RandomMuch

August 29, 2009

How unrealistic can romance really be?

Filed under: Personal Thoughts — Tags: , , — Arturo @ 3:51 pm

I’ve said it for years, women are delusional in matters of love.  And as much as people might say that movies are not an accurate gauge for reality, I say art ALWAYS imitates life.  And women’s taste in movies reinforces my theory.  They are called romantic movies for good reason.

Let’s start off with one of the biggest misunderstandings in the history of love.  Look up the definition of “romanticism” and you’ll find this: impractical romantic ideals and attitudes.  A synonym for romanticism is quixotic: not sensible about practical matters; idealistic and unrealistic.  Hmmmm?  What does this mean?  Romantic love is, by definition, impractical love.  So it is no wonder that the movies that are marketed as “romantic” are unrealistic, not to mention dangerous to men and women.  Women watch them and get this delusion that one: guys like that actually exist, and two: it’s not real love unless it’s just like in the movies.  And for those men that are also in search of love, the movies give us a false goal.  Not only impossible to achieve, but on top of that, yields no reward.  At the end of the day, women say they want a nice guy, but don’t have any idea what to do with one when they find him.  What they really want is the bad boy that’ll be good to them once in a while.  But they can’t say that because people will think something is wrong with them.

Need more proof?  Let’s analyze some “romantic” movies, shall we?

Where to begin?  Let’s see.  Casablanca?  The girl lies about being married, then uses the guy she lied to to help her husband, then the guy falls for her again, helps her, and risks imprisonment to help her and her husband flee.  Romantic.  Titanic?  Girl doesn’t have the courage to stand up for herself and say no to an arranged marriage until she essentially cheats on her fiancé(and yes it is cheating because she accepted the engagement), leads the guy on because there’s no real way they can be together, and the movie ends with him dying.  Romantic.  Dirty Dancing?  A girl falls for a “bad boy” who turns out to be sensitive, she gets him fired, and no one cares that he’s a pedophile.  She’s not even 18 but it’s OK, because they really LOVE each other.  Romantic.  Legends of the Fall?  Girl sleeps with all 3 brothers, enough said.  Romantic.  Cold Mountain?  The girl is waiting and waiting and waiting for the guy to come home, he arrives, they have wild sex, and then he’s killed.  Romantic.  This one hurts me cause I love this movie, but… The Notebook?  Girl not only finds a perfect guy, SHE FINDS TWO.  Not only does she get to enjoy them both at the same time but she still ends up with one of them.

I could go on and on.  But the point is, if a guy is to stand a chance, he’s got to be a pedophile, be perfect,  die, or ALL the above.  My last example, which I haven’t seen, but I know the premise from the trailer.  The Time Traveler’s Wife?  Guy travels in time, finds a little girl and thinks to himself, “I’m gonna marry her when she grows up.”  EWWWW!!!  What the hell?!

Don’t get me wrong ladies, guys are retarded too.  The point being that neither men nor women KNOW what true love is, because it varies for everyone.  The best you can hope for is to find someone that likes “some” of the things you like, dislikes “some” of the things you dislike, and willing to compromise in the things you don’t agree on.  The Beatles said, “all you need is love”, and they’re right.  Finding it is the hard part.

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AC

P.P.

Here’s the secret.  Ladies: Men want food, sex, and to be allowed to do things alone once in a while.  Men: Ladies want EVEYTHING and for you to KNOW what she wants, when she wants it without giving you a hint.  ;)

Try and Salvage your sanity…

Filed under: Movies — Tags: , — Arturo @ 3:03 pm

OK, so here goes a confession, my biggest fear is losing my mind.  So you’d figure I’d avoid movies about the subject, right?  Wrong!  I cannot stay away from them.  From something as mild as Fight Club and Falling Down, to the big boys like A Beautiful Mind and Jacob’s Ladder.  But there was one movie that took the cake for me.  Granted, it is not quite about insanity, but it certainly took me on a trip.  I watched it at night and could not go to sleep afterwards for hours.

The movie in question is Salvage released in 2006.  It did not make the theaters.  It went straight to DVD, and I can see why.  It is a total B movie.  The actors are not the greatest, but they get the job done.  It’s acted gritty, shot gritty, but the plot itself is gritty, so it kind of works.  I’ll tell you the plot but won’t give away the ending.  It’s about a girl that has to relive the day of her murder over and over.  This is the morbidly sadistic version of Groundhog Day.  I loved it, although I may never see it again.  LoL.  Be warned, you may not make it out of this one sane.

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AC

P.P.

Don’t watch it alone, unless you’re a little off your rocker yourself.  ;)

August 27, 2009

Tanananana BATMAAAAAAN!

Filed under: Video Games — Tags: , , , , — Arturo @ 10:01 pm

OK, peeps.  Here goes my first non-movie review.  As usual, skip the first paragraph after this intro for the review.

So, generally speaking, if you were a boy growing up in America at any point last century, you enjoyed at least one comic.  I’ll admit that I was not big in to comics, but I read a few, collected a few, and have made it a point to research some of the mythology about certain comics and heroes.  The one that I probably followed the most has to be Batman.  Like I said, I don’t know as much as a lot of devoted fans, but I’d have to say he is my favorite.  There’s been movies in the past, that I admittedly enjoyed at the time, even IF it was Tim Burton at the helm.  I hate that guy.  Anyway, when they did the revamp of the movies on 2005, I was glad to see how good it was.  Then The Dark Knight came out and it blew me away.  So when I heard they were doing a video game, I was really excited.  then I saw a trailer and I REALLY got excited.  So without further ado… Let’s go.

The bad: The game gets pretty repetitive after the first couple of levels.  There are upgrades for armor, weapons, and attacks.  But they really just play in to the same basic moves the whole game.  Granted I haven’t gone through the whole thing, but unless I see any major changes, it’s the same over and over.  Another thing is that the makers kept bragging about how it was an action game, but had the detective elements in it as well.  I got pretty excited for that.  I love the puzzle element that a lot of games are implementing.  But this one was not that great.  After the first couple of instances you know exactly what to do in every “puzzle” situation.  And on top of that, there are moments that you know exactly where to go and what to do during a “figure this out” moment, then others all you have to do is use the map and you know exactly where to go.  I just figured if you’re gonna have a puzzle portion in a game, let us figure it out.  It’s supposed to be brainbashing, it’s a puzzle.

The good: Pretty much everything else.  I mentioned the repetitiveness of the game.  But I will also say that although it is a bit monotonous, it’s ALMOST like God of War.  You do things over and over, but the story engages you and you almost forget how repetitive it is.  The fight system is pretty good.  The tools that Batman has in his arsenal are fun to use.  One thing I’ve always heard/read about Batman games is how limited it is, but this game is more vast.  You really get to play AS BATMAN.  You fight, you can hang down and take out an enemy, you can throw the batarang, you glide with the cape, there’s a lot cool Batty goodness.  It’s fun to play.  And the story will hook you.  There’s a couple of parts that were so creepy to me, but I loved it.  I cannot wait to finish this game and play it again.  It definitely has replayability.  If there are any doubts, get the demo for Xbox 360 or PS3.  I personally prefer the controller for the 360, but you can play as the Joker if you get the PS3 version(full game not demo).  Decisions, decisions.

–

AC

P.P.

I’ll try to rereview when I finish the game.

August 23, 2009

Tarantino, That Glorious Basterd

Filed under: Movies — Tags: , — Arturo @ 6:16 pm

As usual, skip this first paragraph to get to the actual review.

As I get older, my taste in things has changed.  And one thing I’ve noticed is that I pay more attention to little details in movies that I never used to.  I now look to see who wrote and directed a movie, and I look forward to the works certain writers/directors to come out.  Such is the case with Inglorious Basterds.  I remember watching Pulp Fiction for the first time and thinking, “What the hell is this crap?”  And then I saw it again like a year or so later and thinking, “Why didn’t I like it the first time?”  Then I found myself looking for his movies and going back to see Reservoir Dogs, just cause he wrote/directed them.  Ever since, I guess you could call me a fan.  If Tarantino has to do with it, I’ll probably watch it.  The only let down so far has been Jackie Brown.  I might just need to go back and watch it again, but I remember not liking it too much.  Inglorious Basterds did not disappoint.

First, the bad.  There are none.  Even the fact that it is 15o minutes long is not a bad thing.  It just meant more Tarantino goodness.  I might update this later to throw in some bad points, but as of right now I really cannot think of any.  I hope I am not being biased here, as I would like for people to read my posts as objective.  If you find any negatives, please comment and we can discuss.

Now the good.  This movie was great.  If you’ve ever thought about how you would’ve loved to see the Nazi’s get theirs, this is your movie.  As my wife told her BFF when we walked out, “That’s how it should’ve happened.”  Another thing that makes this movie so good is Brad Pitt’s character.  I loved that guy.  And one of the things about it is that he doesn’t come out as much as you’d think, but that’s how Tarantino works.  Another thing Tarantino does, and in my opinion does well, is character development.  Some people might actually look at it as bad, but I do not.  Tarantino takes his time to develop characters and plot.  As a result, some scenes may seem long and sometimes in retrospect, unnecessary.  But Tarantino is a master at keeping the dialog and scenario so interesting, you do not notice how long the scenes really are.  Pay attention to his movies and most of them play the same way.  A handful of scenes that come together to form a great movie.  Sit back and enjoy another Tarantino ride.  It’s funny, graphic, dramatic, sad, and will keep you involved the whole 150 minutes.  I cannot say enough about this movie.

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AC

August 20, 2009

Avatar, and Not the Airbender….

Filed under: Movies — Tags: , — Arturo @ 12:51 pm

It may be a little tacky to rite about a trailer.  But if you spend as much time online as I do, you know that Avatar is one of the biggest buzzes online right now.  For those of you not in the know, Avatar is the next big project from James Cameron.  Now if you know movies, you know who James Cameron is, but since I began this by saying “for those NOT in the know”, let me explain.  There are a few great directors, writers, producers out there.  But the greats usually have few projects and focus on them intently.  For example, George Lucas has had a of couple projects like American Graffiti, but we all know him as the father of the Star Wars universe.  Steven Speilberg has some hits like E.T., Jaws, and the Indiana Jones saga.  And Mr. James Cameron is known for being part of Aliens, the Terminator saga, and of course, Titanic(as much as I hate it).  So needless to say that when you hear these big names, anything associated with them is a pretty big deal.  Such is the case with Avatar seen HERE.

I have to say that I have mixed feelings about this.  I was excited at first for the reason stated above.  But then I acutally saw the full trailer, as opposed to the teaser, and a couple of things bugged me.  First and foremost, the CG(computer graphics).  It looks to be an epic story, but when the main characters are that obviously CG, it worries me.  It reminded me of Beowulf, and I cannot tell you how disappointed I was with that movie.  I worry that I won’t be able to stop obsessing about the CG, and enjoy the movie.  But it is James Cameron so I have to have some faith.  Especially since the Big Dawgs(Cameron, Speilberg and Lucas) don’t really seem to make mistakes.

The other thing that worried me though, is the December release.  Now I know that it is not necessarily a bad thing.  Some great movies have come out around the holidays.  For example, the Harry Potter franchise is usually a holiday release.  And I say usually because the second part to the final movie is rumored to be releasing in Summer 2011.  But when you think of BIG movies, they usually release in Summer.  I atribute that to two things.  One: The movie is more family oriented and not actiony.  or two: The makers think the movie shouldn’t compete for Summer dollars, or worse CAN’T compete with Summer releases.  Let’s be honest, if there’s a movie that you really want to because it’s gonna be huge, it’s gonna release in Summer.  Spider-Man, Hulk, Dark Knight, Transformers, all release in Summer.  But the one thing that gives me solice is that as much as I personally don’t like it, Titanic was a HUGE hit and Mr. Cameron released it in December.  Here’s to hoping.

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AC

P.P.

Another example I left for P.P. is Martin Scorsese who gave us movies like Casino, Goodfellas, Raging Bull, and Taxi Driver is coming out with Shutter Island.  This movie is one that I would normally save for DVD if I watched at all, ever, but being that it is a Scorsese film, you can rest assured I will watch it in theaters.

August 19, 2009

District 9 delivers…

Filed under: Movies — Tags: , — Arturo @ 12:23 am

Sorry yet again for the lack of a clever title.  Or at least what I consider clever.  I apologize ahead of time for the length and banality of this post, but this movie has some personal history for me.  I will try to edit out as much as possible, but it is my blog, so “bleh!”  Skip the first paragraph to get to the actual review.

OK, so a few years back, I ran across THIS video that blew my mind.  I love special effects and this video had what I considered some of the best I had seen.  It led me to research a little and I found that it was by a guy named Neill Blomkamp.  That led me to THIS video which was directed by Blomkamp for The Embassy Visual Effects Inc.  That in turn led me to THIS video and THIS video.  I have not confirmed that the Citroen commercials were in fact Blomkamp’s work, but when I read that they were making a Transformers movie, I was SOOO hopeful that this guy and/or effects company would take the helm.  I went on and on, much to my wife’s dismay, how they would hit it out of the park.  When the job went to ILM(Industrial Light and Magic) I was not too pleased and I walked out of Transformers saying that I liked the movie, but I was sure Blomkamp and The Embassy would’ve done better.  Then I see this vaguely familiar trailer for a movie called District 9.  As soon as it was finishing, I was sure I recognized the work.  And I remember elbowing my poor, lovely wife oh’ing and ah’ing.  I was so excited to see that Blomkamp was being given his shot.  On to the review.

Let’s get the bad out of the way.  It’ll be quick because I saw very little if anything wrong with this movie.  The only complaint I can forsee, and not even my own complaint, is that there are no “known” actors in it.  If you thought, like I did, that it was an Independence Day remake, sorry but no Will Smith caliber actors here.  I promise you that once the movie kicks it in to high gear, you won’t even give it a second thought.

In keeping with the “known” actors theme we’ll move on to the good points.  This movie was well done.  The characters do a good job of making you feel their experience.  The characters may seem cliché, but they’re still done well and believable.  The jerk that has a change of heart, the seemingly heartless and business minded father-in-law, the easily swayed wife/daughter, the hard-ass soldier… they’re all in here.  But like I said, the movie is so well done that you really don’t pay attention, unless you’re me.  Right, Loraine?  The effects are OBVIOUSLY, in my opinion, great.  And the overall story is a gripping one.  As you watch, try to think of it as commentary on the way we live as humans and how we treat each other pretty badly.  A little spoiler here, just because I love it when movies are unpredictable: The humans are NOT the good guys here.  One man finds his humanity, when he actually loses it.  I just blew your mind and you won’t know it ’til you see the movie.  BooYah!

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AC

P.P.

Not as long as I thought it would be.  Please comment.  And yes, I did go 90′s on you and used “BooYah”.  I’d apologize, but that’s how I roll.

August 15, 2009

Ramb-Oh My God

Filed under: Movies — Tags: , — Arturo @ 8:55 pm

First off, sorry for the lame title.  I try to make my titles witty, but even I feel like failed this time.  LoL

OK, so on to Rambo.  The final installment of the Rambo series.  When I first heard about this coming out, I was less than enthused.  It seemed to me to be a desperate attempt to capitalize on passed success.  I thought Stallone was too old, and they barely managed to pull it off with the last Rocky.  I figured, at least with Rocky, they closed out the story and I liked it for the most part.  But I wasn’t sure how they would do with a new Rambo, so I never saw it when it came out.

So, tonight, it was coming out on Showtime right before the Carano vs Cyborg fight on Strikeforce, so I figured why not.  And I have to say I was NOT disappointed.  This movie was pretty good.  I have to say that it was really intense.  At least, for me.  The subject matter is taken straight out of world news and they didn’t hold back.  They gave us a glimpse in to the reality of what people are going through in places like Burma.  And some scenes were hard to watch.  Another thing, it’s REALLY bloody.  Now when you compare it to other movies, it’s just more of the same.  But when you compare it to the other Rambo movies, it’s pretty graphic.  But I will say that once I found myself realizing how bad the “bad guys” really were, and how they must be in real life, I found myself cheering Rambo on.  I wanted those guys to suffer.  Put the kids to bed and be ready to be awed.  Good finish to another Stallone series.

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AC

P.P.

Sorry if it seemed short but I have the fight on pause, and I rushed a little.  LoL.  Sowee

August 12, 2009

Yo Joe!

Filed under: Movies — Tags: , , — Arturo @ 11:38 pm

So, my buddy and I decided to go to the movies again.  This is a guy I have known since we were about 9.  Good guy.  There are times that I want to strangle him, but let’s be honest, if you don’t want to strangle your friends sometimes, they probably aren’t very close to you.  Anyway… We grew up together and needless to say, we watched a lot of the same cartoons.  He-Man, M.A.S.K., Thundercats, Looney Toons, Voltron, Transformers, and of course GI Joe.  Neither one of us were die hard fans and I probably watched more GI Joe than he did, but when our childhood gets immortalized, we love it.  So when GI Joe hit our radar, we were looking forward to it.

So let’s get the bad out of the way.  The things I didn’t like are more nit picking than anything else but I have to write as much as possible.  It seems like everyone knows everyone on the both sides.  Too many personal ties for my taste, but it wasn’t too bad I guess.  One thing I didn’t like, that’s harder to swallow was the CG.  There’s way too much of it.  Or should I say it’s way too obvious.  It looked like every helicopter was CG, every bike was CG, every explosion was CG, there can be too much of a good thing.  Maybe some of the scenes couldn’t have been pulled off without them, but if that’s the case, make them good enough to where people can’t tell it’s CG.  The technology is out there.  And last but not least, I may be a bit delusional, but there are too many Star Wars references.  I won’t tell you what scenes specifically, but I’ll tell you some of the things to look for.  I saw the knighting of Darth Vader by Darth Sidious.  I saw tie fighters and x-wings shooting it out.  I saw the Millenium Falcon scene with one man piloting and one man on the gun seat.  I saw the Deathstar powering up to fire on Alderaan.  And I saw Darth Maul fighting Obi Wan Kenobi, complete with dual saber.  I mean I know Ray Park plays Snake Eyes and he played Darth Maul, but why so many references.  I guess maybe it’s just the Star Wars geek in me that was insulted in some way.  I know, “loser”.

Overall, it was a good movie.  Like my buddy always says, “If it entertained me, it did it’s job.”  And it did just that.  It is not in contention for my favorite summer movie of 2009, but it was worth watching.  The fight scenes with Snake Eyes and Stormshadow alone were worth watching the rest of the movie.  And when they fight each other… Whoaaa Nelly.  I’m a sucker for martial arts though, so it may just be me.  Also, I thought Marlon Wayans was gonna pull a Jar Jar Binks(another Star Wars reference… wait that was mine), but he wasn’t too bad.  And they got some lookers to play The Baroness and Scarlett, as well they should have.  For a movie that was intended to be an origin movie, they pulled it off really well.  I’m looking forward to any sequels they come out with.

Most reviewers use the star method, and Siskel and Ebert had their thumbs.  I want a niche of my own.  So, if anyone has ideas, let me know.  Until then I shall use the star method with this rating system:

1 star – avoid at all costs

2 stars – only if dragged to or dared to watch

3 stars – not too bad to watch if you’re not paying, otherwise wait for DVD

4 stars – good movie, has some flaws, but definitely worth watching

5 stars – do not let this one leave theaters without watching

With that said, I give this one 4 stars.

–

AC

P.P.

My summer picks for 2009 would be Up, Star Trek, and Transformers 2.  In that order.

August 6, 2009

You Gotta Love Funny People…

Filed under: Movies — Tags: , — Arturo @ 5:14 pm

So my buddy of many years decided that he wanted to live out what most of us consider a right of passage, or at the very least juvenile angst.  I speak of course of movie hopping.  He had never done it as a kid and wanted to see what it was like.  So, after some plans fell through, I ended up going with him on this adventure.  We started off with an attempt at a breakfast buffet, which was thwarted.  And after a delicious meal at McDonald’s, we made our way to the theater.  We started off with Night at the Museum II.  I never saw the first one.  I had no real interest in this one.  And I ended up nodding off during the movie.  But it was the earliest showing, and I have to admit it had its moments.  I wouldn’t want to see it again, but I see the appeal for a younger crowd.

Then we moved on to Funny People.  And I have to say, I was blown away.  I have this thing about movies and music.  In a conversation with me on either subject, you would swear I was a paid critic.  I speak on either subject with an exuberance reserved for politics or religion.  I go so far as to express this almost hatred for Tim Burton in movies or Avril Levigne in music.  And how I don’t quite hate them, but Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller are definitely NOT comedy royalty like they’re made out to be.  They both have that funny movie or two, i.e. There’s Something About Mary and The Waterboy respectively, but they just seem to ride off the success rather than really try and make something genuinely funny.  I believe Funny People is a step in the right direction for Adam Sandler.  For my own reasons, I really like The Wedding Singer, Spanglish, and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.  But this movie is in a class all its own.

First off, let me say that this movie is a bit darker than the trailer lets on.  The trailer tells you he’s dying, then he gets cured.  But the journey George Simmons(Adam Sandler) takes is a look at what being a comedian or even celebrity in general is really like.  I would call this a dark comedy.  There are scenes that you feel like you’re watching a drama and then they make some stupid joke and you can’t help but smile.  It’s been a while that movies became linear.  By that I mean, they start off as a comedy, play out as a comedy and end as a comedy.  Or action movie.  Or drama.  There’s no real risk taking any more.  But this movie does the job well.  It’s a wonderful rollercoaster.  It has it’s ups, downs, twists, turns, and yet stays in line with the plot.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying this thing is going to be nominated for an Academy Award.  But for a movie categorized as a comedy, it definitely delivers more than JUST that.

Jonah Hill, much like Michael Cera, plays the saaame exaaact roooole he plays on eveeeery movie he’s ever made.  But it still makes me laugh.  Seth Rogan is pretty much the same, but he does take a small step, and I mean SMALL step, out of his comfort zone and plays a good character in this movie.  And Seth Rogan, no matter how predictable, always makes me laugh.

Great movie.  Two thumbs up.  Go check it out.  And make sure you pay for your ticket, unlike me.  LOL

–

AC

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