Unlike CapitolSwell, I am currently an owner of the iPhone. I have no idea why. Mostly, it is because my current phone sucks. Its screen is busted. The vibrate doesn’t work. And that was the last straw.
I bought the hype. Now I just need to sync it up, and connect.
Festival 6-10-2007095.JPG
Originally uploaded by onelittleseedling.
Stopped by Best Buy on the way home, because I wanted to burn the gift cards I had received from WaterLili for the last two Christmases. This is my third time in the new Best Buy just down the street from me, but it’s my first time walking away with some product.
Of course, I looked at the DVDs. Bought a three. Went to pay for it. Find out that I had a total of $45.00, so that I have some money still left on it.
Dang!
I hate getting DVDs at Best Buy. It’s only good when you know exactly what you want, and what you want is a very popular release like Dumb and Dumber the Dumbest edition or Ants in your Plants of 2006. If you want something off the beaten path, you’re SOL (for the kids!).
Plus browsing is plain hideous. Perhaps, I am used to web where I can follow any path through Amazon. I can start at one link and take another link upon my choosing. I am not boxed in by categories. I can easily search for something that pops into my head. If an idea develops, I can follow it until I find the movie that I know will compliment my DVD collection.
Best Buy is so analog.
At Amazon I can find almost any DVD.
Buying it from there is another blog post
I’ve ridden so many times at home that I am sick and tired of it. So I hit the road for the BWI trail. I rack the bike this morning in order to ride after work. It’s a dicey proposition as the summer brings thunder storms. That worries me as I don’t want to have my bike soaked. But it happens and my bike gets soaked in an afternoon thunder storm.
I usually don’t like watching a show at The Charles because it’s so far away and antiquated. Except they have a couple of movies playing that I really would like to watch, Paris, je t’aime and Once. They may be only playing for a limited time so I think I need to hurry up.
Also, The Charles is having a film noir retrospective until the end of summer. There’s some films there I want to see. In particular, Double Indemnity on the big screen would be rather cool. You know why.
Of course, also this upcoming week is a big movie one. Die Hard 4 is opening up today, Ratatouille for the weekend, and Transformers for July 4. That’s a lot to see in the theatres.
I hope to get to some of these.
You may wonder if 1408 is Steven King revisiting his seminal work, The Shining. In a ways it is. Creepy hotel. Creepy hotel workers. A writer loosing his mind or is he? All themes and signs that King has worked into his writing throughout his career. If I told you that 1408 was nothing more than a cheap imitation of The Shining, would it surprise you when I told you it isn’t? Perhaps not, but you can still guess all the plot threads in this film.
John Cusack is an unheralded writer in the throes of finishing out his career as the go to guy for ghost hunter guides. He debunks supposedly haunted places. Out of the blue, he receives a card not to spend a night in the titular room of the Dolphin Hotel in New York. After researching it, he has to find out why he shouldn’t and visits anyway. He spends the night in the hotel room. Does he get scared out of his mind? He goes crazy for the hour. And the ghosts and the room get to him.
I read a lot of ghost stories in my time. I can imagine this one as a story rather than a movie. It would seem to have fit in with the later day stories. Not the Victorian ghost stories that I dearly love. They all have a sceptic who falls into a frightening place, and eventually comes to believe in the supernatural.
This movie had some scares. I am glad for it. Because of the prevalence of the new wave of slasher/torture pics coming, the horror genre didn’t seem to be for fun. The movies have been given to being about the violence. Like pulling the wings off a fly for the sake of being sadistic. 1408 was a throw back to just plain atmospheric creeps. No cutting throats or half-sawn faces. Just trying to say, “BOO.”
BOO!
It won’t scare you, but it will on occasion make you have goosebumps. And that’s good enough for me.
3 of 5 stars.
I don’t fucking believe it?!
Here’s the list of AFI’s 100 movies of 100 years. I’ve counted mine and seen 51% of the movies on the list. I probably seem to have seen at least another 10 more, but I don’t count those.
1. Citizen Kane (1941) (1)
2. The Godfather (1972) (3)
3. Casablanca (1942) (2)
4. Raging Bull (1980)(24)
5. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)(10)
6. Gone With the Wind (1939)(4)
7. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)(5)
8. Schindler’s List (1993)(9)
9. Vertigo (1958)(61)
10. The Wizard of Oz (1939) (6)
11. City Lights (1931)(76)
12. The Searchers (1956)(96)
13. Star Wars (1977)(15)
14. Psycho (1960)(18)
15. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)(22)
16. Sunset Boulevard (1950)(12)
17. The Graduate (1967)(7)
18. The General (1927)
19. On the Waterfront (1954)(8)
20. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)(11)
21. Chinatown (1974)(19)
22. Some Like It Hot (1959)(14)
23. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)(21)
24. E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)(25)
25. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)(34)
26. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)(29)
27. High Noon (1952)(33)
28. All About Eve (1950)(16)
29. Double Indemnity (1944)(38)
30. Apocalypse Now (1979)(28)
31. The Maltese Falcon (1941)(23)
32. The Godfather Part II (1974)(32)
33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)(20)
34. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)(49)
35. Annie Hall (1977)(31)
36. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)(13)
37. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)(37)
38. Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)(30)
39. Dr. Strangelove (1964) (26)
40. The Sound of Music (1965)(55)
41. King Kong (1933)(43)
42. Bonnie and Clyde (1967) (27)
43. Midnight Cowboy (1969)(36)
44. The Philadelphia Story (1940) (51)
45. Shane (1953)(69)
46. It Happened One Night (1934) (35)
47. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)(45)
48. Rear Window (1954) (42)
49. Intolerance (1916)
50. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
51. West Side Story (1961)(41)
52. Taxi Driver (1976) (47)
53. The Deer Hunter (1978)(79)
54. MASH (1970) (56)
55. North by Northwest (1959) (40)
56. Jaws (1975) (48)
57. Rocky (1976) (78)
58. The Gold Rush (1925) (74)
59. Nashville (1975)
60. Duck Soup (1933) (85)
61. Sullivan’s Travels (1941)
62. American Graffiti (1973)(77)
63. Cabaret (1972)
64. Network (1976) (66)
65. The African Queen (1951) (17)
66. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) (60)
67. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
68. Unforgiven (1992)(98)
69. Tootsie (1982) (62)
70. A Clockwork Orange (1971) (46)
71. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
72. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
73. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)(50)
74. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)(65)
75. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
76. Forrest Gump (1994)(71)
77. All the President’s Men (1976)
78. Modern Times (1936) (81)
79. The Wild Bunch (1969) (80)
80. The Apartment (1960)(93)
81. Spartacus (1960)
82. Sunrise (1927)
83. Titanic (1997)
84. Easy Rider (1969) (88)
85. A Night at the Opera (1935)
86. Platoon (1986) (83)
87. 12 Angry Men (1957)
88. Bringing Up Baby (1938) (97)
89. The Sixth Sense (1999)
90. Swing Time (1936)
91. Sophie’s Choice (1982)
92. GoodFellas (1990) (94)
93. The French Connection (1971) (70)
94. Pulp Fiction (1994) (95)
95. The Last Picture Show (1971)
96. Do the Right Thing (1989) (2nd review)
97. Blade Runner (1982)
98. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) (100)
99. Toy Story (1995)
100. Ben-Hur (1959) (72)
I am currently watching AFI’s 100 years 100 movies. I get goosebumps when certain films come one. I loved seeing Sullivan’s Travels and It Happened One Night. Goosebumps. I want to see the entire list, but these hours may take a while.
One thing about it, I’m sure it’s contreversial. How can you choose?!
