We saw “I Am Legend” last night. Of all the movies to see on Christmas Day, this wasn’t a good one to pick. Not because it wasn’t an excellent movie; Will Smith did a fabulous job of portraying a man alone in a city full of monsters that want to eat him. No, it was because of the intensity. This movie drilled deep enough into my psyche that I (we!) had to go home and watch “The Parent Trap” while drinking rum-spiked hot chocolate in order to decompress.
Spoilers ahoy! (more…)
Given our recent experience with movies (see “Shooter” a.k.a. “Crap”) it looks like I should start a new category for sucky movies called A.K.A. Crap.
We watched The Breakup last night. The only redeeming quality was that we received it through NetFlix and we didn’t pay for the NetFlix subscription.
One of these days, Vince Vaughn is going to play a character that doesn’t talk all of the time. And he’s going to play a character that isn’t precisely alike to all other movies he’s in. The dude is a one trick pony.
As for the movie: it was so filled with stereotypes and relationship conceits that I felt like I was in High School. The only part that I felt they did well were the fights between Brooke (Jennifer Anniston) and Gary (Vince Vaughn) while their relationship was imploding. They were a perfect example of things going a bit too far, over and over, until there’s a huge pileup.
Overall: Suckage. Don’t see it. It’s not a comedy even though that’s how they advertised it.
At some point in the next several months, I’m going to have to decide who to vote for in the 2008 US Presidential Elections. I am a citizen, and it is my right and duty to vote.
Usually, I’ll weight the issues and the stances the various candidates have taken on them. Plus I’ll allow for basic quirkiness and head-up-assitude.
Unfortunately, some issues outweigh others. I must now declare that Mitt Romney will not receive a vote from me if he is selected to be the Republican party candidate. Why? From the NY Times:
…and when Mitt Romney revealed in an interview that L. Ron Hubbard’s “Battlefield Earth” was one of his favorite novels.
It is an unforgivable sin to call that piece of rotting crap a “favorite novel”. Although it gives me great warmth to think that L.R.Hubbard is spinning in his grave to have a Mormon [gasp] liking his stuff.
Jenn and I watched the Mark Wahlberg movie Shooter last night. Overall rating: Suckage.
We are glad that we didn’t pay full theater price to see this one. It was chock full of holes in the plot and the acting. The only good thing that can be said about the movie are the settings and the cinematography. The director did an excellent job shifting settings from (apparently) Eritrea to the Rockies to Philadelphia to Kentucky to Virginia and back to the Rockies. But don’t see the movie for that reason. You’ll regret it.
One other thing that the movie makers spent a lot of time on was realistic (I assume) blood and brain spatters after being head-shot by a rifle. The movie, after all, is about a marine sniper who is good at shooting people from a long way away. (spoilers ahoy, if you care) (more…)
Phillip Pullman’s books and the movie based upon the first one, The Golden Compass, have been receiving a lot of hate-press recently due to their perceived anti-christian outlook. The gist is, “Pullman is an atheist [true], who is trying to turn our kids to the devil [only true from a certain perspective].”
I could discuss the pros and cons of these viewpoints, but I’d rather do an end-run. Question: Why didn’t these people come out of the woodwork for Battlestar Galactica? There’s a show where the good guys are polytheistic and the bad guys, bent on the destruction of the human race, are doing it because their sole God (obviously based on the Bible) is telling them to. BSG is much more blatant about it then Pullman ever is. Or what about The Lord of the Rings? Despite Peter Jackson’s pandering to the religious writers on his team, there is NO GOD in the Lord of the Rings. Nobody complained about that. And what about every horror/demon/antichrist film out there? Why do none of them get this sort of treatment?
I think the truth is that the religious don’t think they’ll be able to sell their religions in the face of competing viewpoints. Also, given the control that christians have over this nation, they only fear what is perceived as anti-christian messages. No worries about the push to make “Jihad” a bad word (even though its actual definition doesn’t mean “kill everyone in God’s name”). Notice no complaints about all of the anti-muslim press that bandies about.
The hypocrisy of some people just boggles my feet sometimes. I wish I could blame the media, but their motiviations are strictly monetary; they go where the stories are.
In the interest of full disclosure, I think I should mention that I did not like The Golden Compass, but I’ll still see the film adaptation.
We went to see Robert Zemekis’ Beowulf tonight. In 3D! It was good.
Spoilers Ahoy. (more…)
The top 16 science fiction authors, as measured by Hugo and Nebula awards, are listed by SF Signal
I find it interesting that of the sixteen authors, I don’t like the works of eight. Does this make me shallow?
I also find it interesting that the number one awarded author on this list, Connie Willis, with 15 Hugos and/or Nebulas, is a complete mystery to me. Not only have I never heard of her, I’ve never read anything by her (those two things aren’t mutually exclusive for me. I can read novels and totally forget who wrote them).
Looks like I have something to add to the look-for-in-the-library list.
…you might find this review of Heroes’ second season amusing. For the record, I agree in principle with everything that is stated, yet I still watch. I’m a slave.
Jenn alerted me to the news fracas caused by J.K. Rowling saying that Dumbledore was gay (is gay? Do the portrait people have love-lives?).
Apparently, there’s always been suspicion amongst fans that he was gay, due to his lack of a love interest and other items. Personally, I never pulled up a hint of gayness from Dumbledore until the seventh book, so this “always has been a suspicion” thing is a crock. It’s along the lines of crackpot fans everywhere coming up with unlikely scenarios for the most mundane nuances, then springing forth with an “Aha! I told you so!” when their particular nuttiness is revealed as truth. I won’t say that there weren’t any “hints” about Dumbledore being gay in books 1-6, but frankly, who cares? It’s immaterial to the story. Dumbledore didn’t have any subtextual motivations that weren’t clearly explained in book 7. This is not the type of book with imagery and metaphor coming out the wazoo. It’s an entertaining (but epically paced and written) story.
I think that J.K. Rowling should start making stuff up about her characters, just to see how much more whacked out the movies will get.
Jenn and I saw Shakespeare’s Richard III last night, put on by Georgia Shakespeare at Oglethorpe University. I hadn’t been exposed to Richard III since grade school, thus it was like seeing a brand new play. The only thing I remembered was “A horse! A horse! My Kingdom for a horse!”
The play was remarkably bloody. Lots of people were killed. I’m not sure if the body count was higher than Hamlet, but it must be close. Go Shakespeare! If the play resembles the War of the Roses at all closely, then 15th century England must have been a mess.
Images from the show are available, although the fact that the url has “romeo” in it does not inspire me to believe they will remain active very long.