Tag: going

Movie Round-Up: November 12th, 2010

Reviews

Unstoppable Morning Skyline GloryUnstoppable: (official site)

Train A loaded full of kids leaves the station heading east going 40 miles per hours.  At the same time Train B loaded full of deadly chemicals leaves the station heading west going 100 miles per hour with no breaks.  With both trains on the same track and neither one able to switch, how long will it take Denzel Washington and Chris Pine to save the day?  If your answer is between 90 minutes and 2 hours, you are correct!  Despite what at first glance (and second glance and third glance, and pretty much every glance, long look or deep meaningful stare) appears to be a silly silly movie, it does look like it will be full of action and excitement.  And honestly, Denzel is fun to watch even when he’s chewing scenery in bad films.  There must have eleven thousand free screenings of this film and I didn’t manage to get into a single one.  I really want to see this film, but that said I probably won’t catch it in the theater.  It will move straight to the top of my Netflix queue the moment it is available.

Morning Glory: (official site)

This movie looks funny and heart warming.  If the wife were to pick a movie to see this weekend, this would be it.  And I won’t even pretend to not want to see it.  The critics who don’t like it are saying things like it being “derivative” and “pandering to the lowest common denominator” which pretty much means that your average movie goer, the lowest common denominator who actually likes seeing the same stories told over and over in new settings with new actors, will love this film.

Skyline: (official site)

I want to play this game.  What?  It’s a movie?  Well, it looks cool, I guess.  No, seriously… this movie looks like a video game.  Aliens attack and you spend the next ten hours plastered to your TV with a controller in your hand trying to escape from and ultimately defeat the invaders.  If I were to pick a movie to see this weekend, this would be it.  But I may not need to as supposedly Skyline is part of a deal with Netflix to bring theatrical releases to Netflix sooner.  So I may save my $10 and wait for Netflix.  Or maybe I won’t.  We’ll just have to see…

Orcs

Reviews

I just spent the last couple of months wading through Orcs by Stan Nicholls.  On the surface, the conceit of this book is quite inventive: let’s tell a fantasy story from the point of view of orcs.  Of course, the moment you delve into the book, the orcs aren’t the orcs of Tolkien or other authors, these orcs are noble warriors who live for battle and only do evil because they are conscripted into the service of a dark sorceress.  So, immediately the book is less inventive than originally thought.  More so once the featured warband, the Wolverines, go off on their own in defiance of their mistress.

Overall, the book is a decent fantasy tale.  Typical, almost, which was a let down when prior to picking it up I was led to believe it was going to break the mold.  As the book wore on, and part of the reason it took me so long to slog through it, parts of the prose just feels like filler, as if the author wanted to get to the “cool” part but didn’t want to just jump cut straight to it between chapters and instead wrote a chapter or two to bridge the events.  It detracted from the book, for me.  I think the same story could have been told with greater effect if it had been half as long, tighter.

I’m not sure I’d recommend this book to others.  Perhaps if they were die hard fantasy fans who regularly read mediocre novels they might find this to be excellent.  But for me, it was just okay.

Links

Site News

Not much going on today… but I did manage to move my links from the old site to this one, and they have a page all their own.

13 February 2001

Random Thoughts

Been thinking alot lately about jobs.
Been thinking alot lately about jobs.
I just started a new one and, well, I’ve already decided that I don’t “like” this job. I don’t mind going, and it fills the space of the day and makes my money to pay my bills, but its just doesn’t make me smile.
Everyone should find a job they enjoy. I used to think it was enough to enjoy the people who worked with if nothing else, but I just don’t see that anymore because even if you like the people, the little tasks that make the day will slowly drive you insane.
And here I am, slowly being driven insane.
So, how to find a job that I like, that I enjoy.
Well, I often think that I would enjoy working in the computer gaming industry, but to get in the door I have to make one of two sacrifices. Either I scale back my life alot and take a much lower paying job, or I scale back my social life and spend time learning something useful to get a better job in the industry. I like my life outside of work, and making that sacrifice is hard.
Then there is writing, but as with the above, I like my social life and just can’t seem to get myself in a frame of mind to sit and write instead of going out or hanging with friends.
So what do I do?
I’m open to suggestions.

1 October 1998

Random Thoughts

I’m going to see the Atlanta Braves play the Chicago Cubs in the second game of the five game series tonight. And today my loyalty was called into question. A few days back when the Cubs beat the Giant for the Wild Card position and the right to be in the playoff I proudly announced, “Cubs all the way, baby!” Mainly because I like the Cubs, I’m from Chicago originally, and.. well.. because it felt like the right thing to say.
I’m also a Braves fan… I have been for a while, even back when they were in last place (yeah, I know, EVERYBODY says that, but I always admire a last place team that refuses to give up). So I’m going to this game tonight, and personally, I don’t care who wins, because I like both teams. I’d be happy to see either one of them move on to the next level, so basically, I’m in a win-win situation because regardless of how the game turns out, I’m a fan of the winner. Is there a law that says I can’t be a fan of more than one team?
Anyhow, my loyalty got called into question when after I made the “Cubs all the way” comment and then today said I was going to the game to see the Braves beat up the Cubs. As if I had just switched sides in a war, I was being called a traitor, and that I was recanting my earlier words. Why?
Then I got raked over the coals again when I said that I was pulling more for the Cubs because the Braves get this far alot and I’m a fan of the underdog. I mean, it’s why I became a Braves fan in the first place, they were in last and I rooted for them. They’ve been on top a while. Sure they haven’t won every World Series in that time, but they have won their division for 7 straight years.
I’m flawed, and I know I’ll never be perfect… and I just get tired of seeing someone win all the time because I know that I don’t. Do I want them to lose… no. Do I want the other guys to win… yes. But then you see the problem with life in general, for people to win, someone has to lose. I don’t want the Braves to lose, but I want the Cubs to win more than I do the Braves. C’est la vie. That’s life. Deal with it.
Of course, I say all this knowing that the Braves are going to win. The Cubs are good. Just not that good. =)
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Theater Review: None.
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Today’s Song: Got You (Where I Want You) by Flys. I just dig the whole idea of this song… a guy… hitting on a girl… who really isn’t even aware that he is alive much less hitting on her… and thinking to himself, “I got her right where I want her… she’s mine.” Just cracks me up and makes me feel good.
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Today’s Movie: Escape From New York. If you have to ask why I would chose this as a movie of the day, then you need to go rent it.
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TV Highlight: I watched the original Khan episode of Star Trek last night on the Sci-Fi channel. I have always loved the movie Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan but I had never seen this episode… truly a treat to see where it all began. Basically the whole Star Trek thing on Sci-Fi is cool, worth making time for now and again.