Last weekend, I had the chance to go see The Happening. My thought was that it would be a typical, suspenseful, yet profound movie from M. Night; however, it was hardly those things.

Ever since Signs, I’ve loved the simpleness of M. Night’s plots and the profound message they convey (Signs: seemingly coincidental events really being the workings of a higher power, The Village: the notion that love can overcome any obstacle, etc).

Unfortunately, I went into the theater with the idea that people just disappeared in this movie (Someone had said “rapture-esque” a while back). That is NOT what happens. They commit suicide- and when I mean “they”, I mean just about everyone.

Strange as it may seem, this is a movie about love. The two main characters are somewhat remorsefully married and spend much of the movie distant from each other. The plot is fairly predictable from start to end, so don’t expect surprises like the end of The Village. The movie seems to rely almost solely on its shock factor, as neither the acting (except, perhaps, Mark Wahlberg), the effects, nor the plot really do it justice. It really feels like an independant-type film where everything is just B-grade. Granted, that worked for both Juno and Napoleon Dynamite, but those were comedies.

More shocking that this blatant failure at a movie was my response. I know the … suicides weren’t real, but shouldn’t I have been a bit more bothered by them? Granted, I was very unsettled, but to me, they were almost … interesting. I walked out of the theater thinking about the movie and a little in shock. I didn’t know then how to quantify what I had just seen. The ending was amazing- I’ll give it that, but have we devolved so far as a society to find depicted, graphic suicide entertainment?

There are two things I can distinctly remember from cinema as a child: Star Wars and Indiana Jones. These two trilogies quickly became my most beloved films and it wasn’t until Lord of the Rings poked its head out of a hole in the ground were the two even remotely challenged for first place. Then along came the Star Wars Prequels where George Lucas screwed with everything that was good and right about Star Wars and while he didn’t entirely ruin the originals he did put a bad sort of taste my mouth. Understandably when news that a fourth Indiana Jones movie was finally to be made I couldn’t help but have a bad feeling about it. I’m not sure if I could handle Lucas messing up the greatest action movie series of all time. I have returned from the theater and I have to concur with Roger Ebert when he said, “if you liked the other Indiana Jones movies, you will like this one, and that if you did not, there is no talking to you.”

I can’t say that this is the greatest movie of all time, nor is it greater than Raiders of the Lost Ark or the Last Crusade. There was something about the originals that can’t be equaled anywhere. It does come in quite close to Temple of Doom, however, and I might even make the claim that it is better. The point is, it’s Indiana Jones and its fun, that’s all Indiana Jones ever is. All he happens to be is a professor and an archaeologist, for everything else he’s just along for the ride by the seat of his pants as much as you are.

One thing I did feel like this movie was missing was tension and suspense, perhaps that was because every time something tense happened the annoying women sitting next to me would make all kinds of vocal noises. They also managed to talk quite a bit more often than I would like, but I did try my best to ignore them…mostly it failed. As for everything else, it felt like Indiana Jones should feel - albeit much older. Nostalgia was a driving factor in the creation of this and it was nostalgia that in some ways makes it work. There’s familiar characters, familiar actions, and familiar jokes, but there’s also plenty of new to go around.

I wish I could have come out saying that this was as great of an experience as it must have been to see the originals but in truth it wasn’t. I can say, however, that it was a fun movie to watch and that it was better than most of the cookie cutter action movies that come out these days. If not for the Bourne series and Batman Begins I think I might give up action altogether. Thankfully though Indiana Jones delivers in all that it needs to and may have earned itself a second viewing from me in theaters.

4/5 Stars

Anticipation is what killed the last Narnia movie for me. I prepared myself for its much hailed arrival by reading the books for the first time and even by going back to the original British version and watching what were some of my favorite movies as a child. When all was said and done I was left disappointed. Sure they didn’t destroy the books or anything they just got me to expect one thing and gave me something entirely different. I have since seen The ‘Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe’ a few times more and I have a few better things to say about it, however, it still not the masterpiece that I was hoping for. I have just returned from ‘Prince Caspian’ and it is without a doubt a better movie than the first in almost every way.

Andrew Adamson seems to be coming into his own when it comes to directing live action movies. One thing that worried me early on when I learned of his direction is that his only other movies were Shrek and Shrek 2 and that didn’t seem to be the resume I would have liked coming into one of the most beloved fantasy franchises of all time, however, it looks like he’s learning from his mistakes and improving. He seems to have a much better vision for what’s going on and is getting much more out of his actors.

As for the acting, the children have improved quite a bit. One thing I have always had a hard time with when watching children’s movies is how horrible children are at it. With one movie and a few years under their belt they’re starting to grow up and act like their characters. Peter is more believable, Susan is less annoying, Edmond is growing up, and Lucy…well Lucy is no longer the joyful innocent girl she was in the first movie, however, after all they’ve been through in Narnia - she shouldn’t be.

The music was brilliant as I would expect from Harry Gregson-Williams who did a fantastic job the first time around and once again WETA Digital did a great job with the special effects. That coupled with some well done cinematography and editing has led to a much better flowing picture. The battle scenes feel like battles and the sweeping landscapes are used correctly in a much more “epic” (if I dare use the word) fashion than in the first. Sure there wasn’t a lot to the story which boiled down to save Narnia once again, but there were times when you felt like they might not win, and that is what a film of this type needs. If there is no sense of urgency and no sense of the possibility of failure then there is no point to watch it.

All in all the movie was an enjoyable couple of hours and worth seeing on the big screen. If you liked the first one you’ll most definitely like this one, but even if you didn’t, I would give it a try anyway.

4/5 stars
[edit] I decided to rethink my rating system. While on one end this is less exact and does not distinguish between movies quite as well I think it will do a better job indicating the range of quality that a movie falls into. With 5-Great; 4-Good; 3-Average; 2-Bad; 1-Horrible; 0-Putrid.

So I’m taking a break from this inordinantly long lab report on every aspect you could imagine regarding DNS to bring you this message:

I’m bored with my iTunes library.

Now, normally, one might go out and grab a .torrent or pop open a peer to peer file sharing application (tsk tsk, shame on you), but seeing as I don’t want to become one of the RIAA’s latest targets, I’ve turned to a new solution.

Now, I have to tell you first that I stumbled upon this a few days ago and started listening to it at work.

The service I’m referring to is Last.fm- a free Internet radio station. Picture Launch, Yahoo’s similar offering, strip out the ads, increase the quality, and you have endless streaming music. It literally took me 30 seconds to start listening from the time I typed in the URL.

One of the things I love about Last.fm is the ability to listen to music similar to a certain artist. If I’m feeling like listening to Mae but am sick of all their songs, just type in ‘Mae’ and music similar to Mae starts to play. Say you want to wake up in the morning and have a kicking 5.1 system, punch in ‘Hammerfall’ and crank the volume.

Love the idea of Internet radio but afraid of closing out of the window or dislike having another window open? Grab the application Vista Virtual Desktop (works with XP and Vista) and shot that window over to the second desktop, along with anything else you want. Mac users will be familiar with this program since its basically a ripoff of Spaces, which is a ripoff of a feature Linux/Gnome/KDE has had forever.

Or, even better, take the code you can generate by clicking on the “Embed” link in the player window, create an html file and save it on your computer, and then stick it onto your desktop via Windows Active Desktop (XP only, Vista users take a look here). Now you don’t even have to open anything. Just click the play button sitting on your desktop!

Every so often in life you have moments that define who you are and who you will become. I just had one of those moments and all I could do was wave at it as it passed.

You see I just received a telephone call and because I am at work I chose not to answer it. This decision may prove to be a deciding factor in my life or death for when I looked at the caller ID it said quite simply “Tom.” To immediately dispel any notions you may have, the fact is that I do have my name and my phone number listed in my address book, therefore when the name Tom came up it meant there was only one conclusion - I was calling myself.

So there I sat, phone in hand, paralyzed. If I answer it who will be on the other line? Will it be me, my future self perhaps? Am I in peril, or am I just warning myself about something huge? Perhaps I have found out what 42 equals for example. If I do answer it though I may break the continuity of the space time continuum and then what will happen? Will the earth explode? Will I be forever changed so much so that in the future I don’t make the same phone call which means I can’t have received it in the past which means it couldn’t happen!? My final thoughts were much more on the practical side of things as I reflected as to whether or not I would leave myself a voice mail.

The ringing stopped.

I waited but there was no voice mail. I checked my caller ID to be sure and it was in fact not only my name, but my phone number that was used to make the call. Realistically it makes sense that I wouldn’t have left myself a voice mail since I hate talking to machines…but my guess is that I didn’t have time because I was in grave danger and had but one shot to reach myself in the past and when I chose to not answer the phone all hope was lost.

Someday when some great tragedy befalls me you will know that it could have been avoided simply by answering my phone. I can only suggest that if ever you receive a call from yourself - answer it because you very probably are calling for a really good reason.

Things have been changing a lot around Zomgee (like we’re some non-abstract entity or something). Starting the beginning of May, HT, OhYo and I will each begin our lives being the largest combined distance from each other. I suppose you could say that the three amigos have become the one amigo, one pard’ner, and one dude…

I had meant to write back in January about one of my friends that was killed in a car accident. I’ve mentioned it in a few of my digital outlets. I never could bring myself around to doing it because of the sheer … insanity of the situation. Its still so hard to believe that it actually happened.

Then along came February and my grandpa passed away from cancer- only after being told weeks before he was in the clear. It was kind of a one-two punch and I wasn’t taking it real well. Once again, I felt like writing about loss, but couldn’t bring myself to do it.

Things didn’t stop there though. HT moved in March. Sure, you might think a thousand miles is nothing when there is a thousand miles of fiber optic in between, but, I’ll be honest, I miss him and his wife. With The Office being back on and 24 around the corner, it stinks not having someone to watch and seriously critique the show with.

To make it worse, OhYo is taking off. He and I have hung out a lot the past month or so and we’ve become closer friends through various late night chats and laser tag sessions (which he epically fails at).

I suppose the cherry on the top is working anywhere between 30-50 hours a week in addition to full time school and labs. I’m hardly ever home before 10 at night and rarely asleep before 2am.

Now, at the risk of making you think I actually am doing so, I am not making a ploy to gain your sympathy or well wishes. That’s not my intent at all. I’m merely keeping everyone apprised of my situation and also why my posting tendency has been a bit subdued lately.

Now all of this is all well and good, but what’s my point? Well, independent of the input of my fellow contributors (ie, because I want to), I’m adding a tab for myself at the top of the screen. I’ll post some to it fairly frequently, but it will also be an aggregator for my other feeds, which include (but are not limited to) my twitter feed (also my new sole-source for facebook/status updates) and my shared Google reader items (sweet links to stories, pictures, and videos). If I hear enough feedback, I might even move one or both to the front page. Regardless, let me know what you think.

Its ironic that I had on my to-blog list- “Twitter: blogging devolved” when actually, I think its evolving. Gone are the ridiculously long posts such as this one while we welcome “mini blogging” such as status updates, snippets of our thoughts, and all-around material that is more interesting. I’m actually working on a secret project that has received some acclaim from some fairly prominent people I’ve shown it to. Stay tuned for that.. you might end up liking it.

Well I suppose I should start paying attention in class… have a great night all.

There have been three men in and around Hollywood the last century (1900s of course) that have defined masculinity. These three were manly men- not the wife-beating, lyric-spitting, gun-toting (for less-than-good purposes) facade the term “man” usually gets nowadays. These three were law-following, law-making, and law-enforcing men. The majority of the time, not only were they on the right side of the law, they were the law. It just so happens that all these men were very Republican, loved guns, championed the causes of the United States forefathers, sought to end discrimination and segregation, and just plain-old kicked butt.

We start first with John Wayne (born Marion Robert Morrison) who ruled this turf of masculinity from about 1930 to 1960. Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter) took over around 1959 with Ben-Hur and carried the torch until the 70s. Chuck Norris took over in the 80s with Delta Force, followed by Walker, Texas Ranger, and now pretty much does whatever he wants (like anyone is going to stop him?)

Yesterday, Charlton Heston passed away.

What do you say about a man who played Ben-Hur, Colonel George Taylor, Mark Antony, Mark Antony (again, 20 years later), and Moses? What do you say about a man who, when finished with films for the most part, took up the lead role as president of the National Rifle Association? Charlton pushed for social reforms and called for an end to discrimination against Blacks in the 60s. He promoted a real form of environmentalism- not the one where we save any animal we can at the expense of others lives.

One of my favorite quotes from him (ripped straight from wikipedia, of course) is, as follows:

“…the God fearing, law-abiding, Caucasian, middle- class Protestant-or even worse, evangelical Christian, Midwestern or Southern- or even worse, rural, apparently straight-or even worse, admitted heterosexuals, gun-owning-or even worse, NRA-card-carrying, average working stiff-or even worse, male working stiff-because, not only don’t you count, you are a down-right obstacle to social progress. Your voice deserves a lower decibel level, your opinion is less enlightened, your media access is insignificant, and frankly, mister, you need to wake up, wise up, and learn a little something from your new-America and until you do, would you mind shutting up?”

Clearly, sarcasm is the name of the game in the paragraph above, but isn’t it true? Hasn’t the straight, white, rural, Christian male become somewhat of an oddity? a minority even?

Heston wasn’t loved by everyone, that’s for sure. George Clooney said that Heston deserved the Alzheimer’s that Heston had announced he had in 2002. Alzheimer’s wasn’t his only problem either- at that point he had already beaten prostate cancer.

While the cause of his death is still unreleased, he was a pretty awesome guy. So we remember you, Charlton Heston- as Moses, husband of 64 years, actor, conservative activist, defender of freedom, upholder of the Constitution, and all-around awesome guy. May we never forget your toothy grin.

Enter the Peeps.

Peep #1: My name is Gladiator.
Peep #2: How dare you show your back to me! Slave, you will remove your helmet and tell me your name.
P#1: [removes helmet and turns around to face P#2] My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.

Fin.

It’s time to annouce the winner of the contest a mere two posts ago. ZePuKa best defined the word “in” without using a word that contained “in” and was, in fact, the only person to do so.

In recognition of her superb rule-following and adequate defining skills, she’s won a $15 gift certificate towards anything from woot.com, shirt.woot.com, sellout.woot.com, or jinx.com.