Almost. No, I didn't sneak off back into school. I just need to review a couple of things I've been wanting to for a while:

- Dead Like Me (seasons 1, 2, plus the new straight-to-DVD movie)
- Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder
- Attack of the Killer tomatoes: #1 (first part of the comic miniseries- yes, a comic).

Today was surprisingly a "fun" day, ignoring the fact I had to go to work. I had an awesome dream where my family was at an amusement park of some sort, going on this mountain hiking/climbing simulation ride (yay- I got to climb a mountain in my dream!). My ATOK comic arrived, there was a coupon for a 1-topping large pizza for $3.99 (green chile!) and I finally got my bike rack installed on my bike (by that, I mean I had to cave in and take it to the shop after a few failed attempts). What was so fun about that? I put my pizza on my rack and tied it on with bungee cords for the ride home. It was my first successful cargo mission ("You'll be responsible for ensuring that the cargo reaches its destination." "So, I'm gonna be a delivery boy?"). When I got home, I felt it appropriate to watch the ATOK movie (geeky note: I felt odd eating pizza while watching it, because pizza would be more appropriate with Return of the Killer Tomatoes, since the Finletters' have a pizza place, serving no tomato-based pizza).

( Review time! )

The "Planet of the Apes" pentalogy is a series of five films that deals with the fate of humanity (as well as other simian kind). The first movie is by far the best. My main motivation for watching the others was mostly to expand on that main story. By the time I got into the third movie, I wanted so much for everything in the first movie to explain itself. It didn't quite happen because of the ending, but I suppose it ended the way it did for a reason. The movie is filled with political, philosophical, and metaphorical junk that speculates about what it is to be human (or ape), our motivations, and even destiny. I hadn't quite examined that the first time I watched the series, but this time I kept that in mind (especially while reading some reviews). Spoilers below.

( Beware. Spoilers. Lots of them- I have no mercy )



I guess I got carried away from the review. I'll cut it short. The five movies, as a whole, weren't bad- they do have a lot to think about (as the nature of humanity, destiny v. change). Individually, however, I'm not sure I'd recommend anything but the first movie- possibly the second. I don't think I would suggest getting the others unless you really want to watch the whole series through to get a slightly more in-depth perspective at the first movie. If you happen to really like the first movie, I'm sure the rest of the series would be to your liking. Otherwise, just be happy with the first one and note the rest of them probably aren't that significant (although the second movie is the base of a Futurama joke, so that might also be worth watching for that).

I just got back from the movie "Wanted."  I went into the movie knowing nothing about it.  One of my friends just mentioned going to it tonight.  I only knew it was based on a comic, as well as who was in it.  As I was walking out of the theater, I was thinking to myself, "That was frakking awesome."  I was surprised to find myself saying that about an action movie (I usually avoid them unless they're about a superhero movie).  I thought the writing was very clever.  It had lots of humor in it.  There was only one slow part, as the main character is trained, but it's not that long of a scene and things quickly pick up later.

While I really liked it, my friend I went with did not.  As he walked out of the theater, he made comment as to how bad it was.  It took me a minute to realize what kind of "bad" he actually meant.  It sounded like his main problem with the movie was that it was unrealistic.  I'm not going to argue that.  This movie talked about curving the path of a bullet in tremendous ways. 

It wasn't the first I had heard of this critique about movies before, though.  Last week, I was reading in a DC Comics forum on Facebook how a lot of comics won't get made into movies because they aren't seen as realistic enough.  The person went on to state how movies such Batman and Iron Man did incredibly well because, although they are superheroes and quite fictional, they are more "realistic" because these particular heroes aren't supernatural: they're just innovative people.

I guess the trend at the moment, for the most part, is leaning towards having things be more realistic in nature.  For me, I don't automatically think realism = better (necessarily).  There have been times I remember disliking a movie because of an unrealistic scene, though.  I think realism in movies is different than actually being realistic in real life.  For the sake of movies, realism applies (or should apply) in the environment in which the movie takes place.  A movie seems unrealistic if something happens in a movie that is out-of-character or out-of-place: something exceptional happens when there was no reason to believe something of that nature should happen.

In that sense, it's a matter of expanding a person's zone of believability (I'm sure there's a better term for it) so that everything in the movie will become believable.  For me, "Wanted" did that.  At the beginning of the movie, when I first saw the way guns were being fired, of course I thought it was unrealistic.  It was just a matter of adjusting what was "realistic" for the duration of the story so that I could accept the story for what it was, rather than using real life as a judge of what could work or not.  If a movie can accomplish this, in some way, by establishing what can work and what can't very early on in the movie, it can be successful.  The problem is that a lot of movies/stories want to create a surprise- something big later on in the story.  This can entirely shape how a movie comes out.  A person could leave saying, "Oh, right- that's just impossible," or that surprise- the big moment- might be accepted and the story works out.

The second Futurama straight-to-DVD movie was released yesterday, "The Beast with a Billion Backs."

Overall thoughts: It started out really good. In fact, the way the beginning was set up, I thought it was going to be this amazing movie. Halfway through to the end, however, it slowed down. It had its moments and was still enjoyable, but a bit disappointing. This movie has quite a bit of Zapp Brannigan, if you like him.

Note: You don't need to watch the first movie to see this one. You'll pick up very quickly.

I haven't had a chance to look over the extra features, but there is a "Lost episode" of Futurama. It's compiled from footage taken out of the video game. I rented the video game a few years ago, so I've seen a lot of the footage before. I did start to watch it, but only got part way through. It's nicely put together, even showing some of the different levels in the game to help advance the plot.

Now for spoilers. Do not read below unless you've seen it or don't care to read spoilers ( In-depth review )

I've been wanting to watch this movie for a while, since one of my friends had posted a video of a scene from it. I've never seen it before. It's quite a movie. It's not quite as weird as I thought it would be, actually. It seemed like I heard over and over again how "weird" it was. It really didn't seem that way to me. It was mildly weird, I suppose- but not nearly as trippy as I was expecting. Overall, I enjoyed it. I'm still processing everything that went on, trying to figure it out. That's something I can't say for a lot of movies. Most movies have a pretty set timeline. Even the ones that offer a kind of mystery, puzzle, or don't flat out tell you will still somewhat come together towards the end enough so that you can put the pieces together. I suppose Donnie Darko did the latter most... I just haven't quite had enough time to put everything together in its entirety. I'll probably end up watching it a second time, but paying more attention to the dates. I enjoyed this movie a lot. It's a bit twisted and thought-provoking, lots of humor in it. I'd say 4.5 out of 5 stars.

I rode out and bought it today. Yeehaw. It's on sale at Best Buy, $18 at the moment... plus it comes with a bonus DVD with a few extra features I have yet to watch.

My review. Minor spoilers, but I'll try to avoid the big stuff- just my general opinion.

Overall: It was a good movie that's worth seeing.


( The greetest show on Earth! )

After watching "Life Stinks," I have watched every movie that Mel Brooks is credited as directing (haven't seen "Elephant Man," which is a non-comedy film he produced, but isn't credited as such because of its serious nature).

With that... ( a poll )

I just finished watching the movie Idiocracy (starring Luke Wilson)... and now I suddenly feel like having lots of children. The basic plot of the movie is that in 500 years, the human population's average intelligence is going to decrease dramatically because people with lower intelligence are having more children than those who are more intelligent. Despite the fact that 500 years isn't really much time for a dramatic change like this, the people of the future are... uhh... incredibly dumb, or are at least made out to be. They're incredibly violent and focused on sex (I guess that's the stereotype that incredibly dumb people will only know about those two things). After watching people act stupid (even if it was a stupid portrayal of stupid people), it makes me want to have children and educate them the best that I can in the sciences. Of course, if you think about things in this movie much- like where any of their technology came from if everyone's so stupid, it kind of ruins the whole thing. I guess thinking does have its drawbacks.

Part of a scene from Mel Brooks' History of the World, Part I:

Welfare Office Clerk: Occupation?
Comicus: Stand up philosopher.
Welfare Office Clerk: What?
Comicus: Stand up philosopher. I coalesce the vapors of human existence into a viable and meaningful comprehension.
Welfare Office Clerk: Oh, a bullshit artist!

I had the afternoon off, so I went to the theater and paid my $5 to get in. Yeehaw. Why do I go to movie theaters again? Oh yeah. The movie. I saw X-3. I'm a bit conflicted. Some of it was cheesy. Some of it was very cool. I think the cool stuff might outweigh the cheesy stuff... and overall, I'm pleased (especially with the after-the-credit stuff- although a bit cheesy, still very cool). If you're an X-men fan, worth going to see... otherwise, eh. You're not missing much.

Now to talk about what I liked and didn't like...
( Spoilers- Don't read if you haven't seen it )

Heart of Light (aka "Qaamarngup uummataa" in Greenlandic) is a movie dealing with the modernization of Greenland (and the difficulties that come with it). A father is alcoholic and has lost touch with his native ways. One son is an outcast- a joke among his brother his brother's friends. One day, he commits suicide. The other son see his father as nothing more than an alcoholic and refuses to go back home. The father, after his first son commits suicide, goes on a journey to the interior of Greenland where things get a little bit crazy. He meets up with a hermit and must learn to deal with his own past- how his father forced him into Danish culture and away from his Inuit heritage.
Very powerful movie. 4 out of 5 stars.

Another foreign film. I really like watching them. Most of my Netflix queue is of foreig films. "Italian for Beginners" is, of course, in Norwegian. Oh, right. Confused? Yeah. It's a Norwegian movie in which seven people take a class to learn Italian. It's a little disappointing in that the courses aren't the focus of the movie. I think of the 97 minutes of the movie, they're probably in class fewer than 30 minutes. A lot of the movie is what happens to these people- a lot of death, surprisingly. For the most part, it wasn't a bad movie. It wasn't super great, but worth watching. I didn't like how there were so many deaths. I thought something else could happen to someone instead of having a parent die. The thing with the sisters was pretty interesting, though. Overall, I give this movie 3.5 out of 5 stars- enjoyable to watch, but nothing to rush out and see.

Synopsis for Elling: Two patients a Norwegian institution are allowed to move out into an apartment in downtown Oslo. They must learn to live like normal people- answering the phone, shopping for food, etc. It proves challenging at first, but they seem to manage. Some things become easier, while others get more complicated- such as when the two find a woman who has fallen down the stairs in their apartment building.

( My review )

Rat.

Synopsis: A man is turned into a rat. When a local author hears about it, he wants to help the family write a book about the experience. It's not as happy of a time as it might seem, when the family tries to get rid of the rat... but is the rat of a father more of a rat or a father?
( My review )

From Mel Brooks' History of the World, Part I:

Office Clerk: Occupation?
Comicus: Stand-up philosopher.
Office Clerk: What?
Comicus: Stand-up philosopher. I coalesce the vapors of human existence into a viable and meaningful comprehension.
Office Clerk: Oh, a bullshit artist!

Before I get to the Icelandic Survial Guide (found on my Nói albínói CD), actually, this isn't very important. It is neat, though. For any X-Files fans, you'll be happy to know DVD sets are coming down in price. At Best Buy, the price (at least for the first few seasons) were about $40. Also, they've been repackaged. They're the same season discs, but the packaging is slightly different. Insteady of having the clunky fold out box, the discs have been put into the slim DVD cases- much like how Wonderfalls is packaged.

Since tomorrow is Valentine's Day, I thought I'd refer back to last year's post. I really don't have any problems with V-Day, though. I really don't pay much attention or am too apathetic to really care.

Finally--- the point of this post.

( Icelandic Survival Guide )

I'm watching Young Frankenstein right now. Other than saying "Roll, roll, roll in the hay!" this post has no purpose. Eh, I guess I'll give a little update. I think I have my statement of purpose for the University of Arizona near eastern studies program. My others aren't coming along so well. Not much else is going on at the moment, aside from applications. School starts next Thursday. Yeehaw. *rubs eyes* I should take a nap.

I just came back from seeing Jarhead. It was only $1 at the cheap theater in town. I did a search through Livejournal using ljseek, and a few people described it as "amazing." I don't think I was quite that impressed with it. I wouldn't call it an "amazing" movie. It was by no means bad, but it didn't really move me much. It was a pleasant movie to sit through, I suppose (Well, pleasant enough for a war-ish movie... war-ish because there's not much action. It's about war, sure, not too many battle scenes). There are many funny scenes (like many nude Marines showering... that's pretty funny... or seeing Jake Gyllenhaal dance around wearing only two Santa hats [one for each head]). It made me think a bit. It's not ncessarily a thought-provoking film, but for me, it made me think about war and the military on my drive home. For other people, I don't know if it would provide that thought stimuli. Anyway, if you have a few hours free (or really want to see a guy wearing nothing but Santa hats), it's not a bad movie. I would not go out of your way to see it, however.

( Review )

I don't know if I'd say this version was better than the original... but it's a good supplement to it.

General review: I thought this movie was actually much better than expected. I wasn't expecting much when I heard about the plot- the movie is about a Bewitched remake in which the lead role playing Samantha is in real life a witch. That actually lead to some pretty funny moments. Will Farrell was... well, I still didn't like his acting too much- but he wasn't as bad as I thought he'd be (but that's not really a compliment).

( Bewitched review (spoilers) )