I have never seen so many naked people in one movie. I don't know what was more naked, the asses or the greed. Over-the-top excesses in every area you can imagine, and then some. There are some incredibly funny and some incredibly intense moments. If you don't know anything in this flick, you should. Well, maybe not some of the sex deviancy maybe, but about Wall Street's insanity. All the same, I spent three hours amazed at the slow-mo train wreck. 9/10
Bring extra popcorn. You'll need it.
Dan
Everything you expect; beautiful cinematography, graceful martial arts, mystical ancient Japanese magic, honor, unrequited but mutual love, jealousy, greed...a wonderful example of the genre exquisitely acted. Just no surprises. I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I love this stuff. 7.5/10 and would've been higher if I had something shocking or completely new.
Pass the popcorn.
Dan
I loved it. There is an "artists' heart" sweetness and flow to the film. The characters are gritty and real and loveable. Integrity, courage, dedication, and heart matter. So does keen observation...and catching your ride before everything blows up on you. Beautiful take on a modern literary classic. 8/10
Dan
OMG. I think Hollywood has rediscovered the lost art of storytelling. I think these actors were all beyond phenomenal. I totally expect Oscar noms out of this. Jennifer Lawrence is supernaturally funny and brilliant, and Amy Adams and Christian Bale are the chess masters of emotional manipulation extraordinaire...maybe. I don't know who conned who...I think it changes minute-by-minute. More twists than a spinning windmill. But Jen & Amy alone together is a fire waiting to burn down the house. I need a new scale for this one. 100/100.
Dan
Tippsssesss on your toesssesss preciousss, yesss, on your toesssesss! It'sss MINE! MINE!! Sneaking and fire and fighting and eatingsss! Don't losssse our Preciousss little hobbitsess! Puts itss ON! * This has to be the penultimate Celtic dragon story, and the technology has finally caught up with the imagination! I'm seeing awards appearing like magic! Like an arrow from an elven bow, like a fish in a barrel! Love and faith are what everyone need, and courage, for where the dark things lie, biding and biding the time to BITE! 10/10...11/10...
Dan
Better than the first movie. Acting: Top-notch. Casting: Awesome. Cinematography and graphics: phenomenal. Depth of plot: Amazing. This movie was timely and played perfectly on mordern psychology. Jennifer Lawrence deserves at the least a nomination. And it's just great storytelling. We're up two-fer this week in film. 10/10
Dan
Words have long ago stolen my heart, and this story did the same. This was written and filmed with the soft, magical eyes of a poet, and it will make and break your heart with ease. Beautiful cinematography, outstanding narration, incredible writing. Love, peace, and education are both gifts and privileges for those who guard them. So is memory. Just goes to show, smoke and shadows can hide beauty until the light is ready to show it. 10/10
Dan
Absolutely FANTASTIC store. Great clothes for tall guys, (I'm 6'6") and great deals. They also have layaway plans & will hold items up to a week. 10/10
Young love, tough love, secrets and shadows battle love and light. Extremely good acting, and a much deeper-than-average coming-of-age plot mix it up in this splendid little sleeper. It's easy to love the leading couple in this, but it hurts to watch what looks like it might be a train wreck in slow motion. The supporting cast is very good as well. If whiskey were a woman, she'd get a Screen Actors' Guild card and good money out of this role. This one's good to the last drop. Here's to young hearts on fire! 8/10
Pass the popcorn,
Dan
Robert Redford as the Old Man of the Sea, gaining intimate knowledge of the spin cycle. No one will ever find a floating pickle jar, but they may or may not find this guy tumbling around in the Indian Ocean. Very few actors can make you feel completely gripped in Poseidon's clutches for almost two hours with maybe ten words of dialogue the entire time, but Robert does it with ease. No shots fired, no explosions, just a damn good story. Catch the wave, or maybe an ocean breeze, or a fish...if you can. 10/10
Dan
A fastinating look into high-level macro-economics by the former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, in easy-to-understand terms. Thos goes beyond the "blame game" and into what's really going on in our economy. 9/10
We recently got the Xperia Z. It is in all other ways a fantastic phone, but even with a 140 IQ, I had to resort to Google search to find the way, and the method changes between landscape & portrait orientation.
Above is the correct answer.
My next question is "why isn't this shit standardized across the 'droid platform????" This is way too basic to go all greedy-capitalist-proprietary nutso on.
9/10 for the phone, -9/10 for the idiots that couldn't make something so basic intuitive and easy to find.
Dan
I actually forgot it was Tom Hanks. Phenomenal movie. Totally glagd we went. Gripping suspense and acting was amazing, as well as cinematography. I don't want to say too muchf so as not to spoil, and you don't want to miss it. 10/10
Dan
Action Comedy. And I do mean comedy. I laughed so hard at parts of this I thought I'd need Depends to make it through the flick. It is SO over-the-top in just the right places that it's incredibly clever. So is the cast, which is full of phenomenal actors, including Lady Gaga. (That Lady G needs to do more comedy flicks.) The movie is a brain-bending mix of predictable and unpredictable. The eye-candy (both technical hardware and human software) is really cool in all the right ways to pull this off. OMG, does Sofia Vergara pull it off!! In the end, you find yourself laughing hysterically at the collective craziness of the entire North American continent, and even the whole planet, which goes at least three levels deep.10/10 for fans of the series, 10/10 for deep thinkers, and...nah. Just 10/10.
Dan
Riddick: Taking bleak "law of the jungle" to a desert-world art form. Vin Diesel and the entire cast did a fantastic job acting. There's also at least as much plot as there is action. In a lot of ways, this felt like Goth meets sci-fi. I love the Underworld series, and like this even better. Yes, this is very dark sci-fi, with an extremely dystopian backdrop, but the desert planet isn't Earth, and there is clearly a starfaring future for humanity. It's not hopeless. Some of the tech is pretty cool, but nothing that hasn't seen another version elsewhere. The action is great, and Riddick has a "MacGuyver-style" inventiveness that I like. I'd like to read the book to clear up some questions on the storyline, though. Bust out the popcorn, and hold on to your sweetheart if they'll go with you. Adrenaline rating is a solid 8. So is my rating of this flick. 8/10
Dan
The Grand Master: Probably the best martial arts film I've ever seen. Love, Romance, Martial Skill, History, Cinematography, Acting, Philosophy...all top-notch. A must-see for lovers of the genre, and great for everyone. 10/10 - Dan
We saw the Ides Of March opening for Herman's Hermits at the Paramount theater - an old and beautifully-restored Vaudeville theater. It was a phenomenal concert in an intimate venue. The front man for Ides Of March was also the lead for 38 Special and Survivor. (Yeah, Eye of the Tiger) Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits was doing a fantastic comedy routine, and even more phenomenal songs. Way, way fun! 10/10
Dan
Stay away from the light! No, seriously...this film is big and dazzling. Leonardo DiCaprio fits the bill perfectly with his odd mix of call resolve and obsessed intensity. Tobey McGuire seems so enthralled that you almost think his character is in love with J. Gatsby. Carey Mulligan is dazzling as Daisy, the ultimate in passive-aggressive female manipulation. She's a strange twist between"deer -in-headlights" vapidity and elven princess torn between two lovers. The parties, OMG, the parties!! Amazing cinematography. 9/10
Vacation primer that's made right here in Chicago. Beautiful amber beer with a nice hint of citrus. Vacation is two weeks away and I'm already ready! 9/10 Cheers!
Dan
Far and away the best Iron Man yet.
Robert Downey's T. Stark is an incredible mix of childish, brilliant, capable, arrogant, and vulnerable.
Gwynneth's Pepper Potts is totally hot, and brilliantly Tony's grounding circuit, with a hint of all-America-girl-next-door who is way more than meets (sweetly) the eye.
Tony's ex-fling is pretty smokin' too.
Don Cheadle's Robbie Rhodes is fantastic.
The Mandarin is going to blow your mind, and there's this really cool kid in Tennessee, and it's wonderfully funny while brilliantly and subtly multi-layered.
Saren loved it, but thinks it's all a dream.
MUST-SEE for Marvel fans!
10/10 - they blew it out of the park supersonic. (And duh, yeah, stay through the credits!)
Dan
Saren & Bill and I had a fantastic time! Some of us guessed who the killer was. We had a fantastic dinner, and we met some fun and interesting people. I think both of us would do this again. 9/10
Buzz Lightyear...I mean Jack Harper...I mean Tom Cruise...actually did a decent job acting here. There's a story with some pretty good depth, and both female leads (yup, two) are really good. There's a taste of Matrix-ness, a touch of Mad Max...and dammit, he should've been #42. I love the sky pool, and Maverick...er, Jack Harper can really fly that thing. I'm left with quite a few questions, and wishing I could read it as a hard sci-fi novel to get the story's depth and background. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this film. However, like almost every sci-fi flick in recent years, it makes me feel like a broken Star Wars droid, stuck repeating one phrase over and over: "Post apocalyptic... Post apocalyptic.. Post apocalyptic.. Post apocalyptic.. Post apocalyptic.. Post apocalyptic..." 8/10
Dan
Perfect movie for Easter Sunday. This flick has what the other critics rating it clearly need a lot more of; love and kindness. Maybe it's just the breath of fresh air of a sci-fi movie that isn't awash in complete darkness and destruction, but I and several others I know loved it. Yes, there are a couple of big holes in the story; how did they take over in the first place, and a "healed environment," but the cars and trucks and aircraft all clearly run on some type of liquid fuel... All the same, definitely worth seeing, and the young romance isn't so bad, either. 8/10
Dan
I'm not that thrilled with what I'm seeing out of HTC right now.
I currently run a one-year-old HTC Amaze. Other then the battery/charging acting a bit flaky at times - mostly due to a broken wire in my USB/Micro-USB cable, I love it. It does everything I could want, with a replaceable battery, great music, phenomenal 8mp camera, HD video, decent audio recording, up to 32gb micro-SD card slot, GPS, and Android Ice Cream Sandwich, I'm not budging.
The newer HTC One has a non-replaceable battery, a 5mp camera, no SD slot I think...it's a step backward.
Talk to me when you actually make a better phone than the Amaze, HTC. So far it's the pinnacle of your "phonesmanship."
Dan
Cool place. I'll have to go check out the new digs once they open.
Dan
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Horrorbles | 6729 w. Roosevelt Rd. | Berwyn | IL | 60402 |
Coming of age without the amorous romance, but with a romantic's view of the past. This story explores the paradigm of good vs. evil, religion and superstition, and ways of passing knowledge that are ancient and timeless. The cycles of life and time feature strongly here, as do destiny, emnity, friendships, and family. The most heartening thing for me was the clear reverence for the Earth, Nature, and family farmers who hold the land that sustains us in trust. Not everything here is easy or pretty by a long way, nor is the movie perfect, but in its way it's timeless. 7/10
Old-school charm and story-telling meet good people torn between tough choices, philosophical wrangling, soul-searching, and the ever-American argument of Green-or-Greenback$. There's a good twist & sweet romance. 7/10
