Random Brain Dump

After months of indecision, I’ve made up my mind on the candidate I’m voting for.

Last year was a slow movie-going year for me. I caught very few movies in the theaters, skipping most of the summer blockbuster sequels. Just didn’t find many movies worthwhile of $10 tickets, I guess.

However, it is finally looking up as I think I caught the best movie of 2007 last evening. “No Country For Old Men” was premiered in May 2007 at the Cannes Film Festival. It’s directed by the Coen Brothers whose stuffs are usually awesome! I’d say insofar that this is their best piece of work so far.

The film opens with a scene in the arid and desolate desert. A professional heartless assassin strangles a policeman and escapes. Chigurh is a monstrous psychopath killer and carries a air cattle gun; he has a knack for the game of chance. The guy just reeks evil. He is the best character of the movie and amazingly performed by actor Javier Bardem.

A man named Llewelyn on a hunting trip finds a Mexican dying in a pickup truck surrounded by bodies. It’s a drug deal gone bad! Llewelyn grabs the bag of cash and took off. But later that night, his conscience got the better of him and he returned to the scene with water for the dying man. His return kicks off a series of run-ins with other drug dealers and assassins, including Chigurh. The hunter quickly becomes the prey now as he desperately tries to elude the determined Chigurh.

The movie was sparsely scored, instead the intense drama is played up by the great dialogues. That worked really well for me. The photography was subtle yet unforgiving, keeping you on your seat anticipating the unfolding events. If there is one thing to complain about, I’d point out the miscasting of Woody Harrelson as the other hit-man. Woody Harrelson? Come on, he sucks in dramatic role! But Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin made up though, they were great in their roles.

The ending is refreshingly vague– a great departure from the usual Hollywood formula of happy ending. Definitely worth the $10 ticket; check it out if you had a chance.

We spent this past Christmas with a big get-together at Tahoe. I mean big: four families! The cozy cabin I got was barely big enough to accommodate all of us. The weather was nice so the kids went out and played snow pretty much every day.

We probably had the most fun spending the afternoon sleighing at a snow park on Echo Summit. We also spend a day at Squaw Valley; the kids went snow-tubing while I snow-boarded with some of my cousins. Snow-boarding this time wasn’t as fun as I remembered– yet another subtle reminder of me getting old! We stopped and checked out Emerald Bay along the way. Too bad we were in haste and only spent a a few minutes snapping pictures; the place was simply breath-taking.

It was a nice break for everyone and it was timely for me after a few stressful weeks on the new job. I especially enjoyed the opportunity just relaxing and snapping some pictures on a snow-covered landscape.