I saw Spiderman 3 on the Friday that it came out. I had already planed a bunch of crap to say about it. Well, time went by and I forgot all the stuff I wanted to say, so hence, no blog.
Yesterday I was on Orson Scott Card's web page, when I noticed he had posted his very short review of Spidey 3.
Anyone who has read my blog, all both of you, or knows me personally, all both of you, knows that OSC is my favorite author. By reading his reviews he has guided me toward great movies that I would have never seen otherwise. Most notably Spanglish and Finding Neverland. When it comes to book reviews he has suggested very dumpy reads. Most notably Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire.
Any who, sometimes I agree with his views and other times I don't. And thats normal. I have never meet anyone who I agree with completely. Take my buddy Shane. He has great taste in music, but for some reason he really likes the Counting Crows. Eeeewwww!
In Card's review of Spidey 3, he says a couple of things that just annoyed me.
First of which, "[Spiderman 3 has] big special effects sequences designed to sell the videogames." Uhh, what? I thought big special effects sequences were designed to make you oohh, and ahhh. That's what these sequences do. At no point in watching the movie did I feel like I needed to buy the game. It may be because I am a gamer, and I know not to but video games based on movies. Here is a "Fedge" official rule for gaming and movie going. "Don't watch movies based on games, and don't play games based on movies." Follow this simple rule and you will save yourself time, movie, and most likely headaches.
Secondly, "Raimi cast terrific actors in all the leads, and they do a great job." Uhh, no complaints here. Right on. Then he follows it up with this, "I especially salute Topher Grace's entry into the villain category -- if he were in any more scenes he'd steal the movie." Pshh. Whatever? I though James Franco portrayed his character with more depth and believability than any other actor in the film. All Topher had to do was play a whiny little baby. Harry Osborn went through a lot more emotional changes in this film, and Franco played each part with great precision. Card does say in his review that Franco is at his best, which I obviously agree with, but Topher came no where close to stealing the show.
Then he says, "But time after time, the silliness undercut the serious storyline." I can see how you would feel this way, but I thought that it was all really well balanced. Then he said this movie was in the same class as Titanic and Back to the Future. He says that by having so much comedy that it will make Spiderman 3 become less watchable over time, like Titanic and Back to the Future. Which may be true about Spidey 3, but Back to the Future! Back to the Future is infinitely watchable. BTTF is an awesome classic film! GRRR! DON'T put Back to the Future in the same boat as Titanic. (pun intended)
Here is my review of Spiderman 3. It is a great final chapter to the Spiderman films. It is a story centered completely around Peter, Mary Jane, and Harry. The villains are disposable. And as a film about the core three characters, it is wonderful.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Thursday, May 03, 2007
My Sister and Movies
I don't think I could sum my sister up in one blog. But, being that she is one of my three faithful readers, and the fact she has been bugging me to write a blog about her, I will give it a go.
My sister has the most incredible ability. She can pick a film that she wants to see, and no matter how terrible it looks, she can convince me to go watch it with her. Often times I pay for the tickets myself.
The first movie that comes to mind would be Birth staring Nicole Kidman and no one else of note. This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my entire life. There are bad movies that are so bad that they become good. Then there are movies like Birth that are so bad, and take themselves so seriously, that they turn out worse.
Nicole Kidman plays a widow who is about to remarry. Then along comes this kid who claims to be her husband, only in the shape of a very annoying boy. She doesn't believe him at first, but over the course of several boring and painful hours she starts to become convinced that this is indeed her late husband.
Well, come to find out this kid was just joshin'. He found a bunch of love letters and other crap in a box that was written by her husband. So he took it upon himself to try to get in a tub with Nicole Kidman. A feat that he is able to pull off in a scene that will haunt me for the rest of my movie going lifetime. The final scene is Nicole Kidman getting in a big ol' fist fight with the ocean. At this point me and my sister could not contain our laughter. We were the only ones laughing in the room, and that made it all the more enjoyable.
So despite the fact that she can pick out the worst movies in the world and make me go see them, she is one of the best people in the world to go see a bad movie with.
That is of course if she can remember which theater the movie is at. On more that one occasion she would lead us to the wrong theater on the other end of town. It happened enough that we just started to leave early, so that we would have enough time to make it to the other theater if we went to the wrong one first.
To her credit, she did make us go see Napoleon Dynamite before it got all huge. Also, I did take her to go see Thr3e the movie. That was a laugh a minute. We also plan on going to see House, which promises to be worse than Birth. Because of that fact, we can't wait to watch it.
No, this blog doesn't do my sister justice. But it is a start.
My sister has the most incredible ability. She can pick a film that she wants to see, and no matter how terrible it looks, she can convince me to go watch it with her. Often times I pay for the tickets myself.
The first movie that comes to mind would be Birth staring Nicole Kidman and no one else of note. This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my entire life. There are bad movies that are so bad that they become good. Then there are movies like Birth that are so bad, and take themselves so seriously, that they turn out worse.
Nicole Kidman plays a widow who is about to remarry. Then along comes this kid who claims to be her husband, only in the shape of a very annoying boy. She doesn't believe him at first, but over the course of several boring and painful hours she starts to become convinced that this is indeed her late husband.
Well, come to find out this kid was just joshin'. He found a bunch of love letters and other crap in a box that was written by her husband. So he took it upon himself to try to get in a tub with Nicole Kidman. A feat that he is able to pull off in a scene that will haunt me for the rest of my movie going lifetime. The final scene is Nicole Kidman getting in a big ol' fist fight with the ocean. At this point me and my sister could not contain our laughter. We were the only ones laughing in the room, and that made it all the more enjoyable.
So despite the fact that she can pick out the worst movies in the world and make me go see them, she is one of the best people in the world to go see a bad movie with.
That is of course if she can remember which theater the movie is at. On more that one occasion she would lead us to the wrong theater on the other end of town. It happened enough that we just started to leave early, so that we would have enough time to make it to the other theater if we went to the wrong one first.
To her credit, she did make us go see Napoleon Dynamite before it got all huge. Also, I did take her to go see Thr3e the movie. That was a laugh a minute. We also plan on going to see House, which promises to be worse than Birth. Because of that fact, we can't wait to watch it.
No, this blog doesn't do my sister justice. But it is a start.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Skin:Warning Spoilers! Like you care!
Moments ago, I did the unthinkable. I finished reading the novel Skin by Ted Dekker.
My current state of emotion:I never want to read another Dekker novel.
Should I tell you about it? Sure. I think I owe it to anyone who would actually think about reading this novel. I must warn them about what is found within its pages.
Skin starts off with a woman in her twenties named Wendy, being run off the road by an unmanned pick-up truck. She meets two people, one of whom was bitten by a snake, who also have been ran of the road by the same truck. They run in to the local authorities who are looking for a killer on the loose. A killer named Red.
Why is his name significant? Maybe because two of his previous novels feature killers by the name of Black and White. Black, Red, and White are the titles of a trilogy that Dekker wrote, that was actually good. So good, in fact, that Dekker started writing his own fan fiction. The last four novels that he has written are loosely tied in to the trilogy in some form or fashion.
This killer, Red, has a fondness for eating large quantities of mustard after a kill. Why? It calms his nerves. That's about all you get on that. But this leads to classic lines like "Pass the mustard". What context is this in? Well, Red is just thinking over his next move in the sick life or death game he is playing with the main characters, he smiles and says, "Pass the mustard." Now that is bad ass. Sends chills down my spine.
Oh, right. Characters! Very poorly developed. He gives a couple of them interesting backgrounds, but never delves into their issues in any meaningful way. In the end, you don't really care much for them either way. At least I didn't.
So you drone on and on through pages of stuff that you have experienced over and over before in other works by Dekker. The killer traps them in a house. He wants them to kill each other. The whole time the identity of the killer is unknown. But, when you find out who it is, even though you didn't see it coming, you really don't care. Woohoo, the killer is some turd that was never really developed and plays a very unimportant role in the story up until this point.
But wait, that isn't the big twist. Ever seen The Matrix? Then this twist will not shock you in any way. You will sit there thinking, "It was cool in The Matrix, but this is just a rip off."
Here comes the spoiler, if you haven't already seen The Matrix.
The world isn't real! "WHAT?" you say. That's so original. Why hasn't someone already thought of that and made it into a big budget film staring "Ted'' Theodore Logan?
So the whole time they have been playing this game, an experiment, that your unclear on. Now they are pulled out of a game that has gone horribly wrong. Three people are dead and for some weird unexplained reason they have to go back into the game to "Finish the game".
Did we miss the fact that three people have already died? Why the hell are you sending them back in? WHAT? This all leads up to the main characters looking at each other and smiling like they are one Three's Company and they say, "This time we will play the game together." WOW! George Lucas would be proud.
Now at the end of it all, let me say this. Unless my resolve waivers, I am done reading Ted Dekker. I have read every novel he has written to date. The last five have been mediocre at best. I have found new authors I would rather spend my time and money on. Tim Pratt, John Scalzi, and James Maxey. With my new job, time spent reading has gone down considerably. Frankly, I want to enjoy Dekker's work. But ever since he wrote that Trilogy, he seems to have lost his touch.
On to The Last Colony by John Scalzi. WOOT!
My current state of emotion:I never want to read another Dekker novel.
Should I tell you about it? Sure. I think I owe it to anyone who would actually think about reading this novel. I must warn them about what is found within its pages.
Skin starts off with a woman in her twenties named Wendy, being run off the road by an unmanned pick-up truck. She meets two people, one of whom was bitten by a snake, who also have been ran of the road by the same truck. They run in to the local authorities who are looking for a killer on the loose. A killer named Red.
Why is his name significant? Maybe because two of his previous novels feature killers by the name of Black and White. Black, Red, and White are the titles of a trilogy that Dekker wrote, that was actually good. So good, in fact, that Dekker started writing his own fan fiction. The last four novels that he has written are loosely tied in to the trilogy in some form or fashion.
This killer, Red, has a fondness for eating large quantities of mustard after a kill. Why? It calms his nerves. That's about all you get on that. But this leads to classic lines like "Pass the mustard". What context is this in? Well, Red is just thinking over his next move in the sick life or death game he is playing with the main characters, he smiles and says, "Pass the mustard." Now that is bad ass. Sends chills down my spine.
Oh, right. Characters! Very poorly developed. He gives a couple of them interesting backgrounds, but never delves into their issues in any meaningful way. In the end, you don't really care much for them either way. At least I didn't.
So you drone on and on through pages of stuff that you have experienced over and over before in other works by Dekker. The killer traps them in a house. He wants them to kill each other. The whole time the identity of the killer is unknown. But, when you find out who it is, even though you didn't see it coming, you really don't care. Woohoo, the killer is some turd that was never really developed and plays a very unimportant role in the story up until this point.
But wait, that isn't the big twist. Ever seen The Matrix? Then this twist will not shock you in any way. You will sit there thinking, "It was cool in The Matrix, but this is just a rip off."
Here comes the spoiler, if you haven't already seen The Matrix.
The world isn't real! "WHAT?" you say. That's so original. Why hasn't someone already thought of that and made it into a big budget film staring "Ted'' Theodore Logan?
So the whole time they have been playing this game, an experiment, that your unclear on. Now they are pulled out of a game that has gone horribly wrong. Three people are dead and for some weird unexplained reason they have to go back into the game to "Finish the game".
Did we miss the fact that three people have already died? Why the hell are you sending them back in? WHAT? This all leads up to the main characters looking at each other and smiling like they are one Three's Company and they say, "This time we will play the game together." WOW! George Lucas would be proud.
Now at the end of it all, let me say this. Unless my resolve waivers, I am done reading Ted Dekker. I have read every novel he has written to date. The last five have been mediocre at best. I have found new authors I would rather spend my time and money on. Tim Pratt, John Scalzi, and James Maxey. With my new job, time spent reading has gone down considerably. Frankly, I want to enjoy Dekker's work. But ever since he wrote that Trilogy, he seems to have lost his touch.
On to The Last Colony by John Scalzi. WOOT!
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Foes Of The Library
Well, I got one book on my list from the friends of the library book sale. For the most part, I ended up getting books from my reading days as a teenager. Spiderman and X-men novels that were written in the 90's. I didn't end up getting Ghost Brigades, the one book that I really wanted, and would have alone made the trip worth while.
It is amazing how many books I bought that I admit I may never get to reading. Some of which will most likely end up in the Friends of the Library donation bin later on this year. Yet, it still was lots of fun and I got stains all over a pair of pants. (I will just leave it at that and let you guess how I got stains on my pants). I didn't have to hit anyone upside the head, which I guess is a good thing.
Another book I was looking for, Earthborn by Orson Scott Card, which has been there the last couple times. Often with multiple copies in great condition. But, of course, the time I want to buy it, none to be found.
Now, I look ahead to October when the sale rolls back around. I already have put in for the day off and look forward to getting all tense before hand, hoping the people who camped out won't buy up all the good stuff before I get inside. I found myself getting really pissed off when these two old people cut in front of about 100 people who were waiting patiently. Who do you thing you are old man? I better not see you in the Sci-fi section or I will... oh, forget it. You probably like Stephen King anyway. I don't have to worry about you buying up all the good stuff. Turd!
It is amazing how many books I bought that I admit I may never get to reading. Some of which will most likely end up in the Friends of the Library donation bin later on this year. Yet, it still was lots of fun and I got stains all over a pair of pants. (I will just leave it at that and let you guess how I got stains on my pants). I didn't have to hit anyone upside the head, which I guess is a good thing.
Another book I was looking for, Earthborn by Orson Scott Card, which has been there the last couple times. Often with multiple copies in great condition. But, of course, the time I want to buy it, none to be found.
Now, I look ahead to October when the sale rolls back around. I already have put in for the day off and look forward to getting all tense before hand, hoping the people who camped out won't buy up all the good stuff before I get inside. I found myself getting really pissed off when these two old people cut in front of about 100 people who were waiting patiently. Who do you thing you are old man? I better not see you in the Sci-fi section or I will... oh, forget it. You probably like Stephen King anyway. I don't have to worry about you buying up all the good stuff. Turd!
Friends of the Library Book Sale
This morning is the friends of the library books sale. I want a copy of The Ghost Brigades for a nickel. If you get in my way I will hit you upside the head with a copy of the latest Robert Jordan book.
Don't laugh. This isn't a game. I didn't get here a half hour early so some turd with a duffel bag could wipe all the books off the table in to his duffel bag, just to go sit in a corner and pick through them. Don't pull that crap. All I gots to say is Wheel of Time upside yo head.
Don't laugh. This isn't a game. I didn't get here a half hour early so some turd with a duffel bag could wipe all the books off the table in to his duffel bag, just to go sit in a corner and pick through them. Don't pull that crap. All I gots to say is Wheel of Time upside yo head.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Don't You Wish Your Girlfriend Could Blog Like Me?
I was noticing while I was at work the other day, that I would much rather write a blog while I was on the clock and it is not in my job description. I did restrain myself, and that is a good thing. That blog would have ended up sounding like the me after I eat seven corn dogs at Sonic. I have a coupon 2 for $0.99. Mmmm, Tums.
One thing I have noticed about other peoples blogs is they like to use the word "muse" or "musings".
Dan's Ideological Oasis:Daily musings of a high school janitor.
Ladies Welcome:The musings of Leonard Nimoy.
Just because you think you know the definition of the word musing, doesn't mean I want to read your blog. Musings doesn't make your blog sound more appealing. To the contrary, if you put the word musing in the subtitle of your blog, I'm moving on. Because unless you are talking to an imaginary audience, you sad individual, then STOP IT. Musings is not cool.
Just call it what it is.
Captain Dan's Blog o' Crap:Some dude saying dull unimportant crap.
Ladies Welcome:Ladies don't know who Leonard Nimoy is, and that is a sad thing.
I live by this philosophy. Get their expectations low, and keep em' there. If they're reading your blog, great! But watch out should you actually write something witty or half way meaningful. Cause then they come to expect it.
Write about the time you and your frat buddy got drunk and puked all over this fly girl you was "takin' wit." Are you sure you want to call that musing?
A person who goes around looking for a blog to read with musing in the title, isn't going to want to hear about the McMuffin eating contest you won. But a guy who stops and sees BLOG O' CRAP, should be all over that kind of stuff.
I will leave you with this bit of wisdom. "Make an ass of yourself." That way, when people laugh at you, you will think it is because your funny.
One thing I have noticed about other peoples blogs is they like to use the word "muse" or "musings".
Dan's Ideological Oasis:Daily musings of a high school janitor.
Ladies Welcome:The musings of Leonard Nimoy.
Just because you think you know the definition of the word musing, doesn't mean I want to read your blog. Musings doesn't make your blog sound more appealing. To the contrary, if you put the word musing in the subtitle of your blog, I'm moving on. Because unless you are talking to an imaginary audience, you sad individual, then STOP IT. Musings is not cool.
Just call it what it is.
Captain Dan's Blog o' Crap:Some dude saying dull unimportant crap.
Ladies Welcome:Ladies don't know who Leonard Nimoy is, and that is a sad thing.
I live by this philosophy. Get their expectations low, and keep em' there. If they're reading your blog, great! But watch out should you actually write something witty or half way meaningful. Cause then they come to expect it.
Write about the time you and your frat buddy got drunk and puked all over this fly girl you was "takin' wit." Are you sure you want to call that musing?
A person who goes around looking for a blog to read with musing in the title, isn't going to want to hear about the McMuffin eating contest you won. But a guy who stops and sees BLOG O' CRAP, should be all over that kind of stuff.
I will leave you with this bit of wisdom. "Make an ass of yourself." That way, when people laugh at you, you will think it is because your funny.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Lack of Blog:Venom
I am sorry about the lack of blogging lately.
Hey there is a new Spiderman 3 Trailer at IGN.COM.
That is all. Will blog again soon. I hope.
Hey there is a new Spiderman 3 Trailer at IGN.COM.
That is all. Will blog again soon. I hope.
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