30 Minutes or Less

broderic on August 16, 2011

30 Minutes or Less was a dual buddy movie. You had the comedy buddy movie with Jesse Eisenberg and Aziz Ansari, and you have the serious buddy movie with Danny McBride and Nick Swardson. One group brought the comedy. The other brought the stupid action. They were stupid. It made me stupid.

What’s strange is that the movie put both couples as sympathetic characters. You expect it from the comedy team, but from the villains? Could they make them anymore sympathetic?

Then the movie got real with the latino, brown skinned bad guy. The tone went from a comedic to gruesome quickly with some gritty violence. Who would’ve thought?

Also, for a 1.5 hour movie it felt long.

Needless to say, I didn’t like this movie.

2 of 5 stars

All the other kids

broderic on August 15, 2011

I miss playing my acoustic guitar. I doesn’t sound good going through my Fender Jaguar Amp. I don’t have it near me so I barely play it. Maybe I’m looking for a new one. That Taylor looks mighty nice. Wait! I thought I wanted a Jaguar. Maybe later, then.

Here we go again with another round of covers on Youtube. If you don’t like the original, then you might not like this. And if you don’t like the original, then what’s wrong with you. Isn’t it the song of the summer?

CamdenChat.com

broderic on August 12, 2011

Go to CamdenChat.com to commiserate with fellow Orioles fans on how bad our home team is. This team is worst than they were last year. It’s hard to say that, but it’s true.

Crazy, Stupid, Love

broderic on August 12, 2011

I had started writing a review for Crazy, Stupid, Love earlier this week while I've been twiddling my thumbs at work, but I deleted the first draft. Was that stupid of me? No, because I thought it went nowhere. Now, as I write review, I know this one's gonna go nowhere as well. I should've published the first one — one and done.Steve Carell and Julianne Moore are a couple on the edge of divorce. She wants out because she married the 40 Year Old Virgin. He can't believe it, grants her wish, and mopes around before Ryan

Gosling shows him how to be a man. He dresses Carell up, teaches him how to pick up women, and lets him loose in his home bar. Carell flies right, but does he like his lady's man persona? Doubtful as he maintains the ex's yard at night and keeps close tabs on his family. The question then becomes does Gosling like his persona? Doubtful as he falls in love with the ubiquitous Emma Stone. Gosling tabbed Carell for the same loser role he had been but transformed as a lady's man he knows he misses something.I thought Crazy, Stupid, Love was a romantic comedy, just look at its title, but it isn't. It's a romantic drama with comedic overtones. It acts like a rom-com, but doesn't try to follow all the conventions of the genre. Strangeness abounds in this hybrid movie and its best to watch with a clear view that this is really about love and its sometimes stupid, sometimes crazy practitioners.There is a twists that you know is coming, and one that you don't know. I'll not spoil it for you but I was surprised and laughed both times. Clever.Now of the couples involved in this movie, the younger will make you cringe. Everything they did was really creepy. I couldn't believe it. I'm warning you now.3 of 5 stars

Cowboys & Aliens

broderic on August 6, 2011

I don’t know what I was expecting from Cowboys & Aliens. Did I expect a western? Or an alien invasion flick? Perhaps I was expecting a good flick. You got the western and the alien invasion, but it wasn’t good.

The film jumps right in with Daniel Craig trying to figure out who he is and how he got into this mess. What movie am I in? Is this a western? Or is it an alien invasion film? Yes. Long story short, he’s an outlaw with a heart of gold. Gold being the operative word.

The townspeople are ruled by the big cattle rancher, Indiana Jones. Harrison Ford is looking old. And he’s crotchety. He hates everyone. We’ll come to find out he has a heart of gold. Gold being the operative word.

There’s the Doc who is a minister, and there’s the barkeep who is a doctor. The minister doc helps stitch up Daniel Craig and knows that he is the key to making the town a better place. The barkeep doc is a wimp but finds out later that he does make the town a better place. They both have hearts of gold. Gold being the operative word.

The doc barkeep loses his wife to the aliens. Daniel Craig loses his memory to the aliens. Various townfolk get lost to the aliens. A posse is rounded up to get them back. This is the part where we get to see them strung up as food for the aliens. Just like in Super 8. I think they used the same setup.

I watch Jon Favreau movies and wonder where the action is. His films are slack in pace even the Iron Men movies. It saddens me, because he’s always directing action movies. One day, his pace will make a movie fun to watch.

2 of 5 stars

Damage Control

broderic on August 5, 2011

I am currently two months into reading Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway. It’s taken me this long not because its a particularly thick book, but because I’ve only read it off and on a few pages one night, then a chapter the next. Everytime I read it, I’m hooked. It’s a gripping account of the last good days of the Imperial Japanese Kido Butai their carrier division strike force as it meets its end at Midway. At the rate I’m reading this book, I’ll be done by September.

In reading this book, it’s made me more curious about naval ships and especially about their damage control activities. It’s kind of coupled to my work as well as I’m doing things with automated systems on board a ship. Stupid as it is working for IniTech has me very close to a few things that I am interested in. Boats, man, boats. I like ’em.

Now, all this makes me wonder if I should be building the Kido Butai instead of the IJN battleships. I should build out the Akagi or Soryu rather than the Nagato. Scratch that. Nagato is awesome.

Link of the Day [8.04.11]

broderic on August 4, 2011

I'm by no means a partial observer here. You could call me an Apple fan boy and I wouldn't deny it. They've proved to be one of the best run companies for the last 40 years and this is with the lost 90s. They were knocked flat on their backs by Microsoft and Windows95, but picked themselves off the mat, swung back hard, and eventually became the juggernaut they are today. They have spent the last decade doing everything right. When I read attacks upon Apple, I know the sour grapes that they come from: (in best whiny voice) "Apple suxs! Macs suxs! Iphones sucks! {Insert platform of choice} rulez!" Apple's kicked butt, usually of the platform the person likes. It's difficult to embrace Apple as towers over all other computer companies in hardware, software, and the public's mindshare.Yet, they aren't the only big dog on the block. Google is another 1,000 lb gorilla, and it's flexing its muscles. They leverage their search engine dominance (and online advertising dominance) into the Android operating system. They sell ads that so happen to need a platform like the web or Android OS to deliver. They're not above whining about Apple. They've got into a shouting match over the set of Nortel patents.Just because you lose out on them doesn't mean you should whine about it. Whining about "bogus" patents that Apple and Microsoft out bid Google for is sour grapes.The funny thing is patents especially the software kind suck. They're beginning to stifle software development in the mobile arena. Google could've been in the forefront of campaigning for patent reform with their "Do No Evil" slogan, but you can't be for wanting patents and against them at the same time. You're head will asplode with the hypocrisy.But for real, we need to reform our patent system. Our leading "Do No Evil" company, Google, would be the ideal candidate to advocate reform. But whining about losing out on a patent bid, doesn't help the cause for patent reform.http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/when-patents-attack-android.html

Fiends With Benefits

broderic on August 2, 2011

A few months back, I saw the first "friends with benefits" movie, No Strings Attached, and I liked it. Did this make me susceptible to another "friends with benefits" movie with the apt title, Friends with Benefits? Not sure. I don't remember what I liked about the first "friends with benefits" movie and why I gave it a decent review. Was it the acting? The actors? The story? The script? It seems it must've been a combination of all these as I made note of the story and the actors in my review. I guess for a "friends with benefits" movie we have to come to like the story and the actors in order to like the movie.Friends With Benefits stars Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis. I've come to enjoy Timberlake as an actor. He's thoroughly agreeable in everything I've seen him in from The Social Network to ugh, Bad Teacher. Mila Kunis is Mila Kunis all growns up, easy on the eyes. Adequate for the role she plays.The two are brought together after they have been dumped by their exes because she headhunts for an executive placement agency and she brings him to New York. It'll remind you of the classic line in When Harry Met Sally — "That's too bad. You were the only person I knew in New York." In fact, the movie goes out of its way to disproving the adage from the same movie that men and women can't be friends because of the sex. For the two, the sex doesn't get in the way, it's the friendship.Right from the meet cute you feel the chemistry between both characters. Flirting even though one is basically employed by the other. They quickly become friends and do things as friends because his only friend in New York is she. Then they show how compatible they are and comfortable with each other. Then comes the benefits naturally arising from being together often. He likes her. She likes him. They're friends why not? The friendship will get in the way, but our protagonists triumph as you know they would in a good little romantic comedy.As I left the theatre, I kept wondering which I "friends with benefits" movie I liked more. To be honest, I can't decide. Perhaps a back-to-back screening would suffice, but I think that would be too much. I already like them both.3 of 5 stars.