u l t r a m o o k i e

I was exclaiming to my friends, after the Bailout Bill failed, that “We’re all going to die!”  And no one except JR caught me on it:  Yes, we’re all going to die eventually.  As Palpatine knew and used in Star Wars, fear is an excellent and potent weapon.  And it seems that in our society, [...]

I was exclaiming to my friends, after the Bailout Bill failed, that “We’re all going to die!”  And no one except JR caught me on it:  Yes, we’re all going to die eventually.  As Palpatine knew and used in Star Wars, fear is an excellent and potent weapon.  And it seems that in our society, there are a lot of people who fall for it.

Witness the people who feared (and continue to fear) “terrorists”.  That was the driving force behind W Bush’s plan to invade Iraq — “If you don’t invade Iraq, they will use their WMDs to blow us up to bits!”  Now, W Bush tried to use fear to get the Congress to pass the bailout bill quickly without much thought — “If you don’t pass this bill our country will crumble into oblivion!”  The bill has failed, good.  But, I think that we still need something to help out the economy, so I hope Congress gets their asses to work and figures something out soon.

On the subject of Palpatine, I was thinking about the different Force powers given to me in Force Unleashed:  Force Push (push stuff around), Force Grip (grab and throw people without actually touching them), Force Repulse (like making a huge explosion of air around you), and Force Lightning (lightning bolts shooting out of your finger tips).

Which would I want in real life?  Force Lightning, no question about it.  Oh, the times when I wanted to reach out and shock someone.  No killing, just a good can of electrical whoop ass.  I’d vary the shock depending on the situation.  With the fear of someone coming around and shocking you until you poop in your pants, people would think twice about doing silly crap.

Which Force power would you like to have in real life?

I had started a lengthy review of The Dark Knight, but it was getting too long.  So, I figured short and sweet:
Go see it!
The Dark Knight is one of the best movies of this summer, if not the year.  It certainly tops Iron Man as the best comic book based movie.  And The Dark Knight [...]

I had started a lengthy review of The Dark Knight, but it was getting too long.  So, I figured short and sweet:

Go see it!

The Dark Knight is one of the best movies of this summer, if not the year.  It certainly tops Iron Man as the best comic book based movie.  And The Dark Knight is like The Empire Strikes Back — in that the sequel tops the original.

• Yes, Heath Ledger is excellent as The Joker — he is much better than Nicolson’s Joker.  This Joker is not about doing evil just for the sake of doing it.  This Joker does evil to test people.  He tests each and everyone’s morality and he has fun doing it.  This Joke understands the dicotomy between himself and Batman.  Whether Ledger should get the Oscar, I think he’s earned it with this performance.
• Christian Bale continues to show what a great actor he is.  His Wayne/Batman is a lot better than Keaton’s in that Bale fits the role better.  Keaton was certainly good as Bruce Wayne, but he did not have the physique to make Batman a menace to the bad guys.  Bale is awesome as Wayne and has the physique to make us believe that he can kick the living crap out of anyone.
• Freeman and Caine are also great in the film.
• I like the replacement of Katie Holmes with the stronger actress Maggie Gyllenhaal.  Gyllenhaal brings more to the character of Dawes than Holmes could ever dream of.
• I am on the fence about Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent.  The Dent story is the main storyline of the film and Dent is a key character.  While Eckhart is good, I don’t think he was as great as the part calls for him to be.  On the other hand, I can’t think of anyone else that could play Dent better.
• The Dark Knight has a very dense plot structure and really warrants multiple viewings.  I am glad that Nolan and his brother did not dumb down the script just because this is a “summer blockbuster”.
• If you thought that Batman Begins was lacking in action, Nolan makes up for it here in The Dark Knight.  The Dark Knight is crammed with action and it is all realistic — the use of CGI is held to a minimum and stunts are done real-on-reel.  This way of shooting stunts with a minimum of CGI adds a grittiness, excitement and depth to the stunt sequences.  Kudos to Nolan for going this route.
• The bank heist that opens the film is one of the best shot on film.  Ever.  It rivals that of the bank sequence in Heat.  It was exciting and tense.  And the sequence highlights the way that The Joker thinks and schemes.
• The score is again done by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard.  It is pretty easy to hear which composer did which parts — Zimmer the drum-heavy action stuff, Howard the quiet stuff to drive emotions.  It works, but it is not up to par with what is still the best score for a Batman movie:  Danny Elfman’s original score.

So, there you have it.  I loved The Dark Knight.  It is the best Batman film made, it tops Batman Begins and makes Burton’s two Batman films look rather cheery.  (I overlook the Joel Schumacher Batman films because of their suckage.)

Just finished up two Blu-ray movies from Netflix. Here are my quick thoughts about the two:

National Treasure 2:  I really like the first movie.  At points, the first movie stretched my suspension of disbelief, but it was fun enough that I did not care.  The sequel is a boring mess which was not that [...]

Just finished up two Blu-ray movies from Netflix. Here are my quick thoughts about the two:

• National Treasure 2:  I really like the first movie.  At points, the first movie stretched my suspension of disbelief, but it was fun enough that I did not care.  The sequel is a boring mess which was not that much fun to watch and really killed my suspesion of disbelief.  I really hope they don’t make another National Treasure sequel (though the whole “page 47″ thing hints at one).  The Ed Harris character was too underdeveloped to be hated and by the end of the film, I really could care less about him.  What the President did in the middle of the movie did not jive with what he did at the end.  Why did he not say what he said at the end of the movie early on so that the FBI would stop chasing after Nicolas Cage’s character?  Oh, sorry, it is because it was a lazy badly written plot-device.  It was neat to see Cage and Harris in another Bruckheimer produced movie ( the last one I remember was The Rock).  There was even a subtle cameo by the “Hey you stole my Hummer” guy in National Treasure 2.  Overall, bad movie.  Skip it, save your time.
• Vantage Point:  Vantage Point is to Rashomon what Store-brand Cola is to Coca-Cola.  Sure, the Store-brand is supposed to taste like Coca-Cola, but it doesn’t.  Vantage Point has the same multiple perspectives type setup as Rashomon, but the writer of Vantage Point does not use that storytelling style (here in Vantage Point, it’s really a gimmick) to any good use.  In Rashomon, each POV presents a slightly different view of the story, based on the flawed memory of the character recounting the story.  In Vantage Point, the different views of the story are exactly the same — and since that is the case, watching the same 23 minutes of story five times is a waste of time.  The underlying story is standard-fare B-movie “thriller” material — and that is why I suspect the movie-makers decided to go with the multiple-POV gimmick.  Another movie to skip.  On a related note, the BD Live content on the Vantage Point Blu-ray disc failed to work for me.  Anyone have luck getting it to work?

I have In Bruges DVD in the queue to watch sometime soon.  I have read good things about that film and hope it breaks my streak of bad movies.

I know I complain a lot about different companies.  But, there are times when companies just do the right thing for their customers — even without asking.  And those companies, I like to write about too.
At Netflix, I’ve been a customer for years, I still have an old discount applied to my account and I [...]

I know I complain a lot about different companies.  But, there are times when companies just do the right thing for their customers — even without asking.  And those companies, I like to write about too.

At Netflix, I’ve been a customer for years, I still have an old discount applied to my account and I pay around $15/month (with tax) for a three-out-at-once plan.  This month, I’ve been watching a lot of movies — so far about 20 movies.  So, I’m one of their “bad” customers when it comes to their bottom line.  They just started throttling me, which I still despise, but understand.

On Monday, they received a movie and shipped one — at least that’s what the notification email I receive said.  Well, I usually receive the movies shipped the day after they ship.  So, yesterday, I was surprised to not find a movie in the mailbox.  I feared that maybe someone stole it.  Or maybe it got lost somewhere between San Jose and…well…San Jose.

This morning, I got an email from Netflix (below) letting me know that they had an issue with their shipping system Monday.  The movie that was supposed to have shipped Monday was actually shipped yesterday (and I’ll probably get it today).  If it was just that, I would have still been happy because they at least let the end-users know that there was an issue — instead of hiding it.

But, Netflix decided to go the extra mile and issue 5% credits!  Wow!  Now that is great customer service.  Not only did a company fess up to an issue that would have been overlooked by most of their customer base; they also issued credits as a way of saying “sorry for the inconvenience”.  Lots of companies spend more time and money than that trying to hide issues, I am glad that Netflix decided to go down the right road.  Kudos to Netflix for doing things right.

We’re Sorry Your DVD Was Delayed   

Dear Steve,

As you may have heard, our shipping system was unexpectedly down for most of Monday. We should have shipped you a DVD but were unable to. Your DVD was shipped today, Tuesday, March 25th, instead.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused. We will issue a 5% credit to your account in the next few days. You don’t need to do anything. The credit will be automatically applied to your next billing statement.

Again, we apologize for the delay and thank you for your understanding. If you need further assistance, please call us at 1 (888) 638-3549.

-The Netflix Team

I love watching movies and I love to watch all sorts of movies. What is disappointing is that movies made by Hollywood tend to have “happy” endings whether the movie needs it or not — non-Hollywood films tend to take risks and do things right. Maybe it is one too many test screenings. [...]

I love watching movies and I love to watch all sorts of movies. What is disappointing is that movies made by Hollywood tend to have “happy” endings whether the movie needs it or not — non-Hollywood films tend to take risks and do things right. Maybe it is one too many test screenings. Maybe it is the need for Hollywood to try to make the masses happy in order to get a bigger box office. Whatever it maybe, sometimes movies don’t need happy endings. Sometimes, the happy ending that gets cut into the film just doesn’t work.Case in point is I Am Legend. I thoroughly enjoyed the film until the end. Then the film seemed to have an ending that just did not make any sense — and there was a huge piece of the film that was left dangling. If you haven’t seen the film yet, don’t read anymore. SPOILERS AHEAD.

When Smith’s character Neville discovers that he may have found a cure for the virus which has turned the Earth’s population into super-human zombies, he needs to find a test subject. He ends up chasing his dog into a dark warehouse (or is it a bank?) and there he discovers a nest of zombies (though, I believe in the book — which I haven’t read yet — they are supposed to be vampires). Neville sets up a trap and captures a woman zombie. But, from within the dark, a male zombie comes out and shows his face to the sunlight — even knowing that the sunlight would hurt him.

Neville, in a scene after, records a video where he theorizes that the zombies have lost the last vestiges of their humanity and are now just acting on primal instinct. When I saw these two scenes, I felt that the scene was playing against what Neville thought. As if we the audience knew that the zombie showing his face actually had some humanity left in him. The way the scenes played out showed that the reason that he took the risk of being exposed to sunlight was because he wanted his daughter back — and not because he wanted to eat Neville. It’s also worth mentioning that the father zombie was smart enough to setup a snarl to grab Neville. Maybe the studio thought that American audiences were too ignorant to figure this out and that’s why they made changes to the ending.

The filmmakers continued to show the lead (”father”) zombie throughout the film — like with the three attack dogs, I believe at the pier and then taking control at the end of the film in Neville’s house. The writers of the film definitely had something planned for father and daughter zombies. But, at the end of the film, the only relevance of the daughter was that the virus cure was in her blood — the “father” zombie did not have any significant role in the original ending. That was both disappointing and left a huge hole in the movie.

After looking around on the internet about this, I found that the theatrical ending was a reshoot. The original ending, shown above, wrapped things up in a much better and satisfying way. I loved the original ending a lot better than the theatrical one. The original ending brings closure to the “father” and “daughter” zombie. It also has other subtleties, like Neville looking at his wall of test subjects and realizing that they were actually test victims. Neville coming to the realization that the zombies still had a good deal of humanity in them. Lastly, the original ending had a better spin on the “legend” part of the title — the way the theatrical ending gave meaning to “legend” was hokey and corny.

The theatrical ending was one that was reshot to make the masses happy and to garner box office dollars. But, I really think that the original ending would have worked also — and probably would have worked better. Hollywood needs to realize that its audience is not as stupid or ignorant as they think. It is unfortunate that Hollywood is unwilling and unable (financially) to take risks when making films.

So, I was watching 20 years of Die Hard… Die Hard (1988)… Die Hard 2 (1990)… Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995)… Live Free or Die Hard (2007) over the last few days and I wanted to post something about the series.  With the rush of the initial viewing of Live Free or Die Hard [...]

So, I was watching 20 years of Die Hard… Die Hard (1988)… Die Hard 2 (1990)… Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995)… Live Free or Die Hard (2007) over the last few days and I wanted to post something about the series.  With the rush of the initial viewing of Live Free or Die Hard gone, this is how I would rank the films:

1. Die Hard:  Nothing beats the original.  This film sets the tone and wrote the template for a lot of today’s action films.  This is a classic film in its own right.  And the McClane in this film is the one that all have grown to love.  The action in the film is well put together.  The characters are fantastic:  Han Gruber is the ultimate villian, the FBI Johnsons, Sgt. Al Powell, crappy reporter Richard Thornburg, and the memorable Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson.
2. Die Hard With a Vengeance:  This, I rank higher than Live Free or Die Hard by just a tiny bit.  There are two things that make this film better.  First, I love how this film stays completely rooted in reality — no fake hover jets and questionable hacking in this film.  And second, Samuel L. Jackson makes any film better — and Samuel L. Jackson is a lot better companion for John McClane than Justin Long’s hacker.
3. Live Free or Die Hard:  Fun film, but there is a sad loss of the McClane that we came to love from the original film.  The McClane in Live Free or Die Hard is a different character.  In the original, although McClane was a one man hero, he was still quite vulnerable.   In Live Free or Die Hard, McClane is raised to the level of an almost indestructible super hero — this takes a bit away from the character and the tension of the film.  That said, this was still a fun film to watch with some very entertaining action sequences.
4. Die Hard 2:  The Die Hard film that I wish did not exist.  This is by far the worst of the series — and does not even come close to any of the other films.  Director Renny Harlin has some sadistic fetish and it really shows in this film — and it is that fetish that ruins the film.  This film took a lot of fun in some very unnecessary gore and cruelty — an onscreen throat-cutting, icicle in the eye, and other assorted stuff really messed up the film for me.

So, are you a fan of the Die Hard series?  How would you rank the four films?

The movie Sunshine can’t seem to find its way.
50 years in the future, a Q-ball has hit our Sun causing our Sun to slowly die.  The Earth is freezing and mankind is on the verge of extinction.  Sunshine follows the eight-person crew of the Icarus II — a spaceship built to carry a bomb the [...]

The movie Sunshine can’t seem to find its way.

50 years in the future, a Q-ball has hit our Sun causing our Sun to slowly die.  The Earth is freezing and mankind is on the verge of extinction.  Sunshine follows the eight-person crew of the Icarus II — a spaceship built to carry a bomb the size of Manhattan to the Sun.  The bomb is supposed to restart the Sun and help mankind live for a few million years longer.  That is the basic premise of the movie.

I enjoyed the first half of Sunshine thoroughly.  The first half is hardcore science fiction with some decent drama thrown in to keep my attention.  The characters talk intelligently and things make sense.  Then comes the second half and the second half ruins the film — more on this in the spoilers section below.

Overall, the film should be seen because of the intense visuals.  The delight the crew takes in seeing Mercury crossover the Sun is one that is shared with the audience.  That was an outstanding visual moment in the film.  There are others, but that was the one that stood out for me.

As for the rest of the film, none of the actors standout in the film and the story collapses on itself in the second half.  Sunshine is worth a rental.  More details ahead, but first a warning:

Spoilers Ahead — You Have Been Warned. 

Sunshine takes an abrupt turn for the horror in the second half of the film when the crew of the Icarus II divert from their mission and head for the — no, I am deadly serious, so no giggling — Icarus I.  Yes, the ship that was lost seven years ago is in orbit around Mercury.  Are there any crew alive?  Of course.  The crew of the Icarus II go and explore and inadvertently bring back an unwelcome crazed visitor.

The captain of the Icarus I was alive and living there for the last seven years talking to “God”.  He comes onboard the Icarus II to stop the mission, in some insane plot.  This turn in the second half of the film was completely unnecessary and really kills a film that had huge potential.  We are inexcusably ripped out of a science fiction film and shoved into a horror/slasher film.  This completely tanks the movie and ruined it for me.

With such a strong opening half, I had high expectations of the film and was really curious to see how they would end it.  The way that the film ended was a complete flub.  I am disappointed that screenwriter Alex Garland decided that this was the way the film would end after putting together such a great start.