cruise, I made it sound gayer then it actually is, it was more to do with Beckham been dropped from the England squad.
• Lindsay Lohan is angry at reports she's split up with her fiancee Harry Morton, the Hard Rock Cafe heir, apparently there still together.
• Cindy Crawford is in trouble with certain people after she allowed her 5 year old daughter to model swimwear.
• Bruce Willis tells the world he is a democrat.
• Some sad news, the church in which James Brown did his bit in Blues Brothers as burned down.

Hostel

Eli Roth, director of Cabin Fever can talk the talk, but can he walk the walk, let's start with Cabin Fever, what's the best way to describe it? Average, yet people where excited to see it, but are many people actually a fan of the movie? Hostel, is Eli Roth's second movie and his mouth flapped more and more and how much of a mind fuck the movie would be, but the film with the tag Quentin Tarantino presents where Eli Roth finally learns to walk the walk.

The answer, I've got to say is NO. The film for the first part seems like the movie Eurotrip- obnixious Yanks abroad in Europe- trying to be funny and never been funny, the film takes the From Dusk Till Dawn approach by going all out the window the second half, the boys are told of an Hostel, that's full of women who are pretty much up for it.

Let's talk about the torture scenes, you must have heard about them, or seen the tantilizing glimpses on any number of the trailers- Yes, they are squemish (as is a bit at the end of the movie), but they come too little too late, the interest as already severely wained in the movie. Japanese directing maestro Takeshi Miike as a small role, it's recommend you check out some of his movies instead (if you already haven't).

The film is not that good, moments of gore and attempted humour never sit well together, the film is probably a lesser movie then Cabin Fever. Watch National Lampoon's European Vacation and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre straight after each other instead.

**

Entertainment News

• Marcia Cross, the redheaded one from Desperate Housewives is expecting twins, when I read the headline "Cross Expecting Twins", I instantly thought of Arrested Development slaphead David Cross, now if that was the case that would have been newsworthy.
• Robin Williams, as left rehab and as moved in with a sober friend to save his marriage, do you think he remembers he made Jacob the Liar?
• 80s "heartthrob" Lou Diamond Phillips as been charged in with domestic battery in Los Angeles, nothing funny there, if he as hit his wife he deserves what he gets.
• Jet Li is still ademant he's giving up martial arts movies, hating the fact the theme is always revenge, look for Li in the remake of 12 Angry Men.
• In the best news- Showgirls is to be transformed into a Las Vegas musical, please get Jessie Spano to be in it please, please, I'll fly over to Las Vegas to see it.
• George Lucas as donated $175 million to the USC, the place that provided him with his filmmaking education in a generous gift, just a shame half of his directorial filmography is the Star Wars prequels.
• Saturday Night Live as cut it's cast from 16 down to 11 (with no new cast additions) among those going are Chris Parnell and Horatio Sanz---now who's going to giggle during every sketch there in distracting the other performers. The fat one from Kenan and Kel is safe BTW.

Shock Treatment

Wow, you have to be impressed at how regulary I update this blog. Months on end it seems I fail to do any update whatsoever, then I come on after a bit and promise big changes then... NOTHING, a big fat nothing- promises of changes, maybe a couple of updates here and there, So for now- No promises, If I update it, I update it.

Planned watching:

• Good Night, And Good Luck.
• Demolition Man
• Uncle Buck
• Shock Treatment
• Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead

What I've been watching

First off, Monday so the arrival of the special edition of V for Vendetta, which is a fantastic (though it seems negatively recieved by Alan Moore purirists) and was reviewed by me back when I saw it at the cinema, American Dreamz, could of been a biting satire of the American President and American Idol but doesn't have any teeth, Mandy Moore looks hot in it though. A film I'd not seen since Childhood without realizing Spaceballs is noticebly not one thing: that funny, a couple of good jokes aside, a lot of it just falls flat, The Ice Storm, one of my favourite films from 1997 (in a year that included L.A Confidential and The Big Lebowski) with a particulary memorable turn from Christina Ricci, it should be noted it's wonderfully acted by all and is Ang Lee's best film to date.

Just finished watching R.S.V.P. (2002), a horror with some neat little ideas- notable as it was the last role for Glenn Quinn, and also featuring Jason Mewes, you have to believe that there was a couple of drugs flying around the set (Quinn died of a heroin overdose) - the movie is ultimately okay, but feels a tad been there done that, The 'Burbs (1987) is incredibly underrated and is a film that before recently watching it hadn't seen for a fair few years. Bruce Dern as the military-nut neighbour is a standout. I think that's all I've watched the last couple of days.

I watched four films on one night, Our House (aka Duplex), Death to Smoochy, Wonderland and 12 Angry Men, all but 12 Angry Men I'd never seen before and all but 12 Angry Men could be described anything but lukewarm. Our House and Death to Smoochy are both black comedies directed by Danny DeVito. In Our House, DeVito basically retraces Throw Momma from the Train with the usual likeable leads of Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore, who are honestly not bad, the problem with the film is, it never picks up momentum, Death to Smoochy is better -just- thanks to the lead roles and one genuinely heartbreaking moment, it was made during Robin Williams, dark career period and is certainly a weaker movie then Insomnia, watchable but not completely great. Wonderland, starring Val Kilmer, tells the true story of ex-porn star John Holmes (his story was kind of the inspiration for Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights) and tells the story of a murder of a bunch of drug dealers and their unlucky houseguests from various points of view a lá Rashomon, it never really reveals the surface of the subject or the event in question and leaves you wanting more, there is one scene at the beginning with Kate Bosworth that is so unbelievably sexy. However, 12 Angry Men is a true cinematic masterpiece, excellently performed by the 12 actors, the film draws you in, wanting to know more, a true testement to less been more, this movie is impossible to fault.

Jack Warden

1920-2006

So I'd got an amazingly good value MGM box-set consisting of ten films for £10, earlier in the week, and the first one I watched out of the box was 12 Angry Men (1957) and was going to talk about what a marvellous film was, but a couple of days ago, one of the actors, Jack Warden died aged 85. Warden had a long, long career and it was sad to hear of his passing- I can also remember the Problem Child movies as a kid (also starring the now sadly deceased John Ritter) and in my teens the underrated Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead, films all done in the twilight of his career--- 12 Angry Men is a wonderful film- it should be rightly described as a classic and I'll talk about it more on a later date.

Got MILF?

Yes I am an idiot.

It was an episode of Malcolm in the Middle repeated the other day, can't go wrong with two older women like these.

Let's talk about The Constant Gardener (2005) a bit, the recent batch of "serious" movies have bored me a bit, you know the Oscar baiting (sometimes borderline television movie) though sometimes usually well made and occasionly engaging- just left me with a couple of hours of feeling nothingless. I'm glad the partly British made (or British in spirit) Constant Gardener, changed that. Watched about the same time as Lord of War both make an interesting double bill- Gardener deals with profiting from pharmacetucials, War profiting from arms dealing. Rachel Weisz as never been better (granted pretty much everything else I've seen her in would hardly class as changelling roles) but the bitter poignanticy of knowing her character is killed before the opening credits making Ralph Fiennes plight for truth and justice that all much better. There is one scene towards the end of the movie in the third act, that is just so heartbreaking- words can't truly describe the scene which will stay with me for a long time. Recommended action: watch it.

Entertainment News

• James Gandolfini as gone in for knee surgery therefore delaying the start of the new Sopranos season. Like we wasn't going to wait two years for it anyway.
• Hugh Laurie as been given a huge pay rise for his role in the show "House" upto $300,000 from an original reported mid five figure salary. Rule Britannia.
• Diane Lane chopped off her hair on live television for charity, bless her.

And that's it.

slow news day.

Red Buttons dies aged 87

I was sad to hear of the death of Red Buttons, who died Thursday aged 87.

Many consider his greatest role "Saynora" in which he won the best supporting actor Oscar for in 1957.

However, it's in his roles for "The Longest Day" (a movie in which he stole the show) and "The Poseidon Adventure", as well as his guest spot on "ER" I will probably best remember him for.

A hugely talented performer, Red, you will be missed.

The Return of Captain Invincible

Hello, I'm back finally- I've decidedI've got to take the site in a different way, because of what seems like my extreme ADD, this blog is not particulary holding my interest any more. you'll see the changes coming soon.