Powell Says

''Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen!!!!!!!!!"

I recieved an email from my good friend Lord of the Flies (at least that is how he is to
be known here).  In it he had the following link that explains the origin of
the camel dwarf clip I post here.   Its from a film by Werner Herzog.
Check out this description:

"A group of dwarfs confined in an institution on a remote island rebel against the
guards and director (all dwarfs as well) in a display of mayhem. The dwarfs gleefully
break windows and dishes, abandon a running truck to drive itself in circles,
engineer food fights and cock fights, set fire to pots of flowers, kill a large pig,
torment some blind dwarfs, and crucify a monkey."

I have always known that dwarfs were bad, before my fear was limited to
circus clown dwarfs, now I know that they are a menace.  

I found another clip from the same movie.  This one entitled "Dwarf Chaos". 

Last weekend we went on a quick 2 1/2 day vacation, drove to Gettysburg, PA.
I kinda dig the military history thing so it was cool to check out the battlefield.
We ate at this kick ass restaurant that was some preachers home in the 1770's and
stayed in a Bed & Breakfast that was right on the battlefield that was cool.
Otherwise it was super touristy, which we found a little off-putting,
I mean the place is basically a big graveyard.  "Hey kids!, Dead bodies
festered in the sun right here, the people living here couldnt open their windows
for weeks because of the smell, hey lets get a Sno-cone and an Abraham Lincoln
spoon".  Anyway we got bored pretty quick.  So we took the opportunity one night
to go to the movies.  My wife saw the "Sex in the City" movie, and she was
gracious enough to spare me that terrible fate, so I went and saw Iron Man.
Here is my review....
I fucking loved it.  I like Robert Downey Jr pretty much in everything he is in,
and I think he kicked ass in this role.  Most of the time he is talking to himself,
or one of his robot arm helpers or his computer/house and he made even that
dialogue funny and engaging.  Tony Stark was f-in cool, and his life ruled.
He has an awesome private jet, that they made to look cool and futuristic.
On board along with full bar, he has the sexy stews with the required stripper pole.
The effects I thought were seamless, I had no problem beliveing that I was looking
at a guy in a kick ass suit.  Jeff Bridges was in it as the bad guy, he did a good job
also.   Bridge's suit was super kick ass.  I did not read many Ironman comics back
in the day, but from what I remember they got it right for the most part, if
not exactly the origin, I think they did a good job explaining it.
Only weak part was Gwenith Paltrow, who looks like a pre-pubescent boy,
she sucked, My cat Ruby could have done a better job.
I definately reccomend the film.  I liked it almost as much as I liked Batman Begins,
which I thought was pretty much perfect.  It makes me feel hopeful again about
comic based movies, I am looking forward to the Hulk, I bet they got that right also.


The Powelsays rating:

This looks pretty good.  Check out the trailer here in hi-def.

Gonzo The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

I finally got around to see Cloverfield yesterday. I am glad I waited,
it looked great on the new TV. If you dont want the movie spoiled, leave.

I followed the hype for ahile back before the movie was originally released,
I had negative feelings about it.
I was thought it would suck. I have to say, I was wrong, I really liked it.

It reminded me alot of 9/11 in Manhattan, with the people out in the street looking
south, etc., in particular the part when the guy gets a call from his mother right in
the middle of the chaos. The young people in it must have been rich as hell to have
apartments like that in the city. I think the monster looked good,
and I liked that t was not shown much. The smaller creatures that dropped off
the bigger monster were scary, especially in the subway when they turn on the
nightvision on the camera and see the thigs on the ceiling. I read somewhere that
these were based on things that attach to whales called "Whale Lice", yuck.

Anyway, definately worth the watch.

I hate going to the movies these days, and now that I have a good TV, I'll be
damned if I am going to sit in a theater with a bunch of tools talking and what not.
As such, I typically don't see movies till way after they come out on Ondemand,
and lately I wait till they come up on ondemand in HD.
Saw a couple this weekend,
There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men
If you havent seen them, dont read anymore.
Or if you want to save some time, read-on!

There Will Be Blood
This has Daniel Day Lewis as a mean bastard oil man named Daniel Plainview
in Texas in early 1900's. I liked this movie, primarily because Daniel Plainview
was unapologetically macho. I will enurmerate reasons this is so:
-he takes no lip from anyone
-he is not afraid to beat a man down
-he shoots stuff in his house
-he drinks a bunch in his mansion and passes out on the floor in his bowling alley.

Workplace safety apparently, was not much of a concern for these oil worker
people. Has no one heard of hard hats?
Lewis did a good job, as I was watching I could not rememebr what he really
sounds or acts like in real life.  Besides this, the movie was neat to watch, visuals
were there for a reason, etc. The beginning of the movie had no dialogue at all for
about 15 mins, yet the story of this guy was clearly shown. I like when movies have
large sections of no dialague, 2001 had like 20 minutes of no dialuge at the
begining, and numerous no dialogue scenes throughout, The Exorcist also had a long
opening sequence with no speech. I like that because because it is like the filmaker
is assuming the audience is smart enough to garner some understanding
from visuals alone.

I heard/read about the final scene and I think it deserved all the hype.
Anyway, I liked it and would definately reccomend it.

No Country For Old Men
Or a better title would have been "No Movie for People Who Want An Ending".
This movie is about some redneck guy who finds the scene of a drug deal gone
bad and stachel full of money. An assasin with a bad haircut is sent to get the
money back. Also there is a disjointed side story about a tired ass sheriff,
who has seen enough.
Ok the first 3/4s of this movie was great. Alot of cool and clever stuff,
Although it was very different from other Coen films, you could tell they
had their hand in it.
So about 3/4's in the redneck who found the package of money is killed.
It was unexpected, since you are kinda pulling for the guy. Then a bunch of scenes
with the tired sheriff, who you think will take up the slack and go have a showdown
with the bad ass assasin. Instead he does jack shit, and the assasin comes and
kills the wife of the redneck, on the way from killing her gets in a car wreck,
survives and walks away, thats it.
What the fuck? I mean I like it when the bad guy wins occasionally, but normally
just when the bad guy is cool, this guy was just a creep. It seemed to me they tried
very hard for the let down on purpose to be "arty". Fuck that, whatever.
"Let the audience imagine what happens..." Ah, no I would rather see
something a-hole.
I digress. It is worth a watch, but the ending sucked.

The Powelsays ratings are as folows:

There Will Be Blood:


No Country For Old Men:

I am a couple days late.  Wednesday was the 40th anniversary of the premiere of
2001: A Space Odyssey.
I am a big fan of the film, so I will celebrate this anniversary by hilighting a couple of links:

The 2001: A Space Odyssey Internet Resource Archive
Some dude started this page in 1994 ( I remember looking at this site using the Mosiac browser
on a Unix box), and it is still going, he has a copy of a early 
script that is fun to read.  

A 2001: A Space Odyssey (A Shrine)
This site has some cool links and pictures etc.

I like this film for the following reasons and more:
1. Pacing.  
2. It is unapologetically confounding.
3. Effects and visuals that still stand the test of time. 
4. Dumb people hate it.

Word up to Moonwatcher!