World’s Greatest Dad Review

I usually don’t review movies I don’t see in theaters, but I made an exception for World’s Greatest Dad, which is open in select theaters but I was only able to see this film on demand, but I was glad that I had the option to watch the move on demand. I only heard about this film after hearing the film’s writer/director, comedian Bobcat Goldthwait‘s appearance on the Adam Carolla podcast (iTunes subscribe here).

The movie stars Robin Williams as a teacher raising his teenage son and the film mainly revolves around the school that he teaches in and his son attends. I do not want to give too much away, but this is a DARK film and while I was watching it, once I got towards the end of the film, I was baffled at how Goldthwait would end the movie. The film is all about a horrible event that happens but then gets covered up and the cover up gets a ball rolling that Robin Williams quickly loses control of. The film is very creepy and interesting, but Robin Williams played his part in a very subdued way and those types of performances are usually his best. If you can find this small film, I would go see it, but just remember, it’s not a happy happy fun time movie, even though it is directed by and stars a comedian. It was also fun to see some of the minor roles in this film were played by some recognizable faces as well, Geoffrey Pierson from Dexter and Unhappily Ever After and Henry Simmons from NYPD Blue.

Thanks to Cinemafique for the above pic.

Get a taste from the red band (NSFW) trailer below

Dany

Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? – The Guild

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OK, anyone with any geek credibility already knows who Felicia Day is since she was on the last season of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series, she starred in Dr. Horrible and she created and stars in The Guild. Now she and the cast of The Guild have produced a great geek oriented music video that feeds on the MMORPG theme that The Guild is based on.

Enjoy

Dany

Flu Season, H1N1 Swine and Mexican Flu

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I was very proud to see my uncle, Robert M. Pestronk, appear on MSNBC today, interviewed and asked about what the latest H1N1 influenza (Mexican/Swine Flu) model projections meant for this upcoming flu season. He seemed to give the most measured and reasoned response to all the questions he was asked. I do not believe this season will be a record settingly deadly flu season compared to recent years, but I hope this does bring awareness to how many people die annually from influenza annually.

Enjoy

Dany

The Daily Show, Healthcare and Cable News Polls… I Think We All Lose

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There are very few times when Jon Stewart steers me the wrong way… well, just enjoy the biting irony of these clips that The Daily Show reveals. I would make some witty comment, but I think the clips say all they need to.
Enjoy

Dany

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**Update 8-24-2009** This clip too:

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**Update2 8-24-2009** OK, it’s official, I can’t stop…

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My Experience with Netflix in Grenada… FAIL

This summer I was able to go back home to NYC and I decided to restart my Netflix subscription. I was LOVING both the dvd selection and especially the online streaming service I was getting, but once I got down to Grenada to go back to medical school, I realized that both because of digital publishing rights I probably would not be able to enjoy any of the streaming movies and television shows that Netflix has been offering. Sure enough, I was right and their streaming service didn’t work once I got into Grenada.

It is really too bad, now it is going to be much harder to watch movies now while I am here. I wonder if there are any legal ways I would be able to get similar access to such a broad array of movies online now for the time that I’m down here on the Spice Island. All I want to do is give my money to a service like Netflix, which then filters its way back to the movie industry, but for whatever reason, the movie studios don’t want to take my money just because I am out of the country for the next few months.

It’s a real shame when a company just refuses when I’m offering them up my money, especially when there are so many not so legal ways that I COULD be watching movies while I am down here, but wanted to avoid. Hmm, I wonder if Blockbuster‘s online library would work down here… I doubt it, but I need to look into that.

Dany

**Update 8-14-2009**  Nope, Blockbuster’s online catalog is US only as well.

NYC Movies – Transformers, Public Enemies, The Hurt Locker and Funny People

Now that I am back in Grenada for medical school, I realized that while I was in NYC on vacation, I saw a good selection of movies without talking about them here.

Transformers was a great summer popcorn movie. If you want to ogle the amazing special effects art, explosions along with the amazingly beautiful women (all of which Michael Bay is a master at shooting), then this film will be great fun. The story though is sparse and unimportant to the movie itself, the story is probably a bit deeper than the original film, but that’s not saying too much. This movie has gotten a lot of heat in the press for it being racist against black people for two of the new transformers: the twins, with gold teeth and talking street, but the flaw in the argument is that these are ROBOTS, they have no color, they are not segregated out in any way. In my mind it is those select reviewers and critics, not the voice actors or the digital effects artists creating the on screen portrayals that affiliate these roles with stereotypically racist African-Americans. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, just don’t expect story to triumph with this one.

Public Enemies – This film puzzles me. I liked it a lot and even though it was almost two and half hours long, it didn’t feel that long (there may have been a scene or three that could have been shorter, but that’s about it), but there was something about this film that just didn’t click with me. Johnny Depp‘s performance was great as John Dillinger, maybe it was Christian Bale (Melvin Purvis) or Billy Crudup (J. Edgar Hoover), since they felt stiff, boring and yet I wanted more screen time from them, especially more from Hoover. Maybe the action scenes needed to be grander, the way it was shot it might we might have been too close to the action to appreciate it, but whatever it was, I was somewhat disappointed.

The Hurt Locker – This small film might just be my favorite film this year! I didn’t know anything about it going into the film other than that it followed a US military regimen who were defusing bombs in Iraq. I was surprised when I saw who was directing the film, since I was unfamiliar with her work, but Kathryn Bigelow really framed the story and shot the piece wonderfully. I was engrossed throughout. I liked seeing the celebrity cameos from some very familiar faces (Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes and David Morse) along with the cameo from an actor that most people probably aren’t familiar with, but Christian Camargo will be instantly familiar to any fan of the wonderful Showtime series: Dexter. You would think that constantly seeing this military crew attempting to defuse bomb after bomb would get repetative, but the nuance and suspense that the actors (especially Jeremy Renner) and the director brought to it just kept me glued to the screen. This film is definitely a success, it was great!

Funny People – I was lucky enough to see a sneak preview screening of Funny People a few days before this film was released (Thank you New York Observer). Judd Apatow shows how strong he is when he gets complete control by both writing AND directing a film again. He has been involved as producer in many films, but when he isn’t both writing and directing, it really shows and it usually feels like something is missing. Apatow knows how to craft a mature story that is genuinely funny. Seeing Adam Sandler‘s early career compared to him late in his career was great, it must have felt eerily autobiographical (at least a little) for Sandler. This was also the first film where I thought Jonah Hill was funny, I didn’t like him in Superbad or Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but here he was hilarious here and right on the mark. I loved all the not fat anymore jokes about Seth Rogen. Most of the last 30 minutes at Laura/Leslie Mann‘s home felt a bit long in the tooth, but regardless this was a very funny film. I still feel that The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up were better overall films from Apatow, but regardless, this film was better and more enjoyable a film overall than most comedies I get to see.

Thanks to captainkrash, firstshowing, cinematropolis and hearsay for the above pictures.

Enjoy

Dany