Archive for November, 2004
I, Robot (2004)
I have seen a good deal of Will Smith movies. I think I have seen just about every movie he has made, and I followed him even before that as the snappy remark kid from Philly in “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”. But Will’s act has gotten tired specifically recently in “Men in Black 2” as the leading actor that says the right sarcastic thing at the right time.
But Will’s character was just enough different in this movie to be refreshing but to have the remaining qualities of why I tend to like Will Smith movies, action and a huge superstar hero that is larger than life.
This movie has the perfect use of special effects. It didn’t seem over the top, they created this great alter reality in the future but used a nice blend of real scenes and regular old sets and things. The best quality of the movie was that I never had to second guess a thing. I never got bored, I never said “that looks funny” or anything. It was just seamless, and it even passed the Sarah test which means she didn’t fall asleep. She has been doing that in every movie.
There is one part where he is in the tunnel in a car where the robots come in droves to attack him and when the carrier flips and explodes it looks a little fake, and I think that they don’t totally explain why it seems he has had time off from the police force. They don’t really specify if the accident that happens to Smith has just taken place or if it was a long time ago. But that is me being particularly picky.
You need to see this movie. You need to see that droves of robots attack and go “Holy Crap!”. You need to see a nice sparing use of dramatic slow mo to intensify the action scenes. You need to sit back and enjoy this one.
The scariest brawl, possibly ever, in the history of the NBA.
I was riding along on the game to Purdue yesterday and this was the talk of everyone in the car. I had not heard or seen anything about this, but got an earful from two huge Pacers fans.
Now, I only saw the replays, but this is what I saw. I saw Ben Wallace push Ron Artest close to his face, probably in the neck, in response to a hard foul to the bucket. The push was frightening, and Ben had intentions of seriously injuring Artest. The led to the benches clearing, and punches being thrown.
We have seen this before, it isn’t out of the ordinary which is sad, but true. So fighting I can handle.
But as things progress, Artest gets a beer tossed on him. So he and another Pacer Stephen Jackson, jumps into the stands and start whaling on some obnoxious Detroit fans. Actually, these fans were total jerks to put it lightly. They should have criminal charges pressed against them. Throwing chairs, beer, anything in sight at the Pacer players.
Having said that.
Ron Artest should not play basketball ever again. He was the biggest (expletive) of everyone. I don’t care what some fan says to you. I know there is a line between self defense and walking away. Ron is a basketball player. But because he is out of control and a hothead, he jumps into the stands and starts beating on some fans. He isn’t even human. There isn’t a reason. Plain and simple.
Some even say well what about the fan on the floor charging Artest after he cools down. I just about guarantee that that fan isn’t on the floor if Artest isn’t in the stands. If some jerk basketball player is using his huge size to beat up on fans, I might go out on the floor and defend myself too.
I hope they put make an example of those two Pacers players. Suspend Wallace for a long time, he is hugely responsible and everyone else involved.
Artest. I wish I could say much more, but I don’t want to offend people. Just know that the worst possibly thing you can think of a person, times that by ten and that is how I feel about this “Professional” athlete
Purdue vs. Indiana University Football Game
This was barely a game. With over 500 total yards in the first quarter, over 760 by the end of the game, and over 500 total passing yards the Boilermakers trounced IU 63-24.
I have only ever experienced the Big House in Ann Arbor, and this stadium is very different.
Nestled in between campus buildings and dorms, the Boilermaker stadium is open at one end with a shape like a horse shoe. It only seats something like 75,000 which is a far cry from the 110,000 plus that the Big House packs in every game day.
They had some different cheers that I got to exercise throughout the game with so much scoring. A 1,2,3,4 thrust of the arm forward and then a thrust flat palmed with a “First Down!” in the direction of the first down.
It was just a lot of fun. I went some people from church, Paul Johnson and his daughter Paula who is our age and Fred Willig (Whose wife is the kindergarten teacher that Sarah worked with last year.) It was the first real out of college “tailgate” party I had. It really wasn’t a planned one, we just kind of sat around the car, drank some beer, ate some sandwich rolls with meat and cheese and watched all of the crazy college kids go by. A lot of them were dressed up like Halloween for whatever reason.
We babysat Lady
Christine Mulligan had tickets to the Colts game, 16th row or something insane like that and it had been about a month since we got out and walked Lady. So, we offered to baby sit her for the day while Christine was at the game.
When they arrived, I came dashing out to see lady, I was excited. Well, being in a foreign place and having a big tall dork dash out at you would scare me too and she kind of piddled on the floor. I felt really bad for scaring her. But at least now I know what it is like to clean up dog pee in the house.
She wasn’t as spunky as she usually was, but she was quiet and sweet like normal, and I think that she missed Christine all day long. We took her on a walk and talked about how and what we might want to do in getting our own dog, which is always fun to talk. We took her home after about 6 hours of having her around, and right away the house felt weird.
Basic Photoshop Tutorials added.
I brought over the two tutorials I had from my opinion section written by guest columnists on Rothecreations.com.
Crossgen Entertainment is officially finished.
I read online last night that Disney of all people bought the publishing rights to all of Crossgen’s characters, including all of their characters that are in development for movie treatments.
Crossgen busted out of the gates five years ago with a fresh approach, a slew of books, and a solid base of creators looking to take on the big guns. They expanded quickly over the coming years and attracted more and more talent. But the books were fantasy in nature all based around this “sigil” symbol that gave it’s wearers unique powers. You know, swords and swashbuckling types of books, which really isn’t what I was into so I probably didn’t help their cause much. I did read Sojurn for awhile, which is where Greg Land really blossomed into the hot talent he is today.
But about a year ago the publisher quietly stop putting out books and we started to see their creators pop up back at DC and Marvel. Word later was that they had run out of money and were bankrupt.
So, farewell to them. Another sad story on the war ridden roads of the comic industry. Maybe someday we’ll see another publisher make it for an extended period of time, but for now I would say, probably not.
Identity Crisis 6 escalates to the seventh and final issue.
The story continues. I give this issue a 3.5 of 5 stars. The art still isn’t all that great, minus the Michael Turner covers, but the thing with great stories is that the art can sometimes take a back seat for necessity. You would prefer the stories to come out on a regular monthly basis then to be delayed for a long time because of great art. Those long pauses can kill a good story.
So we start off seeing some iconic imagery with Robin kneeling over his dead father which carries over to visions of Bruce Wayne over his dead father. Then more discoveries are made about the murders. Flash keeps pressing Green Arrow for answers about who else he and the other JLA members had brainwashed with the help of Zatanna. During the fight in the last issue with Deathstroke, Flash had seen visions from Dr. Light of the members that were present when they had during the brainwashing.
Green Arrow had only mentioned seven, but in the vision Batman was there. He is reluctant to tell Flash what happened but when he threatens to go off and talk to Batman, GA tells him that there was a second vote that night on what to do. The crap hits the fan. The other member had voted to take Batman’s memories too.
He had taken care of Sue Dibney but he came back in the middle of the brainwashing and went byserko, obviously, it’s Batman. They voted to take his memory of the event, knowing it was the only solution from breaking up the league permanently.
At the end, we are left with a cliffhanger. During Sue Dibney’s autopsy, it was found that she was already dead before she was burned horribly on one side of her body. Well, as they look closer it seems she died of a blockage of blood to her brain. That is why none of the league members could figure out how someone broke the defenses, the intruder was but the size of a molecule. And that man was small enough to stand on Sue’s brain and block the bloodstream.
That man is Captain Atom, and we have to wait until next month to find out what happens.
