I, Chris Mundell, had never been to a U2 show until this week. Since a-hole@ebay.com bought up all the tickets, Kevin Grose told me that we should call people with connections. Now, being Chris Mundell has it’s perks, but I can’t just show up at Brad Pitt’s and hitch a ride. I mean, I COULD, but then his people would call the cops… again. The only guy I could come up with was photographer Mike Martin in Denver Colorado. He shoots the Denver Nuggets games. He pulled through with a private press box at the Pepsi center!!! So I spent all my frequent flier miles and joined Kevin and Greg Lawler on a rock and roll adventure! We got a bonus event in the Nuggets vs Trail Blazers game Tuesday night. Good times! It was a cross-cultural experience for Greg. Being from South Africa, he knows ALL about rugby, but not so much with the hoops. OK, back to U2. We’ve had a couple of friends see U2 in LA and San Jose. BOTH groups got to meet Bono before the show. So, naturally, we felt it was our destiny to meet Bono in Denver before the show. Mike confirmed a sound check time of 4pm. We joined about 30 other fans to wait for the band to drive up. After an hour standing in the cold and, eventually, rain the band drove up AND right on by:( We felt like chumps. Then we had pizza. We came back and found our private press box was very private. Kevin immediately dropped his pants to illustrate this fact. It was WAY up at the top of the Pepsi Center. Dang far but it gave us a full view of the whole experience. The show was incredible. U2 really knows how to move a crowd. We were singing along even though, I’m pretty sure, U2 couldn’t hear us. But it felt like they could. We had a great time. Although, I did leave with a new goal of getting closer seats for the Staples show in November. I want to be down in there with the common folk! I did NOT hate this show! Go to One.org to help end poverty. Keep rockin’.

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Hi movie fans! I got to check out an early screening of The Interpreter! It was a fun trip to the hills of Beverly. Roger paid for dinner and we saw Brooke Shields. Not in the movie. She was eating pasta. So, in this film, Nicole Kidman comes out of acting seclusion to play Silvia Broome. Silvia is a white African who lives in New York and works as an interpreter at the UN. OOOO! Roger was a translator at the UN too!! Perfect! Anyway, Silvia really believes in the UN. You can tell by the handful of inspirational monologues she gives on the UN’s noble goals. I was curious about her being African and white. Lucky for me, I’ve got a white, African friend, our web host, Greg Lawler. He has agreed to a little interview… CM.com: Greg, you are African and you are white. How the hell did that happen? Greg: hmm, interesting question, I checked online and apparently “one or both parents need to be white” which is 100% correct. Man the internet is amazing! Oh, and I was born in Zimbabwe. CM.com: Why don’t you guys like black people? Greg: Chris, just because I grew up in South Africa doesn’t mean I have negative feelings for people of color. God created all people in his image. I don’t support Apartheid. CM.com: Come on Greg, I saw Lethal Weapon 2. What’s this Apartheid? As you can see, there is a lot of lying in the world. So, it’s good that there are places like the UN and movies like The Interpreter. Oh, yeah, Sean Penn plays a Secret Service guy. He’s good! I did not hate this movie!!

I can’t tell you how relieved I was when I discovered that this movie had NOTHING to do with Michael Jackson or his compound in the neighboring Santa Ynez Valley. I had a Great Great Grandma named Inez. She was a Native American woman, Osage tribe. My dad is 1/8th Osage. That makes me 1/16th. Not enough to go to college for free or to have ANY concept of the Native American experience. Oh yeah, I’m reviewing a movie!
Finding Neverland is sort of a Shakespeare In Love take on the guy that wrote Peter Pan. It’s sort of unfair to narrow it down to that. It’s actually quite a touching tale of friendship and imagination. Wow, I sound like a doofus. It’s true though. There have got to be a bunch of Oscar nods in there. Johnny Depp is great, as always. Kate Winslet. Hmmmm. Don’t rush me. Kate Winslet. She should be in more stuff. Dustin Hoffman was nice too. Not as strong as in Meet The Fockers, but I digress. The real stand out to me was this kid, Freddie Highmore who played Peter Davies. He will rule the world one day. OK, fine, the UK at least. I didn’t hate this movie at all!
I know that I don’t do many negative movie reviews, but I have a family and few movie going opportunities. I can’t just throw my limited movie watching time at every Fat Albert film that comes around. Besides, my people did not struggle against the white man’s Manifest Destiny and centuries of poverty on reservations so that I could see “Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle”.

Sometimes, it’s good to be Chris Mundell. For instance, when a good friend let’s you tag along to an advanced screening of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou!!! I saw this film over a month ago and I can still feel the love. This is the latest from writer/director, Wes Anderson. He did Bottle Rocket, Rushmore & The Royal Tenenbaums. You either loved those movies or you are a boob. His movies feel like classic 70′s movies we all should have seen when they came out. Seriously, Anderson is quietly creating this body of work that we will one day look back on and go, “Hey, baby! You got some fries with that shake! Yeah, I said it!” In the rediculously touching adventure that is Life Aquatic, Bill Murray delivers HUGE, again. His ability to show years of regret on his face is uncanny. Everyone in this movie is great! Even the ship, The Belefonte, is terrific. Anderson’s movies are so full of interesting detail and original characters. He’s like the king of quirk. Many people try quirk, but he’s got it. As funny as this movie is, it really has heart. I cared about the characters. I laughed, I cried and I did not hate it!

Happy Birthday to ME! For the last bunch of years, Pixar movies have been released right around my birthday (Nov 6). Those guys are batting about 1000! That’s a baseball stat that is good, somehow. I don’t really follow baseball. I mean, I don’t ignore it with the same passion that I ignore NASCAR, for instance, but suffice it to say that Pixar movies rule!!! They always have and after seeing The Incredibles, they always will. This movie is just plain great. The cast is perfect, it’s stylistically terrific and the story is hilarious. Craig T Nelson voices Mr. Incredible. Just perfect! What a fun way for an actor in the “Thursday” of his career to shine! Holly Hunter as Elastigirl/Mrs. Incredible totally captures the reluctant, protective mom that flips the switch when her children are threatened. Speaking of the kids… Spencer Fox and Sarah Vowell were spot on! Some jerkface critics may complain that the movie was just full of knods to other movies we’ve seen (Return of the Jedi, Raiders, 007, Sky Captain). It was! But it all worked! It still felt new and the familiar scenes were never too much. Here’s to more Pixar fun. The trailer for their next movie, Cars, looked funny too. I did NOT hate this movie!

Thanks to Roger Durling and the Cinema Society, I got to see Around the Bend! This is the directorial debut for Jordan Roberts. Jordan also wrote the screenplay. I cried during the movie cuz it was very touching. But then during the Q and A afterward with Jordan I kept crying. I was a mess. I was remembering some things that hurt me about my dad. Things I never really deal with since I haven’t seen him since ’86. Anyhoo, afterward, Roger says “Hey meet Jordan, the director!” I’m trying to say “Great movie” and “I loved the composition and lighting”. It came out: “*Sniff Sniff* me have dad in jail too *cry*” “me sad”. I was a total wreck. The movie was not!!! Anyone that can pull new tricks from classics like Michael Caine and Christopher Walken is to be commended. So, Jordan, I commend thee. Be commended. The commending has commenced. If you were in the Army you’d be a commendo. Go see this movie!!