Just Like Ol' Times

Years ago when I first started writing on here the main thing that I would write about was movies.  I used to watch a ton of movies, and so I'd give short little "reviews" of them after I watched one.  This was good because it meant that I had at least one thing to write about close to every day.  Now, however, I don't watch nearly as many movies as I used to, and when I do I really don't post about them.  This last week, though, has been a different story, and I've watched a number of things so I thought I would share.

The first one is Resident Evil: Extinction. The Resident Evil series is one of those rarities where they made a movie based on a game and it wasn't horrible.  I actually never played the games, but I've enjoyed the movies for some good old fashion zombie shoot 'em up entertainment.  I picked this one up on a Friday night where I had no intentions of doing anything other than sitting on the couch with a beer and a movie and just veging out.  I think that I prefer the first movie of this trilogy over the other two, but this one wasn't a let down.  While I wouldn't go giving this movie five stars or anything, it is worth watching if you enjoyed the first ones, or just are a fan of watching girls shoot zombies.  I figure that if you're really into the series that you would have seen this one by now anyway. While I wouldn't say that you need to have seen the previous movies to understand this one, it would at least help to explain a couple of things.  The movie can stand on its own, though, as I don't recall there being any major plot points that wouldn't make sense if you hadn't seen the others.

I was in a trilogy mood last weekend and the second movie I picked up was the Bourne Ultimatum.   I love the Jason Bourne series.  Many years ago, before the movies came out, a friend of mine had tried to get me to read the series, but I never got around to it.  Sadly, I still haven't, but I'm much more likely to after seeing the movies.  I figure that since books are usually better than the movie, and these movies were so good, then the books must be awesome.  I would definitely say that this movie is a true third installment, as in, you don't want to see it unless you've see the first two.  I like that in these movies that things stay fairly true, and there aren't a lot of over the top scenarios.  The action scenes are pretty exciting, and the plot isn't cheesy and really predictable.  I didn't used to be huge on Matt Damon, but this series has really made me like him more.  He does a great job playing Bourne.  If you have seen the first two, but haven't seen this by now, you should.  If you haven't seen any of the trilogy, you should definitely check it out. 

This Friday night was another didn't want to think, get a mindless movie based on a game night.  This time, the movie of choice was Hitman.  I have played a couple of the games in the series, but never the first one.  I think that I heard that the movie is based on the first game of the series, but I don't know for sure.  To be honest, I was not expecting anything out of this movie other than some bad plot, lame lines, and a bunch of shooting.  I was pleasantly surprised, though, that it actually turned out to be pretty good.  The plot was pretty decent, and not entirely without depth.  I wasn't sure what to expect from having Timothy Olyphant play 47, but he didn't do too bad.  There were certainly some parts that I don't think matched up too well with the game (come on, you lose points for having witnesses, you really shouldn't leave any), but from what I know of the series they did a decent job.  I'm not sure if one of the reasons I enjoyed this movie as much as I did is because I had such low expectations, or if it was genuinely that good.  My friends, whom I don't think had as low of expectations as me, and had never played any of the games, thought it was pretty good too, though.  There are definitely some fun action scenes, which was really all I was looking for.  The soundtrack also bears mentioning.  The game had a pretty nice soundtrack, and I noticed some of the same songs showing up in the movie.  They have some good music in there, though.  While I wouldn't say this movie is for everyone, obviously, it is a fun action movie.  Don't expect anything too heady from it, but it is definitely some good entertainment.

This next movie is just downright interesting.  It's this Korean movie called Green Chair.  My I saw it on my roommate's Facebook page so I got it for us to watch.  She didn't want to watch it with me, though, as she said it'd be too uncomfortable.  After seeing it, I can understand why she said that, but not sure if I agree.  The thing is, there's about ten minutes of opening story, then what feels like 30 minutes of them having sex.  The point is to demonstrate the intimacy and nature of their relationship, but that really could have been accomplished in significantly less time.  This movie definitely confirms my hypothesis that Korean chicks are crazy, though.  The story is that an older lady has sex with a younger guy, goes to jail because of it, and then gets out and he's there to greet her.  That's the beginning of it. The rest of the movie is how they are having this relationship, and the ups and downs of it.  There is also an inordinate amount of eating.  Pretty much, if the scene doesn't involve sex, it involves food.  Despite what my roommate thinks, I really didn't think that the sex was all that explicit.  I've seen worse in American mainstream movies.  That's not to say that a kid should watch this.  It's not rated here, but would definitely be a hard R.  While hardly a romantic comedy, there are a lot of things that are amusing, and I laughed a number of times.  There is also a lot that confused me.  I'm not sure if it's just a cultural thing, or what, but there are parts that don't seem to add up for me.  The end of the movie is especially odd.  If the director were to tell me that the end of the movie was all a dream, I'd think that made more sense than if he said it actually happened.  It just doesn't make any sense whatsoever.  My roommate doesn't agree, and thinks that it is cheesy, but completely real.  I don't think cheesy is the term I thought of when watching it, but rather WTF?  I can't say that I recommend this movie, but I also wouldn't discourage watching it.  If you want some more insight into how crazy ladies are, and don't mind a bunch of sex, then go for it. Otherwise, go ahead and pass.

The last movie I watched in the last seven days was No Country for Old Men.  This one had gobs of buzz made about it.  It won some awards, I think, too.  People I know that saw it all said it was great.  I figured I should check it out.  While I will say that this was a good movie, it is hardly deserving of all the accolades it has received.  The story was good, the acting was good, the movie was good, but it wasn't that good.  The end of the movie is definitely what got me. I don't like how they did it, at all.  I've got no problem with what the final outcome was, but how they got there really bugged me.  Things that I would have liked to see expanded upon are just brushed over.  Pieces of information are just left out.  I feel like they just flew over some things out that should have been included.  Up until that point, I felt like they were doing a pretty good job.  Don't think I'm trying to discourage watching it, though.  It is a bit on the violent side, though.  Javier Bardem does a really good job of playing a creepy psycho.  You really don't like him much at all, which I'm thinking is what they were going for.  All in all, I'd say that this is worth watching, but all the hype surrounding it is just that, hype.

Seen Anything Good Lately?

When I first bought a domain and started writing, I would give little reviews of movies quite often. This was largely driven off the fact that I watched an insane amount of movies. This meant that I wasn’t really spending time doing much of anything else so I didn’t have anything else to write about anyway. In more recent times, though, I’ve really cut back on how many movies I watch. I have that Blockbuster Total Access thing, and have actually had it for a few years now. I love that they do the change your envelope for a rental thing, that basically means that if I wanted to, I could be watching about 2 or three movies a day. That’s crazy. I have been going out less lately, but I still haven’t been doing many movies. I probably only watch less than one a week now. I do miss watching and reviewing, though. Even though my reviews usually just consisted of me pointing out all of the negative things in the movie. I guess I shouldn’t say I reviewed as much as I criticized. The problem was that there are just so few good movies. Especially this crap that they put out now. There is so much wrong with these movies that it is really easy to just tear them apart. By contrast, I recently watched The Philadelphia Story with Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, and James Stewart. This is a movie that was made in 1940 and is leaps and bounds better than what we have today. There is great acting, good humor, and a really good story. Why is it that we don’t have quality stuff like that anymore? Look at this summer. Nearly every movie that is coming out this summer is a sequel to something, or looks so horrible that it probably should have never been made in the first place. Those two aren’t mutually exclusive, either. Why do so many people say how disappointed they are in the crap that Hollywood gives us, yet this stuff is still getting made and making millions? Why are we having record breaking movies coming out that really aren’t that good? Stop going to see the crappy movies, and maybe then we’ll stop getting them. If you feel like you just have to go see something, at least wait a few weeks so the theater gets the money instead of the studio.

Is It Friday Yet?

I never did get around to posting anything the entire weekend. Possibly because I was still in mourning. Seriously, though, on Friday I was so busy at work that I didn’t even get a chance to see anything interesting about which to write. Once I got home, which was about 7, I had to get my place cleaned up because I had my family coming over for dinner. Saturday and Sunday I just was in this weird funk where I did not want to do anything that required my brain. I didn’t even want to play some Sim City, which is usually what I do on the weekends. Needless to say, I was in no mood to read or write anything.

I went and saw Spider Man 3 last night with some friends. It was pretty entertaining, but I do have some complaints. Semi-sorta spoilers ahead. First, I agree with a review I read that said they tried to cram too many villains in there. I feel like it would have been better with just Sandman or Venom, but not both. We could have actually had some nicer character development that way, like they were able to do with Doc Oc. Instead, we get very shallow villains that don’t play nearly as large a roll as I would have liked. It also means that Spidey is able to battle them too infrequently. Only one fight with Venom? What is that? I heard that they only included Venom because the fans were demanding it, which I don’t necessarily have a problem with, but I wish that they would have just taken Sandman out in that case. I don’t know a whole lot about the Spiderman universe since I never read the comics, but I thought that Venom was supposed to be this incredibly powerful super-villain (fanboys, feel free to correct me). If that is the case, shouldn’t he have been a far greater threat and menace? And shouldn’t it have been much more difficult to defeat him? I feel like Spiderman got the crap beat out of him, then kicks Venom’s ass without seeming to be too bothered. If they were going to give Venom such a small part, I would have liked it if they hadn’t made his departure so definite (we see his skeleton basically vaporize). At least had they done that they could leave it open for him to return. Speaking of Venom’s demise, how is it that the same explosive that completely decimates Venom and Brock’s body only manages to leave Harry with a burned up face? They could have at least made the thing explode farther away from Harry instead of right next to his head.

Another big problem I had with the movie was that they made Pete look like quite the moron during his “I’m confident cause I’ve got an alien symbiote living with me” routine. I mean, dancing down the street giving girls the most incredibly stupid gesture ever? Where do they come up with this stuff? In the second movie, when he’s walking down the street to “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” it is a good scene. This time, it is just absurd. Then that number he does in the Jazz club just takes the cake for being retarded. Also, what is with his emo look when he is in this state? Does the suit make him more angsty?

Despite these criticisms, the movie is still pretty good and definitely worth seeing. It’s easier to point out a movie’s faults than it is its strengths. Some of the highlights, though, include the amazingly well done swinging through the city scenes as well as some great special effects with sand.

I know that I keep talking about the RIAA and their ilk, but they just really make me mad. Ars has an article about RICO accusations against them. They conclude that the RIAA would probably not be in violation of anything under RICO. Under the current laws, I suppose they are probably right. However, that doesn’t make what the RIAA does any better. Personally, I feel like what they do should be considered illegal, or at the very least monopolistic. They attempt to have complete control over the entire music industry, and try to use strong-arm bullying in order to get it. Look no further than the internet radio issue to see how this works. That is not even looking at how they treat consumers. They treat their customers as thieves, whether they actually are or not. They have this mentality that everyone is just out to screw them over, so they had better do the screwing first. Now, I understand the whole deal about copyright holders being allowed to seek compensation when someone infringes on them, but I don’t agree with the way the RIAA does this, or how much they seek. They have sought damages from $750 per song, to $150k per CD. I don’t see how they can possibly say that those numbers are fair. Honestly, people can buy single tracks for under a buck. Even if they sought damages as little as three dollars per song, that is still orders of magnitude higher than they would see had someone bought the song off iTunes. On top of this, they act as if they are suffering some massive loss of revenue by people illegally downloading music. I’ll give them that they are losing some revenue, sure, but not anywhere near what they claim. There are many people that download thousands upon thousands of songs, but would never buy more than a handful of CDs if downloading was not available. People amass huge collections of music because it is easy and free. If they had to pay for everything they got, they would be much more discerning, and would probably only buy those CDs which they absolutely could not go without. I know a few people that even have bought music after downloading it from the net because they wanted to support the band (ok, so it was only 2 people, but still). To say that they are losing billions in revenue is ridiculous.

Okay, I think that’s going to be all for now. I’m sure there is plenty more I could write, but I have already made this a pretty long post. Making up for the absence of one in the last three days. Hopefully I’ll be back later today with some good stuff for you.