Apr 28
This is one thing I like about Netflix. Their recomendation engine isn’t great, but every once in a while I find a gem. Undead is an Australian zombie/alien movie. It’s essentially supposed to be a B horror movie but you’d never know by watching it. The quality of the filmmaking is outstanding, truly.
The movie takes place in the small town of Berkley somewhere in Australia. A meteor shower hits and strange things start happening, you know, like people turning into zombies. The zombies are mostly typical zombies in that they stiffly walk around trying to eat brains. It introduces a new element with aliens thrown into the mix and a mysterious rain that is almost like acid.
I liked the way the movie established all the main characters in the first few minutes of the film. Within about 20 minutes we had established every main character without feeling rushed. The action in the movie also starts almost immediately and never slows down. The special effects don’t reflect the B movie nature of this film. They look great. The zombies have a unique look to them and are filmed with a particular style that I thought fit well.
The movie is hilarious I thought. It’s no Shaun of the Dead, but it’s not too shabby. The blood, gore, and death scenes reminded me of a kiwi zombie movie from none other than Peter Jackson. Braindead (Dead Alive) is perhaps the goriest movie I have ever seen. Like Jackson, the Spierig brothers seemed to try to come up with the most creative, weirdest, goriest ways to kill zombies. I think Jackson beat them on the gore but the Spierigs beat him on total number of creative deaths. It’s like they wrote a list…then put ALL of the ideas in the movie.
I can absolutely recommend this to anyone who likes cheesy horror along the lines of Shaun of the Dead or Dawn of the Dead (the original).
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Apr 27
Today I bumped my standard run to 2.5 miles. It went well. I wasn’t dying at the end and coule probably push myself a bit harder. Baby steps though. First thing is to start increasing distance, then start decreasing time. I plan to fartlek soon to see if I can get some better times. I did get a hotspot and a small blister today. I won’t be running again until Monday so hopefully it will be ok by then.
I’ve also decided I need to stop drinking soda and start drinking a lot of water. I was a littel dehydrated at the end of my run today and on Tuesday. I know it’s because I don’t drink enough water so I’m going to change that.
The lowest weight I’ve hit is about 215.6 Granted, a lot of that was water weight, but it’s fun to see it dip. 217 is pretty average. I want to drop to 199 in the next couple months. I know I could easily do it if I stuck to a diet.
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Apr 27
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Ebert and I can agree on Silent Hill. This is yet another video game turned movie. I swear, Hollywood has no new ideas. All they seem to make anymore is crap, video game movies, comic movies, book adaptations, or sequels. What happened to the originality?
I don’t play a lot of video games. I really play none. But of the few I have played, most have little movies before the game or between levels. The movies tell some more of the background of the story and are interesting for that reason. Silent Hill is essentially one of those. It makes little sense without knowledge of the game. It can’t stand on its own.
It’s not that I found the movie confusing as a lot of the other movie goers seemed to. I followed the plot. I think I “got it.” But it sort of jumps into things and makes assumptions that mean little I suspect outside of the game. There was a kid working at the theater who was volunteering to discuss the movie with people afterwards to explain things since he is a fan of the game. And people were taking him up on it. It didn’t explain “why” in enough detail since it assumed all that from the game.
Silent Hill left the audience silent. It is an underwhelming film, a Typical Hollywood Turd™. It simply takes someone elses creativty that was made for a different media and tries, and fails, to bring it to the big screen. Get some goddamn original ideas, Hollywood!
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Apr 27
American Dreamz, dreamz with a Z. Why did I see this movie? Because I see just about every movie. Also, I wasn’t working this week so I had a lot of free time. Also, also, Ebert gave it a decent review so I figured it probably wasn’t all bad.
Ebert was wrong.
Is it a comedy or a satire? It fails at both so I don’t think it’s really worth exploring in detail which it is. It’s supposed to be a comedy according to the director. It’s not funny, something that is essential to a comedy.
The acting is terrible. The writing is terrible. The pace is too slow. The plot is just dumb (you don’t even need much of a plot for a comedy). I don’t even know where to begin with ripping this movie a new one. I don’t even want to waste my time going into the specifics of why it sucked because it doesn’t deserve that much.
Don’t see this movie. If you like American Idol this is dumb. If you hate American Idol this is dumb. The jokes about Bush are dumb whether you like him or hate him. There is no clever criticism that might make it satirical. There are no LOL moments whatsoever. It should be called American Crapz.
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Apr 23
Today I broght my iBook in to work (yes, I had to work on a Sunday for 12 hours). I took it so I could watch DVDs. I’m a slacker.
Anyway, I noticed something today that I never noticed before. I own Quicktime Pro. To change video sizes is as follows:
- Half Size - Command+0
- Actual Size - Command+1
- Double Size - Command+2
- Fit to Screen - Command+3
- Full Screen - Command+F
That seems pretty logical. It progresses with F being a logical choice for fullscreen. That’s what I am used to because I use Quicktime much more than DVD Player.
Apparently Apple engineers don’t talk to one another unfortunately. Here is how DVD Player works:
- First, it’s not called “View” it’s called “Video”
- Half Size - Command+1
- Normal Size - Command+2
- Maximum Size - Command+3
- Full Screen - Command+0
Command+0? What the hell, where did that come from? That’s almost the opposite of Quicktime. Why didn’t they follow the same logic? Why not Command+F for full screen? Why is is worded entirely different as well? Why change the terminology from app to app for the same thing?
I expect that kind of sloppiness in Windows. I expect more from Apple.
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Apr 23
“The coroner had certified Stanwyk dead. Or extremely sleepy.” A great one liner in a movie full of great on liners. What’s not to love about Fletch? This is Chevy Chase in one of his best roles ever (we can’t forget Clark Griswold).
It’s hard to find any faults with this movie. It’s just a great movie with great timing, a ton of great one liners, and an interesting story to boot. That’s what makes this more than just a good film. The comedy is there, the jokes are there. But what kicks it up another notch is Chevy’s perfect portrayal of the Fletch character and the fact that there’s an interesting story to go along with all the humor.
Nugent, Ted Nugent.
What kind of name is Poon anyway?
Comanche Indian.
See this movie, it’s a classic. If you have seen it, watch it again.
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Apr 23
Broken Lizard is one of my favorite comedy groups. Of course, I don’t really know any other comedy groups but that’s beside the point. I dig them because I can imagine this as my group of friends hanging out, drinking a few beers, and writing a movie. This is how our movies would turn out (at least in my untalented mind). I can relate. Puddle Cruiser was the novice effort from the group and I think it was a very good one at that.
This is the kind of film I like to see. It’s a low budget indie. That means it has to have some talent to be worth watching. A Typical Hollywood Turd™ can be ok to watch simply because of great special effects or some high-paid actor. Indie films like this have to actually be good to enjoy since they aren’t as polished, don’t have the best actors, and, by their nature, are made on the cheap.
Puddle Cruiser is essentially a love story about a college guy and a college girl who have typical college relationship problems. It’s a simple plot. The side stories are funny without being distracting. The main characters are all interesting and likeable as well as relateable. The acting is above the level I would expect from this kind of movie. I thought the actors did a good job.
There are some one-liners you can take away, some jokes friends will pass around with one another. Any movie that’s quoteable can’t be all bad. The end wasn’t overly cheesey even though it is a love story. It’s not for everyone (few of the weirder movies I like are) but I think a lot of people can enjoy it if they like other indie films.
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