August Rush

This review is a couple of years late but...


A couple of days ago I sat through a movie (at home) called August Rush but I think I only saw about half of it because my eyes were constantly rolling into the back of my head.

First let me say that I do enjoy good heart warming movies, as long as they are honest in their approach and bring a good story along with the sweetness. In fact, that is why I decided to watch August Rush in the first place. However I found it was, from the beginning, unrelenting in its attempts to pull on the heart strings without giving us any real reason to care. It felt so full of clichés and scenes we’ve seen many times before in other movies. I mean come on, please tell me that Mrs. Doubtfire his-own-self didn’t just suddenly pick out a new name for the kid from some text that just happened to be in his field of vision at the time.

Poor but gifted orphan boy – check.
Teased and misunderstood by other boys – check.
Runs away to find much better life with seemingly loving and unselfish street people – check.
Tormented rocker father and Julliard alum cellist mother – check …He was a skater boy, she said see you later boy… oh sorry, I just drifted off there for a second. Also, these two just happen to meet on a rooftop, under a full moon no less, where they instantly fall in love and decide to make a baby right there and then. How romantic, mystical and free spirited of them.

Anyway, speaking of Freddie Highmore, although he definitely pushed his luck with me in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and in Finding Neverland I just managed to tolerate him those two times. This time though, I’m afraid he’s gone too far. He is suspiciously good at crying on cue and is way too emoting and just overall annoying. I mean there must be thousands of other boys who could be in some of these movies. Why does it always have to be him? I say it’s about time we give some other kid a shot at being the misunderstood weepy genius nerd.

In the end, when all is said and done, and what it all comes down to is this. August Rush is a one trick pony that feels like a collection of clichés and overused bits and pieces of other tear jerkers. It places all its eggs in the “let’s get them crying” basket which unfortunately has a huge hole in the bottom. I don’t mind and can even enjoy a good bit of sugar as long as it is riding on something much more substantial to keep it in check. August Rush though is missing the substance and I felt like I was being force fed straight sugar and I’m afraid it was just too much to take. Actually I must admit, it wasn’t just straight sugar, there was also a significant amount of cheese as well but I’m afraid that only made things worse.

The Best Bar of Chocolate

Do you remember that chocolate bar you probably tried once or twice sometime during your childhood? Maybe you got a miniature one in your Halloween candy from some old person who just wasn’t “down with the kids” and didn’t know about all the current trendy candy they liked. You’ve probably never actually bought one yourself unless it happened to be part of a party pack, but thanks to the variety of experiences life does seem to inevitably provide, you have probably eaten a piece of one every now and then. You know, it’s the bar without any nuts, caramel, wafers, marshmallow, nougat or sprinkles of any kind. The plain one, so plain in fact that it comes in a mostly white wrapper with a simple unassuming name guaranteed not to draw attention and to nearly always be passed over for something more flashy, exotic or extreme. Have you guessed which one I’m talking about yet?

Yes it’s the Jersey Milk bar. On a hunch I bought one the other day, probably for the first time in decades. All I can say is WOW! Now that is some real quality milk chocolate. It’s a true chocolate bar, not a candy bar as they are often called these days. No need to disguise some cheap waxy chocolate flavoured imitation with other overbearing flavours. The Jersey Milk is simple yet obviously made of authentic high quality milk chocolate and is some of the best tasting, smoothest chocolate you can buy for less than a dollar.

In the olden days it came wrapped in gold foil with an outer white wrapper made of paper. Nowadays it has changed to a one piece plastic wrapper but has maintained the plain but elegant design of old. So after your kids come home Halloween night and you are sneaking through their bounty of goodies maybe pass over the Snickers, Oh Henry, Kit Kat and Wonderbars and see if you can’t find a mini Jersey Milk bar. I promise the kids won’t care or probably even notice if you help yourself to such a plainly wrapped and obviously boring bit of swag. Either that or you could just go buy one RIGHT NOW! Except those of you who don’t happen to reside in Canada of course. Yeah, unfortunately they are not available in the states. Sorry about that.

201 movies in 199 seconds

Yeah I know it's been a whole month since I last posted but due to my exciting life this is all I've got for you today. I know it's not much and pretty much pointless but you can at least take comfort in knowing that it took me several hours to make. Therefore I hope the 199 seconds required to watch it may seem at least partially justified.

The music in the clip is by Vanessa Mae, yes that very same Vanessa you met in my last post. The song is called Contradanza in case you are interested.

The video consists of movie still shots each lasting just under one second in the video. ( I tried to match the timing of the shots to the beat of the music but Windows movie maker doesn't provide quite that level of control so it is what it is.)

These are still shots from most of my favourite movies and many others that I consider well above average. I hope you recognize many of them. I would be very surprised if anyone could match every still with its movie as I'm pretty sure there are at least a few that none of you has ever seen. Maybe someone will prove me wrong. I hope so.

Maybe in the comments you could tell me how many of the photos you were able to match to a movie and we can see who gets the most. If anyone gets them all I promise to address you as "Master and Commander" all the rest of my days. (Yes that is the name of one of the films in the video, so one down, only 200 more to go.)

If you recognize a photo but can't quite place it and it really bugs you and renders you utterly unable to think about anything else and get on with your day then please feel free to ask me.

So here they are, 201 movies in 199 seconds and some great music as well.