The Police have themselves an RV

Continuing Jill's viewing of important pop-culture movies she hasn't seen we watched Die Hard today. This really is a classic in the action movie realm. Although I went to read Ebert's review of it and was shocked he only gave this movie two stars and then gave Die Hard 2 3.5 stars. The second one was good, but I think the first one is a better movie. Alan Rickman is excellent as the main bad guy and the techie is a great secondary bad guy (he has lots of great lines.) Granted, the police chief is a buffoon and Ellis is ultra-annoying - but this is a movie that purposefully exaggerates it's characters. The second one had characters that were a little more in the realm of reality, but they weren't really interesting.

I saw SWAT yesterday and was quite suprised by it's quality. It wasn't fabulous or anything, but was a good, solid action movie. They fell into formulaic stuff in the end which was unfortunate. But they started well with an excellend cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrel, LL Cool J, Michelle Rodriguez, and Josh Charles (another solid former Sports Night cast member.) Production values are good, and for the most part the action didn't stray into the preposterous - the notable exception being everything having to do with the learjet.

Time for some true movie nerdiness. I recognized a few cameos in SWAT. And they all came back to The Fast and the Furious. There were quick cameos of the actors that played Lance and Hector in Fast. And then it tied together when there was a cameo of one of the producers. Neal Moritz was a producer on both movies and had cameos in each. In Fast he was the Ferrari driver on the coastal highway. In SWAT he's an SUV driver during one of the police chase scenes. What's sad is I caught this while watching the movie, all I had to look up was his name. It's kind of strange sometimes to see movies connect like that.

This reminds me that there are certain movie makers who have a whole crew they work with all the time. Two writer/directors who do this pop to mind right away. Paul Thomas Anderson and David Mamet both make consistently good movies that tend to have a lot of the same people in them. It's fun and just of like watching an acting troop go to work.

Lastly, I also caught 24 late last week. This was a solid movie that was well acted but needed to have at least 20 minutes edited out. I don't really know New York so I don't think it connected with me in the same way it did with others and I think I would have chosen a less eclectic (and extreme) group to be the three main characters. But I guess that was the point. It was well made and fun to watch - but didn't resonate with me.

As I think back I'm struck with the consistent quality of Edward Norton's movies. Only Death to Smoochy was a poor movie. Although I didn't see it and have had people tell me I'll probably like it. I guess I should rent it sometime just to see what's going on and to prove to myself that Norton is capable of making a bad movie.

It's a 1970 Pontiac Firebird. The car I've always wanted and now I have it - I rule!

I watched American Beauty again last night. This continues to be one of my favorite movies. I remember the first time I saw it. I was in SLO over the summer and had heard about this movie that was supposed to be really good. I didn't know much more then that and it starred Kevin Spacey (who after I was very impressed with after The Usual Suspects.) But my buddy Jeff Jumpe (who I wish I was in better touch with) and I went down to see it. We were both totally blown away and both went back to see it a second time within a week. I was quite pleased that it did well at the Oscars (best picture, directing, screenplay, cinemetography, and acting for Spacey.) And as I looked those up I was reminded that The Matrix was also released in 1999. Two of my favorite movies in one year, it almost makes up for the catatrophe of potential that was Star Wars Episode 1.

Then I also watched Dark Blue last night. This was a well made dark cop movie. But nothing earth shaking. It was fine entertainment though. It was interesting to me since I remember when the Rodney King Riots in LA happened and that's a backdrop to this story. Perhaps I'm a bit nieve, but I just don't believe there's THAT much corruption in the police - and that downgrades this from a docu-drama style movie to more of a suspense movie. Who knows though, I could be wrong.

I finally made it to Winged Migration on Sunday. It was just about what I expected. The visuals and shots of the birds were unbelievable, but just watching birds for an hour and a half isn't really my thing. The movie did manage to hold my attention though, even if I was tempted to check my watch a few times to see how much more was left. If you a bird watcher type you should absolutely see this film.

Knights of the Old Republic continues it's assault on my life. Just about all my free time is now spent playing this game. Fortunately it will all be over soon and I can put this sad example of poor self discipline behind me.

Dr. Bunsen Honeydew: I suggest we jump.
Fozzie: Are you crazy? It must be 100 feet.
Dr. Bunsen Honeydew: I didn't say it was a good suggestion.
Beauregard: Maybe we could only jump part way.

I watched The Great Muppet Caper again this week. This was one of my favorite movies as a kid and still mostly holds up for me. There are some parts that really drag (really, most of the stuff with Miss Piggy) but overall it's still fun and still has lots of great joke moments. I go back and forth between this and Muppets From Space as my favorite muppet movie. But either way I'm a fan.

630r6y == G0\/3R|\|0R

All the talk about the Governor race in California really kind of makes me wish I still lived there so I could participate. I think it's good from time to time to make a mockery of our political system just to remind us of some of it's flaws. I guess the official list of candidates will come out Wednesday, but the talk is it will be close to 200 people. That's going to be a ridiculous ballot. So far there's the ones you know about like Arnold, Larry Flynt, a porn starlett I've never heard of, Gary Coldman, and the guy that owns Cigarettes Cheaper (who is hoping to repeal the stringent 'no smoking' laws in California.)

But I found perhaps my favorite today - Georgy for Governor. She's getting some press on Slashdot for being a geek since she's a computer programmer and a computer science grad from UC Berkeley (and a hottie.) But she's getting national mainstream media attention for her merchendise - most notably the Georgy for Governor thong underwear. Although I'm a big fan of the I asked Georgy out T-Shirt. I might actually order one of those.

In the end this all has to be mostly satire, but she's quite serious about it and I do agree with many of her position statements (even if they aren't really things she could get done as Governor.) She is actually collecting donations, and a website like her's takes a lot of work to keep up. Also, go read her blog. I'm curious to see how many votes she gets come Oct 7.

I also browsed though the current list of cadidates and found a Kevin Smith on the list. But I'm almost certain it's a different Kevin Smith, as I haven't seen any news about that. Although Kevin does live in LA now.

We are the future Charles, not them.

My friend Jill really enjoys movies, but somehow she's managed to not see a lot of them. So we're working on her seeing many films that I really enjoy that she somehow missed. Yesterday we knocked two off the list by doing an X-Men marathon. We watched the first on on DVD and then went out to a bargain theater to see X-Men 2.

Watching the DVD was fun. But my DVD player started wigging out and we had to skip a good section in the middle of the movie. It doesn't look like the disc is scraped or otherwise dirty, but I'm hoping it's the disc and not my player. This was trouble for Jill since she missed many important scenes including Senator Kerry being subjected to Magneto's mutation machine, Wolverine accidentally injuring (and healing) Rogue, Rogue running away and all the mayhem that ensued at the train station. I'm guessing my brief description of all these events was not nearly as interesting, fun, or informative as actually watching them.

Watching the first and second of the series back to back really brought out how good the second movie is. It truly is an excellent sequel, living up to and expanding on the promises of the first. In this summer of sequels that's been rare (as much as I liked The Matrix Reloaded- I don't think it qualifies for this.) What strikes me most about these two movies is how much quality actors can add to these movies. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen really make you believe that these two are materminds squaring off against eachother. The whole supporting cast is strong as well, and I'm once again impressed by Anna Paquin. I look forward to her future work.

Bioware is making the true, honest, clever RPGs they always did - it's just that this time, someone happened to entrust them with the most powerful license in the world.

That's what Penny Arcade had to say about the XBox game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) when it first came out. I really think in the end it is so much more (they do too, they keep raving about it.) KOTOR is starting to take over my life. I just keep playing it. And the worst part is when I'm done that will just be the first step. I'm already itching to play it AGAIN. Yes, that's right - I'm only about a third of the way through and I can't wait to finish so I can start again.

That's the beauty of this game. You can either play as a wonderful goodie-goodie (which I'm doing now) or a total evil fuck (which I will do soon.) You can also play somewhere in the middle if you like, and there are many different character classes which will really effect how you play the game. If you are a fan of computer role playing games, or if you are a fan of Star Wars you need to go get this one. It puts the prequels Lucas made to shame.

In other news The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has been in rare form all week. I can't wait to see what they have to say about Arnold running for Governor of California tonight. I actually watched him on Leno last night and it was a bit scary. I understand why, but there were about 5-6 one liners in his short little blurb. The guy's going to be a one liner candidate. This worries me because the complexities of dealing with a state the size of California (on it's own bigger economically then all but six countries) is way, way beyond one liners. And that's my policatal thought of the day.

I have read entire calculator manuals.

That's just one of the questions I got points for on this Geek Test I just took. I actually scored pretty highly. According to them I'm an "Extreme Geek" with a rating of 63.51085%.

Unsuprisingly, I owned on the "I have seen" category (only Transformers: The Movie is unchecked.) I was also strong in "I like to", "I have read", and "I know" parts one and two. Go ahead, take the test and see how you compare...

Love isn't just a feeling, it's also shaving your balls.

American Wedding was frickin' hilarious. Granted, it was mostly dumb and gross out humor. And they took the nasty stunts to a whole new level this time. But I was roaring all through the movie (along with most of the audience.) It was so loud in the theater that I actually missed many of the lines. That said, if you're one of those types that feels uncomfortable when the cahracters on screen are in uncomfortable situations (and not like the backseat of a volkswagen) you may have a hard time with this.

Socially it was a great success as Fozzy and I had 26 people at the movie. And then a majority of us continued to my favorite bar in Seattle, Kells. There was drinking, dancing, and much merriment.

Thanks to all who came and made the first movie night of 2003 a great success. I'm on the lookout for the next movie to be center stage in movie night, part 2 (and I really should find one since this is the summer of sequels...)

It's tough when you tell your wife you want to name your kid after a comic book character.

I stumbled across some footage of Kevin Smith on The Tonight Show today. I especially liked the one where he was promoting An Evening With Kevin Smith. The best part is not his jokes or vulgarity, but that Renée Zellweger was sitting right next to him (she was the previous guest) and couldn't believe the stuff Kevin was talking about. By the end she just looks like a deer in headlights hiding behind her Tonight Show mug.

See this clip in Windows Media format here.

For other formats and other clips go visit this list of tonight show appearances. I also recommend the one where he's on the set of Jersey Girl.

In related sad news it turns out Jersey Girl won't be released until February 2004. Since the movie is basically done I'm pretty sure this is just to fit into studio release schedules. I guess this one isn't considered blockbuster enough to compete in the late Fall timeframe and got sluffed off to February. So I guess I have to wait.

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