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In 1970 Mike Nichols and Buck Henry followed The Graduate with an adaptation of the classic Joseph Heller novel, Catch-22.  At the time, it wasn’t all that well received.  In fact, the reviews were mostly mediocre or negative.  I think the expectations were so great and the book has such an enormous following that the film was almost destined to fail.  I tend to think time has been kind to it and Nichols deserves credit for biting off maybe more than he could chew but stuffing his face with it anyway and breaking it down just enough to swallow.  I don’t know if that makes sense to anyone else, but it’s the only I can really think to describe it.  

I actually never read the book.  Maybe this is a better movie for those who haven’t, I don’t know.  Catch-22 takes place mostly on a base during World War 2.  It starts off as more of a satire or dark comedy about the ridiculousness and insanity of war but eventually shifts in to the dark realities of it.   Alan Arkin plays Captain John Yossarian who desperately wants out of the war because as he says, “Those bastards are trying to kill me.”  Those bastards that he is referring to of course are the Germans.  Arkin is great in the daunting task of recreating a legendary literary character in to a great movie one.  The all star supporting cast does well here too.  I’m not going to bother listing them all, but if you click on the title you can see a list.  

Everything about this movie is big; the budget, the cast and the cinematography.  It is a great movie to look at.  Catch-22 came out at right about the same time as MASH.  Both movies are basically trying to say the same thing.  While I think MASH is a better movie and probably a little more coherent, 22 is damn good and probably deserves another look from people who didn’t give it a fair shake the first time or a first look from people who skipped it.

Just a couple of things that I felt like mentioning today…

I saw a headline the other day that went along the lines of, “Bachelor Fans Outraged by Show’s Season Finale”.   I can’t find the exact article, but I am assuming that it is similar to this one.  I say assume because I didn’t actually read it.  In fact, I never watched an episode so I wouldn’t even know who any of the people on it are even if I was trapped in an elevator with them.  I don’t know what happened on the finale and there really isn’t anything in this world that is less important to me.  My point is this.  Anyone who was “outraged” by what happened on this show is a loser.  I think I saw an episode or two some years back, and all I can remember is that they pretty much trot out the bottom of the humanity barrel for these shows.  For people to really be outraged by what any of them do is an utter waste of time and makes me want to move to Iceland.  How about being outraged by things that really matter like the fact that there are people out there who listen to and are influenced by Rush Limbaugh or that after two solid years the Golden State Warriors have slipped back in to being one of the worst franchises in sports.  Ok, that’s all I really have to say about that.  Off to more pressing matters…

I was standing at one of the urinals at my work, looking at the wall when I noticed a booger sticking to it right behind the flusher.  A booger?  Really?  You can’t just wait two seconds and grab a paper towel?  I know it must get old hearing me bitch about the cleanliness of my office bathroom, but I have to be here eight hours a day.  There are times where it is as gross as the bathrooms in my high school were.  I mean how many professional adults are wiping their boogers on walls these days?  Again, I suspect it was one of the sales guys who had a quick brain fart and thought they were in the frat house.

So I promise not to talk about the office bathroom for at least the rest of this month.  Also, be on the lookout for my Major League Baseball preview and predictions that should be posted in the next few weeks.  Also, I should have the top 100 movie list countdown back up soon and a small NCAA Basketball tourney preview up after the brackets are announced.  Peace out!

It’s been a little while; I have been sort of busy and haven’t been able to update the site.  You’d think after a few weeks off I would have a ton to say, but I really don’t.  I keep a bunch of notes in my phone when I have ideas for stuff to write about and then when I go back to my notes I have no idea what they mean.  I’m sure it’s all riveting stuff, so I have to take down some better notes I guess.  So this post is mostly just some house cleaning items, and I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled diarrhea of the mouth shortly.

First thing is my movie countdown will gear back up shortly.  I was about to write the review for the #82 movie when I realized that I hardly remember it.  The only thing I really remember is how much I liked it.  It’s at the top of my Netflix queue and I plan on watching it this week so I can write a more informed review on it.

I was updating my McAfee anti-virus protection on my computer the other day and it took forever.  While I was waiting for everything to install, I kept thinking to myself how much more fun life would be if they came up with an anti-virus protection product for humans.

Speaking of McAfee, since I installed the update I feel like my computer runs 10 times slower.  I don’t get it.

I have been receiving a disturbing number of spam emails from porn sites lately.  I’m not sure exactly why this is happening.  Either a friend of mine was trying to be clever and signed me up for some mailing list or they are really trying to capitalize on people staying in while the economy is having such a hard time.  The most disturbing thing about these emails is the subject line for the vast majority of them.   More than half have something to do with farm animals doing inappropriate things to teenage girls.  I know that there are a lot of people out there that are in to a lot of freaky things, but is there really that big of a market out there of people who like to see 18 years olds engaged in various sex acts with horses and pigs?  Call me a prude if you want, but I really hope not.  I wish I could list off some of these subject lines because they really are hilarious.   I have to draw the line somewhere.  Aside from the livestock porn, there have been a lot of subject lines involving celebrities.  A couple of examples are, “see Jennifer Aniston’s dressing room hidden camera pics” and there was also something about watching Angelina Jolie go to the bathroom.  Are there really people out there gullible enough to believe that some sneaky pervert caught this stuff with a hidden camera?  I seriously want to know.  I’m sure I have a few readers that would know.  Probably from personal experience.  I don’t know; different strokes for different folks I guess… literally.  Oh, I also keep getting one where the subject lines say, “Cutie Needs Sugar Daddy”.  They obviously don’t know how much I make because I have no business being anyone’s sugar daddy. 

I am really not happy with my new blue jeans.  I got my last couple pairs at Lucky and have really liked them, but this pair really bothers me.  They seemed to fit better in the store and the guy that worked there said they were a perfect fit.  They aren’t tight at all, but not as baggy as I would like them to be.  Also, the pockets are so damn small.  It’s almost impossible to fit my wallet, phone, ipod and keys in the pockets.  It’s a huge pain in the ass to try and pull my phone out when it’s ringing.  I go in to grab my phone and either everything falls out or it’s like trying to pull Kirstie Alley’s hand out of the cookie jar.  It’s been driving me crazy.

I know I harp on this a lot, but is it really that hard to flush a public or office toilet or urinal?  Do you really think people want to see and smell your piss?  There are ways to do it without using your hand.  I usually will use my foot for flushers that are close to the ground or my elbow for flushers that are higher up.  You can also maybe grab a paper towel and cover your hand with it.  You really should be washing your hands when you’re done too.