My take: The Departed

The Departed is Martin Scorcese doing what he does best - telling gritty, mafia "underworld" stories against a gritty background with gritty characters played by actors with enough grit to turn Hawaii into the largest state in the U.S. All that grit can sometimes wash together to create muck, but for the most part, this is an edge of your seat cat and mouse game that keeps you guessing until the end, though you have to get past a mildly slow and confusing beginning to get there.

Good ol' Jack Nicholson plays Frank Costello, the kingpin of the Boston mafia in the area of "southie." Early on, he becomes a quasi father figure to Colin Sullivan, a local Irish boy with a father that's notorious for being a small time gangster. Costello takes Sullivan, played almost effortlessly by Matt Damon, under his wing and keeps him there, even when the young lad grows up and joins the Massachusetts State Police. Sullivan through the ranks, making detective quickly and eventually becomes a part of the special investigations unit, specially investigating one Frank Costello.

At seemingly the same time, though we never see them meet, Bill Costigan also becomes a State Trooper and is interviewed by the Special Investigations Unit - as a potential undercover guy. Costigan, played by Leonardo DiCaprio but not looking or sounding like the Leo we know, has an already checkered past, one the cops wouldn't really have to doctor to make a believable gangster out of. Through a series of rapid flash-forwards, we see him getting in to the criminal element - actually serving jail-time for a petty string of crimes, getting involved with the right people, making a name for himself, etc. Eventually he makes his way in to the Costello inner circle, which is when this movie really gets going.

What keeps things on the edge for the viewer is a somewhat Hitchcockian story-telling device - we know who the mole is in the gangster world and cop world, yet neither of them know who the other is. Costigan doesn't even know of the mole inside the police unit until later on, when things seem to be going too smoothly for the criminals; the mental anguish he begins experiencing puts him in a shrink's office - the same shrink that is dating Sullivan it turns out. An intriguing but slightly unbelievable love triangle begins, adding another layer. More layers follow, but I don't want to give spoilers - the ending is full of surprises.

The main thing that bothered me with this movie is the over the top use of gore. There's enough heads exploding in a spray of red here that could rival slasher flicks - by the end of the movie, it had become laugh-out-loud funny to see (though this could have had something to do with who it was happening to...). I won't necessarily complain about the language - it goes hand-in-hand with mob-movies - but I will take a second to gripe about the accents. I'm sure they're very authentic and that everybody in Bahston tahlks that waiee - it's just annoying to listen to (and apparently annoying to keep doing - Nicholson's accent drops a bit towards the end of the movie).

In all though, this is a terrific movie and worthy of the Best Pic nomination it got. Also worthy is the cast - Alec Baldwin, Mark Wahlberg, and Martin Sheen are all terrific in supporting roles. If you're no fan of mob movies though, you won't like it. 9/10

Once around the horn

As I'm in the beginning stages of the true gift that keeps on giving (read: I'm getting my wife's cold), blogging will be light for a while. Okay, it's been a little light already, but there was this thing with school, my dog ate my homework, it gave her diarrhea, then the cat (the free one) ate it, pooped it on the the rug, which I then had to go get dry-cleaned, except a giant squid attacked my truck, and then sent in the flying monkeys. Pick any of the above excuses you want.

Anyway, I though I would take this opportunity to show you some of the other blogs I read from time to time, some that I haven't added quite yet to my links.

• The Grand Master Pooh-bah of them all has been discussing potential presidential candidates, the ineptness of our justice system, and idiot drivers that don't turn right on red. And soon the greatness that is Open Blog Friday will be up, where the inmates truly run the assylum.
• My buddy Mark has been Grrr-ing about Gubner Perdue, Harry Potter, and Mike Vick.
  
• Joel is up to a hodge-podge of things, but mostly thinking deeply about his boys singing loudly. Always a good spot for some insight. (Joel that is, not boys singing loudly)
• Jeff is... well, he's all over the newly-wedded-bliss-place. You'll always be entertained with him in some form.
• My pal Moshe is going "all in" on a new investment, though the post just before that one leads me to the question, "What happens if you forget where you put all of your money?"
• Fellow Georgian (and fantasy football coach extraordinaire) Gordon Cloud asks the question "What do you think about God?"
  

Is it bad when...

... on your way to work, school, or wherever it is you're going and everybody is driving like an idiot, you're thinking how the mornings' events would make an interesting blog post?

... your wife, after making a cute but "blonde-moment" statement says to herself, "Dangit! That's gonna be a blog post, isn't it!?" (For the record, it never made it on here)

... you spend an hour, maybe more, on a post and then proofread it and realize it's just not that interesting? But you post it anyway just b/c you haven't posted anything in a while and were starting to lose your credentials as a "blogger"?

... when you proofread a post backwards? (a method of spell checking I was taught a long time ago that, apparently, has stuck for the most part)

... you're too lazy to Google something, like when you're leaving a comment on another blog about something but are just relying on memory rather than siting a source? Because usually somebody will call BS, then you'll have to Google and find the source, therefore creating more work for your lazy butt.

... you get pegged as a blogger by people who've never even read your blog?! (Or known of it's existence - they just made a really good educated guess)

Fear has a face

A band of stray Shih-Tzus have invaded a local apartment complex. This is the rough equivalent of being invaded by France, of course - lots of yelling, stomping, but eventually bowing down and running away ensues.

A little more weight

In a previous post, I let on that I'm not too keen on the whole "War on Drugs" thing. Specifically because it's a losing war. It has been, and it will continue to be. There won't be a victor, ever.

When you're losing a war this bad, you retreat.

But then drugs will be everywhere! Everybody will be on them!

No they won't - most people that aren't on them now probably won't start using just because it's legal (I know I won't). For that matter, do you think there are people now that want to do them, but won't because it's illegal?

So what to do? End the prohibition.

Normally this ellicits the usual: "You just want to do drugs!", "Then there will be crime everywhere!", etc. My response generally doesn't do any good either: "No," on one and "it already is," on two.

Alas, my opinion still doesn't count for much. Neither do organizations like NORML who want to legalize pot. LEAP on the other hand, may just get the ball rolling. They're a group of law enforcement, both current and past, that say enough is enough. Rodney "The Agitator" Balko writes for FoxNews.com:

It's understandable why when many people first see Howard Wooldridge, they might at first think he's a crank.

The slender, mustachioed man of middle-age frequently wears a cowboy hat, and has been known to get around town on a horse. He also wears a black shirt with loud, conspicuous lettering on both the front and back. You'd be forgiven to dismiss him as a religious zealot proclaiming the coming apocalypse, or a disciple of Lyndon Larouche.

But look closer. The shirt reads: "COPS SAY LEGALIZE DRUGS: ASK ME WHY."

And people do.

"I get stopped just about everywhere," he says. "The shirt works. I have several different for different occasions – I can get my point across in 30 seconds in an elevator, a few minutes in a restaurant, or full-blown speech at a Rotary Club."

If he doesn't leave people convinced, he at least leaves them asking the right questions.

So does Norm Stamper, former police chief for the city of Seattle.

"People ask how a former cop could say drugs should be legalized, but it's precisely because I love police and love police work that I'm saying it. The drug war stops real cops from doing real police work. It's corrupting. It's wasteful. And it has wrecked communities."

I encourage you to read the article and start asking yourself the hard, maybe outlandish questions about legalizing drugs.

Quick takes

The holidays allowed for some much needed catching-up-on-movies time for my wife and I. Sadly, due to last semester's business, our movie-watching took a serious nose-dive to the point that we had to cancel our Netflix subscription (I'll pause to let you catch your breath). The silver lining in all of this is the fact that my brother and sister have a movie collection that could rival Netflix, thus I have borrowed from their extensive collections. So here's a bunch of quick shot mini-reviews of movies I've seen recently and what I thought about them.

• Mean Girls - I must admit, I orignally had no desire to see this movie. Back when it came out, I did read quite a few articles about it and while intrigued, the idea of watching caricatures of girls being mean to each other for an hour and a half just didn't float my boat. My curiousity was peaked though when my wife watched it and recommended that I see it due to its over-the-top hilarity. I've got to say, this may be one of the funniest movies I've seen in a while, but it also hits quite a few all too true notes. 8/10
• 16 Blocks - Bruce Willis plays a washed up drunkard of a cop assigned to escort a witness to a court hearing a certain distance away eluded to in the title. The catch is the witness is going to testify against some dirty cops, one of which is Bruce's old partner. Mayhem ensues, and despite being a drunkard, Willis channels some John McClane mojo to pull off some decent action sequences. 7/10
• Hostage - Another Bruce Willis movie, only this time he's a former hostage negotiator turned small town sheriff. As the name of the movie implies, some kids take a man and his children hostage in a botched carjacking attempt and it's up to Bruce to seek a gruesome, deathly ending for those involved. A few nice twists along the way, but I could have done without the "Crow" -like imagery. 7/10
• Resident Evil - Let's just strip this down (like Milla Jovavich in all her movies): if you were a fan of the video games, you'll probably like the movie; if you're a fan of thriller sci-fi, you might like the movie; other wise, you'll think it was boring and made little to no sense whatsoever. I fall partially in all 3 groups: 9/10 for game fans, 7/10 for sci-fi, 4/10 for normal people = 6.7/10 avg.
• Pirates: Dead Man's Chest - I admitted in my theatrical review of this that it was far lesser of a movie than the first one. While I still feel that way, a second viewing on DVD actually made me like it more, a phenomenon that's becoming more and more common with me (same thing happened with the last two Harry Potter movies). Still a bit long and at times uneven, the ending three way fight between Jack, William, and Norrington is fun action. 8/10
  

The utter sadness of it all

This weekend was the ceremonious taking down of the Christmas lights. Yeah, I know I'm supposed to have them taken down by the first of the year, but that time just never presented itself. Between family and friends and weather, it just didn't happen. At least I didn't have them burning since New Year's Day.

I've always found it interesting that taking them down requires a fractional amount of the time it took to put them up. I started putting them on the house the first weekend in November, to the funny looking stares of my neighbors; to be fair though, those stares were more along the lines of "Hunny, let's watch this fool so we can tell his wife what happened." Anyway, the first set of lights for the upper roof took about 2 1/2 hours; the lights for the lower (and much less steep) roof took only an hour; and finally the ground stuff on bushes, tress, and the porch took another couple of hours. All told, maybe 6 hours spread out over three weekends.

In six hours yesterday afternoon I was able to:

• take a two hour nap
• take down the lights
• change the oil on my truck
• have dinner with our Sunday School class

That's almost depressing. I mean think about it. That's two whole hours I could have put towards something else. :D

Aunt Custer follow-up

My orginial post about this here.

Short recap: Narcotics officers in the Atlanta Police Dept. served a "no-knock" search warrant at a house on Neal St looking for a drug dealer by the name of Sam. Instead they found a 92 (or 88, depending on who is screaming the loudest) year old woman with a six-shooter and poor eyesight. She opens fire when they kick her door in; the police return fire. When the smoke clears, Kathryn Johnston is dead and three cops are wounded.

Now, it seems there is no Sam:

An Atlanta police narcotics officer has told federal investigators at least one member of his unit lied about making a drug buy at the home of an elderly woman killed in a subsequent raid, according to a person close to the investigation.

In an affidavit to get a search warrant at the home Nov. 21, narcotics officer Jason R. Smith told a magistrate he and Officer Arthur Tesler had a confidential informant buy $50 worth of crack at 933 Neal St. from a man named "Sam."

But narcotics officer Gregg Junnier, who was wounded in the shootout, has since told federal investigators that did not happen, according to the person close to the investigation. Police got a no-knock warrant after claiming that "Sam" had surveillance cameras outside the Neal Street residence and they needed the element of surprise to capture him and the drugs.

While I do lay the blame of Ms. Johnston's death on that particular team of cops, I think it goes farther than that. In other articles the officers have mentioned how they felt "pressed for time... to make a bust." In other words, their superiors - mostly politicians - wanted a bust to put in the headlines, something that would look good and allow them to get their picture - the politicians, not the cops - next to the big print of the drug bust.

Weekend wrap-up

This past weekend was the end of Christmas presents for my wife and I - we took in the afternoon performance of Broadway's Twelve Angry Men starring Richard Thomas (John Boy from the Waltons) and George Wendt (Norm from Cheers). This is probably my favorite non-musical production and I highly recommend it to any and all. This particular production stuck with the classic version of the play, a 1950s drama about a jury deciding the guilt or innocence of a boy from the wrong side of the tracks accused of murdering his father. Other remakes and updates have been done, but it loses a bit of something when moved to modern times. For an at home version, check out the Henry Fonda classic available on DVD (including Netflix, Jeff).
Note that the movie contains significantly less language than the actual play.

After that, it was off to Chops, my uber-expensive steakhouse of choice where my wife and I got to witness a slightly different type of production - a proposal. In between the lobster bisque and bread course of the evening, the young man seated directly behind my wife got up and got on a knee in front of his girl. Two thoughts immediately went through my mind: 1) "Boy, has he really screwed up!" 2) "Oh, he's going to propose!" Shortly thereafter, the young lady let out a yes that still has some dogs in the Buckhead area circling and peeing.

Today began the first day of classes for me, therefore expect a hodgepodge of posts centered around stupid teachers, students, and various other dummies that I must keep on a friendly level with for the remainder of this semester.

My take: Casino Royale

My wife and I ended our movie watching year with what I consider to be the best movie I've seen all year, not to mention possibly the best Bond movie ever - Casino Royale. As far as franchise reboots, this is up there with Batman Begins. Out are the stupid jokes, odd-gadgets, and mind-numbingly twisted plotlines; in is Daniel Craig.

The movie starts out in glorious black and white with Bond gaining his "00" license by offing a couple of bad guys, one of which receives a beat down that would get a standing ovation from Jack Bauer. That leads me to one of the first things I like about the new Bond - Craig's version is a buff, tough, rugged chunk of a man with muscles practically ripping through his tux. This is a guy that can start and/or finish any fight he's involved in - think of a roided out Jason Bourne, and your pretty close.

The other thing I really enjoyed in this movie was the plot, mostly because it was kept simple. Sure, the good ol' spy days of the Cold War may be over, but there's still plenty of snooping to be done - this time Bond delves in to the world of funding terrorism. This ultimately pays off in a poker tournament that pits Bond against our terrorist financer Le Chiffre, played wonderfully by Mads Mikkelsen.

That said, I did still have a few problems (minor as they are). The last half hour of the movie was about 25 minutes too long, and really brought the pace of the movie to a crawl before squeezing in one last action sequence that was a bit too reminiscent of the other Bond movies. I also didn't understand Vesper's actions at the end; I won't go in to details so as to avoid spoilers, but for a rather smart lady with someone as equally smart and lethal as Bond as her friend, I just don't understand many of her decisions.

Also, what's the deal with wrecking that beautiful new Aston Martin DB9 without ever really getting a chase out of it? I knew, thanks to the trailer, that the car would meet a fateful demise, but a little more of a chase scene would have been nice.

Those minor glitches aside, I like the idea of what the writers were trying to setup in the final scenes, the return of an ultra evil-like organization similar to SPECTRE. Among other nice hat-tips to the former movies were the use of a vintage 63/64 Aston Martin (the "original" Bond car), the invention of Bond's notorious "shaken, not stirred" martini, and the nod to "Money-penny" when meeting Vesper. Probably the best movie I've seen in the theater in a long time - a solid 9 out of 10.