*Editor’s Note*

I’ve reviewed a lot of movies on this site. I will continue to do so, but in a more elaborate way. You can find reviews for movies all over the internet, but what is going to separate my blog from other sites reviewing movies, is that I’m going to significantly change the format of my reviews. I’m not only going to review the entertainment aspect, but am going to try and dig deeper and think critically about the films that are being sold to us as entertainment. Whether you like it or not, these films are made to change our minds about things, some good and some bad. I’m going to try and explore this in detail, beginning with this review, so hold on tight. If this sucks to you, too bad, I’m tired of simply glossing over obvious metaphors and propaganda. Plus, I like to think and write.

There is always a dilemma in these cop drama films. The pseudo bad cop, the antihero if you will, always has a conscience issue in the midst of clearing out bad guys, vigilante style. Some of them deal with this notion by being alone and dreary, always depressed, and drinking heavily. Others just snap and kill relentlessly until someone new bursts in on the scene and they change their ways or get caught.

Street Kings involves a little bit from column a and a little bit from column b, as far as cop drama’s are concerned. Our main character played by Keanu Reeves is a tough guy vigilante cop who is the best in his department. He works solo, but he cleans house and takes no prisoners. His victories overshadow his reckless behavior and the precinct lets him do whatever he wants, while covering him if anyone snoops around. This continual blatant disregard for morality and police work begins to wear down our anti-hero to the point where he is against the wall and he doesn’t know why, but one thing is for sure, he’s going to get to the bottom of it…even if it kills him.

Here’s a trailer for the movie Street Kings available now on dvd:

Street Kings has some nice vehicular shots. The camera works well with the driving sequences and offers a fresh look at police pursuit and driving. If you’re familiar with the camera work done in “Collateral” and “Spun” you’ll enjoy the car cinema shots. They are fluid and actually done with some major class, despite the rest of the shots that are frantic and sometimes edited with a box cutter, rather than through other subtle methods.

We get some major cameo’s in the film, first by hip hop artist The Game and secondly by another hip hop icon, Common. If these two wanted to personify their existing “thug” images they do so greatly with their cameo’s; both playing stereotypical gang members, and therefore living their lyrics, if only for a brief time on screen. I wouldn’t call it acting, as they seem to rely on their past experiences to carry them through some tough scenes with a rogue cop, played by none other than Keanu “woa” Reeves.

We have some heavy hitting sequences with Forest Whitaker, as he can act when the pressure is on. He delivers a heavy handed turn of events, and you swear he’s on the good guys side and not playing dirty. However, as the movie continues, the pendulum swings into his face and the swerve is on!

Reeves does a good job trying to be John Constantine again, but overall he lacks the credibility and fierce prowess that is needed for the role. I would prefer a more tough guy Ray Liotta in the lead role, or dare I say, get Michael Chiklis to do it, as he does it so well on “The Shield”.

Street Kings is an odd choice of title as the kings that run the streets are really just a metaphor for the police, and while I am all for the whole idea of anti-establishment, renegade justice, and the whole “Fuck The Police” Los Angelestic lifestyle poetry, I don’t think that this movie captures the essence of the movement that they are trying to portray. Street Kings does send across a powerful message of hope for those that are trapped in what seems like enviable positions. Which is a stretch, I’m quite aware of that, but it’s there somewhere in the underlying rubble that is this film.

There are three things I took away from Street Kings that I would like to mention (and will most likely use as a catalyst for the rest of my reviews on this site from now on, as I’m getting deeper into the thought of movies rather than just throwing random thoughts on this blog…oh well)

Corruption is wrong, no matter how you slice it. Even if you’re throwing prisoners into jail, there are still methods in place that you need to adhere to. This is made possible by the law, and as we know the law wasn’t made for those that follow it, but for those that break it. It’s easy to be in a position of power and abuse that power. Some have stated that power corrupts and absolute power absolutely corrupts. We see this in history many times as the rise of cults, leaders, dictators and even religious sects have placed our world into a fear rattling abyss that has the media touting the demise of our financial structures and our kids in direct line of pharmaceutical fire. This is the world we live in, and Street Kings provides a nice setting for that, while pushing you into what very well maybe a real life scenario as the average person really doesn’t know anything about the life and times of a police officer on the streets.

Secondly, there is no turning back from certain points. Once you have lost your innocence, there is no turning back. As a Christian I was taught this as a youngster, and then after crossing the lines of ignorance into what I believed was knowledge, I realized that my innocence could never return. Solomon, arguably the wisest man in history, once said that there is great sorrow in knowledge. It’s true. Once you know too much and have done too much, there is no wiping away the past. For our anti-hero, after discovering that the corruption of his precinct reaches to the highest of posts, there is a point of no return. Even if he avenges himself and his partners who have died in vein, our hero is left standing there with out a place to go to next, because as the buildings tumble around him, and the screen fades to black our hero still has to come into work the next day and still has to deal with perpetual evil.

Lastly, as mentioned on my closing sentence on the last paragraph, the idea of perpetual evil is on the forefront of this film. Whether you’re religious or not, you have to agree with the fact that there is a level of evil that abounds in the streets of urban and suburban America. You can paint things nicely, and live in a great community but tragedy strikes us all in different ways. Take for instance the film “The Village” where a utopia is birthed out of people that wanted to separate themselves from tragedy, what becomes of all the effort? Nothing. Tragedy still struck and in the closing moments of the film we realize that while their intentions were pure, the overall aspect of evil and tragedy rang out true. Is that to say that these films are pointing into a hopelessness and helpless arrangement and we should cry ourselves to sleep in the fetal position? No.

Street Kings is easy to gloss over. The film is not that great. However, like with a lot of culture that we just slip through our eyes and minds, it has a lot to say if you think about things a little more than the surface. If you judge film critically with more than just an entertainment mindset, you begin to peel away layers of influence that we take for granted. While Street Kings isn’t going to win awards, we can still see various themes presented and pushed upon us in ways that we allow the director and writer to get into our lives. I recommend Street Kings if you like cop drama’s, otherwise it’s just another passing phase in our over saturated “police corruption” line up of films, some of which are better than others.

I don’t think that I’ve been so captivated by any series as much as I have been with this final season of the shield. I have invested roughly 5 years into watching this show, and caught up to the current season this year and watched the final act unfold in a very tense and dramatic fashion.

I’ve seen a lot of bad cop television shows, and movies about cops, but none of them capture the final curtain call that we are getting in this one.

If you’re watching along with me, then you’re probably going to be ecstatic about the final show that is coming up. I don’t know how it’s going to end, but I’m tense, and I haven’t been this tense in a long time about a television show.

So that made me think about the best television show endings ever made.

So here is my top list of personal memorable endings for television series’. This is very biased:

Six Feet Under - Six Feet Under is one of my favorite series ever. I was able to work at California Casket Company, and helped broker the deal to rent out a lot of the props found on this show! So I was excited to see the products in the show! My boss also had a walk on roll at one point, that was too cool. Six Feet Under follows a family who work and own a funeral home. There’s so much drama and story involved, and Dexter fans will notice a very gay main character.

The Sopranos - It all leads up to this….and what happened? Nothing. Nothing happened! What in the world! This sucked for sure, I didn’t like it. I was frantic and thought HBO screwed me over. However, The Sopranos’ ending wasn’t all that great. What a lackluster ending, but then again, it made me remember.

Seinfeld Season 9 Ending - The final bow of Seinfeld and his friends left a sour taste in many mouths. I mean come on…Seinfeld in jail? That was definitely not how we wanted it to end. However, Seinfeld and his friends are locked away and that was that.

Malcom in the Middle - I invested a LOT of time watching Malcolm and his family grow up on television and the ending was actually satisfying to me. Malcolm goes to college and the rest of the family…well…just make it in stereotypical fashion. It wasn’t half bad.

I guess that’s it…I don’t remember a lot of shows that I invested so much time into and then saw finished.

The Shield is an awesome show, and if you haven’t invested into it, fine…but you’re going to miss out on something huge when the 90 minute series finale happens next week!

Let me introduce myself again, my name is Sir Jorge. I call myself Sir Jorge when I’m online, but my real name is just plain Jorge. I started a record label when I was 16 years old, and I know way too much about music. Seriously, I am a human encyclopedia of musical prowess and if you try to test me, you’re going to be shamed because I’m like an idiot savant when it comes to a few things. Those things of course being horror film, music, comic books, video games, the bible, and of course professional wrestling. At least in the scope that I can talk about it like I am reading wikipedia.

Why is there music on this blog again?

Well, let me bring you up to speed…stay with me now.

I ended my music career by crashing my mom’s car and nearly dying in a terrible, unfortunate accident. I then moved to music journalism. I wrote for several magazines and even garnered a paycheck at times. I was then fired from several magazines for writing reviews that were not coherent with their views. Then I moved to Seattle, Wa. I started writing for a zine here, and I had managed to get on the payroll of a nationally distributed full blown monthly magazine! I was on the top of my game for a short while, then I wrote a bad review on an emo band that was on the cover. The editor called me, yelled at me (the editor from New York), and then told me to fix it. I refused. I got fired.

I then wandered around the internet looking at poorly written articles by idiots just like me. So I started a music blog. That thing was awesome, it was getting noticed left and right and people actually started to enjoy what I was talking about.

Then something bad happened.

It’s hard to pinpoint where it happened, but it did. The site crashed in terms of visitors. I went from 400 visitors a day to 50 within a week, then I went on vacation and didn’t post for a few days and the hits just stopped. I now get about 10 hits on that site a day and I’m tired of running like a mouse in a wheel. (Or is it a hamster? Who cares) So I have just allowed that site to sit there. If someone finds it, fine.

So what now? That’s blog #9 that I’ve shut down right? I’ve failed so much at blogging that you would think I was desperate for a second job. (In some ways I am) So I now am going to merge the content that was reserved for that blog and place it here, and hopefully you movie fans can make room for my music fans out there that like me trashing bands and being honest about everything. Along the way, you might learn something as I try to connect the dots in essay format on some of musics dumbest moves.

Oh and expect some changes to my movie reviews too, as I’m tired of fast reviews and want to express more thought in these things. For those of you that are not sure what to expect email me at sirjorge AT gmail dot com and I’ll email you the link to my horror movie site and you can read my epic reviews and thought provoking questions at that blog…which has garnered critical praise and pr 4/10 for no apparent reason.

But back to my story. I was watching this skateboarding video and this song came on and I was floored again. So after much searching and much mental anguish, I found out that the song that has been stuck in my head this whole time was from one of my favorite bands: Supergrass! Yep, the song “Alright” by Supergrass features catchy lyrics and an offbeat video…here’s the lyrics for “Alright” By Supergrass followed by the official music video…cause I want you to have it stuck in your head now too.

We are young, we run green,
Keep our teeth, nice and clean,
See our friends, see the sights, feel alright,
We wake up, we go out, smoke a fag,
Put it out, see our friends,
See the sights, feel alright,

But we are young, we run green,
Keep our teeth, nice and clean,
See our friends, see the sights, feel alright.

So now what? Well you can just wait for my next post about some random movie, you can check out my list of 1,000 books to read, or you can purchase Supergrass’s album “I Should Coco” from amazon.com or download Supergrass’s mp3 album “I Should Coco” from amazonmp3.com. Things are going to get a lot more crowded, content wise on this site, so stay awake….snoogins…(sorry)

This movie’s success boggles my mind. So many people went to see this movie and made it one of the top grossing comedies of recent years and yet it’s a horrible unfunny movie featuring some very talented actors. We get a group of mid life crisis males going on a road trip to find adventure. Along the way they meet a biker gang, and must defend themselves and a small town, after they accidentally blow up their bar. This movie sucks.

Here’s a trailer:

William H. Macy, Martin Lawrence, John Travolta, and Tim Allen play the four dudes that we are suppose to sympathize with. If this is the future for myself and many other people out there working 9 to 5 in tech land, then the future is going to suck. These guys play a variety of cuckold men who can’t seem to get it together after all these years. They have Harley’s though, and for whatever reason they feel that a road trip is going to make life worth while. It’s a lame idea. The execution isn’t all that well.

You know a movie is bad when there are 3 musical montages before the halfway point of the film! That’s right, 3 different musical montages! I hate musical montages in comedies and I hate it when films rely on that to waste precious time and effort! I want to strangle the writers of Wild Hogs for putting in 3 musical montages! Come on! Why?

The subplot of this film deals with a biker gang who has been terrorizing a small town. The “Wild Hogs” group together and fight back, only to inspire the small town to fight, and we get a happy sort of movie.

These types of stories are not new. These stories are reserved for the bullied kids in a Disney film. Every underdog movie out there has the same storyline, and the kid’s versions do a lot better. So if you’ve seen an underdog children’s film like The Mighty Ducks, you’ve already seen a better version of this film.

The only thing that can save this film at all is the fact that Marisa Tomei is in it. She’s still looking good after all these years. If you want a better comedy, check out “The Mighty Ducks” or if you want a better movie altogether check out one of my favorite films: “The Cooler”. This movie sucks.

Don’t worry, I’ve got some good movies on tap for the near future. Just hang in there with me and my chorus of horrible comedies. Things will turn around sooner than later, trust me.

In the meantime, why not check out a book from my 1,000 books to read list, it would be better than sitting down and watching “Wild Hogs”.

I hate to break the news to everyone, but apparently Batman is set to retire in the comic book world. Yeah, it’s probably just a clever way for DC Comics to make some extra money on comic book sales as the geeks of the world go searching for issues of Batman R.I.P rather than just waiting for a nice trade paperback or limited edition hardcover. Death in comics is nothing new, but retirement?

We saw Batman retire at one point before, as his return is chronicled in The Dark Knight Returns, but this one seems a bit more permanent. Word on the street is that Neil Gaiman is already penning a tribute to the Bat…which strikes me odd. Considering that Kevin Smith has just polished off a 3 issue run of the comic book hero and some rogue villains, it is odd to consider that on another plane Dc is planning the batman’s final bow.

I don’t know what’s going on, but you can’t really kill of a comic book character, can you?

Remember Superman’s death? Billions of people came out of the woodwork to buy comics, as it was the death of Superman! I remember as a kid, my friend nearly got beat up because he crumpled a page of another student’s Death of Superman comic book. It’s not worth much, considering every single comic book nerd in the world has a copy of it. Nice one DC Comics. It didn’t last, Superman was replaced by a stable of other Supermen, and is still seen in many dc comics to this day.

So will Batman really die? Probably not. But I might want to invest in DC stock, because this retirement of Bruce Wayne is looking good…unless they swerve us all. Who knows? Word on the street is that they want to kill Spiderman too…oh well.

I finally got my laptop to be portable. Previously, I had a usb keyboard that was meant for gaming on a desktop and it made my laptop unmovable from my desk. I was fine with that, until we planned on family vacations and I needed my computer to come with me. So I thought about buying a new computer and just selling off my older one. But the problem was fixed for me this morning.

This morning with a lightbulb going off in my head, I went ahead rebooted my computer to the factory settings. That’s right, I wiped the whole thing. However, I didn’t remember to back up anything at all. So after a while, BOOOM, the computer was like new.

The best news that came of it was that my computer’s keyboard is now back in full working order! You see, the gaming usb keyboard made it so I couldn’t use my laptop keyboard at all! So now it’s back in action and I can take my computer anywhere I go. That means when I’m on vacation I won’t be letting my blogs just sit around, I will be live blogging from the road and in new locations!

So now I don’t need to buy a new laptop as mine is awesome and back to its original settings…with one big upgrade! I installed a 1 gb ram chip so it’s at 1 1/2 gigs of ram and running smooth!

The sad part was that I lost 40 gb of music. It’s ok, because I don’t steal music. I have cd’s real cd’s and now i have to rip them all back to my computer. Quite the task if you think about it.

Oh well.

So that’s the end of that.

Not satisfied with taking people’s word for things, I put this dvd into my dvd player and went for the gusto! This film sucks. Mike Meyers needs to get beat up for believing that people would find this movie hilarious, and he should get to doing a Wayne’s World 3 or something other than this horrible film.

The film is about the #2 guru of love and he travels to the U.S (from India) to try and reconcile a torn marriage between a hockey player and his wife. Things get difficult when a rival player comes into the picture and shakes things up. Complicate things even more with Jessica Alba playing a single hockey team owner who falls for the guru and we’re talking about comedic stupidity of epic proportions.

Here is a trailer for The Love Guru:

Mike Meyers looks at the camera when he makes references to previous comedic efforts, dropping one liners from other films and motioning other characters from his past and you know he’s mocking you. You just know that he is one step ahead of you and is making fun of himself because you’re already disgusted by his stupidity.

The film plays out fast, and isn’t horrible in that sense. There’s a lot of physical humor and I find the picture easy on the eyes.

This is one of the worst movies ever made. I made it through the film, but it was painstaking to say the least. What a bunch of garbage.

Mike Meyers can be funny, but this movie makes me want to go back to the glory days of comedy, where Wayne’s World was in theaters and making people laugh. Meyers hasn’t been funny in a long time.

When’s the last time Mike Meyer’s was funny?

Bee Movie got a lot of publicity and I avoided it like the plague. I am not a fan of animated movies. I just can’t stand children’s film anymore and I avoid them whenever I can. However, I broke down and got this one and was surprised to see it, as it is more adult oriented in its humor than I expected and you know what? I’m a sucker for Jerry Seinfeld.

Here’s a trailer for Bee Movie:

The movie is interesting to me on a lot of cool levels. Beyond the voice work by some great people, the movie revolves around 1 bee and his struggle to get away from the doldrums of working in the hive. Along the way he meets a woman and sues the human race for taking all the bee’s honey, derailing all sorts of things.

The movie features a TON of Seinfeld. He is all over the place in this film and it’s like watching a long winded episode of his late television show, without the supporting cast to help him carry the comic weight.

In the end, Bee Movie is a lightweight, hilarious movie, if you’re a fan of Seinfeld. It’s a little more adult than average children’s animated film, and maybe that’s why I enjoyed it so much. I did think Seinfeld gets annoying in this film, and the plot is a bit convoluted, but hey…it’s an animated film? What can I say? I recommend Bee Movie if you’re in for some mindless entertainment, as it is not half bad.

Oh and I’m well aware of the fact that this film is not animated traditionally and it is a CG film. I just refrained from calling it that. Sorry.

This is pretty cool, as I haven’t featured any skateboarding artwork in a while. I’ve been too busy with the media overload that is movie reviews, music reviews, and a new blog I just started that gives book reviews. I’m a busy guy I guess…at least in theory.

These boards are part of a series of skateboards from Santa Cruz skateboards and feature Robt Williams artwork on “boal” skateboard decks. These baords are awesome to look at, and the illustrations speak louder than any description I could give them.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, these boards are way cooler than just rides of death (like my skateboard is) they are pieces of contemporary art, and should be treated as such sometimes.

Too bad Warhol’s dead, he might agree with me.

HBO films makes an incredibly moving film based on a book by the same name. This seemingly documentary style narrative offers insight into the world of Native Americans and U.S government.

Here is a trailer for Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee:

The plot surrounds three different people at different stages of their lives. We see the assimilation process of a young Indian boy as he gets a serious education, Sitting Bull a Lakota chief who refuses to submit to U.S occupation, and a Senator who tries to lobby on the Indians behalf in Washington.

The movie is filmed nicely and it’s easy to watch, as the story gets deeper and deeper and the treachery of the U.S government is revealed as the main protagonist in this film. There are major themes that are anti-assimilation shown here in this film, alongside many other anti-government themes as the Native Americans are portrayed as victims of bureaucracy rather than glorified as warriors or a self sustaining people.

The film is epic in length, standing at 132 minutes long and really feels long towards the middle of the film. However, it just seems like overkill to see stares and sadness, and I know it’s being done for dramatic effect but it is just too much for me.

History as I know it is over turned in this film. There are a few schools of thought on the matter of American Indians and Manifest destiny, and my schools taught me that it was God’s hand that caused the Indians to lose so much. Citing that they praised their idols over God and therefore God took their land away and caused their pain. I never liked that explanation, and while that’s fine for people to believe, I don’t think that “evil” is conquered by more “evil” and this film depicts both sides at fault in various situations. But these changes bring about so much more in me than just pointing fingers at corrupt government greed or anti assimilation structures.

I wasn’t born in this country, yet no one knows nor cares about that. I assimilated in a lot of ways and my culture has washed away from me in many different things. I related the Indian plight and noticed one instance where Sitting Bull looks to his older son and sees that he has assimilated and tears stream down his face. Sometimes I feel that my father, despite all his dreams of a better life in America, despises the fact that myself and my mother assimilated and never looked back. Is there way to maintain both? I’m not sure. It’s difficult.

I know, comparing myself to the Native American storytelling found on this film is stupid to some, however that’s how I digested it upon viewing. The film is well made and beautiful to look at. I’m not sure how accurate it is, but it’s a good movie and story. It’s a look at history that no one ever really talks about any longer, and most likely because we are too busy arguing about current events, and most people don’t know their history. It saddens me that people are so ignorant to the past, as we are repeating it in many ways now.

This movie was huge at the time of release and even was nominated for 17 Emmy awards!

I highly recommend “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee” as it is like a history lesson wrapped in tears, as the stories play out, this thing is a heavy handed look at a piece of history that is sometimes romanticized instead of laid out. I will be reading “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee” by Dee Brown and reviewing it later on in the history of this blog. Right now I’m still enjoying my vacation through Latin American history.

In 1994 amidst a slew of action comedies and urban, gritty stories about African American life, Spike Lee knocked one out of the park with Crooklyn. One of only two of Spike Lee’s films to earn a pg-13 rating and is overlooked by many people as just another 1970’s nostalgia tale.

The film follows a family in the early 70’s living in Brooklyn New York. That’s about it, it is just a year in the life of a family set to some great music and a strong contender for best family movie I’ve ever seen.

This is usually where I put a trailer in, but unfortunately for you guys there is no good trailer for the film Crooklyn that I could find, so just take my words and go and get this film for your own review.

The movie presents a strong family unit, although the Mother is the real strength of the family. However, the movie if only for structure’s sake is about a girl named Troy and her family life. She and her siblings learn life lessons in this drama/comedy with such candid situational humor. It’s like watching The Cosby Show or Good Times, it just feels like you’ve seen it before. It feels like everyday life, and doesn’t really jump into anything too overtly scary or uproarious, as it is your average tale of underclass struggle.

That being said, this movie is slow. It’s about 2 hours long and it feels like it. The salvation of this film comes from the curiosity of the viewer to how things are going to turn out. The mom gets sick, the father is a struggling musician who seems to be moving towards a single father role, and the kids grow up fast with great lessons about life taught through random experiences that you probably can relate too. One such instance is a scene where one of the kids doesn’t want to eat black eyed peas to the point where he vomits on a plate and is let go from the dinner table. These situations are done with such a careful stroke of genius that you swear this is a documentary at times, as I know I did the same thing as a kid several times.

The music makes this film timeless. The soundtrack features songs from the era and carefully placed within key moments of the film, and is definitely something that I want to pick up for my own personal collection. The artists on the two volume soundtrack feature The Crooklyn Dodgers, The Staple Singers, Sly & The Family Stone, Curtis Mayfield, The Persuaders, Joe Cuba, The Jackson 5, The Chi-Lites, The Spinners, Jean Knight, The Five Stairsteps, The Jb’s, The Chambers Brothers, Marc Dorsey, The Stylistics, Stevie Wonder, Cymande, James Brown, Manu DiBango,The Delfonics, Isaac Hayes, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles and Johnny Nash, and while these artists are featured on the official Crooklyn Soundtrack, they leave out some great artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Aretha Franklin and dare I say The Partridge Family, who are prominently featured in key scenes of the film.

The film is long, but it’s not half bad. This portrait of African American life is so nice to see amidst films that seem to sometimes exploit the underbelly of urban life. I believe it was important for Spike Lee to show this side of strong African American family in a stark contrast to popular cultures assumption of Black society with films like “Menace II Society”, “Boyz in the Hood” and even with historical films like “Dead Presidents”.

I liked this film, even though I felt bored at times by it, in large part to the strong father figure in this film. I grew up without a strong father figure in my life and my sister is growing up without a father, so seeing a strong father stick it out with his family is a joy to see in popular culture. Think about how many times we see the bumbling idiot of a father in today’s culture and you’ll see my point clearer.

I recommend Crooklyn for Spike Lee fans, but I don’t know if it’s going to hit all audiences at it does seem really long at times, and nothing extravagant happens in this film.

What’s this? I’m posting up something that’s not attacking the candidate I didn’t vote for? Yeah. I was thinking the other day about how I like to tout myself as an open minded individual and someone that can mix my faith with the open ears and eyes of how Jesus truly was. I also then started to consider that a lot of people that talk bad about others don’t really know much about the other person. I’m guilty of this too. In my effort to educate myself on what is going on around me, I decided to read a book about the president-elect Barack Obama. However, I’m not really concerned about his newest endeavors and this book seemed to be interesting to me. If nothing else the title grabbed me. Why? I don’t know. Maybe because I haven’t really sat down and talked to my dad about anything serious in a long time, and maybe someday I want to write a book with a similar title.

So while I’m deep in the trenches of learning about Latin America right now, I think I’m going to put this on my “to read” list which is only about 3 or 4 books long right this second, and I’ll make sure to be one of the few conservatives that actually read something about the future president.

Why read only what I like? Maybe it’s a good thing to try and challenge my own beliefs and ideas, because if not, am I any better than the idiots that I lash out against? If nothing else, it will only reaffirm my stance on certain things, and if it changes my mind, then that is a possibility but I’m not going to let anyone spoon feed me, I’m going to use what I have to find out for myself, hence my reasoning for being a Christian. I’m tired of hearing random arguments for and against different ideas from people that are heavily one sided. I’m tired of hearing only one side of everything, I’m going to once again venture forth and read and watch things for myself.

You might remember that while a lot of people talk about how bad certain movies are, I watch them and make my own decision about them. So I’m not just spewing out rhetoric, I am right there learning, growing, and wasting my time for the sake of being that one person that isn’t just a random Christian but rather someone that is conscious of culture to the point where your petty arguments fade away into your own closet of close mindedness.

So if you’re down to come along with me on this adventure pick up Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama and maybe we’ll all learn something.

Oh and for you guys that are laughing at me, and are just cynical, don’t think I didn’t read anything prior to this in the political realms.

I read “The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Visions of Glory” by William Manchester. This massive book is roughly 931 pages and weights 3 1/2 pounds. There are very little pages dedicated to pictures, and offers one hell of a history lesson. So while there might be those that will challenge my decision to read this book above, you might want to read “The Last Lion” and then talk to me about how much political reading material you have under your belt.

I’m no light weight. Trust me.

Oh and the thing I love about blog posts is that sometimes, like this one, they are so poorly written. I’m a horrible writer.

Role Models presents quite the hilarious premise. Two guys get involved into a major car wreck and instead of going to jail, they get community service by being role models for some youth.

There are two different characters, one is free wheeling, aptly named Wheeler. The other is more controlled and contrived and cynical. Danny, as we know him, is hilarious in his sarcasm and hates his job of going school to school selling the energy drink “Minotaur”.

Here’s a trailer for Role Models:

There is a lot of comedy in the first three quarters of this film. I was really enjoying this film and all the sarcastic one liners that were being traded between all the characters. If you remember “40 Year Old Virgin” and the “You know how I know you’re gay” round of jokes, then you’ll immediately find hilarity in all the jokes that are going on in the beginning and middle of this film.

Paul Rudd is genius in this film, and I was laughing so hard because I have said the same thing he has in many of the situations that I have been in. In fact, sometimes I feel the same way that the character feels about his job and life. So on a relatable realm, this film is great.

However, it falls apart in the fourth act, which has the characters “learning” from their experience and changing their minds about life, and love blah blah blah. This sort of sappy ending is where I lost it.

So 75% of the movie is awesome, the final 25% is just lame. I’m just saying.

This week has been horrible for me. I’ve just had a hard week, that’s all. So to top it off I saw one of the worst movies ever made. It sucks, as we continue to see Cuba Gooding Jr’s career melt away. Daddy Day Camp is one of the biggest piles of trash that movie studios have ever made!

The movie is a sequel to a, dare I say funnier, Eddie Murphy film called “Daddy Day Care” in which a stay at home dad ends up starting a daycare. This of course was previously the premise for a Simpsons episode in which Homer starts a day care then insights rebellion from his own children!

Here’s a trailer for Daddy Day Camp:

The course of the movie is hilarious, but not because of the actions in the film but more over the fact that anyone would green light this piece of garbage directed by none other than the Wonder Years alumni Fred Savage! Yep. Let that sink in a little bit….

If that wasn’t bad enough the comedy isn’t well timed and the quality of film looks like it was done in front of a green screen! Yes, the movements and the opaque pasty colors make this film look completely fabricated and makes movies about camp seem like disasters waiting to happen.

The movie is about the main character from the first film, and his course of buying a rundown camp sight and introducing a day camp but only to have disastrous results when a rival camp challenges his camp to an “olympiad” of sorts.

I highly recommend NOT viewing Daddy Day Camp as it is a horrible mockery of camp comedy movies. If you’re really aching for a good camp comedy I would recommend the following films, otherwise just forget you even heard about this film:

Ernest Goes To Camp
Heavyweights
Meatballs
Wet Hot American Summer

Help me win some free skateboarding goods from the Kayo Corporation. All you have to do is view this video and then comment on it on my youtube page (click on the video to get forwarded there) or just simply view it here.

The person with the most views of this video (in the contest) will win a box of goods from the Kayo Corporation of skateboarding goods. I could sure use the free stuff and the video is not half bad.

I have like 17 views already, so I need a good number of views to catch up.

Pass it along too, it’s for a good cause.