Career Path

The films of M. Night Shyamalan:

A great movie with a great twist ending.

A good movie with a good twist ending.

A passable movie with a twist ending.

A movie with a twist ending.

A bad movie with a bad twist ending.

A horrible movie with an insulting twist ending.

Ah, screw it. Let's just make a CGI martial arts blockbuster based on a kids TV show.

Shia-free

For my good friend KKC:



This is more like it: The robots have recognizable faces, colors and bodies. The action in that two minutes was ten times more fun and understandable than both of the films. You listening to me, Michael Bay?

A little close to home

Oh, boy. I can see myself getting into a lot of trouble because of this:

It’s official. Representatives from Merlin Entertainments confirmed this morning that their company will construct their second U.S. Legoland Park on the historic Cypress Gardens property. (The park will be the largest Legoland so far.)

Sadly, Pigs in Space: The Movie has yet to be greenlit.

It's been busy lately what with baby and a house to be sold and work and sickness and whatnot. So here's a quick observation from work: I came across all three of these DVD's in the course of last week:



So we have chimps in space, dogs in space and flies in space (and all three came out within the past two years). Personally, I think the filmmakers should all be sentenced to read Laika cover to cover as punishment.

The A-Team

So here we go again.

Blah blah. Movie based on retro TV show. Blah blah. Hollywood out of ideas. Blah blah. Setting up a franchise. Blah Blah Blah.

This time out, I really couldn't give a damn. I never watched the original series and so I don't have a dog in this fight. When I finally checked out a couple of episodes on DVD last year, I found it typical of the kind of goofy TV action show that the seventies and eighties really knew how to churn out (With the hills of California standing in for every location they could manage... Including southern Florida!).

I will say that the cast looks good, particularly Liam Neeson filling George Peppard's shoes. The recent death of his wife not withstanding, it would seem that old Liam is having a grand old time in his career playing Jedis, Spies and Batman villains (not to mention supreme beings of both Greek and Christian traditions).

The trailer is really over the top and gun heavy, which is not surprising but a bit sad when you consider the lack of bloodshed on the original show. Of course, Drew Barrymore kept the "No Guns" rule for her "Charlie's Angels" movies and that didn't keep them from being ridiculously over the top themselves.

And I suppose the movie is entitled to lapses of logic if it wants. In that same episode that featured a very mountainous South Florida, a couple of members of the the A-Team got out of a prison by inflating some garbage bags with hairdryers and floating out. Hell, even Macgyver never got that silly.

Blockbuster adieu

The local Blockbusters that were closing have finally given up the ghost. Today was the last day of operation and EVERYTHING HAD TO GO! As I said previously, the DVD's didn't start off as very good buys. At the end, they were selling for a buck a piece, which was much more my taste.

Obviously, the choices had dwindled down quite a bit (though if anyone wanted to re-shingle their roof with used copies of Righteous Kill, my local Blockbuster could have easily hooked you up). Here's what I did end up picking up:

Alien Uprising - Ah, if you can't afford to buy a bad cheesy sci-fi movie for ninety-nine cents, what can you?

The Host - More cheesy sci-fi, except this is actually very good. I had already seen this Korean import last year, but it was definitely worth a buck.

There Will Be Blood - No explanation needed here. It made a lot of top ten lists for the decade and for good reason.

Bottle Shock - A cute little comedy that shows Professor Snape going orgasmic for a bowl of guacamole. What else could you want?

Finally, in the non-DVD category, I picked up "Car Talk: Maternal Combustion" on CD. I checked this out from the library several years ago and it was hilarious. All in all, the quartet of DVD's and the CD cost me just over five bucks. Not bad at all. And at the risk of sounding cruel, if Blockbuster wants to close any more stores, I'll be there.