For those who haven’t seen Robot Chicken, here is a taste…
Check it out. It’s part of the Adult Swim block on Cartoon Network. I’m really not sure when it’s on, my ReplayTV just records it automatically whenever it airs. Yes, it is that good.
Gotta love Wisconsin weather. Yesterday, not great, but about 70 degrees, cloudy, calm winds, great waterskiing weather for the spring. The lake was calm and smooth as butter.
Today, maybe a high of 50, 25+ MPH winds, and now, there is definitely some snow mixed in with the rain.
That would have been my tag line for the movie. Now those of you I’ve talked movies with know that I absolutely hated the 2nd movie in this series. I absolutely despised it. When I went to it (the 2nd one) I ran into a friend who had just seen it and he thought it was horrible. I still went in to watch it because I didn’t really trust his reviews that much, lets just say they were inconsistent. I thought the first one was decent. Slick hi-tech gadgets in spy vs. spy battles. Ving Rhames was ultra cool as the gadget guy. So I was hoping of more the same from the second.
Boy was I disappointed. But then, a few days later I ended up trying to see another movie that I wanted to see but was about 15 minutes late, so to be fair knowing I had a negative connation going into it the first time, I decided to give it one more try. It was painful. 20 minutes into the movie, I kept thinking to myself “why can’t everyone just die, then the movie would be over!” No such luck. I never expect much in the way of plot from what I like to call “popcorn-flicks”, but some plot connecting the dots is always nice. The plot connecting the action sequences flat lined. It developed no interest for me, and I really didn’t care what happened. Later, I read an article about in EW that discussed how Tom and John (Woo) came up with their plot for MI2. Here’s what they conservation went like:
John: I always wanted to crash a plane into a mountain.
Tom: We can do that. I like motorcycles.
John: We’ll put in a chase sequence then. I like kung-fu.
Tom: We’ll do some kung-fu fights then, maybe on the motor cycles…
And they came up with all their action sequences, gave them to a writer and said “here, write a script for these action sequences.” I’m guessing mere minutes later a writer handed them a script going “done!” And they filmed the resulting crap.
Ving Rames was nearly non-existent and he was the coolest thing from the first one.
So now on to the newest flick in the series, #3. This time they got someone that can actually pen a decent story, Mr. JJ Abrams, to write and direct it (he’s come up with Alias and Lost in case you didn’t know). With him at the helm, I figured I give it a chance.
I was pleasantly surprised by this movie, not that I expected much. Ving was back, there was a plot, I actually felt some empathy for the characters and wanted them to succeed and survive. All the sequences showing Mr. Cruise running got pretty old, and if I watched it again, I’d probably find some more stuff to complain about as well, but it is a popcorn flick and for the 135 minutes or so, I was entertained. Yea, they blow up lots of stuff and cut from one bit in a fight to another so fast that you really can’t tell what’s happening, or get a sense for how the fight is going if you could really watch it, but hey, as I ate my popcorn and drank my soda, I was content.
And why do I suggest a tagline, well Tom’s engaged in the movie and his wife was kidnapped and he has to get her back. So it’s personal. Kind’ a like when in Jaws 4 (I think), the great white migrates south to the Caribbean to harass the wife of the cop that killed Jaws 1-3. The shark had a personal vendetta. Thankfully, MI3 it just a bit better the J4.
And does Tom Cruise being a complete nut case in real life affect my review. Nope, I could care less what he does off screen, just as long as he doesn’t kill people and stuff. He made Top Gun and Days of Thunder (oh wait, they’re the same movie, just one had jets and the other had race cars) two of the most kick ass popcorn flicks of all time. So in the end, I just want to be entertained. Plus, he was willing to rip on himself by spoofing MI2 in AP3:Goldmember, so in the end, I think even he realized 2 sucked.
[This is quiet possibly the longest movie review I’ve written and, surprisingly, very little is actually about the movie I’m reviewing. I guess it just goes to show how much I hated MI2.]
[Finally, I know people are looking at these blogs I’m doing. The little counter keeps going up. Will someone please post a comment? Agree or disagree with a review, random skiing tips, or just know how to keep a bird from flying into a window repeatedly, let me know.]
This is a movie that is kind of hard to describe. I’m going to assume that is an accurate portrayal of what happened that morning basically because I haven’t heard an uprising of complaints saying it is completely inaccurate, and based on its content, we would have heard those complaints if it was. I realize what they portrayed on the plane is somewhat of conjecture based on the calls they received, but they didn’t make it overly dramatic or anything like that.
I found the movie to be hard to watch. Not because it was done poorly, or was over the top, or anything bad to say about the movie. It was more because of everything going through my head as I remembered that day.
I had a meeting that morning to get my house plans approved and then drove to work listening to CDs all the way there. Upon going in to work and then up to my desk, even though it was a bright, sunny day here in Madison, upon leaving the elevator, I couldn’t help but get a strange feeling. Although it was nearly 10am, nobody was at their desks. Then I saw everyone at just a few people’s desks, huddled around the radios, listening. And then I couldn’t believe what I heard…
The movie doesn’t paint a good picture of how the government and it’s agencies operated that day, but not because of the people doing their jobs, but because the people doing their jobs knew something was happening but couldn’t do anything about it. They were screaming for help, asking for support and for the very, very difficult decisions to be made and the help and decisions were not happening.
If you can take going through that difficult day again, this movie is well worth watching. Not because you’re going to walk out entertained, not because you’ll walk out pissed at the government’s inability to do anything, but because you’ll have realized that a lot of people were trying to do something that day and we do have everyday heroes living among us. And how that one day changed your life, your country and your world.
Further proof the music business sucks. Sony sells their songs and the musicians, the people that actually made the music, receive 4.5% from their sales. What does Sony do with the other 94.5 cents it makes? Granted iTunes is getting a piece, but Im guessing Sony is taking home the majority of it and investing it in ways to further prevent us from listening to the music that we buy. Hmm, I buy a CD and can’t play it on my computer’s CD player without install spyware? That just doesn’t seem right.
And they wonder why we think CDs (and music in general) are overpriced? Now if I bought a CD for $10 and knew the band was taking home 60% of that, it wouldn’t be bad, but I’m guessing they maybe make a buck of that. And who can find CDs for $10, they are 12-13 if you’re lucky.
Sony playing a Cheap Trick on musicians?
Last modified: April 28, 2006, 6:42 PM PDT
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Two rock bands, the Allman Brothers Band and Cheap Trick, have filed a lawsuit against Sony BMG alleging that they are shortchanged when Sony divvies up royalties from digital downloads.
Filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in New York, the suit claims Sony should pay its musicians more as part of a contract the company has allegedly failed to live up to, according to reports published on the Web sites of Forbes and Billboard magazines.
The bands, which were at the height of their popularity more than 20 years ago, claim in their suit that they’re entitled to half of the profits from online sales at sites such as iTunes and Napster, Forbes reported.
Right now the bands receive only 4.5 cents on every 99 cent sale of one of their songs, the suit claims.
Neither Sony representatives nor managers for the bands could be reached for comment Friday evening.
Did my first two-a-day of the year today. Took a good long ski set at lunch and then did some more skiing that night. Lunch we had great water. Nailed a nice long one foot across the bay. At night, the wind had shifted and increases a lot, and basically sucked. Still good to get a couple more runs in though. Now I’m beat.
If you don’t want a movie spoiler, stop reading now… If you read past this, you might ruin the plot, or you might not. Kinda hard to tell if there is a plot to ruin.
Yea, I went a watched a movie tonight… Caught Silent Hill. Having seen it, I’d have a really hard time telling you what I saw. Needless to say, it is a little strange. I think the writers/directors/whatever must have taken a lot drugs, then read the classic Scarlet Letter, then did some more drugs, and then decided to re-write the Scarlet Letter, but the way they remembered it in the drug induced stupor.
It was actually a horror movie that did send a couple chills through me, but more than anything, it just kinda grossed me out. Never really quite sure what is happening or why throughout most of it. Apparently there were a bunch clues we were suppose to pick up that would explain everything, but I missed them completely. Luckily, they spend about 5 minutes towards the end explaining who, what, when, where and why, but it still doesn’t quite all fit together. Luckily, they set it up for a sequel, and based on the results this past weekend, we can expect that in a year. Maybe then this movie based on a video game will make some sense.
Until then, if you lick horror movies based on video games, it would be worth a Netflix, but I’d have a real hard telling you to go spend some of you hard earned cash on this one, even if you do like horror movies.
Or “Can you leave your wet suit and thermal shirt on the sun deck and take off in your boat and have them still be there when you get to the dock?
The answer is no.
Tonight, I hit the lake with John and T-Bell for a quick set in the evening. John took a slalom set out in the main lake. I took a few foot runs in the bay. Actually managed a couple decent one-foots, but nothing significant. It was just nice to get out. The weekend weather didn’t cooperate much, windy, cool, cloudy, scattered showers, you name it. But Sunday was OK, 60, partly sunny and windy, but do-able.
I was the last to ski and once I got back into the boat, I pealed off my suit and shirt and just left then on the sun deck and proceeded to dry off and change as we idled back to the main lake. Once past the bridges, I was now dry and had forgotten that my stuff was still on the back of the boat, and not actually in the boat.
T-Bell passed the no-wake buoy and took off. About half way back to the landing, we hit a good wave, John’s water flew all over, and (unbeknownst to me) my suit and shirt probably flew off the back off the boat.
We get to the landing, trailer the boat, everyone starts handing stuff out of the boat, wiping it down, putting things in their vehicles and mine. Five minutes later we’re all ready to leave. I hop in my truck and drive home.
I get home about 630. I’m tired and hungry, so I just back the boat into the garage and go inside to start cooking some dinner. While cooking and eating, I start watching a show. I finish dinner and then finish the show. Its now about 730 and I head outside and get everything put away. I unhook the boat, put the truck in the garage and start emptying the it. Find my shorts and gloves. No suit, and no shirt. I hop up into the boat and check… No suit, no shirt.
Call John… Did you happen to grab my wetsuit? Nope.
Call T-Bell… Left a message about if she had grabbed my stuff… still haven’t heard anything yet.
Then I call John back and we decide to head down to lake to look for it. I grab a dry pair of shorts and life vest, just in case we see and it is floating out in the water a ways. I’m foolish enough to jump in with floatation when the water is cold and do some skiing, but not so stupid as to take a swim at dusk when I don’t have flotation on.
Now it is after 8 and the sun has been set for 20 minutes or so and it is getting pretty dark. John starts from the north end of the shoreline where we think it may be on and probable had about 20 minutes of looking in before I started from the south end. I walk about 100 yards of the shore, and who’d a thunk it, I see a wetsuit floating right along the shoreline. I grab a big stick and fish it out of the water. Needless to say, it stunk.
We finish looking, but there is no sign of the shirt.
So, realizing I may have lost both a $200 wetsuit and a $50 thermal shirt, coming out with only losing the $50 shirt feels pretty damn good.
One other thing, this is a mistake I’ll never make again.
When I was much younger, when there wasn’t a hockey game that my brother or I were playing in, our Friday and Saturday nights consisted of cooking up a tombstone pizza and watching either a) a Badger hockey game or b) The Dukes of Hazard.
Back then, the hockey team was really good. They had Chris Chelios playing D and a very young Jeff Saurer coaching. They even rated regular coverage on Channel 3 (CBS). We watched both (hockey and Dukes) religiously.
Now tonight, many, many years later, I’m at the UW Band Concert. Part of the Badger celebration, because that what’s the UW Band Concert is, a celebration of the Badger year that was, revolved around the Badger Men’s and Women’s hockey teams winning their national championships. Both teams and both trophies were there. Crowd on their feet as the band played loudly (that is the only way they play).
And then, one of the many special guests, Tom Wopat, one of the original Duke boys is getting ready to sing The Day the Music Died and somebody yells out “Play the Duke’s theme”. Tom goes “I’ll get to it.”
He finishes up the one song and then goes into the Duke’s of Hazard Theme. And that got me to thinking of the “Good old days”. Friday nights, pizza, hockey and the Dukes.
Funniest part was, I almost had a Tombstone for supper. And amazingly, Chelios is still playing D. Dude is getting old and still plays like a stud.
Well, what can I say about this movie other than it made me laugh. I think it is one that you need to see the movies that they are making fun of to truly appreciate. Since I see a lot of movies, including the bad horror movies that come out, I was able to appreciate a lot of their jokes. Since that is all I expected, I enjoyed it.
Would I have enjoyed it if I had paid for the movie? Probably not so much, but well worth a rental at some point if you see a lot of movies. At times it is just fun to see what they are making fun of. Pure mindless entertainment.
In relation to the other Scare Movies, not as good as the original (they parodied a parody, did a good job of it, and that’s tough to beat), better than 2, and on par with 3.
Mad-City Wedge 