Thursday, July 24, 2008

here we go!

We had a summer get together on our roof. Those pictures are lame. The one good one was of me and Mrs. Preacher Man awesome-ing it up on Rockband!



Here is our new kitten, Flannery. He gave us a little scare by almost dying. He was running a fever of 104, which is like 101 in human years. But all is better now and his favorite thing is to snatch large chunks of our other cat's hair out.


MOVIES:
Into the Wild - I've heard a lot of mixed reviews about this movie. It was either "I loved it" or "I hated it". I was in the love camp. Maybe its my inner desire to strike out and see the world, to leave all the conventions behind. Emile Hirsch was great and all the supporting cast was amazing. The score perfectly resounded the sentiment of the movie. 4/5

Resident Evil, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Resident Evil: Extinction - I had never seen these movies before, and I started watching them while DanB was here. The first one was entertaining, the second a little too much cheesy-ness for me, and the 3rd was pretty good. Mila was hot as always, and they kept to their stengths, blood, gore and fun violence. 3/5 for the series.

The Wackness - It was kind of a sweet and bitter coming of age in NYC in 1994. If you like 90's hiphop, drug dealers, high school relationships, and ben kingsley and mary-kate olsen sex, this is the movie for you....and me. 3.5/5

Encounters at the End of the World - Director, Herzog (Grizzly Man), forays into the Antartica, and we get to learn about the people who congregate at the end of the world. It's not just about the researchers, but the construction workers, and welders, etc. And really amazing cinematic view of the icy desert and the underwater life down at the South Pole. 3.5/5

Grace is Gone - A really powerful story about a man raising 2 kids when his Army wife dies. My old man crush, John Cusack, shines in this movie. Probably his best performance since High Fidelity. 4/5

Teeth - Vagina dentata. Silly and fun. The story was the most interesting part of the film. Nothing to write home about, though. 2/5


BOOKS:
Reading the 3rd book of the Twilight series: Eclipse....Jacob is a douchebag.

so much to write about...

This will be more a placeholder and a reminder to myself, than an actual post. But first, here is what I've been watching and reading over the past few weeks:

BOOKS:

Girls for Breakfast - Its by this Korean author that mrs. ktl met at some librarian conference. Seems like this guy and me live the same lives, we both don't speak a lick of Korean and have white-y wives. Except i'm a real Korean and have a natural affinity towards math and science, and he loves english. BUT he evens it up by being successful, so touche. The book is semi-autobiographical about his time in high school. not terrible, not great.

Twilight/Eclipse/New Moon - This is some vampire book that all the young adults seem to be raving about. It's kind of whiny and high schooly, but at least it's not like a novel-ized version of scooby-doo (I'm looking at you JK Rowling) Above average, and if you like seeming cool with the hottest trends, check it out. We all know you didn't start reading Harry Potter till the 3rd book came out.

MOVIES:
I'm sure there are alot of movies that I am forgetting but here goes:
Batman - The Dark Knight 5/5 - If you haven't seen this yet, you're a poor bastard.

Hancock - 2.5/5 - I'll agree with my friend JoaJ, the first 2/3 of this movie was good, the last 1/3 sucked the big one.

The Incredible Hulk - 3.5/5 - Definitely better than Ang Lee's attempt, two pretty good fight scenes and very entertaining.

Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Tour - 3.5/5 - Some pretty good stand-up and other interesting bits

21 - 1.5/5 - Don't see it. Read the book.

Cassandra's Dream - 3/5 - It's got Colin Ferrell and Ewan McGregor, so it's pretty good. Just about 2 brothers getting in and out of trouble.

Batman: Gotham Knight - 3.5/5 - Kind of like the Animatrix. This was a series of 6 short animated films, directed by 6 different people. Each has it's own feel and view. Really great supplement to the Dark Knight.

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry - 2/5 - I liked this movie from a comedic stand point. It was Adam Sandler being himself, and Kevin James being himself. What partially put me off was how the gay angle was treated. I could definitely see how a gay person would be offended by this movie. The larger problem I had with this movie was Rob Schneider's asian character. Now, I'm all for funny stereotypes. And most of you readers know that I'm not one to be easily offended, especially when it comes to my own ethnicity (cause if you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?) But Rob's character was a homage to the 60's "Breakfast at Tiffany's", Mickey Rooney character. I really don't understand the reason to do a throwback character that was so blatantly racist. Why not slap on blackface and prance around like in "Birth of a Nation"? I don't know, maybe I'm getting a little sensitive in my old age.

I also watched "The Departed" twice. Can't get enough of that movie.

THE SUMMER:
Oh, so many things have happened that I need to write about:
-DanB came and visited.
-JoaJ came and visited.
-We got a new kitten, Flannery.
-We went to go see my buddy RBD in State College (Penn St), last weekend.
-There is a dodgeball event coming up.
-Touch football season ended, and college football is nearly upon us.
-I've been tasked with ranking my top 25 movies of the new millenium.

But all that and much more are in store for you in later posts. I will leave you with Max Anger's dodgeball email flyer (it is a re-hash of the very first one he ever made, and my favorite)