Why do documentaries seem to get the short end of the stick when it comes to movie making. Telling a true story is hard enough but to tell a story and convey an emotion of loss or regret to expressing happiness and joy and the whole time doing it with regular people not actors who rely on using fake emotions unless you have a good actor that knows how to act. After watching "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson", how does a director express insanity in the form of creativity. You would have to really tackle a project like that with the force of 30 chimpanzees all from the African bush to pull of something with that extreme magnitude. But it was done. And done well.

Alex Gibney does a great job of showing us a lot of great videos and interviews about HST with some of his best friends. Seeing the dude from the Hells Angels who beat the shit out of Hunter to getting McGovern to talk about him and be completely open to what happened in that 1972 election. Some of Gibney other films like, "Taxi to the Dark side" and "Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room" are some great works of film that have been recognized with acclaim and accolades but why does it always seem that documentaries have to be some sort of underground buzz about them. That the general population will not watch a movie unless it has explosions or Ben Stiller in it? Why do Americans feel the need, no, the right to be stupid and feel that having intelligence is something of an elitist side of America. Should we not embrace the intelligent. Parents say to their children everyday they are off to school to learn something. Yet, when people grow up they are expected to conform to everyone else's likes. Be creativity and think and take drugs if you want to. Explore the world of ones imagination and do not feel like you are beholden to someone else's idea. Filter your world with your own set of aviators.

A great movie to watch "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson" 5 high water mark stars.

No way Mr. Dumars you are fucking idiot. To trade away some of your best players. An when I mean best, YOUR BEST PLAYERS! Granted Antonio McDyess is running on empty but the man will still put up some decent minutes, get points and rebounds and for is a solid team player but to let go the guy that has been the rock for your team Chauncey Billups for A.I. Allen "Practice" Iverson. I like A.I. determination and his ability to make something out of nothing but here we have a shooting guard on his decline with Chauncey. While Mr. Billups maybe getting older he is getting wiser. He is still one of the top people in the league that I would want to control the tempo of my offense and a very good defensive players. Top five PG on Cj's list in no particular order: Steve Nash, Chris Paul, Tony Parker, Chauncey Billups, Deron Williams. These are the five people any team would love to get and Denver has them now. Denver has a real chance to make a run into the playoffs now with an experienced ball handler and a guy that can score. If they still had Camby for defense and rebounds they would a very solid team. Detroit has shot itself in the foot and Joe Dumars is slowing losing his mind. Maybe all of the Piston players as of late are losing it mentally. Well except for Bill Laimbeer of course. Maybe that punch in the face by Robert Parish smacked some sense into him.

It is in the air, it is in the water. Most t.v. stations are talking about it and it has infected the printed press like pneumonia on a transient on the first cold night in Maine. Political fever has spread. It is amazing to watch a nation that in the past carried so little for politics suddenly spring to life with gusto and energy that would make Italian lovers blush at the bawdiness and display that we put these elected officials through. In the "great" state of Maine (which is the name of a bear in John Irving's "A Hotel New Hampshire" FYI) the political race for senate has become an issue that could bring the national exposure.

The race for the seat is taking place between two people. Susan Collins, the Republican incumbent versus Tom Allen, the former Congressman from Maine's First District. This highly contested seat makes Democrats get weak in the knees if they could knock off a high ranking Republican member and take a bigger lead in the current 51 to 49 roll call in the Senate. Currently their hopes have begun to fade as poll after poll show that Collins will not go down without a fight and will not go down without bringing out her checkbook to make human interest T.V. ads about heart attacks and little white girls with some medical condition. Which makes me wonder why? Why spend all of this money in a state that does not have a huge economy or even a huge population.

It all comes down to numbers for the Democrats. They are looking at this race as a way of taking down a fairly moderate Republican who for the most part does not stand by Bush and the rest of her Republican allies (cronies) all of the time. The lead in the Senate would be a huge boost as well. Currently the Senate has two independents who vote with the Democrats most of the time. Bernie Sanders of Vermont (a cool and independent dude, who votes with his “liberal” mind to represent the people of VT the best he can) and Joe (I suck at life and want to make the Democrats hate me for the rest of my existence on this large blue and green planet and at the same time piss off as many people as I can) Lieberman. If Joe Lieberman could go find a wood chipper to re-create Fargo with I would endorse it. It has been rumored that Lieberman needs two Vicodin to even get to sleep because his mind continues to think of new ways of making people hate him. Back to the nature at hand. Tom Allen winning the Senate seat would be a huge coup de grace against the Republicans. The problem is he will most likely lose.

It is true what "Tip" O'Neil said when declaring, "All politics are local". The issues that towns and cities deal with everyday affect the actions that their representatives bring with them to Washington. Susan who I have very little trust for and believe she sounds like Chris Farley after climbing two flights of stairs every time she talks, has cultivated this image of a down home Maine girl/women(?) who still shops at Hannafords in Bangor every Sunday after church. Whose family owns a small business (which we know her family does not own a "small business" her family owns a lumberyard, I think they do well off!) Susan has cultivated this image of a small town America who at the same time gets things done in Washington by writing bills and choosing her own path. We can at least agree that she likes her gig in D.C. because while she once supported term limits she needs to rack up a few more frequent flier miles for a trip to anywhere hot and awesome when it is 10 fucking degrees in Maine in February. Proof of her talking about term limits right here!

The clear issue is if you support Collins you are going to get the same old thing. She does have an upside. She has been in the Senate for awhile now. She knows how to carve some pork and it would be nice to see Maine get some because frankly if Alaska can build bridges to nowhere then we could at snowmobile trails to east bumfuck. (To anyone who reads this and thinks that Congress will every end pork barrel spending you are about two fries short of a Happy Meal).

The downside to Collins is her voting record. Yes she has said she is and independent mind. Yet she votes for and helps people like Blackwater stay in business in Iraq, while fucking over the soldiers that should at least be given a little help. She votes with the Republicans on issues that really matter, i.e. the budget, claiming women's right while voting in Samuel Alito and John Roberts who are not fond of women choosing what goes on in their va-jay-jays, to supporting a national I.D act so that Big Brother can be started, and saying "criminals" should not be allowed habeas corpus. Not that anyone wants any corpse lying around

The upside to voting for Tom Allen is he is general a good guy. He is a thinking man Senator. He tries to show off that he is a down home guy but he went to Bowdoin College (which most Maine people could never afford), he went to Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship, and then he went to Harvard Law School. And you know what? That is alright. Yes, if you were his parents wouldn't you be saying to him, "Go to law school, apply for the Rhodes thing, better yourself, don’t set your goals to assistant manager at the D.Q.". I am sure Allen's family has money and I know he would vote for things that I do not agree with but he is still the better candidate for Senate. Currently he is 10 to 15 points down in the polls. Collins is known better and will mostly likely win. But at least old Tommy boy is one vote ahead of Susan before the polls open up.

So the Lsat is two days away(sound of a gun hammer pulling back). I have been studying but still I am Mucho worried about it. Why do you ask? Well the Lsat test is pretty much the number one reason you get into a good law school or you do not get into a good law school or possible not getting into a Law school at all. I know it is insane. The test goes ranges in scores from 120 ( you are a retard you better have good connections in life) to 180 (eh you have a chance to get into Harvard Law or Yale, but you still better have some good connections). If you get around a 15o-ish or so you have a decent shot of getting into most law schools. The test itself is like I have heard from many people almost a race. 35 minutes to pull of 23 to 27 questions. That equals out to if you use 27 questions to 1 minutes and 29 seconds for each question. Dear lord. You have to do this on four different sections. With one section being a test section that they are practicing on you but you do not know it. For Christ Sake this test will suck. On top of that there is an essay. But the essay doesn't count towards your grade. It only matters for schools to look at just in case they may have missed something.

The test day is two days away. Dear lord. I have studied. Had a tutor (800 dollars later). An I have studied some more. The good thing is if I do not do well I can take the test in February and try and get a higher score. The bad news is some schools average the scores together just to dumb you down a little. Anybody with any insight or the answers want to email me?

Hopefully I will do well enough to get into Maine Law. Good school decent price lots of good times reading away. Plus being in Maine will make it easier to get internships or work at other law places because Portland has a ton of them. Granted the dream school that I would want to go to would be Boston College. Great school, tons of networking possibilities, it would be a step up from Maine. What is holding me back. Well money. The school costs an arm and a leg, plus the added bonus of being just a little harder to get into.

Well wish me luck. I am going to need it. Best thing I can do is pray and study and take the test and once it is done forgot about it till the day the scores come in. If I don't get into law school I can always write screenplays for porn.

So to start of my first blog post I have chosen to go a simple route an just to stick with something I know, movies. Well in fact I will stick to a movie I have just recently watched. First off let me say that I am huge fan of movies. I mean I will watch almost anything at least once. Sometimes I will watch the movie for a specific scene or style. Or maybe something the camera did. I loved Children of Men the movie was o.k. but the tracking shot of Clive Owen. That was fucking brilliant. I even have some movies that I question why I own them. ( The last two Matrix movies) crap but crap on a huge scale. So to call me a movie buff, yes. A critic? Yes. Someone that likes a shitty movie. I try and keep it limited.

To get this blog moving I will just tell you that I am a big believer in Netflix. In no way am I getting any money from saying this. Really. I just think they rock. I mean think about how insane it is to get as many movies as you can watch for 20 bonesa month. I mean that is unheard of. See you later Movie Gallery. Eat shit and die Hollywood Video. Blockbuster Video is going to soon try and tempt people to come into the store by free blow jobs and twizzlers. Your days are numbered and I feel like I am movin on up (Thanks Mr. Jefferson)

Anyways my most recently watched movie (in the last couple of weeks) from Netflix was drumroll please....."In Bruges". A great film with Brendan Gleeson (From the Harry Potter movies as Mad Eye Moody) and Colin Farrell. I know what you are thinking. "CJ! You just said Colin Farrell was in a good movie!"
I know, I know I will get to that in a second. Let me finish talking about the cast and then we will talk about that. Ralph Fiennes is in the movieas well playing an excellent bad guy and then there is a dude from "24" and a midget people that are great in the film but I am just going to focus on the big three.

Anyway just a quick rundown of the movie. Farrell and Gleeson are hitman that have messed up a job in London and are on the lamb in Belgium. They are in Bruges to be precise and they are waiting for their boss Ralph Fiennes who plays "Harry Waters" to give them a call to figure out what to do next. Pretty simple eh? Well Farrell character "Ray", hates Bruges. Despises Bruges. Wishes he was in a Thai whorehouse, having his kidneys removed with rusty knives would be a better "vacation" than to be in in Bruges. Ray would rather be banging chicks and or getting pissed (drunk). Gleeson character likes it. He likes the buildings and oldness. He likes the culture. Or at least it is a change of pace from England (Which has plenty of it fine churchs and canals of its own). Farrell worried me about this movie. His track record is not very good. Granted I do like some movies he has made before....OK so "Tigerland" was so far his best movie till this one showed up but I always thought he had the potential. I mean I just figured he can act. He just had a lot of misses and I will give him credit for sticking it out. He plays his character so dead on for someone that has ever traveled to a foreign country and just hated it because well sometimes you really do hate someplace that you travel to. It happens deal with it.

Fiennes while short in screen time squeezes life out of character his Harry every time he opens his mouth or raises his eyebrow's. He is a boss of some group that kills people. ( I am sure that these people exist and it is even harder to get a job interview with them) and he is very upset that they messed up and as you may have guessed he is going to make them pay the proverbial piper.

Gleeson also does a bang up job. You feel for him every time he tries to get Farrel's character to you take in the sights and sounds. That while you may have not wanted to be in Bruges you still can appreciate it and have a good time. A lesson many people traveling should try and understand.

I have to say the writer/director of the movie Martin McDonagh wrote a great script. It would have the kind of script I wish I could have written. There is plenty of swearing but that is how the fucking world talks. The characters at first appear very vague and one might wonder why two men from London are stuck in a bedroom together in Bruges a place that Ralph Fiennes character Harry likes to say is "like a fairytale town, isn't it?". McDonagh does a great job of slowly giving the us a little information about both men and their own trials and tribulations.
McDonagh just seems to have a way with words. I think writting the part for Ralph Fieness may have been the best. Lines like,

"An Uzi? I'm not from South Central Los Angeles. I didn't come here to shoot twenty black ten year olds in a drive-by. I want a normal gun for a normal person."

McDonagh also plays on this idea that Bruges is not Heaven, nor Hell, but rather purgatory. A fact that he has a lot of fun with in the movie.

So a movie about hit man. Check. Redemption Check. Cute foriegn girls. Check. Swearing that would make Scorsese blush. Check. Funny lines. Check. A movie that makes you think. Check. These are things that make a good movie. Well sometimes. Out of five stars I give it a five.

Check it out on www.IMDB.com if you are interested.