Happy, Happy New Year's Eve!

A happy & safe New Years to all our friends and any fans we have. I'm off to the land of movies for a New Year's Eve party in Los Angeles.

If worse comes to worse for you, you can always watch this, but, for your own good, bulk up on your stash in advance before you sit down for this one.

The Fighter or Does Christian Bale Have To Keep Losing Weight For Every Role?

I never intended on seeing The Fighter. My original destination was Tron Legacy. I tried, but have still not seen a film in the new, super fancy fangled 3-D format. So a friend of mine, me and a joint walked through the rare Southern California rain to go relive Tron. Well, us and hundreds of other people with nothing to do, but go to the movies. Wet & stoned, we stood under an awning watching the very long ticket line not moving, trying to develop a plan B.

The Fighter was the best candidate (and soonest time) at the next theater and there was no line. I initially walked out at the end of the credits not feeling anything for this film. A few hours later I was strangely annoyed. Yes, Christian Bale is pretty amazing as Dicky Eklund, ex-fighter turned crackhead. As usual, he is so intense and lost in this role, he practically vibrates off the screen. But I am starting to become immune to his talents and only notice his weight. Roll after roll, the weight comes off and then he gets buff again. Over and over and over again, flip flopping with every fucking role! Mr. Bale, let me introduce you to Mr. De Niro in Raging Bull and again in The Untouchables. You got to play it fat so us Americans can relate to you a little better. It's bad enough you're Welsh. Where the fuck is that?

Mark Wahlberg plays the title role as boxer "Irish" Micky Ward and is perfectly made and matched for this muscle-head role. He trained for two years and looks the part. Again, he has had the same part for most of his career so bravo for getting good material that can fit an impressive physique. I could talk about his bulked up to regular size person roles, but where Bale lacks physical (fat) range, Wahlberg just lacks any range at all. I'll be surprised if he doesn't get nominated for an Oscar this year.

If you can put aside my issues with the leading men, the rest of The Fighter is quite good. The fight sequences are shot by the camera teams who do all the HBO boxing events and the moves and cuts of the fights here really come alive. Melissa Leo and the handful of other actresses who make up the female side of the Ward brood, nail Massachusetts white trash. They are a scary group of harpies you wouldn't want to cross in a dark bar.

Finally, as you probably already know, The Fighter is based on a true story. Similar to the ending in Blow, with a frozen shot of the real drug dealer George Jung as he looks today, The Fighter has the real Dicky & Micky mugging for the camera and basically thanking us all for coming. This is the sort of cheese dick ending I hate. Not only does it cheapen all the obvious hard work everyone on the film has done, it pretty much puts the Academy's dick in it's ass for the sake of Oscar nominations. If I could go back and see this film, I would wait until it was a rental.

Zenophilia - WTF?

Strange things might be afoot in these last few days of 2010. Or maybe it is just my cable watching. I took to channel surfing and went though a lot of bad shit until finding Zenophilia.

Boy meet girl, boy fucks girl, boy turns into girl. Here is the basis of this film which could have been pretty amazing with some Virginia Woolf & Oscar Wilde logic applied to the plot. However, it flounders around not sure if it is a comedy, drama, or just a gender bending art film. But really you should see it for the music. Trust me on this.

And I hope no one is out there cheating and not smoking weed and watching these movies. That's not how this works.

Merry Christmas from Marijuana Movie Night

Have a merry little Christmas from my smoke filled home to yours (and I'm not talking about your tree on fire). It is Christmas so everything tastes a little better, people are a little kinder and whoa! I may have overdone it already with my Santa-shaped pipe. Ho, ho, ho indeed!

Well, while I'm on the topic of overdoing it, if you haven't seen the original Star Wars Holiday Special, don't. Life Day? Really? That franchise has been ruined enough. OK,OK, it's Christmas so I'm not going to get started, but this revised Star Wars Christmas Special will put a smile on even the most somber 12 Stepper as they watch the rest of their family get ripped. And since I am feeling generous, you should check out the trailer to Santa With Muscles. Enjoy, be merry and safe!

Retro Movie Moments - Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

For some reason, the third time is not the charm, but exactly when you need to call it quits. (Yes, I'm looking at you too, George Lucas!)

I remember standing in line to see the third Mad Max and then all I can recall is leaving the theater an hour and forty minutes later in fucking shock. When did Max become a goddamn Cub Scout leader? And Tina Turner, you should be ashamed of yourself! Seeing her in this made me want to go back and start rooting for Ike's pimp hand to make things right.

Yes, they didn't kill Mad Max Rockatansky in this movie, but they might as well have. Now you know where Mel's rage begins (besides most of the Lethal Weapon movies).

Reading About...Inherent Vice

Inherent Vice is a fairly straight forward detective novel, but it is in the hands of weird, literary genius Thomas Pynchon. Taking place in 1970 Los Angeles, we are introduced to Larry 'Doc' Sportello, a hippie private dick who is part Jeff Lebowski and part Philip Marlowe. Twenty pages in, Doc is investigating the kidnapping of his ex-girlfriends real estate rich sugar-daddy boyfriend, being attacked by paramilitary weekend warriors, ducking the LAPD and trying to keep a clear focus on his multiple case loads with the help of a steady drug regiment. Here is an even better intro to the book read by the author himself.

If you have never read Pynchon, this would be a good place to start. This heavyweight writer seems to be pulling his literary punches for the great good of a bigger readership. Most recently, Paul Thomas Anderson is said to be developing Inherent Vice for the big screen. Not all of the details are confirmed yet, but it would be a dynamic coupling of talents if it does happen.

Pynchon is best knows as the author of Gravity's Rainbow which won the National Book Award in 1974. Some critics consider it one of the greatest American novel ever written. Others have called it rambling and unreadable most likely because of its multiple subplots and dozens and dozens of characters.

Thomas Pynchon also happens to create the greatest characters' names next to William S. Burroughs and Kurt Vonnegut, but you are going to have to read a little on your own to find out.

Back from a Stoned Sabbatical

I would like to blame short term memory loss & a lack of funds to explain my recent drought of posts for Marijuana Movie Night, but it's been neither. Regardless, we are back to blaze on through with some new film watching in the evening.

Did you think we would go away? Come now.