RIP: Heath Ledger

The first time I saw Heath Ledger was watching 10 Things I Hate About You. I was watching it because I have pretty big crush on Julia Stiles and was watching whatever movies I could find with her in it. In 10 Things Ledger plays Patrick Verona the misunderstood gentle man who inadvertently falls in love with Stiles' character. The movie based on the "Taming of the Shrew" was new age Shakespeare in the same way that Clueless was Jane Austen's "Emma". That was his start with me and I found myself enjoying many of the other movies acted in subsequently. Ledger was a good actor he played a variety of roles and did them all pretty well. Im not sure he ever played the same role twice.  He was picky, so many of his contemporaries seemed to take whatever movies were thrown at them and he was a little more choosey.  Movies like "Ned Kelley", "A Knights Tale, and " The Patriot" are favorites and  his brief stint in " Monster's Ball"  was a glimpse into what he could be.  Then his coming of age role in "Brokeback Mountain". followed by his turn in "I'm Not There" the biopic inspired by the life of Bob Dylan. He was a cross between pretty Hollywood and gritty Independence film work. He had the potential to be my generations Sean Penn without all the angry outbursts and backlash. I'm really excited to see his turn as the Joker in the Batman: The Dark Knight Returns . It seems as if he is a throwback to the Joker that Frank Miller wrote, a sadistic sociopath who knew no boundaries.  I was initially surprised at the casting of Ledger but after seeing the trailer I believe that he will pull it off well. Honestly after Brokeback I'm sure he can play anything. The rumor is that his reaction to the role may be part of his issue, that he couldn't shake the character from his own life . Method acting is what they call it, submersing yourself in a role so far that sometimes you take it home with you. Back when Hollywood was gearing up for "Hannibal" the sequel to "Silence of the Lambs" Jodie Foster turned it down because couldn't put herself through the mental rigors anymore. She spent months on a couch discussing what that movie did to her with a professional. In truth the Joker may have had nothing to do with either way its tragic that someone that young with that much talent  dies and leaves behind a little girl who will miss growing up with her father. The famous are not exempted from the human conditions that we experience they are just susceptible as the average joe, I think sometime we forget ....

Inappropriate Dinner Conversation

so lets give new meaning to talks about the birds and bees. yesterday over lunch with friends i had a conversation about compromise in marriage. my friend had previously (in high school) had a conversation with her mother about future relationships and compromise. let me preface this story by saying that i am familiar with the mother in question and her husband and while you will only hear a story i was trying to fight a visual picture. so apparently in explaining conversation my friends mother told her that (i'm cleaning this up to keep this PG) there were certain things that they couldnt do romantically because her father was above average. well.... we had a pause at our table because this was not the normal meal conversation. and i then remembered my own mother having said once that all thing are not appropriate for the dinner table, how right she was. i understand having open conversation with your kids but somethings are better left unsaid. lol.

Sarah Connor Chronicles: Pilot

i am beyond hesitant when it comes to becoming attached to new tv shows broadcast by the fox network. i have been burned many times in the recent years by becoming attached to shows that fox cancelled without much notice or without giving the shows much time. examples; drive, fastlane, true calling, dark angel, reunion, vanished, standoff, justice  and the inside. however i continue to give the the benefit of the doubt because this is the station that brought me 24 and prison break. besides its a strike year so there is really no reason not to give a new show a fair shake especially on the side of the networks because its not like there are new episodes of anything else to put on the air.

the sarah connor chronicles (scc) is a terminator spinoff that takes place in years following T2. Most people prefer to forget that T3 was ever made although i thought the movie was pretty entertaining it gave me my fist look at  kristanna loken even though i think the story was below the acting ability of claire danes but i digress. in scc john connor (thomas "i dont want to be gay on heroes" dekker) the eventual hero of mankind is in high school, and on his first day at the new school he is attacked by a terminator who of course is sent back from the future to kill him connor ends up being protected by another terminator named cameron portrayed by summer glau of firefly and serenity fame. the connors john and sarah played by lena headey (300) end up finding out that despite their efforts skynet was still deployed and mankind is still in danger. in the end the connors and cameron go forward to 2007 to stop skynet in the future still trying to save the world.

when this show was announced i wondered why the show was going to focus on sarah as opposed to john. one of the things that the show portrays much better than the movie is that john is scared of his destiny. in the movies we never get a sense that john has fully  grasped or accepted his role in the future revolution, in the tv show he both knows and has accepted his role in the future but doesn't believe that he can accomplish this. there is a point in the episode where he asks his mother to stop skynet to do it herself because he can't he is just a kid and cant do it himself. his mother then realizes that the only way she can protect her son is to do what he cant do himself. 

the show looks good even if just judging by the pilot i think its going to be interesting and i hope fox leaves it on long enough to give it a fair chance.

-tw

Word of the Day

Chartreuse: An olive like color

Add that to your vocabulary

-tw

Marion Jones is Going to Jail

this makes me sad.... marion jones was always one of my favorite athletes and at least she had the decency to admit her mistakes and give her medals and records back unlike some baseball players i can think of.

-tw

Juno

so if in the small part of 2008 that has passed so far there was one movie that i think all people should see its JUNO. ellen page, jennifer garner (alias), justin bateman (arrested development), allison janey (west wing), michael cera (superbad, arrested development) and j.k. simmons (the closer) come together to create a remarkable cast. ellen page is probably most familiar to people as kitty pride from X-Men 2 and 3 she plays Juno a high school teenager who gets pregnant by her equally young friend (cera). and then has to go home and tell her stepmom and her father portrayed by janey and simmons. the movie takes us through Juno's decision to not have an abortion (something about fingernails and boysenberry condoms) and to give up the baby for adoption to an young couple unable to have children portrayed by garner and bateman. this movie is the perfect combination of comedy and drama juno is both real in childlike behavior and conversation as she is sometimes mature in decision making as an expectant mother. one of my favorite things about this movie is the music. juno has a very eclectic soundtrack from a lot of bands that i'm not familiar with but i enjoyed. the music is sometimes comic relief in the movie for its sheer hokiness and humor in lyrics. at 90 minutes the movie wont take up too much of your time and is the perfect length to get your attention and keep it. but you may never look at your lazyboy chair the same way again.

-tw

POEM OF THE DAY://Robert Frost "The Road Not Taken"

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.