May 17
May 16
The Macbook was released today. As expected there is a black model. It’s the high-end model. I haven’t seen anyone address the pricing yet. The lowest end model is a bargain if you ask me. True, it’s $100 more than the previous low-end iBook, but it’s a huge upgrade with a larger screen, insane battery time, larger HDD, more RAM, a Core Duo, optical in/out, bluetooth, Front Row, remote, among other things.
That is a hell of an upgrade for $100 and I think very justified. However, the top-end Macbooks leave a lot to be desired, specifically the Blacbook (as I’m going to now call it).
Take a look at the tech specs on the bottom of this page. Near as I can tell there are precisely TWO differences between the white Macbook and the Blacbook. The obvious one is the color. The other one is obvious too and that’s a 20GB larger HDD. The larger harddrive is certainly worth a modest bump in price.
How much more is the Blackbook? $200! Two hundred bucks for a $50 harddrive upgrade. You can get a white Macbook with precisely the same specs for $150 less than the Blacbook.
The Blacbook carries a $150 premium for nothing other than the color.
Go ahead, be a sucker.
Am I missing something with the pricing? I’ve looked it over and that’s the only difference (the color and harddrive) I can see between the two high-end models. Is having a Blacbook worth an extra $150 to you?
May 14
“I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass…and I’m all out of bubblegum.” They Live is full of great one-liners that raise it above its B-movie sci-fi status. It’s a simple plot of aliens taking over the world and a homeless drifter discovering their plot and taking them out. Simple.
Nada (Roddy Piper) is the drifter who stumbles on to the secret of the aliens living among us thanks to a pair of special sunglasses. He then sets out to take them down with the help of a coworker, Keith David. Sure, it’s all a bit cheesy, but the lines are good, the plot is solid, the acting not too bad, and the story good. The effects are pretty decent too for the time period and budget.
The fight scene between Piper and David is one of the best in movie history. Very memorable. The one-liners come quite often and are very quotable. I don’t have too much to say I guess. It’s a fun movie, well worth watching.
May 14
Underwater, no one can hear you suck. That should have been the tag line. The piece of crap remake Poseidon is yet another Typical Hollywood Turd™. Why isn’t this shit a wake-up call for Hollywood to stop making crap? Probably because they still turn a small profit. The flick made about $20million on opening weekend. It should have made about $20.
From the opening, very bad CGI shot I knew this movie would suck. It was only downhill from there. The whole movie was quite silly as a band of strangers set out to get out of an upside down cruise liner. Of course, they are the only ones smart enough to know the ship isn’t safe, don’t tell anyone, and get out in the knick of time. Very expected and very lame.
The characters are all the perfect combination of people needed to escape, a fireman/NYC mayor, a Navy guy willing to gamble, a kid with small hands, a gay (gotta throw a trendy gay character in there) architect who somehow knows about ships, and a few disposable characters to kill off because they have no relevant skills. Oh, and all the women are apparently half retarded and incapable of being as brave as the men and can’t make intelligent, non-emotional decisions.
It’s a popcorn flick and I don’t expect much and this failed every one of my very minimal expectations, from the marginal acting, to the horrible over-use of CGI, to the bad writing, to the ridiculous abundance of “just in time” situations. I can’t say enough bad about this movie to steer you away. Don’t see it. Ever. Never rent it, don’t see it in the theater, don’t watch it when it plays endlessly on some crappy TV station in a few years.
May 14
Despite my burning hatred for that crazy idiot Tom Cruise and Scientology in general, I thought MI3 was pretty decent, pretty fun. Like a lot of other critics, I have to address Cruise’s craziness. Is it possible to watch him in a movie without thinking about what a public moron he is? It’s not for me. I can’t seperate his insanity from his characters in a movie. It was always in my mind while watching the movie. Cruise has lost any ability to have a real good role (I mean not a popcorn flick role) because his personality is too overbearing now. Basically, he screwed himself.
That said, I did enjoy the movie. I think that’s in part due to my very low expectations. The other main factor was Philip Seymour Hoffman. He was an absolutely awesome villain and delivered a powerful, unexpected performance. Hats off to him for brining some talent to the film. Ving Rhames is back as his usual character. Two other MI agents are added to the mix as well.
It’s a popcorn flick, that’s all I can say. Popcorn flicks aren’t a bad thing, but they aren’t great movies, therefore they have to be fun. This was pretty fun. Good action, good fights, good bad guy. That’s the main thing you need. It also didn’t take itself too seriously, the kryptonite of a popcorn flick.
I say give it a go, it’s the first summer popcorn flick and is pretty decent. Certainly much better than Poseidon.
May 14
Dear Wendy, why are you so weird? This is one of those very odd movies you come across every so often. It isn’t a typical story, it’s creative. Sometimes creative means it fails and it sucks. Sometimes it means it succeeds and is very interesting. Dear Wendy was the latter.
I really enjoyed watching this movie. It’s about a group of pacifist young adults from a mining town who find themselves feeling more powerful when they discover, and carry, guns. They start a club to learn about all aspects of their weapons, quite odd for pacifists. There are no really surprising twists or oddities until the ending. It’s not one of those crazy, wild twists, but an evolution of the philosphy of the club.
I thought all the acting was very good, as was the writing. The directing was beauitiful and looked fantastic. I found myself genuinely interested in the characters and the story. I liked how the story was interspersed with letters to Dear Wendy, narrated by the main character.
I thought the ending didn’t quite flow. I think I might understand what the author was trying to convey, but it didn’t quite flow from everything that lead up. I wouldn’t expect the characters to do what they did, at least not in the manner they did. Overall though I can recommend this movie to most people.
May 10
I think my feet may need a few days to recover from the blisters, but I just did 5 miles. I actually really like the new course I ran today too. It’s mainly a maintained trail the whole way, crosses over a lake, and a lot of people use it so you get to see a lot of faces. I can also continue on the trail further than I did when I add more distance.
May 08
My buddy and I mounted my 50″ plasma on the wall this weekend. Looks fantastic. We also rewired some of my stereo and I finally got to hook up my center channel again (wouldn’t fit with the plasma on the stand). I’ve got some movie reviews I need to muster up the desire to write. They Live, MI3, maybe a couple others if I decide to review them.