Z/Web

This was a surprisingly good period film about an amateur golfer who wins the U.S. Open in 1913. Though sports films tend to be predictable (either he dramatically wins by overcoming huge odds or he loses by a hair but somehow it’s okay), this one still worked. It’s a little bit hokey at times, with obvious sentimentality, but only in a few places — most of the time it’s just a good story. My favorite thing was the golfer’s caddy, a little fat boy with the attitude of a king, who stole every scene he was in (loved it when he saw the President of the United States was in attendance and he waved and shouted at him like he was a regular person). Good show.

This is an excellent film! Though I was a big fan of the TV series (it’s based on Firefly, the show Fox cancelled after 11 episodes), I was a little unsure how everything would transfer to the big screen. This film answers that easily: it’s even better on the big screen! Perhaps that was the problem with it on TV. The story was too big, too large for TV. It’s the same cast, which is awesome (the actors are so tied to their characters it would have been hard to watch with other actors in the roles), and the story is excellent. It’s high-speed action, great dialog, and terrific performances and special effects. About 90 minutes into the movie I was dreading the thought that it was going to end! That’s the opposite of my feeling in most movies. I sure hope they make this into a series and do more movies. It could easily become the next Star Trek.

The premise of this reminded of the weak

Director: Tim Burton

Wonderful, wonderful film! While Tim’s Nightmare Before Christmas (his other stop-motion fantasy) is uneven, this one is just terrific throughout. The characters are visually strange and bizarre and yet somehow appealing, and the story’s the same way. It deals with a shy young man set to marry a girl he’s never met. Later, when he’s in the woods practicing his vows, he puts the ring on a stick poking up out of the ground — but the stick turns out to be the blackened hand of a corpse… the Corpse Bride. She accepts his “proposal” and assumes the two are married and takes him to the land of the dead, where we see dancing skeletons and other hilariously creepy creatures. Somehow the young man has got to tell this dead woman that he doesn’t want to be married to her, that their differences are too great (she’s dead, he’s alive). It sounds grim, but it’s done with such life and heart and wonderful music that it’s remarkably light and fun. The story is sweet and moving and entertaining. You love all the characters (some you love to hate) and want everything to work out well. I was extremely impressed. It’s not a deep story, but it has a few clever jabs and a couple thought-provoking ideas. Mostly it’s just classic escapist entertainment, and utterly original and charming. A must see!

Today marks the debut of my new soccer podcast, SoccerTalk USA. I even created a website for it: http://www.soccertalkusa.com (you can subscribe to the podcast at http://www.soccertalkusa.com/soccertalkusa.xml or via iTunes’ Podcast directory in the Sports category). I basically talk for 45 minutes or so about the most recent Major League Soccer results and other topics. I hope to do the show once a week during the MLS season, perhaps less often or shorter shows at other times of the year.

Surprisingly decent flick about a hostage situation gone awry. Hostage films are like sports films — there are only a couple plots available — but this one does manage a few intriguing twists. The lead is Bruce Willis who’s a retired hostage negotiator who finds his family kidnapped to force him to go back to his previous line of work. Unfortunately, the ending of the film negenerates into a strange insane-guy-watch-me-die thing, but the film still has a couple nice moments.

The

This demon-hunter movie is better than I expected, but odd. The world in it is a strange blend of religion, mythology, magic, and superstition; what’s odd is that all are treated as interchangeable equals, so priests deal with “enchanted” amulets and witch doctors are just as valid as priests. Basically, the film’s saying that religion is just as real as magic; though in the film both exist, the conclusion drawn of course is that religion is myth just like magic. In other words, the Christian cross is no different from magic beans or an occult spell. I found that disturbing and troubling, but that’s really outside the film. As for the movie itself, it has some decent action and visuals. The story’s convoluted but works (or comes close to working, depending on your perspective). The ending’s too contrived but does give some mild satisfaction.