Extra Credit Review - Sunday Morning Shootout (2003)

So, wake the kids and phone the neighbors. I've made an executive decision.

Any non-movie review of an RDJR work is an "extra credit review." For said blog post, I receive extra credit. No, I don't know what the extra credit is for. Yes, I know that a TV interview really doesn't fit into the category of "body of work." Get your own blog and quit picking on me; I have little else to occupy my mind.

So, here's the sitch. "Sunday Morning Shootout" is a TV show that appears on some channel somewhere. The set looks like a big Starbucks, and our guest sits at a little round table with 2 film industry pundits that I've never seen before, nor will I ever see again. But evidently I'm supposed to know who they are.

Our Hero participated in this interview right after he finished "Gothika", which we coincidentally just reviewed. Isn't that nice. Also, he was about to start on "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints," which we reviewed in January (and were not terribly impressed with, I might add), and his album "The Futurist" (which we also reviewed in January, and were quite impressed with).

Okay, so I really like to watch interviews, and I don't even necessarily mean famous-people-type conversations. I like to see how people react to questions that they don't exactly anticipate. This is also why I love job interviews (both sides of the table). So you think that's weird? Well, there are people who get off on looking at videos of feet. Go judge them.

2 interesting points. Point 1 - pundit #1 criticized Chaplin, the Holy Grail. I am not alone. Point 2 - RDJR admitted that he has a tendency to be a cocky little SOB, at least in his previous life (my summary, and if I have misinterpreted, well - he'll never know anyway). Most cocky SOB's have not the slightest idea that they are anything other than clever and charming...so I was happy to hear Our Hero make this admission.

And there you have it, dearest reader. I get a gold star and 5 extra points to boost my grade.

Really? Really?

Well, dearest reader - you are going to love this.

I am down to my last Netflix RDJR flick. It's called "Johnny Be Good" and it stars Anthony Michael Hall and Our Hero. Please note that I did not save the best for last. Anyway, after this little nugget, my Netflix queue will be reduced to TV shows in which Our Hero has appeared, and my movie list shall consist of certain hard-to-find gems.

So I received my little red Netflix envelope the other day, and lo and behold - no movie. It was a TV show. For you Netflix virgins - if you have a movie in your queue, and it's not available for some reason, they send the next thing on your list - in my case, Mr. TV. Befuddled, I checked my Netflix queue to learn that "Johnny Be Good" has a waiting list.

Yes-it is true. I have to WAIT to watch what is most certainly going to be a visual turd bomb strapped to a guy with a mullet because there are OTHER PEOPLE IN LINE in front of me.

So....either some other poor, pathetic soul is engaging in a Project like mine, or some other poor, pathetic soul has really, uh, questionable taste in films.

Boy howdy. I should have it next week. To quote Samuel L. Jackson from Jurassic Park - hold on to your butts. We shall see if it was worth the wait.

Black Wednesday

So, another round of layoffs today at my place of employment. One person gone, one person cut to half-time, a branch office closed. I had really hoped that the last round of layoffs (a year ago now) would have been it...that as a result of that day, we'd be bare-bones and we wouldn't have to go through this again.

But evidently I was wrong.

So, the person who is gone is a woman I've known for 30 years. I truly don't know how she will find another job, in an area where 10 percent of the people are unemployed, and she's over 60. I feel lousy, mostly because I told her about the job to begin with, and because she's been let go and brought back before; so it's like being dumped twice by the same guy. I have a sneaking suspicion that she won't take us up on an offer to return a third time, should it ever be made again.

And I feel even lousier that I don't feel overly lousy. In the back of my mind, I knew that something drastic was going to have to happen, because the money is not coming in - but yet, we all still expect our paychecks. I wasn't far enough up the totem pole to know exactly WHAT that something drastic would be until just 90 minutes or so before it happened. Anyway, when I heard, I certainly wanted to puke - but I knew that there were few other options. Cut a few now and close an under-performing branch or face closing ALL the doors in a few months...I'm not privy to the financial records (that totem pole thing again), but unless the boss has a bucket of cash somewhere, that seems like it would be the logical conclusion.

I heard somewhere that this is called "survivor's guilt" - the phenomenon when you feel badly for someone, but relieved that it wasn't you - and I guess that's a good name for it. I feel guilty. And I'm also triaging how this will affect my department (which it will, substantially). So then I feel doubly guilty for focusing on myself and my workload instead of my 2 co-workers.

Bad Tina. Bad Bad Tina. Bad friend.

So, this all takes effect on August 1st. Boy, July's going to be lots and lots of fun. A regular dance party. I'll keep you posted.

Review #53 - Gothika (2003)

A summary, thanks to Netflix: "A criminal psychologist (Halle Berry) awakens to find that she's a patient in the same mental institution where she works; she's being accused of murdering her husband (Charles S. Dutton), but has no memory of committing the murder as she tries to regain her memory and convince her co-workers of her innocence, a vengeful spirit uses her as an earthly pawn, which further convinces everyone of her guilt."

Are you into horror/suspense flicks that are, thankfully, not gory? Do you have rather low expectations as to dialogue when watching same? Have you consumed a little wine during the opening credits?

If you can answer "yes" to all of these, you probably will think this movie is okay. The dialogue was pretty cheesy. RDJR's character never really did anything useful, other than to provide the momentary "is he actually the bad guy?" diversion. There were parts where you really didn't know what/why/when. But - it was entertaining.

And, hello, when people come back in spirit form to avenge their deaths, they are supposed to be NICE to the person who is helping them exact their vengeance. DUH. Everyone knows that, except the screenplay writer in this case.

Would I run right out and rent it? Probably not. But if it comes on HBO some night, and you have nothing better to do, go ahead and watch it.

I give it a 6.