BLU-RAY DVD REVIEW: "Lost" Season 3 Blu-Ray Disc 1

Last night I finished the first disc of "Lost" Season 3 on Blu-Ray and things ended with the inexplicable and useless death of Mr. Eko.

The disc itself is a revelation; the Blu-Ray 1080p images from the show are simply stunning! Probably the best HD disc I have seen on my set. You see every pore - every drop of sweat on the actors face... and the island pops with greens and blues. The menus are very similar to earlier seasons except I get a nice introduction from Damom Lindelof and Carlton Cuse talking about how cool the Blu-Ray version of "Lost" really is.

There is 5 episodes on the disc and only one commentary - a track with Lindelof and Elizabeth Mitchell who plays Juliet on the series. The commentary is definitely not one of "Lost's" best.

After re-viewing the first 5 episodes I do feel a tad bored. Jack, Kate and Sawyer are locked away with the others, which is far more fascinating than life back at the beach where we find Locke having to save Eko - only to have him die the very next episode. It is obvious the producers wanted to let the actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje go... but the character's end (even his last words!) is a complete let down.

Thankfully, the show really begins to fly after this ep.

"Lost" Season 3 Disc 1: B


Cara and I fired up "Bringing Up Baby" as we were going to bed last night - it is a continuation of our Katherine Hepburn movie marathon and our second with Cary Grant as the love interest! I saw the film back in college and enjoyed it. Oddly, though, the film really began to drag for me last night. It runs two solid hours and really could have used some major trimming.

I did find myself laughing very loudly at the covering of the torn dress scene. The timing of Hepburn and Grant sparkles in that bit.

"Bringing Up Baby": B

FILM REVIEW: "If you're in - I'm still in - Juno"

She is beautiful to look at - her black hair gracefully falling around her face - her lips full of pout and ready to deliver a barrage of joyfully irreverent literation on the desire to not think about junk smelling like pie - her stomach, like her belly button... protruding!

Juno is a beautifully pregnant 16 year old and a girl that I wish I could hang around with... for a small amount of time... just before she realizes my inability to keep up with her quick wit. To have the chance to talk with a young girl, taking on some major life changing challenges, who doesn't have to fake any form of happiness or frustration - she simply is Juno.

The film "Juno" is directed by Jason Reitman whose previous picture "Thank You for Smoking" had moments of interest for me but mostly felt distant and not fully formed as a film. "Juno," on the other hand, is a legend in it's own time - a huge leap forward for Reitman and a career defining beginning for it's writer Diablo Cody (who attended the University of Iowa as I did). The script must have warmed the hands of each reader as they plowed through Cody's exceptional and exciting dialog - and left them in shock as a first time screenwriter creates characters who should, as past quirky films have proved, act more like plastic dolls than truly fleshed out humans. Yet, human they are.... quirk and all.

"Juno" is simply fantastic, a pure joy to watch. I went with Cara, my younger brother, and my mother - all of us came out of the film thrilled and giddy with laughter. The film is worthy of all of the praise and awards talk it is receiving. I am already planning to re-visit Juno's world - the film had me so entertained, my film making mind was left too busy laughing that I was unable to watch Reitman's work unfold. That my friends is an achievement in and of itself!

"Juno": A-

We'll meet again...

Ya know - I started this blog thing a few years ago because it was a new technology and a kind of fun way to relay my thoughts to the world. That was neato for a while - then people started reading and interacting... that was a blast!

Then more and more of my time was spent writing and building elaborate posts - that never really made an impact with anyone.

Then - it all kind of began to suck.

Anyway, this is the ride of life and I know how things move - we will meet again during the big wrap-around end of things. For now, I am going to sever the chord that is this beautiful Damfinoblog.

Oh how the world has moved on - Kreitner is with child - Kern is fully fuzzy - KJ is getting hitched this weekend!!!

Who knew one little blog could spawn so many... so many....



(cue Journey's "Don't Stop Believing!!!")

So long... farewell!

Dark Knight image

Oooooh - The Joker roughs up our lovely miss Rachel Dawes... Batman ain't gonna like that!

Cool new image from THE DARK KNIGHT - coming out next summer. Yummy.

yo

Burton's barber

The San Diego Comic-Con is in full gear this weekend and all sorts of lusty film nuggets are getting out! Marion (Karen Allen) returns in Indy 4! Beowulf trailer debuted! Iron Man footage was shown (sounded uber cool - and there are 4 different Audi's in the film!!! YEAH!)!

But the coolest image I have seen yet is the poster for SWEENEY TODD. The film is a musical (a show I have not heard of) and is being directed by Tim Burton... me likesies!!

Yo

Robot Chicken; Star Wars

Mr. Kreitner and fam came down the other weekend and I was able to deliver his birthday gift... ROBOT CHICKEN Season 1!!!!

I am not sure he has watched any of it... but I love the show. Here is bit of their Star Wars special on youtube!!



YO

Gilmore and more

I had to toss out a little news about the Gilmore world; first, the final season of Gilmore Girls arrives on DVD November 13th. I will purchase it... though I am not sure if I will go through the episodes all over again. They were fun... but a little empty.

On the Amy Sherman-Palladino front - I have seen clips of her new show "The Return of Jezebel James" and I can fully admit... that it is completely horrible. The show is shot in studio like "Seinfeld" with a live audience to view... add in a little Parker Posey and Lauren Ambrose... and then a little ASP off the wall dialog... and strangely enough you have a mess of a show.

Hopefully I will be proven wrong... but probably not. HUMPF!

Yo

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

All I have to say is that this book was fabulous! Took me two days to read the latest Harry Potter book and it was worth diving back into the magical world. All I have to say is that everyone should read the books. Soooo good.

This should play before every movie!!!

Please Kreitner... McCabe... Kern... Schmacker... somebody watch this and tell me it is as perfect as I think it is!!

Yo

Weekend reviews

Oh my what a weekend! The family pulled off a secret wedding shower for Josh and Christi on Saturday... and getting the thing to happen without any screw ups was a challenge (i.e. Jed needs to stop napping before pivotal steps in the secret shower process!!). But pull it off we did... and the weekend was shrouded with good times.

So of course, I will be mainly talking about all of the films I watched!

Friday night brought ORDER OF THE PHOENIX.


I have enjoyed the Harry Potter series and often times with certain films, have found it truly engaging... though never reaching the beauty and thrill of the LORD OF THE RINGS series. The fifth film stays within my pre-conceived notions of what to expect from a Potter film - while also bumping up the creepiness a tad.

Things get cracking early with a uber cool dementors attack - then stall until the end (and to be honest, I enjoyed the stalling) when the action exploded! Radcliff has taken his acting up a few steps - the direction is clean and exciting - and I found the whole film fun to watch.

Few agreed - I don't know what to tell you. No one seems to agree with me anymore.

B+


THE FOUNTAIN came out last fall and blipped through theaters and critics and everything. Deemed a failure in every aspect - I saved the film for home viewing.

Things start out tough - Aronofsky definitely does not ease the audience into the picture... he has such an abstract brain for direction that he rarely engages anyone with his characters... yet as the film progressed, I completely fell for it's drive. The repeated images... Jackman's tragic roles... Weisz's death covered face... the movie slowly dragged me in.


Yet - I can see why everyone was annoyed. Even the French thought it was over-wrought! I am a sucker though for strong visuals and a dark dramatic tale.

Cara didn't buy it - she was bored - and she made a great point; "Why did they need all of the other stuff - why couldn't it just tell the simple tale of the husband with a sick wife?" It could have... but then it would be a Lifetime movie of the week! "YEAH! We never watch those!"

D'OH!!

B+


It was a lazy Sunday and I threw in SHORTBUS to pass the time. I new going in what the catch was - the director of HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH made a new flick with real people having real sex and figuring out complex relationships. HEDWIG was pretty damn good - so I was expecting quite a bit.


The film definitely failed for me - characters never once became anything but ideas on a page. The direction tried to be exciting and intriguing... but mostly it faked it. The real sex was... well, it definitely was not sexy... but I suppose it was not supposed to be. I guess it just showed me how I really did not need to see explicit scenes in order to believe in these people... I needed a well handled scene with real dialog to do that!

C-

Yo

Potterific!

With $12 million in the bank for Tuesday midnight screenings - and another whopping $45 million added from Wednesday's premier - this should safely be the biggest HARRY POTTER opening ever!!

I did not get to read ORDER OF THE PHOENIX but I am excited to see the film... well, actually, less excited than the previous entry - but still...

Kreitner's are making the trip tomorrow to come view it!! Baby will have it's first Potter experience (Baby is the name of the Kreitner's soon to be born child that Drea is currently gestating on about!).

Fun shall be had - spooning - and a little Potter for everyone!

Yo

Rated what?!? MOTHERF*CKER!!!

So I was at one of my favorite sites hollywood elsewhere and saw a post about a blog rater. I love movie ratings - I love how they serve absolutely no purpose except to allow close minded control freaks to know when boobies show up in what films - I love how ratings tell viewers what they can and cannot watch... love the whole thing really.

With this in mind, the concept that my blog or any blog could get a rating, and thusly tell the viewer/reader what they were getting into it, made me chuckle with excitement. So I took a swing and typed in the ol' URL for our beloved damfinoblog in this site.

After all of our filth... after all of the questionable discussions... WE GOT A G RATING!!!! A F*CKING G!!!

Unacceptable. Well, actually, I tend to add "*" and whatnot to the language posted... but that is because some of our readers (among the 4 that we have) read at work - not that it really saves them. Anyway, it just kind of shocked me that the site got a BAMBI like rating.


Of course, we can always count on filth-monger elitists like Kern to achieve his goal. Getting some Paul Verhoven SHOWGIRLS love... the discerning Kern ran away with a NC-17.

I guess I need to include more c*cks and dropping deuces on the hind quarters of questionable females - and a little less dorky readings of canceled CW shows.

Yo

Bland Mel

Got a chance to watch Mel Gibson's APOCALYPTO yesterday and found the film to be pretty damn bland for a super expensive artistic venture! Bland in the sense that the film never went anywhere or showed me anything that I had not seen before.


I really did not have a strong desire to see the film until I caught a documentary about the Mayan culture - the violence and truthfully disgusting ways of their daily lives fascinated me. So I threw the film on the queue for Netflix - fired it up... and got a long film that dips into DANCES WITH WOLVES elements while trying to fake like it is teaching you something new.


Gibson tries to put his artistic mind forward - he starts off with an intriguing tracking shot - yet it's final goal shows the emptiness of the film. The gore - the unbalanced handling of storytelling... none of it really works.

The chase is fun - that's about it... oh, and the jaguar looks really really fake (which is funny - I thought I was watching SAVING SILVERMAN for a moment!).


Tonight is TRANSFORMERS - I am ready to check my brain at the door and try to enjoy the film for what it is - I will let you know next week how it went.


Finally, HBO is airing the entire BACK TO THE FUTURE trilogy in HD on Wednesday!!! I am recording and will settle in for 6 hours of pure cinematic pleasure - yes, I am that guy who loves all three films.

Later!

Yo

Funny or Die

I love Will Ferrell. Anchorman, Old School, Stranger Than Fiction... he kills me!

He has a site with Adam McKay (director of Anchorman and Talladega Nights) called funny or die and it has some hilarious stuff.

This clip though, is the funniest I have seen... I was howling in the office!!



Enjoy all!

Yo

The Goodish German

Last winter, Warner Bros released Steven Soderberg's THE GOOD GERMAN to an unsuspecting (more appropriately non-existent) audience. George Clooney - Cate Blanchet - Tobey Maguire!!! Huge names... sadly, though, the film evaporated from theaters and I never got a chance to view it. Last night it arrived from Netflix... and nearly pissed me off completely!


The main problem is in the casting - Clooney is not nearly as strong as you would think... he lacks the charisma that everyone says he is supposed to have! Blanchet is actually pitch perfect in her role - but it is Maguire that nearly destroys this picture - and I really put all the blame on Soderberg for allowing him to take the role and also in his failure to handle the opening 30 minutes which Maguire dominates! I almost shut the film off because it offended my filmic senses (which are quite well tuned!) - combining old Hollywood look and feel (lighting - editing - pacing - music) with contemporary language and scenes (f**k everything... sex scenes - nudity!). The style combined with Maguire sent me running for my remote.


Yet, I held on... and I am really glad I did. THE GOOD GERMAN really picks up at the 30 minute mark. The style of the film found it's rhythm and I began to fall in love with it. I truly love the late 30's and 40's Warner Bros./ Michael Curtiz B-pictures that soared with style - cool B&W photography - and Frank Waxman tunes to highlight the story in such grand fashion! CASABLANCA... THE THIRD MAN... MILDRED PIERCE... beautiful films that showed off true stars of Hollywood days long gone... stars that could truly hold the camera's eye with just a look. THE GOOD GERMAN finds a few of those moments.


Most of them happen when Cate Blanchet is on the screen - this woman is phenomenal! Her work in THE AVIATOR opened my eyes to her as a graceful-Hollywood of old-type actress (of course, she was playing Katherine Hepburn - so it was an easy leap). Now with this film, I can definitely see her moving into another realm of "star." She owns every frame she is in... she eats Clooney and Maguire alive!! And even with all of the plot twists and revelations that change the characters - Blanchet holds onto the gold in the film.


By the end of the picture, I really wanted to toss in THE THIRD MAN and cleanse my palette with a truly wonderful film from those long gone wonderful Hollywood days of old. THE GOOD GERMAN wants us to remember those films... wonder at Soderberg's ability to recreate those films... yet it also tends to frustrate the viewer. If the director has such a talent to make this - then why does it feel so empty so often? How could Soderberg really let Maguire to continue in his role (for God's sake his is one of three narrators!!! He is a third of the film!!!)? If Soderberg has enough talent to make something so close to the films we love... why can't he just make one? I am sure he is similar to Gus Van Sant - ya know, the director that re-did PSYCHO shot by shot... except for a few changes. Those changes destroyed any joy that I had for the picture - the changes were the directors statement of "improvement" - a note that he was not copying - just showing that he could do films like that but he is also a step ahead (though both films show that this is a mistake). THE GOOD GERMAN definitely suffers because of Soderberg - but there is a pearl of a film in there. Sift through some muck... and you could have a truly magnificent time.

Yo

(p.s. there is some amazing photography happening in the film - some stuff that reminded me of Stanley Cortez's work in THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS!!! - Probably worth viewing just to see some of the images.)

No time for love Dr. Jones!

I was scanning my regular sites last week when I came upon this mighty pic. Taken by the great Steven Spielberg himself, Indy 4 is in full production!!

Here is a pretty cool site that follows all things Indiana - look for a cool interview with Shia LeBouf where he blubbers on about getting the role of a lifetime!

My computer died last week and I am attempting to rebuild it now - not too fun.

Tricia and Graham came up this weekend - we had a ball getting drunk and cooking out steak and crab!!

Hope the world is rocking for you all!

Yo

Stupid Foto Friday!

Hello all. It's been ages since I posted anything here at the Damfinoblog, and since it's a summer Friday, I thought I would attempt to bring a little levity to the proceedings. I am going to post a recent ridiculous picture of myself with the invitation to come up with an amusing caption. Or not. Perhaps you'd just like to marvel at my doughy physique and ability to seemingly grow hair everywhere, not just on my chest, possibly lending a bit more creedence to Sheriff's claim that I am indeed a Mansquatch.

Caption Me!

Either way, have a laugh and a fantastic weekend.

Hugs and ****,

Kern

Chase's choice

"...originality partly means letting yourself be influenced by new and different kinds of reality as the way to make art. In 19th century fiction, that meant making non-aristocratic human beings the heroes of fiction. In the great era of modernist narrative, that meant exploring the structure of consciousness as the motive for metaphor. In the case of Hitchcock, and now in the case of David Chase, two masters of popular visual film narrative, the very sociology of tv and film's popularity itself, our attachment to issues like the star system, and our expectation of easy narrative closure, become problematic zones that inspire a confrontation and questioning of form."

- excerpt from Larry Gross, writer for Movie City News Voices

You can read the amazing article here

I think this is an interesting assertion on the form that Chase and Hitchcock (and many others - PT Anderson, Alexander Payne, etc.) have taken on, creating ideas that challenge the basic relationship that the viewer has with the art. Gross mentions Hitchcock because he likens the end of the series to the shower scene from PSYCHO in terms of audience expectations being tossed out the window. I had a jolt of excitement when the show ended with something I NEVER EXPECTED! And that is the point - Chase was able to entertain me by once again challenging my relationship with the show and the art form he had created!


That entire concept is very exciting to me... maybe not so for others. It seems that the public outcry relates to viewers who absolutely needed a structurally classic form of an ending... and I can't imagine one that would properly capture the series.

"Don't stop believing!"

The Sopranos came to an end Sunday evening. The screen went black... credits rolled... and it all finished.

Perfection. David Chase should be very proud.

If you watched, here is a fantastic article that covers the episode and has a brilliant reading on the end. Look for Kern to write something up on his site. As for me - I am just content in knowing that this series finished at the same quality that I respected it for... this show is pure art and I love it.


The final Sopranos gathering was a ball - Josh conquered in the trivia game winning a snub nose .38 to stuff into his socks - Cara came in 2nd and Jerry took third... Matt sadly did not place (poor Matty J!).

Another series heads to the TV heavens... what a brilliant show!

Yo