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Bullet Sunday 146

Posted on Sunday, August 23rd, 2009

Dave!It's another edition of Bullet Sunday... this time coming to you from beautiful Denver, Colorado!

• I love Ponyo. Yet another Miyazaki masterpiece. Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea is such joyous, imaginative, feel-good fun that you don't even need kids as an excuse to go see it. Pretty much a retelling of The Little Mermaid, the oft-told tale of the little girl who wants to be human has never been seen in quite this way. Featuring some of the most mesmerizing traditional animated sequences I've ever seen, this is a stunning film which trounces the animated garbage we've been inundated with lately (hey, they're making a sequel to Happy Feet!)...

Ponyo Teaser Poster

The main character, Sosuke, is so lovingly crafted that you'd swear he was a real little boy... everything from the way he walks to the way he acts is just captivating to watch. While I prefer to see Miyazaki films in their original Japanese, I have to admit that the vocal talent Disney lined up for the American release is pretty stellar (ZOMG! BETTY WHITE & TINA FEY!) and all the actors seem to ring true to the characters they're dubbing. Well worth seeing in a theater for the sheer spectacle of it all... the pastel-rendered backgrounds are beautiful, and demand to be seen on the big screen.

   

Epic Fail in the dictionary: George W. Bush and Johnny Rockets.

• Failure to Launch. I got to the Cherry Creek Center Theater for Ponyo a little early so I could eat dinner at the Johnny Rockets there, only to find out that they didn't have any vegetarian Boca Burgers. AGAIN! Why am I not surprised? After all, I've been denied Boca Burgers in San Francisco (twice), Santa Monica, Seattle University Village (twice), Seattle Pike Place Market, Seattle Pacific Place, Miami Aventura Mall, Seattle South Center, and Kent Station... why should Denver be any different? Still finding it positively absurd that a FROZEN item can't be stocked in such depth that it won't run out 50% of the time a customer would like to order it. If you're not going to bother to watch your inventory, don't bother putting it on the menu so that people like me don't waste their valuable time going to a restaurant expecting to get the food we want.

   

Denver Capitol Building

Union Station Denver

• Denver and Killer Squirrels. After the movie, Howard and Cameron dropped me off downtown so I could take a few photos around the Capitol Building. After goofing around for a bit, I decided to walk back to The 16th Street Mall for dinner and have a look around Union Station. As I was walking through Civic Center Park, I heard something in the tree above me and turned around to look. Much to my surprise it was a very angry squirrel, who glared at me just long enough to let me take a blurry photo of him...

Squirrel Attack

That's when I noticed that squirrels were everywhere, and they had no fear of humans. One little guy was eating a pile of sunflower seeds somebody had left and I was able to sit right next to him. He barely noticed...

Nutty Squirrel

Just for fun, I was going to reach over and grab a few seeds, but didn't want to risk getting bitten and end up with rabies or something. That would be just my luck.

   

Tarantino Movie Posters

• Film by Tarantino. My most consistently favorite director outside of Hayao Miyazaki is Quentin Tarantino. In my capsule review of his latest masterpiece Inglourious Basterds, I said that the word "visionary" was inadequate to describe his cinematic genius. This prompted one reader to ask me how I would rank his films, which would be thusly...

  1. Pulp Fiction. The Tarantino benchmark which instantly established him as one of the world's greatest living writer/directors. Its every scene is masterfully constructed for maximum impact, where even the slow moments serve to amplify the story to an insane degree. Featuring some of the best contemporary dialogue ever written anywhere, Pulp Fiction became one of my favorite films of all time before I was even a quarter of the way through it. How the three stories within the film weave in and out of each other in a non-sequential manner could easily be taken as a cheap filmmaker's gimmick, but Tarantino uses it to genius effect. As if all that weren't enough, Quentin managed to bring together one of the most perfect casts ever assembled, giving us John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Harvey Keitel, Ving Rhames, and Christopher Walken (among others) in the best roles they are likely to ever have. If ever there was a film that encapsulated the word "brilliant" this would be it.
  2. Inglourious Basterds. Everything I wrote about this masterpiece yesterday is only amplified in my mind a day later. Quentin himself says that this is the closest he's gotten to Pulp Fiction and I absolutely agree.
  3. Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2. A revenge flick so epic in scope that Quentin had to break it into two parts. And while I admit the ending was a bit anti-climactic, in this case it's the journey, not the destination, that makes the whole thing worthwhile. The fight scene between Uma Thurman and Lucy Lui is one of the most beautiful ever filmed. The fight scene between Uma and the "Crazy 88" is one of the most brutal ever filmed. The fight scene between Uma and Vivica A. Fox is one of the most engaging ever filmed. The fight scene between Uma and Daryl Hannah has one of the best endings ever filmed. String them all together with Tarantino's patented quirkiness and it's one of the greatest stories of revenge ever seen on the silver screen.
  4. Jackie Brown This film is a love letter from Tarantino to Pam Grier and her blaxsploitation films of the 1970's like Coffy and Foxy Brown. That he actually got Pam Grier to play the lead role rather than casting an imitator just shows how incredibly smart Quentin is when it comes to choosing his actors (we also get Robert DeNiro, Bridget Fonda, Samuel L. Jackson, and Robert Forrester which just confirms it). The story, based on the Elmore Leonard novel Rum Punch, is a crime caper flick so tightly paced and packed with so many brilliant dialogue exchanges that you never want it to end. The world of Jackie Brown lingers long after the credits have rolled.
  5. Reservoir Dogs Tarantino's debut is a hyper-violent heist thriller where the actual heist is never seen. Given that this would be the most interesting part of this movie genre in lesser hands, Quentin manages to create a far more imaginative film by showing everything but the main event. All the things Tarantino would become famous for are here from the very beginning, and it's a thrilling experience that influenced an entire generation of films that would follow. While not for the squeamish and faint-of-heart, this is a film that shows us exactly what cinematic genius is.
  6. Death Proof While decent Tarantino fare that features one of the best car chase sequences ever filmed, this movie pales in comparison to his other efforts. Which means it's still better than the vast majority of the crap which ends up at the local theater, and I enjoyed it quite a lot. Quentin on his worst day knows more about making an entertaining film than many other directors will ever know. Kurt Russell in the lead role as a sadistic misogynist stuntman is just the icing on the cake.

   

&bull Housekeeping Aggressive. One of the most thankless jobs on the planet has to be that of a housekeeper at a hotel. Forgotten entirely when they do their job well, yet persecuted ruthlessly when they make a mistake, the housekeeper is in the ultimate no-win scenario. Historically, I've always endeavored to be excessively kind and generous with housekeeping staff in order to balance out this wrong, but my attitude has been changing as of late. Because, in addition to being the most thankless job, it can also be the most passive-aggressive career in history. And more and more this is getting to be the case. Housekeepers maintain this front of kindness in service, but all too many of them really don't give a shit and, indeed, are actively hostile in their work.

As an example... in the hotel I'm currently staying (which shall remain nameless, because it really doesn't matter) the housekeeping staff is so horrendously noisy each morning that I have no choice but to view it as intentional. And it begins the minute they exit the elevator... laughing and whistling and yelling and screaming and banging and slamming. Never mind that it's still fairly early and people are trying to sleep, they just don't give a fuck. Across the hall from my room is a laundry chute. What they could do is prop the door open so that the soiled linens will pass silently down to the laundry. But what they actually do is let the door slam shut again and again and again, which is an endless source of banging that is so forceful that my walls shake every time. And heaven forbid that you should want to sleep in, because if you stay later than they like, they will purposely create a huge racket outside your door until you ultimately give up and flee the premises. Every drawer is banged. Every word is yelled. Every cleaning tool is rattled. Every door is slammed. Because the housekeepers just don't seem to give a flying fuck anymore. They're up at the crack of dawn doing a thankless job, and they want you to suffer for it. Over and over and over again. One of these days I'm going to have had enough and scream into the hallway as loud as I can "SHUT THE HELL UP!" knowing full-well that it will only encourage them to be louder. Because that's what happens when you mess with people having the most passive aggressive job on earth.

   

Denver at Night

• Farewell to The City. And that's all she wrote. Tomorrow I'll take a trip to some stores I want to check out which were closed today... and then it's off to the airport and other adventures.

   

Comments

  1. claire says:

    Have you stayed anywhere that the housekeepers were quiet in the morning? I don’t think I have. Even if there’s not a lot of chatting, the gear and banging on other people’s doors, yelling: Housekeeping! before entering adjacent rooms is always loud. I took it to be a fact of life after 7 or 8 AM.

  2. I love “Ponyo sur la falaise” too! So beautiful! 🙂

  3. kapgar says:

    Oh Ponyo! I found out my local theater, for whatever reason, never includes the final letter of a movie name in the display marquees outside the entrance. So I’ve been wondering what the hell kind of movie Pony was. Even worse with U.

  4. Hilly says:

    I think I’m going to have a Tarantino film festival soon…I own all of those movies (except Inglourious Basterds, of course). I just love his directing style and the fact that when you go into one of his movies, you expect half of the main characters to die a bloody death. The only disappointment in his movies is when they DON’T die!

  5. jenny says:

    I just bought Kill Bill 1 & 2 yesterday, and a guy next to me was raving about Jackie Brown. I haven’t seen Jackie Brown, but have added it to the list. And now maybe I need to see Inglourious Basterds as well…

  6. Sybil Law says:

    That sucks about the cleaning staff. I’d totally complain. I can’t stand it when I’m trying to sleep and people are making noise!
    I have heard repeatedly that Inglourious Basterds is good- damn. yet another movie I need to go see. My problem is WHEN am I supposed to see it?!! WAH.

  7. LeSombre says:

    I love Tarantino. I would rate Reservoir Dogs above Jackie Brown. I can’t wait to see Inglorious Basterds now. 😉

  8. Sue says:

    You should report to management of the hotel what you experienced with the housekeeping. Any self-respecting hotel has rules for their staff about maintaining the comfort of each guest, including noise levels.

    I’m a little angry myself hearing those in my field are so disrespectful in their work.

    This is why I don’t clean hotels, though. I work alone. I mean, REALLY alone. But, sadly, I know of many cleaners who are dishonest, disrespectful, and, as you said, just don’t give a shit. Most of them are just going through the motions so they can pick up that minimum wage paycheck at the end of the week. I’d bet they would change their ethics if they got paid per guest satisfaction rather than per hour, but that won’t happen anytime soon.

  9. Howard says:

    Hey, thanks for planning the get together and spending some movie time with us. We will definitely let you know if we end up in Washington. Come back soon!

  10. hdw says:

    We stay at a hotel in Portland, OR that has – seriously – the quietest housekeeping staff … ever. I don’t even know they are the floor until I’ve emerged, around 10 a.m., feeling somewhat refrshed post-hangover.

  11. A Lewis says:

    I think that all of us veggie boys have found story after story of places unable to accommodate, nothing in stock, nothing on the menu, “No, we can’t make you a salad,” etc etc. It’s sad.

  12. martymankins says:

    We saw our share of squirrels at the Grand Canyon this last weekend. Tame little buggers when it comes to getting food.

    Tarantino is one of my all time favorite directors. Your list of Quentin-directed films parallels mine. Although I do have to add in the script he did for “True Romance” as one of my top favorites, sneaking in under Pulp Fiction to take the number 2 spot. So well done, even if Quentin didn’t direct it (Tony Scott did the honors).

  13. ETinNY says:

    I’m sure that the handheld – cinéma vérité “street vendor edition” of Inglourious Basterds is probably already out in NYC for around 10 bucks. I could look around for Hilly to see if I can find one to complete her collection. (‘course I’ll have to send it in a plain brown wrapper with no return address and probably include a copyright disclaimer) http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n312/ETinNY/Streetvendor.jpg

  14. whall says:

    Man you know how to complain.

  15. adena says:

    That first squirrel looks like he’s flipping you off a little!

  16. Oh I couldn’t agree more about Pulp Fiction. One of my favorite movies of all time.

  17. Greg says:

    Ponyo was such a great movie! Yet another classic from Miyazaki (though my favorite is still Princess Mononoke). As for boca burgers, I recently learned — on Friday, as a matter of fact — that the Claim Jumper restaurants offer boca patties in lieu of beef or turkey. And not just the tiny patties but one-inch thick slabs of boca goodness. Made the Frisco burger so good!

  18. Nat says:

    Pulp Fiction is one of my favourite films of all times. Every time I see it there is something else (and I’ve seen it a lot.)

    Can I admit to having a soft spot for from Dusk ’til Dawn… though not a true Tarantino, it’s still a sentimental favourite.

  19. Göran says:

    Yay. I get to see Inglorius Basterds on thursday.
    Contemplating watching Jackie Brown for the umphteenth time.

  20. Jacki says:

    Not a fan of Brad Pitt, but think Quentin’s ability may just compensate enough for me to watch the movie.
    I own Death Proof on Blueray, but it took me a long time to get around to watching it because I didn’t know how I would cope with Kurt Russell being the “Baddie” since I love him so much! But the story was so captivating that I found myself rooting for his destruction.
    Over all of his movies – the best ever scene is Darryl Hannah walking through the corridor whistling in Kill Bill – pure brilliance!

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