This was way better than it had any right to be. It was very clever and Michael Douglas was awesome for every second he appeared. It managed to take a tired out genre, apply a played out story, and succeed wonderfully. That’s not to say it was groundbreaking, there are hardly any surprises, but everything it does it does in a pitch-perfect manner. And Robert Forster as the military father, has to be my favorite part, hooah!
Totally decent suspense/action flick. You can see where it’s going really early on, but it’s got plenty of style and good performances to keep you interested.
This was the first Blu-ray I watched with the MovieIQ feature, which lets you browse info on cast and crew, get music track titles, and read trivia while you watch, a very cool and welcome feature that I used throughout (it’s the kind of movie where it doesn’t really matter if you miss a few lines here and there). It’s all scene-specific too so if you want to know who a certain actor is, you can bring up a list of just the actors in a scene to help you figure it out. This will also be very useful for the frequent query “what song is that in the background?”.
This was a quick and interesting one, though there wasn’t a ton of info that I wasn’t already familiar with. It chronicles the history of infomercials and direct response marketing, focusing a lot on Ron Popeil, QVC/HSN, and some of the less-than-reputable people in the business. The part I didn’t really know before was just how big and successful QVC was, they make some serious bank. Overall though this wasn’t too great since I’ve read plenty of articles about the industry and watched Pitchmen, and this book just goes over all that info just a little bit more in-depth.
Another one that I’ve waited far too long to write about. No matter though, because I really liked this. Shatner’s book included so many segments written by other people, and Nimoy’s always came off as the most interesting and well-written, so it’s no surprise that I enjoyed his book. He seems to care so hard about Spock, and Star Trek in general, it’s definitely more than just a job for him.
He ends the book saying that he thinks that Star Trek VI and an appearance on The Next Generation was the last we’d see of Nimoy as Spock, unless (paraphrasing) “there is a good reason to come back, and he serves to drive the plot, and not just be a glorified cameo”. Well, JJ’s Star Trek did just that, it was awesome of him to come back. When I watch that again a few times next week I will pay extra close attention to Nimoy’s performance, because I now realize just how much this means to him.
Still not really sure what the hell happened, but it looked pretty darn good. The ending pretty much reset the entire story of the two movies, which works well enough. The big “battle” of the flying balls through Moscow was pretty kick ass. But I still didn’t fully follow the plot, there was a lot of weird extraneous stuff happening and then I probably missed some dialogue. Not bad but not something I’d want to watch again.
So even though I thought the first one was crap I rented this one. It’s still crap, but it looked even awesome. It would have been worth a matinee to see it on the big screen with a proper sound system. I can’t recall the details of the “plot” but it was fun picking it apart the whole time.
I waited too long to write this, I don’t remember my specific thoughts after reading, but I do know that I loved it. Heinlein has a solid vision of the future, where citizens must earn their right to vote through non-compulsory military service. In history lessons given within the book, we learn that the democracies of the 20th century collapsed because “people had been led to believe that they could simply vote for whatever they wanted… and get it, without toil, without sweat, without tears.”
This was much more of a political commentary than an action story, though it did have plenty of that. The military of his future is harsh and unforgiving, yet much more free than today. At any time a soldier can quit, he’ll be dishonorably dischared and will never be allowed to enlist again, nor will he ever gain the rights of a citizen. They actually do everything they can to talk Rico and crew out of joining, they only want those who are willing to make it through to the end, though most don’t, but nto for lack of trying.
Aside from the idea of citizenship and a bug war, this is nothing like the movie. The power suits are a huge part of the story yet in the movie they have cheap plastic looking armor. A wasted opportunity, this could be a really excellent film if you stick to the story and themes presented in the novel.
So I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from this. When this was in theaters I quickly became sick of seeing the trailer EVERYWHERE, maybe we just went to a lot of movies that month, but as soon as it started I’d start groaning. Not that it looked terrible, it just looked bleh and forgettable.
Yet I went ahead and rented it because of reviews that promised it was a really good, like a dark comedy version of Taxi Driver. I’d agree with that. The movie is much more focused on Seth Rogen’s character then the trailers would lead you to believe. He has a shit-ton of issues, and you basically get to just watch how he deals with them. It’s nothing groundbreaking but I was glad to see it wasn’t just a silly plot driven comedy with lots of cursing (that would be Paul Blart, but with fart jokes instead of cursing).
Some stuff in this movie really made you suspend disbelief, especially the ending when he shoots the guy and then walks him to the police station. He would almost definitely bleed to death, they would have just called an ambulance. But it made for a good moment with the Ray Liotta character so no biggie. Also, the big fight at the end would have landed him in jail for a long time, but he barely seemed to get even a slap on the wrist. Maybe it’s poor writing, or maybe we’re supposed to not give a shit if it’s believable. Maybe it’s all in his fucked up head (though there’s nothing to suggest that).
This is another one I liked so darned much that I don’t feel the need to write a lot. The best horror comedy I can think of, and one of my favorite movies of the year. Woody Harrelson is great, and I liked how the rules popped up on screen throughout. Oh, and Bill Murray, fucking priceless. Can’t wait for the sequel!
When it was over I didn’t think I liked it because I didn’t really follow it all the way through. But I’m okay with that. I think the sequel will help clear a lot of that up. Everything looked awesome in this, and assuming the writers know what they’re doing and can flesh out the universe a bit more in Daywatch, I think I could look back at this as really great. There’s a lot to be done in this world, and I’m interested in seeing more. The ending was really good too.
