Any of you that know anything about me (which is pretty little given recent events) know that I love road trips and just love getting away to places I haven't been before. Well, as fate would have it, a buddy of mine needs to go to Boston for a completion of grad school and a job interview and yours truly is now officially tagging along for the drive.What's really cool is that this is the buddy that road tripped to Toronto with me back when I graduated college, so this is something like a long-awaited part two trip we never got to take. The really cool thing is, like before, this was just kind of thrown together at the last minute (as was the Toronto excursion), but I think we've got housing arrangements and everything set up. The plan is to stop over in Chicago to see a friend of mine's show at Chicago Shakes, and then back on the road to the East Coast. I'm planning on blowing what's left of my meager savings on the trip to cover gas, food, etc., but it will be so worth it to really get to explore Boston and the New England area. I've been to New York before, but my friends all rave about Boston so I'm excited to see what's there.
I NetFlixed both Casino Royale and Children of Men this past week and loved them both. Interesting enough, the latter starred Clive Owen, who was a front runner to be the new Bond before Daniel Craig popped up.
Children of Men is set in the not-too distant future (2027) where women have become sterile and unable to bear children and the human race faces its existence. Without giving anything away, the story is very compelling and the majority of the movie is shot in these long takes with minimal editing. This gives the story a very documentary feel and must've been taxing on the cast to have to film it that way, but it pays off in an amazing film. Julianne Moore and Michael Caine also play roles and are just as compelling as the Owen. This is definitely not a feel-good film nor is it as action-oriented as I was anticipating, but it's a great film.
Granted, I know I'm VERY late to the party on this one, but Casino Royale was awesome. Any question anyone had about Daniel Craig being the new Bond are all answered in the first 10 minutes. This more realistic, harder-edged Bond is awesome to see as I grew up on watching Bond films with my father (as blasphemous as it is to say, my first Bond was Roger Moore, so I am still trying to work-out the whole Sean Connery thing) and noticed even then how gadget-heavy everything was. This story seems to focus more on Bond's cleverness to get him out of situations rather than so doo-dad Q whips up that just happens to fit Bond's situation perfectly. Judi Dench reprises her role as M and I was sad to see no John Cleese as Q b/c I thought that was a great bit of casting in the past films. At any rate, I am jazzed to see whether they'll do an all-new Bond story or remake another as this version of the franchise should be around for awhile.
The other little thing I've started to get into is the series LOST. It was something I always wanted to check out as I love character-driven stories, but with doing shows and rehearsing, I just never had the time to invest in it. So this past weekend, I got the first two seasons, sat my ass down and watched as much as I could. I'm through season one and halfway through season two and, needless to say, I love it and can't wait for season three to finally makes its way to DVD. If you already watch it, nothing I can say will match your connection to it. If you have not seen it, I highly recommend it. It's got this eerie Twin Peaks feel to it and is one of those great shows where as soon as it's over, you're already primed to watch the next one. The ensemble cast meshes beautifully and I like the fact that there's no real one 'lead' character we have to follow as each individual has an incredible back-story.
Children of Men is set in the not-too distant future (2027) where women have become sterile and unable to bear children and the human race faces its existence. Without giving anything away, the story is very compelling and the majority of the movie is shot in these long takes with minimal editing. This gives the story a very documentary feel and must've been taxing on the cast to have to film it that way, but it pays off in an amazing film. Julianne Moore and Michael Caine also play roles and are just as compelling as the Owen. This is definitely not a feel-good film nor is it as action-oriented as I was anticipating, but it's a great film.
Granted, I know I'm VERY late to the party on this one, but Casino Royale was awesome. Any question anyone had about Daniel Craig being the new Bond are all answered in the first 10 minutes. This more realistic, harder-edged Bond is awesome to see as I grew up on watching Bond films with my father (as blasphemous as it is to say, my first Bond was Roger Moore, so I am still trying to work-out the whole Sean Connery thing) and noticed even then how gadget-heavy everything was. This story seems to focus more on Bond's cleverness to get him out of situations rather than so doo-dad Q whips up that just happens to fit Bond's situation perfectly. Judi Dench reprises her role as M and I was sad to see no John Cleese as Q b/c I thought that was a great bit of casting in the past films. At any rate, I am jazzed to see whether they'll do an all-new Bond story or remake another as this version of the franchise should be around for awhile.
The other little thing I've started to get into is the series LOST. It was something I always wanted to check out as I love character-driven stories, but with doing shows and rehearsing, I just never had the time to invest in it. So this past weekend, I got the first two seasons, sat my ass down and watched as much as I could. I'm through season one and halfway through season two and, needless to say, I love it and can't wait for season three to finally makes its way to DVD. If you already watch it, nothing I can say will match your connection to it. If you have not seen it, I highly recommend it. It's got this eerie Twin Peaks feel to it and is one of those great shows where as soon as it's over, you're already primed to watch the next one. The ensemble cast meshes beautifully and I like the fact that there's no real one 'lead' character we have to follow as each individual has an incredible back-story.For those of you that asked, Henry V wrapped and did extremely well. Being one of the leads, I was very emotionally invested in the show and was glad to hear that we ended up breaking some Prenzie records: 6 consecutive standing ovations, 2 encore bows, and it was also the highest grossing show in the troupe's history despite it not being the show with the most available seats. Personally, I am glad that it's over as I pretty much left everything I had on stage as this was easily the most challenging role I ever had to play. My thanks to everyone that saw it, whether you enjoyed it or not.
Well, that's about it from here. I need to get packing and will post a very photo-laden rant as soon as I return from my jaunt out East. Take care of yourselves.
Posts
