The Genres of Movie Goers

The Horrorist – If it is not horror or at least have twist it is not worth watching.
Favorite movie-Saw, Psycho, Friday the 13th
Favorite Props – Knives, dismembered arms, naked girls

The Commoner – If it has will smith it has to be good, if it is not in color, English, or on 5 screens it must suck. They prefer to see movies opening weekend.
Favorite movie-Batman, Shrek 2, Pirates of Caribbean

The Indie – Will only watch movies if they do not come out in mega-plexes or no one but them is aware the film exists.
Favorite movie-Harold and Maude, Funny Ha Ha, Gummo

The comedian – they think everything is funny, well as long as it stars a big name star who is on there 5th film with the same plot. They become easily frustrated when Comedian does serious role.
Favorite movies - Happy Gilmore, Superbad, Elf
Favorite actor – Will Farrell, Adam Sandler, Seth Rogan

The anime kid – Usually dressed in a Catholic school girl outfit or dreams of dating a girl drawn wearing catholic school girl uniform. They rarely venture from anime section of the local video store unless there is new animated TV series release party.
Favorite movies – Akira, Spirited Away, Ran
Favorite Director – Hayao Miyazaki

The soccer mom – Uses movies to babysit the kids and only G rated animated ones. They prefer to buy the direct to DVD sequels of movies because they are cheaper than the higher quality originals, often married to the Pay-per-view guy whose kids grow up to be the commoner, the comedian, or the Pathetic-ist.
Favorite movies – Anything rated G.
Favorite production company – Disney

The Patheticist – Craving constant inspiration for life itself, the more lovable loser the better the movie, the Disney biopics were designed to cater to him.
Favorite movies – Remember the Titans, The Rookie, Dave

Sports Guy – Hardy watches movies unless the story revolves around sports, particularly baseball. Close cousin of the Pathetic-ist.
Favorite movies – The natural, Field of dreams, Rudy
Favorite actor – Kevin Costner

Pay-per-view guy – They are the people you see at the gas station looking through and buying one of the $1 movies. They then ask you to watch the movie with you so that they do not feel dumb for buying a movie at a gas station.
Favorite movies – Anything that is on pay-per-view that you have never heard of.
Favorite actor – Jean Claude Van Damme or anyone else that is past there prime assuming they had a prime.

The Elitist – They have seen every movie ever made or at least read about them. They will tell you something is great just because people say it is great and will claim a movie is great just based on what others are saying about it.
Favorite movie-The 400 Blows, 8 ½ , The Man with a Camera
Favorite Directors – Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa

Pseudo-Elitist – Similar to the elitist, but would never actually sit through more than five minutes of Empire. They are typified by your average Oscar voter.
Favorite movies – Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The God Father
Favorite Directors – Orson wells, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick

The Chick Flicker – Is the opposite of the sports guy and watches only movies that they can see with there girl friends. No matter how obsurd the plot is they will see there lives in it.
Favorite movies – Bridget Jones Diary, Sex in the City, Pride and prejudice
Favorite Actors – Meg Ryan, Sandra Bullock, Hugh Grant

The Down Loader – They are too cheap to rent or go the movies so they download the first available movie and watch it. They are not picky and will watch about anything, though the idea of not paying for movies and seeing it before it comes out in the theatre really turns them on.
Favorite movies – The latest comedy TV series
Favorite Directors – Bit Torrent

The Fanboy – Is usually associated with comic books, but is also know to talk in Klingon and own and light saber. They will often be seen at conventions with the Anime Kid both declaring they are superior to the other.
Favorite movies – It is not currently out yet, but they can be seen waiting in line for its premier and/or discussing the merits of said movie online.

The Cautionist – Will not watch horror, overly sexual, or violent movies. They are the last people to see a movie and only go if the movie has been completely accepted by the rest of the world. They are often seen in empty theatres with only ten other viewers all be cautionist and the occasional fanboy watching a movie for the 10th time.
Favorite movies – Titanic, Finding Nemo, Forrest Gump

The Old Timer – No matter what movie you are watching they will say the movies they use to make were better and will often refuse to even watch new movies to sit at home and watch movies they taped off of TV.
Favorite movies – Gone with the Wind, A Wonderful life, The Wizard of Oz
Favorite actor – James Steward, Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn

The know nothing – They never chose a movie but just goes with there friends. If asked if they like the movie they will always respond with yes.
Favorite movies – They don’t have one or anything by Tyler Perry
Favorite actor – You mean the people in the movie, oh Brad Pitt.

It goes bang – Never saw an action sequence they did not like, never heard any dialogue that seemed necessary, and plot now who needs that. Movie volume is required to be unnecessarily loud.
Favorite movies – Bad Boys 2, The Bourne Ultimatum, Transformers
Favorite Director – Michael Bay

I watch a lot of movies – watches lots of movies, known for allways having one netflix DVD in the player one in the mail box and one coming to them. They see them selves in the same company as the elitist but they do not even pretend that they would actually would actually watch and art film.
Favorite movie-Almost Famous, Apocalypse Now, The Graduate

The Genericist – Related to the I watch a lot of movies person, but will only watch new releases. It is hard for them to find a movie they do not like.
Favorite movies – Forrest Gump, Sixth Sense, National Treasure
Favorite actor – Tom Hanks, Julie Roberts, George Clooney

cliché

Cliché – noun – (in art, literature, drama, etc.) a trite or hackneyed plot, character development, use of color, musical expression, etc.

It is so easy to pick on things that seem unoriginal, I mean how many times do we have to watch the good guy dodge a 1000 bullets. But at some point everything has beginning, a first telling, a point where the idea is conceived. For me it began with a cliché of a video. Before Spike Jonze was Spike Jonze he made the video, originally enough called Video Days. I love this movie while most people want to recreate the Seven Samurai, Annie Hall, or Citzen Cane, I wanted to be in this movie I wanted to make this movie (notice who also got his start in this video):



So as luck would have it I had a chance to make homage to this video and well it is nothing like the original, but it has is moments. It also became a tribute to friend who loves a good cliché and can never get enough of them. Filmed in a mere hour and no retakes were made, what a mistake. It is no surprise that result is a pretty terrible product. It needed a few scenes reshot and another five camera angles should have added to the filming, then again what can you expect, I didn't even bother to use a tripod, ughhhhh? One bad cliché…

Tra La La (aka golf movie)

Back home in the Redneck Rivera for some rest and relaxation and more importantly some home made Indian food. You are probably asking yourself what do Native Americans eat, well it is not those kind of Indians. There are Indians in the panhandle? Well I guess, though I do not know any. Indian food is what white kids make when they try and relive the experiences they have in foreign places. But I digress. During my trip I got to return to scene of the crime and by crime I refer to inspiration for the worst seven minutes of video ever created, golf movie. The Fort Walton Beach municipal golf course, containing two 18 hole courses. This weekends outing was mostly uneventful expect for being paired up with some guy who talked and talked about how much he played only to be followed by why he was not playing good. I think his name was Ed and can visit him at his place of employment the Black Angus restaurant. As exciting as it may seem to hang with Ed, he pales in comparison to the last time we played this Oaks course. So there we are driving up to our balls on the 10th hole of the Oaks course when all of a sudden golf balls are being hit into us. We look back to see some old guy waiving a driver at us. Unsure what we had done we decided it would be best to just let them play through. We tee off on the 11th hole and wait for them to pass us. A few minutes pass and then we hear a caravan of golf carts flying down the cart path towards us, with the old man leading the way. When he gets to 11th tee he does not stop he just keeps coming up to us. Finally he slows down next us and just looks at us and says “You guys are messing up the tra la la!” and speeds off followed by his cohorts. I sure hope I am surely as that guy when I am 70.

A Day Well Lived...

A Day Well Lived (aka Day, Snowman Movie), was an animated short that I made about a boy who tries to save snowmen by putting them in the freezer. He eventually forgets about the snowmen, eventually they end up being used to make mixed drinks. The resulting event gives the boy a second chance to be reunited with his creations, if only for the limited time. I had originally written the story as light hearted attempt to satirize the insanity of trying to save snowmen by putting them in the freezer. Somewhere while sitting on a tarmac in snowstorm editing the story I realized that story was an allegory for friendship. Like a snowstorm new people come into our lives and friendships are built up, but as with melting snow friends move on. Then just as we realize that they are leaving we try and save these times by taking pictures and going to dinners, locking them in the freezer saying we will stay in contact. Never asking ourselves why we did not celebrate those days before the end. But alas there is new snow and those from the past fade away from memory.

Originally I wanted to write this posts in few weeks when school started up again, the proverbially snowstorm. Instead I am writing it now because today is moving on day for many people, so pictures will be taken, food will be eaten, but in the end it is ok to let the snow melt. There will always be another snowstorm, well as long the global warming does not make it to hot.

Earworms, M&Ms, and Faces of Death - Part 3 of the what I do Series

This is the third and final installment of the what I do series. In this installment rational thinking has been replaced with talk of pop culture, with an emphasis on movies. I am not sure much can be gained from reading this though you might find out about some pretty mediocre movies.

Subject: RE: is it doubt our just dumbness 
 
Yes, I actually clicked the link for Mondo Films.  I was looking at that yesterday. Not 'earthworms', dude, 'earworms'.  There was a story on Slate about this new commercial for Subway with a repetitive jingle and he called it an earworm. Faces of Death sounds totally bogus for the most part.  I remember watching it as a teenager and thinking it could be real, but some of it was very doubtful.  That's why I want to see it again: I want to apply my adult reasoning abilities to what I am seeing.
 
Amazon has a box set of Faces of Death Vol I-IV
 
Some of the review comments give you and idea of what you’ll be seeing if you watch it.
 
Erik

Subject: RE: is it doubt our just dumbness
 
i am going to have remember to start using the term earthworm for a song stuck in you head.  that was really good link even if the article was not very in depth.  how did you stumble across that one?  I read the wiki page on the faces of death and i am not really sure what to make of it.  they refer to it as a documentary, but it seems like a mocumentary and that it is faked.  i am guessing that they take what they can of real footage and then make there own to fill in the gaps.  there is also link to mondo films which you might find interesting.  they are basically documentaries about sensational topics. They seem like fore runners to todays reality tv.
 
JIM
 
Subject: RE: is it doubt our just dumbness
 
M&M's have a new promotional "Mint Wafer" flavor as their tie-in to the Movie.  Um, yeah, that makes sense. King of Kong?  Or just plain old King Kong?  I liked the scene in King Kong where the dude gets eaten by the giant swamp tube plants.  that's just sick.  We watched Eastern Promises.  That ruled.  I will buy that one eventually. Oh, we went to the movies to see The Ruins.  It was decent, but  it would have been better if I hadn't paid $18 for it.  Pretty gross,  anyway. Some nasty scenes that rival Saw IV. Yes, Alicia had never heard of Faces of Death, so I decided to put it on our list and show it to her.  I was stoked when I saw that it now comes with a real documentary DVD explaining how fake the first one was.  I think the creator himself put it together.  Anyway, read the Wiki link
 
Faces of Death
 
it's a gas.
 
Subject: RE: is it doubt our just dumbness
 
you might want to check out the book for no country i hear is incredibly violent and gives a little better insite of why the movies just ends, which i personally liked, though i would have just ended it when chugar walks away after the car crash.  history of violence is pretty good and if you liked it you should also check out "eastern promises".  I can not believe you are getting the faces of death DVD i have actually been talking about it recently and no one has ever heard of it let alone seen it.  i just want to know if the monkey killing scene is real.  i still think that scene is hardest core scene i have ever seen in a movie and i would be kind of disappointed to find out it was faked.  I have not seen into the wild though i read the outside story that led to the book so i am not sure if i want to see it.  it seems to be getting mixed kind of reviews.  Interesting that you liked jesus camp most things i have seen people have not liked it and actually thought that it was extremely biased.  i still kind of want to see it and king of kong which i hear is great. life aquatic i thought it was a little better than ok, then again it is a wes anderson movie, you might want to check out The Darjeeling Limited the movie is not as good as life aquatic put the short at the begging is really really good.  as for the rest of his movies, Rusmore - great, royal Tannenbaum-great, and bottle rocker-terrible though i know tons of people who love it.
 
JIM
 
Subject: RE: is it doubt our just dumbness
 
We watched No Country for Old Men.  Yeah, I agree that was really good. The end was a little disappointing, just because it was so abrupt. Sheriff Tommy Lee Jones just decided not to go after Crazy Assassin Guy?  I guess.  Good movie, though. We watched A History of Violence last week, forgot to mention that one. Yeah, that was decent.  I won't be buying it or anything, but had some cool depictions of ass-kicking.  the next couple of movies we have on the Netflix queue are Faces of Death (which now comes with a companion DVD explaining which scenes are real and which are fake), Mallrats, Chasing Amy (got to get my Ben Affleck fix), and the Dead Zone.  I've actually seen all of these movies, but I want to get them so Alicia can see them.  The movies on my list that I still have not seen include Talladega Nights, Into the Wild, Reign Over Me, Lost in Translation, Manhunter, Being John Malkovich, Brazil, 9.5 Weeks.  Oh yeah, we watched Jesus Camp a few weeks ago.  That was so unbiased it was amazing.  I'm so used to Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock that I started to forget what a documentary was.  Those people are warping their children's minds.  Finally, I saw The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.  I wish someone would have told me not to drink before I watched it, but no matter.  I think it would have let me down had I been completely sober.  It was a serious underachiever after all of the nice things I had heard about it. It was witty, yes, but not funny.  A shame, really.
 
Erik

Metaphors? Don't talk about Metaphors!...Movies then? - Part 2 of the what I do Series

This is the second part of the what I do series. In this installment the topic of conversation begins to change from that of science and religion to that of movies and other issues of entertainment. And somehow CSI Miami finds its way into this conversation then again so does Motley Crue...


Subject: RE: is it doubt our just dumbness
 
of coarse it is metaphor, but it is does not mean that that there was not a flood of great impact. i do not mean that the whole world flooded.  you take things way to literally.  like personally i think the story Adam and eve could be true at least in this sense.  8 - 10,000 years ago the climate of north Africa was much different than it is today.  it was much more ideal for human life and at some point the climate dramatically changed to what it was today.  Something to do with retreating glaciers in Europe changing the weather patterns, i think. When the climate changed the people living there would have to go some where and the some where was probably the middle east.  given that Semitic languages are related to Africa not indo-europe and secondly why cross the Sahara when you can travel along the coast, would all be likely indicators that they moved east and north.  So, through time this migration becomes the story of Adam and eve and there forced exodus from eden to permanent settlements, just as they begin occurring in the middle east.  i mean they are all metaphors but somewhere along the way they come from truth.
 
I have seen planet terror, it was Ok. you will like zombie story. i liked the other story better, death proof.  the intermission trailers are the best part. forgetting sarah marshall was pretty funny though it kind of dropped of in the second half as the plot kicked in.  the best part is that she stars in this show called crime scene which is satire of CSI Miami, which ironically is already a satire.  The scenes from her show are the best parts by far. i just saw "rear window" for the first time, pretty interesting. saw the sorta remake of it "disturbia" it was surprisingly OK. "Butterfly and the diving bell" French but good, "atonement" slow but the story is really good and i like how it dealt with Dunkirk in it.  You usually do not see much mention of that in movies.  No Country for old Men, incredible and "3:10 to Yuma" is also really good.  Finally saw "high plains drifter" on the big screen probably my favorite movie of all time.  "27 dresses" pretty bad considering i guess the whole plot before watching the movie, but it has one scene that is just great. TV shows I should start watching on DVD.  things on my list are "the wire", "arrested development", maybe "veronica Mars", "northern exposure"... movies i would like to go back and watch are "little big man", "lost highway", "for a few dollars more" ...  
 
JIM
 
Subject: RE: is it doubt our just dumbness  
 
A flood is a metaphor for an angry God cleansing the world of his mistaken first attempt at creating life.  It's like erasing a blackboard after working on a math problem for half an hour and then starting from scratch.  Remember: just because it rained a lot in Mesopotamia or wherever the people who recorded the history lived, doesn't mean that the Earth flooded for real.  The new Rambo looked hilarious.  Limbs being blasted off every other scene?  Cheesy Stallone lines?  What's the memorable moment of violence when the whole movie is just one violent image after another?  A triple decapitation with one swing of a machete?  Starship Troopers was satire, but I loved the effects.  The bugs were so creepy.  Any big horror fan had to love that movie.   Let's see, we watched Lost Highway the other day.  The DVD finally came out (11 years later) and I bought it.  You and I talked about that, right?  You said you saw it or you wanted to see it?  See it if you haven't already.  It's pretty weird.  Reservation Road
 
Reservation_Road
 
(Joaquin Phoenix, Jennifer Connolly).  Decent drama about a couple whose kid gets run over and killed.  Joaquin is stealing all of Sean Penn's roles.  You might find this one slightly dull.   We've been watching a lot of House lately.  Netflix is great for catching up on what I missed.  We just started Season 3.  Season 4 is on TV right now.  The DVD's should be out around Christmas I'm guessing.  I really like House, and I sort of get the feeling you could get into it, too, if you'd just watch a few episodes.  I got the Season 1 box set for Christmas if you want to borrow it.
 
We're getting Planet Terror
 
Planet_Terror
 
tomorrow.  Zombie movies can be fun.  I watched 300 sober the other day-first time for that.  Made a lot more sense!  Good movie. Check out Black Tide
 
blacktide
 
a new band I've been listening to.  They're decent.  Sound like Motley Crue a bit, some Anthrax, Ratt, and a dollop of Metallica.  And they're all teenagers.  That's fun.  The big hit is Shockwave.  It's on Rock Band, that video game.
 
Erik

From Creationism to Starship Troopers - Part 1 of the what I do Series

This is the first part of the what I do series. It is the edited down version of long email discussion i had with a friend. It would have great if i could claim that i wrote it all myself. You can start at the beginning and read up or you can start and the end and travel backwards to see how you got there. Look for a little bit of everything to be included in the series, from science to pop culture and everything in between....


Subject: RE: is it doubt our just dumbness
 
First off 2001 is brilliant.  In many ways it is dated and bit slow, but still there is something incredible about how the movie is filmed then again it is a Kubrick film and almost everyone of his films are incredible.  also ac Clarke who wrote 2001 is one the best sci-fi writers of all time especially with his ability to mix science and fiction.  Man i like starship troopers, but the truth is that movie was a satire.  sorry for that but that is my daily movie tirade.  I have not posted much on RG in while, partly because i have been busy and partly because their topics have been pretty boring or at least not something I do not want to write about. I figured you would mention the part about were did the aliens come from did they evolve or what.  who knows i figure at that point we could just ask them.  but you are right it does not change the question just the context of the question.  If you just removed religion from the equation things would be simpler but i think that is not possible.  the problem is you see religion as this kind artifice of history, while i see religion as artifact of history that some how hints at things of the past and i don't mean that there are gods in Olympus, but that if every religion carries a story of great flood, then odds are there is an historic basis for this event.  As for the topic at hand i figure there is 90% chance that we just evolved from goo, 5% chance that some kind of outside forced helped the process of evolution, be it gods, aliens, asteroids..., and 5% chance of other (something beyond the 1st two). back to the movies topic you seen any good movies recently?  i saw the new Rambo oh man is that movie beyond ridiculous...also any new good music?
 
JIM
 
Subject: RE: is it doubt our just dumbness
  
Wow, I'm impressed.  You are thinking out meaningful replies, taking the time to write them up, and saying interesting things.  The RG boards are probably losing out because I'm getting all this good stuff. OK, you mentioned 2001 in response to my comment about Creationism being hopeless.  Believe it or not I just saw 2001 for the first time a few weeks ago.  I see your point, but remember this: if our civilization was begun by aliens, something created them as well.  And if it turns out that "God" is actually an alien of some sort, well that sort of blows a hole in Christianity's focus on omnipresence, omnipotence, and all of that.  At heart I'm just a religion-hater, Colee.  You know that! By the way, I liked Starship Troopers way better than 2001.  I suppose in the context of the time it was made, 2001 was brilliant or whatever. But compared to Alien, Event Horizon, Total Recall, Star Wars, or an endless parade of Sci-Fi films that don't happen in space (The Fly, Jurassic Park), I think 2001 kind of stinks.  Very mediocre ending. I like the 3rd possibility you mentioned.  That is wholly and diametrically different from Creationism and Evolution.  Nice example. How strongly do you feel about it one way or the other?  How likely does it seem to you?  Maybe it's just the way my mind is hardwired, but it seems very unlikely to be the solution to me.
 
Erik
 
Subject: RE: is it doubt our just dumbness
 
By third choice i mean something that is outside creationism/evolution paradigm or the combination of both.  It is just that we are so hard wired they become nearly impossible to see.  As for creationism being so unrealistic think about it this way one the best sci-fi movies of all time is about creationism, 2001. Just think 100 years from now creationism will be revisited because once we make life out of nothing, what does that say? With that said I do actually have a 3rd possibility, it is something that came up in a discussion about a movie i had just seen and that is concept of things just are.  things occur in the fabric of time that have no beginning or end they just are.  for example the idea of monkeys typing infinitely they would at some point create all works of ligature, now lets assume there are infinite universes if things occurred randomly you could in theory get anything including us.  we could be a product of randomness mere errors in the process.
 
JIM
 
Subject: RE: is it doubt our just dumbness
 
 OK, that's kind of what I said in my e-mail.  That's what I thought you were getting at.  Are you saying you think there could be a third possibility?  To me it seems pretty clear that some extent of creation or evolution or BOTH had to take place. I can't even fathom a third possibility.  We've regressed?  Like, de-evolution?  That's still evolution, just in a different direction.  Anyway, fascinating topic.  That's why I occasionally take a plunge and read about it.  Creationism seems so hopeless to me, because it assumes a premise that is unprovable.  Unless God suddenly decided to show his face (and I don't mean on a Grilled Cheese Sandwich or an overpass in L.A.).
 
Erik
 
Subject: RE: is it doubt our just dumbness
 
oh man i missed that one, though that seems more likely than the insanity that story was real. What i am suggesting is an idea that creationism and evolution are both hard wired into our heads though especially creationism.  i mean think about it, you just make things you never think how they came about.  when you plan something you make it happen.   While the concept of evolution is a large scale idea. In general to large for an individual to see, while creationism is local it is the result of what you see when you do not have enough information and since we evolved in a world with not much information the idea of creationism would be the result.
 
JIM
 
Subject: RE: is it doubt our just dumbness
 
 A manifestation of human nature?  Does that mean that you think we're built/hardwired to understand things in one of two ways (something is created the way it is or it became the way it is), and so we view basically everything from that slant?  Did you see the Yale art student thing seems to be a hoax?  Yale Student Insists Abortion Art Project Is Real, Despite University's Claims of 'Creative Fiction'
 

what the ivy league calls fun
 
Dumb beeotch.  I knew this was too incredible to be true.  She seemed too eager to absorb the spotlight.
 
Erik
 
Subject: RE: is it doubt our just dumbness
 
the article has 3 parts i thought it made some pretty good points and some pretty bad points.  I think doubting science is good but doubting everything is bad.  on a kind of a side note it is interesting that all this doubt on science has seem to spring from the creationist/evolution debate, because i think a 100 years from now they will look back at this point in time and see that this where man transitions from the Darwinian period of science to creationism period of science.  what i mean by that is that science of nature has been looking at ways in which things evolve and how they can control this and from now on they are going to look more at how they can create nature....which goes back to my argument on creationism and evolution; that this debate is hidden in religion but in reality it is merely a manifestation of human nature.  In all honesty i mean the odds are that both are wrong it is just a matter of what theory fits the data better.
 
JIM
 
Subject: RE: is it doubt our just dumbness
 
I hadn't gotten around to reading that one yet.  I'm interested now, though.  That guy Berlinski sounds like my brother.  He's a contrarian to the core-takes no stand except that you are wrong.  Talks out of both sides of his mouth at once.   The Slate writer clearly doesn't like Berlinski.  He cited an example of another contributor at the same website however, who does like his work. More reading required, I suppose
 
Erik
 
Subject: is it doubt our just dumbness
 
doubt or just dumbness
 
i think you should have been sending this to me...

JIM

The Dark Knight or an allegory for George Bush?

The Dark Knight the follow up to wildly successful Batman Begins continues where the last movie left off with Batman continuing his personal crusade against criminals. Batman is now aided by a no-nonsense, by the rules DA, Harvey Dent. Together with Gordon they have made in roads into major crime organization by attaching there sources of money. But a new menace has arrived in Gotham, the Joker. He does not play by the rules, his goals are not to be rich, his goals are to rule through fear, to tear down society. Cold and calculating the Joker uses Gotham’s own weakness against them, he allows fear and anger to tear at society from the inside. Batman realizes that traditional powers can not fight a man that is not driven by clear logic and steps out side the bounds of moral society to track down the Joker. He will torture all who maybe involved he will eaves drop on every phone call in the city, he will stop at nothing to find the joker, but in the end he can not kill the joker. Why? He will say that it is his morals that will not allow him to kill the Joker, but maybe the Joker knows best when he says that Batman can not kill the Joker just as he can not kill Batman because with out the other, the other can not exist. It is Batman’s ego that is his final undoing as much as he claims that he wants to be able to stop being Batman he can not allow himself to get out. So, Batman will take the fall and martyr himself so that society can still see it self as good. But what do we really want? We say we want to be lead by the Harvey Dents of the world but we want to be saved by the Batmans. Maybe we should all just flip a coin as Two Face would as the extreme of both good and evil dictated only by chance, created by the circumstances of life’s experiences.

Mario Kart Wii

In the attempt to give all things a chance I decided to go see Speed Racer this weekend, even though no one watched it when it was in the theatres. Upon arriving at gatornights I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they were having a demonstration of Mario Kart Wii, so much for watching the movie. I am not sure where they found this demo version of the game but it must have been an import as the race commentary was done in a multiple languages, either way I love Mario Kart and I was excited to see the demo. The opening scenes of the game left much to be desired. You are introduced to basic story line of the game. In this version of the game Bowser is in control of the WRL (Wii Racing League) and he has captured baby Mario’s bother baby Luigi, with the help of champion racer Waluigi. Baby Mario must now out race the competition to reclaim WRL for all racers. Baby Mario is help out along the way by baby princess, his father Mario and mother princess, his love interest baby princess, the duo of toad and diddy kong, and of coarse head mechanic Luigi. Now on to the racing, the first race course is pretty simple and looks like a cross between the old Luigi’s circuit and rainbow road. The challenging part of the opening race is that you also race the ghost of baby Luigi who holds the track record. In the demo the racer does not beat the ghost leading me to believe that if you can you will unlock a secret part of the game. The courses get more challenging with an updated Koopa Troopa beach, Kalamari Desert, and Choco Mountain. In both the Kalamari Desert and the Choco Mountain races, you race as team. In the demo the race team consisted of baby Mario, Yoshi, a locked character, and baby princess who gets use a helicopter. In these races your main competition is Wario he is given extra weapons to help defeat you. If you can finish in the overall top three for the cup you are given an invitation to the grand prix. The grand prix is championship race and not a cup like in the older Mario Kart 64 and it is winner take all. The race takes place in an updated Wario stadium and you main competition Waluigi. He is given special weapons to help defeat you. Should you win the race you get to unlock the mystery racer who turns out to be the missing baby Luigi. My overall impression of game was positive. I like the way game looked, the game play was satisfactory not great, and introduction of a story line I think was bad idea. Not only did the story line feel forced, I thought it took away from the overall game play. If I wanted story line racing I would go play Diddy Kong Racing. Overall I give the game a B+, not quite on the level of the old Mario Kart 64 but getting close, maybe with a few more playings my opinion will change.

After typing all this up I just discovered that Gator Nights did not have a demo of Mario Kart Wii playing and instead I was actually watching Speed Racer. What a complete and total let down. Sinse I have already typed up the Mario Kart review I am not going to delete it now. Instead i have just put added an abridged review for Speed Racer. It starts of slow and the style gives you a head ache for about the first 30 minutes, but you soon get use to it. Just as you starting to actually enjoying the movie the bad story line and dialogue have to get in the way. For anyone who grew up watching this show be fore warned you are too old for this movie. What were they thinking? Who thinks it is a good idea to take cartoon from the 60’s and make it into a movie for kids in the 00’s? No wonder no one came and watched this movie (for further reading on this subject see Bewitched). With that said the movie had real potential the whole idea of sports being over corporatized and full of cheating is very contemporary, just think the Patriots meet Barry Bonds meets NASCAR, brilliant. I think that if they had just gone for it and developed a more in depth story line this movie could have become an instant classic an updated version of Any Given Sunday. But instead it looks more like Mario Kart the movie, which is better played than watched. Hmmm…..

A short review of Fool’s Gold:

They are anchored off of Key West and Key West has mountains.

Vacation

Vacation, National Lampoon’s, is a1983 Comedy starring Chevy Chase. It is one of few comedies that I thoroughly enjoy. Written by John Hughes, now famous for such terrible movies as Beethoven and its 4 sequels and drill bit Taylor, was once known as great creative mind in the 80’s. It can be argued that two of his latter movies were better The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in my mind they can not surpass the simple joy that is Vacation. Simple is the key word here while most comedies are held down because of their plots, Vacation excels because of its plot. It has none. It follows the journeys of the Griswald family as they take a car trip across America to the fictional amusement park wally world (a clear Disneyland rip-off with an owner that looks like Walt Disney) along the we get to see some of the lively miss adventures. The constant in the movie that I always found most enjoyable was that it seemed real. Each new disaster that be felled them seemes plausible, if not common. You could see how your own family could end up in this predicament, except for possibly the death of aunt scene. As for me I am currently on vacation or at least that is what others are calling it. While most people go on vacations to exotic places like Europe or Canada, I go on vacations to the mundane world of the Florida panhandle also know as the Redneck Rivera. I came to realize this past week that being in Gainesville has left me aloof much like Obama when he talked about people clinging to guns and religion, we really forget about how the other half lives. While on trip to Wally World (Wal-Mart) with a friend we ran into a friend of his, an acquaintance that I knew a little. His girlfriend, wife, I am not really sure was with him. I noticed, though it was quite obvious, she had no left eye. She might have had a left eye, it could have been sucked down into her face, either way I know that that she use to have any eye because I had scene her before. As we stood there talking I started wondering if she notices that we know. I then think about how I would never see this in Gainesville, for that matter I would never have even consider the possibility that someone would be content walking around missing an eye. The whole experience left me with the impression that our view of the world is very limited. I think that this is what they call Framing. I guess sometimes you do not need to go to Europe to see the exotic it is there all the time right next to you.