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June 18th, 2006

02:15 am I finally got around to seeing X-Men 3 tonight. I found it alternately breathtaking, disappointing, and bewildering. It suffers immensely from poor pacing and development, diminishing what would otherwise have been poignant, impactful scenes. I won't go into detail for the sake of anyone who hasn't seen it yet, but suffice to say my opinion is pretty mixed on this one. Instead, allow me to gripe about my wonderful experience at The Belmont Drive-In Theatre. First, all of their showings are double features. As X-Men isn't the "new" film this week, this meant sitting through Cars. Let me tell you one thing about Cars: Cars fucking sucks. The only redeeming element is the character Mater, and the fact that I liked Mater only makes me hate the movie more because Larry the Cable Guy is seriously less than shit. Cars didn't start till nearly 9:30, so it was obvious we were going to be there pretty late. As soon as X-Men started, it was clear things would not go well. The radio transmitted a constant noise that increased in amplitude along with the soundtrack. This wasn't the low level hiss of background interference; either the frickin' tape was damaged, or their hardware was borked. Regardless of the cause, it gets worse: they muted the audio and interrupted to announce the food stand's closing time. Twice. So after putting up with all that, and staying there till after 1 o'clock, we waited through the entire epic length credit roll as I'd been alerted not to miss the final epilogue. As the credits drew to a close, the first frame of the epilogue quickly flashed and then disappeared. And that's it. They played the entire near-ten minute credit sequence, and then cut off whatever followed. Fuck you, Belmont Drive-In Theatre. Fuck you to Hell. Current Mood: pissed off Current Music: Orbital - Doctor? Tags: movies

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July 5th, 2005

05:30 pm - Never thought I'd say this Holy shit AOL, you rock. Also musically related, I haven't followed the VGMix scene for a while. Apparently, this has been a heinous mistake: Dwelling of Duels VGMix mirror Dragolf's mirror (hint: holy fucking shit click those links OK) [edit]: leave it to Brett Ratner to bring me down when I was riding high :( Current Mood: happy Current Music: Ashane - Zealous Entropy Tags: movies, music

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February 19th, 2005

09:50 pm Constantine is just OK. Batman and Sin City look promising though. (talking about movies not comics, just so we're clear) Hot upcoming concerts: Ozric Tentacles Dixie Dregs Current Mood: tired Current Music: me Tags: movies, music

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September 24th, 2004

03:05 pm What am I doing tonight? Check out the very first entry on this here schedule. Coincidentally, Cookie has a gig right up in the same area, so it looks like it'll be a full night. Current Mood: excited Current Music: Maybe I Have a Chainsaw - Song 02 Tags: movies, music

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December 28th, 2003

05:41 pm - A Christmas Story I attended a Christmas party with some friends of the family Friday night. Jim and Annise hosted, while Tina, Michael, Dave, Scott and our group were all to attend. When we arrived, the only partiers yet to arrive were Scott (who would be bringing his friend Mike) and Michael, who was working and would be coming directly to the party later and changing out of his uniform there. Well shortly after we arrived, Bob received a buzz on his Nextel from Scott. Scott explained that he would be running a bit late but was surely on his way; seems he ran into a snag out on the road. When stuck behind a terminally slow motorist, Mike implored Scott to pass. Pass he did, not only the slow driver but also a patrol car turning onto the road from an intersection. As luck would have it, there was a conveniently located speed limit sign to inform Scott that the limit for this road was 35 mph. Glancing down at his speedometer, he found that his speed was 65. Mike yelled at Scott to turn immediately, to which Scott had to point out that there wasn't a road to turn on to. So Scott turned onto the very next road he came to, made a u-turn, and passed the street he had been taking. Scott said that they would show up shortly, following an alternate route. After the conversation, all had a good time talking smack about how foolish Scott's actions had been, and indeed how fortunate he was not to be in jail at the moment. Then somebody came to a very important realization: Scott had never met Michael. We knew now what must be done. Scott showed up with Mike in tow, and Jim popped in a disc from one of his Christmas gifts: a 5 season collection of Blackadder. Funny stuff, way better than Mr. Bean. Perhaps 45 minutes or an hour later, there was a knock at the door, and Jim answered it. At the door stood a police officer, who requested to speak with the owner of the teal Civic parked outside. Apparently a car matching that description had been seen outrunning one of their officers, and there was an A.P.B. out for the vehicle. Somewhat nervously, Scott rose and greeted the officer. He handed him his license, and answered his questions, denying everything. Mike slumped down in his chair and pulled his hat down over his face, staring forward with his eyes shifting from side to side frantically. Finally, Michael looked at Scott and said, "Scott?" "Yes?" "They're fucking with you." And the room that had barely been able to contain itself up till this point erupted into the most uproarious laughter I've heard in my life. Michael introduced himself to Scott and Mike and ducked into a bedroom, emerging later wearing a t-shirt that read: How to escape a cop 1: run 2: hide 3: throw him a donut Each option was illustrated by amusing stick figures acting out the various escape tactics. I also saw Return of the King this weekend. Now, most people who know me know that I am not a big movie person - I don't like to go to theaters much, and I still haven't seen Matrix: Revolutions (spoil and perish). I'm also not a rabid fan of the Lord of the Rings movies - don't get me wrong, I think they're excellent and I enjoy watching them, but that's as far as it goes. I was in no way excited to see this movie. That said, the movie was fucking badass. It's a bit awkward to recommend a movie without actually saying anything about it, but I don't want to ruin anything for those of us who haven't read the books. Just see it already, if you haven't yet. One thing I can discuss are the advertisement trailers that ran prior to the movie. In addition to an insipid Mask sequel (Blockbuster dancing baby + The Mask? Does anyone watch this shit?), there was, well...this. After finally getting home (gosh, it was light outside when I entered the theater), I decided to check out the website mentioned in the advertisement. It's very professional and seemingly thorough, but I still wasn't convinced. Well, a registrar whois reveals that the domain is owned by none other than 20th Century Fox. Now just what is Fox working at? One curious possibility, given their mention of "the three laws of robotics", may be a new movie based on the works of Isaac Asimov. The truth is probably less interesting, but it's fun to speculate. In other news, my interest in the Hot Chick at Garden Ridge is threatening to develop into a full blown crush, if it hasn't already. I was hoping there'd be a New Year's celebration in the streets of uptown that I could invite her to (as there have been in years past), but I can't find any evidence of it. Phooey. Oh, and I'm probably going to cut my hair. Current Mood: determined Current Music: X Japan - Art of Life Tags: chicks, danielle, humor, movies

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July 14th, 2003

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June 22nd, 2003

09:42 pm - BAMF Just got back from X2 - yeah, I know I'm late, and no, I still haven't seen The Matrix Reloaded so don't ask (and don't spoil). Anyway, X2 was fucking flawless; being as critical as I am of something I know so well, I tried my damnedest to find fault with this movie yet turned up empty-handed. This is in sharp contrast to the original - once the "wow" wore off, I couldn't help but see room for improvement at every turn in the first movie (some of these improvements are actually made by reintroducing cut scenes included on the home release to their proper sequence - anyone with issues about that movie ought to check out the DVD). In particular, I was extremely disappointed at the handling of the Wolverine/Sabretooth relationship, not to mention the character of Sabretooth in general. The plotting, dialogue, acting and direction in X2 were all polished, as was the way all of the characters were handled. When I watched X-Men for the first time, I was (I would hope understandably) initially apprehensive regarding the alterations made to some of the characters, Rogue in particular. I do understand the need to give the movies their own independent universe and timeline though - otherwise, they'd have to make 50 movies and there'd be nothing new in any of them in comparison to the comics. I think they've done a good job of simplifying things without destroying the characters. What's really most vital however is the conflict of philosophy between Xavier and Magnus, and I think that's been preserved quite nicely. I was quite pleased to see Magneto return but not as a primary antagonist. The sometimes grey area he operates within deserves to be explored further. And the interplay between Wolverine and Deathstrike made up in part for the void of such a relationship with Sabretooth in X-Men. I was just disappointed that we never get to see Yuriko's true character - she only serves as a tool of Stryker. By the time Legion's (am I correct in assuming Jason Stryker was intended to be Legion?) influence wore off, she was dead. Kelly Hu was quite hot though. So was Anna Paquin, but you didn't need me to remind you that water was wet. I suppose it's now quite obvious that we'll be getting the Dark Phoenix Saga in some form for X-Men 3. I'm looking forward to it. Current Mood: excited Current Music: Spastic Ink - To Counter and Groove in e minor Tags: movies

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