Jonatha at the Triple Door

I wasn't feeling too well Saturday but I really didn't want to miss seeing Jonatha in her visit to Seattle. Her live performance is always special and its really interesting what a live show does to you. I loved her previous albums, but had not been as excited with the latest (Careful What You Wish For), but hearing a number of the songs live have given new life when I listen to them...I just can't put a finger on what it really is...but I'll just leave it as connection that just wasn't there before.

I'm glad I made it to the show.

Inside Man

I love how Spike Lee's sense of humor and how he injected it in short bits in unusual scenes in this movie. You can't go wrong with Clive Owen and he's really entertaining to watch when he does the narration as well (like he did in Croupier).

Denzel Washington's played quite a number of cop roles...good, smart, dirty, and some who are just somewhere in the middle.

This movie just had a stellar cast and having Willem Dafoe (who like Michael Caine and Christopher Walken) who plays tons of supporting characters all the time, gave the police credibility (and not just the punching bag when the FBI walks in a situation).

Thomas Beckett

I've always had this old VHS tape of Sniper. It's just one of those movies I love playing...or love having on while cleaning up at home, cooking, or sorting through files. There's a lot in the loneliness in Tom Berenger's character that I connect with that really shouldn't be interpreted as some sort of depression, but a normal state of some people who just have an affinity for solitude.

The movie apparently was a bit of cult hit and two sequels were actually made...so I went out and sought to acquire a used copy of em somewhere.

Sniper 2 was actually pretty good. Paring Thomas Beckett with a real soldier this time was a good choice. Sniper 3 was ok, but I wasn't too crazy about it.

Surfing through the web, I actually found out that Tom's character was loosely based on a real marine sniper name Carlos Hathcock. I admired the story of his career, and how he preferred to be out of the limelight (he declined the Silver Star...though the military finally got him to accept it 30 years later). His service was cut short saving fellow soldiers in a fire (that left him with burn injuries the rest of his life). He's a pure soldier.

Tom Berenger was just the perfect fit to portray him. And you know Tom's played a lot of soldiers in his career (like Sgt. Barnes in Platoon :) ).

Letters from Iwo Jima

I haven't seen Flags of our Fathers yet, but I have a feeling this is the better of the two WWII movies from Clint Eastwood. So many movies have been done from the American side that was a brilliant idea for Clint to think about changing the perpective from the Japanese side of the war.

The Japanese cast was very good, and you just can't go wrong with Ken Watanabe.