Random Musings: Entertainment

300

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 16:26:05 GMT

Critics be damned, 300 was an amazing to watch movie. I'll be waiting for that DVD with major baited breath.

A friend's wife called it "War Porn" and she was right -- a gore fest. What got me though was just the nature in which it was filmed.

I would absolutely LOVE to see a Sin City/300-esque Dark Knight. I think I would not leave the theater for a week. Maybe more.

Gamers, I need your help

Sat, 24 Feb 2007 15:26:08 GMT

All my son wanted for Christmas was a Nintendo Wii. He was a disappointed boy Christmas day when the Wii did not materialize. His father tried -- he checked in at EB Games every day for weeks. Never got there in time, never knew when they were coming in. Other people were finding them though, so they were to be had.

I just got back this morning after standing in the rain for 40 mins at Fred Meyer to get one. I had been told by their electronics guy that Saturday was the day to do it, and to get there first. I was first, I was not alone, and yet, I left without a Wii because "Oh, we don't get them EVERY Saturday." Needless to say, my boy is very disappointed and I'm feeling like a failure for not finding something that other people are managing to make happen.

So, I give up -- where are you people finding them? I am not going to pay $400 on ebay for a $250 item. That's ridiculous. So I must be doing something really wrong. We aren't power gamers here...we are just a house with a 9 year old boy who loves Mario.

WHERE DO I FIND A G-DAMNED WII?

BTW, friends on the Spaces team, why do I have to enter breaks manually in Safari???

Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb.

Sat, 10 Sep 2005 16:30:40 GMT

As most of my friends know, I am a huge fan of Batman. Always have been, always will be. So last night, I sat down with my kids and forced them to watch the original 1966 Batman movie.

Their reactions were mixed. The 4 year old thought it was fantastic. The 8 year old thought I was crazy and kept asking why Robin didn't have any pants, and the 12 year old (today, happy birthday katie!) actually enjoyed the campy humor, especially Robin's "Holy heart attack!"

The title for this entry is my favorite quote from the movie when Batman runs around forever trying to dispose of a bomb and runs into a woman with a baby, nuns, ducks, musicians, lovers in a boat and then utters the line above. Fantastic.

My kids have grown up on the more grim Batman in the cartoons. When we were kids, I had to go to the comic book store to get my grim batman. Otherwise it was the crap on Superfriends and Scooby-Doo, or this TV show. Tim Burton changed all that when he decided to go grim. God bless you, Tim Burton.

The biggest downside of this movie is that Julie Newmar did not play Catwoman. I don't know about you, but growing up on Julie Newmar made a curvy man out of me.

And the movie ends with this line, which is also fantastic:

Who knows, Robin? This strange mixing of minds may be the greatest single service ever performed for humanity! Let's go, but, inconspicuously, through the window. We'll use our Batropes. Our job is finished.

Why I rarely go to the movies...

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 16:06:11 GMT

This article talks about how the Hollywood warlords are bemoaning the fact that nobody seems to go to the movies anymore. As someone who used to wait in lines for up to 3 hours to see opening night movies at the famed Century 21 theater in San Jose, I can give them lots of reasons why I don't go.

I believe it started when more and more cellphones started going off during the movie. Perhaps it was when people started bring babies or very small children to movies that were entirely inappropriate for them (The Mummy would be an example of that). I remember going to a movie near the SVC campus in a brand new theater and there were so many babies at the movie, I wondered what memo I missed that made it bring your baby day. Then I started noticing the teenagers laughing and talking through the movie more. Essentially, my "movie experience" sucked, and I wasn't happy having to pay a ton of money for it, especially once I had kids. If Amy and I go to the movies, here is what it looks like:

$20 tickets
$30-$40 babysitter
$40-$50 dinner (if we go to dinner)
$20 drinks/popcorn/etc.

So that movie that Hollywood so desparately wants me to see has now become a $120 deal. Even if I skip dinner, it's at least a $60 movie. Not many movies are worth that. Batman Begins was one of the few worth it movies, and it was at an IMAX and the crowd was more of an "enthusiast" crowd, so no babies or cellphones.

When I can wait a mere 4 or 5 months for a $4 rental, why on EARTH would I go to the theater?

You want me to come see a movie there? Do this:

Ban all babies from movies unless it's a specified showing for those with babies.
Throw out anyone who has their cellphone go off, or better yet, install blockers for cellphones.
Enforce no talking policies. Really: enforce them.
Stop showing me 30 mins of commercials before the movie. When I saw Batman Begins at the IMAX it was about 2 mins of IMAX related commercials then on with the show. Fantastic. It's bad enough they do it there, they are starting to do it on DVD's too -- argh.

Do that, and I am way more likely to come sit through a movie. Otherwise, I'll watch it at home on my home theater and enjoy the fact that I am the boss.

More on Star Wars

Fri, 27 May 2005 04:55:04 GMT

Okay, so I have given the movie more thought, and here is my main gripe:

Lucas has had like decades to think up this story, he explains in Episode IV that Vader was power hungry, etc, then, after all that, we are to believe that the reason he went to the Dark Side was his wife might die in childbirth -- that for this reason alone he slaughted children and all of his friends.

Right. Like that makes even one iota of sense. He couldn't do better than that? Ugh.

Truth

Wed, 05 Jan 2005 22:59:50 GMT

Ah, how true.