U2: U218 Singles (2006)

Bono and The Edge could sing the alphabet in Hebrew and I'd love it.  Obviously I'm going to be biased.

This collection of music videos {and amazing extras} rocks. Spanning their work, these 18 singles represent the best of each decade from Mysterious Ways and Beautiful Day to Sunday Bloody Sunday live at Red Rocks. Also included are the two singles from their latest album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, Vertigo and Sometimes You Can't Make it On Your Own.  Added to the mix is footage from their duet with Green Day at the New Orleans Superdome. Not to be missed is the story behind One, a song with three different visions.

Awesome videos and a solid history lesson on one of the greatest band ever.  What more can you ask for?!  It's great to see the boys enjoying themselves and each other, but it's even better to see U2 pushing the boundries of an art form.

The Carpetbaggers (1964)

Carpetbagger (noun): any opportunistic or exploitive outsider

Jonas Cord Jr. (George Peppard) is an embittered tycoon who inherits his neglectful father’s wealth at a young age. Jonas sets out on a path of unexplained self destruction buying or destroying everyone in his way. It’s not until he is confronted by long time friend/mentor Nevada Smith (Alan Ladd) that Jonas sees what he has become.

The Carpetbaggers is a classic Hollywood soap opera that once was deemed for ‘Adults Only’. In this day and age, there’s hardly anything found to be offensive.  It will raise a few eyebrows mainly because you wonder ‘how did they get away with that’.

Filled with broads, bedroom scenes, cigarettes, and lots of leg, The Carpetbaggers also has enough subplots to make your head spin. George Peppard is fascinating to watch as Cord. During this two hour power-trip he is brutal and cold, but his evolution to soulless is subtle and perfectly executed. Alan Ladd as the long-suffering friend turned enemy is top-notch.

The production is lavish—reminiscent of Dallas. Every detail is luscious—gawdy even. There are moments of melodrama, but The Carpetbaggers delivers on every tawdry level thanks to the exceptional cast. As I see it, Hollywood doesn’t make fine trash like this anymore.  Certainly a must-see for old Hollywood fans.

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

I’m at a loss to describe the spectacle I have just beheld. Perhaps Quentin Tarantino’s most honest film to date, Inglorious Basterds feels unusual, yet familiar. Truly, I don’t know how to react—it’s like a smash up of Spaghetti Westerns and Band of Brothers.

My biggest issue with Tarantino is his inability to check his ego and create something original—it’s always an homage to something. Inglorious Basterds is that—an homage—but somewhere along the way, this story of Jewish-American soldiers who brutally attack (and scalp) Nazis transcends the brutality to become, well, interesting.

This film is balanced. That’s what I like. The QT flourishes are there, but underscored. The viewer isn’t smacked in the face with references, the gore and violence refrained, and dialogue subtle. Combined with inspired casting, Inglorious Basterds is audacious, egregiously inaccurate, and wonderfully entertaining.

As Lt. Basterd Aldo Raines Brad Pitt is simply inspired—brilliant with is Appalachian twang and Eastwood swagger. Oscar winner Christoph Waltz as SS Col. Hans Landa is equally fascinating. Waltz commands every scene with smarmy theatrical energy and obnoxious self confidence.

Typical of Tarantino there are WTF moments including David Bowie’s Gasoline and Heinz Steiglitz’s introduction but these patches of random don’t quite reach the silliness of his previous fare. I loved the nod to French cinema and the use of foreign languages becomes an event onto itself. The opening sequence is by far my favorite and is quite misleading of what is to come.

As I see it, Inglorious Basterds stands alongside Reservoir Dogs as my favorite QT films. Strong dialogue and brilliant casting make it work. The success herein is thanks to Tarantino’s strong dialogue and brilliant casting. One doesn’t know whether to laugh, cheer, or run for the exits. But you will be entertained.

2012 (2009)

The end of the world comes complete with amazing special effects and topped with a delicious side of corn.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)

New Moon isn’t high art and with that in mind you can enjoy the teenage melodrama found in Forks. The love triangle grows more complicated as Bella and her abnormal beaus—one vampire, one werewolf—figures out who they actually are.  You know the story...

There are countless issues including, but not limited to:

• crazy laughable eyeball colors
• unbelievable pouting
• shirtless dude who is shirtless for no reason (just the way Jacob pulls his shirt off when Bella 'falls' off the bike had me in stitches--that camera angle is so money.)
• predicatability
• horrible scoring
• that waste of nearly five minutes while the camera moved around a stationary Bella to pass the time because the writers had a brain fart
• it could've been an awesome comedy
• Bella writhing on the bed with unexplained stomach pains (Who wanted a crazy vampire baby to pop-out?!  I did!) and nightmares
• her dad, the school, the town
• those other shirtless boys that are always in the distance and always pissy
• the unexplained cabin in the woods with the disfigured woman
• Vampire City
• Dakota Fanning
• stupid pop culture reference (see Grand Theft Auto)
• hair

Look, let's not drag this out like the movie did.  As I see it, New Moon deserves the adoration of the vapid and unfulfilled. It is what it is—a fantasy—and I shouldn’t begrudge anyone that, but I will make fun of you.