The End of All Things

I'm exhausted right now, so this post may be less than coherent. Just a warning.

I can't believe this year is already over. And what a year it's been. I don't think I've ever had a busier year in my life, what with 310 followed immediately by 480, and now PITCHING 480 while trying to get sound together, finding a place to live, finishing my last 475 project (which I actually kinda care about), memorizing a couple piano pieces, and clearing up other loose ends. Next year may be a nice time to try at least ONE semester where I'm not taking seventeen units. It takes a lot out of ya.

I honestly don't really know how I'm going to survive (figuratively) the next few weeks. There have been times in my life where I've been busier, but few times in my life where I've had this many DIFFERENT things to figure out all at once.

I feel like I should at some point to a retrospective on how this latest school year has changed me (short answer: A LOT). But now is not the time. I think I've gotten quite a bit wiser. And I hope that "wiser" and "jaded" aren't necessarily synonymous.

In the meanwhile though, I'll just rock out to David Bowie love songs as I write my blog. I couldn't think of a better waste of time...

REVIEWS:

GRINDHOUSE!!!! Grindhouse was EVERYTHING I had hoped it to be. Not the best movie of the year ("Zodaic" gets that award so far), but certainly the movie I've ENJOYED the most thus far. I saw it at the U.V., and for once this actually made the movie experience better. My fav stuff was Rodriguez's. His "Machete" trailer was far more fun than the others (though some of them were good too), and "Planet Terror" was an absolute blast. I'm not one to salivate over women on film, but Rose McGowan had my jaw agape during the opening credits (literally). Quite possibly one of the hottest openings to a movie ever. The rest of the movie just built and built, getting better and better. I hear that they are going to release "Planet Terror" and "Death Proof" separately on DVD. I don't think I'll fork over the cash for "Death Proof," but "Planet Terror" is going to get watched many, many times once I get ahold of it. I may have to rig up a projector just to get that grindhouse feel.
I'm not saying "Death Proof" was bad, but it was not nearly as entertaining as "Planet Terror." I've never been a big Tarantino fan, mainly because so much of his movies is just him showing how clever he is (the one exception being "Reservoir Dogs" which actually DOES seem to have real characters I grew to care about). This is the same in "Death Proof," as Tarantino makes a more "authentic" grindhouse movie. That is to say, the first 2/3 of "Death Proof" are boring boring BORING. Kurt Russell livened things up enough to keep me from falling asleep, and luckily, the last third of "Death Proof" is one of the most energizing, edge-of-your seat thrilling car chases I've ever seen.
So, as a whole, everyone who enjoys fun gritty movies should go see "Grindhouse." After all, to get the best experience, you should see it at a cheap theater anyway, and you really get two rockin' movies for the price of one. So what's to complain about? Sadly, it seems "Grindhouse" has done abysmally at the box office, likely because of bad marketing and a bad release date. It's too bad. This sort of fun, bare bones, filmmaking-at-its-roots stuff could use a boost over the pre-packaged crap we all get sick of seeing (how could "Meet the Robinsons," already in its second week, take more dough in than this? Arg!). And it's a THOUSAND times better than those Kill Bill movies, which both made lots of $$. Why are audiences stupid so often?

I also saw the Korean movie "The Host" and didn't like it as much as I was hoping to. I had heard this was the best monster movie since "Jaws" and so my expectations were very, very high. And it was a fun movie. But that was it. Just "fun." The monster looked really cool, and it had a neat way of swinging and running around eating people. The CGI wasn't entirely convincing, but that was forgivable. What WASN'T as forgivable was the weird plot involving a virus that didn't exist, plus a quirky family that I still never got to relate to much. As a whole, the film just didn't work for me. I normally don't say this (and I understand if any critics want to reprimand me strongly for doing so), but I'm actually thinking the American remake that I've heard is in the works may be a better movie when it's done. Maybe.

More introspective posts to come, eventually. As for now...

"I've nothing much to offer. There's nothing much to take...
...I'm an absolute beginner, and I'm absolutely sane.
As long as we're together, the rest can go to hell...
I absolutely love you. But we're absolute beginners...
With eyes completely open, but nervous all the same..."

And yes, I did just resort to wanky song lyrics. Sue me. At least they're GOOD lyrics, huh?