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| It is the last week of my lazy vacation. This Friday, a mere four days away, is regristration. A mere seven days away is the first day of class. I won't get close to having another lazy week like this until Fall break sometime in October.
Let's recap some of the movies I saw last week, plus my ratings:
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Liked it. I think they really tried to stay true to the spirit of the book, but you can't do Douglas Adams justice in only 2 hours. Besides, a great book, which can take up to 8 hours (broken into 3 or 4 days) to read, doesn't necesarily translate into an exciting 2 hour cinematic experience. My Grade: B (for effort)
Underworld: Grade: Moody, Sexy, and intriguing. A-
Movies I'd seen before but watched again last week:
King Kong: I don't care if it was too long, I liked it. Altough I saw it with my sister and she kept whispering throughout the movie, 'This is so stupid". Proving once and for all...siblings have very different tastes in movies. My grade: A
Kung Fu Hustle: I liked it the first time when I saw it in the theatres, and loved it the second time on DVD. I think I spent the first viewing wondering what was going on. this last viewing, I was able to appreciate the ridiculous comedy of it. Grade: A
Naked Assassin: There should be a rule in movies: If you're going to use the word "Naked" in the title, you have two choices: 1) Make a really good movie or atleast 2) Give me some nudity. This movie wasn't either. Grade: F
Die Another Day: Too bad Peirce Brosnan won't do another Bond. I think he really nailed it this time. This movie was quite good! Come on, it took Roger Moore to do the mediocre 'Live and Let Die' and the awful 'Man with the Golden Gun' before he made 'Spy Who Loved Me', 'For Your Eyes Only', and 'Octopussy'. 'Die Another Day' almost makes up for 'World is Not Enough'. Grade: A-
Speaking of Which, I also watched: Spy Who Loved Me: Sure Sean Connery is the "best" Bond, but then again, he's Sean Connery! However, when anyone in the thirties remembers a great James Bond movie, they're bound to think of either 'For Your Eyes Only" and 'Octopussy', and this is where it began. They think of Roger Moore and the way he exuded british gentleman charm. I'll put those movies up against 'Diamonds are Forever', and "You Only Live Twice' any day. Heck, they could even give "Gold finger' and "From Russia with Love' a run for their money. And none of Connery's cars turned into a submarine! To me, Roger Moore was just as good a Bond as Sean Connery. My Grade: A | | |
|  | Currently Watching
Lost - The Complete First Season
By Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Naveen Andrews, Emilie de Ravin, Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia, Maggie Grace, Josh Holloway, Malcolm David Kelley, Daniel Dae Kim, Yoon-jin Kim, Evangeline Lilly, Dominic Monaghan, Terry O'Quinn, Harold Perrineau, Cynthia Watros, Michelle Rodriguez, Ian Somerhalder
see related |
I have just spent the last two days watching the entire Season One of LOST. I love this show. I just want to know one thing...."What is going on!?!!"
The series is about the crash survivors of a airline flight between Sydney, Australia and Los Angeles. They wash up on a tropical jungle island which turns out be a inhabited by Polar Bears, machanical death robots, a crazy french lady who kidnaps babies, and a creepy homicidal martial arts expert named Ethan. While there are over 40 surivivors, the series is basically an ensemble cast of 14 rich and intriguing characters. They include a heroic surgeon named Jack, a beautiful fugitive bank robber named Kate, and Locke. Locke is the most complex figure in the drama; an intense hunter. Possibly para-military? He turns out to be a toy store worker and later manager of a box making company and parapeligic, suddenly given the power to walk by the magical powers of the island. Is the island magical? Is the island really a post-mortem purgatory? Is it really an experiemental lab run by advanced aliens? We're not sure.
Apparently, JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof wrote this nail-biting series as a five year arc. They have me hooked. I wonder if I'll have any fingernails left when the series is over.
I like the feel of the series. The cinematography is moody and brooding, while visually stunning. The island is a colorful oasis, one part vacation paradise, one part death trap. It is beautiful and slow and clam, and BAM, you're on a roller coaster ride. A lot like life.
I cast of 14 is excellent. There is not one weak cast member. It is hard to pick a favorite, and the favorite ends up being which ever character I'm watching at the moment. If I had to pick, it would have to be the character of Sun, the korean housewife. She is beautiful in a regal way, on the surface she is gentle and accomodating, but underneath she is powerful and commanding. She is one of the few who can command Jack. I love her, and the story between her and her husband was literaaly had me in tears.
Lost is a story about failure and redemption and life's vacillationbetween the two. We are lost and found, and then get lost aiagn.. However, for me, the series is also about the complexity of the human journey. We all look around and see people and see nothing more than empty faces. Season One ends in a flashback of the cast initially boarding the plane. They are strangers and they smile and nod and move on, like we do to the myriad of faces we pass on the street daily. But in reality, every face is a world of joys and pains, guilt and triumphs. We have spent a year with these people, and we know the struggles of each one is living with at the moment of the flight. Perhaps it is a reminder of the complexities of the souls in our lives, the student sitting next to you in class, the janitor you passed in the hall, or the homeless man on the street. Every person you see is a journey of a human being trying to make their way in this big and scary world.
My Grade of LOST: A+, of course.
p.s. I just found out the JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof will be writing and producing the next Star Trek movie. | | |
| Isn't it weird that you rarely get sick duirng finals week, but just afterwards when you start to rest, you totally get sick? It's like your body knows it can't afford to get sick and justs waits, delaying the inevitable, and then ...BAM...you catch a cold.
After an intense month of June, 2006, I aced the summer class, and then slept for three days straight and got the post-work sniffles. I've been bed-ridden for one week and I have to admit...I'm loving it! My day pretty much goes like this:
-Wake up at 10 am; watch a movie on DVD, take a nap, wake up at 3 pm, go out and grab a fast food lunch, come home and watch DVDs, take a nap, watch another DVD, so to bed at 1am.
I watched all 18 episodes of "Freaks and Geeks", which I am totally in love with it. I have a new obsession, and her name is Linda Cadellini. Whatever praise I give it would not do it justice, so I will simply tell anyone who reads this to go out and immediately watch it. I give it an A+
I watched all 10 episodes of "Curb Your Enthusiasm - Season Two" which was funny and very twisted. My grade: A
Then I saw "Aeon Flux" with Charlize Theron, which totally sucked. I don't think the writers even respected the material enough to actually watch the original MTV cartoons. It had none of its subtle creepiness nor the cartoon's tendency to go off on detailed fractal imagery. The most inexcusable were the plot holes. plot holes which could have been fixed if the writer's simply gave a darn. I thought Theropn did an adequate job, and some of the fight scenes were entertaining. My grade: C
I also saw "Wedding Crashers". I liked it. Nothing special, nothing I'll see over again, but a good movie. Two very good performances by Owen Wilson and ince Vaughn. I also was impressed by Rachel McAdams, but the clear scene stealer of the movie was Ilsa Fisher, who plays the mentally unbalanced Gloria. Christopher Walken is awesome as the creepy but lovable father. I give it a B+.
That's a lot of DVD time! Well, it's time to grab lunch. I'm not sure if I'm going to McDonald's or Vietnamese Noodles. | | |
| I haven't used this since forever! | | |
| Cool Medical Fact #2
Did you know that the nerve for the tongue and taste (cranial Nerve #9) runs next to cranial nerve #8. which is for hearing.
What does this mean?
You can cause yourself to gag (trigger the 9th nerve) by swabbing a Q-tip in your ear.
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