Original URL: http://shadows-song.us/sblog/2008/03/25/can-drive/

I know disc golfers drink a lot of beer. Collect the cans and earmark the proceeds for Steve. Clean up the environment and help a buddy at the same time. Cans and bottles can be redeemed for cash at the following locations:

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Original URL: http://shadows-song.us/sblog/2008/03/15/review-hitman/

What can you say about a movie taken from a video game. Not much. I was prepared to judge this a total waste of time. Well, surprise! I actually liked it. For those who haven’t played the game, the hitman doesn’t have a name, only a number (47) and a bar code on the back of his bald head. His job is to kill who he is paid to, without question. This he does, with absolute no feeling.

They took this basic premise and built an actual plot around it and came out with an enjoyable little movie. The hitman is Timothy Olyphant who played Seth Bullock in HBO’s Deadwood. As the movie opens we find Interpol officer Mike Whittier (Dougray Scott from MI2, Ever After, Enigma, Dark Water) arriving home after spending several days investigating a series of assassinations that he feels have been perpetrated by one man. He pours himself a drink, the lights go out and when he tries to fix them he finds he is not alone. Across the room sits the target of his investigation, the Hitman. He assures the Interpol operative that if he wanted him dead, he already would be. Then he asks him a question. What can make a good man kill?

The story then jumps back several months previously, to cover events and the political conspiracy that have led up to the present. It seems that, somewhere along the way, the Hitman had met a woman……

This isn’t an award contender but it is an enjoyable couple of hours. Worth a rental.

Original URL: http://shadows-song.us/sblog/2008/03/15/review-no-country-for-old-men/

I’m writing two reviews tonight, one on a movie I was expecting to enjoy and one on a movie I was sure would be a waste of time. Guess which this is.

This was a strange movie. The Coen brothers generally do a wonderful job (Millers Crossing, Fargo, Oh Brother Where Art Thou), Tommy Lee Jones is one of our better character actors (and I love to listen to him talk) and Javier Bardem (The Sea Inside, Love in the Time of Cholera)is just wonderful. Odd that a man who is so beautifully expressive is given such a wooden character to play. Oh well…. Josh Brolin is turning out to be a fine actor as well, which is a good thing since he gets the most screen time in this film. The cast and crew were first rate and, evidently, the Academy thought that was good enough.

The story begins with a down-on-his-luck Viet Nam vet (Josh Brolin) discovering several dead bodies, dead dogs and trucks. On further investigation, he also finds a case filled with 2 million dollars. Tell me this doesn’t just scream ‘Drug Deal gone Bad’… And tell me the smart money isn’t on someone wanting to get that money back reeeaaalllly bad. Well, the Josh Brolin character is no dumb bunny but he stupidly feels he can beat the odds. So he grabs the cash, leaves his lady behind and takes off. It’s no surprise that he soon finds he is being followed by the psychopath who perpetrated the massacre (Javier Bardem) and is now wandering the countryside apparently just hoping someone will give him an excuse to shoot. Needless to say, they do and he does. You get the impression that it really isn’t the money he’s after but another excuse to kill. There is a lot of violence in this movie. Not that I’m against violence, I’m not. But there is a lot of carnage in this one. The poor guy that inherits this mess is Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) a WWII vet who is just days away from retirement (just two more steps and he would have gotten away scott free). It is he who is the “Old Man” of the title, a small town sheriff who is both confused and frustrated by the new generation of criminal.

So, you’ve got the mouse (Brolin) being chased by the rat (Bardem) who is, in turn, being chased by the cat (Jones). All three actors are wonderful. All three characters make some stupid choices. The tempo of the film lags in spots but the tension never does. It’s true there are some wonder spots in the film, I won’t say where they are in case you do want to watch it. It sometimes seems as though the movie is less concerned with the plot or the characters, than it is with the scope of the Texas scenery. John Ford did that the best. Leave it alone. And the ending…..well let’s just say it was as though someone walked in and said “Ok, we’re out of money and film..everybody go home”, and they did. I am at a loss as to why this film was given an Academy Award. I was very disappointed….think I’ll go out and see “There Will be Blood”.

Original URL: http://shadows-song.us/sblog/2008/03/13/review-gone-baby-gone/

This is Ben Affleck’s directorial debut. I was curious as to whether he would be a better director than an actor (that wouldn’t take much in my opinion). Although I had a few misgivings because his younger brother, Casey, was cast in the lead,