Film: New Year's Eve

The tradition in this household is not to go out on New Year's Eve, strap on a party hat and binge drink, but to rent videos and usher in the new year in the safety of our own home. This year we rented four DVDs, two of which we actually watched on New Year's Eve, the other two on the following nights.

Two of the videos were compromise selections. I would sit through something my wife really wanted to see but in exchange she would have to sit through a pick of mine that she wouldn't necessarily consent to watching."

We'll do my wife's choice first and get to mine later on. Her pick was "Hairspray." This movie is an abomination. Well, specifically, John Travolta in a fat suit, dressed as a woman, is an abomination. It was not pretty to watch. Even Christopher Walken, who plays Travolta's husband, and is one strange ranger in his own right, looked creeped out by Travolta in drag. Set in the early '60s, some of the musical numbers aren't bad, and Queen Latifah acquits herself ably, but there really was no reason for this movie to be made. My only hope is that John Waters made some retirement money by selling his product to the producers. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being a really great film that moves me and makes me think, looks good and has great acting, writing and directing, and 1 being anything with Steven Seagal, "Hairspray" is a 3.

Next up is "Evan Almighty." It's a cute film with Steve Carell as the Noah stand-in, a lot of cute animals, and Morgan Freeman as the big G. You can't beat that. I got a few chuckles out of this movie; it's a pleasant way to spend an hour and a half. Let's give this video a 6.

(My ratings need some sort of name, don't they? How about calling them the Voices ratings? "The Voices in my Head say let's give 'Darjeeling Limited' an 8!" That works for me. Can't do the thumbs up/thumbs down thing; aside from being too lazy to find a thumb icon to put in the text of these reviews, the thumb rating is apparently "owned" by a guy 30 years past his prime. Like he invented giving something a thumbs up or down. Seems to me the Romans did that about two thousand years ago. But I digress.)

And now..."Live Free or Die Hard." Yeah! YEAH! F*&k YEAH! Whoo-hoooo!. This one gets your blood pumping, the adrenaline flowing. This movie is non-stop action from the get go and Bruce Willis is always watchable as the John McClaine character. And it's got that young dude from the Mac commercials, Justin Long. He plays a computer hacker. Will this typecast him a computer geek? Who f*&king cares, really? He's good in this movie, he's good in the Mac commercials, and he was good in one of my favorite comedies, "Dodgeball."

The thing with "Live Free or Die Hard," is that you really have to suspend disbelief quite a bit throughout the movie, and I have trouble doing that in general. The first hour was a little rough for me (the film's a little over two hours), but once I settled in I was thoroughly entertained. I was even engrossed. Most importantly though, things blowed up real good! Voices rating: 6.5.

I was also thoroughly entertained by another movie, the choice my wife compromised over to get me to watch "Hairspray," and that was the British film "Hot Fuzz." What the haitch-eee-double-hockey-sticks is "Hot Fuzz" you ask? Well, ladies and gentlemen, it is a film where things explode, there is hyper-violence, and there is dark comedy. You get those three elements in a movie, throw in English accents and I am there, my friend, I am there.

"Hot Fuzz" was made by the same gents what made the zombie love story "Shaun of the Dead," a film that is now on my must see list. In this film, Simon Pegg plays a London cop named Nicholas Angel, a cop so good he makes the rest of the department look bad, so he's transferred to a small, quiet country town. Upon his arrival, "accidents", bloody, horrifying "accidents" occur, and when Angel starts to investigate them, things take a turn for the weird. Really weird. "Hot Fuzz" is funny, well written and acted, and seems to affectionately poke fun at American action movies. This is a must see. Voices rating: 8.5.

And now for a bit of useless trivia. One of the extra features on the "Hot Fuzz" DVD follows the film makers on a promotional tour around the United States. One of the screenings is hosted by Kevin Smith, an actor, writer, director, etc in his own right. Smith also has a very small role as a character named Warlock in "Live Free or Die Hard". Uncle Walt was right: it's a small world after all.