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I’ve been laughing for days because of this:

I am quite psyched for next spring’s movie line up. Check out these trailers:

TMNT

Transformers

It’s like I’m 12 again! woohoo!

I watched the documentary Grizzly Man on the Discovery Channel this weekend. It is the story of Timothy Treadwell, a man who lived among the grizzly bears in Alaska. For 4 months out of every year, for 13 years, Timothy lived in the woods among a clan of bears which he grew quite fond of. The story is marked by his and his friend’s mauling at the paws of the very animals he followed.

The documentary shows a transformation Timothy went under as he began to withdraw from society and become more like the bears. He obssesses over saving the grizzlies from poachers and other human beings, believing he is the only person who understands their way of life.

A false step leads to his dimise. As fall was approaching his clan of bears went into hibernation and Timothy headed home. At the airport he had a falling out with one of the airline workers and he headed back into the Alaskan wilderness. Upon his return a new clan of bears had moved in from the north, an unknown group of animals not acclimated to man. It was by these bears he and his friend were killed.

I was fascinated by his story. He candidly discussed his troubles relating with other people. He talked much about girl troubles and how hard it was to find someone who understood him. As the years went on he became more and more obssessed with the animals. He felt that he would be the sole reason for their survival. Timothy would play games with other people who ventured into woods.

At one point he crosses the line and starts interferring with nature. In 2000 a drought hit Alaska and a significant rainfall did not happen for many months. Creekbeds dried up and the salmon could not travel upstream to spawn. The bears turned on each other for food. Timothy found many carcasses of bears feasted upon by others. He attempted to modify a stream to allow water to flow and the salmon to spawn. When that didn’t work out he turned to God and he began to beg for rain. The movie shows him rant, close to insanity, about the killing of the bears by the lack of water. He pleads with God, Allah, or any God, to bring water for his bears are starving. The next day it begins to pour.

At the end of the movie the narrator makes an interesting point. Although the Timothy had grown so fond of these animals you never saw their affection back. When you look into the bear’s eyes all you see is ignorance of others and patience with all the commotion of the humans. You even see boredom, waiting for the next sign of food to show up. Unfortunately for Timothy, they were done tolerating him.

Earlier this week a local radio station was discussing the movie Brokeback Mountain . The morning show consists of 2 men and 2 women. One of the men (We’ll call him #1 for the sake of argument) on the show had seen the movie. The other male host (male guy #2) began ranting about how he wouldn’t be caught dead going to see a movie about gay men. #1 argued that there was no more than 60 seconds of actual homosexual sexual content and referred to the straight dude’s guide to Brokeback Mountain.

#2 continued to rant, stating, “Even 60 seconds is too much.” His commentary seemed a little excessive, then he opened up the phone lines. Soon, it had turned into an all out gay-bashing segment.

I was stunned that I was actually hearing this on the radio. I understand that some radio stations want an edge to their content but this is not typically one of those stations. I tried to keep my liberal opinions in check. But I still felt their comments crossed the line.

I sent the following letter:

Hello -

I was more than a little put off by your commentary about the movie Brokeback Mountain this morning. I thought it was quite disrespectful of gays. Taking calls was inviting the ignorant out to showcase their stupidity.

I don’t think you would have had the same type of conversation if it were a movie involving black people. Try this next time you want to talk about homosexuals, replace the word “gay” with the word “black” and see if you’re still willing to say the same thing. Would you come out on the air and state you will not see a movie about black people? If you are a decent and respectful person you wouldn’t.

You are doing nothing more than perpetuating inequality and creating barriers between people. Shame on you.

Jason.

P.S. I’m straight.

Just to be fair, their form-letter response:

Thank you for your comments, and I’m sorry if you found our positions offensive.

Courtney pointed out that I felt I needed to tell them I was not gay. I was trying to make the point that if I was offended as a straight man, imagine how a gay person must feel. Does being straight make my argument stronger or weaker? I don’t know for certain.

If you’re curious what I did this weekend, here’s the Late-Monday afternoon recap:

Friday – After enjoying one-too-many beers at BW3s, Courtney and I invited ourselves over to Chad and Tina’s where we continued to drink the evening away. We played the perfect drinking game called Apples to Apples. It is a simple game, perfect for tom-foolery. After kicking everyone’s ass (okay, I lost big time) we went home.

Saturday – Saw The Incredibles. I was very happy it was more of an adult-ish movie. In between all the laughing, I did take notice of the beautiful new lighting techniques used. Everything looked very three dimensional. Brad Bird did a great job on the movie. And don’t think I didn’t notice Jason Lee as the bad guy.

Sunday – Dad’s birthday celebration. Hung out with the fam, did fam things. I even pelted Drew with a roll at the dinner table. That’ll teach ‘em to invite me to dinner!

After spending every waking moment doing yard work over the last month or so it was nice to have an entire weekend to myself to just relax and turn the brain off for a few hours.

I finally got to see Napoleon Dynamite this weekend. Being a geek/need/dweeb/dork I figured I could relate to the struggles of a misunderstood teen. The movie was hilarious with it’s dry sense of humor. It was an odd movie, much like the Royal Tennenbaums.

Courtney put it best when a gaggle of teenagers in the theater had trouble controlling themselves, “When you come to see a movie about dorks, you’re bound to have dorks in the theater.” It made me feel old whining about the rackus noise of the kids. So instead I sat back and appreciated the fact that for 1:30 hrs I was 16 again.

Well, I fell for it again. First it was the Blair Witch Project and now it’s The Buried Secrets of M. Night Shyamalan. They had me hook, line, and sinker. Regardless if M. Night can see dead people, the mockumentary did have me sleeping with the lights on. I love being made to believe things you know probably shouldn’t be true, but you so desparately want them to be. Nice work, SciFi. I enjoyed the ride.

I was a little vocal about my displeasure about the movie The Passion of the Christ and Mel Gibson’s seemingly endless ego about making it. But my curiosity got the better of me and I found myself in line Sunday to see it.

After viewing The Passion I can honestly say that all my comments about Gibson’s righteousness and pretentiousness were dead on. I’m not a religious person by any stretch of the imagination but it seemed very arrogant of Gibson to make such a movie in such a way. I think I’m mostly concerned that Gibson felt he could make the fifth gospel, which is what the movie is portrayed as. And also that people will begin to believe that the truth is a Hollywood media frenzy, and not the bible.

Not that I care much, I just don’t like gullible people.

BTW, don’t forget to pick up any of the offically licensed merchandise. Chances are it will bring you closer to God.

My brother has called me a walking billboard for Netflix.com. He even asked if I get any kickbacks for signing others up. Unfortunately, I don’t. And I can’t stop talking about their great service either.

We just finished up the first season of the Sopranos. I was hoping the season would end in a graceful way so that I could move onto a new addiction. We have spent the last 2 weeks waiting and watching for the next disc of the Sopranos to arrive. We’d consume the mob stories two or three episodes at a time. I find myself running to the computer to queue up the next available disc after I complete the current one. Now that we’re at the end of a season I felt it was time to move on, time to find another great show. For a split second I considered all the other great movies I have in my queue, then changed the queue and ordered up Sopranos season 2.

I signed up with NetFlix earlier this week. A handful of co-workers have told me how great the service is. I couldn’t keep myself from feeling like I, too, had to participate in the evolution. After a minor glitch with registration, I was in and ready to start NetFlixing.

NetFlix’s gig is to send you movies in the mail. You create a queue of movies. They send you 3 movies at a time from your queue, based on the priority you give the movies. You can then keep the movies for as long as you like. Once done, you toss them in the mail and you’ll receive more movies automatically. There’s no need to go to the store and pick out another film. You’ve got a queue so they just continue to send them to you.

The addiction started right away. I haven’t even received a single movie yet but I can’t stop surfing around on their website. Morning, lunch, evening, I’m on Netflix.com I’m adding movies to my queue, ranking movies in search of that one elusive, perfect movie I have forgotten about. It becomes a game much like the Chris Farley celebrity interviews on SNL. “Do they have this movie?! Yeah, that’s a good one. Oooh! Do they have that one? Yeah, I liked that movie too.” I just can’t stop.

The size and quality of your movie queue becomes interesting water cooler talk. “I heard a fable about one guy who has 284 movies in his queue!” Other NetFlixers want to know what you’re watching so they can size up your tastes. What does it say about me when the first 3 films I’ve rented are Old School, Anger Management, and Clockwork Orange?