Movies

I’ve been wanting to post something on my World of Warcraft Stress Test experience but haven’t had the time to do so. I should be able to get to that shortly, but in the meantime I have a few movies to review.

24 Hour Party People - This is actually a pretty good film about the beginnings of the British Punk movement. (Of course, some people disagree with the term “punk”, but I’m just reading what the description of the movie says). You learn some interesting things and it’s a well done story. Pretty entertaining. 4 out of 5 stars seems about right. ****

Shaun of the Dead - This is another British film that spoofs Dawn of the Dead. Pretty funny, but since I haven’t actually seen Dawn of the Dead it probably could have been funnier. Somewhat gory in a couple places, but overall not too bad. Only 3 stars for me, but you might like it better. ***

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow - This is very much a Rated G film. While it has some pretty cool scenes and interesting styling, the dialog was very limited and not very stimulating. I’d wait for video for this, but you should see it if you like the comic-book styling. ***

I’ve also been watching some anime:

Descendants of Darkness - Didn’t care for it very much. **

10 Tokyo Warriors - Netflix only has two discs for this series, but so far I like it. (no rating yet)

Last Exile - This series is really good. Flying wooden battleships, colonial musket standoffs, a cyberpunk Guild.. what more could you want? I definitely recommend watching. *****

Obviously we haven’t been watching very movies lately. I know I know, how can I support the average set maker if I just don’t watch movies? They aren’t even good enough to pirate! Sorry, those ads annoy me. For now we will stick to watching Reno 911, Family Guy, Futurama, and whatever else is good on cable TV.

We watched the Bourne Supremacy and Metallica: Some Kind of Monster this weekend. While Bourne was kinda same-ol’ same-ol’and a bit slow, Metallica was pretty interesting. Even if you don’t care for Metallica this is a great film highlighting the changes they’ve gone through over the years and an insight into what a multi-million dollar band deals with daily. Forget Bourne, see Metallica.

Cheryl and I are finishing up the arrangements for our trip to Seattle later this month. I was originally going simply to be at PAX (the Penny-Arcade Expo) in Bellevue. It’s turned into a vacation with Cheryl (which is more than fine), so we’ll be spending a week in Seattle. We hope to get to do some sea kayaking, sightsee Victoria, BC, and visit some of her relatives in Oregon.

PAX should be fun, I’m looking forward to the Soul Caliber 2 tournament. Jeremy is going as well; we’re suppose to be in the Splinter Cell tournament but since we haven’t been playing it I doubt we’ll get past the first round. Oh well, should still be fun! Maybe. If we last longer than 30 seconds.

Cheryl and I have been trying to plan out the days we have there, ie: go here this day, here this other day, blah blah. The Seattle area has so many islands and ferries that it’s getting annoying! We just want to go to Port Townsend and maybe jaunt over to Whidbey Island, but that means 4 ferries (there and back) unless we want an even longer car drive. Ah well, I’m sure it’ll all work out.

Cheryl and I saw I, Robot this weekend. While it is loosely based on Asimov’s Robot universe, it really has nothing to do with the I, Robot book.

But, seeing as I couldn’t really remember much about I, Robot (the book), that didn’t bother me any. This was actually a good movie when I was expecting a cheesy Bad Boys 2 style movie. I would recommend any sci-fi (or not) buffs to check this movie out if you haven’t. Next movie to see: The Bourne Supremacy

Oh, have I also mentioned that Firefly is a total kick ass show?! Haven’t seen it? See it now!

Since I’ve always been a student of behavioral sciences and cultural anthropology (unofficially anyway) it’s interesting to see what a group of friends thought their top 3 movies of all time were. It’ll be even more interesting when I revisit this topic in about a year to see if it’s changed. If I remember. For other modern cultural anthropologists, our age group was from low 20’s to high 30’s.

Channing’s Top 3
Channing picked classics I’ve never heard of, and thus don’t remember what they are. Needless to say, they were along the lines of To Kill a Mockingbird and Gone With the Wind.

Cheryl’s Top 3
Dracula
The Killer
Pirates of the Caribbean

Jeremy’s Top 3
The Crow
Leon
Ronin

Sheila’s Top 3
Like Water For Chocolate
Willy Wonka And the Chocolate Factory
Reservoir Dogs

My Top 3
Princess Bride
Bladerunner
Gattaca

As you can see, my Top 3 are by far the best choices. Though I will admit that I stole Gattaca from Sheila. All in all, I recommend all of the movies here except for maybe Like Water for Chocolate - but then I’ve never seen it. So if you haven’t seen all of these, go get a Netflix account and get crackin’!