Happy Birthday, George Clooney

 

   I might have talked about him before, but since it's his birthday, I guess I'll talk about him again. Today is George Clooney's 64th birthday, and it seems he's been in a lot of movies. Some boog, and some he needs to apologize for. 

   I won't mention which, but he knows. 

  George Clooney was born in Lexington, Kentucky to a mother who used to be a beauty queen and a father who was an accountant. He didn't get into acting until he was older. Starring as an extra in Centeneal around 1978, he wouldn't be known until the 80's with tv shows as a minor character or a cameo. 

  He became known in the 80's in an episode of Golden girls as he played a minor character when the four ladies find out their new neighbors are actually jewel thieves. 

    Clooney plays a small role as one of the officers that want to use their house to investigate. He ends up getting shot but survives. He later would be known very well for two little letters: E...R...

   After portraying Dr. Doug Ross for a few seasons in a show I sadly never saw but wish I did, George Clooney decided to go into movies. Some good and... well...here are some of the good ones. He was in The Peacemaker.... From Dusk till Dawn...Three Kings...The Perfect Storm and a few more. But there is one movie he regrets saying yes to. I think I agree with him on this one; happily, it didn't end his career.

    When the late Val Kilmer had no desire to come back after having arguments with the director, Joel Schumacher, George Clooney said, yes to the Batman and Robin movie which was a sequel from Batman Forever. I hate to say this...but this was a trainwreck of a movie.

   From horrible puns to bad writing to even Arnold Schwartzaneger making an embarassing villain as Mr. Freeze. George has apoligized constantly for his portrayal of the worst Batman since.... Val Kilmer

  Something else you should know. When South Park was becoming a hit...or something like that, George Clooney voiced Stan's dog in an early episode. Not many people knew that. All he did was just bark.

   He even voiced other characters like Fantastic Mr. Fox in a Roald Dhal book that became a movie. 

George has also become a producer in some films like Midnight Sky and the Boys on the Boat. He has also been in coffee ads for an espresso when he was with Danny DeVito in a Super Bowl ad a few years ago.

   Now, he's still acting and producing a few films that are good or bad. You'd have to see for yourself. But for now, Happy Birthday to him.

May Day-POEM

Today is the first day,

of a month beautiful,

called May,

celebrating the start,

the Spring when summer,

is right around,

the corner

Twirling a ribbon,

around a pole,

and dancing the day away,

as if spring,

is near its end,

and summer 

will soon

begin

The maypole dance,

as its called,

has its traditions,

from long ago,

and today,

we celebrate

with dancing 

around the maypole

Beautiful flowers,

are garnished,

around the pole,

as the sum,

beats down,

and makes them bloom

April showers

do bring

the May flowers

as it's not just 

a riddle

anymore

An old joke,

where they say,

May Flowers,

suggesting the ship,

the Mayflower

bringing pilgrims 

and smallpox

Flowers blooming,

as May arrives,

and always the first day,

you see more flowers,

than ever before

Enjoy the month,

for it will soon be gone,

and the heat,

will soon arrive,

as summer,

is waiting,

just around the corner

The Mist Movie- Good or Bad?

      Many people that put out stories, some of them end up becoming motion pictures or mini-series. None can truly be said about Stephen King. Some of his great works ended up being either movies or even mini-series. Even one movie he directed and regretted. This movie is based on one of his novellas. It's called...The Mist.

   Taking place in where else but.... MAINE, a father deals with having to get stuff he needs to fix his house after a storm had a tree crash in his painting area. With a neighbor's help, they decide to go to a nearby grocery store and get what they need. That's when the horror begins.

   First off, I've noticed from watching people talk about his movies that Stephen King uses many cliches. Having rednecks, religious psychopaths, an unhappy ending...and well.... sometimes it'll work in his stories, but in this one.... I think it was better as a book.

   Starring a few actors that I've heard of one being Marcia Gaye Harden as the main villain, this story takes place mostly in a grocery store when there is a heavy mist that brings out creatures of unknown.

   Suddenly, some people start getting dragged away, killed or even impregnated by the mist by spiders or even creatures that are unexplained, but they start attacking random people as others wonder what is going on.

  For one woman, Miss Carmody, she knows it's one of the plagues from the bible. 

  Some people want to venture into the mist, wondering if they will be ok, or if someone in their family will be ok.

  One woman does and doesn't return. Not until the end of course. Which is considered to be a lousy ending.

    Mrs. Carmody, who never reveals her first name, is one of those overbearing religious nuts who explains the reason on why this is happening. She even tires to get people to believe her.

    Some start too as some of their friends end up dead or even injured. The father is the only one that believes she is insane. Mrs. Carmody keeps praying to God hoping that the sinners that don't believe her will end up believing her before they all died.

    She eventually goes insane even having someone killed when they revealed that it was their fault since he worked with the military and well...it's hard to explain but, he fears it was his fault and was taken out to die in the mist. They eventually escaped, after Mrs. Carmody is shot dead by one of the non-believers and they try to escape.

  The ending is pretty lame where...the lead shoots everyone in his car when they are out of gas and fear the unknown.

   Before he could kill himself, no bullets. ....it wasn't the monster but help from civilians that have taken care of everything that was going on in the mist. The woman that was out of the store before, she survives and so do her children that she was worried about. What do I think of this movie....the book was better, and I don't think I've read it.

   About ten years later, they made a mini-series which had mixed reviews and had more of a story flow about a town in Maine, fictional town of course, and how the mist happened. The characters from the movie are fleshed out in this version as well, but it didn't last. I think I'll stick to the book and the Nostalgia Critic's review on The Mist movie instead.

Stores that are closing this year

 

   It amazes me how many stores are still standing. How many of them will still be here by the end of the year; I don't know.

      Ever since Amazon and other websites have gone into shopping online, many businesses and even malls are becoming ghost towns.

   Stores like, Jo Ann Fabric, JCPenney, Macy's and even Big Lots had to go into filing chapter 11 which signs that it is bankrupt. So many stores try to stay in business even during the Pandemic in 2020.

  It seemed they have tried their hardest even when people are starting to go to Amazon or any other site to purchase what they need.

  Some of these stores were a part of my childhood. Party City's gone, Big Lots! is closing its doors, and a few dollar stores from Dollar tree to Family Dollar is starting to say goodbye as well to a few stores. The one store closure that hurt the most.... was Toys R Us. My childhood when my parents would shop for toys for us.

   I used to shop a lot at Bed, Bath and Beyond for stuff that seemed awesome or stuff that I've seen on TV. Some stores are still in business but closing other stores of their name. Which means they are struggling to stay in business.

   A lot of retail stores and even stores in malls are struggling.

 Clothing stores like Forever 21 or even Wet Seal and Kohls are gone. Kohls is near its end while the other two have ended their buisness.

   I don't know why the economy is struggling and it got worse once 2020 and the pandemic hit. Amazon is one of the kings of Online shopping from food to toys to clothes and much more.

  It sad that we have to rely on online stores, which I'm fine with, but with me being an early Millennial it seems the magic of malls and shopping with family and friends has lost its spark. Even Playgrounds are taking a hit with kids not swinging on swings and focusing on their cell phone. Believe me.... playgrounds will be next to go. Pray for us

Worst Snow White movie ever

 

    Disney had a sort of renaissance when it came to its movies. Back when I was a kid, it was straight to video moves, some good some...not so good. But they were fine.

    A few years went by, and they decided to make a few of the movies live-action. I was...perplexed they did that. I felt it wouldn't work. They did a few like a live action Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Lion king and much more. 

    I didn't like any of them. But there would soon be one that would destroy the opportunity of making another live action remake movie.

   When Snow White was told it was going to be a live action movie, people were skeptical. Why? Who would think it was a good idea to make this a live action movie? Snow White was considered the first animated Disney movie.

    They even got an actress that wasn't Caucasian to play Snow White. The sentence in the original story tale would say, "skin as white a snow" Strike one.

   And then, there is the dwarfs. They decided to use CGI for them so they wouldn't hire any short actors to make them feel bad. It only unsettled others more. Before suggesting CGI, they used actors that weren't little people; they used people that were the height of five feet or smaller.

   When they heard the hatred, they decided to make the dwarfs CGI. That made the hatred grow even stronger. Strike Two.

   Gal Gadot, the actress who is known for Wonder Woman, was portrayed as the evil queen. Compared to the cartoon, Gal's acting was considered lack luster and not that great. It made Angelina Jolie's Maleficent more menacing. 

    Even she and the actress that played Snow White couldn't get a long in real life let alone in the movie. 

  Rachel Ziegler, the actress playing Snow White explained that the original 1939 version was sexist and wrong and she wanted to make the new Snow White more a heroine and not a princess that needed saving. 

  She just spat in the faces of people that loved the original story of Snow White that many people, liked me, loved. She made people end up despising her and calling her the worst decision that Disney made that it completely destroyed the opportunity of making a live action princess movie for the future.

    But they are making a live action Lilo and Stitch movie using CGI for Stitch and the aliens. What do I think of this one? I feel not many people, like I, are gonna see it because of the tragic scores Snow White got on IMDB and possibly tainted the movie in general.

     But it does look promising and interesting and did make a few positive changes, although the actress playing the older sister might raise some questions on not being the right actor, but it might not be as tragic as having Rachel Zigler playing Snow White.

    This movie has now been crowned the lowest live action movie from IMDB beating out Dragonball Live action, which, though embarrassing, has twenty percent more interest in a low rated movie based on a cartoon 

   Some cinemas even pulled the movie out of theaters after many negative comments. Here's another insulting thing about the movie....Dopey talks at the end.

  For the love of God. You don't do that with Dopey. There are certain rules of certain characters that never talk...talking. NEVER LET THEM TALK!

  I'm glad the original animators, voice actors and even Walt Disney himself aren't alive to see this trainwreck of a film.

   Walt Disney, I guess, would be pissed to see how far his company has fallen. Even if some of the live action movies weren't great...they weren't this! Stick to the original. I say the same thing for the other movies that because live action. Just stay far away from them. You think they're good but...not all of them wills trike gold, even if Disney does.

Big Lebowski movie 27 years later

 

   Sometimes, it takes a while to understand a certain movie. Directed by both Ethan and Joel Cohn, The Big Lebowski deals with one poor man caught up in a situation that he gets the help of his friends to get out of, even if it means having certain people wanting him dead.

     What is this movie about, and....why is it still memorable today?

  The Cohn brothers are known for movies that are hilarious and shocking at the same time. They came up with a movie called "Fargo" in 1996 starring Frances McDermond in one of her best hits as an officer trying to find a killer.

   With the Big Lebowski, Jeff Bridges plays a character named Jefferey Lebowski who is mistaken for a crippled millionaire who owes a lot of money for some bad people. 

   What do the thugs do when they find out their mistake, they pee on Lebowski's rug. Actually, his name is 'the dude; He never went by his full name.

   Even his landlord fears him. There's so much going on in this movie that you have to watch it more than once to understand what is going on, and Lebowski ends up in a tangled web of confusion. Just like some of the audience.

   Because of this movie, bowling became popular again. A lot of people, before the internet was a thing, Bowlarama and arcades were the place to go.

   A lot of people started bowling again because of this movie. Bowling isn't as great as it was back in the late 90's, but for a while, it seemed to be the cool thing to do. I haven't bowled in years.

   There are so many intersting characters besides Lebowski, His friend Walter, played by John Goodman who said that this was his favorite role in any movie he was in, helps him out. But sometimes, he goes a little too far. 

    When the real Lebowski's hot wife ends up kidnapped, the dude helps him find her, but feels he's being sent on a wild goose chase, and he is.

   Apparently, his girlfriend, who looks more like a hooker, ends up kidnapped by Germans or Russians or somebody that Lebowski knows, and the dude has to help find her.

    Walter feels that Lebowski is being played for a fool as he believes she kidnapped herself. The Dude also meets Maude. She is the daughter to the real Lebowski. She even finds a way to not only hurt the dude but have sex with him as well.

   Steve Buscemi portrays another friend of the Dude called Donny. His main concern is to fit in as well as bowl a perfect strike when he is there.

    He tries to find out what is happening with not only the Dude, but why they are being targeted by people that never had the girl to begin with.

    I also feel that Steve Buscemi ends up dead in every Cohn brother movie he's in since his character, Donny, dies of a heart attack near the end of the movie.

 

  There is some other interesting tidbits I learned while watching this movie. The word 'Dude' is used over 100 times. The clothing Lebowski wears if from Jeff Bridges own wardrobe. 

    There are many known famous quotes that are still used today. Sad the next generation doesn't know what we're saying, but they lived when I was teenage in 98, they would enjoy this movie like they would any other.

   Sam Elliot portrays the narrorator as he explains about Lebowski and his interesting journey that only happened because he shared the same name of a billionaire.

    He even has a cameo near the end of the movie where he asks, "do you have to cuss so much?" Other quotes like: "Well that's like...your opinion, man" and many others that you can find online are remembered from this one movie.

   By the way.... "The dude abides."

  

Goodbye, Val Kilmer

 

   Val Kilmer just passed away a week ago and well...I want to talk about him as one of the great actors of the seventies, eighties and nineties and even his struggles he had to go through in his lifetime. Leaving us at 65 from pneumonia caused by his throat cancer which he had fought over for years. This was Val Kilmer's life.

  Born on Christmas Eve in 1959, Val Kilmer didn't get his first break until he was a teenager getting into the Julliard School for acting. He didn't do much until the mid to late seventies when he starred in a comedy called Top Secret. Not knowing much about that, since I never saw the movie. But he would become a breakout star a few years later.

    Not wanting to be in the movie, he was eventually persuaded into being in the film starring as Tom Cruise's rival then friend named Iceman. He would think Cruise's character was a wreck loose and dangerous to work with, but soon they would partner up and Kilmer's character saw a different side of Cruise's character. He came back in the reboot which would be Kilmer's final movie.

 He also wasn't a bad singer in real life. Actually, he proved that by portraying Jim Morrison in the Doors movie. He did all his own singing and learned more about Jim's short life through the music and the tragic end. 

   He did a really good job in that movie. Sadly, I never saw it, but people would think he was faking the singing. That was 100 percent his voice.

    The first film I remember him in a movie was back in the 90's when he played an actual person named Doc Holiday. HIs most memorable moments were from the character not being afraid to die and saying, "I'm you're Huckleberry."

   Between Tombstone and a Kevin Costner film called Wyatt Earpp, both coming out at the same time, I think Tombstone had more accuracy in the time period as well as both Kurt Russell's portrayal of Wyatt being stronger than Kevin Costner. He even did something nice for Val Kilmer giving him a plot of land to be buried in when he died.  

   In the 90's some people, like I, found Val Kilmer wearing the bat suit as he took over for Michael Keaton in Batman Forever. First off, it would be the only time he would wear the bat suit since he had a difficult time working with Joel Schumacker. He got along with Jim Carrey who portrayed the Riddler since both of them had a similar tragedy in their childhood losing their fathers young.

     This movie wasn't the best, and he's not considered my favorite batman, but it's ok, just a movie that is better than Batman and Robin and that's kind of it.

  He was good doing voice acting back in 1999. There was a Dreamworks movie called Prince of Egypt. It's kind of told the story of Moses and his life from being a Jewish Orphan to having Pharoh free the slaves.

   Ralph Fines voiced the Pharah while Val voiced both Moses and the burnish bush/God. I thought the movie was very good and enjoyed every moment of it. Not many people knew Val did double voice duty.

  Val dated many women like Cher, Cindy Crawford, Angelina Jolie and Darryl Hannah. He has two children; a daughter named Mercades, and a son named Jack. Jack's voice is similar to his own father and decided to make a documentary taking about his father while he was suffering from cancer.

    Val Kilmer lost his voice to throat cancer and had to have his voice change by having a hole in it which he would cover with scarfs.

     He survived the cancer long enough to do one more movie with Tom Cruise who said that he would not do the movie without Val. He eventually said yes and had a small scene.

      I was not a huge fam of the Top Gum movies, but I did see some of Val Kilmer's final scenes in Maverick. His character, like him, suffered from cancer and wasn't going to make it. We had no idea it was going to be the truth two years after the movie was made.

     His character dies as well, and the funeral scene hits harder now than it did when he's no longer with us. I think his son did most of the voice work of the character since Val's real voice was gone.

      A great actor gone too soon, but we'll always look back at the great work he gave us. From being in a Batman suit, to being friends with Tom Cruise (which they were in real life) Tom even did a silent tribute to his good friend recently and it was heartwarming and sad.

      We'll never forget you, Iceman. You're my Huckleberry.