Movie Review: The Ghost Writer

The Ghost Writer: 2.5/4 stars.
The Ghost Writer is about a writer who is tasked with taking someone's memoirs and write a book about their life. Ewan McGregor plays the part of the ghost writer writing an "autobiography" of the former prime minister of England (Pierce Brosnan).
I didn't realize until the credits rolled that The Ghost Writer was a Roman Polanski film. I'm not afraid to say that kind of put a twist into my perspective of the movie. Although, I'm going to try to avoid spinning this into a moral argument, I do think that Roman is a waste of talent. If he would (or would have) faced his accusers, paid his time and gotten his (really effed up) mistake behind him, he could get back to making films without having to worry about where.
Moving along.
Great acting on the parts of Ewan McGregor and even Pierce Brosnan(!). I had a difficult time understanding the dialogue however, likely due to the poor sound system I was watching on, and the thick accents of the 'brits.' I had to review some scenes to make sure that I could understand what was going on.
I was glad to view a movie that didn't treat the viewer like an idiot, because it really kept me guessing. In fact, there were a few times that I felt downright lost (perhaps because the accents?). But, in the end, the suspense created when you found out the main character was in trouble was very intense, but I was confused because I didn't really know why he was in trouble.
The cinematography was artful, and the location where the movie was shot was beautiful. I am confused though, it was supposed to have taken place on an island off of Maine. But, I don't know how it's possible that it was shot there, at least with Roman directing.
Overall, it was a good film, one worth seeing at least once.

Movie Review: The American

Well, I haven't really established my preference for a scale when rating movies, so I'll stick to the standard 4-Star system...

The American 2/4 Stars

The American showed a lot of promise to me before I saw it. All I had heard about it was that it was a quasi-action suspense drama film starring George Clooney. That was a half truth. It was a quasi-suspense drama film with little action starring George Clooney.
The film starts out building reasonable suspense and questions in the mind of the viewer, and at times, that suspense is re-captured, but I found myself bored for most of the movie. The picturesque village in which the movie takes place was second only to the acting job of George. He, and the scenery, however, were the only shining stars of the film. There were far too many shots of George staring off into the picturesque distance wishing for a life different than his own. You could put a camera on most people in America and get similar shots, and perhaps that's why the film is called 'The American.'
One common theme in the film was the amount of nudity. There was quite a bit, and some lengthy sex scenes. I don't know how to comment about the directors choice in this except two things: he picked his female leads very well, and he has an unhealthy obsession with showing their asses. Like seriously... A lot of ass in this film.
In the end, there was not enough story development as to who certain characters were, nor their motivations. The story also ended abruptly with no followup as to what happened after the climax. I assume that this was an artistic nod, but, therein lies the problem. Unless I'm mistaken, I believe this was a major studio release, but it felt much more like an independent film and as a result, I was left wanting. It's not that I don't enjoy independent films, I just think I was mislead.
I would be surprised if George Clooney didn't get a best actor nod at the Oscars, which might be deserved, but as for the rest of the movie, I hope against seeing any nominations.

10 things I learned on my Anniversary Weekend

The following is a summary of my Anniversary weekend.  We had a blast (for the most part)!

1.  The Anniversary Inn is pretty effing cool.  Our theme room was pretty awesome, although it wasn't exactly what we were expecting.  It was pictured with 2 awesome looking leather reclining theater seats.  Instead, there was a roundish type loveseat.  It was pretty cool though.  The picture also showed a soda fountain in the room, which was replaced by unlimited 20 oz. coke products.  All in all, pretty cool.

2.  The breakfast at Anniversary Inn is the best hotel breakfast I have ever had.  The first day, they provided a cream cheese/raspberry tart type thing.  Think of it as a REALLY high end pop tart.  It was pretty effing amazing, even though it was a bit rich.  The next morning, they gave us a choice for our meal which we opted for the ham and cheese croissant.  Even though I didn't eat it until that night, (to be explained later), it was freaking rockstar.

3.  It's satisfying when a movie you see surprises you.  I see a lot of movies, and I generally don't see a lot of movies that I would want to see more than once.  It's only a movie that pleasantly surprises me with a good story line and/or acting that really piques my interest.  One of those movies is State of Play.  I generally.. No.. I always dislike Ben Affleck.  I find him to be a horrible actor and self indulgent.  He has ruined more than 1 potentially good movie by attempting to act in them.  State of Play was the first movie that I completely believed his performance.  I was pleasantly surprised.  Not to mention that the story held some good and unexpected twists.  Very nice.

4.  Advertising that a hotel room has a huge HDTV does NO good unless said TV has some sort of HD content.  Yeah, big TVs are awesome, but they are no better than any other TV if the content shown is standard definition.  Our room had an HDTV in it and Comcast cable.  The Comcast box was even an HD converter box, but they wouldn't pay for the HD package, so the only HD channels available were the local channels, which you can get for free anyway.  Pfft.

5.  Carbs suck.  I occasionally abandon my low carb lifestyle for a weekend eating junk food.  I try to limit it to 2 days every month, and REALLY try to make it for a special occasion.  I figured that our Anniversary would be one of those occasions.  I always end up feeling disappointed at my 2 days off.  I think that I'm going to be able to eat all sorts of food that I shouldn't be, and everything will taste wonderful and be worth the binge.  I am never right.  Of all the things that I ate this weekend, only 2.5 of the things would I consider "worth it."  The croissant thingy (that I literally had 2 bites of because I was still nauseous when I ate it at 3 PM on Saturday) and the scones at Ye Lion's Den.  The .5 would have to go to the tart thingy that I had for breakfast the day before.

6.  Ye Lion's Den.   Hrmm... What an interesting idea.  KSL (specifically the Movie Show) really lauds Ye Lion's Den as one of the best restaurants in Ogden.  While the food was pretty good, it was really expensive too.  I don't mind paying a lot for prime rib, especially when it's yummy (and it was), but I really want to enjoy an environment that is reflective of the large sum of money paid for said food.  This is where the restaurant fails.  The food is yummy (and props to their ranch dressing, the best I've ever  had), but the restaurant is kind of a hole.  I really like the theme and all, but for how much they charge (40 bucks for a 16 ounce prime rib (which also included salad, drink, scones and dessert), you'd think that they wouldn't be in a strip mall.  I just think that they could really step it up a notch if they had their own building, or SOMETHING.  C'mon. 

7.  Logan is boring.  Unless you're a co-ed who wouldn't mind going to a dance club where everyone is sober (not to say that drunk people make dance clubs fun... Nothing makes dance clubs fun...) , or you're haning out with friends at their apartment... There is nothing fun to do in Logan.  Well.  Hiking and fishing and mountain biking and things like that excluded.

8.  When you're away from work without internet access, everything that could possibly go wrong at work will go wrong.  Ugh.

9.  Under no circumstances should you order a meal that contains eggs from a mexicanrestaurant in Logan.  I don't know what I was thinking.  I ended up with food poisoning.  We got back from the mexican place around 7 PM on Friday and started watching movies.  By the end of the first movie, I was really not feeling well.  I had a pounding headache and the nausea had just begun.  Trisha gave me one of her anti-nausea pills, which didn't help the nausea go away, it just helped me not puke, which, as everyone knows, when you're sick, the only way to make it really go away is to let it all out.  Finally, at around 2 in the morning, I puked my guts out.  The rest of the night was long and arduous.  I slept like crap, I was freezing cold and burning hot at the same time.  Finally the morning came and I still didn't feel any better.  I started getting everything packed up because I just wanted to go home to try and relax.  I puked again at around 10:30 and then I started feeling better.  I didn't really feel 100% better until about 9 PM that night, but the nausea went away.  Ugh.. What was I thinking?  Eggs at a mexican restaurant?  That's like ordering sushi at McDonalds.  Not a good idea.

10.  Trisha is the love of my life.  Even though Trisha was pretty sick with being pregnant, an in a lot of pain from her Fibromyalgia, she still takes care of me when I'm sick.  And I love that about her.  She's the love of my life, and life wouldn't be the same without her.  She is the jam in my pb&j sandwich and the cheese in my mac and cheese (inside joke).  I love her with everything in me.

Nix Watchman review

So I went and saw Watchmen last night (midnight showing). I'm giving it a solid 4 stars. It's a great movie that makes you think, which is always a good sign in my book.

The cinematography was AMAZING (as to be expected).

The character development was good, even though it was a bit rushed because there was so many important characters to develop.

It didn't seem like a 3 hour movie. The pace was good and I thought I'd be overwhelmed with the story, but I think they put it together well. I definitely want to see it again to see what I missed, because I'm sure I missed some stuff.

The acting was great, especially by Rarschach and the Nite Owl II. I was even impressed with Silk Spectre (I was not expecting much from her based on some of her previous roles).

It was completely different than I expected, and I went in with completely different expectations than what I feel they were trying to set in the trailers.

I am definitely going to go see it again (with Trisha).

Other notes:
The sex scene was a bit much. The gore/violence was spot on. :D
There wasn't too much language in it (which doesn't bother me anyway).
There was a lot of blue wang that I could have done without, but on the flip side, it wasn't out of control or pornographic. It was just there.

After the movie, I took Trisha home (got home around 3:45 or so) and then drove straight into work.

I'm huggin' tired.

That is all.