This time around the material is a bit headier touching on issues beyond just racism and going on to Terrorism, Racial Profiling, Torture, The War on Terror and True Love. Torture is wrong but joking about the cock meat sandwich thing was pretty funny.
NPH rocked in his bit part as himself. He stole the movie in the Shrooms scene! Kal Penn and John Cho give a great rehash of their roles from Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.
The only flaw in this movie was they didn’t get that really good Bush Impersonator, they got the second best guy. He was alright but it would have been a bit better if they got the other guy.
STATION. Worth consuming! This is the best Comedy movie of 2008 so far hands down!
Sicko is yet another eye opening documentary from Michael Moore. The target of Sicko is the US Health care and Pharmaceutical industries. France, Canada, England, and Cuba all have a socialized universal health care system. We here in America DO NOT have a socialized universal health care system. We have HMOs run by Evil Corporations. Fifty percent of the bankruptcies in the US are caused by people that can't afford their health care. So the business model is this; corporations get rich off of greed, human suffering, and doing their very best to NOT provide the health care they are supposed to. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Bush lauds a lady in the movie for working three jobs, and calls it "Uniquely American".
Michael Moore shows how the health care system is broken and clearly needs to be fixed or better yet replaced. Currently our health care system is run by evil corporations that only think about profit and corporate evil. For the Punch line at the end, Micheal takes some Patriotic Americans that were the heroes and good Samaritans of 9/11, to Cuba, These former fighter fighters and volunteers receive free Health care from Cuba!
We need to boycott the US health care system, insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry until this is fixed and the Government puts an end to this. Go to France, Canada, England or Cuba on Vacation for your Health care and Medication. Make sure you have your friends see this film. I would like to know who has caused more human suffering, the Nazis or the HMOs and the Pharmaceutical industry? I put my money on the latter but there isn't much difference between the three organizations.
Here is my beef with Halloween by Rob Zombie. Just like Lukas wasted a whole movie on baby Darth Vader and another Movie on baby Bobba Fett, this movie spent way too much time on Baby Michael Myers. That and it had every cheesy scene from every slasher film before it. This film breaks no new ground and isn’t very scary. Its very trite and very predictable.
This movie was a total waste of Malcom McDowell who is an excellent actor. But even the best actor on the planet can’t breathe life into crap. Tyler Mane was the man under the mask of grown up Michael Myers and his shear size shows in this film, but with no lines thats all he is. A really big guy in a mask. He was far better as Sabertooth in the X-Men series, but this isn’t his fault. He had no lines and the script didn’t make him scary enough.
Staring in Superbad; Jonah Hill as Seth, Michael Cera as Evan, Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Mclovin/Fogell, Michael Cera as Evan, Bill Hader as Officer Slater, Seth Rogen as Officer Michaels, Emma Stone as Jules, Martha Macisaac as Becca, Aviva as Nicola, Marcella Lentz-Pope as Gabby and Joe Lo Truglio as Francis the Driver. This was written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and directed by Greg Mottola.
I went into Superbad thinking it would be another Teen Movie (like so MANY teen movies), but Superbad kicked ass, it makes such as American Pie or Van Wilder look like a PBS documentary about paint drying. Its kind of like Super Troopers mashed up with Fast times at Ridgemont High. Superbad is that good, so don't judge Superbad by its name.
The moral of Superbad is Don't Cock Block Mclovin'. Seth had no faith in MClovin/Fogell. Mclovin ends up getting the girl, the booze and all the respect. Oh and cops are people too. Superbad is a must see. Do not miss this one.
MPAA RATING: R, for pervasive crude and sexual content, strong language, drinking, some drug use and a fantasy/comic violent image - all involving teens.
Starting Anthony Anderson, John Turturro, Jon Voight as Defense Secretary John Keller, Josh Duhamel, Megan Fox as Mikaela Banes, Rachael Taylor as Maggie Madsen, Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky, Tyrese Gibson as Sergeant Epps, and Peter Cullen reprising his voice acting role of Optimus Prime from the original cartoon series and the animated movie. Directed by Micheal Bay.
The movie begins with Optimus Prime Voice over, "Before time began, there was... the cube. We know not where it comes from, only that it holds the power to create worlds and fill them... with life. That is how our race was born. For a time we had lived in harmony, but like all great power, some wanted it for good... others, evil. And so, began the war. A war that ravages our planet until it was consumed by death. And the cube was lost to the far reaches of space. We step in across the galaxy hoping to find it and rebuild our home. Searching every star. Every world. And just when all hopes seem lost; message of a new discovery took us to an unknown planet called... Earth. But we were already too late."
I like that they have the transformers with all new looks and vechicles and of course this is excellent product placement for GM (the new Chevy Camero, H2, Pontiac Solstice, and GMC Topkick 6500), Ford Mustang, E bay ("ARE YOU LADIESMAN217?"), GPX, and Panasonic so the parents know what toys to buy after they buy hasbro's toys for their kids. I wonder if GM paid extra to have the Camero lay the smack down on the mustang in the Transformers movie.....but I digress.
I have a few minor gripes about the movie. First and foremost. Peter Cullen should get some billing on this. His name is no where on the official site, flixster.com, but he is credited on IMDB. Peter Cullen IS Prime. Give the man some respect. If you can put Anthony Anderson (who has a minor bit part and needs a punch in the cock.) on the credits at least put Peter Cullen on there. Also none of the robots voices are credited except for Bumblebee on IMDB. Did Peter Cullen do Ironhide like he did in the series and the animated movie? Secondly the CGI was very well done but at times it was too fast or too much. And lastly more Transformers! This tale is told strictly from the human point of view. If there is a sequel it needs more lines from the robots. Lastly too many humans.
This movie steals a line or two from the series and the animated movie. Just like the animated movie there is one use of the S-Word and a stolen line of Optimus Prime. "At the end of this day... one shall stand, one shall fall." And the More than meets the eye line of course. The one curse word wasn't as well done as it was in the first Animated movie, but I thought it was a nice tip of the hat to the original. The MPAA gave this one a PG-13 (the original had a PG rating). I guess the one curse word puts it over the PG edge!
Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox both do a good job in pulling their weight in the movie. Overall this is an excellent movie, the action is all there, and the comedic bits were funny. Mr Bay if you are reading this, for the sequel less humans more robots. The title is Transformers not humans.
Antec makes the best computer cases. The only problem with Antec is which Antec case to use in your next Computer build.
I like the Antec NSK 4400 Black/Silver computer case. Antec gives you a solid computer case for the price (around $80). Antec gives you a good power supply with the NSK 4400, a High-efficiency 380 Watt ATX12V v2.0, the only problem with it is it only has two Sata connectors. I ended up replacing this with a bigger one, the EA-500 also by Antec. Just so I can power four Sata drives. Both are earth friendly power supplies.
The Antec NSK 4400 best feature is it's a removable hard drive bay with silicone grommets to isolate drive vibrations. This is the same style as the "Sonata" case by Antec without the rails (which I like even more). Antec also gives you an Advanced cooling system with one Rear 120mm TriCool 3-speed fan (which is included), Front mount for optional 80mm fan, and Advanced Chassis Air Guide, with mount for optional 80mm fan. This one is almost as quiet as the last "Sonata" case I put together and it doesn't have the worthless plastic computer door over the CD Rom area.
With 8 Drive Bays and 7 Expansion Slots there is plenty of room for all the goodies you would want to put into your computer. The NSK 4400 also has two USB 2.0 front bezel ports which aren't hidden by a worthless plastic door. If you want to spend a little bit more money you can get NSK6500 Super Mid Tower Case which gives you two more drive bays, a beefier 430W ATX12V v2.0 power supply and that rail system of the Sonata but its facing your motherboard instead of outside the case like the Sonata. I like the NSK 4400 a bit more because its removable hard drive bay.
Staring Gerard Butler as King Leonidas ("Lion's son"), Lena Headey as Queen Gorgo, David Wenham as Dilios a spartan warrior, Dominic West as Theron, Vincent Reagan as the Captain, Tom Wisdom as Astinos (son of the captain), Micheal Fassbender as Stellios and Rodrigo Santoro as Xerxes. This movie is based on Frank Miller's graphic novel of the same name. Gerard Butler as Leonidas owns this movie. Gerard Butler makes Russel Crow in Gladiator look like a girl scout, he roars like a lion and has the swagger of a rockstar in his role as Leonidas. All the rest are garnish to Butler!
This is going to be the Movie of the year. No ifs and or buts. Period.
This movie was shot not on location in Greece but on a sound stage with a blue screen background for CGI oceans and backgrounds. While looking somewhat similiar to Sin City, it has its own feel and colors. It makes it look like Frank Miller's comicbook graphic novel come to life.
The movie isn't 100% historically accurate. It tells nothing of Athens' Naval victories, nor of the aftermath of Athens being burned. Hoplites didn't fight naked, but in bronze armor. They were the best warriors of the day. Real life Klingons 2000 years before Star Trek.
the Tale begins with young Leonidas training and growing up to be a Spartan warrior, fighting a CGI wolf, the progresses to him starting this cycle with his son. A Persian Messenger arrives with the heads of other Greek Kings to ask for his surrender, insults his Queen (for speaking out of turn) and threatens slavery to his people. Leonidas kills him right away.
Leonidas then takes only a small force comprised by his personal fighting unit, because Sparta's religious customs did not allow to send out an army at this time of the year. Outnumbered 1000 to one, the Spartans held back the enemy in one of history's most famous last stands, which led the Greek city states towards nationalism (and later Alexander the Great conquering the Persian Empire). The 300 Spartans used the land and their phalanx battle tactics to their advantage in the battle of Thermopylae (a word not used once in the whole movie). The Persian army was slaughtered for two whole days of battle until they out flanked the Spartans on the third day. The Persians succeeded in taking the pass on the third day of the Battle of Thremopypae but sustained heavy losses, extremely disproportionate to those of the Greeks. The 300 Spartans fought to the last man.
Mean while back at Sparta. Queen Gorgo tries to gather support for the rest of the Spartan army to support it's King and 300 best men. Theron stands in her way. She ends up being raped by him and the next day he lies about her hitting on him. She runs him through with a sword on the floor of the Council and Persian coins spill from his toga. The movie ends with 10,000 pissed off Spartan warriors heading to support their fallen King.
This movie is pretty graphic, has some nudity, rape and savage violence, gore blood and a few decapitations. The pace is great but I wished the movie was longer. The dialog is great and many of the one liners are taken from Herodotus. "Come and get them" was Leonidas reply when Xerxes demanded the Greeks surrender their arms. Before the Battle of Thermopylae, knowing that her husband's death in battle was inevitable, Queen Gorgo tells Leonidas "Return with your shield, or upon it" (he tan he epi tas), meaning that a Spartan soldier was expected to return from battle either victorious (with his shield) or dead (carried on his shield), not dropping his armor to flee from battle. When told of the Persian arrows blotting out the sun, "Good. Then we'll have our battle in the shade."
Ghost Rider stars Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze / Ghost Rider, Sam Elliot as the Care taker / Carter Slade (the old western Ghost Rider), Eva Mendes as Roxanne Simpson and Peter Fonda as The Devil.
Ghost Rider is balls deep. They did a great job with the special effects in Ghost Rider. My favorite effect is how they transform Back and forth between Ghost Rider and Johnny Blaze the mortal. Blaze quickly learns how to take control of himself as the Rider.
Don't go see Ghost Rider if you are overtly religious or a Jesus Freak. Ghost Rider has many Satanic story elements that will twist those peoples tit. Ghost Rider fights fire with fire.
Ghost Rider is most STATION. In the end the Devil offers to take away Ghost Rider's powers but he swears to use the curse against the devil. Ghost Rider ends up fighting fire with fire, becoming the Spirit of Vengeance in the end.
This has been a rather hellish week for me. I work a lot, I get a lot of personal chores done and I like to have a fair amount of fun. Updating my PC or building a PC is a chore to me. I spent this week working on building a new Computer with Windows Vista Ultimate on it. This is not fun anymore.
Microsoft polished up a few things in the installation process for Windows Vista Ultimate. The installation was a lot smoother than I thought it could be. Everything from there goes downhill.
Cons 1. A lot of programs are not working in Vista. 2. Annoying new security features (which Apple is already making fun of in their TV ads) 3. Driver Hell. This is inexcusable. 4. Its seems Microsoft hid the blue screen of death. Sweeping dirt under the rug isn't fixing the issue. 5. Seems to run as if its still a Beta Software. 6. Have to switch to classic mode yet again. The menu with a scroll sucks. Everything else looks new and shinny and they put a freaking scroll bar in the menu! I will have to switch back and forth to use goodies in the cool menu. WTF! 7. No Power off Button on the welcome screen. Windows XP has this feature. How come Windows Vista "Ultimate" Doesn't?
Pros: 1. Install was quick and fairly painless, more so than all previous versions of Windows. The system hang at the end is not cool. They do not warn you about that. 2. Everything looks great except the damn scroll bar they put in the menu. 3. Aero Theme kicks ass. 4. Still more Killer Aps than Apple. Sorry I don't need Pro Tools Danjel. 5. Forces administration, I have a love/hate feel about this feature.
Now to be fair. When XP first came out I was running Win2K for a year before I switched over. A lot of drivers did not work and I had fewer PCs than I do know. Parts are so cheap now that it doesn't hurt to build a new box more often now. I remember when I paid 400 for a K7 550 MHz AMD processor and a motherboard. My first 386 home PC was $3000. Now I can get a whole PC for that 400 bucks and its a P4 thats faster than 3 Ghz. So if it takes time to grow into Vista and switch between the two it doesn't hurt me so much since I can afford having multiple PCs and a KVM switch. Before I only had one rig with a few small drives. Lets see how it works in a year.
Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno) is a strange fairy tale set during the Spanish Civil War. A theme in a past and forth coming Del Torro movie. The special effects are really well done in this film that mixes war movie with fantasy movie. Pan's Labyrinth was shot in Spanish, so you do have to read subtitles.
Guillermo del Toro (of Hellboy fame) wrote and directs Pan's Labyrinth, Pan's Labyrinth is about a young girl named Ofelia, played by Ivana Baquero. Her mother marries an evil Capt in the Spanish Army and they move and they move out to the fort where he is on the front lines fighting the rebels! A move that makes no sense to me. Could you imagine a pregnant woman going to be with her army capt husband in Iraq? Pan's Labyrinth twists between the plot of the Sick mother, the rebels and the Capt and the fairy tale.
Pan's Labyrinth does have a lot of Spanish folklore and fair tales in it, but I also pointed out that those origins go back to Roman and Greek Myth about fauns and Satyrs. The part of not eating anything in the underworld is part of all those cultures' myths. Pan's Labyrinth faun seems to be a bit different then his Greek or Roman counterparts and is very friendly and helpful to Ofelia. Ofelia is also not scared or terrified of the Faun, despite his appearance. She seems to be the only one to see the magical creature. Which wasn't stressed enough, and might have added to the magical feel of Pan's Labyrinth.
I would have liked Pan's Labyrinth more if it wasn't so violent and focused more on the fairy tale side of things then the story about the war. If Guillermo del Toro wants to make a grand movie about the Spanish Civil war, he should go for it. Not use it as a plot device in all his movies. This was a bit hard to see. Its only in a few theaters but I suggest making the extra effort to see this stunning movie on the big screen.
And of course like all movies these days they have a myspace page(www.myspace.com/panslabyrinth) in addition to a fancy flash website (http://www.panslabyrinth.com/) that won't be online two years from now.
Blood Diamond, staring Leonardo DiCaprio as Danny Archer, the anti-hero of the story, Djimon Hounsou as Solomon Vandy, a simple peasant fisher man (he was also in Gladiator), and Jennifer Connelly, as the nosy report, Maddy Bowen. Blood Diamond is very harsh and violent. DiCaprio's character is an ex-mercenary, diamond smuggler, and gun runner. DiCaprio is almost James Bond like in this movie. The movie Blood Diamond, pulls no punches, has a brutal honesty about it. This film is dark, sick and twisted. It gets uglier and uglier as it goes on. TIA This is Africa.
Blood Diamond is very much a war movie like Saving Private Ryan, Hotel Rwanda, Lord of War or Black Hawk Down. Lord of War is very much related to this issue of Blood Diamonds or as they are also known Conflict Diamonds. Its also the opposite of Lord of War, as Blood Diamond is a tale told from the victims point of view and its has same documentary feel of Hotel Rwanda. Blood Diamond is like those other movies in its war like senseless violence, but it also has more of a documentary feel to it. TIA This is Africa.
Blood Diamond is set in war torn Sierra Leone in 1999. Everyone, from the diamond industry, Revolutionary United Front (RUF) (the rebel faction in the movie), the Army, Archer to the reporter character are villains in Blood Diamond. Everyone is trying to get something and Greed is a big part of the plot of this dark tale. The reporter wants her story, the African only wants his family and everyone wants the giant diamond. Blood Diamond has a bitter sweet ending, but I won't give away any spoilers about the ending. There is some humor in the movie. Such as "I hope they don't find oil here" and "she reminds me of my wife" both in some native tribal tongue with subtitles. There is also some Afrikaans spoken in the movie which is subtitled, also they use the Afrikaans racial slur, "caffer" (like the South African version of the "N-word") which was last used in Lethal Weapon 2 way back when.
The moral of the story is this: is a wedding ring worth someone's hand (or in some cases hands)? Very serious food for thought. TIA This is Africa.
Rated R for strong violence and language. Running time: two hours twenty three minutes.
Tenacious D is balls deep from the THC Demo at the very beginning right until the end. The kid they got to play young JB looks just like Jack Black. Same for the Kid playing young KG. Also Meatloaf makes an uncredited role as JB's father in the beginning of the film. Yes he does sing. Dio also plays himself in the movie. David Grohl (of Nirvana and Foo Fighters fame) plays as SATAN, he also shows off his music talent as the old scratch, playing drums, guitar, and singing. Meatloaf, David Grohl and Dio are awesome in their parts in the movie. Tenacious D is not for everyone. Tenacious D will offend you if you are a feminazi, or you are really religious. They refer to cock push ups, Satan, use mushrooms and pot.
If any of those things twist your tit, Tenacious D, is not for you. If you can't take jokes about those things, Tenacious D, is not for you. Tenacious D is a very well paced movie and it is all about sex drug and rock & roll, in that order. I have a funny feeling that this movie would be better if you were on drugs or playing drinking games.
Tenacious D is on a quest for The Pick of Destiny, a pick made in the dark ages from the tooth of Satan himself. Like I said in the beginning, Tenacious D is really a prequel to the show. Kinda like the first Spider Man movie. You don't have to own the album or have seen the show to enjoy this movie. It does cock push ups on its own merit. I don't want to ruin the movie and tell you how it ends. Tenacious D In The Pick of Destiny is a hoot.
Tenacious D - Tribute
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, first six minutes
Sony Pictures Classics Presents : Who Killed the Electric Car?
This movie will piss you off. How do we get ourselves off oil and gas?
This thing has balls!! Look at the above video. This thing can take a 300z in the quarter mile. GM destroyed all the Ev1s after their leases were up. They made these things to comply with the law in California until they beat the law back.
Now if we could get more clean energy and get off of coal we might be able to start un-doing the damage we have done to the Earth we all live upon. This car was very well loved by all its owners IT HAD NO MAINTENANCE. None. No Oil changes, no water pump or timing belts.
Ladies you could work on this car and get no grease whatsoever on yourself.
change the brakes, the wind shield wiper fluids and rotate the tires. Thats it.
The reasons for not wanting this car? Well the big three make a ton of money on parts and service. Plus why sell you one car that can last you 20 years if they can sell you four or five in the same time frame!! Plus the oil companies got behind killing the law.
Every gallon of gas you use in your car puts 19 pounds of C02 in the air. This is the one ride that has Zero emissions. Oh if you like your current car you can get it converted to EV for about $8000. They now have batteries that can give you a 300 mile range for one charge.
This movie is exactly what the title says it is. Lots of snakes on a plane. Lots of snake bites and action in this one. Very little gun play or explosions (which is a good thing for an action flick to depart from the norm). The snakes bite everyone and anything they can get their fangs into. Sam and the CGI Snakes are pretty much the only stars of this film, but you might recognize the co-pilot from anchor man (David Koechner). Unless you are a big fan you wont notice Julianna Margulies as the cute and helpful (read sarcastic) stewardess. Sam brings his bad motherfucker wallet into this one.
I am not going to ruin to much about this film, but I will say this. The gay sounding male steward ends up having a girl friend in the end. That is the shock ending of this film. Some nudity and a mile high bathroom scene if you are screening for the kids. Also a baby is put in harms way, and a small child is bitten. A helpful Spanish women sucks the poison out of the small boys arm, but doesn't bother to help anyone else(they don't show it more like imply it). I know they did it for pacing sakes, this film is very well directed and the pace was kept in high gear all the way.
Not for those that are afraid of snakes. Maybe the best airplane flick of all time. Better than Air Force One, The Airplane movies and everything else.
All around feel good film. The violence was silly. I mean can a little teen aged boy stand toe to toe vs a Minotaur?? He must eat his wheaties!! Also the fight between Peter and the Queen was just silly!!
Where are they finding all these little english actor kids???? I mean really are their kids that much better than the snot nosed pukes I see infesting our[USA] malls?
I am not a big fan of CGI, but it works well in this film. It doesn't try to over kill it like star wars did. Nor do you feel like you are watching a cartoon the whole time. The special FX in this film are very well done. Instead of feeling trying to hard, it gives the film a magical other worldly feel. All thats missing is David Bowie and some tight pants!! ;-)
