2006 – The Year of the Documentary?

Yesterday (12/30/06) I went to the Polk Theater (www.polktheatre.org) and saw “This Movie is Not Yet Rated.” It is a documentary about how screwed up the MPAA and the film rating system is. If you get the chance, I recommend you give it a look (unless you think sex/nudity is worse than violence, in which case you’re an idiot). The movie is a little scattered at the beginning in my opinion, but unlike most documentaries, the movie has a strong second half.

After seeing “This Film is Not Yet Rated,” I started thinking about all the documentaries that I saw this year. This is either the year of the documentary, or I have just opened my eyes to the world of documentaries this year. I saw three documentaries in the theater (all at the aforementioned Polk). This shatters my previous high of one in a year. As far as home rental, I caught a few documentaries that I have missed in years past. Having seen all these documentaries, I have decided to list some of them and give you reasons to see them or not see them.

1) This Film is Not Yet Rated

Reasons to See It – You hate the fact that violence is more prevalent than nudity. You like a little humor with your documentary. You have “Stickittothemaniosis.” You are a huge fan of small time directors (Kevin Smith, Jon Waters, and others conduct interviews for this movie).

Reasons Not to See It – You are offended by nudity/sex (there’s a lot of it in here). You hate profanity. You work for the MPAA. You’re a kid with overprotective parents.

2) The Giant Buddhas

Reasons to See It – You love beautiful imagery. You think that everyone should be allowed to have their own religious figures/values. You like to see how other people live. You have no idea what the Giant Buddhas are.

Reasons Not to See It – You could care less about some statues. The last half hour is just some lady pilgrimaging to where the statues are (i.e. it’s really dull).

3) Connections 3

Reasons to See It – You like random thinking (I thought the episodes are similar to looking at wikipedia. Where you start off looking at Star Wars and through a series of clicks, you end up on Dunkin’ Donuts). You like interesting facts with a little humor tossed in.

Reasons Not to See It – You need a point to your movies. You hate the history channel.

4) Who Killed the Electric Car?

Reasons to See It – You are into everything green. You like to think of what could have been. You like to be motivated to do something.

Reasons Not to See It – You dislike one-sided arguements. You prefer logical thinking to emotional anecdotes. You don’t like being blamed for mistakes.

5) Wordplay

Reasons to See It – You like crossword puzzles. You like to see what celebrities think about a subject (This movie features Bill Clinton, Jon Stewart, Mike Mussina, and more all talking about the NY Times Crossword).

Reasons Not to See It – The last half hour is about on par to something you would see on ESPN 9 (It just shows a Crossword solving competition).

So there you have it. Five Documentaries that I saw this year. All of them except Connections was released in 2006. All of them are worth viewing at least once. Was there any that I missed for this year (No, I didn’t see the global warming movie. I don’t think there is enough evidence to say the global warming is more than a theory.)?

P.S. The worst documentary of all time is Fahrenheit 9/11. I don’t like Bush or Republicans, but this movie was just ridiculous.

Hey

So, here’s the new blog.

“She may not look like much, but she’s got it where it counts.”

If you’ve never read any of my previous stuff, I hope to bring over the back log whenever I get a chance.

I try to tell some funny stories, give some insight, let out my opinion, and convince others to see my point of view.

-Mike Naretta

Update – I’ve completed the transfer of all previous blogs. So, All of the posts dated earlier than this one are one’s that I posted on other websites first. Enjoy.

Stallone Q and A and Rocky Balboa Review

In case you missed it, over on AintItCool.com there was a Q and A for the ages. The set-up was simple, the execution awesome. Sylvester Stallone took ten fan created questions a day for 20 days (a.k.a. “rounds”) to promote his new movie, Rocky Balboa. I started reading the Q and A hoping for a little insight into the making of Rocky, Rambo, and the rest of my favorite movies. It turns out that Stallone is amazingly insightful and wonderfully funny. I can not hype this up too much. The only way for you to know is for you to read the Q and A yourself. Here’s the links:

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9 and 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Round 19

Round 20

Read the first few rounds, if you’re not hooked, I’ll give you your money back, guaranteed.

Continuing with the Stallone blog, I went to see Rocky Balboa on opening night. It is a must for any Rocky fan or Stallone fan. It’s not a perfect movie by any means, but it gave me more instances of goosebumps than any movie I can remember. I counted 7 chill moments throughout the movie and credits. This doesn’t even touch on the ear-to-ear smile on my face. I looked like a kid visiting Disney World for the first time. I’ll give it a 1 star out of 10.