Overall a pretty standard, yet fairly well done, crime/drug movie with Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg.

However, the car chase scene has to be one of the best scenes of its kind I’ve ever seen. Instead of going the mainstream route and doing tons of stunts, they perfectly crafted the lighting, sound and camera angles to craft an overwhelmingly intense and emotional mood. I never imagined being genuinely nervous and fearful during a police action/drama. Watch it for that if nothing else.

I’ve been an Agony Scene fan since the beginning. The progression from their self-titled debut to their last album, The Darkest Red, was all improvement. On Get Damned, they seem to have taken all the boring elements of their first album that they left out of the second.

There is nothing exciting about this album.

Let this be known as The Worst Horror Film Of All Time from here on out.

Not only did they not explain why the hell ghosts decided to haunt wireless signals or how they could take on a physical form and suck the life out of people, but they decided to turn it into an apocalypse movie with about 5 minutes left. Whoops, hope I didn’t ruin the ending for you, but that was the only part of the ant-sized plot worth mentioning.

Was this some rich kid’s high school film class project?

I have nothing against Pantera whatsoever, but Throwdown seems to have decided that they’d rather copy their brand of southern metal instead of sticking to the straight edge hardcore that has been working for them up until now.

Objectively it doesn’t sound too bad; they pull off the gravelly vocals, slurred guitars and divebombs fairly well. But within the context of past Throwdown albums, this is an unfortunate shift.

This is one of the greatest books I’ve read in a long time. It puts psychology (and a bit of philosophy) in common terms so you don’t need experience in the field to understand what Gilbert is talking about.

The concepts are intriguing, the writing is entertaining and captivating, some of the conclusions are surprising but all are explained well, and you are left to wonder how you can apply those conclusions to your own life.

A great read for anyone who likes to think and doesn’t mind having some modern myths about the pursuit of happiness shaken up.

Plain and simple: the cinematography is great and the film noir mood is amazingly authentic, but the plot is so disorganized it almost makes the film not worth watching. I’m not quite sure what story they were trying to tell, but the focus on the famous Black Dahlia murder only took up about 10% of the film. So, as someone who had a preexisting interest in the facts surrounding the murder, it not only lacked the story I was hoping for, but the story it DID tell was delivered so poorly that any chance of redeeming itself was lost.

A 20-something California kid walks around in a daze where funny yet depressing things happen to him while he realizes his failure as a human being and simultaneously finds out that his distant parent figure has just died unexpectedly. He meets a cute, spunky girl with good music taste along the way who he ends up spending countless hours with.

Sounds strangely familiar. Garden State perhaps? Certainly there are differences between the two movies, but the overall style and mood of the first half of the film seemed to be a desperate attempt to attract the countless faux-indie kids who thrive on dark humor mixed with cute love interests and a good soundtrack.

But maybe it’s not so unacceptable to copy a successful movie. The entire 80’s and 90’s were filled with romantic comedies based on the Sleepless In Seattle, fate-brought-us-together idea, and not too many people are complaining. Maybe it’s just that the Zach Braff formula is still fairly new to us so it still seems like a cheap knockoff.

Luckily, Elizabethtown sets itself apart in the second half. A heartfelt tribute to a fallen Southern hero comes to life. Kirsten Dunst’s character shows a mind behind the smile. The best “live” performance of Freebird I’ve ever seen. And an Americana-laced road trip that lightens the mood despite Orlando Bloom’s lacking versatility.

This one is worth watching for the occasional well-timed laugh, the “cute but not too cute” factor and, of course, the good music.

If I were watching the movie just for the sake of watching the movie, it would have gotten five stars all the way. It was beautifully made, absolutely funny (although almost too funny at times) and serious all at once, and it left me thinking about several of the story’s aspects.

However, having read the book, there were some significant differences, the biggest being that they really only told half the story. It was arguably the more important half, of course, and the underlying premise of the movie, but the entire history of Trachimbrod that is portrayed so beautifully in the book was almost entirely absent. I can understand it, though, because so much of that half of the story is very internal; there’s not much dialogue, so it would probably be more confusing than helpful if translated into movie form.

Aside from that, there were a few characteristics of Jonathan, Alex and Alex’s grandfather that were slightly misrepresented, but it wasn’t significant enough to make me dislike the film.

Anyone who criticizes this movie for being predictable, cliche, etc. is pretentious and full of themselves.

This movie is absolutely worth seeing. At worst, it’s more entertaining and captivating than most of the crap Hollywood has produced this decade. At best, it’s thought provoking, funny, serious, twisted, brutally honest, realistic in its depiction of how people really are, well written and well acted, with just a hint of tear jerking for good measure.

Almost done with this book. It’s been absolutely amazing!

So far my favorite piece has been “The Futile Pursuit Of Happiness” by Jon Gertner. Not a short story, but still very thought provoking and worth the read. I actually found it online here in case you’re interested in reading it.