I'm not really embarrassed about anything I like because I think it's cool to like all kinds of stuff. I wish I could be as generous as Mess about movies but like PK was saying there's gotta be some kind of hook that draws me in. With more recent films I find that hook is really hard to find. I like a lot of stuff that would considered crap I'm sure. I like Hammer films (the old horror stuff) and they are pretty goofy I guess. I love old Spielberg stuff like Jaws, Close Encounters, and even 1941. I like all the old crazy comedies like Animal House, Caddyshack, Used Cars, The Blues Brothers, even Neighbors...which is a film I know a lot of people think sucks. I like a Robin Williams film from the 80's called The Survivors which is about gun nuts and may have been Williams first film and I think it is the one that made me laugh more than any other. I think that film is pretty much thought to be a piece of shit by most people. I'll watch an older film (meaning pre-1990) in most cases before I'll watch something more recent. Stuff like Old School, which I was forced to watch at a party, I just feel like it's a cheap rip off of Animal House and nowhere near as funny. When I'm watching something like that I feel like, why watch this when I could watch Animal House and really laugh my ass off. I guess it bugs me. I mean if you are going to spend millions on making a film for the love of god do something original or at least show some effort. Old School was just terrible in my book and as I was watching it I wanted to do a Belushi (rather than the guitar) and pick up the dvd player and smash it to pieces. Hand a piece of it back to my pal Molly and say "Sorry."

The "I feel like I've seen this before" factor with new films is a big problem. Also I think new films are tested too much to please the widest range of people and things are so watered down that they are all so bland...it's impossible to sit through most of them. They do nothing to challenge the audience they just serve the same thing again and again. Watch a recent film with a stop watch in hand and I don't care if it's a comedy, horror film, action...whatever...there is a strict guideline it seems you must follow that there has to be gag/laugh/punchline, creepy moment/something jumps out/loud noise/scare, explosion/gunshot/fight/car chase every so many seconds. Like if a minute passes without one of these things happening you've lost the audience and blown the whole film. I like there to be a rhythm to a film and some kind of organic flow but the shit today is like listening to a junk drum machine stuck on 4/4 time. One two,three, laugh. One two three, jump. One two three, boom! They can shove that shit all day long as far as I'm concerned. It's probably greatly due to television and how they have formatted everything because it must fit a strict time frame but why does this have to bleed over into films? Have you ever been in the next room while somebody is watching a sitcom and you hear the laugh track kick in every thirty seconds? It's like clockwork. Lee, you probably know better than anybody.

I honestly can't watch television shows because the rhythm fucks me up. I feel like I'm being pushed around. Maybe I'm alone in this...it is kinda weird I admit. I swear it's not that I'm some kind of snob about tv and I want to sit around and read philosophy all day...I feel uncomfortable watching it...or maybe more so hearing it. The sound does bother me...it's very pushy is about all I can think of right now to describe it.

I did see Youth Without Youth and I liked it. It's not great but at least he presents a lot of interesting ideas and it's beautifully shot. Tim Roth is very good in it too.

I am rambling here...