Kill Bill

I have to admit I wasn't really looking forward to seeing Kill Bill, though I loved Resevoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. The preview didn't appeal to me in any way, and I just thought it didn't look very interesting. Maybe that is why I liked it. I won't say it's Tarantino's best movie, and let's keep in mind this is only his 4th (as the opening credits point out). Everything about this movie, the visual style, music and performances all made up for it's "lack" of story. After no one really complains when generic action movies like The Rundown are lacking a great story.


Kill Bill does not really lack story anyway, it's just not an in depth character study. None of Tarantino's movies are. No one really criticized Pulp Fiction for not fully examining the psyche of its characters. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see something a little more substantial from Tarantino, but that doesn't stop Kill Bill from being a very well made action movie.


There has been a lot of controversy over the violence in this movie. I'm not sure why, there have certainly been movie just as violent, and more violent than this. Yes there is a lot of blood, so much blood it's laughable and the brutality is completely stripped away. No this is not a movie for kids, but there is nothing in this an adult can't handle, the movie is rated R after all. I don't believe adults can be desensitized to violence. Adults know movies aren't real, most kids know that what they see in movies is not the same as real life. I really don't see violence in movies as some big problem that needs to be controlled. No one is going to see this movie and go kill someone (unless that's what they would have done anyway).

Starting December 24th Comedy Central is having a Saturday Night Live Marathon. They are giving viewers a chance to vote on their favorite episodes between 1980 and 2001.

2 Movies this weekend...


School of Rock


I have liked Jack Black for a long time, so I am hoping this is a breakthrough performance for him. This movie is pretty funny. It changes up the typical inspirational teacher formula. Basically it does away with all the cliches of those movies. The kids are never overly cute and while the Jack Black character learns something about himself, the movie never becomes corny.


This movie works for all ages, I highly recommend it.




The Concert for George


This is a documentary/concert movie of a tribute concert done in 2002 for George Harrison. It is a must see for anyone who is a fan of Harrison. The concert features Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and several other people who were closely connected with Harrison.


The music in this is great and all the concert footage is well done. There are only a couple instances were there is talking over a musical performance, but luckily this is kept to a minimum. This film is a very moving tribute to George Harrison.




I will have my review of the SNL season premiere on The SNL Page tonight.

After weeks of having to hear about Jen and Ben - are they together or not stories, now Halle Berry's split from her husband made CNN's top stories list. How, by any stretch, does this qualify as a top story? I really don't understand why that information would be on a news site at all, but that's just me I guess.




I went to see The Rundown this past weekend. As usual I wasn't expecting much, but I was still disappointed. A lot of the adds proclaimed The Rudown to be "funnier than most comedies," but it wasn't. There were a couple funny scenes, but I thought it was pretty much boring. I didn't think there was very much chemistry between Seann William Scott and The Rock, they just didn't play well off each other. It wasn't bad, it just didn't particularly stand out. The story...who cares.




I also went to see Anything Else a couple days ago, though it was against my better judgement. It turned out my instincts were right, it was bad. It had all the Woody Allen stock characters, with Jason Biggs in the Woody Allen role, but they just didn't do anything that interesting. I guess this movie could be considered Annie Hall light. It had a lot of the same themes, just none of the depth or wit.


For anyone who is a Jimmy Fallon fan, he is hardly in the movie, and when he is in it, he hardly says anything. It was really a waste that he was in the movie, I don't know about his acting abilities yet, but I was thinking that he probably could have done something funny. Instead he just sits there smiling most of the time.


Overall I was left wondering if Woody Allen will ever make a good movie again.