Posted 14:05 by Grote 0 comments

Movie Review: Looney Tunes Back in Action

Yes, I'm one of the few who admit seeing this movie. And you know what? It wasn't that bad. Its not going to win any academy awards for best picture or anything but it was a funny movie. I think the only disappointing feature of the movie was that when Jason and I saw it, there was a bunch of Kids in the theatre and there was a lot of jokes going right over their heads (references to Psycho and Porky and Speedy talking about being politically incorrect to name two). The plot (plot, in a looney tunes movie? are you nuts??) has Steve Martin playing some sort of over-the-top evil genius corporate guy who wants the "blue diamond" which some idol that has the power to turn everone into monkeys (yes, that was a plot of a power-puff girls episode). Really, the plot doesn't hold up the movie, the classic looney tunes jokes do. Go see it for a matinee, or at the Dollar Theater.

Posted 13:29 by Grote 0 comments

Saruman Cut Out of Return of the King (Warning Spoilers Abound!)

Yup that's right and you can you heard it here first folks. That is, unless you've been to theonering.net recently. According to Ain't it Cool News, director Peter Jackson has cut Saruman from the third theatrical installment of Lord of the Rings. In a response to AICN's Harry Knowles query about the rumor PJ writes:

"...We felt it got ROTK off to an uncertain beginning, since Saruman plays no role in the events of ROTK (we don't have the Scouring later, as the book does), yet we dwell in Isengard for quite a long time before our new story kicks off.

We reluctantly made the decision to save this sequence for the DVD. The choice was made on the basis that most people will assume that Saruman was vanquished by the Helm's Deep events, and Ent attack. We can now crack straight into setting up the narrative tension of ROTK, which features Sauron as the villian...."

As much as I hate to say it, this makes sense. I would have loved to seen the confrontation at Isengard but now arises the $64 question: How the hell does Pippen get his hands on the Palantir that alerts Sauron to his presence and therefore provides a much needed distraction for Frodo and Sam? (and no, Pip you don't get $64 if you answer correctly)

Posted 21:49 by Grote 0 comments

I Don't Get It

If you haen't read Pip's blog entry on him watching the Bush Protest in England read that first before reading my rant.

Done? Good.

Here's what I don't get. Why do people in other countries protest the United States' foreign policy? Don't get me wrong, the right to gather and protest is one of the most basic rights. And I think Ann Coulter is a loon for her books, like Treason. And I can understand doing it here we can send a message to our elected officials that if they don't straighten up and fly right we'll throw them out of office it will make their head spin. But why do Londoners march down to Trafalgar's square and pull down an effigy of Bush? He's not gonna look out the window and say "Well garsh, those Englishers look pretty ticked at me I better change our policy!" At least I hope not. Again Tony Blair, sure pull him down in effigy. Get your elected represenatives to push forward a vote of no confidence, but Bush? Can you imagine how odd it would be if Jaques Chirac came to visit the White House and people protested outside because he didn't assist us in Iraq?

Here's the other thing. Most of those signs are demanding that troops be withdrawn in Iraq. Yeah, there is a great idea. Let's pull out what little Law & Order there is in the country and create a terrorist state like Afghanistan pre-9/11. We made the mess; we need to clean it up. Even if we were to pull out tomorrow, Bush would be crucified when a talibanesque state pops up because we left Iraq a mess. Should there be U.N. peacekeepers under an international commander? Sure. But let's face it, 95% of the time U.N. peacekeepers are called in to keep the peace, the majority of the troops involved are American. So there will be a strong American presense in Iraq. I don't always agree with Dubya, but he's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

Posted 17:03 by Grote 0 comments

"Two men standing waist deep in gasoline -- one with three matches, the other with five."

Twenty years ago today. A TV movie called "The Day After" was shown on ABC. This article from the Lawrence, Kansas(where the majority of the movie was filmed) goes into very good detail about the movie and its after-effects. I've never had the opportunity to see it, and I'm not really sure that I would like to, but I don't really know. What's most fascinating about the movie that it actually had an effect on the Reagan administration. Nicholas Meyer says in the article "When he signed the Intermediate Range Weapons Agreement at Reykjavik (in 1986) with Gorbachev, I got a telegram from his administration that said, ‘Don't think your movie didn't have any part of this, because it did.'" What's sad today is that in 1983, the two superpowers looked at this film and said "We can't let this happen." If a terrorist saw this film today he'd probably say "Perfect."

Posted 16:48 by Grote 0 comments

The Dark Side of the Contest

I'm sure all of you being astute pop-culture mavens, have heard of Dark Side of Oz. Here's my idea for the contest, Pick any albulm/cd/tape whichever (except a soundtrack). Now pick any movie. Give it a catchy name and submit. Repeat as necessary. Don't worry about it actually lining up. In fact, I'd be a wee bit worried if it you actually attempted to line it up. For example, your submission could be: "Did you know, that Cher's 'If I Could Turn Back Time' syncs up with 'Buckaroo Banzai and the 8th Dimension'? I call it 'Buckaroo Banzai Turns Back Time'." The winner(s) will arbitrarily chosen by me and sent a DVD!

Posted 22:21 by Grote 0 comments

The Obligatory Matrix Revolutions Review (WARNING: SPOILERS IN REVIEW)

What has become a tradition on Tuesday Nights, Jason Googash and I catch a flick before heading off to BW3s for 25 cent wing night. Tonight it was Matrix Revolutions. In all honesty, I'm not sure how I feel about the movie after only one viewing. It's not your typical trilogy ending. The war isn't won, the hero doesn't get the girl and in all actuality he doesn't even survive (maybe). Overall, I think it should been left alone as one totally, mind blowing movie (i.e. just the Matrix). There seems to be a paradigm shift in the story. As Scott Kurtz points out in his rant on how he didn't like the movie, we go from a war of liberation to a war about being left alone.

I think my biggest problem is, like others movies of late (Kill Bill, Lord of the Rings) Reloaded and Revolutions were filmed as one film and then broken up into smaller parts. I think this is where the movie fails. There is noticeable time between the first and second movies. I think that if they would have written the second movie as a stand alone film (say like, The Empire Strikes Back) using plots from the Animatrix and the video game, so not to make people not wanting to spend the time and money into peripheral products and then write the third film as a way to wrap things up (not necessarily changing much with the bigger plot points, but with the smaller ones). They could have had Neo discover his power in the beginning of the third movie along with Bane getting taken by Smith. Meanwhile Neo rescues the kid and the Oracle does her little change in the second movie (whatever that is, because I haven't played the game through).

This is not to say Revolutions is not a good action or science fiction movie. On the contrary, the fight scenes are great; they don't overuse the CGI effects (in fact I thought the machines forming a face that talks near the end a nice touch). Having said that, like Final Fantasy: the Spirits Within, it's not a good Matrix film. (I thought that if they had left the tag "Final Fantasy" off the aforementioned movie, it would have been better received). Whether it was because The Matrix had set the bar far too high for the sequels, or maybe it was the Wachowski Brothers foolishly trying to capitalize on something big Revolutions falls short of my expectations. The real question is if Neo was a Christ figure, who was he the Savior for? The humans or the machines? (If I ever decide to get a poll for my site maybe that'll be the first question...) I'll probably post an updated review once I see Reloaded and Revolutions on DVD. For now though, I'll just take the first movie and more or less pretend the second and the third don't exist.

Posted 20:31 by Grote 0 comments

Woot! 3 and oh Baby!

Just got back from the Cincinnati Bengals game today. They beat the Houston Texans 34-27. I've been to three Bengals games this year(Pre-season Detroit, Baltimore and this one), and they've won all three. Given, the wins have been against mediocre (at best) teams but wins are wins.

Posted 20:21 by Grote 0 comments

One Year and One Day Later...

On March 30, 2048, I'll drink a beer in rememberance of my good friend Jim and then wake up dead the next morning from cancer. Like Jim, I also took TheSpark's Death Test and I found out that I'll die on April 1st, 2048. Although there is a 6% chance that I'll be abducted by Aliens and a 5% chance I'll die via homicide but who would want to kill a 70 year old man?

Posted 22:16 by Grote 0 comments

The funniest show on TV?

It has to be SpikeTV's (formerly TNN) Most Extreme Elimination Challenge. It looks to be some sort of Japanese Game Show dubbed over. Not translated, mind you dubbed over. Basically you have two teams (say like beauty queens and models) who do wacky stunts (like the rotating surfboard of death) to compete for nothing. Plus they have a host named Captain Tenneal(!) Jeff, you spent the better part of two years in Japan, is this thing a real game show that people take seriously? Do they win anything?

Posted 19:04 by Grote 0 comments

FCC tells AT&T to "Reach out and touch this, bitch!"

The FCC has fined AT&T $78,000 dollars for contacting 29 customers 78 times (total not each). You can read the story from the AP here. Seeit does work! I must say, I'm glad to be on the list. I don't get 6 to 7 calls a day anymore trying to sell me a loan, or a credit card or vinyl siding. Its never too late to register. Just click here and three months later most if not all of your telemarketing calls will cease.

Posted 16:40 by Grote 0 comments

Vote!

Here in the States, tomorrow (or today or yesterday depending on when you read this) is Election Day. My firm belief that if you don't vote you lose your right to complain. Its not a federal election year (i.e. no electing senators, congressmen or presidents) but there are probably elections for city council and mayoral races out there not to mention the odd levy or 3. It affects you. So if you don't vote, don't complain about the speed trap that they just put on main street.

Posted 16:29 by Grote 0 comments

Kings Island: Land of the Dumb

Before the good folks at Paramount decide to sue me, let me clarify. Couple weeks ago I was at Kings Island for their "Fear Fest" and for the Third Eye Blind Concert. Mostly though I was there for the Vortex, The Beast and Top Gun. One of these days I'll have the balls to ride junior and do the Beast Trifecta (Beastie, Beast and Son of Beast) but I'm still troubled over the fact that a wooden coaster has a loop-dee-loop in it. Anyway back to my story, we had seen the concert which was pretty good, and were walking back to the Antique cars which they had turned into Route 666 (oooooh scary) and the line was huge! Now here's where the land of the dumb part comes in. It was ten p.m. (park closes at midnight, remember that) when we got to the ride and saw the line was frickin huge. We passed a sign that says "Two Hour wait from this point". What's funnier, is that the line was 30 or 40 people deep after that point and there was still people getting in line! I wanted to go up to one of these morons and say "Helloooooo! You are now in the "Line Ride" because they will close the park before you get to ride the ride!" I hope to God these people don't vote. Still, I forgot how fun Kings Island can be and I'm considering a season pass for next year.