Warning to the Republicans

America is tired of extremism... In November we will not be voting so much FOR you as AGAINST them... If you try to pull us equally far to the right as they tried to pull us to the left; if you let the extremists run your party; if you cater to the special interests, then you will not gain the White House in 2012.

America is starving for true leaders... brave men and women who put the welfare of the nation before everything else... even before their own careers and wallets... Do you have what it takes to be a leader, or will you continue partisan politics as usual?

Where are all these jobs???

Just one question for now....
Where exactly ARE all these jobs that the rich folk are creating with their tax breaks??

Houston Malls prefer texters to Go players

Hello to all my long suffering fans... I am back to blogging...

Today, I and my fellow Go players (6 to 8) were asked to leave a mall in Houston where we had been playing every week for about 3 months. We intend to talk with the property manager this week to see why we were asked to leave. We all buy breakfast and sometime lunch there. We intend to speak with the property manager and security management to see if we can get this injustice overturned.. but if we can not get treated fairly.. then we are taking it to the net!!!

Believe me.. this is as ignorant as when the citizens of the University Village in Houston got the Houston Go club blocked from taking ownership of a house that was given to them... the reason.. they thought that a Go club would have strippers in it...

Whats so bad about D&D 3.5???

Ok, with all the buzz about D&D 4e coming out, I've read a lot of posts here and there that say D&D 3.5e was bad, a rip off or in some other way 'not good,' but I can't seem to get any details... Now with 4e coming out, I here quite a bit of disgruntledness out there, but can't get any details.

Can someone tell me just what was so bad about 3.5e except for the fact that you probably had to pay another $90+ to get the core books, but did you really need these books???? Is it the supplemental material that becomes incompatible? And if you already have $1,000 of books and materials... what the heck else would you need???

Anyway, as I have never purchased 3.5e, I have no idea what the deal was/is. So if someone can enlighten me, you may save me the money I might otherwise spend on 4e.

Oh yeah... Happy Thanksgiving!!!! As you can see, I am celebrating the day like a true American, by thnking of spending money just because Wizards of the Cost have invented a new way to roll dice.....

Beowulf Revived!

Several years after I tossed Michael Chricton's Eater's of the Dead into the used book bag, having only read, at best, thirty pages and cussing him for blatant plagiarism, I read the afterward of the book. If memory serves (its not worth wikipeding), some friend of Chricton's complained that students were no longer interested in the classics. It was some how impossible to get them interested in such older works as Beowulf. Chricton's response was that it just wasn't presented right... and he wrote the above mentioned retelling of the story... which I never finished.... Robert Zemeckis' response is the movie, Beowulf, I saw today, and I can only say that he hit the nail on the head... I am sure that the images I saw on the screen today were very close to those that listeners would have imagined as the poem was song around campfires long ago.

I was a bit surprised to see that the movie is animated much like 300 without the herky-jerky stop motion/speed motion of that film. The animation is also not often as good as that of 300, but making it a little more video-gamey than 300 may help connect with that lost generation that so disturbed Chricton's friend. Once I got adjusted to the animation, I just went along for the enjoyable ride.

The poem, Beowulf is one of my favorite works, and the ancient Geat one of my first heroes. Until now, all the screen adaptations I've seen were pretty pathetic, mainly because they either focused only on the conflict with Grendel or just used the name Beowulf, and the poem itself be damned.... Zemeckis does none of this. He stays truer to the story than anyone in the past, and because the various parts of the story need to be connected somehow, I will grant him the changes that he made to Grendel's Dam and fate of Hrothgar.

The movie shows the swimming race between Beowulf and Brecca and the battle with the sea monsters, and just like those listeners nearly 2000 years ago, I can accept Beowulf's abilities, for he was the first superhero. there is also a scene where the kingdom celebrates the anniversary of Grendel's death by telling the story of his fight with Beowulf, and the bard is telling the story in Old English which was a delightful touch. I also enjoyed the brief scene when Unferth asked Hrothgar if they should also sacrifice to the 'new god, Christ Jesus.' Zemeckis illustrates, in this single scene, the influences of Christianity that each lecture spends at least 45 minutes addressing. I thought that too was a nice touch.

So, if you like the poem, Beowulf, you should not be disappointed with this film... If you are a fan of superheroes... well, this was the first, and you should enjoy this film... If you need exact realism in your science fiction and fantasy.. you might not like this, and if you are an English professor and think that Beowulf is no longer teachable to the modern student... just wait so your class can get the DVD....

Bottom line: I recommend this movie....

No Country for Old Men

I had to go to Wikipedia to fill in the blanks I was left with after seeing the movie, No Country For Old Men. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this movie... I've been liking everything that The Coen brothers do, but something struck me while watching the movie that the plot wasn't as tight as I know the Coens can make, then I saw the credits... The Coens didn't write it; they based their screenplay on a novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy... and the movie has all the markings of a rather complex book squeezed into a movie....

But, after learning more about the novel from the modern Alexandrian Library, if I had to pick someone to turn this novel into a movie, the Coen brothers are the ones I'd pick. The characters are perfect subjects for their adept understanding of the baser side of human nature... The movie opens with a voice over narrative by West Texas Sheriff Ed Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) that ponders the depth of villainy (I won't call it evil) and how incomprehensible it can be.... even to a third generation Texas Lawman. It reminded me of that GREAT last line in Fargo when Marge (Frances McDormand) rhetorically asks the villain what was it all for?

Like Fargo, the villains in No Country for Old Men are after money... the money they lost, and Llewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin) found. Speaking of villains, if there was an award for best actor in the role of a villain, it would go to Josh Bardem in the role of Anton Chigurh who uses a 'cattle gun' to kill people and pop deadbolts. The Coens out did themselves with this baddy. But that is to be expected from the Coens who are experts at creating and presenting their characters. I enjoyed watching this movie because the Coens are such masters of character, and the talent selected for this film are experts at bringing them to life and using that coen dialogue of which no syllable is wasted.

Unfortunately, the movie lacks a lot of explanation. It doesn't take much of imagination to know what went down at the drug deal, but, as other players in the deal are introduced, their role is not clear. What exactly was the plan? Why was there a tracking beacon in the money? Who the hell was Stephen Root's character supposed to be? Was Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson) a good guy, a bad guy, or just after the money? All of these questions can be answered in the mind of the viewer, but the viewer shouldn't have to guess to answer these questions. It seemed that the only reason that Sheriff Bell (Jones) was in the movie was to offer a chorus to help the viewer string the pieces together. Though Jones gives a great performance, and each of his scenes was masterful, his character could have been removed from the film, and nothing would have been lost... however, one gets the feeling that his character is necessary in order to realize the theme and message of the novel... And that is the difficulty with turning a book into a film... do you just chase the white whale or do you explore the nature of man?

In summary, I enjoyed this movie, I feel I got my money's worth, and I am going to read the book, but I still don't know who the hell those guys were in room 138....

Dragon Wars - Comments on the Movie

My brother and I went to see the movie Dragon Wars. He liked it and I didn't. If he sends me a review, I will post it. These are my comments.

******* SPOILER ALERT****SPOILER ALERT******
********DETAILS ABOUT THE MOVIE FOLLOW*******

The main problem that I have with this movie is that it bored me. There were very nice visual effects, but I can get visual effects for free on my computer... AND visual effects are to be expected in any sort of monster movie. We can pretty much make anything look extremely real, so special effects do not impress me unless they are 'stunning.'

the movie starts with a somewhat lengthy narrative to introduce the 'situation.' Later in the movie, the history of the serpentine feud is related by the wise old sage. Although this narration has flashback scenes to go along with it, it is still a narration. About this time, I was starting to feel rushed. There was a LOT of story... a lot of INTERESTING story rushed along in this manner. There was also a lot that probably should have been explained in THIS narrative. Who exactly was the evil general leading the dark forces for the bad imoogi? Why was he leading them? What did he expect to gain? Where did he get his army, and his saurian mounts? While I watched the immense horde of dark soldiers on their dinosaur mounts launching rocket attacks against a small Korean village, I wondered why this dark general didn't continue on to take over the world. Or, maybe, all this horde was in some way tied to the evil imoogi... but where they came from and where they went will remain a mystery to me... maybe I missed it in the narrative.

Return to modern day Los Angeles for the D-War to continue. and there, I have several problems with just the way the movie seemed to be edited. There were scenes that just ended in what seemed to be critical parts. One was when the dark general first visits the old sage's (Jack's) antique shop. The old sage says "Ah, Lord Balax (sp)..." the scene pretty much stops after the initial greeting, the audience never sees what happens inside the Antique shop. this is important, because the evil general seems to have taken over the shop and from the relics there resurrects his saurian/dragon evil soldier army. I would have like to have seen how the evil general ousted the mystic kung-fu master Jack from the shop. I'd also like to know why Jack hadn't long centuries ago destroyed the scolls and makic staues that would become the evili legion. There is another scene where the comic news cameraman Bruce asks the reincarnated hero Ethan if he believes all the Dragon stuff, and the scene switches to something else. I think that Ethan's answer to that question was important.

Another problem I have with more than one scene is that the bad imoogi had the girl trapped at least twice, and instead of snapping her up to gain ultimate power from the yi yoo Joo, he roars for about a minute allowing opportunity for her to get away again or for others to resue her. I understand that this is needed for the movie to have suspense and to keep moving, but once is enough. Granted, this sounds like I am picking nits, but there are enough nits to suggest total infestation... I think that I am only asking for the movie to complete important scenes, explain what the magical fantastic stuff is doing there and not just have things happen because it looks cool.... Oh, and why did the good imoogi wait until the very end to make an appearance.. they could have used his help in that battle for Los Angeles....

I give D-Wars a Thumbs down... I didn't like it...

Audio Go Lectures

I have been a student of Guo Juan's Go School online for about 2 months now, and I my game shows that it is worth every Euro I've spent so far. I have added a link to the site in my sidebar... If you are a Go enthusiast, check it out.

The Last Legion

I went to see the movie, The Last Legion, this afternoon and was disappointed. I will try to avoid spoilers in this little review.

The movie is based on the novel by Valerio Massimo Manfredi. I have not read the book, but I hope that it is better than this movie. It is yet another take on the King Arthur legend. It seems to be in vogue these days to retool the legend of Arthur moving his origins ever further from Christianity. (I just deleted a paragraph to avoid going off into that tangent). The novelizations of these retoolings are interesting (I have read one called The Skystone), but in removing the legend from it's religious context, something is lost. The story felt more like a D&D adventure than the birthing legend of a righteous King. The young Unther is the boy emperor, Romulus Augustus, played by Thomas Sangster says to his mother, "in the past 5 years, there have been 5 emperors, and they have all been killed; what will happen to me?" This line brought attention to the violent, tumultuous world that Romulus was raised in. It was the worst of the Roman Empire... decadent and fallen. What virtue are we to hope will rise out of this?

The lighthearted romantic 'comedy' provided Colin Firth and Aishwarya Rai seemed better scripted for a comic book than the action drama that this movie tried to be. the same is true for the light, comedic spin that was put on several of the fight scenes.

The movie seemed to lack depth, and it had the feeling of being the second book in a trilogy (which it is not). To it's credit, I must admit that the final credits mentioned that the movie was based on 'parts' of the novel, so maybe those elements that would have given the characters more dimensions and made the plot more engaging/intriguing were in the other parts of the book.

I also wonder if the the writers Jez and Tom Butterworth were actually listening to characters. To motivate the troops in the inevitable, hopeless final battle, Aurelius (Colin Firth) says that they are making a stand against tyranny... Hail Caesar..." Does anyone else have a problem with those being uttered with the same breath?

This movie was average, mildly entertaining in its moments... I give it about a C-. Neither a thumb's up nor a thumb's down... it gets a thumb to the side.... If you have to pay for parking and a small popcorn is $5... wait for the DVD....

More on the Four

Nyiti raises a good point in his comment on my last post. I was thinking that I gave the Rise of the Silver Surfer an A- because it was a successful movie within it's genre. It delivered entertainment, escapism and great special effects... and even a plot that didn't push the envelope of plausibility (once you accept the whole superhero setting). It delivered what it set out to deliver. So, as a good friend of mine once told me "everything is not Shakespeare."

Be that as it may, I got to thinking of one of my pet peeves about the Oscars... There is no category for comedy, and no comedy will ever win best picture. Yet, the opposite is true, a comedy can be the worst movie of a year. Therefore, why should it not be in the running for the best? (IF you can imagine that X is a state of affairs, then ~X is also a possible state of affairs... yeah, I'm stretching it)

What does this have to do with FF:ROTSS? Rise of the Silver Surfer, no longer has the luxury of competing only within it's own genre. When I compare it to other movies that I've seen, and require more of it, it drops a bit. The problems that I listed in my last post carry more weight. Movies are movies are movies, and all need to be judged the same. Yes, they set out to accomplish different goals, and they target different audiences, but the basics are the same throughout. I do have to drop this movie from an A- to a B-.

But, you ask, how could a superhero fantasy movie EVER make the grade... They do, Spiderman, Batman Begins and Unbreakable are all examples of A+ superhero movies, and I put them right up there with some of the best movies that I have seen... Thanks again for the comment Nyiti... not many people can get me to rethink something once my mind is set...

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Well, thanks to T for reminding me that I am falling behind on my New Year's Resolutions... but the year ain't over yet...

I went to see the Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer this Saturday. It was an enjoyable flick, but could have been better... I think. Of course, the special effects were great, but 1) they should be, and 2) special effects do not a movie make. I liked this one better than the first one. This 'installment of the franchise' had focus, and that is a huge improvement over the first. It seemed to take it's subject matter seriously, but still had some corny dialogue. I was also disappointed in the surfer's motivations... SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!! SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!

I can imagine, that the surfer, forced into slavery by Galactus to save his own planet would just go about his business and prepare worlds for Galactus to devour. Chances are, many of the worlds, especially those observed by Reed Richards, probably had no life on them, so the surfer probably rarely encounters moral dilemmas. However, when he comes to Earth, does he start having a struggle of conscience because he suddenly interacts with the beings that he is about to destroy? No. He has a change of heart because Susan Storm looks like the love he left behind... darned good thing the Gov didn't call The Justice League to help out. It's not a big thing, but it would not have been hard to have the Surfer save humanity because he found something good in us as a people... I also question Galactus' motivation in giving his slave the means to destroy him... I mean, Galactus seems to have been finding planets to devour quite well without the surfer's help... so, the surfer comes along, probably the best salesman from his home world and 'sells' Galactus a service he doesn't need and a price he really shouldn't have to pay. THEN, so that his 'herald' can do the job, Galactus gives him a surfboard powerful enough to destroy Galactus himself... Either Galactus got fat and stupid from gorging on planets, or the writers should have spent less time on wedding hijinks and more on explaining the motivations of the villains.

But all this is merely picking nits. I enjoyed the flick. It stayed focused, it kept my attention and it never really slowed down. I give it an A-

At the movies

Well, I'm still failing at my new years resolution of making a post a week, so here is a little catch up...
Here are my comments on the movies I've been to:

Pan's Labyrinth - Loved this movie. I give it an A+

Smokin' Aces - Not all that great. It tried too hard to imitate Tarantino without really understanding him. There were a few good action scenes, so I give it a C+.

Letters From Iwo Jima - I was a little disappointed in this movie. Iwo was a tough fight for our Marines, but the Japanese portrayed in this movie did not seem very formidable. I gave it a C+ definitely not Oscar material, and the academy agreed.

The Number 23 - I really liked this movie. The weirdest thing about it is that it was extremely similar to a short story written by an old friend of mine Eric DeGeer. Eric's story was called Dues Ex Machina (sp?). And Eric, if you read this post, get in touch with me! This movie gets an A.

Reno 911: Miami - I am a huge fan of Reno 911, and I hated this movie... aside from not being all that funny, it was sort of boring, and too obscene. It gets an F.

300 - I did not have the 'AWESOME DUDE!!' reaction that most of my male associates had over this movie, but then, they are video game junkies, and the movie was very much like a video game. I found the movie to be average... worthy of a C

Black Snake Moan - I LOVED this movie... If you haven't seen it.. Go see it. It seems to go on a little after the movie seems to end, but that's ok. I give this movie an A+

Zodiac - I enjoyed this movie, but, like most of these 'based on a true story' movies, I would have enjoyed a documentary a little better. I give this movie a B+.

The Hills Have Eyes 2 - This movie delivers what it says it will. It gets a B. I need to go rent the first one....

Ghost Rider - Ok, this one is just not my cup of tea. I never do like shows about battling angels and demons because they can't really die, so what exactly is 'combat' between these beings??? Bravery and heroism in them is an illusion. Oh, and the fire damage left by the Ghost Rider would be more expensive than anything the criminals were doing... except when they try to take over all our souls... I guess it is worth burning down my town to save the souls of all the world... I give this movie a C-.

Grindhouse - Now this movie is a TRIP! It was little corny, and many of the one-liners reminded me of things my role playing friends would say, but Rodrigues and Tarantino really know their B movies. I give this one an A.

Sorry that these were just blurbs and not real reviews, but at least you are caught up... :)