Change Your Image
georoad
Reviews
Pilates: Beginning Mat Workout (2000)
decent exercise / instruction; too many production gimmicks
This is a decent exercise video. The issues I have with it is the production decisions to be cutting edge with their video effects and constantly moving camera. I found both to be distracting from my ability to mimic their movements. In addition, the explanation of how to hold the feet, and the reasons could have been better. It was good to have a second student; perhaps separate audio tracks could have been used to better separate the beginner and more advanced section. The disk I rented had the bonus 14 minute energy workout, which was quite good, though it is best done by those at the intermediate level. I also found the running time a bit confusing. The total length of video was different enough from totaling each of the chapters that I'm not sure what they considered the total.
Friday Night Lights (2004)
Football, Be Perfect
This movie engaged me emotionally. Illustrating the small town in West Texas that are bred for football- all the players want to do is leave, and all the town wants is a State Championship. Those who get the allusion may be spoiled by the next line: The movie is plotted as a traditional Greek tragedy. And the central question: is the coach a hero or villain. A hero for allowing people to be put in situations where they could be physically injured. A villain for getting the team to the state championships.
And hats off to the cast and special effects that had great blood (the dislocated finger was great, too). The kinetic camera work did not become as overwhelming as some photos- though you could tell it was contemporary.
At the end, I wished I was 11 or 12 years younger, and still playing. I ended up playing 4 years, and was ready to get going onto the sport I still love: men's wrestling.
Don't let me get started on how my head and neck felt like after some of those games- they were worse than the car accident.
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire (2004)
Less invective than F9/11, further reaching
This movie is more dispassionate than F9/11. With interviews by the usual suspects of "Left" oriented politics (to those who have watched a lot of documentaries), with a spattering of retired military members, it paints a picture of the present President as starting us from hegemony to Empire.
Overall, it uses more conventional documentary techniques and less personal invective to make it's claims. The conclusion is that when no one is left standing, who will pay for the current debts?
On the lighter side, I could not keep my eyes off the screen when Norman Mailer was interviewed. It was not watching him, rather in the background was a huge a Lego project that was either a castle, or futuristic spaceport.