Legion

I gave Legion a chance because of it's religious theme, and because it had a pretty good cast. I dig end-of-times flicks, especially when there are archangels involved. I've always been fascinated by the legends of archangels from ancient writings.

They're bad-ass.

Bad-ass too, usually, are members of this cast. I really like the work of Dennis Quaid, and Lucas Black (the slow talking former kid from Sling Blade) always seems to give a terrific performance. Throw in Charles Dutton, from Roc, and it should be an above average cast.

Well, neither of my reasons panned out.

Legion suffers from a disconnected storyline, poorly written dialogue and illogical plot devices. The most ridiculous scene has archangel Gabriel swooping down and landing on top of a moving car, getting into a fight with the humans inside and losing.

He's an archangel, for Christ's sake! He ain't gonna get beaten up by a a couple of scared twenty-somethings on the run.

Skip Legion, and just watch over-and-over that scene used in trailers, the one where an elderly female customer in the diner goes zombie on other customers, crawls the walls and screams profanities.

It's the only scene worth seeing.

Please, Make It Stop: Part 20

The only thing more strange to me than some chick thinking the fourth time's the charm for Rush Limbaugh is that Elton John performed at the reception for $1,000,000.

Talk about being a sell-out! And Sir Elton's not much better. [rimshot]

Dear John

I scrunched down in my chair, and Mrs. Film Geek perked up a bit in hers, when Channing Tatum walked out of the surf topless. My confidence went south, along with my expectations for the flick.

"Hang tight," she said. "I know a few things about this movie. You'll like it, I promise."

I sucked in my gut, set the popcorn aside and relaxed. Mrs. Film Geek knows me really well. If she thinks I'll like it, I probably will.

And I did.

I liked Dear John for several reasons, but mostly because it isn't the romance movie the audience expects. Sure, the relationship between military tough-guy John and college student Savannah is a major part of the movie. But Dear John moves beyond that, and becomes a story that illustrates the importance of pushing through difficult, awkward situations in order to connect with others in a substantial manner. This is shown most effectively in the relationship between John and his father, a man who has Asperger's Disorder and is challenged by social relationships.


The flick hit close to home.

John's father, played masterfully by Richard Jenkins, reminded me a great deal of my own dad. Both are personally isolated and distant, interested but unsure how to interact on a highly emotional level. The struggle John has understanding his father's inability to connect emotionally level mirrors my own frustration with desiring a closer relationship with my dad, but always seeming to fall short of that goal.

As a romance flick, Dear John is a bit cliched and even overly sentimental. As a movie about working through the baggage of family dynamics, the movie was pretty darned good.

The Box

What would you do if a handsome stranger approached you with the offer of $1,000,000 to sleep with your wife?

Wait, my bad...wrong movie.



In The Box the chick's still hot, but the guy wanting to give away the cash is a Martian intelligence inhabiting the body of a resurrected burn victim. And it's not nooky he's after: if Cameron Diaz decides to take the cool million, someone in the world will die.

It's a quid pro quo she can live with. Early in the flick she decides she needs the money. It's a selfish decision she'll regret.



The Box is based on a short story that once aired as an episode of the 1980's version of The Twilight Zone. The story fits an hour-long TV episode format better than plays in a movie length feature. In the longer version the plot becomes too thin and, as a result, seems campy and more than a bit cheesy. In the final act, when the film is supposed to be at its scariest, I laughed out loud more often than I got the creeps.

Shrek: Forever After

Maybe more than the other kids, my daughter Griffyn loves to go to the movie theater. She doesn't go for the extra-large Coke or candy, and sometimes she isn't even that interested in the movie. She just digs the experience.

She gets it.

Hanging out at the movies with someone you care about while sharing laughs, chills and popcorn is a bonding experience greater than any movie.

When she reminded me last weekend that we'd planned to see Shrek: Forver After, I grimaced. I'd forgotten. Feeling--no, not "feeling," "being" is the right word--so behind with work and home responsibilities I'd placed seeing the fourth Shrek flick way down the list of priorities.

So far down it didn't really exist.

"But you promised," she said. And she was right. I did. So I slipped on some clean shorts and my summer sandles and hit Pullman Plaza theaters with kids in tow.

And I'm so glad I did.

Shrek: Forever And After was funny and well written. But most importantly, it reminded me that I sometimes get so caught up in things I think are important, I forget about the things that really are: family, relationships and living as much as possible in the moment.

Thanks, Shrek. And thanks, Griffyn. Now, pass the popcorn.

Shutter Island

There's something unusual -- something barely noticeable -- about Shutter Island that sorta got under my skin and wouldn't ease up.

It was the look of the flick. During the first two hours, the cinematography is a real clue to the puzzle presented by this psychological thriller and crime story.

The light is unusual, the colors a bit too thick.



At first I guessed this was due to the story being set in the 1950s. DiCaprio would be doing a Cagney impression, I reasoned, with lots of long drags off a smoke and uses of the phrase: "Yeah, that's right. Ya see!"

But I was wrong.

Scorsese's flick, in which U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels investigates the disappearance of a psychiatric patient from an institution, is more complex and less obvious that one might anticipate. DiCaprio is fine, and co-star Mark Ruffalo is (as usual) terrific. But it's the feel of this movie, highlighted by Scorsese's photographic style, that makes this picture worth seeing.

Shave And A Haircut

Bob Townsend, of Townsend's Barber Shop in Summersville, West Virginia, first cut my hair sometime around 1969. I was too little to fit into the chair, so Bob put a board across the chair arms for me to sit on. I remember that first professional haircut; the smell of the shop, the buzzing around my ears and the fear Bob was gonna clip my ears with his scissors made it memorable.

I was a regular at Townsends Barber Shop through my early 30s, sometimes driving 100 miles every couple of months for a trim. Brad Hughart, Bob's son-in-law and the shop co-owner began cutting my hair during my teen years. Brad was younger, and seemed more in tune with styles for young guys.

My 15-year-old self really dug the way he could cut some bangs.

Driving from Huntington, West Virginia to Summersville, West Virginia was too much of a chore in my mid-30s, even for a haircut that cost $5. So during that time I found a stylist closer to home. There's a big difference between a barber and a stylist.

The difference isn't so much skill as it is ego.


Last Saturday I made the trip back to Summersville, where my son Jaden experienced his first Townsend Barber Shop cut. For some reason I was overwhelmed with nostalgia, and took a picture to memorialize the event.

Jaden was a bit annoyed, but Brad understood.

Happy Birthday To Me

At this rate, I'm not sure I'll make it to 46.

The Last Tuesday Ever Of Lost

This has been pretty much my entire day.

Iron Man 2

It's just natural to compare a sequel to the original movie on which it is based. Iron Man, in 2008, was a hit for several reasons, but mostly for the amazing on-screen presence of Robert Downey, Jr. His Tony Stark was confident, sexy, arrogant and funny--and we loved it! The audience was surprised a comic book movie about a guy in clunky body armor could be so well made, and so enjoyable to watch.

Iron Man transcended the comic book movie genre.

Iron Man 2 fits right in.

The sequel feels a little full of itself, as if it's still riding the success of Iron Man. The story, which is pretty forgettable, takes too many shortcuts and too much liberty with the characters to pull off a solid production. Watching Stark fight for his life in the first flick is compelling; seeing him gorging on donuts during an existential funk is simply pretentious.

Iron Man 2 has terrific action and a great deal of drama. But there is little foundation on which to build the story. It's a comic book movie, after all.

I'd forgotten.