My wife just did it! After 6 years together, I’m still learning about her!
Jeff Bridges will reappear as Flynn. I’m really looking forward to this. I’m guessing my son Phoenix will enjoy it as he’ll be close to 11 by then.
The teaser trailer was described to me as a guy in a Robocop-style helmet runs, jumps and pulls a glowstick out from behind him, it grows wide and turns into a light cycle.
Wow.
I need to post reviews for a bunch of movies, like Wall-E, Hancock, X-Files, Narnia 2, Happening, Incredible Hulk, Indiana Jones 4, Iron Man, Kung Fu Panda, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Speed Racer, Jumper and more.
Also, the blog software is adding spaces after I make a link (as in this example ) [ <---- see it?!] and I’m trying to fix the problem.
Russian writer/director Timur Bekmambetov thrilled me with Night Watch in 2004 and sequel Day Watch in 2006.
When I saw previews of a movie called Wanted , I thought it looked strangely familiar and couldn’t put my finger on it until I looked up who was behind it. I was elated to find Bekmambetov was doing a movie for American cinema, in fact, I couldn”t wait!
All I knew walking into the theater was that it featured James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie , based on a comic book.
The plot, which does offer a nifty twist in Act III, is basically that Wesley’s (McAvoy ) father was killed by a rogue assassin from an elite assassin’s fraternity and Fox (Jolie ) is taking him under her wing and protecting him. The discovery/training sequences are overdone and frankly boring to me. Meeting Sloan (Morgan Freeman ) was kinda neat but I didn’t like him, I couldn’t figure out why. Sloan runs this branch of the fraternity, being the ‘eye of fate’ and writing death orders for his assassins to complete.
Act II teaches you there’s a giant loom that decides who has to die. Seriously. I’m not joking. Who’s the only one that’s allowed to read it? Yeah, it’s Sloan. So much for quality control.
I do understand the movie is written and directed from Russian ideals, but it disturbs me that there was never concequence for killing people, in fact, it was sensationalized and made fun of. I would have liked to see some sort of remorse or questioning if it was acceptable, etc., but I was told in the past by a well-known director that if I wanted to see movies done a certain way that I should make them myself. Mr. S. was right, of course.
Overall this was a great movie. Despite the couple dozen lines she was given, Fox was by far my favorite character, a true believer in the fraternity and the end blew my mind… and theirs… you’ll understand when you see it.
I’m not interested in a sequel, but I will get the DVD just for the director’s commentary.
This is absolutely not something to let anyone under 14 watch.
Walt Snider is a Computer Technician and Webmaster in South Florida that operates Kore New Media , the fourth largest podcast group in the world, Florida’s largest podcast group. More about Walt Snider can found at www.WaltSnider.com or on his blog at www.OffTheWalt.com . His podcasting group, Kore New Media , can be found at www.KoreNewMedia.com where he produces one of the most-listened to movie podcasts, Kore Movies at www.KoreMovies.com .
Walt was excellent and was able to come to my level which is high beginner.
Walking up the stairs to the Museum of Discovery and Science and Autonation IMAX 3D Theater for a screener was certainly a treat. The limited number of patrons outside gave the normally child-centric building a different feel and on the other side of the glass doors the crowd of adults reinforced this.
After speaking to Jody Ligas and picking up my ticket, I took the elevator up about 5 floors where I was repeatedly told to turn my cellphone off… that if it went off during the theater I’d be asked to leave. I love it! Finally a movie with no phones and conversations interrupting the movie! I love you Fort Lauderdale IMAX!
Walking into the press area, I sat next to a guy who introduced himself as Kit Mobley. I was having a conversation with Kit, ignoring the crowd below when he directed my attention to the ‘preshow’ in the middle rows below. It seems when you mix beer, 8pm and problems, you have a preshow. Fun stuff. It kept us amused for the minutes while waiting for the projector to fire.
So as the movie started and Dave clarified this was a DC Comics movie, I began to wonder if DC would follow Marvel in forming a large studio to film its own movies or what if they bound together for this?
A DJ from a local radio station spoke for a moment and the lights dimmed and the five-story screen came alive.
The film opens on the oddly-serene cityscape, zooming in toward a building finally slowing to reveal an exploding window and men in clown costumes firing a cable to the top of a lower building, zipping down and disabling an alarm, kicking off a bank heist.
Too bad for the robbers, the bank is managed by William Fichtner, who we’ve seen recently in Prison Break and who we last saw with Christian Bale in Equilibrium.
The introduction of The Joker was very well done. True fans of Heath Ledger will spot him despite being masked right away, just based on his gait. The “execution” (don’t worry, you’ll get it) of the bank heist is fantastic and sets the tone for the rest of the movie.
The Joker is also a great magician. In a meeting with fellow crime lords, he makes a pencil disappear. 10 points to you if figure out how as you’re watching.
Michael Caine as Alfred brings back memories of Alastair Duncan in previous incarnations of the IP. Alfred continues his role as protector and advisor of Batman and Caine plays the role with great finesse.
I was pleasantly surprised by Nestor Carbonell as Gotham’s mayor, but I couldn’t help thinking of him as Batmanuel in The Tick earlier this decade. (Watch The Tick for free at Hulu!) I do have to say that I enjoy his range as an actor and it’s unfortunate he doesn’t have too many projects in his queue.
Maggie Gyllenhaal (Jake Gyllenhaal of Jarhead and Donnie Darko’s sister) did a good job as Rachel Dawes, but I didn’t care for her in the previous movie, nor did I like her now. Maybe it was just the character or maybe I just don’t like her. She wasn’t bad in my opinion, mind you, just not stellar.
Dark Knight is absolutely, positively the best movie I’ve seen all year. The action scenes are amazing, well choreographed and realistic. The movie wears its PG-13 rating well and delivers all promises of action and grit. I’m really, really glad they are showing a more realistic portrayal of Gotham and taking it away from the Keaton/Kilmer/Clooney formulaic comic book method. This film shows a darkening knight.
All in all, you don’t have to like action, suspense, explosions, gunplay or anything else, you only have to see this movie . It is all things cool and it will be the center of discussion around the water cooler for weeks to come. I predict one of the best box office openings for the year, possibly in history of cinema.
If you have the opportunity, see it in IMAX. If you have to wait a day or travel to the next city, do it. There were certain scenes specifically filmed just for IMAX and you really should take advantage of it.
Kids under 14 will probably not want to see this unless they are nerds-in-training like my son. There’s a lot of plot development and not as much action as in the previous movie and it may bore those that can’t comprehend, so a babysitter may be in order.
The movie was generously dedicated to Heath Ledger. We’ll look forward to seeing his final stand in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.
The Dark Knight’s Official Website: http://www.thedarkknight.com/
Walt Snider is a Computer Technician and Webmaster in South Florida that operates the largest independent podcast group in the world. Walt Snider can be reached at www.WaltSnider.com, blog at www.OffTheWalt.com. His podcasting group, Kore New Media, can be found at www.KoreNewMedia.com.
I was fortunate enough to host the Wandering Geek #16 for Curt "The Camera Guy" Arndt for July 2008. Curt needed a break and I had fun filling his shoes for a little while.
I’m also recycling an interview I did with my friend and cohost Benjamin Adams of Actress Rachel Galvin for Curt’s Random Encounter show. I expect that’ll be out in a week or two. This’ll give him some extra time to himself, I’m sure it’s much needed.
I’ve had a rough couple weeks, technologically-speaking.
I’ve had numerous problems with my main production computer… when I play any kind of large video or animation, it just locks and the screen turns black. The audio keeps playing for about 2 minutes, oddly. So yes, I reinstalled the drivers. I even swapped video cards with my wife. The old one from my system (nVidia) works fine in her system and hers, now in mine (ATI) still gives me the same issue, so I know it’s not video. I suppose it could be RAM, Motherboard or Processor, but that’s all it could be. I downloaded memtest and I’ll try to run the machine through that overnight or tomorrow or something, to rule that out.
I told my wife I was buying a new machine soon… this one is like 4 months old and I’m running out of patience.
So anyway, Earthlink.
I’ve had Earthlink for more than 4 years here. I set it up at my mother’s house maybe 6 years ago. Never a problem until the past 3 weeks or so. Somewhat at random, seemingly triggered by continous amounts of file transfer/download, the connection stalls, yielding nothing, the ACT light stays unlit. You actually have to turn it off and on 2-5 times to get the connection back.
After talking to the Indian support dozens of times, they started downgrading my service slower and slower trying to see if there was too much data up/down the pipe. Mind you, I don’t bittorrent unless it’s a linux distro or something… nothing nefarious. Most of the drop outs are when I’m playing Guild Wars/Magic Online or something like that… I just bought a GPS… the maps update is 2+ gigs. I get about 150 megs and the connection stalls/resets. Understand I’ve got a downstream of 384k now, down from 6 megs (burst). I try to be patient, but sometimes I think things were easier when we used to fight over who would get on the monkey bars first.
Well the downgrade to smoke signal-speed DSL didn’t work. I still get interrupted connections and upon further complaining to Earthlink, they finally told me there was nothign they could do for me and refused further support. I never yelled or was nasty. I know they’re just doing their jobs. I got a supervisor and told me they reached the extent of their support. They have officially refused me support. Refused. REFUSED! They cannot fix my service that I pay ~$50 for and because they ran out of bullet points, they simply refuse support to me?
I’m not trying to be a creedist, but I rarely find acceptable customer service outside of America. I’ve gotten Aussies in the past, they were usually quite good. It’s rare I speak to those down under, though.
So I have the option of spending money on something hardly better than dialup or going to cable. So many complain about Comcast and I’m about to accept it like a hot cheerleader on a Friday night.
I went to high school with some Seminoles, perhaps I should ask them how to make smoke signals.
Anyone that reads my blog probably knows that I’m a freelancer/contractor and I survive by what jobs I can line up. I got a one-week contract with Ericsson and have to pick guys up in Miami (South Beach to be specific) and drive them around testing cellular phone towers against new software that you’ll see in your Sony Ericsson cell phones in 6-12 months. I like it when Ericsson calls. Easy work with cool people.
Tri-Rail is a passenger train in South Florida which heads from MIA (Miami International Airport) in Miami, past FLL (Fort Lauderdale International Airport)in Fort Lauderdale and travels past Boca Raton and up to Magnolia Park. [system map ]
Instead of driving a couple hours from Pompano Beach (North end of Fort Lauderdale) to Miami when I do work in Miami, I take the train out of conveience. The problem… schedule is a four-letter word.
Yesterday morning, I had to pick up the guys at 11am. I actually got to them around 12:30pm. Mind you, I was at the train station at ~7:30am. A typical run takes 52 minutes from where I get on and where the line ends… So far, either yesterday or today, it’s taken a minimum of 90 minutes.
On yesterday morning’s 3-hour trip I sat down with Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. I probably burned through 150+ pages! Then I sketched some websites I’m thinking about designing, then I started taking pictures of the other passengers, this lead to conversations and I still had a freaking hour to spare! So why the delay? The signals weren’t working… ya know, the long rectangles that block your path so the train can pass?
So instead of training a group of emergency response guys that already work for RTA (RTA runs Tri-Rail… hey, you can rearrange RTA to spell RAT!) to signal cars to stop with flags or manually lower and lift the gates (via hydraulics or magnets or whatever), we sat on the tracks and talked… someone in my car was making some odd smells, too… I didn’t know Taco Bell opened that early!
I’m really disgusted at the lack of initiative on RTA’s part to make the passage a seamless ride. Writing them a letter will accomplish little IMO, but I think I’ll send them my resume and apply for the position of Emergency Response Manager and offer how I can start a training program for the employees to prevent these sort of things in the future. I think I’ll also send them a bill for the time I lost today.
This makes me not want to handle work in Miami… I can’t get down there reliably and quickly anymore. As it is, I’m walking out the door at 6am tomorrow to make sure I am not late tomorrow. It’s nuts that I have to plan like this, yet it’s better than sitting in gridlock for 4 hours in transit to Miami each morning, nevermind the return home!
I’m glad I bought the next two books from the Ender’s Game set… I think I’ll finish #1 tomorrow. It’s better than I remember as a kid… I can’t wait to get into #2. I wonder if I should bring it tomorrow… better… who knows what’ll happen. Maybe I should bring an easel and paints, too. I wonder if a sleeping bag would be out of the question.
I think when I figure out how to fix something, I’ll start posting it here… when searching for fixes to problems, I’ve found a number of blogs useful and want to help the rest of the community out.
I’ve had a problem with Microsoft Office Outlook Connector for some time now. Basically, it would still sync my contacts and tasks, but not my email. One could argue this is the most important part as I also sync Outlook with my smartphone (I have a Samsung Blackjack II).
Fist of all, what is Outlook Connector? If you have Outlook (not Outlook Express, I’m talking the version that comes with Office) you can sync your MSN Mail/Hotmail/Windows Live Mail email, contacts and tasks (calendar too if you pay for it) between the web and Outlook itself.
To revise, my problem was that email was not syncing and also my contacts were getting duplicated. I wanted to recreate the account locally (local = on your computer, not the ‘net) but found the local software would not let me delete an account.
Today, I ended up making a new email account and found that you can have 2+ webmail accounts set up with Connector. I added my second account, deleted my old account, then readded my old account as an addon account, the deleted the new account. Make sense?
Once I did all that, I ended up with my old account and as I type this, I’m about 22% done download my 3gigs of email and contacts back down to my local machine.
Now if anyone in South Florida can tell me why my Earthlink connection keeps dropping out, I’d greately appreciate it!
Update August 1, 2008:
MS Connector has been fading in and out in terms of working. For a couple weeks, it hasn’t.
I downloaded Community Clips becuase I wanted to record some screen caps for a how-to-get-podcasts tutorial for those not in the know, and for a new video-based podcast I am working on with Benjamin Adams.
Ever since installing it last night, Outlook has been download all my mail and attachments. I don’t know what the two have to do with each other, but if the above alone hasn’t worked by itself, give this a shot and leave a comment.