Religion

Oh boy I'm going to get some looks for this one. But fuck it.

Recently my father has been helping with the editing of my novel. He recently read "Eric" a priest character and his reaction to the impending end of the world. My father acted like he found my manifesto to start up the Fourth Reich. He had some big problems with it. He went as far as to say he felt it had no purpose with the story. But I am not here to talk about that, this is about what he said after.

He then went into a religion tangent about his own beliefs and how much he regrets that he didn't discuss it with me and blah blah blah.

That shit became extremely uncomfortable.

Let me break it down to you this way. Whatever I believe (or don't) is nobodies business. I DO NOT LIKE TALKING ABOUT RELIGION. AT ALL. It puts me at unease immensely. Everybody has that one subject they don't like discussing. For some people it is politics. For me it is religion.

What my dad does or prays or doesn't pray, I don't care either. I know I sound like a dick but I don't want to hear about it. He needs to keep that shit to himself. I do not want to know it.

Furthermore, his boo hooing over not talking about it with me, he really needs to wake up and smell the fucking coffee. This talk along with a few others we won't go into details about, are more than 10 years overdue. Those damn ships have sailed from port and he needs to let it go.

I am not saying in shape or form that religion is bad. If you believe in something, great, more power to you. It's just not really my thing to discuss. When it comes to my own views, I just don't know and that's okay. That is freedom of religion at its finest. And at the end of it all, it is nobodies fucking business but my own and should stay that way.

Until next time, fly high and fly well.

New Year's Resolutions

The New Year is upon us come Sunday, so what better time to discuss New Year's resolutions? The things people always make but never do 97% of the time?

I was never really to do these and when I did make them I usually break them. It was only last year that I actually did a resolution that I completed; finishing my first novel "Faith" before a friend was to graduate from college. So on this year, I have decided to batten down the hatches and do two.

1) Write another a book.

This one is a no brainer. I'm about 2 weeks away from putting "Tranquility" on the web so in order to make a bigger profile, and a bigger profile means more books to publish. So I shall write another.

2) Get in shape.

This is also a no brainer, but one much more difficult to attain. To this point, I've been lucky to be able to fake looking healthy and thin and the like but things are starting to catch up with me. I need to be down there EVERY day even if it is cardio which is my go to thing most of the time. I'm almost 25 (FUCK) so I need to act like it.

So that's mine. What are yours?

Until next time, fly high and fly well.

These are my confessions...

Revenge films seem to fall into two categories. They are the Charles Bronson type where the only way it seems to find peace for an unthinkable tragedy is to kill as many people responsible for it. The other type is more subtle, and thus much more sinister. Oldboy would most likely fall into this category. These revenge films usually make the one watching it flip flop on who the victim and the villain are and make an old saying be true; you don't have to take a life to kill a man.

Japan's Confessions is in the latter category. This is not a fun film by any means. In fact it is down right uncomfortable. The first 30 minutes are no more than a middle school teacher Yuko Moriguchi talking to her students. They initially ignore her, as catty, talkative children do. But when Yuko reveals that her recently deceased daughter was not only murdered, but by two students in there class, you can hear a pin drop.

Yuko explains that the Japanese criminal system considers minors unable to understand their actions and thus will not be held accountable for them. However, Yuko describes the students/murderers to the point the rest of the class figures out the culprits' are Shuya (a intellectual with an inferiority complex) and Naoki (a shy boy looking for social acceptance). Yuko explains she plans to resign after this day and that she will not rest until she has her vengeance.

A year passes, and the class moves on to the next grade, with a young, driven new teacher who is unaware of recent events. Naoki has suffered a psychotic break and has become a recluse. Shuya stays in class despite what his peers know about him and Naoki. The class turns on them, continuing to physically and verbally taunt them for their actions, and perhaps showing in their supposed moral superiority they are no better. All the while, Yuko is in the shadows, playing each person off the other like chess pieces, doing whatever it takes to get justice.

Confessions is hard to categorize in some retrospects. It is primarily a revenge film, but also has traces of horror, and dare I say comedy. The film has great use of multiple perspective as we hear the "confessions" of several characters; Shuya who reveals his intentions to be renowned for something and get his mother's attention at any price, Naoki who truly believes he will die and has become a hermit, Naoki's mother who slowly discovers her son has become a monster, and Mizuki the only student that refused to bully Shuya and befriends him but realizes she has made a grave mistake far too late.

The film culminates with the machinations of Yuko achieving her revenge. She has left the boys alive but they are far from it; she has taken from them what mattered most just as they had to her by killing her daughter. They are beaten and broken, and yet their is no victory, no catharsis. Despite her achievement in finding justice, Yuko has still left collateral damage in her wake. Her daughter is still gone and she will remain hollow. The road of revenge has been traveled but there is no easy end point for her or the boys who savagely took a life of an innocent child.

Confessions stands to be one of the BEST revenge films I have ever partaken in. I heartily recommend it if you can find it (Check ebay! That's where I got my copy). It easily eclipses Oldboy in my opinion, and stands up there with The Horseman which falls on the other spectrum of revenge films. As much I am grateful for the international film market, it is sad that ones has to look outside the U.S. for quality, thought provoking films. The industry as a whole has been diluted of ideas, and it's disgraceful that international studios are running circles around us in regards to creativity and furthermore fearlessness.

Until next time, fly high and fly well.

My favorite holiday film is Die Hard

Okay I know I'm going to get some weird looks for this statement. Believe me, I have before so I want to explain the awesomeness of Die Hard as a holiday film.

1) Christmas imagery

Okay this one is particularly simple example. The film (and it's less christmasy sequel Die Hard 2: Die Harder) takes place during a Christmas Eve party at Nakatomi plaza. Of course the place is decorated accordingly. The use of a Santa's hat on the first dead terrorist. Christmas tape used a crucial plot point during the climax etc. All iconography of the holidays.

2) "Now I have a machine gun. Ho-Ho-Ho"

No real point here, just a great fucking line.

3) Underlying theme of family of protecting what's yours.

John Mcclane had come to Los Angles to patch up with his wife, despite some recent struggles. When Hans and his buddies take over, Mcclane must fall back on to his training to not only take down the hostages, but save who he loves most. He has think quick and play smart, for one false move could mean the end of him.

4) The Value of life lost.

As Ellis, Takagi, and a handful of FBI agents learn, life is fragile and can be voided in a split subject. Die Hard may have an action movie coating, but speaks of the frailty of life and the world matters not it is the holidays when you could be taken from the world. Thus the value of times we can be together is ever the more pertinent.

5) It's a holiday film the guys can stand.

Let's be honest. Holiday flicks suck. With perhaps the exception of Love Actually (don't judge it has Liam "fucking" Neeson in it) and the first two Home Alone's holiday films are usually coated in so much syrup you'll crash out on the sugar. Add to the dreck ABC family puts out every year, it can be hard for a guy to have suitable holiday entertainment. Well look no further than Die Hard 1 & 2. Just like Argyle says "This is Christmas music!" to Mcclane when he plays Run DMC's "Christmas in Hollis", if anyone asks if you could watch a Christmas movie, you can look to them with a straight face and say,

"This IS a Christmas movie!"

Until next time, fly high and fly well.

Sorry for the lack of posts

Hey follow readers, sorry about the lack of posts lately. Been really busy with work and finishing up my book. I do have a few topics stewing in my mind so hopefully I'll get them out soon.

Hold on. They will be up soon.

Until next time fly high and fly well.

Movies I want to see

As though who know me, I am a huge movie buff. My list of flicks to watch is constantly changing. I'm always finding new ones that interests me. More often than not they are obscure things that no one has heard of. 4 selections are as follows.

The Millennium Trilogy: Extended Editions

I heavily enjoyed them in their original versions. But when I discovered about the release of 3 hour cuts of the films, that fleshed out numerous subplots cut from editing, I knew I had to pick this up. It's like Kingdom of Heaven Directors Cut; a good film made excellent. Luckily this will be coming out this Tuesday.

I Melt With You

A polarizing film from what I've read. IMWY is a mid life crisis film on acid concerning four 40ish friends who meet up for an annual bonding weekend. However, a pact they made when they were 19 rears its ugly head. Couple that with their own failures and insecurities, the get together becomes quite dark. Unfortunately, I won't be able to see this for another two months when it comes out.

Shame

Now this is controversy. Or rather hot air controversy. A movie seems to be only controversial when hard nudity is involved. Or rather male nudity. Never mind the film is much more about that and takes a rather serious subject (sex addiction) and treats it as hard hitting and realistic as possible. I'll probably have to wait for video for this one too, because I don't think a NC-17 film has been carried in a theater since Showgirls. It's a kiss of death rating really; it's amazing how we as Americans can't make our own choices whether to see something or not. That rating is always equated to smut. Sometimes it can be true, but most of the time it is not. It is about more about our conservative views about tackling uncomfortable subjects.

Confessions

Luckily, I'll own this one soon enough (Thanks Ebay!). A Japanese film about hard hitting revenge. The "villain" of the piece makes Charles Bronson look like a pussy. When a teacher tells her high school class that her daughter was murdered by two of their fellow classmates, she sets off a chain of vengeance that reverberates through all their lives. It probably will trump "The Horseman" (which I'll blog about later) as the most disturbing revenge film I've ever seen.

That's it for now,

Until next time, fly high and fly well.