I watched the movie “World Trade Center” recently. I have to admit that I was a little hesitant about watching it. The 911 disaster hit a little too close to home for me. You see, I used to travel to NYC all the time around then. I almost always stayed in the Marriott in the WTC. I probably stayed there 20 times that year. I used to stay there mainly because my company had an office in the WTC, in Tower 2. We moved a few months before 911 so we did not lose anyone from my company, but as you can imagine, many of my coworkers knew people in the building and there were some losses. But to be honest, that is not what bothered me the most. I was actually in D.C. that morning. I was sitting in the lobby of my hotel, watching the disaster unfold in NYC, only about a mile or so from the Pentagon when it got hit. It was a very scary day. Now I am sure many people have stories very similar and worse than mine. I just mention it, as it explains why I have pretty much avoided movies like this.
I will admit, the movie is done pretty well. However, I almost turned it off when they showed the person jumping to their death from the tower instead of burning in the fire (actual footage). They only showed one person and the scene was over quickly, but it is a very disturbing scene and I feel very sorry for those people as well as those on the ground who had to watch. I am sure that is a memory they will never get out of their mind.
The movie chronicles day of the two Port Authority officers that were rescued from under 20 feet of rubble. It also shows the stress and anguish that their families went through in wondering if they were dead or alive. And although there was a happy ending for the two families and the police officers, it struck me that there were many other wives, husbands, children and parents who went through the same anguish and did not have a happy ending. That’s the real tragedy of the movie.
I would also point out that until after the movie was made, the Marine who helped find the two police officers was unknown. He showed up at the site, searched the rubble, helped the police officers, stuck around for two weeks to help and then disappeared. Talk about true heroism. He never looked to be noticed or famous. He didn’t come forward until after he saw the trailer for the movie. There isn’t much about him in the movie, because they didn’t know anything about him. Amazing. You can read his story here.
Overall, I enjoyed the movie. I would caution that it does use actual footage of the disaster, so be prepared.
Showing posts with label Movie Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Movie Review. Show all posts
Monday, January 22, 2007
Friday, September 29, 2006
Death By Slow Torture
I really like Netflix. I mean it has given me a chance to see a lot of movies I would never have seen…or at least on seen late at night if they happen to come on HBO or something. The problem is that some of these movies, that I purposely chose to skip in the theater, I skipped for good reasons. Let me tell you about one real quickly.
“Capote” – staring Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who I just love as an actor, was incredible and quite painfully slow. I mean slow to the point of boredom setting in. For those of you that have not seen it, it is actually about the writing of his book “In Cold Blood.” The book is about a family slaying in Kansas and is also the book that made Capote the most popular writer of his time. It was also the only book he ever finished again in his career. The movie follows him from the moment he became interested in the story to years later when he finishes the book after the murderers are put to death in Kansas. Capote formed an unhealthy bond with the leader of the two killers. Hoffman is an incredible actor, but much like the real life fact that this book took years to finish and drained Capote of all will to live, the movie had pretty much the same affect on me. Believe me…if it weren’t for the fact that I was watching it on my PC, on an airplane at 30,000 feet, on a five hour flight with nothing better to do, I would have gotten up and walked out.
To be fair, I have also seen some great movies from Netflix. “Brick” was a very good independent film. “The Ice Harvest” and “Domino were also very good movies. Independent films are where I think Netflix excels. I have some Australian and English made movies in my queue that I am dying to see. I have moved them to the top. I also like that you can catch up on the TV series you missed rather easily through Netflix. Maybe the trick is to stay away from the high profile, big box office, Oscar nominated movies. They usually suck anyway.
Right now at home I have “Lucky Number Sleven” and “Poseidon.” Anyone seen these movies…should I make sure to watch them on the ground so I can leave if I want to.
“Capote” – staring Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who I just love as an actor, was incredible and quite painfully slow. I mean slow to the point of boredom setting in. For those of you that have not seen it, it is actually about the writing of his book “In Cold Blood.” The book is about a family slaying in Kansas and is also the book that made Capote the most popular writer of his time. It was also the only book he ever finished again in his career. The movie follows him from the moment he became interested in the story to years later when he finishes the book after the murderers are put to death in Kansas. Capote formed an unhealthy bond with the leader of the two killers. Hoffman is an incredible actor, but much like the real life fact that this book took years to finish and drained Capote of all will to live, the movie had pretty much the same affect on me. Believe me…if it weren’t for the fact that I was watching it on my PC, on an airplane at 30,000 feet, on a five hour flight with nothing better to do, I would have gotten up and walked out.
To be fair, I have also seen some great movies from Netflix. “Brick” was a very good independent film. “The Ice Harvest” and “Domino were also very good movies. Independent films are where I think Netflix excels. I have some Australian and English made movies in my queue that I am dying to see. I have moved them to the top. I also like that you can catch up on the TV series you missed rather easily through Netflix. Maybe the trick is to stay away from the high profile, big box office, Oscar nominated movies. They usually suck anyway.
Right now at home I have “Lucky Number Sleven” and “Poseidon.” Anyone seen these movies…should I make sure to watch them on the ground so I can leave if I want to.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Snappy Title Here
I am not sure how many of you use Netflix, but I noticed something this week that I have never seen before from a movie rental company. NBC has actually released two of their fall season pilot episodes on DVD already. You can order both Kidnapped and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip on DVD right now. I have them at the top of my queue. It is an interesting move to pre-release the pilot episodes. NBC must be very confident that these shows are going to be big and make it. Pre-releasing a marginal show could be death for the show depending on the reviews. I haven’t noticed any other stations releasing any of their pilots, but who knows, maybe this will start a trend. Maybe they will just release the whole season on DVD in September for all the shows and we can skip watching them on TV.
Not much going on right now. I am traveling next week to Seattle. It is the first trip since they decided that hair gel was dangerous. Those of you that know me are laughing now as I haven’t needed hair gel is some years now. Still, I usually carry my luggage on the plane and take my toiletry kit with me as I have my own special shampoo and conditioner…not to mention that I don’t think they will allow toothpaste on the flight right now. I will have to read up on the new rules. I might have to check my bag and I really hate to do that. Could be worse I guess, in England, you aren’t allowed any carry on bags at all right now. What a pain in the ass that must be. I have to tell you that I have always been more on the human rights side of the war, probably leaning toward the live and let live motto…but lately, I am starting to think we would be better of if we turned that whole area into a Four Season’s Resort.
I will be in Seattle at the beginning of next week and then, when I return, I will be driving to NY to visit K&T. I am going to a Mets game on Friday night. It should be fun as I have never been to Shea. I am sure we will find some cool things to do that weekend, we always do. It will also be good to get out of town for a while. The outdoor mall is wearing a bit thin.
On a very freaky and kind of scary note, I am actually flying across country to L.A. next month on 9/11. Just the idea of flying that day is a little unsettling, but flying on a cross country trip is just scary. I was in DC on 9/11. I had flown in the day before. I was sitting in my hotel, about a mile from the Pentagon, when the plane hit it. I was a little too close for comfort. It took me four days to get back home to Dallas. Now I get to fly across country on that day. I guess I will be doing some profiling as I get on that plane. I am sure that this feeling will grow worse as the date approaches, but there is not much I can do about it.
I was going to post something about e-Harmony today, but I noticed that LBB had done it for me. And since he is incredible more funny than I, go read it at his site. Congrats to him as well on the release of another book.
Needless to say, I have been on the e-Harmony web site lately and I am amazed that with their 29 dimensions of compatibility and my notorious pickiness, that they seem to keep finding new matches for me on a weekly basis. Makes me wonder what these dimensions are? I also wonder why half the people on that site don’t include a picture? I am the first to admit that I take a bad picture, but I still have some on there. I don’t care how compatible we are, if you don’t have a picture up, that tells me that you are failing one of the dimensions I look for and that is confidence, self respect and self acceptance…or is that three dimensions?
Not much going on right now. I am traveling next week to Seattle. It is the first trip since they decided that hair gel was dangerous. Those of you that know me are laughing now as I haven’t needed hair gel is some years now. Still, I usually carry my luggage on the plane and take my toiletry kit with me as I have my own special shampoo and conditioner…not to mention that I don’t think they will allow toothpaste on the flight right now. I will have to read up on the new rules. I might have to check my bag and I really hate to do that. Could be worse I guess, in England, you aren’t allowed any carry on bags at all right now. What a pain in the ass that must be. I have to tell you that I have always been more on the human rights side of the war, probably leaning toward the live and let live motto…but lately, I am starting to think we would be better of if we turned that whole area into a Four Season’s Resort.
I will be in Seattle at the beginning of next week and then, when I return, I will be driving to NY to visit K&T. I am going to a Mets game on Friday night. It should be fun as I have never been to Shea. I am sure we will find some cool things to do that weekend, we always do. It will also be good to get out of town for a while. The outdoor mall is wearing a bit thin.
On a very freaky and kind of scary note, I am actually flying across country to L.A. next month on 9/11. Just the idea of flying that day is a little unsettling, but flying on a cross country trip is just scary. I was in DC on 9/11. I had flown in the day before. I was sitting in my hotel, about a mile from the Pentagon, when the plane hit it. I was a little too close for comfort. It took me four days to get back home to Dallas. Now I get to fly across country on that day. I guess I will be doing some profiling as I get on that plane. I am sure that this feeling will grow worse as the date approaches, but there is not much I can do about it.
I was going to post something about e-Harmony today, but I noticed that LBB had done it for me. And since he is incredible more funny than I, go read it at his site. Congrats to him as well on the release of another book.
Needless to say, I have been on the e-Harmony web site lately and I am amazed that with their 29 dimensions of compatibility and my notorious pickiness, that they seem to keep finding new matches for me on a weekly basis. Makes me wonder what these dimensions are? I also wonder why half the people on that site don’t include a picture? I am the first to admit that I take a bad picture, but I still have some on there. I don’t care how compatible we are, if you don’t have a picture up, that tells me that you are failing one of the dimensions I look for and that is confidence, self respect and self acceptance…or is that three dimensions?
Monday, August 07, 2006
Spoiler for a Really Bad Movie
I have figured out the big flaw with Netflix. Sure, they have plenty of movies. They have great turn around time and I think their price is very reasonable. However, the one big flaw is that you will order movies that you didn’t want to see at the theater, and you probably would never rent, because you need to fill up your 'in queue' list. This happened to me this week. I put the movie, “The Weatherman,” on my list. I like Nick Cage and I remember when the movie came out it wasn’t a movie that I thought I needed to see. But when I was adding movies to my queue, I thought what the hell. What a mistake.
The movie was about 100 minutes long and I can honestly say, that I spent about 80 of them wishing I could throw something at the main character. It was almost painful to watch. I think they were going for the "American Beauty" type of plot, but never really got there. "American Beauty" was a great movie, mainly because you could identify and feel sorry for Kevin Spacey’s character. It is hard to feel sorry for a guy who admits that he makes way to much money, about $240K a year, for working two hours a day, as Cage’s character does. Not to mention that he is on TV so he gets laid whenever he wants. Sure people throw things at him, but I think most of us could live with that given what the upside for him was. The ending is that he gets promoted to a national show, makes about $1.2M a year, and lives in NY. Sure he doesn’t get back together with his wife, but who cares. They were miserable together. Yeah, I really felt sorry for him.
I also got “A History of Violence” at the same time. Another movie I never considered spending $7 to go see at the theater. Other than the shock value of a few scenes, it also was not really worth the effort, but definitely the better of the two movies.
Now you know the pitfall of Netflix. I have seen most of the good movies on the site, so it really becomes a way to see those movies that didn’t make the cut.
The movie was about 100 minutes long and I can honestly say, that I spent about 80 of them wishing I could throw something at the main character. It was almost painful to watch. I think they were going for the "American Beauty" type of plot, but never really got there. "American Beauty" was a great movie, mainly because you could identify and feel sorry for Kevin Spacey’s character. It is hard to feel sorry for a guy who admits that he makes way to much money, about $240K a year, for working two hours a day, as Cage’s character does. Not to mention that he is on TV so he gets laid whenever he wants. Sure people throw things at him, but I think most of us could live with that given what the upside for him was. The ending is that he gets promoted to a national show, makes about $1.2M a year, and lives in NY. Sure he doesn’t get back together with his wife, but who cares. They were miserable together. Yeah, I really felt sorry for him.
I also got “A History of Violence” at the same time. Another movie I never considered spending $7 to go see at the theater. Other than the shock value of a few scenes, it also was not really worth the effort, but definitely the better of the two movies.
Now you know the pitfall of Netflix. I have seen most of the good movies on the site, so it really becomes a way to see those movies that didn’t make the cut.
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