They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, but if you ask me, there’s only one word that comes to mind when I see this photo: Happiness, both in front of and behind the camera. Continue reading
Only One Word to Describe It
6 SepItalian American
4 Sep
Not much happens in The American, and for a while, that’s alright.
George Clooney’s Jack, in Italy to take care of one last job, is a man of few words and even fewer personal connections. We watch as he befriends a priest and a prostitute, and builds a customized weapon for a client, but so little is known about Jack, and about his assignment as a whole, that it’s hard to know exactly what’s going on. Continue reading
Gimme Five!
1 SepI never thought this day would come.
My friends … today, September 1, 2010, marks the fifth anniversary of my very first blog post. That’s right: I’ve been blogging on Martin’s Musings for five years. Never thought I’d get past the first year or two, much less five. But here I am, still writing. And more impressive, I still have people reading my blog posts. So before I go any further, let me take a moment to say thank you for that.
I’ll accept your wood and silverware now.
If you’re a longtime reader of this blog, then you’ve no doubt noticed the changes that have occurred. And you’ve probably also noticed that in the last year or so, posts have gotten less frequent — and more often than not, they’ve been movie reviews. For that you can probably thank my activity on Facebook and Twitter and the blog I maintain for work for giving me other venues to do my thing. But I’m not making excuses. Rather, let’s spin this and say my blogging here has been so successful that I’ve branched out, and am now communicating in multiple places.
Or, let’s just say that passing the five-year mark is a good reminder that I should do what I can to keep this blog going strong. After all, this is where it began. This is my communications hub. So as I start my second half-decade, I make this promise to you, dear readers, that I will try my best to keep this blog active and enjoyable. I’ve written a total of 1,407 posts so far. If you keep reading, I’ll keep writing.
Social Media Sure Is Delicious
25 Aug
I don’t in any way pretend to be a social media expert.
Sure, I’m an active user of Facebook and Twitter, I have a blog, and now I’ve even started checking in everywhere on Foursquare.
And sure, some people I work with think I’m an expert.
But if there’s one thing I’ve learned when it comes to social media, it’s that nobody knows anything (to borrow the phrase from William Goldman), and we’re all making it up as we go along.
So I’ll let other people label themselves as social media gurus, experts, ninjas, or whatever word they’re using these days. Me, an expert? I’m not ready for that kind of label just yet.
That all said, I really do enjoy social networking. Continue reading
Something’s Fishy
21 Aug
When you go see a movie like Piranha 3D, you don’t go expecting it to be good.
You go hoping it’ll be so bad that it’s awesome fun, that the filmmakers and the audience will be in on the joke just as much as you are, and that you won’t regret the past two hours when the lights go up. (You know, like The Expendables or Snakes on a Plane.)
Unfortunately, Piranha 3D is just bad. (Keep your “I told you so”s to yourself, please.)
It’s not funny, it’s not silly enough, it’s misogynistic, sexist, gratuitous, ridiculous (not in a good way), and it features some truly bad special effects and lots of unnecessary 3D. Continue reading
Woman in Search of a Word
13 Aug
You might think that after seeing a movie called Eat Pray Love, that I’d want to do one of the above.
Or, that maybe I’d want to hop online and plan a trip to Italy, India, or Bali.
But that would imply that said movie was any good, and portrayed the activities of the title and showed the places where they’re undertaken in attractive, tourist-friendly ways.
Unfortunately, EPL is not the kind of movie that would inspire such a reaction. Continue reading
The Boys Are Back
12 Aug
The first five minutes of The Expendables tell you everything you need to know about the movie: A group of mercenaries bust up a kidnapping aboard an ocean vessel not by killing the pirates, but by destroying them. The mercenaries’ firepower is just too robust for the pirates’ bodies, and the kidnappers explode in blood and guts. The audience erupts in cheers and applause, and we’re off and running. (Actually, at the screening I was at, people were cheering from the second Sylvester Stallone’s name first appeared on screen.) Awwwww yeah!
Yes, The Expendables is that kind of movie. It is to action flicks what the Oceans series was to heist films: That is to say, it boasts an all-star cast (Stallone, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crewes, Steve Austin, Dolph Lundgren, etc.) and it’s great fun. But whereas the Oceans films were big on style, The Expendables is big on, well, size. There’s a ton of explosions, a ton of action, a ton of muscle and testosterone. The plot’s nothing to get excited about — really, it’s just an excuse to get these guys all together blowin’ sh!t up — and neither is the screenplay. But if you go to the theater simply expecting a good time, then you won’t be disappointed. Nearly every member of the cast gets his image tweaked (including the Governator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who joins with Bruce Willis for a quick cameo), people get beaten up and blown away in increasingly more amusing ways, and 110 minutes later, you walk away with a big smile on your face.
Dismiss it as a big, loud summer action film if you will, but don’t deny that The Expendables is one of the more enjoyable movies of the season so far. I’m giving it a B+.
Shoulda Shot A-Rod
5 Aug
The Other Guys is the movie Dinner for Schmucks wanted to be. That is to say, it’s a funny pairing of two guys in a high-concept big-screen summer comedy. Oh, and did I mention it’s funny?
Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg star as Allen and Terry, two desk clerks for the NYPD, who get the chance to be heroes when the conventional hero-types die and Allen and Terry uncover something sketchy involving a Bernie Madoff–like financial executive.
Directed by Ferrell’s longtime collaborator Adam McKay (Step Brothers), The Other Guys is a bit too long, doesn’t always do right by Wahlberg, and it loses steam about two-thirds of the way in. But it starts funny and ends funny, Eva Mendes is good, and I laughed a great deal more than I did at the aforementioned Schmucks. Continue reading
Eternal Optometrist
29 Jul
The good news is that the titular gathering in Dinner for Schmucks lives up to its billing and is a very funny scene — perhaps the best in the entire movie.
The bad news, however, is that the scene is not longer, and it takes almost an hour and a half to get to it.
Until then, this film — about a guy (Paul Rudd) who must bring a loser (Steve Carell) to a dinner party in order to win a promotion — is only mildly amusing.
Carell’s character is weird, but I didn’t find him to be the absurdly over-the-top weird, awkward loser that he’s supposed to be. Continue reading
It Really Is a Small, Small World
28 JulAnyone who knows me knows I have a soft spot for nostalgia.
Reconnecting with old friends is, for me, one of the most fun aspects of Facebook, for example. And I’ve already told you about how I’m reliving my high school days by re-reading the journals I kept during those four years.
So you can only imagine how much I enjoy reconnecting with people in the most random of places, far from the computer. Continue reading
