Creative Title

This was recommended to my mom by one of our NJ friends from WoW, so we rented it on Friday. Christian Bale (awesome), Willem Dafoe (extra awesome), and some other random people… including Reese Witherforkspoon, though she played a somewhat minor character.

Overall impression: …Dude.

Basic premise: A rich guy on Wall Street has a psychotic breakdown and kills a whole bunch of people. Yep, pretty simple.

So, I loved it. The acting was absolutely incredible, the story was fascinating, and the characters (the most important element in any story. Never forget that.) were insane(ly memorable). Well, perhaps I take that back. Many of the characters seemed rather one-dimensional, but the story was told completely through the eyes of a sadistic, narcissistic sociopath (voice-over narration and all), which is a group of disorders characteristic of a lack of empathy toward others. Plus, the setting was mostly among the NY elite, who are often stereotyped as all wearing a mask of some sort so that they might better fit in with each other.

Also, there are many subtleties in the way the story was told–the kind you might miss if you take your eyes off for a few seconds–that add a certain amount of distinctiveness to the movie. Some examples: the relation between the scene where he crosses the street with a lady and the one shere he’s at the dry cleaners; the business cards, and to whom each belonged; the hair with which he’s playing in his office before his secretary walks in; the message on the ATM; the conversation with his lawyer, etc. Something about leaving clues like that throughout the story instead of just having a bunch of slasher scenes.

In addition, there are a few rather comedic parts as well, though good ones are typically quite rare in movies about killers. Examples: the business card scene again; the newspapers on the floor and the raincoat when he’s about to kill a guy; lots of the offhand comments that one might miss; and much of what is said in the narration (though none would not be intended as such in the person’s own mind). Plus, the huge 80’s cell phones made me giggle each time one was brought out, but that’s just a side-effect of the time in which I grew up.

So, I would highly recommend this movie. The next time you feel like a crazy story about a psychotic serial killer that makes you feel horrible for laughing about the deaths of lots of people, I would suggest picking this up.

Sorry about the lack of anything at all. Currently reading through the most recent Zombietime post, and listening to Fall Out Boy for some reason before leaving for the weekend. Here’s my current favorite song by them:

I’m not even sure what it’s about, but such is often the case. In case that’s not enough, here’s a frighteningly appropriate song put to pictures from the Obama campaign (yeah yeah, everyone’s probably seen this weeks ago). I love Cake.

I tried to write a post yesterday, but it turned out that I hadn’t quite organized my thoughts on the topic, so I did a bunch of other stuff instead. And tonight, an english paper I must write (oh boy)! I’ll see if I can crank out something tomorrow before I leave for the dark, evil land of no internet. Until then, here’s whatever I find just now on YouTube:

Static image, but who doesn’t love that song? It was either that, or Ms. New Booty (which is stuck in my head). You’re welcome. Hope to see y’all tomorrow!

UPDATE: I found this in my constant procrastination and couldn’t resist. That anime series (Death Note) is actually one of the few really, really good ones (up to a certain episode when a certain character dies, at least). It’s not my absolute most favorite of all time, but it’s high on the list.

Congratulations, George and Stephen! You’ve redeemed the Indiana Jones series. Now I can go to the fourth movie (if I get around to actually seeing it) with some hope.

The characters were fairly well-done this time. It’s true that the old guys were still rather silly, but it’s more of a Merry and Pippin sort of silly as opposed to the Jar-Jar type in Temple of Doom. Seriously, I just can’t get over how horribly those characters were put together. Also, the obligatory “love” interest acutally served a purpose higher than giving men something to look at during the talking scenes (I know that seems like a generalization, but 1) humans are humans, and 2) what else was she good for?) Enough about that, though. The lady in here was an evil Nazi, who used her wiles to betray Indy and his dad. That right there is a purpose, my friends. That moves the plot along and sets up a meaningful relationship (albeit negative) for the rest of the movie. It’s elements like that that make a good story.

Speaking of the story, it was good too. It brought the series back to “tale of epic proportions” after it having fallen into “cheesy moral story”. It was a search for The Holy Grail, and Indy only joined the search to save his Sean Connery/father. The Nazis, of course, want to get it first, since it’s a totally awesome historical artifact and, oh yeah, grants eternal life from God. I really don’t remember hearing of any legends about it granting eternal life, but one must always have lots of willing suspense of disbelief in order to enjoy any action movie. So the Germans chase them, they chase various pieces of Indy’s Dad’s diary, and eventually go through a bunch of awfully exciting stuff to finally *~spoilers start here~* end up at the grail. They both take a sip, the stupid nazi lady doesn’t listen to the 700-year old knight so she dies while losing the grail forever, and I guess the rest lived more or less happily ever after and whatnot. So I have a question: is Indiana immortal now? If so, I’m wondering if–due to this fourth movie–this will turn into a James Bond-esque type of series. That is, never ending. Ever. Any idea?

Overall impression of the movie: Pretty awesome.

Just to keep with the mood (it’s blank the whole time, I think), the theme. Thank you, John Williams!

Overall impression: This must have been the very first time George Lucas said, “Good plot and characters that actually have a point to their existence? Screw that; this is a sequel!” The first of many times you’ve done that to us, George. I’m hoping The Last Crusade is better, but we’ll see. Planning on watching it tonight after I write my english paper. So that may be postponed until tomorrow.

But back to the movie at hand: I didn’t enjoy it too terribly much. I know, I know: that’s absolute blasphemy against Indy, but seriously! The woman did nothing but whine, complain, scream, and make the protagonist seem like the ladies’ man he is. The Chinese kid (did he come from the last movie, or was he just randomly there? I haven’t seen Raiders in a while.) seemed to be just the “humorous” sidekick. I was constantly thinking of Jar-Jar when either of thiose two were on screen. They were far too annoying for the single punch that the lady threw and the kid pulling Indiana out of that drunk-blood trance thing to make up for it. That’s my biggest complaint–the rest was relatively good.

But that doesn’t mean I loved absolutely everything else. I’m not entirely happy with the fact that there was no actual quest, save for “fortune and glory,” though that is certainly acceptable. Plus, there wasn’t quite the wonderful degree of problem solving as before.

Other than that, I guess it was good. The action was action-packed, and at least it had a plot, even if i wasn’t an epic one. Man, I just hate when I see/read some famous movie/book and end up not liking it. Makes me feel like a total jack*ss.

First, Happy Easter! Unfortunately, this hasn’t been an incredibly traditional easter weekend for me. I didn’t dye eggs, eat peeps/chocolate bunnies, or go to church. We did go spend a lot of time at my grandma’s, which is a usual sunday thing, but everyone seemed particularly cheerful today. Really, it was a pretty great celebration–however informal–of Jesus rising from the dead. On holidays such as this, company is really more important than activity, or even amount of candy (and I did have a few small chocolates, so all is well). So again, Happy Easter everyone!

Second, this looks like it might be pretty interesting. As mentioned before, I really like Will Smith’s movies, in general. I was absolutely obsessed with Men In Black when that first came out, and ever since, though I haven’t made it a point to see them, and have actually only seen two, I loved what I did see. He’s one of the actors who actually tries to be the character (instead of acting like he’s in a movie). Now there’s the prospect of a very Egyptian-themed Will Smith movie, which bodes well for my tastes. I am somewhat cautious, since he’ll be playing a Nubian. IIRC, they were the Egyptains’ bitterest enemies, save for when one managed to conquer the other for a time. Now I really wish I’d brought my Ancient Egypt books to the dorm. So that will be very interesting to see, especially if they make it relatively historically accurate (believe me, I’ll look up that pharaoh’s story before going to see it).

Also, on the topic of movies pertaining to Egypt, I’ve found something pretty funny. After seeing random bits of Stargate, I noticed that their portrayl of the Ancient Egyptian language was actually far more accurate than in The Mummy. I just found that pretty hilarious and thought I’d share, though others might not care quite as much.

Alright, time to study and perhaps start work on my next english paper. Once more, Happy Easter!

Same ol’ same ol’. With the possible exception that it’s Good Friday, so I didn’t have any class at all (and I hear rumor of ham at my grandma’s on sunday–yum!). This week’s entertainment consists of two parts: The Right Wing News Political Dance-off, and House of the Rising Sun by The Animals. Truly, my parents have effectively passed down their musical tastes.

Have a great weekend!

First, I almost forgot the obligatory “OMG, it’s so bright!!!!!!111″ after changing the template.

Second, how in the world could I have missed this?

As with most sequels, I’m rather cautiously optimistic. I enjoyed the first movie, though the cheesy badass lines got a bit tiring after the first few times I saw it. Nevertheless, I’ll be adding this to my ever-lengthening list of movies to find a friend who will go see it with me.

Is it just me, or does this movie remind anyone else of World of Warcraft? Well, the evil guy(s?) looks like a blood elf (minus teh ghey), there were a couple shots in that trailer of something that seemed to be an orc, and that girl (sorry, I don’t follow comics very closely; thus I’m not sure of her name) could be any fire mage. Yeah, that last one just came up in my search for fire mages, and I decided it displayed the concept of a fire mage closely enough.

Look no further!

I have to participate some psychological studies for (what else?) my psychology class, and the first is tomorrow, so I’m allowing myself to be lazy. There’s also something else that I need to do tomorrow, but it’s that thing that would eventually give away my identity (though not at the moment, since they don’t have an official webmaster), so I would rather not say what it was. You’d probably recognize that it was me if you saw it.

On the plus side, tomorrow is going to be warm! Just a couple weeks more, and I’ll be able to get back at the people who made fun of us southerners for getting all worried about the ice and/or snow (whatever it was) a couple months back.

For some reason, I can’t put quotes in the title.

So, Heller was argued today before the SCOTUS, and according to the people here who actually took the time and effort to read through the 90 pages of argument, it’s looking pretty good for us.

I’ll try to back off the subject of guns and the like in my next post or so.