Let’s just jump right into this, yesterday I witnessed one of the craziest action movies I’ve ever seen: The Raid.
The Raid was 1 of 4 I checked out and it was batshit crazy. Not sure if you’ve ever seen the movie Ong Bak but it’s like that with guns. If you haven’t seen that let me just lay out the scenario for you:
A swat team raids a safe house that’s full of killers and drug dealers. Oh, and everyone in the safe house knew they were coming.
You remember in The Matrix when Neo and Trinity entered the building in their trench coats and go nuts, firing guns at anything that moved. As that scene was going on you couldn’t help but realize that you’ve never witnessed this before. Okay, it wasn’t that intense, but almost was, it definitely had its moments that actually made the crowd start clapping.
The movie premiered at the Toronto International film festival and was purchased by Sony Classic, so keep an eye out for it.
Bindlestiffs: Another solid movie that wasn’t at Sundance but was showing at Slamdance. Below is the premise (which I think is great) you decide if you’d want to see it:
Three high school virgins, suspended from school on a bogus graffiti charge, flee to the inner city in an attempt to live out the plot of The Catcher in the Rye - a book they neither have read nor understand. BINDLESTIFFS documents their struggles along the way as they surrender their virginities to vagrants, prostitutes, and crack fiends. Hot on their tail is Charlie, the deranged school security guard. Under the impression that the boys are planning a school shooting, he takes the law into his own hands to stop them and save America.
Honorable mention to Robot and Frank with Frank Langella. It’s a film set in the near future, and Langella gets a robot to watch after him. I’m not exactly sure how it was received but I liked it. I thought it was very consistent, even with a slow pace.
Random Observations:
My shoes are incredibly destroyed from the snow. They were once leather, now they’re basically white. I was planning to put the picture of my shoes in this post but want to refrain from being that guy.
Speaking of the snow – it was falling yesterday. I had a flashback of Wisconsin back in the day. Everyone seems to be taking it in stride, but I guess they closed off the i-80 from Salt Lake City coming into Park City last night. Fuck it, picture included.
The Social Scene: The great thing about being here is that while you’re out everybody suspects you may actually be someone else so patrons are incredibly eager to spark conversation for no reason. Last night I was out alone and stopped at 2 different pubs and 1 bar, when you’re this guy in LA you teeter on being lonely creepy guy, which actually is the case most places. On that note, I think people drinking at the bar by themselves gets a bad stigma; I personally love it and almost prefer it. Wait, does it get a bad stigma? Am I projecting some inner issue? Whatever the case, Park City is a great social environment.
If I didn’t already know it, I’ve entered the word of needing to be completely connected: Last night my cell phone died and had a near freak out about what to do. Sure, it was 5 degrees in a snowstorm and I didn’t know where I was, that may have played into me needing my cell phone charged. But my incredible need to be fully charged may not have been healthy.
Today is a day of football. I will surely be pouring a little out in memory of my Green Bay Packers. Football predictions:
Patriots over Ravens 31-24
49ers over Giants 21-20
Patriots VS 49ers in the Super Bowl.
Below is the trailer for The Raid. Watch it, but be warned… it’s violent.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWlmhMSnVdM&w=560&h=315]