Now I spit it so hot you got tan

I hope everybody had a fantastic weekend. I had a nice weekend as well. This weekend was about multiple trips to TGI Friday’s and multiple movies being watched. I’ll start with the movies in order of how I liked them.

Across the Universe – I really enjoyed this movie. It was a light, fun movie and I just left in a better mood after watching it. I think I appreciated the movie more then the gentlemen I watched it with because AtU is laced with subtle Beatles facts, and lyrics that only die-hards would know. However, I think everybody enjoyed it. Bottom line, it’s just a fun movie. Final grade… A-.

Gone Baby Gone – This movie was probably the complete opposite of fun. Written and directed by Ben Affleck, this movie starred Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, and Casey Affleck as police officers/detectives out trying to catch a kidnapped five year old. This movie is a dark, and brooding thriller. I would probably give this a B-. It’s good but so depressing.

The Assassination of Jesse James – Normally I think Brad Pitt is a very good actor but he struggled in the role of the western outlaw Jesse James. The first thing I didn’t like about this movie is that there is no good guy; only bad guys and really bad guys. The anti-hero, Jesse James, murdered people in cold blood, beat up a little kid when he was looking for his uncle, and basically was just an ass. Besides that, the movie was quite slow, unnecessarily violent, and poorly written. I give this movie a C-.

Besides movies, I have some other stuff on my mind:

1. I have a new food obsession. I can’t get enough of the new Chicken Florentine sub at Subway. I dined at Subway four times last week and I already have plans to go there for dinner tonight. I’m excited.

2. I only watched bits and pieces of the Academy Awards and I am anxiously awaiting the two Oscar frontrunners, No Country for Old Men, and There Will be Blood to come out on video. I was happy to see all of the Minnesota connections doing well. The Cohen brothers wrote and directed No Country and they’re from St. Louis Park, and Diablo Cody wrote Juno and she’s another Minnesota woman.

3. When I was in ninth and tenth grade, Ralph Nader was a hero of mine. I read several of his books and admire him greatly for his works on consumer rights and environmentalism among other notable accomplishments. However, let’s not kid ourselves. Had Nader not ran for president in 2000, Al Gore would have been president. Gore lost in the state of Florida by less then 1/10 of one percent. Nader took about three to four percent of the vote. Let’s say, 20% of the people who voted for Nader would have voted for Gore. Is that fair? I understand some would have gone to Bush, some would have not voted, and some would have gone for another Green Party candidate. However, just 20% of Nader’s vote would have ensured Al Gore would be the President of America. Clearly Ralph Nader needs his ego stroked. There are sharp differences between Obama, Hillary, and McCain and in all actuality; Ralph Nader has almost identical views as Hillary Clinton besides slight differences on Iraq. Nader needs to shut his egotistical mouth and get back to writing brilliant books. I’m incredibly disappointed in Nader.