A documentary - American Beer

Well it's not often that I will talk about a documentary here. This one is worth buying and I hope that in the future I can discuss more documentaries. Especially those of a more light hearted nature. Anything more serious I would put over at It's My Mind.

In any event, let's talk about this documentary. I'm not a beer drinker but for the past few months I've been interested in this idea that people can brew their own beer at home. They choose not to drink a Coors, Budweiser, or even Miller. Those are the mainstream beers out there.

Of course beyond those there are much smaller brewers out there. Some of them you might see at your local supermarket, liquor store, or bar. In other instances some of these brewers might operate their own bars or they may operate a brewpub. Essentially some brewers own a restaurant and they serve their own "homegrown" beer.

This is what American Beer is about. These smaller brewers who had a passion for beer and turned it into a moneymaking enterprise, even if they're not exactly millionaires. It could be concluded that some of these craft or micro-brewers are taking advantage of a market that just doesn't like the beer provided by the more mainstream brewers.

To be sure I haven't had a beer from a craft/micro-brewery. Though I do think about it, besides I can always find my way to Goose Island and have their craft brew when I get the first opportunity. What I do know is that I've had a Bud-light and a Coors and while I drank them I didn't have a great love and this documentary makes me even more curious about how much different these craft brews are.

This movie was a lot of fun to watch. These guys take a road trip from coast to coast from Maine to Washington state. They sampled beers from 38 breweries in 40 days. They interview these businessmen and women who own these breweries. They tour these breweries even taking a look at the oldest brewery in the United States, D.G. Yuengling & Son. This brewery is so old, these intrepid guys literally tour some underground caves where once upon a time they would store the brews before the time of refrigeration.

Some breweries are very well run and they almost look like major league operations. There are those that aren't but they might still be able to get the job done. Most of these brewers started off homebrewing with most having jobs one was a foreign journalist and another was in the computer industry and another still used to be a police detective. They all left their respective occupation/professions to become brewers.

I won't give too much away but this is a great road trip style documentary. Perhaps there might be other roadtrip style documentaries out there. Maybe one wouldn't want to watch a documentary touring bakeries or what not, but surely one documentarian can actually do one about visiting historic sites around the nation.

I would suggest though that you buy this documentary when you get the first opportunity. I don't know if it's available in a video store near you, but surely you can trust the internet to provide you with this documentary.

Pursuit of Happyness

A great rags to riches story. The real life story of Chris Gardner who seemed to have had a very hardknock life. He was poor and the movie started off with him unsuccessfully securing a sale for his bone scanner.

You see I had nothing but comments about this. I called this bonescanner a lemon. Maybe I'm not using this in the correct context, but one doctor he attempted to sell one to called it expensive and unnessary. Not only that it caused him a lot of grief because he trusted that device with the wrong people or he kept losing it.

Thankfully that was the one thing that got him some more money in his pocket. While in the situation he was tired of he saw a man in a sports car and found out he was a stock broker and decided it was worth doing. I don't know how he found out about this internship program but he entered into it.

Then we see true adversity. His honey left him and threatened to take their child with him. He was moving around a lot with him being evicted from an apartment buidling or a hotel. Forced to spend nights in a subway bathroom. IRS reaching into his bank account for back taxes. Working very hard and being very worrisome trying to secure accounts for his internship.

While I may not want to do what he did, it paid off. Today he's able to tell his story and he has as much money as that man he met in the streets of San Francisco. His honey is surely kicking herself for not sticking with him at that most difficult time. She was weak and she couldn't hang with him anymore.

Besides he was obviously determined. If all she could see was dollar signs, then she missed what he really had. That was her choice however.

Hopefully if other people who have the same traits Mr. Gardner had then who knows they'll be alright too. With perhaps as much money as he got. So I recommend you watch this movie.

And let me just say Will Smith was more convincing as Chris Gardner than he was as Muhammad Ali. I really liked how he played a determined half-way homeless man. The chemistry with his own real life son, who doubled as Chris Gardner's son in this movie, was great. That was the heart and soul of this film. Made it more enjoyable.

BTW, I suggest you read the book. I didn't read the book before I saw the movie, but I found out that the movie took a lot of artistic liberties in this story.

More from "The Queen"

I forgot to mention this last night.

I thought that they portrayed Prince Charles (or Charles, Prince of Wales as I had referred to him last night who was played by Alex Jennings) as somewhat sensible. While the rest of the royal family such as his mom, The Queen and his dad Prince Philip and even his granny Elizabeth, Queen Mother were dumping on Princess Di (or Princess Diana or Diana, Princess of Wales as I also referred to her last night) Prince Charles stood up to them. Especially since Diana was the mother to the childen who are the future heirs to the British throne.

Of all the royals Charles seemed to have taken this news the worse. See the movie he definitely had that emotional reaction and we could see at various points his eyes welling up with tears. See that whole thing about showing the royals in a very human light?

Prince Charles was also portrayed as something of a tricky person. He had to find ways to get his mother to see his point of view and tried to be on the right side of public opinion. He told his mom, The Queen that he thought that he was in danger and she immediately changed her mind about taking a drive in the country. He seemed to be trying to really cozy up with Tony Blair who in 1996-97 was the new British Prime Minister (the head of government in Britain). He really wanted his royals to get out there to mourn with the rest of their people.

I really like the portrayal of Prince Charles who unfortunately isn't a very sympathetic figure. When I watched that whole episode with Diana back in 1997 I couldn't have seen or known how much of a role he had. Notwithstanding the fact that he used to be Diana's husband and he is the father to their children (Princes William and Harry) who just so happen to be the future of the Windsor dynasty.

So that should end my review of The Queen.

The Queen

I saw The Queen tonight. There were quite a few slow moments but it was a generally good story and we see the British royals in a much more human light than I would have imagined them.

Queen Elizabeth is referred to as "Cabbage" by her husband Prince Philip. Both the Queen and her son Charles, Prince of Wales, display emotion. Also we see the reaction the royals had towards Diana, Princess of Wales. She figures a lot in the story because most of the plot revolves around her death and the events surrounding that up until her funeral.

Well it's great to say that even if the royal family is held up to much higher standards than us commoners, that the fact is they are human. Thankfully they got people around them who might be able to keep them in touch with everyday people. Tony Blair is as important as the secretaries the royals have.

Other than that, you should pick this movie up when you get the first opportunity.

Related post: More from "The Queen"

Miami Vice: The Movie

I just finished watching this movie. It was hard to keep up with it, but it certainly had a 21st Century flavor to it. I really loved the cinematography with the very liberal use of video.

The action in this movie was brutal. A man had his arm shot off when he was ambushed and thankfully the movie doesn't get any worse on violence. Yeah there were some romance too, I could live without it but it didn't cause a distraction.

I liked it for the artistry though I wish I had been able to keep up better. Maybe their won't be a sequel, but as to whether this film makes me nostalgic for the 80's TV series well now I wish there was a new TV series. And I only wish that I was able to see this in the theaters instead of watching an unrated director's edition DVD.

Casino Royale and a Link

I found this website and I just saw the movie I didn't get to see last year, Casino Royale. TV Links has movies, tv programs, music videos, cartoons, amine, and more. So if there's a movie out there that you wanted to see or a TV episode you didn't get to see, this is the place for you.

BTW, Casino Royale was pretty good. I can't wait to buy a DVD version. I can pay attention better if I wasn't on a computer. A lot more down to earth than the last Bond movie Die Another Day. It wasn't very big on special effects as most of the recent Bond films but it was definitely back down to how the series started anyway.

Daniel Craig did a great job and I can certainly believe that we are seeing James Bond in his first go around as a member of the British Secret Service and a Double 0 agent. Looking up info on the book, it wasn't that far removed. THe only diffence is that the movie was set in an era without a Soviet Union. And a much more high tech era than the one Ian Fleming knew.

If you get a chance buy Casino Royal on DVD and check out TV Links. And I must say this blog was more dedicated to Doctor Who in my more recent posts. It's great to back to earth somewhat with James Bond.

Chappelle's Show:The Lost Episodes Uncensored

I got this DVD just after the holidays. I finally had a chance to check it out. A very enjoyable DVD. Look at the deleted scenes and the sketches that didn't make it onto the actual episodes.

It's almost unfortunate that Dave Chappelle decided not to return to his show. Charlie Murphy, who hosted the show with Donnell Rawlings in the absence of Chappelle said how it was great to be a part of a great moment in comedy. He even said that if it was for Chappelle, people would still come up to him and say he's Eddie Murphy's brother.

Still it would have been nice if Chappelle had of been able to return. I'm sure there were a few great shows ahead, but looking at the story of why Dave Chappelle hadn't returned to do the show I still have my questions. Oh well though, we at least have the DVDs of the various episodes.

Indeed, it could be possible that if the DVD sets are profitable enough Chappelle might come back and do more shows. Perhaps instead of Comedy Central they'll put him on HBO. We shall see.

UHF

It has been a long time since I've seen this movie. I'm quite sure many have seen this as a very bad comedy movie. For some reason when I was much younger it kept me entertained, then I quickly forgot all about this movie.

Weird Al Yankovic looks a lot weirder than he actually does today. In fact you'll see that on the DVD. He hosts the deleted scenes on this two sided DVD and you'll see the modern him fooling around in the menus before you start playing the movie.

Just think for a second. In the movie he had a curly afro and a mustache. Today he has a Howard Stern look with long hair but no mustache. He doesn't even wear glasses like he did back in the late 80s. In fact as you watch the deleted scenes on the DVD he will note that he looks different because UHF was released 13 years ago.

Long story short this film is about an unlikely TV station managed by a man (Weird Al) with a vivid imagination who is unable to keep a job. Somehow he is able to bring his station to number 1 in the ratings. He saves his station by paying off his uncle's debt while fighting a much more powerful corporate competitor station. All the while the man gets his girlfriend and declares that she will be apart of all of his dreams.

The movie doesn't have to be all that good in some respects. Suspend some belief and have fun is the order of the day in this movie. So by all means have fun because this movie isn't that bad.

Seabiscuit

This film brought me back to the racetrack. Even if this movie takes place 60 or so years in the past. It chronicles the rise of a horse that was trained to lose to become a winner.

It seemed almost like a film version of the American Experience series on PBS with some brief narration by a narrator not otherwise a character in the movie. I really like the story of the jockeys, the owner, and even the trainer. I was really impressed with they tell the story of the owner of Seabiscuit, a man by the name of Charles Howard played by Beau Bridges.

It seems he was in the streets of San Francisco but somehow he finds himself working on an automobile engine. Then he tells the owner how well it might run and suddenly the scene is morphed into him selling Buicks with the idea that you should trade in your horse and get an automobile.

Of course the rest of this story takes place during the Great Depression and it seems Seabiscuit was going to be the horse of the decade. Seabiscuit wasn't thought to be much anyway when he was born to some prized horses, but whoever didn't think him impressive is probably hurting after seeing the success of this horse.

Anyway I actually enjoyed this movie. I shall see it again when I get the time.