I am too lazy to sort
My Panasonic Blu-Ray player is the worst.
When it plays through the special features, it hangs. Nothing. Usually, it should return you to the special features menu. It doesn’t. I have yet to figure out how to get it back. I usually restart the machine, and when I say restart I mean a hard shutdown pulling the plug with a restart. Remind me to never play a special feature through.
It’s also slow to respond to user input. I have no idea when I press the on button when it will actually respond. So you press it two or three times and now you may have shut it off.
There is no navigation back to the main menu. It’s a little pop-up which doesn’t seem to show everything. Is this Blu-Ray? Can they get software developers on this?
Shimmering waves!
Quote of the Day [9.05.13]
“And then what did he do? Did he train you? Did he rehearse you? Did he tell you exactly what to do, what to say? You were a very apt pupil too, weren’t you? You were a very apt pupil! Well, why did you pick on me? Why me?”
Scottie (Jimmy Stewart), Vertigo
The War on Fat: Dog days of August.
It goes up this time of year. If I was losing ground the previous month, then I’m giving up gains this past month. It’s what happens.
Basically, I just felt like eating.
Also, I spent the month offline not working out to let my elbow heal.
It’s time to return to some serious work. Can I really get down under 200 pounds by the end of the year? Not sure. It’s going to have to be salad and yogurt or some kind of diet to get me going. And I just lowered the bar!
Quote of the Day [9.01.13]
Look at the birds in the sky: They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Matthew 6:26
Closed Circuit
I think I’m the only person living in America wanting to go see Closed Circuit. It’s because I’ve got the hots for Rebecca Hall. So, I tricked my mom to catch an early Saturday show. It bored the hell of her. I was too busy looking at the beauty on the screen to see that it was really a average pot boiler.
The film’s plot is about 2 English barristers (they wear wigs!) who have to defend an accused terrorist. Eric Bana is the terrorist’s main lawyer who gets the job after the original defender jumped from a building. Rebecca Hall is the terrorist’s special activist for the top secret trial. Both have a sordid history in the past which may conflict with their sworn duty, and both have to defend themselves from a higher power keeping them from unravelling the true mystery of the terrorist bombing.
The film plays out as you expect it. “Trust no one.” When terrorism is on trial, question all motives from the terrorist to the prosecution. Every one is under suspicion.
The movie even though boring at times is thoroughly adequate for a late summer/September release. You’ll forget about it by the time the leaves change color. You’ll remember it when it comes time to think about Rebecca Hall.
3 of 5 stars.
The World’s End finishes up the Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy. Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead being the other two. On a side note, I searched my blog for an entry for Shaun of the Dead, but the movie came out a month before this blog started in May of 2004. I can’t believe that movie is almost 10 years old. I can believe this blog is almost 10 years old and devolving slowly to no entries.
Anywho, while this film was as enjoyable as the others, it’s not as good as Hot Fuzz, my favorite. Mostly, its unhappy ending contributed to a less favorable impression. It’s a bleak ending with the world literally ended. Oops, spoiler alert!
The film is two films: the first about reclaiming past glories and the second an alien invasion flick. Simon Pegg tries to regain his mojo by returning to the ultimate mistake of his youth, not finishing a bar crawl in his old home town. He recruits the very same crew to redo it almost 20 years later when they are in their 40s. His crew are more responsible adults. They’ve gotten on in their lives. They don’t wear the Ministry shirt and black trenchcoat of their youth. They were respectable adult clothes. Pegg is stuck in the past. Yet the future is about aliens who have taken over their old home town and the world in order to bring Earth and her inhabitants to the future. Pegg wants to stop this. He’s selfish in both dragging his pals as well as keeping the world from joining the ‘Federation.’ Who knows how to be an adult? And is it worth it? His cohorts think so.
I love drinking movies! I was all set for the bar crawl. It’s like Beerfest. Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink! It’s always a riot when thinking about drinking as much as possible. I feel that even though I no longer drink that I want to get rip roaring drunk again. I’m going on my own Golden Mile.
4 of 5 stars.
I never saw the first one, but Despicable Me 2 doesn’t need you to be familiar with its predecessor. You’ll get the gist of everything you missed from the first one in the film’s opening minutes. Evil mastermind turned loving father because of the cuteness of the kids. Evil mastermind uses his technology to make kids have fun. Evil mastermind is really a softy at heart.
I enjoyed the movie. It was good and it makes me want to catch the first one.
The cutest thing ever was that costume of the princess on the unicorn. Do they make that in real life?
3 of 5 stars.
Elysium is a better action movie than an allegory for the haves and the have nots. The action is as good as the director’s previous film, District 9. The robots look real. Elysium, floating like a jewel in the sky, looks real. The space ships and tech looks real. The issue of healthcare for the poor people of Earth not so real.
Look I get it. Elysium is the 1% who can afford to live high above the rabble. What I don’t get is why the companies only service them. Those tanning medi-pods would pay for themselves if you allowed the masses to use it. Why does capitalism stop? Why does it only work for those in Elysium? It don’t make any sense. It seems as if the filmmaker wanted to use the situation as a plot contrivance. It’s ridiculous.
But I believe the action makes it better. Give me shiny explosions and mecha and I’ll be happy. As long as I don’t have to think about the plot. That’s what summer movies are for.
3 of 5 stars.
