Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Highly Recommended
Wednesday
February 21, 2007
"Said that I'm a fighter
Too drunk to remember"
-Kings of Leon "Arizona"
If you haven't seen The Departed, you really need to take a trip to the movie store and rent it. Or buy it outright, if that's your thing, as it is mine. I went to Blockbuster during my lunch break today to land a copy, figuring (correctly) that I'd have better luck at an off-peak time on a Wednesday than on a Friday night, which is when I tried to rent it last week. They had one left, which I promptly rented and watched as soon as I got home from work.
The result? It was even better than I had expected. I'd heard "It's a great film, but it's not quite Goodfellas." Fair assessment -- very few films ever made are on the level of Goodfellas. But I didn't realize just how great The Departed is until I finally saw it.
Without spoiling the film, just be assured that it's two and a half hours of action, suspense, and Martin Scorsese magic, blending scenes and music together masterfully, with spot-on acting by a sharp ensemble cast.
It was so good that watching Lost later that night wasn't the same fun it typically is, though perhaps that's due in part to Lost having a sub-par episode and due to ABC's ridiculous bait-and-switch on the promos promising that the "three biggest secrets on the island" would be revealed.
The Oscars are merely a Hollywood promotional tool, no more and no less, but I hope that Scorsese finally gets his long-overdue Best Director Academy Award this Sunday for The Departed. If he didn't get it for Taxi Driver or Raging Bull or Goodfellas (or any of his other films), let him get it now. He's arguably the best director of the past 40 years; enough with the nonsense already.
The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament is just around the corner, and I'm excited for it. It looks like an eighth straight year for my alma mater, the University of Evansville, to be on the outside looking in, barring an improbable run in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament. Unfortunately, Evansville played a paper mâché non-conference schedule; I remember the days when you'd see matchups with Indiana and Purdue and Notre Dame and Vanderbilt. This year the Aces played David Lipscomb -- TWICE. Ugh.
Here's some ping pong fun for you from China, found via We Are The Postmen. I wonder if these guys are any good at beer pong?
Impressive stuff.
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