By the Way

Real quick-

Watched the Quiet American a few days ago.. 3 1/2 stars out of 5. I can see how Michael Caine was nominated for an award for his role, very well done, I loved the cast. My main problem was the fact that I HATE movies that show the end and 95% of the rest of the film is a flashback. What fun is that? I then get to watch a movie that almost dissolves into melodrama since there is no suspense or ignoring what the final outcome will be. Otherwise, I can point out quickly that this is like a mix of the serious elements of Good Morning Vietnem (main plot centers around the begining of the Vietname War), and the moody bits of Born on the Fourth of July (love, intrigue, etc). I liked it except for the flow of it all. I was interested despite my complaint, and it was very thought provoking. As a kid born in the 80s, its hard to think of the Vietnam war, let alone Korea.

Forgot to mention we saw Glory as well, 4 stars to it for having excellent cast, plot/story, all good elements.. the end just sucked. It seemed semi out of character what happened at the very end, but what am I to say? It's based on Civil War history. Enjoyed getting to see the main cast work together.

Matthew Broderick .... Col. Robert Gould Shaw
Denzel Washington .... Pvt. Trip
Cary Elwes .... Maj. Cabot Forbes
Morgan Freeman .... Sgt. Maj. John Rawlins

Currently renting: Kingdom under Fire: Crusades.... and LOVING IT!!! Will review in a week.

Took back Thief: Deadly Shadows, and Hitman: Contracts for my money back, controls sucked too much and the AI was simply horrible, as was collision detection. It was simply headache inspiring. Very badly ported games, I can see them POSSIBLY being more playable on the PC. I am of the opinion currently that FPS games and consoles don't port well.

Video Games and Rock N' Roll and Film

Last time Netflix came in we saw Barton Fink, which was supposed to be funny- but just came out to me and hubby as being odder than Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice. I think that was one of John Goodman's best performances. The part fit his personality quite well.. *snicker* I can't really say what I want without spoiling it, but it's a hoot and I loved how he played the character. Turturro came across as being too played down beside Goodman, I felt that all in all, I didn't really care what happened to him or motivated him. I was really dissapointed that he was the main focus.

We have the Quiet American waiting on us still.

The last batch of Netflix was Good Morning Vietnam, which I heartily enjoyed. War is really cruel and it didn't back away from that cold harsh reality- but that was definitely a movie rich with the personality and humanity that Robin Williams instills in a lot of his signiture early filmography. I can see why so many people can find common ground in the middle of no-where with ANY one of the hilarious ad libs that were spewed forth. God Bless you, Robin.

It was also a batch of Oliver Stone, we had Born on the Forth of July- which was really funny, but I hate people that waffle on their political standing and that unfortunately plays a really heavy role in the movie. To be expected around the heavy subject of the Vietnam war. I appreciated it for its humanity though, our tenacity and stupidity, as well as the glory. Aside from the politics, I liked it and thought Cruise did a great job with the character. He needs to lay off the crazy, and Katie Holmes.

Any Given Sunday, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. I started off to compare it solely to Jerry Maguire, but it turned out to be a lot deeper and gritter and more personal than I could believe something with the label of 'guy football flick'. I gotta give my appreciation also for the months time since I've seen this film and I still get delightful shock value from myself of an eyeball on the playfield.
I almost forgot Van Wilder too. It had a lot more serious and heartfelt stuff than I thought it would offer. But then, I felt the same about American Pie & etc. That's not to say there aren't plenty of college type prankish humor. Dick & fart jokes y'know to be honest. I still liked it, expressed a lot of teh insecurities college and life in general have- and how crazily enough people will go out of their way to help you out sometimes.
Had Ice Storm, an Ang Lee film. All star cast before a lot of them became stars. From before Tobey did Spiderman or Holmes did Dawson's Creek.
My damn husband kept cracking me in the middle of the oddest moments with Frodo jokes. It was a really odd film, touching, but odd. Pieces of April odd, only without the breast cancer photos. But lots of the same love/hate/growing up/strife things that lots of movies have a hard time making come to film without being hokey.
And no, none of these movies were planned around the oddness of Katie Holmes, Tom Cruise, or the recent Oliver Stone law-run-ins. I don't think he did anyway...
I think those were the last movies we had come to us. Whew.

WE also tried to play Thief, but I was the only one to play past the second mission, in which I grew frustrated with the sluggish controls and the unrealistic manner that I couldn't slug an npc to death with a blackjack. Yet I could one shot with a broadheaded arrow most times, go figure. I just wasn't buying how blind the npc's were to my presence some times, and could find me so easily in others. Yes I was mindful of my noise and how much light I was in. Not a good port to the XBOX.

Grew similarly frustrated with Hitman 2, only the controls were much worse than Thief. I wasn't getting into it, and my husband grew frustrated with it far before I myself did. I find a lot more fun in Soul Calibur 2 and Unreal Tournament. Don't know why. *shrugs*

We also finally got an iTunes account, downloaded the new Staind single *can't find the stupid thing to link it*, Oasis (Part of a Queue), and one other song. I'll fill in that blank later. Need to get more songs before we burn them to disk. I love music!! Maybe we'll get some Dream Theater, he promised me some Lisa Loeb though! Very excited about the new Our Lady Peace album!!

Where Did Everybody Go?

Since our decision to snap away from the horrors of WoW and their sucessively broken efforts at coding, we've wanted to keep in touch with a couple of foreign friends.
Our game cards run out soon, and I'm the only one with WoW still installed on my computer - since the game broke my husband's old hard drive.

I log on and no one on my friends list came on in the three hours I tried on friday and saturday night. Disturbing. Peak time, and nada. Couldn't even find their alts on, and saw some people in guilds we didn't think would happen. It looks like Mizfits was dissolved?

Well, Scout & Fatherted, I hope you find your way to us again and get our in-game mail we sent. We wish you the best wishes and we'd like to hear from you sometime!

Meanwhile, WoW has all the appearances of slowly collapsing. There were only 30 people horde and alliance PvPing in Tarren Mill. And Battlegrounds isn't live yet.

Toodling Along

I remain strong. Have been playing Fable and Soul Calibur 2 lately when I want to play a game. Mostly have been at work to get in extra hours. Other than that, have been sketching some, posting/blogging, cleaning house, and sleeping.

Can I say how much I love Talim though and that she needs to go into the adult industry. :D Kidding, kidding. Seriously though, at least its not rated E, y'know?