ModestGeniusXL

Things to Be Grateful For

The Dark Knight

Elijah still laughs when he hears the name.  Not the name itself though.  Just the fact that I named my car.  He heard some rule that you're only supposed to name your first car?  That's new to me.  It's always been my rule that I name every car I have.  However, this has been the first one in a while that is solely mine so it's even more special.  So why the Dark Knight?  We'll get to that in a minute...

Some of you may remember the ordeal I was having with trying to get a car.  I will admit that I was a little disappointed that I didn't get that Mercury Mountaineer I was shooting for.  However, I knew when I first saw it not to get my hopes up.  I was hoping that it would still be there when I got the money for the down-payment knowing full well that it wouldn't be.  That was just unrealistic with as nice a vehicle as that was.

Truth is, before that Mountaineer was on the lot, I was already peeping this PT Cruiser.  I've always been a little partial to those.  It's probably because I've always liked old-fashioned cars anyway.  So a modern car with an old-fashioned look to it was right down my alley.  Plus, they even had it in black and I've been wanting a black car ever since my '93 VW Passat.  I just get a better vibe from black cars.  Don't ask me why.

I was very leery about going back to that same dealer for a car.  Unfortunately, I was getting strapped for time and had to get a vehicle soon.  My options were also rather limited because my credit isn't the best right now.  So out of the dealers that would be able to get me approved, this one had the best selection.  That worked out rather well though since they offer full warranties on their vehicle for the life of the 3-year loan.

The Dark Knight is not without it's faults.  It is a 2001 so there is the fact that it has high mileage at 98,000+.  But that's still 30,000 less than both the van and the car had in my last situation.  It also needs to have better tint on the windows and a better sound system.  Those are two things easily remedied thanks to my connection with my old high school buddy Wahl.  All in all, its faults are pretty minimal in the bigger scheme of things.  Especially given the fact that it does have such a good warranty on it.

The more I thought about it, the more I am comfortable with my decision to go with the PT Cruiser.  Yes, I realize the Mountaineer was gone which left me with little choice, but had I gotten that one, I would have been stretching myself out further.  The payments would have been higher, the insurance would have been more expensive and I would have been spending more on gas since it doesn't get as good as gas mileage as the Cruiser.  So I'm looking at this vehicle as a blessing in disguise.

As for the name, I was originally going to go with Shelly.  It was a entirely stupid reason why.  I had just got done watching "Gone in 60 Seconds" and remembered that Shelby that Nic Cage pined over.  I rationalized that that was an old style car and so was mine so I'd alter the name to Shelly.  Even though they look nothing alike.  Then a good FB, Twitter and blog friend of mine quickly shot that down and suggested the Dark Knight when they heard about the vehicle.  It couldn't have been more appropriate.  Thus, the name was born.

Bottom line is I'm just glad that I have basic, reliable transportation again.  I realize that there are folks (like my son) who are not fans of the PT Cruiser.  Oh well.  I'm riding with the Dark Knight anyway.  And for anyone that wants to hate, to paraphrase the All-American Rejects, when you see my ride, hope it gives you heck..hope it gives you heck! 

Long live the Dark Knight!

"I Can Do Bad All By Myself" Trailer

I always wondered why this wasn't one of the first movies Tyler Perry made  since it was one of his better stage plays.  Now after seeing this trailer, I'm wondering why the plot appears to be TOTALLY different from that stage play.  But it does have my girl Tarji P. Henson in it so that's a huge plus...

Thursday Throwback

Rock wit Cha - Bobby Brown

You know what's funny about this video?  I first tried to find it on YouTube and the only good version gave me the customary "Embedding disabled by request" message so I couldn't put it out here.  Then I went to my second string choice of Daily Motion and there it was.  But you think if they were going to lift it from YouTube, they would have at least found a way to remove the YouTube stamp.  Oh well...

This is actually my second favorite Bobby Brown song.  The first is this slow jam called "Spending Time" off his first cd that several people have probably never heard of.  At any rate, this one is definitely a classic.  Check out the alleged King of R&B before he ended up looking like the current Burger King of R&B...

The Bloomington Pool Party

You'll have to forgive the lateness of this post.  The event itself actually took place this past weekend, but I'm having quite a bit of internet connectivity issues here.  For some reason, the modem only wants to connect every now and then.  I can sometimes get a very weak signal from the neighbors' modem, but if I want a strong one from the one in this house, it usually takes a minute.  That's been curtailing my normally more frequent entries.

We did something a little different this time around for our trip to Bloomington this past weekend.  For the first couple of days, G, Elijah and Mariah and I all got a hotel room.  The folks' place was getting a little crowded so it was for the best.  We still wound up spending as much time at the folks' as possible and not heading to the hotel until late at night so it was really just for bunking purposes.

And for the pool.

I had planned to take the shorties swimming during my time off when they came up to visit.  The problem was we have not been having a very good summery summer.  There really haven't been that many days that it's been hot enough to visit the pool.  Then add to that the fact that every other day it seems to be dreary and/or rainy so the outdoor pool has pretty much been an after thought.  An indoor pool at the hotel was a welcomed sight.

The first thing I made to sure to check was the depth of the pool.  The shallow end was 3 1/2 feet and the "deep" end was a little over 4.  Perfect.  That way G could enjoy himself in the pool without me having to worry about him getting in over his head.  I still remember when I checked into this one hotel in Cedar Rapids when he was smaller and the pool depth was an issue.  Their pool had a shallow end of 4 feet with a deep end of 6-feet.  Apparently, that hotel didn't want kids playing in their water.

Mariah didn't want to go swimming but Jozalyn, Jojo and Josh did.  So Diah and I arrived at the pool in full force with five rambunctious young'uns.  I couldn't help but laugh as soon as we walked into the pool area and saw a young boy just preparing to get in while his dad looked on.  Our contingent wasted no time in jumping right in and monopolizing the small area.  The boy AND his dad were quickly intimidated.  They apparently weren't used to seeing so many tan folks in one place at one time.  They were gone in a matter of minutes.  It might have even been seconds.

I kept waiting for one of the hotel staff to come in there and ask if we were guests of the hotel.  Maybe because I still had the Professor Gates' thing fresh in my head.  Maybe because I just wasn't in the best of moods anyway and was looking for someone to start something so I could have a reason to go off.  It didn't matter though because no one ever did come say anything.  Which led me to believe that we could make this a regular occurrence when we come to Bloomington, whether or not we even stay at that hotel.  Just a thought.

The excursion enabled me to make one of better photo albums in a while.  Check it out under the album named Bloomington Swim Party.  As usual, there are a few captions in there to explain some of the photos.  Most of them require no explanation at all.  They were just the shorties having a good time and that's really what it's all about.

Must See DVD - "Anchorman : The Legend of Ron Burgandy"

So this is the title that I've decided to go with for the weekly entry going forward.  It doesn't give the implication that the movie is one that you must have in your collection.  Although it certainly wouldn't hurt at all.  Plus, I'm still leaving these in the category name of Vault Pick of the Week even though I may or may not have it in my own personal collection.  For all I know, I may have had it at one point in time and it was just another casualty.

This one came about thanks tothis article I caught in USA Today where they were talking about the summer movies thus far.  They categorized the actors/actresses who were rocketing or sputtering.  They classified Will Ferrell as sputtering simply because "Land of the Lost" didn't do well at the box office.  Not a very fair assessment if you ask me.  That movie was decent, but it was helped tremendously by Ferrell and so far, he's pretty far from sputtering.  

Ferrell had long been the star cameo and/or supporting actor in several films since his days on "Saturday Night Live".  "SNL" merely prepared us for the inevitable onslaught of Ferrell brilliance yet to come.  "Old School" was the perfect vehicle to showcase his abilities, but he was more of a co-lead in that flick.  Once "Anchorman" came along, he finally got his chance to shine in a leading role and he knocked it out the box.

"Anchorman" is one of those movies where they unashamedly bask in their stupidity.  They even go out of their way to welcome it.  Writer Adam McKay (along with co-writer Ferrell) set it in the 70s to ensure that we would already have plenty of visual gags that the outfits from that era elicits.  That wasn't enough though.  It was filled with line after line of dialog that continued to be even funnier than the next.

The 70s setting was a huge plus because of how they were able to capitalize and totally lampoon the male chauvinism of the time. When the man's club at the station gets threatened by the hiring of female reporter Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) it inspires some of the best exchanges ever.  Champ Kind's (David Koechner) reference to bears.  Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) introducing us to the worst cologne ever.  Or even Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) just trying to fit in no matter how ridiculous his statements are.

Even though he had an incredible supporting cast, clearly the best part of "Anchorman" is Ferrell.  He just always to do the little tiny things that produce huge laughs.  Like the under-his-breath verbal jabs he and Veronica take at each other as their newscast's credits are rolling.  His breaking out into a pretty amazing acapella version of "Afternoon Delight".  His playing the jazz flute.  Or even the simple fact that he lets Veronica know he's kind of a big deal.

Ferrell is at his best when he's in full character mode.  When you there is no longer any of his normal self present and he has entirely taken on the buffoonish persona of the role he is in.  That's why "Anchorman" is such a classic.  The already clever writing was just the framework to his ad-libbing that helped make this early film of his one his best ever. 

The Day the Writing Died

This actually happened a while ago in blog time.  The news actually came out last week and I didn't report on it then so by now, many of you are already aware of his passing.  However, I would be remiss if I  didn't at least give it a mention on my site so that's what I'm doing.

Critically-acclaimed author E. Lynn Harris died last Thursday night while on a business trip to Los Angeles, California.  He was 54-years-old.

Admittedly, I had never read a single Harris novel.  As soon as I found out that his work regularly featured the lives of Black gay men, I knew they wouldn't appeal to me.   I was DEFINITELY not his target audience.  That didn't change the fact that he did have one though.  Referenced by the fact that his books managed to sell over 4 million copies worldwide.  I'm sure that number will be boosted even more with his passing.

Although his subject-matter is something I will never be able to relate to, I had to acknowledge the mark he left behind.  We live in a technology-heavy world where books have taken a backseat to the quick entertainment many of us would rather receive via movies, satellite television and the internet.  Therefore, for a brotha to make the breakthrough to be a well-known author is no easy feat.

I happened to notice that even Mom had a few of Harris' books on her bookshelf when I was just there this past weekend.  That's what actually inspired me to finally mention his passing on my blog.  Mom is picky about her literature so if he was good enough to make her cut, then he was good enough for me to acknowledge the news of his death.

Rest in peace, Harris.

G Force

You cannot imagine my enthusiasm when I first found out this movie was being made.  I hadn't see a single preview and instead, just saw the name in one of those "Coming Soon" pamphlets that some theaters have.  I couldn't believe that one of my favorite cartoons as a shorty was FINALLY going to be coming to the big screen.  First the news that "G.I. Joe" was getting a movie and now this?!  It was going to be a great summer for movies!  That was until I was shattered to discover that it was an entirely different "G Force".

Apparently, ever since the Civil War-- when carrier pigeons delivered messages from the frontlines --the American government has been covertly training  animals to work in espionage.  The latest government program is an anti-terrorist team known as "G-Force," which is a team of ultra-intelligent guinea pigs comprised of unpredictable weapons expert Blaster (voice of Tracy Morgan), alluring martial arts expert Juarez (voice of Penelope Cruz), stealthy reconnaissance expert Mooch (Dee Bradley Baker), and a star-nosed mole named Speckles (Nicholas Cage), who specializes in computers

This crack team of rodent agents is fronted by heroic squad leader Darwin (Sam Rockwell).  When a deranged billionaire (Bill Nighy) hatches a plan to control the entire planet through common household appliances, the G-Force leaps into action on a mission to ensure that he does not succeed. 

I had said all along that I had no intention of seeing this film.  It was bad enough that premise alone was entirely too idiotic for me to comprehend.  Talking gerbils that work for the government as spies?? Give me a break.  Plus, I was still upset about the fact that they had the nerve to steal the name from one of the best cartoons from the 80s.  But we were at the folks place and it was a family outing.  That meant we had to see a family-oriented movie in order to appease the pleathora of shorties we had accompanying us.  Although the thought did cross my mind to sneak out and go watch "Bruno" instead.

What sucks is we picked the wrong start time at the theater in which it was playing.  Instead of getting to see the 3-D version, we had to settle for the regular one.  We could have waited the 45 more minutes for the better version, but that's asking a lot when you have a group full of restless shorties.  I could tell from several shots that shis may have been more entertaining had we seen it in 3-D.

Having said that, this movie was just what I expected.  I don't think it was possible for them to make it any cheesier.  For instance, they went out of their way to rationalize how these rats were intelligent enough to be top-notch secret agents.  Even if they didn't make sense.  Things like explaining they wore special headsets that allowed them to talk which is why we could understand them.  That's all fine and good, but how does that explain how they had mannerisms and movements of humans?  Special headsets don't do that.

I especially don't like the fact of how underused Will Arnett was in this flick.  As FBI agent Kip Killian, we didn't get so much as a glimmer of the classic sarcastic wit for which he is known.  It was as if director Hoyt Yeatman (whoever the heck that is) told Arnett to purposely subdue his comedic talent so he wouldn't upstage the feeble attempts at humor that the talking rodents provided.  I felt sorry that Arnett had to be subjected to that.

The fact that that this was a movie about talking rats wasn't even its major downfall.  What really did it in was that they tried to have the major conflict revolve around appliances that transform into killer robots.  That takes a lot of nerve to go with a Transformer-like plotline during the same summer in which the "Transformer" sequel is released.  They seriously couldn't have come up with something more original than that? 

They made a valiant effort at trying to score some additional laughs with some bonus moments during the credit rolls.  They were good enough for a smirk or two, but nothing to write home to mother about.  Unfortunately, "The Hangover" has pretty much spoiled it for any and all future credit rolls.  It's going to be near difficult to top the hilarity they achieved with theirs.

It's always difficult reviewing movies like "G Force" because it's obvious it wasn't intended for me.  They are gearing it to my shorties, which would also explain why Arnett didn't have a more prominent role.  So did it accomplish its goal in entertaining them?  Apparently so as they all seemed to enjoy it.  And the fact that it beat out Harry Potter in the box office this weekend earns bonus points with me as I would take a talking rodent movie over a black-magic kid wizard any day of the week. 

My rating:  C+

Another Boxer is TKO'ed

It's funny how you always hear about boxers being punch drunk in their old age and end up getting some type of brain damage.  You would think that would be a common cause of death for some of them, but that hasn't seemed to be the case lately. 

Former two-division champion Vernon Forrest was shot to death Saturday in downtown Atlanta in what police are calling an apparent robbery.  He was 38-years-old.

This now makes the second boxer who has died in less than three weeks.  First, there was Arturo Gatti and now Forrest.  Neither one of them had even reached age 40.  Neither one of them died from anything even remotely associated with the injuries they received from the years of boxing.   

I was trying to think of why Forrest's name sounded familiar to me and then it hit me.  He was the cat that beat Sugar Shane Mosley not once but TWICE.  That may not mean a lot to non-boxing fans so let me put it in more perspective for you...Mosley had come fresh off beating Oscar De La Hoya and was considered to be the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world because of it.  When the fight with Forrest came up, Mosley was heavily favored as Forrest was a virtual unknown.

Forrest went into the fight determined to prove himself and ended up beating Mosley in a split decision.  Naturally, you know that meant a rematch in the boxing world.  All Forrest did was have an even more impressive performance the second time around and scored a unanimous decision.  I remember watching that fight on HBO and you could visibly see how frustrated Mosley was.  No matter what he did, he just couldn't get Forrest figured out and Forrest dominated the poor guy.

Those two fights were easily the high points of Forrest's career.  He ended up losing to WBA welterweight champion Ricardo Mayorga the following year by knockout in the third round.  Shortly after, he had to take two years off because of injuries and had to start making a comeback.  He ultimately ended up with an impressive professional record of 41-3 with 29 knockouts.

It's too bad that both Gatti and Forrest were taken away violently at such a young age when they had lasted thru one of the most brutal careers out there.  At least they gave us some very memorable ring moments while they were here.

Rest in peace, Vernon.

Near Dark

Well I haven't let my current situation curtail my movie watching.  It's just that I haven't been as frequent with my reviews.  I also haven't been as timely with my Netflix queue.  I still have two of the movies that I received in the mail last week.  Even though they don't have a due date to be returned, that's still slow for me.  I would have normally had them watched and reviewed by now.  So I am a little behind and this review is proof of that since it was nearly two weeks ago that I originally watched "Near Dark".

Caleb (Adrian Pasdar) is a restless young man from a small farm town.  He meets an alluring drifter named Mae (Jenny Wright) and quickly gets more than he bargained for.  She reveals herself to be a vampire who turns Caleb into one of her kind rather than kill him.  But the rest of her "family" is slow to accept the newcomer.  The ancient leader, Jesse (Lance Henricksen) and his psychotic henchman Severen (the one and only Bill Paxton) lay down the law:  Caleb has to carry his own weight or die.

Although Caleb can never bring himself to kill, he manages to win the gang's approval when he rescues them from certain death in a gunfight.  Just when he seems to be moving towards accepting his fate, he is forced to choose between life and death when the vampire clan threatens Caleb's real family.

This is another film that I somehow missed during my teenage years of frequent movie-going.  It was released in 1987, yet I don't remember ever seeing and/or hearing anything about it.  It would have been right down my alley too with it being a thriller genre about vampires.  There was even a John Carpenter influence with the score that sounded it was borrowing heavily from Carpenter's "The Thing" remake.

What stands out immediately about "Near Dark" is the manner in which the vampires are portrayed.  First and foremost is the fact that not once in the entire film are they ever called vampires.  Not by themselves or by anyone they happen to run into either.  It's clear from the beginning what they are because of their obvious creature-of-the night behavior, yet we never get one of those vampire confessions we have grown accustomed to seeing.

Something else that goes against the traditional vampire film lore is their appearance.  There is nothing elegant or aristrocratish about them.  They are not cloaked in the standard vampire garb.  As a matter of fact, they act more like a motorcycle gang.  They are gun-toting gypsies that seem to pride themselves in staying grimy.  A very different approach to vampires done very well by director Kathryn Bigelow.

I really enjoyed watching some of my favorite actors here before they would eventually go on to do bigger and better things.  Paxton was awesome as the psychotic member of the clan.  That sociopath thing was pretty much his staple around that era of his acting career.  I still can't imagine Henricksen as nothing else other than Bishop from the "Alien" films everytime I see him.  Nevertheless, he was excellent as the subtly domineering vampire clan leader.  Then, of course future "Heroes" star Pasdar as Caleb.  I can't help but think that he channeled this role when he screen tested for the part of Nathan Petrelli.

It turns out that Netflix can get a suggestion right every now and then.  When this one popped up as a recommendation based on something else I had in my queue, I didn't blink twice about adding it as well.  How could I possibly pass it up with the premise and the line-up of actors it featured?  With the exception of the dated score, "Near Dark" holds up very well against the vampire films of today.  Definitely a great flick to restore my faith in some of the other "recommendations" yet to come up to bat in my queue.

My rating:  B+

Mr. Bungles

I have been tracking this whole Professor Gates situation ever since it first transpired earlier this week.  Naturally, the reason I didn't say something about it sooner is because I knew it was the perfect entry for the weekly Bungles post.  Just as I'm sitting there thinking it would be pretty clear cut, it starts ballooning further out of control then I could have imagined and allowed me to speak on even more levels about it.  You'll feel me in a minute...

The initial story has been played to death in the media, but some of you may have missed the BlackGate scandal.  Let me hit you off with the Cliff Notes version...Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is a prominent Harvard professor who had returned home to his prestigious abode in Cambridge, Mass. from a trip to China.  He found his front door was jammed so went in thru another door to see if he could get it unjammed.  The police were called by someone else and arrived on the scene questioning the professor.  The professor became rightly agitated that he was being falsely accused of breaking into his own home and was eventually arrested for disorderly conduct.

There seems to be conflicting stories about how the event transpired.  Professor Gates is indicating that he showed the officer's proper identification proving that he lived at the residence and they still did not believe him, continuing to insinuate he was breaking in.  The police version was that Prof. Gates refused to step outside to speak with the officers to investigate the break in, opening his door to exclaim "Why, because I'm a Black man in America?!"

Now I could very easily give this to the Cambridge Police Department for behaving so irresponsibly in the way they handled the situation.  Of course I don't believe their version.  They did jump to conclusions seeing that a Black man was at a nice house and assumed that there was no way it could have possibly been his.  He had to have been breaking in, right?  I don't care how they try to defend their actions, they were racially profiling as they always do.  That's why they're on the hook for the Bungles award.

But who else gets this is the neighbors who called the police in the first place.  I don't know the first thing about this neighborhood where this occurred, but apparently it must not be a very sociable place.  How could they not know that Prof. Gates lived there when they saw him having trouble with the door?  Even if they weren't friendly and had never talked to him, they surely had seen him going to and from his residence enough to know that it was his.  Or perhaps they were profiling too because he wasn't dressed in professional attire as he was trying to fix his front door.  Whatever the case may be, the neighbors should have known better.

This situation was so prominent that President Obama himself felt compelled to speak on it.  He also criticized the police for their actions, correctly stating tha they "acted stupidly".  Unfortunately, he came out later this week and slightly altered his stance, saying that there was a good chance the professor may have overreacted as well.  You all know that I'm one of the biggest Obama proponents out there, but I think he was right with the stance he took in the first place and shouldn't have changed it just because of pressure I'm sure he was receiving from police unions.

It doesn't matter that I wasn't there to witness how the whole thing went down.  We have all seen this story before.  One thing that was clear on all accounts of the story is Prof. Gates never got violent.  Not even remotely close.  He had every right to get belligerent and be offended that the police were accusing him of unlawfully entering his own home.  He had every right to show out about that.  I could care less how many police officials get their feelings hurt by being told they were in the wrong.  They WERE wrong for their actions.  If they don't like being told that, they shouldn't have done it in the first place.