There Is No Top Gun Without Maverick Just As There Is No Danger Zone Without Kenny Loggins

I was inverted.

Last week, I wrote about Tony Scott getting back in the director’s chair for a sequel to “Top Gun” over at MoviesOnline. There is no doubt that I am incredibly excited for a return to this material as, much like Maverick, my ego has been writing checks that my body can’t cash. Not only that, every time I go to blog, I’m dangerous.

You might be asking yourself, why I am so obsessed with “Top Gun”? Well, mostly because it’s completely kickass. There isn’t one thing wrong with it, including the 80s slow motion love scene set to Berlin. There is a certain irony that the two actors in that scene, Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis, are both…well…the rumors of some things…we won’t get into that. Let’s just focus on how this movie is still a muthereffing masterpiece.

Did you know that Christopher McQuarrie, Oscar winning writer of “The Usual Suspects”, is writing this thing? Holy jumpin’ jehosaphat that’s fantastic. Not only that, he confirmed with Vulture that there is no “Top Gun 2″ without Maverick. I was really hoping there is no “Top Gun 2″ without the Reanimated Ghost Of Anthony “Goose” Edwards but I’ll take what I can get.

Here is how much I love “Top Gun”. I own a green army style jacket…with a patch on it that reads Maverick. I’m not kidding. I’ll photograph it and post it on Twitter later today. (By the way, follow me on Twitter, @Chiccywood) In college, a few of my fraternity brothers and I named a cat Maverick. When I move to different cities or visit other places, I look up the name Peggy Benjamin in the phone book to see if she really exists and if so, find out if she would like to join me for a ride in my jet. So as you can see, I’ve pretty much detailed my life to this point based on Maverick, his lifestyle, his actions, his character, but not his hair cut.

I’ve been very slow in posting things here as I’ve really tried to focus on MoviesOnline. You may ask, whose butt did I kiss to get a gig writing for that site? Oh, the list is long and distinguished.

Yeah…well…so’s my Johnson.

Cinematically Correct note: [whispering] I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.

 

 

I Survived The Great Philly Sports Depression Weekend & All I Get Is To Come To Work Today?

Rare photo of Cinematically Correct shortly after the Phillies loss on Saturday night.

It’s been a rough weekend. On Friday, I chose to stay in and watch the New York Yankees get their face kicked in by the Texas Rangers, en route to their first World Series ever. Yes, it’s very exciting for them. However, I knew that meant I would be coming to work today and be surrounded by several brand new lifelong Rangers fans. As a demented Philadelphia fan since birth, the sheer idea of bandwagon and fair-weather fandom is beyond my comprehension. To see it regarding the Rangers to the extreme that I am seeing it today, really makes what happened on Saturday night even more nauseating.

See, I now have to spend the next week hearing about the silly Texas Ranger franchise in the World Series without my beloved Phillies playing them. Instead, the Rangers are going to get to annihilate a pieced together team full of cast-offs. I’ll give them a handful of players (Lincecum, Posey, etc.) but Cody Ross? Released by the Marlins this season. Pat Burrell? Released by the Rays and out of baseball for about a week. Aubrey Huff? He’s been on every team in the league. So, the combo of Rangers in the World Series and the pathetic scrub roster of the Giants makes the Phillies loss even more exceptionally painful.

Then, the Eagles go and blow a lead yesterday and get smoked by the Titans. One would think that Kenny Britt beat up enough people over the weekend, but I guess he felt the Eagles secondary needed one as well. Ellis Hobbs, to be specific. I won’t go into analysis here, as I would like to avoid going completely batshit insane.

The good news is that I did watch the final episode of AMC’s “Rubicon”. What a great first season. It’s suspenseful, dramatic, and way, way smart. It’s probably too smart for its own good. The only issue I have is that it did kind of end in an anti-climatic way. I guess I expected the bad guy to get his come-uppance. Instead, it’s kind of set up for an ongoing power struggle, which is fun times.

The bad news? This pains me. Deeply. “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” has not been good. It’s just…I don’t know. It feels so forced. I really liked “Mac’s Big Break” with the Flyers game and the podcasting, but overall? Bad season. It started off really poorly and it’s tried hard to recover, but it feels like it’s running on fumes. Of course, it’s hard to beat the greatness of “The World Series Defense”, which is the gold standard.

So yeah. That’s really all I’ve got. Follow me on Twitter. Root for the Rangers. Or the Giants. I don’t care…as long as you also hope the Dallas Cowboys lose tonight. That’s really all that matters people.

Quarterly Serious Post Alert: Stop Blindly Pushing Your Agenda As It Is Drowning America Slowly

Rarely do I take anything seriously here or express any of own personal opinions on anything too terribly important. There are several reasons as to why, but most of them are because I have a few opinions and beliefs that aren’t perceived to be cool by several people. I’m not interested in starting some political or theoretical discussion on the Internet so I stay away from it. However, there have been a few things that have happened recently that really have me steamed at the disgusting behavior of people in this country. I hope that the tens of you that read this stay with me, as these are not the words of a loony leftist baby killer or a gun-toting right-wing oil baron.

The reason I’m writing is this is mostly due to the firing of Juan Williams. Williams, a guy that makes a living by expressing his opinions, was fired after saying he gets worried when he sees Muslims dressed in their traditional garb on an airplane. Here is the full quote:

“Political correctness can lead to some kind of paralysis where you don’t address reality. I mean, look Bill [O'Reilly], I’m not a bigot, you know the kind of books I’ve written on the civil rights movement in this country, but when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

There’s a good chance he should not have said that. Or at least all of it. First and foremost, the people interested in killing Americans dress just like everyone else. It’s their camouflage, so there’s really no need to be nervous about people wearing traditional Muslim clothing. However, nobody breaks a sweat when they see a group of Hasidic Jews or Hindus board a plane because they are not typically interested in committing acts of terrorism.

If Juan would have just used his first sentence there, “Political correctness can lead to some kind of paralysis where you don’t address reality”, he would have been just fine. That sentence simply is stating that we cannot allow political correctness to keep us from enforcing the law. It’s the same argument regarding border law and security. People clamor on about racism and bigotry when it’s really a matter of protecting the citizens of this country. The unfortunate coincidence of this is that most terrorists happen to be extreme Muslims and most people sneaking into the United State illegally happen to be from Mexico. It’s not racist or bigoted to say these things, it’s simply a fact.

Finally, has anyone looked at Juan Williams’ bibliography? “Black Farmers In America“? “I’ll Find a Way or Make One : A Tribute to Historically Black Colleges and Universities”? These hardly sound like books written by a bigoted person.

The second thing that has me a bit upset is the way some people in the far right have treated Meghan McCain. She said some things (some things being correctly labeling her as a “nutjob”)  about Christine O’Donnell, who has been a popular target for folks on the left recently. Is O’Donnell completely unqualified to win a Senate seat? Oh, without a shadow of a doubt. All Meghan McCain did was point this out and she then took several shots from the right side of the aisle. The next thing you know, she’s called a bimbo and then she’s mocked.

What does all this mean? To me, it means that if you are an extremist on either side of these arguments, you need to get your head examined. You can’t possibly think that NPR firing Juan Williams is fair and scream up and down about his supposed bigotry. If you are, you are drinking the liberal Kool-Aid and probably don’t like Juan simply because he appears on Fox News and doesn’t push an agenda.

If you live in Delaware and you vote for Christine O’Donnell, you are wasting your vote. Like so many people who walk into a voting booth, look for the “R” or “D” column, then vote that ticket, you are doing a disservice to this country and are one of the several reasons we are all in this mess to begin with. It is just as wrong to vote for her based only on the R beside her name as it is to persecute an intelligent liberal like Juan Williams.

We need people like Juan Williams and Meghan McCain. We need people that objectively look at our problems. Until each side gets it, it’s simply an agenda war and there will never be a winner. Well, there will be, but it won’t be Americans. We’ll get to keep the status quo: Politicians are the winners.

Okay. I’ll shut up and go back to being silly again.

Cinematically Correct Presents: The Cinematically Correct New York Trip To New York

The posting on Cinematically Correct has been unbelievably slim. Like, 10 days since a new post. Ugh. Yes, I’m writing for another site (Movies Online, check it out when you finish this piece of brilliance) and that takes more of my time in which I am at work and not working. Does that make any sense? What I’m saying is that I only have time to write a few posts a day as I blow off my real job.

However, my main reason for having zero content here since early last week was a long weekend visiting the greatest city in the world, New York, NY. Mrs. Cinematically Correct and I went there after being invited by another couple that also has disposable income to piss away on food, clothes, booze, and psychotropic drugs. Just kidding…about the clothes.

Here’s a recap of the restaurants I visited:

Bryant Park Grill – When you get to the city at 1:30 or so after a flight that left at 5:45 AM, you have a tendency to be hungry and willing to go to the first place that may have food. Other than street vendors, this was the first place we came across. For four people, the bill came out to almost $150. For lunch. Considering that none of us had anything too exquisite, it was way too much for what we got. Turns out, that street hot dog may have been the better choice. Come to think of it…when isn’t it a better choice? Those freaking things are delicious.

Also, be careful while hanging out in this park. There are crazed pigeons just waiting to swarm.

Ippudo NY – There were no reservations here and we waited for two hours in a very cramped bar. Luckily, booze was flowing, specifically an entire bottle of sake. If you are into Japanese at all, this really is a must. It’s quite possibly the best Japanese I’ve ever eaten. If you don’t get the Hirata Buns, you’re stupid. Also, the soy ramen. Also, the Philly cheesesteak rolls. Also, the Maguro Tataki. You pretty much should order everything.

Oddly enough, our waitress was from Plano, which is part of the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex, which is my home. So if you see Rose from Plano, tell her that the Cinematically Correct said hi.

Bello – Naturally, we had to get some Italian. This place is definitely as authentic as it gets. How do I know? Our 100% Italian waiter included body disposal as part of the nightly specials. I’m Italian, which makes it okay for this ethnically insensitive line of humor.

Sadly, it seemed like they were much more interested in speaking with their hands then really great Italian. Between the four of us, only the veal Saltimbocca was passing as the chicken Parmesan was quite lame. One would think that any Italian place in Hell’s Kitchen would rock your face off but alas, it broke my heart. It broke my heart.

No penises were harmed in this diner.

Evergreen Coffee Shop & Diner – We only ate breakfast there and what can I say, it is a classic New York diner. We ate there twice and I had corned beef hash, which I think is some sort of requirement while visiting New York. I can recommend that you stay away from the sausage links. They were just nasty.

The best thing about the place is all the autographed photos, like the one you see here. Yes, that is Brett Favre during his fifteen minutes with the New York Jets. Apparently, he found time to eat at this diner, try to get on several Jets masseuse ladies, and send pictures of his junk to Jenn Sterger. Awesome.

Broadway Pizza – Getting some kickass pizza is another NYC requirement. There are so many recommended Zagat pizza places that you can just throw a dart and pick one. Instead, due to hunger and tiring from walking, we stumbled into this one. It was average at best. But hey, you gotta have New York pizza right? Sadly, no pictures of Favre or his junk here.

5 Napkin Burger – There’s a burger joint in Dallas called Twisted Root. It’s very good. 5 Napkin Burger makes Twisted Root its bitch. It’s the juiciest tastiest most meatiest burgeriest burger I’ve ever jammed into the hole in my face. Seriously. I can’t recommend getting here and throwing down one of these bad boys.

The Nancy Spungen Trail Of Tears

 

Of course, I found time to swing by the famous Hotel Chelsea. This place has been home to so many cool artists, not to mention the site of the infamous death of Sid Vicious girlfriend Nancy Spungen. Arthur C. Clarke wrote “2001: A Space Odyssey” there. Bob Dylan was in residence. William Burroughs. Arthur Miller. Dylan Thomas. Ryan Adams. Ahem.

They won’t let you inside. Sure, you can chill out in the lobby, but that is it. I tried to make a break for it when the front desk person was occupied, but alas, I failed. I’m sure I was the 20th person that day to try it. I mean, who doesn’t want to run around those halls a little bit?

The real treasure about the Hotel Chelsea is the teeny tiny store right beside it: Chelsea Guitars. As a music snob, it really can’t get any cooler than this place. You may not be able to get into the Hotel Chelsea, but you can lose yourself in the overall cool vibe of this place. It’s really just incredible. Need proof? Check out this pictures from their site.

 

Imagine This: John Lennon Should Be 70 Tomorrow

 

Give me some tiny glasses & I've got this look down.

 

Tomorrow should be the 70th birthday of John Lennon. Of course, he was unjustly robbed of his life by The Scumbag Asshat Killer Who Shall Not Be Named, who was recently denied parole for the sixth time. So let’s all celebrate that he will probably be incarcerated for the remainder of his life. That is a good thing.

Regardless, Lennon’s murder no doubt robbed the world of several more years of music, not to mention robbing a family of a loving father. For me, one of the most endearing things about Lennon is the fact that, no matter what everyone said, he stuck with his wife Yoko Ono through thick and thin. I mean, the world accused her of breaking up the biggest band the world has ever seen. He easily could have bailed on her, but he didn’t. That makes him a big time stand up guy in my book. Do I particularly like Yoko? Not really, but I really respect their life together.

While I think many people were a bit underwhelmed with Lennon’s solo work, there are quite a few gems to be found in it. There’s “Imagine”, which is truly a beautiful piece of music but in my book, not in the top five. What is in the top five? Glad you asked.

The Cinematically Correct Top Five John Lennon Songs

5. “Jealous Guy”

4. “#9 Dream”

3. “Watching The Wheels”

2. “Instant Karma”

1. “Mind Games”

Honorable mention: “Woman”, “Stand By Me”, “(Just Like) Starting Over”, “Imagine”

Sports Flash!! Thank You For The Sports Cry Roy Halladay

Every baseball game after this one will be a let down.

Yes. I sports cried yesterday. I stood in my living room, hands on the top of my head, unable to really make actual words come out of my mouth. Essentially, it was just an open hole in my face.

I’m not going to go on and on about the game. There are sports writers out there for that. There are two things that I wanted to say about the game:

1. I took sick pleasure in watching Scott Rolen strike out three times. He’s a whiny baby who couldn’t handle playing in Philly. Coincidence the team started winning after he was sent packing? Probably. Scott Rolen? You just got faced.
2. Thank you to the Phillies for this amazing four year ride. As a Philly fan used to 30 years of watching his favorite teams fail or just come up short, I promise to never take you for granted. Umm…I love you.

Man, that got weird again didn’t it? My apologies to my tens of fans.

And Today, Cinematically Correct Wept

NEUROSES ON FULL DISPLAY TODAY

There have been a few times in which I’ve written some guest posts for other blogs. It was fun but I always go running back to the loving, comfy arms of Cinematically Correct. It’s been a solid relationship for me and I hope to continue it in the future.

Sadly, there is a chance that I will not be a one blog man anymore. Yes, I’ve written a post for Movies Online. Yes, there is the potential for this to be an ongoing thing. Yes, there is the potential for what I write there to be read by about 15 times the amount that read it here. By that, I mean 15 people could potentially read me on that site. See what I did there? Self mockery is truly the salvation of any blogger.

Not only did I write for another blog, I did it using my real name. Well…my real nickname, which is Chic. I’m not going into the specific how or why that it became that, but that’s my nickname nonetheless. You know how many times I used that name on my own blog? Zero. My blog just tried to leave the room, it’s so upset.

[the rest of this post is the transcript of me convincing my blog not to leave me]

I’m sorry. I really and truly am. You’ve been nothing but good to me and I’m not leaving you, I’m just…trying to be better, you know? This other writing gig could actually lead to something bigger and better. I mean, that site has over 1,500 Facebook friends and now that I’ve seen “The Social Network” I realize how important that is.

Yes, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to belittle the fact that, on a really good day, we get about 800 visits. I know, that’s really, really great. But…it’s just not dependable and I need stability in my life right now. I appreciate that you may have been responsible for 40 or 50 of my Twitter followers (@Chiccywood, dig it), but this will get me read by so many more people that it’s too great an opportunity to pass up.

So please, Cinematically Correct, don’t leave me and I won’t leave you. I’ll write the more serious (at least pseudo-serious) stuff on the other site and do my best to keep going with irreverence on this one. Don’t worry, I’ll post my movie reviews here too. That’s never going to change.

So…are we okay? Are we cool? Okay good. I love you.

Phew. Did that get weird?

After Seeing “The Social Network”, The Greed & Conniving Behind Facebook Will Make You Switch To Twitter For Good

It turns out that Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and Sean Parker are all on Facebook. The knowledge that I could potentially be Facebook friends with any of these people really only makes me happy that I personally do not have a Facebook page. Because if only half of what occurs in “The Social Network” is truth, these are some very vacuous individuals. Of course, they are led my Zuckerberg, who Jesse Eisenberg portrays in such a terrifyingly ambitious and arrogant fashion, that he has completely graduated from the Michael Cera School of Acting. Up until now, Eisenberg has played the neurotic intellectual in every role, but after “The Social Network”, he could play a cold, calculating psychopath and pull it off with aplomb.

Yes, “The Social Network” is known as “that Facebook movie”. While it definitely transcends being just a movie about a social networking site’s creation, it essentially is just that: a movie about the backstabbing, lying, cheating, dishonest dealings behind the creation of one of the most popular websites on planet Earth. There are some seriously ugly moments that don’t make you cringe as much as you’ll feel unbelievably sad for these people. While there are several victims of Zuckerberg’s sociopath-like reign of lies and deceit, there really aren’t many angels involved in this tale; these people are sharks swimming along with the smell of blood constantly under their nose.

In case you weren’t aware, “The Social Network” follows Mark Zuckerberg’s lightning fast transformation from Harvard student to billionaire in just under a decade. He did so with the help of his best friend, Eduardo (Andrew Garfield), who became his de facto CFO. There’s really no doubt that Zuckerberg approached Eduardo only because he knew that he could help fund his new “idea”. Of course, this idea was partially (if not completely) stolen from Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Armie Hammer), two Harvard rowers, and their friend, Divya Narendra (Max Minghella). The three of them originally approach Zuckerberg after learning about the stir he created with a Harvard site called FaceSmash.com, which let you choose the more attractive of two students.

Essentially, all of the ideas generated by these people are all based on shallow, insubstantial ideals. Zuckerberg wants to be involved because he wants so badly to be accepted in the “cool kids club” that he’s willing to invent one himself in order to achieve that goal. The Winklevoss group wants to make a website that, like Harvard, is considered extremely exclusive to Harvard students only. Again, it’s just one vain idea after another, based on nothing more than giving people an outlet for their self-obsession.

No, “The Social Network” isn’t quite a damning critique of every single Facebook user, but it definitely shows the self-centered people behind creating a website that, let’s face it, is more about you than the friends you have on it. This movie examines how a nerdy and needy person wanted to beat the rich, popular guys to the punch. Of course, those rich and popular guys are just taking an already elitist institution and just adding to the overall snobbery of Harvard.

The straws that really stir “The Social Network” are director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. Fincher, not exactly known for his warm-hearted tales, is the perfect man for the job here. This is a tale about greedy, privileged people all on the lookout for themselves, without a care in the world as to who it would potentially destroy. From serial killers in “Seven” to the anachronistic schizophrenic in “Fight Club”, Fincher is fantastic at making the worst part of humanity a thrilling thing to watch.

While Fincher’s skills are definitely on display, the real star of the show is Jesse Eisenberg’s mouth saying Aaron Sorkin’s words. There really could not have been a better choice to play the smug, insecure, passive-aggressive Mark Zuckerberg. Eisenberg tears through the Sorkin script and keeps you wanting more and more. There are moments in which Eisenberg silently stares at other actors after they say something challenging to him. These small pauses, in which he’s just sizing up the perfect reactionary statement, are as intense and thrilling as most big screen car chases. With out a doubt, Eisenberg is ready for the big time.

There is no doubt that “The Social Network” should be considered one of the best films to be released in 2010 to this point. However, there is something missing, which may or may not be intentional. There just isn’t any heart in this movie. I found myself not caring much about any of these people. The only sympathetic character, Garfield’s Eduardo, is the only person that you may find yourself caring about, but even he is so naive that you can see his eventual demise coming a mile away. For that reason only, “Inception” is still at the top of my 2010 list. However, “The Social Network” is a must see film, if only to witness the lengths at which Generation Y will go for power, success, and money.