Sketchy At Best's blog: "Reviews"

What was I thinking, boing to an outdoor concert, on a Thursday, in 45 degree weather? Hell, what was I doing seeing Rodney Adkins and Brooks and Dunn. Let me tell you my friends...sucking it up to see ZZ Top. I'm going to gloss over Rodney Adkins and Brooks and Dunn. I went into the third to last song of Brooks and Dunn before I even knew a song, because they covered someone else's song. They finished up with Boot Scoot Boogie, which I also know, and have hated forever. But the night started out with an hour and a half drive to get there. It wasn't bad, we were with friends, but my leg was absolutely killing me. We met up with some other friends, and their neice and her friend, so immediately I had to watch what I said, because they are 15ish. We get in, and wandered around, and waited for Rodney Adkins to come on. When he did, he had a good response. The place was pretty filled by this point. It was an older crowd, so everyone was there early, not like the metal shows I usually go to, where people trickle in and out all night long. But he played 9 songs, I knew none of them, anost of them were new country cliche. He had the jeans, farm t shirt, and a farm baseball hat, and sang about girls, small town country life, and of course the token song about America. He did debut a new song, which encompassed all three. The highlight of his set, was the kid who passed out two songs into it, after puking. He was officially hammered drunk, and slept thru three songs before security removed him from the premises. At that point, he couldn't walk by himself, and he may possibly have one of the top 10 hangovers of all time today. Next was Brooks and Dunn. Apparantly my boss and I were the only two who didn't know every song they sang. I'm biased, I admit. I think most their songs are new country crap. My attitude towards them doesn't allow me to give a proper review, so I'll let it go. But everyone else LOVED them, and were very responsive, so I'm wrong about them apparantly. Finally, the gods of Texas boogie came on, with a bang and a flash of lights, and were absolutely incredible. Dusty Hill's beard was now grey, but other than that, they look the same as they did in the 80's. Frank Beard's hair was a little grayer, and his mullet was a little longer also. But the show was a greatest hits tour, from Sharp Dressed Man, to Jesus Just Left Chicago. They even threw in Hey Joe, made famous by Hendrix, and Jailhouse Rock, which they played with Brooks and Dunn. Dusty Hill and Billy Gibbons switched off singing duties, and they looked like they were having a great time playing together, still, after 30 some years together. It was funny, watching them play, because they subconsciously move the same way on stage. They sway the same way, keep time the same way, and played flawlessly the whole time. They needed no props. They had a minimal light show, and very little flash, and it was worth every penny. In fact, if they would just concentrate the cameras on Mr Gibbons fingers, you could have a "How to play slide guitar" video. My only regret was not taking my boys to see them. I was under the assumption that it was an adults nite out, or I would have. I know he would have loved it. And I'd have had someone to suffer thru the country beginning.

Colin Farrell(Ray) and Brendan Gleeson(Ken) play two hit men who are sent to Bruges Belgium to cool out after a hit that went bad. Ray is the young up and comer, and it was his first job, and Ken is the veteran. So when they get to Bruges, and find out they're sharing a room, opinions differ. Ray sees Bruges as a personal hell, a place where he's trapped. Ken looks at it as a chance to sight see, to soak up their culture. He spends his time, soaking up the sights, visiting churchs, other points of historical interest. Ray spends his time complaining, rolling his eyes, and wanting to go to the pub. Polar opposites. Ralph Fiennes plays Harry, the boss who sent them there to cool out. He is not happy with how the last hit happened, and it's explained during the movie why. Harry has his own set of standards, and feels that Ray should adopt to his. Colin Farrell does a great job as Ray. And he plays an Irish hit man, where he's from, so his natural accent comes out. And he's great, and pulls off being funny alot better than I thought he would. Brendan Gleeson plays the veteran, nuturing guy to a T. He's somewhat funny, and you get a feeling of warmth about him, despite the fact that his job is to kill people. I thought the script for this was well written. When you think back, alot of things were going on, but how it was written, and the pacing, you never feel frantic. It all rolls out, and multiple things happen at once, but you don't realize it til the end. And the film is chock full of things you wouldn't fine in most comedies. A suicidal hit man, a racist dwarf, a movie shot in Bruges, and everybody speaks English, too many to really list. There were some slow parts to it. And sometimes, despite speaking English for most of myu life, the accents sometimes threw you. Unlike Trainspotting, where everyone had the same accent, you had the Irish accent, and then the British, and it threw you some. I think I may rewatch it with subtitles to see what I missed the first time. But it wasn't bad overall. I'll give it a 7.5 out of 10. There were some slow parts, but I think once I watch it again, I'll pick up on a few things.

Stephen Dorff plays a man who is a planner. His fiance waited for him to get his business going, so that there could be stability in their life, something they never had. Then an intruder changes all of that in a blink of an eye. Or a swing of a bat. Next thing you know, he's on his way to prison. On the bus, he "befriends" a fellow inmate, Snowman, who gives him a basic overview of how it is in the house. He tells him about the politics, the race wars, and a few other basics. He then finds that where he's at, the yard is basically like a gladiator ring. The guards let them fight, they bet, and are actually worse than the prisoners. Along the way, he gets paired with John Smith, played by Val Kilmer. John's family was murdered, and John took his revenge, to the point that he is a prison celebrity. He has ties with everyone, and is basically untouchable. Stephen Dorff is great as Wade Porter. You really feel what he's going thru, as a character. I like him as an actor, because he does a good job of letting his face tell part of the story. Val Kilmer is lights out good. He plays a character, who is waiting for death. His family is dead, and he yearns to join them. The didn't give him the death penalty, so now he sits, and waits. What he does best, is scare you. Here is this quiet, very emotionless man, yet you get the feeling that he could wipe out your own family, and sit down for lunch afterward. Harlold Perrineau plays the part as the bad guard well. You get the feeling that he has a Napolean complex. He's not that big, so he goes around bullying those who can't fight back. You just know he feels like the king of the prison. The script was good. It could have easily turned into a prison/gladiator movie, but they didn't. There was a sbutle prison reform message in it, but it wasn't beaten to death. The starkness of the prison scenes really gave you a feeling of why some of these guys go nuts. I think the movie "Animal Factory" gives a better depiction of why prison turns regular guys into animals. but this one gives good effort. Some of the things they did prisonwise didn't make sense. I've watched alot of prison documentaries, and movies, and it seems odd that they kept him in isolation basically. I think that alot of that had to do with a low budget. This movie took some of the atrocities of Cocoran State Prison, and had their way with them. The inmate fight scenes used real ex inmates for some. I liked it. I like prison movies. I liked the action. I liked it all, and Val Kilmer was banannas! I give it 8.5 out of 10 shanks.

Funny Games is classified as a horror story. It's not a classic horror story, more along the lines of Hitchcock, instead of Romero. Tim Roth, Naomi Watts, and their son Deven Gearhart are vacationing at the lake. Just like the rest of us, they're gonna put the skiff in the water, and have a week of sailing and fun. George, Ann, and Georgie are the typical happy family. It seems like they try to plan it so that they're there with their neighbors, and have golf outings, and grill out, and boat, and basically have a great upper class vacation every year. Until Ann answers the door, and Paul is there. He claims he's the nephew of the neighbor, and that they need to borrow eggs. It all goes downhill from there. Peter shows up, Paul's partner, and all hell breaks loose. What ensues next is 12 hours of torture for the family. I won't spoil it, but there are some very odd, sneakily creepy parts, that I'm still thinking about. Let me say this though, the creepiest part...it could happen. Naomi Watts was great. She had the part of a distraught mom/wife down great. And it was real, you felt her suffering, and her fear. Not to mention, she's just gorgeous. Brady Corbbet (Peter), and Michael Pitt (Paul), play the creepy intruders to a T. They play ultra polite psychopaths. But the best part is the banter between them when with the family. Like they were sharing little jokes. And the obvious lies to the familiy, and the adolescent giggles. The teasing, the banter...you got the feeling that there was a real bond. I thought the script was ok. Not very strong. It did have a few twists, and plot happenings that you didn't expect. I will say, there is a part in it with a remote, that I thought was incredibly stupid. It made no sense, and in my taste, ruined the movie. If they'd have skipped 5 minutes of the movie, it would have been a much better movie in my eyes. The casting was great. They got really good actors and actresses, but didn't ruin it by getting huge names. You know who most of them are, but not so much that they are all you look for. The bad parts were the kids acting. I am not a huge fan of child actors, and this is no exception. He's ok, but not great. My biggest disappointment, other than the remote, was the relative non use of the great Tim Roth. When he's in the movie, he's good. He's looking a little bit older, but it looks good on him. But he spends a whole lot of time in the movie in his own little world, almost as an afterthought. The whole remote thing was horrible. It really threw me. I will talk no more of it. I don't want to give anything away, so this is a shorty. I'm gonna give it a 7 out of 10. It is enjoyable. There are some cool twists, and some pretty good acting. You could rent worse things.

We rented this mostly because my wife thinks Keanu Reeves is hot. I was excited because it wasn't one of the horrible, sappy love movies he comes out with. Reeves plays Tom Ludlow, widowed recently, drinking heavily, a fearnothing cop. Forrest Whitaker is his boss, who watchs out for him, and keeps him out of trouble. Jay Mohr, Amaury Nolasco, and John Corbett round out the rest of the elite vice squad that Ludlow is a part of. But somebody is snitching on them, and when this person is gunned down, right before Ludlow was going to give him an asskicking, all hell breaks loose. Now generally I'm all over Keanu Reeves for his acting. He is good in certain roles. I like him speaking very little, with an air of mystery about him. See Constantine. This too was a good role for him. When he keeps away from emoting, he's in good shape. Forrest Whitaker was incredible as usual. He bounces from hard ass to good guy better than anyone. You know, I don't think I've ever seen him in a role where he didn't go all out, or was bad. And this is no exception. Naomie Harris and Martha Higareda play the wife of Washington, and Ludlow's girlfriend. Both gorgeous ladies, and both did a fine job acting. Especially Harris. You may recognize her from the Pirates series, she's great, and gorgeous. I liked the script for the most part. It moved along well, and only got muddled in a few points. The one odd part was that they introduced a few characters about 2/3's of the way through, and it felt like an idea filler, that they went somewhere, and couldn't explain why. The bad points were Jay Mohr's mustache. Horrible. There was a part of the script, for about 20 minutes, that just sort of popped in, and cleared up some things, but it felt like they were cheating to do it. They didn't really develop realistically how they got there, but they did, then got back on track. Looking back, the script wasn't too inventive, but hid where they were going well, so you didn't get bored, or started looking for things. Cedric the Entertainer played a player in the movie. He wasn't in it long, but he played a street hustler/drug dealer. I like Cedric on stage dancing. I like Cedric telling jokes. I like Cedric entertaining. He doesn't. But overall, I found it very entertaining. I'd like to watch it again, so I can see it, and maybe see if I missed some of the plot. I will definitely buy it. I'll give it an 8 out of 10. It moved fast, kept you watching, and you get to see Forrest Whitaker act.

Jensen Ames was set up, and sent to prison. It's the future, and prison's are now run by the corporations. Mans thirst for more has turned the PPV cage fights into Death Race, where prisoners race each other in souped up, iron plated, heavy weaponed cars. In the last race, Machine Gun Joe, played by Tyrese, took out Frankenstein. So Hennessey, played by Joan Allen, "arranges" for Jensen Ames, played by Jason Hottness...I mean Statham. He was a driver on the outside, and a good one. And she needed someone to wear the Frankenstein mask, with the same skill set. And it goes from there. Ames is blackmailed into driving, and the games begin. The script was somewhat predictable. Loosely based on the 1975 film Death Race 2000...and I do mean loosely, it gave a few new twists, but nothing spectacular. But this movie was about the action, not the plot. The same basic themes run through both, don't trust big government/corporation. Jason Statham was...well...Jason Statham. Quiet, brooding, ripped...as a man of few words, that is his best bet in the action flicks. Joan Allen plays Hennessey. She's great. You hate her by the end of the movie. In the beginning, she looks sort of alienish, but by the end, she's looking fine! She did a good job acting too. Ian McShane, Frederick Koehler, and Jacob Vargas do a fine job as his pit crew. Koehler was especially good as the tic filled, odd Lists. The highlight of the movie was the action. It started with the car design. Souped up, heavily armed...just cool looking. The creativity was great. The characters driving the cars weren't bad. Very Mad Maxish in their design, but very enjoyable. The race sequences were great. The kills spectacular. High speeds, lots of gun play, simple, but clever defenses...lots of fun. I'll be honest. This isn't an Oscar caliber movie on any level. The acting is average. The script predictable. The only really good thing about it is the action. But that is what makes it totally watchable. A few things that bugged me though. Tyrese drives a huge truck, yet it kept up with the smaller Mustangs and Porche's during the race. And I can't stand Tyrese anyway. He is a horrible actor, and the only thing he has going for him is he looks good...yet he still gets roles. I was also bothered with the fact that in the original, Machine Gun Joe was an Italian Guy from Chicago in the original, not...Tyrese. I really enjoyed it, despite lack of nudity, it was very entertaining. My wife loved it, because Jason Statham was all ripped, with his shirt off half the movie. So I'll go on her word, that that is a good thing. I will give it an 8.5 out of 10. I enjoyed it, had a good time, and will definitely buy it.

I really enjoyed the first Harold and Kumar, and every time I watch it, I crave White Castle. So I had decent expectations for this one. It picked up right after the first one ended. They decided to go to Amsterdam. While on the plane, Dumar decides to smoke some pot, in his newest invention, the smokeless bong. The plane encounters turbulance, the door opens, and of course they think that he's lighting a bomb, and the air marshals snag him and Harold. Then the hilarity starts, from the "cock sandwich" to Dubya. I won't go thru their whole adventure, but I'll hit the highlights and lowlights. Kal Penn and John Cho are funny in their characters. I think they do a good job playing off of each other, and Kal Penn does a nice job of not hogging the spotlight, since he's the higher profile of the two. I thought that the two lady interests of them were gorgeous. Paula Garces, who plays Maria, is great until she tries to act. Danneel Harris plays Vanessa. She did a good job, and could actually act. Not to mention, she's hot. The script was hot and cold. There was a running gag, and message thru it, about racial profiling, and why its wrong. I'm not against that, but sometimes they weree so over the top, that it just slid into stupidity. The pacing was pretty good, but you did get the feeling that some of the scenes were just filler, with an attempt to be funny. Rob Coddry was horrible as Agent Fox. He's in charge of chasing them down. Unfortunately he's so stupid, he's his own worst enemy. The character is so poorly written, looking for easy, stupid humor, that I started hating him 2 minutes into him, and never stopped. The other highlights were James Adomian as George W Bush, and NPH as himself. He didn't really sound like Dubya, but he sure was funny. Whoever wrote the part, did a great job. And Neil Patrick Harris as Neil Patrick Harris is just funny. And let me tell you, I think the writers pooled all their efforts to make him funny, and let everything else go just a little. But overall, it was funny. Not near as good as the first one, but you'll get some laughs. I'll give this one 7 joints out of 10, only because there was tons of nudity, but without that, a 6 at best.

I went to Mayhemfest Aug 10th. I had a really great review written out yesterday, but apparantly I timed out somehow, and it disappeared. And I don't have the time to knock it out again, so here is the shortened version. Highlights... Slipknot was incredible. Corey Taylor is one of the best frontmen I've ever seen, and I've seen the great David Lee Roth. I am a huge fan of percussion, and they have it in spades. The band was tight, and I'm not a huge fan of their music, but Wow! Five Finger Death Punch was super heavy, highly energized, and had a huge mosh pit, or several decent sized ones. We were up close, but had to fight our way back. I'm way too old for that shit. Airbourne was great. I had never heard of them, or if I had, I thought they were someone else. What a great party band. High energy, always smiling. Worth looking into for sure. Soil was good. I had heard their stuff before. We also met them, and they were super nice. And they gave me free shirts and shot glasses, and took a pic. Super nice, and talked music for awhile. My youngest saw a bunch of his friends, so it made it more fun for him. While hanging with friends, they saw a fight, and when security got there, the guy ran. They then got to see a guy get tasered. Dem, my oldest (17 and single ladies who have daughters), and I got our picture taken with porn stars. His grin practically breaks his face. We bought shirts and a hat from the Pornstar skateboard company, so they posed with us. The Metal Mulisha was set up, and did a bunch of motorcycle tricks. Kick ass in person. White Castle afterwards. We don't have them by us, so I'm not allowed to pass one without buying some for home. There was a hot blonde there with six inchs of skirt, and no panties that I saw. I don't know your name, but if you are on here...Bueno!!! Lots and lots of hot metal chicks. All shapes, all sizes. Just proves the catholic schoolgirl skirt ALWAYS has a place on this earth. As well as corset tops. Lowlights $12 for a big beer. I'm glad I had the kids, so I didn't have to pay that much. $6 for a soda is bad enough. Metal Dude, sitting next to his ol lady, crying, because she is yelling at him. He was all decked out in tattoos, mohawk, piercings...and eyes full of tears. There are a whole bunch of really spooky, ugly people who listen to metal. Some of the Slipknot fans came in full gear...jumpsuits, masks, all out. It's in the mid 80's. They start to stink after awhile. And they were everywhere. Black Tide. Four kids (all under 20), living the dream, and the four biggest douchbags that we met. I can't wait for them to have to get a haircut so they can work at McDonalds. PETA had a tent there. Which amazed me. What amazed me more is they were offering a sampler cd, you just had to sign up for their propaganda email. That doesn't surprise me. What does surprise me is how mad the guy got, when he looked at my oldest's information, and got pissed because he put his email down as ilovebeef@yahoo.com. The guy got all indignant with him, telling him how cruel we are to animals just so we can eat them. Dem said thats because they are delicious. I've never been more proud of the boy. The guy who was so drunk, he tripped in the bathroom, and flung his arm out, and caught himself by putting his hand in the urinal trough. I wasn't sure if this was a highlight, or lowlight. It was pretty funny though. The douchenozzle who just strutted around, shirt off, with all his stupid Aaryn and SS tattoos. He just thought he was the shit. Kudo's to the group of girls who booed him every time he walked by. He was huge, I was afraid. Thats it for now. A good time was had by all...well, at least us. I wasn't a huge fan of many bands here, but it was a good experience. I saw a few bands that I liked, some I didn't, but it was all fun, except the Nazi guy, he should have been bludgeoned.

I know, this is a little late. I've had some things going on though, that I haven't been able to get to the movies to see it. So I've had two weeks of hype, I've heard top ten movies of all time, I've heard Oscars, record setting box office...all of it in my head when I went to see it. They were correct about the record setting box office. I tried to keep an open a mind as possible, because I do like to be fair. And for 3/4's of the movie, they were right, it was spectacular. Then TwoFace was introduced, and I wasn't as impressed. From the beginning though. I want to get it out of the way. Heath Ledger was the best Joker ever. In fact, they will be hard pressed to reintroduce the character, and not have people find that disagree. He was the perfect mix of crazy and sanity, that IS the character. The best part about him though, was that he wasn't over the top. Jack's Joker was way over the top, because overacting is his specialty. Ledger's Joker was a great study in controlled insanity. You totally felt that he was keeping it all in control, but barely. But his voice, his nonchalant attitude towards violence, his tics...wow. But I don't think he'll get an Oscar. Why? Because he's in a comic book movie. The academy is a bunch of snooty bastards, and it would kill them to actually have the winner be in something people have heard of. Should he get it...I think that he should be in consideration. He was excellent. Perhaps his unfortunate death will open that door. But lets get to what else was good. Aaron Eckhart was great as Harvey Dent. He had the look. He had the attitude. He had the swagger. Maggie Gyllenhaal was great as Rachel Dawes, ex squeeze of Bruce Wayne, curent arm candy of Harvey Dent. I am biased here. I find her beautiful, with an incredible smile. And she's in one of my favorite movies, The Secretary. Christian Bale is, in my opinion, the best Batman ever. He looks dashing as Bruce Wayne, and is pretty ripped, but not so much that you don't believe him in the role. I think what I like most, is that he tries to sink into scenes, so the attention isn't on him, which is how I imagine Bruce Wayne. And he's banging super models, because he's filthy rich. I liked the script. I like how the last two movies start it all over, and you see how the equiptment was developed by trial and error. I like that they show Batman having flaws. Because as super heros go, he is one of the most human of them all. I liked the pacing of it all also. A good speed, not to fast, not too slow. The special effects were out of this world. Lots of explosions, but not so much that they are there to be there. The vehicles were top knotch, very creative, and fitting into the character. But there were flaws. As good as Aaron Eckhart was as Harvey Dent, he was that bad as TwoFace. He didn't have the lunatic feeling you get with TwoFace in the comics. He was just angry and mean. I also didn't like the makeup job. It was the one thing that they totally overdid. I also didn't like the ending. I thought that the scene with the Joker was anticlimatic, and that they tried to wrap up too much, too quickly. Maybe that's just me, but if they would have ended the movie, and left out all the final TwoFace stuff, and saved his character for another movie, I think that it would have been a better movie. But it was very entertaining, and I do reccommend it. This isn't Spiderman, they didn't ruin it by making it kid friendly, so I'd keep the younger kids away, but everyone else, spend the money. I give it 8.5 out of 10.

I came into this movie with high expectations, I must admit. I was one of the people who loved the first Hellboy. I liked the style it was filmed, I liked the script, and the casting was great. So when I heard that the people who did "Pans Labyrinth" joined forces with Hellboy, I got a woody. I felt that there was absolutely nothing that could go wrong with the mixing of the two. Guillermo del Toro directed, wrote, and produced this movie. It seemed like the first minute was his name over and over, he did so much. I wouldn't be surprised if he catered it. I liked what he did with it though. It's obviously a labor of love on his part. Ron Perlman plays Hellboy. He has found a good niche playing parts in movies that are popular, but geared towards certain people. He was great in Aliens. He was great in Blade II, and he continued the trend in this movie. Granted, he's in a red suit, lots of makeup, so its somewhat limited, but he loses himself in the role, and he's great at it. Doug Jones plays Abe Sapian, and The Angel of Death, and The Chamberlain, and he was so good, I didn't realize he was all three. Abe Sapian had a bigger role in this one, and I'm glad, he was great. Selma Blair played Liz Sherman, his gf/wife. Great hair, and a great ass, and she was good. She wasn't in it as much, but does have a secret, and holds her own. Jeffry Tambor comes back as Tom Manning. The Director of Paranormal Affairs. He is Hellboy's nemesis. Hellboy wants recognition, and Manning wants him to keep to the shadows. He's not in it as much, but is stellar as always. Luke Goss plays Prince Nuada. I think that his fighting moves were awesome. I also thought that he did a good job showing his emotions, despite being heavily made up. Now to the good parts. The script was great. It had a solid story, filled in the history well, and wrapped up things well. The pacing was good. The fight scenes didn't overwhelm it. A message was slipped in, but it wasn't overdone. All in all, it was a very good script. I think that sometimes these types of movies are the hardest to write. You know, being its a comic, that people expect cheesy, but to make it a good story, and hold the cheese, is hard. They did it though. The special effects were incredible. The split between CGI, and the puppeteering was unnoticeable. The creatures were gorgeous. The backgrounds were incredible. Visually, the movie was stunning. The movement of the characters was the only tip that it was a puppet over a CGI. They filmed characters ranging from stop animation, to regular, to CGI...mixed throughout. But you're so caught up with it, you don't really notice. To be honest, I was so caught up in it all, I'm sure I missed some things. I know I'll watch it again and again when it comes out on DVD. I loved this movie. If you like action, good stories, and wonderful fantasy characters, go and see this. I give it 10 out of 10 demons.