DVDx

Last month, I went through a personal battle and in an effort to ward off emotional demons the economy way, I bought a pirated 54-in-1 Brad Pitt movie collection in Blu-ray (just 17 full movies, actually) from one of the 2nd floor stalls of Traveler's Inn located in the notoriously perilous Carbon. **After seeing most of the movies in it (I refuse to watch Legends of the Fall), I swapped it with Sher Butter's 2009 Hot New Movies collection. I have about seen more movies than the previous two years combined. To prove that this is not an exaggeration, I will give you a list of the movies I've watched in less than three weeks' time: Contact, Interview with the Vampire, Spy Game, Snatch, Babel, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Ocean's 12, Ocean's 13, The Devil's Own, Se7en, The Fight Club, 24:Redemption, Eagle Eye, Vicky Christina Barcelona, Wanted, Juno, Dan in Real Life, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Taken, and Vantage Point. For somebody who is not a movie-goer, I say these are a lot.

While some of these were watched with only half the attention because the other half was focused on either nail cleaning or brow plucking, most were watched with an expression conveying enjoyment, and some even, with creased eyebrows and mouth ajar associated with total involvement and intense concentration. And where there's attention and/or concentration, there's also realization and/or observation, profound or not. I am sharing mine. Let me warn you though; they belong to the second category mentioned.

• I am adding Brad Pitt to my list of deities. I used to be in the opinion that he's all good looks and no substance. I was so wrong.

• Kevin Spacey has made it to my list of Creepiest Actors. So far, it's just him and Anthony Hopkins on that list.

• The Fight Club and Babel are really good movies. Go watch them if you haven't yet.

• Snatch is Pulp Fiction-ish. Benicio Del Toro is John Travolta and Brad Pitt is Bruce Willis. Pulp Fiction is, in my opinion, the better movie.

• Benicio Del Toro looks a bit like Kevin Roy of Razorback. Here's a picture. This was taken by Kid A during the Villains Tour concert last Dec 12.

• In Spy Game, a severely beaten Brad Pitt looked like Marc Abaya, former frontman of Sandwich and now of Kjwan.

• I developed a certain respect for Shia LaBeouf having had seen Eagle Eye. Still, I am not watching Transformers.

• Juno is a cool, cool movie with a great soundtrack. I'm pretty sure my parents, especially me ma (Snatch's Mickey), would react violently to it, though.

• I am so looking forward to the new season of 24. Kiefer Sutherland is god. He is my *John Clark of the Clancy novels.

• Lastly, I am still undecided as to whether Christian Bale is good-looking or not.

**I would have preferred traveling every weekend but that would have completely depleted my meager savings.

*I originally wrote Jack Ryan. Then I realized I like Mr. Clark better.