Friday, February 16, 2007

The Hot Club

Grant, who has been out sick, returned to duty at the HC. He said he was so sick he was coughing up lung putty. Glad to see Grant back at the HC door.

The Herbster was describing a car phone transaction he made with a woman who wanted to know how much it was going to cost her. Herbster said "If you can get me a nympho with her tongue cut out whose father owns a brewery, it's free. Otherwise it's $600-$700."

Patriot Patricia was talking about an occasion when her bathrooms didn't work. She got upscale port-a-johns that had lights, sinks and were heated. She called them port-a-Patties.

The talk in the HC was of the astronaut who went bananas and drove 900 miles to kill a woman who was a threat to her. The astronaut wore a diaper so she wouldn't have to stop. Foot Joy said, "A NASA approved diaper. When she felt the flow, she hit the accelerator."

Victoria tells me that the running line in her circles about Astronut Lisa Nowak was: "How'd ya like to be the cop that patted her down?"

It occurred to me that Nowak will probably get off since she didn't actually damage the other woman. Nowak's lawyer's defense will be that outer space travel caused a chemical imbalance in her brain.

Overheard at the Hot Club: "Do you trust a guy who wears a thong?"

We were talking about when Buddy gets out of jail. He might need some work on his teeth and toupee. One wag said, "He can send his teeth and his hair out to be worked on."

Someone was talking about a person who had new breasts and an Adam's apple. The new breed was having trouble working because her 'electrolytes were low'.

Two Wednesdays ago a young lady named Mercy was marking her 30th birthday with Tampa friend Karas. Mercy celebrated so much she called in sick the next day. She was still hung over on Friday. And she no longer had a job - she got fired.

As I sidled up to the bar for a beer, I asked Alexander the Great "How we doing?" Alex replied "Collectively or individually?

Overheard at the Hot Club: "If a guy can't get laid on Valentine's Day…"

Contraire was saying of Five Angels "That's where he takes his dates - the first time and the last time." "And that would be where?" I asked. "Twin Oaks", said Contraire.


MOVIE REVIEW - LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (2006)

My daughter Cara bought this DVD for me and I really liked it. Victoria didn't like it as much finding it only sporadically funny. Some of the humor is of the shock value type, especially with the foul-mouthed, drug sniffin' grandfather played by Alan Arkin. The character bothered me and while I laughed at times, it was in reaction to Grandpa's outré behavior.

The movie is about a dysfunctional family that sets out to make sure their daughter gets to the Little Miss Sunshine Pageant. The real and figurative journey that the family takes is the heart of the story. And they are driving a VW bus.

Greg Kinnear is excellent as the misguided dad. And I liked the Steve Carell character (Frank) as well as the son with no sound, Dwayne (Paul Dano). The mother (Toni Collette) adds the proper balance and daughter Olive is well played by Abigail Breslin.

The film has co-directors: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. That is usually a recipe for disaster but the movie doesn’t seem schizophrenic.

Part of the movie reminded me of Weekend at Bernie's, one of my favorite comedies. There are enough laughs to make this movie worthwhile, even though comedy is in the eyes and ears of the beholder.

According to IMDb, Bill Murray was the studios' first choice to play Frank, the role filled by Carell. And the second choice was Robin Williams. The film benefits by having Carell instead. They are lucky the other two didn't play the character.

The movie is up for 4 Oscars - Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Arkin), Best Supporting Actress (Breslin) and Best Original Screenplay (Michael Arndt). As for Best Picture that should go to The Departed and hopefully Martin Scorsese also wins as Best Director.

IMDb notes that Fox Searchlight Pictures paid $10.5 Mill for distribution rights at the 2006 Sundance Festival (Robert Redford's film fest). As for trivia, Dwayne wears a T-shirt with a picture of Big Brother from George Orwell's 1984 (the 1956 version).

The movie is rated R for language, some sex and drug content. It's 101 minutes long.

MOVIE REVIEW - REST STOP: DEAD AHEAD (2006)

This movie is a pedestrian effort that tries to cash in on the horror wave going on. It is poorly scripted, full of incredulous behavior, and has a truck that can recreate itself. There is a lot of violence that reminds me of the torture scenes in Wolf Creek, another movie that seemed to be gratuitously gruesome for its own sake.

All you have to know is that on IMDb the User Comment was "A Big Disappointment".
The writer/director John Shiban used to be a staff writer and producer for The X Files. The unrated version is 85 stunning minutes. The R rated version is 80 minutes long (5 minutes less suffering) and has strong violence and gore, language and some sexuality. Joey Lawrence of TV fame (Blossom) plays the motorcycle cop. I didn't recognize him.

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