entertainment ave!

By: The Dude on the Right

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It was “The Big Year” at The Grammy’s for Adele, where luckily there was no “Contagion” to ruin the likes of Bruce Springsteen, and an all-star guitar jam was just “In Time” to bring life to a show exorcised by Nicki Minaj. Nicolas Cage couldn’t be there, maybe because his clone was Live on Saturday Night, but hopefully he won’t forget Valentine’s Day tomorrow. He’ll probably have clean balls, but The Dude on the Right won’t until at least this Saturday, while Stu Gotz, over this upcoming weekend, might be able to help you with that underwater video of whales humping you’ve been trying to edit, or at least help you figure out how to make it viral.

Yup, during this episode of Stu & The Dude’s “Weekend Wrap-Up” podcast we talk about all of those things, just not necessarily in that order.

Thanks for listening!

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

MPAA Rated – R
It’s 1:40 Long
A Preview by:
- The Dude on the Right

Some roles I don’t like Nicolas Cage in, but “Bangkok Dangerous” seems to be one of those movies I think I’ll like to see because he seems to play the brooding, loner, in this case being a kick-ass assassin, but then develops some kind of morals, maybe forgetting his basic rule of not getting personally involved with, well, people. For this one Joe (Cage) is hired to off a group of dudes, and, needing some help, he hires a street dude to sort of be his personal delivery boy. All of a sudden Joe learns a lot more about the killing work he has been hired to do, sure, there’s a cute Asian girl involved, and now he is on the run, looking to, oh, who cares? It’s rated R, there looks to be some quality kills, some sex, and maybe even some bad language tossed in for good measure!

That’s it for this preview! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

MPAA Rated – R
It’s 1:58 Long
A Review by:
- The Dude on the Right

I can understand why all of the critics will be giving “Bringing Out the Dead” rave reviews because in terms of filmmaking things, i.e. cinematography, artsy looks, creative-like acting, and I suppose being different in looks than a blockbuster, “Bringing Out the Dead” scores high marks on all of those things if that’s what you’re looking for in a movie. Maybe because I’m not a film-school type person, or maybe because I’ve never studied film, or maybe because I just want a film to entertain me and can usually get around brilliant cinematography and even some not-so-great acting, but in the end “Bringing Out the Dead” didn’t entertain me that much. I’m not saying it wasn’t great film work, because it was, and I did chuckle a couple of times, but in the end I just walked out saying “I guess it was okay,” and “I hope if I need a paramedic that I don’t get any of those knuckleheads.”

“Bringing Out the Dead” tells the story of a stressed-out paramedic, Frank, played by Nicolas Cage, and takes us on a few nights of his psychotic behavior. He is tormented by the ghost of a girl whom he couldn’t save and gets teamed up with some even more psychotic paramedic buddies. In the meantime he begins to fall for Mary (Patricia Arquette), the daughter of a man who Frank brought, unwillingly supposedly by the voices the body tells Frank, back to life (although he’s still basically brain-dead). Through the nearly two hours we get Frank and his paramedic buddies responding to various calls, with the druggie Noel (Marc Anthony) being the main calls, treated to multiple visits of the hospital emergency room, and begin to wonder if paramedics are really like this (I hope mine aren’t).

It’s a twisted movie, especially Frank’s paramedic buddies. We get Larry (John Goodman) as one of them, we get Marcus (Ving Rhames) as another (probably bringing the most laughs as he works the dispatcher lady over the microphone and plays a preacher while Frank revives an overdose call), and Tom (Tom Sizemore) who seems to like his job mostly so that he can fuck with people. And there is poor Frank, trying desperately to hold it together but really hoping he would just get fired.

Like I said, as a movie-making film “Bringing Out the Dead” is up there with the best of them. The scenes flow, the acting is top-notch, and there are a lot of visuals to deal with. But, and maybe because of these things too, the movie had many of those artsy slow spots that drop the entertainment value down a notch or two. I don’t know, I know Martin Scorsese is a great filmmaker, but sometimes for the boring movie-goer like me, well, I don’t get into the artsy stuff. I loved the scenes with Frank’s buddy, Marcus, especially at the rave party where he convinces the overdose’s friends that if they all pray together that their buddy will come back from the dead, and the visits to the emergency room were generally entertaining, but too many times I looked at my watch and couldn’t believe there was so much time left in the movie.

Well, let’s wrap this up. “Bringing Out the Dead” is a filmmakers film. What I mean by that is that if you appreciate a well made film, well you will probably thoroughly enjoy it. But if you really don’t care about all of that stuff and just want to be entertained, well, “Bringing Out the Dead” probably won’t do it for you. With that I’ll split the rating to 2 ½ stars, but I’m going to add one for the scene where the drug dealer guy is impaled on a fence. So, it’s 3 ½ stars out of 5 from me for “Bringing Out the Dead.”

That’s it for this one, I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

MPAA Rated – PG-13
It’s 1:56 Long
A Review by:
- Stu Gotz

I’m walking out of the theater after seeing “City of Angels,” a wee bit misty eyed, and my friend Abby comments to me, “OK Stu … Next time you get to pick the movie.” “Why is that?” I asked. “Because I chose this one and it sucked!” she replied.

I must say that I was quite taken back by her response because I thought the movie was great, if not almost really great. So I asked, “Alright Abby, what didn’t you like about it?” “For starters, I thought it was too slow,” she quickly bounced back. OK, I’ll give her that. The movie was a tad bit slow, but it certainly didn’t drag on like Harrison Ford’s “Mosquito Coast” or the supremely well acted, but I found boring, period drama “The English Patient.” The parts that were slow, for me, were the musically filled scenery interludes that I guess might have been added by an overly zealous director of photography. Scenes like that seem better suited for your epic films like “Dances with Wolves” or “Far and Away,” and really seemed like a waste in “City of Angels.” So, I said, “Yea, it was a little slow in spots, but not that bad.” Abby then quipped, “And you know, it was a little sappy.” I thought to myself, “Hey… It was a romantic drama. What the hell are you expecting, an encore action performance by Nick Cage ala “Con Air”? I don’t think so.” I kept my mouth shut on that one because I could see she was set in her ways, and my continued argument would lend to an early evening.

So anyway… I got the chance to see “City of Angels” the other day, and in case you’re too dim-witted to figure it out from the opening paragraph, I enjoyed it and my friend Abby didn’t. I must say that I was a bit apprehensive going into this movie because of the recent “Angels are everywhere” craze that seems to sweeping our pop culture. I’m sorry, but I just don’t buy all that hippie-guru “I see Angels and can talk to them” crap that is being spouted out by book authors and TV shows. I’m not doubting that angels exist, in fact I do believe they are a creation of God and used in his mysterious ways. I just don’t think God allows his employees to visually fraternize with us without his express consent, and even then I believe such cases to be very discrete. Anyhow, “City of Angels” espouses the theory that we are surrounded by Angels every day in every way. They all dress in black, hang out in libraries reading over our shoulders, often prevent us from doing real stupid shit, and are there to guide recently departed souls to their Heavenly reward. OK… What do I know? I’ll go along with all that, and I’ll even add that I think they’re the ones who hide our stuff when we really need it, just for shits and giggles. Come on, did ya’ ever spend 20 minutes running around your house frantically looking for your car keys only to find them in plain view on the table you searched eight times – I rest my case.
Anyway, getting back to the movie … Nick Cage plays an Angel who falls in love with Meg Ryan (and who in their right mind wouldn’t?) because of her compassion for life. This really sucks for Nick because as an Angel, he has no sense of physical touch and is supposed to be impartial and without emotion. Obviously Nick is no common Angel because he does have emotions, and so strong are his feeling for Meg that he breaks his Heavenly bond and “falls to earth,” thereby becoming human. Being human, now Nick can feel Meg (hubba hubba), and be with her not only emotionally but physically (sha-wing!). Hurray!!! Right??? Wrong… In breaking his heavenly bond not only does the newly mortal Nick get to experience physical love, but he also gets a taste of his own blood and the emotional heartache attached to loosing a loved one. That’s right folks. After giving up his mortality for her, Meg up and dies. Oops … Did I spoil the end? Too bad. Anyway, it is exactly this sad ending that makes “City of Angels” an almost great movie to me, because if you’ve read enough of my stuff you’d know I really don’t like happy endings.

So, I loved the fact that this movie didn’t have our main characters living life happily ever after. I thought Nick and Meg had great chemistry, and next to Jodi Foster I really don’t think you’ll find an actor using better facial expressions than Mr. Cage. But, like Abby said, and I explained, for me the movie was a tad bit slow too many times. All that being the case, I give “City of Angels” 4 of 5 stars. Knock off those musical interludes and it would have added another half to maybe a whole star. Oh well, I’m Stu Gotz, and it’s a great film! ‘Nuff said.

An excerpt from The Dude on the Right’s review of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice on Blu-ray…

In terms of movies, I thought “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” was a good movie, especially for the getting-a-little-older kid crowd. It had excitement, it had a little bit of love, it had great effects, and I love Nicolas Cage in that kind of role. The only problem I did have, and sorry Jay, but Jay Baruchel as Dave didn’t seem like a good fit for the role. I wish I great reason why, but unfortunately the only thing I have to go with was in talking with my BFF while we were watching the movie and saying I didn’t like the kid playing Dave, to which she agreed and said he seemed like a young Garry Shandling.

MPAA Rated – PG
It’s 1:49 Long
A Review by:
- The Dude on the Right

The good that I liked about “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice:” I like Nicolas Cage in that kind of role, and the effects were great.

The not-so-great-but-not-really-bad about “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice:” I didn’t think Jay Baruchel was a good fit for the role of Dave, a.k.a. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and neither did my buddy Stu Gotz who saw the movie in the theater, and neither did my BFF, who thought that he seemed like a young Garry Shandling, which normally isn’t a bad thing, just not for this role.

So let’s get to the movie first…

In “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” we get Nicolas Cage as Balthazar. In the old days, namely back in the 700’s, he’s an apprentice of the great wizard, Merlin, along with a few others. He’s also in love with Veronica (Monica Bellucci). But there is badness in wizard world, and Morgana (Alice Krige) goes after Merlin and wants to take over the world, but Balthazar and Veronica won’t have any of it, and in order to save humanity Veronica sacrifices herself and ends up in a jar, trapped for eternity with the soul of Morgana, or something like that. In any case, on his deathbed, or deathfloor I guess it really was, Merlin gives Balthazar a little dragon and tells Balth that the dragon will tell Balth who will be the next wizard person who can finally defeat Morgana, at which time it will be safe to let Morgana out because the chosen one has been found.

Enter almost present day… and here’s Dave as a young boy, having the little boy hots for a young girl, Becky, and a note back from Becky leads Dave on a wild good chase to Balthazar’s shop, and his destiny, only an accident gives him the reputation as a boy who pees his pants.

Enter present day… Dave’s back! Balthazar and some other magician/wizard type dude, Maxim (Alfred Molina), are let out of the vase they stuck themselves in (it makes sense in the context of the movie), Balthazar convinces Dave that Dave is the apprentice and they must find the jar his love is trapped in, in order to save the world, and Maxim also wants the jar so that he can let out Morgana and us mere mortals of human-kind can suffer at the will of Morgana. Whew.

And so, along the way, there is much peril as Maxim tries to get the jar, beat up Balthazar, and kill Dave, there is also some love as Dave still has the hots for Becky and Balthazar has the hots for his love stuck in the jar, and there is a lot of cool training and effects as, well, this is a movie about a Sorcerer’s apprentice which lends itself to things flying and lightning bolts sparking.

In terms of movies, I thought “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” was a good movie, especially for the getting-a-little-older kid crowd. It had excitement, it had a little bit of love, it had great effects, and I love Nicolas Cage in that kind of role. The only problem I did have, and sorry Jay, but Jay Baruchel as Dave didn’t seem like a good fit for the role. I wish I great reason why, but unfortunately the only thing I have to go with was in talking with my BFF while we were watching the movie and saying I didn’t like the kid playing Dave, to which she agreed and said he seemed like a young Garry Shandling. Oh well. It’s still 3 ½ stars out of 5 for “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” A really good rental for the almost teens and teen crowd, and even for the geeky adults!

As far as the Blu-ray special stuff goes, there is a ton of “making of” bonus features, from the clothing to the car, as well as trying to link he science involved with some of the movie. As usual the deleted scenes were fine being deleted, and I’ve got to think there were better bloopers, but the montage feature was pretty lame. But the Blu-ray more for the fact that the movie looks great in Blu-ray, unless you are really a geeky fan, in which case some of the “making of” stuff will cause you to go back and re-watch for true geekiness!

3 ½ stars out of 5 for “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” it look great on Blu-ray, and for the fan there are enough “making of” stuff to make them happy as well.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

MPAA Rated – R
It’s 2:03 Long
A Preview by:
- The Dude on the Right

We’ve got Nicolas Cage playing a Private Eye, hired by this old lady, to find out if this 8mm film her dead husband had in his safe truly depicts some horrible atrocity, or if it is fake. So, Cage has to watch, and watch, and watch this film, try to find out who shot it, and solve the mystery that turns into gunfights and chases.

It looks to be a pretty cool psychological thriller, with lots of action especially if Joel Schumacker is involved. Cage always entertains in these styles of films, so barring a catastrophe this should be a winner.

That’s it for this one, I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!