Gimme Reciprocity

I've been sucked in. Or shall I say I've been sucking the teat. Yesterday, I decided to obey my clogged sinus cavity and stay in. I didn't leave the house for anything. No brunch, no bike riding, no Arts Festival, no bar for Aaron's 30th (Thirty and Dirty).

I reclined and endured the pain in my head. HBO was my friend all day long. I didn't grow up with HBO or any other 'pay' cable channels, so I'm not familiar with this. This being the confusion you go through when you're constantly seeing different parts of a movie, but never the whole thing. Add onto that my odd attraction to certain films purely because of a cute girl, i.e. "Chasing Liberty" featuring Mandy Moore in a non-annoying role that doesn't involve singing.

Or "The Girl Next Door," which I probably would've gone to see at the theater, but I don't get out much to see films in actual theaters. Elisha Cuthbert. Strange, because I'm normally not into blondes. The sexuality of it all pulled me in, too. Plus Timothy Olyphant plays assholes too well, I was hooked in. Sort of like anything with Vince Vaughn. He's such a good asshole that you can't help watching the film. This actually was a pretty good film. You can't go wrong with three hot porn stars, three lucky high school guys, and an asshole like Olyphant. Especially when there's an actual storyline, and its not set up like porn where the plot is so very irrelevant. (I just realized that last week I got hooked into another film with Elisha Cuthbert: "Love Actually")

I'm pretty sure I watched most of "Head of State," featuring (and directed by) Chris Rock. I was confused at first, because it seemed serious, then it seemed like satire, I don't know, it all worked out in the end. Rock was elected president, blah, blah, blah.

Another interesting one was "Big Trouble." I think it came out in 2003. I probably would've gone right past it, but I saw Jason Lee. Being a slight fanboy for Kevin Smith films, I had to see what this was, because as I've stated before, I appreciate a good asshole on film, and Jason Lee always plays an asshole in Smith's films. Apparently, this one was based on a book by the satirical columnist Dave Barry. I've always liked Dave Barry. He's a little too tame at times, but fun nonetheless. There were so many freakin' stars in this film: Rene Russo, Dennis Farina, Tim Allen (okay, not much of a star), Stanley Tucci, Tom Sizemore, Andy Richter, Johnny Knoxville, Janeane Garofalo, Heavy D, Omar Epps, Patrick Warburton (Spoon!), and Zooey Deschanel. Okay, if I come across any film with Rene Russo, Dennis Farina, Stanley Tucci, Andy Richter, or Zooey Deschanel in it, I am paying attention. So, they had me, no real hook required. Just like any other film with too many stars in it, the whole thing kinda fell flat, but it was still entertaining.

I may have seen bits and pieces of three different "Six Feet Under" episodes, I wish I would've focused and watched each in their entirety. I love that show.

Then I saw two foreign films. One of them was "City of God." I didn't watch much of it, but I was intrigued, so I looked into it. Possibly, it was too much for me, I needed something lighter. This is a gritty film, very violent. To borrow from a reviewer on IMDB , this film could be subtitled "Grand Theft Auto: Sao Paolo." Except it actually takes place mostly in Cidade de Jesu, a slum of Rio de Janeiro. Interestingly, all of the actors were amateurs, taken mostly from Rio, and a few were from the City of God. The whole thing is about two men mostly. They're young gang members. One gets out of the Cidade de Jesu, and the other succumbs to it. It looked fascinating, but like I said, I wasn't in the mood for anything too serious at the time. Its HBO, I'm sure it'll be on again fifteen more times this week.

There was one more foreign film that I saw yesterday: "The Dreamers." With Comcast Digital Cable, there's a brief description at the bottom of your screen when going through the channels. I saw the name Bernardo Bertolucci ("Last Tango In Paris"), and I stopped. Then I saw that guy who played Tommy Gnosis in Hedwig & the Angry Inch, so I took a look. I started watching about a half hour into it, and I stopped long before it was done. I barely have an idea of what the hell was going on. Tommy Gnosis (Michael Pitt) was in Paris for some reason, I believe the setting was 1968. He somehow met a French author and his family and ends up staying with them. The author and his wife leave to go on holiday, and leave Pitt with their twin son and daughter. The siblings are very sexual and fanatical about old films. They act out scenes from old movies and then the we see the actual scenes from the movies. Eventually, the brother and sister talk Pitt into taking Isobel's (the sister) virginity while the brother watches. I lost interest soon after that. I think I just wasn't in the mood for it, but I definitely want to check it out if its on again this week. Maybe I can watch the whole thing, too.

That was my Sunday. A couch, an oscillating fan, several pints of Emer-Gen'C, a sinus cold, and HBO.