Steve Buscemi

Okay, Steve Buscemi has a really, really, really long list of acting credits. Loads more than I knew. But I sometimes think he is one of those sadly underrated actors who shuffles into the background and we may not remember but we always notice. He's a favorite of mine and now I have a really long list of things to try and see just for their Buscemi-ness.

His look is certainly so distinctive that you can't fail to recognize him when you see him. The eyes. the teeth. The hairline. The looks.... all singular. He can be so dry, so sarcastic, so funny, so creepy, so irreverent, so... you name it. He's just crazy talented.

Highlights for me (feel free to add your own in the comments):
Tangent - listing these movies makes me want to go watch them all over again! Not enough hours in the day for my addictions... sigh.

Reservoir Dogs - Great film, impressive cast, directed by Quentin Tarantino. Funny and dark and violent. And so easy to love. This is a classic must see film. Just saying.

Fargo - More dark comedy. He's just a natural fit. His manic competent/incompetent thing works. There is so much right about the wrongness of this film. And it's another steller cast.

Con Air - For me, he was at his most creepy in this film. He's absolutely mesmerizing and unpredictable. Chilling! And surrounded by another great cast.

Armageddon - I recently talked about this one. But again, he's so funny as Rockhound.

Monsters, Inc - Even his voice is singular. Randall is a slippery suck up and who better to voice him than Buscemi. Seriously. And an all-star cast of voices. Are we seeing a trend?

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone - OMG, this one is just cheesy great fun. And another awesome cast. Buscemi, Steve Carell and Jim Carrey make magician-ing look good. Not Criss Angel good, More like a car wreck you can't take your eyes off - good. (Possibly a very bad metaphor - my apologies). But so good.

Final words, Steve Buscemi is great talent, a singular individual (which is redundant, I know but he is singular in his singularity - just go with it), and versatile. So very, very versatile. Now I have a ton of Buscemi-ness to catch up on.

Game of Thrones

So, I was watching Game of Thrones on disc thru Netflix last year and it was slow going and the continuity was a challenge at times but I was hooked none the less. Then, for Christmas that was the only thing on my list. That's it. All of Game of Thrones. 

Season Four should arrive in my mailbox any day now (it released yesterday on Feb 17) so I'm trying to pace myself. But, I'm working my way thru them a tad too fast I'm thinking cuz I'm going to run out of episodes in March and the new season doesn't start until mid April, I think. Did I mention that I just added HBO to my DirecTV for the sole reason of being able to watch Season Five as it rolls out?

I think I may have a bit of addiction going on here. Not that I have a problem with that since I am a self-confessed junkie for TV and movies, but others in my household may be raising their eyebrows at me. Other others are right there with me!

I'm catching so much more this time around. There were whole scenes and episodes I have no memory of at all. This show is so well done that I think I'll catch something new every time I watch it. But, that could be me rationalizing why to watch it more than a few times. I dunno.

Spoiler Alert! There are some comments below that if you aren't caught up, may give you more than you want to know at this point. Beware...

I haven't even seen Season Four - at all.  I can't wait!  I know Joffrey dies. Looking forward to that. I knew about the Red Wedding before I watched Season Three and it didn't slow me down one iota when it actually happened. Anywho. I only learned Joffrey was dead because I was at the SLC Comic Fan Xperience and saw Lena Headey (Cersei) and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime), the infamous, incestuous Lannister twins, and there was a question about them having sex right after Joffrey dies (and in the same room with his body?). Anyway... I learned Joffrey dies and I'm good with that. He's an evil little shit. This is why incest is good for no one.

Can I just say how very, very pretty Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is! I mean - wow. And Lena Headey is so pretty and nothing like Cersei. I can imagine it's fun to play someone so mean and calculating though. She said she's a fan of the show and watches it as it's playing so when she gets a script, she first checks to see if she gets killed off and then only reads her parts so she can enjoy seeing the plot unfold with the audience. I thought that was cool.

Now - I'm going to say something that may rile a few people, but stay with me and I'll explain. I have not read the books. I'm not sure I will ever read the books. Calm down, purists. I  love the show so much and I know they are different beasts and diverging some (or more and more) as time goes on. The books' fans may have issues when the show changes things and I'm thinking I may have issues with the books since I'm entrenched in the show. Also, I think I'd rather read the books (if I read them) when I can read them all back to back. I would get frustrated waiting while George R.R. Martin finishes writing the series.

Okay... favorite characters and villains:

The Hound - he's got a great mix of complexity that has good and bad layers. Overall I think he is a great anti-hero, cuz his goodness comes out in very un-heroic ways at times.

Tyrion Lannister - Not just because I think Peter Dinklage is the bomb (and a sexy one at that), but because Tyrion is smart (nothing is sexier than smart) and he's another layered good anti-hero and he's funny too. Like every time he smacks Joffrey down and puts him in his place, I laugh myself silly. He's got heart and depth. And a perfect dose of irreverence.

Brienne of Tarth - What's not to love about a 6'3" Amazonian warrior who is tough as nails and loyal to a fault. Seriously, she is awesome. So awesome in fact that she wins over her prisoner, Jaime, and they form a wary sort of friendship.

Arya Stark - I would have been her as a kid. She's smart, tough, skilled, loyal and honest. She's just all out there and confused by the politics and maneuvering of everyone else. I get her. I like her. I hope her and Gendry hook up. Just saying. ( I like Gendry a lot too.)

Daenerys Targaryen - She's gonna get the gold ring eventually - that's my prognosis. And worthy of it too. Like Jorah says, she's tough and smart but also soft and caring about her people. She'll win the Iron Throne because she's the only one of all the wanna-be kings/queens that would really do the job credit. And she has dragons. Harder to lose with dragons. And wasn't her brother just a weasel-dick? I was so happy when Khal Drogo poured gold on his petulant, dumbass head.

Khal Drogo - I wanted to cry when Khal Drogo died. Not only only was he just the yummiest, sexiest guy on the show but he adored Daenerys and any guy that refers to his lady as 'The Moon of his life' is worth mooning over (haha ... see what I did there... with moon and mooning...lol). And he gets bonus points and gold stars for killing her brother. I laughed out loud when he gave him a gold crown. Really I did.

Lord Varys - He's another one of these great complicated good/bad guys. Not too much of either the good or the bad and totally self-serving (aren't we all, really?) but I do believe him when he says he is on the side of the realm.

I love hating Cersei. I just hate Joffrey. I like Jaime and think he's improved a lot since hanging with Brienne. Sansa is winning me over slowly. Tywin is strong and I respect him. Theon Greyjoy is dickless little crud and I don't feel bad about anything that happens to him. Sam is a cutie-pie. Shae is feisty and a good match for Tyrion.

There's a host of other characters that weren't around long enough for me, but there you are. Anyone ya'll love or love to hate?

The Hobbit Trilogy

So, The Hobbit. Some more - maybe. I can't remember if I discussed my feelings on The Hobbit parts 1 or 2 so I'll discuss all three now that I've seen them all.

The first one was a train wreck in my opinion. I don't care that there was a fuck-ton of singing in the book. The singing in the movie should have been cut to maybe two snippets (really short snippets)  - like after dinner in Bag End and maybe when they're out camping on their travels. That's it. Two tiny snippets that show their love of music and no more. The singing that they put in the first movie was ridiculous and made the entire film difficult to watch. I really can't view it without fast-forwarding thru all that nonsense. And let's not get me started on the Goblins and that painful half hour of film-making. (It's not a half hour? Really? It felt like an eternity!) It isn't as though they didn't take some license to veer from the written word of Tolkien (one word - Tauriel), so they really could have forgone the painful singing moments. Really. Really, really.

In parts one and two, I'd like to say how much Thorin is an asshat (King Asshat - if you will) and how little the dwarves deserve all the many, many, many, many, many times their asses are saved miraculously by Gandalf and/or Bilbo. Seriously. How many deus ex machina plot devices are we to be subjected to? (Most people only get one, that's it, one miracle-hand-of-god type saving of the plot.) Yes, yes. J.R.R. Tolkien is a genius, yada, yada, yada. Even genius falls down once in a while (or too many times to count) is all I'm saying. And by any fair and just measure, the dwarves would have failed and died en route to the Lonely Mountain. And Smaug would have continued his long-ass dragon nap and Laketown would have continued under the idiotic reign of the Master. And... well you get the idea.

I still liked part two well enough. And part three was even better. The best of the three, in my humble opinion. Thorin eventually redeems himself from the asshattery he wore through the majority of the trilogy. Smaug does what dragons do. Bilbo is the true hero of the day - as is fitting since the title isn't The Dwarves. Costumes and setting and music (not singing) are all excellent as one would expect. Martin Freeman is so good as Bilbo and we already knew how genius Ian McKellan is as Gandalf.

Other notables:
Lee Pace as Thranduil - he's so cold and sexy at the same time. Bad dad, dubious ruler, but yummy yummy elf. Not at all like the wackadoodle he plays in Guardians of the Galaxy.

Aidin Turner as Kili - a dwarf in love with an elf and so hotsy-totsy himself, he gets the elf to love him back. Kili is a heart-throb despite his diminutive size. And Aiden Turner? Well, sign me up! Where I can get more of that? Don't think for one moment that I'm not above binge-watching anything I can find him in on Netflicks. I'm not. I will.

Smaug and Benedict Cumberbatch. I think that says it all. Words aren't needed here are they?

Evangeline Lilly  as Tauriel - Okay - I'm not a purist. I like her addition as a character. I like that she falls for Kili (who wouldn't) and that she's a fighter and tough and loyal and willing to be banished for doing what she knows is right. She's a great character.

Stephen Fry as the Master - so yucky in all the best ways. :)
Orlando Bloom as Legolas - he's still got it but it's hard to notice next to Thranduil and Kili.
Hugo Weaving as Elrond... or anything... yes, please. I have a mad, mad crush on Hugo Weaving.
Manu Bennett (Azog, the lead Orc) - how, HOW? How do they make someone this handsome look that ugly? Congrats to Makeup and costuming.
Luke Evans (Bard) - I believe him. I believe he could save the day and lead that group. Good actor, good guy, good character.
Billy Connelly (Dain) - No way to hide that very singular, very awesome voice.

So, in conclusion, I have to fast forward thru the stupid parts of part one or skip it altogether. Two is mostly good, if you ignore all the times that an eleventh hour miracle saves the dwarves. Smaug is just cool as dragons go. And part three is the best of them and makes up for all the foolishness of the first. Way to end a series. I wish they had just made two films, cut out all the useless crap, tightened up the plot line and not tried to stretch it out so much. But there you are.

Birdman & The Seventh Son

The following group of blogs are going to be out of a little skewed time-wise cuz I'm starting with the movies I watched most recently and going backwards, but there are a lot to discuss. Stay with me. SPOILER ALERT!  Not too much though. In both reviews. You've been warned. :)

The Seventh Son. What to say. It was good enough but it almost felt like a made for TV movie. The cast was good - Julianne Moore as the villain dragon queen was gorgeous but I would have liked to had more depth of feeling from her. A little more of the romantic conflict could have gone a long way. Ben Barnes was yummy. Jeff Bridges was cool. I wish his voice would have sounded like less of an affect. The special effects were decent. I guess it was the storytelling that was lacking for me. I get that it's based on a book (maybe a series... I dunno...) but the plot in the movie was too compressed and so I didn't really buy into  1) the villains being so bad-ass cuz they were beaten fairly easy 2) the romantic twist between Master Gregory and Mother Malkin (weird name that I'd like some explanation for) and 3) the rapid romance between Tom and Alice. Overall - it was okay but I could have waited to watch it on cable.

Now Birdman was cool. Cool and weird and thought-provoking and weird and kind of awesome in this artsy way that I don't normally care for but did in this movie. Michael Keaton is playing Riggan (the main character), Riggan's past-famous superhero character, Birdman, and the character (Mel or Ed or both - I can't remember or have no clue, so we'll stick with 'the character') he is playing in his Broadway play. Keaton is brilliant as this uber-conflicted actor/celebrity.

I saw the movie as a man vs self type tale. Riggan is trying to overcome his celebrity as Birdman so he can be recognized as an actor. A serious actor. But he has demons. Demons that tell him how worthless and useless he is... except as Birdman. And the demon whispering these things is none other than Birdman who doesn't want to be a just a poster on the wall. The persona of Birdman haunts poor Riggan and has him convinced of his superpowers throughout the movie (telekinesis and flying and such). But Riggan is also a shadow of the stage character he is playing. A character who at the end of the play kills himself but not before expressing he doesn't exist, he is nothing.

The character, Riggan and Birdman all want to be more than what they are - loved, acknowledged, validated, respected. It's sad, really, how tortured this guy is in any of his incarnations. And Keaton plays all of them like a virtuoso plays a violin - with grace and crazy mad skill.

The supporting cast is astounding: Zach Galifianakis (who looks great - really, really great in his new slimmer form), Naomi Watts, Emma Stone and the ever amazing Ed Norton, who, as a foil to Riggan, is his own kind of hot mess but brilliant too. And his character's brilliance brings even more depth to Riggan's tortured abilities as an actor.

I found Birdman to be a thinking movie. One you'll be chewing on for a while mentally. An exercise in possibilities of why any of the characters act as they do. I'm still puzzling it over in my head.

What about Jeremy Renner...

With the Oscars coming in March and the nominations just out, lets look at one of the, perhaps, lesser know nominees for Best Actor (he was also up for a Golden Globe Best Actor). His nomination comes for starring in The Hurt Locker which I have not yet seen, but will soon - very soon.

I remember seeing Renner in North Country, S.W.A.T., The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Unusuals, and even an appearance on House, M.D.. There is something compelling about Renner that makes him hang out in my mind and jump at the opportunity to see him in something - anything.

He's really cute but not necessarily a classic hottie like George Clooney. In really good shape, but not necessarily mega-buff like Brad Pitt (Troy or Fight Club). But he is a good actor, a memorable actor that subliminally stays with you. He seems like just an everyday kind of guy you could easily hang with or have a lovely blind-date with (H - I do not want to hear about the sentence ending with "with").

I'm glad he is being recognized because this will bring him to light for an even greater audience than he has thus had which will hopefully then bring him even more great roles f or me to seek out. If you are not aware of Jeremy Renner, I suggest S.W.A.T. as an introduction or The Hurt Locker (since it's up for Best Picture and it really does look good).