Movies!

I don't when the last time was I wrote about movies. Let's see, what have I seen recently?
I just rented cache after waiting a year for it to hot the States. I normally avoid French films but this was very highly rated winning best director at Cannes.

The first 10 minutes of Cache show a recording of a building with nothing happening. I was thinking, ok this kinda sucks but it's going to get really creepy. It did get creepy in that I wasted 2 hours watching the film. The story actually has no ending! I was soo upset I watched the special features where the director admits that during the credits some hints to the story are given but they never revealed the answers. Who does this? I know that my favorite film last year, A Tale of Two Sisters, had a story that was open to your personal interpretation. Cache is not able to get away from this as the entire story is about this one family incident that is never given.

This film did receive many five star ratings in Netflix. Below is one of the many one star ratings:

The first 30 minutes of this film was like watching paint dry while sitting on broken glass. I then ejected it and mailed it back. I don't care how many awards this film won, it was not my cup of tea. A thriller with no thrills 30 minutes in. The first 10 minutes were spent watching a video tape of a house with no activity with strangers (so far)talking about nothing. No soundtrack just dull white noise during all the time I watched, in the background. I have seen every Juliette Binoche film since The Incredible Lightness of Being. Even she could not help this mess.

If anyone likes this film I am curious why you like it.
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Pulse

This is a Japanese film that I have had for awhile. I finally got around to watching it when I saw the trailer for the American remake coming out this Summer. Pulse is not very good but it is interesting. The idea is soo good I have high hopes for the American version which looks totally different. Unlike the Ring, Dark Water, or Ju on, this American remake looks to stray from the original Japanese film. This is not a bad thing as the Japanese version of the film is kinda lacking but the idea is too good to pass up on a remake.

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X-Men 3

I loved this film. I know Singer was not involved as he went on to do Superman but to me this is the perfect fun Summer film. I know they killed off a bunch of the cast (Halle Berry lived, sigh) but this movie had some great action. Ian McKellan was awesome in this and the davinci code.


The Davinci Code

Speaking of this movie I'll give my opinion. I loved it. I know the critics did not enjoy this film but critics seem to follow the bandwagon nowadays. It's the PC thing to not like the Davinci Code. To each their own.

This is a good thriller. It does have some religious subject matter but if you are comfortable with your faith I really do not see how this matters. I could write all day about this film. I am now reading this book and will probably read many more. An action movie with a historical background. I love it.

Nacho Libre

This film was mildly funny but not the genious that Napoleon Dynamite was.
Jack Black is great, kids will love it, and Pedro makes a cameo.

The Devil's rejects--So bad, Rob Zombie makes another dud.

Suspiria--This movie has a sense of style, an insane soundtrack, and some great horror elements. Overall it is only average but could have been a classic. If you like horror check it out.

Tristan and Isolde--beware thy film for it douth suck. You get the idea, MTV types trying to do a period film. I do like John Franco (Spiderman 1,2,3 Freeks and Geeks, Jameas Dean) but he can't save this.

Midnight Cowboy--Dustin Hoffman is great in this 1969 film. The film was ok but not best picture quality and the subject matter was disturbing to me (This is the only X rated film to win the best picture)

My Summer of Love--A decent film, in fact one of the better films I have seen recently.

The Beautiful Country--This recent film never made it to theaters here. That is too bad as I kinda liked it. The basic story revolves around a youn man from Vietnam trying to find his American father who left after the war.

The Skeleton Key-- a decent horror film. This is worth a rental.

Ghost Stories

I have read some of these before but they are a bit interesting.
This is a list of people's personal ghost stories.

Ultima 5 Lazarus

If you own Dungeon Siege you can download this mod for free.
Ultima 5 (Lazarus) is a real roleplaying game. It is not as difficult as Wizardry but in the wake of what I call partial roleplaying games (Morrowind, Oblivion, Diablo, Everquest, or World's of warcraft.) Those games I just mentioned are good games but they are just too easy and many of these games now have action elements. I do not mind that as I am playing Gothic 2 at the moment, but I still prefer an oldschool roleplaying game. To me the Baldur's Gates, Betrayal at Krondor, Wizardries, and even the D & D goldbox series are more fun.

I do not like a roleplaying game that does not use a party. I loved baldur's gate 1/2 but hated Neverwinter Nights.(I loved to design my own mods in Neverwinter nights however and did enjoy playing in a group.) I really tried to like NWN and played 2 expansions but finally realized the game was no good.

Anyways Ultima 5 has so many great aspects. There is a real world here where people go about their daily lives and all can be spoken to. Each person has a unique portrait. You need to learn the schedules of citizens, guards and sometimes monsters. You can try to steal something like bread or you can just make it yourself. Anything goes here. In Ultima 7 I went into a nursery, picked up some dirty diapers and threw them at an enemy rogue trying to kill me. He ran away yelling "damn thee." It's pretty cool.

Party combat and character building is what a roleplaying game is all about to me. Wizardry 1/5/8 were the best games for this but Ultima is decent in this respect and makes up for it with superior storyline and dynamic world which Wizardry does not have.

Lazarus is a true conversion of Ultima 5 once you learn the Dungeon Siege engine. Everything is top notch from the music to the graphics.

Here is a review:

Where the Hell is Matt

This is a good video. Matt is quite the dancer.

The 2005 video is older but just as good

Matt on GMA

He did this with a Cannon powershot digital camera for at least part of it.

After his first video Matt was paid to go around the world again by a gum company. His site is worth a look as it has a nice journal.

Leroy!

This is a funny one.
When playing any high level roleplaying game you need a good guild.
This guild appears to have one weak point. See if you can guess who that is.
I bet they had a multiple hour corpse recovery if that's how it works in WOW.

Leroy!

Bacon Water!+

mmmm bacony water


The English language has at least one nine-letter word that remains a word as each of its letters is successively removed, right down to a single letter. That word is "startling":

startling
remove the l, and the word becomes: starting
remove one t, and the word becomes: staring
remove the a, and the word becomes: string
remove the r, and the word becomes: sting
remove the other t, and the word becomes: sing
remove the g, and the word becomes: sin
remove the s, and the word becomes: in
remove the n, and the word becomes: I


Self Shaking Salt and Pepper!

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When Randy did it the bird exploded but this time the bird survives.


Saviorcam

Free Spanking Paddles

List of classic videos

EW has a nice list of some classic videos.
Check out all of these, they are pretty good.

EW picks their favorite videos.

Burrito Wrapping

Burritos rule!
Buy some nice fresh burrito wraps and you're good to go. Anything and everything goes here. I usually use rice, tofu, salsa, cole slaw, and a sweet potatoe. Tofu is a pain to cook so chicken works well too.
Anyways enough about my super burrito. I found a cool link that shows how to wrap your masterpiece. Having your uber burrito exlpode all ovee the floor is not cool at all.

This is how you fold a burrito.

You do want the Yoda backpack!

For those who love Yoda or have given up on their social lives this is the perfect gift!

Site

I let my account get suspended and had some difficulty getting it back online. I'm back! Well I am back until my domain name runs out. I use Dot5hosting and they have a ton of improvements that I need to take advatage of.
Summer is here, Snakes on a Plane is coming, I have a couple of Noodles in the car ready for the beach and Grimmay is getting his 50 inch TV tonight in time for the World Cup and the Doctor Who finale.

Silly Japanese Film

Check out this trailer (slow loading so do something while it loads)

On principle I would not see this film because of that dreadful song however these special effects are really good. This looks like a copy of The Day After Tomorrow but this is actually from a Japanese book written in 1973. It would be better if this film was bad so I could laugh at it ie. Independence Day or Deep Impact.