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Fulltime Killer

Did something get lost in the translation?

This movie about two legendary assassins. They are supposed to be the greatest hit man in Asia and they're in a pissing contest. Caught in the middle is a fairly intelligent woman who's dull life drives her to be attracted to them both. And of course since she's hot and they're both men they get to be with her. Anyway, one of the hit man is Japanese (O), the other Chinese (Tok). They duke it out till the end. Also there's a police character in this movie. I am not sure what to make of him.

Besides the massive violence I found this movie to be extremely dull. The plot is terrible, and the soundtrack is also equally bad.

Avoid!

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Do not call me you bastards!

Tired of telling telemarketers to put you on the do not call list? And they keep calling you. Ever wish there's a national do not call list?

Well, NOW there is! The national do not call list went on-line today! Right now the site is a bit slow but you should definately sign up if you're tired of telemarketers. There's also the toll free number you can call: 1-888-382-1222.

The great thing about this is for every violation the telemarketer gets penalties of up to $11,000 per call! That's great! Do I get a share of that?

Yahoo article here.

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The Hulk

As a fan of The Incredible Hulk comic book series I liked this movie alot. I thought it was very, very well done, even down to the sometimes annoying scene transitions. I found it disconcerting at times but I know why they're. They are there to make the movie feel like a comic book. That is why the emotions of the characters are often exaggerated (hence the over-acting), the characters them selves are exaggerated as well. It's HULK all right. Ang Lee captured the essence of it and he should be very proud.

I thought the acting was quite good. And the movie had a sense of humor which I liked. The audience knows David Banner was going to turn out to be the Hulk and the movie played on this. Even though the movie was quite long I didn't feel bored, I loved every second of it. Watching the movie made me feel like a kid again, enjoying my favorite superhero come to life!

Good Movie!

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Finding Nemo

Okay some of us can easy get past having to sit in a theater with 200 odd screaming snot-nosed brats and some of us can't. Lucky for you I can, and thusly braved the sea of adolescence in order to watch Pixar Animation's latest big screen fare, FINDING NEMO on opening night.
Being a major Pixar fan myself I'll be honest that my expectations for this weren't nearly as high as for MONSTERS INC or A BUGS LIFE. This was partly due to the feud that Pixar's being going through with Disney and the satanic contract legalities, and that I'm not a Marine Biologist. I don't usually preoccupy myself with the Ocean and it's inhabitants unless there's blood, an O2 tank and Robert Shaw involved. But all the same it was Pixar and they've yet to disappoint me.
John and the boys have always left me thoroughly entertained, and I was eagerly ready to plunk down my two bits. And true to form, FINDING NEMO was right on key. With some fantastic voice acting from Al Brooks, whom I've never been overly fond of, and the ever-funny Ellen Ex-Heche it really was a lot of fun. I didn't even start drinking til after the movie! Actually the highlight for me was the ensemble cast, and while this time round probably they probably saved a few hundred mil in the paychecks by using character actors, the megastars aren't missed. Pixar standby John Ratzenberger had me grinning ear to ear, as did the film's director Andrew Stanton who makes for one of the more memorable characters, Crush (aka Dude!). And I'll say this once and for all, KING PRAWNS are the funniest damn things ever, whether they be Muppet or Animated.
Speaking of animation, Pixar's animation just continuously inches closer and closer to being indistinguishable with live action; textures and h20 sumpremely amazing. In the attached preview for their next feature, THE INVINCABLES, it occured to me how far they've come with the physics and movements of the human body. If you see it, note the evolution from say A TOY STORY's human animation. One of the most impressive backgrounds was the rendering of Sydney, (you know the Opera house, the bay, etc...) one of the only real locals I can Remember Pixar modeling.
In the end I'm always going to recommend a Pixar film, and NEMO is another great addition to the club. If you're looking for a fun comedy with heart don't waste your money on Jim Carrey, definitely go see FINDING NEMO.

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Equilibrium

Christian Bale stars in this 1984/Brave New Worldish movie where the future has been reduced to a single city by war. To survive the society lives to be strictly controlled. The premise is the wars that decimated the human population was caused by the weakness in humanity, their ability to feel. To prevent feeling the entire population must dose themselves regularly with injections of Prozium. Everything that can spark an emotional response is removed. That includes art, music, and even furniture; they are immediately disposed of (they are burned like in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451). Conformity is essential. If you are caught "feeling" (a sense crime) you will be executed. The entire process is enforced by the group our main character works for. Fortunately for our hero he is trained to be a Cleric. Which basically means he's the bad ass of all bad asses and that means he's going to be doing a lot ass kicking in this movie.

I really enjoyed this movie for it's action. It's not terribly deep because none of the ideas presented in this movie is original. The supposed twist at the end wasn't very surprising or fulfilling, but I wasn't let down by the movie because I just wanted to see the main character blows everyone out of the water with his giant Robocop pistol and in the end it satisfies. Oh yeah there's swords too. Not a bad piece of cinema.

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Mozilla Firebird a fine feathered friend!

From their project page: The Mozilla Firebird project is a redesign of Mozilla's browser component, written using the XUL user interface language and designed to be cross-platform.

I've used this for awhile and I can tell you it ROCKS. It's fast, and clean and an absolute joy to use. Those who like to use Mozilla but feels it's too bloated with mail, composer etc. would definately want to try it out. So give it a try it if you haven't already! The version I'm using is .06.

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The End of Buffy

Saw the show last night. I expected Buffy to die but she doesn't but some of the other supporting characters that have been with the show for many seasons did. They killed off Spike! How dare they. I didn't particularly like him that much anyways. Glad the show is over, seemed like it was running out of juice in the story telling department.

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Shanghai Knights

So when are sequels ever good?

The answer is never. Sequels are (almost) never good.

But why? Why are they (almost) always bad?

Because of expectation. Expectation leads to disappointment. Sequels never live up to our expectation because we expect to feel the same way we felt watching the previous one. Sequels to a bad movie have a chance to be good because we expect it to be bad. So if you saw a good sequel to a bad movie you would say to yourself, "Hey, that movie wasn't too bad..." But to a good movie you would feel disappointed and unhappy because it didn't live up to the caliber of the previous.

We feel bad about a sequel because we expect too much from the movie. Perhaps that is the case with this movie, Shanghai Knights the sequel to Shanghai Noon. Maybe my emotional baggage leftover from the previous movie biased me to this one thus making me feel bad about it. Bad about the quality of the script, the lack of chemistry between Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson. I needed a confirmation to my theory, so I've done an experiment. I've shown someone Shanghai Knights and afterwards Shanghai Noon. And they agreed with me that Shanghai Noon is a vastly superior movie.

In conclusion, skip this movie and rent Shanghai Noon again.

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Not One Less

The reason I rented this movie because of Yimou Zhang. He directed the movie, Happy Times and The Road Home, both very good. He is a fantastic story teller. His movies tell a simple story and the acting is very good (by unprofessional actors). All the movies I've seen by him are good and this one is no different.

This story takes place in a poor rural village in china, the teacher of the local school must leave to tend to his sick parents and the mayor hires a substitute. This substitute is barely a child herself; only 13 years old. At first she has a hard time keeping order and is reluctant to take up her duty but we know she has a good heart because of the steps she takes to make sure the whole class stays together-- I won't give away what she does but she goes through a lot, more so than anybody else in the movie. You will be in awe of her stubbornness. This movie feels good and the ending of this movie was very a joyful unlike Happy Times which had a not so happy ending.

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Kolya

HEY! I just figured out an the recipe for a heartwarming drama! Here are the essential ingredients one cute kid, one aging bachelor, and a situation that puts them together. Add aging bachelor to one part cute, snot nosed kid, mix well, make sure the aging bachelor is reluctant at first. The two will combine to make a delicious heartwarming plot.

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