#93 - The Beastie Boys Video Anthology: Disc 2

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "How in the hell is he watching Disc 2 first? He must be breaking some rule. That can't be allowed! I won't stand for it!! KILL THE MONSTER!!!" Okay, maybe the last part was a bit much, but this is a good example of how dumb Blockbuster.com can be. Sometimes when you put in a multiple disc set, it goes in to your queue in a way that the discs will only be sent in order. For some reason, this was not the case with this set and they sent disc two first. I expected that it might happen here, but I was hoping against it. I had a dilemma on my hands. I have a strict "no sequels first" rule. Along those lines, I have a strict "season 1 goes first" rule for TV DVD's. I was concerned that watching disc 2 first would break some sort of rule. The last thing I need to hear is a bunch of grief about not sticking to the rules that I myself have made up. Well, I consulted with the senior member of my legal representational firm, Fosberg & Chubbs. He told me that I was not breaking any rule since I was not disrupting any kind of chronological production release order. So, if you don't like that I watched disc 2 first, bring it up with him. I have been given explicit instructions that you must fill out all concerns in triplicate, combine it with a self addressed, stamped envelope, and shove them up your candy ass.

Let me start out by saying that I loves me some Beasties. I mean I LOVES me some Beasties. The very first CD I ever bought was Check Your Head and to this day it is my favorite Beasties album. Needless to say, I was pleased that the first video on disc 2 was for Sabotage. Not only is that one of my favorite Beastie Boy songs of all time, it might very well be their best video, EVER. For those of you who don't know, this video is the Spike Jonze directed take off on 70's TV cop drama intro's. Has nothing to do with the song, but what videos really do anymore. Besides, I don't really care because it's top notch entertainment, especially if you like bad wigs and mustaches. And the best part is that the disc has numerous alternate angles that show more video footage than you see in the final product. The video has about three story lines edited in and out. The different angles show the different stories. It's fun to watch. I can't stand it. I know you planned it.

Here's another great use for the alternate angles. The Beasties constantly employ a couple of techniques in their videos. One is that they take one long shot for the whole song and seem to ad lib everything while playing to the camera. They do this in a number of different ways, and then edit them all together. With the angles, you get to see the whole shot, which is very interesting to watch, especially the ones where they are walking along following the camera. The other technique they use is to do one take for the whole video, but they use multiple cameras for that take, and then edit them together. Well, you guessed it, you get to see the whole shot from each angle. Good stuff there.

The DVD also has a number of remixes for the songs. I am not a fan of remixes for anything, but some of the remixes were actually pretty good songs by themselves. The weren't that great and kind of hard to sit through. I watched each angle and listened to every remix individually, which took a long ass time to do. I broke it up into two viewings that were about two and a half hours each. If this was some music act that I didn't like, I don't know that I would be able to do that. In fact, I may have to veto some stuff in the future if it comes up. I vetoed the Al Green gospel music DVD, and I like Al Green. I just don't need to watch a gospel music DVD. Okay, a little off track there. It's a good DVD, lots of songs from lots of albums, mostly Pauls Boutique, Check Your Head, and Ill Communication, but there's even a song from Pollywog Stew. Talk about OLD SKOOL. It's quite enjoyable, and guess what...there's another disc coming.

#92 - American Splendor

I love it. I love it. I love it. You wanna talk about something that hits all the right buttons in my brain. I love the subject matter. I love the concept for the movie. I love the presentaton of the movie. Truly fantastic, well done, imaginitive, and quite unique. It's right up my alley in so many respects. Should I continue to go on and on about it, or actually say what it is I liked about it? Right.

First of all, the movie is a bio-pic. Or is it "biopic"? No, that sounds like an eye disorder or a problem in the renal division. Anywho, this movie is the story of Harvey Pekar, who happens to be the author of the classic underground comic book that I bet if you really thought about it, you could figure out the title of. The comics, which were originally drawn by Harvey's friend R. Crumb, are essentially autobiographical tales about his life as a file clerk, and this movie is based on those stories. Oh yeah, count me in.

But here's where it gets really good, and what I think makes it unique. Harvey Pekar is excellently played by Paul Giamatti. The narrator of the movie is Harvey Pekar himself. It makes sense. He was the voice of the comics, why not be the voice of the movie. But wait, there's more. We actually get to see Harvey in the movie. And not in a halucination scene sort of way like Fear and Loathing. We see him in a documentary style interview way. So, other than what we know about Harvey from the narrative portions, we get a little deeper and more personal than we otherwise would. I think this is a fascinating technique. It's not a case of using dramatic re-enactments to support a documentary, it's documentary type elements to add more depth to a movie. Where this really gets interesting is in the case of the people around Harvey. The other characters in the movie, specifically his wife and his co-worker, are interesting characters with bizarre eccentricities and quirks that you could see coming from a comic book world. But just as honest as Giamatti's performance is about who Harvey Pekar is, so are his co-stars. And we know this because the people they are based on are in the movie as well. It's fascinating to see what appears to be odd caricatures turn out to be real people. It's fascinating. It's funny. It's touching. It's well made in all aspects. Oh, and there's discussion about the social ramifications of Revenge of the Nerds.

#91 - Adaptation

I loves me some Charlie Kaufman. I loved Being John Malkovich. I thoroughly enjoyed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I haven't seen his others. What I love about his movies is how he is able to take an abstract concept and present it in a naturalistic setting using masterful levels of humor and quirkiness. What you then get is a movie that has interweaving elements of humor that is not quite at a dark comedy level, abstraction that's completely real to the world that has been created, and a surreality that actually combines the two together. He does not juxtapose reality and abstraction in order for us to step away from reality and view the differences through a lens. Instead, through his use of surreality, he combines the two together so that we can see, feel, and learn from the inside. On the surface we are given the unusual, the odd, the quirky, the offbeat, the peculiar. But more importantly, we are given a foundation of internal honesty that is at the very core of everything he presents to us. It's fantastic. It's dynamic. It's infinitely entertaining, and this movie may be the most honest of the ones I have seen because it is so introspective.

Let's see, how to describe this movie? The movie is based on the book The Orchid Thief, so you have that story involved, but the main character is actually Charlie Kaufman himself. Stick with me here, but the actual story of the movie Adaptation is about Charlie Kaufman writing the screenplay for the movie Adaptation. How good is that? Seriously. Wrap your brain around that for a bit. Is that not the best thing you have heard of in a while? At first, you think that the clips of the story you see is what he is writing. Pretty straightforward storytelling. Nothing different there. But, much of what we see at first is Kaufman's struggles with adapting a book that really isn't a story into a story without going too Hollywood with it. What's fascinating about this is that you, the viewer, know that he is writing the movie you are watching, but Charlie Kaufman the character does not. That's all I am going to say about the story. The last quarter of the movie is fantastic, especially once you realize what is going on. I give you the premise. I tell you it's good. But you must go see the movie, because it is even better than what I have said here, and besides, trying to explain it all would take longer than I am willing to give. And you should see it anyways.

A couple of things I want to touch on here. First, as good as Charlie Kaufman is at writing, I am eternally thankful that there are delightful lunatics out there in the world like Spike Jonze to make the writing work. I am also eternally thankful that there can be at least one music video director that doesn't make shitty looking movies, and the movies he chooses to make are Charlie Kaufman's. Secondly, the character of Charlie's brother Donald is fantastic. You see, Donald isn't a real person, yet he is credited as a co-writer, was nominated for an Oscar, and actually has an imdb.com page. That is terrific. And the fake brother being Charlie's internal alter ego with a Hollywood mentality is great. And he's Charlie's twin, also played by Nicolas Cage, and here's the crazy thing, they play well off of each other. How is that possible? The interaction Cage has with his two characters is tremendous and I can't even begin to think about how difficult that is to play off of somebody that you are going to play later. This is one of those movies that Nicolas Cage does that can make me forget and forgive the piles of turd he puts out there like Con Air and Gone In Sixty Seconds. These are the kinds of things he should be remembered for.