Seeing as I am now a year behind on movie reviews...
1. National Treasure: Book of Secrets
-This was a really interesting movie in the same way that the first one was. Plenty of history woven with fiction. Riley Poole is still hysterical.
It isn't the greatest movie ever made; there are still a few moments where you scratch your head and say "...what?" just like in the first one (like when the bad guys are chasing Nicolas Cage on the rooftops and apparently don't know how to shoot). The conflict resolution at the end is way too sudden and doesn't jibe with the characters at all, but they needed to end it somehow.
There is a very interesting part when the President gets tipped off to Nicolas Cage's scheme and it involves Cage having to entrust the President with some pretty big secrets (or something like that). The President asks, "How do you know you can trust me with this?" Cage replies, "Whether by virtue of your character or the oath that you swore to uphold the Constitution, I can trust you." I wish we could say the same of our President today.
All in all, it's worth watching a few times. PG for very mild violence, etc. etc. Three stars.
2. 12 Monkeys
-The problem with special effects-laden dystopian films is that they don't have a tendency to age well. This is very painfully true of 12 Monkeys. The dated quality might be redeemed if the movie were worth watching. It was rather belabored and overdramatic with nothing really making sense. After watching it, I had to sit for a few minutes to think of whether or not the movie lived up to the hype. It didn't. Bruce Willis is flat, Brad Pitt is boring, Madeline Stowe is just weird. The story wasn't very original.
Rated R for violence, language, and other things that I can't think of right now. 2 stars.
3. Hitman
-This belongs squarely in the "subpar movies made from awful video games that people seem to like" category. Tell me: if you were a crowd full of people at a railway station, would you easily spot a bald guy in a suit with a barcode tattooed to the back of his head? Apparently the people in the movie wouldn't.
rated R for language, nudity, violence, and stupidity. 1 star.
4. 3:10 To Yuma
-Yuma came out around the time I was beginning to wonder if the Western was completely dead (ignoring Deadwood, etc.). I didn't see it until a few years after it came out, but when I did, I was blown away. Russell Crowe and Christian Bale are absolutely brilliant actors. Everyone involved did a sweet job, especially Ben Foster, who is very good at playing a psychopath. Did you know that it's possible to kill someone with an eating utensil? I didn't until I saw this movie.
rated R for violence and language. 5 stars.
5. Speed Racer
-I had reasonably high expectations for this movie, seeing as it was done by the Wachowski Brothers. I figured that watching it would be similar to drinking a gallon of vodka and smoking a pound of ganja at the same time while sitting upside down in a rave, but my eyes were hating me by the end. Very bright jellybean-colored cars flying around really fast... oohh...
Don't come in expecting Speed Racer to discuss existentialism with Trixie, or John Goodman to beat Hugo Weaving to a pulp with his bare hands. The story was flat, the characters were boring, and Racer X's story makes absolutely no sense. The kid brother and his pet monkey were pretty funny, but think twice before showing this to the kids: it may be PG, but it's got some very PG-13 language. Other than that, and the fact that you probably don't want to watch this if you have a chemical dependency, it's worth watching once. Maybe.
rated PG for language, racing, and really bright moving objects. 2 stars.
6. Street Kings
-awesome. that is all that can be said.
rated R for violence and language. 4 stars.
7. Juno
-another brilliant film from Jason Reitman and penned by a former stripper. Ellen Page is drop-dead hilarious, and Michael Cena is his usual effeminate self, with J.K. Simmons as Ellen's dad and Olivia Thirlby as Ellen's bf to round it all out. it's pro-life too! whoda thunk?
rated... PG-13? I think so. language, adult situations, stuff like that. 5 stars.
8. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
-boring. there are so many allegiance-switches (double agents? naahh... triple agents!) and incredulous moments (escaping a nuclear explosion in a refrigerator), even for an Indy movie, that it makes you wonder what Spielberg, Lucas, and Koepp were on when they made it. The alien thing makes no sense. Nothing makes sense.
Although there is one redeeming quality, and that is that Harrison Ford is still a bamf.
rated PG-13 for moments of jaw-dropping stupidity, intellectual recklessness, and disregard for the patrons of movie theaters. 1 star.
9. Tropic Thunder
-brilliant. Robert Downey Jr. is brilliant. A terrific send-up of Hollywood, action movies, and celebrity ego.
rated R for language, violence, nudity, and a dude in blackface (if you're easily offended by that sort of thing). 5 stars.
10. Jay-Z: Fade to Black
-a video document of The Black Album from inception to recording, as well as Jay's farewell concert at Madison Square Garden. Easily the most boring movie ever. I turned it off halfway through so that I could fall asleep unabated.
rated R for language. 0 stars.
11. Keeping The Faith
-It had some funny moments, but as Roger Ebert put it, it is "a profoundly secular movie," which is why it bothers me so much. The rabbi says that God needs people to keep His thing going, and that it's up to us to change the world, be nice to each other, and that we just need to have faith in people. Ugh.
rated PG-13 for language and some sex. 0 stars.
12. Katt Williams: The Pimp Chronicles, Vol. 1
-typical stand-up fare. except it's brilliant in parts.
rated R or whatever HBO rates. figure it out. 3 stars.
13. Dana Carvey: Squatting Monkeys Tell No Lies
-I sat through this movie wondering when it was going to get funny. It never did, which is a colossal shame.
rated R for language. -1000 stars.
14. The Terminator
-the effects are very dated, but it's a brilliant movie. watch it. now.
rated R for violence, language, and sex/nudity. five stars.
15. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
-the effects hold up, nearly 20 years later. Sarah Connor is a b.a. Edward Furlong is annoying, but nowhere near as annoying as when he was in American History X.
rated R for language and violence. five stars.
16. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
-I'm still trying to figure out how this fits chronologically. I can't decide if it was due to a low budget or directorial retardation that a car chase looked fake. Nick Stahl as John Connor just doesn't do it for me, he's too much of a punk. For the record, I would gladly be terminated by that chick Terminator.
rated R for language, violence, and nudity. three stars.
17. 1984
-it was extremely faithful to the book. it looks very dated, but it will probably stand up against the upcoming adaptation (which will no doubt take shots at the Bush administration). the only thing is that there was a ton of full frontal female nudity, which was very... off-putting and awkward. and unnecessary. however, they pulled off the Five Minute Hate very well, so well in fact that it was eerily reminiscent of segments of the American Left.
rated R for language, sex, and nudity. 2 stars.
18. Prince Caspian
-it was pretty good. they really pushed the hubris/nemesis concept with Peter and Caspian. the effects were very well done, especially during the seance where they try to call up the White Witch. it's a bit scary and violent, so it might not be for the younger kids, but definitely worth watching.
rated PG or PG-13 for scary stuff with animals. 4 stars.
19. Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
-brilliant. a bit hard to understand in parts since it's a British film, but definitely worth watching over and over and over.
rated R for language and violence. 5 stars.
27 September 2009
Film
13 September 2009
Wilsongate
I've been thinking about Joe Wilson for the past few days. More often than not, I've been conflicted about what to think about the situation. On one hand, he was right: President Obama lied about coverage of illegal immigrants under Obamacare. According to a paper by the Congressional Research Office, the health care bill "does not contain any restrictions on noncitizens--whether legally or illegally present, or in the United States temporarily or permanently--participating in the Exchange" and would "mandate that resident aliens would be required to have health insurance." So if you want to look at the simple fact of what the President said and what Wilson said, Wilson's right, Obama's lying. Case closed.
On the other hand, there's something to be said about civility, especially since we're talking about a guy who talked out of turn during a Presidential address to a joint session of Congress. Yeah yeah, I know, the Brits do this kind of thing all the time. But this isn't the House of Commons.
These are the things that I've been thinking about for the past few days. What to make of it all? I wasn't really sure until today. After watching the video several times and reading up on analysis of the bill and paying close attention to how President Obama deals with his critics (which is to call them liars who make "cynical" and "irresponsible" claims... can you imagine George W. Bush getting away with that?), I've made up my mind.
Joe Wilson was right.
The Left has a fetish that they like to call "speaking truth to power." More often than not, this involves smearing their opponents as Nazis, fascists, and various other forms of filth. Think "Bushitler," "sexist racist bigot homophobes," "Bush Lied, People Died," ad nauseam. It's okay to shout down your opponent as long as you're a liberal and they've conservative, right? That's how the story goes. Inconveniently for the Left, as well as President Obama, Joe Wilson was speaking truth to power. There's no debating that the President lied (unless, of course, you think that every word that comes out of his mouth is Holy Writ). What about the venue? Wilson's taken some heat from conservatives who think that he acted inappropriately. To that I say that there are times when speaking forcefully is required, even if it breaks a few rules. But don't think that this should establish some kind of precedent where shouting at the President is always right: it isn't. There are, however, times when it is necessary to get loud and suffer a bit of indignation to speak the truth. I believe that this counts as one of those times. The President called his opponents liars and told a few whopping untruths in the process. This is part of an established pattern in the Obama administration and shouldn't shock anyone, considering that the day after the incident, Obama said that we should discuss these important issues "without vitriol, without name-calling without the assumption of the worst in other people’s motives." Funny thing is that this is after he says that his critics are liars and that "their only agenda is to kill health care reform at any cost" via "almost laughable, cynical, irresponsible" claims. Pathetic.
But enough is enough. I know that I don't speak for myself when I say that I'm sick of the President's pride and condescending attitude to the growing number of Americans who are mad as hell and not taking it anymore.
It's time to be bold.
iPod OS 3.1.1 = Disaster
I recently downloaded the 3.1.1 update for my 2nd-gen iPod touch, and now I'm in the process of downgrading to 3.0.0. 3.1.1 makes a complete mess of the iPod, and I'm not the only one who thinks so. My problems with it are almost the exact same as the people in the MacRumors forum:
1. Tons of missing artwork when looking at the album list view (but oddly enough, the artwork shows up when you tilt the iPod to the side and when you actually listen to a song),
I'm running iTunes 9, so maybe that has something to do with it, but I can't say for sure. All I know is that I'm restoring to 3.0 and Apple better get cracking on a couple of software updates to fix all this. I've only had one truly bad experience* with Apple before, but this makes a strong 2nd.
*When they totally emasculated iMovie starting in iLife '08 and made it into a YouTube Lite editing program with zero functionality for people who like to edit sound and add cool effects.
UPDATE: I tried resetting the iPod and restoring it from this morning's 3.1.1 backup, and all the artwork is back and there isn't so much lag when scrolling through albums. Hopefully this will solve it!
11 September 2009
Christopher Faughnan
It is hard to believe that it has been eight years since September 11th. Sometimes I wonder if my country has forgotten about that fateful day. In hopes that 9/11 will never be forgotten, I humbly offer this post in memory of one of the 2,996 fallen countrymen, Christopher Faughnan.
Christopher Faughnan worked in the North Tower as a trader for Cantor Fitzgerald. At 8:30am on September 11th, Christopher was on the phone with his youngest daughter, Juliet. She was the last family member to talk to him before the first plane struck at 8:46.
In 2008, Christopher's oldest daughter, Siena, wrote a poem in his memory for a school project. She had this to say:
The Bible tells us to weep with those who weep. On this day, we must remember those who died in the 9/11 attacks, and join their families in remembering the lives of their loved ones. We must also remember our Lord's promise: "...and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain..." -Revelation 21:4
Leaba imeasc na naomh go raibh acu
agus ag an chlann mac is iníon atá leo.
(May they rest in the company of the saints,
and their sons and daughters with them.)
(many thanks to Chanman at Buckhorn Road for sending information my way.)
September 11th, 2009
Has it really been eight years?
On this day, we must remind ourselves of the horror and the chaos of September 11th. We must remember the images of planes crashing into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. We must remember the fallen, not only in the WTC's destruction, but those who died in the rescue efforts as well as those brave souls who stormed the cockpit of United 93 and averted another bloody attack. "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."
Sometimes I wonder if we have truly forgotten. I look at our elected officials and wonder how on earth some of them were elected. It seems that we are regressing toward a September 10th mentality and hoping that if we don't talk about terrorism, think about it, or take necessary steps to fight it, then it will simply disappear. This is unrealistic and holds fatal consequences.
There are also those who blame America first, saying that if only we would stop meddling around with Israel and other nations' affairs, then this could all be avoided. We need to understand the terrorists and realize that it is their poverty and lack of education that drives them to kill. We need to listen to them, "dialogue" with them, and give them what they want. Two generations ago, Neville Chamberlain helped give Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany, and Hitler used that as a springboard from which he could invade Poland. Millions died as a result. Yet the same appeasers would have us play Chamberlain today and surrender ourselves to the terrorists. Remarkable.
Make no mistake: the Islamofascists are hellbent on killing as many "infidels" as they can. We must do whatever is necessary to ensure that they fail. If that means going to war, we go to war. If that means stepping on the world's toes, we step. If that means being hated and ridiculed, then it is what it is. We must never compromise. As Winston Churchill said in the days of World War II, "Never, never, never, never give up."
I will reiterate the point that I made a year ago: There can be no peace with evildoers who are hellbent on our destruction. We cannot lay down our arms for them, as that will only make us easier targets. We must fight back. As George W. Bush said in November 2001, "You're either with us or against us in the fight against terror." Whose side are you on?
We're going to kill them all.
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