Kazakhstan - Greatest Country in the World

So I saw Borat today. I am still laughing about it. It was freaking hilarious.

I just can't even really say everything I thought about it, I will need to gather my thoughts.

In the meantime, here's the Kazakhstan National Anthem that plays during the closing credits. These are also the lyrics that Borat sings at the rodeo in the film, which you can see in the trailers.

Wow.

Anyway, the other day I saw The Prestige. I liked it a lot too. I think right now I'm way too tired to try to write anything actually worth reading, so I'm just going to e-mail my boss... You all have a lovely evening. Maybe one day I'll write something worth reading about either of those films.

Oh, this is worth reading. there is some gross penis-variety nudity in Borat.

"I'm the guy that's doing his job, you must be the other guy"

So I saw a great movie this weekend. Twice.



For the sake of full disclosure, I should say that I recently studied Scorsese over a semester, and came to the conclusion that he's the greatest living director in the history of American Cinema. Ok, maybe not the absolute best, but I am prone to fits of hyperbole. Anyway, he's amazing, in my correct opinion.

So this is a remake of a recent Hong Kong action film "Infernal Affairs." The plot is basically this: two recent Massachusetts State Police Academy grads are both undercover. One is a mole for a mobster in the police department, the other is a mole for the police department in the mobster's crew. They are both supposed to figure out who the other mole is.

I liked it a lot for several reasons. First of all, the tension. The entire film you are tense waiting to see who is going to figure out the situation first, the cop or the criminal. Second, the ambiguity. For a lot of the film you are rooting for Matt Damon, because he seems so likeable, until you realize how much of a hardened criminal he is. Leo DiCaprio is the good guy, but he seems much less likeable. Thirdly, the music. Gimme Shelter was used perfectly. That Irish music, which was probably the Flogging Mollys or something, was great.

The casting was outstanding. Mark Wahlberg was probably my favorite character, but really everyone did a phenomenal job. Really my only complaint would be Jack Nicholson. Too much. But yeah, definitely Alec Baldwin (FAG), Matt Damon (FAG), Martin Sheen, Leo DiCaprio, and everyone else did great jobs.

Just go see it.

Onion AV Club Feature

This article is an interesting look at 10 classic films that some people just don't like, written by a group of hip, cynical onion writers. While the Onion seems to be hit-or-miss in my opinion (more hits than misses though), their AV club is a site I think is always worth reading.

Anyway, I didn't like The Exorcist, but I did like Network, Star Wars, The Big Lebowski, and The Shawshank Redemption.

I think the most interesting part of this article is the paragraph about Roger & Me. Of the Michael Moore films, I've only seen Roger & Me. I've been meaning to see Bowling for Columbine, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I really didn't like Roger & Me at all, because it seemed like his point of view was so shortsighted that it was laughable. I couldn't take the film seriously, I guess. I don't disagree with the dissenting opinion that, "Roger & Me introduced the concept of a documentary as entertainment, and the better documentaries that have followed owe it a debt." I think that's the most important thing about Roger & Me.

If you haven't seen it, basically Michael Moore tours Flint Michigan, which was a town greatly affected by the woes of General Motors. The premise is Michael Moore's goal to secure an interview with Roger Smith, then CEO of GM.

The whole film he blames basically everything bad that happens in Flint on GM and the government for letting corporations treat American workers with such disdain. I kept thinking to myself as I saw the film, "is he serious? Isn't it the workers and unions faults for demanding wages that GM couldn't pay?"

I think it's worth watching, but definitely keep Moore's bias and intentions in mind.

Welcome

Ok, so I kept threatening to start a website just to talk about my thoughts on movies. That's this website.