The movie was exhilarating. It was especially interesting how Paul Walker was torn between the excitements of the mean streets and the red tape of the long arm of the law. Quite the investigation btw, a few million dollars’ worth of merch get stolen from a few semis and all of a sudden it’s time to procure via eminent domain a house in the Hollywood hills for a command squad to operate. Also, I must add, a not so efficient one at that. But whatevs, it’s all about driving cars fast in illicit ways, and occasionally an Asian gang driving fast motorcycles. Hector was a smooth ass mofo, he was cool. That Asian gang were cool too, very family oriented, but what’s up with their huge stash of DVD players??? But it’s all about cars and loyalty and NOS and poor ja-Jule not getting that throple he was promised if he won. That poor sob, but hey it was peak ja-rule at that point, roughly a decade before the FYRE affair. One thing though, Paul Walker, you are kinda a shitty cop for mixing business and pleasure hanging with Dom’s sis, I mean what were you thinking if you were thinking? Do these drag races happen IRL? If so, count me out as a casual driver nearby because that is dangerous, but man, if there is another drag race rager out in the AZ dessert, count me in!
Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
Such a feel-good movie and so encapsulating of the early aughts era where the most important items on the agenda were getting baked and making a run for the nearest munchy outlet.
Forget everything else and don’t stop until you reach the goal: some important life lessons were learned by Harold and Kumar along the way. I am so happy that such a seemingly mundane trip turned into the life altering experience it became.
Harold is your typical post Ivy League recent grad working for some serious d-bags at an investment banking firm. Some higher ups decide to pass off weekend work on him while they go TGIF the hell out of NJ. Harold is the straight guy while Kumar is your stereotypical underachieving goofball who helps drag Harold down with him on the ultimate Friday night goal of first feeding your head then your belly. Neil Patrick Harris plays himself so well. “ Here is an extra $200, I left some love stains in the backseat.”
A seemingly improbable plot full of adventurous twists yields tangible and intangible results for this duo. As one who has gotten lost in NJ on multiple occasions en-route to a fast food destination I very much sympathize with their cause. Chris Meloni might steal the show as Freakshow, this was a nice touch.
It’s amazing how censored and sheltered the world has become in the past twenty years as probably most of the humor in this movie would cause the youth of today to huddle in a safe space. The movie came out at a time just before social media essentially destroyed the innocence and tranquility of a Friday night spent on a hapless quest for caramelized onions, cheese and ground beef.
Harold and Kumar not only found White Castle but they revealed how most of the fun is in the journey.
Straight Out of Compton
Paul Giamatti stole the show and apparently everything else according to Straight Out of Compton.
Granted, no one could have reversed poor Eazy's unhealthy promiscuity, but what he if got NWA a better deal on their first album? The future/ie the present, would have been drastically altered…..No Boys In The Hood, no Are We There Yet? No 50? No Eminem, it's really back to the future-esque thinking about the capabilities of Dre. and Cube. Heck at least they came together to make this movie. One question, why have total randos play the main characters? Dre and Cube should have just played themselves. To top it off, the actor playing Snoop, that guy, wtf? He was not Snoop.
Not much adversity in this movie outside of a music tour hotel orgy shootup. Also, sadly Dre's bro dies, and of course Eazy's exit, which I fast forwarded.
Suge Night played the character well. Maybe there should have been more depiction of dog fighting at Death Row Records. How about Paul Giamatti in tears when Eazy wanted out, that is strange, what franchise was left anyways after all the other talent split? I think Paul is a big time Bone Thugs fan, and did not want to miss out on that.
I miss the ‘90s, life was simple, cops were assholes, free speech was threatened and it ain't no fun if the homeys can't have none. Hopefully you catch Straight Out of Compton around the first of the month, that way you can have some cash reserves to sip a 4 dawg and roll a blount for the viewing.
High Strung
I don't really know where to begin. The movie at times was inspirational and at times really corny.
A good place to start is to give away the ending; big surprise, Johnny and his modern dance team won the competition. The string and dance event was all theirs. They brought something new and exciting to the competition that the judges had an open mind to accepting and not only accepting, but PRAISING. Chalk one up to the good guys, the people who can bring fun, exciting and creative alive.
Stepping back a bit one must reflect on what it all means. The key points I took from this movie was that you should chase your dreams, the establishment is something to join, and if you want to make it in dance these days it's not good enough to be talented classically, you need to be flexible and innovative to make it to the next level.
A few quick points about the plot and scenery. The movie fell a little shy on character development but did do a good job making it clear who the good guys and bad guys were. The subway dance off scene was ridiculous from a number of angles; most importantly that for all the breathtaking birds eye views of Manhattan portrayed throughout the movie, the subway and subway station were clearly not authentic New York. Maybe New York subways are too dirty and crowded for dance offs, or just not inspirational enough. The subway looked like it was from LA, DC or Milan. My big question is who are they trying to pull a fast one on? It's really a disservice that Joe and Mrs. Joe Sixpack are sitting at home in Des Moines Iowa watching a movie about creative youth crushing it in the big city and the city scenes are not accurate. Next thing you know the Mr. and Mrs. come to New York with their violins and their classical dance skills and they become massively disappointed that subways are not nearly as lively as portrayed in the movies. Also, Johnny and the Six Steps live in Ghostbusters old headquarters that is either far too expensive for them or a complete fire liability.
All this is neither here nor there, come one, come all to the big city youth of the world. Bring your hopes, your dreams, your violins, and your ballet slippers because New York is the place where you will turn all your aspirations into reality!
Urban Cowboy
Urban cowboy, quite an interesting movie from a number of angles. First off I was a little confused about where the urban part of the cowboy comes from. I mean Travolta goes from hanging out on a farm to living in a trailer park outside of Houston. Is that urban? It does not seem so? I was waiting for Travolta to hop a bus to New York. Well, at one point he did make it into a classy sugar mama's apartment in downtown Houston, but urban did not really come to mind when observing most of the movies settings.
But let's put the whole urban issue aside and focus on the real moral of the story, and that is if there were a time machine, Pasadena Texas in 1980 would make it to the top 5 places in time to go. Charlie Daniels rocking out the local Honky Tonk, domestic bottled beer flowing, cowboy hats all around, chewing tobacco and above all else, really serious parlor games.
Travolta is a little hard headed, self admittedly, and does a lot of stupid things and is only barely sober while he is on the job. He has a threesome as soon as he hits town, then weds a woman that he just met the day before. All seemed to go well until the mechanical bull came into their lives. Travolta, an old soul from a different era believes a woman's role is not to be riding a mechanical bull. His wife has other ideas and so they breakup, she moves in with an ex-con bull riding officianado who lives in a trailer parked in the Honkly Tonk bar parking lot and Travolta starts hanging out with a sugar mama who buys him custom tailored bull riding outfits. In Saturday night fever-esque fashion the big climax has to do with a competition. However, in 80s fashion, the competition is totally random. It's parlor games; mechanical bull riding, a bar punching bag video game, and a dance competition. Travolta gets all geared up for the bull riding competition, wins, gets his wife back (with his sugar mama very liberally offering to be available anytime he "wants to make his wife jealous") then he catches the ex- con trying to rob the competition. Amazing; Travolta 1000, world 0. Just chalk one up for the hard working, domestic beer pounding, dark liquor swilling, tobacco chewing urban cowboy who dared to dream big.