I’ve officially joined the Adele bandwagon. About a year too late, I know, but 21 is a damn fine album. Deeply soulful and beautiful.
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” 4/5
Excellent reboot of the franchise. Never was a big fan of the originals, nor of Burton’s horrendous remake. I could see this one becoming a series and myself watching every single movie. To me, this movie answers the more interesting question. How did it happen? Can’t wait to see more.
I truly believe that capitalism was created to help people live better lives, but sadly over the years it has lost its way a bit. The short-term focus on profit has driven most businesses to forget about the important long-term role they have in taking care of people and the planet.
—
Richard Branson in The Guardian (via BoingBoing)
Damned right!
Posted November 22, 2011 at 3:10pm
Message to Bloomberg | Occupy Wall Street | Zuccotti Park, New York City | November 4, 2011
“Diary of the Dead”/”Survival of the Dead” 3/5
Caught these two on AMC’s Fearfest marathon the past week or so. Even given the declining quality of his zombie movies over the years (with “Dawn” being the pinnacle of all zombie movies), being the Romero fan that I am, I couldn’t resist.
“Diary” is interesting only because of the modern social media aspect of it. The found footage technique is getting overused, but is well-deployed here. Romero may be old, but he’s still sharp in his social commentary. This may be no “Dawn of the Dead,” but it still has plenty to say about humanity. And the bad acting kind of works in this situation given these are just a bunch of kids running around with cameras at the beginning of a zombie outbreak. Zombie movies need a little camp anyway. 4/5
“Survival” on the other hand is a completely different story. A weak B-movie (and that’s being generous). Really bad acting and very little camp. I really didn’t see the point of this at all. Paycheck movie? 2/5
I think it’s safe to say that after 40+ years, George A. Romero has said all that needs to be said by a single person about zombies. George, please move on and do something else. You’re better than that.
“Sherlock Holmes” 1/5
Turned it off a little more than halfway through. I wanted to like it. I loved Ritchie’s “Snatch” and I think he has some talent. But really, this should have been called “Generic Period Action Whodunit,” which I might have liked. I’m not necessarily opposed to big dumb action movies, but I think the fact that he turned the brilliance that is “Sherlock Holmes” into a big dumb action movie is offensive to a good portion of my brain.
