Happy New Year's!

I'd like to do a quick wrap-up of 2008 while I have a chance.

Best Film of 2008: I'm going to go with Bringing Up Baby, same as every year.

Best Film released in 2008: Probably The Dark Knight, but I haven't seen it so I can't be sure.

Best Film released in 2008 that I saw: Iron Man.

Best Film I saw in a theater: I'm pretty sure I didn't go to a theater this year. Maybe next year.

Best new cocktail for a New Year's Eve party: I got this from an early 50's cocktail pamphlet put out by the Angostura company - the Airmail:

• 1/2 lime, juiced
• 1/2 tsp. honey
• 1 shot white rum
  

Shake over ice and strain into a champagne flute. Top with champagne.

Happy New Year's!

Update: Now that I've actually mixed a few Airmails, I've got to say that the honey won't mix with the rum and lime if shaken with ice. It just globs up. Tasted pretty good anyway. The solution - use a honey/water syrup or mix with the lime juice warm.

Pop Quiz

It's quiz time again at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule, a favorite film blog. They have brought in Prof. Charles Kingsfield, Jr. (that Paper Chase guy?) for this one. He promises it will be easy, but unless you are conversant with Budd Boetticher's oeuvre, you'll have trouble with at least one question.

Fortunately, it is open book, with no time limit. Besides, the later you answer, the more chances you get to read other people's answers. BUT - the later you answer, the fewer people will read your answers, and isn't that what we do this for, the fame?

So I'd better get to work. Let's see: Kenneth Tobey or John Agar?

The Other Bailey, Not George

I won't be writing about Christmas movies - I despise the wimp George Bailey and don't want to discuss it. I wasn't even going to acknowledge the holiday, but I realized that I have a holiday cocktail comment.

Every Xmas, Mrs. Spenser gets me a bottle of something nice for my Xmas morning coffee. This tradition started about 20 years ago with a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream that she brought in from a snow bank where it had been cooling. Other years it has been Amaretto, Drambuie, Irish Mist, and just about anything sweet that would enhance a cup of joe.

This year, I picked up a bottle of Godiva Milk Chocolate cream liquor. We found it disappointing, with a slight off flavor. Possibly it was an old bottle.

I had hoped for, but could not find, Vermeer Dutch Chocolate Cream. This is a delicious liqueur, but has very limited distribution. I recommend that you buy it if you find it. Good in coffee or straight up cold.

On Xmas morning, however, I found a fifth old Bailey's under the tree. Now, on the 26th of December, it is nearly gone.

In conclusion:

1. Vermeer - best cream liqueur ever
2. Bailey's - always welcome, makes any cup of coffee a treat
3. Godiva Milk Chocolate - Not good, unless the bottle I got was just spoiled
   

Black Adder Addition

The Black Adder series, along with its opposite, Red Dwarf, constituted the greatest TV of the 80s. Comic genius Rowan Atkinson was at the height of his inventive powers, with a great supporting cast (Tony Robinson, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson) and brilliant concept: An evil but incompetent nobleman in the court of Henry IV - then, in the next series, Queen Victoria, then the Prince Regent, and finally, the Great War. Then, after four seasons plus a Christmas Special,by 1989, it was over.

Until Black Adder: Back and Forth. It is New Year's Eve, 1999, and a few friends are visiting Lord Blackadder. He has a cunning plan to bilk them with a phony time machine gag. Unfortunately, he left it up to his idiot servant Baldrick to build it, so it actually works.

The bad news: This is a 30-minute episode, then that's all she wrote. It's also not as sharp as the best of the old series. Tony Robinson's Baldrick looks quite a bit the worse for wear, but is as dim as ever. So, it's not so great, and such small portions.

Who cares? It's as cunning as a fox who went to cunning school, graduated with honors and was made head of the department of cunning-ness.

Library Science

We were pretty disappointed by the latest Indiana Jones, so the solution? Another archeology based adventure series: The Librarian: Quest for the Spear.

Noah Wylie is a perpetual student who gets a job as the Librarian at the New York Metropolitan Library. This position involves guarding the most secret books and artifacts in history, including the Lost Ark (chuckle), Excalibur, the Holy Grail and a piece of the Spear of Destiny. When the Spear is stolen, he is sent out to get it back or die trying. So, it's off to the Amazon and points beyond.

Now, Wylie is a smart guy, who knows a lot of history, geography and foreign languages, modern and ancient. But he is kind of nerdy and he lives with his mother, not the action hero type. Fortunately, he gets a bodyguard/facilitator, a kick-ass woman with an Elizabeth Hurley accent. Don't worry, though - she tells him right up front that she is out of his league, and surely there are HR policies in place to prevent any romance between them.

In general, this made-for-tv movie (first of three in the series, I think - the latest just released) is a little funnier, a little smarter and a lot less ambitious than the Indiana Jones pix. The fantastic temples and caverns are a little smaller, less ornate. The escapes are a little less death-defying. Our expectations are a little smaller - and they are met. That's a win for this series.

Stranger than Meta-Fiction

If Will Ferrell is such a big draw, how come nobody heard of Stranger than Fiction? It's not Semi-Pro, but jeeze.

Ferrell plays a Chicago tax auditor who leads a mundane existence, until he hears the voice of a narrator. This voice begins narrating his life, which is disturbing, but when she says, "Little did he know he had only a short time to live," then it gets potentially deadly.

The narrator is Emma Thompson, a stressed-out, chain-smoking writer's blocked author. Her schtick is to kill off her characters, and she's having trouble deciding how to do it. We undertand that once she figures it out, Ferrell's character dies. Her publisher sends Queen Latifa as an "assistant" (minder) to help out. Thompson plays her role with courage and conviction, looking very believably on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Latifa plays her usual no-nonsense coolheaded competent type. Has she been cast as God yet? She could totally nail that role.

Meantime, Ferrell visits a doctor and a psychiatrist, who tell him he is schizophrenic. For a second opinion, he goes to a professor of English, Dustin Hoffman, whose approach is a bit more eclectic. He's got a low-key wierdness similar to his zen detective in I Heart Huckabees.

Ferrell also falls in love, with a free-spirited tax-dodging baker played by Maggie Gyllenhall. She does a great job, but this is the classic Manic Pixie Dream Girl, who only exists to bring our emotionally dead hero to life. Why does a beautiful, sensitive woman in a people profession have no boyfriends, leaving her bed open for Ferrell to fall in? Oh well, you just have to accept some of these things.

In addition to a great cast (having a ball, I'd guess) and a great script, it uses Chicago locations in an interesting way. The city can look modern and cold, funky and warm, space-age and cool, and altogether lovely. The music is a nice indie acoustic rock mix, with a lot of Spoon. Not really my style, but they make me love it.

This isn't a goofy laff factory, and there's no frathouse or grossout humor. All the characters are named after mathematicians, to give you an idea. But it also isn't pure art-house - it's lighter than that. Thoughtful but fun. I guess I understand why nobody has heard of it.

Khan of Khans - the Early Years

In my student days, I was a bit of a Khan fan. I read The Secret History of the Mongols, Harold Lamb's Genghis Khan and maybe a few others. So I was pretty psyched to see Mongol, and not disappointed.

It tells the story of the young Temujin, son of a small clan's khan. He is betrothed to the beautiful Borte at about 7, and loses his father on the same journey. He is hunted, captured and escapes many times. He is united with Borte, and loses her several times. He is strong and steadfast and gathers followers. By the end of the movie, he is on his way to unifying the Mongols, and conquering the known world.

The story fit what I remembered pretty well, although they skipped a cute story - Little Temujin's dad tells Borte's father that to take care of Temujin, he's afraid of dogs. But never mind the story: look at the incredible locations in the steppes, the forests, rivers and hills of Mongolia. Look at the powerful still but expressive faces of the actors, all Mongolian, except Tadanobu Asano as Temujin. Just immerse yourself in the sounds of the Mongolian language.

A wonderful film. Watch and enjoy.