Category: media

pam and i went to see “the king’s speech” last night and it was amazing. pam wanted to go to it because it is possibly the only movie in history in which one of the main characters is a speech pathologist. i wanted to go to the movie because … well because pam wanted to. i wasn’t super excited about seeing the movie but i knew she was and that was good enough for me.

so i was completely surprised when i ended up loving the movie. it was incredibly good, very entertaining, and once again proved how amazing pam’s profession is. she is part of a field that does incredible stuff and this movie is a very good example of how amazing speech pathology is.

i love this woman’s attitude concerning an art student or student placing a sculpture in her yard.

a wonderful little short film made by a guy caught in the nyc snowpocalypse.

it is CHRISTmas day. i’ve had a wonderful time with my family (my wife and boys are amazing). i was pumped by the very well thought out gifts that the whole family gave. it has been a wonderful day.

this is not really CHRISTmas related but i thought i would post about a couple of the movies and books i’ve read recently.

first the books

the hunger games: book 1 – this is the first book in a trilogy that our whole family is into now. i recently heard it said that we were in a new golden age of children’s literature. this book would help prove this statement to be true. the themes in the book are adult enough and developed so well that the university professorial book club that pam is a part of read it for discussion. all of us have loved the first book. we gave the family the second and third books as CHRISTmas presents because it wouldn’t have been right for them to be considered one person’s gifts since we were all going to read them. i would give it 4 out of 5 stars.

true grit – i had never read charles portis’ book until a week ago. i’ve loved the original movie ever since my dad introduced it too me. the book is absolutely amazing. powerful characters and a great story. it is told from mattie’s perspective and done amazingly well. i understand why reviewers have called it an american classic. it is so much better than the original and the new movie. i would give it 4 ¾ out of 5 stars.

the movies (the family and i always see movies during the CHRISTmas break)

little fockers – we saw this on CHRISTmas eve. this is probably the weakest of the three focker “meet the parents” movies. it was a little slow for the first half but made up for it in the second half. the fight scene at the end had our whole theater laughing adubilly. this was not my favorite comedy ever but i didn’t feel that i had completely wasted my money at the cinema. i would give it 3 ½ out of 5 stars.

true grit – we saw true grit this afternoon. i was real concerned about it because i love the original movie. you should never attempt redoing an original movie unless you are sure you can do a good job. the original was a GREAT movie and it involved one of john wayne’s best performances ever (he won his only best actor award for his performance in it). the new true grit is very good. in many ways it is not as true to the book as the original movie was. yet, i believe it captures the tone of the book better than the original movie. the west of the new movie and the book is raw and not very romantic. no pun intended but, like the book, the new movie is gritty. jeff bridges, matt damon, hailee stenfeld, and josh brolin were all really good. damon was TONS better than glenn campbell in the original movie, who i believe was by far the weakest link in that movie.  i would give it 4 ¼ out of 5 stars.

i am very excited about true grit coming out in december. i love the the john wayne version from 1969 -  in fact i am watching it for the umpteenth time as i write this. i hope the coen brothers’ version does justice to the book and the original movie.

this is making the rounds right now so you’ve probably seen it already. still i think it is funny and worth putting up. it’s cookie monster’s “try out” video for hosting saturday night live. it’s pretty funny because it is spot on for the character of snl.

pam and i just watched the movie “temple grandin" about the animal scientist temple grandin. pam needed to watch it for one of the courses she is teaching because temple grandin has autism. she is an incredibly impressive lady.

the family and i went to see “inception” last night and all i can say is “WOW!” i mean really, WOW! all four of us loved it, which is a big deal because it means that pam loved it. this is not the type of move pam normally likes for you see pam doesn’t like sci-fi movies. i don’t think she considers “inception” as a sci-fi movie but it is. anytime you make a movie about jumping into people’s dreams you are in the land of sci-fi movies.

anyhow, i loved this movie. i especially loved the fact that not everything was answered with the end of the movie. i won’t go any further because i do not desire to spoil the plot for anyone else. just know that it was really good.

noah and i are presently watching “man on wire” concerning philippe petit‘s tightrope walk between the twin towers of the world trade center. it was an amazing feat and the documentary is excellent. i’ve seen it before and i am equally entertained and amazed by it this second time.

the thing that i am struck by this time is the collaborative nature of one man walking across a wire between the two towers. while philippe was the one that received all the credit and glory for the task there is no way that he could have accomplished the walk without a large number of people helping him. petit was taking the largest risk (he was the one facing the largest chance of death) but everyone involved was placing themselves in harm’s way in order for petit to accomplish his goal.

i believe that the majority of the things we believe we have done on our own have in fact been done with lots of people helping us.