Saw three major instances of rocking this evening.
First was taking Ariel to see "School of Rock," a film I cannot recommend highly enough, especially if you're looking for a good family film that doesn't condescend. In some respects it's by the numbers, but you finally yourself really not caring because it's just that entertaining.
Second was our watching an old video of "Heartbreak Hotel," a charming film by Chris Columbus in which a teenage boy kidnaps Elvis (grandly played by David Keith, doing his own singing.) If you haven't seen it, check it out.
And last was just now watching the Red Sox keep their hopes alive with a two run homer in the bottom of the 11th to make the series 2-1. Whereas the Sox are worried about stuff that happened eighty years ago with Babe Ruth, the A's are concerned with meltdowns during playoffs that happened two years ago, so who is carrying more pressure?
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Posted by Peter David at October 4, 2003 11:29 PM | TrackBack | Other blogs commentingIts a huge consipracy by Fox that the Red Sox live again for one more game. I believe if Fox can have a Yankees vs. Red Sox LCS, that would bring huge ratings and money to that company. Thats the only reason the Red Sox survived today!
P.S. Go Cubs! Kerry Wood will finish the job tomorrow. As will David Wells! Go Yanks!
It was fairly obvious that Matt Clement had not managed to show up with his A game at Wrigley today. *sigh*
So, here's hoping that Kerry Wood's back is in good shape tomorrow and that he can shut down the Braves.
(And good luck to the Red Sox, but they've got a nasty climb left...)
I was surprised at how good "School of Rock" was. I love Jack Black, but I wasn't sure if he'd be able to pull off a lead role. Fortunately, he did a hell of a job, and he was also terrific on tonight's "Saturday Night Live."
Ah, the Twins.
Gutless, talentless wonders that they are, losing to the Yankees yet again.
*thumps chest* sorta gets ya right here.
Not a feeling in the heart, I mean... more like bile rising in your throat at realizing that, even though you do not care too much about sports, your state's teams (Twins, Vikings, etc) always manage to fail quite miserably in the end.
SCHOOL OF ROCK was pretty fun. A little slow to start out, I thought, but once Jack got to the school and starting interacting with the kids, it was great.
Gotta keep the faith for the Cubs, Twins, and Red Sox. Here's hoping they can all pull off series wins (though that's easier said than done for the Twins and Sox - the Cubs have Kerry Wood going again against the same Braves team he obliterated a few days ago...goodbye, Braves).
How about them Marlins, though? Man, who would've thought they were capable of pulling this off? Just getting to the playoffs was amazing enough, but to knock off last year's NL champ, wow.
I keep hearing good things about School of Rock, but Jack Black is like the proverbial nails on a chalkboard to me. Is his normal schtick toned down at all in this one, or is it his same old stuff?
I didn’t care for School of Rock. It was one part unfunny Jack Black, one part plot holes big enough to drive a Mack Truck through, and one part cute but cliché-ridden Teacher-Makes-Connection-With-Students-Much-to-Discomfort-of-School-and-Parents-Movie.
After the first thirty or forty minutes of Black’s repetitive over-enunciation of his words served just to grate on me, the movie started to improve as we see Dewey organize the kids into a band. There’s the usual movie clichés regarding kids competing in a competition, and it was genuinely nice to see the students come together to realize some of their hidden talents.
But the movie cheats.
It doesn’t try to strike a balance between Black’s humor and any sincerity on his part to connect with these kids. It wants to have it both ways. It wants him to be a selfish jerk in impersonating his best friend, stealing a good job from him, neglecting these kids and their studies, and using them for his own purposes, and then have everything turn out all rosy and sunny in the end, with no consequences for his actions. The parents, who are understandably outraged when they discover what this guy has done with their kids, are portrayed as either the bad guys when they tell their kids to do their homework, or ridiculously wishy-washy turnarounds when they see their kids performing, who suddenly decide that they’re somehow okay with this guy impersonating a teacher and telling their kids not to study math, science, English, and so forth. Dewey is portrayed as an expert in rock music who teaches the kids the history and theory behind the art form, but who dismisses all other musical genres (pop, classical, hip-hop, showtunes, etc.) as unnecessary, which is not a sentiment I found either funny or a good way to teach people to appreciate any genre of music. It would’ve been nice if instead of throwing the kids’ entire class curriculum out the window and acting like neglecting their studies was somehow a good thing, the movie instead chose to show the first-time teacher Dewey use music by incorporating it into his teaching of math, history, etc., not only to in order to reach some students having trouble with the subjects, but in order to learn how to teach himself, perhaps having him display some knowledge of other forms of music himself, maybe relating to the kids when his parents had him play Chopin or Mozart. Instead, the movie takes the typical modern comedy route of portraying a shallow, narcissistic slacker as the hero for slacking off, and then lets him off at the end without any adverse consequences, and acts as if this is funny. He rips up the list of student names with demerits and gold stars, and announces that there will be no grades, not because he cares about the students, not because he has some radical new way of forming a rapport with the kids without grades, but simply because he feels like it, and because the movie thinks it’s funny. He tells the students to spend all day having recess, and when he decides to make them into a band, he tells them not to tell their parents or anyone else about it because it’s part of a special project for next term that he wants to give them a head start on, and when he’s discovered, he simply runs away, escaping anything resembling punishment. If the movie at least made him initially a delinquent, and then had him undergo a change in which his experiences with the students make him a responsible person, at least that would’ve been nice. Instead, he breaks the rules, hurting other people’s lives, is let off the hook by the story’s end, and people in the story who point this out like Patty (Sarah Silverman) are depicted as the heavies. Sorry, but I don’t buy it.
The movie isn’t really about love of music, nor is it that funny. Aside from a few humorous moments (as when Dewey, who arrives at the competition audition after it’s been fully booked, convinces the audition manager that his kids are all terminally ill, and after the manager sees the kids coughing and lying in down in the street, allows them to play), the movie borders on farce, which wouldn’t be so bad if it were funny and if it didn’t have so many ridiculous plot holes that White and Linklater didn’t even bother trying to plug up. I mean, after Dewey is exposed, the kids cut class, and show up at Dewey’s apartment with a schoolbus, complete with driver, so that they can go to the Battle of the Bands. But how did they manage to get the bus driver to take them there? Did they somehow trick him into taking him there? It would’ve been nice if they showed how clever these kids were (and by extension, the script) if they incorporated this into the story. Instead, the driver is little more than a mannequin utilized by the script as a non-entity, and as a non-thought. And for wasting months of these kids’ school lives, and by extension, the tuition money their parents pay for their attendance, Dewey isn’t imprisoned for fraud, contributing to the delinquency of children, and possibly reckless endangerment? None of the parents sued the school? Or Dewey himself? They just attend a concert, see how good their kids are, start rooting for them, and (Spoiler Warning) they allow Dewey to teach their kids in an after school music program afterwards? C’mon. At least they could’ve alluded to some sort of probation for him. Maybe they were impressed with how he tapped into their kids’ talents, but they should still be angry at his fraud, how the school fell for it, and the fact that their kids were neglected for who knows how long. I would also suspect that the parents of the kids who were given non-artistic jobs like security would be even less enthused than the parents of Leonard or Tameka. Are you telling me Summer’s parents had no problem with this jerk who squandered their daughter’s school time to teach her how to be a band manager?
The movie is more or less okay on its own terms as a cutesy, mostless mindless one hour and fifty minute-long skit for people who enjoy mediocre humor, who don’t care for plot logic or originality, and like watching talented kids perform music. Hardcore Jack Black fans will probably love it. To each his own. :-)
It was fairly obvious that Matt Clement had not managed to show up with his A game at Wrigley today. *sigh*
He might've tweaked his groin early in the game. He did great in the 1st, but after that, he had problems.
I still can't believe that play that Fick guy did at the end there with Karros.
The guy shouldn't be allowed to play today after that stunt.
Now, what'd I say in the other topic about not counting the Sox out at 0-2 due to the home field advantage both Boston and Oakland showed during the season...And I'm (cautiously) feeling good about Monday; a rested Pedro against a short on rest Zito (although I'm wondering why Pedro was at the game today, instead of on a flight to Oakland to give him plenty of time to get settled in and rest).
However, I've figured out that 1) The Cubs will make it to the next round and 2) The Sox will make it to the Series. But, 3) both will get beat by the Marlins. Why? Because it'd only seem fitting for the bloody Fish, a bad, recent expansion team, that had the bad grace to win a World Series so early in their existance and said Series being only 6 years ago, to beat the Giants (1954), Cubs (1908), and Red Sox (1918) to win another one.
Well, It's 2-2 for the Sox now. 1 more game to win.
Will you Cubs fans have a bittersweet feeling when the Red Sox beat the Cubs in the World Series. While I'll be rooting for the Sox, If the Cubs win it It will suck just a little less than if it were anyone else.
*Will you Cubs fans have a bittersweet feeling when the Red Sox beat the Cubs in the World Series. While I'll be rooting for the Sox, If the Cubs win it It will suck just a little less than if it were anyone else.*
HAH! That roadkill behind the Yankee Steamroller will be the Red Chokes.
... Hardcore Jack Black fans will probably love it. To each his own. :-)
Posted by Luigi Novi @ 10/05/2003 02:33 PM ET
Exaaaaaatleee, brosephine! Just like I enjoyed JB's hosting of SNL.
BTW Dewey did undergo a change from the beginning of the story to the end, he went from being a gloryhound to a team player. Sure the plot was silly, but it was a great rock-n-roll fantasy. :) Rigga dig riga dig dig doooo Waaaaa!
The Sox have a 9 win 10 loss record vs. the Yanks, so I guess the Sox have a 45% chance of beating them. The cubs only played FLA 6 times and won 4, so I guess they have a good chance of making it to the World Series.
It has to be the Cubbies if it's not my boys. Cubbies all the way. Screw the 'Sox; the Cubs have ten years of woe on 'em. Go Cubs!
Yeah, it must be REALLY hard for the Yankees to win on their paltry $108 million payroll.
A punch of prancing showboats sums up my thoughts of the team. I don't even watch much baseball, but I'm of the firm opinion that they need salary caps.
Andrew writes:
Yeah, it must be REALLY hard for the Yankees to win on their paltry $108 million payroll.
Actually, I think the Yankees final payroll figure is over $150 million...
But, hey, the Mets payroll was about $120 million, and they didn't exactly have a winning season.