Movie rundown

Movies

I’ve seen a bunch of movies lately, here’s a quick rundown:

Idiocracy: Mike Judges latest film that was delayed for ages and then pretty much ignored due to a limited release. It’s about a guy (Luke Wilson) who is frozen for an army experiment when some bad things go down and he wakes up 499 years later than he should have. He’s now in a world where this average man is now the smartest man on the planet. It’s definatly no Office Space. There are some funny sections, but the movie is really just average. The story could have done more but what was there (looks good, very good cast) works well, it’s really just not very memoriable. Can’t say I recommend it.

Dead Man’s Shoes: A film from over the pond. With some heavy English/Scottish accents this movie can be hard to understand at times, but it was a quality film. The main character has a retarded (more slow really, not hardcore) brother who he watches over. But when he goes into the service, his brother falls in with the wrong crowd by a case of being in the wrong place in the wrong time. He’s taken advantage of and tortured by these people and when big brother gets back in town and finds out…revenge and personal justice is a painful ordeal. It’s a quality film from start to finish, this is the directors 4th feature film. There’s a few twists and turns and while it takes a bit to get going, it’s a powerful movie. Great acting with solid directing this is a great down to earth revenge film to check out. I even liked the ending.

The Illusionist: What a cool movie. Edward Norton, one of my favorite actors stars with Paul Giamatti and the gorgeous Jessica Biel. A story in the early 1900’s, Ed Norton is the son of a furniture maker, Jessica is a well off Dutchess. They meet in their early teens and fall in love, but as a Dutchess, Jessica is sworn from ever seeing Ed again. Ed has been fascinated with magic and when the two are torn apart, he disappears and travels the world. 15 years later, he comes back and he’s a master Illusionist, learned from the top minds in the world. The two meet again at one of his performances where we meet her boyfriend, the Prince. Two seperated souls meet again later in life, but they’re still not allowed to be together. Much more of a love story than I thought it was going to be, the Illusionist mixes fate, destiny love and magic into a beautiful tale. Awesome acting and a great story combine to make a movie I highly recommend.

The Science of Sleep: Michel Gondry, who last directed Dave Chappelle’s Block Party and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind brings us this bore of a movie. Stephen’s father has died of cancer and he comes back home to his mother who lives in France to work with a calender company that his mom sets him up with. Stephen has a wild mind as we see that Stephen has a hard time keeping his dreams and real life seperate. Brought home on false pretenses by his mother, Stephen hates his new job but falls in love with the girl who lives next door. The movie constantly switches between and merges between Stephens dream world and the real world. I give a lot of credit to Gondry for the visual aspects of the film but it’s the main character that ruined it for me. Stephen is a giant pussy. He’s a 12 year old in the body of a 20 something year old. His social skills are just like an adolescent, he’s awkward, says weird shit and crys like a bitch with a skinned knee. The whole time I was waiting for him to grow a pair and not be such a bitch but that never happens, he likes to analyze shit in his dreams and it gets so bad that stuff he does in his dreams (like write a confession note to Stephanie, the girl he likes) he really does without realizing it. For awhile there I thought he had narcolepsy because he pops in out out of his dream mind so fast it’s ridiculous. He’s really a nut I guess. I really didn’t like it because I couldn’t get on the side of Stephen, he’s too damn irritating to like. Skip this and watch the far superior Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Snow Day!

Life

East Coast weather in the Tri-state area is shitty today resulting in more ice than snow. So bad that my office closed, which never happens. Good day to clean up some stuff I’ve been putting off for too long.

New Monitor!

Tech

So I did my taxes and newegg had sent me a “shit on sale” email the same day. Day before mom said something about moving the hutch on my desk. Didn’t think much about it, thinking if I had a widescreen monitor, I’d need to move it. So I saw some tempting prices, figured out how much I was going to get back and said, hell yeah. I use my computer everyday and I’ve been wanting to make a nice electronics purchase (have been mulling over getting the HD DVD player for the 360) for awhile now. Been wanting a new monitor for awhile so it felt right. Newegg got it to my door in 23 hours.

The Samsung 204BW is a beautiful thing. 20″ widescreen, DVI connection, 1680 x 1050 resolution. After messing with the settings for 45 minutes I got it looking great. This resolution is just nuts, colors are gorgeous and with the cleartype font turned on text is perfect. 6ms response time so it works really well with games, only problem is that older games don’t support this resolution so they look stretched as shit (looking at you Warcraft III). I need to look around and see if there are any hacks out for some games. Company of Heros looks fantastic though, Sim City 4 as well.

I gave dad my 17″ Samsung but his computer just ate it so he needs to order a new one. It’s been a long time coming, that thing is going on 8 years old. Amazing it worked up until yesterday.

Squirrel 0 – Electricity 1

Life, Uncategorized

I get home today after doing some errands and I open the fridge to see that the light is out. It also didn’t seem as cold as it usually is. I start thinking the fridge died when I go upstairs and see that everything is off. There’s no power in the house.

I noticed a dead squirrel right in front of our driveway when I got home. It didn’t look run over so I thought that was odd.

A half hour or so later and the power comes back on, I see a PSE & G truck stop by our house, move the squirrel and then continue down the street. Dad gets home and confirms my suspicion, “That squirrel is burnt to a crisp!” Son bitch must have done something stupid to the transformer on the pole right next to the house and payed dearly for it. Dead before he hit the ground.

Thanks Jon

Games, Uncategorized

With the assistance of Jon, I got my Windows XP problem fixed and now have Windows Media Player 11 installed. “Do you?” you ask? Yeah, this unlocks the kick ass feature of WMP 11 being able to stream my mp3s to my 360 all the way downstairs. I now have 3000 songs on my 360 now. Sorts everything for easy access, you can make playlists and shit. Freaking sweet. And if I had any wmv files, I could watch those from my 360 too.

Crackdown (X360)

Games

The demo (single and co-op) for Crackdown hit Live yesterday and it’s awesome. As good as I was hoping. Take the “I want to screw around” gameplay of GTA and mash it with The Incredible Hulk game and you pretty much have Crackdown. You’re a super cop in a city gone south from 3 crime mobs, it’s your job to clean up the city. You start out weak, but as you progress you gain levels in agility, driving, strength, fire arms, and explosives. You’re weak to begin with but once you get going you’ll be jumping over buildings, throwing trucks down streets and cracking skulls left and right with wreckless abandon.

The game looks like a comic book, a mild cell shaded look is in effect. The game pops with color, the physics are great (you can make massive chain explosions sending all sorts of shit flying) and the sound is equally impressive. Take the cool shit you thought was great to do in GTA and make it look awesome and play smooth as silk. The draw distance is insane, there is no fog hiding shit, cars don’t pop in and out of view 200 feet away from you. You can look down entire city blocks and see shit moving around, lights changing. The day/night cycle looks terrific and the game is huge, the demo gives you a 1/3 of the map to run around in. It’s huge. There are sky scrapers that you can climb and jump over, it’s just not just a wide city, it’s vertically huge as well.

Plus, online co-op. You can work together or do shit in completely different parts of the world. It’s the new game to check out, comes out in the middle of February.

I’ve talked myself into a frenzy, I’m going to go play it right now.

2007

Games, Life, Movies

It looks good doesn’t it? 2006 was getting old and I think everyone needed the change. Plus, 7 is a really cool number. Time to get used to writing that new number on stuff. Usually only takes me a day or so.

I’m thinking 2007 is a year of change. A year of growth for me I think, at least that’s my goal. With this Ramapo College project I have coming up (details coming on the 19th) for their athletic department, I think it’s safe to say a change is in fact coming.

I got a new digital camera for Christmas, so I will use that one to take pics of the old one to put up on ebay. I’ve been fighting the urge to get the HD DVD player for the 360. I don’t need it, but with all the movies I’ve been watching from netflix, I want it. That and a Zune. Should offer expanded 360 functionality so that would be a perk for me. I find ipods to be terrificly overrated and priced as much. No matter which one I end up getting, I’m waiting for a coupon from Best Buy to get it. I have gift cards and certificates for BB so I’ll be able to get the HD DVD or Zune for crazy cheap with an added 10-12% off.

The release list for 360 is stacked for the first 6 months. So much so that some games will probably be pushed back just because so many AAA titles could hit very close to each other (Crackdown, Assassins Creed, Mass Effect, BioShock, Alan Wake, Forza 2, Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey). But really, the 360 is where it’s at for gaming, everyone should get one and partake in the enjoyment.

Opie and Anthony are back live tomorrow, it’s been more than a week since they went on vacation, it’ll be good to hear them back and rested.