Caught Shenandoah as part of James Stewart Day on TCM. Small-scale Civil War movie with Stewart as the head of an anti-war Southern clan. Really more of an anti-war movie than anything else. It came out in 1965, which seems a little early for such an obvious Vietnam commentary, but there it is nonetheless. Great performance by Stewart in his angry, depressed old man period. The story is awfully dark, but you never get the full effect of depression you’d get if such a film were made today. I blame Technicolor: the movie’s way to bright and colorful for it’s subject matter. It looks like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but could have been The Deer Hunter. And the terrible supporting cast Stewart has to work with (outside of Katherine Ross), certainly doesn’t help. Recommended for Stewart’s performance though. He really is very good.

Also saw Once Upon A Time In China 2 dubbed, panned, and scanned on the Encore Action channel. There are a lot Once Upon movies, 4 of which star Jet Li. The fourth (or sixth) one, Once Upon A Time In China And America, in fact was ripped off by Jackie Chan and turned into Shanghai Noon.

Li plays Wong Fei-Hung, who is to China what Robin Hood would be to England if he lived in the early 20th Century. He was a real person, a legend in his own time, so to speak. In fact, he was the first martial arts movie star, acting in a number of pre-war Chinese films (with his umbrella). He’s been adapted into a lot of films, either keeping his name (like in Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master movies, though Chan came up with the ‘drunken’ part as a joke) or being the basic mold for another character (as in Jet Li’s Fong Sai-Yuk films, which are really similar plot-wise to the Once Upon movies, though set hundreds of years earlier).

Anyway, in this movie, Wong has to help protect Sun Yat-Sen and his group of revolutionaries from the anti-Western White Lotus Clan and corrupt members of the Chinese government who appear to have sold out to the Japanese. As in many films of this genre, the hero is out to defend ordinary Chinese from foreign invaders (usually either the Manchu or the Japanese). The twist of the Once Upon movies is that, while Wong fights the Eastern foreigners, he’s curious about, and very fond of, the West (mainly British and Americans and their inventions and weird customs).

It’s well-directed by Tsui Hark, one of the best Hong Kong directors of the 90s: his Swordsman 2, also starring Jet Li, is highly recommended as possibly the best film in this genre. The martial arts are choreographed by Yuen Wo-Ping, the guy who’s choreographed every martial arts sequence in every film made in the last 10 years, and with good reason. Donnie Yen (Hero, Shanghai Knights) is the only recognizable co-star, though I didn’t recognize him at all. All the Once Upon movies are recommended, though they probably aren’t the best way to start in the genre.

8 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 9 K

29 IP, 16 H, 4 BB, 30 K, 1.24 ERA

and still no extra-base hits allowed.

After only 4 starts, he is now the Mariners’ second most valuable pitcher by Runs Saved Above Average, tied with Julio Mateo at 10, behind Eddie Guardado’s 14. He’s fourth among the team’s pitchers with 13.9 VORP, behind Jamie Moyer, Mateo and Guardado. After 4 starts.

Hail to the King.

Watched Kill Bill Vol. 1 again tonight. Easily the best film of 2003. I really need to get the DVD of Volume 2 so I can see it again: I didn’t like it nearly as much as the first part the only time I saw it. . . .I wonder when Tarantino’s gonna release those special editions. . . .

In other news, Felix Hernandez pitches tonight at 4:30 in Minnesota. Be there or be square.

Went used book shopping yesterday and bought a bunch of Phillip K. Dick books because I’ve been hearing how great he is for a long time and have never gotten around to actually reading any of his stuff. Also, apparently the ‘King Felix’ nickname may or may not be a PKD reference. I’m starting with The Man In The High Castle. So far, so good.

What’s On The iPod This Week:
Bach’s Cello Suites by Yo-Yo Ma.

Been trying to educate myself on Bach, this is my latest purchase. I’d say i like it better than the Well-Tempered Clavier, but not as much as The Art of Fugue. Ma played one of these on The West Wing, I believe.

Kind Of Blue by Miles Davis.

I don’t know much about Jazz, but I know this is great.

Exile On Coldharbour Lane by A3.

You know them as the theme song from The Sopranos. Radical left-wing country-blues-gospel-acid house-fusion. Good stuff. I think they may have been mildly famous when I wasn’t paying attention, but I’m not sure.

Bitches Brew by Miles Davis.

More Miles, more awesome.

8 IP 3 H 1 R 1 ER 1 BB 11 K

21 IP 11 H 3 R 2 ER 3 BB 21 K 0.86 ERA

Baseball teams as Simpsons characters at the above link.

Here’s a few:

Seattle Mariners – Barney Gumble – Struggling against their personal demons. Just when you thought they were going to clean themselves up and they were looking bulletproof, they suffered an unfortunate relapse.

New York Yankees – C. Montgomery Burns – Driven to success by an almost unimaginable wealth of resources, which they use to ruthlessly crush their enemies, although typically not by the most efficient means possible (blocking out the sun, Bernie Williams). Seemingly unaware of the (obvious) reasons why they are hated. They seem to have been a key actor in pretty much everything important that happened before 1970.

Boston Red Sox – Lisa Simpson – Beloved by all. Used to being overlooked and trod upon, so that when they finally get a day in the sun, they don’t really know what to do with it. Unfortunate tendency to get a little self-righteous. Antagonistic relationship with those in positions of power.

Baltimore Orioles – Maggie Simpson – Never says or does much of anything, but constantly brought up in discussions by virtue of their close associates. Stubbornly hanging onto something disgusting despite other people’s well-meaning efforts to take it away (pacifier, Sidney Ponson).

We got one today.

Watched Croupier last night. Directed by Mike Hodges, the director of the original Get Carter and Flash Gordon. It’s a pretty standard low-budget indie-thriller, it looks looks it was shot on video. It’s mostly notable for starring Clive Owen (the last three movies I’ve seen have featured Clive Owen. That’s kinda creepy). He plays an aspiring writer who takes a job as a croupier because he needs money. It’s a good performance, despite the fact that he often looks exactly like Michael Stipe circa ‘Losing My Religion’. Of course he gets caught up in various scams (including a femme fatale played by a former ER star) and ends up having his morality tested and perhaps lost.

Not being particularly insightful or creative in terms of plot, the film makes up for it with a strong sense of place and excellent action scenes of the croupier at work. Highly recommended for gambling addicts. It’s no Rounders, but it’s certainly not bad. More of a film noir than Batman Begins, that’s for sure.

Don’t know if you’re hip to the podcast tech or not, but you should be. A podcast is essentially a radio show in MP3 format, so you can listen to it anytime anywhere and anyone can make one. The last update of iTunes provided podcast support, which is when i picked up on it (I wish I was an early adopter, but I’m too lazy for that). For the last month or so, I’ve been listening to a few different podcasts. Mostly Air America radio shows that are on at inconvenient times for me. Also, on the sidebar, you’ll find a link to Cinecast, a good podcast by a couple guys in Chicago who like to argue about movies.

The last couple of days, I’ve been listening to Out Of The Past, a podcast about film noir and films noir (see link in the above title). They’ve done 4 half hour shows so far, with shows being posted out every two weeks. The first two episodes are about Out Of the Past and Double Indemnity and basically work to generally define noir for those less familiar with it by examining those two canonical films. The next two are about Batman Begins and The Third Man and these are where the series starts to get interesting.

The thing that makes noir so fun to talk about is that no one really knows what it is. Is it a genre? a style? both? Do you need to have a femme fatale? Does it have to be black and white? Does it have to deal with crime? The OOTP guys seem to think Batman Begins is a film noir because of its visual style. I think it isn’t because it isn’t dark enough and the protagonist isn’t close to as flawed as a true noir hero. Through the course of episode 4, one of them manages to convince the other that The Third Man really isn’t a noir after all. An opinion I happen to agree with (it appropriates noir style to tell a morally simple story, noir requires moral ambiguity).

Coming up on Monday they’ll be discussing The Maltese Falcon, then two weeks after that Blade Runner, which I’m really looking forward to because, as you may or may not know, I HATE BLADE RUNNER.