An open letter to J.J. Abrams, and a double dose of music

Dear Mr. Abrams,

Can I call you J.J.? Or James? What about Jimbo? Oh, your first name is Jeffrey? Sorry, my bad. Let me start, Jeff, by saying that I liked the episode of The Office you directed. And while I don't really watch Lost, I know some people that like it a lot, so you must be doing something right. I've seen one episode, the first one of this current season, and didn't really know what was going on, and kind of thought that the main dude, Jack or whatever his name is, was kind of an ass. Which brings me to the reason I'm writing this letter.

I just saw Cloverfield. It was pretty good, but a few changes could have made it great. Like getting rid of the whole love story. Who cares? You should've learned something from Transformers, people want to see gigantic robots fighting, or a monster totally destroying a city and fighting things. I think I speak for all bitter, jaded 20-somethings when I say that I could give two shits about whether or not this dude is in love with a girl in movies like this. But that's not my point here, that's not what I thought the biggest flaw was.

I did not feel for, or relate to, or even root for the characters in the movie. By the end, I was kind of wishing that the monster would eat them. The main character, we'll call him Douchebag #1 (DB1), was kind of a whiny bitch. And a douchebag. I didn't care if any of the characters lived or not. Which brings us back to the love story. If that wasn't included in the movie, then development, or lack of development, wouldn't have been a big deal. But maybe that's not your thing. I did like that the son from Carpoolers was in your movie, though. I like him on that show. But again, not so much his character in the movie.

All in all, I thought it was a decent movie, but the build up and expectations I had for it were probably a bit much. I've noticed on IMDb that there's supposedly a sequel in the works, something that I wanted right after I got out of the theater. It could be done really well, and while not overtly answering some questions posed, could help understanding things better. So good luck with that. But get some things more realistic. I can suspend my reality to believe that there's a gigantic monster attacking New York. But I'm not so sure about seeing someone with rebar through their chest in one scene, only to see this person sprinting in the next. That's not the only one, but I don't want to spoil things for those who haven't seen your movie yet. I'll still tell them to see it, I'll warn them that it's a little cheesy, but worth seeing. Heck, I'll even give you 3-and-a-half Flenker Thumbs Up








You would've gotten another half if you had made the monster Cthulu. Then I would have stood up and cheered. Instead, I had to be the only solo dude in a theater of couples. Awesome. Who knew that you made a date movie??

Well, good luck with your future endeavors. I hope the Star Trek movie is good. If you mess that up, you will have millions of huge nerds upset with you, and they'll write about you in their blogs. . . wait a minute. . .

Sincerely yours,

Flenker

*****

Today's music recommendation is kind of a cop-out, because it's from a band that I've already mentioned lots and lots of times. But, this time there's new music, so I'll validate it that way.

WHY? has put up a ton of new music on their (his?) myspace, I'm thinking it's from the new album, Alopecia, due out March 11. I've been listening to it for the past couple of days, and have been enjoying it a lot a lot. Let me know what you think.

And, since this isn't a new band, I thought I'd revisit another band, just to make it a good music day. As if WHY? isn't enough. But here you go, Vanilla Fudge with one of the best performances I've ever seen. Yeah, this is another one I've posted once or twice, but damn, it's good. When we finally have books that have little videos on the pages, you'll see the last 30 seconds of this song in the dictionary under "epic." Enjoy