hellomrworld

Back in the NYC ....

Only here for a couple weeks though ... Actually missing Maine a lot already even only been back for two days....

Have seen two really great movies in the last week:

1) The Aviator --- Has to be Martin Scorsese's best movie since GoodFellas and by far and away his best non New York movie... Leonardo DiCaprio does a great job with the bizarre manic insanity of Howard Hughes and Cate Blanchett deserves an award for Best Supporting Actress for the outrageously good job as Kate Hepburn (wouldn't be mad about Virginia Madsen for Sideways either) ... A great movie #3 for last year between Sideways and the Incredibles ****1/2

2) A Very Long Engagement.... Saw yesterday with my wife for our first anniversary of getting engaged .. our first date 2nd anniversary is on Tuesday the 18th ... Also went to Brasserie Les Halles for Dinner which was fantastic and not that expensive (about 15-20 for most entrees) and also where the author of Kitchen Confidential is the chef ... My wife's pork tenderloin at Les Halles was one of the best meals we have had in NYC ... So I will give Les Halles ****

Now onto the movie ... A Very Long Engagement is directed by Jean Pierre Jeunet who also directed Amelie and City of Lost Children .. and stars the exquisite actress Audrey Tatoo of Amelie ... This is one of the three best anti-war WWI films I have ever seen with Paths of Glory (1965) Stanley Kubrick and the great classic All Quiet on the Western Front .. The absurdity of war and the longing for lost love ones is beautiful in this movie ... This is one of the best of 2004 and an excellent movie ... I will give it ****1/4... and put it #5 on my list of best pictures of 2005.

So that makes the new list....

1) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind *****
2) Sideways ****1/2
3) The Aviator ****1/2
4) The Incredibles ****1/2
5) A Very Long Engagement ****1/4
6) Garden State ****
7) Spider Man 2 ****
8) The Saddest Music in the World ***1/2 ... A really cool, really weird, really different movie set in 1930s Winnipeg .. Isabella Rossilini and the rest of the cast in a very cool, black and white movie by director Guy Maddin that looks like it was lost for 70 years ... Hard to describe .. Mark McKinney was also awesome .. Well worth seeing especially if you like somewhat more Avant Garde Cinema ....
9) Shrek 2 ***1/2
10) Harry Potter 3 ***1/2
11) Vera Drake ***1/2

I still haven't seen Million Dollar Baby, Finding Neverland, and The Life Aquatic which i have heard great things about ....

I also liked I Robot ***, Fahrenheit 9/11 ***, I Heart Huckabees ***1/4, and Die Mommie Die ***, as well as Napolean Dynamite ***1/4....

And I REALLY HATED ... Secret Window 1/2* .. the most boring movie of the year ... and Alexander * ... Oliver Stone's Heaven's Gate and the single biggest diaster of a movie this year and possibly of the decade ... So overwrought, and ridicolous and wretchedly awful that it will probably eventually qualify as a howler, that people enjoy laughing at a lot .... Hopefully Oliver Stone will make better movies.

Trying out NetFlix ... Anybody try any other services??

Also thinking about going with Dish Network or possibly DirectTV ... Are these any better/worse then cable??

And finally getting DSL ... does it work as well as a cable modem??

have a great mid-January and stay warm ....

ecq