Phil's Command Center

Lost in the post blockbuster pre interesting movie blues

2011-08-29T16:34:00.001-07:00

Saw Colombiana last week, not very exciting, nothing of note, no outstanding acting, nothing particularly terrible. A solid will be on fx on loop in the future movie.

Movie Ranking update 8/23

2011-08-23T11:39:00.000-07:00

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Captain America
Super 8
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Thor
Green Lantern
X-Men First Class
Battle: Los Angeles
Cowboys and Aliens
Harry Potter: The Deathly Hallows part 2
Priest
The Eagle
Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides
The Hangover part 2
Sucker Punch
The Green Hornet
Conan: The Barbarian - A rather run of the mill hack and slash movie, it has nothing to really distinguish itself from any other similar movie, I was disappointed to be frank.
Horrible Bosses
Rio
Hanna
The Mechanic
Your Highness
Hop

Movie Ranking update 8/15

2011-08-16T18:17:00.000-07:00

Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Seriously, the best movie I have seen so far this year, compelling, well acted, well plotted, not any major plot holes.
Captain America
Super 8
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Thor
Green Lantern
X-Men First Class
Battle: Los Angeles
Cowboys and Aliens
Harry Potter: The Deathly Hallows part 2
Priest
The Eagle
Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides
The Hangover part 2
Sucker Punch
The Green Hornet
Horrible Bosses
Rio
Hanna
The Mechanic
Your Highness
Hop

NPR's top 100 Sci/fi and Fantasy Novels

2011-08-11T08:40:00.000-07:00

NPR recently held a poll to determine what the best/top 100 fantasy and sci/fi novels were, after reading through the list I realized I have read a fair number of the novels with some glaring misses so I figured I should go through and share my own thoughts as some of the books I believe to be rated higher (seriously way higher for one) and for others I don't believe they merit being as high as they are. Personally only one book I really loved was not on the list so I can't say I am very disappointed in the group as a whole.

Edit two series I loved arn't on here personally I think that "The Lies of Locke Lamora" by Scott Lynch and the Black Company Series by Glen Cook deserve a place.

The list (only going to comment on a few and include their overall ranking) as well as more info can be found here http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139248590/top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien - The standard by which most modern fantasy is based in, deserving of the spot absolutely

2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams - I think this is a little high, its good don't get me wrong I just think it was a genre shifting powerhouse like some of the others near the top.

3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card - This belongs right were it is, one of the first books that just floored me, I would put it up in my top ten favorite books I have ever read.

4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert - Never actually read it, i'll get to it eventually

5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin - I have an issue with this series, its great don't get me wrong its rightfully this high but at the same time, seriously Mr. Martin what the hell is going on with the story its going in about forty different directions and I have no clue how it can be wrapped up in two books unless every chapter concludes a story arc.

12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan - I would put this higher just because of how long I have been following the series, very much looking forward to the finale in March when A Memory of Light is supposed to be released

15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore - an interesting selection just because of the media, do like that they include a comic in the list.

18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss - Love the series but not sure if it deserves to be this high with only two books released so far, potential to move up or down depending on the next book released

41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings - the first series that hooked me into the fantasy genre but should be behind some of the better series included later.

43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson - one of the examples

46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien - pretty sure this should go with the Lord of the Rings

47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White - In my to be read pile but seems to never make its way higher up the pile.

55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle - just started hearing about this book, should give it a shot.

56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman - also in the to be read pile.

62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind - book one should be on the list the rest of the series shouldn't exist, it just gets awful only series I have willing just stopped reading with no interest of continuing to read.

71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson - I really enjoy Sanderson's work, I think this series is going to be the next wheel of time series in how much I enjoy it but only one book in so far, a wait in see with great potential

81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson - My biggest issue with this list, seriously a top fifteen series at worst, massive series already out with more to come, brillent writing, great characters and its voted lower than the Sword of Truth series, really? you are saying that Richard Rahl is a better character than Fiddler, Anomander Rake, Trull Sengar, Hood, Shadowthrone, any of the them, I think not.

88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn - The one only star wars books I would consider to be actually really good books aside from just being entertaining stories.

Movie Ranking update 7/31

2011-07-31T17:49:00.000-07:00

Captain America - Simply the best of the Marvel movies, better than Iron Man not by much but still better.
Super 8
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Thor
Green Lantern
X-Men First Class
Battle: Los Angeles
Cowboys and Aliens - Not the worlds greatest movie but much better than I expected it to be. I expected to enjoy the movie because of the premise not because it turned out to be a semi-decent and entertaining movie.
Harry Potter: The Deathly Hallows part 2 - Good not great, works better when paired with part 1
Priest
The Eagle
Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides
The Hangover part 2
Sucker Punch
The Green Hornet
Horrible Bosses
Rio
Hanna
The Mechanic
Your Highness
Hop

7/9 Update

2011-07-09T19:50:00.000-07:00

Super 8
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Thor
Green Lantern
X-Men First Class
Battle: Los Angeles
Priest
The Eagle
Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides
The Hangover part 2
Sucker Punch
The Green Hornet
Horrible Bosses - Rather boring with few truly funny moments
Rio
Hanna
The Mechanic
Your Highness
Hop

Movie Ranking update 7/1

2011-07-01T16:10:00.001-07:00

Super 8
Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Is this really the second best movie of the year? Not Really but it was very enjoyable way better than Revenge of the Fallen and it stands above the other sci/fi action movies of the year.
Thor
Green Lantern - There are flaws but it was quite good aside from some small issues.
X-Men First Class
Battle: Los Angeles
Priest
The Eagle
Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides
The Hangover part 2
Sucker Punch
The Green Hornet
Rio
Hanna
The Mechanic
Your Highness
Hop

Infamous

2011-06-25T19:34:00.000-07:00

Due to the PSN outage I got to download and play Infamous for free which was a rather nice "sorry" from Sony. I had played the demo for the game around the time it came out but I tend to shy away from sandbox style games I generally enjoy a linear approach to a game so I don't need to go out of my way to get a complete story. This is why I can still enjoy some rpgs since I can play them without needing to do all the sidequests whereas to me most sandbox style games tend to make the player do everything to get anything out of the game. All this aside I really enjoyed Infamous I completed a lot of the side missions because I could see the defined goals and the missions were generally quick and usually fun with some exceptions. Aside from that the game was pretty great, the story came out of nowhere to be compelling and have unexpected and interesting twists and turns. So all and all good job sony I will picking up Infamous 2 thanks to you giving me Infamous as a sorry for an outage that I don't really believe to be the fault of the company.

expect several of these in the next few days

2011-06-16T05:58:00.000-07:00

Movie Ranking update

2011-06-13T14:18:00.000-07:00

Thor
X-Men First Class
Battle: Los Angeles
Priest
The Eagle
Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides
The Hangover part 2
Sucker Punch
The Green Hornet
Rio
Hanna
The Mechanic
Your Highness
Hop

I enjoyed X-men, it was developing into being an actual good movie but got a little sidetracked once they decided they needed a mutant battle with two groups that had power-sets that made for no natural pairings. Overall all enjoyable and rises up in a somewhat mediocre movie year so far. Hopefully seeing Super 8 this week as well as definitely seeing Green Lantern on friday.

How to be a sports announcer

2011-06-04T17:02:00.000-07:00

There are some distinct differences in how different sports are introduced here are generic examples

Baseball
"Welcome to game 9890 of the season today we will a good matchup between the guy who started the season on another team and the one we found playing in Sri Lanka and gave a bagel to pitch for us"

Basketball
"CAN YOU HEAR US IT IS SOOOO LOUD IN HEAR WE GOT TONIGHTS MATCHUP AND ITS GONNA BE OFF THE HOOOOOKKKKKKKK"

Football
"SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY WOOOO LETS PLAY FOOTBALL..... wait its the middle of summer....alright..... FREE AGENTS THE DRAFT UPCOMING SEASON!..... wait theres a lockout..... WOOO OUR SPORT IS COOL!.... please let there be a season"

Hockey
*look up a piece of classical literature dealing with battle/war/epicness, insert hockey instead of the word war and team names for characters enter into a three minute monologue*

Brent Weeks - Perfect Shadow

2011-06-02T11:32:00.000-07:00

So yesterday Brent Weeks's Novella Perfect Shadow was released on kindle (and other ebook formats I assume), I had pre-ordered it and found it delivered when I woke up. I finished it yesterday and have been giving it some thought since then. First off the Night Angel Trilogy where Durzo Blint the main character appears in is among my favorite finds of the last couple years and he was the most interesting character in my opinion. This novella focus on him and gives some more information on his background and how he got to be where he was to start the Night Angel Trilogy. All I can really say is that the novella was well worth picking up and almost caused me to go reread the other books he is in but instead I have started reading (well listening) to The Black Prism another series by Weeks but I do hope he will return the setting of the Night Angel Trilogy because to be honest as good as Perfect Shadow was it was certainly not enough.

How Liquor Stores Work a blatant ripoff

2011-06-02T10:57:00.001-07:00

Worker - Holy shit thats a lot of booze to put away

Owner - Yeah we had a lot of good deals available, oh look lunch is here!

Worker - alright (grabs a quick bite to eat and starts putting stuff away)

Owner - (After eating lunch watching two shows and then sitting on his computer) Sweet most of the booze is away

Worker - Yep.

A review and ranking update

2011-05-31T15:23:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading "The FInal Storm" by Jeff Shaara and to be honest I was a little disappointed, I enjoyed the book as I have enjoyed most of Shaara's work but I felt as though he invested more effort in his novel's about the European theatre of WWII. The Final Storm was well written and enjoyable but to me just felt it was missing the substance of say To The Last Man.

Thor
Battle: Los Angeles
Priest
The Eagle
Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides
The Hangover part 2
Sucker Punch
The Green Hornet
Rio
Hanna
The Mechanic
Your Highness
Hop

2011 Movie Ranking update

2011-05-25T09:17:00.000-07:00

Thor

Battle: Los Angeles

Priest - Way more enjoyable then I thought it would be, no great but beats out the Eagle and Pirates for being more exciting and having the despotic motif I tend to enjoy.

The Eagle

Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides

Sucker Punch

The Green Hornet

Rio

Hanna

The Mechanic

Your Highness

Hop

Easier than writing out a full review of reach

2011-05-23T05:40:00.000-07:00

So I am behind my pace of movies from last year but not by much so I'm back to ranking movies in a giant list with maybe some thoughts here and there.

Thor

Battle: Los Angeles

The Eagle

Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides

Sucker Punch

The Green Hornet

Rio

Hanna

The Mechanic

Your Highness

Hop

How I pictured graduation as a small child

2011-05-22T07:06:00.000-07:00

bad day? watch and feel good about humanity

2011-05-13T20:10:00.000-07:00

2011-05-05T06:36:00.000-07:00

So I have been devoting most of my time recently to completing my PPA which is a Preservice Performance Assessment, essentially will I pass student teaching. Unfortunately it is a long and tedious bit of paperwork which in my opinion does not do a lot to prove I have accomplished anything from my experience. When the teacher I work with sits down and says Yes would absolutely be a good teacher in the fall I thing that lends a lot more credence to my time teaching rather than a pile of papers that mean nothing to anyone outside of the education field.

Mostly it almost inspired me to start my own "How Research Works" called "Life in the Education Field"

This cracked me up after an awesome game 7

2011-04-28T06:06:00.000-07:00

This is essentially turning into what I watch on youtube

2011-04-26T08:55:00.000-07:00

A typical Boston spin on the NHL playoff ads

2011-04-23T12:08:00.001-07:00

Game of Thrones

2011-04-21T12:53:00.000-07:00

After watching the first episode of the new HBO series Game of Throne I came away with a few thoughts for those who might have been directed this way via someone who hasn't read the series.

-The beginning is a little plodding with some high points but really picks up as the book and in this case I can assume series will follow along those lines.

- Ned Stark is my favorite character of those who have introduced so far, also Tyrion is among my favorites but not until later on I found him frustrating at this point in the series but they seem to have toned down those parts of his character.

- Of the scenery I think they really hit it with "The Wall" the giant ice wall seen at the very beginning, I was a little disappointed in Winterfell I always pictured it as more of a fortress than traditional castle.

- The Targaryen's were as annoying as they are supposed to be, the brother is supposed to be a huge jackass about everything. The sister however is not as dense as she comes off as, as well that Khal Drogo is not as dumb as he seems to be.

- I am pleased by the production value put into the series, quite the contrast to the abomination that was Legend of the Seeker, granted I also like the source material much better.

- The only thing I was disappointed with was the beheading of the runaway, I don't think they sufficiently explained why the man was being executed for running away from being a member of the Night's Watch. Also on why that Ned insists on doing the execution himself, it was a throwaway line but is an important part of his character.

Overall I am looking forward to watching the rest of the series and was pleased to see that the second season/book A Storm of Swords has already been given the go ahead to begin production.

Presented with no comment

2011-04-08T08:31:00.001-07:00

Green Lantern

2011-04-06T15:00:00.000-07:00

So I have been pretty excited about seeing this since I first heard it announced and this does nothing to temper to excitement.

So I have been rather busy recently....

2011-03-27T06:47:00.001-07:00

Like the title says I have been rather busy in the last month or so, and as such have not had a lot of time to write anything lengthy so instead I have put together a bunch of random thoughts that are pretty much all over the place.

- I have managed to find time to read Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss and The Crippled God by Steven Erikson and they hail from different ends of the fantasy spectrum but are both worth reading.

- Worth reading is probably an understatement in reality, The Crippled God was one of the best conclusions to any series I have read. It is not perfect but it wraps up the main story nicely and actually for once has a definitive ending. I am looking forward to the continued works by Erikson. The reason why it was so satisfying is there were many loose ends tied up in ways that actually made sense, all of my favorite characters from the series either show up or at least get a mention (this character died earlier in the series).

- Recently I have seen Battle:LA and Sucker Punch both of which were good in the sense that I was entertained with Battle:LA being more entertaining and Sucker Punch having a more interesting story.

- In other books news this year is really shaping up to be a good one with both A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin and Inheritance by Christopher Paolini getting release dates and unlike the previously mentioned books they aren't coming out on the same day.

Hilarious

2011-03-11T06:40:00.000-08:00

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Worth a viewing

2011-02-16T16:36:00.001-08:00

Playstation Move

2011-02-16T09:39:00.000-08:00

So I recently got the Playstation move, which essentially makes the my PS3 into a Nintendo Wii, I was worried since that I already own a Wii that I wouldn't really see any point to having both. Yeah, I was wrong on that one, I only have the game that comes with it and well it does Wii Sports better than Wii Sports does because the character avatars and goes have the polish of a ps3 game rather than the lower standards of Wii games.

Also I have been going to the gym regularly again and got more of a workout playing Gladiator duel than I did at the gym yesterday.

Recent Movies

2011-02-13T07:13:00.000-08:00

So there has been quite the contrast between the last three movies I have seen in theaters. The last three have been Black Swan, The Mechanic and the Eagle. Of these Black Swan was an experience it is adeptly described as a psycho ballerina thriller that I actually enjoyed which surprised me. The Mechanic was not so great (shocking I know) i was entertained but its essentially a movie you just know what is going to happen and are appeased by stuff blowing up to get to you there. Finally the Eagle which was better than I thought it was going to be, it has elements of movies I generally enjoy, you know Roman legions, fighting, a battle that is absurd some token historical references but it has giant drawback Channing Tatum. Not that I have anything against him as an actor its just aside from GI Joe I haven't liked any movie he has been in, but it didn't turn out to be a drawback because I actually enjoyed him in The Eagle. It will not be considered a great movie by any means but I certainly enjoyed it.

The Half-Orc Series by David Dalglish

2011-02-05T20:02:00.000-08:00

I just finished the fifth and in final book in the Half-Orc series which I started on a whim and am glad that I did. The core of the series is based around two brothers Harruq and Qurrah who each follow a different arc to redemption. The reader starts off believing them both to be evil, Qurrah is a necromancer and Harruq his willing muscle. By the end of the series they are fighting a War God, consorting with literal angels and finding peace within themselves. Of the two I found Harruq to be the more interesting character simply because I think his arc makes more sense and I found Qurrah to be a more shallow character but a character who had to deal with much more internal stress then his brother.

Overall the series was a good read, the first one is now out in print (I read the series as ebooks on a kindle) so if you would be interested in a good but quick darker fantasy novel then I would recommend the series, if you are in the mood for a lighthearted adventure I would say avoid the series.

(if you want to avoid a plot specific point discussed I would suggest not reading further)

The most interesting thing in the series to me was Harruq becoming essentially a holy champion of a faith he does not believe in. There are Paladins who fight on each side, light and dark who channel their faith into power which is a neat concept by itself but certain Paladins are granted holy weapons in time of great need or because they show great faith. In the series Harruq prays to a God only twice that I remember off the top of my head, the first time he causes a God to allow an army of Angels to come to fight on his side. The second time he is granted the strength to kill a God all because his faith is not just in a God but in the cause and the nobleness of it. I suppose it could be argued that he is now a Paladin of Ashur but he is not granted a holy weapon but instead his whole being is blessed I think he becomes something more powerful and independent of a single God's will. In general the whole concept of faith being used as a power source for your own strength was a interesting difference from most fantasy novels which use will or hope for a similar purpose.

The Fantasy Writers Checklist

2011-01-29T19:33:00.000-08:00

I can across a random list of what not to do as an aspiring fantasy writer on stumbleupon.com and figured I should link it here for anyone who wants to get a good chuckle (especially if you read a lot of fantasy novels)

http://www.rinkworks.com/fnovel/

cruising the internet found me this....

2011-01-25T17:43:00.000-08:00

Apparently they are making a new thundercats cartoon and this image as been floating around with the new character designs. Looks pretty awesome to me, found a little info here. http://splashpage.mtv.com/2011/01/25/thundercats-image/

Foreshadowing

2011-01-23T07:34:00.000-08:00

Two extensive fantasy series are about end within the next year or so, with both the Wheel of Time(WoT) and Malazan Books of the Fallen(MBotF) series coming to a conclusion or at least having the primary plot lines come to a conclusion. Each series has a vast amount of questions to be answered and Steven Erikson the author of the MBotF as openly admitted that some plots will be taken over into either the side series written by Ian Esslemont or by himself in a number of novels based in the same created world. So the missing plots from the final book will at least have a home.

On the other hand due to Robert Jordan passing away their is much speculation on what will happen to the WoT franchise once Brandon Sanderson completes A Memory of Light. The series will reach its fourteenth book in the primary series that doesn't include "A New Spring" a prequel written by Jordan. There were three planned prequels and apparently a number of "outrigger" novels that would focus more on the side characters and what happens to them after the conclusion of the series but now the two missing prequels and outrigger novels are unlikely to happen. I for one believe that if Brandon Sanderson was willing and Harriet McDougal (the widow of Robert Jordan and his editor) wants the books to come out they should but I don't think that the series should be given a third other and turn it into a world that has too many voices telling the story. Sanderson really hit the tone of the series in the latest book "Towers of Midnight" but with "Way of Kings" the first book in the Stormlight Archive series he has started his own massive fantasy project which makes me think that after "A Memory of Light" the WoT series will be put on the self for at the very least awhile.

What I actually meant to talk about with both the WoT and the MBotF is both authors excel at foreshadowing, there are clues to how the series will play out in each series. These clues are fought over in many circles, one just can look to theoryland.com which is all about these clues in the WoT series and malazanempire.com has an entire forum devoted to the series where people bicker over what clues mean and what characters are important to what plot thread. I have my own theories for how each will play out so maybe i'll lay those out at another time.

Hurricanes v Bruins, Magic v Celtics

2011-01-18T16:21:00.001-08:00

So yesterday I went to the Garden double header for the second time, its a long but awesome day when you go see the Bruins play in the afternoon and then that night go to the Celtics game.

Talk about a contrast of games though, Bruins destroyed the Hurricanes 7-0 with Zdeno Chara (one of my favorite players) getting his first career hat trick.

Then there was the Celtics game which was an incredibly close game that the Celtics pulled out in the end 109-105.

I love going to games mostly for just the experience of going and the energy that comes from being with 18,000+ people all pulling for one team, on tv when they describe the arena as "electric" it always seems as a throw away line but being there is a whole different story.

Every Boston team has a different feel. Fenway always feels special, half the time people are just looking at the park in awe. Gillette is like a rock concert that had sporting event break out. The Garden is just nutty for either the Bruins or Celtics.

Battle Los Angeles

2011-01-15T10:54:00.000-08:00

I am really looking forward to this movie, this trailer is just awesome.

The Green Hornet

2011-01-15T10:46:00.000-08:00

Went and saw the Green Hornet last night and it turned out to be better than I was expecting. Its not a movie for everyone, its a little goofy doesn't seem to take itself too seriously. I enjoyed it and got a kick out just about every gag in the movie but there was some gripping by people as I walked out of the theater.

Coltaine's Fall

2011-01-12T23:22:00.001-08:00

Alright so I was bumming around the 'nets when I came across this youtube video of a person making a song for specific scene in Deadhouse Gates the second book in the Malazan Books of the Fallen series. To set up the video one of the major plot lines of the books is referred to as the Chain of Dogs, essentially Coltaine is the commander of an occupying army in a region that breaks out into complete rebellion, he is protecting a group of civilians 2-3x the size of his army that he has to march across a desert with little supplies and being constantly attacked by three armies all larger than his.

*spoilers*

He succeeds in getting most of the civilians to the goal city of Aren but sends them ahead of the army to make a last stand, he is successful and retreats to the city only to be betrayed by his own former allies and locked out to be butchered by the armies chasing him.

I didn't do the storyline justice but it is a very poignant moment and one of the few times I have ever put a book down and just have to think about it for awhile. Anyways a person made a song to be a theme for the final scene and well it works really well.

Imdb Top 250 part 3 214-180

2011-01-12T21:21:00.000-08:00

Time to dive farther into IMDB's top 250, will there be more shrugs, meh's and mediocre thoughts I think so!

There is a lot of familiar titles and a how mess of 20-40s movies that I haven't seen in this grouping so an interesting mix.

214 (8.0) Stalag 17 - Never heard of it.

213 (8.0) Mystic River - Sean Penn in a truly great performance

212 (8.0) Shadow of a Doubt - Rings a bell but drawing a blank otherwise

211 (8.0) Kill Bill vol. 2 - I consider this the better half of the Kill Bill set but missing the scale of bloodshed of the first but a deserving placement for both on this list.

210 (8.0) Letters from Iwo Jima - I have tried to watch this movie a few times, and I don't think I have ever made it through it for whatever reason but with being on a semi WW2 movie kick i'll likely try it again.

209 (8.0) Rocky - I love every Rocky movie that I have watched more than once, so 1-4 and its likely because ESPN Classic used to run a sports movie every sunday night, they still might actually but anyways the Rocky movies were on more often then not and I always got sucked in unless it was Rocky V in which case I pretended they weren't showing a movie that week.

208 (8.0) Magnolia - Nope

207 (8.0) Sleuth - Same

206 (8.0) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - again no

205 (8.0) A Streetcar Named Desire - I have heard the title, heard good things, but alas have never seen it.

204 (8.0) Let the Right One In - Nope

203 (8.0) King Kong (2003) - You know if was a half hour shorter and didn't have the giant bug scene, it would be a movie I would watch every once in awhile.

202 (8.0) Big Fish - I feel like I should be able to comment but I got nothing

201 (8.0) Harvey - Nope

200 (8.0) Ed Wood - Another I probably should see but haven't

199 (8.0) Rosemary's Baby - Nope

198 (8.0) Good Will Hunting - On my netflix instant view list to watch but haven't gotten to it yet.

197 (8.0) The Hustler - nope

196 (8.0) Nights of Cabiria - nope

195 (8.0) Dial M for Murder - Another familiar title that I haven't seen

194 (8.0) The Kid - Nothing

193 (8.0) The Best Years of Our Lives - nope

192 (8.0) Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans - Neat title but haven't heard of it before this.

191 (8.0) In Bruges - A really well done dark comedy that I didn't think I would like but did.

190 (8.0) The Exorcist - Doesn't belong near a good movie list, saw it once fell asleep what I did see was a waste of time.

189 (8.0) Children of Men - A worthwhile movie to watch, dark but good and Clive Owen hits a guy with a car battery which made me laugh way more than it should have.

188 (8.0) Kind Hearts and Coronets - nope

187 (8.0) The Wild Bunch - nope

186 (8.0) The Killing - nope

185 (8.0) The Princess Bride - A totally random movie but always a good watch when in the mood for something thats good but doesn't take itself too seriously.

184 (8.0) The Incredibles - My favorite PIXAR movie hands down, so good in every way.

183 (8.0) Judgement of Nuremberg - nope

182 (8.1) The Night of the Hunter - nope

181 (8.1) Diabolique - nope

180 (8.1) 8 1/2 - nope

Filler.....

2011-01-11T20:59:00.001-08:00

Just something from Theoatmeal.com that i found pretty funny.

Richard Winters

2011-01-10T10:42:00.000-08:00

So the news broke today that Richard "Dick" Winters, commander of Easy Company during World War II passed away last week. Having just finished watching "Band of Brothers" I can understand why in some places this is pretty big news and getting a lot of headlines but in general it just makes me think of how each and everyday we are losing somewhere between 850-1000 veterans of World War II who will not get the same kind of fanfare but are no less deserving of our attention.

From all accounts Winters was an exemplary commander and generally decent human being, I guess my major point is that as many times as we watch a new special on the war or another biography on one of the generals we tend to forget those who enlisted or were drafted unless they were on tv and that is disappointing to me.

A look ahead

2011-01-09T20:12:00.000-08:00

Things that I am looking forward to in the next few weeks/months

January 14th - The Green Hornet

January 14th - Ong Bak 3

January 16th Jets at Patriots (not going just to watch)

January 17th Carolina Hurricanes at Boston Bruins (going)

January 17th - Orlando Magic at Boston Celtics (going)

January 28th - The Mechanic

February 15th - Marvel Vs. Capcom 3

February 22nd - All Star Superman movie

March 1st - Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

Marth 1st - The Crippled God - Steven Erikson

March 11th - Battle Los Angles

Random Musings

2011-01-07T20:47:00.000-08:00

- Band of Brothers really did live up to the hype, it was excellent in both its quality of being very accurate as far as I could tell, and just overall being extremely well done. It even got someone who never really enjoyed history to watch the whole series and immediately move on to watching the Pacific which I am a few episodes into and really enjoying.

- Grant Morrison's batman run is mind numbing, I don't understand how other comic writers can even attempt to follow him on titles, he is just in another league when it comes to foreshadowing, new ideas and just over all storytellings. Is his stuff out there? absolutely but it generally is a gratifying read and he is successful at writing for both single issues and for the trade format.

- I also got a kindle as a gift and so far have read Stonewielder by Ian Esslemont on it, got to read it several months ahead of its release date because the kindle edition was already out so that was a neat bonus, overall I am liking the kindle more than I expected I would.

- Stonewielder was phenomenal, I think Esslemont writing has improved greatly with every book he has written and my only gripe was a weak ending to the book but it sets up many story lines to follow into his next book.

- Also randomly have started reading Dance of Cloaks by David Dalglish because it was a cheap buy with good reviews and it has been worth it so far.

- played most of Star Wars Force Unleashed II at a friends house, fun game to laugh at with friends but not really worth playing otherwise.

- The newest family guy star war parody "Its a Trap" was crap, the first two are pretty funny but this was just not funny at all.

- Also by having a Steam account (a kind of cloud memory thing for computer games) I was able to get a mac version of Civilization 5 for free since I had already bought it for PC which is very cool. I have been playing it off and on over break trying to beat it using some of the strategies that don't involve just invading every other nation in the game.

- Good month for movies, saw Tron: Legacy which was just a blast and the Fighter which was a really good movie overall.

History Teachers making music videos

2010-12-24T21:10:00.000-08:00

Here is the first one of these I saw that a friend sent me, there are almost 50 of these.

Another one that might win some fans out there.

Finals week = content

2010-12-16T22:14:00.000-08:00

So it has been quite awhile but with all of my finals finished I should actually have sometime to at least post token content.

Recently I have been spending a good amount of time playing various games but the couple that have been eating up the most time are Civilization V and Angry Birds which have quite the contrast.

Civilization V is one of the most visually astounding computer games I have ever seen, nothing looks out of place half the time the game looks like a piece of art and can be both simple and frustrating complex. Whereas Angry Birds is about as simple as you could want, one control little variation just a massive about of levels of flying birds killing pigs but I couldn't tell you which one is actually more fun or better.

This is reflective of the current gaming landscape in my opinion on one side you have games that are crafted to be just stunning overall, smooth gameplay, amazing graphics, story, plot they are like blockbusters and then you have games that are just re-skinned versions of a previous game or low on productive value but high on accessibility. I enjoy both types of games but there is a time and a place for each so don't get too comfy ipod games you are just a bridge til the next console/computer game comes out.

Misc!

2010-11-07T20:00:00.000-08:00

So I have gotten somewhat in my end of the year timeline by reading Towers of Midnight the thirteenth book in the wheel of time series by the late Robert Jordan and now being completed by Brandon Sanderson. This series is the reason I really got into the fantasy genre, I had read most of David Eddings books and they are enjoyable but the depth of the series is nothing in comparison to this series.

About the book itself, I enjoyed it immensely, there is a definite feel that it is the second to last book in a series but this isn't so bad with so many plot threads needing to reconcile before the ending of the series can take place. Many of the major characters have reunited by the end of the book with a few exception and the biggest reunion as far as plot goes will likely take place early in the final book. Also it has an incredible engrossing cliffhanger.

Aside from Towers of Midnight I have read Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson, and The Black Prism by Brent Weeks. This is turning into a hell of a six month span for the fantasy genre with both The Crippled God by Steven Erikson and Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss dropping early in 2011.

In movie news I haven't really seen anything of note, Red was enjoyable and Hereafter was interesting I suppose.

I just finished beating the God of War collection which was both a nice way to beat God of War 1 and 2 again while building up playing God of War 3 which has been out for awhile now but I have yet to play it but have heard a lot of great things.

Also started playing Gears of War since I got an xbox 360 as a present just over a week ago.

End of Year Timeline!

2010-10-16T20:49:00.001-07:00

For a feeble attempt at content I decided to look at what I am looking forward to up through the end of the year this includes books, games, movies both dvd and theater release

Towers of Midnight by Brandon Sanderson/Robert Jordan Nov. 2nd

God of War: Ghost of Sparta - Nov. 2nd

Call of Duty: Black Ops - Nov 9th

Unstopable Nov. 12th

Jim Gaffigan at the Wang on Nov. 13th

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows part 1 Nov. 19th

Inception - Dec 7th

Chronicles of Narnia and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader Dec. 10th

The Fighter Dec. 10th

Patriots Game (vs Green Bay) on Dec. 19th

IMDB Top 250 part 2 225-215

2010-08-28T19:32:00.000-07:00

So here is round two of this project, just a note this top 250 is from July 22nd 2010, so if there have been changes since then, they will not be reflected in the initial discussions, maybe something in the future.

225 Duck Soup (8.0), Never seen probably never will

224 The 400 Blows (8.0) This was actually on tv recently but I did not watch it, oh well

223 The Planet of the Apes (8.0) This is the original obvious since the only list that the remake belongs in is a list of remakes that shouldn't have happened. Otherwise this is a movie that has aged fairly well, it looks dated but it is still watchable and the performances are well done. Also when a line from your movie lasts in popular culture as long as "Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!" has you have done something correctly.

222 The Battle of Algiers (8.0) This is a pretty heavy political movie, and a favorite of a friend of mine which is how I ended up seeing it. It is hard to talk about how this rates as a film without looking into the politics which would take more space than I wish to devote here but suffice it to say that it belongs here.

221. Bonnie and Clyde (8.0) Have not seen this

220. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (8.0) I think this is a case that comes up quite a bit, this movie was massively popular and very enjoyable, it spawned two sequels with a third forthcoming. Don't get me wrong I very enjoy watching this movie and have seen it numerous times but at the same time I don't know how I feel about it being in the top 250, yes I understand that this list is not in anyway the best 250 movies of all time but it still is strange seeing it ranked around what I consider much better movies.

219 Crash (8.0) This is in my "to see" pile

218 Rope (8.0) Again haven't seen

217 African Queen (8.0) I am actually surprised I have never any part of the movie, maybe something I look into on netflix

216 Brief Encounter (8.0), 215 Network (8.0) Haven't heard of either and won't go out of my way to see.

Update

2010-08-28T19:28:00.000-07:00

Inception

Iron Man 2

A-Team

How to Train Your Dragon

Shutter Island

Despicable Me

Toy Story 3

Price of Persia

The Losers

Scott Pilgrim vs The World

Robin Hood

Book of Eli

Green Zone

Kick-Ass

Predators

Sorcerers Apprentice

Edge of Darkness

Get Him to the Greek

Clash of the Titans

Salt

Cop Out

From Paris With Love

Knight and Day

Karate Kid

Date Night

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief

Alice In Wonderland

The Expendables

Legion

The Last Airbender

Shrek Forever After

Bounty Hunter

Update

2010-07-28T13:00:00.000-07:00

Working a few posts, the next section of the IMDB top 250, also a Starcraft 2 post as well as one other about recently seen movies

Breaking Down the IMDB top 250 (250-225)

2010-07-18T20:16:00.000-07:00

On IMDB (the internet movie database) they have a constantly updated list of the top 250 movies at determined by voters on the site. I have decided a fun exercise would be first to see how many of the movies I have seen and secondly to give some quick thoughts on what I felt about their place in the top 250, obviously on some I will not be able to comment since I haven't seen them but hopefully I will be able to fill in the blanks at some point. Movies will be listed by rank, title and score out of ten that it is given on IMDB.

I had trouble deciding where to begin so I will be moving from the bottom up so here is the first fifteen from 250-225. This will likely become smaller amounts but this was quick enough since I have not seen as many of these as I have seen for set closer to the top of the list.

250 Arsenic and Old Lace (7.9) - Never even heard of this one but a quick history tangent here. Arsenic (the poison) was used to make wallpaper in the early 1800's, during Napoleon second exile on St. Helena, a very wet environment, had this kind of wallpaper. There was some thought that the British had poisoned Napoleon slowly with arsenic but another theory arose that this the walls of this home were moist the arsenic could have gotten into the air from the wallpaper to help contribute to his death. But this has not been proven, neither has the thought the British poisoned him but nonetheless a fun thing to say is "Did you know Napoleon was killed by wallpaper poisoning?". Anyways onward.

249 The Philadelphia Story (7.9) Again haven't seen it but no tangents this time.

248 Rain Man (7.9) Nope still nothing but I want to see this one at some point.

247 Shaun of the Dead (7.9) I feel this is about right for this movie, I did enjoy it greatly but it is not a perfect movie. Great character interaction and I do enjoy them making a last stand in a bar.

246 Ikiru (7.9) The first Kurosawa movie to make the 250 and it will not be the last, I have recently seen Seven Samurai, Rashomon and Ran which all make appearances higher on the list so I can only assume that this is another great movie, another on the to see list.

245 My Neighbor Totoro (7.9) Again about right for this movie, I liked it another director with a bunch of movies on this list with Miyazaki.

244 Monsters Inc. (7.9) I just saw this for the first time in english today actually. I had seen it before in Spanish class but it was much easier to follow this time around, Pixar is a studio with pretty much all of its movies on this list, and of those here I would say it was the weakest. I did enjoy it but nothing I would go out of my way to watch again.

243 Who is Afraid of Virginia Wolf (7.9) Haven't heard of it, probably don't need to see it either.

242. Spartacus (7.9) Haven't seen fully, would like to.

241 Mulholland Dr. (7.9) This one has popped up a lot recently but I have not seen it, not on my must see list but would watch it if I had the chance.

240 The Adventures of Robin Hood (1930) (7.9) Another one I haven't seen

239 All Quiet on The Western Front (7.9) This is one of my favorite books and the movie is just as good, I would like to see it higher in the top 250 but think this is probably around where it belongs.

238 The Nightmare Before Christmas (7.9) Not a huge Tim Burton fan, this movie is alright, the style is interesting but another movie I don't go out of my way to see.

237 Anatomy of a Murder (7.9) Haven't Seen.

236 Little Miss Sunshine (8.0) Haven't seen, would like to.

235 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (8.0) When this came out I had no interest in it, still have no interest in it.

234 The Truman Show (8.0) Another one that I would like to see

233 Changling (8.0) Here is the first movie I legitimately believe should be higher on the list. Shockingly fantastic performance from Angelina Jolie as the lead actress, not that I think she is a terrible actress but before this I had not seen anything that made me think she could hold her own in a more serious movie. Impressive movie all around definitely worth a viewing.

232 Barry Lyndon (8.0) Nothing about this seems interesting.

231 Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (8.0) One of my favorite movies that I don't actually own, a beautifully done movie with some superb acting. Worked for me as a sword fighting movie when I was younger, now I watch and see much more. But seriously they fight on the top of bamboo trees it is pretty sweet.

230 The Conversation (8.0) Looks interesting may have to check it out at some point.

229 Toy Story 2 (8.0) Ah yes the Toy Story movies, this leads me into a problem I have with this list is that current releases that have rave reviews command positions at the top of the list for example Toy Story 3 is currently in the top 10 but it is on par in quality this Toy Story 2 which is at 229, hopefully Toy Story 3 will eventually find its way down the list, it belongs but not in the top 10. Otherwise this is another great movie by Pixar and belongs on the list.

228 La Strada (8.0) Another I could do without.

227 Patton (8.0) The more I read about Patton the more I find him to be a fascinating person, very quotable and just frankly interesting to read about. This movie does a good job showing him as he actually was.

226 Manhatten (8.0) Eh, no thanks

225 The 400 Blows (8.0) Might be interesting.

What I got from this section of the list is that most of these movies have low vote totals, are generally older movies and that I haven't seen a lot of them.

Inception

2010-07-17T10:50:00.000-07:00

I have been shying away from saying much about the movies I have seen because there really hasn't been much to say aside from "I liked it" or "it was enjoyable" but now there was Inception. Which is by far the best movie of the year, it is not even close. The movie is the perfect example of combining different types of movies and coming out with a perfect blend. Breaking it down to the simplest of terms Inception is an action thriller that is also a sci-fi flick with out there ideas and the core is a love story between Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio's character) and Mal (Marion Cotillard's character).

The movie is great from almost all angles, an original story, a great cast, well directed (duh Christopher Nolan) great soundtrack and a overall just a very well constructed movie. I have read in some places that the movie is confusing to follow for parts but in my opinion it is rather straightforward as long as you pay attention and half the time a character will point out where they are or what is going on.

Finally this movie will win awards and is likely in the running for best picture in my opinion since I feel it was a better movie that the Hurt Locker which won last year.

Update

2010-07-13T19:35:00.000-07:00

A bunch of new movies added in, Shutter Island (saw it on dvd) Despicable Me, Karate Kid, Last Airbender and Knight and Day. Nothing to really say about any of them, Shutter Island was good and interesting, Despicable Me lived up to the hype. Last Airbender was sufficiently terrible, both Karate Kid and Knight and Day were alright movies.

Iron Man 2

A-Team

How to Train Your Dragon

Shutter Island

Despicable Me

Toy Story 3

Price of Persia

The Losers

Robin Hood

Book of Eli

Green Zone

Kick-Ass

Edge of Darkness

Get Him to the Greek

Clash of the Titans

Cop Out

From Paris With Love

Knight and Day

Karate Kid

Date Night

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief

Alice In Wonderland

Legion

The Last Airbender

Shrek Forever After

Bounty Hunter

Yearly ranking update

2010-06-21T18:25:00.000-07:00

Iron Man 2

A-Team

How to Train Your Dragon

Toy Story 3

Price of Persia

The Losers

Robin Hood

Book of Eli

Green Zone

Kick-Ass

Edge of Darkness

Get Him to the Greek

Clash of the Titans

Cop Out

From Paris With Love

Date Night

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief

Alice In Wonderland

Legion

Shrek Forever After

Bounty Hunter

So there is a new #2 movie behind Iron Man with A-Team with another strong showing in Toy Story 3 which was good, very similiar to the second one and there were moments were it was only an alright movie. Not Pixar's best showing but as usual a much better than average showing for them. Other new entries are Shrek and Get Him to the Greek neither have great showings but Get Him To The Greek blows the doors off Shrek in a side by side comparison of entertainment.

A quick one

2010-06-18T18:02:00.000-07:00

The last couple of weeks I have seen "Get Him to the Greek" which was actually pretty funny, not fantastic but worth watching. Also saw "A-Team" which was fantastic, not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination but definitely one I would like to own because it was just a fun movie that I enjoyed greatly and would go see again.

Also seeing Toy Story 3 tonight.

Prince of Persia

2010-05-31T13:59:00.000-07:00

When I first started hearing about a movie version of Price of Persia, I was rather skeptical to say the least. I do not have any experience with the games so I have no bias in that regard but after seeing some previews I was still not sure this movie would actually be worth seeing. Alas off to see it I went and I am happy that I did see it. To be honest this was not a great cinematic work but if you want to have a solid two hours of entertainment you could do much worse. The story is fairly decent (a little ridiculous) but works well enough, the visuals are what really make the movie. The fight scenes are very well coordinated and veer away from the more recent way up close confusing visuals are lot of directors are using. Also none of the actions seem forced and look natural and actually possible (if really out there). I really enjoyed Prince of Persia, and if you like Indiana Jones or the movies like that you will enjoy it too.

A few updates

2010-05-25T17:18:00.000-07:00

Don't bother seeing the newest installment of Shrek, its pretty boring, like if I had not seen say the first three shrek movies it might have been more noteworthy or fun but it seems like this franchise has become very stale very quickly.

Finished Stranger in a Strange Land which was rather interesting, very much something that was stepped in the hippy culture movement but a worthwhile read and I will be looking into the author's other works as well as some other classic scifi

Which brings me to another "kick" I have been on, I am taking a class on Modern China and Japan, essentially a look at their history since 1600 and so I am on a little bit of an asian cinema kick, but tracking down an affordable copy of seven samurai is more difficult than I thought it might be. Also will probably be watching Samurai X and Red Cliff again soon. Any recommendations for either movies set in this time period or books on Chinese/Japanese history?

Also looking for a copy of Star Trek Generations for some reason, as well as Deep Space 9 and Voyager either online or (affordable) dvd

Finally a video game note I have been spending a decent amount of time on the Starcraft 2 Beta, I wish it was more than the multiplayer but so far I am 4-0, with three solo wins and a 2v2 win as well as numerous times just playing the computer to try some unit combos out.

Went through the first prestige of Modern Warfare 2, and am on my way to doing it again as well as being excited for Black Ops.

So now that summer is here

2010-05-19T17:12:00.000-07:00

I have been able to do a lot more fun things like beating Batman: Arkhem Asylum which was quite enjoyable and catching up on some reading, right now I am going through a classic sci-fi kick and reading Stranger in a Strange Land which is interesting so far. Also the new Call of Duty trailer has been released so that looks like some more of my money going to Activision, with Starcraft 2 finally having a release date (I am currently in the beta which is pretty awesome)

So now I am off to finally reach level 70 in Modern Warfare 2 (only half a level away) play a few more rounds on beta and read some more good books.

Robin Hood

2010-05-17T19:43:00.000-07:00

Iron Man 2

How to Train Your Dragon

The Losers

Robin Hood

Book of Eli

Green Zone

Kick-Ass

Edge of Darkness

Clash of the Titans

Cop Out

From Paris With Love

Date Night

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief

Alice In Wonderland

Legion

Bounty Hunter

Robin Hood enters at number four and it could be higher, likely a better movie than the Losers but I enjoyed that movie more. I had some issues with Robin Hood, mostly pacing and the editing seemed off, like it was just completely missing scenes, but who knows what a director's cut will have different. Also for those expecting Gladiator 2, this was closer to Braveheart 2 but with better acting and in my opinion it is a better movie.

A comic movie update

2010-05-07T13:54:00.001-07:00

So here a quick update from the last two movies, Iron Man 2 is quite good, about on par with the first one, with a little bit more action which is was enjoyable. Justin Hammer could have been made to look a little less dumb thats okay, beats out How to Train Your Dragon because I enjoyed it a little bit more and they are about on level for quality.

I didn't expect to like Kick-Ass, I was not a fan of the comic-book but this was entertaining, not a superb movie but i still enjoyed it.

Iron Man 2

How to Train Your Dragon

The Losers

Book of Eli

Green Zone

Kick-Ass

Edge of Darkness

Clash of the Titans

Cop Out

From Paris With Love

Date Night

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief

Alice In Wonderland

Legion

Bounty Hunter

The Losers

2010-04-29T21:02:00.000-07:00

Easily slides into the number two slot behind, very entertaining movie, is it unrealistic? quite so but it is still fun and worth seeing.

How to Train Your Dragon

The Losers

Book of Eli

Green Zone

Edge of Darkness

Clash of the Titans

Cop Out

From Paris With Love

Date Night

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief

Alice In Wonderland

Legion

Bounty Hunter

A quick movie update

2010-04-25T11:59:00.000-07:00

Hadn't been to a movie in a couple of weeks before friday so Date Night now gets added to the year ranking with a decent showing at #8, it was not quite as funny as Cop Out as far as comedies go. Overall an enjoyable movie but not necessary to be seen in theaters. Also upon reflection Percy Jackson falls farther down in the list.

How to Train Your Dragon

Book of Eli

Green Zone

Edge of Darkness

Clash of the Titans

Cop Out

From Paris With Love

Date Night

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief

Alice In Wonderland

Legion

Bounty Hunter

Something history related

2010-04-20T23:56:00.001-07:00

So I am working on a paper for my seminar in American history class, it has a very impressive title "Urban Slavery: A Comparison of the Economic and Social Differences of Slavery in Urban Environments in 18^th Century America" and let me tell you the paper is even more boring than it sounds. But while working on it I have been looking into the end of slavery in Massachusetts and specifically the court-case that ended it. I found this quote from the judge who made the ruling and it is his actual like rational for ruling slavery should be barred. It is an interesting read so I am just going to post it here.

"As to the doctrine of slavery and the right of Christians to hold Africans in perpetual servitude, and sell and treat them as we do our horses and cattle, that (it is true) has been heretofore countenanced by the Province Laws formerly, but nowhere is it expressly enacted or established. It has been a usage -- a usage which took its origin from the practice of some of the European nations, and the regulations of British government respecting the then Colonies, for the benefit of trade and wealth. But whatever sentiments have formerly prevailed in this particular or slid in upon us by the example of others, a different idea has taken place with the people of America, more favorable to the natural rights of mankind, and to that natural, innate desire of Liberty, with which Heaven (without regard to color, complexion, or shape of noses) features) has inspired all the human race. And upon this ground our Constitution of Government, by which the people of this Commonwealth have solemnly bound themselves, sets out with declaring that all men are born free and equal -- and that every subject is entitled to liberty, and to have it guarded by the laws, as well as life and property -- and in short is totally repugnant to the idea of being born slaves. This being the case, I think the idea of slavery is inconsistent with our own conduct and Constitution; and there can be no such thing as perpetual servitude of a rational creature, unless his liberty is forfeited by some criminal conduct or given up by personal consent or contract.”[1]

[1] Commonwealth vs Jennison (1783).

Clash of the TItans

2010-04-03T09:19:00.000-07:00

So this week Clash of the Titans enters the yearly rankings at number five. Titans was a solid adventure movie, some poor writing and the led actor Sam Worthington was not given a lot of help in making his role more than a generic hero from an unexpected beginning. Overall I liked the movie felt it could have been better, the Kraken was pretty sweet though. Beats out Percy Jackson in Greek Myth movies because it had better fight scenes and a better Medusa.

How to Train Your Dragon

Book of Eli

Green Zone

Edge of Darkness

Clash of the Titans

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief

Cop Out

From Paris With Love

Alice In Wonderland

Legion

Bounty Hunter

Looking ahead

2010-03-28T11:36:00.000-07:00

So looking ahead as we move towards blockbuster (or enjoyable movie movie) season I am mapping out what I plan on seeing each week, empty weeks will hopefully be used to see those movies that share release weeks with others things I want to see, chart adapted from http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/release.php

April, 2010
April, 2	Clash of the Titans	Warner Bros.
April, 9	Date Night	20th Century Fox

April, 16	Kick-Ass	Lionsgate

April, 23	The Losers	Warner Bros.
		CBS Films
April, 30

May, 7	Iron Man 2	Paramount Pictures

May, 14	Robin Hood	Universal

May, 21	Shrek Forever After	Paramount Pictures

May, 28	Prince of Persia: Sands of Time	Buena Vista
June, 2010
June, 4
June, 11	The A-Team or	20th Century Fox
June, 11	The Karate Kid	Sony Pictures
June, 18	Toy Story 3 or	Buena Vista
June, 18	Jonah Hex	Warner Bros.
June, 25
June, 30
July, 2010
July, 2	The Last Airbender	Paramount Pictures
July, 9	Despicable Me or	Universal
July, 9	Predators	20th Century Fox
July, 16	Inception more likely than next	Warner Bros.
July, 16	The Sorcerer's Apprentice	Buena Vista
July, 23
July, 30
	y

Movie Reviews

2010-03-26T21:58:00.000-07:00

So instead of trying to review movies that I have seen I am going to rank them in one list which I will update periodically with what new movies I have seen.

How to Train Your Dragon

Book of Eli

Green Zone

Edge of Darkness

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief

Cop Out

From Paris With Love

Alice In Wonderland

Legion

Bounty Hunter

I feel as though I am missing at least one movie but maybe two.

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

2010-03-24T10:05:00.000-07:00

I picked up Mistborn to give Brandon Sanderson a chance, since I enjoyed him completing the most recent Wheel of Time book. I was not disappointed, like the Lies of Locke Lamora this is a fantasy that is essentially an Ocean's Eleven take off. It is a bit more complicated that, in an interesting world with a neat take on magic. A good afternoon/weekend read, I am currently working my way though the second book The Well of Ascension.

Now that its over

2010-03-21T21:08:00.000-07:00

Kind of a end of year recap but for Battlestar Galactica

First off my favorite episodes

"The Hand of God"

"Kobol's Last Gleaming"

"Pegasus" + "Resurrection Ship Parts 1+2"

"Scar"

"Lay Down Your Burdens Part 2"

"Exodus Part 2"

"Unfinished Business"

"The Passage"

"Dirty Hands"

"The Oath"

"Blood on the Scales"

"Daybreak part 1-2"

Blood on the Scales might be my favorite overall episode

Favorite moments (in no particular order or chronology)

Apollo's death star run

Ramming the Cylon colony

Pegasus to the rescue on new Caprica

"This is a volunteer only mission"

The Centurions with the red paint

The whole ill airlock your final five moment

Lee's speech at Baltar's trial

Admiral Adama every-time he gives a speech

I think I am forgetting a few

My Favorite characters

Chief Tyrol

Col. Tigh

Lee "Apollo" Adama

Admiral Adama

Karl "Helo" Agathon

Athena

Gaius Baltar

Felix Gaeta (until season four)

President Roslin (mostly during 4.5)

Dr. Cottle

Least Favorite characters

Starbuck

Kat (up til the last episode she is in, which almost enough to change my mind)

Lt. Hoshi (mostly because he chose to stay behind)

Kally

Overall a fantastic series and it is a bit sad that there is nothing more (which the exception of "The Plan" movie which I haven't seen yet but will soon). Now I can go back to doing other things with my spare time which will hopefully include updating more.

Battlestar rumbling

2010-03-20T09:24:00.000-07:00

So I am a quick mini-marathon from completing Battlestar Galactica and I must say I am going to be sad when it is over since it is one of the better shows I have watched all the way through.

So some quick thoughts about the show's final season and in general

Chief Tyrol is still my favorite character

I find it interesting that Col. Tigh and Adama have pretty much switched roles with Tigh becoming the solid, imposing figure and Adama being the drunk.

Lee Adama's character frustrates me, I wish he had stayed as a fighter pilot but he is a more competent politician.

The episode where three of the final five get revealed to everyone (when they are standing in the airlock) is possibly the best episode so far.

On second thought the two part mutiny episode is the best, President Roslin's speech to the entire fleet and her promise to came after Zarek and Gaeta was pretty epic. Just her finally like losing it and believing she would rather destroy the Galactica and die doing it rather than allowing Zarek and Gaeta to be in charge.

The flashbacks for the final five from their time on Earth

Plan on finishing the series tomorrow, looking forward to seeing the end with having seen the whole show.

Battlestar Galactica

2010-02-09T13:23:00.001-08:00

So I have now started into the third season of the show and it continues to be quite good. I have seen the end of the show as well so I have a vague recollection of what happens to certain characters but don't remember it well enough to have anything really be ruined. But I have a few thoughts about some of the characters

Saul Tigh, quite possibly the most frustrating character to decide if I like him or not. He has moments, like the resistance movement on New Caprica or generally when he is serving under Adama, in which he is one of my favorite characters but the interactions with his wife Ellen and when he takes command (briefly) I really don't like him.

Chief Tyrol, Aside the fact that he looks a lot like on of my friends, he is one of my favorite characters if not my favorite. The whole building the blackbird and his part of the resistance movement, just awesome.

Admiral Adama, just awesome all around, don't always agree with how he acts but hey it always works out.

Lee "Apollo" Adama, Really didn't like him at the beginning of the series but he has grown on me, don't like the portrayal of him gaining all the weight and commanding the Pegasus, it didn't quite seem how the character would have reacted to some down time but really redeems himself when he returns and saves the day at for the exodus of New Caprica, unfortunately he lost the Pegasus in the process.

Just a few smaller thoughts

- Not really a fan of Starbuck

- Baltar scenes are either the best or the worst of certain episodes

- wish there was more battle sequences but I know the very end makes up for the lack of battles.

looking forward to the rest of the third season and the fourth season

By popular demand Siege #2

2010-02-07T17:24:00.000-08:00

This was possibly worse than the first issue

lets recap all that i can remember happening in this issue.

Thor is okay now

Ares just got ripped in half.

pretty much all I got out of it.

So yeah I probably need to reread final crisis again, good job Marvel

A revelation

2010-01-24T07:46:00.001-08:00

So I am reading the beginning of "Dust of Dreams" by Steven Erikson and thanks to kind of an off hand comment between a mortal, two younger gods and an elder god I finally understand the pantheon of the series.

It is broken down into three distinct portions

The Elder Gods who I know understand are the elemental forces

example - Mael who is the god of the oceans/water

Then there are the younger but forgotten gods who were created by the earliest civilizations as deities for everyday life.

example Ursto and Pinosel who are the gods of wine and beer created with the advent of agriculture.

And the newest gods are the ones aligned in the Deck of Dragons such as Hood, Shadowthrone, Fener. These are the gods created because of the aspects of thought and civilization.

example Fener is the god of war, but was not a god until man started calling on a war god.

The reason these are significant is that the elder gods still retain a measure of power without worshippers but gain significant strength with even one worshipper. Whereas the younger (forgotten) gods have power but are holding onto life until something kills them because they are not worshippers but ritual of their power is still performed by man, such as drinking or farming. Finally the newest gods who are the most powerful because they not only have worshippers but control a throne in the deck of dragons, so an aspect of life have human followers in positions of power within their more minor pantheon so they tie both godlike power and the power of mortals to do deeds.

Second significance is that the Crippled God the biggest baddie of them all is technically an elder god just summoned from another realm of existence but even though he was weakened in his freedoms when Ganoes Paran granted him a place in the deck of dragons he now is the most capable of dramatic change if he can destroy other houses within the deck or weaken them.

soooooo pretty much the reason the Crippled God poses such a threat is that he/she/it (not sure if they have established a gender really) is that it has created itself as a house in the deck but at the same time has some power outside of the constraints because of its status as Elder in power, pretty much the threat is indeterminable.

I was more excited I understand the hierachry than anything.

Siege #1

2010-01-08T19:55:00.000-08:00

So Marvel new event kicks off this week and well these where my thoughts.

- Really the same beginning of Civil War?

- This is just absurd

- Thor is walking!

- And now on the ground....

- really the cliffhanger is Captain America standing?

- that sucked.

2010-01-04T20:48:00.000-08:00

Coming Soon!

content!

Battlestar Galactica thoughts!

some comic reviews

new family guy movie review

a review of Avatar and Sherlock Holmes

2009-12-04T06:18:00.000-08:00

Posting in it usual erratic schedule will resume sometime after finals, unless you all want papers on various subjects, which you don't

Friday thoughts?

2009-11-20T06:48:00.000-08:00

- Lets see by december 3rd (exactly two weeks away) I have a ten page paper on Winfield Scott due, a ten page paper on Alchemy in fictional works (oddly enough for a history class) a stupid 3 page geology paper and a 12-15 page paper on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (this one is a group project so in reality I have to write 4-5 pages)

- Granted I am in progress with all of these with the Civil rights act paper just needing editing. But still enough to do

- Working in groups is frustrating, even more so when you have to try to edit together four people's smaller papers into a larger one when everyone writes in a distinct style.

- Wednesday (the day before thanksgiving) is going to be an incredibly long day, with the whole closing the building for the "break"

Quick Thoughts - Bruins version?

2009-11-16T21:21:00.000-08:00

So I went to the Islanders vs Bruins game today and well it was a lot of fun but would have been better if the Bruins had decided to show up at all. And here is some random stuff that I noticed at the game.

- There really isn't a bad seat at the Boston Garden (we were in the balcony, row 12 at center ice)

- The refs get in the way/ are hit way more than you see on tv

- Also sitting above it all lets you see a lot more than on tv

- Hockey fights are just as fun live, if not more fun

- Some people in the crowd can ruin it for everyone else, by either being too obnoxious (this coming from someone who yells at the tv) or just constantly getting in the way. I get the seats are tiered but by standing you are in my way.

- It is weird going to a sporting event without vendors walking the isles

- Also not a lot of people get up during the game in hockey, granted the seventeen minute break between periods must help.

- Bruins just looked flat tonight. Missing two of their top players finally catching up to them?

Some more quick thoughts

2009-11-15T07:40:00.000-08:00

- Played Modern Warfare 2 online yesterday, pretty epic as expected, up to level 18 which is decent.

- Have been exclusively using the M16A1 which is pretty good and just unlocked the LMJ or something for it which gives it extra damage. so sweet deal there

- Domination (pretty much capture the flag) is still the most entertaining game mode

- My dad's observation from watching me play "there are a lot of forklifts in these levels"

- The multiplayer and special ops missions make the game worth owning

Some quick thoughts

2009-11-12T10:18:00.000-08:00

Don't really have time for much but heres something

- The new Jeff Shaara book "No Less Than Victory" was okay. The first two of the WW2 trilogy were better, so this one was not bad but just felt lacking.

- Astroboy and The Men Who Stare at Goats are both worth seeing but not movie theater required.

- Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is really quite good, the single player main campaign is too short and a little confusing but excellent. The special ops stuff is pretty sweet, and haven't had a chance to play online yet but hopefully this weekend.

Red Seas under Read Skies by Scott Lynch

2009-11-09T08:25:00.000-08:00

Red Seas Under Red Skies is the second book in the "Gentlemen's Bastards" series by Scott Lynch is a good, solid read up there in quality with the Lies of Locke Lamora but not quite as good. The writing is the same quality as the first book I just hope some trends from the first to second book are constant throughout the series. But as usual we will jump to the like/dislike bullet points.

- Again the characters of Locke and Jean are really fun and interesting

- The new characters added are pretty neat for the most part.

- Can't really go wrong with Pirates

- How Jean and Locke have been cheating the games is pretty funny too.

- The battle between the two pirate ships

- Locke leading the attack on the merchant ship and fumbling his way around

Dislike

- The pace, completely uneven, slow pace throughout until the last section were to accelerated to a sprint which was more like the pace in the first book.

- The parallel stories did not work as well this time.

This was a pretty quick review to write because overall I would recommend this to almost anyone, it has a good mix of thievery, clever writing and is a good read. But it is not quite as good as the first one and likely seems not quite as entertaining after reading The Gathering Storm which is will throw off my opinion of other fantasy I read for awhile I think.

I'll have a review of the new Jeff Shaara book up likely later today, as well as a review for Astroboy and The Men who Stare at Goats.

Oh and Modern Warfare 2 drops tomorrow so that may put a stop to any other sort of free time activities.

The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson

2009-10-30T10:08:00.000-07:00

I must say going into this I was rather nervous I was not going to like it. But fears avoided I thought it was great. Does Sanderson find Robert Jordan's voice? Not exactly but enough that it seems an acceptable transition. I am going to break it down by the major stories and what I liked and didn't like about them and yes there are heavy spoilers ahead.

Rand al'Thor

- The main focus of the entire series gets the second most face time in the novel

- The loss of his hand does not really affect him

- He does seem to be going mad

-He actually has conversations with Lews Therin in his own head, which are interesting to me, especially when Lews Therin is mad that they cannot add to the list when Rand uses Balefire to wipe out a fortress in an attempt to kill Graendal (which I am not sure was successful, possible but no body or direct mention of final death)

- When Semirhage escapes and captures Rand, the combination of him almost being forced to kill Min and instead accessing the true source was a very well done scene.

- Also the mentions later of making three as one? How about three parts of the power merged? I think so

- Lews Therin's reaction to accessing the true source

- Rand and Tam's first meeting since Rand had become the Dragon Reborn is a pretty awesome scene until Tam mentions Cadsuane, oh well still best part was Tam confronting Cadsuane afterwards

- Rand finally breaking under the pressure, debating if he should just destroy everything and then finding his path, awesome

Egwene al'Vere

- She continues her captivity within the tower

- manages to get some of the leadership to see her as the only one making sense

- Her entire tirade against Elaida in front of most of the sitters was a pretty sweet moment

- How close she comes to losing it all

- Her meeting with Verin, possibly up there with Dumai wells, the sounding of the horn at Falme, cleansing the taint and Mat's battle to defend Tuon as the best scenes in the series

- Her dream coming true and her defense against the Seanchan

- Being raised by the Tower and having the rebels apologize.

- Seriously just bond Gawyn as your warder already please.

Mat Cauthon/Tuon

- Mat does not have a very big role except to meet Verin before her conversation with Egwene

- Does get the Band of the Red Hand to Caemlyn but we don't know what happens next

- Assuming he will have a much bigger role next time since the next book "Tower of Midnight" would seem to refer to him and Thom going to rescue Moraine from the Tower of Genji

- Tuon assumes her role as Empress but not until after she has a failed meeting with Rand

- Orders the attack on the tower which does not go nearly as well as she wants

- Still insists that Rand must bow before the Crystal throne, so that will be interesting to see how this plays out.

- We don't get her reaction for the failed attack but like Mat I assume she will have a bigger role in the next book

Perrin Aybara/Faile

- Very little face time except to show he is moving towards Rand

- Faile does two neat things, first she orders The Prophet's death without telling Perrin, so now he is out of the way, also her and others who were freed ceremony for those who protected them was well done. Hopefully they take a larger role considering Perrin in my favorite character in the series.

A few other points

- I like that we finally at least get a mention of Lan again

- I think that as of right now, there no peace with the Seanchan but Rand's armies are marching for Shayol Ghul.

- The tower is whole under Egwene, so that story is done and how she moves to the next step of supporting Rand and having the tower move towards the last battle.

- Rand finally seems to about to turn back to a likable character

- I figure the next book will be finishing of the individual story arcs and finish consolidating the main characters together for the final book.

- I really enjoyed the book and feel Brandon Sanderson was the right choice for a replacement for Robert Jordan.

I am going to try to go to the book signing in Harvard Square to get mine signed but I am not sure if I am going to be able to make it unfortunately I would like to get a signed book.

I really like the Wheel of Time series and since is a worthy successor to the early books in both quality and the fact that stuff actually gets moved along.

As a whole very recommended.

A little bit of good luck

2009-10-26T20:40:00.001-07:00

So I pre-ordered Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson's "A Gathering Storm" because I have wanted to read it since Robert Jordan's Knife of Dreams came out in I believe 2005 and so what shows up today a day BEFORE it is released but my copy of "A Gathering Storm". I don't have a lot of time to read with mid-terms this week but I am definitely going to start it in about 38 seconds.

Oh and here is proof

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.

2009-10-22T19:35:00.000-07:00

After finishing off the third Black Company omnibus I wanted to try something new rather than continue on in either the Sword of Truth, Riftwar or Tales of the Malazan Empire series so I had a choice between three books. Each represented something different one is considering one of the harbingers of modern fantasy T.H White's A Once and Future King. The next option was Robin Hobb's The Assassins Apprentice which I have little knowledge of except that it has been recommended to me based on what I usually read and finally there was Scott Lynch's debut novel The Lies of Locke Lamora.

I chose to read The Lies of Locke Lamora because it was on top of the pile and well it blew me away. I am always a little weary of recommendations from other authors on the cover of books mostly because I don't know if they are friends or just someone they are trying to give a push to but when George R.R. Martin says "Fresh, Original, and Engrossing... Gorgeously Realized" he is not kidding.

The story starts off flowing Locke Lamora oddly enough, he is an orphan who follows a group of orphans who were bought to become street thieves to their new home. This sets him off on his path of crime. From here the book splits two ways, there are two running stories. The first is Locke getting his training to become one of the "Gentlemen Bastards" and the second is later in his life when he is running the "Gentlemen Bastards". I am not going to go into much more detail about the actual plot of the book because a lot of what I want to say would well spoil the end so I decided to make a list of all the things I really liked but don't want to elaborate on.

Jean Tannen, best character of them all
The Spider
The twins-Jean fights
"What made you think Locke was my real name"
Galdo and Calo
Bug jumping off the temple's roof
Chains (he is a character)
Wicked Sisters
The three who survived
Sharks
Thorn of Camoor
"I don't have to win just hold on until Jean gets here"

If you like the world of fantasy with a little magic, a little alchemy, a lot of fun and a very well written book you could to considerably worse the The Lies of Locke Lamora.

Aside from Patrick Rothfuss's In the Name of the Wind this has been among my favorite books that I have read for the first time this year and at the moment I think its number three.

Woo time for another list! This time for books that I have read for the first time this year and have enjoyed the most.

In the Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Return of the Crimson Guard by Ian Esslemont
The Lies of the Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
A Game of the Thrones/A Clash of Kings byGeorge R.R. Martin
The Way of Shadows by Brett Weeks
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercombie
The Innocent Mage by Karen Miller

Black Company - Third Omnibus

2009-10-19T21:37:00.000-07:00

Glen Cook's series The Chronicles of Black Company reaches it's third Omnibus which collects the seventh and eighth novels, Bleak Seasons and She Is The Darkness. For me this was a slightly disappointing read, Bleak Seasons was frankly not my cup of tea. It may have been better if I read it directly after the book proceeding it, Dreams of Steel but at the same time the shift (again) in narrator and the two timelines running parallel just did not work for me. (minorish spoilers ahead?!) The shift from Croaker to the Lady as the annalist (narrator) did not bother me much it made sense and the tone stayed pretty much the same but then after only one book Cook shifts the narrator again to Murgen the standard-bearer/new annalist. This makes some sense considering Croaker has fully assumed the Captainship and does not have the time to be the annalist for the company but I miss his "voice" especially in Bleak Seasons. Overall Bleak Seasons is okay but actually jumps ahead The Silver Spike as my least favorite of the Black Company books.

The next book and second half of the omnibus She Is The Darkness is much better than Bleak Seasons but still not among my favorite books in the series. This book moves the plot ahead quite a bit, we go from the Black Company recovering from the fall out of the siege of Stormguard and get all the way up to (what they think) is returning to Khatovar. Murgen is also the narrator for this book and works quite a bit better, though it is frustrating to get all the surprises in real time since unlike for the first two Books of the South the Captain (Croaker) is not acting as the annalist. So the surprise with Blade and a few others are cool but you do not feel the full impact.

Overall I was disappointed because I felt there was a serious drop off in quality from the previous novels, The first omnibus "The Chronicles of Black Company" containing the first three books of the series is the best so far, and I would have considered dropping the series completely but there is one omnibus left (out in January I think) and I am curious to see how it all plays out.

Also the "Gathering Storm" hits shelves tuesday! hopefully mine shows up from amazon.com that day so I can dive right in!

Armored Core 4

2009-09-26T19:41:00.000-07:00

So I have been playing this game quite a bit recently and here are my thoughts.

- It is frustrating when opponents are much are harder in levels than in the Arena.

- Never use the actual Arena in Arena matches, no room to move away from anyone.

- I use a "medium" heavy mech. with boosted speed, energy gun, side shoulder missiles, a grenade launcher on one shoulder, smallish ac missile launcher on the other with a beam blade.

- I hate aerial combat

-I have finally drifted away from making tank like units like I did in previous Armored Core games.

- Definitely worth playing, and worth the price I paid ($20) to own it.

Slightly off the beaten path...

2009-09-24T18:40:00.001-07:00

For a paper that is due in december I need examples of alchemy use in novels/films, this is for my History of Modern Science class.

Ideas?

So far I am using the mornith munitions from the Malazan Books of the Fallen, and a few other examples from that series as well. Also I am going to use parts from In the Name of the Wind, since it has a lot of examples in it.

Movies that I saw since the last time I talked about movies

2009-09-21T14:54:00.000-07:00

G.I Joe

Inglorious Basterds

District 9

Gamer

Extract

The Hangover

The Ugly Truth

So lets separate them into three groups, Good Movies worth seeing, Movies I enjoyed but may not actually be that good and Movies I was bored during.

Good Movies worth Seeing

- District 9 - Excellent all around movie, I was engrossed from the get go, just fantastic.

- Inglorious Basterds - Great movie, funny when it should not be.

- The Hangover - simply really funny.

Movies I enjoyed but may not actually be that good

- G.I. Joe - By many reasons this was not a good movie, but I enjoyed it nonetheless because it was just really fun and enjoyable without taking itself too seriously.

Movies I was bored during

- Gamer - Had potential in moments but failed.

- Extract - Not funny, or interesting, or entertaining, it pretty much was a waste of time

- The Ugly Truth - I will admit this had me laughing at moments but overall not something I needed to see, or see again.

The United States Royal Family.

2009-08-26T17:25:00.000-07:00

Earlier this morning Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts passed away from Brain Cancer, he led a remarkable career as a Senator. As I read the reports of this death this morning and this evening I started to wonder what the United States would look like if not for the Kennedy family. John was president, Robert likely would have been before he was assassinated and Ted also made a bid for the Presidency. If the United States could have a royal family the Kennedy\s would be the choice, sure the Bush and Adams each had a father - son combo become president but they could not achieve the influence of one of the most inspirational presidents, an excellent attorney general would was key in helping pass the civil rights amendments and one who served in the senate for forty years.

I know this is rambling, I hope to edit later with better details but I was just musings on this.

Call of Duty

2009-08-08T20:28:00.000-07:00

Here is the thing, most of the time I would have been updating this thing over the summer has been taken up my playing Call of Duty 4, specifically online so I decided to make a bullet point list of things I think about while playing. (pretend this is content)

- I am at the moment at level 24 or so the first prestige level, nothing impressive but again nothing to laugh at, so I am not amazing nor am I terrible

- I HATE SNIPERS!

- But I love being the one sniper on the opposing team that gets like 12 kills in a row because your teammates only run through a single door.

- The gun challenges are what I enjoy playing for the most, given that the Skorpion is a terrible terrible gun in most levels.

- Claymores/Last Stand/Mayterdom and I are a love/hate relationship at moments I hate them and others they are my best friend.

- I am amused that an UAV is almost better than an airstrike or calling in a helicopter.

- Please shut up when you are using a headset, its okay to talk and be like watch out sniper on the room, it is not okay to bitch everytime you die.

- People will make impossible looking shots, and you will hate them, until you do it and win a game or something and you freak out. ( for me this was using the Barret 50. Cal Sniper rifle to shot through and kill three people with one shot to win a game, still makes me smile)

- The M16A with its three shot burst is great one on one and terrible in a big firefight.

- Shotguns don't suck, just don't try to do things you shouldn't with them like take on three guys with machine guns or a sniper when you have to cross his view to get to him.

- The RPD with the best light machine gun

- The SAW is pretty good

- the other LMG sucks

- so does the Dragonov.

- Domination is the best game mode

- Cage matches can be fun.

- Search and Destroy is never fun, (all the best people seem to play it, so being not awesome I do quite poorly, hence why it is not fun)

- You will have terrible games, and you will have games where everything from shooting a claymore to firing blind will get you kills.

- In said amazing games run with it, don't start thinking just keep playing.

- Please do not use sniper rifles in the shipyard.

I'm sure I will think of more later.

I have reserved Modern Warfare 2, and I did splurge for the Prestige edition, I want those night vision goggles man. Umm nevermind I thought I got it with the $80 version Im not spending $150 on a game.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Price

2009-07-15T20:24:00.000-07:00

It was worth seeing, would've been hard to follow if I hadn't read the book but seeing as how I did, it didnt effect me much. Still bugs me that some of the imagery of how stuff should look seems wrong to me but at least its consistent.

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen

2009-06-26T21:17:00.001-07:00

So to put it bluntly Transformers Revenge of the Fallen is not a great movie, but technically neither was the first one but I still loved it all the same.

Pros
- It looks astounding

- The larger scale, more locations, more robots

- Optimus Prime is shown to be bad ass rather than lose every fight against a big name baddie

- The Matrix of Leadership shows up

- the Fallen and the Primes

Cons
- Not a lot of "face" time for any autobot aside from Prime and the Twins, would have liked to have seen more of Jetfire, Devastator and Ironhide

- Also wish Ultra Magnus or Hot Rod made it into the movie

- I REALLY want to see Grimlock in one of these

And now a quick story about work, working at a liquor store their is usually the fair amount of griping about what we don't carry and questions that give us pause but today we had a few all star moments.

- One person asked if Corona was from Germany and thought I was lying that it was imported from Mexico even though it is one the label.
- We are having a scotch sale and all the ones on sale are together, a customer asked whose choice it was to put them on sale and I said the owner and the customer demanded I give them the sale price (20% off) on something off that was not sale rack because he thought it should be one sale because $30 was outrageous to spend on scotch and then stormed out when I pointed out that most of the scotch on sale is in the 80-130 dollar range. He also said that he thought I shouldn't be rude to customers even though I spent ten minutes with him explaining that the only things on sale were on the sale rack.
- Friday nights tend to be busy until the last hour which is rather slow so I can stock up the cooler for the rest of the weekend, while I was doing this the other employee was running the register, a customer accused me of being sexist because I "made" the female employee do the register while I did nothing, they then asked me to put a keg into their car.
- And my favorite a women came in asking other customers for money so I asked her to leave saying she couldn't beg for money at the counter, she then said it was to feed her kids, another customer hearing this felt bad and gave her $10 which she went next door and spent on lottery tickets. (I know this because they guy who works next door came and told us)

Up

2009-05-29T21:45:00.000-07:00

You know what? I did not think this was a very good movie. Does it send a message? Yes. Is it well done? Yes. Is it a good movie? Yes. Where is the problem? It is not very fun. The best parts of the movie are the sad parts, granted they do miracles with CGI to show emotion and all that but isn't this a kid's movie? Yes I know the small folks will not get the sad parts as much and will adore Doug (the dog) who was my favorite character but will they understand how sad the beginning is? Or the symbolism of leaving all of his stuff behind? Unlikely. Am I reading too much into the movie? Well it is Pixar so unlikely and yes I will be on the wrong side of the liking/disliking of this movie but I'm sorry I am more likely to rewatch the Incredibles that watch this again.

Where I am mention a book I just finished and mention a bunch more I want to read

2009-05-27T21:00:00.000-07:00

The Blade Itself is the last book I finished reading, and I am excited for the two sequels thankfully both already out so unlike the other series I am reading at the moment there is no wait for finish it up.

For those who enjoy a somewhat more blunt fantasy book with its share of humor this is good for you. In my opinion not quite to the standards of say George Martin or Steve Erikson but hey those are hard to compare to.

So in an attempt to make this seem like a real worthwhile post these are some books I am looking forward to reading, well at least their covers.

There are a new other like Night of Knives by Esslemont but I am in the progress of reading that one already so I figured I shouldn't say I am looking forward to it.

Terminator Salvation

2009-05-21T21:49:00.000-07:00

Lets get a few things out of the way, I love the Terminator movies, yes I even enjoyed the third one, I don't care if Christian Bale flipped out on some camera guy or whatever it doesn't really matter to me. Also I like Christian Bale but he is now Batman and John Connor is there no other decent action actors around? This also had the new Tarantino movie preview before it and well I would like to see that.

Pros

- FINALLY GET A MOVIE ABOUT THE WAR!!!

- John Connor does cool things, like not whine for the whole movie

- There is no Sarah Connor, well except her voice was in the movie

- A lot of little things you notice if you are a fan of the movies

- It is accessible to those who haven't seen the first three or did not enjoy the first three

- All the different machines

- The Governator

Cons

- Parts of the movie seemed a little forced

- Could not take Chekov seriously as Kyle Reese

- where are the lasers?

- Obviously a set up for a couple more movies, granted I want a couple more but it almost felt incomplete.

Star Trek

2009-05-18T21:05:00.000-07:00

Yes this is going to be one of those reviews were I love everything about this movie, deal with it. Overall this was an awesome movie, of the three times I have seen it nothing is lost in repeat viewings. (to be fair to myself the third time was just to see it in IMAX, highly recommended)

Pros (in no particular order)
- Spot on castings, everyone was placed perfectly. From Zachary Quinto looking like spock to Karl Urban having bone's voice done perfectly, it was like seeing a young version of the original actors reprising their roles.

- A simple but good story, nothing complicated, nothing too outrageous but fun.

- A good combination of a homage to the original and explains everything on a need to know basis for new viewers, which hopefully their is a lot so they make a few more.

- A powerful music score, the previous best Star Trek movie, Wrath of Khan shared this trait.

- Visually stunning, from the redesigned Enterprise to the Narrada and other ships just really stunning graphic work.

- Old Spock/Spock Prime, I was worried that this would dominate and take away from the movie but it does not at all and its great to see Nimoy in the role again.

- They actually have the Kobiashi Mayru test in the movie!

- I actually can not get over the score it was just so good.

- Scotty, Sulu, Chekov, Uhura.

- Eric Bana as Nero

- A real villian!

Cons

- they used timetravel

- the wait for the next one

Still not dead

2009-04-30T23:24:00.000-07:00

Here for a brief message, finals almost over back to regular posting soon

but in reality why I'm posting

Just saw Wolverine

some things bugged me about it

but its worth seeing if just for Wade in the beginning

oh and is everyone competing for some award for coolest opening montage to set up the present day?

Not Dead

2009-04-02T10:04:00.000-07:00

So I'm still her just been busy with school since Watchmen I have seen which a simple Yes or No if you should see it.

Duplicity - Yes
Monsters Vs Aliens - Yes
Race to Witch Mountain - No

The new fast and the furious is up for this Friday, maybe ill be able to get a review of that up this weekend

Watchmen - Major spoilers in this review, first and only warning

2009-03-09T06:49:00.001-07:00

This movie was off the wall in every possible awesome way, just to get it out of the way, I really liked it. From reading other reviews I understand the major complaints I have seen these being the gore (which was a little unnecessary at times) the acting of Malin Akerman, which could have been better but was not awful. And of course the drawn out sex scenes were not all that mandatory to further the plot. As for the other major complaint about the soundtrack for the movie, I think it worked, were there moments I personally would have used a different song? of course but I am not paid to make movies so I am going to assume the movie makers are more qualifed than I.

I saw the movie twice over the weekend, first time at the midnight opening which was a blast, I always enjoy the midnight openings because the crowd is so much different than for a normal showing because the crowd seems so much more into it. Seriously people were cheering for previews it was intense, anyways seeing it twice gave me some time the second time around to look for little things in the movie and see how detailed the movie was.

So here we go with a slighty more detailed Pros/Cons

Pros
- It was extremely true to the source material - Yes every fan of the comic will be annoyed that some scene got cut and that they changed the ending but frankly there is only so much they could do and the original ending works much better in comics than it would in the movie.

- Visually everything looked really good - There wasn't any glaring CGI that looked really out of place, when Dr. Manhatten can be a blue man made of energy and does not stick except that he is blue is pretty remarkable.

- Besides Malin Akerman the acting was spot on - The roles of Dr. Manhatten and Roscharch in my opinion would be quite difficult to pull off well and both were done perfectly.

- Roscharch - every scene he is in is worth seeing mulitple times.

- The opening where they retell the differences in the Watchmen timeline from our own, honestly could be it's own short film really well done.

- The interest it has brought into the comic industry, quite a few of my friends have asked to read the Watchmen trade and sadly I do not own my own copy but it has gotten a few of them to buy it or go to a comic store and poke around and read other comics.

Cons
- The changes - as much as I believe the movie did a better job being true to the source than many expected some slight changes hurt for me, Like Ozymadias coming off as a jerk everytime you see him, The end reveal loses some of the shock value because of it.

- Malin Akerman - a key role to the emotional depth of the movie that could have been pulled off better, not saying she ruined the movie but I had higher hopes.

- My favorite part from the comic was shortened, that is the scenes of Roscharch and the shrink and how meeting with Roscharch effects the shrink.

- There is possibly for more, yes there is going to be a directors cut and rumored a cut that has pretty much everything they filmed in it but as with the comic, it is so good that you want to not be ruined by trying to make a sequal but you still want to spend some more time in that story. Luckily you can just go back and reread and now rewatch the Watchmen.

The International

2009-03-01T19:39:00.001-08:00

I actually saw this a week ago, but since I have been under the weather I did not review and did not see a new movie this week, so away we go.

Pros
- Clive Owen
- the Assassin guy
- a rather over the top gun battle
- The story ended up having more behind it than an evil bank

Cons
- It went on for a little longer than necessary, I think more due to pacing than actual length of the movie.
- Naomi Watts character, I found her annoying and kind of out of place.

Overall it is worth seeing, but not a required movie theater view though I did not hurt the experience, Clive Owen delivered well but I think needs to work on changing his delivery for different characters, sorry but I kept seeing King Arthur taking about an evil bank and it was an odd picture.

In other news, I was supposed to see the new Street Fighter movie but like I said I did not end up seeing a movie last week but will potentially make it to two movies this week, one of which is a midnight showing of Watchmen woot.

Two for one movie reviews

2009-02-18T20:58:00.000-08:00

First we have the movie I saw a couple weeks ago.

Push
Pros
- It was enjoyable
- The writing was better than expected.
- The plot was not centered around pushing stuff around.
- The use of powers made some sense, sometimes

Cons
- The best acting came from the youngest actress

Taken

Pros
- It was quite good

Cons
- It ended

yes lame reviews but hey it is all I felt like doing