deadheaddave http://www.cinemaroll.com//deadheaddave. New posts by deadheaddave The Happening http://www.cinemaroll.com/Thriller/The-Happening.248237 The Happening is a doomsday movie with an environmental twist. Normally doomsday movies have an enemy of aliens, nuclear holocaust, terrorists or some other disaster. This is an enemy of a different sorts, one that no one would expect: plants!

At the beginning of the movie, Mark Wahlberg is a science teacher discussing the recent phenomenon of bees missing. This foreshadows the movies plot. Plants in Northeast United States, Maine to Virginia start to release a neurotoxin that makes humans stop in their tracks and want to kill themselves! Some of these self mutilations are disturbing to say the least. Some of them I could have done without seeing (like the man laying down in front of a lawn mower). But the movie gets its point across; that we are all subject to nature and not everything in nature can be explained by science.

Mark Wahlbergs character, his new wife and their friend's daughter try to get out of the ‘infected' area throughout the movie. The infected area does not spread west of Ohio and seems to be contained. The plants eventually stop releasing the neurotoxin and life goes back to normal without the few million people that happened to kill themselves due to this outbreak. At the end of the movie the plants in France release the neurotoxin.

One of the odd things about the movie is people are trying to leave the affected area without any protection. At the start of the outbreak many people believe it is the cause of another terrorist attack. Soon some people start to figure it out that it is the plants and as the wind blows, the toxin spreads. But even if it were a terrorist attack, no one was wearing gas masks. No people were wearing even the cheapest home supply store particle mask. No one even had a bandana over their mouth. The only thing the actors did through the movie was to shut the windows. Also it was never said why the plants started to release the toxin. I guess we are just supposed to feel at the mercy to nature.

]]> Wed, 10 Sep 2008 05:00:23 PST Get Smart's Bruce and Lloyd Out of Control http://www.cinemaroll.com/Comedy/Get-Smarts-Bruce-and-Lloyd-Out-of-Control.185671 This is a cute and funny story about two inventors for the organization US spy agency Control. This DVD came out after the movie release of the movie Get Smart staring Steve Carroll.

Bruce (Masi Oka from the TV show Heroes) and Lloyd (Nate Torrence) are two geeky young inventors for the agency Control. They have developed a top secret invisibility cloak so when someone buts the cloak on, they become invisible. (Much like the invisibility cloak in the Harry Potter movies).

However, the cloak is stolen while the two host a party in the Control secret laboratory. The beautiful secret agent from a South American country steals it in order to give it to her dicatator so he could free her hostage father.

Bruce and Lloyd end up saving the day, recover the cloak and ridding the country of the evil dictator.

The movie is full of young adolescent humor. One of the funniest scenes is when Lloyd is is day dreaming about a beautiful girl in her bikini and she says “you can do anything you want with me Lloyd.” Well the next scene is she jumping up and down in the bikini and beating him on Mortal Combat style game. That was his dream?!

The running joke throughout the movie is how no one can ever figure out which actor is Bruce and which one is Lloyd. Everyone keeps switching the actors up. Another running joke is how Lloyd cannot talk to women. He gets so nervous around women that he just mumbles and says stupid things, even though he thinks he's smooth.

The movie is short, running at 71 minutes. It isn't a great film, but it is worth watching. I watched it with my 12 years olds, which liked the movie a lot.

]]> Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:57:12 PST DVD Roll: Get Rolling on the Banjo http://www.cinemaroll.com/Cinemarolling/DVD-Roll-Get-Rolling-on-the-Banjo.171791 Get Rolling! An ultra easy, no-fail introduction to bluegrass banjo.

ASIN: B000297NMM

Pete Wernick has become famous for his banjo work with his band Hot Rize. He is a regular at bluegrass and folk festivals hosting banjo and bluegrass workshops. It is truly amazing to watch Pete “Dr. Banjo” Wernick conduct a lessons for thousands of people in the audience, each holding their instrument and learning.

This DVD is the first step in learning to play the banjo. Pete starts off teaching the learner two chords; G and D7. He then presents ten popular bluegrass songs that are based on these two chords. He teaches these songs and has the learner just strum the rhythm.

Next Pete adds one more chord; C chord. By adding the C chord to the already learned G and D7 chords, the player can then learn thousands of bluegrass songs. Pete introduces the learner to approximately twenty songs that are very easy to play.

Next Pete introduces the learners to rolling patterns. This starts with the popular alternating bajo roll, then to the forward and backwards roll. Pete has the learner go back in the DVD to where he taught the strumming of the chords and has the learner perform the roll patterns over the strumming rhythm. This is extremely beneficial. This is the start of bluegrass jamming.

Lastly Pete is assisted by two of his learners to accompany him in a three banjo jam. This shows the learner how to use the rolling patterns over strum patterns and how to quickly change from background to rolling, to lead.

Songs learned on this DVD include:

  • Shady Grove
  • Tom Dooley
  • Rolling in my sweet baby's arms
  • When the saints come marching in
  • Long journey home

And many more….

This DVD contains a booklet to aid in the learning.

This is a great DVD for the learner wanting to start banjo playing. It is distributed by HOMESPUN which produces many instrument lessons. Homespun is focused on teaching bluegrass, blues, folk and acoustic lesson.

]]> Thu, 17 Jul 2008 03:42:17 PST Review: Iron Man http://www.cinemaroll.com/Adventure/Review-Iron-Man.117789 This is a good movie for all ages and taken in content can make the movie watcher question the “Industrial War Machine”.

The movie starts with the story of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) who is an engineering genius that inherited his father's weapons manufacturing company Stark Enterprise. Tony Stark is captured in Afghanistan and held in a cage for three months. In order to escape he secretly builds an iron man costume. During this time Stark realizes that his company is supplying both sides of the conflict in order to profit from the war.

When he returns to America he announces that his company Stark Enterprise will no longer be in the business of making weapons. He is informed by his long time business partner Obadiah (Jeff Bridges) that the board of directors has taken control of the company and they will continue with their weapons production.

I'm going to give the story away, but the movie is filled with action and witty one liners between Tony Stark and his assistant Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow). The action scenes in the movie reminded me of Transformers and the action fights were short. The final battle scene in the movie was against Iron Man and another colossal iron suited man from his company.

Robert Downey plays an excellent roll as Tony Stark. He is quick with the wit. At one time his assistant Pepper walks in on him getting undressed from his Iron Man uniform and all he could say is “Oh, there's worst things you've walked in on me on.”

The computer aided graphics were amazing. I am glad I saw this movie on the bog screen instead of waiting for the DVD. The soundtrack was all heavy metal music, until the scenes with the Afghan fighters which was classical music.

The story of Iron Man in Marvel Comics was no doubt influenced by Eisenhower's warning of the “Industrial War Machine” speech. The modern twist on this story by applying it to Afghanistan and Iraq makes this movie very relevant. This was a very enjoyable movie. I took my children (age 12 and 5) to see it and they enjoyed it also.

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