Monday, April 29, 2013

Matilda - the broadway musical soundtrack

I read an article about how the Matilda broadway musical was getting a lot of critical acclaim in London, so I've been listening to this soundtrack.  It is a very mixed bag.  In Les Miserables, there's that kid song "Castle on a Cloud" and a few of the Matilda songs are like that.  A kid sings about her troubles.  These songs are, eh, okay.  Les Mis also has that song "Master of the House" which annoys me.  It's all off-beat honking horns and comical lyrics.  Two of the songs are like that, and I skip them.  (Them being "Loud" and "Telly.")  But there are a few songs that I really, really enjoy.  "School song" "Bruce" and "Revolting Children" feature a whole bunch of kids singing the melody.  It sounds bad, the way I've described it, but it's done so well. It's almost like hearing a boys' choir singing a capella.  "Bruce" and "Revolting Children" also manage to maintain a very quick pace, so it's like a choir but with instrumental accompaniment and songs that tell a story.  Good stuff.

I recently found out that the Trunchbull might be played by a male actor.  This is what comes from only listening to a soundtrack and not actually seeing the play.  But in retrospect, the character does sound mannish, though he does a pretty good job.  His singing does sound a bit like the guy who plays Dolores Umbridge in the second Harry Potter Musical.  The Trunchbull songs are okay.  More comical and less melodic, but still decent.

film: Touchback

I thought this movie was going to be something like "Injured former high school football star gets depressed with his unglamorous adulthood, finds fulfillment in assistant coaching high school football kids."  Like the story of Jason Street in Friday Night Lights.  But instead the quarterback goes back in time to high school!  It's like Peggy Sue Got Married!!

Ah, reliving high school from an adult's perspective: there's nothing better.  If only I could go back knowing what I know today...

Sadly, there is no Nicholas Cage in this one.  But the main guy does okay and the girl is much cuter than Kathleen Turner.  The starring actor looks no where near high school age, he looks like a 30 year old Rob Lowe.  The other football players all look pretty old as well.  (I mean for high schoolers.)  Kurt Russell also looks a bit weird when he's supposed to be elderly.

The music is a little amateur-sounding, like a TV movie, but the dialogue is well done.  Actually a lot of this is like a tv movie, I bet it's rated G or PG.  No, no Varsity Blues strippers.  Though it's a nice change to not need to empathize with Kathleen Turner having sex with every hipster smoker she sees.

Anyway, this movie is 20 times more fun than I was expecting.  9/10.

One last thing.  16 years ago, in high school, I was pushed by a kid playing football, fell on my hand, and I broke my pinky finger.  If I time-warped back to that day I would definitely not break my finger again.  Even if somehow the broken finger hooked me up with the girl I wanted to date (which it did not), my first instinct would be to try to find a way to get the girl without breaking any fingers.  Surely voluntarily injuring myself is not required.  (I'd figure something out, if I had the inside info.  I can be sneaky.) The Star Trek episode "Tapestry" is much better in justifying why Picard voluntarily repeats history.  With this movie, it seemed like the main character repeats history just because he's a little bit stupid.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Never again going to the Starbucks at 14th and L.  Last time my mocha tasted like chocolate milk, this time it tastes like coffee.  There's a dunkin donuts at the corner of the same block, they certainly couldn't do any worse.