Turning the Tide

This afternoon Wear & Tear found out about a cool new media hosting website called Oosah where you can store photos, music, or movies and easily share them with anyone. It has a user-friendly interface, offers options for podcasting the content or burning it to CD/DVD, and provides a file manager to help in organizing what you’ve uploaded. As of now, a free membership includes 2 GB of storage space so head on over, sign up for an account, and start spreading your pictures, songs, and videos on Oosah.

The wet weather and torturous traffic nearly prevented me from making it to Arclight on time for the 8 pm screening of Be Kind Rewind last night, but fortunately it started 15 minutes late and we walked in at the very beginning of the opening credits. It turned out to be a heartwarming and zany romp that touched upon many classic films in a story where video store employees Jack Black, Mos Def, and Melonie Diaz collaborate to re-shoot popular movies after their VHS tape stock is magnetized and erased. While Jack Black is once again guilty of overacting, it is this exaggerated presence that maintains the momentum and spirit of the piece as his character Jerry shows traits from Black’s past roles such as School of Rock, King Kong, and his own unique star persona. Director Michel Gondry’s larger-than-life set decoration and artistically imaginative staging appears intact and undiluted, particularly in a scene involving Mike (Mos Def) and Jerry’s outfits when they break into the local power plant. Be Kind Rewind will be released nationwide on February 22^nd and Wear & Tear recommends it to anyone with an appreciation for escapist humor and especially viewers who are well-versed in the history of motion pictures.

While waiting to leave the parking structure, I got an NBA score update and found out the Los Angeles Lakers fell to the San Antonio Spurs 103-91. The Lakers, 2-2 since the injury to Andrew Bynum, are just barely staying afloat in the highly competitive Western conference after dropping from first to sixth place in one week’s time. Their next game is Friday against the Dallas Mavericks, so hopefully they can keep pace and win to earn a split on this trip to Texas. Seeing a good movie always seems to perk me up a bit, so upon returning home I scrolled through the Time Warner Cable On Demand listings and found Tideland which I knew little about aside from being directed by the prolific Terry Gilliam. A difficult, haunting, and disturbing film, it also possessed a certain charm and beauty amidst the revolting occurrences. Tideland’s page on Rotten Tomatoes shows an almost universal hatred by critics towards the film, but this is definitely one you should see for yourself to derive an opinion. It must be noted that the film touches upon a few of the darkest topics in humanity including the consequences of drug addiction, pedophilia, and necrophilia. Those with weak stomachs might be better off avoiding it entirely, but if you’re up to the challenge or are a fan of Gilliam’s previous work such as 12 Monkeys, The Fisher King, and Brazil then by all means give it a shot. If you find yourself becoming fond of the wig that Jeff Bridges wears in the film, as seen in the picture with Jodelle Ferland below, a similar one can be found here.

This entry was posted on January 24th, 2008 and is filed under Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.