Tag: movie

Movies coming out soon that might be good

I Sell the Dead
8/7/2009
Grave robbers discover that selling the undead is very profitable.

How did I not hear of this? It looks Awesome!

District 9
8/14/2009
Aliens land in South Africa and become an oppressed minority.

Based on the short film Alive in Joburg by Neill Blomkamp, which was awesome. Should be good.

Inglourious Basterds
8/21/2009
An elite team is dropped into Germany to kill as many Nazis as possible.

Quentin Tarantino does WWII, so expect lots of swearing and blood and violence, and probably a good time. Also, yeah, it’s misspelled – on purpose, apparently.

World’s Greatest Dad
8/21/2009
A poetry teacher cannot relate to his son.

Actually looks pretty good, a dark comedy written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait.

9
9/9/09
Post-apocalyptic world where living toys try to fulfill a mission.

Looks awesome, I am so there!

The Invention of Lying
9/25/2009
In a world of only truth, one loser discovers the secret of lying.

Looks Ricky Gervais-y… kinda like Ghost Town, pretty good but not amazing. But worth a watch.

A Serious Man
10/2/2009
A man is overwhelmed by daily life.

Looks good, Cohen Bros doin’ their thang.

Whip It
10/9/2009
A quiet, shy girl finds an outlet in roller derby.

Dunno about this one, but it stars Ellen Page and is directed by Drew Barrymore, so there’s two reasons I wanna check it out.

Where the Wild Things Are
10/16/2009
A movie adaptation of the Maurice Sendak classic.

Looks great!

The Box
10/30/2009
Based on a Twilight Zone episode, a couple is given a box with a button in it, and told if they push the button, someone they have never met will die, and they will be given a million dollars.

I dunno… was a cool Twilight Zone episode, but dunno if this looks as well written. Might be good, though.

Fun Weekend

I had a lot of fun this weekend!

Friday

Friday night I went to a They Might Be Giants show in Northampton, MA with Sarah and Krista.

We got a great spot on the dance floor right by the stage. Poor Sarah had just come off working a 12-hour shift at the hospital, though, so she was barely able to stand. And I may have overdone it with hopping and bopping to the music – since the operation I have been largely sedentary, aside from short walks and occasional walking up stairs at work, so by the end of the show my side hurt, and my whole body felt like lead, really tired.

They did two sets during the show, the first was their 1990 album Flood – all the songs, in order, the whole album. Lotsa good stuff there. It was great, and some minor flubs were entertaining, as well.
After messing up the beginning of “Hot Cha” a couple times, Flans said something like “I was having this terrible dream… I was up on this stage for some reason, with spotlights on me, and everyone was staring at me…”

The second set was an assortment of songs from various albums, including one song from an upcoming kid’s science album being released through Disney. It was a response to the factual inaccuracies in the song “Why Does the Sun Shine? (the sun is a mass of incandescent gas)” called “Why Does the Sun *Really* Shine? (the sun is a miasma of incandescent plasma)“.

I took a bunch of pictures and some video.

Saturday

Saturday Sarah and I were going to go to a Halloween party, but were still tired from the show the night before, so decided not to go. Instead we went to the mall – Sarah wanted some new shoes, and I ended up getting some new shoes too. Then we drove to my house.

We nearly died on the way, it was dark and raining with heavy wind, and at one point traffic came slamming to a near-stop because, against the guard rail in the median, sticking out into the fast lane, there was a car pointing in the wrong direction. Looked like they hydroplaned and ended up facing the wrong way. They really should have put their hazards on but were probably still to freaked out to realize that, though they survived the spinout, they were still in a very dangerous spot.

Once we made it home, we watched “The Warriors” with Adam. Adam and I hadn’t seen it before. It’s a very silly movie, with some bad acting, and they added some weird comic-booky transitions for the recent DVD release, but fun to watch and make fun of. Cybergen players, check it out for rough yogang ideas. =)

Sunday

Sunday Sarah, Adam, Tanya, Paula, and I went on a chartered “Fun Bus” that Tanya got us tickets for – it was a bus ride to Foxwoods casino with a bunch of people, which included drinks and snacks on the way there and back, and a lunch buffet at Foxwoods (which was pretty good) and keno tickets (I didn’t win anything). We also watched “Don’t Mess With the Zohan” on the bus… stupid movie, with some funny bits here and there.

At the casino, we played some slot machines, a couple spins of roulette, and bet on some horse races. It was actually pretty fun, except for the cigarette (and cigar) smoke. Bleh. I still feel a little ill from it. It’s like a nature preserve for smokers… smoking is banned most places, but there you can still see the smoker in their natural habitat, puffing away, with occasional calls of “huuurch! hurrrrrch!” (deep phlegmy coughs).

Then when we got back from the casino we went to Unos for dinner and then stopped at Toys R Us on the way home, where I bought some Legos.

Now it’s late and I’m off to bed.

WALL-E — Come for the cute robot, stay for the biting satire


Saw WALL-E yesterday, which I had been looking forward to. It not only met, but exceeded my expectations.

Yes, it has the cute, Number-5-ish robot WALL-E. But it also has one of the best satires of American culture I’ve seen in a while. It’s similar in many ways to Idiocracy. Idiocracy was a flawed but enjoyable satire by Mike Judge (Office Space, Bevis & Butthead, King of the Hill) that takes current American culture to its logical conclusion.

I won’t spoil either movie by saying more, but if you haven’t seen WALL-E yet, go check it out. You might want to try a late-night showing to avoid all the talkative youngsters — unfortunately, Sarah ended up next to a little kid whose mom spent the whole movie encouraging him to ask questions and talk. Fine, developmentally, +10 points for parenting. But -50 points for movie theater etiquette.

And if you haven’t seen Idiocracy, it’s definitely worth a rental. Not a masterpiece, but entertaining and good satire.

Random thoughts

Sugar cubes are cool.

Something about the precision, a box full of perfect little cubes, is tremendously appealing.
Each cube is so satisfyingly shaped, four grams of pressed sugar.
I can see why Brits are all about “one lump or two?”
In America we usually just grab the oversized sugar dispenser and just pour away.

—

Saw Cloverfield on Tuesday. It was good, very entertaining and fast-paced. Really gave a fresh feel to the giant-monster-attacking-a-city genre. With the first-person perspective of a hand-held camera, it is an experience midway between “Blair Witch Project” and one of those Universal Theme Parks roller coaster rides.

The special effects are almost uniformly excellent, there were only a couple shots that stood out as blatantly CGI, like with the news footage of the soldiers on the ground, it seems like the creature CGI was lit wrong or the wrong focal depth or something. Maybe it was just that since it was news footage, the camera was more stationary and not flying around. One person in our group felt ill from the constant shaky-cam, but I was fine with it.
Well worth checking out if you like monster movies or disaster movies.

If you do go to see it, look for an easter egg in the right-hand edge of the screen at the last scene (a flashback).

—

A snack I am fond of:

Cappuccino Cream of Wheat

1 packet Quaker Instant Cream of Wheat
1/2 tbsp French Vanilla Instant Cappuccino Mix
hot water

Nutritional Info:

Calories: 128
Fat: 2g
Saturated Fat: 1g
Cholesterol: 0
Sodium: 195mg
Carbohydrates: 23g
Fiber: 1g
Sugar: 4g
Protein: 4g
Calcium: 235mg

Simpsons Movie

Saw the Simpsons Movie last night with Sarah. Good stuff. It was a little slow in a couple spots, but overall pretty funny.

Had a Homer Simpson moment on the way home from the theater – missed a turn, so down the road a bit went to turn around in a driveway. As I pulled into the driveway, my headlights fell on a sign saying “Do not turn around in this driveway.” D’oh!

Well, it was too late. I did anyway – I got away with it, and I’d do it again. You heard me.

Golden Compass

The Golden Compass series of books is being made into a movie, on the website they have a personality test that tells you what your dæmon is. Here’s mine: