Shoveling in the new year, some movies

Two feet of snow in two days.

Jesus.

I wish I was exaggerating, but that's almost the exact amount of snow that we got. I had scraped off a table in our backyard just before it started snowing on Tuesday, and today there is still just about two feet of snow on it. I honestly can't remember the last time I've lived through that, but it was probably when I lived in Massachusetts. It certainly wasn't New Jersey, that's for sure.

So, yeah, I'm getting a little tired of shoveling, but at the same time, if it's going to be cold there might as well be some snow. Unfortunately it looks like there's going to be some melting going on this weekend, so I guess we can expect some ice to go with the snow. That's what really gets old.

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Watched some movies over the past week or so, some good, some bad. Here's a few of them:

Syriana - This has been sitting around my house for a long time, and I just haven't been able to make myself watch it. Last night, we were out of Netflix and in the mood for a movie still, so we threw it in. I found it complicated and confusing, but like some of the reviews said, I think that was the point. Syriana was certainly well filmed and well acted, but above all I think it was well cast. Definitely worth a watch for any of you who still haven't seen it.

Into Great Silence - A documentary about the lives of some monks in the French Alps who go through their daily lives without speaking, except for one hour a week when they have some social time, and some chanting and signing of hymns. The first hour of the movie, there isn't a word spoken: the camera simply follows several of the monks around their daily routines. Much like watching a foreign film, and learning to accept the subtitles, the silence works here. I found myself paying much better attention to the actions on the screen thanks to the lack of words. At two and a half hours, this definitely might not be for everybody, but I loved it.

Eastern Promises - In contrast to the previous movie, this is a lean, sparse story of violence amongst Russian gangsters in London. Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts are predictably great, but this wasn't really a movie about acting, rather, I thought it was one about the look and feel of violence and its immediate impact. There is extremely vivid and gruesome violence throughout, as well as a highly disturbing scene where you see more of Viggo Mortensen than I for one ever wanted to see. Still, this was an extremely well made movie, but I'm not sure I could recommend it to everyone.

In the Land of Women - This movie sucked donkey balls. There were a couple performances that weren't total crap, but more that were. Meg Ryan proves here that she really can't act even a little bit, and know that she's not cute anymore there's really no reason to put her in a movie. The script blows. The directing blows. Olympia Dukakis should have been cast in a whole different movie, one that deserved the performance she gives. Seriously, don't waste your time watching this movie, it really, really, really sucks. I mean that.