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Now, I’m NOT a surfer although if you were to go back in time to the late 80’s, you’d see me on a skateboard, and in the early 2000’s, you catch me on a Snowboard.

But this weekend I sat down and watched a historic cult classic that we’ve all heard of and most of us have never actually watched all the way through. Even if we didn’t know where the term came from, we’ve all heard the term… Endless Summer! (I don’t know, unless you’re young or sheltered). The term comes from this movie largely. It was one of the first high quality surf movies. It was filmed documentary style by a guy named Bruce Brown.

The movie itself follows two surfers — Mike Hynson and Robert August — as they travel around the globe surfing following the “Endless Summer”. Their first stops are in Africa to include Senegal and South Africa. They end up in Australia and New Zealand, and of course I’ve left alot out because I’m not going to ruin it for you. The sound is made up of narration. Brown speaks to what’s going on and throws in a good bit of humor to keep you watching. Some of the scenes are pretty interesting as in some of the scenes in Africa where no one has seen a surfer before and you get a sense of the excitement from the locals/natives. You also get a interesting sense of the times the movie was filmed (1966), such as when you see these surfers traveling by aircraft in black suits. That’s what they wore back then because airlines had dress codes. instead of looking as people do now when they fly, back then, they look like MIB (Men In Black).

I understand that Mr. Brown developed his cinematography style by filming and showing his footage to audiences while standing at a microphone and just talking his way through the movie. Obviously back then it was much easier to film the footage by itself than to record good sound (just as it is today). This movie was pivotal to the surf movie genre. Even today in surf, skate, and snowboarding movies, there is still no high quality sound for the same reasons when Endless Summer Was made… Although now, we use music to make the videos more interesting [Ahhh, now you get it].

Endless summer would lead to Endless Summer II nearly 30 years later [which I have not seen]. They actually stopped by some of the same locations again, only to find that they have been covered up or have conditions changed due to human development, including an area in South Africa where a perfect wave traveled for minutes down there beach. Granted, back then, many people surfed areas that were tiny by todays standards due to technology. Surfers no longer use big heavy long-boards as they did back in those days.

Now, I’m not sure I’d dig surfing too much but I know that watching the movie makes me want to try it once before I die.  Not on a big wave but maybe one that the little kids can hang with..  Like a 2-footer or something.  It seems kinda a’ight.

Two movies in a row does not a Movie Reviewer make.

But I happen to have heard about this at work and had to pick it up and check it out.  Luckily there was nothing on TV and Unthinkable was on Cable “On Demand”.  The story takes place in Los Angeles when a terrorist decides he’s gonna drop a few nuclear devices in 5 states.  Who would do such a thing… Yes Yes; Apparently a Muslim Terrorist (named Yousef and all).  But hey, he’s an American and he used to be a soldier so screw him.  This gives the movie that little bit of “OK” to torture.

The FBI and the military can’t figure out if he’s really got the weapons so they bring in “a contractor”.  What kind of contractor.  An interrogator played by a little man named… Samuel L. Jackson.  He promptly goes to town beating down American soldiers, cutting of fingers and electrically shocking the terrorist.  Of course, the sissy American in the room can’t believe what they are seeing and try to get him to stop only to find out that the evil CIA guy gives him permission to continue.

Just when you and the FBI and the lead Supervisory Special Agent (yea, I know my FBI ranks) gets Yousef to talk, they are led to the top of a building where a douche bag soldier triggers a bomb at a shopping mall killing scores of innocent people as they shop for sparkly purses and Old Navy jeans.  Oh, Yousef (Michael Sheen) is gonna get it now!  He finally lets it out that he doesn’t give a crap about torture and he’s completely intent with his torture and eventual death…  Helen (Carrie-Anne Moss) flips out under the pressure and leaves the room crying.

Now its back to Sammy J.  With 3 hours left, he’s realizing that little old Yousef is most likely NOT going to crack.  Sammy whips out Yousef’s wife whom the government is able to track down.  She’s all crying, separated from her kids, and now sharing a room with Yousef.  What’s going to happen now???  I’m not going to tell you.  Go see the movie because I don’t want to ruin it for you.

Jackson always has some lines in movies that you’ll inevitably find the right time to throw out, thus making people chuckle whether they’ve seen the movie or not and this one is no different.  Jackson yells out;

“Oh, so now you’re all working against me? Do you want to know where the bombs are or not (gets the crazy eyes)?  Its MY responsibility!  Do you want me to win, or do you want him to win?” and he continues, “You’re all so Fucking selfish!  This is not about you!  This is War! This is sacrifice!

Now I don’t know when, and I don’t know where, but I’ll be dropping those lines soon enough.  Sir, I could put cheese on that if you’d like…  I’ll yell back (crazy eyes and all), “This is not about you!  This is War!  This is sacrifice!”

This is perhaps the best movie Jackson has been in, in a long while.  I think since Pulp Fiction really.  It even should make you think about what you would do in the same circumstance (don’t ask what I would do; you won’t like the answer).  For a lower-budget film, the production value, cinematography, and the acting is very enticing.  Enjoy it!  I have no doubt, you’ll be surprised by this ending.  I think I may even buy this movie.

— Thanks for Visiting Kali Pinckney.com at www.kalipinckney.com..

Ah Yes, I know i’m a bit behind the times.  This movie has been out awhile.  Although it seems to me that this movie just came out, I in fact, watched it on HD Cable in the warmth of my living room.

The movie takes place in a small Iowa town.  Timothy Olyphant is the sheriff and some madness is afoot.  People start getting all “Crazy” and its not certain why.  Over the course of 2 days people start zombifying [is that a word?] and Olyphant and his deputy attempt to sort out what’s going on.  All of a sudden, they find a military aircraft that has crashed in a body of water that the town’s water source originates.  By the time they get to town, they find that most of the people are gone.

As the movie progresses Olyphant and his deputy are captured by the Military and taken to a camp where those  who are suspected to have some phantom disease are quarantined.  As the quarantine continues, Americans do as Americans do and an escape is initiated.  As you can guess, many of those who escape are those who become “Crazies”.  Now obviously, the zombie movie is not a new idea and that’s what this movie is.  It is Dawn Of The Dead, or  Zombieland.  The thing that makes zombie movies is how you can explain the “zombie-ism”.  In the Crazies, the explanation is chemical weapons..  Kinda funny but hey.  Its a Zombie movie.

It has the obligatory attempts to scare the audience such as the subject is in the center of the frame and the camera zooms out to see an out of focus freak outside of the view of the subject.  Spooky!  The movie is surprisingly tense and I was easily able to get into it.  The acting was damn good as I expect from Olyphant.  The best scene of the movie goes to the car wash sequence.  You’re just going to have to see the movie.

On a filmography point, the best part of the editing of this movie is the beginning when the music that leads in, is the same music that leads in Dr. Strangelove.  That is Trivia.  This movie is worth renting or downloading.

— Thanks for Visiting Kali Pinckney.com at www.kalipinckney.com..

I’m just a fan of this show.  Its got great writing and the cinematography is spot on and blurs the line between TV and Movie styles… Which now that I type that makes sense since it is an AMC show.  This is the logical outcome of a tv series and the American Movie Channel.

If you’ve never seen it, it is basically a story about a High School science teacher that find out he has cancer and decides he has to leave his family some money and starts cooking meth.  I know I know sounds terrible, but you have to watch it to make sense of it.  Breaking Bad lays out the horrific things one must do as he enters this dark life.  The actors and writers have proven thier worth by winning an EMMY.  The show is the real deal.

The show is just packed with the most insane villains this side of a James Bond flick.  It is just intense.  If you were to watch all the episodes, you would be shocked at the shenanigans that take place.  The story gets more and more intense as the seasons roll by.  This show will NOT jump the shark anytime soon because it started out with a jump that most shows would never be able to pull of.

Yes! I’m specifically being vague; just to get you to watch the show.   If I have to suffer my hideous “Breaking Bad addiction”.. so should you.

FOR MORE INFORMATION; CLICK HERE

— Thanks for Visiting Kali Pinckney.com at www.kalipinckney.com..

I think Inglourious Basterds has become my favorite Tarantino flick.  Its even jumped over my all time favorite Pulp Fiction.  Yes, I’m serious..  Why, you ask? Because the story is just insane.  Its as though someone re-made the dirty dozen, but made all of the dozen Jewish, threw in some spies, through in a story of some of those in Occupied territory.  Brad Pitt’s character is pretty interesting and damn near makes this his best (most eclectic) acting role behind being a Pikey/gypsy in SNATCH.

And did it, making a much better (Produced) movie.  This movie has a great mix of amusing moments intermingled with drama, intermingled with the style that ONLY Quinten can put on a screen.  No one’s ever made Nazis look so non-repulsive even though it was pretty repulsive.  Thankfully, they didn’t get into holocast stuff.  If my history serves me, this would have been in a pre-Final Solution time-frame.  The point of the movie pre-supposes what would’ve happened if Hitler (and Goebbles, Bormann, Goring) were killed and the war was ended on one day.

The movie is based around a propaganda film being made around a German Sniper.  The propaganda film is called Nations Pride (Stolz Der Nation).  What so funny is that on the DVD, they have posted the entire german propaganda film made for this movie… And it looks just like one of the real propaganda films from the 1940’s.  Its very creative that they chose to do this.

— Thanks for Visiting Kali Pinckney.com at www.kalipinckney.com..