Pat Coston Movie Reviews

2011-01-08T17:25:00.001-08:00

New Movies in 2011

As of this post there were 5,959 movies listed to be released in 2011. I would assume that is worldwide including all of the Bollywood movies in India for which there are many more made than in Hollywood.

Below is a list of the 2011 movies I (1) definitely want to see (2) maybe want to see (3) definitely don't want to see. I only looked through the first 500 on that list on imdb.com to get ideas for this list.

Science Fiction

Cowboys & Aliens- very cool concept. High technology in the wild wild west.
Iron Sky - In 1945, the Nazis went to the moon. In 2018 they are coming back.
Battle: Los Angeles - Reminds me of Skyline which I also enjoyed and crave for a sequel
The Darkest Hour - In Russia, a group of kids struggle to survive after an alien invasion. Yet another alien invasion movie.
Source Code - very cool idea about reliving the past in some kind of virtual reality
Real Steel - Battlebots made huge
Area 51 - some kids happen upon Area 51
Super 8 - SciFi written and Directed by JJ Abrams
Contagion - some kind of virus break-out movie
The Killing Game - A man is forced into the savage world of a modern gladiatorial arena, where men fight to the death for the entertainment of the online masses.
The Host - One soul, the Wanderer, is fused with a dying human named Melanie Stryder, in an attempt to locate the last pocket of surviving humans on Earth.
The Divide - To survive the end of the world you must first survive each other.
Now - In the not-too-distant future the aging gene has been switched off. To avoid overpopulation, time has become the currency and the way people pay for luxuries and necessities
The Adjustment Bureau - follow "the plan" or the adjustment bureau will have you "adjusted"
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - based on the book. I love zombie movies and this will be the first 19th century zombie movie I'll have seen.

Comedy

The Dilemma - A man discovers that his best friend's wife is having an affair. Vince Vaughn is always funny in my book.
Take Me Home Tonight - Follow an aimless college grad who pursues his dream girl at a wild Labor Day weekend party. He, his twin sister and their best friend struggle with their burgeoning adulthood over the course of the night.
Jack and Jill - there are like 30 movies with this title. This one stars Adam Sandler so it's probably funny.
Wanderlust - An urban couple branch out to live a more counter-culture lifestyle. Stars Jennifer Anniston.
LOL - In a world connected by YouTube, iTunes, and Facebook, Lola and her friends navigate the peer pressures of high school romance and friendship while dodging their sometimes overbearing and confused parents.
Just Go with It - Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler yet again.
Paul - Two British comic-book geeks traveling across the U.S. encounter an alien outside Area 51.

Drama, Action, Mystery and/or Thrillers

On the Road - A young man sets out to travel the roads and railways of America. Sounds interesting.
Inferno: A Linda Lovelace Story - The story of the adult movie Deep Throat
Wrecked - Yet another movie which feels like the TV show "I Should Not Be Alive"
K-11 - Kristin Stewart stars. That's good enough for me.
Restless - The story of a terminally ill teenage girl who falls for a boy who likes to attend funerals and their encounters with the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot from WWII. There are a lot of movies with this title.
How I Spent My Summer Vacation - Mel Gibson
The Ledge - something about fundamentalist Christians and an atheist escalates into a lethal battle of wills.
The Impossible
Waco - based on the real incident in Waco Texas
Ten - Starring Bruce Willis
The Grandmasters - The story of the martial-arts master who trained Bruce Lee.
Shadows from the Sky - What if... the pilot about to land your plane has become incapacitated, but you don't know about it. Worse still, neither does he.
Number 13 - On the set of his latest production, Alfred Hitchcock is ensnared in a love triangle and murder mystery that echoes the themes of his work.
The Beaver - No, it's not based the TV show from the 50s called Leave it to Beaver. It's yet another Mel Gibson movie, this time directed by Jodie Foster.
Apollo 18 - A film about the real mission to space in the 1970's that was canceled by NASA.
Sucker Punch - Forget the plot. Go see it for the amazing CG effects!
Friends with Benefits - The relationship between two friends gets complicated when they decide to get romantic. Same plot as No Strings Attached? Stars Justin Timberlake, Mila Kunis, Emma Stone and Woody Harrelson.
No Strings Attached - there are a lot of movies with this title. Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. Same plot as Friends with Benefits? Movies seem to come in pairs sometimes.

Sequels

A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas - I've loved the Harold & Kumar movies
Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules - the first movie was very good
Blue Crush 2 - enjoyed the first movie
Zombieland 2 - enjoyed the first movie
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 - I love the Twilight saga
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 - it's finally going to end. Loving it.
The Hangover Part II - Loved the first movie.
Sherlock Holmes Sequel Part 2 (untitled) - first movie pretty good
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol - I like the Mission Impossible movies
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - I've enjoyed all of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Reboots- I liked the originals so I'll probably see the remakes

Footloose
Red Dawn
Ghost in the Shell
Battle Royale
Rise of the Apes

CG Animation Movies

Rango - Awesome animation. I like how the animation was sort of based on the actors acting out the scenes. Johny Depp does the voice for Rango.
Kung Fu Panda 2 - Love Jack Black and loved the first movie.
Cars 2 - First movie was awesome.
Mars Needs Moms - The trailers look pretty good
Noah's Ark: The New Beginning - Hmmm ... need to see a trailer.

Super Hero Movies

X-Men: First Class - I'll see any comic book movie
The Wolverine - I'm into the X-Men movies and all of the spin-offs
Green Lantern - Not a big fan of the Green Lantern movie. I don't know how that title has stayed around for so long. As a kid, I thought Green Lantern was stupid. I can't believe the huge universe they've built up behind the Green Lantern.
The Green Hornet - Seth Green is hilarious. Looks good.
Captain America: The First Avenger - it will be interesting to see how the Avengers will pull together all of the various Marvel Comics franchises into one.
Luke Cage - I wasn't a big fan of the Luke Cage comic book but I'll go see it anyway.
Thor - I'm not a big fan of Thor but I'll go see it anyway.
The Man with the Iron Fist - I'm assuming this is based on the Marvel comic Iron Fist
Limitless - A copywriter discovers a top-secret drug which bestows him with super human abilities.

Movies I might see

Wild Hogs 2: Bachelor Ride - linked part 1
Death Note - saw a bit of the anime. Looked interesting.
The Crow - a reboot?
Vivid - maybe too creepy for me. A serial killer places his consciousness into the bodies of various individuals in order to experience what it is like to live and die as another person.
Them - a remake? One woman's journey to unmask the secret rulers of the world.

Definitely don't want to see

Arthur - Reboot. Didn't like the original
Conan the Barbarian - Reboot: I'm not into barbarian movies.
Straw Dogs - Remake: No interest
Scream 4 - Horror: I've seen Scream 1, 2 and 3. I'm done with it.
Halloween III - Horror: I've seen every Halloween movie. I'm done with it. Wait, there was already a Halloween III:Season of the Witch movie. Is this like a reboot/remake of one of the sequels??? BTW, Nick Cage stars in a new movie named Season of the Witch which opened yesterday.
Paranormal Activity 3 - Horror: No interest
Final Destination 5 - Horror: I've seen most of the Final Destination Movies. I'm done with it.
Scary Movie 5 - Comedy: I've seen most of the Scary Movies. I'm done with it.
Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World - Saw the first Spy Kids. Bored.
The Thing
Jeepers Creepers 3: Cathedral - Horror:No interest in any of these movies
xXx: The Return of Xander Cage - Action: Saw the first one. Bored.
Sleepaway Camp Reunion - Horror: Remake - saw the original. That's enough for me.
National Treasure 3 - Action/Drama: Saw the first one. That's enough for me.
Happy Feet 2 in 3D - CG Animation: No interest
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair - CG + Real Life - Saw the first movie. Bored. Is this like the 4th movie?
Puss in Boots - I'm bored with Shrek and its spin-offs
Universal Soldier: A New Dimension - Action: Saw the first movie. It was OK. Unless they can put some new spin on it that interests me, I'm skipping this one.
Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 - CG Dogs: No interest in any of these movies
Grayskull - Based on He-Man. After my time. No interest
S.W.A.T.: Fire Fight - Action/Sequel: Saw the first one. That's enough for me.
Pee-Wee-Herman movie (Untitled) - Comedy: First one mildly entertaining. That's enough for me.
Super Troopers 2 - Comedy: First one was funny. OK, I might just give this one a try if the trailer looks funny.

2011-01-06T18:05:00.001-08:00

My Favorite Movies of 2010

I did an advanced search on imdb for movies released in 2010 and discovered there are 7,503 of them! I looked through the first 1000 and made this list of movies I've seen and movies I would like to see. The two lists are ordered from favorite to least favorite.

I saw 35 movies which were released in 2010. I actually saw more movies via NetFlix but this list is just about the 2010 movies.

Inception - one of the best movies in the past decade
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - entertaining from start to finish
Eclipse - yes, I'm a huge Twilight fan. I admit it.
Kick-Ass - I'm a sucker for super hero movies, especially about ordinary people. The foul-mouthed 12-year old girl who could take-out a room of thugs, was also cool to watch.
The King's Speech - we can all relate to stage fright. Overcoming it may take years of hard mental and physical work. Based on true events. Great movie.
Black Swan - The pressures of work can really get to us sometimes and in this case, drive us crazy. Seeking perfection is an unrealistic goal.
The Fighter - you can probably relate to trying, succeeding then later failing, then trying harder and succeeding again. Boxing is a really tough profession.
The Karate Kid - I was not a fan of the original but loved the remake
Hot Tub Time Machine - I dropped in on the movies with nothing in mind to see and spotted this movie I never heard about. I loved the idea of going back to the 70s to right the wrongs.
Let Me In - I saw the Swedish original Let The Right One In and it really left an impression on me. The American remake was really true to the original movie. I was thoroughly impressed.
127 Hours -My adventures could have put me in similar situations where I would be forced to do something extreme to survive. This movie really made wonder what I would do in this situation.
Eat Pray Love - I loved this movie about seeking the meaning of life.
The Book of Eli - Gritty post-apocalyptic movie about one man's goal to preserve the King James Version of the bible owning the last copy in existence.
True Grit - I never saw the original but this movie hooked me from start to finish.
The Other Guys - Very funny movie that pokes fun at police action movies.
Get Him to the Greek - likable characters put in very funny situations. The rock star also learns something in the end.
Secretariat - based on the true story of the greatest race horse ever. I love racing movies.
Due Date - Funny road trip movie that goes way over the edge.
Date Night - Mistaken identity, crazy chases ... very funny.
Skyline - Great special effects and exciting story about alien invasion. I can't wait for the sequel! It felt like the movie was just starting when it ended.
The Social Network -Fascinating movie about how brains, luck and talent played a part in making some people very rich.
Iron Man 2 - Not as good as the first movie but still very entertaining. I look forward to the sequels as well as expanding Marvel comics movies yet to come out.
The Crazies -yet another survivor movie during a zombie break-out. I do love the zombie movies for some reason.
Gulliver's Travels -great special effects and funny remake of the old classic story.
It's Kind of a Funny Story -funny and touching story about mental illness
Diary of a Wimpy Kid -I can relate to being a wimpy kid in school struggling with bullies and popular kids.
Grown Ups -I can relate to being a kid in an adults body.
Devil -From the mind of M. Night Shyamalan. This was his best movie in a long time.
Love and Other Drugs -
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 -Yes, I enjoy the Harry Potter movies. I have not read the books. Part 1 was kind of boring at times but I understand it's just the setup for the real ending.
Tron: Legacy -I loved the original and the remake was pretty good too.
Frozen -scary because it can happen to you. It really makes me wonder what I would do.
Alice in Wonderland -you either love or hate this movie. I hated it.
Megamind -Some good parts but for the most part, I was bored surprisingly.
Alpha and Omega -Cute story and good animation.
Furry Vengeance -I really did not like this movie about animal revenge.
Nanny McPhee Returns -silly movie. good for kids though.
Marmaduke -Awful.

Movies I missed but want to see

Super
Shutter Island
The Experiment
Easy A
Going the Distance
Happythankyoumoreplease
The Virginity Hit
She's Out of My League
Kaboom
Edge of Darkness
Flipped
The Freebie
Hesher
Tiny Furniture
Father of Invention
Seven Days
Trust
I'm Still Here
Monsters
Despicable Me
Toy Story 3
Knight and Day
Sex and the City 2
The Expendables

2010-06-08T20:22:00.000-07:00

The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard

I wanted to see this when it came on in theaters but somehow missed it. I just watched it on DVD and loved it. It's a little uneven and over the top sometimes but they made a strong effort to get some good laughs. I was most impressed with an amazing cast. You either love or hate this movie. What blew me away is all of the actors I recognized. You should see it just for the amazing talent this movie features.

Let's first start with the star, Jeremy Piven. I'm a big fan of this actor since I saw him star in one of my all time favorite movies, PCU. Say Anything is one of my favorite movies and I think that's his second movie ever. He followed John Cusack into a roll in the movie Grosse Pointe Blank. He was also in The Grifters with John Cusack. I just learned why. They're buddies. He was in Black Hawk Down? I don't remember his character. OK, let's move on.

Ving Rhames is #2 in the credits. I have seen him in a lot of movies, none that I can recall by memory but a quick look on NetFlix and I see that I saw him in Jacob's Ladder, Dave, Striptease, Mission Impossible I and II, Con Air and Surrogates. I definitely remember him now from Pulp Fiction.

Will Farrell has a short but memorable roll in the film.

Alan Thicke whom I first saw as the dad on Growing Pains. I have the feeling I've seen him in other movies but I can't think of them.

I don't recall ever seeing James Brolin before but I have seen his movies for example Our Man Flint, Fantastic Voyage, Westworld, The Car, Capricon One and Catch me if you can.

I remember David Koechner from The 40 year old Virgin, Thank You for Smoking, Talladega Nights, Snakes on a Plane, Drillbit Taylor, Get Smart, Sex Drive, Extract and on TV, The Office.

For me, Kathryn Hahn had the best character. She really went beyond what she normally plays. I've seen her in Anchorman, The Last Mimzy, Crossing Jordan (TV) and Step Brothers.

I love Ed Helms in The Office. Here he plays a very similar character except a little more extreme and nasty. He was awesome in The Hangover. I've seen him in Walk Hard, Semi-Pro and Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.

Another delight was Jordana Spiro. I can't recall ever seeing her before but she was not your typical female start. She had a very unusual voice that made her stand out. I haven't really seen her movies but I might have caught her on TV. She's done episodes of CSI:NY and Cold Case to name a couple.

Craig Robinson is one funny guy. He was a crazy SOB in this movie. I'm familiar with him from The Office, Knocked Up, Walk Hard, Fanboys and Pineapple Express. I especially liked him in Zack and Miri make a Porno and most recently, Hot Tub Time Machine. The guy is a riot.

I first got to know Tony Hale in Arrested Development. I think he's under utilized in this movie. I've seen him in RV and The Informant!

I've seen Ken Jeong in a lot of movies. I didn't like this character in Furry Vegeance but I've enjoyed him in The Hangover, Knocked Up, Step Brother's, Pineapple Express and Couples Retreat.

I've seen Rob Riggle (funny name) in Step Brothers, The Hanger, The Office and Furry Vengeance.

Joey Kern is the only main actor I didn't recognize from another movie or TV show. He was one of the "boys" in the man band BigUps.

The old guy who fought in a World War is Charles Napier. He's so old, he was in an episode of Hogan's Heroes in 1969. He was also in one episode of Star Trek (the original series 1969). I was in the TV shows Mission Impossible, Kojak, Baretta, The Rockford Files and Starsky and Hutch so I've probably seen him when he was younger. He was in the movie The Blues Brothers movie and other TV shows I've seen like BJ and the Bear, Walking Tall, Private Benjamin, The Incredible Hulk, Knight Rider, Simon & Simon, CHiPs, Dallas, Night Court, The A-Team, Murder She Wrote, Louis & Clark, Star Trek DS9, CSI, Monk and The Night Stalker. Other movies I've seen that he was in are Silence of the Lambs, The Grifters, Philadelphia and Austin Powers. It sure would be great if they had a photo of the actor from every movie and TV show they were in. I'd probably recognize the guy.

And last but certain not least in the funny dept is Kristen Schaal who I first became aware in the series Flight of the Conchords for which I've seen every episode. I've seen her interviewed and she really does act and talk like that.

2010-05-27T15:44:00.000-07:00

Daybreakers

I had never heard of this movie before NetFlix recommended it to me. It's a SciFi vampire movie that has some really interesting concepts. Somehow a bat virus got into humans turning them into vampires. It spread through the population until there were almost no humans left. This is a problem since the vampires live off blood harvest from humans. Once a vampire begins starvation, they begin to mutate into man-sized bats and can make a full transformation within weeks. These creatures would feed off other vampires or any humans they might happen upon.

These were true vampires in every sense. They had the fangs, the yellow eyes and immortality. They could also be killed by sunlight and a stake to the chest. Any wooden object thrust into their chest would cause a vampire to explode into flames. Sunlight would fry a vampire into ashes within 20 seconds.

Vampire scientists are hard at work to find an artificial blood that can be manufactured to replace the human blood. So far all attempts have failed.

One man claims he has found a cure. He was a vampire but accidentally cured himself by exposing himself to sunlight then snuffing out the flames after a precise time so that he didn't die, but his heart was restarted. The transformation happens within a minute with the eyes returning to normal color and somehow their fangs disappear instantly as well. They return to being human and can walk in the sunlight and do not explode when their chests are penetrated by wooden objects.

Any vampire that feeds off a cured vampire turns into a human. A vampire scientist gets cured and tries to bring the cure back but his friend scientist has found a blood substitute and can make a fortune selling it. He's worked for 10 years on creating artificial blood so he wants to stomp out any cure. He likes being a vampire. He's in perfect health, can smoke all the cigarettes he wants with no ill effects and can live forever. Sounds good to me.

I'm not sure what Vampire culture was like. Do they have babies or does everyone just stay the same age for life? If you were 10 years old when you became a vampire, do you stay 10 forever? Do vampires enjoy music and art? There was artwork on the walls inside the houses so they probably did. Do vampires love? This one businessman vampire loved his human daughter.

Life in the future in vampire world look pretty good. They enjoyed high technology and seemed to be living pretty good lives. They even had cars that could drive around during the day with shades windows and cameras to see in all directions. They could be out during the day as long as they stayed in the shade and away from direct sunlight. Indirect sunlight was OK.

Since they had a cure and had artificial blood, it seems they had the best of both worlds. Those who wanted to be human again could convert. Those who wanted to be vampires could convert. Those who wanted to stay human or vampire could stay and the two populations could live side-by-side together but the movie ended to suggest that humans and vampires are still human and that the quest to convert the world back to humans would continue.

2010-04-16T15:40:00.001-07:00

Kick-Ass

I'm still a little bit in shock after watching Kick-Ass which definitely lived up to its name. I thought maybe I should wait a few days and absorb and contemplate what I just saw. What the hell, let's go for it. Chloe Moretz (Hit-Girl) really stands out as the 11 year old girl with the purple hair who can shred a roomful of gangsters with guns like it was child's play. Hit-Girl is the new Grrrrl Power poster girl. This movie is rated R for a reason. The violence is way more extreme than you'd see in a PG-13 flick. The potty mouth on Hit-Girl is pretty shocking. You just don't hear 11 year old girls use that kind of language in movies. There is sex and nudity so it has everything to bump it up to an R-rating. What is up with Clark Duke. His career is on fire with Superbad, Sex Drive, Hot Tub Time Machine and now Kick Ass. Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays Red Mist. You might remember him as Fogell in Superbad. I didn't recognize him in the Red Mist outfit. The Red Mist setup at the end is proof there will be a sequel. I waited to the end of the credits but there was no bonus scene. I was able to suspend disbelief until the scene with the jet pack. Modern jet packs can only stay aloft for about 1 minute and this one definitely exceed that time limit. Plus I think having gatling guns on each shoulder would not only leave you deaf but the kick back would send someone in a jet pack flying backwards. Hit-Girl does this amazing move where she ejects her hand-gun cartridges and flips two more up in the air as she's running and manages to slam the guns onto them in mid-air. I'm not sure that's possible but it was certainly cool to watch. I thought Big-Daddy looked too much like Batman. I saw a web page that compared the comic to the movie and he had a very different appearance in the comic. So did Red Mist. One final thought ... I don't think anyone will dress up and try to be a superhero. The movie definitely made it clear that fighting crime is dangerous to your health.

2010-04-13T04:11:00.001-07:00

Pandorum (2009) stars Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster. I love SciFi movies involving massive Starship Arcs traveling thousands of years with millions of people in suspended animation. As I kid I loved the British TV show StarLost which had the same plot. I never heard of this movie and only learned about it from a NetFlix recommend but I was pleasantly surprised. I feel inspired to write my own SciFi story involving a massive Starship traveling thousands of years with millions of people in suspended animation. I'd love to know where they filmed this. The set was amazing. Lesson learned: DO NOT trust a cute little alien child. She may be smiling and looking all cute but it's only to draw you close so she can cut your throat.

2010-04-13T04:05:00.001-07:00

Lars and the Real Girl

This is a hidden treasure. I never heard of this movie until NetFlix recommended it. Here is the NetFlix description: "When a delusional loner buys a life-size sex doll over the Internet, promptly falls in love with her and starts telling people that the doll is his girlfriend, his brother and sister-in-law decide it's time to intervene." Based on the advice from a psychologist, everyone decides to go along with his delusion and gets very involved in the life of this sex doll. The sex doll ends up making a big impact on people's lives in a positive way including Lars. This is really a feel good movie that I recommend. People who rented this movie also rented Maid-Droid. I added that to my queue but have not watched it. Here is description: "When he tries to reprogram his robotic maid to gratify him sexually, he begins to fall in love with the droid -- only to discover that her batteries are slowly but permanently losing their power. Meanwhile, a detective investigates a series of rapes that may be connected to the robot." A NetFlix member review says "This is a great movie, but not for the reasons you would think by reading the summary." I would say that is true for "Lars and the Real Girl" too. I found another "sex doll" movie called Love Object but it's a horror flick so I'll avoid that one. Here's the description: "Attempting to get over his fear of revealing his feelings to his co-worker, he purchases a realistic doll named Nikki that looks like Lisa and eventually works up the nerve to talk to his dream girl. Unfortunately, the doll soon becomes jealous of Kenneth's affection for Lisa and reveals her violent tendencies." I had no idea there were so many movies about sex dolls. We have a drama, scifi and horror. What we need is a sex doll comedy.

2010-04-13T03:57:00.001-07:00

Special

The superhero movie Kick-Ass is almost upon us. Can't wait for a movie about average people becoming superheroes? Then check out this hidden Indie treasure. Here's the NetFlix description: "Enrolling in a drug study to spice up his humdrum life as a low-paid meter reader, Les begins taking an experimental antidepressant, which proves to have a few unexpected side effects. Convinced that he's actually developing special powers that can be used to fight evil, Les decides to quit his day job and focus on being a superhero … despite his doctor's professional opinion that his abilities are all in his mind." imdb.com user review "A seriously under-rated masterpiece" A user review on NetFlix says "It has the lovable character quality of Lars and the Real Girl and it cleverly integrates comic books and there influence without really becoming a superhero movie or a comic book movie." Ignore that it's 25% fresh on rottentomatoes.com. A review from that site says "It may not be perfect, but this under-the-radar indie from Hal Haberman and Jeremy Passmore is smart enough to leave you glad you found it." The thing I liked is the message that anyone can do amazing things if they simply believe they can.

2010-04-13T03:49:00.001-07:00

Ice Station Zebra (1968) - Reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, who had experience both as a movie producer and a defense contractor for the U.S., is said to have watched Ice Station Zebra dozens of times on a continuous loop in his private hotel suite during the years prior to his death. This movie is 2.5 hours long with an Intermission. It stars Rock Hudson and Ernest Borgnine. I also recognized this actor named Ron Masak. I've seen him in dozens of TV shows and movies but he's never been a starring man. The guy is still working! There are no women in this movie. It is wall to wall testosterone. This is a manly man's movie. If you like submarine movies (and who doesn't) this is your cup of tea. Of course the sub has to sink to 1000+ feet and nearly implode. You can't have a sub movie without that happening! I love how when the sub is diving, the whole set is titled so everyone is standing at a 20 degree angle. Nice touch of realism. I did spot one glaring error. These jets were passing mountains when 2 minutes away from the North Pole. They allowed smoking on the submarine. Manly! My favorite line is when Ernest is checking out the nuclear engine and says "It ... it seems almost benevolent." Rock: "In that state yes. Confined. Controlled. Shielded. But it is nuclear fission and it hates being confined even more than you do." At the start it has a 2 minute Overture showing the sub and the word OVERTURE. The intermission shows the sub and the word ENTR'ACTE for 2 minutes. After the credits roll, it shows the sub and the words "EXIT MUSIC" and plays some music for 2 minutes. Interesting. The final scene is of a teletype printing out a news story indicating that the rescue went well and America and Russia worked together on this heroic mission and another example of of International cooperation ... NOT! Howard Hughes was mentally ill and I'm sure this propaganda at the end fed into his paranoia about governments and never trusting what you read.

2010-04-13T03:42:00.001-07:00

Hell's Angels

After watching Howard Hughes' favorite movie, Ice Station Zebra, I decided to follow that up with one of Howard Hughes most expensive movies which he directed called Hell's Angels (1930) which by the way is one of Stanley Kubrick's 10 favorite films. It's the story of two brothers who become combat fighter pilots in World War I. One is a coward and the other is brave. The film is amazing for many reasons. About half the film was shot as a silent film before it was decided to re-shoot it as a talkie. Some of the scenes appear to be from the original silent cut since they appear to be running at double-speed and yet re-dubbed with normal speed voices. Some scenes were filmed in Multicolor and printed by Technicolor. It's a little odd watching a black and white movie then have it go into color. Night battle scenes are in a blue tint. When the zeppelin crash and burns, it's in a red tint. This works quite well. This movie was made before Hollywood starting censoring films. This has some very strong language for its time but its very tame these days for example "son of a bitch", "goddamit" and "for Christ's sake". The scene where they bomb the ammo depo is freakin' amazing even by today's standards. They really do blow up a whole lot of buildings ... for real! Being one of the first talkies, you have to forgive how bad the lines sound. The transition for actors to move from silent movies to talkies could not have been easy. The sexuality is off the charts for the 1930s. Major side-boob in one scene and very low cleavage. Very passionate kissing. Lots of sexy dresses and heavy flirting. This is an anti-war film that deals with the issues of why we fight. It also deals with the nature of women ... they're all bitchy sluts that can't be trusted. The ending is quite shocking. If you want to know what I'm talking about, you can read about it on the wikipedia link below.

2010-04-13T03:32:00.001-07:00

If you liked Memento, the movie in reverse, then you'll like the movie 11:14. Just like Momento, this is a movie essentially in reverse and from different perspectives which then overlap the previous time-line. At first you ask a lot of questions like "who threw that guy off the bridge?", "why did that girl walk in front of the van?", "Whose that guy with the gun?", "what's that bowling ball doing in a grave yard?", etc. All of your questions are eventually answered as we reverse time and see what happened from the point of view of different people. Henry Thomas is at the center of everything. You'll remember him Elliot from ET. He's hilarious. He had me ROTFL. Patrick Swayze is also a major actor in this. You cannot miss Hilary Swank. Ben Foster who played the troubled artist in HBOs Six Feet Under has a key roll. 11:14 pm is the time all of the events come together in the lives of these dozen people. That is one crazy night where the paths of so many people criss-cross to create such amazing beautiful chaos!

2009-11-07T10:12:00.001-08:00

The Box

Richard Kelly extends his Darko mythos with The Box. It started with Donnie Darko and was followed by Southland Tales.

A man delivers a box with a button inside. He visits the mom and says ...

If you push the button, two things will happen. First, someone somewhere in the world whom you don't know, will die. Second, you will receive a payment of one million dollars. You have 24 hours.

You can watch the YouTube HD Trailer here. There are several scenes in the trailer that are not in the movie. Expect the DVD "The Box:Director's Cut" with those missing scenes! The picture to the left was not in the movie and seems to be part of a part in the movie where the mom and dad infiltrate the NASA building to learn its secrets.

At first I wasn't going to see The Box because there's too many movies involving super-natural forces out now including Paranormal Activity, The Fourth Kind, The Men Who Stare at Goats, A Christmas Carol and The Twilight Saga:New Moon but then I learned Richard Kelly directed and helped write the screen play. I loved Donnie Darko and Southland Tales and I also loved The Box. I also can't wait to see what Richard Kelly has in store for us in the future.

The movie goes way beyond what it shown in the trailer. Their decision of whether to push the button or not will affect all of mankind, not just one person. The right thing to do, of course, is not to push the button. It's wrong to kill someone, even for one million dollars. But we all have our price ... a level of reward we'll accept to do something against our ethics and morals. If most of us humans would push the button, do we deserve to live as a race?

The visuals and special effects are often reminiscent of Donnie Darko. In fact, there are visuals that are taken directly from Donnie Darko linking them into the same universe. This movie occurs in the 1970s so you can think of it as a prequel to Donnie Darko.

One good point the movie makes is from a quote from Arthur C. Clarke, "Profiles of The Future", 1961 (Clarke's third law) where he says "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. " This is especially true in this movie. I'd like to think that it is 100% science fiction with no super natural element and yet I've read descriptions that say it has super natural elements in it. I think they are confusing magic with advanced technology.

2009-10-25T14:07:00.001-07:00

Kevin Smith at the Orpheum

This is not a movie a review but I posted it here because Kevin Smith is a movie maker. Plus, shows like the Q&A show I saw can be seen on DVD on 3 other movies he made in 2002, 2006 and 2008.

I saw the first two of the three of Kevin Smith's Q&A movies which were An Evening with Kevin Smith (2002) and An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder (2006). The live show was more of the same but of course he's talking about things that are relevant and interesting to him now. A few years ago, Kevin left NJ and moved to Beverly Hills and now lives in Ben Affleck's old house. I was shocked that he would leave NJ because I thought he a hard-core Jersey boy. But then I thought it about some more and realized that it made sense. It helps to be at the center of the entertainment universe (Hollywood) if you're trying to be successful. There is more opportunities to be great out here.

BTW, Kevin's middle name is Patrick, same as my first name. While waiting for the show to start, they played music exclusively from Rush which is my all time favorite band. I got there very early since my ticket said it started at 6:30 pm but it really started at 8 pm. It seems half the people got there at 6:30 pm and the other half arrived at 8 pm. Strange. The two guys I was standing in line with just happened to sit next to me (assigned seats). I ended up sitting between two large guys like myself so it was quite uncomfortable. I leaned forward most of the time so we could all have shoulder room. It was a full house. Most of the audience was large nerdy looking guys like myself and yet half of them had girlfriends although they were large nerdy looking girls. There were also random packs of hot looking girls at the show.

In his first two Q&A's on DVD, Kevin used the F-word every third word but I don't recall him saying Fuck a single time last night. It may be that I'm desensitized to the word at this point but I did notice he over-used the expression "that being said". I'm personally annoyed when someone overuses an expression for example there was a guy at Disney that would include "at the end of the day" every other sentence. Kevin's third Q&A movie is called Sold Out: A Threevening with Kevin Smith (2008). I just rented that on NetFlix.

A Kevin Smith Question and Answer show is hard to describe to those who have never seen it. I don't know of anyone else who does what Kevin does. He stands in front of an audience for 3 hours and takes questions non-stop letting his audience direct where his rambles go. A single question can lead to a 45 minute rant or amusing story. His mind seems to get side-tracked again and again but somehow he manages to bring it around and tie it all together. Recently I watched the movie Swimming to Cambodia where Spalding Gray gives a monologue about working on the movie The Killing Fields but that's a performance which includes music, sound-effects, special lighting and props. Kevin does not perform. He's just himself.

I was just telling my wife that I try not accept all fashion I see even if I think its ridiculous but Kevin's pant legs are getting wider every time I see him. He was like a big cartoon character up there with pant legs wide enough to wrap around my hips. I know he's a fatty but these pants just make it worse. They are funny pants and if he's trying to funny, then perhaps this is a costume and he's making fun of himself. I wonder if he normally wears those pants in public.

Kevin is a laugh-a-minute literally. He really is funny and entertaining as well as informative and inspiring. I'm a huge fanboy of Kevin Smith and part of the reason is that I'm inspired by his success. When I worked on my dot com startup, I had a go-for-broke attitude and I did go broke ... literally. Certainly if things had worked out and I was rich right now, I'd be saying that was the right thing to do but even though it hurt me financially, I try to stay positive about the experience even though I'm still recovering from it 8 years later. Before Kevin started on Clerks, he knew it would he would go broke but it was something he had to do.

I gotta admire Kevin's honesty and willing to share intimate details of his life including sex, masturbation, pooping, raising a daughter, exchanges with his wife, smoking pot, getting inspired a Wayne Gretzky documentary as well as his professional life like writing Batman for DC comics, working on the script for Ranger Danger, working with actors like Seth Rogan, Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, directing A Couple of Dicks, working on Zack and Miri Make a Porno and seeing Jason Mewes dick (filing "Porno"), etc.

Wayne Gretzky's father told Wayne at a young age to "go where the puck will be" and Kevin was inspired by that. He talked about how Judd Apatow is now doing these movies like The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Superbad and how critics say Judd makes Kevin irrelevant. At first Kevin thought his career was over but after thinking about it, he realized that there is a line of bad-taste that Judd will not pass but he himself has no problem stepping over that line.

Kevin says that making Zack and Miri Make a Porno was "going where the puck is" which is what Judd Apatow does so now he's attempting to go where the puck will be. His next major project he is writing is a hockey movie. He's half-way thru writing the script for Ranger Danger but he's putting that project on hold for a while. When he mentioned he'd be doing a hockey movie, the crowd stood up and applauded him. It was the only time the audience gave him a standing ovation besides when he arrived and left. In case you didn't know it, Kevin has a passion for hockey and all things Canadian. Hockey was prominent in Clerks for example.

Although Kevin is film maker, his true passion is for writing comics. He talked about writing for Batman. He also loves to do the smodcast where many of the stories he told tonight were already told on this podcast. His stories were obviously well rehearsed and refined which is fine. The cool thing is that nobody has any idea which way the stories will take us. Even so, he managed to fit in important info about the things he is currently working on now which is part of the reason I went to the show.

Toward the end he would often look at his mobile phone checking to see how much time was left. Someone asked him what it was like directing Tracy Morgan and at first it sounded like he had nothing to say on the subject but little by little, he started wandering from one thing to another until he fixed on his final story of the night about trying to direct Bruce Willis and how Bruce cannot be directed. This was the first time he directed a major star and he was trying to give Bruce some direction and Bruce was not having it. He quickly realized that Bruce is in control of his own performance. It was a long great story and suddenly he ended it with a punch-line and the night was over and he was gone.

2009-10-13T21:09:00.000-07:00

Robinson Crusoe on Mars

This movie was released in 1964. This was right before we went to the moon. Only a few people had been space at that point. This was as scientifically accurate as they could make the movie based on what we knew about Mars and space travel at the time. When I saw it on TV as a kid of maybe age 10, 11 or 12, I thought this must be totally accurate.

Looking back we can see what they got right and what they got wrong. They did not indicate what year the first man crash-landed on Mars so we can't fault them for being too optimistic or pessimistic.

What they got wrong:

Noise in space. Space is a vacuum so spaceships do not make sound. You would not be able to hear an orbiting ship from the surface.
In the movie, the air is thin but breathable for a time
The pressure on Mars would cause your blood to boil
There are no great fires on Mars
There would be no fireballs in space

What they got right:

Mars has ice-caps
Mars is dry like a dessert
Water cannot exist on the surface of Mars except maybe at the bottom of the deepest canyons where the atmosphere pressure might be high enough.
Mar's sky is red

Maybe's

Mars may have a molten core and therefore magnetic poles which might cause similar colored lights like the Earth's Northern Lights which are featured in the movie.

Adam West plays the astronaut who dies.

Shots of the spacecraft which you couldn't really see because it flew past the camera so fast.

There were same amazing mat paintings for landscapes.

2009-10-08T17:56:00.001-07:00

Zombieland

I went into this movie with high expectations. Usually when I do that, I'm let down but this time the movie met my expectations. I thought it was very funny and it actually made it seem fun to be the last humans on Earth battling the zombies.

I read that this was originally meant to be a TV show so there's enough material for maybe 15 sequels. Crazy. I would love to see at least one sequel and it doesn't have to be with the same people. The entire world is over-run with zombies so the sequel could be anywhere with anyone.

I love the guys rules for staying alive

Never be a hero
Always have an escape route
Always look in the back seat
Don't be afraid to use ammunition
Always double-tap to make sure they are really dead

This guy reminds me of Michael Cera and the girl reminds me of Lindsay Lohan.

They get a yellow hummer (one of my dream cars) and drive it to Hollywood where they get a map of the stars to locate the a certain celebs house. I won't spoil what happens next. It's one of the highlights of the movie. I'm itchin' to tell ya but I promised some people I'd keep my mouth shut and stop dropping spoilers in my reviews.

The zombies are stupid. They can't use weapons and they don't recognize when someone has a weapon which can easily kill them. They are simply mindless killing machines with rage ... and they're hungry for human flesh. Zombies do not bother each other unless it's in competition over who gets to kill and eat a living person. If you wear convincing zombie make-up, it will fool the zombies. Zombies focus on one thing at a time and wouldn't see the speeding car that's about to run them over while they're feasting on a recent kill. Zombies don't feel pain. If you blow off their feet, they'll keep running on the leg stubs. Zombies can't sprint but they can run and they seem to have great endurance. It's important that you have great endurance too. For this reason, the fatties are the first to go.

I would think that the zombies would all die off on their own once their food source disappeared. They spew tons of foul liquid from their mouths, you'd think that they would dehydrate very quickly.

For the living, traveling in packs seems like the best choice. When you're alone, you cannot watch your own back. You cannot cover yourself. While you're pumping gas, zombies have a way of sneaking up on you in your blind spot behind the car. If you had friends, there would be no blind spots which is why I find it strange that these various people that meet are reluctant to travel together and to trust each other. I would want at least two people standing guard while I slept.

Spoiler Start:

OK, I can't resist. There are some things that bothered me.

Zombies are attracted by lights and sound. So why would the main characters go to an amusement park and turn on all the lights, rides and music then go on a ride where they couldn't exit until the ride ended? You would think these people would have wised up by now but they go and do the stupidest thing you could possibly do ... attract attention to hundreds of zombies.

The celeb they meet wears zombie make-up so they can walk freely among the zombies and do stuff like play golf. You'd think the zombies could see past it if that zombie was acting like a living person and doing things like driving a car or playing golf. The last thing you want to do is play a joke on someone with a shotgun and sneak up behind them with zombie make-up to scare them. Not even celebs are that stupid.

Spoiler End.

People will make obvious comparisons to Shaun Of The Dead but for me, they're like apples and oranges. All you can say is that they are both funny zombie movies. They go off in completely different directions and have very different feels to them.

I'm a big fan of Woody Harrelson. He never disappoints me. I've enjoyed his performances in Cheers, White Man Can't Jump, Indecent Proposal, Natural Born Killers, Kingpin, Money Train, The People vs Larry Flint, Wag the Dog, The Thin Red Line, EdTV, Anger Management, A Scanner Darkly, No Country For Old Men, Semi-Pro and Seven Pounds. The only other actor I recognize is the celeb whose name I won't mention.

There is gore and violence and strong language but none of that bothered me. I was thoroughly entertained and I've added this movie to my list of all time favorite movies (which I'm working on posting here soon).

2009-08-18T18:16:00.000-07:00

Joe Kid on a Sting Ray
The History of BMX

Prologue: My movie reviews are different from your typical movie reviews. They are about what the movie made me feel and what memories it brought back and anything else I want to talk about. If you just want to read about the movie, then look for the blue text.

This movie meant a lot to me because BMX was my life from 1978 to about 1985 which was age 14 to 21. I took some time off due to injury but for the most part, I rode my BMX every chance I got. I can't help wonder if BMX would have been a bigger part of my life if my family had not left California for New Jersey when I was 4 years old. We lived in Redondo Beach and Garden Grove, very close the birth of BMX. I have a feeling that I would have started BMX earlier and stayed with it longer had we stayed in Southern California.

Ever since we moved to NJ, I've wanted to move back to California and I've finally made that dream come true. I've returned to my roots living here in the Los Angeles area, getting to know it all over again as an adult. I'm looking forward to attending some BMX races but just to watch.

This movie covers the birth of BMX from 1963 to present and stars so many of my BMX heroes for example ...

Stu Thomsen - IMHO the greatest BMXer of all time
Scot Breithaupt - had a huge hand in the birth of BMX racing and started the most innovate BMX bike company of all time. The company, SE, still sells the same bikes it did long ago like the PK Ripper, OM Flyer and Quadangle but Scot has since lost the company to foreign investors.
Perry Kramer - Raced for SE and had the PK Ripper named after him.
Bob Osborn - Started the magazine Bicycle Motocross Action which was my monthly BMX bible
RL Osborn - son of Bob Osborn who help innovate tricks during the early days of freestyle
Bob Haro - got famous making number plates for racers. He later started Haro bicycles and got into Freestyle. He also drew a comic for BMX Action Magazine.
Mike Buff - rode with RL Osborn and Bob Haro on the BMX Action trick-team.
Harry Leary - Maybe most famous for his signiture jump called "The Leary" of which I perfected until the day I fell and hurt my knee doing it. Strangely enough, I was immitating Harry Leary's front-wheel skids when I hurt my knee again. Thanks Harry!
Greg Hill - one of the greatest of the greats who also created a bicycle and a racing team for Greg Hill Products (GHP).
Tinker Juarez - one of the earliest racers who is still racing Mt. bikes today
Pete Loncarevich - amazing racer whose father started Loncaravich Racing Products (LRP)
Jeff Utterback - old school BMXer whose family created the company JGS (Jeff George Scott) which innovated an amazing frame and fork that some say started the modern day BMX frame geometry.
Toby Henderson - another BMX hero of mine, I would try to immitate his jumps like "The Henderson", a one-hander one-footer.
Eric Rupe - old school BMXer that stayed with the sport a long time and had a great career
Byron Friday - old school BMXer that I remember from the early BMX Action Magazines
David Clinton - old school BMXer that stayed with the sport a long time

It was great to see all these people. Scroll to the bottom to see screen captures of most of the people interviewed. Of course you can't interview everyone but I would have also loved to see ...

Eddy and Mike King
Brent and Brian Patterson
Richie and Ronnie Anderson
Timmy Judge
Robbie Rupe
Cheri Elliot - the movie does not cover girls in BMX
Tommy Brackens
Mike Miranda
Jeff Bottema
Jeff Ruminer
Charlie Litsky
Scott Clark
Bob Woods
Kevin McNeal
Denny Davidow
Darrell Young
Greg Esser
Clint Miller
Nelson Chanady
Bobby Encinas

Yeah, I was a fanboy. I did it all (almost). I raced, I jumped, I did flat-land freestyle, half-pipe and street freestyle. I never did half-pipe or bowl nor did I ever jump the massive dirt jumps they have today. The tricks they're doing today are far beyond what I did. We never did flips for example but I could do a "no hander, no footer" and a table-top (aka pancake). I even had my own signature jump I called "The Vertical" where I get my bike vertical and lean forward with the handle-bars in my crotch and touch my front wheel to my helmet leaving behind tire marks as proof.

Speaking of leaving tire tracks on helmets, that reminds me of a story. I have thousands of BMX stories but I'll spare you that novel but this movie brought back so many memories, I have to tell a few. This one time racing at Howell, I hit the table-top at speed mid-pack and I was too crowded to speed-jump and stay low so instead I pulled up and popped up high. By instinct, I did a kick-out and smacked John Shakel (Kathy Shakel's brother) in the head. Somehow I landed perfectly mid-pack and finished the race in about 3rd place. John came over to me angry and threw a punch and showed me the tire tread and scratches I left on his nice new white helmet. I didn't apologize. This was racing. You shouldn't take things personally. Sometimes you get smacked in the head.

Hank Russ laid me flat while I was leading the 14 over open at Craigmeur. He was 16 years old and wore foot-ball shoulder pads and I was 14 and very lightweight. I didn't complain.

Mike Huhndorf swooped me in the first turn of Craigmeur while I was leading the 14 Novice main at the 1978 NBA Nationals. He tried to put me over the berm (a common practice at Craigmuer). He crashed me to last place, I didn't complain. I got right up and passed 4 riders and finished 4th and got the biggest trophy I ever had up until that point. BMX certainly had it complainers. Every time I crashed Tommy Anderson or got in his way, he'd complain.

This one time at Englishtown, NJ, I was leading the 14 over open into the last hair-pin turn with Tommy on my inside. I slowed to a stop and he slammed into me. I just stood there blocking his way. He shouted and hit my leg with his front wheel screaming for me to go. I just watched as the idiots behind us all took the inside and piled up one by one. If they were smart, they would have passed on the outside. Once all 7 riders had piled up into a jam, I took off and won the race. I ended up tripling that day getting first place in 16-expert, 14-over and the trophy dash. Tommy finished second in the trophy dash and jumped off his bike letting it ghost ride while he tumbled then laid there crying.

I never cried when I lost. One day at Howell, NJ I broke my wrist after trying to clear the triple whoop-de-doos. Somehow I qualified for the main-event and hole-shotted with a broken wrist. Around the second turn I blocked a rider on the inside but another ride got around on the outside and won it and I finished second. I didn't cry. I was happy to hole-shot and lead the race for a while with a broken wrist. In hindsight, I shouldn't have raced but back then, I raced injured.

This one time at Howell, NJ, I was leading but lost control over the table-top jump and my foot came off the pedal and slammed into the ground and somehow dislocated my knee. I was delirious with pain and steered off the track without looking and got slammed by a couple of riders. We tumbled and my knee popped back in. Somehow I made the main event but slammed into the gate and finished last. I didn't cry.

In another race at Englishtown, NJ, a rider tried to pass me in the S-turns. I blocked with my hip and he went down hard and broke his collar bone. I was criticized for my hip check but that's how I learned to ride at Craigmeur. You had to be aggressive in those early days. BMX really mellowed in the 80s with referees getting stricter about obstructing the path of another rider. Ridiculous! That's racing. The greatest rider of all time was actually not that aggressive as far as crashing other riders goes. The movie pointed out that other riders like the Patterson brothers, Brent and Brian, would gang up on Stu Thomsen and crash him.

I remember Arty Patterson tried to pass me on the inside at Howell so I lifted my elbow up under his handle-bars and lifted his front-wheel off the ground and he spilled causing a pile-up but Arty Patterson didn't complain. He knew this was a part of racing.

This one time I slid sideways through the turn while everyone else was slowing down and going through the turn with more slowly with their feet on the pedals while I had my leg out bonzai style. I just assumed everyone else would get sideways too so we'd all be in sync but we were out of sync and I slammed into a few people and they criticized me for being out of control. I responded by saying my style is to take the turn in a controlled drift. We all have our own style. Nobody's style is right or wrong. They're just different so deal with it.

One of my idols growing up was Evel Knievel. I had a ross banana seat bike which I loved to do wheelies, ghost ride and jump small wooden jumps we would make on the street. The frame eventually snapped in half so when I was 12 so my parents bought me a bike with full suspension and a fake gas tank. I loved riding down stairs and hitting curbs at speed. That thing was a tank and I would dish out lots of punishment and it would take it. The local bike shop would keep a running tab of my repairs then my dad pay the bill each weekend. Eventually that bike died as well so at age 13, my parents bought me a Motomag Mongoose with Chrome moly frame and fork. It had no suspension but those motomag wheels where never bent. At age 14, I traded my heavy coaster-brake motomag mongoose for a lightweight freewheeled Team Mongoose. I went on to have many bikes like a Torker, PK Ripper, Redline Proline and GT.

Scot Breithaupt held one of the first BMX races in Long Beach in Nov 1970. At that point I had already moved to NJ but I like to think that maybe I might have raced at BUMS or the downhill tracks in California mentioned in the movie like Malibu country club, Soledad Sands and Carona. I had Craigmeur in NJ but it wasn't as impressive as these gnarly downhill tracks. I wish more tracks had been downhill. I always thought tracks should a mile long, not this 1/4 mile long wimpy tracks. BMX was so much about sprinting but I wish it was a combination of sprinting and endurance. I would love to see kids passing at the end because the other kids were running out of gas. I had really good endurance. If tracks had been 1 mile long, I would have won more races. I was more of an endurance rider than a sprinter.

I think it would be cool to build an indoor track that was 10 stories high. It would be a dirt course with none of these concrete jumps and turns you see today. All races would be recorded and uploaded to some place like YouTube and riders would have a way to watch their races. RFID tags on the front axle could be used to automatically track the order the riders finish. The course would be a mile long and there would be no perfect gearing. There would be long fast straights where a 46-16 would be perfect for going 30+ mph as well as tight sections where you slow to about 10 mph and have to speed up again requiring a gear ratio like 42-16. There would be no perfect crank length either. You would need to spin with short cranks and you would need to explode with long cranks. The track would not cater to one type of rider but have a variety of surfaces, jumps, turns and of course give the advantage to the trailing riders so there's lot of passing and anyone can win it right up to the finish. Leading riders would have trouble pulling away from the pack and trailing riders would be able to catch up easily. There would also be 4 different tracks for beginner, novice, expert and pro. The Pro course would feature massive jumps and extreme sections to challenge the best of riders. All courses would be designed for safety which is why dirt is the best choice. The dirt should never get rock hard. The building would be climate controlled so the dirt would always be moist a little soft. That is my dream BMX course. There would be TV screens everywhere to watch the entire race from start to finish. There would be terminals available so kids could have 15 minutes to review their race footage, in slow motion if they wanted to.

As mentioned in the movie, BMX goes through fads that explode and die out. It cycles. I think the computer technology and the internet will help take BMX into the future. I would love to have the movies of every BMX race I was in. Imagine if that was available in the future and the movies were online forever? You could relive your glory days when you're 70.

The movie talks about how aggressive BMX was in those early days around 1975. I first raced in 1977 but really got into it in 1978. At that time, BMX was like football. It was OK to body slam someone and put them over the berm. In fact, I got slammed and put down a lot. I got injured in 1979 and came back in 1980 but things had changed. Being a dirty rider was no longer tolerated. Riders used to go into turns full speed and toss the bike sideways and power-slide through the turn but by 1980, the style had changed. Riders tried to go through turns with their feet on the pedals by slowing down. Brakes were so important all of a sudden. I was always working on my brakes to make them work as good as possible.

The movie talks about Rick Twomey's BMX team. They were one of the first teams that had really good equipment. They had one of the most famous teams of that era. They also raced side-hacks. I had a side-hack which I raced at Craigmeur. I have a great black-and-white 8x10 of me sliding along the ground after my side-hack flipped in the first turn at Craigmeur. My "monkey" (the guy in the side car) leaned the wrong way trying to block the other side-hack and flipped us. I always wanted to start a BMX team and sponsor kids and give them the opportunities I didn't have. If I ever can afford it, I will definitely do that someday ... not for profit but simply to get involved and give back to BMX because it gave so much to me.

The movie covered the Yamaha Bicycle God Cup in 1974. I've read about it in BMX Action Magazine. The finals were at the LA Coloseum. It had water-holes, banked turns, wooden jumps, etc. It was a portable BMX track. 16,000 spectators and 1,100 riders per event. They had cheerleaders. It must have been some spectacle. They had novice, junior and expert and your age, weight and height determined what class you rode. It was very boy centric. I wonder if any girls raced. A lot of riders were riding ordinary Schwinn Stingray bicycles with banana seats and riser handle bars. In fact, there was nothing special about some of these bikes. Handle bars with cross-bars did have pads but there was no stem pad or top-tube pad. The Junior class was packed with big name riders and won by David Clinton. The expert expert class was also packed with big name riders. A pile-up after the first water-hole gave Fred Thomas a big lead but Stu Thomsen reeled him in and easily won it. The riders that won all three classes all rode for team Dirt Master. The bike Stu Thomsen was riding looked like a Sting Ray with riser handle bars. It probably had ordinary pedals, cranks, chain, etc. It did have a 10-speed seat so at least he wasn't riding with a banana seat. Not that it would have been silly because half the kids still used banana seats. The announcer calls him "Stewy Thomsen". I've watched the footage of the start and the pile-out of the expert class, it seems Stu Thomsen got a bad start and that pile-up was a big break. After the pile-up, it appears Stu was in 5th place so he must have picked off the riders one by and one and worked his way to the front. I wonder if Stu would have been able to still win if that pile-up at the water-hole had not occurred. The announcer gets confused when Stu is in second and says "Number 59 in second Joe Renos." Stu wins by at least 100 feet.

At one point in the movie they hint about smoking pot on tour but they don't come out and say it. Hey, it was the 70s. Scot Breithaupt had BMX tours from 1976 to 1978. He had an old school bus and he charged $600 for a seat on the bus that covered hotel, transportation, food and allowance. They traveled all over the US and really dominated where ever they went. As Scot says "It wasn't 'did you win?' It was 'how far did you win by?'" It sounds like an amazing adventure with 21 kids. When money was tight, they'd stop by Denny's, eat then leave without paying. Scot says "We made the bad news bears look like a bunch of sissies."

The movie covers the birth of Bicycle Motocross Action magazine and its influence. It also discusses how SE Racing got started. It then goes into the Jag World Championships. I learned from the movie that Perry Kramer was the first Jag World Champion.

The movie then goes into the birth of freestyle. It's interesting to me how freestyle died and was re-born from the underground movement. The preppy look with bright costumes was gone and the fashion was more grunge. The young talent amateurs started leap-frogging the established pros. It amazes me at how the sport keeps growing and evolving. Freestyle riders were inspired by skateboards. They would go to skateparks and emulate the skate boarders. The movie goes into how Bob Haro started making number plates and how it grew into a company and a freestyle team.

Bob Haro and RL Osborn came to Howell NJ and did a freestyle show that blew us away and of course we had to emulate them and start doing flat-land freestyle. My friend built a half-pipe so that was crazy. Other half-pipes got built and it was crazy. We'd just hang out in parking lots for ours doing tricks. The movie goes into how special bikes and accessories were created just for freestyle but we did freestyle on our racing bikes. I never had a freestyle bike. The movie covers a variety of freestyle teams that started to tour the country. I remember doing a BMX show at the park for a small audience of about 20 people, mostly the parents of my BMX friends. I had the parents lie down so I could bunny hop them but a park ranger came by and put a stop to it. Later, when there were no adults around, I had kids lie down in an empty parking lot so I could bunny hop them. I bunny-hopped 11 kids and would have done more but none of the kids left standing wanted to lie down since I had to get up to 25 mph in order to make it.

I never realized how much Spike Jonze was involved in BMX. They cover how John Hicks got into drugs and how it got worse and worse and he lost his career in Freestyle. He was a rock-n-roll freestyler. By 1988, Freestyle was losing major momentum as far as sponsors but new riders were still pushing the limits.

They discuss a turning point in the sport where Ron Wilkerson face slammed with an open-face helmet and was in a coma. He incurred a major brain injury and has never fully recovered. He's lucky to be alive. He didn't recognize his family and friends. The danger of freestyle became really apparent and people in the industry started to get scared and pull back due to the risk.

This DVD has tons of extras to including video footage of the 1974 Gold Cup Race. Besides watching Stu Thomsen win on what looked like a Stingray, we get to see Bob Osborn starting the races. If I didn't know better, I'd say he was flamboyantly gay. the movie has a 1978 Schwinn Promo which is a blast to watch, especially seeing a young Eric Rupe. It has a very short clip of side-hack racing and Stu's home movies. But what blew my mind was the Pro Main at the first JAG World Championship. Winner takes home $1500. The riders are Scott Clark, Steve Shobert, Brent Patterson, Tommy Brackens, Eric Rupe, Greg Hill, Stu Thomsen and Anthony Sewell. They say that Stu is the defending World Champion so it wasn't the first World Champion race. It was a flat indoor dirt track. The course was so small and the jumps were really small. Stu was angry about something and yelling at officials before the start. The course is a small U inside a U. The race lasted about 15 seconds. Greg Hill barely got the hole shot over Brent Patterson. Eric Swoops on the inside and falls into second. There's not a whole lot of room for passing so once they exit the first turn, the order is pretty much set. This is the one thing I didn't like about BMX. If I were to design a BMX course, I'd make it so the lead riders had the disadvantage and the trailing riders had the advantage. You can design it so swooping and passing in the turn is easy. A rider who is setting up for a swoop would also have a faster line with small obstacles while the lead riders would have more obstacles to stay on the inside. Slow to lead, fast to trail. There are a total of 10 film clips in the bonus section.

While doing research for this blog post I discovered that Charlie Litsky and Anthony Sewell have died. Gary Turner from GT bikes also passed away. It had to happen and of course as we get older, more and more of these old school BMX legends will die. Bob and RL Osborn are sporting what looks like massive matching tattoos on their arms. Peter Loncarevich, Stu Thomsen, Greg Hill, Perry Kramer, Harry Leary, Bob Osborn and Toby Henderson have all aged well.

Scot Breithaupt talks about his successes and failures and his problems in life. Other people are interviewed and talk about Scot's up and downs. Scot should have been the biggest there was but instead companies like Mongoose, Hutch, GT and other companies got big. If SE had excelled and continued to innovate, BMX would have been a lot different today. But Scot should still be proud for how he changed the world. He's an amazing individual, both a good racer and promoter. At the very end of the movie, Scot has the final word where he's being interviewed perhaps when he just got out of prison since he's standing next to a prison and says "I've always done everything full blast, direct drive, and it's given me a lot of successes and I've done things people say I can't do but simultaneously I've used that same energy and drive when I've had emotional problems and I dove right off the cliff. I'm lucky to be alive, the places I've been, the things I've done. I should be living in a cage like this for the rest of my life, but today I've got freedom, I've got a new drive, a new focus. Who knows what's yet to come. The possibilities are limitless. We'll see what happens in BMX too."

Screen captures from the movie.

2009-05-31T06:04:00.001-07:00

Fanboys
I'm a huge fan of Star Wars but no where near as huge as the characters in this movie. I saw Star Wars in 1978 for my 14th birthday. Me and some friends stood in line for hours to see it in this HUGE theater in New York city.

Test your Star Wars knowledge to see if you are a mega-fanboy geek. Can you answer any of these questions? The 4 main characters in this movie could easily answer these.

1. What is the name of the planet that Leia gave Grand Moff Tarkin as the false location of the rebel base location in Episode 4?
2. What is the name of gunner in Luke's land speeder?
3. Who directed by Episode 5?
4. In episode 6 when Princess Leia shoots down scout troopers, why did she walk instead of taking a speeder bike?
5. What was Luke Skywalker's call sign during the rebel assault in Episode 4?
6. What is the name of Chewbacca's home planet?

Answers

1. Tatooine
2. Dak
3. Irvin Kershner
4. if you pay attention, the land speeder was destroyed. Luke later refers to it.
5. Red 5
6. Kashyyyk

I was surprised to see how many stars appeared

Carrie Fischer - played Princess Leia Organa in Star Wars
Billy Dee Williams - played Lando Calrissian in Star Wars
Kevin Smith - played Silent Bob in Clerks
Jason Mewes - played Jay in Clerks
William Shatner - played Kirk on Star Trek
David Denman - plays Roy in The Office
Seth Rogan - plays 3 different people in this movie
Christopher McDonald - played Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore
Danny Trejo - played Machete in Spy Kids
Danny McBride - plays Will in Land of the Lost

I was hoping Harry Knowles (Ain't it cool news .com) played himself but he was played by Ethan Suplee whom I remember from such movies as The Mallrats, Butterfly Effect, American History X, Without a Paddle, Chasing Amy, Dogma and Road Trip.

I love how they visit Riverside, Iowa the future birth place of Captain Kirk. What's funny is that the new Star Trek reboot movie has Captain Kirk being born in space.

They point out that Trekky is derogatory. The term is Trekker.

The password is scruffy nerf herder.

Harrison Ford is the greatest actor of all time. Star Wars, Blade Runner, Indian Jones. He's never made a bad movie (Six days seven nights).

I love the guards in Lucas Ranch dressed up police from the Lucas movie THX 1138. There were so many inside joke fanboy references, I'm sure that I missed a lot of them.

I wasn't aware that Star Wars fanboys were at war with Star Trek fanboys. I happen to be a fanboy of boy but this movie makes it seems like the two groups are enemies.

I love how Hutch only plays Rush in his Star Wars Van. Rush is my all time favorite band. I just bought Moving Pictures on iTunes. I'm still rockin-out to Rush.

Just like Star Wars, they included the Wilhelm scream.

Van crashes thru sign "Join the Police Force"

Christopher McDonald

Seth Rogan as Klingon with bad makeup

Seth Rogan as Trekker

Seth Rogan as Pimp

Trekkin with TJ

William Shatner

Carrie Fischer

Fanboy Van with R2D2 atop

Kevin Smith

Jason Mewes

Danny McBride

Police from THX 1138

Danny Trejo

Billy Dee Williams

2009-05-30T18:39:00.000-07:00

I'm very excited about 3 scifi movies coming out in 2009. Gamer, Surrogate and District 9. Scroll down for more.

I just watched Terminator Salvation but this post is not about that movie. It's about 3 scifi movies I saw in the previews.

Gamer - Set in the future where humans can control other humans in mass-scale, multi-player online gaming environments. Watch Preview. Why didn't I think of this? Such an obvious idea now. I wonder if the players that control the real people realize that it's real.
Surrogates - Set in the future where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots - Watch Preview. It seems a logic progression. We have surrogates now online. Some of us take on alternate personalities online even changing genders and of course age. Once robots get advanced enough, it seems the next logical step. This sounds like something Philip K. Dick would have written a novel about.
District 9 - An extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth suddenly find a kindred spirit in a government agent that is exposed to their biotechnology. Watch Preview. Reminds me of the movie and TV series Alien Nation except more realistic. Seem like a metaphor for how we treat minorities.

Gamer Screenshots

Surrogate Screenshots

District 9 Screenshots

2009-05-08T06:11:00.000-07:00

My Favorite Science Fiction Movies

When I first got the idea for this post, I was going to list my top 5 favorite science fiction movies. To do this, I first needed to make a list of all of my favorite science fiction movies. Then I thought maybe I'll make a top 10 and later top 20. Now I'm just going to list all 81 of them. If the movie was special to me in any way, I'm listing it. For each movie, I'll approximate when and where (Theater or Home) I saw it. There are movies I loved at age 12 that I would not like now. You can also check out this list of the top 100 SciFi movies. Here's another list of the Top 20 SciFi Movies of the 1980s.

You may not consider some of the movies on this list to be Science Fiction but they have elements of Science Fiction in them, so they qualify in my opinion. For example: The Truman Show, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Donnie Darko, Village of the Damned or Night of the Living Dead, 28 Days Later. There are literally thousands of genres and movies always belong to multiple genres. A movie can be a highschool, teenage, comedy, drama, cowboy, scifi, horror movie all at the same time.

I thought about how to order the list for example by year of release, year I saw it, alphabetically, randomly, etc. but I think it makes the most sense to order them by how strongly I feel about them. The order is roughly how much the movies mean to me. How much did the movie influence me? How much did it make me think? It was very hard to order the movies this way. Sometimes it was like comparing apples to oranges. I just had to go with my gut feeling.

To help me sort, I ordered them into 3 groups then ordered them within the groups.

Very Very Meaningful
Very Meaningful
Meaningful

Some movies I may like because they appealed to my intellectual side and made me think and others were just really fun action escape movies and others were both.

I list the year of each movie because there are many movies with the same names. If you rent "A Boy and his Dog", you'd better make sure you get the right one! Most of the time, I prefer the original over the remake.

I include a picture with each listing. I tried to get an actual shot from the movie instead of a movie poster or publicity shot. If you click on the thumbnails, you can see a larger picture in most cases.

Group 1: Very Very Meaningful

2001:A Space Odyssey (1968) - I remember wanting to see this in the theater when I was 5 years old but my parents would not take me. Later it was on TV when I was about age 10 but I remember I had to go to bed at 9 pm so I couldn't see the ending. Finally in grad school I rented the movie on VHS and finally watched the whole thing. I've since seen it on DVD and one day I'll watch it on an HDTV on a Blu-Ray DVD. The thing I respect most about this movie is that Stanley Kubrick worked very closely with Arthur C. Clark to create a future that was possible in 2001. We did not advance that fast in reality. We rarely do. SciFi is usually too optimistic as far as future change. This movie also tried to be as realistic as possible. There is no sound in space. It is possible for a man to survive in the vacuum of space for a short period of time. When communicating with Earth from a great distance there is a significant time delay so messages will usually be one-way and any interview will have to be spliced together removing the delays. Gravity will need to be simulated by spinning things. You have to watch this movie a few times to full grasp what happens. The Monolith is sent from a superior race to Earth where it alters a small tribe of pre-historic ancestor of man, making them more intelligent. They dominate and evolve into humans. We then discover a Monolith on the moon which then sends a signal out to Jupiter. A ship is then sent out to Jupiter to investigate and we meet up with a third Monolith which helps us evolve to the next step.
Primer (2004) - Theater 2004: I could not stop thinking about it for weeks. It is perhaps the most intelligent time-travel movie ever created. The layers are too many to fathom on a first viewing. I've since rented the movie on DVD many times to unravel the layers but I still can't figure it out. There is a book called The Primer Universe that explains it all. I plan to get that book soon. These two guys invent a time machine accidentally. They were trying to invent some kind of low powered refrigeration unit. It seems totally plausible. The unfortunate side effects of time travel are also explored. It's not so good for your health. The end was the perfect setup for a sequel which I hope to see someday.
The Prestige (2006) - Theater 2006: This movie had me thinking for weeks. My realization was horrific. David Bowie is amazing at playing Nikola Tesla. I didn't see a shred of Bowie in that performance. A magician uses his wealth to pay Tesla to create a machine that essentially does what a Star Trek transporter does so he could perform the most amazing magic trick. The machine has one major flaw which I won't spoil here. The way in which the magicians works around this flaw is the horrific part.
Westworld (1973) - I saw this on TV when I was about 12 years old. I had a TV set in my bedroom and one night I couldn't sleep, so I turned on the TV and Westworld was just starting. I watched it with amazement from beginning to end. The sequel Futureworld was a disappointment to me. It offered little more than what Westworld had already covered. I'm pretty sure that Robots will become a major part of our everyday lives eventually. It's also quite possible that machine intelligence will exceed our own. When that happens, the robots may turn against us.
Silent Running (1972) - I was about 12 years old when I saw this on TV. I was really intrigued about the preservation of nature. A fleet of ships carry the last trees and plants from Earth. When the order comes to destroy these floating ships, one man is horrified. He kills the crew and hijacks the ship to preserve nature. I've since rented this on VHS and later on DVD watching it many times.
The Truman Show (1998) - Theater 1998: Reality TV to the extreme. A corporation adopts a baby and films it's an entire life until it can escape that massive world in a dome that has been built around him. I'd love to see the sequel because I'm curious how Truman will deal with the real world. Just like the Matrix, it makes you think about our own reality. What would you do if you were in Truman's place?
THX 1138 (1971) - Very early George Lucas movie which deals with how drugs can be used to control society. Everyone simply has a number. The main character's name is THX 1138. It was interesting how religion becomes a computer controlled automated process to sooth the masses. One man and his wife stop taking their mind numbing pills and began to feel again. They awake with passions that have long been suppressed. Suddenly they have illegal motivations. The man decides he no longer wants to follow blindly as society wants and instead rebels and goes on the run. Robot police follow but eventually give up when they exceed their budget for capture and THX makes his way to the surface and sees the sun setting for the first time. Sorry about the spoilers but this why the movie is meaningful to me.
The Lathe of Heaven (1980) - I saw this on TV at maybe age 16. A man learns that his dreams can alter reality. His therapist realizes this and uses him to alter the future but it back fires. Be careful what you wish for!
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) - Theater 2001: Having gone to graduate school to study AI, I found this movie fascinating. We certainly will have issues when robots approach our level of intelligence and begin to look and act just like us. I love how this movie goes thousands of years into the future and shows how mankind is eventually wiped out but our AI beings live on.
Ghost in the Shell (1995) - Theater 1995: At first I dismissed this movie as a futuristic action movie but I was surprised to learn that it dealt with very intellectual issues about our "ghost" or "spirit" and machine intelligence. We can also live a very long time in this future replacing old body parts with new ones and even have an entirely new body with the only thing left of our original selves is our brain. Perhaps even our brain can be downloaded to the Network and we can live virtually but our "soul" (ghost) is gone. This movie, its sequels and TV shows also deal with a lot of different issues we might have in the future. It's a very thought provoking movie and series.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) - Theater 2004: If you could erase painful memories, would you? A man and woman break off their relationship and want the memory of it erased. During the procedure, the man decides he wants to remember but it's too late. The process has begun, so he attempts to hide the memories in his other memories. Later the two meet again as strangers and begin to fall in love all over again when they receive packages from a disgruntled employee at the memory erasure company containing their interview tapes where they discuss each other. The special effects are amazing and the whole idea of erasing bad memories is fascinating.
Alien (1979) - Theater 1979: I was 14. It was my first R-rated movie and I was freaked for weeks to follow. If you came up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder, I'd scream. My parents forbid me to see R-rated movies after this. The look and feel of this movie were amazing. Ripley is our kick-ass chick that must fight the Alien. I'm not such a fan of the sequels even though most people probably think Alien 2 is the best of the series. I'm still loyal to the original. Seeing Sigourney Weaver in her small panties and tiny t-shirt was quite a treat for me at age 14.
Donnie Darko (2001) - Rented it when it came out on DVD but wasn't sure what happened. Later I saw the Director's cut and listened to the commentary, then it all made sense. I saw the sequel S. Darko. The "S" stands for Samantha which is the little sister played by Daveigh Chase. She's all grown up in the sequel and undergoes a similar experience to her brother Donnie. I actually enjoyed the sequel but there's nothing like the original. The great thing about the original Donnie Darko was that things were left vague and it left you thinking. In the Director's cut things are made more obvious and explicit. I don't want to be given all the answers. I like movies that challenge me and make me think.
Vanilla Sky (2001) - Theater 2001: I love surprise endings and I didn't see this one coming. What you learn at the end totally changes what really happened in the last half of the movie. I would love to re-watch this movie knowing what I know now. The second half of the movie would be totally different for me.
This Island Earth (1955) - I saw on TV and I've rented on VHS and DVD. I was maybe 14 the first time I saw this movie. My favorite scene is when they are assembling the device from the alien. It was also reviewed in the movie Mystery Science Theater 3000 which was hilarious.
The Quiet Earth (1985) - Theater 1985: I drove about 1.5 hours just to see this movie in Princeton, NJ. It was not playing in many theaters but I've always loved the concept of "last man on Earth".
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) - rented in college on VHS and later again on DVD. The remake does not compare.
Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) - I learned about this movie a few years ago thanks to a NetFlix recommend. The idea of computers taking over the world is fascinating. Computer programmed to keep us safe disarm the entire world to prevent war. It's not freedom but at least they have peace.
Solyaris (1972) - I saw the remake Solaris (2002) in theaters but later learned it was a remake. I rented the original via NetFlix and thought it was much more powerful. This can be a difficult movie to watch and it makes you question reality and happiness. The planet they orbit somehow reads your mind and materializes people and things from your memories. This is both a good and bad thing. Are these things real? My wife is dead but here she is alive again? Should I be happy or should I use logic and realize she is just a product of my imagination?
Village of the Damned (1960) - This sounds like a horror film but it's really Science Fiction. Some mysterious force field encompasses a small village and everyone in it falls asleep. When the field disappears, everyone awakes but all the women of child bearing age are pregnant. The babies all have blonde hair with mind control powers. They also grow more quickly than normal children. They believe themselves to be the next steps in human evolution. They are also hyper intelligent and can read your mind. They know people hate them so they decide to leave this small town and go into hiding until they are ready to reveal themselves. Realizing they pose a danger to the entire human race, the father of the leader comes up with a plan to destroy them.
Children of the Damned (1963) - I rented a DVD from NetFlix that had both Village and Children of the Damned on it so I watched them both back to back. They both have the same plot but they are both great movies. Children of the Damn does not make them all out to be blonde haired but instead they are normal children but each from a different place in the world. They are all brought together to be studied but they have plans of their own. They can quickly create new and deadly weapons out of common items to protect themselves. We fear what we cannot control and cannot understand.
Dark Star (1974) - I saw this in the theater at age 20. I liked it so much that I watched again and secretly taped the dialog which I wrote into a notebook and later typed up. This is an early John Carpenter movie which is very low budget but it deals with some great SciFi issues. Four astronauts blow up unstable planets to pave the way for colonization. An unfortunate sequence of events leads to Bomb 20 malfunctioning. The bombs have a certain level of AI and each has developed its own personality. Bomb 20 begins its countdown to destroy the planet except that the launch mechanism has failed so the bomb will destroy the ship. The captain tries to reason with the bomb using philosophy and logic and eventually convinces the bomb to stop the countdown. Unfortunately the bomb later concludes that it is God ... let there be light! Various members of the crew survive the blast only be to floating in space moving in different directions. Each one finds a way to make their life meaningful.
Children of Men (2006) - Humanity is doomed. Woman can no longer have children. A single woman is found to be pregnant so they must transport her to sanctuary so she can save the human race but the road is full of dangers. There is a fantastic scene about 10 minutes long with no cuts where they are in a battle zone and suddenly the two sides who are fighting realize the woman is carrying a crying baby so the battle stops as the woman walks out with all the soldiers stepping aside in amazement.
Signs (2002) - Theater 2002: Aliens invade Earth and we follow how a single family deals with the invasion. These aliens are both powerful yet weak at the same time. A series of coincidences come together to protect the family and help them to survive the ordeal. Were they truly coincidences or is there a God watching over us? These events help one man find his faith in God again.
Contact (1997) - Theater 1997: SETI makes contact and sends us the plan for a machine to transport us to meet them.
The Time Machine (1960) - It is based on H.G. Wells book of the same name. I love time travel stories and this is done so well. It's a very common theme where society is split into two different classes. We see this in Metropolis with the workers and the thinkers. This movie got me thinking about space and time. If the Earth is revolving around its axis and orbiting around the Sun and our solar system is spiraling around the center of our Milky Way galaxy which is also moving through space then how do we identify a point in space that is not moving? If we did move in time a few minutes but stayed at that point in space, went we arrived, we should be floating in the vacuum of space. A true time machine must transport the person not only in time but also in space and orientation.
Alphaville (1965) - I rented this in 1994 with a girlfriend but after the first 30 minutes, we decided not to finish it. Recently I rented it again and watched the whole thing and loved it. It's a film noir SciFi movie that is very odd at first but you get used to it. If you can stick with it, it's a very rewarding movie dealing with this city controlled by a computer.
Soylent Green (1973) - I saw part of it on TV about age 13 then rented it in college. Over population is the main problem. Suicide is accepted and welcomed. You're helping society. In fact, they have suicide centers to make your last hour very pleasing. The government pays people to commit suicide. Spoiler: Because of the food shortage, the government converts dead people to food and feeds it back to the masses. Soylent Green is people! Not seaweed crackers.
Enemy Mine (1985) - Theater 1985: A human and alien both crash land on a planet during a battle and get stranded. They must work together to survive. The alien has a child but dies during birth so the human raises the alien baby. They discover that humans have enslaved these aliens so the man tries to free the slaves and becomes a hero to the aliens. A great movie about war and friendship. The special effects, sets and makeup are also amazing.

Group 2: Very Meaningful

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) - Theater 1981: I saw this movie six times in the theater that year. That's how much I enjoyed it. I've seen it since then. In a post-apocalyptic Australian wasteland, gasoline (petrol) is the most valuable commodity. A tribe has setup its village in a refinery but the local gang wants the fuel. Time for battle! I remember the kick-ass little feral kid who threw the steel boom-a-rang with razor sharp edges.
Planet of the Apes (1968) - saw on TV about age 13 then later rented all movies. I also read all the comic books and watched the TV show. I loved Planet of the Apes growing up. I've seen all the sequels including Beneath, Escape, Conquest and Battle. I love how it's circular. By going back in time, they cause themselves to come into existence and the whole story is one big infinite loop. It's not likely we'll enslave apes to do manual labor. It's more likely we'll use robots for that but still, it's a fun set of movies but the first one is still my favorite.
Akira (1988) - Rented on VHS about 1990. I also had the comic books. Amazing Japanese anime.
Logan's Run (1976) - my parents would not let me see the movie in the theater but I did watch it on TV about 1977 but had to go to bed before the ending. In high school I read the book and did a book a report. Later in college, I rented it on VHS and have since seen it on DVD. I also had the entire series of the comic book. The idea about a future where nobody grows old is quite appealing. The only problem is everyone must commit suicide when they reach a certain age. There is no marriage and no parents. Children are made in test tubes. Population is tightly controlled. Everyone lives in sealed domes. Life is nearly a paradise. Logan is a sandman (cop) who kills runners (people who don't want to commit suicide). The main computer instructs him to find Sanctuary, this imaginary place runners try to find. Nobody ever makes it past this robot that freezes fish until Logan blasts his way out and into the outside world and meets a man who has grown old. He returns to the dome and the computer reads his mind but cannot accept the truth and goes haywire.
The Matrix (1999) - Theater 1999: I love the entire Matrix series but the first movie is still my favorite. Interesting concept that reality is just a program. Knowing this, would I want it to continue or be cast into a harsh world. I wonder.
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) - Rented in college on VHS about 1990. An alien comes to Earth to collect water to save his dying planet. He is super smart and uses his brain to raise billions of dollars to create a ship to return to his planet but he underestimates the ruthlessness of business men on Earth. I love his invention of the perfect point-and-shoot camera. It takes the perfect picture every time regardless of lighting or motion.
Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) - I saw parts of it on TV as a kid and later rented it on VHS in college and later on DVD. This movie was the start of the whole Dr. Who craze and the longest running TV show. I was quite fascinated by the Daleks. I combined ideas from Planet of the Apes and Dr. Who to create my own comic called Planet of the Robots. This Dr. Who movie really influenced my artwork and the comics I drew at the time.
Night of the Living Dead (1969) - I rented this movie in college. You might be thinking this is a horror movie. It is, but the zombies are created from radiation from a fallen satellite returning from Venus. I've seen the sequels like Dawn and Day as well movies like Shaun of Dead or the funny The Return of the Living Dead. I've even seen the remakes and some of these movie. At its root, it's really a scifi movie. There was fear when the astronauts first went to the Moon that they might bring some disease back with them. This fear was the primary motivation behind the plot of this and many other movies.
28 Days Later (2002) - Theater 2002: Super scary because Zombies were no longer slow moving idiots. These zombies could run and run very fast. They were also very angry thanks to the Rage Virus. I thought the sequel 28 Weeks Later was also excellent.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) - I had seen the original on TV as a kid and loved it. When I was 14, I saw the 1978 version in Theaters and that left me jumpy for a week. I saw the 2007 version and was very disappointed. I much prefer the 1978 ending where the invaders win taking over 99.999% of humans with a handful of people holding out. I review all 3 movies here.
Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) - I used to watch this on TV growing up. Now as an adult I realize how ridiculous this is. But it's still good fun. I've seen the remakes but as always, the original is still the best.
A Clockwork Orange (1971) - I was too young to see this in theaters. My first exposure was the comic version in Mad Magazine. I finally rented it while in college and was a bit shocked by the extreme violence but amused by the ending. The movie has a very unique look. I also love when he's shopping for music. Instead of predicting CDs, music is still sold on tape cassettes except they've shrunk to be very small. It's interesting to see how accurate SciFi movies predict the future. It's amusing to see that most of the time, they are not even close to right.
Blade Runner (1982) - Theater 1982: I've seen the original and the director's cut. I prefer the original. I read recently that Deckard, who kills replicants, is actually a replicant himself but doesn't realize it. That idea is used in the new Terminator 4 movie. Based on a Philip K. Dick novel named "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"
Twelve Monkeys (1995) - Theater 1995: I read recently that this borrows heavily from the movie La Jette, which I have not seen. NetFlix does not have this movie currently otherwise I'd rent it. Pretty scary that a scientist can unleash a virus that wipes out most of mankind. Also funny that they send someone back in time to change history and yet nothing is changed. Also funny how the future mis-interprets a distorted prank phone call.
The Butterfly Effect (2004) - Theater 2004: Great time-travel movie where Evan attempts to fix his mistakes in the past only to screw up his future even more.
War of the Worlds (2005) - Theater 2005: I have seen previous versions from the 50s and 60s but this is one of the rare cases where I really love the remake in 2005.
Brazil (1985) - Theater 1985: The future will look like the past. Interesting concept. Very unique movie.
Pi (1998) - Theater 1998: 3.14159265358979323846 ... Max invents a super computer that can predict the stock market. His computer can be used to unlock many secrets of nature and the universe. When others learn of this, they try to use him for their own needs.
Cube (1997) - This is the first movie I rented on NetFlix when I joined in 1999. There is also a sequel called Cube 2:Hypercube (2002) which is very good. Seven strangers awake to find themselves in a massive cube with small rooms with doors on each wall and the ceiling and floor. They can go in any six directions. They work together to get out but some rooms have deadly traps.
Cube 2: Hypercube (2002) - This is the second movie I rented on NetFlix when I joined in 1999. It's the same plot as Cube except there are 8 strangers and the cube is in the 4th dimension and does not follow the normal rules of physics. In some rooms, time runs slow, in others it runs fast. It's possible for multiple versions of you to split and go in different directions and meet later. They must work together to solve the puzzle of the maze and escape the cube to survive.
Dark City (1998) - Theater 1998: Fascinating city where these beings put everyone to sleep at night, then re-arrange their lives for the next day. When everyone wakes up, they continue like nothing happened even though their lives have been altered in major ways. One man with special powers is the only who can see these beings and challenge them and find a way out of this "city".
Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind (1984) - rented on VHS in college and later on DVD. Beautifully done Japanese anime of the future. After most of the Earth has been destroyed there is still small pockets of clean land run by small nations at War. Large creatures roam the Earth as a result of the radiation. One girl finds a way to be in harmony with nature and find a way to communicate with these large animals for the benefit of the planet.
The Andromeda Strain (1971) - saw parts of it on TV growing up and finally watched the entire thing on DVD recently. It was redone quite well for TV in 2008. Similar to Night of the Living Dead, a Satellite from space crashes on Earth bringing something back with it that instantly kills any life it comes in contact with ... except for a small baby and a very old man. Scientists must find out why these two are the only ones resistant to this virus strain. I loved how the underground research lab had multiple levels of decontamination.

Group 3: Meaningful

The Iron Giant (1999) - Theater 1999: Cartoon about a boy who meets and makes friends with a giant robot. A nice mix of hand-drawn and computer generated animation.
Barbarella (1968) - Theater 1978: Saw in theater when I was 14. It was like porno for teenage boys. It was rated PG but they still managed to have nudity and sex. The real fun was the fantastic imagination for the creation of the sets and costumes. Even the music was fantastic. Based on the French comic book from 1962, this movie drips of originality even to this day. The band Duran Duran took their name from a character in this movie. I just read that a remake of Barbarella has stalled or been cancelled. I would love to see a remake!
Star Wars (1977) - Theater 1977: Went to New York city for my 14th birthday to see this movie in a very large theater with amazing sound. My seat vibrated in the opening seat where the large ship passes overhead. I thought maybe these were special vibrating chairs but it was just the sound vibrating everything. We stood outside in a very long line for many hours. It was well worth it. When I first saw black and white 8x10's of the movie at a comic convention before the movie came out, I thought Star Wars was such a stupid name for a movie. The 8x10s of the movie didn't impress me either.
Rollerball (1975) - saw on HBO at friends house about 1977. Later rented on VHS and on DVD recently. I saw the 2002 remake and hated it. This movie held my imagination for many reasons. One is the concept that nations can stop war and fight out the differences in sport.
The Last Mimzy (2007) - I never heard of this movie until I caught it on TV recently. It really caught my imagination. Roger Waters from Pink Floyd sings the song "Hello I love you" during the credits. You can listen to that song and see scenes from the movie here. A girl finds a doll from the future. Future humans are dying and need DNA from the past.
The Day of the Triffids (1962) - I took a class in Science Fiction and we watched this movie. A night of shooting stars cause everyone on Earth to be blind except for those who missed it including our hero who was in the hospital with his eyes covered. The shooting stars carried seeds which sprouted deadly plants which take over Earth. The concept was stolen for the crappy 1984 movie Night of the Comet.
Fantastic Voyage (1966) - saw on TV many times and later rented in college in VHS. Fascinating idea of shrinking people to go inside a human. This idea is re-used again and again in later movies.
Metropolis (1927) - rented in college on VHS. Amazing special effects for 1927! Much like the Time Machine where the world is separated into races, the workers and thinkers, this future also has two societies. The workers and thinkers. They cannot exist without each other. One day a thinker descends into the underground and is astonished at what he sees. It's an over simplification of the real world but basically jobs today are split into physical labor jobs (blue collar) and desk jobs (white collar) so the movie takes that to the extreme. A worker rebellion occurs and a mediator must be found to stop the violence. Maria leads the rebellion but she's actually a robot in disguise.
Next (2007) - Theater 2007: A man who can see two minutes into the future seeing what will happen if he takes different paths. Great concept and wonderfully executed. Based on the novel "The Golden Man" by Philip K. Dick.
Total Recall (1990) - Theater 1990: Quaid goes to have a virtual vacation then this huge adventure happens where he saves Mars. In the end you're left wondering if it was all his virtual vacation. Based on the novel "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick.
Terminator (1984) - Theater 1984: The special effects in the first movie look dated now. I'm a huge fan of all of the Terminator movies. I was intrigued by the concept of computers gaining intelligence and wanting to destroy humans and the idea of going back in time to change the future.
Heavy Metal (1981) - Theater 1981: I was a big fan of the adult SciFi magazine Heavy Metal. The movie was a mixed-bag of different stories loosely joined together by a green glowing orb. Some of the stories were awful but others were brilliant. The creativity and artwork of Heavy Metal magazine and the movie was a big influence on me.
TRON (1982) - Theater 1982: I loved the computer graphics in this movie. I also got quite addicted to the arcade game spending $5 a day on it. In fact, I was at Disneyland the day the TRON game was first installed at the arcade. I was one of the first to play it. I liked the speeder bikes the best. I believe there is a remake in the works.
Back to the Future (1985) - Theater 1985: The sequels were OK but the first movie was the most fun. I've enjoyed the Back to the Future ride at Universal Studios, Florida. I've always wanted a DeLorean. It was the perfect car to use in the movie. I still want a DeLorean. It's funny how they pronounce giga-watts as jiga-watts.
Death Race 2000 (1975) - I saw parts of this movie on TV then finally rented it on VHS in college. As with the movie Rollerball, I enjoyed the idea of nations fighting it out over sport instead of war. I did not see the remake.
The Cell (2000) - Theater 2000: Similar to the movie Dreamscape (1984) a technology is used to enter the mind. Also similar to Alien (1979) in that it had a look all its own. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind also had a technology for erasing memories. In the movie Paprika, a technology is invented that can record dreams. The movie Brainstorm (1983) had a technology for recording and playing back your experiences.
Brainstorm (1983) - Theater 1983: The movie Dreamscape (1984) came out shortly after this movie and I thought they were very similar in nature. As I mentioned in my description of The Cell (2000) above, there are many movies about using technology to either enter the mind or record it whether you would be awake or dreaming. Good stuff.
Escape from New York (1981) - Theater 1981: Fantastic idea of putting all the hardened criminals on the island of Manhattan. It reminds me of how the British took thousands of prisoners to Australia to setup a colony. The US President's becomes a hostage when his plane crashes in Manhattan. One man is hired to rescue the president. His time is limited since he has charges placed in his neck that will explode if he's late. That reminds me of the collars used in Battle Royale.
Battle Royale (2000): Rented on DVD about 2003. In the future Japan, teenage violence is out of control. As a way to scare the teens into submission, a class of teens is kidnapped each year for a battle to the death where only one can survive. They are brought to a remote island and wear collars which will explode if they try to escape. They are given maps and watches and told to be in certain zones at certain times or they will die. If there is more than one survivor by a certain time, they all die. They are given bags of random weapons to kill each other. Some of the kids come up with a plan to turn the tables on their kidnappers.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964): Comedy about the US accidentally attacking the USSR which will result in the total annihilation of the world. Cult classic where cowboy rides the atomic bomb as it falls. Reminds of the scene in Dark Star where a surfer rides a piece of debris from his exploded ship into the atmosphere of the planet only get incinerated.
Forbidden Planet (1965) - I saw parts of this movie on TV as a kid but finally watched the whole thing in college. Features the now famous Robby the Robot. An alien race of geniuses destroyed themselves but left their technology intact. Later settlers on this planet discover the technology and destroy themselves. A ship is sent to investigate and discovers two survivors. The investigators must then fight this invisible force.
A Boy and his Dog (1975) - I rented this movie about 1984. The title sounds like it's a Lassie flick and in fact it shares this title with a 1946 film. But don't let the innocent title fool you. In a post apocalyptic world, a boy and his telepathic dog scavage for food and sex. They come across an underground world whose men have all gone sterile so they need his sperm to impregnate their women. Sounds like a porno flick. He's excited about the idea of having sex with all these women but they prefer to extract his sperm with their technology and artificially inseminate the women. He's none too pleased so he escapes and is followed by a daughter of one of the leaders. Final revealing quote by dog "Well, I'd certainly say she had marvelous judgment, Albert, if not particularly good taste."
eXistenZ (1999): I missed this in theaters but rented it on DVD and was impressed by the original look and feel of the virtual reality video game with guns made of bones and game consoles that plug directly into your spine. The insane thing is that when they are done playing the game, they are still not sure if they are back in reality or still playing the game.
Charly (1968): Saw parts of it on TV as a kid and later rented on DVD. A mentally challenged man has an operation which turns him into a genius, smarter than the doctors that cured him. He has trouble dealing with the complexities of a world he never fully understood. Unfortunately his cure is only temporary and he reverts to the mind of a child in the end. He was miserable as genius but now he is happy again with the mind of a child.
Zardoz (1974): Rented in college. In the far future, a savage society worships a large floating stone head which they consider God. They call him Zardoz. This God is operating by a community of immortals who are bored with life and want to die. Zed manages to get inside the stone head and meet an immortal who reveals the secrets to him. Zed is then trained to kill the immortals. Very unusual and original.
The Fifth Element (1997) - Theater 1997: A very colorful and fun vision of the future and a very sexy alien. Hard to forget. Looks great on HDTV.
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964): Saw on TV as a kid. Outrageous concept.
Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964): Saw on TV as a kid. Thought it was very realistic. Astronaut is stranded on Mars and must find oxygen, water and food to survive.
Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959): Saw in college at a "bad movie" festival. Later watched again on VHS in college. An Ed Wood movie often considered the worst movie ever made. I love when the grave stones sway as they walk over the fake grass or when the police officer scratches his head with the muzzle of his loaded gun with his finger on the trigger. This movie is so bad, it's good.

2009-04-21T21:32:00.001-07:00

Zatoichi - The Blind Swordsman

Thanks to NetFlix recommendations, I discovered the Zatoichi movie and TV series from Japan. It's one of the longest Japanese running series. It is set in the Edo period in Japan. Zatoichi is a blind wanderer who makes money as a masseur. He is also good at gambling. Being blind, he uses his other enhanced senses to help him listen to the dice and know if they are odd or even. His main talent is a master swordsman.

These scenes I've captured are from the third film which is also the first colored film.

Being blind, people think he is an easy kill. In fact, he acts crippled, old, slow and unaware until the moment he strikes. When he strikes, your dead. One swing or stab of his sword is all it takes. He hides his sword in common objects like a bed roll or a cane so his attackers think he is unarmed.

He often likes to get down on one knee or both knees. This low position somehow gives him an advantage. You can see in the pictures above how he also holds his swords upside down allowing him to attack using unconventional angles. His technique is very unpredictable. He will also use darkness to his advantage.

Sometimes he will take on a dozen men at the same time as in this picture. Notice how he is listening for the stroke of the sword. He is aware of where each man is. He can hear them breathing and stepping. Click the thumbnail to see the larger version. Knowing there is a man behind him, he will back toward the man to act as though he doesn't know. When the man goes to strike, he quickly spins around and deals a deadly blow before the man can finish his strike.

The story line is similar to the classic TV show Kung Fu where Caine walks the Earth visiting villages and righting wrongs. Zatoichi wanders Japan moving from village to village. Trouble always seems to find Zatoichi or he goes looking for trouble with the intention of helping the poor and helpless. He is a super hero. I would not doubt it if the TV series Kung Fu was based on Zatoichi.

There are 26 films and 112 TV episodes. I've seen roughly 5 of the films and I'm hooked.

I can tell you about the amazing fight scenes but you really need to see them for yourself. YouTube has tons of Zatoichi videos. Here are some of my favorites.

This scene is from the last Zatoichi film made in 2003. It features computer generated blood and amputations. His cane holds his sword and also doubles as a weapon. Made of metal, his cane can successfully block a sword stroke.

This scene is from that same 2003 movie. Notice how he walks like a crippled old man. His hidden attackers have no idea of his skill. In the darkness of night, he has the advantage.

This type of fight is rare since Zatoichi does not kill his attacker with a single blow. The fight lasts a long time and Zatoichi is knocked down and his sword is broken. All seems lost but Zatoichi turns the tables in the last instant.

There are many more videos on YouTube. Certainly Zatoichi is not for everyone but I find it appealing because people under estimate him. He is far more than he appears. He uses his blindness to help people. He kills the bad guys and makes the world a better place.

I have yet to learn how he was blinded or why he wanders instead of settling down but I'm sure I'll have a much better understanding once I finish watching all the movies and TV shows.

2009-04-12T14:46:00.001-07:00

Observe and Report

Holy Shit! That's what I said to myself over and over while watching this movie. Time after time, I did not see it coming. It's a movie that is full of surprises not to mention extremely funny and shocking. It's not for everyone. I would not recommend this movie to my parents or anyone under 13.

I think this is one of those love it or hate it movies. I loved it but I've read some user reviews on imdb.com and they either love it or hate it. The reviews are split down the middle. There is no in between.

It does help if the audience is laughing around you. The audience I saw this with thought it was hilarious but strangely enough, I found myself laughing alone at times. This is definitely a dark comedy.

You do have to suspend your belief in reality a few times for example the surprise ending when Seth's character finally takes the mall flasher down ... with extreme prejudice.

The posters are everywhere as you drive around Hollywood. It's rare to see a movie with multiple versions of the movie poster. Perhaps that's a trend we'll see more often in the future.

Not since I saw Harvey Keitel's penis after seeing The Piano and The Bad Lieutenant back to back have I seen so much penis. I thought The Watchmen showed a lot of penis but this one breaks all records for an R Rated movie that I've ever seen. 2009 is the year of the penis in movies. Jason Mewes exposes himself in Zack and Miri make a Porno.

Seth Rogen is really on a role. His first role was a bully burn-out in the TV show Freaks and Geeks. I thought at the time that this guy had no future as an actor. Then I saw him Donnie Darko, Undeclared (TV), Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad, Pineapple Express and Zack and Miri make a Porno.

Jody Hill was the writer and director of Observe and Report. She has had an impressive career as an actor, producer, writer and director. She's had even portions of all four of those careers.

I think we can all relate to Ronnie as he struggled to achieve his dreams. He wants to catch the mall flasher, to date the beautiful make-up girl, to catch the guy that has been robbing the mall on a regular basis and he wants to be a police officer. But life has a way of taking us in directions we had not expected and things usually turn out OK, although different than we expected.

2009-01-25T18:27:00.001-08:00

My favorite actor

I'm trying to figure out who my favorite actor or actress is. I'm working it out as I write this blog entry. My basic approach is to figure out which actor has the most movies I liked. Let's look at these actors in no particular order.

Bruce Willis
Leonardo DiCaprio
Bill Murray
John Cuscak
Tom Cruise
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Mel Gibson
Harrison Ford
Jim Carrey
Jennifer Aniston
Will Ferrell
Jack Black
Kevin Spacey
Tom Hanks
Scarlett Johansson
Jake Gyllenhaal
Tobey Maguire
Steve Martin
Christina Ricci
Seth Green
Mike Myers
Kevin Bacon
Matthew Broderick
Kevin Costner
Chevy Chase
John Candy
Will Smith
Denzel Washington

This list was derived from my favorite movies. What I'm going to do is list every movie I've seen for each of these actors and rate from 1 to 10 how much I liked them in each movie, then come up with two scores. A total of the ratings and an average and see who has the highest scores. I am not listing any animated movies where actors did the voice. I will list TV show appearances for example I would give the movie Office Space a rating of 10 but I would give Jennifer Aniston's performance in Office Space a rating of 7. There are some movies I've seen where I don't remember seeing that actor perhaps because they had a bit part like Tobey Maguire playing a hitchhiker in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I've seen the movie and remember it quite vividly but for some reason, I don't remember Tobey Maguire being in it.

Bruce Willis - Die Hard 4 (10), Die Hard 3 (10), Die Hard 2 (10), Die Hard (10), Sin City (10), Hostage (8), Tears of the Sun (8), Hart's War (9), Unbreakable (10), The Sixth Sense (10), The Fifth Element (10), Armageddon (10), Mercury Rising (10), Twelve Monkeys (10), Death Becomes Her (10), The Last Boyscount (10), The Bonfire of the Vanities (10), Moonlighting (TV) (10), Blind Date (10)
Leonardo DiCaprio - Revolutionary Road (9), Blood Diamond (7), The Departed (10), The Aviator (9), Catch Me If You Can (8), Gangs of New York (7), The Beach (10), The Man in the Iron Mask (6), Titanic (10), The Basketball Diaries (8), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (7)
Bill Murray - The Darjeeling Limited (7), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (8), Lost in Translation (10), The Royal Tenenbaums (10), Rushmore (10), Kingpin (7), Ed Wood (7), Groundhog Day (10), What About Bob (8), Quick Change (10), Ghost Busters II (7), Scrooged (6), Little Shop of Horrors (7), The Razor's Edge (8), Ghost Buster's (10), Tootsie (10), Stripes (7), Caddyshack (10), Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (7), Meatballs (10)
John Cuscak - Martian Child (8), Runaway Jury (9), High Fidelity (10), Being John Malcovich (10), Pushing Tin (10), The Thin Red Line (8), Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (8), Con Air (6), Grosse Point Blank (9), The Grifters (5), Fat Man and Little Boy (8), Say Anything (10), Better Off Dead (8), Sixteen Candles (7)
Tom Cruise - Mission: Impossible III (10), Mission Impossible II (8), Mission Impossible (9), War of the Worlds (10), The Last Samurai (9), Minority Report (9), Vanilla Sky (10), Magnolia (10), Eyes Wide Shut (9), Interview With the Vampire (10), The Firm (8), A Few Good Men (10), Far and Away (7), Days of Thunder (8), Born on the Fourth of July (9), Rain Man (10), The Color of Money (8), Top Gun (10), Legend (7), Risky Business (10), Taps (10)
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt (10), Synecdoche, New York (10), Mission: Impossible III (10), Owning Mahony (10), Magnolia (10), Happiness (10), Boogie Nights (10), Twister (7)
Mel Gibson - Signs (10), What Women Want (10), The Patriot (8), Lethal Weapon 4 (6), Lethal Weapon 3 (7), Lethal Weapon 2 (8), Lethal Weapon (9), Payback (8), Ransom (9), Braveheart (8), Maverick (7), The Man Without a Face (8), Forever Young (8), Air America (10), Bird on a Wire (7), Mad Max 3 (7), Mad Max 2 (10), Mad Max (10), The Year of Living Dangerously (10)
Harrison Ford - Indian Jones 4 (10), Indiana Jones 3 (10), Indiana Jones 2 (10), Indiana Jones (10), The Fugitive (10), Patriot Games (10), The Mosquito Coast (10), Witness (10), Blade Runner (10), Star Wars: Episode VI (10), Star Wars: Episode V (10), Star Wars: Episode IV (10), Apocalypse Now (10)
Jim Carrey - Yes Man (8), The Number 23 (7), Fun With Dick and Jane (10), Lemony Snicket's (7), Bruce Almighty (10), The Majestic (8), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (8), Me, Myself and Irene (10), Man on the Moon (10), The Truman Show (10), Liar Liar (7), The Cable Guy (10), Ace Ventura 2 (7), Ace Ventura (9), Batman Forever (8), Dumb & Dumber (10), The Mask (10), In Living Color (TV) (10)
Jennifer Aniston - Friends (TV) (10), Office Space (7), Bruce Almighty (8), The Good Girl (10)
Will Ferrell - Semi-Pro (10), Blades of Glory (10), Talladega Nights (10), Bewitched (8), Anchorman (10), Elf (10), Old School (10), Zoolander (10)
Jack Black - Be Kind Rewind (10), Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (10), Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny (10), Nacho Libre (10), King Kong (8), The School of Rock (10), Orange County (10), Shallow Hal (9), Saving Silverman (10), Mars Attacks (7), X-Files (TV) (10)
Kevin Spacey - 21 (8), Superman Returns (6), The Life of David Gale (10), Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (8), Se7en (10), The Usual Suspects (10)
Tom Hanks - The Da Vinci Code (8), The Terminal (10), Catch Me If You Can (10), The Green Mile (10), Road to Perdition (10), Cast Away (10), You've Got Mail (10), Saving Private Ryan (10), Apollo 13 (10), Philadelphia (9), Sleepless in Seattle (9), A League of Their Own (10), The Bonfire of the Vanities (10), Turner & Hooch (8), The 'burbs' (9), Punchline (10), Big (10), Dragnet (9), The Money Pit (10), Volunteers (8), The Man With One Red Shoe (10), Bachelor Party (10), Splash (9), Bosom Buddies (TV) (9)
Scarlett Johansson - The Other Boleyn Girl (8), The Prestige (8), The Island (8), In Good Company (10), Girl with a Pearl Earring (10), Lost in Translation (10), Ghost World (10)
Jake Gyllenhaal - Zodiac (10), Brokeback Mountain (10), The Day After Tomorrow (10), The Good Girl (10), Donnie Darko (10), October Sky (10)
Tobey Maguire - Spiderman 3 (9), Spiderman 2 (9), Spiderman (10), Seabuiscuit (10), Wonder Boys (10), The Cider House Rules (8), Pleasantville (7), The Ice Storm (10)
Steve Martin - Cheaper By the Dozen 2 (8), Cheaper By the Dozen (9), L.A. Story (7), Parenthood (10), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (7), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (10), Roxanne (8), Little Shop of Horrors (10), Three Amigos! (9), The Jerk (7), Father of the Bride (10), Father of the Bride 2 (10)
Christina Ricci - Speed Racer (6), Grey's Anatomy (TV) (10), Monster (10), Prozac Nation (9), Sleepy Hollow (6), 200 Cigarettes (9), Pecker (8), The Opposite of Sex (7), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (8), Buffalo '66 (8), The Ice Storm (10), Casper (6), Addams Family Values (9), The Addams Family (9), Mermaids (6)
Seth Green - Grey's Anatomy (TV) (10), Without a Paddle (10), The Italian Job (8), Rat Race (10), Austin Powers (10), Can't Hardly Wait (10)
Mike Myers - Love Guru (6), The Cat in the Hat (5), Austin Powers 3 (6), Austin Powers 2 (6), Austin Powers (7), Wayne's World (8)
Kevin Bacon - Mystic River (7), Hollow Man (10), Stir of Echoes (9), Apollo 13 (10), The River Wild (10), A Few Good Men (10), Flatliners (10), Tremors (10), The Big Picture (7), She's Having a Baby (9), Quicksilver (10), Footloose (10), Diner (10), Animal House (10)
Matthew Broderick - Inspector Gadget (6), Election (10), Godzilla (7), The Cable Guy (10), The Road to Wellville (8), Biloxi Blues (8), Project X (7), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (10)
Kevin Costner - The Postman (10), Tin Cup (10), Waterworld (10), A Perfect World (10), The Body Guard (10), Dances With Wolves (10), Field of Dreams (7), Bull Durham (8), Fandango (9)
Chevy Chase - Snow Day (7), Vegas Vacation (9), Christmas Vacation (9), European Vacation (9), Vacation (10), Caddyshack II (8), Caddyshack (10), Three Amigos (8), Fletch (8), Deal of the Century (7), Modern Problems (8), The Groove Tube (10)
John Candy - Canadian Bacon (10), Cool Runnings (9), Home Alone (9), Uncle Buck (9), Who's Harry Crumb (7), The Great Outdoors (10), Planes, Trains & Automobiles (10), Spaceballs (10), Brewster's Millions (10), Vacation (10), Summer Rental (10)
Will Smith - Seven Pounds (10), Hancock (10), I Am Legend (10), The Pursuit of Happyness (10), Hitch (10), I, Robot (10), Men in Black 2 (10), Men in Black (10), Wild Wild West (10), Ali (10), The Legend of Bagger Vance (10), Enemy of the State (10), Independence Day (10), Bad Boys (10), Six Degrees of Separation (10), The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (10)
Denzel Washington - Dejavu (10), Out of Time (10), The Manchurian Candidate (10), Antwone Fisher (10), John Q (10), Training Day (10), The Bone Collector (10), Virtuosity (10), Philadelphia (10), The Pelican Brief (10), Much Ado About Nothing (10), Ricochet (10), Mo' Better Blues (10)

The scores are below in the format: Total / Count = Average

Bruce Willis - 185 / 19 = 9.73
Leonardo DiCaprio - 91 / 11 = 8.27
Bill Murray - 169 / 20 = 8.45
John Cuscak - 116 / 14 = 8.29
Tom Cruise - 191 / 21 = 9.1
Philip Seymour Hoffman - 77 / 8 = 9.6
Mel Gibson - 160 / 19 = 8.42
Harrison Ford - 130 / 13 = 10
Jim Carrey - 159 / 18 = 8.83
Jennifer Aniston - 35 / 4 = 8.75
Will Ferrell - 78 / 8 = 9.75
Jack Black - 104 / 11 = 9.45
Kevin Spacey - 52 / 6 = 8.67
Tom Hanks - 228 / 24 = 9.5
Scarlett Johansson - 64 / 7 = 9.14
Jake Gyllenhaal - 60 / 6 = 10
Tobey Maguire - 73 / 8 = 9.13
Steve Martin - 105 / 12 = 8.75
Christina Ricci - 121 / 15 = 8.06
Seth Green - 58 / 6 = 9.67
Mike Myers - 38 / 6 = 6.33
Kevin Bacon - 132 / 14 = 9.43
Matthew Broderick - 66 / 8 = 8.25
Kevin Costner - 84 / 9 = 9.33
Chevy Chase - 76 / 12 = 6.33
John Candy - 104 / 11 = 9.45
Will Smith - 160 / 16 = 10
Denzel Washington - 130 / 13 = 10

Top 3 Total Scores

Tom Hanks = 228
Tom Cruise = 191
Bruce Willis = 185

Top 3 Number of Movies Seen (Count)

Tom Hanks = 24
Tom Cruise = 21
Bill Murray = 20

Actors with perfect scores

Will Smith = 10
Harrison Ford = 10
Denzel Washington = 10
Jake Gyllenhaal = 10

No actor shows up in all three "Top 3" lists so let me break it down by some genres using only the list of actors above.

Action: Bruce Willis

Comedy: Bill Murray

Drama: Leonardo DiCaprio

SciFi: Kevin Costner

Crime: Denzel Washington

Still no conclusion so let's see how movies each actor has in my all time favorites list.

Bruce Willis - 4 (Die Hard, Unbreakable, The Sixth Sense, Twelve Monkeys)
Leonardo DiCaprio - 1 (The Beach)
Bill Murray - 4 (The Darjeeling Limited, Lost in Translation, Groundhog Day, Caddyshack, Meatballs)
John Cuscak - 4 (High Fidelity, Being John Malcovich, Pushing Tin, Say Anything)
Tom Cruise - 3 (Vanilla Sky, Magnolia, Risky Business)
Philip Seymour Hoffman - 5 (Synecdoche, New York, Owning Mahony, Magnolia, Happiness, Boogie Nights)
Mel Gibson - 1 (Mad Max 2)
Harrison Ford - 5 (Indiana Jones, Witness, Blade Runner, Star Wars: Episode IV, Apocalypse Now)
Jim Carrey - 1 (The Truman Show)
Jennifer Aniston - 2 (Office Space, The Good Girl)
Will Ferrell - 2 (Elf, Old School)
Jack Black - 1 (The School of Rock)
Kevin Spacey - 2 (Se7en, The Usual Suspects)
Tom Hanks - 5 (Cast Away, Apollo 13, A League of Their Own, Big, Bachelor Party)
Scarlett Johansson - 3 (The Prestige, Lost in Translation, Ghost World)
Jake Gyllenhaal - 3 (Brokeback Mountain, The Good Girl, Donnie Darko)
Tobey Maguire - 3 (Spiderman, Wonder Boys, The Ice Storm)
Steve Martin - 0
Christina Ricci - 2 (Monster, The Ice Storm)
Seth Green - 0
Mike Myers - 0
Kevin Bacon - 4 (Apollo 13, Footloose, Diner, Animal House)
Matthew Broderick - 2 (Election, Ferris Bueller's Day Off)
Kevin Costner - 3 (The Postman, Tin Cup, Dances With Wolves)
Chevy Chase - 2 (Vacation, Caddyshack)
John Candy - 2 (Vacation, Summer Rental)
Will Smith - 3 (The Legend of Bagger Vance, Independence Day, Six Degrees of Separation)
Denzel Washington - 0

Top 7 Actors on my favorite movie list

Tom Hanks - 5 (Cast Away, Apollo 13, A League of Their Own, Big, Bachelor Party)
Harrison Ford - 5 (Indiana Jones, Witness, Blade Runner, Star Wars: Episode IV, Apocalypse Now)
Philip Seymour Hoffman - 5 (Synecdoche, New York, Owning Mahony, Magnolia, Happiness, Boogie Nights)
Bruce Willis - 4 (Die Hard, Unbreakable, The Sixth Sense, Twelve Monkeys)
Bill Murray - 4 (The Darjeeling Limited, Lost in Translation, Groundhog Day, Caddyshack, Meatballs)
John Cuscak - 4 (High Fidelity, Being John Malcovich, Pushing Tin, Say Anything)
Kevin Bacon - 4 (Apollo 13, Footloose, Diner, Animal House)

When I started this exercise, I thought my conclusion would be Leonardo DiCaprio because a large number of his movies really connected with me.

The Beach: A big influence on me encouraging my interest in traveling to Asia.
Revolutionary Road: Could relate to the message of pursuing your dream.
The Basketball Diaries: Was really impressed with the intensity.
Titantic: The idea of the unsinkable ship has always held my imagination.
The Aviator: Howard Hughes has always held a fascination for me.
Catch Me If You Can: True story of Frank Abagnale is fascinating.

But based on the analysis I did, all indications point to Tom Hanks as being my favorite actor. But these totals and averages are just crude indicators as to who my favorite star is. In the end, I need to go with my heart. I started with Leonardo DiCaprio and after putting my opinion through the ringer, I still feel that Leonardo DiCaprio is my favorite actor currently because the roles he has played have really spoken to me on an emotional and personal level.

2009-01-10T22:24:00.000-08:00

Revolutionary Road

Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio both starred in Titanic and now start in this film pursuing your dreams to be happy in life. Do you conform and do what everyone else is doing or do have the bravery to be different and pursue what makes you happy?

The movie reverberated with my life. There have been many times when my friends and family tried desperately to talk me out of doing what I wanted saying things like it was foolish or too risky.

Examples

1. I left Prodigy Online services to move to Seattle to be with my girlfriend and find a job there. My boss and co-workers said I shouldn't leave because I was in a position to take on more responsibility and continue to learn Windows programming. They knew that my C++ skills were not good enough to find a job doing C++ programming. Why should I throw away a good career where deeply ingrained and valuable? I moved to Seattle to be with the woman I loved.

2. When I left Phoenix Arizona to move to Malaysia, once again friends were trying to talk me out of it. They warned me about the dangers of being an American in a Muslim based country. They warned me about women who use you to get a Visa to come to the US then divorce you and you must support them. My friends and co-workers in Phoenix wanted me to stay. I moved to Malaysia to be with the woman I loved (and marry her).

3. When I got laid off from my job in New York city in 2008, co-workers, friends and family all wanted me to stay living in New Jersey to be close to them. But I had a dream of moving to California so Kelly and I packed up our things and drove to California. They warned that the economy is bad and it will be hard to find a job. They warned that our money is limited and we may run out of money before I find a job. They wanted us to stay for selfish reasons and tried to scare us into staying but we went anyway.

To be fair, most of the time, life has its way with me. But I do have my moments where I take control and do exactly what I want even if everyone is telling me that I shouldn't. Even if I make a mistake or my decision turns out bad, at least I'm control and they are my mistakes. I believe it is better to be in control and making mistakes than simply following what comes your way.

In the movie, the risk they want to take is to break from following the traditional lifestyle and move to Paris. At that point April and Frank had two kids, a boy and girl but they were at the age where they could move them easily. They had enough money for six months plus after they sold the house and car, they would have even more money. Plus the cost of living would be cheaper and they would live their dram. April would get a good paying secretarial job and Frank would stay at home and figure out what he wants to do with his life.

Two things happen. April gets pregnant with a third child and Frank job suddenly turns from extremely boring to interesting as he lucks into an opportunity to advance in the company to a much more interesting job getting paid a lot more money.

On top of that, they get questioned from co-workers, family and friends why they would do such a thing. Nobody understands except for a mentally disturbed visitor. He understands the "hopeless oblivion" of modern life in the US. When he learns that they are not going to Paris, he gets angry and exposes all the un-said truths everyone is hiding. This guy defines the term "keeping it real".

April wants an abortion and wants to continue with their plan to move to Paris but in that time period of the 1950s it is not so easy or safe to get an abortion. April would be risking her health and even her life with a "do it yourself" abortion kit.

I won't spoil the ending but I will say that I was disappointed that movie does not have several scenes from the trailer. I kept wondering when I would see those scenes at some point the movie was chronologically past the point of seeing them so I figured we'd see them in flash backs but never did. I understand that trailers are cut before the movie is finished being cut. I get the feeling that the original cuts were too long and they had to trim it down.

The acting is superb. As I mentioned above, this movie touched me on a very personal level. Do we have the bravery to overcome our fears about taking great risks to accomplish our dreams? April did and Frank did not and it tore apart their marriage.

The break-out performance was by the mentally disturbed man played by Michael Shannon. This guy was incapable of being polite. He spoke his mind and could read April and Frank's body language like a book and they knew it. He spoke the things they did not dare to say.

The message of the film: Don't let the conformity, fears and insecurities of others stop you from pursuing your dreams.

2008-12-10T17:53:00.000-08:00

Punisher: War Zone

Someone recently asked me who is my all time favorite super hero was and I couldn't answer them. So I begun a search to figure it out. My favorites are listed below organized by comic company.

DC: Supergirl

DC: OMAC - One Man Army Corp

DC: Kamandi the Last boy on Earth

DC: Terra from Teen Titans

DC: Sgt Rock

DC: The Shadow

DC: Flint from Star Hunters

DC: Legion of Super Heroes:

* Ultra Boy

* Wildfire

* Timberwolf

* Mon-El

* Sun Boy

* Cosmic Boy

* Star Boy

* Brainiac 5

Marvel: Punisher

Marvel: IronFist

Marvel: Deathlock

Marvel: Killraven

Epic: Vanth Dreadstar

Epic: Galacia 9 from Starstruck

Charlton: E-Man

Charlton: Rog 2000

Charlton: Magnus Robot Fighter 4000 AD

Eclipse: Mai the Psychic Girl (Manga)

Eclipse: Appleseed (Manga)

* Deunan Knute

* Briareos Hecatonchires

Viz: Alita Battle Angel (Manga)

Viz: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Manga)

First: Nexus

Caliber: The Crow

I bought Marvel Preview #2 in 1975 when I was 12. His first appearance is in Amazing Spider-Man #129 (Feb. 1974) which I bought at the time and read but it's the more adult comic magazine of Marvel Preview #2 in 1975 when I was 12 that blew me away. Check out how graphic the cover art is!

This is his first solo appearance and yet it's pretty much ignored. Marvel.com doesn't list it as one of his appearances. Wikipedia has a minor mention since it's the first time his origin is explained.

Back to my favorite super hero ... my favorites are ...

DC: Legion of Superheroes: Wildfire (fave LSH)

DC: OMAC - One Man Army Corp

Marvel: Punisher

And the winner is ... Punisher from Marvel Preview #2. I have bought a lot of Punisher comics since but nothing compares to Marvel Preview #2 for me. That is the real Punisher and the rest are just derivations.

I have read a considerable number of Punisher comic books including the War Zone series. For me, the first Punisher movie in 2004 was a joke.

The guy playing the Punisher in 2004 was too young. Frank Castle is 40 or 50 something years old.

In Punisher: War Zone, the actor was age appropriate. His skull shirt was also very subtle. You can barely see it in this picture. The guy wants to wear black to be hidden from sight so realistically he's not going to have a giant white skull on his chest.

This second movie was much more true to the comics, introducing characters we're familiar with like his gun supplying friend Micro played by Wayne Knight (Sienfeld, Jurrasic Park) and friend policeman Martin Soap played by Dash Mihok.

There were times that I had to suspend disbelief like when he didn't kill one of the bad guys but instead let him get shredded in a glass recycler. The guy survives and comes back all shredded and calls himself Jigsaw. That was a bit campy and reminded me of a villian you might have seen on the 1960's Bathman TV show.

But the movie lived up to it's name, War Zone, in that this one man army went up against another army of gang members. He had a little help from a Russian gang, but the Punisher did most of the work.

This Punisher movie finally matched the character that I associate with the comic and although I had to suspend disbelief several times, I didn't mind. It made for a more exciting movie. I expected the roof jumpers to give the Punisher more trouble. With their skills have manueverability, I figured they would have a long fight scene but they were taken out by surprise with ease so that was a disappointment.

2008-06-22T15:55:00.000-07:00

The Happening

I'm a HUGE fan of M. Night Shyamalan. I've liked every one of this movies I've seen which are ...

The Six Sense
Unbreakable
Signs
The Village
Lady in the Water
The Happening

I'll see Wide Awake as soon as it's available on NetFlix. I've also seen Stuart Little but I don't really include it. It feels like when Kevin Smith did Mallrats after Clerks just to make the studio happy so he could go onto make the films he wanted.

I only saw one trailer for The Happening and it did not reveal how everyone was dying. That was the big draw for me ... the big mystery I wanted to solve. Although this movie is like 20% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, I still loved it. I disagree with the reviews and thought this movie was very scary and liked the performances.

I was creeped-out big-time for about a week. One of the reasons why I this movie was so scary for me was because I kept putting myself in their place while watching it and wondering what I would do. If the toxins hit me, how would that feel and how would I kill myself? Of course that would depend on what I was doing at that moment.

This movie kind of reminded me of the comic book "Y The Last Man" where all the men die on Earth by some mysterious sickness. I was reading that comic when I saw the movie but in the movie, everyone on Earth is affected. No one is immune.

I'm wondering if it would be possible to save someones life if they were affected by the Toxin. Maybe the toxin would wear off after time. I'm reminded of that scene in Million Dollar Baby where she tries to kill herself by biting her tongue off and bleeding to death. Even if you were to immobilize someone, they still have that option. You would have to put them under sedation.

But it would be interesting to talk to them to see what they are thinking. In real life there are people that hate certain body parts and want them removed like this man who destroyed his own leg so it would be removed.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1299501.ece

If our brains can hate a body part, certainly they can hate the entire body and want to die. People get suicidal so it's not so far fetched that we could make a chemical that would make someone suicidal.

I saw this movie over a week ago and I'm still obsession over it. It really got to me. The world would be a scary place if this thing were ever real in any shape or form.

2008-06-22T14:58:00.000-07:00

Iron Man

I collected comics from like age 10 to 20. Beyond age 20, I stopped collecting but to this day I still buy and read comics. I was never into Iron Man although I did collect Iron Man from about 1980 to 1982. During those years, I mainly remember that Tony Stark gave up being Iron Man and his friend Rhodey Rhodes took his place. So it was a weird time to get into Iron Man since the only time I saw Tony Stark was passed out drunk in a hotel somewhere. He was pretty much useless.

A long time before the movie came out, I discovered that Iron Man was the favorite super hero of my friend. He told me about the upcoming movie and told me why it was so cool. He slowly pulled me into being an Iron Man fan for the first time.

The one thing that excited me about the upcoming Iron Man movie was perhaps seeing different versions of the suit and how each version was flawed and how Tony Stark would upgrade and improve. Some of my favorite scenes is when Tony Stark is alone in his lab testing his suit. I love when his bickering with his AI fire extinguisher and when he accidentally flies over his expensive cars.

One that that really impressed me is how Tony Stark is drilled into that suit. You get the impression that if something goes wrong, he's not getting out of that suit without a lot of help. And without power, there is no way he could move that suit. It is HEAVY DUTY! I never got that impression from the comic book. It always seemed so light weight in the comic but I'm sure it was heavy duty in the early days of Iron Man and evolved into a light weight suit.

In reality, the technology to create such a suit does not exist. It could never fly as far as it did. The propellant needed would weigh thousands of pounds. Somehow this new power source he's invented powers the suit and we have to suspend disbelief and just go with it.

I'm a big fan of Robert Downey Jr. Although I saw Weird Science, I didn't notice him just like I didn't notice John Cusack until later. He was on SNL, but again, I missed him. I love the movie Back to School, but I don't remember him in that. The first time I really noticed him was in the movie Less than Zero where the movie seemed to parallel his real life. His performance really stuck with me. He did a bunch of movies after that I missed then he was amusing in Air America with Mel Gibson. I missed is next few movies then I saw in Chaplin and he was brilliant. I saw Short Cuts but I don't remember him in that. Then he blew me away in his performance in The Natural Born Killers. Later I saw him in US Marshall's which was good but the performance that totally blew me away was in Wonder Boys. That is my favorite performance of his.

I used to watch Alley McBeal but I stopped before he joined the cast. I don't remember him in Gothika. Then he was in Iron Man and had a cameo in The Hulk. I saw a preview for Tropic Thunder and he looks brilliant in that.

I look forward to Iron Man 2 and 3 as well as the other super hero crossover movies he might be in as Tony Stark.

I want to see Iron Man a second time before it leaves theaters. I think it's funny how the plot of Iron Man seemed to parallel the Hulk in that they both had a Nemesis that was like them but bigger and stronger.

I'm happy that Robert Downey Jr. got his act together. I honestly thought he was going to be dead by now from a drug overdose. He was certainly heading in that direction and it seemed like he kept going back to rehab and could not kick his drug problems. If he died, I'm sure he would be replaced by another actor for Iron Man but nobody can fill his shoes.

2007-12-25T18:16:00.000-08:00

I Am Legend

It is actually a fantasy of mine to wake up someday and be the last man on Earth. What an adventure I could have! I would probably avoid trying to fly a plane or base-jumping or anything else that had a high probability in getting me killed or injured. I love to explore and with nothing stopping me, I would probably go places I would never be allowed normally.

I would arm myself with guns and knives for protection against wild animals. I would always carry with me a first aid kit in case I did get injured. I would carry with me lots of water and try to plan ahead so I didn't get myself stranded in the middle of a desert for example.

Without a companion, I'm sure I would be like Tom Hanks in Cast Away. He had a volleyball with a bloody face to talk to. I would probably crave one of those super realistic Japanese sex dolls. That would be the closest thing to a real person. I would also love some kind of Artificial Intelligence to have conversation with for example in the Marvel Comic Book Deathlok the Demolisher, the cyborg at a computer in his brain which her referred to as 'puter. I would probably enjoy games like Chess with computers as well as other computer games.

I imagine I would spend a lot of time watching movies but this might get me depressed since it would remind me of how the world used to be. Getting depressed and lonely over time is only natural. I would have to find ways to cope. I'm sure I would start losing my mind after 10 years. I'm not sure how I would stay sane. Would I get bored? Would I get fat or get lots of exercise? If I got sick, there would be no doctors to help me. Death may be slow and painful taking many years if I got stick and didn't know which medicines to take or how to treat my illness. That would suck.

Even so, it still remains a fantasy but it's only a fantasy. I don't really wish it.

I have yet to see a movie about one person left alive on the Earth. They always end up finding some other humans or there are mutants left alive.

"The Last Man On Earth" (1964) starring Vincent Price, has mutants and he finds other humans, although they are turning in mutants (more like vampires).

I used to enjoy the DC comic book "Kamandi", The Last Boy on Earth. But it turns out that was a lie. There were other people his age as well as a wide variety of creatures, some with super powers.

There is also a graphic novel named Y:The Last Man written by Brian K. Vaughan and published by Vertigo about the spontaneous death of every male on Earth. There are still women so it's not a pure "last person on Earth" story.

The New Zealand film The Quiet Earth (1985) looked promising. It seemed that he was the only man alive on the Earth and there were no zombies but eventually he found other people besides himself. At the end, he does manage to transport himself to some alternate world and does end up being the only man alive on that world but that's where the movie ends.

In Stephen King's The Stand, most of the world population is wiped out by a virus except a handful of survivors. This movie features the Devil as a crow so it's not purely Science Fiction.

In the "made for TV movie" named "Where Have All the People Gone" (1974), most people are wiped out from solar flares, but again, there are a handful of survivors.

In 1971, Charles Heston starred in the Omega Man (1971). At first it seemed he was alone except for the zombies, but later he found other survivors.

In Night of the Comet (1984), most people are killed by the radiation produced by a comet. Those who were inside metal buildings were spared. Those who were partially inside metal buildings are zombies. It's a really bad movie with a non-sense ending.

I just rented "The Last Man" (2000) but in that movie there are two men and one woman. Plus it's a comedy.

So my search continues for that pure "Last Man on Earth" movie which is free from zombies and where he or she is truly the person on Earth.

I'm guessing the reason a truly pure "Last Man On Earth" movie has not been made because it's too hard to make it interesting with a single person for the entire movie. It can be done. The Tom Hanks movie "Cast Away" (2000) was interesting and it's just one guy on an island for most of the movie.

I've read some interesting articles about what might happen if man suddenly disappeared from the Earth. Things would fall apart fairly quickly. Nature would reclaim the land and buildings would tumble. A domino effect would happen where one thing leads to another, causing a rapid destruction of the man made world.

You would need your own generator because the power would go out in a short period of time. You would need to stock pile food then learn to hunt and grow your own food. You would need to take great care because there would be nobody to help you if you were to get into trouble like fall into a hole or break a leg.

If such a pure movie was made, I'd like to see a young child be the last person left on Earth. I think it would be more interesting seeing a child struggle to survive. They have far less survival skills than an adult for example they don't know to drive or tie knots.

I've enjoyed movies about child survival like The Black Stallion, The Blue Lagoon and Lord of the Flies. These were all castaway movies where children were stranded on a remote island.

Image "The Blue Lagoon" meets "Last Man On Earth" and you have a movie that has never been made. Imagine a coming of age film where a young boy and girl must fend for themselves in a world void of anyone else. No mutants. They would become the new Adam and Eve. Or maybe "Lord of the Flies" meets "Last Man On Earth", where a group of children must survive and repopulate the Earth.

This reminds me of the Star Trek Class episode "Miri" where the Enterprise finds an Earth-like planet and discovers a group of 300 year old children. The disease prolongs youth but upon reaching adolescence, the disease causes rapid aging and madness.

A film-maker friend of mine made a student film where HIV becomes airborne and wipes out most of the human race. A handful of children are kidnapped and put into suspended animation until everyone is gone and the virus has run its course. They awake into a savage world of survivors who were immune to the disease. He has yet to make this into a real movie but maybe someday he will.

Time to get off my tangent and back to the movie. "I am Legend" is actually based on a novel by Richard Matheson named "I Am Legend". It has been made into a movie many times including "The Last Man On Earth" (1964) starring Vincent Price, "The Omega Man" (1971) starring Charles Heston and most recently, "I Am Legend" (2007) starring Will Smith.

I'm a huge Will Smith fan and will usually see any movie he stars in. Combine that with the Last Man on Earth theme and I'm there. Will Smith was great as usual. But there were a good number of survivors and the CG Zombies were superhuman. I liked how the zombies operated like a hive so there was some order and structure to their lives. It doesn't make sense that a disease would create hive based zombies.

Will Smith is looking for a cure and he finally finds it when he attempts to cure a 19 year old female zombie but we never see the full transformation from zombie back to human. I would think the damage is done. You can't go back. It's asking a lot to believe that his cure can transform the zombies back to humans. For example the zombies seem to have the ability to open their mouths about 4 times wider than humans. Their strength and speed is also super human.

Although the zombies are a product of a man-made virus to cure cancer, who's to say that they need curing. They seem superior to humans in many ways. It reminds me of the attempts to cure homosexuality. Just because they are different, people think they are bad and need curing. These mutants also kill and eat humans but so do a lot of animals on this world.

Humans are not the only animals transformed by this virus. Upon contact, other animals can also turn into their alternate zombie forms from this virus. The transformation takes a few hours to start but then happens within the space of a minute.

I must say that the special effects were amazing. I can't wait to see "The Making Of" because I kept wondering how they did these scenes.

Days after seeing "I am Legend", I wondered why Will Smith had to die in the end. He did not need to be holding that grenade when it went off. Am I missing something? Grenades have a delayed fuse. Pull the pin, hide in the protective area with the woman and child and let the Grenade kill the zombies. His blood contains the cure. It didn't make any sense to me.

Another thing that didn't make sense to me is that Will Smith lived in a vulnerable building in which the zombies could easily attack. He could have easily found a facility that had far stronger walls, doors and windows for protection.

This movie does have some good scares. I jumped quite a few times. When Will Smith is forced to go into a dark building to rescue his dog, it's quite scary especially when he stumbles upon the hive.

The Zombies cannot tolerate sunlight so during the day, he has some level of safety so it lets us relax because we know he is safe but at night, he can hear the screams of the zombies as they own the night.

As he enters his apartment, he sprays something on his stairs. We are not told what this is but it must throw them off his scent. Later when he is brought back to his apartment unconscious by the woman, she does not spray and Will Smith fails to remember to do this and therefore they get attacked.

I much prefer my version where the only challenge is for a group of children to try to survive and there are no mutant zombies and there are no other survivors to be found. It's just them fighting things like hunger, weather, animals, injury, crumbling infrastructure, etc. Make my science fiction as real as possible please.

If you are interested in helping me develop this story line further, check out my wiki. My working title is Children of the New World.

2007-11-26T19:29:00.001-08:00

The Mist

Below is a list of the Stephen King books I've read and movies I've seen.

Carrie - book & movie
The Shining - book & movie
The Stand - tv movie
Firestarter - movie
Cujo - book and movie
Creepshow - movie
Christine - book and movie
Pet Cemetary - movie
It - tv movie
Misery - movie
The Green Mile - movie
The Running Man - movie
The Deadzone - movie and tv show
Children of the Corn - movie
Maximum Overdrive - movie
Stand By Me - movie
The Shawshank Redemption
The Langoliers - tv movie
Apt Pupil - short story and movie
The Mist - movie

So I've seen 25 Stephen King books or movies. How does The Mist movie rank? Better than average. It's not a classic like The Shining or The Shawshank Redemption but it doesn't suck like Creepshow or Maximum Overdrive.

I had heard of The Mist but I had no idea what it was about. I went into this movie with only a TV preview and it was actually better than I expected. The only thing that bugged me was that the behavior of some people was over the top. This causes quite a bit drama since people personalities are so extreme. As with some movies, you have to suspend disbelief at times and just go along for the fun ride. I failed to suspend disbelief in some cases for example our hero sees creatures crying to break down a door.

He goes to warn some people and they immediately dismiss him. They open the door and one of them is killed by a creature in the mist. Our hero is covered in blood trying to save the guy. They manage to cut off a piece of the monster. When our hero tells his neighbor about what just happened his neighbor thinks it is some kind of joke. The blood and monster tentacle must be fake. The religious woman manages to get half the survivors believing this is the end of days and they want to make human sacrifices to please God. That is not very Christian-like and yet half of them fall for her crazy preachings.

One man gets burned badly so they attempt a trip through the mist to the pharmacy to get medicine where many more die. Stupid.

Later the survivors turn against each other instead of working together. Our hero and four other people manage to escape in his car but they run out of gas. I guess there weren't any gas stations along the way. I don't want to ruin the ending since I actually didn't expect it. I had to ask myself if I was in their position, what would I have done? I don't know if the novella ends this way but if it does, I have to applaud Stephen King for not taking the easy way out. Instead what happens at the end is unhappy and unpredictable.

2007-10-21T18:46:00.000-07:00

Blade Runner: The Director's Cut

The main difference I noticed is that the Harrison Ford narrative is missing. I actually missed it. I think his commentary is actually quite informative and adds to the movie.

The FX in this movie were cutting edge but now look a bit dated. The sets are still quite impressive. The movie is supposed to occur in the year 2019. That is only 12 years from now. Once again, SciFi is a little too ambitious in it's prediction of the future. In this future envisioned by Philip K. Dick in the novel this is based on named "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", most of humanity has moved off-world and not just populated the moon and Mars but have moved outside this solar system and have spread to other stars.

The dystopia vision of Los Angeles is way off for 2019 but the sets are still quite amazing. Los Angeles is caught in a perma-smog making it seem like night 24 hours per day. It is also almost always raining. The design of Deckard's apartment is highly influenced by the art in Heavy Metal instead of basing it on any realistic type prediction of the future.

Still, the concept that we will create machines that are as human as us but that posses great strength, is an interesting one. We limit their life-spans to 4 years to prevent them from leading any kind of revolution or war upon humanity. This of course makes them very angry so it's no wonder they try their very best to "meet their maker" to extend their lives.

I seem to remember more graphic and violent scenes showing them killing the people they visit but in this version we are left wondering what happened. When the maker is killed, we are not shown the horrible things that happens to him. This leaves it up to our imagination which I liked better.

So in some ways the Director's Cut was an improvement and in other ways I liked the original better.

2007-10-21T18:26:00.000-07:00

Apocalypse Now Redux

Apocalypse Now is one of my all time favorite movies. So I thought this version with 53 more minutes would be more of the same scenes but in reality the bulk of the new material added is one scene in which they are half-way to Col. Kurtz when they encounter a British post in Cambodia. They decide to stop and have dinner and we are treated to very long conversations that nearly bored me. The additional scene seemed out of place. They had found a paradise in the middle of hell. I did not appreciate that. Once they are in hell, I didn't want this break. I ended up fast forwarding past half of the additional scene.

It was nice to see this movie again but it seems so simple on plot now. Capt. Willard gets assigned to kill Col. Kurtz "with extreme prejudice" and has a long journey down the river and has various adventures along the way as he tries to local Kurtz. Harrison Ford actually has a small part before he was famous.

I'm not a big fan of Dennis Hopper but I love him in this. He totally steals the scenes he is in as the reporter who is documenting what is happening with Kurtz. I believe Francis Ford Coppola actually has a cameo in his own film as a reporter filming the action telling the soldiers not to look at the camera as they pass. It felt rather awkward knowing that it was actually Coppola filming the movie.

The most interesting character transformation is the surfer dude, Lance, who finds becomes extremely spiritual after dropping some acid. It seems he never comes down from his trip and easily integrates into the tribe they happen upon.

There is an alternate ending where the air strike is called and the entire tribe is napalmed including women and children. That ending was not included and you are left wondering what happened. I think that is a better ending.

So the original version is still the one I prefer although I did enjoy the extra scene where the men got to hang out with the playboy bunnies who seemed to be tripping on acid as well.

2007-10-21T17:55:00.001-07:00

Kelly's Heroes

This movie was the first movie I added to my NetFlix queue. I chose it based on a recommend from a friend. But before it could be mailed, I had re-arranged my queue so that it was no longer in the top 3. Instead it got pushed back to position 10 or 20 and floated there for many years. I used it as a kind of high water mark to determine how many movies I "really" wanted to see. Finally I got tired of seeing this movie in my queue so I forced myself to move it to the front and when it arrived, I forced myself to watch it.

The first thing I realized is that the movie Three Kings was a remake of this movie. So it was cool to see the original. Another cool thing is that this movie is packed with stars when they were young. This came out in 1970 and as tons of big stars like Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, Donald Sutherland, Carroll O'Conner and many more.

On the downside, here is a movie about people with very little morals. They are greedy and are willing to kill for money. To be fair, the way the movie justifies their actions is that they get 3 days of rest and relaxation and then it is back to the front lines in World War II. These soldiers believe they will probably be killed on the front lines so they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Maybe I'm missing the point but I was upset at the beginning when they ignored the rules of war and mistreated their German prisoner to get info about where the gold is located then they left him to die. It seems rather cruel which tainted my opinion of every greedy person we encountered along the way. They killed dozens of German soldiers for greed. Despicable is the word that comes to mind when describing these people.

Rotten Tomatoes says it is 80% Fresh and I read many user comments on imdb.com so I am sure that I am missing the point. For example this comments on imdb.com by Dances_with_Weasels says you have to take this movie in the context it was made. "This movie was made in America during the Vietnam conflict. There was such war-weariness in the country at the time that only comedic, anti-war war movies were successful, like The Dirty Dozen and this movie. Both of those movies had several elements in common: they had (at the time) great ensemble casts, they were irreverent, even ridiculing, the American army, and thirdly, they portrayed the Germans as professional, competent soldiers."

So I obviously took this movie too seriously and ended up hating it even though some think it is the greatest war movie ever or even the greatest movie ever.

2007-09-20T06:04:00.001-07:00

The Brave One

This is a female version of the Charles Bronson movie, Death Wish (1974). I happen to love the movie Death Wish and I love this movie as well. Let it be known that I'm a huge huge huge Jodie Foster fan even before I knew Jodie Foster's name.

In Death Wish, a man's wife is killed and he becomes a vigilante to get revenge. He puts himself in places and situations where people will try to mug and attack him, then he shoots them dead.

In The Brave One, a woman's fiancee is killed and she becomes a vigilante to get revenge. She puts herself in places and situations where people will try to mug and attack her then she shoots them dead.

It also reminded me of the real life story of Bernie Getz who shot 4 black teenagers on a New York subway. Bernie had been mugged many times and decided to protect himself and get revenge on anyone who harassed him. Many considered the sub-way vigilante a hero and in fact, Bernie is mentioned in this movie. This movie also happens to be in New York city where Death Wish was also filmed.

But even though this movie is a female Death Wish and imitates what happened with Bernie Getz, it is its own movie meaning it has elements and plot devices that make it unique.

I grew up with Jodie Foster ... literally. She is my age. Here she is in an ABC After School Special which I remember.

She was all over TV in shows like Disneyland (always watched), Adam-12 (always watched), My Three Sons (watched sometimes), The Courtship of Eddie's Father (always watched), Gunsmoke (watched sometimes), Bonanaza (watched sometimes), Ironside (watched sometimes), Kung Fu (which I watched) and The Partridge Family (which I also watched) as well as in being various ABC After School Specials.

You get the idea but the movie that really put Jodie Foster on my radar was The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1979) which I saw on TV as reruns. Although I've watched that movie a half-dozen times, I have never seen the start of the movie. I always caught it somewhere around the middle and was amazed at the kid about my age who acted like an adult and could handle adult situations. She was also very clever and cool under pressure. I looked up to Jodie Foster and yet at the time, I didn't know her name. For some strange reason, that movie has never been available on DVD.

I didn't see Tax Driver (1976) until I was in college and she gained some notoriety playing a 13 year old hooker although by my calculation she was actually 14 or 15 in real life.

Then in 1981, John Hinckley tried to assassinate President Reagan to prove to Jodie Foster that he loved her. Somehow that had a negative impact on her career for the next 10 years but she finally made a come back with the unforgettable classic, The Silence of the Lambs.

Six years later she was in Contact (1997) and once again, she was amazing. Panic Room (2002) was also mesmerizing. She was in Flightplan (2005) which I enjoyed.

I missed Inside Man (2006) but it looks amazing. Any Spike Lee join with Denzel Washington is automatically by default a great movie.

Because I saw The Brave One in Malaysia, it was censored. I was a bit annoyed because key scenes were removed leaving me wondering "what the hell just happened???" They usually remove any obscenities and yet they left in "Super-Cunt" which is said several times in one scene. I have to laugh when this happens because I figure the person doing the censoring doesn't know what it means.

Terrence Howard (below left) stars as the police investigator who falls in love with Jodie. For a while there were two stories and I wondered how they were going to intersect. It's interesting how the lives of these two people cross. Terrence Howard reminded me a lot of Forest Whitaker who starred with Jodie in The Panic Room.

Forest Whitaker in Panic Room

I'm not saying they look the same. I'm saying that Howard had a similar way about him that reminded me of Whitaker.

Naveen Andrews who I remember as Sayid in Lost, plays Jodie's fiancee. I didn't recognize him at first. He definitely plays a different type of character that we see in Lost. The guy has some range. Strangely enough when I do a search for all cast members common in Lost and The Brave One, some other guys name comes up whom I don't even recognize.

There were some strains on my ability to believe for example a short time after Jodie gets a gun, she finds herself in two back to back situations where her life in danger and she uses the gun to protect herself by killing. These give her a taste of what it is like to shoot a gun and kill someone.

The second time is confronted by two black guys in the New York subway (think Bernie Getz). She has every right to shoot the guy who is holding the big-ass scary knife to her throat but she also shoots his friend who is just standing there watching. There are no witnesses to the shooting but if there were, I wonder how a jury would decide that second shooting.

After Bernie Getz shot the 4 teens he went back and shot at least one of them again even though they were down. He just wanted to make sure they stayed down. Did he have a right to shoot someone who wasn't a threat at that point even though they could be a threat in the near future after they recover from the first shot?

The interesting thing about this movie the concept of taking the law into your own hands and getting revenge on those people who stole your life from you.

I've watched too many episodes of CSI to know that it would not be too hard for forensics to find her. I would tell you why but it would spoil the ending.

I thought Jodie Foster had "jumped the shark" in Flightplan but now I'm thinking she has at least 20 years of good movies to come. I look forward to growing old with Jodie.

2007-09-12T08:30:00.001-07:00

This is a second remake of the 1956 movie The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

The first remake followed 22 years later in 1978 and had the same name. This remake follows 29 years after that one and is simply called The Invasion.

The 1978 version had a cameo from Kevin McCarthy who was the star of the original film. The pic below is Kevin McCarthy from the 1978 version but to be funny, someone Photoshopped this pic so that he is black-and-white just to emphasize that he is original 1956 black-and-white version.

The 2007 version has a main character who was also a main character in the 1978 version. The character Nancy is played by Veronica Cartwright. I'm sure there will be another remake in 25 years and perhaps Nicole Kidman or Daniel Craig will have a cameo or starring role. According to imdb.com, Veronica Cartwright has been quite busy in mostly in TV shows. I just realized that she was in Alien in 1979 which I also saw and which also scared the crap out of me. I never connected those two performances as the same person. I saw her in The Right Stuff, Flight of the Navigator and The Witches of Eastwick. I don't remember her in Kinsey and the TV show CSI but I probably saw her without thinking making the connection. She is very recognizable so I'll be sure to look out for her in the future.

I'm a big fan of the original although I've only seen it on TV as a kid growing up. Then I saw the 1978 version in the theatre when I was 14. It scared the crap out of me. After the movie I was walking thru the parking lot at night with my friend Steve, heading to the Burger King, and suddenly Steve stops while I'm talking and I keep walking. I get about 10 feet and turn around and he gives me that look like he's one of them. Then he slowly raises his finger and points at me and imitates the final scene of the 1978 movie. Then he proceeds to make the growling squealing noise the "invaded" make. That freaked me out pretty good. It was a good scare. Props to you buddy!

Here is Veronica Cartwright (below) reaction to Donald Sutherland (above). I don't think I freaked quite this much.

Here is Veronica Cartwright in Alien a year later.

Unfortunately I missed the first 10 minutes of the movie. Here in Malaysia when they say the movie stars at 2 pm, it starts at 2 pm. The commercials and previews run before that. In the US, the commercials and previews would start at 2 pm and the movie might actually start at 2:20 pm so you have some time. I like that. So I missed how the world got infected in the first place. I think it had something to do with something brought back from the Space Shuttle.

The main difference is that there were no pods so no "Pod People". In the other versions, if you fell asleep close to a Pod, then a Pod person would be created.

They would be born and you would disappear somehow crumbling into dust basically. In the 1956 version this process took many hours. In the 1978 version it happened much faster. As a pod person you are born naked of course, hence the full-frontal nudity scene in the 1978 version. Of course being 14, I remember those bobbling breasts quite vividly as she walked naked and pointed. I read some Trivia that they filmed that scene with her naked and the same scene with her wearing clothes so when it was shown on TV, they used the clothed version as seen in this pic below. I honestly did try to find the naked pic but failed. Maybe if I joined Mr. Skin, they might have it.

In the 2007 version, you can get infected via saliva. The aliens basically spit in your drink to infect you and the next time you go into REM sleep, your DNA changes and you become one of them. The process takes several hours.

The infected have the ability to spray some kind of green goo from their mouths into your face to infect you. Those that are found to be immune are killed. Her son gets captured by the infected and try to infect him but he is immune. Most of the movie is about her trying to rescue her son.

I had learned about this movie by seeing a review on the Totally Rad Show Podcast. That was the only review I saw before seeing this movie and those 3 guys did not like it very much. I was fond of the first two movies so I had to see this movie and I've been a fan of Nicole Kidman ever since I saw her in Dead Calm in 1989. I followed that with Days of Thunder and Far and Away and Eyes Wide Shut, all with Tom Cruise. I also saw her in Batman Forever, The Peacemaker, Cold Mountain, The Stepford Wives and Bewitched.

Although I'm a huge fan of the new James Bond with Daniel Craig in Casino Royale (2006), I did not recognize him in his role in this movie.

I don't want to spoil the ending for you but let me just say that it ends differently than the first two and I was disappointed with that. I want to say more but I would spoil it. The ending just seemed too neat and easy. And the guys in the Totally Rad Show were right when they said that she kept getting into binds where it looked like there was no way out, and yet she manages to escape each time.

There is also a scene where she is confronted by her husband and about 6 other people, all who have been converted. She has a gun which she took from the police officer while he was transforming. They could easily take her down if they all jump her at once. At most she could kill one or two of them but instead they just stand there and come at her one at a time. She shoots each of them dead until it's just her husband and she can't kill him so she shoots him in the knee. Not believable.

This remake was OK. The first one is a classic and the second one is quite scary but this third one just takes it a new direction that I didn't appreciate. It tried to give it a modern spin which is understandable. It makes more sense that your DNA would be altered instead of some kind of Pod transformation.

The most interesting thing about the movie is whether the world would be a better place if we were all "pod people". At the start of the movie you see there is a lot of turmoil in the world but as the world gets infected, peace begins to settle over the world. The world becomes a better place. And as they explained, they would eliminate hunger, poverty, hardship, conflict, etc.

But what the movie did not answer is what we lose. Would we lose our ambition to invent and create? Would we stagnate as a race never progressing but merely existing? If that is the case, then I would not any part of that world.

But assuming that the invaded could still be ambitious and progress the human race, then come invade me now. I'm all for it.

2007-09-10T23:27:00.000-07:00

Before I can get into the movie review of Knocked Up, I just want to use this opportunity to say that I'm a big fan of everything Judd Apatow does. He acts, writes, produces and directs. He wrote and directed Knocked Up. The leading man is Seth Rogan, whom I never expected to be the lead in any movie but he pulled it off. Seth Rogan was also good in other Judd Apatow films and TV like The 40 Year Old Virgin and Freaks and Geeks. I did an imdb.com search and found that he was also in two TV episodes of Undeclared. According to my search results, he was only in three TV episodes of Freaks and Geeks. I remember him being in every episode. I guess he made a strong impression on me.

I just learned from imdb.com that Seth Rogan was a co-writer for Superbad and Judd Apatow is the Producer.

It seemed like Judd Apatow simply grabbed actors from other movies and TV shows he did to assemble this. There were actors from TV shows Undeclared and Freaks and Geeks as well as movies The 40 Year Old Virgin, Superbad and probably many others. I've done the research but I give up. It's too complicated. The web he weaves of actors he uses is quite complicated as you will soon find out.

I mention a lot of people's names in this review so there are their pictures for reference.

Judd Apatow

Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogen in Knocked Up

Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd in The 40 Year Old Virgin

Jay Baruchel in Undeclared

Jonah Hill and Michael Cerra in Superbad

Martin Starr, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel in Knocked Up.

Steve Carell in The 40-Year-Old Virgin

Justin Long as the Mac (right) from Apple's PC vs Mac commercials.

I recognized a lot of people in this movie but it took me awhile before I could figure out where I had seen them before. The leading woman, Katherine Heigl, looked familiar but only now do I know that I have seen her before on the TV show Grey's Anatomy thanks to imdb.com.

She reminds me a little of Amy Smart, whom would have been great in this roll as well.

Katherine Heigl is one of the only "fresh faces" in this movie since this is her first time working with Judd Apatow (thank you imdb.com).

I recognized Paul Rudd from The 40 Year Old Virgin which is written and directed by Judd Apatow.

I recognize Jay Baruchel from Undeclared (far left below) which is co-Directed by Judd Apatow.

I recognize Jason Segel (bottom right in Undeclared) from Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, both Judd Apatow TV shows.

I did not recognize Martin Starr but according to imdb.com, he worked with Judd Apatow on Freaks and Geeks and he looked very Geeky. In Knocked Up he tries to grow his beard for a year so you can't really see his face. You probably would not recognize him anyway because the guy is amazing at morphing from a Geek to a Stud and anything in between. He's not someone who will get typecast.

Jonah Hill I recognized and according to imdb.com, was in I Heart Huckabees, Click and The 40 Year Old Virgin (Judd Apatow movie) but I don't remember him in those. He is starring in Superbad (finally got his own movie too! Superbad is produced by Judd Apatow) which I'm dying to see, but not in Malaysia or any other country which censors their movies. The first time I saw Jonah Hill was in Accepted where he screams like a girl when a dead body falls from the ceiling. He was also good in Evan Almighty as the "know everything" intern.

The other star in Superbad, Michael Cerra, will also be acting in a future produced Judd Apatow movie named Year One, so Judd Apatow continues the tradition of re-using his actors. I wonder if we will ever see Katherine Heigl again in a movie written, directed and/or produced by Judd Apatow. I have this feeling she is too beautiful to be re-used. He tends to re-use the more interesting looking people.

Speaking of The 40 Year Old Virgin, the star of that movie, Steve Carell, makes a camio as himself in Knocked Up. He does a good job at acting like he's being himself instead of a character which I imagine must be hard.

Judd Apatow obviously likes to re-use the same actors over and over for his movies. This is actually pretty cool in that it gives his movies a familiar feel to them.

You know the guy in those Apple Commercials that plays the part of Apple? His name is Justin Long and he starred in Accepted (not a Judd Apatow film) but he was in the movie Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie, which went straight to video and was produced by Judd Apatow productions. Paul Rudd and Steve Carell were also in that. Oh so many connections! Justin Long is also in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, co-written by Judd Apatow, which will be released for Christmas 2007.

Someone needs to create a flow-chart or map showing the Judd Apatow universe and all the connections of the actors he re-uses and how they relate to each other.

OK, onto the review.

My main problem was that I saw this movie in Malaysia where they censor movies big-time! The F-word is cut along with sex and drug use. There must have been over 100 cuts in this movie! This was worse than watching the movie Miami Vice which was cut to pieces because of the F-word, sex and drug use. It's not just seeing sex or seeing people doing drugs, they also censor people talking about sex or talking about drugs. They did miss one F-word which the character spoke in a funny voice so if you're not a native English speaker, you might miss it.

I had seen the un-rated movie previews online so it was funny to see them all cut up … actually un-funny because part of the humor is lost when Ben first learns Alison is pregnant. His first reaction is totally cut out because he uses vulgarity and it was the funniest part!

Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl in Knocked Up

Compare these two sentences

Censored: Hey, I have a really good idea. Why don't the two of you get into your time machine, go back in time each other.

Uncensored: Hey, I have a really good idea. Why don't the two of you get into your time machine, go back in time and fuck each other.

Obviously the uncensored one is funnier. Actually the next line is the funniest which is "Who needs a time machine?"

The thing I like about Judd Apatow films is that they explore real life situations with humor. He had a great write up Wired Magazine back in June. One of the themes explored in Knocked Up is "should a couple accept each other the way they are or try to change each other"? The movie explores the goals we have for our life versus the curve balls that life throws us. Can two people who are very different make it work as a married couple?

I just watched some a Knocked Up Trailer and saw a scene that was not in the movie and would not have been censored. I understand that the movie is still being cut when the Trailers are released but I always feel a bit deceived when a key scene from a Trailer is missing. They often film the same scene many different ways because they are not sure what will work when the final movie is pieced together so the Trailer may contain a different version of what actually happened.

This trailer is unrated and NSFW. Many parts of this scene were cut for me for example when she says "I'm pregnant" and his reply is "Fuck off".

I think I discovered why Seth Rogan may have starred in this movie. It's because Michael Cera was the original male role but if you watch this video, it appears he and Judd Apatow didn't get along. It was a better movie with Seth Rogan anyway. They are complete opposites and that's what makes it so great. If these two people get make it work, then there's hope for the rest of us!

2007-05-16T06:55:00.000-07:00

28 Weeks Later

An excellent sequel to 28 Days Later.

I saw the first movie, 28 Days Later, and I thought it was a refreshing change from the "Living Dead" zombie movies where zombies were slow moving and stupid. Actually the zombies in 28 Days Later are still stupid. Let's say you are a guard in a prison with the keys to each cell. If you got infected, you would try to reach thru the bars. You would be so overcome with the rage, that you forget that you have the keys to every cell and the prisoners would be safe.

The virus is called the rage-virus and takes about a minute to fully infect you. The transformation is quite violent as you have spasms, blood vessels burst in your eyes and they turn red and you vomit blood. Once infected your only goal in life it to kill anyone who isn't infected.

I'm not sure why the zombies don't turn on each other. In Shaun of the Dead they were able to fool the zombies by acting like them. I wonder if that would work on these Zombies. You just need be drooling large amounts of blood and go into a rage chasing people.

Can the zombies work together? Can a zombie eat normal food? Can they drive a car? Shoot a gun? Oh so many unanswered questions.

I wonder if you could out-run the average zombie if you were really a good runner. They are limited by their own bodies after all. They are not the un-dead. They are simply infected with a virus which makes them very pissed off. I'm wondering if a virus-infected fat-guy who hasn't run in 20 years would give himself a heart-attack and die.

With the "living dead" zombies you had to destroy the brain but these zombies can starve to death, bleed to death and suffer from anything a normal person suffers from.

I had some problems with this movie. When they found the woman still alive in the red-zone, they brought her into the secure area. They also did not keep her guarded.

The island was also easily escapable. Nobody was allowed to exit the island yet the child and his older sister easily passed guards to escape.

I hate it when a movie relies on false scares and there are dozens of them in this movie. The scares don't happen when you expect them but they also happen when you don't expect them. Imagine someone sitting behind you in the theater who jumps up and screams in your ear at random times. That's what it was like. I'm more startled than scared and this movie startled me about a dozen times. I found that method of scare to be annoying.

There are some people that are not affected by the virus but can still be carriers. An examination of their blood under a microscope shows what appears to be blood cells being aggressive with other blood vessels. It is kind of a micro-world of what happens in a real life. The blood vessels are in a rage.

There was a scene where some kind of smoke was used to kill the zombies. They never explained what it was but I'm guessing it's some poisonous gas that would kill humans and zombies alike.

I love the music in this movie. During the first zombie attack, the music really amplified my feelings. It was used in a few other places in the movie. The volume gets turned up really loud and gets your heart pumping really fast.

There is not a lot of gore in this movie. I was expecting gore but besides seeing a lot of blood, there was not the typical limbs being torn off, guts being torn out, brains splattered, etc.

The characters in this movie had hard decisions to make. The zombies are about to get your wife … what do you do? Run or try to help her? Your little brother may turn into a zombie, do you run or do you stay with him? The infection has suddenly spread to the civilians. Do you kill everyone or just try to kill the zombies? You are a rooftop sniper shooting zombies in a crowd of running people. How do you know which ones to shoot? Decisions, decisions …

This movie has a great visual style. The acting was good. The story was good. I just wish the scares came from suspense instead of random screaming in my ear.

If there is a sequel it should be called 28 Years Later. I'd go see it because rage-zombies are actually quite scary.

My wife was too scared to see this movie with me. I tried to show her my review but the three pictures I included were all too scary for her to even look at. It goes without saying that you have to enjoy being scared at the movies to enjoy this movie. I often see people (woman especially) covering their faces to hide from the horror. I have never done that. I guess you can still enjoy a horror movie with your eyes closed. You cannot escape the sound unless of course you're deaf ... which my wife is.

2007-05-12T22:01:00.000-07:00

Spider-Man 3 (viewing 2)

I saw Spider-Man 3 for the second time last night. My gym rented out an entire theater just for members and their friends and family. Kelly and I went. I was open seating so first-come first-served. By the time we got there, it was nearly full. Every seat had been sold but we managed to get two seats together near the front. Some other groups of people were not so lucky and had to be split apart … like the guy sitting next to me. I mentioned to him that this is how it is in the US. I've never seen a theater in the US with assigned seating.

I brought my voice-recorder with me and I wish I could have taken notes with it during the movie but that would be rude. I wish I had brought a pad and paper but it would have been hard to write in the darkness. I'm sure there is a pen-flashlight combination. As a result of not being able to take notes, I'm sure that I forgot half of the thoughts I had for this blog post.

It was a different movie the second time. I noticed a lot of things I missed the first time for example Peter's professor has only one arm. This is a clue! He will probably appear in Spider-Man 4 as the Lizard. The professor will create a serum based on Lizard DNA. Some Lizard's can re-grow their tail so his serum is designed to re-grow his arm but unfortunately turns him into a giant lizard.

Dylan Baker plays Dr. Curt Connors who will turn into the Lizard. He was also in Spider-Man 2 so his potential to become the Lizard has already been in two movies. It's time for the appearance of the Lizard!

I remembered Stan Lee's quote (the man in the square). He said "You know, I guess one person really can make a difference ... 'Nuff said!"

When you watch a movie many times, your eyes tend to look at different things each time for example when Mary Jane selecting a name on her mobile phone, instead of checking out what name she chooses, you're looking at what other names MJ has in her address book.

When they show MJ in a crowd, instead of looking at MJ, you're looking at people in the crowd.

When Parker is sitting at his desk you're checking out his room or the view out the window.

I spotted an error. When the Sandman was first spotted by police and hid in the truck of sand, the police officer is walking on the sand approach the area where the sand is collapsing and I noticed a wooden platform on the right. The truck was not full of sand but probably had a large wooden platform with maybe a foot of sand on top.

Aunt May says to Peter "Uncle Ben wouldn't want us living with revenge in our hearts, it's like a poison. It can take you over and turn us into something ugly." This is probably the main message of Spider-Man 3. Spider-Man, the New Goblin and Eddie Brock are all driven by revenge and turn into something ugly.

Parker tells Brock "If you want forgiveness, go find Religion." and he ends up at that Catholic Church.

There are so many clever links like this in the script that you can only notice with multiple viewings.

This audience reacted much differently than the first audience. When Jameson's secretary kept buzzing him reminding him to watch his blood pressure and take his pills, the audience was laughing hysterically. The first audience had much less of a reaction.

The second audience remained seated in the movies final minutes where the first audience started to leave and people pulled out their mobile phones to check their text messages. I did not see a single mobile phone pulled out.

Spider-Man 3 is a good movie for the deaf. There is plenty of action. Even though Kelly was tired from work, she did not fall asleep once! If there is too much talking in a movie, Kelly will usually fall asleep in a movie which is about half of the movies we see. I have to be careful which movies I invite her to.

2007-05-08T03:44:00.000-07:00

Spider-Man 3

I just noticed that they spell Spiderman as Spider-Man. I checked out some comic book covers and sometimes they use the dash and sometimes they don't.

I actually went to see Jim Carrie movie "The Number 23" because I have tickets to see Spider-Man 3 next weekend. My gym rented out an entire theater so I bought two tickets for RM 10 (USD 2.85).

When I got to the Gurney Mall I saw posters for "The Number 23" everywhere including behind the woman selling tickets. I had confirmed the day and time on the Internet and in the Sunday newspaper but when I asked for a ticket they said that "The Number 23" had been canceled because of Spider-Man 3.

That makes sense. They sell-out theaters for Spider-Man 3 and a few people go to see "The Number 23", it makes sense to inconvenience a few people so that hundreds don't get disappointed but still I was a little annoyed. This has happened before when I came to see the Malaysian movie Ciplak about pirating DVD movies in Malaysia. Nobody was coming to see Ciplak so they canceled it even though they still listed it on the Internet and in the newspaper. It makes sense. Why play a movie for an empty theater wasting that electricity and causing extra wear and tear on the film and equipment.

Never once in my life in the US have I ever gone to see a movie and the theater reports that it is canceled and yet it has happened to me twice in Malaysia in the past 6 months. I'm actually OK with it because like Spock said "The needs of the many outweigh out weigh the needs of the few". Actually that's not exactly what he said but close enough.

Quoting Star Trek is not easy for example Kirk never said "Beam me up Scotty". The closest he came was in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, when he said "Scotty, Beam me up!" No future Star Trek movie will ever say those words either because the actor who played Scotty, James Doohan, died in 2005.

I decided not to see Spider-Man 3 so I saw Wild Hogs instead. That was a fun movie full of movie stars. Some light fluff for a Sunday afternoon. The audience certainly enjoyed it more than I did. They were laughing hardily at every little thing.

After Wild Hogs, I was still in the mood for a movie so I got back in line to buy myself a ticket but the movie time was flashing orange on the monitor meaning that tickets were being sold fast and it was about to be sold out. It's no big deal if it had because there was a showing every half hour so I would not have had to wait long but I was able to get into that show but I probably should have waited because I think I got the last seat.

In Malaysia you choose where you want to sit. They show you a monitor showing available seats and you can see where the screen is. The rows have letters and the seats have numbers it's like playing Battleship, you will say, I'll have J10. That is row 10 from the back and 10 seats over from the left but this time I had no choice. I literally got the last seat in the theater which was near the back row.

I wonder what would happen if two people chose the same seat at the same time. One would probably get it and the other person would probably be told it is taken. I wonder about this when choosing a seat for an airplane on the web. Obviously they have to have a way to handle this but it's never come up.

So now I'm due to see Spider-Man 3 twice which is good because you always see new things the second time. Actually you could see Spider-Man 3 ten times and you would still see new things each time because some of the action sequences happen so fast, you can't possible see everything that is happening.

I thought the chase scene of the New Goblin and Spider-Man were a little too fast to follow. I wasn't sure what was happening at times. They really tried to amp up the action but maybe they pushed it too far.

When I read about Spider-Man 3, I wondered how they were going to pack all of the different story lines into a two hour movie. You had the Sandman, the New Goblin, the black symbiote Spider-Man suit, Venom and the love affair with Mary Jane Watson but somehow they fit it in and made it all work.

There was a child sitting behind me that would break out crying any time something scary happened on screen. This child must be totally traumatized by this movie because the parents never left the theater. They made the kid sit it out even though the kid was bawling over and over. That's a form of child abuse of you ask me. As we all know, you're supposed to take crying babies to the lobby. Oh wait, that's in the US. I have never seen that policy posted anywhere in Malaysia.

As I've said before, watching a movie in Malaysia sucks because they cut it and Spider-Man 3 is no different. I'm not sure what language, sex or violence was cut but I was aware of several jumps. It sucks to see movie in Malaysia not to mention that annoying sub-titles in Chinese and Malay.

I read that Spider-Man 3 is the most expensive movie ever made because of the CG sand. The final effect was pretty cool at times but they went to a lot of effort mapping every grain of sand in detail that is far more minute than anyone can see. It's like in the movie Monsters, Inc. when they mapped every hair of the big blue monster. Is it really necessary?

It's interesting how the Spider-Man movies deviate from the comic book for example he has organic web shooters instead of mechanical ones.

The suit came from a meteor in space instead of fabricated on some distant planet during the Secret Wars. I'm not sure of Eddie Brock's fate in the comic but they killed him off and the symbiote. In the comic book the symbiote lives on bonding with other hosts for example creating a villain named Carnage was splits off from Venom. Venom actually helps Spider-Man fight Carnage. The symbiote is currently bonded to The Scorpion so the story of the symbiote goes on in the comic book but is finished for the movies.

I laughed when Spider-Man said "Where do these guys keep coming from?" If you think too much (which you should avoid with movies like this) you will see that all of these super villains seem to show up in New York City at the same time Spider-Man was there. What a coincidence! That meteor just happened to crash right next to Spider-Man and the symbiote just happened to latch onto his motorbike and follow him home.

I thought it was funny how they made the Daily Bugle building the Flatiron Building. It does not match the how it looked in the comics.

Stan Lee has a cameo appearance where he imparts some wisdom to Peter Parker although I'm forgetting what it was. I'm wondering how many movies Stan Lee has had a cameo in. Stephen King likes to get a cameo in his movies just like Alfred Hitchcock. It makes sense. If I were big and famous and making movies, I'd do the same thing. It's kind of fun but since they're not actors, their performances often feel awkward, forced and out of place as was the case with Stan Lee and his performance.

I'm not a big fan of the Sandman so I wasn't looking forward to that but I really liked the flying snowboard for the New Goblin. Harry Osborn situation reminded me of Batman. Both are wealthy and both have a butler who knows their secret. I won't spoil the ending but I really like the words of wisdom imparted to Harry Osborn from his butler that turn things around for Spider-Man.

I hope they never use Hydro-Man. He's as bad as the Sandman. Stopping a man made of sand or water is nearly impossible. Let's stick with villains that are a bit more realistic.

As for Spider-Man 4 and his next villains to face, I'd like to see the Kingpin, Lizard, Mysterio and the Hobgoblin. In the Marvel Universe, Spider-Man has crossed paths with pretty much everyone including the Hulk, The Fantastic Four, X-Men, Daredevil, Captain America, The Punisher, Electra, Ghost Rider, Silver Surfer and Iron Man. Technically Marvel could do a cross-over movie sequel with all of these Marvel movies.

There is a scene where a crane strikes a building and a woman falls 30 stories. I had flashbacks of people jumping out of the World Trade Center twin towers. I don't know if they meant to mimic that but it felt eerie.

The final scene of the movie is a low key and you get the feeling that the movie is almost over. This apparently is a signal to half of the people in the audience to pull out their mobile phones and check for text messages. Suddenly dozens of bright mobile phone screens light up all over the place. It is as rude as talking to someone on the phone because that bright light is shining in my eyes distracting me from the movie. If I was Spider-Man I would have sprayed my web and snatched up all those phones and thrown them at the exit door for everyone to trample on.

2007-04-22T09:15:00.000-07:00

Bats

My wife loves these B movies where animals attack people. This movie is perfect for her. I had not planned on watching it and in fact I had work to do but somehow I got caught up and watched the whole thing and it was hysterically bad.

This is a made for TV movie Lou Diamond Phillips. It doesn't seem that long ago where I saw him in the made for TV movie named "The Triangle". I hardly see the guy anymore but I have to give him props ... he's certainly been keeping busy! I like him in the TV show Numb3rs. Actually I like him in everything he's done starting with La Bamba which was awesome.

The plot was predictable. The actors lines were painfully predictable. It's like I was writing the movie with my brain waves ... I would think ahead of time of what they were about to say ... and they'd say it. The writer must have asked himself ... what is the most obvious and cliché thing I can have this character say at this moment?

The scene at the end where they are out-running the bats in the cave reminded me of scenes in movies where people out-run explosions. You would see them run by the camera then the bats would fly by moving at about 5 times their speed. At that rate, the bats would have caught them in a few seconds and yet the scene where they are running from the bats lasts about a minute.

I do have to admit that the CG bats were done fairly well ... most of the time.

I didn't realize this was supposed to be a comedy but at the end of the movie, after they seal the mine with all of the mutant bats, the boss-bat manages to somehow dig its way underground and pop its head out at the very end ... but then his head gets squashed by the car as our heroes are driving away oblivious to the fact that they just saved the world ... again. That really sealed the movie for stupidity. It was trying to be serious up until that point. It's like the movie shifted gears for the final scene. I felt like I was watching a scene from Gremlins 2 (which I saw for the first time recently as well!)

2007-04-22T08:52:00.000-07:00

Tornado

This is a made for TV German movie dubbed in English with Chinese and Malaysian sub-titles watched in Malaysia so it had about 5 major scenes cut out of it.

Here is the description on Yahoo movies.

Berlin is struck by an unusual series of storms and hail stones. In the middle of this unusual phenomenon is a meteorologist named John who has recently returned from studying tornadoes in Oklahoma, in the United States. He returns home to find his ex-girlfriend, a doctor named Eva, going out with his best friend, Bruno, also a meteorologist. Bruno has taken his place as his father's assistant. John has a knack for weather prediction and he learns that a tornado is about to hit Berlin.Together with Eva, he must convince his father to sound the warning for the people of Berlin to stay clear of the path of the oncoming tornado.

Kelly fell asleep which is common when there's a lot of talking (she's deaf) and I almost fell asleep since it was really boring at times.

The scenes where people are getting chased by tornadoes are quite ridiculous. The characters in this movie really should go to jail for their negligence of not warning Berlin. They used hail a lot but it was obviously just grinded up ice. I know what hail looks like. It's round but the pieces of hail in this movie were all irregular shapes like a large block of ice had passed thru a grinder.

People started getting up and leaving a few minutes before the movie ended.

And the worst thing was that who ever mixed the sound tracks made the special effects WAY TOO LOUD so I couldn't hear what people were saying.

Kelly usually likes these crappy B movies but even she thought it was boring and stupid.

2007-04-15T03:42:00.000-07:00

Sunshine

The closest guy in the poster reminds me of Kevin Rose the creator of Digg fame but only in the poster.

Unfortunately Kelly did not turn off her mobile phone and received an SMS right when the movie started. Her phones beeps REALLY loudly three times ... twice, for each SMS. Then she proceeded to SMS the person back with her bright screen lighting visible to everyone behind her distracting them. As she was finishing her SMS she got ANOTHER SMS.

I was so embarrassed ... I couldn't focus on the movie. I tried holding my hand over the phone to shut it up, muffle the speaker but obviously I failed. I signed to Kelly to please shut her phone off so she did ... unfortunately it plays a REALLY LOUD piece of music while it's shutting down.

So basically she disturbed the theater 4 times with her mobile phone right at the beginning of the movie ... also causing me to miss some key information at the start.

I was embarrassed and pissed and it took me about 5 minutes to relax enough to start enjoying the movie again.

I had no idea what this movie about beyond looking at the poster. I half caught a preview on TV and I read no reviews. I went into it cold but it looked cool. It had a good scifi plot involving space travel and the Sun ... that's enough excuse for me to see it.

Right away I found it interesting although I doubted that the sun would reduce in energy as they say because according to scientists the sun will expand to a red-giant consuming Mercury, Venus and expand to Earth's current orbit but push Earth away boiling off it's water and atmosphere and that will eventually shrink to a white-dwarf. I got this info from Wikipedia.

Given that the sun was actually reducing in energy making Earth a frozen wasteland, I still doubt they would have the technology to restart it or supply enough fuel to make it brighter. And even if it worked, maybe they'd make it too hot and the Earth would suffer from too much heat.

This is supposed to be 50 years in the future so 2057 but the technology shown, as usual, was far too ambitious for 50 years from now. Maybe more like 250 years from now! Scifi is typically too optimistic so when we finally do reach the year in that movie or book, it's never anywhere near as sophisticated as depicted.

The movie 2001:A Space Odyssey predicted we would have a massive orbiting space station and a permanently manned moon-base by 2001 and that PanAm would evolve into a space agency. Well, they actually got that sort of right. Virgin has expanded into a space agency but then again, they've expanded into almost everything including books, comic books, health spas, credit cards, insurance, loans, digital tv, mobile phones, health clubs, stem cells, wedding venues, music festivals, games and gambling, cosmetic and jewelry, wine, music downloads, movies, games and so much more. Visit their home page to check it out.

The ship was named Icarus 2 which was version 2 of Icarus which was the first attempt but they lost contact. Apparently the second attempt is the last attempt because there is not enough material to make a third bomb so it's do or die.

Icarus is from Greek Mythology about a man who flew too close to the sun using artificial wings held together with wax. The wax melted and he fell to his death.

The ship has this giant mirror on the front to reflect the solar energy. I'd sure like to know how that works or if that is even possible. The sun is still going to heat up the shield.

Speaking of 2001:A Space Odyssey again, they copied yet another scene where two people have to spend a little time in space without a space suit. Space Odyssey has come the closest to depicting what actually happens when people are subjected to the vacuum of space but once again Hollywood feels like they have to exaggerate. The problem they emphasized most in the movie was the extreme cold. They did say to close your eyes and breath out slowly. Closing your eyes is a good idea but exhaling all the way is a better idea. Freezing to death is not a big problem and yet the guy who didn't make it gets frozen solid in about 30 seconds then hits something and shatters into tiny pieces then gets vaporized by the sun. Dust to Dust.

On their journey to the Sun they discover that the first Icarus ship has survived. It has been 7 years and they don't have enough oxygen unless much of the crew died. They decide to rendezvous with the first ship because two bombs are better than one. Course correction goes fine but human errors causes other problems.

The thing I liked most about the movie was the problem solving. The solution was always that someone had to die. Time and time again the crew found themselves in a situation where they were expendable. Kill one person and you save the human race. Luckily they didn't have to draw straws since the crew got picked off one by one by various events. This plot idea that someone must die to save millions was explored in an episode of Outer Limits when a girl hides aboard a rocket carrying medicine to a dying planet. Because of her added weight, they don't have enough fuel to slow down.

What I'm saying is that there is not much original in this film. It's ideas are borrowed from many other SciFi films. It even made me think about the really bad movie Solarbabies.

When they visited the original Icarus it reminded me of two movies: Event Horizon and 2010, the sequel to 2001 A Space Odyssey. In both of those movies they visit a ship which has been long lost but they seemed to mimic the horrors they found in Event Horizon. Apparently living that close the Sun for 7 years and surviving changed the Captain in some way. He's running around naked and his skin is all fried but he seems to be emitting some kind of radiation that prevents you from seeing him clearly. He's also insane ... or is he. Apparently he spoke to God who told him to take everyone to Heaven which meant stopping the mission.

The final 10 minutes of the movie are really cool but I won't ruin it for you. I've provided too many spoilers as it is. I liked the special effects and costumes.

If your wife is deaf, avoid inviting her to this. My wife fell asleep about 5 times. Some movies are just boring to the deaf ... too much talking, not enough action.

2007-04-09T06:35:00.000-07:00

The Reaping

I don't want to waste my time reviewing this movie. There is very little originality. She has sex with the cult member and doesn't remember and is not bearing the anti-christ. Hmmm ... sounds familiar ... Rosemary's Baby.

I've been a huge Hillary Swank fan since she did Boy's Don't Cry but there were times in this movie when she was slurring her words as if she was recovering from a stroke. At other times she spoke fine.

I thought the CGI locust were pretty cool. I'd like to know how they made a river turn red. Was that some kind of filter or did they actually die the river red?

The only reason I went to see this movie is because Kelly wanted to see it. I think her favorite genre is movies where people are attacked by nature in some way whether it be animals, earthquakes, tornadoes, etc. This also had a biblical theme so that was interesting for her as well but boring for me.

The movie was OK. I thought the special effects were good. I hate the false scares though. Kelly was obviously more scared then me but I was honestly scared at some points. I would have preferred to see Sunshine but sometimes you have to see movies because your significant other wants to see them.

2007-04-05T08:46:00.000-07:00

The Beach

Reality vs Hollywood

I just got back from Phuket Thailand, one of the many shooting location for the movie The Beach. We took a speedboat out to Phi Phi island which is the main shooting location and went to the actual beach but it was low tide and our boat could not reach the shore because of the coral. I tried to swim to the beach but it got too shallow and too dangerous. The coral is like sharp rocks. It can easily shred your skin as I discovered first hand.

I saw this movie at a time when I was looking for adventure so it inspired me. It also instilled me with the desire to visit Thailand. So far I visited Bangkok, Koh Samui island, Phuket island, Phi Phi island and Hatyai. There's a magic that Thailand has that Malaysia seems to lack.

I wanted to discuss the difference between the movie and reality for example at the end where he logs into Excite.com to check his email. His username is Richard. The chances of getting your own name for a username on a popular site like Excite is highly unlikely.

The movie does a good job at capturing the magic of Thailand.

These screen captures came off a VCD I bought in Malaysia so they have Chinese and Malay sub-titles.

I screen captured the map shown below from the movie. I pieced together 3 screen captures as they scrolled. Compare this map to the screen capture I took from Google Earth. The map is actually based on reality. There is an island west of Koh Phangan that has an enclosed lagoon or lake.

The fictional island on the map is actually on the other side of Thailand from Phuket and Phi Phi island.

Comparing that island to the island drawn on the map, my best guess is the fictional island is this one in that collection of island on the left.

When I zoomed in closer to the cluster of islands I found an island with a lake resembling the enclosed lagoon in the movie.

Here is a screen capture of the CGI island from the movie.

In reality this is island they filmed on. It's called Phi Phi island and its 45 minutes by speedboat from Phuket island and it is on the opposite side of Thailand off the west coast. The aqua colored area around the island is the coral.

Below is the scene where they are about to swim to the island giving you another view of it. That could be Phi Phi island. I'm not sure. Most of the island is surrounded by steep cliffs. In fact they are inverted where the water has carved them out so you would have to climb up and slightly up-side down. From this point of view it appears they are swimming toward an area with no beach.

Here is in another view of the island in the movie. They mention that the island is a national park which is why their boat could not take them there. The island on the map is actually a national park so that part is correct.

Here is a shot of the island from the end of the movie.

In the movie they give the impression that the lagoon is closed on all sides and they do a pan which gives the impression it is. Below I used AutoStitch to stitch together 3 screen captures from the movie as they panned left to right showing the entire lagoon.

But if you look on the left you can see the cliff edge which leads to the exit of the lagoon. This is just a clever camera angle giving you the impression it is a closed lagoon.

Here is a scene from the movie where they are entering Maya bay.

Look again on this map. You see those two bays that almost meet? Just above that is Maya Bay where this lagoon exists.

Here is the picture I took of the beach from the boat. Compare that to the scene from the movie below.

Our guide told me that there are no sharks in that area so the movie lied about that.

This screen shot from the movie shows that there is less coral on the right side. Too bad I swam in from the left side. I probably would have hit sand before it got too shallow and have been able to walk in.

Here is another shot from the movie that shows the first 50 feet are sand.

In one scene they are kissing underwater but in order to reach the deep water you have to pass about 50 feet of shallow coral and that would be pretty impossible at night so that scene is fake.

In this scene they are hiding in the field of marajuana. There is no place on Phi Phi that this field could exist.

They also made the trip to the island for 400 Bahts. I'm assuming that was per person because 400 Bahts is about 1 US dollar. Things may be cheap in Thailand but I seriously doubt they made such a long trip by train, bus and boat for only $1.

Is Maya Bay that beautiful? Yes! That part is true. The water is crystal clear with beautiful fish swimming around and all kinds of amazing things to see.

If you want to read about my trip to Phuket check out this link.

2007-01-05T00:34:00.000-08:00

Cicak Man. This is a Malaysian Movie about a super hero who reminds me of Spiderman. He does not shoot a web but he can climb walls like a Gecko (small lizard) which is what Cicak translates to.

If you're from the US you're probably thinking Cicak is pronounced Kikak but this is Malaysia pronunciation and they say chee-chu. The letter C in Malaysian is pronounced Ch, the letter i is pronounced "ee" and if the word ends in K the K is often silent except in a word like Klinik.

The plot involves cloning and there are some jokes about DVD piracy (so I've read, cuz they spoke Malay and I only speak English) which makes this YouTube clip funny cuz someone recorded the TV commercial by filming their TV and uploaded it to YouTube ... more cloning/piracy. Gotta love Malaysia!

I read on Wikipedia that this movie is the first Malaysian big budget comedy-superhero movie and features almost 40% CGI footage. I didn't realize they used so much CGI until the credits when they showed how they did some of the scenes. I was really fooled and thought the backgrounds were real.

This background is CGI. The actors walked down the street which merely a blue screen.

Speaking of the credits, here they were showing how they did the cool special F/X and everyone in the theater walked out! I suspect it was because it was a theater full of 12 to 13 year old Malaysian boys with their mothers and the mom's had no interest. What a shame because I'm sitting their alone as the ushers are cleaning up around me watching the tricks to each scene. They saved a TON of money using CGI obviously.

Here in Malaysia, Geckos are everywhere! They are in people's homes crawling around and people don't care. If you saw a Gecko climbing up your wall in the US you'd freak! But homes in Malaysia are more open to nature so they live with bugs and animals in the house like its no big deal.

I remember when I first stepped off the plane in Malaysia they took me to a Thai restaurant and as I'm eating my spicy yet delicious Tom Yam for the first time I noticed a Gecko climbing on the wall. Thinking I had spotted something really interesting I got all excited and pointed at the moment it crawled behind a picture frame. I'm sitting at the table with Kelly, a few of her sisters and her mom and I'm pretty sure they all thought I was crazy for seeing things that weren't there. Nobody spoke good English and I was calling it a lizard and since their English was limited they had no idea what I was talking about.

I went to see this movie with Kelly but it had no sub-titles and was in Malay so neither of us understood what anyone was saying which is a shame because the audience broke out laughing a lot so I didn't get 90% of the jokes. Kelly eventually got bored and fell asleep. I let her sleep and when she woke up I told her it's OK if she wants to leave and go shopping and I'd meet her later so she left and hooked up with some friends.

The way our hero gets his super powers is that he works in this lab and their doing experiments with Geckos and one of them escapes and falls into his coffee which he proceeds to drink even though it tastes funky. I wondered how drinking Gecko flavored coffee would give you super powers but what I didn't know is that the Gecko was infected with some new experimental virus.

The Gecko the climbed atop his coffee cup and fell in was CGI. That was semi-obvious to me at least. The fake part was when the Gecko fell in. A Gecko would never fall in. Those things can run across ceilings upside down. First of all a Gecko wouldn't climb atop a coffee cup because it would be too hot but even if it did, there's no way a Gecko can lose its balance and just fall into coffee. Apparently the Gecko vaporized when he hit the coffee since a cloud of steam arose from the cup and he drank all of his coffee and there was no Gecko.

I was not the only one who thought the dissolving Gecko was rather odd. Check out this web site where he criticizes the science in the movie. This movie was targeted for a wide audience and it succeeded which is one of the reasons it broke records on opening day but its main audience is boys ages 10 to 15 who wouldn't have a problem with the science because they don't yet understand about the difference between a light microscope and an electron microscope. Adults would react "what the hell!" but kids would react "cool!" and this movie is really for kids so leave your brain at the door.

Unlike Spiderman this superhero is a total goof-ball. His costume reminded me of Daredevil's costume. I'm not sure what the plot was but it had something to do with cloning. They would capture important people and clone them with people they could control. But the copies had problems. They were not perfect copies.

I suspect the twin gangsters was a single man who was cloned.

Our hero lives in Metrofulus which is obviously a rip-off of Superman's Metropolis. This movie did steal from Batman, Daredevil, Spiderman, Superman and probably a dozen other superheroes so there's not much originality here besides the fact that he has Gecko-Power.

Strangely enough I could not find Cicak Man in imdb.com. I would think this movie deserves to be listed since it is a landmark film.

Malay-wood is improving but still has a long way before it can compete with Hollywood, Bollywood and Hong Kong movies.

2006-12-07T17:54:00.000-08:00

James Bond I would like to say that I've seen all of the James Bond movies but there are 4 that I've missed. Below is a list of all 21 films in chronological order listing year and the actor who played James Bond along with which ones I've seen.
YES	Dr. No	1962	Sean Connery
NO	From Russia with Love	1963	Sean Connery
YES	Goldfinger	1964	Sean Connery
NO	Thunderball	1965	Sean Connery
NO	You Only Live Twice	1967	Sean Connery
NO	On Her Majesty's Secret Service	1969	George Lazenby
YES	Diamonds Are Forever	1971	Sean Connery
YES	Live and Let Die	1973	Roger Moore
YES	The Man with the Golden Gun	1974	Roger Moore
YES	The Spy Who Loved Me	1977	Roger Moore
YES	Moonraker	1979	Roger Moore
YES	For Your Eyes Only	1981	Roger Moore
YES	Octopussy	1983	Roger Moore
YES	A View to a Kill	1985	Roger Moore
YES	The Living Daylights	1987	Timothy Dalton
YES	Licence to Kill	1989	Timothy Dalton
YES	GoldenEye	1995	Pierce Brosnan
YES	Tomorrow Never Dies	1997	Pierce Brosnan
YES	The World Is Not Enough	1999	Pierce Brosnan
YES	Die Another Day	2002	Pierce Brosnan
YES	Casino Royale	2006	Daniel Craig
More James Bond The following is a list of James Bond products not created by the franchise EON
NO	Casino Royale - TV	1954	Barry Nelson
YES	Casino Royale - Movie	1967	David Niven
NO	Moonraker - Radio	1956	Bob Holness
NO	Mainly Millicent	1964	Roger Moore
NO	Omnibus: The British Hero — TV	1973	Christopher Cazenove
YES	Never Say Never Again	1983	Sean Connery