The blog goes to the movies
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Jun 12, 2007 
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The Yankees just had an 11-day road trip. Another 11-day jaunt starts this Monday. So with the weekend off and no game on Monday, it was time to catch up on movies.
Here is how it went …
Knocked Up: If you liked “Anchorman” and “40-year-old Virgin” then you will love this movie. It had the added attraction of being perfectly suitable for a date. Seth Rogen is funny. He’s not a physical comedian like Will Ferrell but he has a great sense of timing. This flick will be huge for Katherine Heigl. She pulls off being tremendously hot yet eminently likable, a quality that is hard to come by. Angelina Jolie, for instance, is tremendously hot. But you get the idea that if you tried to talk to her about sports, she would scratch your eyes out. Paul Rudd, who always pops up in Judd Apatow films, is good as the put-upon married guy. Apatow is on the kind of run Harold Ramis was on in the 1980s. Everything is does is funny. Good film, go see it right away.
Oceans 13: Two newspaper reviews I saw said the plot of this film was confusing. Yes, if you’re a nitwit I suppose so. This version of the franchise was much, much better than Oceans 12 but not quite as good as Oceans 11. George Clooney and Brad Pitt smirk their way through the film, which they do well. Al Pacino plays the same guy he has been playing for several years now, the loud-talking, demanding guy. It started with Scent of a Woman. Only the lines change. But he’s Pacino, so it’s great. Andy Garcia steals every scene he is in. Ellen Barkin is 53 according to IMBD. If that’s so, she’s the hottest 53-year-old ever. Of course Diane Lane will inherit that title in time. Good film, go see it.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Just Kill Me Already: That may not be the exact title. But I considered stealing a soap dispenser from the bathroom after seeing this if only to say I wasn’t totally ripped off. If it wasn’t for Keira Knightley I might have gouged my eyes out with my key chain. The first Pirates movie was fun. Now they’re tedious. It even managed to make Keith Richards look uncool, which would seem impossible to do. Terrible movie, whatever you do, don’t go. When it comes on HBO, watch Red Dawn on TNT instead.
If anybody has any movie suggestions, let them fly.
Yum.
I didn’t think Pirates of the Carribean III was thaat bad. Granted, I wouldn’t go see it again, but everyone acts like it was 3 hours of watching paint dry. It did have some pretty cool action scenes.
Knocked Up wasn’t that funny. They tried to make a lot of very foreseeable jokes, and they weren’t very funny to begin with. “We all have pink eye”…”Yo man, you got pinkeye too?” “Nah..i’m just really hiiiigh”…c’mon, give me a break.
The only funny part was the line about the hollowed out penis that he wore over his as a condom. Besides that, it seemed like the jokes were written by high school seniors.
Knocked Up was absolutely hysterical. I loved it. But I’m also an 18-year-old college student, so I find stupid movies like this one funny.
Thanks Pete, been waffling bout the new Pirates. Now I’ll go see Knocked Up instead and wait for HBO. Poor Kieth, what a hit to his rep. Well, hey, he might not even know he did it!
Speaking of the Stones, if you ever get a chance to see the Rolling Stones Concert Imax did, do it. Jagger closeups 6 stories tall! Saw it a few years ago with a theater full of people who were there in the 60′s except we were all wearing Hard Rock and various concert T’s and expensive shoes.
yo Asst Manager, thanks for doin ur best to spoil the movie for those who havent seen it by directly quoting lines
i’m surprised you liked ocean’s 13. i found the plot confusing, since i was confused where it was. the movie had no story and it was exceedingly predictable.
i agree w/ knocked up. pretty funny stuff.
Pete,
If you want to see a great indie film — ONCE.
A very “not musicalish” musical about an Irish street musician. Great, gritty, funny, touching low budget film.
Pete, run to the video store and rent “Pan’s Labyrinth”.
It is mesmerizing, and will have you thinking about it for hours after the movie is over. If you have small kids (I don’t know, kinda new here) DON’T let them watch, as there are three or four scenes of utter brutality.
It’s an adult fairy tale.
And the little girl in it will be a HUGE star one day, especially if she does any English speaking movies.
Oh yeah, it’s one drawback, subtitles. (It’s in Spanish)
Though if you’re a closet geek like me, it miiiiight interest you to know that the guy who plays the Faun and the Pale Man in “Pan’s” also played Abe Sapien in “Hellboy” and is the Silver Surfer in the new Fantastic Four movie.
I’m done.
I liked the Pirates movie. If you want to talk about just kill me lets talk about the crappy Sopranos ending.
You nailed it on the head with Pirates. The first one caught a lot of people by surprise, while the second and third ones have been awful.
Pirates is a fantastic movie if u watch the first and second movie many times before seeing the third and understand the plot perfectly. Even with that, the first watch of Pirates III can be confusing. But going a second time and understanding every little thing while the audience around u was lost the entire time is a very cool experience. There are so many things involved in the third one, it makes the plot confusing and even tedious at times. But once u understand everything, the movie becomes more funny and hell of alot more enjoyable.
If you liked “Knocked Up”, you should consider renting (or buying) the Freaks & Geeks & Undeclared DVD sets. Maybe you could watch them on road trips. Amazing, underrated Judd Apatow produced television that got canned way too early. You should recognize the casts for both shows right away from the 3 above movies you mentioned.
Pirates was tedious, overdirected, and overacted. Saved you all 10 bucks.
Pete,
I heard “Mr. Brooks” was good from two different people. I have yet to see it but if you are stuck on the road, that is the rumor. I had a hard time believing a movie co-starring Kevin Costner and Dane Cook could be good but I have heard from many it is. If anyone has seen it please weigh in.
Pete,
I don’t know if the following line is original or not, but “I considered stealing a soap dispenser from the bathroom after seeing this if only to say I wasn’t totally ripped off” is pretty funny. Great blog – best way to get Yankees news, especially for those of us living in sorry Beantown, where they spend more time complaining about The Rocket (who last pitched for the Sox 11 years ago) than cheering for their own team. Thanks to Jason for recommending your site.
I keep on meaning to go see 28 Weeks Later but haven’t gotten to it yet. I’ve heard it’s just as good, if not better, than the first one.
I haven’t seen all 3 of the movies you mentioned, but I did see Pirates of the Caribbean. Not that it was a great movie, but it totally blew the second one away. I just think Jack Sparrow’s character got totally played out in the second movie and even more played out in this one. A few movies I am excited about are War (Jet Li, Jason Stratham), Transformers, Die Hard: Live Free or Die Hard and the Bourne Ultimatum. I can’t recall a summer where there were that many movies that I wanted to see.
I would think that someone here would be a little more clever than stealing my handle especially to post spoilers to a crappy summer movie.
Forget Transformers and all that other crap, just go rent Bladerunner (whichever edition you like most) and call it a day.
Knocked Up. Hilarious.
Wouldnt pay to see any CLooney movie.
Pirates movies never did it for me.
Mr Brooks was cool but without much story.
i have seen shrek III = terrible
pirates = confusing and way too long = not good
ocean’s 13 = lame . a bunch of pretty boys
looking too cool . boring .
spiderman 3 = the sandman wasnt impressive
too much of a love story and not
enough action
knocked up = funny and charming best movie of
summer
hostel II – not gory just flat-out bad
bottom line is hollywood is all out of good ideas .
Bladerunner is one of the most overrated pieces of cow ever.
If you want Sci Fi rent Total Recall.
At least it has a sense of fun.
Diane Lane is 42. It might be a tad early to predict her degree of hotness at 53.
Knocked up was great, so great I think I knocked up my wife. Least that’s what the store bought test said.
Doctor confirmation thursday night, making these next 57 hours excruiatingly long. I may not even be able to concentrate on the Yankee games! Either that or they will prove to be a great distraction.
Jeff NJ –
What great news! Now you have to let us know if it’s confirmed. Would this be your first?
I am incredibly surprised at all the good reviews for Knocked Up. I have a teenage daughter who has been asking to see this movie, and I’m not all too keen for her to see it because I’m not sure about the message it sends to young women (let’s celebrate a job promotion by getting drunk and sleeping with a stranger). Of course, I’m pre-judging the movie by the title and the story outline, but I’m not sure I’d want to see this myself (it seems in the genre of adolescent male humor — no offense intended to anyone, just my particular bias).
Any of you ladies out there seen it?
David – is Once the movie about the songwriters? If so, the review was intriguing and I think I’d like to see that. Also Mr. Brooks, because it looks like somewhat of a departure for Kevin Costner. Of course, I usually end up seeing all these movies either on DVD or on-demand anyway.
Woooolllveeeerrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnneeesss!!!!!!!!!
Pirates was too long, too drawn out. Saw it the week it opened and the “Director’s Hall” in City Center in White Plains, was WAY too hot, AC wasn’t working much…. wanted to shoot myself.
Going to see Knocked Up this weekend.
Jeff NJ, congratulations and good luck with the test.
Total Recall is fine just like the Running Man is fine in that semi-campy sort of way full of cheesy lines, but it’s not even close to Bladerunner.
Wakin Ned Devine was the last good one that I saw! Anymore out there like this one?
Knocked Up is good. It’s similar to 40 Year Old Virgin but more subdued, a little less funny, and darker. (The subplot of Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann’s relationship would be depressing if the rest of the movie didn’t have so many bright spots.)
Doreen, while I’m not a parent, I think that the movie is ok for a teenager to see. It sends a responsible message about the Katherine Heigl character’s irresponsible mistake.
I liked all three Pirates movies, but then again I also liked the Sopranos finale, so I’m apparently weird.
Thanks, Jeremy. I appreciate it.
Pan’s Labyrinth was very interesting, but subtitles don’t bother me. Bladerunner is a personal fave. They seem to re-do a little bit of Times Square every year to make it look more like Ridley’s Earth.
Rufus, if you don’t dig Bladerunner, try the Director’s Cut without the Harrison Ford voice over. It’s a far better movie. The movie was originally made w/o a voice over, but the studio thought moviegoers were too stupid to follow the story so they forced Harrison Ford to come back in post production and do a voice over. His dead monotone in the voice over is supposed to invoke a noir-ish feel, but also he claims he sounded that way because he was so against having to do the voice over.
Jeff NJ:
Congratulations and best of luck to you and Mrs. Jeff NJ. I have a 9 year old daughter and she is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.
Thanks Doreen and Chris, yes it would be our first, so you imagine our feelings. Anticipation, fear, worry, cautious happiness, think I just made that last one up.
Anyway as far as the Knocked Up movie, the one night stand is not that big of a deal, however there is a lot of pot smoking which I might be reluctant to show a teenager. Overall message of the movie is a good one and in a some ways it is a bit educational.
This movie was better than 40 year old virgin and pretty much every Will Ferrell movie although I am a big Zoolander fan, very underrated if you ask me.
and thanks MurphyDog, I notice no one ever says their 6 month old is the best thing that ever happenned to them, long way to 9.
Jeff NJ –
Thanks for the heads-up.
i’m baffled by this comment from huuz:
i’m surprised you liked ocean’s 13. i found the plot confusing, since i was confused where it was. the movie had no story and it was exceedingly predictable.
if you were confused the entire movie, how did you predict what was going to happen next?
28 Weeks Later is good old fashion thrills. Mr. Brooks is decent if only to see Costner in a departure from his stock roles. If you have an art house thetre near by, go see The TV Set. Probably the funniest movie released this year. It’s directed by Ivan Reitman’s (Ghostbusters) son and has an awesome cast.
What is funny is that “Red Dawn” has been on AMC a few times a week for the past three weeks. So even us geeks without HBO can watch it.
Congrats Jeff NJ (those store bought tests are actually pretty accurate!). But go and see as many movies as you can in the next 9 months because you won’t be able to see any for a while after that! My two girls are off to sleepaway camp next week — and THEN hubby and I can finally catch up on some movies. We haven’t seen any of the movies you guys are talking about. Matter of fact, I can’t even remember the last movie we’ve seen in a movie theater (or on DVD for that matter!)
Yeah, part of Knocked Up is a stoner comedy right out of Cheech and Chong. But, in a way, the movie is like those anti-pot commercials that say if you smoke pot you will end up wasting your life away like a loser.
Congrats Jeff NJ on doing your part to bring another Yankee fan into the world.
Super congrats to the Jeff NJs–
All the reviews were good for Knocked Up, but I have to admit, I was really turned off when I saw that it clocks in at 2 hours 9 minutes! What? The 40 Year Old Virgin was good but that was 2 hours and could have used some trimming. I bet Knocked Up could too. Movie lengths are just out of control, especially for comedies. Haven’t these people ever heard “Brevity is the soul of wit?” I’m kind of a classic movie person and Sunday night post-Sopranos caught one of my favorites from 1937 on Turner Classics. It ran a nice, breezy 92 minutes. Those were the days…
Skippy,
Ah, yes — but then back in 1937, they ran double features!
Or so I’ve been told!
Thanks Lori, Jeremy and Skippy. Wonder if it’s tacky to dress the kid in head to toe Yankee clothes for the first year?
As for the movie length of Knocked Up, yeah definitely could have trimmed 20-30 minutes, that could be the one knock (bad pun intended).
My favorite comedy of all time is the 40 Year Old Virgin.
That being said, I came into Knocked Up with very high expectations. And this is the first time I can actually remember doing so, and the movie actually delivering. I LOVED it.
I wouldn’t compare it to Anchorman, however. Will Ferrell does a very over-the-top unrealistic goofball humor. I personally don’t like Will or his movies (save Old School). Apatow’s films are another brand of comedy, one that I love. His characters talk like my friends and I talk. They have wild and outrageous escapades, but still anchored in the realm of realism. That’s what makes them so funny.
Yes, Knocked Up was great. Superbad is next.
I think it’s a must to dress the kid in yankee gear. congrats man, and good luck
Jeff NJ,
Congrats! If it’s a boy, which Yankee will you name it after? Also, make sure he learns 1st base. And make him a switch hitter.
Peter, are these off days getting to you?
Pete, I think the ladies would disagree about Pirates.
I personally loved it and could watch Orlando Bloom and Johnyn Depp for 72 hours straight!
Since we are talking entertainment:
Great interview with David Chase for Sopranos fans.
http://blog.nj.com/alltv/2007/.....peaks.html
Finale was even better the second time around.
no love for my Red Dawn reference?
You must watch “The Piano” with Holly Hunter if you’ve never seen it.
If you’ve seen it, it’s worth watching again. Top 10 movie IMO.
Jeff NJ:
Oh yeah. The 6 month old is the greatest followed by the 7 month old and the 8 month old…. there is no bad age, brother ; )
If it’s actually going to happen, and I hope for you guys it does, be a very very involved father: take those early a.m. feedings and change the diapers. You gotta build your own bond with the kid early, don’t stand back and let the kid have only a bond with mom because you are scared or unsure of yourself (You won’t break the kid). Your wife is certainly going to be better at being a mom than you, but only dad can be dad and that starts immediately. She will love you for it and so will Junior.
Lauren – I have the same feeling about Oceans 13 (and 11, 12 and any others). I have no problem watching Clooney, Pitt, Damon, et al for a couple of hours!
Jeff–you have to be careful not to overkill to the extent that Baby Jeff NJ turns on you and goes over to some Dark Side Team. Encourage, but don’t force.
Yes, back in the day you’d get double features: an A and a B picture, cartoon, newsreels…all that added up in length to one long, bad movie today. If it’s a question of economics, short movies make sense for theater operators as they can squeeze in more showings per day. And as for getting value for your money, I’m happier paying full price for a good short movie than a long bad movie. Supersizing fast food doesn’t make it any better. The problem now is there are too many self-indulgent directors and producers who are too scared and dumb to make hard decisions (watch out, I have an MFA in film studies and I’m not afraid to use it).
Congrats to Jeff from NJ and thanks to everyone who listed some for the movie tips.
I hardly ever go to theaters, but was thinking of going to one soon
I don’t watch a lot of movies in general. Last good one i rented was ‘Stranger than Fiction’. Really good! Other somewhat recent good ones include Little Miss Sunshine and Scoop. I like comedies best.
Potch – completely agree with you about Pan’s Labyrinth. Just saw it this weekend, and I thought it was brilliant. I was actually going to suggest to Pete that he rent it as well.
I had heard it was good and I kind of watched it out of obligation because a friend of mine pretty much made me, and I just LOVED it. I watched it two days ago, and I still can’t get scenes of it out of my head.
Go see “Once” – great movie, great story, great music. You can thank me later.
http://www.foxsearchlight.com/once/
Pan’s Labyrinth.
Half Nelson.
Pete,
Did you mean IMDb???
The embryo didn’t take to the uterus. Pregnancy false alarm, good news is we’re free to try again this month. Thanks for all the well wishes anyway.
If you guys are interested in good upcoming movies, I’ve been keeping a running list on my personal site. Maybe there’s a couple you hadn’t heard of.
http://www.oldmanclub.com/foru......php?t=159
ya just gotta love soccer-moms . i was watching horror/gore/violence before i was a teenager and i’m no worse for wear . just remeber – your kids arent as good as you think they are .
Catching up on old posts while waiting for the game to start, and just had to comment on how highly I think of Seth Rogen. Normally I wouldn’t see a movie like Knocked Up, but because he is in it I will.
For those who love him in Knocked Up or 40 Year Old Virgin, I highly recommend checking out the one and only season of Freaks and Geeks, the ingeniously wonderful and all too short lived TV show in which Rogen costarred. Fantastic acting, characters and writing, especially if you have a dry sense of humor. I highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it, one of the all-time great TV shows IMO and Rogen is the best part.
As far as new movies, I’m still waiting for that Biggie Smalls biopic I’ve been hearing about for the past year or so…
As much as I like Ellen Barkin…
DIANE LANE is just sooooo HOT!