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Review
I saw part of Cats and Dogs 3D, but I’m not going to subject you to any review of it. I’d rather not think that much about it. Chris O’Donnell had best hope NCIS:LA stays on the air or he’ll be stuck making these animal movies (probably with Brendan Fraser). That’s a fate I wouldn’t wish on anyone, even if he’s partly responsible for Batman and Robin. Review
I took Thomas and Mattie to see this on Saturday, and we all enjoyed it quite a bit. Well, Mattie was more interested in popcorn and changing seats, but that’s why we go to the kid-friendly showing in the morning. ;) The story is about Gru, a super-villain comfortable in his solitary life until a new rival swoops in and takes the spotlight from him. Determining Vector’s (the new villain) one weakness to be Girl Scout cookies, Gru adopts three orphan girls who had tried to sell them to him previously. You can imagine what happens, in general terms, as Gru works on stealing back the Shrink Ray he needs from Vector, the girls are working on making the best of what appears at first to be a bad situation. It’s not a full-on tears movie, but I’ll admit to misting up a tiny bit for the book at the end (you’ll see). The minions don’t quite steal the show, but they are funny in way that adds to the movie, not distracts from it. All in all, it was a quite enjoyable time. It’s kind of unfortunate that all animated movies get judged against Pixar’s best now, but Despicable Me holds it’s own. See it. Review
I took my son to a birthday party this weekend, and as part of that, he got to see The Last Airbender. I waffled and hemmed and hawed, but figured I’d ride shotgun with him in case it got too scary (he’s a sensitive soul). Now, I’ve probably only seen about 10 minutes total of the cartoon, though it is highly recommended by my friends to I always meant to revisit it when I could. I always went in with knowledge of the concerns and bad reviews the movie was getting. To be honest, my son and I both enjoyed it for what it was, an adaptation of a cartoon, aimed at kids. There are flaws, oh definitely there are flaws, some of which I will detail, but the biggest flaw with the movie is not its fault – expectations. For some reason, people seem to think M. Night Shymalan’s name being attached to a movie means it might be good. I don’t know why that is, considering he hasn’t been involved in a good movie since, what, 2002? His dialog is trite, there is talking during scenes when there shouldn’t be any, and not enough when there is something that needs more description. Best example is the scene with Sokka and Princess Yue meeting. The voiceover is completely unnecessary. The heavy eye contact, followed by scenes showing them together, would’ve been more effective. The effects are cool, but I had to laugh when someone referred to the fighting as ‘turn-based’. The combatants do seem to stand around for a few seconds to let the other guy get his bending going. A more fluid mix of martial arts and bending (with 125% less slomo), though harder to choreograph and film, would’ve been a massive improvement to watchability. Seriously, I’m imagining it right now, and it’s awesome. I think I have an advantage in not having seen any of the source material. The story is new and cool, even if it is poorly told in this movie. I want to see more. The problem the moviemakers will have is if I go ahead and watch the cartoon instead of any future live action movie (assuming this even does well enough to get the next chapter made). Review
What? Oh hi, didn’t see you there…huh? No, I have something in my eye *sniff* that’s all. It’s a movie about toys for crying out loud! Uh, crying is a bad choice of words… The whole family went to see Toy Story 3 this weekend, and of course we all loved it. Plenty of action, plenty of heart, and a great ending. But seriously, you knew that, right? I don’t want to spoil anything (there are some important twists that need to be surprises), so just consider this a recommendation to go see the movie. I don’t care who you are, kids, no kids, whatever. You’ll be glad you did. Life
Facebook friends will have seen some of these pictures, but only YOU, my faithful readers, will get the rest of the story. I hope you can handle it. It’s too much for me, to be honest. ;)
The rest of the days, the kids wanted to play in the water. I am the only adult that cannot swim, but thankfully there is a shallow section and plenty of life jackets. Thomas and Ethan spent much of the water time goofing with the floating weeds, piling them up and so on. The next day, everyone was brave enough to take the various paddle boats and canoes out. The pictures from that will all be at the bottom of the post, please note you see me in a canoe. We basically went in a very short circle, as my very pregnant wife made the canoe just a little tippy (at least, it felt that way to me). Never again. Anyway, the wheel to the car didn’t fly off on the way down this time, stranding us in Fredonia and making us miserable, so I count that as a win.
Life
As you could probably tell, I was off the grid for the weekend, so not really any tweeting or blogging going on. I will have pictures of the kids up later, though, for those of you who like ‘em. :) Random
Holiday colored M &M’s taste different. Most notably the Easter-themed ones, in the pastel colors. People keep telling me that I’m full of it, but I can’t be. The holiday ones that are still the right color (red or some such) seem fine. Anyone else like that out there? Review
I went and saw The A-Team last night, and I have to say I enjoyed myself. It was exactly what I expected, nothing more, nothing less. It had plenty of nods to the series, while modernizing it and making it different enough that you didn’t feel like you’d seen it all before. Glad I went. There are spoilers after the jump, read on if you dare… Console Games
If you are like me, and you read Roger Ebert’s excellent Twitter feed and blog, you know he sometimes gets on a subject and won’t let go. Recently, one such topic has been how video games can’t be art. Now, video games are pretty close to my heart (as close as movies are to Mr. Ebert’s), and I have felt compelled at times to defend games, but have never posted. Many others did so so eloquently, and Ebert seemed stuck in his ways, it seemed fairly useless. Still, after yet good-natured snipe, I had to get this on record: Video Games Are Art. I mean, there are some great stories – great stories are art. In modern games especially, there are beautiful images – images can be art. I have certainly been moved by games, perhaps not to the same extent as a really outstanding book, but there are levels to everything. I probably rank games above most picture art, as far as that goes, but it’s different for everyone. My favorite ‘video game as art’ example is Half-Life. Now, I don’t enjoy horror movies, typically. But the beginning of HL plays out like a horror movie, that is actually supremely enjoyable to me. It produced real tension, as I crept through the ruined Black Mesa facility. Doors bursting open, me wildly swinging the crow bar until the headcrab zombie was dead, then laughing and shaking my head at my own reaction. That’s art, to me. What causes the outcry about stuff like this is the fact that we gamers are a prickly bunch. We get derided as childish, lazy, violent-offenders-in-waiting who play killing simulators and brain-numbing MMOs. So we are touchy when a major media outlet of any kind takes a shot at us. Even when it’s one we generally like (despite a favorable review for Star Wars: Episode 1). Sci/Tech
 Will they send 'em cheesy movies, the worst they can find? There is a simulation going on in Russia right now, with a team of ‘astronauts’ living in a series of modules designed to resemble a ship flying to Mars. They are stuck together in there for 520 days, about how long it would take to fly to Mars, to test whether 6 random scientists could stay level-headed and relaxed after all that time. This line, though, kills me: “Well aware of this hazard, crew members equipped themselves accordingly. For instance, French participant Romain Charles said he was bringing along a guitar so he could entertain the other team members.” I’m SURE that’s what I’d want if I was locked in a spaceship with a bunch of other dudes for a year and a half, and one of them is a French guy with a guitar. I sure hope the rest of them have some noise isolating headphones. |
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