Sex and Death 101 // Lost Boys: The Tribe // Watching the Detectives // dvd movie reviews

Sex and Death 101 Buy it at Amazon.com
“Topless girls are all I need” should be a running quote for movie critics who wholeheartedly recommend fodder like this. It’s not funny, it’s not interesting, it’s horribly miscast, it’s a complete disaster. It’s hard to believe, I mean really hard to believe this came from [...]

My Blueberry Nights movie review

Director: Wong Kar-Wai
Starring: Jude Law, Norah Jones
Genre: Drama, Romance

Whaa–t? What’s wrong with blueberry pie? In Wong Kar-Wai’s Hollywood effort, My Blueberry Nights, the homely dessert is the one cast off by customers every night, an icon for the discarded, much like the fishbowl melange of housekeys left by jilted non-pie eaters in Jeremy’s [...]

M.I.A. // Kala // music review

M.I.A. You might have seen her in the Marc Jacobs ads. You might have heard her on the Vexille soundtrack or the Pineapple Express trailer. You might have heard her and thought she was Lady Sovereign getting funkified as I did when I first heard 20 Dollar last year, a mish-mash of [...]

Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead // movie review // screener!

Director: Lloyd Kaufman
Starring: Jason Yachanin, Kate Graham
Genre: Cult Cinema, Exploitation, Horror
San Francisco Premiere: July 18 at the Roxie Theater [Buy Tickets]

If Grease was gross, it’d be Poultrygeist. Of course, it’d also have topless lesbian activists, explosive diarrhea gags, racism, gore, zombies, and bestiality by a pseudo Dustin Diamond (Screech), not to mention a Ron [...]

Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro dvd movie review early!

Director: Katsuhide Motoki
Starring: Eiji Wentz, Mao Inoue, Yo Oizumi
Genre: Action, Fantasy, Manga
US DVD Release Date: Sept 2008 ?

GeGeGe no Kitaro tries too hard. It tries to be enchanting but relies too heavily on floppy CG (nearly 700 shots). It tries to be a comedy without wit. It wants to be an action [...]

The Fall movie review

Director: Tarsem Singh
Starring: Lee Pace, Catinca Untaru
Genre: Comedy, Curious, Fantasy
I fell for The Fall. Hard.
And it’s not just the voluptuous visuals, although Tarsem and Director of Photography Colin Watkinson supply one sumptuous scene after another, with upshots of a swimming elephant, an M.C. Escher staircase grid o’ closing enemies, swishing swirling clergymen [...]

Wool 100% dvd movie review

Director: Mai Tominaga
Starring: Kyoko Kishida, Kazuko Yoshiyuki
Genre: Japan, Curious, Fantasy
With the whimsy of The Shoe Fairy (which had the whimsy of Amelie) and the languid fluidity of a glorified French film spurns Wool 100%, a Japanese movie with a European pulse. Vivid visuals and an enigmatic aura enhances the stark lack of dialogue and [...]

Yaji and Kita: The Midnight Pilgrims (aka: Mayonaka no Yaji-san Kita-san) movie review

Director: Kankuro Kudo
Starring: Shichinosuke Nakamura, Tomoya Nagase
Genre: Japan, Comedy, Curious, Fantasy
See it at SF Indie’s Another Hole in the Head June 2008!
Everyone loves a roadtrip movie. Maybe even a gay roadtrip movie. How about a couple of Edo era gay samurai who are forbidden to ride their motorcycle (by famed Susumu Terajima, no [...]

The Red Crane Restaurant munchies review

The Red Crane is a welcome surprise nestled amongst the usual Cupertino “brain booster” establishments and across from a Home Depot. Its humble facade opens up to tasteful asian-inspired modern minimalism with dim lighting and papercraft frame-sets on every wall, most likely from the local Japanese craft clubs. With its amiable and attentive [...]

L’Osteria del Forno Italian Restaurant munchies review

I have to preface this review by stating that the food at L’Osteria del Forno is incredible; the authenticity (as far as I know, I mean I’m no expert on Italy, but I know this ain’t Ragu), the fresher than fresh ingredients, the overall pristine presentation — basically what you look for in a restaurant [...]

3660 on the Rise Restaurant munchies review

I don’t know how many times I’ve driven past this place and missed it (and of course by “driven” I mean “being driven”, haha). Well, never again because it is a “don’t miss”. In an expensive-looking building on the iffy strip of “thrift haven” Waialae Avenue, 3660 on the Rise sits “atop” a [...]

Iron Man movie review

Iron Man was so good that I went into a Comic Book shop directly after our viewing just to find out more (and to appease my curiosity concerning the portended sequel). Already a huge fan of Robert Downey Jr (whom I have to say vintaged quite nicely and looks even better now than he did pre-prison), I didn’t even need to see a trailer to predict this was a must-see. Robert Downey Jr and robotics? I’m there. [...]

ANTM: There can only be Four

Last season of Top Model fizzled out for me very quickly when it became quite clear that the bubbly girl with the bob (Saleisha?) was going to win. I think I caught bits of two less than memorable episodes with a lot of screaming. This season is a little more interesting since there [...]

Only on eBay

Over the years, people have auctioned off their virginity, their foreheads, food with sacrilegious caricatures, Princess Amidala’s underpants… a recently divorced man even put his “life” up for bid. The latest two big bid bonanzas aren’t as radical, but they are for good causes.
The 90-foot tall Original Pacific Wheel at Pacific Park [...]

Absolut Mexico - Drunk Designers? ad alarm

We took it from them (lots of land after the Mexican-American War), they want it back. Apparently, graphic designers for Absolut feel the same way. Sketchily distributing them in Mexico, oddly believing their neighbor would not catch wind of it, Viva Mexico! was the message, drunken or not. What do you think [...]

Torch Song for the Olympic torch

Betcha the Olympics committee wonders why oh why did they allow San Francisco, unabashed political arena, to be the only American point on the torch relay route dubbed the “Journey of Harmony”.
Extinguished in Paris (oft joshed at for their cowardice), many cringed at the thought of what Bay Area pro-Tibetan protesters might do [...]

Tech Quickie . Who’s buying who?

Catching you up on all the latest plans and rumors circulating about the Big Cheeses in the Bay, and how they plan to get even bigger:

Yahoo! to use Google search ads… in advanced talks
Yahoo! to merge with AOL… still in talks
Microsoft to purchase Yahoo!… over Y!’s dead body, sadly
Google to [...]

Chapter 27 movie review screener!

Director: J. P. Schaefer
Starring: Jared Leto, Lindsay Lohan
Genre: Indie, Drama
Opens in San Francisco April 18th, 2008
I wrote the bulk of this review in March 2007 and am surprised at how neutral I was about the &%(@! subject matter. In light of the Beijing Olympics protests, this might be proper timing to remember someone [...]