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Admittedly, it was a low bar, but The Wolverine is a damn fine X-Men movie. It's almost good.

The Wolverine takes the classic Miller-Claremont 4 issue Wolverine comic and translates it to the screen. I hadn't read it in about 2 decades, but from what I can remember, all the story beats are there.

I liked Yukio. She's bad-ass. I liked Mariko: now that's a Japanese name. I didn't think the baddy, Viper, was anything.

The plot kind of meandered for a bit. It didn't make sense at times: like it needed to wrap up some time.

Stay through the end credits.

3 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

I should be writing this review of The Conjuring in bright daylight, but a rainshower has just rolled through darkening the evening sky. Hopefully, it doesn't put shadows in places where I dare not look.

The Conjuring was about one of the scariest cases of the paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren. They were the investigators responsible for the Amityville case. At the start, they are investigating a haunted doll. That doll is the most frighteningly evil doll you will ever see. I hate dolls.

The Warrens eventually are asked to investigate a haunting at the Perron house built on the plantation of a former Salem farmer. Yeah, it's not an Indian burial ground, but it is the cause of the evil.

The Conjuring then mixes up several better scary movies. There's the Poltergeist style investigation when the Warrens set up camp in the house awaiting the paranormal activities to commence. There's The Exorcist style exorcism to exorcise the evil from the house.
You would think the movie is derivative. It's not. It mixes these other films in the best way for a different effect.

Supposedly, The Conjuring was rated R because of it being to scary. I wasn't scared enough, and that is saying something. I squirm when watching scary movies. I did squirm during this one, but later at night I didn't get scared of the dark. And by the next day, wasn't scared of anything at all. Does this make it terrible because it failed to make me scared? No. I still loved getting creeped out. I still loved the setting and the pacing. The ghost was okay (The Woman In Black still creeps me out to this day), but overall it did its job.

4 of 5 stars.

Labels: fright, movies, review, spooky

Another version of Lost My Music from Mukuchi-chan. I'm still not convinced she's a she, but she really rocks out the song especially the solo. Umm, she's got fingers that fly.

Labels: it rocks, music break, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

I saw two movies this past weekend. One of them was the most scariest thing I've seen in the theatre in a long time. The other one was The Conjuring.

Grown Ups 2 is the quickie cash in from those fellows in the original Grown Ups. Nothing can prepare you for the horror. The original at least had a semblance of a story -- its sequel nada. I didn't laugh once. Okay, maybe a few chuckles but not hard or loud as the crowd of 13 year olds did. They even clapped at the end! Sadly, those kids are our future and they all are knuckle heads.

Don't watch this movie even if it comes on cable. There is nothing redeemable about it. I want to gouge my eyes out. I can't believe I saw this.

Afterwards, I thought about the failure of Hollywood. This is what they are offering now. Unfortunately, they probably have more of the same. The action has gone to television. They tell stories there and not spectacles. They are more creative and not creatively bankrupt. They tell stories you want to see. Movies not so much.

1 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

Do not, I repeat, do not cut and paste from iOS Notes app to the blogger app. The style sheet will be copied as well making your post ugly.

Doesn't anyone know the beauty of plain text?

Labels: "blog as notepad", interNOT, meta

Fresh dream about S. 

Labels: dreams

Baseball Sundays
Originally uploaded by browsermetrics.

Labels: baseball, WTF

Pacific Rim was my most anticipated summer movie. I was so gung-ho for it since catching the teaser trailer last winter. Giant robots versus kaiju? Sign me up. I'm there.

Now it's in theatres as we speak, but will it live up to the build up?

HELL YEAH!

Pacific Rim is about monsters from space attacking earth. In the beginning, these monster, or kaiju -- from the Japanese 'strange beast' -- were tough to put down. Yet, earthlings fought back forming a Pan Pacific Defense Corps composed of giant robots, or jeagers -- from the German 'hunters.' They beat back these monsters, but after awhile the monsters evolve and gain the upper hand. This forces the shutdown of the PPDC and the earthlings to build giant walls to keep the monsters at bay. In a last desperate attempt, the few remaining jaegers are thrown into the Breach to shut down the monster portal. It's a plot out of an anime!

If you compare Pacific Rim to an anime, you'll find it wanting. When you have 13-26 episodes (6-12 hours), you can fill it with characterization. You can make your characters, troubled high school kids who also must save the world. With a movie of 2+ hours, you're left with shallow characterizations summed up in cliché: the father son team, the washed up pilot and the newbie. There's no characterization, but these labels. The characters are defined by them and they live up to them.

But what you want in a movie with giant mecha and kaiju? Big, loud battles! You get them. And more. If you ever wondered what a Voltron slash would look like, it's here. If you ever wanted to see the missiles released from giant mecha, it's here. Pacific Rim lives up to it's billing in the fights. That's what we want, it's what we get. Satisfying.

I won't let the shallow characters ruin it. After all, for 2 hours with tons of mecha versus kaiju battles, I would rather see that than the characters. Let television and anime have it. Just give me giant robots!

4 of 5 stars.

Labels: it rocks, kaiju, movies, review

A hidden gem in Hitchcock's oevre? It's never mentioned as one of his greatest, but it's a great early film from the master.

Labels: Hitchcock, Ingrid Bergman, movies

Nendoroids are also jaeger pilots!

Labels: nendoroid

Quick thoughts on Pacific Rim, which was awesome. And also with some reservations. 

Labels: kaiju, movies

If I had more real twitter followers, perhaps there would be more tweeting about or re-tweeting #paellaonth4th hash tag. The same can be said about followers of my blog, as well. Maybe more readers would be happy to talk about this yummy event. I know I want to.

Anyhow, this is our fourth try at paella. I think last year's was better. When you're pouring more water in because not all the rice is cooking, you have to know that there may be something wrong with the recipe. In this iteration, there was too much rice -- 9 lbs of it! Also, there may have been too much chicken as well because there was not enough room for the rice. Perhaps for the next iteration we can cut out 1/3 of the rice and 1/3 of the chicken. Maybe we should add some vegetables to the mix; it's sorely lacking something as you eat it. Still it's enjoyable but missing something.

The batch I brought home is savory the day after. It needs more though because of the lack of vegetables. Maybe I should eat it with some canned sardines or break out the Spam and an egg or two...

Labels: mmm

Gettysburg.

The more I think about our nation. The more I come to believe in Gettysburg. The Union won. The Confederates lost. One hundred fifty years later, we are still fighting that fight. States rights versus the Federal government. Whites versus blacks. Brother versus brother.

It's still going on. We have lots to make up for. We haven't solved anything.

Still. Gettysburg.

It's awe inspiring. This is where our nation clung to the hope of being one nation. It is where the hubris of the southern gentlemen died. It is where the north held the field and brought the nation back together and from being rent asunder in is a small town in Pennsylvania. Lovely. Complicated. Hallowed ground.

http://civilwardailygazette.com/2013/07/01/paying-the-devil-the-first-day-at-gettysburg

Labels: lotd

I despise that number.

On the first of the month, it's 202.8. On the thirtieth, it's 202.8. In between, it was up, and down. It never got below 201, and on a few days it was above 206 -- those were the days that went unrecorded. But, ultimately, it returned back to 202.8. June was a cruel month.

So, I cheated. I don't record those bad days. If I put it in, the trend line points up steeply. And when I return back to 202.8 the trend line barely point down. At this rate, I will hit my target goal in December. Of 2014!

I have put in the time on the rowing machine. I pushed 150 K this month, the second highest of the year. Still it's only 202.8.

I have a theory. Perhaps I've already explained it in a previous post. I've looked at my historical data on weight and noticed that I don't loose weight in the summer. I gain it. My theory is that this is part of evolution. Humans over the course would gorge themselves in times of plenty to be ready for the lean times. Summer is filled with foody delights. Eat before winter sets in when there is nothing to eat. I'm gaining weight because of evolution. Also, cookouts, ice cream, and beer. Good things to eat when times are plenty.

Maybe the fall, I'll finally start losing the weight.

Labels: fat war, get off your butt, surly

You see that Southern Comfort commercial -- the one with the guy getting his hair washed? Did you hear the song? Yeah. It's the one you're playing now. It's called 'The Beat' by some guy named Lou Johnson. Sounds familiar? Of course, it's the sample for De La Soul's 'Ring, Ring, Ring.' Even the middle part. Funky right? Pure and funky!

Labels: it rocks

Why'd I put a link of the day that doesn't resolve to anything of use? It's a farewell to a faithful old friend. It's perhaps the only software I use on a daily basis. More so than Twitter, because I don't really tweet from work. I do read RSS and it was Google Reader. Now, it's gone, and it's time to find something new. Sayanora good buddy. May the bit bucket treat you well.

http://www.google.com/reader

Labels: fare thee well, lotd