It’s a good time to be a skater in SoCal. If you know anything about skateboarding history, you know that pool skating became huge because of the emptying of pools in the 70s. Now we have more houses being abandoned because of the housing market turmoil, and once again we are having an emptying of pools. I wonder if people are flying planes to find the hidden gems.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/29/us/29pools.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
All throughout The Day the Earth Stood Still you just know that Keanu Reeves is an emotionless alien and not just for the character he plays, but for his acting.
If there was one movie not worth remaking, it was the original, The Day the Earth Stood Still. It’s not that the original was a great movie not to be tinkered with, but that it’s message of peace, love and kindness among men can be told in hundreds of ways that something original can be created without rehashing the old. The original is a classic sci-fi film, and it has wonderful sci-fi elements. To update to now means to mash up sci-fi with the CG thriller action idioms that dominate Hollywood movies today. To update to now means to take those precious rhythms of the original story and flatten them to a monotone of contemporary dreariness. To update to now means to make a very forgettable film. The original was not.
In the original, the viewer was active in confronting the need for change. In the latest, the viewer is replaced by the plaintive wail of a character expressing that things can change. In the former, it is left to each one to devise whether change can happen. In the latter, the need for change is just another story moment. It is groveling which hurt the latest. That character seems to whine too much. In the original, we must change because we are confronted with the need to; we the viewer are asked to act. The latest makes us passive, and it makes us fools. No more whining about it.
2 of 5 stars.
Went to DC to get some lunch at an all you can eat Filipino buffet. Picked up CapitolSwell at his house which is just down Connecticut Ave. Driving down the street and everyone was Sunday driving. What’s wrong with people! I pass them, but realize that it’s because of all the traffic cameras there to ensnare hapless motorists. Damn. I just hope that they were under repair as there was a maintenance vehicle with one of the boxes open while we cruised through at around 40 mph.
Leaving DC, it’s the same story.
“Yipee ki-yi-yay, mother-“
John McClane (Bruce Willis), Die Hard (censored!)
In these tough economic times, one has to scrimp and save one’s money to make ends meet. If only money grew on trees.
Well just use today’s link to print your own money. Monopoly money of course, but it’s always fun to print out thousands of dollars on your printer. You can even use it to make your own game.
http://www.hasbro.com/games/kid-games/monopoly/default.cfm?page=strategyguide/gametools
I always compile this list before the end of the year. While looking over my posts of the movies I saw in the theatre, I was surprised that I had a lot of 2 stars even from the ones that were “good.” (I’m looking at you Dark Knight.) I’m also surprised that I saw very few movies. A rough estimate is about 60 this year whereas last year was probably around . I still a few reviews to post, but those films are just average or below. So here’s my list of 4+ star films.
Click the link to read my review. Post your own list.
I’ve also noticed that my list is getting shorter. Either I am becoming a better judge of movies or I am becoming more finicky.
“Hey! The Great Escape just started.”
“Steve McQueen can’t make it over the big German gap!”
Just start baby. Please start. Yosh!
“Anyone know any manga with cat girls?”
“Cat girls? Not my taste. Good luck.”
Hmmm. Yozakura Quartet.
Worst lamb gyro ever.
“Mmmm. Pralines and cream milk shake.”
“Yuck. Pralines and cream milk shake.”
Anime? Miyazawa!
The poster for Four Christmases features the stars, Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn, bound up in ribbon. You wish that you were bound up yourself to help avoid seeing this movie.
It’s about a couple, living in sin, not married, because they can do what Sally said, “Make love on the kitchen floor,” whenever they want. What they want is to avoid their relatives for Christmas by jetting out to Fiji. Unfortunately, not all goes according to plan. They end up having to go to all their parents’ house to visit for the day.
The parents are each divorced, which means that the couple doesn’t want to get married because they’ll just end up as their parents. Of course, with Christmas they get a warm welcome and realize perhaps being just a couple isn’t so worth it. The movie re-establishes traditional family values of marriage and kids as the end all be all of a loving relationship. Who cares? You knew that was coming. The stories were never funny enough. There was plenty of star power. In fact I was pleasantly surprised to see the boy named Sue show up as a reunion for the Swingers dudes.
Eh! I just didn’t find this funny or worth it at all.
2 of 5 stars.
Lisa Miller-Johnson
Like a walk in the woods
Is that a snowflake? Wet.
Matthew(Andy Dick), News Radio, “Ploy”
Okay. Here’s one of the things I got for Christmas. It’s the IJN Haruna from Hasegawa in 1/700 scale. It’s a full hull model which I don’t have any experience at doing. The last full hull model I attempted was my brother’s Bismark and that burned down in flames.
She’s a very interesting ship. She’s sister to the Kongo, whose name lives on in the JMSDF Kongo DDG-173, a modern day Aegis guided missile destroyer. This is another class of ships I want to build.
http://www.battlesforguadalcanal.com/ships/haruna/haruna.html
