Recent Stand Up Routines

These days the kids go to bed early so I got a chance to catch some stand up comedies on NetFlix. Here are the ones I digged:

Jim Gaffigan’s Mr. Universe: He has me stop going to Subway.

Lewis Black’s In God We Rust: He’s a veteran in the game. He’s masterful despite showing is age with the iPhone’s frustration.

Steve Byrne’s The Byrne Identity: Being half Koran half Irish, Byrne lead off hilarious racial jokes. Very impressive.

Religulous

I had a blast watching Religulous because I have the same questions that Bill Maher had regarding to religion. Why do many so many people believe in something that has yet to be proven to be true? In the film, many hardcore religious freaks couldn’t defend the irrational biblical images such as a talking snake, a man who lived inside a fish and the inconsistency story of Virgin Mary giving birth to Jesus.

When I first came to the States, my aunt persuaded me to go to a Vietnamese church and I did. I wanted to learn more about God and I wanted to find out what made these people believed in him. I dragged my ass to church every Sunday for about six months or so. The people at church were very lovely. They tried everything they could to get me to accept God, but I couldn’t do it without real evidence; therefore, I quitted going to church.

I have a cousin who has a PHD in information system. He’s way smarter than me and I always looked up to him as a role model. He showed me the value and the respect you get with an education. I get that and I followed him on that. He never smoked; therefore, I believed smoking is bad so I never did it. I get that. What I don’t get, however, is that he accepted Jesus so blindly. There are things that he has been praying to God for many years and obviously God hasn’t given to him yet, but he still thinks that one day God will.

After watching Religulous, it helps me understand why many rational people could be so irrational when it comes to faith. Religulous is a hilarious, eye-opening documentary on organized religion.

I Saw the Devil

Man, I love Korean films, not the long-ass drama series, but the more challenging to watch. With I Saw the Devil, director Kim Jee-woon pushes revenge beyond humane. The movie is so fucked up that I feel like a sick bastard for enjoying it. Not recommended for the faint of heart.

Stieg Larsson’s Dragon Tattoo Trilogy

I was NetFlixing around and didn’t realize that I was watching Stieg Larsson’s Dragon Tattoo Trilogy until the second film. I started out with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, then The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest and then The Girl Who Played With Fire. The experience was still riveting. The films are dark, thrilling and wild. Dragon Tattoo is disturbing; Played With Fire is violent; and Hornet’s Nest is edgy. Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander owns every scene she’s in. Her portrait of Lisbeth as smart, wicked and can’t be fucked with. The trilogy is a suspenseful escape.

My Latest Form of Entertainment: Stand Up Comedy

Thanks to NetFlix, my late night entertainment has been watching stand up comedies. After a long day at work, wrestling with Dao at home before he goes to bed and cleaning up the dishes or the house, I get about an hour to myself. I would like to watch movies on NetFlix, but they are about two-hour long. Stand up comedy, which runs from forty-five minutes to an hour, is perfect for a good laugh before the night end. Here are some of my favorite routines:

Patrice O’Neal’s Elephant in the Room. His lines are misogynistic, but highly hilarious. He makes his audience laughs and embarrass as the same time, especially the ladies.

Louis C.K.’s Chewed Up. If a white guy could get away with using “Nigger,” he has his way with word. Louis C.K. pulled that off so effortlessly. The only thing I didn’t like was his daughter’s joke. He went over the top on that one.

Craig Ferguson’s Does This Need to to be Said?. This Scottish-accent guy is simply entertaining. He’s very charismatic.

Whitney Cummings’s Money Shot. It’s a nice change to hear sex jokes from a woman perspective and she nailed it. She’s also very energetic.

Kathleen Madigan’s Gone Madigan: She’s funny, witty and doesn’t give a damn.

Update:

Orny Adams’s Takes the Third: He makes mundane things funny. My favorite is how CVS gives you coupons on the things you just bought.

Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue

This film documents The Prince of Darkness performing one of his breakthrough albums, Bitches Brew (currently on heavy rotation in my iPod), at the 1970 Isle of Weight Music Festival. The video also featured interviews from Davis’s sidemen (Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarret), his admirers (Carlos Santana, Joni Mitchell) as well as his hater (Stanley Crouch). Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue could be viewed on YouTube (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). What are you waiting for?

Avatar

Yesterday afternoon, we caught up with Avatar in 3D before the film goes off the theater. I thought it would be just the three of us, but the seats were almost filled up. I have to admit, Avatar was a visual-stimulating experience complemented with a solid story, something James Cameron has managed to pull off once again.

Oldboy

Revenge is best served cold, but Chan-wook Park’s Oldboy serves a disturbingly imaginative dish of revenge that is bold, bloody, beautiful and brilliant.

The Isle

Kim Ki-Duk’s The Isle is sick yet sensual, gross yet gorgeous and eccentric yet erotic. I should have read this before watching the film:

[The Isle] became notorious for being difficult to watch, with stories of viewers vomiting or passing out during the more gruesome scenes when the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

Slumdog Millionaire

When I first heard that Danny Boyle’s new film Slumdog Millionaire has something to do with the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, I was kind of turned off. After seeing the film, however, I was stunned. Boyle has incorporated the game into the story in such a brilliant manner.

The contestant Jamal Malik (a fantastic performance from Dev Patel) answers the questions not based on his book knowledge, but his past experiences. Every time a question is asked, we get to see the flashback of Jamal’s life in the slum of Mumbai corresponding to the question. Right from the first scene, we get to experience the ghetto part of the city through a breathtaking chasing scene (polices go after the kids) with M.I.A.’s blasting beat.

With an incredible cast, stunning visual, brutal violent and sweet romance, Slumdog is simply irresistible and every scene will leave you breathless. Highly recommended.