The Rundown: O-VER-RATED

Spent last night finally watching There Will Be Blood.

I don't see what all the fuss was about.

Daniel Day-Lewis was really good, same as always and the cinematography and score were both really well done, but for me, this wasn't a movie that deserved all the hype that it received during the past Oscar season.

Of course, there are a lot of movies like that.

Today, we'll take a look at five of them from my list.

5 Painfully Overrated Movies

(Movies that got a lot of publicity and accolades that didn't do it for me at all...)

5. Punch Drunk Love

Paul Thomas Anderson just doesn't do it for me, save for Boogie Nights and this one tops Magnolia and last night's choice in terms of his flicks that got a lot of love, that just didn't do it for me. Maybe I just didn't get it - or any of his flicks for that matter - but it was just sort of a long winded excuse for Adam Sandler to be strange. Feel free to clarify this one for me... I just didn't get it.

4. Mystic River

This one pains me because I love the source material (it was a book first) and Gone Baby Gone proved last year (two years ago?) that Dennis Lehane's work can translate well to the screen. This wasn't one of those times. Sean Penn, while still as good as always, scored this Oscar out of being skipped for Dead Man Walking and it just missed for me. Making it worse is that Clint Eastwood was behind the camera and I normally love everything he does. Not this time.

3. Eyes Wide Shut

Not in a million years did this movie have a chance at success. Tom and Nicole together in Kubrick's last pic, one that delved into the taboo and was shrouded in secrecy. Ultimately, this was one big ball of awful, aside from the nice little debut of Leelee Sobieski who has since fallen off the face of the Earth.

2. Lost in Translation

I was most definitely lost with this one. My gut tells me that part of the praise came from the director's last name (Copolla) than the film itself. Murray and Mrs. Ryan Reynolds aren't a pair I can believe as sidekicks ever, even if they're connected in boredom and loneliness in Tokyo. In real life, Murray's character would have been hitting the sake and spending a lot of time at the massage parlours while ScarJo wouldn't have tagged along in the first place. I mean really, would you follow Giovanni Ribisi halfway around the world?

1. The Crying Game

Remember this one? Boy George appropriately sang the theme song for this big ball of hype that amounted to this: the chick isn't a chick at all... it's a dude... OMG! I know it came out before we were a more open minded society and it's British and they're traditionally more tight assed than us, but still, this movie got far more publicity than a mediocre movie deserves.

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Things I Learned This Week

Since this is the first Sunday of this blog, I can't really say whether or not this will become a Sunday tradition, but as of right now, those are my intentions. Kind of a mash up between Peter King's 10 Things I Think I Think and your average, run of the mill recap of the comings and goings of my life.

Let us begin...

1. This writing thing isn't a phase or a passing fancy.
Not that I ever thought it was, but many have, did and do still. This week confirmed to me that it wasn't. I hammered out a couple posts for Bugs - one of which got some love from The Big Boys while the other only went up today - engaged in an outstanding discourse over at The Starting Five that started off poorly and has morphed into something meaningful and even put in a little work on the book project that is in the works. The only thing I didn't do was make an attempt at synthesizing the housing data I'm supposed to be dealing with for a friend...

2. We - everyone - often pay attention to the wrong stories
Let's take sports / athletics this week as our basis. While everyone spent their week counting down to today's Super Bowl, some seriously important happenings took place outside of the National and International spotlight. Does Brady v. Manning seem that important up against the story of Genarlow Wilson?

The back story and the events of this week... Read and get back to me.

3. New England is still perfect... and might remain that way
So, what else is there for them to do? They beat their arch rivals, in their own house, while making more mistakes than they seemed to have made all year. The remaining schedule, after next week's bye, offers maybe three challenges at best (Baltimore, Pittsburgh and The Giants). The '72 Dolphins might be getting company.

4. I'm 360 days away from turning 30.
My friend Bucky emailed me on Tuesday, wishing me Happy Birthday and noting that thus far in his 30th year on the planet, it's been mighty rough. His aging body just can't handle the booze like it used to when we were, say, 23 or 25 or even 27. Baring in mind that Bucky always has been, still is and always will be a much better drinker than me, I'm not looking forward to drinking any time soon.

5. My old computer was a real piece of shit
That isn't really a new development since I knew it from the time I acquired it last summer. But stacked up against the new one that Sarah so lovingly bought me last weekend - thank you Baby for the beautiful HP Pavillion Media Center Television Computer - it's like eating Filet Mignon after a healthy diet of Salisbury...

6. I still love a good cartoon
Both Meet the Robinsons and Ratatouille have been in my DVD Player this past week and they were both excellent. The things the folks at Disney Pixar do are amazing. Everything has been a home run. Makes me look forward to Wall E.

7. Speaking of movies...
I saw Gone Baby Gone on Tuesday night and I really enjoyed it. It wasn't the best ever and doesn't contain any Earth shattering performances, but it did make me think with the ending and all. I won't play spoiler and give it away, but it is an interesting question that is raised, one I am still going back and forth over in my head.

8. That goal that Sam Gagner scored in the shootout the other night... GOD DAMN!
Scariest of all is that he is only 18 years old and will only get better. As much as the NHL doesn't command the attention it once did, the future does look bright as some of these kids - Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane in Chicago, Gagner and Andrew Cogliano in Edmonton, Phil Kessel, Carey Price - are going to be mighty exciting for the next ten years.

9. I know I don't have a vote, but I'm voting for Barack Obama
If I were an American, this is the man I would want leading my country. This is a man I could respect and admire as My President. Is there any way we can make him a Canadian Citizen and have him as a Prime Minister?

10. My niece - Cutest Halloween Monkey Ever
Click here and tell me she isn't adorable... I dare you!

End of the week shout outs to David Chalk for vouching for me at TSF, my man Francis Dennis Santos for being 4 hours older than me and everyone who has stopped by this week and offered some encouragement.... cheers for that.

P.S. Adrian Peterson is a not human!

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