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Hmm. I'll take what's behind door number two, Alex.

The summer of ponderous sequels continues with the latest Bruce Willis Die Hard, Live Free or Die Hard. In it, we have a simple everyday beat cop trying to stop the next terrorist threat, but only finding that it was a bank heist. In this version, the terrorist is the former counter-cyberterrorist computing czar and the bank he heists is all of them. With so much problems in the world, why does it end up being a smash and grab?

As I sat through this movie, I couldn't help feeling that it didn't matter if this was a Bruce Willis Die Hard film, because the story and situation was too generic that even Steven Seagal's Casey Ryback could've handled this one. And now that I remember it, he was in the exact same situation in Under Siege 2! It's a rip off. I would've liked to have seen Seagal snap that dude's knee backwards, though.

The stunts were spectacular. The CGI was barely noticeable, and the explosions were pretty good. At least you knew Bruce Willis was getting pummeled and getting hurt. The only thing phony is that the east coast namely DC doesn't have elevated highways that spiral to nowhere. And Baltimore doesn't look anything like DC.

2 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

Woke up early considering I went to bed late just to try and fiddle with the iPhone. Officially, it's named Thorin. Here's some impressions I am getting with it.

The screen is gorgeous. It's bright and everything is readable even without my need of glasses.

Wi-fi sucks. It seems to not want to connect and use my wireless network at home. I also seem to have to turn off every other device for it to connect with the router. I wonder if I should just get the new Airport basestation. This is the most maddening.

The AT&T network is being dropped. I can't tell if this is residual from the wireless issue. Currently, I have no connection when I should be connected just fine.

USB2.0 to USB1.0 sucks. The worst experience ever. Apple should've really pushed their firewire. It would've been much, much better. I am waiting on perhaps an hour for it to sync.

I have too much junk now. I have to get rid of some things.

Labels: iPhone, review

Unlike CapitolSwell, I am currently an owner of the iPhone. I have no idea why. Mostly, it is because my current phone sucks. Its screen is busted. The vibrate doesn't work. And that was the last straw.

I bought the hype. Now I just need to sync it up, and connect.

Labels: Apple, iPhone

Festival 6-10-2007095.JPG
Originally uploaded by onelittleseedling.

Labels: picture

Stopped by Best Buy on the way home, because I wanted to burn the gift cards I had received from WaterLili for the last two Christmases. This is my third time in the new Best Buy just down the street from me, but it's my first time walking away with some product.

Of course, I looked at the DVDs. Bought a three. Went to pay for it. Find out that I had a total of $45.00, so that I have some money still left on it.

Dang!

I hate getting DVDs at Best Buy. It's only good when you know exactly what you want, and what you want is a very popular release like Dumb and Dumber the Dumbest edition or Ants in your Plants of 2006. If you want something off the beaten path, you're SOL (for the kids!).

Plus browsing is plain hideous. Perhaps, I am used to web where I can follow any path through Amazon. I can start at one link and take another link upon my choosing. I am not boxed in by categories. I can easily search for something that pops into my head. If an idea develops, I can follow it until I find the movie that I know will compliment my DVD collection.

Best Buy is so analog.

At Amazon I can find almost any DVD.

Buying it from there is another blog post

Labels: commerce

I've ridden so many times at home that I am sick and tired of it. So I hit the road for the BWI trail. I rack the bike this morning in order to ride after work. It's a dicey proposition as the summer brings thunder storms. That worries me as I don't want to have my bike soaked. But it happens and my bike gets soaked in an afternoon thunder storm.

Labels: cycling

I usually don't like watching a show at The Charles because it's so far away and antiquated. Except they have a couple of movies playing that I really would like to watch, Paris, je t'aime and Once. They may be only playing for a limited time so I think I need to hurry up.

Also, The Charles is having a film noir retrospective until the end of summer. There's some films there I want to see. In particular, Double Indemnity on the big screen would be rather cool. You know why.

Of course, also this upcoming week is a big movie one. Die Hard 4 is opening up today, Ratatouille for the weekend, and Transformers for July 4. That's a lot to see in the theatres.

I hope to get to some of these.

Labels: movies, wishing for a pony

You may wonder if 1408 is Steven King revisiting his seminal work, The Shining. In a ways it is. Creepy hotel. Creepy hotel workers. A writer loosing his mind or is he? All themes and signs that King has worked into his writing throughout his career. If I told you that 1408 was nothing more than a cheap imitation of The Shining, would it surprise you when I told you it isn't? Perhaps not, but you can still guess all the plot threads in this film.

John Cusack is an unheralded writer in the throes of finishing out his career as the go to guy for ghost hunter guides. He debunks supposedly haunted places. Out of the blue, he receives a card not to spend a night in the titular room of the Dolphin Hotel in New York. After researching it, he has to find out why he shouldn't and visits anyway. He spends the night in the hotel room. Does he get scared out of his mind? He goes crazy for the hour. And the ghosts and the room get to him.

I read a lot of ghost stories in my time. I can imagine this one as a story rather than a movie. It would seem to have fit in with the later day stories. Not the Victorian ghost stories that I dearly love. They all have a sceptic who falls into a frightening place, and eventually comes to believe in the supernatural.

This movie had some scares. I am glad for it. Because of the prevalence of the new wave of slasher/torture pics coming, the horror genre didn't seem to be for fun. The movies have been given to being about the violence. Like pulling the wings off a fly for the sake of being sadistic. 1408 was a throw back to just plain atmospheric creeps. No cutting throats or half-sawn faces. Just trying to say, "BOO."

BOO!

It won't scare you, but it will on occasion make you have goosebumps. And that's good enough for me.

3 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

80% Geek

Those questions were kind of lame. They asked when did I start playing computer games, but didn't even have the 70s. That would've shot me up at least an extra 5%!

From Margeaux.

Labels: geeked, lame idea, polls, time sink

I don't fucking believe it?!

Labels: lame idea, meta, polls

Here's the list of AFI's 100 movies of 100 years. I've counted mine and seen 51% of the movies on the list. I probably seem to have seen at least another 10 more, but I don't count those.

1. Citizen Kane (1941) (1)
2. The Godfather (1972) (3)
3. Casablanca (1942) (2)
4. Raging Bull (1980)(24)
5. Singin' in the Rain (1952)(10)
6. Gone With the Wind (1939)(4)
7. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)(5)
8. Schindler's List (1993)(9)
9. Vertigo (1958)(61)
10. The Wizard of Oz (1939) (6)
11. City Lights (1931)(76)
12. The Searchers (1956)(96)
13. Star Wars (1977)(15)
14. Psycho (1960)(18)
15. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)(22)
16. Sunset Boulevard (1950)(12)
17. The Graduate (1967)(7)
18. The General (1927)
19. On the Waterfront (1954)(8)
20. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)(11)
21. Chinatown (1974)(19)
22. Some Like It Hot (1959)(14)
23. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)(21)
24. E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)(25)
25. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)(34)
26. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)(29)
27. High Noon (1952)(33)
28. All About Eve (1950)(16)
29. Double Indemnity (1944)(38)
30. Apocalypse Now (1979)(28)
31. The Maltese Falcon (1941)(23)
32. The Godfather Part II (1974)(32)
33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)(20)
34. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)(49)
35. Annie Hall (1977)(31)
36. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)(13)
37. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)(37)
38. Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)(30)
39. Dr. Strangelove (1964) (26)
40. The Sound of Music (1965)(55)
41. King Kong (1933)(43)
42. Bonnie and Clyde (1967) (27)
43. Midnight Cowboy (1969)(36)
44. The Philadelphia Story (1940) (51)
45. Shane (1953)(69)
46. It Happened One Night (1934) (35)
47. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)(45)
48. Rear Window (1954) (42)
49. Intolerance (1916)
50. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
51. West Side Story (1961)(41)
52. Taxi Driver (1976) (47)
53. The Deer Hunter (1978)(79)
54. MASH (1970) (56)
55. North by Northwest (1959) (40)
56. Jaws (1975) (48)
57. Rocky (1976) (78)
58. The Gold Rush (1925) (74)
59. Nashville (1975)
60. Duck Soup (1933) (85)
61. Sullivan's Travels (1941)
62. American Graffiti (1973)(77)
63. Cabaret (1972)
64. Network (1976) (66)
65. The African Queen (1951) (17)
66. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) (60)
67. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
68. Unforgiven (1992)(98)
69. Tootsie (1982) (62)
70. A Clockwork Orange (1971) (46)
71. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
72. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
73. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)(50)
74. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)(65)
75. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
76. Forrest Gump (1994)(71)
77. All the President's Men (1976)
78. Modern Times (1936) (81)
79. The Wild Bunch (1969) (80)
80. The Apartment (1960)(93)
81. Spartacus (1960)
82. Sunrise (1927)
83. Titanic (1997)
84. Easy Rider (1969) (88)
85. A Night at the Opera (1935)
86. Platoon (1986) (83)
87. 12 Angry Men (1957)
88. Bringing Up Baby (1938) (97)
89. The Sixth Sense (1999)
90. Swing Time (1936)
91. Sophie's Choice (1982)
92. GoodFellas (1990) (94)
93. The French Connection (1971) (70)
94. Pulp Fiction (1994) (95)
95. The Last Picture Show (1971)
96. Do the Right Thing (1989) (2nd review)
97. Blade Runner (1982)
98. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) (100)
99. Toy Story (1995)
100. Ben-Hur (1959) (72)

Labels: lists, movies, polls

I am currently watching AFI's 100 years 100 movies. I get goosebumps when certain films come one. I loved seeing Sullivan's Travels and It Happened One Night. Goosebumps. I want to see the entire list, but these hours may take a while.

One thing about it, I'm sure it's contreversial. How can you choose?!

Labels: It Happened One Night, lame idea, movies, polls

Someone explain to me again why are we ruled by this idiot?

Labels: bookish, wankers

Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer.

The first one was boring, but given that it has to establish the characters, their relationships, and the milieu they'll be functioning in, it can be slightly forgiven for being too expository. Slightly. But I'm not the one to accept it. The first one was listless and the plot stank.

Sequels should be much better. There's no longer a need to establish the situation. They should hit the ground running and therefore they should generally be a rocking good time.

This one wasn't. It retained the boring, listless atmosphere of the first one. It also makes the mistake of making the Silver Surfer into the most boring of characters. I mean, come on, the Cosmic Force. What happened? Also, Galactus as a cloud was plain stupid. That was really the reason why I wanted to see it. I was interested in who would be playing Galactus. I was hoping for Bruce Willis, but a cloud of smoke. It seems that Lost's smoke monster has got a really good agent. Coming soon to the multiplex near you smoke monster in Dukes of Hazard 3!

Jessica Alba with blue eyes is extremely disturbing to look at. She should not act anymore. She should just be a Maxim girl. The dude who played Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic, was struggling to put on brave face. The show must go on.

The problem with the Fantastic Four franchise is that the writers and director do not believe in the comic book. They seem to have abandoned the stories of the comic for something not quite like it. A fake and a no good facsimile of the Fantastic Four just plain sucks.

2 of 5 stars.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

What can be said about this third installment? It's a bloated, disjointed movie. I couldn't keep up with the various double crosses throughout the movie. Who was backstabbing whom? I don't know nor do I care. It left me pondering what happened to the fun and exciting pirates of the first movie. Then it left me deducing that hoboes are the new pirates and the old pirates are just world weary sailors.

I can't wait for Hoboes of the Railyards: The Black Pearl.

2 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

Why it was almost yesterday that they had the Iz!

Congratulations to the parents.

Good luck to her older sister. Don't fight. At least not until she can hit back.

Labels: "la familia"

I'm not a big fan of Clark Gable or Claudette Colbert, but in It Happened One Night, they do the funniest scene. It's a classic and if you've seen this movie or know anything about the screwball comedy genre, you'll know it -- the hitchhiking scene.

Here it is in several screen shots.

Move number one. This shows independence. You don't care if they stop or not. You've got money in your pocket.

Move number two. This means you have a brand new story about the farmer's daughter.

Move number three. The pitiable one. Works better with a long face.

Try number one. Keep your eye on the thumb. How's that work?

Not that good!

Give number three a go!

It don't work either.

Here's a new move!

This'll stop 'em every time.

And of course this is a classic scene. It had me rolling on the floor. Besides Clark Gable in this scene is pretty much the inspiration for bugs bunny. He's chewing on a carrot the whole time.

Labels: hoboes, It Happened One Night, movies, screenshot

I was blazing today. Average of 15.2 mph. And it felt like it.

I know that there were some times when I was cruising above 20 mph on the flats.

I like the cool weather. It made me spin like crazy. I usually go for the warmer weather, but today was fun. I had on my arm warmers and toe covers to keep me somewhat warm. It was great.

I've already equal the number of times I've ridden last June. Also, my mileage from then to now is more. Perhaps I may reach my goal this year.

Labels: cycling, get off your butt

Ocean's 13 is another of the dreaded third installment of a trilogy that seem to have infected the movie theatres this summer. In this one, Danny Ocean and his band of con-men have come back to Vegas to avenge the honor of one of their own who was put into the hospital after a deal had gone sour. By coming back to Vegas, the story arc has come full circle. It tries to capture the magic from the first Ocean's movie, but it fails to be as inspired as that one.

The key to these films is to know that they all have fun happens. And this one didn't have much fun. I think it was because of the lack of Bernie Mac and too much of Matt Damon. Did you notice that he's the one who fools around with the girl? So the first had George Clooney, Brad Pitt the second, and this one Matt Damon's turn. Plus, he doesn't get the girl in the end. Ellen Barkin's character was used for laughs. She was treated very respectfully and in a film with guys you needed a girl for some balance. They should've hit her on the head or punched her in the face. With the way they treated her it wouldn't have seemed out of place.

Anyway, this installment was just so-so. Neither exciting like the first or embarrassing like the second. It just went along, to make it's money.

3 of 5 stars

Labels: movies, review

In a week, it will be father's day, but today it is already that for me. My dad died on this day 7 years ago. It was a dreadful day. Since then, I don't know how to sum it up or speak about it. I think I don't know how I feel about it at all.

I had spent the night before he died with him in the hospital. There were words exchanged that night that are hard to grasp. I vaguely recall them only because they are too painful to recall. It was comforting and heart breaking at the same time. You see I spent most of his last year alive with him almost daily. The cancer that took his life was a pain to watch ravage him, but I like to think that I was there to help him when he needed mostly taking him to the dialysis clinic or the occasional hospital visit. On those rides to the doctor's office, he subtly hinted that he knew that he was dying. I don't think I paid much heed to them until he explicitly told me he was going to die soon. Then I felt scared.

To this day, I still wonder if I had been as caring for him in his last days as I could've been.

When I got home from the hospital on the day he died, I set about mowing the lawn. It was just me and my youger brother. The call came sometime after noon. My brother came out and said we should get to the hospital. I didn't want to hear it. I didn't want to believe it. I didn't want to not have a father.

My actions were queer and deliberate. I stopped mowing, went inside, and took a shower. I dreaded going. I wished it hadn't have happened, so I took a shower. I don't know why.

We rode to the hospital in silence. Neither one of us wanting to say it. I did not see my father alive again.

Yet, he still lives in me. I am my father's son or at least as close to being the type of person he had wanted me to be. If I could be half the man my father was then I can feel that I am much.

I will always remember the time together we shared during that last year of his life.

I remember the final night with him in the hospital. You know we cried together that night. He told me to love my mom and take care of her, to love my brothers and respect them, to love myself and be proud, and to love my family for they are what's best about the world.

For a better reminiscence, see my brother's entry,

Labels: "la familia", dad

I was on my bike today. Then I was off it fixing a flat. I had already changed the tube once this summer, because of a slow leak. As a cyclist, you should always know how to fix a flat. I know how to.

I just put a spare tube in.

It's cheating, I know, but it's the easiest way.

If you have the tools.

I keep some tire irons in a saddle bag. They help to get the tire off the rim. I keep the spare tube in there as well. It would help if I kept a pump, but I have one of those CO2 canister dispensers. Of course it would've been good if I had some CO2. I had left it in the dispenser which probably made all the air leak out of it.

I was left on the side of the road twenty minutes into the ride. I had to call my mom up to pick me up once I found out that I don't have any air to fill my replacement tube. Stuck on the side of the road. Waiting.

So I learned today to keep a spare air in the saddle bag. And not to put the CO2 canister locked in the dispenser. I am a fool.

Labels: cycling

As you know, I am currently keen on Barbara Stanwyck movies. Ever since I saw The Lady Eve, I have been going through her films weekly. I must have watched The Lady Eve several times already, and almost daily do I put the DVD in the player to watch a few minutes. But, there are so many classic scenes in the movie that I lose myself in it and end up watching it fully. I just dig her in it.

My favorite scene happens half way through the movie as Jean starts her ploy to ensnare Hopsie in her revenge. She poses as the Lady Eve Sidwich at a party given by Hopsie's father in her honor. There she meets Hopsie face-to-face.

She casually and non-chalantly greets him as if they had never met.

Hopsie was incredulous and caught tongue tied. He couldn't believe this English Lady was the same grifter he had met on the boat.

He asks, "Have we met?"

"Of course we have, your father just introduced us."

And it goes downhill quick for Hopsie from there.

Stanwyck plays it marvelously. Her face as she lies to him does not betray one hint of recognition. She is daring him to call her bluff. He doesn't, and she subtly mocks him for it.

It's enough to make Hopsie fall over himself.

The scene ends with a Hopsie's father's toast to the Lady Eve over her wily ways.

"Well, I don't know what she looked like, but if she looked anything like you, here's to her."

She looked just like her, because it was her. She and her being the same person. It's a brilliant line that gets to the theme of the movie.

If you haven't seen it, I recommend that you do. It's on the American Film Institute's list of 100 comedies. Put it in your Netflix queue.

Labels: Barbara Stanwyck, movies, The Lady Eve

President Clinton at Harvard. That man's the bomb.

We were a richer country with him in charge.

Labels: get off your butt

Labels: Barbara Stanwyck, screenshot, The Lady Eve

Back in the saddle after an unfortunate 3 week hiatus.

I road the old standby once around the block. It felt good, but awkward. My riding form has regressed, and I was peddling squares all ride. It was even more pronounced than earlier this year. My mind was used to riding a certain way, but the body wasn't co-operating.

I had company along the way, too, for a bit. He complimented me on my bike. I kind of brushed him off which makes me feel bad. I would like to have a riding partner, but someone closer to my abilities. He said he rides with some others a couple of times a week. That's more than I have done. Luckily, he was at the end of his ride because we parted company early in mine.

After the ride, I checked my cycling computer. I was amazed at what the readout was: 12.95 miles in 45 minutes! I don't believe it. I think the battery is dying or it needs to be recalibrated. Those numbers are above my usual and it didn't feel it.

I need to ride more this month.

Labels: cycling, get off your butt

Labels: Barbara Stanwyck, screenshot, The Lady Eve

Labels: Barbara Stanwyck, screenshot, The Lady Eve

Labels: Barbara Stanwyck, screenshot, The Lady Eve

iPhone.

I want a simple phone.

But these commercials are making me rethink that.

Labels: Apple, drool

Like other weekends of the year, this weekend I saw a movie. The one where the young woman goes out for a wild night on the town, drinking, dancing, and carousing with young men. Eventually, when she sobers up from her night out she finds out that she's pregnant. The imminent arrival of a baby causes much trouble. Hilarity ensues. It had me laughing.

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek is another of the Preston Sturges oeuvre that I received in my Netflix queue. What you thought I was talking about Knocked Up? Wait a second and I'll get to it in a minute. The Miracle of Morgan Creek has a similar and familiar plot to that of Knocked Up, but the morals are distinctly rooted in the forties.

The young Trudy Kockenlocker (great name) finds herself pregnant AND married (I told you it was the forties) after a night of seeing the service men off to war. A combination of champagne and a knock on the head causes her to do the foolish thing of marriage and sex. In the morning she can't remember his name. She used a fake one herself so she'll never know who's on the marriage license. Scandalous! It's a low down dirty shame if the town finds out. She spends the film trying to enlist the help of her 4F childhood sweetheart, Norval Jones. Scheming with her younger sister to make her situation legitimate, they plan another sham marriage for the license. Then she can divorce the serviceman and marry Norval and make her pregnancy respectable for her, her familiy, and for the town. I told you it was old timey.

The Miracle of Morgan Creek is very much another of Sturges's comedy of remarriage in which the second marriage makes the first one legit like The Lady Eve. Although he wasn't married to her at first, Norval eventually gets to be the husband as decreed by law. It's all tidied up nicely. This is a wonderful funny film. In fact, it was a big hit the year it was released in 1944. The funniest thing about it is how it got through the censors of the Hayes office. It's basically a girl who got drunk and pregnant. That's got to be against the code. She also wants to perpetrate bigamy, dual marriages at the same time. Weird that they could make a movie with such topics in that era. Perhaps the comedy genre makes it more acceptable. It's a farce so what can be wrong here.

Anyway, it's got wonderful performances. Betty Hutton does the hysterics of the knocked up Trudy Kockenlocker (great name). William Demarest as the beleaguered father puts up with it all. Dianna Lynn the younger sister, Emmy, gets to be the smart gal, saying lines that wouldn't seem out of place coming from Jean Harrington (The Lady Eve). It's all so fun. And funny. Sturges does it again.

I also saw Knocked Up. That ones funny, too. It was riotous. Like Sturges who relies on a cast of regulars, Judd Apatow, has his regular troop. It's great to see these dudes working. Triumphing over the dumb tv execs who didn't have the sense of knowing comedy gold if it smote them over the head like a hammer. I would say that Apatow follows the footsteps of Sturges. He writes and directs his own stories. After Knocked up becomes the comedy hit of the summer, he may also be considered a comedy genius.

It too starts with a night on the town where the girl has sex and gets pregnant. Yet unlike the forties, there is no marriage then sex. Just sex. Marriage maybe later. The wonderful modern world. Except what was queer about it is that the morals are just as conservative as they were back then. She doesn't think about a shma-shmortion. She wants the baby to have a father engaged in the child rearing. Even the fact of marriage comes up to make it all work out. Would it have been any less funny for the girl not to need a man to make it all fine in the end? See Waitress for that. That's what was bothering about the film. She didn't need him. And he didn't need her. In fact, when you think about it. The plot is straight out of a sitcom. Or it could be the basis of one. A more realistic plot would've been nice, but perhaps its just as big a farce as one of Sturges's work. I wonder if Knocked Up's modern setting makes it harder to imagine if it was a farce.

There are some truly hilarious scenes. The pregnant sex. The crowning. Vegas on shrooms. Doc Brown. Then again, Apatow likes his movies long. Should comedies last longer than two hours? The best I can say about that is this one didn't feel as long as his other films. The 40 Year Old Virgin was 30 minutes too long as was Ron Burgundy and you knew it. Knocked Up didn't feel like it. Some scenes could've been excised, but it seems that Apatow has learned to move things along. Thank god.

I should've put my Waitress review here too. It seems to fall into this film genre, the unexpected mother. Weird that I would see a set of disparate films with the same plot. When are the hobo films coming then?

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek: 4 of 5 stars.
Knocked Up: 4 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, Netflix Queue, review