Chaos, Blind Side, and the Million Dollar Quartet

I went to a play.  I did and there were actors and lights and all the play-stuff that you’d expect.  I was in Chicago with my Squeeze and we went to see “The Million Dollar Quartet” at the Apollo Theater.  To show what a dork I am, I was expecting soul music—it was the Apollo, wasn’t it?  Not the right Apollo, of course, but still you can see how I’d be confused to be in a room full of old (older than me) white folks.  No, this is a play about December 4, 1956 the night Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash were all at Sun Studios.  It was the only time they were all there together and this was a great rendition of the story and the music.  All the cast members really captured their characters, sang well, played their own instruments (Jerry Lee put my butt to shame).  I know not many of you are in that neck of the woods, but this is such a great show and not something you want to see some town’s Little Theater massacre. I hope you find yourself near enough to go.  One young man in our part, by the way, said, that he” knew Elvis, but who were those other guys?” I refrained from taking his ignorant young self to school, but I wanted to.  See? I mellow.

Chaos is a fun mindless cop  shooter starring Jason Statham without most of his accent.  It’s got a bit of plot, was shot in Seattle (actually a lot of people were shot in Seattle in this flick) and Wesley Snipes is the bad guy.  The only bad part is the screen is often just full of Ryan Phillippe who is completely unbelievable and precious as a cop or a person.  Good guy-with-beer flick, Seattle is always pretty if not sunny, a couple of plot twists, a bit of gore.  No real nekkidness, some potty talk.

Finally, the chick flick of the afternoon, The Blind Side. Even if you have seen the trailers and decided that this was just too much Sandra Bullock with a drawl, this really is a good movie.  As you probably know it is a bout a young Black man, a huge young black man, who leads a terrible life—Mom’s a crack head, the projects in Memphis are the pits, etc.  Through a surprisingly short set of occurrences, Bullock takes him into her family.  Tim McGraw, THAT Tim McGraw, plays her husband and he is very good, by the way.  Just go rent the movie, OK?  No real surprises, familiar story, but very nicely done, leaves you with hope, a bit of triumph and the satisfaction of knowing it’s a true story.  Oh, and there’s some great football shots.  I don’t know why football can be so beautiful when it’s also so violent and brings out the white trash in folks, but it is and this is worth seeing, too.  Very highly recommended, hoot if you want to.  So there.

Spanky, Movie Guy

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