Movies
Films, trailers, awards, whatever
Now relegated to Blogblivion...Monday, August 14, 2006
Rambling Thunder
Thor and Elisabeth Shue would be proud.
I can’t help mentally adding “shape of a blog!” after “‘ThunderJournal’ *lightning strike*” but maybe that’s just me.
Friday, June 30, 2006
These Are Not Your Nephew’s Transformers
The Transformers were after my time, more of a thing for my younger brother and especially my nephew. I used to piss off my nephew by singing the start of the Transformers song with the words “the Transformers… Gobots in disguise” when we lived in the same house.
There is a teaser trailer at the Transformers Movie site. It really only sets the tone. But holy crap, what a tone it sets. I can’t wait to see the final result.
Via Opposable Thumbs at Ars Technica.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
I Can’t Let You Do That, Rob
I can imagine much better uses for a friendly yet not too bright robot named Amy. Of course, then she would have to be more than just a program.
At least she’s not a shipboard AI…
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Earworm
I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to have an earwormy song pop spontaneously into my head and play over and over.
Hail Special Forces! Al-Zarqawi is dead! Ding dong the wicked witch is dead.
As seen pretty much everywhere, but Dean’s post is a fine place to start, and of course Glenn and Wizbang are all over it. I actually heard it first from Deb, who heard it first from the President.
It feels like one of those big turning points, you know?
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Narnia
We just watched the first Narnia movie. It was astonishingly well done. Highly recommended.
Friday, May 19, 2006
Just for the record…
If they put Ben Affleck in the next Star Trek movie, I’m boycotting the damned thing.
Not that I’d likely see it anyway, since the rumors I’ve heard about it have been hideous, but still. Ben Affleck?
Eeeewwwww.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Erica Durance NSFW and Search Spike Oddness
I have a lot of fun loading the blog with evocative (provocative?) search terms that get people landing here unexpectedly. Probably the most successful ever has been Erica Durance nude, naked, topless, without clothes, free pictures, photos, whatever. Mostly the first one though.
Erica Durance is the babe they brought into the Smallville world to play Chloe’s cousin, Lois Lane. I haven’t watched Smallville in ages, though not for lack of interest. It’s the tradition I have of compulsive show watching drifting off into “whatever,” whether triggered by schedule changes or viewing conflicts or lapses in quality or what. In this case I figure there’s always DVD eventually.
Unlike most celebrities, she did appear nude in a film, House of the Dead, and at least one picture of her topless does exist.
We recently had a strange spike in traffic, primarily from image searches for Erica Durance that treated us as if we were hosting the NSFW (not safe for work) picture you will see below the fold, somehow passing it through from another site, in their 2004 section. The archive it sent people to on our blog didn’t even appear to mention Erica Durance, let alone link the picture. Crazy interwebs. And so we got this:
Makes me wonder what happened on the latest Smallville to provoke the surge of searches for Erica Durance in some state or another of undress.
If we’re going to get the traffic, we might as well have the real thing available. So here it is, below the fold:
Friday, April 21, 2006
Ninety-Three
You know, if I ever had a chance to do something wild and crazy again, like see a movie, I’d certainly go see United 93. For a more eloquent discussion of the thing, I’ll point you here. For me, it’s pretty simple: it’s not too soon. That some may protest that I need to qualify such a statement with a “for me” and an explanation of where I was and what I was doing that day so that I can be told that I’m not from the right place or related to the right people to have an opinion points to why it needed to be made. (For what it’s worth, I saw the director on the Today show earlier in the week and all of the families from this flight okayed the project.)
Whether it’s done well or done badly, we need to have these things out in the open, dammit, where they can be dealt with. Never daring to speak of it lest we upset someone is a path straight to hell. Pardon the psychobabble, but we need to process the thing a bit, I think, to think about it and remember how we got to where we are now and think about where it is we need to go from here. Not just react, but think, in a way that we can’t if we just stuff down the horror every time it tries to bubble to the top. Reacting got us the TSA, ferchrissake. It’s past time that we delve a little deeper, endure a little discomfort to ensure we’re building an America that’s worthy of the sacrifice these people made for it, for us. I’m really not sure there is such a thing as a wrong time to remember--to honor--that kind of heroism.
I hope it’s done well, but that it’s being done at all is, I think, a good thing. I’d see it just because somebody had the balls to make it. If having it out there inspires us to be a little better, to think a little more clearly, to remember the contrast between our world now and the world before that day, then it will have accomplished something amazing. From the looks of the discussion so far, in that way it already has.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
I heard Tom let Katie have an epidural. How generous!
Poor Brooke Shields. How unfortunate to have the TomKitten born on the same day. Not nearly as bad as things will be for poor little Suri, though. Ugh. Is it wrong of me to be sad that they had a girl?
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Right Out Of Labrynth
This caught my eye because her hair vaguely resembled Devid Bowie’s in Labrynth, which was cool even though one of my favorite examples of an oymoron is “good David Bowie song.”
Sunday, January 29, 2006
A Fine Choice… But How Did DS9 Tie?
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You scored as Serenity (Firefly). You like to live your own way and don’t enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you should do different. Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you.
Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com |
As seen many places, most recently via crewmate Explicitly Ambiguous.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Serenity Finally
Which isn’t same as Serenity Now.
We finally watched Serenity last night. It was indeed good, if not precisely what we expected, even with my spoiler knowledge. It was sufficient to make us want to watch Firefly. At the time I boycotted it because Fox first moved Dark Angel into the Death Slot, then cancelled it specifically to make the slot - the death slot, of all things! - available for this new ohmygodjossmadeitsoitmustbeamazing show that sounded more silly than intriguing to me. By all accounts, it was great, but Fox made the decision to kill it ahead of time and started it off in the Death Slot to cut to the chase.
The Dark Angel betrayal is electrons under the bridge, and the buzz and commercials and trailers for Serenity weakened me. Plus I sympathized with fox so summarily betraying Firefly in turn. It’s a wonder it took this long.
Even though I already knew the secret of the Reavers, and much of the plotline, I expected something different enough that talk of a sequel made me think “how can they make a sequel when they defeated the evil empire and tied things up already?” The answer is they didn’t. They merely managed to destroy the Death Star, while leaving Imperial Destroyers intact. It was kind of different seeing Obi-Wan get killed when the Storm Troopers attacked the moisture farm. All they did was get word out for those who would listen that the empire is indeed an empire, heinously evil in its attempt to force good and make terrestrial angels of humans. Sometimes when all they are saying is give peace a chance, they are become death, destroyer of minds, reason, lives…
So. Serenity ended with a “that was good” and plenty of food for thought and appreciation of Joss Whedon’s libertarian - or should I say “human” - tendencies, but not worshiping the ground he treads up. It ended with needing to see it again to catch all the vernacular, speaking too softly, and rapid-fire dialog. I must say I liked the one about nethers getting twisted. Plus we like “Heidi ho” better than we did. Well, Jewel Staite, anyway, and yet Deb note that Heidi from Wonderfalls and Kaylee are clearly distant relations, or perhaps reflections.
Recommended. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth the bucks for the DVD. We found it didn’t hurt to have not watched Firefly, but as noted, it sold us on the idea of getting to know them better - there’s the vernacular again, and the characters and settings - by watching Firefly when we can.
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Finding Nemo: a very short review.
No pregnant woman should ever watch a movie that starts with your wife and 400 of your kids getting killed, continues with the one kid you’ve got left being kidnapped, and ends with you both narrowly escaping death thus necessitating a very touching scene indeed, even if you do get to go home and be happy and actually like each other after all of this is done.
Just sayin’.
(And no, I hadn’t seen it before. I know, I know.)
Friday, December 23, 2005
Going Ape
I’m going to see King Kong tonight with some friends, using discount passes from AAA to make it like going to a matinee showing. That should be fun. I still want to see Narnia more so, but Kong is reportedly so good that I couldn’t resist the invitation. Perhaps I’ll post what I think in the subsequent day. Since it’s the 9:00 showing, I won’t be home until well after midnight. Then with having to go to my sister’s tomorrow, posting may not happen until tomorrow night.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
“Christmas” Movies
Before I forget, I was tagged (a practice I normally dislike) for a meme here by Caltechgirl, so here are five movies (I am assuming Christmas specials don’t count) that mean Christmas to me:
1 - Die Hard
2 - While You Were Sleeping
3 - movie version of The Grinch
4 - Sleepless In Seattle
5 - The Cutting Edge
Actually, that 5th one I was torn between The Cutting Edge, When Harry Met Sally, You Have Mail, and Miracle On 34th Street, which I almost included as another concession to full-fledged Christmas movies, rather than things I associated with the holiday and tend to rewatch at this time of year.
Not tagging anyone, like Wayne, Sharon, Jen or whoever, but feel free to play along.
Friday, November 18, 2005
Where No Sam Has Gone Before (Updated)
Hey, did anyone else look closely and notice an amusing touch in the third panel of today’s Day By Day?
Of course, it’s not real. It’s just a holodeck simulation.
Update:
Doh. Okay, what I thought I was seeing was a surreptitious, rather obscure Enterprise hanging in space, low on the Moon’s horizon, gone back in time to record the historical event.
What it actually is, there in white on black this time, but in other colors and varying locations on other days, is Chris Muir’s signature.
Hey, it was an amusing illusion. It’s just… that’s all it was.
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Attention Googlers
You will find lots of interesting stuff on this blog, under the categories to the right or on the main page, and for that matter on the other blogs we have linked. However, you are not likely to find here any pictures, films, videos, real or fake, free or for a fee, topless, nude, naked, or without clothes, or information about the weight and so forth, regarding:
Kate Hudson, Emma Watson, Linda Park, Jolene Blalock, Alexis Bledel, Lauren Graham, Keiko Agena, Liza Weil, Amber Tamblyn, Becky Wahlstrom, Mary Steenburgen, Mageina Tovah, Constance Zimmer, Hilary Duff, Sprague Grayden, Lacey Chabert, Lindsay Lohan, Erica Durance, Allison Mack, Kristen Kreuk, Emma Taylor-Isherwood, Meg Ryan, Kathryn Morris, Jorja Fox, Emily Procter, Moira Kelly, Mary McCormack, Janel Moloney, Melissa Fitzgerald, Lisa Edelstein, Elisabeth Moss, Teri Polo, Mary-Louise Parker, Annabeth Gish, Jennifer Finnigan, Haylie Duff, Lea Thompson, Amy Pietz, Melissa Theuriau, Hallee Hirsh, Lauren Storm, Kristy Wu, Jill Hennessy, Kathryn Hahn, Caroline Dhavernas, Katie Finneran, Diana Scarwid, Tracie Thoms, Jewel Staite, Gina Torres, Morena Baccarin, Summer Glau, Sarah Paulson, Helena Bonham Carter, Missi Pyle, Annasophia Robb, Julia Winter, Dakota Fanning, Maura Tierney, Parminder Nagra, Linda Cardellini, Kiera Knightly, Natalie Portman, or any of hundreds, if not thousands, of others.
Enjoy your visit!
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
A little behind the times, I know, but we have finally seen it and heartily approved. It was probably as close as one might ever hope to having the book accurately rendered to film with appropriate adjustments.
If anything, they improved it by explaining why Wonka is the way he is.
I loved the “it’s as if he knew it would happen” treatment of especially the first mishap.
The guy who played the Oompa Loompas deserves an Oscar or some kind of award. At any rate, I hope they paid him exceedingly well.
Charlie was a perfect Charlie. Of the others, Violet was the best done. Augustus was something of a caricature, but that is partly a result of being the first casualty.
Anyway, I will always love the old one with Gene Wilder, but I knew when it came out that it was a big departure from the book and had to make myself accept it as such. This is the real deal.
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Not Just ANY Happy Birthday…
This is the extra special birthday announcement… Deb’s!
Yep, it’s her big day. We’d probably go to Carmen’s, which we haven’t done since just before Sadie was born, but I was practical and bought groceries with the cash I had left pending my client’s check clearing and my being able to get more.
I got her a “birthday present” a few weeks ago, but I had something else in mind that has also been delayed by cash flow. Sheesh. Her requested present is that I catch up the dishes, which I don’t mind. It used to be easy to get a lot of them done while hanging with Sadie as she ate. Now she eats so fast!
And so much. Last night I got a pound of ground sirloin and made it all into three burgers. Sadie got her own, maybe 1/4 to 1/3 the size of Deb’s, which was about 80% the size of mine. Call it a couple inches or so in diameter and half an inch thick, covered with cheese. Served it with ketchup and half a bulkie roll. She devoured it. And a mess of homemade fries, which I made again because the potatoes had to be used. Perhaps a traditional “large fries” worth of them or a tad less. Heck; put that way, the burger Sadie ate was probably the overall amount in a McDonald’s burger, just thicker and less big around.
Was that enough? No. She also had a large glug of apple sauce and two good sized spoonfuls of pumpkin ice cream. She knows both those words; apple sauce and ice cream. But this wasn’t supposed to be a Sadie post, and there’s more, like the fact that she insisted on ceasing her play time in the bath, getting out and getting a diaper on because she knew she was about to poop, and like her knowing what “the remote” is and her fetching it for you if asked, and like her obsession with my hairbrush and wanting to brush her hair, and like her insistence last night on attempting to eat ice cream and apple sauce with a spoon, which in a first she treated as a tool rather than a toy.
The unexpected fresh burger - on a roll no less - and fries were kind of an unexpected birthday surprise for Deb, and she loved the Edy’s pumpkin ice cream. I noticed Peaceful Meadows had pumpkin ice cream now available on their sign by the road, so I thought I’d have to get some one day, even just a pint, so she could try it. I love that and egg nog flavors, both seasonal. Then in Wal-Mart I noticed Edy’s had pumkin. Turns out it’s spicier than I remember Peaceful Meadows being, but still fantastic.
This seems like a good time to mention Deb’s recent observation that there seems to be a generational demarcation in the form of being born before and after the first Star Wars came out. Interesting theory, no? That’s puts both of us in the pre-SW camp, if not in the same traditional generations.
But then, sometimes the traditional demarcations aren’t completely telling. At least, being a baby boomer isn’t. I am technically one, but am worlds apart from someone born in, say, 1948. You would expect that 13 year gap to put Deb and I worlds apart, yet somehow it doesn’t. Which could simply be an indication of choosing well.
Anyway, happy birthday to Deb, the Accidental Jedi, great blogger, Sadie’s cool if sometimes overwhelmed mom (Sadie’ll do that to you), my lovely wife. May there be so many more that we lose count.
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Go Ahead, Make His Day
Dean has a fun audience participation post on that classic topic of great movie lines. Fair warning: A lot of the Princess Bride ones are already taken.
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Constantine
I was a fan of John Constantine back when he was just a mysterious bit character in Swamp Thing, then bought much of the run of his own comic, Hellblazer, once that arrived on the scene.
So when I found they were bringing him to the big screen, I was excited. As well as surprised, given the possibility of his appeal being limited. Probability, even, depending how it was presented.
Despite it being one of my “don’t miss” movies this year, I didn’t see it on the big screen. This past week, we bought it on DVD for little more than the price of two movie tickets, despite that being more than I normally like to spend even on a DVD, even with special features and fluff. Last night, I watched it. This was supposed to be we watched it, but Deb had to remove Sadie from the room.
We also had to turn the big fan off in the adjoining room. It’s one of those movies. I still don’t know what all they said during the first several minutes of the film, as I turned it up and up, from 10 gradually to 20, and as high as 26. We normally run the TV volume between 6 and 12. I hate having to blast it to hear the quieter dialog, then turn it down many notches so as not to blast the neighbors with the music, then up, then down. This got better as the movie went on, as long as the fan was off and I was alone. Then it worked most of the time holding at 20, but I spent the whole movie remote in hand, adjusting up or down as needed. It would have been fine in a theater.
I see it as a film existing fans should have loved, so long as they got over any hangups they might have about the script being sold to the studio by making Constantine American, not British, and set in Los Angeles. Or about departures from the original storyline on which the script is primarily based. It was remarkably well done, pulling some familiar scenes, people and concepts from the comics.
I see it as a film that many, but not all, non-fans could get into. I don’t see it as something your average film critic would like as much as your average audience.
Deb saw the first several minutes. A while later, she saw several minutes more partway through, and that was enough to suck her in and make her think it looked excellent. She didn’t bother to come back after putting Sadie down, opting instead to watch it from the beginning, preferably soon, despite it not being the kind of thing she’d usually get into. I think that’s an indicator of the appeal of the movie.
Keanu was perfect for the role. I have no special like or dislike of him, but he strikes me as limited. This was a role he fit and captured well, and as Deb observed, he has matured, looking more like a grown man. Rachel Weisz was great, too, and as yummy as ever. The effects were well done and fit what you’d see in the comic.
Nice job! I recommend it.
Sunday, August 07, 2005
Mirror Mask
I was unaware of Mirror Mask, but it certainly looks like something from Gaiman (whose name I thought was pronounced guyman, but maybe not as they said gayman in the trailer). It looks like something so… different… that many people won’t like it, but then again, it could be a breakthrough fantasy hit. It’s well worth a look at this trailer for the stunning visuals.
For what it’s worth, I have most of the issues of Sandman, but haven’t read anything else by Gaiman. Shocking, I know, to you big Gaiman fans.
Trailer link via the Flea.
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Serenity
There is a new Serenity trailer. I never watched Firefly, but I can’t wait to see this movie!
And speaking of Serenity, can you imagine Peter F. Hamilton’s Night’s Dawn trilogy on film?
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Remember, Remember, The Fifth Of November
Don’t miss the trailer for V for Vendetta. I can’t wait for this to come out! It looks like an amazing adaptation.
Via Ian
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Rest In Peace James Doohan
Via Laughing Wolf, it is with great sadness I relay the news that James Doohan has left us, joining DeForest Kelley on that most final frontier of all. I’d say Scotty was my favorite of the original crew.
Don’t miss Blake’s open letter to James Doohan, written in response to the news of his alzheimer’s diagnosis last year.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
I still hate Matchbox 20.
But I suddenly like Rob Thomas a whole lot better. Heh.
Sunday, July 03, 2005
I’d Like To Teach The World
Show of hands, or discuss if you will, how many people dislike, or find it impossible to listen to, the original I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing song by the Seekers, due to the association with the famous Coke commercial?
Do you have any other songs you react to negatively because they, or a variant, were used commercially?
I created a new playlist earlier this evening, with a selection of 289 songs that I thought would be good to listen to while I worked. I included that one, as well as I’ll Never Find Another You and A World of Our Own by the same artist (which is neither here nor there).
The list was playing randomly and I had gone out to the kitchen. After that song came on, Deb remarked how she hates it, because of the commercial. I was amused, but can also understand it. I think I was exposed to the song in the original form, before it was adapted, but I could be misremembering. At any rate, they at least were concurrent, so I have both associations. Yep, there I go dating myself again.
Friday, July 01, 2005
War of the Worlds
James Rummel likes War of the Worlds and disputes the idea that aspects of the film have any connection to 9/11, something I’d not heard before seeing them debunked.
He makes it sound intriguing, but it’s not on my list of movies to see this summer. Maybe on video, but there’s too much of interest coming up to toss any money to Tom Cruise now that he’s turned psycho. Or at least become public about his mental state.
I know there are people who never liked him, but I’ve always been agnostic, at least. I’m not one to avoid films vehemently just because of the views or off-screen actions of people involved, but all else being equal, it can become a factor.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Overpriced Housing and Hollywood Woe
Chan invites discussion on why the movie industry seems to be in trouble with respect to theater attendance, but doing well with respect to DVD consumption. “Nobody has any money to take their families to the movies because it’s all tied up in paying for their overvalued homes” is the possibility that amused and intrigued me.
I’d never explicitly thought about it before, but why wouldn’t mortgages and rents that are, say, double what one might rationally expect or be able to afford have an impact on discretionary spending? It might not be huge, but hey, something to think about.
Go over, read the whole thing and chime in.
V For Vendetta
Via Ian Hamet, by way of AICN, the new poster for one of my most looked forward to movies ever: V for Vendetta. I find it amazing that it’s even being made.
I bought the set of Alan Moore comics when it came out back in the eighties. Having learned my lesson after letting several people read my first printing of Dark Knight Returns, damaging it and seriously reducing its value, I bought a second copy of “V” for loaning aggressively. Which didn’t end up happening much, because who cared about a long standalone set of comics featuring characters and settings nobody ever heard of. I did, despite the book’s inspiration being fear of Thatcher, Reagan, and conservatism. I thought that was just silly, but fighting totalitarianism is always a worthy theme.
I think Natalie Portman makes a good Evey. I am not sure what I think about Hugo Weaving as V. On some level my reaction is “yeah, that works.” On another level I am thinking “but I never stopped seeing him as anything but Agent Smith when he played Elrond.” Perhaps it will have been long enough for my mental typecasting to have faded.
I agree with Ian on the poster. Sweet! It’s completely in keeping with the comic source.
