Caddyshack

Today I review one of the best comedies ever made.

It may be slapstick, it may be crude, it may be absolutely adolescent but come hell or high-water, it will make you laugh!

I'm or course referring to Caddyshack!

This classic revolving around the antics at a upmarket(snobbish) golf club and the caddies that work there.
It's really hard to give an exact description of the plot as it's a movie that doesn't really know what it is, it jump from plotline to plotline without any real purpose, but for me I think it's what makes this movie so awesome - it just tries so hard while still retaining some class and being genuinely funny.

The 3 stars that really shine out in this movie are Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight and Chevy Chase.


Ted plays a judge and the snobbish chairman of the golf course. His short temper and rather foul luck make for many laughs. He plays the role well, going almost insane at times.

Rodney plays an eccentric Italian property developer. Batshit insane he is but I liked him very much.
He is famous for the quote, "Hey everybody, we're all gonna get laid!!"

Chevy Chase is the down-to-earth playboy who always speaks his mind. Most likable character.

And the comes the superstar.......Bill Murray!

 

Groundskeeper tasked with killing gophers. Role was completely unscripted. 'nuff said!

Great movie that evey comedy lover HAS to see.

P.S I also have to give a shout-out to Tchaikovsky, whose musical prestige really hit its pinnacle with his 1812 Overture playing in the final scenes. Well done mate!

Fight Club!

I'm back and doing movie reviews once more.

Today we will take a quick look at Fight Club

Based on Chuck Palahniuck's novel by the same name, Fight Club is a criticism of modern consumerist society and the emasculation of man.

The movie starts off with a nameless narrator suffering from insomnia and we see his wallowing in his(and others misery) until he meets up with Tyler Durden(Brad Pitt) and together they start an underground boxing ring called Fight Club.

And throughout the movie we see the progressive physical degradation of the main character(because of fighting) but a sort of philosophic transformation.

A quote from the movie: " Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off."

The film is littered with such philosophical prose.

I won't venture too much further into the plot but let's just say there is a plot twist at the end of the movie. ;)


In a nutshell it is a movie that every man HAS to see, it encapsulates what the male species has lost due to the restrictions of modern society.

Filled with action and man-tits.

Go watch it!

Review: Inglorious Basterds

Tarantino's latest offering Inglorious Basterds(sic) is an alternative history movie set in Nazi-occupied France and follows the stories of a Secret Service group called "The Basterds" led by Lt. Aldo Raine(Brad Pitt) a American jew from the south(he has one hell of an accent.), a nazi colonel(Christoph Waltz) and a Jewish-French woman(Melane Laurent).

The movie starts with one of the best single scenes I have ever seen., the Nazi colonel, Hans Landa , visits a French farmer suspected of hiding Jews. The tension it builds up is absolutely incredible, not only because of Tarantino's once again brilliant script(a large portion of which is in a foreign language) but also because of Christoph Waltz's amazing performance( for which he won an Oscar) in his portrayal of Hans Landa, an evil, charming and supremely intelligent Nazi colonel.

 Brad Pitt also delivers, in my opinion a strong performance, as Lt Aldo Raine, as with many characters in the movie such as Goebbels and Hitler he is a comedic character.(Yes, Hitler is a funny character)
The rest of the English Basterds unfortunately have somewhat weak acting imo.


Melanie Laurent plays the Jewish woman, she is the proprietor of a movie-house and through a nazi war hero love-interest she lands a film premier which Hitler attends.

She is the "heart" of the movie without which it would be too cold and gruesome.

A large portion of the movie is in German, French and a little Italian played by a European cast unfamiliar to Hollywood, and they really shine.

The plot is a bit fantastical but a great story nonetheless.


For this gruesome, evil and funny story I give 8.5/10

Pulp Fiction: A review

Tarantino's second film after Reservoir dogs is considered to be his greatest yet.

Judging this film by its porno-movie cover one immediately knows this is going to be a controversial film, and the brilliant, just-the-right-amount-of-twisted mind  of Quentin Tarantino does not disappoint.

The basic plot revolves around 2 mob hit men played by Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta, a gang leaders wife by Uma Thurman and a Boxer by Bruce Willis, spiritual transformation, loyalty, drugs and Quarter Pounders. We also have Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth and Quentin Tarantino playing minor roles.

The storyline of this movie is quite unique, it is in fact more like several movies rolled into one epic than a single movie. It is shot in a non-linear sequence, and is neatly demystified at the end.

The plot albeit good, is nothing without the strong dialogue and brilliant performances by the cast.
This is the most "Tarantino" movie you will find, the dialogue is humorous and down to earth, nobody captures the essence of dialogue quite like Tarantino.

It is a movie that has everything, yet is like no movie you'd have ever seen before.

Quite simply the epitomeof film noir.

Tarantinos masterpiece gets a 9.5/10






 

So I donated blood today

So I went for my 6th or 7th full blood donation today. It has been a while since I last donated( I think about 10 months to be precise because I was on roaccutane.) Let me talk about roaccutane a bit first......IT SUCKS!!!

Unless you have really serious acne(which I didn't) avoid at all cost. My dermatologist said that it has little to no side effects, but let me tell you this, you suffer! First of all your skin becomes the damn Sahara desert, and you itch EVERYWHERE, then your lips just start peeling off and they become sore(the dry lips were in my opinion the worst side-effect) and ugly. I swear I had some lower back pain triggered by it(never had it before and havent had it since), but I can' t be sure.

Well at least my skin is all pretty now.

But I digress.

So first blood donation in a while means I have to fill in that long-ass form all over again!

But got that out of the way, the sister who checked my BP/Pulse and Iron really irritated me because she was wearing a Balance Bracelet(Pseudo-scientific rubbish).

Fortunately I had a different sister bleed me.
Let me just say,no matter how many times you donate, that needle is scary, not that it' s very sore(it's not) but it's so damn big!! The sister had to dig around my arm because my vein was quote, "Running away from the needle" anyway eventually I was set and leaking blood.

This part is really nice because they bring you cookies and cool drink on a tray(What reason more do you need to donate??) and they brought me their quarterly filled with 10 year old cancer patients who need blood or they' re going to die, basically a trick to guilt you into donating again .

The room was scattered with various posters, one with the breakdown of the various blood groups, and apparently my blood group, AB Negative, is the rarest one there is(less than 1% of the population).....Fuck yeah!

Anyway, losing 500ml of blood(Yes, I use the metric system, get over it) goes by surprisingly quickly and you don't feel too different afterwards. I went straight from the donation centre to a maths class.


So I feel good about myself today :D

Privacy Policy

At http://thelayresearcher.blogspot.com, the privacy of our visitors is of extreme importance to us. This privacy policy document outlines the types of personal information is received and collected by http://thelayresearcher.blogspot.com and how it is used. 

Log Files
Like many other Web sites, http://thelayresearcher.blogspot.com makes use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol ( IP ) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider ( ISP ), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses, and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable. 

Cookies and Web Beacons 
http://thelayresearcher.blogspot.com does not use cookies. 

DoubleClick DART Cookie 
.:: Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on http://thelayresearcher.blogspot.com.
.:: Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to users based on their visit to http://thelayresearcher.blogspot.com and other sites on the Internet. 
.:: Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following URL - http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html 

Some of our advertising partners may use cookies and web beacons on our site. Our advertising partners include ....
Google Adsense


These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to the advertisements and links that appear on http://thelayresearcher.blogspot.com send directly to your browsers. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. Other technologies ( such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons ) may also be used by the third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and / or to personalize the advertising content that you see. 

http://thelayresearcher.blogspot.com has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers. 

You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. http://thelayresearcher.blogspot.com's privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites. 

If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browsers' respective websites. 

Reservoir Dogs : A review

I'll first say that I am a big Quentin Tarantino fan, so my expectations for Reservoir Dogs were very high,, even it being his first film(Not counting Natural Born Killers).

Knowing his movies I knew that the success of the film depended entirely on the vast dialog - the non-dialog  scenes bloody and gory and well done, do however take a backseat.

As soon as Quentin(terrible actor as he is) complete his "Like a Virgin" speech right in the beginning of the film, I knew I wouldn't be disappointed.

The basic premise of the story is this - Six thieves who don' t know each other take part in a failed jewel heist.
Once they arrive back at their rendezvous point, a police mole is suspected and from there onwards it's a cacophony of panic and mistrust.

All the characters in this film are great, each with his own backstory and unique personality. A real tip of the hat goes to Harvey Keitel(Mr. White) who I think is the heart of the film. An antihero if I have ever seen one!

In order not to spoil the movie I will not tell you who the cop is, but a great performance from the actor that played him too, his naivete is evident throughout the film(He calls a mob boss a nice guy), and he eventually succumbs to the "criminal mentality".

Steve Buscemi also gave a strong performance with Mr. Pink, a likeable fellow in a sadistic kind of way.

Humour ,albeit of dark, isn't lacking either in Tarantino's dialog.

It is racist, gory and morally dubious but,all in all a great movie that shows a glimpse of Tarantino's genius shown in his masterpiece Pulp Fiction.

I give it a solid 9/10, my only qualm is that it ended so quickly.