Could be Funny

I like some of the lines on the trailer... They are so true. I may need to watch it.

Best "Super" Suits Ever

Below is a rundown of what I consider the best suits that were made. These suits gave the wearer special and almost in some casses super powers. Of course my definition of a superhero is that you can't be one unless you have super power. Superman is and Batman is not a superhero...

So anyways let's start with the countdown.

#10 Darth Vader


#9 Venom


#8 Inspector Gadget


#7 Steel


#6 The Greatest American Hero


#5 Spawn


#4 Robocop


#3 Green Goblin


#2 Batman


#1 Ironman


So that's my list. Who do you think should be number one, who is on the list that is not deserving and who is off the list that should be on the list?

Friday Night Movies

We went on vacation a few weeks back and I did what I usually do when we go up north... catch up on some movies that have been sitting at home and I've wanted to see.

This time around, I brought with me:
We Own The Night starring Juaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg and Eva Mendes
Batman Begins starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Liam Neeson
Constantine starring Keanu Reeves and Rachel Weisz
Vantage Point starring Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox and Forest Whitaker
Pirates of the Caribbean 3 starring Johnny Depp, Otlando Bloom, and Keira Knightley
The Happening starring Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel and John Leguizamo
The Night Listener starring Toni Collette and Robin Williams
The Da Vinci Code strring Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou and Ian McKellen

The one movie that I was most impressed with was Vantage Point. It's a thriller that takes the assassination of a president to a different level. We see the assassination unfold through the eyes of different witnesses and each time we see the assassination we peal away a new layer of the truth. The movie pulls you in and by the near end, I was thinking wow not that's not something I would have seen coming. The movie is not great, but it is worthy of renting and viewing.

I Think It's the Christmas Season

It's official.... I'm on Christmas break from work. That's what happens when the end of the year approaches and you still have 12 days of unused vacation.

So it's time to tackle the honey do list, get to gym, do some Christmas shopping, and generally do some battery recharging.

Yesterday I was on a Kung Fu movie kick, so when Norm was away I sat down and re-watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero again. Out of the two I liked Crouching Tiger better as it had a better story line behind it. Hero had some of the most stunning cinematography ever, but the story was just not as strong. The fight sequences in both of the film were outstanding.

I hope to blog a little more during the break, but you never know.

Friday Night Movie - Pan's Labyrinth

I was finally able to view Pan’s Labyrinth yesterday. My neighbor lent me the movie several months ago, and I’ve struggled to find an appropriate time to see it. Let me tell you that the movie is not meant to be seen by kids as it is rated R for violence. Also, the movie is entirely spoken in Spanish with English subtext. So, there I was trying to come up with something to do yesterday and there was the movie staring right back to me and it opened the case and put the DVD into the player to start the fairy tale.

Spoiler Alert!!!

The movie is set in 1944 Spain and it’s the story of 11 year old Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) who moves to the countryside with her newly married and pregnant mother to be with her husband. The husband better known as “The Captain” is truly a ruthless and evil individual as he is trying to squash a rebellion by the Spanish resistance group.

Ofelia is a reader and true believer in fairy tales. She discovers a labyrinth and falls into a fairy tale in which she tries to reach a long lost kingdom. Guiding her return to the kingdom is a faun a half man, half goat beast. He tells her that she is the long lost princess and must complete a few quests to open a portal back to her kingdom.

The twist in the story is that Ofelia’s real world a nightmare as the Captain is torturing and killing rebels. Furthermore, he is mentally abusing her and she hates him and wants her mother to leave him and take her away from him but she refuses. Unfortunately for Ofelia, her fairytale world is not much better as she is faced by situations and creatures that are just as bad as the Captain. Ultimately at the end of the movie Ofelia is faced at a crossroad trying to do determine what the right course of action should be.

I didn’t like the movie the first time I saw it but since I had extra time I watched the commentary version of the movie and truly appreciated the film much more when del Toro explained what and how the different scenes were shot.

As it is a Spanish movie, the subtexts sometime fly through so there may be a few portions of the film that you may need to rewind. This fact usually is a deal breaker for me as the interludes break the movie continuity up for me.

Is it a must see... probably not if you don’t like watching subtext. Also, this is not your typical fairy tale. But if you have a long winter’s night without kids around and you’re trying to find a movie that you have not seen, try this one on for size.

Saturday Night Movie

Norm and I sat down yesterday to watch a Saturday night movie. The kids went to the show which left us to watch a rated R movie. We had been sitting on Untraceable for several weeks and decided to watch the thriller. The movie stars Diane Lane as FBI agent Jennifer Marsh who is a member of a taskforce on cyberspace crime.

If you want to see a good movie in this genre go rent Silence of the Lambs, but this was ok for a rental. We gave it 2.5 out of 4 stars.

*** Spoiler Alert ***

The plot is refreshing as Agent Marsh gets embroiled in a hunt for a crazed serial killer who is using a website to kill victims that he has abducted. The more hits the website gets the quicker the victim are killed. This is done while the victim is being killed via live streaming video on the net.

Diane Lane does another great job as the agent trying to catch the psycho killer. She has just the right amount of geek ness about her and pulls off the mother caught between a career and her family. The antagonist in the film is relative newcomer Joseph Cross. He portrays Owen Reily the psycho serial killer. He has just the right amount of crazy beady eyed look about him and pulls of a credible character sketch. The other characters are non descript and just add to the ensemble.

The location was an interesting choice in Portland. Some of the movie is shot during rainstorms and add to the drama similar to Seven.

The writing and directing were adequate. There could have been better use of the supporting cast and some of the scenes that were left in could have been removed.

If you could disbelieve some of the inaccuracies of the technology then you will like this movie. If you can’t get past it, then you’re going to struggle to get through it as there are no chase scenes or things blowing up.