L.A. Confidential

When I was listing “gritty cop movies” that I liked in my discussion of the worthless “Brooklyn’s Finest,” I mentioned “L.A. Confidential.” I remember seeing it when it came out (it was released in 1997), and remembered it being a good movie. And recently, I had the chance to watch it again, and was reminded that it absolutely is a fantastic movie. I am very glad that I have revisited it.

What’s the Deal: It’s 1950’s Los Angeles. After a Christmas-night beating of innocent “Mexicans” by decorated L.A. police officers, some of the officers present refuse to “snitch” on the officers who actually took part in the incident. (Russell Crowe) Others readily do so, knowing they will be hated by the rest of the department (Guy Pearce). After another former officer is gunned down in the middle of the night, several officers break out on their own to solve the crime. An additional piece of the story is the tabloid publisher (Danny DeVito) feeding leads on crimes to Detective Vincennes (Kevin Spacey), who is more interested in high-profile arrests that make the newspapers than actual police work. Finally, there is the ring of high-dollar prostitutes who have had plastic surgery to be made to look like famous movie stars of the time (Kim Basinger).  Basinger gets the lion's share of the movie's poster, I suppose because she was the biggest star of the bunch in 1997.  But the majority of the screen time is Pearce's. 

Admittedly, this is a whole lot to follow. “L.A. Confidential” was a novel first, and that is obvious through the numerous, interwoven subplots. There is a lot going on here, almost too much for a 2 hour and 15 minute movie. I haven’t read the book, but have a hunch that the novel would be slightly easier to follow. However, a focused viewing of L.A. Confidential is very rewarding.

Things I Like:

1. The cinematography / setting. The movie is set in 1950’s Los Angeles, and it feels like 1950’s Los Angeles. The costumes, cars, backgrounds, lighting…all serve to set the mood of the time and place. (after some research, it turns out this cinematographer also did “The Last of the Mohicans” and “Heat,” movies that also look great).

2. The way it all fits together. As I mentioned above, there is a lot going on, but if the viewer has followed it all the way through then he is rewarded with a lot of suspense and a really great conclusion.

3. The “grit.” The officers in the movie are really rough around the edges and the story confronts controversial issues, such as beating confessions out of people, planting evidence, manipulating others for one’s own political gain, “snitching,” racial profiling, racial slurs (it was, after all, the 50’s), domestic violence, and police corruption. But this all makes the story really, really compelling.

Things I didn’t like:

1. The pacing. In an effort to fit it so many sub-plots, there are important parts of the movie that have to be handled in a quick manner. This is generally not a problem, as long as the viewer hasn’t taken a bathroom break or anything. If you do that, you just might never recover.

"Well, we've got a nice little Saturday planned..."

"We're gonna go to Home Depot. Get some wall paper. Maybe go to Bed, Bath and Beyond. I dunno. I dunno if we'll have time." (name that quote, peeps....)

We did have a nice little Friday night and Saturday. Court, Rett and Lisa came over to watch Baylor DOMINATE St. Mary's in the Sweet Sixteen. As promised, John made this deliciousness.

And then I made these gems...

And then, as if hadn't eaten enough Friday night, I made us banana pancakes Saturday morning.

(Please note the newest member of our Starbucks City Mug collection, New Orleans!)

(So adorable...and full.)

We also watched the Lady Bears whoop up on Tennessee, meaning both Baylor basketball teams are in the Elite Eight!! Sic 'em!

After lounging around all morning, we decided to make the most of a gorgeous day in Waco and headed to Cameron Park for a little "hiking". Apparently, 200,000 other people had that same idea but it was fun nonetheless. Not wanting to go back inside, we took in a little sun at the Baylor baseball game. So ideal.

For those interested, Baylor also won this game. (Why didn't they win this much when I was in college?!)

We then headed back home to play with John's favorite new toy we purchased this week courtesy of all our law school friends who showered us with gift cards to Home Depot last spring.

(Still trying to come up with a perfect name for her.)

(Raspberry chipotle pork chops and the King of the Grill)

(Final product + salad)

Final highlight of the day: Findings $20 tickets to the Baylor/Duke Elite Eight game tomorrow afternoon in Houston! Court and Rett will be picking us up in the morning and we'll cheer on the Bears to what we hope will be a win and a berth into the Final Four!

Update

Hello, readers. The blog has been pretty slow the last few days, mostly because we haven't taken a vacation in about a week. Still, we have managed to keep ourselves busy.

For starters, the city of Waco is really excited about the Baylor Basketball team's run to the "Sweet Sixteen." The game is tonight (Friday) at 6:27 in Houston. We couldn't make it to the game, but we did make it to Wednesday's "send-off" pep rally at the SUB. A brief highlight of the event is available here. Look for us at about the 24 second mark...



http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=5026265




Talk about enthusiasm!!


Tonight, rather than going to the game, we are having a little "watch party" here at the house with some friends. Melissa and I will spend the afternoon preparing food and, apparently, cleaning the house. She seems to think its dirty. Either way, the following dishes will, ideally, feed us and our hungry friends as we watch the bears continue their exciting tournament run.

Stuffed Mushrooms

Bacon Wrapped Jalapenos

And Melissa is making "Pepper Burger Sliders with Caramelized Onion Bleu Cheese Mayo" and "Creamy Lemon Crumb Squares." The food will, no doubt, be delicious. But it will be that much better if the bears can pull out a victory tonight.

Happy Favorite Day, Kathleen!

Sunday was Kathleen's (my lovely mother-in-law) favorite day of the year--the day after the first day of spring. It's officially the first day that there's more daylight than darkness. It also signifies to Kathleen, a 6th grade reading teacher, that summer is imminent and she'll be able to enjoy a well deserved break soon.

(We saw bluebonnets beginning to bloom on our drive this past weekend!)

You may ask, "Why on earth do I know Kathleen's favorite day of the year and why am I posting about it?"

Well, it's a neat Hardage family tradition that I've had the joy to begin celebrating as the newest member of the clan. A few years ago John's sister, Rebekah, declared her favorite day (to be unveiled at a later time) and the family decided to celebrate each respective member's favorite day of the year through a small gift, dinner or other special occasion. We'll be meeting Kathleen, David and Rebekah for dinner Tuesday night to celebrate!

Happy day after the first day of spring, Kathleen!

March Madness

John and I left for Houston early Friday morning, met up with our friends, Bo and Mary, and drove all.the.way to New Orleans to watch Baylor play Old Dominion University (who's that?!) in the second round of the NCAA tournament. We had so much fun.

We got in town that evening and explored the French Quarters and Bourbon Street.

(Sign looks a little rugged...)

(First sampling of pretty spicy cajun cookin'!)

(Bo and Mary)

(How did John get beads?!)

(We met up with Matt Rodgers and tried to keep him away from the casinos..)

Not wanting to waste our time in such a cool city, we woke up early the next morning and had cafe au laits and beignets at Cafe Du Monde. Indescribeable. Except for the fact that beignets are very messy--powdered sugar gets on everything!

(You should see all the excess powdered sugar on the ground.)

We decided to walk around Jackson Sqaure and see St. Louis Cathedral and the French Quarters during the day.

(That's for you, Gil.)

(Such pretty, historic buildings.)

After lots of walking and sight-seeing (and finding a taxi to take us back to Jackson Square), we stopped for lunch at a precious cafe right in the middle of the French Quarters. We had a spectacular table by the window and ate more delicious cajun food. (Who knew there was so much rice in their dishes? Not this girl...)

We made our way to New Orleans Arena but not before taking in all the beautiful homes on St.Charles Street and hoping to run into local homeowers Drew Brees or Brad Pitt. After Mary and I were convinced we wouldn't be seeing celebs that afternoon, we drove to the stadium and picked up our tickets. We may or may not have sneaked into the lower-level of the arena and sat a couple of rows up, smack dab in the middle, for the entire game. (I mean, those shouldn't be empty....)

And if you don't already know by now, BAYLOR WON! Way to go Bears, we're so proud of you!

(Oh, look, Scott Drew got in the picture too...love him.)

(Confession: I may have teared up when Lomers fouled out and Coach Drew rallied the crowd to support Lomer's performance.)

It made for a late night drive back to Houston but the andrenaline and excitment from the victory kept us plenty awake. Can't wait to watch the Bears take on St.Mary's (again, who's that?) next weekend.

Brooklyn's Finest

As Melissa mentioned, we recently made our second trip to Phoenix to watch Spring Training baseball. It was a wonderful trip. But of course it rained during one of the afternoon baseball games. Yep, an all-day rainstorm in the desert. Our luck, I guess. Anyway, we decided to go to a movie that afternoon because there was no baseball to watch. As is typical, the early spring movie options are less than great. We had no interest in Alice in Wonderland so the other real option was the police drama “Brooklyn’s Finest.”

There is a reason that the only good thing the commercials for Brooklyn’s Finest say is that it was directed by the director of Training Day. Training Day (2001) is a fantastic movie, and you should watch it again instead of Brooklyn’s Finest.

What’s the Deal: There are essentially three plotlines, all unrelated, and they are all as cliché as possible. The Training Day plot has been done and done (the veteran cop showing the rookie cops the ropes and what the job is “really like,” but it was still original and different. On the other hand, Brooklyn’s Finest is just super lame. First, Richard Gere’s character is the old cop who is about to retire and must show a young cop the ropes and what the job is really like. It should sound familiar. Also, he routinely “sees” a prostitute and then busts up a prostitute ring. Oooo, how ironic.

Second, Ethan Hawke is an overall good cop whose enormous family is outgrowing his tiny house, and he must start stealing dirty drug money to pay for the new one. Ooooo he’s so conflicted. Blah blah blah. It should also sound familiar.

Third, Don Cheadle is an undercover officer. He befriended Wesley Snipes while undercover in prison, and when Snipes gets out the two begin to run drugs together “just like old times.” Which side is he really on? Oooo he’s so conflicted, too. This is actually the most entertaining plot line, I thought, but that’s not saying much. But it’s still been done to death.

What I Liked: (not much)
1. The cinematography is pretty good, I guess. The cramped spaces and setting feel like a dirty, cramped Brooklyn neighborhood would feel, I suppose. So that was good.

What I didn’t like:
1. The violence. Look, I enjoy the gritty cop movie as much as anyone. Like Training Day, or The Departed, or the Untouchables, or the French Connection, or Heat, or Narc, or L.A. Confidential (especially L.A. Confidential)... But there’s a difference between gritty and just ugly. This one is just ugly. Those good movies had their fair share of violence and language, and that didn’t make them bad movies. One could say it enhanced them, in fact, because it was real (or at least it seemed real-ish. I have never been a gritty cop, so I can’t say for sure how real it is). Here, it is forced and I just didn’t buy it.

2. Along those lines, there are super extended and uncomfortable sex scenes between Richard Gere and his prostitute. Also not “gritty,” just terribly graphic and pointless.

3. The plots. As I mentioned above, they’ve just been done to death. It’s also too long and everyone in the theater was glad when it was over. Steer clear of Brooklyn’s Finest.

New Orleans Bound

We're headed out tomorrow morning for the land of jazz, the Saints, Andrew Jackson (he defended New Orleans in the War of 1812, chimes my history-loving husband) and faulty levies.

We'll meet up with our friends Bo and Mary and head to the New Orleans Arena Saturday afternoon to watch the Bears play in the second round of the NCAA tournament! Can't wait to support our Baylor Bears!

(Love LaceDarius Dunn)

SIC 'EM BEARS!!!!!

Zombieland

I have to come to realize that my posts are really going to interrupt the flow and tone of our blog. It seems that Melissa’s posts about the newly married couple doing wholesome things like building a snowman and going bowling and whatever will be interrupted with very random discussions of movies I see. This will be especially true when the movie I watch happens to have a title like Zombieland. Sorry, Melissa.

So yes, I watched Zombieland. (Special thanks to Rebecca Tatum for inviting Melissa out of town for the weekend). I have also decided the “format” my entries will have, copied pretty shamelessly by the aforementioned critic Dave White.

What’s the Deal: It’s post-zombie-apocalypse, and there are only a handful of humans surviving. One of them is “Columbus.” He is called “Columbus,” because he is from Columbus, Ohio, and the characters make a special point not to get to know each other too well, like by learning each other’s names, because they all know that each could soon be the Zombies’ next victim. Columbus strictly adheres to his hyper-cautious list of Rules for surviving zombie encounters. He eventually meets up with Woody Harrelson’s “Tallahassee,” a zombie-killing expert, and two con artists, known as Little Rock and Wichita. The group makes its way to California fighting off various zombie encounters along the way.

Things I liked about the movie:
1. Tone. This movie is really funny. I swore I would never write incoherent things like “this movie never takes itself too seriously,” but that’s really the best way to describe Zombieland. It’s really short, quick-witted, and very well done.

2. The scene where Columbus first encounters a zombie. While alone in his dorm room, again, on a weekend night, his super-hot neighbor who has never spoken to him before knocks on his door and explains that she has been running from a strange homeless man who tried to bite her. They go and sit on the couch and take a nap, and when he wakes up he is attacked by his neighbor who has now morphed into a zombie. As he’s fighting her off he keeps apologizing. It’s good stuff.

3. Columbus’ survival list. Also very funny. As he’s narrating the list, the film shows the near-miss that caused him to add that rule to his list. It’s done very well.

4. The Cameo. This movie features one of the best, funniest, and most surprising cameos I’ve ever seen. I don’t want to give it away, but you’ll know what I’m talking about when it happens.

Things I didn’t like.
1. Really the only thing that bothered me was that the main character acted just like Michael Cera’s characters. Kind of timid, kept talking when he should stop, etc. Other than that, good, solid entertainment.

Side Note… I thought I would share one of the funnier lines from a review by Dave White. This made me laugh out loud (not necessarily a difficult task, but it was funny just the same). He was reviewing some terrible teen comedy (Miss March, perhaps?), and was describing where it was on the “funny” continuum compared to other recent bad teen comedies. He wrote, “it was funnier than College, but of course a prank phone call from someone telling me my mother had just died would be funnier than College.”

Phoenix and Vegas!

Last Saturday was the start of our "unofficial" spring break. We spent the afternoon cheering on Baylor as they beat Texas for the second time this season.

After celebrating, we drove to Fort Worth and spent Saturday night with my parents before leaving early Sunday morning to visit my cousin Gina, and her husband, Brad, in Phoenix! Gina and Brad graciously offered us the opportunity to stay with them, watch some of the Texas Rangers spring training baseball games in/around Phoenix and hang out in Las Vegas for a day!

(These suckers are everywhere in Arizona.)

After landing we (almost) immediately drove to the ballpark to take in our first Ranger's game of 2010. And wouldn't you know that of the ten days it rains in Phoenix a year, we were there for two of them--meaning we'd have to wait a whole extra day for the long-awaited first game. We decided to head indoors and watched "Brooklyn's Finest" (review by John to follow, I'm sure...) and some dinner before calling it a night.

Monday morning we drove to Suprise, AZ to watch the Rangers play.....having to think really hard....the Angels. I'll admit the spring training games are cool--the stadiums are more intimate, the players are real casual and you can totally feel the excitement for the upcoming season. (Well maybe that excitement was coming from John, but it makes me smile to see him so pumped...)

(Murphy, Kinsler and Hamilton during the National Anthem)

Before the first inning was over, John had already purchased one of his all-time favorite meals...ice cold beer and a ballpark hot dog. Yummmmm.

After seeing all our favorites play, we took off to see the more scenic side of the greater Phoenix area. Brad and Gina knew of some pretty cool mountains/overlooks.  Phoenix is beautiful.

(Phoenix below South Mountain)

(Rock climbing in Uggs...)

(Gina and Brad)

(Mountains in the distance)

(Really cool rock formation)

Tuesday morning we took in another game (versus the A's?)  but not before  having devouring some delicious In-N-Out burgers and fries.

(Why won't they expand to Texas?!)

(John's idol, Michael Young)

Then, we hopped on a plane and flew to Vegas for the night and Wednesday. We checked in at the Mirage ate a wonderful meal at the steakhouse in our hotel and then walked across the way to see Blue Man Group!

(We were close to the stage and got to wear some lovely panchos.)

Blue Man Group was pretty awesome and we had a blast hanging out with Brad and Gina until early Wednesday morning.

(Glad we didn't wake up and find one of these in our hotel room.)

We spent Wednesday taking in all the excess that is Las Vegas, making a couple of bets, and eating more good food. This time, we found a Serendipity and Gina and I were estatic to try the legendary frozen hot chocolate.

(Deliciousness)

Our time in Phoenix and Las Vegas was incredible and we're so grateful to Gina and Brad for showing us a good time! We'll be looking forward to coming out there again soon!

We returned to Fort Worth and met up with my family and celebrated Dad's birthday at Pappasito's and watched the Bears dominate Texas again!

John left Friday for Colorado with his guy friends through Tuesday and I kicked it in Fort Worth with family and friends over the weekend.

It's back to the grind this week--luckily I've got some Baylor basketball games to look forward to and, what should prove to be an entertaining recording session with Courtney. Details to follow. ;)

Birthday Shout-Out to My Dad

 March 10th is my Dad's 54th birthday! Let the celebrating begin. (I believe in a birth week, you know...)

Dad on his 52nd birthday in Phoenix

Top 5 things I love about my Dad:

1. He's always happy. For real. Even though he's been surrounded by pretty dramatic women most of his life. This fact also makes him really thankful for John.

2. He's ready to serve others. From helping old ladies in the church parking lot jump-start their cars on rainy Sundays to reminding me that my tires need to be rotated and (most of the times doing this for me) Dad is always game to be of service in whatever way he can.

3. He always knows the answer. Or finds one for me if he doesn't. I can't begin to count how many times I've called him asking for directions, why my car is making a certain noise or how to repair my closet. Or figuring out how to move (even cross-country) all my belongings nine times. He just always seems to know what to do.

4. He's set a good example of how to love a child. I can't remember one high school volleyball game, tournament or try-out where my Dad wasn't there supporting me from the sidelines. And it doesn't stop there.  He's always found a way to come to Waco just to "grab lunch" and hear what's going on in our lives.  

5. He really values his family and friends. Dad's always good to call and check-in with his brother and sisters or call on old friend who's been recently ill. Those relationships are very important to my father and it's made me recognize that I need to be better about keeping in touch with friends and family as well.

Did I also mention that he'd take three private dance lessons with me to ensure we'd have the best father/daughter dance? He sure did. I'll always be his brown-eyed girl.

(We nailed this turn...)

John and I will actually be in Phoenix on Dad's birthday but we'll celebrate (eating Mexican food, of course) in Fort Worth with the family when we return Thursday!