Seen anything interesting lately? Whether in the theater or on DVD, tell what you thought.




I watched DOOMSDAY tonight. It was better than I expected. It's kind of a cross between Escape From New York and Mad Max: The Road Warrior, with just a touch of 28 Days Later. If post-apocalyptic action is your thing, I recommend it.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars. ****o

Watched The Golden Compass tonight. It was alos better than I expected. It was kind of like a cross between Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter but without being anywhere close to being a rip off of either. Hard to explain. They obviously were planning to have a sequel, but I know nothing about there being one.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars, largely because it succesfully made me want to see a sequel.
****o

Tonight I watched Fool's Gold. It is a comedy, with some light action. Basically it was good for what it was, but a bit predictable in some places. The casting was believable, and did a decent job not trying to pretend it was more than it was. Worth a look if you got nothing else going on. I'm sure it will make the TV rounds from next year on, for a while.

I give it 3 out of 5 stars. ***oo

Watched Slumdog Millionaire yesterday and it was very good movie. The music was a little weird but it was easily one of the best movies I've seen this week lol

I give Kingdom of Heaven 5 stars. I thought it was great. *****

Not new for me, but I watched Accepted again recently. I love this movie. I give it 4 stars. I would give it five, but I only gave Dark Knight 4, so 4 it is. ****o

I watched Incredible Hulk during the Christmas holidays. It was way better than the first one, but I am glad they didn't really pretend that none of the first one happened.

Lots of action and no hulk dogs.

I give it 4 stars. ****o

I saw Cloverfield [on December 30th]. It was actually better than I expected. The first half hour is really boring, but once things start happening, it is a pretty decent movie.

I give it only 3 stars because of the slow start. ***oo

Hellboy II: The Golden Army. I saw it in the theater when it was new and was very disappointed. To me it didn't live up to the first Hellboy movie. I like the director, Guillermo del Toro, but perhaps he should not have been the one to make this movie. He included too much imagery from his other great work Pan's Labyrinth, while not having the Hellboy feel from the first movie. It was pretty but felt like something was missing. Watching the movie the seconed time, now on DVD, it was much more enjoyable for some reason, but still not as good as the first Hellboy.

I give Hellboy II: The Golden Army 3 stars. ***oo

I give Pan's Labyrinth 5 stars. *****

I give Hellboy 4 stars. ****o

The other day I watched Death Race. I liked it. It has pretty much nothing to do with the original and should be treated as an unrelated movie with a similar name, and not compared. I'm not sure weather to give it 3 or 4 stars. I wasn't anything special, but it didn't have any real flaws either. It accomplished eveything it set out to be.

I'll give it 4 stars for not having any real flaws. ****o

This weekend I watched 2 totally different animated films. Ratatouille and Millenium Actress.

Ratatouille was much better than I had expected. I had been putting it off because to me it didn't have the "Pixar look". And I had heard it was not that good. But I liked it mostly. It had funny parts and overall was entertaining to look at.

I also watched a Japanese animation movie from 2002 called Millenium Actress. It was extremely well made, but you have to have a certain amout of knowledge and understanding about Japan and it's history to be able to appreciate it fully. For most people, this will admittedly not be the most entertaining of films. Also it is in Japanese only, with subtitles, and I do hate having to read a movie.

Toy Story *****
Toy Story 2 ****o
A Bug's Life ***oo
Finding Nemo *****
Cars *****
WALL-E *****
Ratatouille gets 4 stars ****o

Millenium Actress gets 3 stars ***oo

Traitor. Dear god, it was slow, boring, and not at all what I was led to believe it was like. The acting was good, but I had a hard time staying awake through it all. And in the end, nothing happened. It's like watching a person brush their teeth.

I give Traitor 2 stars due only to the acting quality. **ooo

WANTED. It was a decent movie, but nothing really exceptional. It was nowhere near as actiony as the commercials led me to believe.
There is a brief action sequence in the first 5 minutes, then nothing for the next 20 minutes. Then some more action, followed by a long stretch of not much. The last 30 minutes has some action, but not enough to make up for the lost time.
In all, it's not a bad movie, but it doesn't do anything to make it a really good movie either.

I give WANTED 3 stars ***oo

[/color]Eagle Eye . I was told it was full of action, so maybe I expected too much. Like WANTED, it was a decent movie, perhaps better than WANTED, but still it didn't have enough to push it higher than the 3 stars I'm going to give it.

Eagle Eye gets 3 stars [color=yellow]***oo

Prince Caspian. It was marginally better than the first Chronicles of Narnia movie, but still greatly fails to live up to the hype for me.[/color]

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe barely gets 3 stars [color=yellow]***oo.

Prince Caspian gets 3 stars also ***oo

I watched the animated Resident Evil: Degeneration. It was completely done with the animation levels of a game cinematic sequence. It looked pretty good. Enjoying this movie largely requires having played most of the games and understanding those storylines. It has nothing to do with the live action movie series. I guess you could watch it without knowing the previous storylines, but there will be things you won't understand if that is the case. Excellent animation quality. It was released in theaters in Japan where it did quite well, so keep in mind that it is dubbed meaning that the mouths will not sync up perfectly with the audio, but it is not at all like the old kung fu movies dudding.

I give it 3 stars, because it is not up to the level of things I give 4 stars to, and I am not doing halves. ***oo

Tropic Thunder. It was pretty funny in parts, but some parts not so much. It over-used the F word, which detracted a little bit, and it had a couple things that were just stupid. Overall, it was enjoyable to watch without being disappointed.

Like some other movies, I've rated, it is better than most 3 star movies, but not quite good enough to be 4 stars.

I'll give it 4 stars, but I'm being generous. ****o

I recently watched CGI Horton Hears a Who with my kids. I remember first seeing the trailers a long time ago, and it seemed much funnier then than the actual movie was. It has quite the cast of voices, but it just drags on and on and on...

I can only barely give this one 3 stars. ***oo

Max Payne. It was flawed in many ways. The story "borrowed" a little too much from The Punisher story. It has horrible casting for many important characters, and the direction tried too hard to look artistic.
I was watchable, but not all that good.

Max Payne gets 3 stars, barely. ***oo

I watched the new Star Trek yesterday. It did not quite live up to the hype I was hearing about it. By iteself, it is a decent movie, but as a part of Star Trek as a whole, I would rather they not tamper with some things. The biggest problem, in my opinion is that much of the story is not in the movie at all, but can only be found in the prelude comic book which explains everything about Nero, why he is so angry at Spock, why the Romulans look so different, what happened to Romulus, and how they got to where they are in the movie. I know the movie very briefly tried to explain some of these things, but not really so much. Without the prelude story, you are missing more than half of the story. I don't want to spoil anything, so I will not discuss the things I did not like.

In all, I give Star Trek 4 stars. ****o

Hopefully seeing Star Trek this weekend

finally saw star trek last night AT AN IMAX! I agree with alot of what yuurei said. But overall i thought the movie was excellent and a welcome reboot to one of my favorite franchises.

Having already been a star trek fan i already understood alot of the vulcan/romulan dichotomy so that wasn't an issue for me.

Favorite seen in the movie:
Exiting out of warp into a huge debree field of blown up star ships

Interesting thought:
why would a mining vessel look so damn scary and imposing?

I've never seen any real movie at an IMAX.



My point was the shaved heads and facial tattoos on the Romulans which is explained in the prelude book. A ritual sign of mourning which they made permanent due to the destruction of Romulus.



Yes. Very cool scene.



Again, explained in prelude book. It is a war systems shell made from reverse-engineered Borg tech and built over the mining ship. It learns, adapts and absorbs debrit to increase its mass and capabilities. A weapon of last resort, which they acquired from a Top Secret Romulan military R&D facility after destruction of Romulus in order to get revenge on the Vulcans and the Federation for not acting quickly enough.

I liked the prelude book better than the movie and recommend it as a companion piece to the film. It is called Star Trek: Countdown and is now available in trade paperbak form.

thanks for mentioning it. I just "read/watched" it on you tube. It does add alot of backstory to the film and serves as a great way to tie TNG and Startrek together.

I saw Terminator Salvation yesterday and I must say it was very different than what I expected. The plot was easy enough to figure out as the movie went along but it seems that the writers would place a major emphasis on a particular part of the movie like it meant something but then never bring it up again. The movie revolved around multiple people rather than the usual assassinate (<==I love the way that's spelled ) mission.

All in all:
Star Trek > Terminator

But it was still a very good movie for what it was.

4.5 Boxes [][][][][

I felt about the same way. Terminator was alot better than I expected it to be, and completely different than I expected it to be.

Some things i felt to be inconsistent. Waring Spoilers (highlight to reveal)
1. How does SkyNet know about Kyle Rease
2. How do all of the troops get into the Skynet factory to rescue everyone?

My recent and a long time ago DVD movie views

Amelie (2001), by Jean-Pierre Jeunet ([][][][) FRANCE

I like this film because it takes a comic portrait on loneliness, as well as drawing the viewer into Amelie's mind. Audrey Tautou is JUST absolutely cute in this feature.

A Clockwork Orange (1971) by Stanley Kubrick ([][][][][) USA

This film should be on a must view list. To me it is a warning on the idea of forced rehabilitation and the removal of the individual from a man. The plot is easy to follow as you look from the main character's perspective of his society. Based on the novel by Anthony Burgess

Koyaanisqatsi (1982) by Godfrey Reggio ([][][][]) USA

A film that asks a big question- has technology really changed the lifestyle of humanity for the better? There is no narrative film, thus it makes meanings through the juxtaposition of images. The film leaves it to you to interpret these images.

Letters to Ali (2004) by Clara Law ([][][]) AUSTRALIA

This is an Australian film that follows an 'average' Australian family's journey in a car from Melbourne in Victoria, to Port Headland in Western Australia (go get out your atlases to find out where these places are) in order to visit an Afghani boy named Ali (not his real name to protect his identity) held in a refugee detention centre. The film encourages to directly follow their journey as if you were there and sympathise with Ali's plight. A film that pokes open the issue of illegal immigration and its far-reaching tendrils on society.

Renaissance (2006) by Christian Volckman ([][][]) FRANCE/UK/LUXEMBOURG

This is the only action movie in the list. But the awesomeness lies in its visual style- done in entirely in cel-shaded black and white. 2 points for that. Plot is a little thin, but has all the familiar ingredients of an action film. The main character, Karas, is voiced by Daniel Craig (before he got famous) in the English version. 1 point for all that. Just watch this film for the visual style.

I saw Terminator Salvation last Saturday. I really liked it. In my opinion is was far superior to Star Trek, in every way.

I figure there is enough story left to make one final additional movie to complete the circle.

I give Terminator Salvation 4 stars ****o

I watched Paul Blart: Mall Cop recently. Overall, it is not as funny as I expected, and it had its flaws, but it was enjoyable for what it was. In many ways it is a poor man's Die Hard, but with comedy.

I give Paul Blart: Mall Cop 3 stars ***oo.

I watched "The Hangover" last night and I must say that it is the funniest movie I've seen in years. It starts a little slow but that only lasts for maybe a max of 10 minutes and from there on throughout the rest of the movie, the humor doesn't stop. To understand all of the humor you need to know a lot about adult situations but seeing how we're all on the internet we should know all about it Anyways, I don't suggest taking your kids to see it as there is everything that Vegas is famed for in that movie.

I just have to give it [][][][][] (5 boxes if you can't count) Simply an amazing movie.

I’ve been thinking a lot about education lately. It all started when I watched this TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson, “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” Robinson asserts that creativity in education is as important as literacy, and the current school system does not treat it as such. In fact, he says, the current school system stifles creativity.
What these things have in common you see is that kids will take a chance. If they don’t know, they‘ll have a go. Am I right? They’re not frightened of being wrong. Now I don’t mean to say that being wrong is the same thing as being creative. But what we do know is, if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original. If you’re not prepared to be wrong.
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And by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong. And we run our companies like this, by the way — we stigmatize mistakes. And we are now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make. And the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities. Picasso once said this. He said, that all children are born artists, the problem is to remain an artist as we grow up. I believe this passionately; that we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it, or rather that we get educated out of it. So why is this?
Do Schools Kill Creativity?
archlord gold
When I heard this, I of course started thinking about my own schooling. I was fortunate enough to go to some pretty unconventional schools throughout my childhood. My elementary school, for example, encouraged “inventive spelling.” If you didn’t know how to spell a word for the story you were writing, you made it up — you wrote it the way you thought it should be. Now, I can’t prove any cause and effect here, but I now happen to be a top-notch speller. I’m sure that’s more due to my childhood consumption of every book I laid my hands on, but inventive spelling was great nonetheless. We actually had a class called “Rhythm” that, as far as I remember, entailed a lot of jumping and dancing around a big empty room. I also didn’t have grades until I was 10 years old, and the school I went to resided inside half the public library building.
archlord gold
So my schooling experience wasn’t exactly conventional, but it began to fit into certain molds as I grew older. After all, I had to get into college, didn’t I?
archlord power leveling
Robinson suggests that our schooling system would look to aliens like an entire process devoted to creating university professors. If you look at the path from high school to university and beyond, schooling and academia have become insulated, self-perpetuating ecosystems that are often irrelevant to the world outside. Luckily, there are many teachers who reach beyond that — but it is a hard system to crack.
Confessions of a Lifelong Student
Let me pause to say that I have always loved being a student. I actually was one of those people who really liked going to school. And in university, after completing a thesis my senior year, I considered going on to do a PhD in literature. But after a year and a half of giving myself space from academia, I realized that if I do go back to school, it needs to be for something relevant to the social discussions and issues I confront every day. I still adore literature, but I cannot spend six years diving ever further into the insulated academic world of literary analysis. Today I am writing my stories, exploring new territory, and diving into projects that I figure out as I go. Most importantly, I have realized how much I am learning by going at it myself.
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I sat down today and thought about the most organic and fulfilling learning experiences I’ve ever had. The first four things that sprang to mind were: aoc gold
- becoming fluent in Spanish
- taking a community activism training course
- learning to start my own business and build an online community
- writing my thesis
What do all these experiences have in common? I was thrown into the thick of it, and spurred to make my way.
I became fluent in Spanish by living, studying, eating and breathing in Spanish for a full year in Valencia, Spain. The community activism training course was based around actually planning and creating our own nonprofit organizations — press conference introduction and all. My business and blogging? Well, I was just trying to figure out a way to support my mobile and independent lifestyle. And the thesis, though unquestionably within academia, required me to create something huge on my own.
In all of these examples, I made tons of mistakes. None of them were irreparable, and most of them were formative in my learning experience. Being in the thick of things is one of the best ways to get rid of that fear of failure, which is how we thrive and nurture our development.
Does this mean that our education systems need to become more experiential in order to become more creative? How can classrooms embrace the fruits of failure, and redefine them as discovery? I think this should be an inspiring topic to discuss, because there is so much potential.
I encourage you all to watch Robinson’s TED talk below — aside from being brilliant, he’s also relentlessly hilarious. [If you are viewing this post in an RSS reader or e-mail, you may need to click the link to watch on YouTube].