movies
This page (and it's feed) contain my movie reviews.
Unlike other movie reviews I'm not even going to pretend these are objective. These are my opinions and you should take anything here with a grain of salt.
This is my rating scheme, there are many like it but this one is mine:
BIG_CINEMA See it in a big, fancy cinema. Most likely for the special effects.
LIL_CINEMA See it in a cinema, you want the big screen but not necessarily the biggest or crazy elventy billion channel surround sound.
RENT Get it on Netflix or visit an old fashioned rental store.
FRIEND Wait till a friend either buys or rents it.
TV Wait till it comes out on TV.
BAD_TV Watch it on TV if you have nothing else to do.
GUN Watch it only if someone is putting a gun to your head.
When Half Is Better Than All
Work booked out a seating of Wolverine at a nearby cinema today. Anyone in my department could grab a ticket and walk over for the 1:50 session.
So I cruised over on a bike to collect a ticket and then walked over, catching up with a friend on the way.
I hadn't had lunch and impulsively decided to recreate the childhood cinema experience with a slushee (they're called an icee here) and some popcorn.
I ran into Andrew and Sarah while buying my calorific indulgences. They were heading into the same movie and I asked them to grab me a seat.
After waiting in line to pay I ambled over to the board with the movie list on it and headed into cinema 6, playing Wolverine.
It'd already started and I figured I'd futzed around in the food line longer
than I thought. I couldn't see anyone so I just found a seat and sat down.
Munching happily on my popcorn I was suprised that the movie got off to such an
action packed start.
I really wasn't expecting much. Unfortunately that's what I got. Most of the good fight scenes had already been overplayed in the trailers, the dialog and characters were dreadful and the plot had holes that even CG explosions couldn't cover up.
Then it just sort of ended.
I knew there'd be something after the credits but I just didn't care. As I was heading out of the cinema I realised it hadn't seemed like a very long movie. I checked the time on my phone and only an hour had passed. An hour long movie? That seemed unlikely.
I checked my ticket...I'd gone into cinema 6...my ticket was for cinema 8, on the other side.
I missed the first half of the movie and, honestly, I think it was for the best.
Top Chef
I caught some episodes of Top Chef on the Virgin America flight back from Seattle. They happened to be all but the final episode.
Normally I despise reality shows. This one caught me by suprise, I mostly enjoyed it. They keep the banal judging bullshit to a minimum during the show and the inevitable bit at the end is mostly bearable.
They focus on the food, the kitchen and the cooking. They talk to the chefs about their intentions and their execution.
I got my hands on the final episode and enjoyed it. Right up to the end credits where a small block of text flashes by.
Winning and elimination decisions were made by the Judges in consultation with producers. Some elimination decisions were discussed with Bravo.
So the whole thing is the stereotypical faked reality TV. The winner isn't the top chef, they're the ratings winner.
What a crock.
Roku Netflix Player Review
Roku and Netflix launched the Netflix Player and after reading a few reviews I bought one.
If you have an unlimited Netflix account (required to get access to Instant streaming) it's a no-brainer for only $99 and no further fees. The device is well designed, easy to setup and a piece of cake to use.
My only complaint is that it only works with the primary account holder's profile. I'm wondering if Netflix are planning to fix that now that they've decided to keep the profile system.